Penal battalions in the Great Patriotic War: the most shocking facts. The Great Patriotic War

Recall , that the order of the NCO of the USSR No. 227 of July 28, 1942 provided for the formation of two types of penal units: penal battalions (800 people each), where medium and senior commanders and relevant political workers were sent who were guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and penal companies ( from 150 to 200 people each), where ordinary soldiers and junior commanders were sent for the same offenses. When sent to a penal battalion, officers, and to a penal company, sergeants were subject to demotion to the rank and file.
Penal battalions were units of front-line subordination (from one to three as part of the front), and penal companies were army units (from five to ten per army, depending on the situation).
The formation of penal battalions and companies began already in August 1942. On September 28 of this year, by order of the NPO of the USSR No. 298, signed by G.K. Zhukov, the regulations on a penal battalion and a penal company were announced.
What is provided by the Regulations on the penal company? It is said that the organization, strength and combat composition, as well as salaries for the maintenance of the permanent composition of the penal companies are determined by a special staff. A penal company, by order of the military council of the army, is attached to a rifle regiment or division, brigade, on the site of which it was placed.
Strong-willed and most distinguished commanders and political workers were sent to the permanent composition of companies by order of the army. The commander and military commissar of a penal company in relation to the penalized used the power of the commander and military commissar of the division. The term of service in ranks for officers of the penal company was halved, and the salary was doubled. When assigning a pension, a month of service in a penal company was counted as six.
Never in the entire war - we emphasize this from the very beginning - was there and could not be a case that a penal company, or a platoon in its composition, was commanded by a penal.
Penalty boxes were called variable composition of the company, and from them the Regulations allowed to appoint only squad commanders with the rank of corporal, junior sergeant and sergeant.
Penal units are not our invention, as rightly stated in the order of the NPO of the USSR No. 227. The Germans threw penal formations into battle already in the first weeks of the war on the Soviet-German front. Moreover, the period of stay in the battalion was not set in advance for the penalized, although the possibility of rehabilitation was also not ruled out. In the diary of the notorious Franz Halder, the penalty box is already mentioned on July 9, 1941. The head of the organizational department of the OKH, Major General Walter Buhle, that day called the organization of penal units a very good and useful idea. In 1941, the Germans used some penal battalions in battles in the East, others in mine clearance work in the West. In September 1941, when the 16th German Army in the area of ​​Lake Ladoga failed and the 8th Panzer Division was thrown back with losses, the Nazis sent everything they had into battle, and in the most dangerous sector - a penal battalion. This is also mentioned in Halder's diary.
In war, apparently, life itself suggests the idea of ​​penal formations. Is it worth removing a person who has committed a criminal or military crime from combat formations in order to send him with a sentence to safer places? In a penal company, guilt can be atoned for without a criminal record, without loss of honor.
So, On August 8, 1942, even before receiving the order with the position, they began to form a penal company in the 57th Army. At first, only one - the 1st. By order of the military council No. 0398, Lieutenant P.P. was appointed its commander. Nazarevich, who had six months of experience in combat. Junior Lieutenant N.M. was appointed his deputy. Baturin, also tested by fire.
The staff of the company, in addition to the commander and his deputy, provided for the positions of three platoon commanders, three of their deputies for the combat unit, head of office work - treasurer and paramedic in officer rank.

According to archival reporting and statistical documents, from the moment they were created in 1942 until they were disbanded in 1945, 427,910 penal soldiers passed through penal battalions and penal companies, or 1.24 percent of the total strength of the Red Army for the entire period of the war (34,496,700 people).

An impressive composition of political workers was also envisaged: a military commissar, a company agitator and three platoon political instructors.
Political workers began to enter the 1st separate penal company in October, after the restoration of unity of command in the Red Army - no longer as military commissars and political instructors, but as deputy commanders for political affairs. The first political officer of the company, Grigory Bocharov, still had the old rank of political instructor (he soon left for the 90th separate tank brigade as a captain). All deputy platoon commanders for political affairs were lieutenants: A. Stepin, I. Koryukin and N. Safronov. Lieutenant M. Miloradovich was appointed company agitator.
Since October 25, 1942, Vasily Klyuyev became the paramedic of the company, who for some reason had to wear the already canceled title of military paramedic for a long time.
As you can see, the permanent composition of the company included 15 officers. The sixteenth was seconded, although he was in it on all types of allowances. At first he was an authorized representative of the special department of the NKVD, and from April 1943 he was an operative of the counterintelligence department "Smersh" - the structure of the People's Commissariat of Defense.
During the war, the officers of the penal company were reduced to 8 people. Of the political workers, only one agitator remained.
In the 1st penal company, as in any other, there was also a small permanent core of ordinary and junior commanders: a foreman of the company, a clerk - captain, a medical instructor and three platoon orderlies, a GAZ-AA truck driver, two grooms (driving) and two cooks. They belonged more to the numerical than to the combat strength, although they carried the wounded from the field, delivered food and ammunition to the positions. If all the officers of the company were young, without pre-war experience in command service, then the Red Army men and junior commanders of the permanent staff represented the older age of the mobilized. For example, the foreman of the company Dmitry Evdokimov, holder of the Order of the Red Star, celebrated his 50th birthday during the war.

But back in 1942, the 57th Army from August 6 fought heavy defensive battles as part of the South-Eastern (Stalingrad from September 30) Front, frustrating enemy attempts to break through to Stalingrad from the south. Baptism of fire 1st penal company, not yet fully staffed with a permanent staff, took October 9, 1942 at 23.00. The commander of the 15th Guards Rifle Division, at whose disposal the company was, ordered it, after artillery and mortar preparation, to shoot down enemy combat guard posts at a height of 146.0, to the left of it - in three trenches and go to the pond, on the southern outskirts of which the hangar was located, and there hold the line with all-round defense until the main forces approach.
In companies, combat orders are given verbally. But Lieutenant P. Nazarevich issued his first order for battle in writing. The company was divided into three assault groups ... However, we will not delve into tactics. Note that the penal company solved its first combat mission. In that battle, two penalty boxers were killed: squad leader Sergeant V.S. Fedyakin and Red Army soldier Ya.T. Tanochka. The platoon commander, who led the assault group aimed at height 146.0, Lieutenant Nikolai Kharin, also fell to the death of a hero. The dead were buried at the same hangar, which before the battle was listed as the enemy. 15 people were wounded in the first battle.
The company, meanwhile, was replenished with both penalized and permanent staff. Lieutenant Nazarevich did not receive everyone. Sent to the company by the medical instructor of the Red Army soldier Maria Grechanaya, he returned to the 44th Guards Rifle Regiment as not suitable for the staff of the penal company. Later, already in 1943, another company commander did not accept lieutenant of the medical service A.A. Vinogradov, and at the end of the war, the girl-cook was returned to the army reserve regiment without explanation, preferring the previous male chefs. But in the penal battalions, both in permanent and in variable composition, women still met.
At the defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad, the company suffered relatively small losses. Apparently, there is an explanation for this: they rarely put penalty boxes on the defensive, they reserved them for active actions - offensive, reconnaissance in force. On November 1, 1942, from the 1st penal to ordinary units, the first group of penalists was sent, who had completely served the term prescribed by order in the company, of seven people. Moreover, N.F. Vinogradov and E.N. Konovalov were reinstated in the ranks of sergeants.
Meanwhile, another penal company was formed in the 57th Army - the 2nd Separate. The companies, one might say, kept in touch with each other: sometimes they exchanged, replenishing each other before the battle, with a variable composition, they helped out when relocating by horse-drawn transport.
On November 19, 1942, our troops launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad. But the 57th Army at that time participated in the encirclement and blocking of enemy troops in Stalingrad itself, and their liquidation began later. The 1st penal company, located in the Tatyanka-Shpalzavod area, did not have a variable composition for some time. On November 21, she was assigned a new number - the 60th (the 2nd penal company of the 57th Army became the 61st) and was brought to combat strength in a short time. Only from the 54th penal company, stationed in Tashkent far from the front, 156 people were sent at once, from Ufa - 80, from the army transit point - 20. The company even went beyond its usual numerical limits in terms of composition.
The battles that broke out in the ruins of Stalingrad were bloody. On January 10, 1943, platoon commanders lieutenants A.N. were killed in assault attacks. Shipunov, P.A. Zhuk, A.G. Bezuglovich, the company commander senior lieutenant P.P. was injured. Nazarevich, company agitator Lieutenant M.N. Miloradovich, deputy platoon commanders junior lieutenants Z.A. Timoshenko, I.A. Leontiev. On the same day, 122 fines died or were injured, atoning for their guilt with life and blood.
Senior Lieutenant Nazarevich, who was evacuated through the divisional medical battalion to the hospital, was replaced at the command post by his deputy for political affairs, Lieutenant Ivan Smelov. He served as commander until the end of the fighting in the city. Very heavy fighting - from January 23 to January 30, 1943, the company lost another 139 people wounded and killed.

