but stalin will tolerate no more rapid
retreats
and on the brink of catastrophe he
resorts as always
to terror
stalin's secret order number 227 issued
under his signature in late july 1942
this notorious document makes any
unauthorized retreat
punishable by death
not one step back stalin means it
literally
and this unique footage shows nkvd
troops putting his edict into practice
they are known as blocking units
deployed just behind the troops they
pass instant sentence on any who disobey
order 227
and the blocking troops themselves in
stalin's world
almost anybody can become a law enforcer
young and old conscripts national
minorities
nkvd personnel and some blocking units
can boast
an extraordinary collection of talents
on the left fought with them and knew
them well
the troops went into battle we were
following them
we were about 500 meters behind them
no one could turn and run back if
someone did
he would be shot on the spot by our
blocking units
or arrested by the special division of
nkvd
i had a carbine and then my friends got
a pistol for me
and i threw away the carbine
these siberians were quite old
a blocking unit was made up of siberians
former convicts who had robbed banks and
large factories
appropriate purveyors of stalin's bitter
medicine
enforcing the supreme commander's will
without hesitation or mercy
and stalin has introduced another
gremade to discipline
penal battalions
each of these convicts must serve in the
penal unit for three months
not a day more but for many that will be
too long
even petty transgressors pilferers
shurkas
anyone who upsets an officer have reason
to fear the red army's field tribunals
guilty is always their favored verdict
and the inevitable transfer to penal
service is virtually
a death sentence
they are the first thrown into every
hopeless fight the first to face every
deadly faster
yet they often fight well and with rare
commitment
soldiers with something to prove
terrified of course
but desperate to wipe away the stigma of
their misdoings
a battle wound is enough to earn release
but each casualty is carefully examined
by security officers
in case the damage should be
self-inflicted or the work of blocking
units
the genuinely wounded will find the
forgiving words
atoned with his own blood added to their
records
and the dead are granted the same
consolation though in life
they are expendable
cannon fodder their combat achievements
with penal units are ignored by official
records
that policy still outrages former red
air force pilot
artio mafia now guillermo
the pilots from the penal squadrons were
sent on the most dangerous missions
most important of all river crossings
which were fundamentally in deciding the
outcome of stalingrad
then to attack airfields and large
concentrations of tanks
the three types of mission that the
penal squadrons were sent on
but they were given no official
recognition for these combat missions
normally a pilot would carry out a
combat mission and normally for each one
he would get a credit
for ground attack squadrons it was the
number of combat missions that you
undertook that was important fighter
pilots would get a credit for every
dogfight and enemy aircraft shot down
but ground attack pilots would get a
credit for every combat mission
and this would all count towards the
pilot's war record
but the penal squadrons were not
credited with their combat missions
so you would fly you would fight you
would hit the germans
but you would not get credit for it
until you were eventually wounded
or until the commander might eventually
judge that you had served your term
and for any pilot in action the first
wound is usually the last
they may be forgiven for thinking that
capture is the safest way out of this
war
but though it is merciless arbitrary and
utterly dehumanizing
stalin's program of unbending oppression
does galvanize the red army
surrender yan was a commando with the
62nd army defending stalingrad
some people think that order 227 was a
criminal order
no it was vital to the country's defense
it was an important galvanizing factor
if there hadn't been that order those in
retreat who'd already got used to
falling back
would have continued but where could
they go
stalin was right when he said that
beyond the vulgar there was nowhere
further for us to retreat
one time when they tried to capture one
of our commanders he stood up in the
trench
just stood there in the trench and
showed them what he had