Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 227, July 28, 1942

Source: Tom 18

Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

No. 227

July 28, 1942, Moscow

The enemy throws ever new forces into battle and, without regard for heavy losses, pushes forward, penetrating deeper into the Soviet Union, seizing new areas, devastating and ruining our cities and villages, violating, robbing, and killing the Soviet population. The fighting rages in the area of Voronezh, on the Don, in the south at the gates of the North Caucasus. The German invaders are pushing toward Stalingrad, toward the Volga, and want at any price to seize the Kuban and the North Caucasus with their oil and grain resources. The enemy has already seized Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuiki, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, half of Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern Front, following the panic-mongers, abandoned Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without orders from Moscow, covering their banners with shame.

The population of our country, which treats the Red Army with love and respect, is beginning to become disillusioned with it, losing faith in the Red Army, and many of them curse the Red Army for surrendering our people to the yoke of the German oppressors while the Army itself flees eastward.

Some not very smart people at the front console themselves with talk that we can continue to retreat eastward, since we have much territory, much land, a large population, and that we will always have an abundance of grain. They say this to justify their shameful behavior at the front. But such talk is fundamentally false and deceitful, advantageous only to our enemies.

After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, the Donbas, and other regions we have far less territory, far fewer people, far less grain, far less metal, far fewer factories and plants. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 800 million poods of grain per year, and more than 10 million tons of metal per year. We no longer have superiority over the Germans in either human reserves or grain reserves. To retreat further means to ruin ourselves and at the same time to ruin our Motherland. Every new scrap of territory we abandon will strengthen the enemy and correspondingly weaken our defense, our Motherland.

Therefore it is time to stop retreating. Not one step back! Such must now be our main slogan. It is necessary to defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, to cling to every scrap of Soviet soil and defend it to the utmost.

Our Motherland is going through difficult days. We must halt and then throw back and destroy the enemy, whatever the cost. The Germans are not as strong as the panic-mongers think. They are straining their last forces. To withstand their blow now, in the next few months, means to ensure our victory.

Can we withstand the blow and then push the enemy westward? Yes, we can, for our factories and plants in the rear are now working excellently, and our front is receiving ever more aircraft, tanks, artillery, and mortars.

What then do we lack? We lack order and discipline in companies, battalions, regiments, divisions, tank units, and air squadrons. This is our main deficiency. We must establish the strictest order and iron discipline in our army if we want to save the situation and defend our Motherland.

We can no longer tolerate commanders, commissars, and political workers whose units abandon their positions at will. We can no longer tolerate the fact that commanders, commissars, and political workers allow a few panic-mongers to determine the position of the battlefield and to drag other soldiers into retreat, opening the front to the enemy.

Panic-mongers and cowards must be exterminated on the spot.

Henceforth the iron law of discipline for every commander, Red Army soldier, and political worker must be: not a single step back without orders from higher command.

Company, battalion, regiment, and division commanders, as well as the corresponding commissars and political workers, who retreat without orders from above are traitors to the Motherland. They must be treated as traitors to the Motherland.

Such is the call of our Motherland.

To carry out this order means to defend our land, to save the Motherland, to exterminate and vanquish the hated enemy.

After its retreat in the winter campaign under the pressure of the Red Army, when discipline in the German troops was shaken, the Germans took severe measures to restore discipline, which yielded good results. They formed more than 100 penal companies from soldiers who had violated discipline through cowardice or instability, placed them on dangerous sectors of the front, and ordered them to redeem their sins in blood. They furthermore formed about a dozen penal battalions from officers who had violated discipline through cowardice or instability, deprived them of their decorations, placed them on still more dangerous sectors of the front, and ordered them to redeem their sins. Finally, they formed special blocking detachments, placed them behind unreliable divisions, and ordered them to shoot panic-mongers and those attempting unauthorized retreat on the spot.

As is well known, these measures had an effect, and the German troops are now fighting better than they fought in the winter. And so it turns out that the German troops have better discipline than ours, although they do not have the exalted goal of defending their Motherland but only the predatory goal of conquering another country, while our troops, who have the exalted goal of defending their violated Motherland, do not have such discipline and therefore suffer defeat.

Should we not learn in this matter from our enemies, as our ancestors learned from their enemies in the past and then achieved victory over them?

I think we should.

The Supreme Command of the Red Army orders:

1. Military Councils of fronts and first of all front commanders shall:
a) Unconditionally eliminate retreatist sentiments in the troops and with an iron hand put a stop to propaganda claiming that we can and should keep retreating eastward, and that such retreat is not harmful;
b) Unconditionally remove from their posts and send to the Stavka for trial by military tribunal army commanders who have permitted unauthorized withdrawal of troops from occupied positions without orders from the front command;
c) Form within each front from one to three (depending on the situation) penal battalions (of 800 persons each) where commanders and corresponding political workers of all branches of the armed forces who have been guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability shall be sent, placing them on the more difficult sectors of the front to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.

2. Military Councils of armies and first of all army commanders shall:
a) Unconditionally remove from their posts commanders and commissars of corps and divisions who have permitted unauthorized withdrawal of troops without orders from the army command, and send them to the Military Council of the front for trial by military tribunal;
b) Form within each army three to five well-armed blocking detachments (up to 200 persons each), place them directly behind unreliable divisions, and oblige them, in the event of panic and disorderly retreat by units of the division, to shoot panic-mongers and cowards on the spot and thereby help the honest soldiers of the division carry out their duty to the Motherland;
c) Form within each army five to ten (depending on the situation) penal companies (of 150 to 200 persons each) where ordinary soldiers and junior commanders who have been guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability shall be sent, placing them on difficult sectors of the army to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.

3. Commanders and commissars of corps and divisions shall:
a) Unconditionally remove from their posts commanders and commissars of regiments and battalions who have permitted unauthorized withdrawal of units without orders from the corps or division commander, strip them of their decorations and medals, and send them to the Military Councils of the front for trial by military tribunal;
b) Render all possible assistance and support to the blocking detachments of the army in their effort to strengthen order and discipline in the units.

This order is to be read aloud in all companies, cavalry squadrons, batteries, air squadrons, teams, and staffs.

People's Commissar of Defense

I. Stalin