Who can a Commissar kill?

[eldargal]

Just who in the Imperial Guard hierarchy can be shot by a commissar? Obviously regular infantry and officers, but what about company commanders? Colonels? Majors? Generals?
If a IG army HQ is overrun and the General himself turns to flee, can the commissar shoot him in the face? I guess what I'm asking is at what point would a commissar go too far? Would a Lord (or Lady) Commissar be able to shoot a planetary commander?

[Aldramelech]

I would imagine something along the lines of the Soviet system of political officers.

For every level of Rank within the Imperial Officer Corps there is an equivalent Commissar.

Company Level, Battalion Level, Regimental Level, Army Level. Each level extends downwards but not upwards, although the Commissar would have the ability to make reports to his/her superiors about un-Imperial behavior of his/her superiors.

[Cryl]

I'd guess that the actual authority and written authority are subtly different. In theory a commisar can execute anyone for disloyalty (and many other things!) but I'd guess it's much harder for Commisar Bob straight out of the Schola to execute Lord General McInCharge with any certainty that he wouldn't either be executed for killing a hero of the imperium or shot dead by the Lord Generals guards the minute his bolt pistol left its holster.

That said it's unlikely that a newly trained commisar would be attached to the Lord General or Lord Marshalls staff, I've read things that support what Aldramelech says meaning that Commisar Generals and Lord Commisars would probably have that authority with little fear of reprisal and hence commisars of that rank would be attached to command HQs.

There's not much written about Commisar rank systems though, as far as I can tell we've got Commisars, Commisar Generals and Lord Commisars. I can't be sure that Commisar General isn't a similar concept to Colonel-Commisar Gaunts rank which is both that of Commisar and that of IG Colonel. Anyone know anymore about this?

[rkiviman]

Gaunt is an enigma!! It's not normal for commissars to hold his position and one of actual command of imperial troops. They could command by default or of course casulties, but tactical command is not an option to them usually. From the books read , commissar's operated just like the Soviet political officers. They had total authority in the field relating to any troop or officers reliability in fighting for the Emperor. In other word they can execute or arrest anyone. They seem also to have the authority to conduct drumhead courtmartials of anyone and pass sentence as they see fit. New (junior) commissars seemed to be assigned to a senior commissar and continued their training with them. Once they were judged capable of performing their future duties then would be assigned to a unit(platoon, company, regiment?) Not sure of what the criteria are for what type or size unit they would be assigned too.

[Melissia]

Anyone he can justify killing.

Even civilians for that matter, by declaring martial law.

[RogueGarou]

Gaunt and his mentor were anomalies in that they were granted command ranks in addition to their Commissariat duties. It is uncommon for a Commissar to be given a brevet or official rank in the Imperial military structure. As shown in some of the novels, some members of the command staff and the Commissariat feel this dual duty is essentially a contradiction and poses a conflict of interest.

A commissar can dispense whatever discipline is deemed necessary including corporal punishment, capital punishment, arrest and anything in between. However, as a political officer, they at times must walk a fine line between meting out punishment to maintain discipline and treading carefully through the political scene in their command. Hark, for instance, did not hesitate to execute a command-rank officer but did not execute the men under his command who fled the field of honor. His reasoning was that if the officer had been of stout character and leadership, his men would not have failed and instead provided an opportunity for a better officer to take command. There was some fallout from this action and the possibility of much greater repercussions.

Gaunt could have executed a general at Vervunhive but decided that imprisonment and trial would serve a greater purpose. This decision eventually led to his mission to Gereon and the combination of the Tanith and Belleron indirectly. Yarrick defied a planetary governor's orders; I don't remember if he had a hand in his arrest, though. Essentially, a Commissar can sanction (execute) whoever is found wanting in their presence and purview but they may decide to instead reprimand or otherwise deal with a matter in a less extreme manner due to the politics inherent to their position. Other organizations and officials are not so limited in their power and do not have to take such concerns into account when... executing their duties.

[Nabterayl]

Gaunt may be any enigma, but "commissar general" seems to be a standard commissar rank. The Taros campaign's high command included a commissar general, whose job was to oversee the cadre of commissars involved in the campaign, and to execute the overall commander of the campaign if he felt it necessary.

[Melissia]

Anomalies, but not necessarily uncommon. Cain was given such command several times in the course of his career, even if it was only temporary.

[Just_Me]

Gaunt may be any enigma, but "commissar general" seems to be a standard commissar rank. The Taros campaign's high command included a commissar general, whose job was to oversee the cadre of commissars involved in the campaign, and to execute the overall commander of the campaign if he felt it necessary.

But note that “Commissar General” is not hyphenated like Gaunt’s rank of “Colonel-Commissar.” That’s because where Gaunt hold dual ranks (something quite unusual, though not entirely unique) Commissar General seems to be standard nomenclature for a very senior Commissar, sort of like “attorney general” or “inspector general.” I would surmise that, as Aldramelech suggests, there are broadly equivalent Commissar ranks for most military ranks, probably not direct one-for-one equivalency but equivalency in a general “leveled” sort of way.

In regards to the topic question the short answer seems to “whomever they want to.” However in practice it’s probably not that simple, and as the prestige and power of the individual they are executing goes up, so too will their discretion. At the regimental level the Commissars don’t seem to have much compunction about summary executions (though they would likely baulk at just blowing away Colonels willy-nilly), but above this level they seem to be a bit more restrained. Keep in mind that a Commissar has a slew of legal options ranging from a formal reprimand to a full court-martial before he gets to summary execution. Indeed the “summary” part probably implies that this is pretty much only a battlefield action when there is no time for proper legal action and an immediate solution is required, these sorts of circumstances are unlikely to occur in rear echelon command as there would most likely be ample time and opportunity for proper procedure. Over all it is easy to forget that Commissars are legal body, unlike the Inquisition which is supra-legal the Commissariat has to formally justify its actions, behind the scenes there are probably mountains of paperwork for each summary execution, especially if, Emperor forbid, you kill someone important .

[AirHorse]

Just_me has it right Im pretty certain. A commissar of any rank could probaly execute anyone regardless of their rank as long as hes given a justifiable reason for it, the real question is if he has the balls to do it more than anything else. Lets face it if a brand new commissar shot your colonel would you really go complain about it to the commissariat? You are more likely to get shot yourself than for them to do anything about it.