Stalin's “Soft Power”: Activities of the Commissioner for Foreign Military Formations in the USSR During the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

Foreign military formations established on the Soviet territory, more than anything else, epitomised the coalition nature of the struggle against Nazi aggression. In the latter stages of the war, they became a powerful tool for promoting the geopolitical interests of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, in connection with which the formation of alien troops received a new powerful impetus. The article draws on the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, which are introduced into the academic circuit for the first time. The author analyses the activities of a special body of military administration directly subordinate to the highest leadership of the country, namely the Commissioner for Foreign Formations in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. He coordinated and supervised the formation of Polish, Czechoslovak, and Yugoslav military units both within the Soviet military establishment and at the interdepartmental and international levels. In the research literature, this institution has been very poorly studied and current knowledge about it is fragmentary, which determines its academic relevance. It was a highly effective instrument of Soviet “soft power&8j1;, which facilitated the extension of the Stalinist leadership's military and political influence over the countries of Eastern Europe. During the war years, the institution of the Commissioner underwent a complex evolution, changing its functions and its name several times. The direct command vertical between Stalin and the Commissioner invariably remained unchanged, which provided the latter with extremely wide administrative and control possibilities, despite the fact that this institution was not even clearly defined.