The Political Officer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Don't turn around
 Oh oh oh
 Der Kommissar's in town

Oh oh oh!
—Falco (via After The Fire).

The Political Officer is an officer attached to a unit, usually outside the regular chain of command. His job is to ensure that the regular soldiers and officers follow the orders of the government. In essence, this is another method of civilian control of the military.

The existence of such a post is usually evident that there is significant mistrust of the military by the government. This could be depicted as the evil military being a threat to the legitimate government, with the political officers as the good guys restraining them (or preventing them from fleeing and surrendering to the enemy). However, the far more common depiction is for the government to be a repressive Evil Empire, and the military to be a less than willing participant in the more repressive actions of the government. In this instance the Political Officer's job it is to keep an eye on other officials and watch for politically incorrect behavior or thought crimes. He might double as a member of the Secret Police or the Culture Police.

This type of fictional character is overwhelmingly based on the Real Life example of Political Officers in the Soviet Union. Although it also tends to draw on the SS and the Nazis as well. More often than not they are amalgams of real Political Officers and NKVD (counterintelligence) officers.

The actual Soviet Political Officer is also a stock character in fictional portrayals of the Cold War era. He was an officer in the old Soviet military, attached to a unit, but outside its regular chain of command. His job was to ensure that the regular soldiers and officers followed the orders of the Party leadership in Moscow, basically a leash to ensure "civilian" (i.e. Communist party) control of the military. Stereotypically, this character is unconcerned with the difficulties the unit faces in actual combat, and will insist on slavish adherence to orders no matter what the circumstances.

In reality, commissars initially were superficially militarized Party propagandists, and later capable observers sent as a response to large portions of the Soviet army veritably falling apart early in the war. The famous notion of commissars being empowered to shoot cowards stems from Stalin's orders against any fighting body retreating without specific orders to do so - when it was enforced by summary execution, it was usually by NKVD units, not Commissars attached to an army unit. Commissars were frequently on the receiving end of some of the worst treatment for POWs in the war. Since they were the ideological avatars of communism, there were explicit standing orders to execute them or torture them for information upon capture rather than adhere to the rules of war. Though neutered in effectiveness by the end of the war, civilian women in Germany were advised to yell 'Commissar' when facing rape by invading Russian soldiers because commissars would arrive and either stop the soldier or (in some cases) execute the offender. Of course this had a lot more to do with preserving the prestige of the Soviet army than altruism, but it helped codify the notion that commissars were given to shooting their own soldiers.

Note that this is the Western depiction. In Soviet fiction, the political officers often were stern but just, inspiring and actually caring, and performed major feats of heroism to inspire similar heroics in soldiers, based on the fact that the Political Officers as an institute were abolished in 1943, and had to continue as common line officers. An alternative Soviet depiction from much later years is a lazy useless paper-pusher who never does anything useful and torments other officers with filling countless forms and boring lectures about "political situation".

Often wears a Commissar Cap. See also The Inquisitor General.

Examples of The Political Officer include:

Anime and Manga

  • Muruta Azrael from Gundam Seed serves this role on the Dominion. While officially just an "observer" from some committee, he's in fact head of the Blue Cosomos terrorist group. He's really there to make sure his plans go right, even undermining the ship's Captain.
    • In Gundam Seed Destiny Rey Za Burrel plays a similar, though more subdued role on the Minerva, keeping the crew—and particularly Shinn—on the track that Chairman Durandal wants them on.

Comic Books

  • In a manner of speaking, the Sith Lords in Star Wars Legacy fill a similar role. Though not part of the Imperial Military hierarchy, they oversee military units to ensure they serve the will of the Big Bad and Evil Overlord Darth Krayt. Complete with an "Oops, sorry sir" fragging of Darth Maleval by disgruntled stormtroopers.

