THE DECREE OF 29 DECEMBER 1917 - - THE ABOLITION OF RANKS IN THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTIONARY ARMY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2001
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 31, 1971
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4
31 August 1971
SUBJECT The Decree of 29 December 1917--The
Abolition of 'Ranks in the Bolshevik
Revolutionary Army
1. In the wake of the Bolshevik Party's sei-
zure of power in Petrograd and Moscow in October
1917, Lenin and Trotskiy set about the formation
of a government pledged to pull Russia out of the
war with Germany. As part of their efforts to do
this, the Bolsheviks adopted a decree in late
December 1917 abolishing military ranks and titles.*
2. The 29 December 1917 decree reflected
three considerations:
114 V1
__=C, cgn4 %, .,,..,. ti14 L_'1 Yy-1- Z
Russian forces on the Western Front, such
as the collapse of morale after three years
of trench warfare, and the break-up of disci-
pline which accompanied an increasing
desertion rate;
--two, it dovetailed with other Bolshevik
decrees which abolished all ranks, titles,
and class distinctions within the civilian
sector; and
--three, it reflected the new regime's
fear that aristocratic officers might attempt
to turn the army against them.
3. Faced with civil war and the need to
defend themselves against the Allied effort to
open a second front in the east the Bolsheviks
soon began to move away from the provisions of
the 29 December 1917 decree. In fact, on 4 March
1918, just one day after signing the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk with the Germans, the Bolsheviks
*For full text, see page 3.
Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4
 Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B0.0296R000100120004-4
established a Supreme Military Council, a military
and political body for control at the upper level
of the army. On 4 April, a decree provided for
the creation of a corps of political commissars
"to represent" the Bolshevik Party and its doctrine
in the new army. In addition, the new secret
police organization, the Cheka, established on
7 December 1917 for the civilian sector, soon
began to function in the army.
4. Finally the blithe spirit of the December
decree completely evaporated between 21 April
and 29 July 1918 with new announcements and decrees
eliminating both the voluntary recruiting basis
for the army and its elective system for commanders.
Henceforth, commanders were to be appointed by
organs of the Bolsheviks' Ministry of War, and
former Czarist officers were to be coopted into
the Red Army for use not as "leaders" but as
"military specialists."
5. The Spring 1918 declarations were admissions
of the detrimental effect the abolition of ranks
had on military skill and rPnrnitment, and a prag-
matic admission of the need for a disciplined
military force to support and expand the Bolshevik
political control beyond Petrograd and Moscow. The
harsh disciplinary regulations adopted for the new
Red Army placed both the soldiers and (at first)
their "military specialists" and (later) "Red
Commanders" under the control of the Cheka and
the commissars.
6. Following the Allied Intervention (1918-
20) and an internal Kremlin debate (1920-24) on
the proper organization and role of the military
in the new Soviet state, military reforms in 1924-
25 formally established a command personnel hier-
archy by function. Designated, for example, were
deputy company commander, company commander,
battalion commander, all with corresponding collar
insignia. The pay for command personnel was only
slightly differentiated by position, an apparent
vestige of the egalitarian beginning of the Red
Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4
 Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4
Army. The command personnel's standard of living
was low but better than in civilian life, and in
the regular units of the Red Army morale, discipline
and training were reasonably good.
7. Finally, a decree on 22 September 1935
established a hierarchy by rank which restored most.
of the Czarist officer titles es and pay status.
Abolition of Military Ranks and Titles
Decree on the Equalization of Rights of All Serving in the Army
December 29, 191?
In realization of the will of a revolutionary people, for the
quickest and most decisive destruction of all remnants of the for-
mer inequality in the army, the Soviet of People's Commissaries
ordains:
1. All titles and stations in the army, starting with that of
corporal and ending with that of general, are abolished. The
army of the Ruscian R.-pi blic fflro i nnw nn consists of free and
equal-to-one-another citizens, holding the honorable stations of
'Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army.
2. All preference, connected with the former titles and
stations as well as outward distinctions are annulled.
3. All titles are annulled.
4. All orders and other marks of distinction are abolished.
? 5. With the abolishing of the officers rank there are abol-
ished all separate officers organizations.
6. The institution of orderlies, now existing in the active
army, is abolished.
Note. Orderlies remain only in regimental offices, com-
mittees and other army organizations.
President of the Soviet of People's Commissaries
V. Ulianov (Lenin)
S.U.B., 1917, No. 9, pp. 137-38.
Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000100120004-4