To begin with, a small educational program, what is a penal battalion and the history of this phenomenon. Penalty parts - special military units in the army, where during the war or hostilities, as a kind of punishment, the guilty military personnel who have committed a variety of crimes are sent. For the first time in Russia, penal formations appeared in September 1917, however, due to the complete collapse in the state and the collapse in the army, these units did not take part in the battles and were subsequently disbanded. Penal battalions in the Red Army appeared on the basis of Stalin's order No. 227 of July 28, 1942. Formally, these formations in the USSR existed from September 1942 to May 1945.
Myth 1. "Penal units in the Red Army were numerous, half of the Red Army soldiers fought in penal battalions."
Let us turn to the dry statistics of the number of fines in the USSR. According to archival statistical documents, the number (rounded) of fines in the Red Army: 1942. - 25 tons, 1943 - 178 tons, 1944 - 143 tons, 1945 - 81 tons. Total - 428 tons. Thus, in total, 428 thousand people visited penal units during the Great Patriotic War. Considering that during the Great Patriotic War, the ranks of the armed forces Soviet Union 34 million people passed, it turns out that the share of soldiers and officers who were penalized was no more than 1.25%. Based on the above statistics, it becomes clear that the number of penal battalions is greatly exaggerated and the influence of penal units on general environment at least not decisive.
Myth 2. "Penal units were formed only from prisoners and criminals of the USSR."
This myth is broken by the actual text of Order No. 227 itself. “... To form within the front from one to three (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people each), where to send medium and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them on more difficult sectors of the front, in order to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood. For ordinary soldiers and junior commanders guilty of similar violations, from 5 to 10 penal companies (from 150 to 200 people each) were created within the army. Thus, it is worth distinguishing between a penal company and a battalion, these are fundamentally different combat units.
Penal battalions were formed from officers who were guilty before the socialist fatherland, and not criminals, who were specially gathered into a separate battalion so that the "Germans would kill" them. Of course, not only military personnel could get into penal units, but also persons convicted by the bodies of the Soviet Union were sent, but courts and military tribunals were forbidden to send convicts as punishment to penal units of persons who were involved in counter-revolutionary activities, as well as persons convicted of robbery, robbery, repeated theft and all persons who had a previous conviction for the above crimes, as well as those who deserted from the Red Army more than once. In other cases, in order to send a person to serve in penal units, the identity of the convict, the details of the crime and other details of the case were taken into account. Not everyone and not everyone had a chance to atone for their crime with blood before the Motherland.
Myth 3. "Penal battalions were not combat-ready."
However, on the contrary, the penal battalions were distinguished by serious combat capability and put these units on the most dangerous and difficult sectors of the front. Penal battalions did not need to be forcibly raised into battle, the desire to return officer shoulder straps and rehabilitate before the Motherland was extremely great.
According to the memoirs of Alexander Pyltsin (Russian and Soviet writer, participant of the Great Patriotic War, historian. He was twice awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, the Order of the Red Banner and the medal "For Courage"): "Our units were urgently transferred to the most dangerous direction, reinforcing the regiment's battle formations. Mixing with his soldiers, we noticed that there was some kind of revival in their ranks. After all, they understood that next to them in the role of ordinary soldiers were recent officers in various ranks and they would go on the attack together. And some kind of fresh, irresistible force seemed to have poured into them.
During the attack on Berlin, the penalists were ordered to be the first to force the Oder and create a bridgehead for the rifle division. Before the battle, they reasoned like this: “At least some of the more than a hundred penalized companies of the company, let them swim, and if they swim, then they still had no impossible tasks. And let them capture a small bridgehead, but they will hold it to the last. There will be no way back from the penalty box, ”Pyltsin recalled.
Myth 4. "The soldiers of the penal units were not spared and sent to be slaughtered."
Usually this myth goes along with the text from Stalin's order No. 227 "... put them on more difficult sectors of the front in order to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood." However, for some reason they forget to cite special clauses from the “Regulations on Penal Battalions of the Active Army”, which states: “p.15. For military distinction, a penal may be released ahead of schedule on the proposal of the command of the penal battalion, approved by the military council of the front. For a particularly outstanding military distinction, a penal, in addition, is presented to government award". Based on this, it becomes clear that the main thing for exemption from punishment by a penal battalion is not death and “shedding of blood”, but military merit.
