Balthus hurried. Calling Kolychev a fellow captain, he made it clear that the issue of his rehabilitation could be considered resolved. This is a matter of time: some one and a half to two weeks necessary to complete the established procedure of formalities in the Military Council of the Front, where the battalion sent submissions to those especially distinguished fighters in the battles who, without being injured, without shedding blood, nevertheless fell under the definition of redeemed guilty and deserving of release from the battalion.

The procedure for considering and approving submissions was of a generally accepted protocol nature with a predictable result. When making a decision, members of the Military Council, as a rule, did not delve into the details of the personal affairs and combat characteristics of the applicants, individually, but “voted” the list as a whole. That was before and after Stalingrad. All whom the command of the battalion represented for the removal of a criminal record and restoration of their former rights received the desired freedom. Therefore, Balthus had no reason to doubt and worry about the expected end result.

But this time the unexpected happened. Failureless clerical mechanism failed. To some of the members of the Military Council, a list of 81 people - two full-blooded platoons - seemed unreasonably overpriced. “Justifying fines with whole platoons is too much!” The question was returned for revision. Then only 27 names remained in the list. Exactly one third of the originally declared composition.

The last paragraph of the decision to the commander of the battalion, Major Balthus, suspected of excessive loyalty and conciliatory sentiments contrary to the current Regulation on penal units, members of the Military Council pointed out the inadmissibility of such actions in the future. This sounded like an accusation of underestimating and misunderstanding the fullness and complexity of the responsibility assigned to him, casting doubt on the correspondence of his commanding moral-volitional qualities to the standards of strict party exactingness and integrity. The Military Council saw the precariousness in the ability of the battalion commander to successfully solve the task assigned to him.

This is not to say that Balthus remained deaf to the danger of warning, but he was hurt more by something else. The fact that the list of twenty-seven lucky ones did not include the name of Kolychev, whom he managed to reassure so recklessly and recklessly.

Despite the stinginess of external manifestations and the apparent isolation, developed in him by the nature and conditions of service, Baltus was extremely scrupulous and painful about everything that affected his name, could at least in passing, inadvertently, damage his reputation, put empty deeds and promises in the eyes of subordinates . Knowing thoroughly the “kitchen” of the headquarters office work, he assumed that the “refinement of the question” was reduced to the simplest possible, purely mechanical operation — the trimming. The list was most likely lowered to the grassroots clerical table and accepted for execution by the rank-and-file staff pen, who performed this operation by using a pen, like a scalpel, to make ink cut-outs according to the given two-to-one formula. Two sketches - a pass, two sketches - a pass.

Balthus was not even informed, although they had to either return the submissions to the battalion headquarters for clarification, or involve the battalion commander in finalization. But they didn’t do either one more than further incite Balthus’s protest indignation: the fate of the people was decided not by him, the battalion commander, an official authorized person who was granted this right, but an insignificant, nameless clerical screw, which he shared with a passionless performing stroke of the pen penalties on the right and left.

Balthus was weighed down by the sudden guilt that appeared before Kolychev and now, waiting for his arrival, he continued to be annoyed with himself and annoyed by the staff rats who had framed him, as he was annoyed and annoyed whenever it happened against his will to find himself in an awkward position, for which he considered himself less total responsible.

In the end, it doesn’t matter which of the penalties — Petrov, Ivanov, Sidorov, people with names that don’t speak to him — received the long-awaited freedom, and who didn’t. Everyone deserved to be exempted. But Kolychev ...

Balthus noticed Kolychev back then, on the way to the front, when he appointed him to the position of platoon commander. Getting to know the personal files of the penal officers, Balthus, this was his favorite pastime, checking them with the famous Catherine’s phrase “you can’t have mercy on him,” he searched and then kept in sight those whose true essence, in his opinion, corresponded to the semantic meaning of the phrase with a semicolon in second position ...

Balthus's thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

- Come in!

A figure of Kolychev appeared in the doorway. Having crossed the threshold, Pavel reached the line and, raising his hand to the shabby faded cap, clearly, in a statutory manner reported:

- Citizen major, platoon commander finesman Kolychev arrived at your order.

Balthus lifted up from the table towards him, with a gesture of his hand pointed to the factory urban chair with a high curved back that stood on the opposite side.

- Have a seat.

Pavel obediently went to the table, sank to the indicated place.

“You guess why I called you?”

Pavel shrugged vaguely, noting to himself that the conversation began with “you,” which in itself was already unusual.

Balthus, apparently, did not care about his answer.

- Come on, you and I will first indulge in a seagull. Without ceremony or subordination, ”he suggested, squinting at Paul. - Do you want strong, real, Georgian? ..

Saying so, Balthus moved to the front door, leaned out into the corridor, called to the orderly:

- Gataulin! A couple of glasses of tea!

All this time, Kolychev, struggling with an increasing influx of internal nervous tremor to prevent her from breaking through, watched the battalion commander, became more and more confused, unable to understand what was happening, which was preceded by a strange mysterious trick that was threatening to him, not looking like a battalion commander. What is hidden behind the unusual nature of his behavior? Judging by the benevolent mood of Balthus, one should have prepared for something pleasant and exciting, which, of course, will marvel and delight. But why?

From the moment that two hours ago Kolychev received the order to come to headquarters personally at 10.00 to the battalion commander, he was lost in conjecture, trying to imagine what could cause Baltus' interest in his person. It is clear that a mundane event cannot serve as a reason for calling - for trivialities, fines were not called to the battalion commander. But, on the other hand, nothing extraordinary, out of the ordinary, has not happened in the last days either in the battalion or around it. Only the news that had stirred up everyone about the failed amnesty. But Paul was not the only one who failed. Of the three representatives of the second platoon, the path to freedom opened only before Kuskov. Friends arranged for Andrey to see off. Balthus in this whole story has nothing to do with the idea of \u200b\u200blosers rejected by the Military Council of the front.

