Previous publications of the channel from the cycle about the Second World War:
1 - World War II. A successful business project of the West?
2 - “They filled up the Germans with corpses,” they say? They lie, with … dogs!
3 - Allies, damn it … With such "friends" and enemies are not needed!
4 - Detachments.
What is this article about?
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Perhaps the most violent controversy on the subject of the Second World War is the beginning of the war and penal units. Indeed, about the reasons, capabilities and readiness of the USSR for war, there are many reasons for heated discussions (including because of the still not removed the secrecy stamp from many documents). In contrast to the first question, the harsh condemnation of the practice of penal units in the Red Army, in my opinion, has no real reasons, except for the associative connection with the Stalinist mass repressions.
Why is that? Yes, because there is a huge amount of evidence of participants in various penal battalions and penal companies, both who served in the command personnel and who "atoned for" their guilt in them. And besides, there is: documentary chronicle, archives, orders, various statistics - allowing you to understand what was happening inside these units. And how can all this be understood in two ways?
In my publication, I will try to bring to your attention only the facts - everyone evaluates for himself.
Where did that come from.
Stalin, taking into account the current situation, on July 28, 1942, as the People's Commissar of Defense, signed order No. 227 (by the way, it is read in one breath - a powerful document!).
The order said (further excerpts from it): … Every commander, Red Army soldier and political worker must understand that our means are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet state is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy seized and seeks to seize, is bread and other products for the army and home front, metal and fuel for industry, factories, factories supplying the army with weapons and ammunition, railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, The Baltics, Donbass and other regions, we have much less territory, therefore, there are much less people, bread, metal, factories, factories. We have lost more than 70 million population, more than 800 million poods of bread per year and more than 10 million tons of metal in year. We no longer have a predominance over the Germans either in human reserves or in grain reserves. To retreat further means to ruin oneself and at the same time ruin our Motherland. Each new piece of territory we have left will strengthen the enemy in every possible way and weaken our defense and our Motherland in every possible way. (more details - World War II. Successful business project of the West?)
Therefore, it is necessary to put an end to the talk that we have the opportunity to retreat endlessly, that we have a lot of territory, our country is large and rich, there is a lot of population, and there will always be an abundance of bread.
It follows from this that it is time to end the retreat.
Not one step back! This should now be our main appeal.
After their winter retreat under the pressure of the Red Army, when discipline in the German troops was shaken, the Germans took some harsh measures to restore discipline, which led to good results. They formed more than 100 penal companies from soldiers who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, put them on dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins with blood. They formed, further, about a dozen penal battalions from commanders who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, deprived them of their orders, placed them on even more dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins. They finally formed special barrage units,put them behind unstable divisions and ordered them to shoot alarmists on the spot in case of an attempt to unauthorized abandonment of positions and in case of an attempt to surrender. As you know, these measures had their effect, and now the German troops are fighting better than they fought in the winter. And so it turns out that the German troops have good discipline, although they do not have a lofty goal of defending their homeland, but there is only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, having an exalted goal of defending their abused homeland, do not have such discipline and endure in view of this defeat.and there is only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, having the lofty goal of defending their desecrated Motherland, do not have such discipline and suffer defeat due to this.and there is only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, having the lofty goal of defending their desecrated Motherland, do not have such discipline and suffer defeat due to this.
Shouldn't we learn from our enemies in this matter, as our ancestors learned from their enemies in the past and then gained victory over them?
I think it should be …. , - the end of the quote.
Fines and penalties.
For persons of middle and senior command and political personnel guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, from 1 to 3 penal battalions (800 people in each) were created within the front. For rank-and-file soldiers and junior commanders guilty of similar violations, from 5 to 10 penal companies were created within the army (from 150 to 200 people in each). Penalty units were supposed to be sent to the most difficult sectors of the front in order to give them the opportunity to atone for crimes against the Motherland with blood.
The main difference between penal battalions is that they served as command personnel (senior and middle commanders, later officers), and ordinary soldiers and junior commanders (later privates, sergeants and foremen) served in penal companies, and volunteers from among convicted of light and medium gravity.
The penalty boxes were provided with clothing and food supplies in accordance with the standards established in the army.
The commanding staff of penal units was from career military personnel and was recruited from among the best and most authoritative infantry officers.
Most of the front-line soldiers testify: in penal battalions and companies, statutory relationships and strong discipline were maintained.
To carry out specific tasks, artillery, mortar and even tank units were temporarily assigned to the subordination of the commander of the penalties unit (and contrary to what we are shown in pseudo-historical films, their weapons were not taken away!).
Contrary to the prevailing stereotype, the detachments did not stand behind them and the penalty boxes did not go into battle under the NKVD machine guns (for more details - Black myths of war. Barrage detachments.) !!!
All in all, during the Great Patriotic War, 427,910 people were sent to penal companies and battalions. 65 separate penal battalions and 1,028 separate penal companies were formed - a total of 1,093 penal units.
Who got there and for what?
All categories of military personnel and civilians were sent to the infantry penalty units, with rare exceptions. It happened that both special officers and entire military units were hit (for the loss of a battle banner, they were transferred to the category of penalties). Reasons for translation: cowardice, dodging, cross-fire, and simulation. But of course, as always, in fact the list has been significantly expanded:
1) Unjustly convicted, who were slandered and slandered in order to settle scores with them. 2) The so-called "encircled", who managed to escape from the "cauldrons" and go to their troops, as well as fought in partisan detachments.
3) Servicemen who have lost combat and secret documents. 4) Commanders and chiefs guilty of "criminally careless organization of the military security and intelligence service."
5) Persons who, because of their beliefs, refuse to take up arms.
6) Persons who aided "enemy propaganda". 7) Servicemen convicted of rape. 8) Civilian prisoners (thieves, bandits, repeat offenders, etc.).
9) Scammers.
10) Employees of defense enterprises who committed negligence.
The guilty female servicemen were serving their sentences in the rear. True, sometimes there were cases of their transfer to the category of penalties - but only in the first half of the war (this practice stopped in October 1943).
The prisoners had their own reason to fight in good faith. After all, a month in a penal battalion could write off them up to 4 years in prison, 2 months - up to 7 years, three months - up to 10 years. There are archival documents of the NKVD. They say that for all the years of the war, forced labor camps and colonies were released ahead of schedule and transferred to the active army over 1 million people. Of these, only 10% were sent to penalty boxes. Most of them were added to the usual linear parts.
As can be seen from the text of Order No. 227, the country's leadership understood the value of the lives of soldiers (someone has to fight!), But in fact, everything depended on the commander and the subjective perception of the tasks assigned to his units. It is clear that the penalty box was spared less than the usual line units, but for the unjustified death of the entrusted people, the commanders could become penalty box themselves, so they tried to protect both the soldiers and themselves as much as possible.
Homeland - it is one for all and its citizens were given a chance to correct their mistakes. A terrible time - terrible tests. Penalties are also soldiers of their country, they deserve the TRUTH and respect!