Of course, the penal units lost more soldiers than the usual garrisons of the Red Army, but do not forget that they were sent to the "most difficult sectors of the front", while the penal units showed their combat capability. For example, according to the results of the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation in February 1944, when the Eighth penal battalion operated behind enemy lines in in full force, out of a little more than 800 fines, about 600 were transferred to the usual parts of the Red Army, without "shedding blood", namely for military services to the Motherland. A rare combat mission performed by the penalists was left without the attention of the command and rewarding the soldiers. The command was interested in serving the sentence of the Red Army in penal units and in fulfilling the order, and not in their senseless death at the front. At one time, K.K. Rokossovsky, well characterized the words "redeemed with blood" as nothing more than an emotional expression designed to sharpen the sense of duty and responsibility in the war for one's own guilt.
Myth 5. "Penalmen went into battle without weapons."
In fact, penal battalions had weapons no worse than in ordinary units of the Red Army, and in some places even better, this was due to the fact that these units were sent, as a rule, only to "the most difficult sectors of the front." From the memoirs of A.V. Pyltsyn: “I want to draw the reader's attention to the fact that our battalion was constantly replenished with new weapons in sufficient quantities. We already had new PPSh assault rifles, which were not yet widely used in the troops, instead of PPD. We also received new PTRS anti-tank rifles (i.e. Simonovskie) with a five-shot magazine. In general, we have never experienced a lack of weapons.
I am talking about this because it was often stated in post-war publications that penalized men were driven into battle without weapons or they were given one rifle for 5-6 people, and everyone who wanted to arm themselves wished the speedy death of the one who got the weapon. In army penal companies, when their number sometimes exceeded a thousand people, as I was told many years after the war, officer Vladimir Grigoryevich Mikhailov (unfortunately, now deceased), who then commanded such a company, there were cases when they simply did not have time to bring the required number weapons, and then, if there was no time left for re-arming before completing an urgently assigned combat mission, some were given rifles, and others were given bayonets from them. I testify: this did not apply to officer penal battalions. There were always enough weapons, including the most modern ones.”
Thus, approaching the issue of penal units, in no case can we talk about the uselessness of such units, and even more so deny the heroism of the soldiers who fought for the freedom and independence of the socialist Fatherland in the same way as other parts of the Red Army. At the same time, in no case can one say that everything was kept on the penal parts, that there were penal parts around and that they were used as "cannon fodder". This is the real blasphemy in relation to people who went through the penal divisions of the USSR.
TsAMO RF. Card file of the Military Medical Museum for the accounting of hospitals.
Pyltsyn A. V. “Penal battalion in battle. From Stalingrad to Berlin without detachments.
Pyltsyn A. V. "Pages of the history of the 8th penal battalion of the First Belorussian Front."
A lot has been said about penal battalions during the Great Patriotic War. Among this flow 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 first months of the war gave impetus to the idea of penal battalions. In the conditions of the total retreat of the Red Army, cases of desertion or manifestations of cowardice became a frequent occurrence, to which the commanders often reacted in the most severe way - by execution. However, in October 1941, the People's Commissariat of Defense issued a decree stating that officers in some cases abuse their powers, arranging lynching. A search began for ways that could replace repression with the re-education of personnel.
The decision matured 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 another 77 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 20th Century: A Statistical Study”, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, 427,910 people were sent to penal companies and battalions.
From tankers to rear
Servicemen from different branches of the military were sent to the penal battalions, and the reasons could be very different. So, in August 1941, General Vasilevsky issued an order according to which personnel convicted of sabotage and wrecking were reduced to penal tank companies, and "hopeless, malicious self-seekers from tankers" should be sent to penal infantry companies.
On September 9, Stalin signed order No. 0685, which demanded that fighter pilots who evaded air combat be brought to justice and transferred to penal infantry, saw the light of day. The next day, a decree was issued by Major General of Artillery Aborenkov, ordering those who were careless about equipment and weapons to be sent to penal rifle battalions.
