Quote Originally Posted by The Yousef
why?

did they have a 'political' officer too (like the russians)?

for the uninformed...political officer was the member of the communist party that was assigned to various branches of military to preach communist doctrine and report directly to the politburo...
it dates back to when they went up in capsule and didnt have a way to control where they landed. One time they were stuck in the capsule with a bunch of wild animals around them and it was too dangerous for them to go outside. ever since then they have had them for protection reasons.