Returning to the table, Balthus gently sat down on a chair, and squinted his smiling eyes at Kolychev. He asked in the affirmative, rather than inquiringly:

- Well, what, fate is a villain, the life of a finesman is a penny?

“It turns out that this is so,” Paul did not deny.

- Frankly, I’m no less upset. Injustice - an evil that emasculates the soul with resentment, undermines faith - the source of our strength. I propose to consider the incident settled and forgotten. From now on, for me personally, you have settled with your shameful past, you have completely atoned for your guilt. - Balthus slowly smoked a cigarette, moved the pack in the direction of Kolychev, inviting him to join. - Yes, and I do not believe in your fault. It was not and is not. He took the stranger on himself, the friend of his slaughtered cover ... So? Or will you unlock again?

VL / Articles / Interesting

16-01-2016, 15:34

The first penal battalions appeared among the Germans

In general, practically, everything related to the history of the creation of penal battalions and companies and their participation in hostilities has overgrown with a mass of myths, legends, and even direct insinuations. At the same time, Western historians and their re-singers, who have divorced a lot today in the territory of the former USSR, completely “forget” that the first penal units did not appear in our possession, but in the Wehrmacht, and much earlier.

But what were the German penal units? Disciplinary battalions appeared in the German army before the start of World War II. In 1939, there were eight of them. They contained military personnel who had committed various offenses. Used them mainly as military construction and combat engineer units. After the victorious Polish campaign, the disciplinary battalions disbanded, apparently believing that there would never again be cowards, slobs and criminals in the Wehrmacht.

But the outbreak of war with the USSR showed: the fighting spirit of many soldiers and officers should be reinforced not only with incentives and awards. The Soviet counter-offensive near Moscow in December 1941 turned into a general offensive by the Red Army. Army Group Center was at some point on the edge of the abyss. In some areas, the German units retreated in a panic, leaving hundreds of vehicles, artillery and tanks to their own devices. Hitler was furious. As a result, the Führer's order of December 16, 1941 followed, forbidding losing positions without permission from above. Soldiers deserting from the front line were shot on the spot.

Having brought elementary order into positions, the Hitler leadership created 100 penalty companies on the Eastern Front. Or, as they were officially named, parts of the probationary period. Dates were given there from six months to five years. Their convicts were to serve “from bell to bell”. Neither wounding nor heroic behavior on the front line were reduced. That is, a German soldier could not atone for his blood, unlike the Soviet "fines". From the hospital, the wounded returned his penal battalion again. Moreover, no orders and medals were given to the German “fines”.

The number of these units on the Eastern Front was strictly determined - 16,500 people, which corresponded to the staff of the infantry division. 100 penalty companies were evenly distributed throughout the Soviet-German front. At the same time, the principle of caste was strictly observed: there were officer penal companies, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Sometimes, for tactical reasons, they were combined into a battalion. It is clear that these units were sent to hell, without the cover of artillery, tanks and aircraft.

There were also penal units in the SS troops. The most famous of them was the Dirlewanger battalion, “famous” for its atrocities over civilians. Dirlewanger himself served a sentence for rape in his youth, and his entourage chose the appropriate one.

The overwhelming majority of German “fines” were on the Eastern Front. But in October 1942, the 999th brigade also appeared in France, which was a penalty compound. It is curious that it was formed from communists, social democrats, criminals and homosexuals who were in concentration camps.

According to official figures, 198 thousand people passed through the system of German penal battalions during the Second World War.

Our penal battles were completely different

By July 1942, the most difficult situation for our country had developed on the Soviet-German front. However, many Western “historians”, like our “humanists,” who are greedy for any “sensation”, commenting on the content of the “bloodthirsty”, in their opinion, order “Not a step back!”, As a rule, miss the part of it that contains assessment of the situation.

Therefore, I allow myself to quote verbatim some lines from Order No. 227: “Every commander, every Red Army soldier and political worker should understand that our means are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet Union is not a desert, but people: workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers and mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy has captured and seeks to capture, is bread and other products for the army and rear, metal and fuel for industry, factories, factories supplying the army with arms and ammunition, railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, Donbass and other areas, we have less territory, therefore, there are much less people, bread, metal, factories, factories. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 80 million pounds of bread per year and more than 10 million tons of metal per year. We no longer have predominance over the Germans either in human resources or in stocks of bread. Retreating further means ruining oneself and ruining our Motherland at the same time. Each new patch of territory we have left will in every way strengthen the enemy and in every way weaken our defense, our Motherland. ”

Apparently, the comments here are superfluous. The fate of the entire Soviet people, moreover, of all Slavs, was put on the scales. Therefore, extraordinary measures were taken. One of them was the creation of penal units.

Again we read order No. 227:

“To form, within the front, from 1 to 3 (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people each), where to send middle and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all military branches who are guilty of violating discipline by cowardice or instability, and put them on more difficult sections of the front to enable them to atone for their crimes against the homeland with blood.

To form within the army from 5 to 10 (depending on the situation) penal companies (from 150 to 200 people each), where to send ordinary fighters and junior commanders, guilty of violating discipline by cowardice or instability, and put them in difficult sections of the army, to enable them to atone with blood for their crimes before their homeland. "

As you can see, only officers and equated persons were sent to the penal battalions, moreover, the decision on this was made by the chiefs in a position no lower than the division commander. A small part of the officers fell into the penal battalions on the verdicts of military tribunals. Before being sent to the penal battalion, officers were subject to appeal to the rank and file, their awards were transferred to the front personnel department for storage. It was possible to send to the penal battalion for a period of a month to three.