Penal companies almost never located in populated areas. If the place of deployment is indicated in the order for the company, it means that there are no penalties in it, only a permanent staff. At the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the 60th penal was already stationed in the village with only a permanent staff. Tatyanka, then to the village of Zaplavnoye.
But the order of May 20, 1943 is already tied to Rzhev, which is very remote from Stalingrad. The fact is that in February 1943 the 57th Army was withdrawn to the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, its troops were transferred to other armies, and the field administration was renamed the field administration of the 68th Army. A part of this management was the permanent composition of the 60th penal company transferred to Rzhev, up to the cooks. Here Lieutenant I.T. Smelov returned to his duties as deputy company commander for political affairs, and Lieutenant Mikhail Dyakov became commander.
Probably, some of the readers listing so many names will seem superfluous. But we will not spare a newspaper line for them. After all, those who commanded penal units constantly served in their composition, during the days of the war and even after the Victory, for well-known reasons, they were rarely mentioned in the press. Meanwhile, they consciously and without any fault shared with the penalized all the dangers and risks of a special situation. Moreover. The penal, having received even a slight wound, went as atoned for the guilt of the former, calmer part. This did not concern the officers of the permanent composition: having recovered from the wound, they returned to the company to their former position and, it happened, died after a month or two. This is exactly what happened to the platoon commanders, Lieutenants Mikhail Komkov, Ivan Danilin, Senior Lieutenant Semyon Ivanushkin. Their fate is bitter: wounded - hospital - return to the company and death in the next battle.
In Rzhev, the 60th separate penal company did not have a variable composition from May 20 to June 14, 1943. On June 15, the first 5 penal soldiers arrived from the army transit point. Then, in small groups, the offenders from the 159th, 192nd, 199th rifle divisions, from the 3rd assault engineer-sapper brigade, the 968th separate communications battalion and other parts of the army began to arrive.
On August 26, 1943, Senior Lieutenant M. Dyakov was replaced as commander of the 60th Penal Company by Senior Lieutenant Denis Belim. The company was used for combat on the last day of the Yelninsko-Dorogobuzh offensive operation on September 7th. Advancing in the area of ​​​​the villages of Suglitsa and Yushkovo, the company lost 42 people killed and wounded. Fell in battle and the newly appointed commander, Senior Lieutenant Belim. 10 people who showed special courage with Yushkov were sent ahead of schedule to the 159th Infantry Division, and two to the 3rd Engineer Brigade.
On September 7, on the day of that memorable battle, Captain Ivan Dedyaev took over the company. Already under his command, the penalty box liberated the village of Bobrovo from the enemy, losing another 28 killed and 78 wounded.

At the beginning On November 1943, the 68th Army was disbanded and the 60th penal company was transferred to the 5th Army, which had become famous during the defense of Moscow. While maintaining the former permanent core, it was reorganized into the 128th separate army penal company.
Before the new year, 1943, on December 31, Captain I.M. Dedyaev handed over the company to Senior Lieutenant Alexander Korolev. On New Year's Eve, a company commander who barely had time to look around was in for trouble: the post of the detachment of the 5th Army, with whom the penalists encountered for the first time, detained 9 Red Army soldiers of variable composition outside the location of the company and, as he always did, escorted them for trial in
203rd Army Reserve Rifle Regiment.
In almost all films dedicated to the penalized, the scriptwriters and directors at some stage bring them together with the detachment. Moreover, the detachment guards flaunt almost in dress uniform, in caps of another department with a blue top, with brand new PPSh and, of course, with an easel machine gun. They defiantly take a position behind the backs of the penalty box in order to prevent their retreat with fire in case of an unsuccessful attack. This is fiction.
Even before the order of the NPO of the USSR No. 227, in the first months of the war, commanders and political workers, on their own initiative, began to create units called upon and capable of stopping the retreating forces, and even participating in the same battle, to reason, and again rally into a team, organized and controlled group. They, these units, legalized back in September 1941 by the High Command, became the prototype of the barrage detachments.
Later, when in the armies, by order No. 227, detachments were formed as separate military units subordinate to the military council, units similar in tasks in divisions began to be called barrage battalions. Depending on the situation on the fronts, they were either abolished or revived. If the penal company transferred to the division, trembling in battle, could collide with some kind of barrier during the retreat, then it was with this battalion. No one had or wore blue caps in it. The same earflaps, quilted jackets, the same caps as the penalty box.
Not a single Red Army soldier of the 1st, 60th, 128th penal companies died from their own fire. And no one ever shot over his head for warning. The guards, as representatives of the intra-army structure, were themselves pretty burned by fire and knew: anything happens in battle, a person is a person, and in the face of mortal danger it is important to support him with an example of composure and stamina. Losses in detachments of any affiliation were also serious.
On January 10, 1944, a little more than a week after being appointed company commander, Senior Lieutenant Korolev and platoon commander Lieutenant A.Kh. Tetyanyk were wounded in battle. Together with them, 93 penalty boxers were injured, 35 died.
Already in a row, the company commander, Lieutenant Alexander Mironov, was wounded two weeks later. In the February battles near Gzhatsk - from the 4th to the 10th - the 128th penal company lost almost the entire variable composition: 54 people were killed, 193 were wounded in the medical battalions and the hospital. In those days, the company was received by Senior Lieutenant Vasily Bussov. Wounded on February 28, Bussov was replaced by Senior Lieutenant I.Ya. Korneev. Having been wounded on March 20, he ceded his command post to Senior Lieutenant V.A. Ageev. Ageev was taken to the medical battalion of the division on April 10. On the same day, the company was headed by Senior Lieutenant K.P. Solovyov…
Just a list of names. Doesn't he feel the tension of the battles behind him? Doesn't it give rise to thoughts that the most difficult and most dangerous tasks were really entrusted to the penitentiary, as prescribed by the order of the NPO of the USSR No. 227?
Before the Smolensk offensive operation, the personnel department of the army recalled senior lieutenant Konstantin Solovyov to his disposal. Captain Ivan Mateta took over the 128th penal company. Under his command, the penalty box fought near the villages of Podnivye, Starina, Obukhovo. Losses were relatively small. But already in Lithuania, in the Kaunas region, where the company, among many other units, broke through the enemy’s defenses, success was paid in full with blood: 29 dead and 54 wounded. Five days later, in the battle for Zapashki and Servidy, the company suffered new losses: 20 killed, 24 wounded.
On August 18, 1944, the 128th penal company, with a certain solemnity, sent 97 Red Army soldiers and sergeants who had served their sentences to the 346th rifle regiment at once. And it accepted exactly 100 new penalty boxers from the 203rd AZSP already without celebrations.

Perhaps, It's time to say: who are they, the penalty box? Those who showed cowardice and instability in battle already made up a minority of them. By order of the NKO of the USSR No. 413 of August 21, 1943, the commanders of the regiments of the active army and the commanders of divisions in military districts and on inactive fronts were allowed by their authority to send arbitrators, deserters, those who showed non-performance, squandered property, grossly violated the rules of the guard services.

Penal companies are intended to enable ordinary soldiers and junior commanders of all branches of the armed forces who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, to atone for their guilt before the Motherland with a brave fight against the enemy in a difficult area of ​​​​combat operations.
(From the Regulations on penal companies of the army).

For three months, for example, a cadet of the military aviation school of pilots, who had been studying for more than a year and all this time robbed the unit and colleagues, landed in the 128th penal company. The order of the head of the school says that, as shown by the inquiry, he stole watches, insulated jackets, overcoats, tunics, sold all this, and lost the proceeds at cards.
Those who, during the retreat of the Red Army in the first weeks and months of the war, deserted and settled in the territory occupied by the enemy, as well as partially liberated from enemy captivity, were sent to the penal companies in an inexhaustible stream.
If a straggler from the army, under dubious circumstances, did not attempt to get out to his own, but did not cooperate with the occupying authorities, then he was sent to a penal company for one month. Those who served as elders under the Germans received two months as policemen. And those who served in the German army or in the so-called Russian Liberation Army (ROA), the traitor Vlasov had three. Their fate was determined in the army reserve rifle regiment in accordance with the order of the NPO.
There was a case when, after a corresponding check, 94 former Vlasovites were immediately sent to the 128th separate penal company. They won back, like all other categories of those who have been at fault: someone atoned for the guilt with blood, someone with death, and who was lucky - with the full serving of the term. I have not met anyone released early from such a contingent.
It was extremely rare for convicts from places of deprivation of liberty to get into penal companies. The 128th company received such people only once - 17 people sent through the Far Eastern military registration and enlistment offices. This should not be surprising. Back in 1941, by decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 12, August 10 and November 24, more than 750 thousand people who had committed minor crimes before the war and were fit for service were sent from places of deprivation of liberty to the troops. At the beginning of 1942, another 157 thousand people were released for the army. All of them fought as part of ordinary units, there were no penalties yet. And if some of these people, as the archives convince us, later ended up in the penalty box, then it was already for deeds at the front.
Those who committed serious crimes, including the so-called counter-revolutionary ones, were forbidden to be sent to the army. They could not be applied to the deferred execution of the sentence provided for by the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1926 until the end of hostilities.
Apparently, in isolated cases, as a result of some judicial errors, individuals convicted of banditry, robbery, robbery, recidivist thieves still ended up in penal companies. How else to explain order No. 004/0073/006/23 dated January 26, 1944, signed by the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR A.M. Vasilevsky, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria, People's Commissar of Justice of the USSR N.M. Rychkov and USSR Prosecutor K.P. Gorshenin, who obliged the judiciary and the formation and staffing of troops to completely exclude such cases.
None of the convicts, of course, could be sent to the penal unit on a voluntary basis.
Of course, some Red Army soldiers who ended up in the penalty box evoke sympathy. In the 128th penal company, for example, a middle-aged fighter was serving a monthly sentence, during whose duty a pair of convoy horses disappeared. Didn't look...
In a very dynamic life, companies and incidents that affected the fate of people happened. In the 203rd AZSP, the Red Army soldier Babaev Kurbandurdy was mistakenly included in one of the groups of penalty box, for whom there were no misconducts. Sent a follow-up order with an explanation. The company commander decided to leave the soldier in the company, transferring him to a permanent staff for the vacant position of an orderly.
Somehow they made a mistake in the company itself, submitting to the military council of the army for early release one of the penalized as wounded. And in the regiment, the commissioner of the ROC "Smersh" did not find this wound and through the commander returned the fighter to serve his sentence to the end.
In the penal company, relations were regulated by the general military regulations of the Red Army. Ordinary fighters of variable composition turned to their immediate superior - the squad leader, the same penal, with the word "comrade" and, in case of negligence, could receive a penalty from him. A comrade, and not a "citizen", as shown in one of the TV films, they called the commander - an officer.
The commander of the penal company used the disciplinary rights of the division commander in full. Sometimes he punished the guilty platoon with house arrest. Don't forget to reward your efforts. For example, in connection with his fiftieth birthday, in the midst of the fighting, the foreman of the company was granted leave with a trip to his homeland for a period of 45 days. With excitement, the May Day orders for the company are perceived, in which the zeal of many penalty boxers was noted with gratitude.
The penal company, as part of the army subordination, was sometimes better than the linear companies equipped with weapons, provided with food and fodder.

