Editing Commissar (section)

{{Short description|Military political officer in Communist countries}}
{{for|the 1967 film|Commissar (film)}}
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'''Commissar''' (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an [[English language|English]] transliteration of the [[Russian language|Russian]] {{lang|ru|комиссáр}} (''komissar''), which means '[[commissary]]'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the [[political commissar]]s of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] and Eastern-bloc armies or to the people's commissars (effectively [[minister (government)|government minister]]s), while administrative officers are called ''commissaries''.

The Russian word комисса́р, from French ''commissaire'', was used in Russia for both political and administrative officials. The title has been used in the [[Soviet Union]] and in [[Russia]] since the time of the emperor [[Peter the Great]] ({{reign | 1682 | 1725}}).