“Penalties”, injured or distinguished themselves in battles, submitted to early release with restoration to their former rank and rights. The dead were restored to the rank automatically, and their relatives were assigned a pension "on a common basis with all the families of the commanders." It was envisaged that all penal servants who had served the time limit “are presented by the command of the battalion to the military council of the front for release and upon approval of the submission are released from the penalty battalion”. All those who were released were restored to their ranks and all their rewards were returned to them.

Penalty companies were created in an amount of five to ten in each army. Former officers could also get into them if they were demoted to rank and file by the decision of a military tribunal. In this case, upon serving the term in a fine, they did not restore the officer rank. The tenure and the principle of exemption from penal companies was exactly the same as from penal battalions, only decisions were made by the military councils of the armies.

Penalty battalions and companies were separate military units directly subordinate to the front and army command, they were commanded only by personnel (full-time) officers and commissars (later political workers) for whom the term of service was reduced to receive the next rank by half, and each month of service was counted at appointment pensions for six months. Penal commanders were given exceptionally high disciplinary rights: commits as commanders of the regiment, and battalion commanders as commanders of a division. For some time in battle, a fighter could replace the killed commander, but he could not command the penalty unit in normal circumstances, even as an exception. “Penalties” could only be assigned to sergeant posts with the appropriate rank, and in this case they received sergeant money support.

The penal units were used, as a rule, in the most dangerous sectors of the front, they were assigned to conduct reconnaissance in battle, break through the enemy’s front edge, etc. Information about the fact that fighters were driven by machine guns into the battle (more on this later in the author). confirmed by neither documents nor memoirs of veterans. Moreover, they were armed no worse than combat units and were used in conjunction with other combat units. For example, a summary of the generalized combat experience of the 8th Guards Army reads: “To clarify the nature of the enemy’s defense before the start of the Berlin operation on the Oder bridgehead in April 1945, reconnaissance was carried out in battle. Two rifle battalions and two penal companies were involved. "Rifle battalions, penal companies were reinforced with artillery, mortars, combat engineer units and volleys of guards mortars."

The provisions on penalties provided that for specific feats, fines may be presented to government awards. Here are some interesting figures taken from an archival document: “In the penal units of the 64th Army, during the battles near Stalingrad, 1,023 people were released from punishment for courage. Of these, they were awarded: the Order of Lenin - 1, World War II II degree - 1, Red Star - 17, medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit" - 134. " Let me remind you that there were only penalties in the armies, so we are talking about “fines” -sergeants and privates.

Former prisoners could not get into penal battles, in principle, if before that they had not received officer ranks. The former amnestied also fell into the penalties, but only after misconduct in the combat units where they served. In addition, an insignificant number of convicts under mild articles were sent to fines. Such people during the trial or already in the colonies were given a reprieve from serving their sentences with a referral to the penalty company. As a rule, these were not civilians, but former military personnel or soldiers from the rear units convicted by military tribunals.

Since 1943, when the active offensive began, former military personnel who remained during the fighting in the occupied territory but did not try to cross the front line or join the partisans began to be sent to fines. At the same time, after appropriate checks, they sent to voluntary surrender the voluntarily surrendered Vlasovites, policemen, employees of the occupation administrations, who did not stain themselves with reprisals against civilians, underground members and partisans, and were subject to draft service by age.

Few people know that during the years of World War II, not only penal companies and battalions were created in our Armed Forces, but also penal squadrons. The very first of them in 1942 was now headed by Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Evgrafovich Fedorov. Recently, the “Secret” stamp has been removed from the documents regulating the organization of penal squadrons, and in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense one can familiarize yourself with the order of the Supreme Command of the Supreme Command that is saving for many fined pilots. It was signed by Stalin on August 4, 1942 and established the introduction of penal squadrons in the air armies.

As you know, Stalin really appreciated the pilots, the preparation of which spent a considerable amount of time and money. When the Supreme was informed that a considerable number of them fell into the penal battalions due to sloppiness, that is, they stopped flying, he forbade such practice and introduced the institution of penal squadrons. The fascist aces terrified the Soviet pilots from the penal squadrons as "scary falcons."

In total, during the years of the war, 65 penal battalions and 1,037 penal companies were created in the Red Army. Their lifetime was different, some disbanded a few months after their creation, while others fought until the end of the war, reaching Berlin. The maximum number of simultaneous penalties in July 1943 was 335 units. There were cases when the distinguished penalty companies in full force were transferred to the rank of combatant.

Since 1943, the number of fines began to decline sharply, and in 1944 there were only 11. There were about 200 with a small person in each. This is due to the fact that there were not enough experienced officers in the army, they were less likely to be sent to penal battalions, preferring to lower the perpetrators of the rank by several levels and to be appointed to lower officer posts.

The history of the Great Patriotic War is still replete with omissions, or even unconscious or completely deliberate misinformation. Along with the fine units, the favorite topic of counterfeiters is barrage detachments. Discussions about their place and role in the course of hostilities do not weaken, as can be judged by the diversity of opinions in the scientific literature.

Immediately I want to emphasize that the version does not stand up to criticism, as if the squadrons "guarded" the penalty units. The company commander of the 8th separate penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, retired colonel A.V. Pyltsyn, who fought from 1943 until the Victory, states: “There were no detachments behind our battalion under any circumstances, and other frightening measures. It’s just that there never was such a need. ”

The famous writer, Hero of the Soviet Union V.V. Karpov, who fought in the 45th separate penal company on the Kalinin Front, also denies the presence of detachments behind their units.

And, again, the “authors” of the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating detachments during the years of World War II were the same Germans. In the Wehrmacht’s troops, detachment units supplementing the field gendarmerie appeared during the offensive of the Red Army in the winter of 1941-1942. The tasks of the barrage detachments were: shooting on the spot of alarmists and deserters. The Wehrmacht received at its disposal a field gendarmerie, which, with professionally trained officers and soldiers, was engaged in the capture of fugitives, the identification of simulants and "gunshots", putting order in the rear, and clearing the rear units of excess soldiers.