war with fascist Germany, the 128th penal company completed in East Prussia. The fighting there was fierce. In one of them - for the town of Plissen - the company commander, Major Ramazan Temirov, a native of the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the company agitator, Captain Pavel Smirnyagin, the only company political worker at that time called up from the Novosibirsk region, were shot down with one machine-gun burst. They were buried with military honors southwest of Plissen at the local cemetery.
The company suffered its last losses in the Baltic on April 14, 1945 near the village of Kobnaiten: 8 dead and 56 wounded.
And then the 5th Army under the command of N.I. Krylov, the future Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in its composition the 128th penal company went to the Far East to beat the Japanese. The company did not suffer any losses in the Harbin-Girinsky offensive operation, except for a trophy gelding named Orlik, who fell ill on the way and was left at the Minino station of the Krasnoyarsk railway. In Primorye, the penal company was located in the vicinity of the regional center of Chernigovka, then - in Grodekovo, Spassky district. There, the company was commanded by Senior Lieutenant S.A. Kudryavtsev, then - Senior Lieutenant V.I. Brykov.
The fact that in the penal units the dashing, unpredictable in behavior, and prone to excesses gathered people is evidenced by the following fact: the few fighters-variables who were completing their stay in the 128th penal company managed to make some kind of brawl in Gradekovo. Four were detained by the local police and put under investigation. Senior Lieutenant V. Brykov was forced by one of his last orders to exclude them from the lists of the company and remove them from all types of allowances. In this regard, you think: if the guilt of the defendants is established, it will no longer be possible to atone for it in a front-line manner, without a criminal record. Penal companies as a redemptive institution were fading into history.
Vasily Ivanovich Brykov was destined, on the basis of the directive of the headquarters of the 5th Army, No. 0238 of October 28, 1945, to disband the company. The last to leave her were the senior lieutenant of the medical service Vasily Klyuev, already mentioned in these notes (only he, a paramedic, a veteran of the unit, by that time had the right to call himself a Stalingrader) and the head of business production - treasurer senior lieutenant of the quartermaster service Philip Nesterov. By the way, Nesterov's archive and company seal were accepted only after he reimbursed the cost of the lost forage container in some way from his own pocket.

If a But to talk about something serious, then from August 1942 to October 1945, 3,348 penalized soldiers passed through the 1st, 60th, 128th penal companies, the documentation of which is one archival file. 796 of them died for their Motherland, 1,929 were injured, 117 were released after the deadline set by the order, and 457 were released ahead of schedule. And only a very small part, about
1 percent, lagged behind on marches, deserted, was taken prisoner by the enemy, disappeared without a trace.
In total, 62 officers served in the company at different times. Of these, 16 died, 17 were injured (three of the wounded were later killed). Many have received awards. The Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree was awarded to Captain I. Mateta, Senior Lieutenant L. Lyubchenko, Lieutenants T. Boldyrev, A. Lobov, A. Makariev; World War II degree - senior lieutenant I. Danilin, lieutenants A. Makariev, I. Morozov; Red Star - Senior Lieutenant I. Danilin, Captain I. Lev, Senior Lieutenants L. Lyubchenko, P. Ananiev (detector of the Smersh ROC at the 128th company), Junior Lieutenant I. Morozov, Captains R. Temirov and P. Smirnyagin . As you can see, some officers were awarded orders more than once.
Orders of the Red Star, Glory III degree, medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit" were also awarded to 43 Red Army soldiers and sergeants of variable composition. The penalty boxers were not rewarded very generously, but they were rewarded nonetheless.
Among the few who returned to their native regiment from the penal company with an award were the Red Army soldiers Petr Zemkin (or Zenkin), Viktor Rogulenko, Artem Tadjumanov, Mikhail Galuza, Ilya Dranishev. Machine gunner Pyotr Logvanev and machine gunner Vasily Serdyuk were posthumously awarded orders.
And the last. Penal companies were separate military units with all their inherent attributes, separate military farms. Thanks to this status, all of them were included in the List No. 33 of rifle units and subunits (separate battalions, companies and detachments) of the army in the field, compiled by the General Staff after the war. The company in question is listed in it many times: as the 1st separate penal company of the 57th Army (1942), as the 60th separate penal company (1942 - 1943) and, finally, as the 128th separate penal company of the 5th army (1943-1945). In fact, it was one and the same company. Only the number, seal, subordination and field address changed.
This is how the documentary-based story about one of the penal companies developed, which was not much different from other penal units created in accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, memorable to all front-line soldiers
No. 227 "Not a step back!". It may not be interesting for every reader, but I think it will allow anyone to mentally compare what they read with what they were offered to take on faith in television series that caused discussions in society.

With the onset of perestroika, thanks to the media and cinema, the topic of penal battalions in the Great Patriotic War received wide publicity. In Soviet times, it was forbidden, so the existence of such formations was overgrown with a large number of various myths and tales, for the most part very far from reality. So who are they - the penalty box?

It is believed that the first penal companies and battalions appeared at the front in the summer of 1942, two weeks after the publication of the famous order No. 227 "Not a step back." Among other things, it spoke about the need for severe punishment of all soldiers and commanders who left the front line without an order from the command. For this, it was recommended to create specialized units - penal battalions and companies.

It was planned that each front would have from one to three such formations of at least 800 people each. All "traitors" included in their composition will have to "atone for their guilt with blood."

However, the use of penal battalions became completely "legal" after the issuance of the order, which explained the procedure for the creation and use of penal units.

With the announcement of the Regulations on penal battalions and companies and the staff of a penal battalion, company and barrage detachment of the army in the field. I announce for guidance:

1. Regulations on the penal battalions of the active army.

2. Regulations on the penal companies of the active army.

3. Staff No. 04/393 of a separate penal battalion of the active army.

4. Staff No. 04/392 of a separate penal company of the active army.

5. Staff No. 04/391 of a separate barrage detachment of the army.

Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Army Commissar of the 1st rank E. SCHADENKO

Officers, as well as middle and senior commanders, were sent to penal battalions, who for any misconduct were deprived of their ranks and became ordinary. Private and sergeant soldiers "staffed" penal companies. The commanders here were appointed ordinary combat officers who were not penalized. How difficult it was sometimes for lieutenants to lead into battle those who not so long ago were older than them in rank. But even colonels often came across among the penalty box. Former ones, of course.

It should be noted that the list of crimes for which one could fall into such disgrace was by no means always such in the ordinary sense. Neither malicious thieves, nor murderers, nor political prisoners got here. Basically, they became penalized for violating military discipline, as well as for cowardice or betrayal. It was not uncommon to meet soldiers whose fault in peacetime could have cost a reprimand or a few days in a guardhouse. But there was a war.

The armament of the penalty box consisted of small arms and grenades. Anti-tank rifles, machine guns and artillery were not supposed to, so in battle they had to rely only on their own strength.

Officers in the penal battalion could be sent by order of the division commander. Often without trial. The maximum stay was considered to be 3 months. They replaced 10 years of camps. Two months replaced 8 years, one month - 5 years.

Often, deadlines ended earlier. True, this happened only when the unit was involved in a complex combat mission associated with heavy losses. In this case, all personnel were released, the convictions were removed, and the fighters were restored to their ranks with the return of all awards to them.

Initially, in addition to infantrymen, tankers, artillerymen and soldiers of other branches of the ground forces, pilots were also sent to penal units. However, this did not last long. Already on August 4, 1942, an order was issued to create such units in the Air Force, which led to the appearance of penal squadrons. This was due to the fact that the country spent a lot of effort and money on the training of flight crews, therefore, the pilots serving their sentences in land penal battalions could be considered a waste of personnel. It is believed that the formation of these units was started after the Headquarters received a corresponding request from the command of the 8th Air Army.

Such squadrons were assault, light bomber and fighter. The first fought on the Il-2, the second - on the Po-2 ("maize") and the third - on the Yak-1. As in the ground units, the penal pilots were commanded by ordinary combat officers. True, the service here was set a little differently.

The attitude towards the personnel was more severe than in the infantry. If the latter were released from a criminal record, in the worst case, after 3 months, the "flyers" could wait for such indulgence solely on the basis of the results of successful sorties, strictly taken into account by the commanders. No specific release dates were set. Even half a year of successful “work” was far from always an argument for the removal of a criminal record. Injuries were also not considered "blood atonement". These pilots could not count on receiving any awards, which was sometimes found among the infantrymen. Moreover, there were cases when, being released, the aviators, as if nothing had happened, continued to perform their duties.

It is unlikely that penal pilots deserved such an attitude towards themselves. They cannot be called traitors, because, having the opportunity to fly to the enemy at any time, they continued to fight courageously without receiving anything in return.

According to statistics, from 1942 to 1945 there were 56 penal battalions and 1049 penal companies in the Red Army. The last unit was disbanded on June 6, 1945.

Despite the fact that the soldiers of these units always found themselves in the most difficult parts of the war, they did not have any honors. They were not erected monuments, and the accomplished feats were not considered as such. Nevertheless, penalty boxers cannot be considered heroes.