Film

Literature

  • Star Wars: the Political Reliability Observer
  • Putin (no, not that Putin) in the book and film of The Hunt for Red October, who is murdered by Ramius at the beginning.
    • It is implied that he was actually a decent man. "Not bad... for a political officer".
      • He may not have had it coming but the reason Ramius killed him was because he couldn't be trusted. They were, after all, about to defect to the United States without telling all their loyal, socialist crew. If he'd learned about their defection he would have, as was his duty, tried to stop them, possibly by inciting a mutiny. Cold-hearted, yes. But rational under the circumstances.
    • Also a political officer on another submarine puts pressure on its captain to not stop and repair a fault in its nuclear reactor, even though the captain could (in theory) overrule him. This has serious consequences for all concerned.
  • In Red Storm Rising we see a few political officers. They are almost invariably incompetent - when the Soviet forces in Iceland are about to be mauled by an Anglo-American task force and need to surrender, General Andreyev gets rid of his political officer by seizing on a throwaway remark the zampolit made about "true courage" by giving him a rifle and ordering him to the front, to inspire the men to some more "true courage."
  • In Harry Turtledove's Darkness books, the Russia-parallel nation has a line of these people stationed half a mile behind the front with sticks (magic guns) and orders to blaze (shoot) anyone passing by them.
  • In the Honorverse, the People's Commissioners of Haven's second regime fit this to a tee. Their dampening effect on the competence of "elitist, recidivist" officers (who were liable to get shot, along with their entire extended families, for the slightest imagined disloyalty or failure in battle - based on the French Revolution) was half the reason Manticore won that war.
    • Subverted several times as well:
      • Citizen Admiral Giscard and his political officer, Citizen Pritchart, were having an affair, unbeknownst to their superiors or their crew. Somehow, they still managed to convince everybody around them that they hated but respected each other.
      • Citizen Admiral McQueen and her political officer, a staunch party loyalist, eventually team up to take down the Committee of Public Safety, but are almost immediately killed afterwards by a hidden nuke in their headquarters.
      • Citizen Admiral Theisman, whose political officer had spent years rubber stamping all of his strategic decisions, and not reporting Theisman's growing distaste for the Committee of Public Safety, eventually teamed up with him to successfully take down the Committee, installing Eloise Pritchart as the new President.
      • Citizen Commissioners Jourdain and Honeker overlooked Shannon Foraker's constant lapses into not using "proper revolutionary titles" for her naval superiors when she was too focused to think about titles thanks to her genius technical skills. (That and her rare can-do attitude in a navy scared of its own shadow.)
        • Jordain also supported Citizen Captain Caslet's decision to try to save an enemy freighter from Silesian pirates, when obeying their orders to interfere with Manticore shipping should have meant just sitting back and letting the butchers do their work.
    • Actually, it might be quicker to say that almost all Citizen Commissioners that we meet for more than a chapter or two subvert the trope by turning on their government and collaborating with the fundamentally decent officers they are supposed to be reigning in.
