Why were they in penal battalions during the Second World War, and How did they survive there?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The attitude to the most controversial historical events in the USSR changed like a pendulum. The topic of penal battalions was initially taboo, it was almost impossible to get accurate information on the number of soldiers in penal battalions. But after the 80s, when the Poyatnik took the opposite position, a lot of materials, articles and documentaries on this topic began to appear, which were also far from the truth. Rightly believing that the truth is somewhere in between, it is worth separating the wheat from the chaff and understanding what is true in this story and what is fiction.

The truth about penal battalions is obvious, in fact, cruel and difficult, however, it cannot be otherwise, since we are talking about wartime. But the penal battalions do not have that despair with which the opponents of the communist regime and just some contemporaries portray it.

If penal battalions were to appear somewhere, then it definitely had to be the USSR. A rigid system, sometimes inhuman, it nevertheless did not raise questions about the need to wash off one's guilt with blood. Millions of innocent people did not have this opportunity, spending their lives in the dungeons of the GULAG. Modern historians agree that the Soviet penal battalion was much more humane than the German one. In the latter, there was practically no chance of surviving. And yes, in this war, the penal battalion was the first to be introduced by the Nazis, but not as a place for re-education, but as the last place of exile. It was impossible to leave the German penal battalion, but completely from the Soviet one. And this is their main difference.

From German captivity straight to the penal battalion

The opinion is often voiced, they say, in the country of the Soviets, where there were many uncomfortable questions to a person freed from captivity, a soldier after captivity was waiting for a penal battalion. However, the approximate distribution after the release of Soviet prisoners of war in 1946 shows that they were not at all driven into penal battalions. 18% were immediately sent home, more than 40% became part of military units, another 20% - workers' battalions, 2% remained in filter camps, and 15% were transferred to the NKVD for investigations.

Those who were sent to their military units then drove home after being demobilized. Those who went to the NKVD were subject to more detailed investigation due to suspicions of links with the German side. Not everyone who fell into the hands of the Chekists then went to the camps, there are enough of those who ended up in the camp and actually deserved such a fate. Although this does not deny the fact that many ended up in the camp dungeons completely undeservedly. But we are talking about exceptional cases, and not about massive repressions by the NKVD in relation to yesterday's captives.

Such reasoning leads to one thing - an ambiguous perception of the Shtarfbat members and those who gave their lives for the Victory, fighting on the front lines. 34.5 million Red Army soldiers took part in battles during all the years of the war. Among the fighters who were fined there were slightly more than 400 thousand, that is, this is less than one and a half percent of the total amount of fighters.

The spring and summer of 1942 were extremely difficult for the Red Army. In the struggle for Kharkov, about 500 thousand people were lost, the Nazis took the Crimea, Sevastopol, broke through to the Volga, increasing the occupied territories. Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don had already fallen under the onslaught … It seemed that the retreat of the Red Army would not be able to fix anything. At the same time, each lost territory meant a loss of resources - the Union had already lost its connection, fears were caused by the Caucasus, breaking through to which the fascist could deprive the army of fuel. This could not be allowed.

This became fertile ground and quite sufficient reason for the creation of the order, which went down in history under the code: "Not a step back!" The document speaks of the losses of the Union in the war, a call to understand that every kilometer of the Motherland is people, this is bread, it is factories and factories, roads, including those that supply the army with everything necessary for victory - runs through the entire text as a red thread. It is openly stated that the loss of resources has led to the fact that there is no advantage over the Germans either in human resources or in food or industrial supplies. To retreat means to lose the Motherland.

The document condemns the action of some troops, which surrendered their positions almost without a fight. Actually, this task was the main one, of those that were set by this document - to shake up the army, bring it to full combat readiness, raise patriotic mood and improve disciplinary indicators in units. Ironically, for this it was decided to resort to the practice used by the Nazi enemies. It was they who invented a way to increase the fighting assertiveness in the ranks. The brutal measures have produced tangible results.

The German principle was to create a special company, in which fighters who had previously demonstrated cowardice and deserters gathered. They were sent to the most dangerous areas first, precisely to atone for their guilt at the cost of their own lives. They were commanded by the same penal commanders. These measures led to the fact that the German army became more confident to go on the offensive. After all, those in front were those who had nowhere to retreat.

Penal Troops Forms

"Penalty battalion" - was fixed as the main name for all penalty boxers, while they were formed according to their rank. For example, there were penal companies for privates and sergeants, and penal battalions for command personnel. This was done in order to maintain the chain of command between the fighters and because of the different levels of their training. A penal battalion, which was mainly composed of graduates of military educational institutions, could be sent on more complex tasks. While the company of penalties did not trust this. One army could have up to three battalions of penalties, in which there were up to 800 people and up to a dozen companies, numbering up to 200 soldiers.

With the light hand of the film "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" began to be considered, they say, criminals, albeit convicted of minor offenses, were sent to penal battalions. And massively. However, no one specifically organized such a practice. Yes, such an opportunity was provided to criminals (not all). Instead of going to prison, he could go to the front line and wash off the shame of the crime with blood. But before sending the former prisoner to the war, he was checked by a special commission (and then, after his corresponding statement) and only then could such a desire be approved or a ban was imposed. Deserters and underminers of morale at the front were not needed.

However, if the Germans had a penalty battalion forever, that is, in fact, it did not imply redemption by blood, but was a banal direction to certain death, then the Red Army was different. After three months of service in the penalty box, the punishment was considered closed, and the debt redeemed. If we talk about prisoners, then three months in the penal battalion was equal to a decade of imprisonment, if the term of conviction was shorter, then the time in the penal battalion was shorter. Needless to say, for the prisoners it was not just a real chance to be released, but also to return to normal life.