Penal battalion. Photo by Dmitry Baltermants.

Source - waralbum.ru

We have been keeping the memory of the Great War of the 20th century and its heroes for more than 70 years. We pass it on to our children and grandchildren, trying not to lose a single fact, surname. Almost every family was affected by this event, many fathers, brothers, husbands never returned. Today we can find information about them thanks to the hard work of employees of military archives, volunteers who devote their free time to searching for soldiers' graves. How to do this, how to find a WWII participant by last name, information about his awards, military ranks, place of death? We could not ignore such an important topic, we hope that we can help those who are looking for and want to find.

Losses in the Great Patriotic War

It is not known exactly how many people left us during this great human tragedy. After all, the counting did not begin immediately, only in 1980, with the advent of glasnost in the USSR, historians and politicians, archive workers were able to start official work. Until that time, there were scattered data that were profitable at that time.

• After the celebration of Victory Day in 1945, JV Stalin declared that we had buried 7 million Soviet citizens. He spoke, in his opinion, about everyone, and about those who lay down during the battle, and about those who were taken prisoner by the German invaders. But he missed a lot, did not say about the rear staff, who stood from morning till night at the bench, falling dead from exhaustion. I forgot about the condemned saboteurs, traitors to the motherland, ordinary people who died in small villages and the blockade of Leningrad; the missing. Unfortunately, they can be listed for a long time.
• Later L.I. Brezhnev provided other information, he reported 20 million dead.

Today, thanks to the deciphering of secret documents, search work, the figures are becoming real. Thus, you can see the following picture:

• Combat losses received directly at the front during the battles are about 8,860,400 people.
• Non-combat losses (from diseases, wounds, accidents) - 6,885,100 people.

However, these figures do not yet correspond to the full reality. War, and even such, is not only the destruction of the enemy at the cost of one's own life. These are broken families - unborn children. These are huge losses of the male population, thanks to which the balance necessary for good demographics will not be restored soon.

These are diseases, famine in the post-war years and death from it. This is the rebuilding of the country again, again in many ways, at the cost of people's lives. All of them also need to be taken into account when doing calculations. All of them are victims of a terrible human vanity, the name of which is war.

How to find a participant in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 by last name?

There is no better memory for the stars of victory than the desire of future generations to know how it was. The desire to keep information for others to avoid such repetition. How to find a WWII participant by last name, where to find possible data about grandfathers and great-grandfathers, fathers - participants in the battles, knowing their last name? Especially for this, there are now electronic storages, access to which everyone has.

1. obd-memorial.ru - this contains official data containing reports of units about losses, funerals, trophy cards, as well as information about rank, status (died, was killed or disappeared, where), scanned documents.
2. moypolk.ru is a unique resource containing information about home front workers. The very ones without which we would not have heard the important word “Victory”. Thanks to this site, many have already been able to find or help find the lost.

The work of these resources is not only to search for great people, but also to collect information about them. If you have any, please let the administrators of these sites know about it. Thus, we will do a great common thing - we will preserve the memory and history.

Archive of the Ministry of Defense: search by the names of the participants in the Great Patriotic War

Another - the main, central, largest project - http://archive.mil.ru/. The documents preserved there are mostly single and remained intact due to the fact that they were taken to the Orenburg region.

Over the years of work, the Central Asian staff has created an excellent reference apparatus showing the content of archival accumulations and funds. Now its goal is to provide people with access to possible documents by means of electronic computers. Thus, a website has been launched where you can try to find a military man who participated in the Second World War, knowing his last name. How to do it?

• On the left side of the screen, find the "memory of the people" tab.
• Enter his full name.
• The program will give you the available information: date of birth, awards, scanned documents. Everything that is in the file cabinets for this person.
• You can set the filter on the right by selecting only the sources you need. But it's better to choose all.
• On this site, it is possible to see on the map the military operations, and the path of the unit in which the hero served.

This is a unique project in its essence. There is no longer such a volume of data collected and digitized from all existing and accessible sources: file cabinets, electronic memory books, documents of medical battalions and directories of command personnel. In truth, as long as such programs exist and the people who provide them, the memory of the people will be eternal.

If you did not find the right person there, do not despair, there are other sources, maybe they are not so large-scale, but their information content does not become less. Who knows in which folder the information you need could be lying around.

Participants of the Great Patriotic War: search by name, archive and awards

Where else can you look? There are more specific repositories, for example:

1. dokst.ru. As we said, the victims of this terrible war were those who were captured. Their fate can be displayed on foreign sites like this one. Here in the database there is everything about Russian prisoners of war and the burial places of Soviet citizens. You only need to know the last name, you can see the lists of captured people. The documentation research center is located in the city of Dresden, it was he who organized this site to help people from all over the world. You can not only search the site, but send a request through it.
2. Rosarkhiv archives.ru is an agency that is an executive body that keeps records of all state documents. Here you can apply with a request either via the Internet or by phone. A sample of an electronic appeal is available on the website in the "appeals" section, left column on the page. Some services here are provided for a fee, a list of them can be found in the section "archive activities". With this in mind, be sure to ask if you will need to pay for your request.
3. rgavmf.ru - a reference book of the navy about the fate and great deeds of our sailors. In the "orders and applications" section there is an e-mail address for processing documents left for storage after 1941. By contacting the archive staff, you can get any information and find out the cost of such a service, most likely it is free.

WWII awards: search by last name

To search for awards, feats, an open portal dedicated to this www.podvignaroda.ru has been organized. Information is published here about 6 million cases of awarding, as well as 500,000 undelivered medals, orders that did not reach the recipient. Knowing the name of your hero, you can find a lot of new things about his fate. The posted scanned documents of orders and award sheets, data from accounting files, will complement your knowledge.

Who else can I contact for information about awards?

• On the website of the Central Asian Ministry of Defense in the section "Awards are looking for their heroes" a list of awarded fighters who did not receive them was published. Additional names can be obtained by phone.
• rkka.ru/ihandbook.htm - Encyclopedia of the Red Army. It contains some lists on the assignment of higher officer ranks, special titles. The information may not be as extensive, but the existing sources should not be neglected.
• http://www.warheroes.ru/ - a project created to popularize the exploits of the defenders of the Fatherland.

A lot of useful information, which is sometimes not available anywhere else, can be found on the forums of the above sites. Here people share precious experiences and tell their own stories that can help you too. There are many enthusiasts who are ready to help everyone in one way or another. They create their own archives, conduct their own research, they can also only be found on the forums. Do not bypass this type of search.

WWII veterans: search by last name

1. oldgazette.ru - an interesting project created by ideological people. A person who wants to find information enters data, they can be anything: full name, name of the awards and date of receipt, a line from the document, a description of the event. This combination of words will be calculated by search engines, but not just on websites, but in old newspapers. Based on the results, you will see everything that was found. Suddenly, it is here that you are lucky, you will find at least a thread.
2. Sometimes we seek among the dead and find among the living. After all, many returned home, but due to the circumstances of that difficult time, they changed their place of residence. To search for them, use the site pobediteli.ru. Here, people who seek send letters asking for help in finding their fellow soldiers, random war counters. The capabilities of the project allow you to select a person by name and region, even if he lives abroad. Seeing it in these lists or similar, you need to contact the administration and discuss this issue. Kind, attentive employees will definitely help and do everything they can. The project does not interact with government organizations and cannot provide personal information: phone number, address. But publishing your appeal about the search is quite possible. Already more than 1000 people have been able to find each other in this way.
3. 1941-1945.at Veterans do not abandon their own. Here on the forum you can chat, make inquiries among the veterans themselves, perhaps they have met and have information about the person you need.

The search for the living is no less relevant than the search for dead heroes. Who else will tell us the truth about those events, about what we experienced and suffered. About how they met victory, that one - the very first, most expensive, sad and happy at the same time.

Additional sources

Regional archives were created throughout the country. Not so large, holding, often on the shoulders of ordinary people, they have preserved unique single records. Their addresses are on the website of the movement to perpetuate the memory of the dead. As well as:

• http://www.1942.ru/ - "Seeker".
• http://iremember.ru/ - memoirs, letters, archives.
• http://www.biograph-soldat.ru/ - international biographical center.

On behalf of the front-line soldiers, whose number, unfortunately, is decreasing faster and faster, on behalf of all of them who are still living on the lands of the Great Soviet Power, on behalf of all who share the opinion about the greatness of the personality of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who took full responsibility for the fate of the country during the years of the Great Patriotic War and which led it to the Great Victory, I can’t get past the deliberate distortions of the history of the emergence and actions of penal formations created by Stalin’s Order “Not a Step Back”. And the idea of ​​them, distorted beyond recognition, is being hammered more and more persistently by modern media into the minds of the generations coming to us.

Military fate predestined me to go through my part of the Great Patriotic War until the very Victory Day as part of one of the penal battalions. Not a penalty box, but the commander of a platoon and company of an officer's penal battalion. About these unusual formations, created at the most dangerous time for the Motherland, for many years there have been no longer disputes, but the truth has been slandered in every possible way, which I also strive to resist by publishing my memoirs about the 8th separate penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, archival materials TsAMO RF.

1. Perhaps the main thing in the heap of deliberate lies about the penal battalions is speculation about the order of the People's Commissar of Defense N227 of July 27, 1942, known as "Stalin's Order" Not a step back ", and about everything that happened around that then. Unfortunately, the ban on official information about the penal battalions and penal companies created by this order, as well as detachments, that existed during the war years and many years after it, gave rise to a lot of unreliable rumors, and often exaggerated or distorted impressions of those who only heard about them. Yes, penal units (front penal battalions and army penal companies), as well as barrage detachments, were established by this order. But this does not mean at all that they were created for each other. The order is one, but the purposes of the formations established by it are different.

