History and role of order number 227 during the Great Patriotic War
The most famous, most terrible and most controversial order of the Great Patriotic War appeared 13 months after its start. We are talking about Stalin's famous order No. 227 of July 28, 1942, known as "Not a step back!"
What was hidden behind the lines of this extraordinary order of the Supreme Commander? What caused his frank words, his cruel measures, and what results did they lead to?
"We no longer have a preponderance over the Germans …"
In July 1942, the USSR again found itself on the brink of disaster - having withstood the very first and terrible blow of the enemy in the previous year, the Red Army in the summer of the second year of the war was again forced to retreat far to the east. Although Moscow was saved in the battles of the past winter, the front was still 150 km away. Leningrad was in a terrible blockade, and in the south, after a long siege, Sevastopol was lost. The enemy, having broken through the front line, captured the North Caucasus and rushed to the Volga. Once again, as at the beginning of the war, along with courage and heroism among the retreating troops, there were signs of a decline in discipline, alarmism and defeatist sentiments.
By July 1942, due to the retreat of the army, the USSR had lost half of its potential. Behind the front line, in the territory occupied by the Germans, before the war, 80 million people lived, about 70% of coal, iron and steel were produced, 40% of all the railways of the USSR ran, there was half of the livestock and sown areas that previously gave half of the harvest.
It is no coincidence that Stalin's order No. 227 for the first time very frankly and clearly told the army and its fighters about this: “Every commander, every Red Army soldier … must understand that our means are not unlimited … The territory of the USSR, which the enemy seized and seeks 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 Baltic States, Donbass and other regions, we have less territory, therefore, there are much fewer people, bread, metal, factories, factories … We no longer have a predominance over the Germans either in human resources or in bread reserves … Retreating further means ruining yourself and ruining our Motherland at the same time."
If earlier Soviet propaganda described first of all successes and successes, emphasized the strengths of the USSR and our army, then Stalin's order No. 227 began precisely with a statement of terrible failures and losses. He emphasized that the country stands on the brink of life and death: “Each new piece of territory we have left will strengthen the enemy in every way and in every way weaken our defense, our Motherland. Therefore, it is necessary to radically 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, because 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."
"To retreat further means to ruin yourself and ruin our Motherland."
Poster by Vladimir Serov, 1942. Photo: RIA Novosti
Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 227, which appeared on July 28, 1942, was read out to personnel in all parts of the fronts and armies already in early August. It was on these days that the advancing enemy, breaking through to the Caucasus and the Volga, threatened to deprive the USSR of oil and the main routes of its transportation, that is, to finally leave our industry and equipment without fuel. Together with the loss of half of human and economic potential, this threatened our country with a fatal catastrophe.
That is why order number 227 was extremely frank, describing losses and difficulties. But he also showed the way to the salvation of the Motherland - the enemy had to be stopped at all costs on the approaches to the Volga. "No step back! - Stalin addressed in the order. - We must stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory … Our Motherland is going through difficult days. We must stop and then push back and defeat the enemy, no matter what it takes."
Emphasizing that the army is receiving and will receive more and more new weapons from the rear, Stalin, in order No. 227, pointed to the main reserve within the army itself. “There is not enough order and discipline … - the leader of the USSR explained in the order. - 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."
But Order No. 227 contained more than a moral appeal for discipline and perseverance. The war required harsh, even brutal measures. "From now on, retreating from a combat position without an order from above are traitors to the Motherland," said Stalin's order.
According to the order of July 28, 1942, commanders guilty of retreating without an order were supposed to be removed from their posts and brought to trial by a military tribunal. For those guilty of violations of discipline, penal companies were created, where soldiers were sent, and penal battalions for officers who violated military discipline. According to Order No. 227, "those guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability" must be "put on difficult areas of the army in order to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood."
From now on, the front, until the very end of the war, did not do without penalty units. From the moment of the issue of Order No. 227 and until the end of the war, 65 penal battalions and 1,048 penal companies were formed. Until the end of 1945, 428 thousand people passed through the "variable composition" of penalties. Two penal battalions even took part in the defeat of Japan.
Penal units played a significant role in ensuring brutal discipline at the front. But one should not overestimate their contribution to victory - during the years of the Great Patriotic War, no more than 3 out of every 100 servicemen mobilized into the army and navy went through penal companies or battalions. “Penalties” accounted for no more than 3-4% in relation to the people who were on the front line, and in relation to the total number of conscripts - about 1%.
Gunners during the battle. Photo: TASS
In addition to penal units, the practical part of Order No. 227 provided for the creation of barrage detachments. Stalin's order demanded "to put 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 divisional fighters to fulfill their duty to the Motherland."
The first detachments began to be created during the retreat of the Soviet fronts in 1941, but it was Order No. 227 that introduced them into general practice. By the fall of 1942, 193 defensive detachments were already operating on the front line, 41 detachments took part in the course of the Stalingrad battle. Here such detachments had a chance not only to carry out the tasks set by Order No. 227, but also to fight the advancing enemy. So, in Stalingrad besieged by the Germans, a detachment of the 62nd Army was almost completely killed in fierce battles.
In the fall of 1944, the barrage detachments were disbanded by Stalin's new order. On the eve of victory, such extraordinary measures to maintain front-line discipline were no longer required.
"No step back!"
But let's return to the terrible August 1942, when the USSR and all Soviet people were on the brink of mortal defeat, not victory. Already in the XXI century, when the Soviet propaganda ended long ago, and in the "liberal" version of the history of our country the continuous "chernukha" prevailed, the front-line soldiers who went through that war gave their due to this terrible, but necessary order.
Vsevolod Ivanovich Olimpiev, a soldier of the Guards Cavalry Corps in 1942, recalls: “It was, of course, a historical document that appeared at the right time with the aim of creating a psychological turning point in the army. In an order unusual in content, for the first time, many things were called by their proper names … The very first phrase "The troops of the Southern Front covered their banners with shame, leaving Rostov and Novocherkassk without a fight …" After the issuance of Order No. 227, we almost physically began to feel how the nuts were being tightened in the army."
Sharov Konstantin Mikhailovich, a war veteran, recalled in 2013: “The order was correct. In 1942, a colossal retreat began, even a flight. The morale of the troops dropped. So Order No. 227 was not issued in vain. He left after Rostov was left, but if Rostov stood the same as Stalingrad …"
Soviet propaganda poster. Photo: wikipedia.org
The terrible Order No. 227 made an impression on all Soviet people, military and civilian. It was read out to the personnel at the fronts in front of the formation, it was not published or voiced in the press, but it is clear that the meaning of the order, which was heard by hundreds of thousands of soldiers, became widely known to the Soviet people.
The enemy quickly learned about him. In August 1942, our intelligence intercepted several orders from the German 4th Panzer Army, which was rushing towards Stalingrad. Initially, the enemy's command believed that "the Bolsheviks were defeated and Order No. 227 could no longer restore either discipline or the stubbornness of the troops." However, literally a week later, the opinion changed, and the new order of the German command already warned that from now on the advancing "Wehrmacht" would have to face a strong and organized defense.
If in July 1942, at the beginning of the offensive of the Nazis to the Volga, the rate of advancement to the east, deep into the USSR, was sometimes measured in tens of kilometers per day, then in August they were already measured in kilometers, in September - in hundreds of meters per day. In October 1942, in Stalingrad, the Germans regarded an advance of 40-50 meters as a great success. By mid-October, such an "offensive" had stopped. Stalin's order "Not a step back!" was carried out literally, becoming one of the most important steps towards our victory.