Here is what Chief Lieutenant Kurt Steiger wrote: “In the winter, our troops suffered from terrible Russian frosts. Morale has fallen. Under various pretexts, some soldiers tried to leave those who were at the front. For example, severe frostbite was simulated. The maintenance of discipline was facilitated by special units (barrage detachments), which, by order of the command, detained such soldiers. They had broad powers, including shooting without trial. ”

But how did the detachments of the Red Army act? Actually, the outposts of the army detachment were located at a distance of 1.5-2 km from the front line, intercepting communications in the immediate rear. They did not specialize in “fines”, but checked and detained everyone whose presence outside the military unit was suspicious.

Did barrage detachments use weapons to prevent unauthorized withdrawal of linear units from their positions? This aspect of their combat activities is sometimes covered extremely speculatively. But only in the inflamed brains of the same counterfeiters do pictures of execution in the back of quivering or retreating parts occur. Not a single serious document, not a single recollection of the front-line soldiers confirms this “argument”, beloved by the haters of the whole Soviet Union.

I want to emphasize: from the very beginning the barrage detachments were subordinate to the army command, and not to the bodies of military counterintelligence. The People’s Commissar of Defense, of course, had in mind that barrage formations would and should be used not only as a screen for retreating units, but also as an important reserve for the direct conduct of hostilities. Only because of the limited space on the newspaper page, I do not cite examples (documented) of the participation of the detachments in liquidating the breakthroughs of the Germans, the destruction of their landings, etc. Thus, the defending detachments not only acted as a barrier preventing the penetration of deserters into the rear , alarmists, German agents, not only returned to the front lines of servicemen who had lagged behind their units, but also conducted direct military operations with the enemy, contributing to the achievement of victory over Nazi Germany.

As the situation on the fronts changed, with the transition to the Red Army of a strategic initiative and the beginning of the mass expulsion of invaders from the territory of the USSR, the need for detachments began to disappear. On October 29, 1944, Stalin issued an order recognizing that "in connection with the change in the general situation at the fronts, the need for further maintenance of the defensive detachments has disappeared." And already by November 15, 1944 they were disbanded, and the personnel of the troops was sent to replenish combat divisions.

A bit about the history of the topic

It is worth recalling that the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating detachments arose much earlier than World War II. The function of the back line of the phalanx was described in sufficient detail by the ancient Greek historian Xenophon in his work “Kiropedia” as early as the 4th century BC: “To encourage those who fulfill their duty, to restrain the threats of the faint-hearted and to punish with death those who intend to turn the rear, inspire more cowards fear than enemies. ” Well, and what is the last line of the phalanx not a detachment? Something similar was used in medieval armies.

But, let's go back to a new story. Indeed, similar actions were practiced in the French army on the fields of the First World War, and they were directed against the allied Russian units. As one of the participants in the offensive undertaken by General Nivelles in April 1917 wrote, behind the back of the Russian soldiers were numerous French formations equipped with artillery and ready to open fire in case the Russians tremble.

One cannot but mention the La Kurtinsky tragedy that broke out in August 1917 on the Western Front — the suppression of the uprising of the 1st Special Brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force, which was deployed in 1916 to help the allied French forces. Discipline in its parts, as well as in units on the Eastern Front, steadily fell; after the bloody offensive of General Nivelles, as mentioned above, the soldiers began to demand sending to Russia. The brigade was temporarily stationed in the military camp of La Curtin, department of Croesus. Fermentation in the military environment intensified. When the uselessness of suggestion measures and even attempts to block the camp became apparent to the military representative of the High Command at the Headquarters of the French armies, General M. I. Zankevich, the rebellion was suppressed with the support of ... artillery.

General P.N. Wrangel did not stop at such measures, describing in his memoirs the restoration of order in the Caucasian infantry regiment, which faltered in July 1917, by means of a quick artillery fire to defeat running soldiers.

In the Russian army during the First World War, there were no special barrage units. The protection of the rear, the capture of deserters until 1917 was assigned to the field gendarme squadrons. In the areas of highways, this task was carried out by the gendarme department of railways.

Well, the last on this topic. In total, during the Great Patriotic War, approximately 428 thousand people passed through the penal units of the Red Army. The overwhelming majority of “fines” atoned for their guilt (real or imaginary) with honor. Moreover, many - their lives. And it’s sacrilegious to speculate on the difficult history of a great nation, to pour mud and mud on the years of its hardest trials. For then, in the war, no matter how the current and then enemies clique, he transferred them with honor. And the "fines" ... they were Soviet people. And their memory should be treated with respect, because in the Great Victory there is their very significant contribution.

