What is "polkovnik"

''This article is about the OF-5 rank Polkovnik in mostly Slavophone countries. For the equivalent rank in Anglophone armed forces see Colonel; in Austria and Germany see Oberst.

Polkovnik (literally " regimentary") is a military rank in Slavic countries mostly which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states, and oberst in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries. The term originates from an ancient Slavic word for a group of soldiers and folk. However, in Cossack Hetmanate (Hetmanshchyna) and Slobozhanshchyna, polkovnyk was an administrative rank similar to a governor. Usually this word is translated as colonel, however the transliteration is also in common usage, for the sake of the historical and social context. Polkovnik began as a commander of a distinct group of troops (polk), arranged for battle.

The exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spellings in different languages, but all descendant from the Old Slavonic word polk (literally: regiment sized unit), and include the following in alphabetical order:

1. Belarus —
2. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia — pukovnik
3. Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia and Ukraine — (, )
4. Czech Republic and Slovakia —
5. Georgia — პოლკოვნიკი ''
6. Latvia —
7. Lithuania —
8. Poland —
9. Slovenia — polkovnik

Although Latvia and Lithuania are not Slavic countries linguistically, they have been influenced by Polish and Russian terminology due to having been part of both the Polish Commonwealth and the Russian Empire at various times in their history, whereas Georgia - another country on the list that is not Slavic - has been heavily influenced by Russia. The rank of polkovnik was also used in the Estonian army until 1924.