In the navy from December 1917 until 1918, naval officers of the Imperial Russian Navy who joined its ranks were addressed by their tsarist rank with the addition of front abbreviation 'b.', which meant 'former', while new officers had to wait until 1924 for their rank designations to be issued. Commander of a brigade: Russian: комбриг, romanized: kombrig.Commander of a division: Russian: комдив, romanized: komdiv.For more detailed graduation komandarm I and komandarm II were adopted.Ĭommanding officers of major units below army and corps level were known as: Commanders of major units (army or corps sized) were designated 'army commander' (Russian: командующий армией komanduyushchy armyye abbreviated командарм komandarm). Personnel designated to command a military unit were unofficially named 'red commander' (Russian: красный командир krasnyi komandir, abbreviated краском kraskom). The first common rank designation throughout the Red Army was 'Red Army man' ( Russian: kрасноармеец, romanized: krasnoarmyeets) or, in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy, 'Red Fleet man' ( Russian: kраснофлотец, romanized: krasnoflotets). The levelling of military grades and neglecting of rank designation were symptomatic of the new order. In the early period of the October revolution new uniforms were used and new units structured on the basis of the former Imperial Russian Army and Navy. Among others, the old Russian tradition of wearing epaulets and shoulder straps as rank insignia was rigorously abolished and was replaced with a new tradition of rank designations and insignia for the new Red Army and the nascent Soviet Navy. In the period from 1918 to 1935 of the young Soviet Union any 'bourgeois' military ideas were put under general suspicion by the communists, the new political establishment. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)įirst rank insignia of the Soviet armed forces from August 1918, here: enlisted men/privates of the Red Guard and 'Army of Taman' ( August 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) There might be a discussion about this on the talk page. This article may be confusing or unclear to readers.

Civil war union navy enlisted ranks