Comandarm

After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks eliminated traditional military ranks. Ranks were re-established in 1935, but without any generals, because of the Red Army commanders’ lasting resentment against those pre-revolutionary Russian generals who had joined the counter-revolutionary White Army during the Civil War of 1918 – 1921. Between 1935 and 1940, the Soviet Army was instead led by a hierarchy of “commanders.” In 1940, however, on the eve of World War II, Stalin reconstituted the traditional corps of generals.

Comandarm is the Russian abbreviation of a Soviet Army rank from 1935 to 1940: Komandujuschij armiej (Army Commander), equivalent to the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Army. After the reintroduction of regular ranks for Generals in 1940, a Comandarm, 2nd rank became a Colonel-General, and a Comandarm, 1st rank became a General of the Army.