Commissariat
Encyclopedia
A commissariat is the department of an army
charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition
is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the same corps of departmental troops. An officer of a commissariat is called a Commissary
.
, the Commissariat was a uniformed civilian service until 1869, when its officers transferred to the new Control Department as commissioned Army officers. The supply organization of the British Army went through a number of incarnations, including the Commissariat and Transport Department, Staff and Corps, before becoming the Army Service Corps in 1888.
In the "Major General's Song" in The Pirates of Penzance
by Gilbert and Sullivan
, the Major-General would like to "know precisely what is meant by commissariat" (satirizing the 19th century British officers' lack of concrete military knowledge).
s of the Soviet Army
and modern Russian Army
is а local military administrative agency that prepares and executes plans for military mobilization, maintains records on military manpower and economic resources available to the armed forces, provides pre-military training, drafts men for military service, organizes reserves for training, and performs other military functions at the local level.
s, the term Commissariat refers to a division of the Order which is a semi-autonomous body. It is considered less viable than a full Province
, but with potential to develop into such, or it serves a group within the Order who are best served separately than in a Province into which they would otherwise be forced, e.g., due to language divisions. As with military usage, the Religious Superior
of the division is referred to as the Commissary.
The term is most commonly used among Franciscan
Orders.
Commissariat is also a common last name within the Parsi
community.
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the same corps of departmental troops. An officer of a commissariat is called a Commissary
Commissary
A commissary is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.-Word history:...
.
British Army
In the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, the Commissariat was a uniformed civilian service until 1869, when its officers transferred to the new Control Department as commissioned Army officers. The supply organization of the British Army went through a number of incarnations, including the Commissariat and Transport Department, Staff and Corps, before becoming the Army Service Corps in 1888.
In the "Major General's Song" in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
by Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, the Major-General would like to "know precisely what is meant by commissariat" (satirizing the 19th century British officers' lack of concrete military knowledge).
Soviet Army and modern Russian Army
Military commissariatMilitary commissariat
Military commissariat is a military institution in some European counties.-Russia and former USSR:Military commissariat , abbreviated as voyenkomat is а local military administrative agency in the former Soviet Union as well as in present-day Russia and some other CIS countries that prepares and...
s of the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
and modern Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
is а local military administrative agency that prepares and executes plans for military mobilization, maintains records on military manpower and economic resources available to the armed forces, provides pre-military training, drafts men for military service, organizes reserves for training, and performs other military functions at the local level.
Religious usage
Among Roman Catholic religious orderReligious order
A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...
s, the term Commissariat refers to a division of the Order which is a semi-autonomous body. It is considered less viable than a full Province
Ecclesiastical Province
An ecclesiastical province is a large jurisdiction of religious government, so named by analogy with a secular province, existing in certain hierarchical Christian churches, especially in the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican Communion...
, but with potential to develop into such, or it serves a group within the Order who are best served separately than in a Province into which they would otherwise be forced, e.g., due to language divisions. As with military usage, the Religious Superior
Superior (hierarchy)
In a hierarchy or tree structure of any kind, a superior is an individual or position at a higher level in the hierarchy than another , and thus closer to the apex. It is often used in business terminology to refer to people who are supervisors and in the military to people who are higher in the...
of the division is referred to as the Commissary.
The term is most commonly used among Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Orders.
See also
- Commissaire de policeCommissaire de policeCommissaire de police is a rank in the French National Police. Every commune with a population of more than 30,000-50,000 has a commissaire in charge of its police force and larger communes have more than one...
- Commissariat de l'armée de terreCommissariat de l'armée de terreThe Commissariat de l'armée de terre is the commissariat branch of the French Army. Its equivalent for the French Navy is the Commissariat de la marine and for the French Air Force the Service de l'administration générale et des finances de l'armée de l'air - a member of any of these three is...
Commissariat is also a common last name within the Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
community.