Those who did not want to fight managed to convincingly stage illnesses or injuries, but on November 12, 1941, the turn came to them. In accordance with order No. 0882, everyone who feigns illness and engages in self-harm was subject to sending to penal units. And since 1942, rear workers began to be sent to penal battalions - with the wording "for a soulless and bureaucratic attitude to their duties."
It was also possible to get from the rear to the penal battalion for completely insignificant faults, for example, for being late for work for more than twenty minutes, which was equivalent to absenteeism. If for the first time a reprimand was announced for such a violation, then for the second time they were judged: they could be given a term or sent to a penal unit.
Dangerous contingent
Recently, more and more often you can hear the exposure of the myth that the basis of the penal battalions were prisoners. Here everything depended on the part: somewhere the proportion of prisoners was scanty, but somewhere they prevailed. So, the deputy commander of the 163rd penal company of the 51st Army, Yefim Golbraikh, recalled that as a replenishment to his penal company they sent a train of criminals, “four hundred or more people,” which would be enough for a battalion.
In films about penal battalions, you can often see an episode of how, by order of the unit commander, a penal is beaten. Veterans who fought in penal units note that this is hardly possible, especially when it comes to a prisoner. Indeed, in battle, an officer could be ahead of a soldier punished by him, and no one wanted to get a field in the back.
But the prisoners had their own reason to fight in good faith. After all, a month in the penal battalion could write them off up to 4 years in prison, 2 months - up to 7, three months - up to 10. According to Holbreich, there were cases when the place of the murdered commander of the penal unit was taken by a convict - he made far from the worst boss: after all, there was a huge desire to rehabilitate.
under attack
For a long time there was an assertion that penal units served as a kind of "cannon fodder". Military historians have repeatedly refuted it. But, nevertheless, it should be recognized that the probability of dying in penal battalions was an order of magnitude higher than in ordinary parts 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”, in 1944 alone, the total loss of personnel from all penal units amounted to 170,298 people. Monthly losses averaged 14,191 people, or 52% of the average monthly number of fines. This figure is three times higher than the death rate among regular soldiers in the same offensive operations for 1944.
And yet, the penalty box had a chance to leave the place of punishment. For example, in February 1944, during the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation, soldiers of the 8th separate penal battalion distinguished themselves. The commander of the 3rd Army, General Gorbatov, by personal order, freed 600 of the 800 fines. Unlike our penal battalions, the German penitentiaries, even having atoned for their guilt by a feat, could not count on the indulgence of the command, and were forced to while away their term to the end.
Better than the Guard
“One rifle for three” - it seemed that this statement was the best fit for the soldiers of the penal battalions. But the veteran of the Great Patriotic War Alexander Pyltsyn, company commander of the 8th officer's penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, does not agree with this. According to him, 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 penalty boxers were often equipped with the most advanced weapons, such as Simonov anti-tank rifles or Goryunov 7.62-millimeter machine guns, which had not yet been used in guards units. Former penitentiaries said that they were fed no worse, and sometimes even better, than in other units.
"Raging Falcons"
Journalist Vitaly Karyukov, in a conversation with retired air marshal Alexander Efimov, found out one curious detail. It turns out that during the war there were so-called "penalty squadrons". According to the military, the command decided it would be inexpedient to send all the pilots who had made a mistake to a regular penal battalion, since it would take many months to prepare their replacement.
Among these penalties was the future Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Fedorov. However, he actually voluntarily asked for it in the penal battalion. In July 1942, driving LaGG-3 to the front line as a test pilot, he arbitrarily remained on the Kalinin Front. And already in August, he led one of the newly created penal squadrons. For a cool temper, the Germans awarded Fedorov with the title of "Red Devil", and his wards were called "brutal falcons." In total, 64 pilots of Fedorov's squadron accounted for 350 Nazi aces.
But not everyone fought in good faith. Subsequently, 66 offended by Soviet power pilots, and the Air Force command ordered the penal squadrons to be disbanded, sending the offenders to ordinary penal units.
Penal military units in the USSR
Penal units existed in the Red Army from July 25, 1942 to June 6, 1945; they were sent to the most difficult sections of the fronts in order to give the penalized the opportunity to “redeem their guilt before the Motherland with blood”; at the same time, large losses in personnel were inevitable.