The detachments were deployed, as prescribed by order, "in the rear of unstable divisions." People who are more or less knowledgeable in military terminology are well aware of the difference between the “front line”, or “front line”, where only fines could operate, and the “rear of a division”. Never detachments were not exposed behind the penal battalions, despite the allegations of "experts" such as Volodarsky and others. For example, the well-known academician Georgy Arbatov, who during the war was the head of reconnaissance of the Katyusha division, repeatedly stated that the guards behind the penalty box were "guarded by guards." This lie is categorically rejected by all front-line soldiers, in particular, the author of the “Notes of the Commander of the Penal Battalion” Mikhail Suknev.

Somehow, on the First Channel of Russian TV, a more or less truthful documentary film “Feat by Sentence” was broadcast. There were testimonies of those who personally had a relationship with the penal battalions, either by penal battalions, or by their commanders. All of them denied at least a one-time presence of detachments behind the penalty box. However, the filmmakers inserted the phrase into the author's text: "wounded - do not crawl to the rear: they shoot - that was the order." This is a lie! There has never been such a "order"! Everything is exactly the opposite. We, the commanders of the penal battalion, from the platoon to the battalion commander himself, not only allowed, but even convinced the penalists that the wound was the basis for their independent, justified leaving the battlefield. Another thing is that not all of the penalty box used this at the first scratch, although there were some. More often there were cases when a penal, who was wounded, remained in the ranks out of combat solidarity with his comrades. Sometimes such wounded died, not having time to take advantage of the fact that "the blood atoned for their guilt."

2. Another myth is about the "death row" penalty box. Oh, and our publishers love to flaunt this supposedly unshakable rule in penal battalions and individual penal companies, while relying on a phrase from that very Stalin’s Order, which literally says the following: “... put them on more difficult sectors of the front to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood. However, for some reason, those who like to quote this quote do not quote a special paragraph from the “Regulations on Penal Battalions of the Active Army”, which reads: “15. For military distinction, a penal may be released ahead of schedule on the proposal of the command of the penal battalion, approved by the military council of the front. For particularly outstanding military distinction, the penal, in addition, is presented to the government award. And only in the 18th paragraph of this document it says: “Penal fighters who were wounded in battle are considered to have served their sentence, are restored in rank and in all rights, and upon recovery are sent for further service ...”. So, it is quite obvious that the main condition for exemption from punishment by a penal battalion is not “shedding of blood”, but military merit. In the combat history of our penal battalion, there were episodes of very heavy losses, war, and even on “more difficult sectors of the front”, it’s not a walk ... But, for example, according to the results of the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation in February 1944, when the 8th penal battalion in in full force acted boldly behind enemy lines, out of more than 800 penal prisoners, almost 600 were released from further stay in penal boxes without "shedding blood", without being wounded, who had not passed the established period of punishment (from 1 to 3 months), were fully restored to officer rights. Using the example of our battalion, I argue that a rare combat mission performed by penalized soldiers was left without awarding those who particularly distinguished themselves with orders or medals, like this heroic raid on the rear of the Rogachev enemy grouping. Of course, these decisions depended on the commanders, at whose disposal the penal battalion turned out to be. In this case, such a decision was made by the commander of the 3rd Army, General Gorbatov A.V. and front commander Marshal Rokossovsky K.K. It is reasonable to note that the words "redeemed with blood" are nothing more than an emotional expression designed to sharpen the sense of responsibility in the war for one's own guilt. And the fact that some military leaders sent penalists to attack through uncleared minefields (and this happened) speaks more about their decency than about the expediency of such decisions.

3. Now about another myth - that the penalty box was "driven" into battle without weapons or ammunition. Using the example of our 8th penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, I can categorically state that we always had enough modern, and sometimes even the best small arms, even compared to ordinary rifle units. The battalion consisted of three rifle companies, in which each squad of rifle platoons had a light machine gun, and in the company there was also a platoon of company (50 mm) mortars! There was also a company of submachine gunners in the battalion, armed with PPD assault rifles, gradually replaced by more modern PPSh, and a machine-gun company, which, earlier than in some divisions of the front, instead of the well-known "Maxims" began to receive lightweight machine guns of the Goryunov system. The company of anti-tank rifles (anti-tank rifles) was always fully armed with these guns, including the multiply charged "Simonovsky", and the mortar company with 82 mm mortars. As for cartridges and "pocket artillery", that is, grenades: before the offensive, the penalty box even ruthlessly threw out gas masks in order to fill the empty bag to the limit with grenades or cartridges. The same should be said about the myth that the fines were not on allowance and were forced to get their own food, either by robbing food warehouses, or by extorting it from the local population. In fact, penal battalions were in this respect completely similar to any other military organization, and if it is not always possible to dine or simply satisfy hunger “on schedule” during an offensive, then this is already a common occurrence in a war for all belligerents.

4. For many years, we, who went through the school of penal battalions, were urged to “not spread” about penal battalions. And when we were no longer able to bear this secret burden of truth, to endure its malicious distortion by some "advanced" falsifiers and began to violate this ban, we often heard: "Ah, penal battalions - detachments - we know !!!". And this is “we know!” it boiled down primarily to the fact that it was not their commanders who allegedly raised the penalty box in the attack, but the machine guns of the detachments placed behind the back of the penalty box. This stubborn distortion of facts for many years has led to a misconception in society about the history of penal battalions.

There is hardly anyone who is unfamiliar with Vladimir Vysotsky’s famous song “Penal Battalions Go into the Breakthrough,” where true penal battalions, sometimes showing real heroism, are represented by some kind of faceless “flaw”, which, if it survives, was recommended to “walk, from ruble and more! Since then, the rumor about the criminal "flaw" in the penal battalions has gone for a walk. Boastful: "we know!" - most often and loudest of all were said by people who knew nothing about real penal battalions and real detachments.

5. And today, fictions and simply monstrous lies, used by their own, home-grown falsifiers, do not stop, despite many evidence-documentary publications of recent years, for example, the excellent historian-publicist Igor Vasilyevich Pykhalov (“The Great Slandered War”), and more than sold out My books about penal battalions (“Free kick”, “The Truth about penal battalions”, etc.) have a 50,000th circulation around the world. On the contrary, as a counterbalance to the erupting truth, the attempts of unscrupulous detractors of the past intensify even more in order to muffle the voice of truth, breaking through more and more insistently in the latest publications of honest authors.

New haters of our glorious past are pouring into the gutter of nonsense about everything Soviet, about everything that is somehow connected or intentionally connected with the name of Stalin, to already inveterate pseudo-historians. If a few years ago the Rezun, Radzinsky, Volodarsky and Solzhenitsyns ruled in distorting the truth, now the palm of dubious primacy is intercepted by such motherland sellers as the pathologically evil Svanidze with his “Historical Chronicles” (or rather, anti-historical), and looking at them - and some famous actors, such as Sergei Yursky, the host of the popular program “Wait for me” Igor Kvasha, who at one time was proud of the film role of the young Karl Marx (the film “A Year as Life”, 1965), and now boasts of allegedly “super-similarity” to the “Stalin monster”, as he portrayed him in the film "In the First Circle" based on Solzhenitsyn.

After the publication of my first books about the penal battalion, I decided to search for former penal battalion soldiers in order to fill my memories with personal impressions, and perhaps with documents from others who went through these formations. It was for this purpose that a few years ago I personally wrote a letter to the host of the “Wait for me” program with a request to open a search for front-line soldiers from penal battalions, and sent my book in confirmation. Even an elementary polite message about the receipt of this request and the book did not follow. Apparently, the concept of "wait for me" for some requests from this talk show is infinite in time. Not for the restoration of ties between front-line soldiers, but for the resuscitation of interrupted holiday romances or casual acquaintances, this company takes on more and more willingly.

6. There were no neo-officer penal battalions. Very diligent pseudo-historians, deliberately mixing in penal battalions and offending officers, and deserting soldiers, and some mass of all kinds of criminals, do this with a specific goal. In the 12-episode “Penal Battalion” of Volodarsky-Dostal, known for its lies, the idea is quite transparently traced that, they say, the Red Army was almost completely defeated by that time and the only force capable of resisting the enemy invasion is those same “enemies of the people” and people doomed " Stalin's regime" to an inglorious death. And even the officers capable of leading this uncontrollable mass into battle are no longer there either, the battalion commander is appointed a penalist who escaped from captivity, and the company commander is a thief in law. Almost every penalty box is relentlessly followed by an uncountable army of "special officers", and even a mediocre general commander is controlled by one of them. In fact, in our battalion, even when it had a full staff of 800 people, the “special officer” was one senior lieutenant, doing his own thing and not interfering in any way with the affairs of the battalion commander or headquarters.

Front-line penal battalions, unlike army separate penal companies, were formed only (and exclusively!) From officers convicted of crimes or sent to penal battalions by the authorities of division commanders and above - for instability, cowardice and other violations, especially strict discipline in wartime. Although, in fairness, it should be noted that sometimes the direction of military officers, for example, for "cowardice", did not correspond much to the officer's combat biography, or, as they say now, "the severity of the punishment did not always correspond to the severity of the crime." For example, in my company, Major Rodin, the former commander of the reconnaissance company of the division, who was sent to the penal battalion "for cowardice", died in battles on Polish soil. One can hardly imagine a “coward” of a scout who was previously awarded three orders of the “Red Banner” for feats and heroism. Or retired colonel Chernov from the documentary "Feat by Sentence", also a commander of a reconnaissance company, who ended up in a penal battalion for an elementary domestic misconduct.

