Ranks and insignia of the Red Army and Navy 1935–1940
Individual rank insignia to the (Army) ground forces and (Navy) naval forces (1935–1940) were established by orders 2590 and 2591, effective from September 22, 1935. This was mainly directed to supreme commanders, commanding officers, and personnel in charge to exert command and control in the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", published by order number 176 of the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, dated from December 3, 1935. Situation in 1935. According to these new orders, new insignia of command personnel should indicate: The top military rank of Marshal of  the Soviet Union was created by order of the USSR Central Executive Committee and the “Council of People's Commissars” from September 22, 1935, onward, before the new ranks were issued. Military ranks. The military ranks created as a result of the joint decision of the “USSR Central Executive Committee” and the “Council of People's Commissars” from November 21, 1935, are contained in the table below. These replaced the ranks used from 1924. Additional regulations. The same orders mentioned above provided for separate ranks for the Political commissars and military specialists, as in the table below. 1937. More regulations  were established in 1937, following general instructions of the Red Army. According to paragraph 10 of this instruction, the following subdivision of personnel was made: Paragraph 14 of this instruction contained the individual ranks and rank designations according to the order of September 22, 1935, and thus officially sanctioned the additional established OF-1c ranks (Junior lieutenant and Junior military technician), taking effect on August 5, 1937. 1939. By decision of the extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (end of August until early September 1939) the law on universal compulsory service took effect, and the new OF4-ranks  of Podpolkovnik and "Battalion commissar" were introduced as a result of the amendments to the rank regulations of 1935. An equivalent OF4-rank for the Soviet navy was not established, however. Rank designations. In addition to individual ranks the establishment of defined rank insignia was made in December 1935 as well. From this time military staff, including political commissars, military administration, commissariat, medical service, veterinarian service, and military legal service of the Red Army wore rank insignia as follows: However, naval military staff wore sleeve insignia (stripes and stars) on both sleeves of the uniform. Table of rank insignia for  the navy 1935–1940. The following ranks and insignia were used by the Soviet Navy from 1935 to 1940.