The very first penal company during the Great Patriotic War was formed by the Army Separate Penal Company of the 42nd Army of the Leningrad Front - July 25, three days before the famous Order No. 227. As part of the 42nd Army, she fought until October 10 and was disbanded. The most recent penal company was the 32nd Army Separate Penal Company of the 1st Shock Army, disbanded on June 6.
For all the years of the Great Patriotic War, according to some sources, 827 thousand 910 people passed through penal units. Considering that during the entire war 34,476.7 thousand people passed through the army. , then the share of fines among them is approximately 4.2%.
For example, in 1944 the total losses of the Red Army (killed, wounded, prisoners, sick) - 6,503,204 people; of these, 370,298 were penalized. In total, in 1944 the Red Army had 11 penal battalions of 226 men each and 243 penal companies of 102 men each. The average monthly number of Army Separate Penal Companies in 1944 on all fronts ranged from 204 to 295. highest point The daily strength of the Army Separate Penal Companies (335 companies) was reached on July 20, 1943.
Basic terminology:
- Penal battalion (penal battalion) battalion.
In the Red Army, military officers of all branches of the armed forces went there, guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability. These units were formed by order People's Commissar Defense of the USSR No. 227 dated July 28, 1942 within the fronts in the amount of 1 to 3 (depending on the situation). They numbered 800 people. Regular officers commanded the penal battalions.
- Penal company (penalty)- a penal unit in the rank of a company.
In the Red Army, privates and sergeants of all branches of the military went there, guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability. These units were formed according to the Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 227 of July 28, 1942. within armies in the amount of 5 to 10 (depending on the situation). They numbered 150-200 people. Regular officers commanded penal companies.
- penal box- the colloquial name of a fighter of a penal military unit.
Penal military units in foreign armies
- Africa-Brigade 999
To the cinema
- goo-ha - Feature Film USSR, 1989 Directed by Vilen Novak.
- The Dirty Dozen- American film directed by Robert Aldrich based on a short story by Nathanson E.M. (1967).
- penal battalion- Russian television series (2004).
see also
Literature
- Daines V. O. Penal battalions and detachments of the Red Army (Series: Great Patriotic War: The Price of Victory) M .: Eksmo, 2008. - 448 p. ISBN 978-5-699-25316-6
- Pyltsyn A. V. Penalty kick, or How an officer's penal battalion reached Berlin. St. Petersburg: Knowledge, IVESEP, 2003. - 295 p.
- Pyltsyn A.V. The truth about penal battalions: How an officer's penal battalion reached Berlin. Ed. 3rd. (Series: Great Patriotic. unknown war) M.: Eksmo, 2008. - 512 p. ISBN 978-5-699-21470-9
- Pykhalov I., Pyltsyn A., Vasilchenko A. Penal battalions on both sides of the front (Series: Military History Collection) M .: Eksmo, 2007.
- Rubtsov Yu. V. Penal boxes of the Great Patriotic War. In life and on screen. (Series: Military secrets of the XX century) M.: Veche, 2007. - 432 p. ISBN 978-5-9533-2219-5
- Suknev M. Notes of the penal battalion commander. Memoirs of a battalion commander. 1941-1945 (Series: On the front line. The truth about the war) M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. - 264 p. ISBN 978-5-9524-2746-4
Links
- Penalty, assault and disciplinary units Makar Ivanovich Tonin
- Pyltsyn A. V. Penalty kick, or How an officer's penal battalion reached Berlin
- Pykhalov I. Penal boxes: truth and fiction
- Yuri Veremeev. Lies and truth about the penalty box. Excerpts from documents are given.