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moreover, there were no more than three such battalions on the entire front. In divisions according to the staff schedule there could not be more than one penal battalion and those guilty for a particular crime were transferred there for a period of not more than three months, and if the fighter was wounded during the indicated time, he showed heroism, brought the language, then he was restored before the allotted time in the rank and in all regalia with a direction to his military unit. It is indisputable that the main task of the penal battalions was to break through the line of defense, reconnaissance in battle, hold strategically important heights, as well as hold them, and storm to distract the enemy’s attention.
  The command of the penalties was carried out by personnel officers who were appointed by order, although quite often the officers themselves wrote reports with the request to appoint them to command the penalties. This was due to several reasons:
  The 1-fine category was slightly higher than in the military
  2 Triple Cash Salary
  3-year service in the penal battalion went for three and other "benefits"
  During the war, there were about 65 penal battalions and 1,037 penal companies on all dandies, but there was only 9 separate penal battalions that lasted from 1942 to 1945.
  Hit the penalties for a variety of reasons:
  -Not fulfillment of the order
  Cowardice in battle
  - Insulting an officer
-Drunkenness
  -Theft and more.
  According to the regulations on penal battalions, the period of stay was determined from one to three months, that is, a person could serve not all 3 months but also one and two. For criminals, the calculation was based on the principle of 10 years \u003d 3 months in fines, 5-8 years \u003d 2 months, up to 5 years \u003d 1 month.
  If a soldier or officer died in the penal battalion, his family was entitled to a pension, the same pension was granted for disability, but with one reservation, this pension did not apply to political prisoners convicted of banditry, murder and robbery. A very interesting fact about which little is known, penal battles the Germans and not ours. This happened after the winter retreat of the German troops when discipline was loosened in the German troops, morale fell, panic appeared and as a result mass desertion and much more. German coma The building took measures to restore discipline, as a result of which 100 German penal companies were formed (data based on Order No. 227).
  The fines were also from the USSR Air Force the so-called disciplinary squadrons into which the flight officers fell but only for misconduct not related to criminal offenses. Such original disciplinary squadrons could even get into a malfunctioning of their flying machine or returning to a base with non-used ammunition. But by the spring of 1943, such a "flight staff" had outlived itself.
  Now a little about the so-called NKVD detachment units. In essence, the main function of the detachment units was the protection of strategic objects, the identification of saboteurs, the collection and further filtering of soldiers and officers escaping from the battlefield, the formation of units from them and sending them to the front line. In 1944, according to order No. 0349 29 this formation of the NKVD was disbanded and the personnel was sent to rifle divisions.

Part one

Chapter one

Balthus hurried. Calling Kolychev a fellow captain, he made it clear that the issue of his rehabilitation could be considered resolved. This is a matter of time: some one and a half to two weeks necessary to complete the established procedure of formalities in the Military Council of the Front, where the battalion sent submissions to those especially distinguished fighters in the battles who, without being injured, without shedding blood, nevertheless fell under the definition of redeemed guilty and deserving of release from the battalion.

The procedure for considering and approving submissions was of a generally accepted protocol nature with a predictable result. When making a decision, members of the Military Council, as a rule, did not delve into the details of the personal affairs and combat characteristics of the applicants, individually, but “voted” the list as a whole. That was before and after Stalingrad. All whom the command of the battalion represented for the removal of a criminal record and restoration of their former rights received the desired freedom. Therefore, Balthus had no reason to doubt and worry about the expected end result.

But this time the unexpected happened. Failureless clerical mechanism failed. To some of the members of the Military Council, a list of 81 people - two full-blooded platoons - seemed unreasonably overpriced. “Justifying fines with whole platoons is too much!” The question was returned for revision. Then only 27 names remained in the list. Exactly one third of the originally declared composition.

The last paragraph of the decision to the commander of the battalion, Major Balthus, suspected of excessive loyalty and conciliatory sentiments contrary to the current Regulation on penal units, members of the Military Council pointed out the inadmissibility of such actions in the future. This sounded like an accusation of underestimating and misunderstanding the fullness and complexity of the responsibility assigned to him, casting doubt on the correspondence of his commanding moral-volitional qualities to the standards of strict party exactingness and integrity. The Military Council saw the precariousness in the ability of the battalion commander to successfully solve the task assigned to him.

This is not to say that Balthus remained deaf to the danger of warning, but he was hurt more by something else. The fact that the list of twenty-seven lucky ones did not include the name of Kolychev, whom he managed to reassure so recklessly and recklessly.

Despite the stinginess of external manifestations and the apparent isolation, developed in him by the nature and conditions of service, Baltus was extremely scrupulous and painful about everything that affected his name, could at least in passing, inadvertently, damage his reputation, put empty deeds and promises in the eyes of subordinates . Knowing thoroughly the “kitchen” of the headquarters office work, he assumed that the “refinement of the question” was reduced to the simplest possible, purely mechanical operation — the trimming. The list was most likely lowered to the grassroots clerical table and accepted for execution by the rank-and-file staff pen, who performed this operation by using a pen, like a scalpel, to make ink cut-outs according to the given two-to-one formula. Two sketches - a pass, two sketches - a pass.

Balthus was not even informed, although they had to either return the submissions to the battalion headquarters for clarification, or involve the battalion commander in finalization. But they didn’t do either one more than further incite Balthus’s protest indignation: the fate of the people was decided not by him, the battalion commander, an official authorized person who was granted this right, but an insignificant, nameless clerical screw, which he shared with a passionless performing stroke of the pen penalties on the right and left.

Balthus was weighed down by the sudden guilt that appeared before Kolychev and now, waiting for his arrival, he continued to be annoyed with himself and annoyed by the staff rats who had framed him, as he was annoyed and annoyed whenever it happened against his will to find himself in an awkward position, for which he considered himself less total responsible.

In the end, it doesn’t matter which of the penalties — Petrov, Ivanov, Sidorov, people with names that don’t speak to him — received the long-awaited freedom, and who didn’t. Everyone deserved to be exempted. But Kolychev ...

Balthus noticed Kolychev back then, on the way to the front, when he appointed him to the position of platoon commander. Getting to know the personal files of the penal officers, Balthus, this was his favorite pastime, checking them with the famous Catherine’s phrase “you can’t have mercy on him,” he searched and then kept in sight those whose true essence, in his opinion, corresponded to the semantic meaning of the phrase with a semicolon in second position ...

Balthus's thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

- Come in!

A figure of Kolychev appeared in the doorway. Having crossed the threshold, Pavel reached the line and, raising his hand to the shabby faded cap, clearly, in a statutory manner reported:

- Citizen major, platoon commander finesman Kolychev arrived at your order.

Balthus lifted up from the table towards him, with a gesture of his hand pointed to the factory urban chair with a high curved back that stood on the opposite side.

