Paul Goble
Staunton, May 16 – Politruks, the Russian acronym for a political officer in the military and who were infamous for their work to shoot those who refused to advance when so ordered and to dictate decisions to officers, were restored by Vladimir Putin in 2018 and since the start of his expanded war in Ukraine have grown dramatically in numbers.
According to Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Goremykin, “the total pdersonnel strength of these military-political bodies has more than tripled, primarily through the introduction of new positions at the unit level” (redstar.ru/slovom-i-delom/ and kasparovru.com/material.php?id=6A07CFEFBBCDF).
Although he gave no specific numbers, they are sufficiently large that Izvestiya is reporting that the Main Military-Political Directorate (GlavVoenPUR) is in the process of being reconstituted, an effort slated to be completed by December 1 (iz.ru/806649/aleksei-ramm-aleksei-kozachenko-bogdan-stepovoi/za-klimat-otvetit-glavvoenpur-rotnye-zampolity-snova-v-armii).
The politruks in the Soviet army during World War II grew out of earlier Bolshevik leaders to control military specialists the regime they served did not trust. Indeed, this lack of trust in the military has continued to be a key aspect of the Russian military – and likely means the Kremlin has growing doubts about its army.
If that is the case, then the new rise of politruks is perhaps the clearest indication yet that Putin and his regime are no longer confident of either the loyalty or political beliefs of military commanders and soldiers, something that suggests Moscow’s situation with regard to its forces in Ukraine is far worse than many have thought.
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