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See what the "Penal Battalion" is in other dictionaries:
penalty, penalty, penalty. 1. adj. to a fine. Penalty money. 2. adj., by value. associated with the imposition of a penalty for violation or non-performance of something. Penalty journal (for recording students' misconduct; pre-rev.). Free kick with the ball in ... ... Dictionary Ushakov
I m. 1. A serviceman sent by a court decision to a special disciplinary (penal) unit; penalty box 1.. 2. An athlete punished during a game for breaking the rules or for unsportsmanlike conduct; penalty box 2.. II m. Penalty ... ... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova
I m. 1. A serviceman sent by a court decision to a special disciplinary (penal) unit; penalty box 1.. 2. An athlete punished during a game for breaking the rules or for unsportsmanlike conduct; penalty box 2.. II m. Penalty ... ... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova
I m. 1. A serviceman sent by a court decision to a special disciplinary (penal) unit; penalty box 1.. 2. An athlete punished during a game for breaking the rules or for unsportsmanlike conduct; penalty box 2.. II m. Penalty ... ... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova
PENALTY, oh, oh. 1. see fine. 2. Relating to recovery for violation of any n. rules. Sh. blow (in team games with the ball). Penalty bench (in sports: for those who are temporarily removed from the field for violating the rules of the game). Sh. battalion, penal unit ... ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
free kick- I see the penalty area; Wow; m. A soldier sent to a penal unit, company, etc. Get into the penalty area. Served as a free kicker. II PO box, o/e. see also penalty 1) to a fine 1) W th taxes ... Dictionary of many expressions
A; m. [French. bataillon]. 1. A military unit of several companies and specialized platoons (usually part of a regiment or brigade). Rifle, sapper, tank b. B. special purpose. Disciplinary, penalty b. ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Aya, oh. 1. to Fine (1 digit). High dachshunds. W th sanctions. W th money (which is a fine). 2. Appointed for violation of smth.; which is a fine (2 digits). Drink sh. a glass for being late. Get a second point. The judge appoints sh. hit. Shaya bench ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Penal battalions firmly entered the arsenal of the "denunciators" of the Red Empire. If you learn our history from serials and films such as "Penal Battalion", "Bastards", then a picture is created where the war was won solely due to the fact that they filled up the enemy with the corpses of fines, with the help of NKVD barrage detachments and even using children as saboteurs. The rest of the army, apparently, only got confused under the feet of penal battalions (of criminals and political prisoners). According to the film "Penal Battalion", the penitentiaries either cut each other, or rob warehouses, play cards and fight in between.
Penal battalion. 1943
Once there was a dispute about the merits of the film "Penal Battalion", which I did not like, I read and heard something about such units and subdivisions. So a lot of things were wrong there. But here is an eyewitness article. We present it in full. Still, I'm right.
A few words about the movie "Shtrafbat"
"Penal Battalion" is not the first film about fines and, as in the previous ones, there are a lot of errors, even more gag and just lies. Penal companies and battalions were created by Stalin's order No. 227 of July 28, 1942, known as the "Not one step back" order.
“Today, July 28, 1942,” the order said, “the troops of the Red Army left the city of Rostov, covering their banners with shame ...”. According to this order, from 3 to 5 penal companies were created in the combined arms armies, and at each front from 1 to 3 (in the second half of the war, respectively, 3 and 1) and detachments received the right to "stop the retreating by any means."
The commander of a penal company and a penal battalion (but not an assault one) has the right to increase the term of the fine, and for a particularly serious crime - desertion - to be shot. The penalty is removed on the first injury or serving time. It is also taken from the dead, otherwise the family will not receive a pension. A wild shot with the execution of their own fines so that families receive a pension is blasphemy. I don’t know how it was in 1942-43, but in 1944-45 no detachments stood behind us.
Penal companies - army, and battalions - front-line subordination. And the divisions, in the areas of which reconnaissance in force or a breakthrough is planned, are not attached FOR ALL. At any time, they can be transferred by the Command to the site of another division. NO departments of the division headquarters, except for the operational one - including the SPECIAL one - DO NOT have any relation to the penal company, penal and assault battalions. Penal units are subordinate to the division commander ONLY in operational terms.
In theory, a special department of the Army should deal with penal companies, and a special department of the front should deal with penal and assault battalions. The Army and the Front are huge formations. They are not up to us. They have enough headaches, and no one will look for themselves extra work. It has already been done when sent to the penalty box.
I am not aware of cases where the penalty box remained hungry. Penal subdivisions have their own economic services and receive food, uniforms and vodka from army warehouses, bypassing the division and regiment, where they will steal something.