    • In the short story "Fanatic" a political officer state that the many Citizen Commissioners become allied with their naval counterparts. Also, several members of the Committee of Public Safety know this; but it is ignored since the Commissioners use this connection to motivate the navy. Also, only the surface relationship is seen, the Committee never bothers asking if the Commissioner also loathes the government. [1], [2]
    • In the short story From the Highlands it is explained that StateSec's personal department actually is careful to filter people into the job they are suited for. Thus StateSec agents doing fleet duty or foreign intelligence often have many of the same traits as any Star Nation's naval officers or spies whereas prisons and torture chambers are crewed by those who gravitate toward that duty.
  • Charles Stross's story Missile Gap has Misha Gorodin as the zampolit assigned to Yuri Gagarin's ship on the "five-year mission" to explore the disk-shaped world where human civilization has been transplanted.
  • Strappi from Monstrous Regiment, a particularly loathsome example. He takes cruel delight in bullying his soldiers (to the point that one of them throws up whenever he starts yelling), talks big about patriotism, and when it looks like he's actually going to get sent to the front, wets himself and deserts.
    • Oddly, the identities of Borogravian political officers seems to be a secret - Strappi's status is just rumoured at first, until The Reveal. As such they're probably more of a cross between this trope and Stasi-esque informants, presumably to avert the inherent risk of fragging that comes with the role.
  • Barrayar has political officers in the early parts of the Vorkosigan Saga. Admiral Aral Vorkosigan notoriously murdered his own particularly scheming one with his bare hands on his flag bridge during the invasion of Komarr, and only dodged serious consequences (other than a demotion to Captain) due to his bloodline. Later, another political officer tries to murder him in return.
    • It is implied that while the outcry was intentionally high, he was demoted only to keep the official face on the thing, political officers being a rather new institution and just another tool in the Ezar's box.
  • Broken Angels by Richard Morgan. The Wedge are kept under the surveillance of a political officer, so to avoid any problems with him they forcefully addict him to "the wire", threatening to withhold it if he causes trouble. The political officer gets his revenge when his surveillance reveals the protagonist is planning to kill his former colleagues -- he 'forgets' to inform the Wedge commander of this.
  • Commissar Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, is actually an aversion. While a great many commissars are the shoot-the-men-if-they-get-rowdy type who happily pull rank (they technically outrank anyone who's not a senior commissar, Inquisitor, or Space Marine) to ensure regulations are followed, he carefully cultivates bonds of camaraderie with the troops under him so he's less likely to suffer an "unfortunate accident" (see Catachans below).
  • In Falkenberg's Legions, the Soviet-backed International Brigades sent to the Santiago Civil War are controlled by Political Officers. Very much in the Soviet zampolit style, the one featured takes on the Western stereotype.
  • In Dorsai!, the Friendlies have "Conscience Guardians" who seek out heresy among their troops. Interestingly enough, the Guardians authority is only over their Chruch members and not foreign mercenaries. In addition, they keep their forces from bickering with each other over issues of religious doctrine, preventing tensions within their army.
  • Grunts!: Having spent a lot of time reading over the political philosophy texts in Dagurashibanipal's hoard, Marine Razitshakra turns into Marine Commissar Razitshakra, complete with Commissar Cap and Russian Army greatcoat, monitoring her fellow orcs for "idealogical instability".