- Have a seat.

Pavel obediently went to the table, sank to the indicated place.

“You guess why I called you?”

Pavel shrugged vaguely, noting to himself that the conversation began with “you,” which in itself was already unusual.

Balthus, apparently, did not care about his answer.

- Come on, you and I will first indulge in a seagull. Without ceremony or subordination, ”he suggested, squinting at Paul. - Do you want strong, real, Georgian? ..

Saying so, Balthus moved to the front door, leaned out into the corridor, called to the orderly:

- Gataulin! A couple of glasses of tea!

All this time, Kolychev, struggling with an increasing influx of internal nervous tremor to prevent her from breaking through, watched the battalion commander, became more and more confused, unable to understand what was happening, which was preceded by a strange mysterious trick that was threatening to him, not looking like a battalion commander. What is hidden behind the unusual nature of his behavior? Judging by the benevolent mood of Balthus, one should have prepared for something pleasant and exciting, which, of course, will marvel and delight. But why?

From the moment that two hours ago Kolychev received the order to come to headquarters personally at 10.00 to the battalion commander, he was lost in conjecture, trying to imagine what could cause Baltus' interest in his person. It is clear that a mundane event cannot serve as a reason for calling - for trivialities, fines were not called to the battalion commander. But, on the other hand, nothing extraordinary, out of the ordinary, has not happened in the last days either in the battalion or around it. Only the news that had stirred up everyone about the failed amnesty. But Paul was not the only one who failed. Of the three representatives of the second platoon, the path to freedom opened only before Kuskov. Friends arranged for Andrey to see off. Balthus in this whole story has nothing to do with the idea of \u200b\u200blosers rejected by the Military Council of the front.

Returning to the table, Balthus gently sat down on a chair, and squinted his smiling eyes at Kolychev. He asked in the affirmative, rather than inquiringly:

- Well, what, fate is a villain, the life of a finesman is a penny?

“It turns out that this is so,” Paul did not deny.

- Frankly, I’m no less upset. Injustice - an evil that emasculates the soul with resentment, undermines faith - the source of our strength. I propose to consider the incident settled and forgotten. From now on, for me personally, you have settled with your shameful past, you have completely atoned for your guilt. - Balthus slowly smoked a cigarette, moved the pack in the direction of Kolychev, inviting him to join. - Yes, and I do not believe in your fault. It was not and is not. He took the stranger on himself, the friend of his slaughtered cover ... So? Or will you unlock again?

Paul cringed, held his breath. He did not want to touch on a sore subject, or open himself to anyone other than Makhturov. But there was no point in denying the obvious either.

“It happened because of me,” he finally grudgingly, “and Mikhailov has a family, two children ...”

“Glad I was not mistaken,” Balthus grinned. - It simplifies the task. Of course, I am not able to challenge the decision of the Military Council of the Front. But I can still make corrections and make your rehabilitation, though not complete, partial, but rehabilitation. Although I’m the battalion commander, I’m vested with the rights of the division commander ... - After a pause, during which his face regained his usual dryness and severity, Baltus raised his voice, announced solemnly coining words: - The rights entrusted to me allow me to decide on the appointment of you to the post of commander companies with the assignment of your rank - foreman. Congratulations!

Pavel jumped up, involuntarily threw up his hand to his temple, intending, as usual, to report on fidelity to serving the Motherland, but stopped short, catching an disapproving grimace that slid across the battalion’s face, and only silently yawned his mouth.

- Yes, you sit, do not twitch! - Balthus grimaced, again switching from an official to a confidential tone. - I can’t make a lieutenant. The maximum that is possible for a finesman is foreman. Before the first battle you walk in foremen. And then it will be seen. If you survive, I will present it again, as if it were comfor. And not on the general list, but personally. Any questions?

“Everything is clear, Citizen Major.” What company do you want to accept?

- For the commanders of the company, I am Comrade Major. For you, too, - said Balthus with a pressure in his voice. - As for the company ... I intend to satisfy the report of Lieutenant Ulyantsev. He has long been asking for a transfer to the combined arms unit. Thus, you can stay on the second, replace Ulyantsev. But I can offer another: either the fifth or the seventh. There, too, vacancies have not yet been closed.

Paul did not hesitate with the choice - of course, the second. And not because she is somehow better than others. In all companies there was nothing left for the fighters, God forbid, by platoon, and they had to be re-formed from replenishment. So there wasn’t much difference between them. But her own was nevertheless relatives. It remained close people, faithful friends and comrades tested in battles: Makhturov, Bogdanov, Zhukov, the same Tumanenok, whom he believed as himself, whom he could lean on in difficult times. He pretended to be considering a battalion commander’s proposal.

“I, Citizen Major, do not care which company to command.” But his own is still preferable.

Balthus did not object, he only reacted with a reproachful glance to the "citizen of the major," he nodded his head:

“I think there is nothing to teach you.” The duties of a company commander are well known to you. You also know people well, probably much better than those combatants who will send us from the reserve for these positions. Here, as they say, the flag is in your hands. As for “anyway,” let me disagree with you. Until today, although you are a platoon commander, you were equal to them. The same penalty man, like everyone else. The company commander - another hypostasis. And that means that all your old friendships are over. And to step over them is not easy, and they can be a hindrance. Think, maybe you still give another company, and Ulyantsev wait?

“No,” Paul objected firmly. - Decision is made. Allow me to take a second company?

- How many people are left in the ranks?

“I don't know for sure, but no more than a platoon.” In mine there are seventeen bayonets.

- And how many of you who joined the battalion with you in Penza?

- Three. Me, Makhturov and the Mists.

Balthus leaned back in his chair, looked at the ceiling, wondering something in his mind. Silently, without a knock and a report, the orderly chief Sergeant Gataulin entered the office. Silently he placed the glasses with tea on the table and just as silently remained standing at the table, waiting for the orders of the battalion commander.