For ordinary soldiers who ended up on the firing line for violation of discipline, the wound that required hospitalization was already sufficient to transfer him to his troops after treatment. It was believed that a battle wound is the very redemption by blood. The ranks for the military were returned back. That is, even getting into a penal battalion did not mean the end of a military career and life for Soviet soldiers. Continuing to show valor in battle, he could regain the favor of the leadership and the respect of his fellow soldiers. Sometimes penalty boxers were presented for awards for particularly outstanding feats.

Penalty Command and Discipline

If the Germans were allowed to command the penalty box commanders of the same fault, then this was not the case in the Soviet army. Moreover, the penalties had no ranks, except for division into battalion and company. And not a single Soviet commander-penalty box was allowed to command. And it was probably a smarter decision. After all, the Soviet troops, like no one else, watched over the purity of the thoughts of their fighters.

Therefore, the penalties had a permanent composition of management, medical personnel and staff workers, unlike the soldiers, they did not change and worked on a permanent basis.

It was possible to please the penal troops by violating military discipline and showing cowardice. First of all, we are talking about attempts to retreat, manifestations of cowardice and non-observance of orders. In the second half of the war, it was possible to get into the penalty boxes for the loss of weapons, damage to property. Those who committed a crime under war conditions were also exiled here, for which they are criminally responsible.

In the penal battalions themselves, military discipline was nowhere stricter, it is not surprising, because the soldiers were sent for re-education. The most strict and peremptory officers served here, who not only maintained morale and discipline, but also conducted constant ideological training of the personnel.

NKVD detachments and penal battalions

Obstacle detachments - firing troops following the advancing ones, are by no means a Soviet notion. This practice was used in antiquity, not allowing the soldiers to retreat in panic. It was they who replenished penal battalions and companies with those trying to escape from the battlefield or deserters. Alarmists and those who retreated without orders fell into their hands.

In the USSR, at the very beginning of the war, special detachments appeared under the NKVD, which were supposed to perform this function. According to the document on the creation of such a structure, it was entrusted with many tasks, and not just intimidating its own soldiers. • Detention of deserters was the main and main task of the newly created department. The soldier had to be sure that if he did not go on the offensive now, then from behind he would fall into the hands of his own, but straight to the camp with the shameful stigma of a deserter and a traitor. • Preventing anyone from entering the front line. • Detention of suspicious persons and further investigation of their case.

Separate rifle detachments were engaged in alarmists and deserters, they worked from ambushes, specially identified those who voluntarily left the duty station or disobeyed the command. They were supposed to immediately arrest anyone suspected of desertion and bring the case to a military tribunal. But they had to, upon finding those who had lagged behind their troops, organize its delivery to the place of service.

Yes, the soldiers of such a detachment could shoot a deserter, but only in exceptional cases, when the situation required an immediate reaction, and to restore order in the ranks. To put it simply, they could demonstratively shoot the chief alarmist so that those who were running after him would return to the front line. But each such incident was considered on an individual basis and the commander had to answer for every deserter killed.

In the event that it turned out that the execution was with a clear excess of authority, then the commander himself, who gave such an order, was sent to the military tribunal. The detachments arose before the penal battalions and not at all to drive them up.

In one army, there should have been up to five detachments of barriers, moreover, armed to the teeth. Each detachment of 200 people, they always acted directly in the rear, but close to the front line.

So, for three months in 1942, near the line of the Don front, detachments of intercessors detained more than 35 thousand deserters, about 400 were shot, more than 700 were arrested, more than 1,100 people were sent to penal companies and battalions, the overwhelming majority were returned to their troops. The detachments did not go in a solid line behind the advancing or defensive line. They were exhibited selectively, and only for those parts whose morale left much to be desired.

Do not think that the entire front line was advancing only thanks to the NKVD officers, who urged on the Red Army, of course not. Their work was carried out pointwise. They did not have a goal to shoot soldiers, their main task was to bring people to their senses - how to slap a hysterical person - to shoot an alarmist or intimidate him and thereby save the operation. Statistics say that this task was carried out, and quite successfully, and there is no talk of any mass executions.

At the same time, the detachments did not follow the penalty boxes at all. The latter were used to hold defensive positions, while penalty boxers most often went on the offensive. Although in manual mode, the command could decide that such a strengthening was necessary to maintain discipline, but this was rather an exception to the rule. But it was not a question of destroying the companies by shooting them from both sides. The soldiers were supposed to return to fight, and not be destroyed, and by their own.

Cannon fodder or advanced fighters?

There are many myths that penalty boxes were used as cannon fodder. However, historians have repeatedly argued that this is not the case. Yes, the risk of death on the front lines has always been higher than anywhere else. Monthly losses among penalty boxers exceeded 50%, which is three times higher than the average death rate in the army. But they also have a lot of heroes on their account. History knows cases when penalty boxers were freed en masse for special valor in battle. So, General Gorbatov freed six hundred penalties after the battle.

Those who fought in penal battalions also disagree with the fact that the level of weapons in such troops was allegedly useless. Considering that we are talking about the front line, about the most difficult and dangerous areas, the soldiers were supplied with advanced weapons. Often, in ordinary units, they did not even know about such weapons, and the penalties had already fought with them. This approach cannot be called erroneous, because the goal was to achieve a result, and not to destroy the guilty soldiers.

Be that as it may, penal battalions and companies served not only as an educational tool, but also contributed to the strengthening of military discipline and contributed to the approach of Victory over fascism.