Starshy praporshchik

Starshy praporshchik (Ста́рший пра́порщик) is a rank used by the Russian Ground Forces and a number of former communist states. The rank is a non-commissioned officer's and is equivalent to Starshy michman in navies. It is usually equivalent to warrant officer class 1 or sergeant major in English-speaking armies.

Soviet Army and Militia
In the Soviet Military, the ranks of starshy praporshchik and starshy michman were introduced in 1981, in an attempt to recreate a corps of contract non-commissioned officers similar to master sergeants and chief petty officers, the role that was previously reserved for senior drafted personnel. Contrary to Western practice of assigning the senior sergeant ranks to veteran soldiers, the Soviet ranks of starshina and sergeant were routinely assigned to 20-year-old soldiers at the end of their 2-year draft. The praporshchiks were aged volunteers and were expected to have more authority over draftsmen than similarly aged sergeants; they are placed in a separate category of "master non-commissioned officers" (praporshchik and michman).