Starshina


Starshina is a senior non-commissioned rank or designation in the military forces of some Slavic states. In army terminology, a Starshina is either an appointment roughly equivalent to "Company Sergeant Major" or a rank equal to a NATO OR-8. In naval terminology, Starshina is a general term for junior and middle-ranking non-commissioned officers, similar in usage to "Petty Officer".
The word originates from the Slavic word старший, starshij,

Cossack Hetmanate

Among Cossacks in Ukraine, starshyna was a collective noun for categories of military officers and state officials. It derived from the offices in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sharshyna was subdivided into:
Later, sometime after the Khmelnytsky's Uprising, it was also associated with the Ukrainian nobility which derived out of the officership and the Hetman.

Imperial Russia

Later, in the Tsardom of Russia and Imperial Russia, a volostnoy starshina was the chief of a volost, in charge of the distribution of taxes, resolving conflicts within obshchina, distributing community lands and military conscription. The rank of voiskovoi starshina was introduced into the ranks of the Imperial military in 1826, as the equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Cossack cavalry.

Soviet Union and Russian Federation

The word Starshina gained its modern meaning in the Red Army, and is a hangover from the functional titles that were initially used by that force - the word literally means "senior". Most functional titles in the Red Army were abolished in 1942, but Starshina remained. Starshina was the highest non-commissioned rank in the Soviet Army until the reintroduction of the imperial rank of praporshchik in 1972.
In the Soviet Navy, the term "Starshina" was introduced between 1940 and 1943 as term equivalent to petty officer rank for every enlisted seaman above Matrose, 1st class. There was also created a rank equal to Starshina in the Army, but termed Glávnyj korabél'nyj starshiná - this is the naval rank depicted in the tables below.

Insignia in the Red Army (1919-1946) and Soviet Armed Forces (1946-1991)

See also:
See also: