What is a penal battalion during the war. Penalty military units

Much has been said about penal battalions during the Great Patriotic War. Among this stream of information, there are many conjectures and misconceptions, however, sometimes the truth can strike no less than a myth.

For re-education

We can say that the impetus for the idea of the appearance of penal battalions was given by the first months of the war. In the conditions of the total retreat of the Red Army, cases of desertion or manifestations of cowardice became frequent, to which commanders often reacted in the most harsh way - by shooting. However, in October 1941, the People's Commissariat of Defense issued a decree stating that officers in some cases abuse their powers by arranging lynching. The search began for ways that could replace repression with the reeducation of personnel.

The decision was ripe in July 1942. Even before the release of Order No. 227 "not a step back", the first penal company was created, after July 28, in a matter of days, the command formed 77 more separate penal companies and 5 battalions. Over the entire period of the war, more than 60 penal battalions and over a thousand penal companies appeared in the Red Army. According to the collection “Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century: Statistical research", During the years of the Great Patriotic War, 427 910 people were sent to penal companies and battalions.

From tankers to logisticians

Servicemen from different branches of the armed forces were sent to the penal battalions, and there could be very different reasons. So, in August 1941, General Vasilevsky issued an order, according to which personnel convicted of sabotage and sabotage were reduced to penal tank companies, and “hopeless, malicious self-seekers from tankers” were to be sent to penal infantry companies.

September 9 saw the light of the Order No. 0685 signed by Stalin, which demanded that fighter pilots who evaded aerial combat be brought to justice and transferred to penal infantry. The next day, a decree was issued, Major General of Artillery Aborenkov, instructing to send those who were careless about equipment and weapons to penalty rifle battalions.

Those who did not want to fight contrived to convincingly stage illnesses or injuries, but on November 12, 1941, it was their turn. In accordance with Order No. 0882, everyone who feigns illness and is engaged in self-harm were subject to dispatch to the penal units. And since 1942, employees of the rear were sent to penal battalions - with the wording "for a soulless and bureaucratic attitude to their duties."

It was possible to get into the penal battalion from the rear for completely minor offenses, for example, for being late for work for more than twenty minutes, which was equivalent to absenteeism. If for the first time they were reprimanded for such a violation, then for the second time they were judged: they could be given a term or sent to the penal unit.

Dangerous contingent

Recently, more and more often you can hear the exposure of the myth that the basis of penal battalions were convicts. Here everything depended on the part: somewhere the share of prisoners was scanty, but somewhere they prevailed. Thus, the deputy commander of the 163rd penal company of the 51st Army, Efim Holbraikh, recalled that as a replenishment a train of criminals was sent to his penal company, “about four hundred or more,” which would have been enough for a battalion.

In films about penal battalions, you can often see an episode of how, by order of the unit commander, a penalty box is beaten. Veterans who fought in the penal units note that this is hardly possible, especially when it comes to prisoners. Indeed, in battle, the officer could be in front of the soldier punished by him, and no one wanted to get in the field in the back.

But the prisoners had their own reason to fight in good faith. After all, a month in a penal battalion could write off them up to 4 years in prison, 2 months - up to 7 years, three months - up to 10 years. According to Holbraich, there were such cases when a prisoner took the place of the killed commander of a penal unit - he turned out to be far from the worst boss: after all, the desire to rehabilitate himself was enormous.

Under attack

For a long time, there was an assertion that the penal units served as a kind of "cannon fodder". Military historians have repeatedly refuted it. But, nevertheless, it should be admitted that the probability of dying in penal battalions was an order of magnitude higher than in ordinary units of the Red Army. According to the authors of the collection "Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century: A Statistical Study", only in 1944 total losses the personnel of all penal units amounted to 170,298 people. The monthly losses averaged 14,191 people, or 52% of the average monthly number of penalties. This figure is three times higher than the death rate among military personnel of conventional units in the same offensive operations in 1944.

And yet, the penalty boxers had a chance to leave the place of serving their sentence. For example, in February 1944, during the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation, the fighters of the 8th separate penalty battalion distinguished themselves. The commander of the 3rd Army, General Gorbatov, by personal order released 600 of the 800 penalty boxes. Unlike our penal battalions, the German penal battalions, even having redeemed their guilt with a feat, could not count on the condescension of the command, and had to while away their term until the end.

Better than the guard

"One rifle for three" - it seemed that this statement is the best fit for the military personnel of penal battalions. But the veteran of the Great Patriotic War Alexander Pyltsyn, the company commander of the 8th officer's penal battalion of the 1st Belarusian Front, disagrees with this. In his words, given that the penal units were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, it was impossible not to supply them with a sufficient amount of weapons and ammunition.

Moreover, the penalties were often endowed with the most advanced weapons, for example, the Simonov anti-tank rifles or the Goryunov 7.62-mm machine guns, which had not yet even been used in the guards units. Former penalties said that they were fed no worse, and sometimes better than in other divisions.

"Wild Falcons"

Journalist Vitaly Karyukov, in an interview with retired Air Marshal Alexander Efimov, learned one curious detail. It turns out that during the war there were so-called "penalty squadrons". According to the military, the command decided that it would be inappropriate to send all the pilots at fault to a regular penal battalion, since it would take many months to prepare their replacement.

Among these penalties was the future Hero Soviet Union Ivan Fedorov. However, he actually volunteered to go to the penal battalion. In July 1942, driving the LaGG-3 to the front line as a test pilot, he voluntarily remained on the Kalinin front. And already in August, he led one of the newly created penalty squadrons. For his tough temper, the Germans awarded Fedorov the title "Red Devil", and his charges were called "brutal falcons". In total, on account of 64 pilots of Fedorov's squadron, 350 Hitler's aces.

But not everyone fought in good faith. Subsequently, 66 offended on their planes flew to the enemy Soviet power pilots, and the Air Force command ordered the disbandment of penalty squadrons, sending the guilty ones to the usual penal units.

Many firmly believe that penal battalions are a terrible invention of Stalin, who used the most severe methods of warfare to win this bloody war. However, Stalin is not an innovator in this area. He borrowed the system of such military units from the enemy. Yes, it was the fascists who, long before the invasion of the USSR, formed entire brigades, which included former criminals and anti-social elements.

Little is known about the Wehrmacht's penalty boxes. Only scraps of information have survived to this day, according to which we can restore the events of those days.

Hitler's rise to power was marked by mass arrests. According to the decree "On the Protection of the People and the State", they seized everyone who, in one way or another, was guilty of the Third Reich. But the Fuhrer did not take into account the fact that places in correctional institutions would soon run out. Many prisons could not withstand the influx of more and more consignments of prisoners. And then the Wehrmacht found a simple and effective solution.

In 1936, the first unit was formed, the personnel of which was formed from military prisoners who ended up behind bars because of their way of thinking, at odds with the ideology of the party, or because of immoral behavior and systematic violation of the charter.

Initially, one unit was created in each type of troops. But soon a continuous stream of penalty boxes forced the generals to form regular units, the number of which exceeded 5 thousand people. The new "pupils" were sent by the unit commanders and the military tribunal.

The most stubborn and desperate were kicked out of the army and handed over to the police, who usually sent the stubborn to a concentration camp. But there weren't many such impudent people. In the first three years of the existence of penal units, only 120 people went to the camps, because each prisoner understood that it was better to go through heavy service under the tireless supervision of the commanders than to starve to death behind the camp fence.

The beginning of the Second World War was marked by the dissolution of penal units. The Fuehrer considered that penalty boxers were unreliable and deserted from the battlefield at the first opportunity. But soon the question of the creation of new battalions stood squarely. The concept has been revised. Soldiers who were difficult to educate were considered to be fines. Here is a list of "sins" for which a person could be sent to the correctional unit:

"Lazy, careless, dirty, dissatisfied, stubborn, antisocial and asocial personalities, soulless (this is exactly the wording), cruel, deceitful, cheaters, weak-willed, psychopaths."

In 1942, the situation at the front became tense. By order of the General Staff, a "test unit of 500" was formed, which consisted of soldiers and officers who were guilty at the front. Once in this battalion, a soldier was deprived of all titles, awards and regalia. The 500th battalions were sent to the most difficult sectors of the front. For example, the 561st battalion fought bloody battles with the Red Army at the Sinyavinsky Heights near Leningrad. Both sides suffered colossal losses. The land was literally littered with corpses for many kilometers. It was the 500th battalion that the Germans first used as detachments, although they subsequently denied this fact in every possible way.

There was another type of "test unit" with serial number 999. Concentration camp prisoners were sent to them. It was they who became cannon fodder, which was driven to slaughter by the detachments.

The period of stay in such a unit ranged from 3 to 6 months. Only one out of ten penalties lived to the end of his term, after which he was transferred to the 500th division, where he could fully rehabilitate himself before the Reich.

However, there was a special unit among the "penalties" called the SS Division "Dirlewanger". Its story begins with the commander Oskar Dirlewanger, who fought back in the First World War. On the battlefields, Oscar received two Iron Crosses. After the war, he attended university, where he received his doctorate in political science.

Dirlewanger was a scumbag and a psychopath. He was sent to prison after being caught molesting his thirteen-year-old student. Two years of imprisonment did not change his attitude towards female sex, and soon he found himself in prison again under the same article. But the doctor was good friend Nazi boss Heinrich Himmler, who helped Dirlewanger soon get out of prison.

The old libertine was sent to Spain, where he commanded the Condor legion, which fought on the side of General Franco. There he was wounded three times, after which Oskar returned to Germany, where he was given the rank of SS Untersturmführer and appointed commander of the Oranienburg poaching unit. It was formed from former hunters convicted of poaching. The group was used to carry out reconnaissance operations in the forests of Europe.

Due to the success of the unit, its staff was expanded to 300 people and was renamed the Sonderkommando "Doctor Dirlewanger". In 1941, the battalion was sent to Poland to fight local partisans. The personnel were recruited not only from poachers, but also from murderers, rapists, robbers. Once in Poland, the "fighters" began to do what they loved. They raped, killed, plundered and burned entire villages. In July 1942, this battalion killed more than 200 civilians. A few months later, Dirlewanger's group was sent to Belarus, where they broke their own record, killing 1,050 people in a few weeks (mostly women, children and the elderly).

Dirlewanger recruited personnel exclusively from among those convicted of especially grave crimes. Thanks to its "achievements," the Sonderkommando was awarded the rank of a regular unit, and the commander himself received another Iron Cross. Even the SS men hated and feared them.

But in 1943, the group was sent to the front. There they were opposed not by helpless civilians, but by well-armed and trained units of the Red Army. In the very first battle, the punishers and murderers suffered a crushing defeat due to the lack of basic combat skills. After that, the group was sent to the rear for re-formation. Since then, the detachment has performed combat missions only in the rear. They were mainly involved in suppressing uprisings in the occupied territories. By this time, the number of wounds of Oskar Dirlewanger himself reached twelve and he received the fifth Iron Cross. But this did not save him from reprisals.

Penalties have one law, one end -

If you slash the fascist vagrant,

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

You will catch a medal on your chest for courage

The enemy believes: we are morally weak -

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

You better chop wood for coffins -

Penal battalions are going to break through!

Introductory part. purpose of work

This year, Russia will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the victory of 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 Soviet people for the freedom of their homeland are still classified as "Secret". Until recently, this topic was the history of the formation of penalty units.

All this time, penal veterans had no right to dwell on their front-line past. And more recently, the former penalty boxers were able to publish their memories without fear of being harmed by the regime.

At the same time, a surge of interest in the history of penal units and, at the same time, 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 history of people who did not boil in hellish cauldrons, such as penal officer battalions, create misconceptions about penal battalions, which occupy exactly their place in that history, who played their (precisely their own!) Role.

Modern researchers today have sources that can help to reconstruct 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 imperative for today's generations to know history as it was.

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

Main part. Penal battalions of the Great Patriotic War.

Order number 227

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

By early July 1942, the martial law of the Soviet Union was dire. German troops captured the Crimea, the Kuban, practically reached the Volga, penetrated the North Caucasus. All these factors served as the impetus for the creation of the famous Stalinist Order No. 227 “Not a step

back".

Here's what we read in it:

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

a) unconditionally eliminate the retreating sentiments in the troops and with an iron fist suppress the propaganda that we can and should supposedly retreat further to the east, that there will be no harm 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 middle and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military, guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them on more difficult sectors of the front, 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 shame ... One cannot tolerate further commanders, commissars, political workers, whose units and formations willfully leave their combat positions."

This explains the creation of penal battalions in the army.

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

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

Formation of penal battalions

From whom were the penal battalions formed?

In the Red Army, servicemen of the officer corps of all branches of the army, 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, as a measure of punishment, the death penalty).

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 the division. Private Red Army men and junior commanders were sent to the penal companies according to the regimental order without any tribunals.

Penalty companies also became "family" for the criminal elements, who expressed a desire to "wash off all their faults before the state with blood." So, in 1942-1943 alone, more than 155 thousand former convicts were sent to the front. All penalty boxers were to be demoted to the rank and file and deprived of awards while serving their sentences.

The commanding staff of 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 authority 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 civilians convicted by a court and by a court verdict for committing a minor and medium-gravity ordinary crime to penal companies. Persons convicted of grave and state crimes served 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 normative legal acts that were in force at that time, governing the procedure for sending to penal units, the acquisition of these units by this category of persons was not provided. Likewise, thieves in law who are serving their sentences could not be sent to penal battalions

Why did you end up in the penal battalion?

For the surrender of positions without an order, the illegal use of weapons, their loss ... War is a very cruel thing. But they also got it on denunciation, slander. The company commander, Captain Avdeev, after the seizure of the settlement, having received food for the entire company, did not return the food of the dead. We decided to arrange a commemoration for our friends, and, as they say, a "washing" of their awards. And he thundered as a private in the penal battalion.

Lieutenant Commander of the Northern Fleet, checking the operation of the repaired radio, came across Goebbels' speech and, owning German, began to translate it. Someone reported, and he was accused of "contributing to enemy propaganda." There were also "entourage", some part of those who fled 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 by order of the front commander, Konev, so 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, nothing, you can live, and in OSHB, and there people like people - and joke, and sad. I was the youngest in the penal battalion.

Aleksey Dubinin, a private soldier of the penal battalion, says:

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

Where were penal battalions used?

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

Most often they went to battle alone. The fines usually either attacked or stormed, broke through the defense, carried out reconnaissance in force, took the "tongue" - in a word, 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 at the Kursk Bulge, at the very beginning of events. The Germans, advancing towards the Oboyan station, occupied the village of Berezovka on July 8. Our penalty company was ordered to take it back by storm straight from the march. It was late afternoon, we approached the copses and, shouting "Hurray!" And there turned out to be a real crowd of troops and equipment, especially tanks. Everything was in motion, a heated battle ensued, and we had to retreat. They did not take the village, but they gave the enemy a good ostrostka.

These units were beneficial to the command. On the one hand, their existence made it possible to somehow maintain the level of discipline. On the other hand, it was possible to check the correctness of the decision made with the help of penalty boxes and at the expense of "cheap" soldiers' power. For example, the commander was given the task of capturing this or that line. How do you know 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. Nobody worried whether there would be losses in the company or not. The main thing is to prevent losses of line units. After all, the capture of strong settlements, cities was attributed not to penal units, but to linear ones.

Not a single official message of the Information Bureau has ever indicated that this or that height, the settlement was taken by the forces of a penal company or a penal battalion. This was strictly forbidden! The regiment, division, army that entered the village or city immediately after the penalty box were named. The purpose of the penal battalions was to be the first to breach the enemy and thus provide the road for those following us. We were the vehicle for the success of others.

Penalty battalions are breakthrough subunits that stormed the enemy's defenses in the hottest sectors of the front, the average monthly losses in penalty companies were 3-6 times higher than those in conventional rifle subunits.

The hard life of the penal boxers forced them to rally in order to survive during the fight. As eyewitnesses testify, often getting wounded, and, consequently, forgiveness, the penalties remained to fight until the unit completed the task of the command.

Many, even relatively lightly wounded, remained to fight on. They could have left legally, but did not leave. But they already had all the rights to this: they shed blood, “redeemed their guilt 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 shed blood." But here it is already a matter of conscience and military solidarity.

Thus, there was a place for the phenomenon of "front-line brotherhood" in the penal divisions as well.

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

The attitude of the ordinary infantry units to the penal battalions was positive, while the contact of penal units with ordinary infantry units was not allowed in the interval 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 divisions they served in.

The attitude of officers and soldiers of the penal battalion

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

“How were the personnel treated? The way it is supposed to deal with the person who lives nearby. Army commander General Pukhov told me about this when I was appointed.

Service and life were organized in accordance with the regulations, political and educational work was carried out, as usual in army conditions. Reproaches to the soldiers from the commanders that they were, they say, convicted and are in the penalty area, were not allowed. They addressed in the charter: "Comrade fighter (soldier)." The food was the same as in the regular 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 by order, without threats and violence, without the notorious detachments from behind, I have not seen them anywhere, although they say they were. I often forgot that I was commanding an unusual unit. I always went into battle together with penalties, often right in battle formations, this gave them more confidence (“the commander is with us”), decisiveness, and me - hope for success. "

Barrage detachments detained deserters and a suspicious element in the rear of the front, and stopped 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.

Carrying out its direct tasks, the detachment could open fire over the heads of 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 managed to find in the archives a single fact that would confirm that the barrage detachments fired to kill their troops.

“As a rule, there were friendly relations between the commanders and subordinates of the penal battalions. There could be no other attitude in those conditions. There was a harsh law: during a battle, you must support your comrade with fire, when he performs a dash, and then he - you. If you don’t do this, you will not have life in the company, ”recalls Private Alexei Dubinin.

A.V. Pyltsyn writes in the book "Penalty Kick":

“Many at first considered themselves to be suicide bombers, especially those who came from prisons towards the end of the war. But when they saw that the command staff was exerting all their strength, trying with might and main to teach them the techniques of infantry combat, the use of weapons (especially pilots, tankmen, medics, quartermasters), they gradually ceased to feel like cannon fodder, began to understand that not only blood, but they can also redeem their guilt, voluntary or involuntary, by military merit. "

“Were there death row prisoners? I think yes! When out of 1200 people in the battalion remained in the ranks of 48 - 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 retreat and hide in the forest. They were detained by a detachment and shot. It was a great joy to survive the penalty box, ”recalls retired senior lieutenant Ivan Korzhik.

The penalties were not rewarded generously. Before crossing the Oder, one sergeant from a neighboring battalion went on a boat to reconnaissance and returned - presented to the rank of Hero. Our penalty boxes on heavy, dry wood boats under a hail of fire got over to the enemy shore. With small forces, they seized the bridgehead with battle, held it with their last strength, and only one company commander was awarded. Yes, at his insistence, one penalty box, a former pilot, Captain Ridiculous, was presented for an award for an unparalleled feat. Posthumously. But did this award take place? Do not know...

The vast majority of penalties, despite the blows of fate, have retained a human sense of military friendship and gain, true feeling devotion to the Motherland. How many cases were there when in the most tense conditions those who washed away the guilt with their blood, whatever it may be, did not leave the battlefield. I consider it heroic. And those who walked hand-to-hand and smashed the heads of the hated Fritzes with a sapper shovel - isn't that heroism?

I remember now one Uzbek 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, ensuring our success, and ourselves - the Order of the Patriotic War (for each knocked out tank relied on such an award) and the restoration of their officer rank. When I wanted to send him to the headquarters, he refused, even saying with some resentment: "To whom will I leave my gun?" What feeling can I have for such people? Only tenderness. " The writer served as an ordinary officer in the penal battalion.

Rehabilitation

How did the rehabilitation of the soldiers take place?

Here is what the retired captain Gudoshnikov tells about this:

“After one of the battles I was summoned by a company commander and ordered to draw up a so-called reinforcement sheet for all penalties, in which all the soldier's ammunition was put down against each surname. “We will rehabilitate the guys and transfer them to the replenishment of a neighboring regiment,” the company commander explained to me. - They fought well. Some of them stayed with us longer than they should. Consider - everyone has redeemed their guilt. Explain this to them. You cannot collect all in one place, you cannot build, and I where several at once, where one by one announced the rehabilitation. To my surprise, I saw and heard neither a sigh of relief, nor a joyful exclamation, nor any other emotions. Some of my platoon even regretted that we would have to leave ... Then commanders from a neighboring regiment came to our location, and we handed over the soldiers to them right at the combat positions. "

Only those penalty boxers who redeemed their guilt directly in battle were underway. There was not a single case to rehabilitate those who did not participate in the battles.

Major Amosov recalls: The restoration of rights was not delayed. Already in the medical battalion, when filling out a medical card, they told me the same military rank- Lieutenant and the unit from which I arrived at the penal battalion.

Captain Tretyakov: Not only the wounded could have been rehabilitated ahead of schedule. By order of our commander, such an order was introduced. A definite combat mission was set in the offensive. When performing it, as soon as they left the battle, a military tribunal was summoned 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 that. We tried to present to them, but we were told: "The penalties atone for their guilt, for what to reward him."

Conclusion

Penal battalions remained in action until the surrender of Germany.

Memories of soldiers and officers of penal units are the most important historical sources, working with which you can prepare Scientific research, as a result of which one 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 measures on the part of the Soviet command. Order number 227 was the decisive measure that stopped the retreat Soviet troops... Also, order number 227 determined the creation of penal units - special military units, consisting of guilty soldiers and officers of the Red Army.

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

During the battle, the penalty boxers performed their combat missions with flying colors, and always with heavy losses. Penalty companies and battalions were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, but not barrage detachments, and the morale of soldiers and officers ensured their difficult, subtle 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 opened historical facts oblige us to reconsider our attitude to the role forgotten after the victory of penal units in the Great Patriotic War, paying tribute to the veterans of penal companies and battalions of the Soviet army who did not receive awards and did not know honors.

Literature

A.V. Pyltsin. Free kick. SPb .: Knowledge IVESEP, 2003
A.V. Pyltsin. The Truth About Penal Battals, M6 Eksmo, 2008
Yu.V. Rubtsov. Penalties of the Great Patriotic War), Moscow: Veche, 2007
M. Suknev. Notes of the commander of the penal battalion. Memories of the battalion commander. 1941-1945. Moscow 6 Tsentropoligraf, 2006
Wikipedia. Penalty military units.
Newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" from 28.04.2005. Article by Inna Rudenko "Penalty battalion: what it was not in the cinema"
Order No. 227
Photos of the war years

Among the huge number of tragic pages of the Second World War, the history of penal units occupies a special place. Despite the fact that more than 75 years have passed since the end of the war, disputes around the penal battalions still do not subside.

V Soviet time this topic was not liked. It cannot be said that the USSR completely denied the existence of penal companies and battalions during the war, but historians could not get accurate information about the number of penalties, their use at the front and the losses of such units.

At the end of the 80s, as usual, the pendulum swung in reverse side... A huge amount of materials on penal battalions began to appear in the press, films were made on this topic. Articles about the heroes of the penal battalions, who were shot in the back by the NKVD officers from the detachments, became fashionable. The apotheosis of this campaign was the series about the war, "Penal Battalion," directed by Nikolai Dostal in 2004. Despite the good cast, only one thing can be said about this work: almost everything shown in it is not true.

What is it, the truth about penalties? It is bitter and tough, just like the entire era to which this phenomenon belongs. However, the topic of penal battles does not have that despair that opponents of the communist regime often portray.

The idea of creating penal units absolutely fit into the logic of the system, extremely tough and inhuman, it did not raise any special accusations of injustice at that time: if you are guilty - atone in blood. At that time, millions of Soviet citizens were wiped out in the "camp dust" without any possibility of redemption.

By the way, in this respect, the Soviet penal battalions and penal battalions can be called more "humane" than the penal battalions of the Wehrmacht - they know much less about them - in which it was only possible to survive by a miracle.

V last years there were good studies on this topic, memoirs were written by veterans who served in penal battalions (Pyltsin "How an officer's penal battalion reached Berlin"), filmed documentaries... Anyone can get objective information about this side of the war. We will also make our contribution to this good cause.

Penalty: punishment and atonement

Penalty units are military units manned by servicemen who have committed certain - usually not too serious - crimes. For serious offenses, the death penalty was usually imposed, which was widely used in the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. Accordingly, the soldiers of the penal units were usually called penalty boxes.

During World War II, there were two types of penal units in the USSR: penal battalions and penal companies. Around the middle of the war - 1943 - separate assault rifle battalions began to be created in the Red Army, into which soldiers and officers fell, long time located in the occupied territory. Service in such units was practically no different from penal battalions, and the practice of their use was similar. However, the assault battalions also had some differences, which will be described below.

However, one should not assume that penalty boxes are a Soviet invention: penal units appeared in Germany even before the start of World War II. Although, the practice of using guilty soldiers in the most dangerous areas of hostilities is much older.

Penalties were used even in Ancient Sparta, the ancient Greek historian Xenophon wrote about this. Special units, consisting of deserters and deviators, were in The great army Napoleon, to raise the morale behind them, they were "encouraged" by artillery fire.

In the Russian imperial army, penal units were formed at the end of the First World War, in 1917. But at that time, even such a measure could not save the situation at the front, the penalties did not take part in the battles, and after a few months these units were disbanded.

Penalty parts were used in the period Civil war... In 1919, by order of Trotsky, penal companies were formed for deserters and persons who committed criminal offenses.

In the USSR, the appearance of penal companies and battalions is associated with the famous order No. 227, which our military historians often call the order "Not a step back!" It was published in July 1942, during the most difficult period of the war for the Soviet Union, when German units were rushing to the Volga. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at that moment the fate of the country was hanging in the balance.

It should be noted that the personnel of penal units in the USSR was divided into two categories: permanent and variable. The permanent composition included the battalion (company) command, including the subunit headquarters, company and platoon commanders, political workers, medical instructors, foremen, signalmen and clerks. So the commander of the penal battalion (or penal battalions) could not be a penalty box. The commanding staff of such units were entitled to quite substantial benefits: one month of service was counted as six.

Now a few words about the personnel of the Soviet penal units. Officers were sent to penal battalions, and civilians who had committed certain crimes could also be sent to penal battalions, in addition to soldiers and sergeants. However, the courts and military tribunals were prohibited from sending people convicted of especially grave crimes (murder, robbery, robbery, rape) to penal companies. Could not get into such units and recidivist thieves or people who were previously brought to court under especially grave articles of the Criminal Code. The logic of such actions is clear: professional criminals have a special psychology that is hardly compatible with the army service.

Not sent to penal companies and convicted on political charges, which can also be easily explained: these people were considered "enemies of the people" who cannot be trusted with weapons.

However, a large number of The facts that have come down to us testify that both hardened criminals and people convicted under Article 58 did end up in the penal units. However, this cannot be called a mass phenomenon.

The armament of the penal units was no different from that used in combat units. The same can be said for food rations.

How important were the penalties

Separate assault battalions

These units appeared in 1943. They were recruited by servicemen who had been in the occupied territory: in captivity or surrounded. Such people were considered unreliable, they were suspected of possible cooperation with the Germans.

They were sent to the assault battalions for two months, while the servicemen did not lose their rank, but even the officers in such units performed the tasks of ordinary privates. As in penal battalions, an injury meant the end of the sentence, and the fighter was sent to a regular combat unit.

The use of assault units was similar to the use of penal battalions.

Wehrmacht fines

In Germany, there were also penal units, and they appeared earlier than the Soviet ones, and their attitude towards servicemen was even more harsh than in the USSR.

In 1936, the so-called Special Units were created in the Wehrmacht, to which servicemen were sent for various offenses. These parts were used to perform various construction and sapper works. They were not involved in the hostilities.

After the victorious conclusion of the Polish campaign, Hitler disbanded the German penal units, stating that now military uniform will be worn only by those who are worthy of it. However, the campaign that began in the East forced the Reich leadership to reconsider this decision.

In 1942, the so-called 500th battalions (500th, 540th, 560th, 561st), which were also called "test troops", were formed at the front. These units were very similar to Soviet penal battalions, but the Germans treated them a little differently. It was believed that the person who committed the crime was given another chance to prove his love for Germany and the Fuehrer. Soldiers sent to the 500th battalion usually faced shooting or a concentration camp. So the penal battalion was kind of a favor to him. True, it is very conditional.

Among the Germans, unlike the Red Army, the wound did not give rise to the termination of punishment. From the 500th battalion, they could be transferred to a regular combat unit for valor in battle or for completing some important mission. The problem was that the transfer was made according to the report of the commander, who was sent upstairs to the authorities, where it was scrupulously studied. It usually took several months to consider the case, but they still had to live in the penal battalion.

However, despite this, the 500th battalions fought very desperately. The 561st battalion defended the Sinyavinsky heights near Leningrad, which cost the Red Army enormous blood. Paradoxically, sometimes the 500th battalion performed the functions of detachments, supporting the rear of unstable divisions. More than 30 thousand servicemen passed through the German penal battalion.

There were also field penal units in the Wehrmacht, which were recruited directly in the combat zone and were immediately used.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

The video is dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, materials of two operational-KGB divisions of the NKVD of the USSR were published: the Directorate of Special Departments and the military counterintelligence and censorship. Declassified documents recreate a reliable picture of the state of the two opposing forces - the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. The dynamics can be traced not only the moods of servicemen, but also of various groups of the population, their expectations and behavior in the extreme conditions of wartime.

Fines during the Great Patriotic War: what really happened.

There are a lot of myths about penal battalions. They are generated by both feature films and no less art books... The truth in them is distorted beyond recognition.

1 Cannon Fodder

Thanks to pseudo-historical literature and cinematography, the penal battalions were perceived as "cannon fodder" with which we "threw the Germans". If you watch the TV series "Penal Battalion", you get the feeling that it was only thanks to the penal battalions that we won the victory in that terrible war. Without belittling the role of penalty boxers, it should be said that in reality the situation was completely different.

First, the number of penal units in the Great Patriotic War was not as high as they want to imagine. The annual size of the army and navy on the fronts of the war was 6-6.5 million people, while the proportion of penal units was virtually negligible - from 2.7 percent in 1943 to 1.3 percent in 1945.

The idea of penalties as "cannon fodder" was formed for the reason that they were, in fact, used in the most intense sectors of the front. Which was not strange, since they were created so that the guilty had the opportunity to "redeem with blood." However, for some reason, it is not always said that the same tasks that were performed by the penalties were carried out by line rifle and tank units. The high mortality rate in penal battalions (3-6 times higher than the combined-arms battalion) was explained precisely by the specifics of the tasks performed.

2 Fines as a sentence?

Contrary to the prevailing notion, they went to the penal battalion not to die, but to expiate. The term of service here was three months, or until the first injury (literal "blood redemption"). Moreover, if a fighter showed himself well in battle, he could be transferred to the linear units ahead of schedule and even presented for a reward. Among the Heroes of the Soviet Union there are those who were awarded this award precisely for their service in the penal battalion.

For example, in February 1944, the eighth OShB distinguished itself during the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation. The battalion secretly overcame the front line and conducted successful operations behind enemy lines for five days. As a result of these five days, the commander of the 3rd Army, General Gorbatov, by personal order released 600 of the 800 penalty boxes. In addition to reinstatement in ranks, former members of the penal battalion were also awarded the Order of Glory III degree and medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit". And this is not an isolated case when penalty boxers were transferred to linear units ahead of schedule and awarded.

3 Women's penal battalions

Recently, every now and then in the press and on the Internet there have been reports of the existence of women's penal battalions. They weren't there. There were women in penal battalions - and even then, only until October 1943, there were no separate battalions and could not have been. Women-servicemen, for whatever reasons violated the order, guilty, were sent to the rear. There were transfers of women to penal battalions, but this was not a common practice. For heroism shown in battle, women from penal units could, on a general basis, be transferred to line units and presented to government awards.

4 Convicts

The myth that penal battalions were actively filled with all sorts of criminal elements deserves a special role. Allegedly, there were many thieves and "political" ones among the penalties. This is not true. If there were former prisoners in the penal battalions, they were people convicted of minor, minor crimes. It is impossible to imagine the situation that was shown in the same TV series "Penal Battalion", when the recidivist Glybov occupies almost the main place in the penal battalion. The army, whatever they may be, is, first of all, discipline and order. The "dangerous element" was avoided, and if they did, it was only to penal companies, but not to battalions. By definition, the "political" could not be sent to a penal battalion. There was no such practice.

5 Equipment

Another myth about penal battalions that does not stand up to criticism is that penal fighters went almost with brass knuckles on tanks. In fact, the situation with weapons and supplies in penal battalions did not differ from the general front. The fines were conventional rifle formations with light weapons - machine guns and rifles. If there were any supply problems, they were no more serious than in the linear units. On the whole, good discipline was maintained in the penal battalions and statutory relations were maintained, contrary to the almost thieves' discipline shown in the series "Penal Battalion".

6 We are not the first

Fines are not an invention of "bloody Stalin". The first penalty units first appeared in the Wehrmacht. Even before the war in German army there were eight disciplinary battalions. They were mainly used for construction and demining work. After Poland's surrender, Hitler decided to disband these units, deciding that from now on, only people worthy of this "high honor" would serve in the Wehrmacht.

However, the Fuhrer had to change his decision in December 1941. The powerful counterattack of the Red Army showed that the ranks of "worthy people" are rapidly thinning and crumbling under the onslaught of Soviet troops. On December 16, Hitler issues an order similar to Stalin's "Not one step back" (which, by the way, appeared only six months later, like the penal battalions in Soviet army). On the Eastern Front, 100 penal companies were formed, which were called "part of the probation period." It is indicative that the service in them was determined by the term given to the guilty one by the military tribunal. The fascist penalty box could not atone for his guilt with blood. If he was wounded and he ended up in the hospital, then from there he went straight to his native penal battalion.

ORDER

People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

The enemy is throwing ever new forces to the front and, disregarding the great losses for him, climbs forward, rushes deep into the Soviet Union, seizes new areas, devastates and ravages our cities and villages, rapes, plunders and kills the Soviet population. The battles are taking place in the Voronezh region, on the Don, in the south at the gates of the North Caucasus. The German invaders are striving for Stalingrad, for the Volga and want to seize the Kuban and the North Caucasus with their oil and grain resources at any cost. The enemy has already captured Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuyki, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, half of Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern Front, following the alarmists, left Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without orders from Moscow, covering their banners with shame. The population of our country, who treats the Red Army with love and respect, begins to become disillusioned with it, loses faith in the Red Army, and many of them curse the Red Army for giving our people under the yoke of the German oppressors, and itself is leaking to the east. Some stupid people at the front console themselves by talking about how we can continue to retreat to the east, since we have a lot of territory, a lot of land, a lot of population and that we will always have an abundance of grain. By this they want to justify their shameful behavior at the front. But such conversations are thoroughly false and deceitful, beneficial only to our enemies.

Every commander, every Red Army soldier and political worker must understand that our means are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet Union is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intellectuals, our fathers and mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy has seized and is striving to seize, is bread and other products for the army and rear, metal and fuel for industry, factories, factories supplying the army with weapons and ammunition, railways... After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Donbass and other regions, we have less territory, therefore, it has become much less people, bread, metal, factories, factories. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 80 million poods of grain per year and more than 10 million tons of metal per year. We no longer have a preponderance over the Germans either in human resources or in grain reserves. To retreat further means to ruin oneself and at the same time ruin our Motherland. Each new piece of territory we have left will strengthen the enemy in every way and weaken our defense and our Motherland in every possible way.

Therefore, it is necessary to fundamentally suppress conversations that we have the opportunity to retreat endlessly, that we have a lot of territory, our country is large and rich, there is a lot of population, and there will always be an abundance of bread. Such conversations are deceitful and harmful, they weaken us and strengthen the enemy, for if we do not stop retreating, we will be left without bread, without fuel, without metal, without raw materials, without factories and plants, without railways.

It follows from this that it is time to end the retreat.

No step back! This should now be our main appeal.

We must stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory, cling to every piece of Soviet land and defend it to the last opportunity.

Our Motherland is experiencing hard days... We must stop and then push back and defeat the enemy, no matter what it takes. The Germans are not as strong as the alarmists think. They exert their last strength. To withstand their blow now means to ensure our victory.

Can we withstand the blow and then push the enemy westward? Yes, we can, because our factories and factories in the rear are now working perfectly and our front is receiving more and more aircraft, tanks, artillery and mortars.

What are we missing?

There is a lack of order and discipline in companies, regiments, divisions, in tank units, in air squadrons. This is now our main drawback. We must establish the strictest order and iron discipline in our army if we want to save the situation and defend our homeland.

We can no longer tolerate commanders, commissars, political workers, whose units and formations willfully leave their combat positions. It cannot be tolerated further when commanders, commissars, political workers allow several alarmists to determine the situation on the battlefield, so that they drag other fighters into retreat and open the front to the enemy.

Alarmists and cowards should be exterminated on the spot.

From now on, a demand must appear as an iron law of discipline for every commander, Red Army soldier, and political worker - not a step back without an order from the high command.

The commanders of a company, battalion, regiment, division, the corresponding commissars and political workers retreating from a combat position without an order from above are traitors to the Motherland. Such commanders and political workers should be treated like traitors to the Motherland.

This is the call of our Motherland.

To carry out this order means to defend our land, save the Motherland, destroy and defeat the hated enemy.

After their winter retreat under the onslaught of the Red Army, when discipline in the German troops was loosened, the Germans took some harsh measures to restore discipline, which led to good results. They formed 100 penal companies from fighters who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, put them on dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins with blood. They formed, further, about a dozen penal battalions of commanders who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, deprived them of their orders, placed them on even more dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins. They finally formed special barrage detachments, placed them behind unstable divisions and ordered them to shoot alarmists on the spot in case of an attempt to unauthorized abandonment of positions and in case of an attempt to surrender. As you know, these measures have had their effect, and now the German troops are fighting better than they fought in the winter. And so it turns out that the German troops have good discipline, although they do not have the lofty goal of defending their homeland, but there is only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, having the goal of defending their scolded homeland, do not have such discipline and tolerate this defeat.

2. The military councils of the armies and, above all, the commanders of the armies:

a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of corps and divisions who have allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions without an order from the army command, and send them to the military council of the front to be brought to court-martial;

b) to form within the army 3-5 well-armed barrage detachments (200 people in each), place them in the immediate rear of unstable divisions and oblige them in case of panic and indiscriminate withdrawal of divisional units to shoot alarmists and cowards on the spot and thus help honest fighters divisions to fulfill their duty to the Motherland;

c) form within the army from 5 to 10 (depending on the situation) penal companies (from 150 to 200 people in each), where to send ordinary soldiers and junior commanders guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them in difficult areas army to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.

3. Commanders and commissars of corps and divisions;

a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of regiments and battalions who allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of units without the order of the corps or division commander, take orders and medals from them and send them to the military councils of the front for trial by military court:

b) provide all kinds of assistance and support to the barrage detachments of the army in strengthening order and discipline in the units.

Read the order in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, teams, headquarters.

People's Commissar for Defense