- Free! - briefly threw the battalion commander to him and, returning to a conversation with Kolychev, started talking about what seemed to occupy and care for him all the last days: The fronts moved forward. So, there will be no violators of the 227th order. Unless units. The camps are also thoroughly cleaned. All the criminal small fry and the profitable riffraff have already passed through the penalty units. Factory workers are now less likely to be judged. Which boss wants his people to be jailed. And who will fulfill the plan? He will be punished for his failure. So who is staying? Of the camps, criminals are larger in caliber: robbers, bandits, killers. Plus, a different rabble from the liberated territories - the so-called primaks and direct accomplices of the Nazis. Those who threw weapons in the 41st and found shelter from other women under the hem. Or, worse, consisted of a direct service to the Nazis, worked for them. Pitiful cowards and enemy henchmen. And besides, it is now allowed to take political under Article 58, who have a term of up to 10 years. Enemies of the Soviet government. White Guard defiles, Trotskyists, provocateurs, traitors to the party and people. - Balthus took a break. - That's what kind of contingent, Kolychev, we will have to deal with soon. This must be clearly and clearly understood, otherwise it would not be possible to ensure the main task set for us - to create a strong combat-ready unit ready to fulfill any command order. Balthus drummed his fingers on the tabletop in thought. - The last five years before the war I served in the camps and I know from experience: the vast majority of repeat offenders-criminals are complete bastards. The only intelligible argument that can bring them to life and subordinate to the order is the barrel of the commander’s gun ...

Holding his eyes on a glass with cooling tea, Balthus, as a belatedly caught-up owner, who caught himself on an allowed slip, hastened to rectify the situation, repeated the invitation not to be shy, to feel free.

Tea drinking took place in concentrated silence. Immersed in themselves, both mused on their own. Finally, apparently, having come to some kind of conclusion that suits him, Baltus started up, raised his head:

- Have you seen a movie about the commander Chapaev?

Kolychev, of course, saw the pre-war film about the legendary divisional commander, besides the fellow countryman. But what kind of question?

“Where is the commander’s place in battle - remember?”

Still not to remember! Everyone who wears officer shoulder straps is tempted by a cadet commandment: a personal example is a decisive factor in the success of a unit in an attack. Suspecting a trick, Paul, cautious, answered in a monosyllabic way:

- At us, Kolychev, in a different way. A fine and ordinary rifle company is far from the same thing. The duties and functions of the commander are basically similar, but we have our own specifics, our own distinctive features. The commander of the penal company is, on the one hand, the same military commander with the attributes and purpose known to you, and on the other, the punishing sword of the authorities, who have the exclusive right not only to restore order and discipline with an iron hand, but also, if circumstances require, individually decide the fate of fines. Those who violate the law a second time, especially at the forefront, in a combat situation, are to be shot on the spot. Even before the battle, you should have a clear idea of \u200b\u200bwho is ready to honestly redeem guilt with blood and will go breast-bore on machine guns, and who will not fail to dive into the funnel and "vote with their feet." Or slap a bullet in your back. Therefore, the place of the commander of the penalty company in the attack is strictly behind the attacking chain. He must see everything and everything. And every fighter who runs into the attack, too, with the skin, the back of his head should feel both your all-seeing eye and the pupil of your pistol. To know that punishment is inevitable and follows him relentlessly. Your hand should not tremble either. If you give a slack - not a commander ... - Balthus chewed his lips, listening to his inner voice, and resolutely concluded: - Therefore, if you don’t grab a holster a hundred times in vain and immediately state who is in the company, you can slap one or two the most hated nits. I won’t bring a case against you.

Films such as Lev Danilov’s “Shtrafniki” and Nikolai Dostal’s Shtrafbat, where stars of Russian cinema played, may give the impression that criminals from penal battalions won the Great Patriotic War and were diluted with punishment from officers who were shot in the back by executioners from detachments. It's time to debunk such fables.

- I getwho stated that Hitler   it's better Stalin, "Because Hitler destroyed other peoples, and Stalin - his own," and all the Svanidze gozman spit on the truth, - said the 92-year-old Alexander Pyltsyn, former company commander of the 8th Separate Penal Battalion, who voluntarily served in it for two years until the Victory. - We thought that the officer’s penal battalions were actually elite troops. The most persistent, the most reliable. Therefore, there were never any detachments behind them. And there were no criminals in them. Only military officers were appointed company commanders, not thieves in law, as the scriptwriter had invented Volodarsky.

Leningrad historian Igor Pykhalov   He carried out tremendous archival work, confirmed the words of Pyltsyn and with figures refuted the myths about fines and detachments.

MYTH 1.

The soldiers who were in captivity and who left the encirclement had practically no chance to pass the NKVD check and pass the GULAG or the fines.

According to the summary data of the special camps, from October 1941 to March 1, 1944, 44,784 officers and 256,208 privates and sergeants who were held captive and 11,660 military personnel who were left behind were examined. A total of 312 594 people.

On average, over 91 percent of the soldiers successfully passed the test of ordinary and sergeant personnel. The officers were much tougher. Over three percent were arrested, about 30 percent, and from the summer of 1943 until the fall of 1944, 36.09 percent on average went to fines every month. But over 60 percent passed the test. Of these, almost two-thirds returned to the army, the rest were sent to the escort troops, to the defense industry or to hospitals.

MYTH 2.

Thousands of unofficial penal battalions were created, in which millions of penalties laid their heads.