Crossbowmen were not spared - no doctor would take risks. "Own" bullet still does not mean anything, the Germans had a huge amount of captured weapons; It could have been an accidental shot. The crossbow is determined by pinpoint burns from grains of gunpowder around the wound inlet. Almost all penalty boxers are wearing helmets. They were not favored even in ordinary units and were thrown out after gas masks. The Russian soldier is saved not by a helmet, but by the almighty word "maybe ..."
But the clearing of the battlefield from anti-personnel mines (and not only by penalty box!) Is true. This was confirmed by Marshal Zhukov in a conversation with General Eisenhower, having met with him in Moscow in the summer of 1945. In his memoirs, the general wrote what would happen to the American or British Commander if they resorted to such a practice ...
Penal units are different not only in their composition, but also in fighting spirit. Penal and assault battalions do not need to be raised to attack. The desire to rehabilitate and return, who is lucky, with officer epaulettes and the right to occupy the previous or equivalent positions (as a rule, they went down) is great. Penal companies are another matter. It is a delusion to think that the criminals who made up the main contingent of these companies are eager to give their lives for their homeland. Quite the contrary. And the author does not know about this from such films ... And there were no penal brigades at all.
For what they got into the penalty box: leaving a position without an order, showing cowardice in battle, abuse of power, theft, insulting a senior in rank or position, a fight. Criminals, depending on the criminal record, from 1 to 3 months.
NEVER officers of the army in the field, whom the Military Tribunal did not demote and retained military ranks, were not sent to penal companies - only to officer penal battalions for a period of one to three months or until the first wound.
NEVER officers who got out of the encirclement, fled or released from captivity by the advancing units of the Red Army were not sent to either penal companies or penal battalions - only and exclusively to assault battalions, where the terms did not vary - 6 (six!) months for all! But before that, they had to go through the “purgatory” of the NKVD camps, where they had to prove that they had not abandoned their weapons and had not voluntarily gone over to the side of the enemy, and those who did not succeed were sent to prisons and camps, and sometimes to execution ... These camps , if they differed from the German ones, then for the worse ... In one of them in the morning, 200 (two hundred) grams of cereal were given out for the whole day: cook on whatever you want, in whatever you want ...
NEVER criminals were not sent to serve their sentences in officer penal battalions - only in penal companies, like privates, sergeants and officers demoted by the Tribunal.
NEVER political prisoners were not sent to penal companies, nor to penal or assault battalions. Although many of them - sincere patriots - rushed to the front to defend their homeland. Their destiny was logging.
NEVER penal companies were not located in settlements. And outside the combat situation, they remained in the field, in trenches and dugouts. The "contact" of this difficult contingent with civilian population is fraught with unpredictable consequences. A party in the village is absurd.
NEVER, even after a minor injury and regardless of the time spent in the penal unit, no one was sent to the penal company or battalion again.
NEVER in the penal divisions, no one addressed the authorities as “citizen”. Only comrade. And the commanders did not call their subordinates penalized.
NEVER the commanders of penal units and units were not appointed penalized. The commander of an assault battalion, as a rule, is a lieutenant colonel, and the commanders of his five companies: three rifle, mortar and machine gun companies are career officers, NOT penalized. Platoon commanders are appointed from penal officers.
NOBODY, except for political workers, did not "bless" the penalty box before the fight. The blessing of the soldiers and officers of the penal battalion before the battle by the PRIEST is bullshit, a mockery of the truth and unworthy flirting with the Church. The scene is completely fake. Was the film made with the money of the Church? This was not the case in the Red Army. And it couldn't be.
The film distorts the history of the Great Patriotic War and, given the importance, possibilities and influence of television, causes irreparable harm to a new generation that did not know the war and does not know the truth about it. The younger generation will think that it was so. It was, but not like that.
The demonstration on television of the “Penal Battalion” on the Victory Day, the most expensive for front-line soldiers, cannot but cause condemnation and disappointment. If the creators of the film (dir. Nik. Dostal, scenes. Ed. Volodarsky) are, as they deserved, “degraded to the ranks”, I would gladly enlist them in the 163rd penal company of the 51st Army, of which I was deputy commander ...