7. Of course, different penal officers got into the penal battalion, but in the vast majority they were people who had a firm concept of officer honor, who strove to return to the officer ranks as soon as possible, and this, of course, could only come after direct participation in the battle. Apparently, they understood that it was precisely by Stalin's order that the fate of the advanced combat detachments, used on the most difficult sectors of the front, was prepared for the penal battalions. And if the penal battalion was in a state of formation or preparation for hostilities for a relatively long time, the well-known words of the song “When Comrade Stalin Sends Us into Battle” that were popular even before the war were more often pronounced in the sense of “Well, when will Comrade Stalin send us into battle?” . For the most part, in the recent past, penal officers were communists and Komsomol members, although now they did not have the appropriate party and Komsomol cards. Most often they were those who had not lost their spiritual connection with the party and the Komsomol, and even sometimes gathered, especially before the attacks, for unofficial meetings. Belonging to the Bolshevik Party is a huge incentive and a real obligation to be the first in battle, in attack, in hand-to-hand combat.

I will venture to tell one of my front-line dreams. It happened during the development of the well-known operation "Bagration" in July 1944, before the attack on Brest, on the eve of an important event for me personally - after I was accepted as a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the political department of the 38th Guards Lozovsky Rifle Division, a party card. Then, at the front, joining the party had to be earned, and we wrote in statements, “I want to be the first in the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland.” Literally the day before, I dreamed of Lenin and Stalin, talking in my dugout and approving the military deeds of my and my platoon ... How proud I was that, although in a dream, I came into contact with them. And until the end of the war, and more than one year after, this dream somehow inspired me in my military service. Truly, almost like Yulia Drunina, who wrote: “I only saw hand-to-hand combat once, once in reality, and a thousand in a dream,” but with me, just the opposite: “only once in a dream and many times later.”

8. Soviet officers who escaped from enemy captivity or left the encirclement from the territories occupied by the enemy are another category of penalized. As former prisoners of war, who ended up in penal wards, liked to say then: “The Queen of England awarded her officers with an order in such cases, and we were sent to penal battalions!” Of course, it was unlawful to identify all those who fell into German captivity with traitors. In many cases, those who simply could not avoid it due to circumstances beyond their control were captured, and escaped from captivity at the risk of their own lives only in order to resist the enemy together with the entire people of the country. However, it is known that there were also numerous groups of saboteurs abandoned to us, recruited by the Nazis from among prisoners of war and trained in special Abwehr schools from traitors who agreed to cooperate with the enemy. The checks carried out by the NKVD and the SMERSH army counterintelligence and the costs of that time did not guarantee the absolute reliability of the results of such checks. So they sent many to penal formations. The mood and resentment of honest patriots who fled from captivity, recently, recalling the past, figuratively expressed in their hearts the former such penal of our battalion Basov Semyon Emelyanovich, who escaped from captivity and ended up in a penal battalion. He, a real Soviet patriot, who was also ranked among the traitors, spoke about Stalin like this: “For the fact that he ranked us all as traitors, I would hang him. But for the fact that he led our Motherland to such a Victory over such a strong and insidious enemy - I would take him out of the noose and put him on the highest pedestal on planet Earth. Semyon Emelyanovich, who recently left our mortal world at the age of 95, spoke about our penal battalion, in which he “washed away the guilt” before the Motherland: “I regret that I turned out to be an innocent penalty box, but I am proud that I was in a particularly stubborn, especially daring and courageous 8th OSHB, where we were all united not by one insult or misfortune, but by one hatred for the enemy, one love for the Socialist Motherland - the Soviet Union.

9. Than raised in the attack. Some "experts" argue that the slogans and calls "For Stalin!" only the political officers shouted. These “experts” did not lead their subordinates into attacks and hand-to-hand combat, they did not use machine guns when the platoon or company commander, raising his subordinates into the “death-soaked air” (according to Vladimir Vysotsky), commands “Follow me, forward!”, And then already, as a natural thing, “For the Motherland, for Stalin!” burst forth by itself, as for everything ours, Soviet, with which these dear names were associated. And the words "For Stalin" by no means meant "instead of Stalin", as the same "experts" sometimes interpret today. Patriotism was then not "Soviet", as detractors of our heroic past like to use foul language today. There was true, Soviet, real patriotism, when the words from the song “Before think of the Motherland, and then of yourself” were not so much a song line, but a whole worldview, brought up by the entire system of socialist ideology, not only among young people. And it was precisely the patriotism nurtured in the Soviet people that was the force that raised the people to the heights of self-sacrifice for the sake of victory over the enemy.

10. The Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repressions in Russia and other former Soviet republics has been held annually on October 30 since 1991. At rallies and various other events, some schools organize "live" history lessons, to which witnesses of the tragic events are invited. By the way, we, front-line soldiers, are less and less often invited to schools for "lessons of courage and patriotism", as it was even a few years ago. Probably, we, with our truth, did not begin to fit into those “historical” pages of textbooks that marked the events of the Great Patriotic War. The feelings of those who honor everyone who was repressed in those years, including those who spent the most terrible years of the war for the country not at the fronts, but in prisons and camps, are understandable. But for some reason, the voice of human rights activists does not rise in defense of those who have been slandered already in our, post-Soviet time, fines, those who were repressed by wartime, who were sent to the front from places of detention, who were sent to penal units, which means they were also repressed for violations of the Military Oath and military discipline. But these people, having become penalized in accordance with Stalin's Order "Not a step back!", Bravely fought the enemy, putting their lives or health on the very altar of Victory. In mid-2009, in response to an appeal to the relatives of the penal battalions known to me, I received support not only from them, but also from honest journalists and public figures.

Here, for example, is what the granddaughter of the illustrious army commander, General of the Army Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov, answered my appeal:

“I acknowledge receipt of your initiative letter with a proposal to establish an “All-Union Penal Day” and sincerely support it. In addition, I congratulate you and your fellow soldiers in advance on this holiday, which you deserved with your blood and hard trials that fell to your lot! With best wishes, Irina Gorbatova.”

And here are a few lines from a letter from journalist Olga Solnyshkina from Sergiev Posad: “The idea of ​​a holiday is great. May I publish your offer in the newspaper? In your words and with your own signature, what if we have supporters?”

And the essence of my proposal was that, “celebrating the courage, heroism and a certain contribution to the cause of the Great Victory of the Great Patriotic penitentiaries, declare July 27, the day the Order was issued on the creation of penal formations in the past war, “Penal Day”. These special battalions and companies proved themselves, in spite of custom-made falsifiers, as the most stable, courageous and daring in the battles for the Motherland.

It is hard to believe that this call can find a kind response in the modern power structures, but I would like to hope.

11. By the upcoming 65th anniversary of the Victory, unscrupulous media activity has revived. It has already passed and, I think, more than once will go on TV screens through the deceitful “Penal Battalion” of Volodarsky-Dostal, which, despite the massive rejection of it by veterans, is assigned sonorous epithets like “the most truthful film about the war”, “The Golden Series of Russian War Films”, "people's blockbuster", etc. Unfortunately, neither the already numerous publications of the army "Red Star", nor many reliable books about penal battalions created on a strict documentary basis, nor even the authority of the President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General of the Army Makhmut Gareev, can yet overcome the gigantic press of lies of the true masters of television, anti-historians and anti-patriots. The attack on the truth continues.

The last attacks against Stalin are the serial “Altar of Victory”, which claims to be objective, on the NTV channel and the program organized on the same channel on December 20 “Stalin with you?”. In "Altar ...", where the series "Generalissimo" was recently held, despite the majority of positive assessments of the role of the Supreme, the authors made the well-known false postulate of anti-historians in the finale of the film: "Victory was achieved not thanks to Stalin, but in spite of him," as if the people the Soviet himself, with the last of his strength, went to the Victory for a long 4 years and won, and the Supreme, as best he could, resisted and prevented this.

When I managed to get through to the co-director of this "Altar ...", then to my question, how could they ignore the opinion of the front-line soldiers, he replied: "We were given a tough directive - not to whitewash the name of Stalin." May this Great name not need any “whitewashing”! However, it is impossible to denigrate him endlessly, shamelessly! Of course, we understand that this "installation" is not from Kashpirovsky and not even from well-paid NTV managers and their henchmen, but from a higher leadership, from true owners.

The NTV channel, among the list of films of the Altar of Victory series, also includes a film about penal wards, for which they filmed a large number of television interviews with those who went through the “penal school” of the Great War, including me, as one of the “last Mohicans” penal battalions." When I asked this co-director if they had the same “installation” about penal battalions, I was told that in this film there would be a conversation with Alexei Serebryakov, the performer in that very scandalous 12-episode “Penal Battalion” of the role of battalion commander Tverdokhlebov . It can be assumed what conclusions the "entevshniks" will make if they again take Volodarsky's "movie masterpiece" as a basis, and not reality. And we, the still living witnesses and participants of that time, will again turn out to be only an “exception to the rule” of the current ideologists, emasculating the true truth from the difficult history of the Great Patriotic War.

In the program, which took place on December 20, on the eve of the 130th anniversary of the birth of Generalissimo of the Soviet Union I.V. Stalin, young, aggressive journalists, already with their brains "powdered" by their own anti-historical propaganda, like a pack of evil mongrels, attacked everyone who spoke kind words about Stalin. They actually staged a shameful coven, obscene even for modern "talk shows". Their most used argument against the Stalinist period of Soviet power was: "Did you eat meat then?" Yes, we ate both fish and natural meat, Russian, and not imported, including such rare meat now - crab meat! Maybe they didn’t eat so much as on Rublyovka or in the French skiing Courchevel now our “upper class” is eating, for which “barbecue” of pork and chicken, meat on ribs, beef steaks and other delicacies cooked in marinade with whiskey - almost not a daily menu. But kebabs in the free resorts of Georgia, Abkhazia, beshbarmak and Uzbek pilaf in Soviet public sanatoriums in Central Asia - they ate! And Siberian dumplings frozen for the winter were not translated either in Siberia itself, or in the Urals, or in the Far East. Answer for yourself, spit-sick gentlemen, but do millions of former prosperous Soviet people, destitute, robbed by your oligarch masters, eat meat now?

