Commissars

Commissars. Huh. What are they good for?

It's pretty much inevitable that any alternate-history Russia will have commissars; as inevitable as it being called vodka instead of spirt. Why do they exist? Because Russia, that's why. And because Andalusada does use its share of clichés, Great Russia has its commissars too. The only problem is justifying them - and this is my basic idea.

The Commissariat is a liaison office.

Pretty much by definition, every state has a military, and Great Russia's no exception.

• At the very least, the Sobor commands an Army and Navy.
• The experience of the Great War may have led to Great Russia establishing marines as a distinct branch of their military as well.
• The 1920s were the era that first saw independent air forces, but I honestly have no idea if Great Russia's done that.

Great Russia, however, is the first revolutionary regime to establish a government military of its own, too.

• Historically, it had several, a paramilitary for each party.
• For most of the Civil War era, the party paramilitaries were independent, accountable only to the party leadership, and occasionally at war with each other. During this period, any discussion of an overall command structure was obviously out of the question, and they all acted autonomously.
• The first problems with this setup were experienced during the later of the Russian Wars; it almost certainly became an issue during the Thousand Days.
• Since the coup of '21, the Coalition's party paramilitaries have consolidated into a permanent standing force like the Waffen-SS.

The Commissariat today

The hardest part of the Commissariat is navigating the politics of it. By definition, each of the army groups is loyal to a different party; commissars have to be part of one (and loyal enough to merit the respect of their own cadre) without being partisan enough to polarize the Legion as a whole.