Penal Detachments
Penal formations (Russian: Shtrafbats) have been known since ancient Rome. They existed in Great Britain in the 19th century and in Germany since December 1941 on the Eastern Front. Penal battalions were also created in the Red Army during the Civil War.
There are a number of myths and legends about penal units of the Red Army in the periodical press and published literature: “penal units turned into a kind of military prison”; for them in the Soviet Army "reconnaissance in force" was invented; with their bodies, the penalty box cleared minefields; the penal battalions "were thrown into attacks on the most impregnable sectors of the German defense"; the penalists were "cannon fodder", their "lives achieved victory in the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War"; criminals were not sent to penal formations; penal battalions did not have to be supplied with ammunition and provisions; behind the penal battalions were detachments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) with machine guns, etc.
The published material on a documentary basis reveals the process of creation and combat use of penal battalions and companies and barrage detachments. They were first created in the Red Army during the Civil War. The experience of their creation was used during the Great Patriotic War. The beginning of the formation of penal battalions and companies and barrage detachments was laid by order No. 227 of the People's Commissar of Defense (NKO) of the USSR I.V. Stalin dated July 28, 1942. What caused the birth of this document, christened the order "Not a step back!"?
Penal battalions and companies were used in the most dangerous areas and were thrown into meatgrinder situations. In an attempt to tighten discipline in the Red Army, Stalin adopted the basic draconian measures used by Leon Trotsky, his most bitter rival, during the Civil War of 1918-1922 but he considerably intensified the scale and scope of repressions thus elevating the brutality on the Eastern Front to new heights.
There is much speculation about how penal battalions and companies were used. Moreover, the most common is the myth that they served as a kind of "cannon fodder". This is not true. Penal companies and battalions during the Great Patriotic War solved almost the same tasks as rifle units and subunits. At the same time, as Order No. 227 prescribed, they were used in the most dangerous directions. Most often they were used to break through the enemy defenses, capture and hold important settlements and bridgeheads, and conduct reconnaissance in force. During the offensive, penal units had to overcome various kinds of natural and artificial obstacles, including mined areas of the terrain. As a result, the survivability acquired the myth that that they "cleared minefields" with their bodies. In this regard, we note that not only penal units, but also rifle and tank units repeatedly acted in the directions where there were minefields. Penalty units, in general, staunchly and bravely acted in defense. They participated in forcing water barriers, capturing and holding bridgeheads, and in combat operations behind enemy lines.
Due to the fact that penal formations were used on the most difficult sectors of the fronts and armies, they, according to the authors of the work “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century: A Statistical Study”, suffered heavy losses. In 1944 alone, the total losses of personnel (killed, dead, wounded and sick) of all penal units amounted to 170,298 permanent personnel and penalized. The average monthly loss of permanent and variable composition reached 14,191 people, or 52% of their average monthly number (27,326 people). This was 3-6 times more than the average monthly losses of personnel in ordinary troops in the same offensive operations in 1944.
In most cases, the fined were released within the time limits set by the orders of the people's commissar of defense and his deputies. But there were exceptions, which were determined by the attitude of the command and military councils of the fronts and armies to the penal units. For courage and heroism shown in battles, the penalty boxers were awarded orders and medals, and some of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In 2004, television showed a widely publicized 11-episode film "Penal Battalion". Mountains of laudatory reviews from film critics, of course, buried the opinion of Doctor of Historical Sciences Yuri Rubtsov, author of The New Book on Penal Battalions: "All records of historical "blunders", absurd speculations and outright lies were broken by the TV series "Penal Battalion", diligently pushing the idea that the penal units "won the war" (although in fact the number of penal units did not exceed 1.24% of the size of the Soviet Armed Forces )".
The historian is scrupulously accurate in his calculations. In total, during the war years, according to some data, 427,910 people passed through various penal military formations (battalions, companies, squadrons) - this is out of 34,476,700 people who passed through the Armed Forces. The authors of the series could unfoundedly refer to the closeness of such information (which is not at all the case). But when preparing for filming, they had to study the filmography of the "penalty" topic.
On March 27, 1948, the premiere of the feature film "For Those at Sea" took place in the USSR. Here's the story for those who haven't seen it. The commander of the detachment of torpedo boats, Captain-Lieutenant Borovsky, wants to become famous and earn the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He is the first to detect the enemy convoy, but decides to carry out the attack personally, without the participation of other ships. Not wanting to share the victorious laurels with the commander of the second detachment Maximov, the conceited Borovsky commits a military crime: he tells Maximov the wrong coordinates of German ships. The attack ends with the death of the entire crew of the best torpedo boat...
Borovsky from a brilliant commander suddenly turns into a fighter of a penal company - a humane alternative to execution. Captain II rank Kharitonov, an experienced division commander, edifyingly comments on the verdict of the military tribunal: "You need to shake him so that the dregs fly out of his eyes. He will work out what he has done. ... If a person is alive, he will straighten himself out and remove the burden from others."
The fighter of the penal company Borovsky is entrusted with the execution of a deadly mission. Almost no chance to survive. But he brilliantly copes with the task, remains alive and, together with his comrades, triumphs. The end of the film.
The film was based on the play of the same name by the classic of Soviet literature Boris Lavrenyov, for which the playwright was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree in 1946. The following year, actor Mikhail Zharov received the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for his performance as Mikhail Mikhailovich Kharitonov in the performance of the Maly Theater "For those who are at sea!" I am writing about this to emphasize that the image of the penalty box was embodied on the movie screen back in Stalin's times.
And Stalin personally allowed this to be done, considering the play instructive and giving the go-ahead for its film adaptation. No one thought to hide from the audience either the very existence of penalty units, or the real contribution of penalty boxers to the Victory.
The authors of the 2004 "The Penal Battalion" - the harsh military series of Nikolay Dostal - television series studied archival materials and military chronicles. In Episode 1, Tverdokhlebov was captured by the Germans at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. All those who refused to fight on the side of the fascists were shot, but he survived by a miracle. Wounded, he got out at night from a terrible grave and reached his. Tverdokhlebov will have to organize a battle-worthy detachment. By Episode 4, again the Tverdokhlebov battalion goes on the attack. In Episode 7, the Tverdokhlebova battalion receives an order to clear the town of Mlynov from the Germans. By Episode 11, Tverdokhlebov understands that his people are thrown into the thick of the sky and they are unlikely to survive.
The film opens to the viewer unknown pages from the history of the Second World War. Few of us knew what terrible victims the victory of the Red Army over the Nazis was achieved, what a significant role in this victory played fines, prisoners of Soviet prisons, including the Gulag. 'Penal Battalion' is without a doubt the best long-format production ever made about the horror of WW2 in the old USSR. It is vastly superior to the clownish propaganda Russians usually make about the Great Patriotic War.
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