Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic
공화국 혁명군사평의회
The supreme military command body set up on 2 September 1918, when the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Soviet Republic a "military camp". It commanded all fronts and military organisations; Trotsky, as People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs, was its chairman, and Vācietis and then Sergei Kamenev served as commander-in-chief. Renamed the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR in 1923, it was abolished on 20 June 1934. The Russian abbreviation RVSR (РВСР) is read "er-ve-es-er".
In depth
The Revolutionary Military Council replaced the Supreme Military Council set up around the Brest peace in March 1918 and the operations division of the People's Commissariat for Army and Navy Affairs. Under the chairman a commander-in-chief directed strategy and operations, and members were nominated by the party Central Committee and confirmed by the Council of People's Commissars, numbering between two and thirteen besides the chairman, his deputies and the commander-in-chief. The council ran the field staff, the All-Russian General Staff, the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (later its Political Directorate), the central supply directorate, the revolutionary military tribunal and other bodies. Every front, army and fleet also had a revolutionary military council of its own, made up of the commander and two political commissars, the first being set up on the Eastern Front on 13 June 1918. On 30 November 1918 the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defence was created under Lenin, with Trotsky as chairman of the military council among its members. Trotsky remained chairman until January 1925, followed by Frunze and then Voroshilov.