Crossword Genius

Time to embrace revolutionary left’s rank (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

echelon

'rank' is the definition.
(I know that echelon is a type of rank)

'time to embrace revolutionary left's' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 'eon' (eon is a kind of time).
'to embrace' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'revolutionary' becomes 'che' (Che Guevara the Marxist revolutionary).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'che'+'l'='chel'
'eon' enclosing 'chel' is 'ECHELON'.

(Other definitions for echelon that I've seen before include "Grade or level" , "Body of troops arranged in a line" , "Military stepped formation" , "Offset-lines formation" , "Level of people in organisation" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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