Military Ranks of The Soviet Union - Rank Comparisons

Rank Comparisons

The Red Army abolished all personal officer and general ranks, retaining only personal positions. Thus, a komvzvoda (Platoon Commander) was a position for an officer who would typically hold a Lieutenant of Senior Lieutenant rank, kombat (Battalion Commander) was an equivalent of Captain or Major, and kompolka was an equivalent of Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel.

Even though traditional personal ranks for Red Army officers were re-established in 1935, General ranks were not introduced until 1940, probably because they were associated with the White Army movement. So, in 1935-1940 the personal rank system in the Red Army consisted of the following General-grade ranks:

• kombrig (Brigade Commander), a Brigadier equivalent;
• komdiv (Division Commander), a Major General equivalent;
• komcor (Corps Commander), a Lieutenant General equivalent;
• komandarm (Army Commander) 2nd rank, a Lieutenant General or full General equivalent;
• komandarm (Army Commander) 1st rank, a Front Commander or Supreme Commander position, and an equivalent to Colonel General, General of the Army, or Field Marshal in other nations.

When the Marshal of the Soviet Union was introduced later in 1935, it became the highest rank in the Red Army, extending an already complex rank system.

However, when personal General ranks were introduced in 1940, the updated rank system did not feature a Brigadier-grade rank, mirroring a situation in the Russian Imperial Russian army where the Brigadier rank ceased to exist in early 19th century. Most of the officers holding the kombrig rank were demoted to Colonels, and only a few were promoted to Major General.

Another peculiarity of this new system was the absence of a full General rank, which until 19th century was called General-en-Chef in the Russian Imperial army, and then was renamed General of the Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery. Curiously, the initial draft of the new rank system submitted by People's Commissar of Defence Marshal Voroshilov was more in line with Russian military tradition. In a memorandum submitted on 17 March 1940 to the Politburo and Sovnarkom, Voroshilov made the following proposal:

After discussing this question with my deputies, we conclude that our army needs to have the same number of General ranks as it was in the Tsarist army and as it exists in other European armies such as German, French and British. At present we have five General-grade ranks (kombrig, komdiv, komcor, komandarm 2nd rank and komandarm 1st rank). We find it necessary to join the military ranks of komdiv and komcor into a single Lieutenant General rank, and to similarly join the military ranks of komandarm 2nd rank and komandarm 1st rank into a single rank of General of the Infantry (artillery, cavalry, aviation, armoured troops etc.). To follow is the highest military rank in the Red Army, the Marshal of the Soviet Union, which corresponds to similar ranks in foreign capitalist armies. We believe there is no need for additional military ranks above Marshal.

However in the final document the two komandarm ranks were replaced with Colonel General and General of the Army, with the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union on top of them. In the end, the number of General-grade ranks did not reduce at all even with the abolition of Brigadier-grade kobmbrig rank, contrary to the initial proposal by Voroshilov.

After the introduction of this new system, most existing kombrigs were ranked as Colonel, although some were ranked as General; existing komdivs were mostly ranked as Major General, komcors and Army Commanders 2nd rank were mostly ranked Lieutenant General, and Army Commanders 1st rank were ranked as Colonel General or General of the Army (a notable exception is Georgy Zhukov who was promoted to General of the Army directly from komcor rank). Later in 1943, the ranks of Marshal and Chief Marshal of a service branch were introduced in aviation, artillery, communications troops, and armoured troops; both equivalent to General of the Army.

The final personal rank structure (for the Army and the Air Force) was thus as follows:

• Colonel - Brigade or Division level;
• Major General - Сorps, Division or (rarely) Brigade level;
• Lieutenant General - Corps or Army level;
• Colonel General - Army or Front level;
• General of the Army - Army or Front level;
• Marshal or Chief Marshal - service branch, Army level;
• Marshal of the Soviet Union - Front or Supreme Command level, reserved for most honoured field commanders.

Eventually, the Soviet system of general ranks included commonplace Major General, Lieutenant General, however the position in between Lieutenant General and General of the Army was occupied by the Colonel General, which in the Soviet system is the equivalent of a full General rank in other nations.

This unusual rank structure makes rank comparisons difficult; Marshal of the Soviet Union is arguably not the equivalent to NATO five-star general ranks such as British Field Marshal or American General of the Army, but is instead an honorary rank analogous to the Marshal of France, although without associated state functions.

In the Soviet Navy before 1935 the ranks were personal positions. Since that year the general officer rank structure became as follows:

• Flag Officer 2nd Rank
• Flag Officer 1st Rank
• Fleet Flag Officer 2nd Rank
• Fleet Flag Officer 1st Rank

From 1940, the rank structure for high officers of the Navy became:

• Captain 1st Rank
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral
• Admiral

In 1943, the rank structure slightly changed into the final rank formation which remained until the dissolution of the Navy in 1991 with more changes in 1955 and 1962:

• Captain 1st Rank
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral
• Admiral
• Admiral of the Fleet (became Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union in 1955, reinstated in 1962 as a junior rank equivalent to General of the Army)

Ranks in the shore services mirrored the changes in the Red Army save that Colonel General became the highest rank for troops in those services.

The Russian Navy still uses this, except that Marshal of the Russian Federation is the highest rank of precedence, and the rank below that, Admiral of the Fleet, is the highest deck rank for officers.