A familiar documentary filmmaker from the Trans-Urals wrote to me about this obscene television coven: “I watched this vile program, once again made on NTV. I watched with Vovka, who at the end said about the program and its presenters: “Dad, they yelp at Stalin, because they are ALL afraid of him. They yelp and have fear and HORROR in their eyes.” Vovka is 14 years old and he understood everything.”

They are afraid not so much of the light of this Great Name, coming from our recent heroic past. They are afraid that the name of the Great Stalin is becoming more majestic and attractive to new generations as an unsurpassed example of true service to his people. In this next anti-Stalinist program, despite the pathological activity of its hosts, justice itself sounded from the lips of the well-known throughout the country, Colonel of the General Staff Vladimir Kvachkov:

“More than one 130th anniversary will pass, the names of the Khrushchevs, Gorbachevs, Yeltsins and their followers will be forgotten, but the name of the Great Stalin will shine even brighter!”

Alexander PYLTSYN,
Major General of the Armed Forces of the USSR, retired,
Active member of the Academy of Military Historical Sciences,
Winner of the Literary Prize. Marshal of the Soviet Union L.A. Govorova,
Honorary citizen of the city of Rogachev (Republic of Belarus),
former commander of units of the 8th officer penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front

The penalty box has one law, one end -

If you chop the fascist tramp,

And if you don't catch lead in your chest -

You will catch a medal on your chest for courage

The enemy believes: morally we are weak -

Behind him, both the forest and the cities were burned.

You better cut the forest into coffins -

Penal battalions are going into the breach!

Introductory part. Objective

This year Russia will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War. Since the victory, historians have written thousands of studies on the heroic struggle of the Soviet army against the fascist invaders. However, many facts of the struggle of the Soviet people for the freedom of their homeland still remain under the heading "Secret". Until recently, such a topic was the history of the formation of penal units.

All this time, penal veterans did not have the right to talk about their front-line past. And quite recently, former penitentiaries got the opportunity to publish their memoirs without fear of suffering from the regime.

At the same time, the surge of interest in the history of penal units and at the same time the lack of knowledge of the topic contributed to the formation of legends about penal units. Information about this side of the war is often presented with a negative emotional connotation, which is disrespectful towards veterans who served in penal units.

Attempts to invade this area of ​​​​the history of people who did not cook in hellish cauldrons, which were the penal officer battalions, create misconceptions about the penal battalions, which occupy exactly their place in that history, who played their (precisely their!) role.

Modern researchers today have sources that can help restore a relatively objective picture of the participation of penal units in the war. Respect for those who fought in such units is an important moral duty of present generations, who must know history as it was.

The aim of my researchis the study of the event picture of the formation and participation in the Great Patriotic War of the penal units of the Soviet army, as well as the debunking of myths about the penal battalions and the creation of a real picture of the existence of these units.

Main part. Penal battalions of the Great Patriotic War.

Order No. 227

Penal units in our army began to form after the release order number 227.

By the beginning of July 1942, the military situation of the Soviet Union was difficult. German troops captured the Crimea, Kuban, practically reached the Volga, penetrated into the North Caucasus. All these factors served as an impetus for the creation of the famous Stalinist Order No. 227 “Not a step

back".

Here is what we read in it:

The enemy is throwing ever new forces at the front and, regardless of heavy losses for him, he is pushing forward, tearing deep into the Soviet Union, seizing new areas, devastating and devastating our cities and villages, raping, robbing and killing the Soviet population. The fighting is going on in the Voronezh region, on the Don, in the south at the gates of the North Caucasus. The German invaders are rushing to Stalingrad.

It follows from this that it is time to end the retreat. No step back! This should now be our main call. We must stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory, cling to every patch of Soviet land and defend it to the last opportunity.

a) to unconditionally liquidate retreating moods among the troops and to suppress with an iron fist the propaganda that we can and must supposedly retreat further to the east, that there will be no harm supposedly from such a retreat;

c) to form within the front from 1 to 3 (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people each), where to send medium and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them on more difficult sections of the front, in order to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.

The order was aboutthe problem of discipline and moral decay in the troops, in particular about such a category of soldiers as alarmists.

“Part of the troops of the Southern Front, following the alarmists, left Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without an order from Moscow, covering their banners with disgrace .. You can’t tolerate any more commanders, commissars, political workers, whose units and formations arbitrarily leave combat positions.”

This explains the creation of penal battalions in the army.

Penal battalion (penal battalion) - a penal unit in the rank of battalion.

Order No. 227 was read out in all types of troops of the Soviet Army.

Formation of penal battalions

From whom were penal battalions formed?

In the Red Army, military officers of all branches of the armed forces, convicted of military or ordinary crimes, went there. The basis for sending a serviceman to a penal military unit was a court verdict for committing a military or ordinary crime (with the exception of a crime for which the death penalty was provided as a punishment).

Penal battalions were intended for senior and middle-level commanders and political workers. The commanders and commissars of battalions and regiments could be sent to the penal battalion only by the verdict of the military tribunal of the front, the rest - simply by order of the command of the army or even division. Ordinary Red Army men and junior commanders were sent to the penal companies according to the regimental order without any tribunals.

Penal companies became "native" for criminal elements, who expressed a desire to "wash away with blood all their offenses before the state." So, only in 1942-1943, more than 155 thousand former convicts were sent to the front. All penalists were to be demoted to the ranks and deprived of awards for the duration of their sentence.

The command staff of the penal units was appointed from among the strong-willed and most experienced commanders and political workers. Commanders received unlimited power over their subordinates. For example, the commander of a penal battalion had the power of a division commander among his fighters and could shoot each of them on the spot for the least offense or disobedience.

As an alternative measure of punishment, it was allowed to send to penal companies civilians convicted by a court and by a court verdict for committing minor and moderate ordinary crimes. Persons convicted of serious and state crimes served their sentences in places of deprivation of liberty.

Recently, in the press, in the literature, the opinion has spread that persons serving sentences for serious criminal offenses were sent to penal battalions. This statement does not have any basis, in view of the fact that, in accordance with the regulatory legal acts in force at that time regulating the procedure for sending to penal units, the recruitment of these units by this category of persons was not provided. Similarly, thieves in law could not be sent to penal battalions

Why did they end up in the penal battalion?

For the surrender of positions without an order, the misuse of weapons, their loss ... War is a very cruel thing. But they also fell on a denunciation, a slander. The company commander, Captain Avdeev, after the capture of the settlement, having received food for the entire company, did not return the products of the dead. We decided to arrange a wake for our friends, and, as they say, “washing” our awards. And thundered as a private in the penal battalion.

The lieutenant commander of the Northern Fleet, checking the operation of the repaired radio, came across Goebbels' speech and, knowing German, began to translate it. Someone denounced, and he was charged with "contributing to enemy propaganda." There were also "surrounders", some part of those who escaped from captivity and did not stain themselves with cooperation with the enemy.

Here is what retired major Amosov recalls:

I was sent to the 15th penal battalion on the orders of the front commander Konev in such a way that even the commander of our unit did not immediately find out about it. The order read: "For negligence ..." The new identity card was simply typed on a typewriter. The mood was heavy. But, it turned out, it’s okay, you can live in the OShB, and there people are like people - they both joke and grieve. I was the youngest in the penal battalion.

Private penal battalion Alexei Dubinin says:

The order to send me to the penal company was not shown to me and was not read out. I am a sergeant, served as an aircraft technician in the 3rd Squadron of the 16th Reserve Fighter Wing. My Yak-7B plane crashed while landing with an instructor pilot and a young pilot in February 1944. The commission found that the accident was the fault of the instructor, but the “switchman” was still found ...

Where were penal battalions used?

Penal battalions were used in battles, as a rule, as part of divisions and regiments in the most fortified sectors of the German defense. They also carried out independent tasks: they occupied the dominant heights to improve the positions of the defense, counterattacked the enemy wedged into our defense, conducted reconnaissance in force - broke through the enemy defenses. The battalion at full strength was rarely used.

Most often they went into battle alone. Penalty guards usually either attacked or stormed, broke through the defenses, carried out reconnaissance in force, took the "language" - in a word, they made daring raids on the enemy, which successfully put pressure on his psyche.

Retired captain Gudoshnikov tells about the battles of his battalion:

This was especially noticeable on the Kursk Bulge, at the very beginning of the events. The Germans, advancing towards the Oboyan station, occupied the village of Berezovka on July 8. Our penal company, right from the march, was ordered to take it back by storm. It was towards evening, we approached through the copses and shouting "Hurrah!", with terrible shooting, rushed to the village, broke into it. And there was a real crowd of troops and equipment, especially tanks. Everything began to move, a heated battle ensued, and we had to retreat. They did not take the village, but they gave the enemy a good warning.

These units were beneficial to the command. On the one hand, their existence made it possible to somehow maintain the level of discipline. And on the other hand, with the help of penalty boxes and due to the "cheap" soldier strength, it was possible to check the correctness of the decision made. For example, the commander was given the task of capturing one or another line. How to find out what forces the enemy has concentrated there? An order was given to the commander of the penal company to conduct reconnaissance in force at night. Whether there will be losses in the company or not, nobody cared. The main thing is to prevent the loss of line units. After all, the capture of stronghold settlements, cities was attributed not to penal units, but to linear ones.

