Pompolit
Pompolit (Помполит), or in merchant navy jargon pompa, was a political officer rank on Soviet merchant and passenger ships as well as other ships sailing outside USSR borders. It is not to be confused with politruk, which was the equivalent rank in military units. The difference between "politruk" and "pompolit". The Soviet ship's crew members followed the English rules — the ship's captain wields absolute authority on board. So appointing the authority of a "politruk" on a ship would violate this rule. During peacetime, the ship's captain would need an assistant-mate and not a leader or  a supervisor. The pompolit's obligations. The Soviet pompolits were under order to make the crews to conform to the following rules (list not complete): Too good knowledge of English for low-ranking sailors could be dangerous. If any crew member would see the pompolit approaching, he would immediately stop conversation with foreigners to avoid a misunderstanding with the pompolit. The cargo officer had to call the pompolit to attend during his conversations on cargo operations with the chief stevedore. This had to be the case even when the pompolits themselves could not speak English. On one Soviet ship the  cargo officer said to another officer: "What's the reason to attend during the conversations if he does not speak English? I may talk with the chief stevedore about anything including anti-Soviet conversations and the pompolit will understand nothing!" Mostly, the Soviet deck and radio officers including captains spoke English only badly because they were not taught the language properly to avoid collisions of reality with Soviet reality. Engine officers also weren't taught English properly. The pompolit had to reduce the spare time of crew members, so only two persons in a Soviet crew had a lot of  spare time - the ship's doctor and the pompolit.