History of Russian military ranks

By 1722, the ranks of both enlisted staff and commissioned/non-commissioned officers were somewhat settled; these ranks survived until the Russian Revolution with only minor adjustments.

Captain-Poruchik rank is comparable to Lieutenant Captain. Note that Poruchik can sometimes be styled as Porutchik, as it was originally written by the tsar himself.

Commissioned officers of artillery and engineers enjoyed a handicap of 1 grade, and the Leib Guards units enjoyed a handicap of 2 grades, ending in Life Guards Colonel.

In the 1798–1884 timeline, the General ranks were streamlined and the Brigadier rank was abolished. The Captain-Poruchik rank was reestablished again, this time as Staff-Captain. The Second Major and First Major ranks were united. In 1826, Russian Army adopted shoulder insignia and distinct Cossack cavalry ranks.

In 1884, Major and Captain-Lieutenant ranks were abolished again and the ranks below were shifted several grades up. The latter was not reintroduced until 1907, but then again abolished in 1911.

As stated earlier, most of the naval ranks and rates were formed from scratch in the 18th century, with many changes since then. Ranks for naval infantry, shore service personnel and engineers would only come in the 19th century.

Although the White Movement generally retained the old imperial system, there were a few modifications. Most importantly, the ranks of praporshchik and lieutenant colonel were abolished as redundant by 1919.

The October Revolution of 1917 abolished the privileges of the Russian nobility (Dvoryanstvo). The Table of Ranks was abolished and so were personal military ranks. Based on the teachings of Karl Marx to replace a regular army with the general arming of the people, the Bolsheviks abolished the Imperial army on 16 March 1918. But the need for an armed struggle against the counter-revolution, and foreign military intervention forced the CEC and the CPC, January 15, 1918 to issue a decree establishing of the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", very early before the disbandment of the Imperial ground forces.

At first the new army had no ranks, aside from the single rank of "RedArmyMan". However, due to a real need, first informally and then more formally (although no document on an introduction of ranks or names of commanders was issued) in official correspondence acronyms began to appear representing position-holder titles. For example, komdiv was an acronym of Division Commander; likewise kombat stood for Battalion Commander, etc. By the middle of the Civil War (January 1919), these "positional ranks" became quite formal, and since January 1920 the names of officers was fixed by the Order of the Red Army. Instead of ranks, these were officially known as "categories of the Red Army." This system was maintained until May 1924. Some of these acronyms have survived as informal position names to the present day.

During the civil war ships did not play a significant role. Many of the sailors and petty officers of the fleet went to fight on land in the Red Army. For a long time a scale of naval ranks did not exist at all. Most of the naval officers were addressed either by their position or by their tsarist rank with the addition of the prefix byvshiy (abbreviated as "b."), which meant "former". Since 1924, the real rehabilitation and creation of the fleet began. Personal ranks as such did not exist during this period in the Navy.

By then, the only new rank created was the Sergeant Major (Starshina) rank in the Red Army. It was first introduced in the Worker's and Peasant's Red Navy at the same time, with the old Imperial Naval rank of Bootsmann in the Navy the only old rank still used.

The Soviet Air Forces began as a committee for ex-Imperial military aviation in 1918, and was later transformed into a separate service later as the Workers and Peasants Red Air Fleet. It shared the same ranks as the Army and the naval air component shared the ranks of its mother service.

By that year, the ranks were expanded to match the military ranks of other countries' armed forces. The Soviet Air Forces soon received its own ranks.

Personal ranks were formally introduced in the Red Army on September 22, 1935, including the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union that was adopted the year before.

Ranks of Junior Lieutenant and Junior Military Technician were introduced in 1937. Also restored were most of the military officer ranks in the Army and Navy, except for the General officer ranks and the Admiral officer ranks, with the naval rank of 3rd-class Captain being the new officer rank introduced.

General ranks were restored in May 1940. The new ranks were based on the military ranks of the Russian Empire, although they underwent some modifications; modified Imperial rank insignia were reintroduced in 1943. The new ranks also abolished the specialist ranks for the other arms and services, and they were replaced by the new ranks with the service name attached.

Ranks "Lieutenant Colonel" and "Senior Battalion Commissar" were introduced in 1937. By 1940 the Army rank of Corporal and the Naval rank of Midshipman were revived, and the old rank of Junior Sergeant reinstated into its modern form (the rank is from the Estonian Army but has a Russian origin in the Imperial Russian Army).

In 1942, the political commissars' service in the Red Army was finally disbanded for good, and its ranks dissolved.

In 1943, all ranks became standardized throughout the Soviet Armed Forces, with the full inclusion of Air/Arm/Branch Marshal and Air/Arm/Branch Chief Marshal ranks. All specialist ranks remaining were replaced by the 1940 standard ranks with the service name attached to them, and Private and Seaman became the basic enlisted ranks. The new Imperial Russian Armed Forces-style shoulder rank insignia also debuted.

From 1943 to 1961, naval ranks were adjusted to match the naval ranks of other countries. The rank of Admiral of the Fleet was introduced during the Great Patriotic War, and was the equivalent rank to Marshal of the Soviet Union that in 1955, it was renamed Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. The rank was soon revived in 1962 as a General of the Army-equivalent rank in compliance to new Soviet Navy regulations for officers.

On June 27, 1945, the rank of Generalissimus Sovietskogo Soyuza (Generalissimus of the Soviet Union) was created and granted to Joseph Stalin following the tradition of the Russian Imperial Army which granted to the Tsars the military rank in their capacity as Commanders-in-Chief. Formally it existed until 1993 but it was never used after Stalin's death.

In the 1970s, the non-commissioned officers serving under contract and holding Starshina (Master Sergeant) rank were reassigned to newly created Praporshchik rank (not to be confused with similarly named Russian Empire rank of commissioned officers); starshina was reserved for conscripts only. In the Soviet Navy, however, as the Midshipman rank was formally elevated to that of a warrant officer, the NCO role of Midshipmen was replaced by the new rank of Ship Chief Master Sergeant as a result of the naval rank change. At the same time all rank insignia became uniform for the Army and Air Force plus the other services, the Navy retained theirs.

Generals of the Army and Admirals soon had their insignia changed in 1974.

The final change was in 1981 when Senior Praporshchik and Senior Midshipman ranks were added in the ranks of warrant officers.

The table of Soviet military ranks can see in military ranks of the Soviet Union or in the section below (as they were the same as present military ranks of the Russian Federation).