Not a single official report from the Information Bureau has ever indicated that this or that height, settlement was taken by the forces of a penal company or penal battalion. It was strictly forbidden! The regiment, division, army, which entered the village or city immediately after the penalty box, was called. The purpose of the penal battalions was to be the first to break through the enemy's breach and thus provide a path for those following us. We were the means to ensure the success of others.

Penal battalions are breakthrough units that stormed the enemy’s defenses in the hottest sectors of the front, the average monthly losses in penal companies were 3-6 times higher than the losses in ordinary rifle units.

The hard life of the penalty box forced them to rally in order to survive during the battle. As eyewitnesses testify, often having been wounded, and, consequently, forgiveness, the penalists remained to fight until the unit completed the task of command.

Many, even relatively lightly wounded, remained to fight on. They could have left legally, but they didn't. But they already had all the rights to do this: they shed their blood, “they redeemed themselves with blood”, but they could still fight and fought! Such cases were not isolated, and they testified not to personal interests, but to the high consciousness of these fighters. Of course, there were others when the slightest scratch was passed off as "abundantly spilled blood." But here it is already a matter of conscience and military solidarity.

Thus, in the penal units there was a place for the phenomenon of “front-line brotherhood”.

“Everyone fought there decisively and courageously. Nobody left their positions. I remember that it occurred to me then to compare the task of not letting the enemy through with examples of the steadfastness of our Red Army near Moscow and in Stalingrad. Let, then I said to my subordinates penalized, this frontier will be for each of you your Moscow and your Stalingrad. Maybe those words of mine sounded pompous, but I saw: they acted! Indeed, until the day when the remaining encircled group of Germans was captured, for another two days the Nazis tried more and more desperately to break through to the west. But both the guardsmen and our penalty box fought to the death. As near Moscow, as in Stalingrad, ”A.V. Pyltsyn writes in his book“ Penalty Kick ”

The attitude towards the penal battalions of the ordinary infantry units was positive, while the contact of the penal battalions with the ordinary infantry units was not allowed during the break between battles exactly, as well as relations with the civilian population. However, the common goal, the desire to fight for the freedom of their homeland, united the soldiers and officers of the Soviet army, regardless of which units they served in.

The attitude of officers and penal battalions

And yet, what was the attitude of the officers towards the penalty box?

“How were the personnel treated? How to treat a person who lives nearby. Army Commander General Pukhov told me about this even when I was appointed.

Service and life were organized in accordance with the charters, political and educational work was carried out, as usual in army conditions. Reproaches to the fighters from the commanders that they are supposedly convicted and are in the penalty area were not allowed. They addressed in the authorized way: "Comrade fighter (soldier)". Meals were the same as in ordinary units, - says Major Tretyakov, - we did not apply any special disciplinary or other sanctions to the penalty box, except for the statutory ones.

They went into battle only on orders, without threats and violence, without the notorious detachments from behind, I did not see them anywhere, although they say that they were. I often even forgot that I was in command of an unusual unit. I always went into battle together with the penalized, often right in battle formations, this gave them more confidence (“the commander is with us”), determination, and to me - hope for success.

Barrage detachments detained deserters and a suspicious element in the rear of the front, and stopped the retreating troops. In a critical situation, they themselves often engaged in battle with the Germans, and when the military situation changed in our favor, they began to perform the functions of commandant companies.

In carrying out their direct tasks, the detachment could open fire over the heads of the fleeing units or shoot cowards and alarmists in front of the formation - but certainly on an individual basis. However, none of the researchers has yet been able to find a single fact in the archives that would confirm that the barrage detachments fired to kill their troops.

“There were, as a rule, comradely relations between the commanders and subordinates of the penal battalions. There simply could not be any other relationship under those conditions. There was a strict law: during the battle, you must support a comrade with fire when he runs, and then he - you. If you don’t do this, you won’t have life in the company, ”recalls Private Alexei Dubinin.

A.V. Poltsyn in the book "Free Kick" writes:

“Many at first considered themselves suicide bombers, especially those who came from prisons towards the end of the war. But when they saw that the commanding staff made every effort, tried with might and main to teach them the techniques of infantry combat, the use of weapons (especially pilots, tankers, doctors, quartermasters), they gradually ceased to feel like cannon fodder, began to understand that not only with blood, but by military merit they can atone for their guilt, voluntary or involuntary.

“Were the penalty boxers suicide bombers? I think yes! When out of 1200 people in the battalion 48 remained in the ranks - is that not enough? And here's another fact. During one of the attacks, we came under heavy fire from six-barreled mortars, and some of the soldiers tried to move away and hide in the forest. They were detained by a detachment and shot. It was a great happiness to survive the penalty box,” recalls retired senior lieutenant Ivan Korzhik.

The penalties were not generously rewarded. Before crossing the Oder, one sergeant from a neighboring battalion went on a boat to reconnaissance and returned - he was introduced to the rank of Hero. Our penalty box on heavy, from wet wood, boats under a hail of fire moved to the enemy shore. Small forces, with a fight, captured the bridgehead, held it with the last of their strength, and only one company commander was awarded. Yes, at his insistence, one penalist, a former pilot, Captain Funny, was presented for an award for an unprecedented feat. Posthumously. But did this award take place? Don't know...

The absolute majority of the penalty boxers, despite the blows of fate, retained the human feeling of military friendship and assistance, a true sense of devotion to the Motherland. There have been many cases when, in the most tense conditions, those who washed away their guilt with their blood, whatever it was, did not leave the battlefield. I consider it heroic. And those who walked hand-to-hand and crushed the heads of the hated Fritz with a sapper's shovel - isn't that heroism?

I now remember one Uzbek of heroic build, who, during hand-to-hand combat, grabbed his almost one and a half pound anti-tank rifle by the end of the barrel and wielded it like a heroic club. He knocked out two tanks with well-aimed fire. Thus, we ensured success for us, and for ourselves - the Order of the Patriotic War (such an award was supposed for each wrecked tank) and the restoration of our officer rank. When I wanted to send him to the headquarters, he refused, saying even with some offense: “To whom will I leave my gun?” How can I feel for such people? Only tenderness." The writer served as an ordinary officer in the penal battalion.

Rehabilitation

How was the rehabilitation of the soldiers?

Here is what retired captain Gudoshnikov says about this:

“After one of the battles, the company commander called me and ordered me to draw up a so-called reinforcing list for all the penalized, in which all the soldier’s ammunition is affixed against each name. “We will rehabilitate the guys and transfer them to the next regiment for replenishment,” the company commander explained to me. - They fought well. Some stayed with us longer than expected. Consider - all atoned for guilt. Explain it to them. You can’t gather everyone in one place, you can’t build them, and I announced rehabilitation to several at once, one at a time. To my surprise, neither a sigh of relief, nor an exclamation of joy, nor any other emotions were seen or heard. Some of my platoon even regretted that we would have to leave ... Then the commanders from the neighboring regiment came to our location, and we handed over the soldiers to them right on the combat positions.

There was a rehabilitation of only those penalty boxers who atoned for their guilt directly in the battle. There was not a single case that those who did not participate in the battles were rehabilitated.

Major Amosov recalls: The restoration of rights was not delayed. Already in the medical battalion, when filling out the medical card, they indicated to me the former military rank - lieutenant and the unit from which I arrived in the penal battalion.

Captain Tretyakov: Not only the wounded could be rehabilitated ahead of schedule. By order of our commander, such an order was introduced. In the offensive, a specific combat mission was set. When fulfilling it, as soon as they left the battlefield, a military tribunal was called from the army, he removed the criminal record and handed over a certificate of this. As for the awards upon serving the term - we did not have this. We tried to introduce them to them, but they answered us: "The penal is redeeming his guilt, why should he be rewarded."

Conclusion

Penal battalions remained in action until the surrender of Germany.

The memoirs of soldiers and officers of penal units are the most important historical sources, working with which you can prepare a scientific study, as a result of which you can come to the following conclusions:

The events that unfolded in the summer of 1942 had a catastrophic effect on the defense capability of the USSR, which required decisive action on the part of the Soviet command. Order No. 227 was the drastic measure that stopped the retreat of the Soviet troops. Order No. 227 also determined the creation of penal units - special military units consisting of delinquent soldiers and officers of the Red Army.

Naturally, special relations among the personnel were also formed in the penal units. However, an analysis of the memories showed that, despite the criticality of the situation in which the penalized were, they were able to maintain normal and strong relationships, without which it would be impossible to stay alive in the war. The attitude of superiors to subordinates was almost always respectful, and the commanders of the penal battalions managed to rally the entire "difficult" contingent of the penalized around them.

During the battle, the penalty boxers performed their combat missions with honor, and always with heavy losses. Penal companies and battalions were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, but not barrage detachments, but the morale of soldiers and officers ensured their difficult, inconspicuous and, at the same time, very important victories. However, it is also obvious that the attitude of the high command to the penal units was often extremely negative, and society was forced to share their opinion. However, this does not apply to the entire Soviet command.

Thus, the revealed historical facts oblige us to reconsider our attitude to the role of the penal units forgotten after the victory in the Great Patriotic War, paying tribute to the veterans of the penal companies and battalions of the Soviet army who did not receive awards and did not know honors.

Literature

1. A.V. Pyltsin. Free kick. St. Petersburg: Knowledge of IVESEP, 2003
2. A.V. Pyltsin. The truth about penal battalions. M6 Eksmo, 2008
3. Yu.V.Rubtsov. Penal boxes of the Great Patriotic War. M .: Veche, 2007
4. M. Suknev. Notes of the commander of the penal battalion. Memoirs of a battalion commander. 1941-1945. M. 6 Tsentropoligraf, 2006
5. Wikipedia. Penal military units.
6. The newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dated 04/28/2005. Article by Inna Rudenko "Penal battalion: how it was not in the cinema"
7. Order No. 227
8. Photos of the war years