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

  • Commissars in Warhammer 40,000 are longcoat-wearing political officers attached to Imperial Guard armies and Imperial Navy ships. Interestingly, they feature elements of both the "eastern" and "western" stereotypes in that they are inspirational badasses who are calm under fire and lead by example, but can and will mercilessly shoot soldiers who fail to meet their stringent standards. Commissars are hand-picked from Schola Progenium like other elites, have some training and field practice shared with the Storm Troopers, thus by the time they get to work have at least some military experience, as well as confidence they'll need to have more guts under fire than the recruits. Usually the Guards respect them at least as much as fear, because part of this job is to accompany soldiers into battle and show an example of bravery.
    • In RPG, there's "Feared And Loathed" trait for the peculiar relationship between some Internal Security Commissariats and PDF - but "real" Commissars don't have this (nor bother to hide their opinion of the spooks who won't show up when the going gets tough). The best Commissars don't need to shoot soldiers, because they are proactive about morale issues. The worst Commissars and/or obstinate ones stuck with more maverick units tend to have "unfortunate accidents", however.
    • The presence of the Commissars in Astra Militarum is an integral part of command structure. Even when Duke Severus seceded from the Imperium, he found it easier to secretly prepare his own corps of Ducal Legates to replace the Commissars (see here) than to remove Political Officer positions altogether and overhaul the army to work without them.
    • One or the other angle can be emphasised Depending on the Writer - minor character commissars are more likely to be Bad Bosses, while Ibram Gaunt fits the "benevolent commissar" mold, and Ciaphas Cain is a pure pragmatist who has caught on to the fact that overzealous commissars tend to die in combat suspiciously far from the front line.
    • Catachans, being fiercely independent badass jungle fighter Ramboes, even have a special rule ("Oops, sorry sir!") in which if a commissar is attached to them, you must roll before the game starts to find out whether or not he suffered an "unfortunate accident".
      • Only War generalized it to bad relations with assigned authority figures for Death World regiments, though it can be waived on personal basis.
    • Most Badass of them all is Commissar Sebastian J. Yarrick. He lost an arm in battle with an Ork Warboss and retorted by decapitating the Warboss, only "allowing himself the luxury of passing out" after the battle was won. He then had the Warboss's Power Klaw converted into a prosthetic for his own missing arm, powered (presumably) by the sheer badass he radiates. The Orks have immortalized him in fearful legends, believing that he cannot be killed and that a single glance from him brings death. On hearing the latter part of this legend, Yarrick decided that if the Orks believed he had an evil eye, the by the Emperor he would HAVE an evil eye. He then proceeded to PLUCK OUT HIS OWN EYE AND HAVE IT REPLACED WITH A LASER-SHOOTING BIONIC EYE. The short version? This man makes Orks wet themselves.
    • Dawn of War plays the trope straight: the Winter Assault tutorial specifically mentions that the Guardsmen are simple humans fighting against the worst monstrosities of the universe, hence why they break so easily. Attaching a commissar to a squad however makes that squad near-immune to morale: not even a flamethrower will make them run. If they do break anyway, the commissar has the ability of executing a random soldier to instantly restore squad morale. And they happen to be awesome melee fighters to boot... but only three can be deployed at a time.
    • In Fanon, Commissar Fuklaw epitomizes the "trigger happy commissar" character; to the point where he automatically shoots four members of any squad he joins, for the crime of suspected HERESY! *BLAM!*
      • Same deal with Commissar Raege, who ended up wiping out most of her unit single-handedly and failed to understand why this is not the right way to do this job. After being sent to re-education (which included having to teach Commissar Fuklaw how to act more purposefully than on angry rampage) she became far more human, and far more sneaky.
  • Commissar Dottski from Up Front. He adds +1 morale to everyone in his group ("in the Red Army, advance is less dangerous than retreat") but if any man in the group becomes pinned, draw a card to see who the commissar is watching. If he's watching the pinned soldier, BAM! Dottski takes out his pistol and executes the man. Germans score victory points for KIA.
    • The name Dottski was a reference to the Dotts, the owners of the game publisher. (Many of the other soldier names in the game were also references to the game designers and playtesters.)
  • Advanced Squad Leader allows the Russians (and a few other countries by scenario special rule) to have commissars until late in 1942. Said leaders raise the morale and improve rallying for any troops they are stacked with. But any squad that does NOT rally is lowered in quality.
  • In Paranoia the Loyalty Officer. Their loyalty is directly to Friend Computer, not the Team Leader.

Video Games

  • Major Lebedjev from World in Conflict: Soviet Assault.
  • Commissar Letlev at the beginning of the Soviet campaign in Call of Duty 2. However, he was portrayed more as a gently chiding and often hilarious but still tough training officer and the only threats of being shot for cowardice came not from him but from regular officers. Except if you mess around instead of shoot a teddy bear for target practice like he ordered.
    • On the other hand, the first Soviet mission in the original Call of Duty had you covering a sniper while he put down a commissar that was machine-gunning fleeing Soviet soldiers.
      • And the next mission plays it straight: a few dozen soldiers charge at a German line of machine guns with the commissars watching from behind and shooting you if you ever move in a direction that leads away from the enemy (even if you try to collect ammo from dead friendlies).
    • World at War features Commissar Markhov, who mostly yells patriotic/bloodthirsty encouragement through a megaphone, but can occasionally be seen joining the front lines with a submachine gun in hand.
    • Call of Duty: Finest Hour's Commissar Viktor Durasov.
  • Confessors of Command and Conquer 3 serves as these for Nod. They serve both as intelligence and religious officers, guiding and educating Militants in the field. In-game, Confessors are an upgrade: they increase the Milita squad's effectiveness.
  • Among character classes in Allods Online, there is both Commissar (Imperial paladin) and Political Officer (Imperial healer). The Empire fuses the imagery of USSR and 19th century Russian Empire.