These "undeniable" millions are counted like this. After the release of the Shtrafbat series, Eduard Volodarsky repeatedly stated that during the war we had “thousands of fines”. But on October 27, 2010 in the program “Life Line” he named their “specified” number - 980. If you multiply it by 800 - the maximum number of battalions established by order No. 227 (“Not a step back!”) Of July 28, 1942. , it turns out that 784,000 people could serve in them. Although in reality there could be much fewer fighters. Where then are the millions from?

But from where. The maximum service life for the “fighter-traitors”, as the fines were officially called, was three months. That is, at least four times a year, their composition was completely updated. And also fought for four years! Multiply I do not want. And write down in bulk in the slain. And who will check?

Allegedly unaccounted battalions that appeared at least once in someone else's memories were added to them. So, the 2nd Guards Army, according to the recollections of the Ukrainian veteran, has overgrown with five more unaccounted for penal battalions. But this information has not received any confirmation.

On average, throughout the war, 25 penal forces fought a year, not 65 at all, because of the rapid movement of the fronts, they simply did not have time to create and equip them, or they suddenly disbanded.

The share of fines reached a maximum of 0.42 percent of the size of the army.

The table shows the number of fines sent annually according to archival reporting and statistical documents, excluding the composition of the 1941 assault brigades, where the fined were also sent. In total, 34 million 476 thousand 700 people passed through the Soviet Armed Forces during the war. But the contribution to the victory of 428 thousand penalties cannot be underestimated. They carried out the most difficult combat missions, and their mortality was 3-6 times higher than the level of casualties of conventional troops.

MYTH 3.

Stalin came up with detachments in which they recruited prison rabble, who shot his people for the promised freedom during the retreat.

The detachments were still in the army Peter I   in case of desertion during the Battle of Poltava. In the Civil War, they were created by both white and red. They also had Napoleonand Hitler’s to prevent mass exodus from the battlefield.

They appeared in the USSR in July 1941. To this day, none of the historians have been able to find any evidence in the archives that the detachments fired to kill at their own. Documents may not yet be open.

“I saw a detachment detachment under very dramatic circumstances. In the area of \u200b\u200bheights Five Mounds, the Germans pressed us so that we draped, throwing overcoats, in some tunics. And suddenly our tanks, followed by skiers, were a detachment. Well, I think, here it is, death! A young Estonian captain rolls up to me. Take, says, the overcoat from the dead, you will catch a cold ... "

From the memoirs of the Hero of the Soviet Union Petra Lashchenko, who commanded a division in the Battle of Kursk:

“The detachments were far from the front line, covering troops from the rear from saboteurs and enemy troops, detaining deserters, who, unfortunately, were; controlled the order at the crossings, sent soldiers who fought back from their special forces to assembly points. But I don’t know if any of them shot at their own. I requested documents in this regard, but none were found. ”

Now those who know the war from pictures compose fables, ”says the Knight of the Order of Alexander Nevsky Anatoly Efremov. - Yes, such detachments were exhibited in threatening areas. These people are not some kind of fiends, but ordinary fighters and commanders. They played two roles. First of all, they prepared a defensive line so that the retreating could gain a foothold on it. Secondly, they prevented alarmism. When a turning point occurred during the war, I did not see these units anymore.

The high command often scolded the detachments for the fact that when our units retreated, they themselves entered the battle, suffering heavy losses. During the defense of Stalingrad, the detachment detachment of the 62nd Army fought for two days with superior enemy forces over the railway station left by our soldiers.

On September 19, 1942, the command of the 240th Rifle Division of the Voronezh Front gave the task of one of the companies of the detachment of the 38th Army to help the units clean the grove from a group of German machine gunners. Rota lost 31 fighters. There are many similar examples.

Due to specific tasks, the best of the best were recruited to the detachment detachments: educated skiers, wrestlers, swimmers, rowers, climbers. As well as hunters, foresters, police officers, firefighters. Mostly they were Siberians and Far Easterners. Apparently, this explains the myth of "prison rabble."

What got into the penal battalion

According to Alexander Pyltsyn, since the fall of 1944, about 65 percent of fines were officers who were held captive, surrounded, or detained by detachments. But there were other cases.

One commander after the battle, in which part of him suffered heavy losses, used rations and vodka received by the soldiers killed in this battle to remember them in a moment of calm. He was accused of squandering food supplies and given a month in the penal battalion.

For the penalties, a completely different behavior was characteristic. For example, during a combat operation, a battalion captured an enemy truck carrying schnapps to the Germans. Winter, cold, and here is such a trophy! But the penalists simply shot the entire load in order to relieve the temptation of the following combat units.

Naval officer, chief of ship repair radio workshops, caught a speech on the radio Goebbels. And, encouraged by his colleagues, he translated his speech into Russian. Got a month for promoting German propaganda.

The wounded lieutenant was in the hospital, located not so far from his house. I wrote to my wife, they say, come. The wife was in no hurry, the husband suspected something was amiss. And fled home with a gun. He found his wife in bed with her lover. Well, he paid off in a front-line manner - he shot both of them. Hit the penal battalion for three months.

Last name pilot Funny   I didn’t laugh when one of his subordinates suddenly began to perform tricks in the air. As a result, he crashed the car and died. For the absence of true discipline in the group, Smeshny was assigned to the penal battalion for two months.

Cannot be forgiven

In the books of Alexander Pyltsyn there is a lot of pain and pride for the penalties. But one case he cannot forgive the commanders. Before the Victory itself, most of the fighters of his penal company near Berlin were blown up in a minefield. Although the sappers said that there were no mines on it at all.

So until the end of the war I was tormented by doubts: was it my fault? And six months later, the battalion commander (by that time Colonel) Baturin   at a battalion festival near Berlin on May 9, 1945, he revealed a secret to me. He told me in secret that then, by order of the general Batova   our company was deliberately allowed into the minefield. Batov’s troops suffered heavy losses there. Here, probably, the general decided at the expense of fines to clear the field for the advance of his troops.