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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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FJB
To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (861166)5/31/2015 2:25:46 PM
From: longnshort1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) of 1576155
 
As Soviet defeats continued into 1942, Stalin issued Order 227 that authorized a series of punitive measures against Soviet soldiers. The Red Army was ordered to form its own units of blocking troops to stiffen its soldiers, apparently there being insufficient NKVD units to go around.

Red Army blocking troops were not a great success, soldiers being reluctant to fire on their own, unlike the NKVD, and the innovation was quietly dropped later, leaving the NKVD again responsible for battlefield discipline.

Another innovation Order 227 introduced was penal battalions. Penal battalions were formed from those suspected of malingering (Order 227 authorized immediate execution of anyone showing cowardice under fire), liberated Red Army prisoners (automatically assumed to be guilty of cowardice) and Gulag prisoners from criminals to the politically suspect.

Penal battalions were assigned the most dangerous duties from clearing minefields by "trampling," frontal assaults on entrenched positions to scouting enemy positions before attacks. Penal battalions were often commanded by NKVD officers and were always backed by NKVD blocking troops.

About 420,000 Red Army soldiers served in penal battalions. In theory, death or severe injury in battle could redeem a soldier (or his family in case he was killed) but in practice a limited term in a penal battalion was a death sentence.
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