Real Life

  • The Civil War-era Red Army is the Trope Codifier for these guys. They also played a large role early during WWII, only to be deactivated in 1942 when a reliable structure of regular commanding officers was established: commissars were left responsible for propaganda and otherwise looking after attitude of commanders and troops, but prohibited from getting underfoot otherwise (to mess with operation planning, first of all), which "coincidentally" was when Red Army stopped suffering major defeats. Later the guys were renamed "zampolits" (political assistants) or "politruks" (political guides) and became little more than advisors to commanding officers and lectors on Communism among soldiers. After The Great Politics Mess-Up, they were further nerfed and now are known as "educator officers", completely depoliticized and acting more like army psychologists than anything else.
  • Dmitri Furmanov, the commissar attached to Chapaev's troops, wrote the book that gave Chapaev lasting fame. Later he became the epitome of the benevolent commissar after the release of The Movie about Chapaev. Later, he experienced Memetic Mutation (along with Chapaev and Petka) and became a recurring character in Russian Humour.
  • Valery Sablin, who led a mutiny in 1975 on board the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy (a "Krivak"), aiming to sail it from Riga to Leningrad and incite a revolution against a regime that he felt was failing. A crew member escaped, alerted the authorities and the ship was stopped in international waters with the aid of Yak-28 "Brewer" bombers (they considered using Tu-16 "Badgers" but realised that launching anti-shipping missiles into a crowded shipping line was a dumb idea). The captain regained control of the ship just before the Yaks actually did some serious damage and Sablin was arrested. He was convicted of treason and shot. This was one of the incidents that inspired The Hunt for Red October.
  • Modern ideological dictatorships tend to have these guys in no small number. Communist regimes are perhaps the most obvious, but Those Wacky Nazis and even Chiang Kai-Shek's KMT had them. This is also Older Than You Think, with their introduction early in the Napoleonic Wars by the Revolutionary government. Any general that failed in battle could except to meet La Veuve (the Widow, i.e. the Guillotine).
    • Even earlier than that: the "adgitators" (from whence we get Adjutant, usually a low-ranking staff officer) during the English Civil War. They were political officers, elected from the ranks, and put forth increasingly radical demands to Cromwell's government. Many were Levelers, insisting on universal male suffrage.
  • In what may be a confusing aversion, some countries' police forces have a rank that is referred to as Commissar, but is essentially the equivalent of a police captain with no relation to the trope.
    • Stalinist NKVD (a ministry that combined Secret Police and regular police) also used the word commissar in sense of a high-ranking police officer. These commissars confusingly coexisted with the ones from this trope during early Great Patriotic War (1941-1942).
  • While the Soviet Union is the most obvious example, it was not the only modern dictatorship (communist or otherwise) to use political officers. Ironically enough, the Nazis established their own variant as the war went on and gave them increasing amounts of power over time, although they still never became as common or as powerful as their Soviet counterparts sometimes did. Maoist China, Saddam's Iraq, and theocratic Iran also had their own variants, as did many others.
  • When Rome was a republic, the senior officers of the roman army were apointed by the senate, or directly elected by the people's assembly. Many politicians were also generals, like Ceasar. There are a few other historical periods when the officers were elected: At the beginning of the french revolution, in some republican units during the spanish civil war...
  • The British Army on the Northwest Frontier(Afghan border) in Victorian times had an officer with a similar title. In a subversion he was not their as a watchdog over the general but got the title because he was part of the Indian Political Service. His function was to keep the general up to snuff on the sociology and politics of local tribes, and his duties are better described as intelligence advisor then as what is normally implied by the title.
  • Political Officers of the stereotypical manner tend to arise in revolutionary regimes that haven't satisfied a claim to legitimacy. Of course the real claim to legitimacy in any long running state is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but most states want something that sounds better and of course a revolution is obvious evidence that something is "broke" but not yet evidence that it is "fixed". And the fabled problem of "guarding the guardians" is more strained when said guardians might not take the regime for granted.

*BLAM!*

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