Penalty, as it is, and not as show
A few words about the movie “Shtrafbat”
“Shtrafbat” is not the first film about penalty box and, as in previous ones, there are a lot of inaccuracies, even more ad-lib and just lies.
Penal companies and battalions were created by order of Stalin No. 227 from 28 in July 1942 of the year, known as the order “Not one step back”. “Today, July 28, 1942,” the order said, “the Red Army left the city of Rostov, covering their banners with shame.” Under this order, general military armies created from 3 to 5 penal companies, and on every front from 1 to 3 penal battalions (in the second half of the war, respectively, 3 and 1) and detachments received the right to “stop retreating by any means”.
The commander of a penal company and a penal battalion (but not an assault battalion) has the right to increase the term of the fine, and to shoot for a particularly grave crime - desertion. The penalty is removed by the first injury or departure. He is removed from the dead, otherwise the family will not receive a pension. Wild shot with the execution of his penalty box, so that families receive a pension - blasphemy. I don’t know how in the 1942-43 years, but in 1944-45 no detachments stood behind us.
Penalty company - Army, and battalions - frontline submission. And divisions, in areas of which reconnaissance is planned in battle or a breakthrough, are attached to NOT ALL. At any time they can be transferred by the Command to the division of another division. NO divisions of the division headquarters, except for the operational - including SPECIAL - to the punitive company, the penal and assault battalions have no relationship. Penalty units are subordinated to the division commander ONLY in operational terms. In theory, a special department of the Army should deal with punitive companies, and the front should deal with penal and assault battalions. Army and Front - huge connections. They are not up to us. They have a headache and no one will look for additional work. She has already been done in the direction of the penalty box.
I do not know the cases that the penalty box remained hungry. Penalty units have their own economic services and receive food, clothing and vodka from army warehouses, bypassing the division and the regiment, where they can be stolen.
The gunners were not spared - no doctor would risk it. “Its” bullet does not mean anything, the Germans had a huge amount of trophy weapons; there could be a random shot. Self-gun is determined by point burns from the powder grains around the wound inlet. Almost all penalty box in helmets. They and in the usual units did not complain and threw after gas masks. It is not the helmet that saves the Russian soldier, but the omnipotent word “maybe ...”
But the clearance of the battlefield from anti-personnel mines (and not just the penalty box!) Is true. This was confirmed by Marshal Zhukov in an interview with General Eisenhower, having met him in Moscow in the summer of 1945. In his memoirs, the general wrote that it would have been with the American or British Commander to resort to this practice ...
Penalty units are different not only in their composition, but also in morale. Penalty and assault battalions do not need to raise to the attack. The desire to rehabilitate and return, who are lucky, with officer uniform and the right to occupy former or equivalent positions (as a rule, went down) is great. Another thing is a penalty company. It is a delusion to think that the criminals who constituted the main contingent of these companies are eager to give their lives for their homeland. Quite the contrary. And the author knows about this not from similar films ... And there were no fighters at all.
For what fell into the penalty box: leaving the position without an order, the manifestation of cowardice in battle, excess of power, theft, insulting a senior by rank or position, a fight. Criminals, depending on criminal record from 1 to 3 months.
NEVER The army officers, whom the Military Tribunal had not degraded and retained military ranks, were not sent to penal companies — only to officer battalions for one to three months or until the first wound.
NEVER officers who left the encirclement, fled or released from captivity by the advancing units of the Red Army were not sent either to penal companies or to penal battalions - only and exclusively to assault battalions, where the periods did not vary - 6 (six!) months for all! But before that, they had to go through the “purgatory” of the camps of the NKVD, where they had to prove that they did not throw weapons and did not voluntarily go over to the side of the enemy, and who did not succeed in doing so were sent to prisons and camps, and sometimes even to be shot. , if they were different from German ones, then for the worse ... In one of them, in the morning, 200 (two hundred) grams of cereals were given out all day: boil what you want, what you want ...
NEVER the criminals were not sent to serve the punishment to the officer penal battalions - only to the punitive companies, as privates, sergeants and officers degraded by the Tribunal.
NEVER political prisoners were not sent either to penal companies or to penal or assault battalions. Although many of them - sincere patriots - rushed to the front to defend their homeland. Their lot remained logging.
NEVER penal companies were not located in the settlements. And outside the battle they remained in the field, in trenches and dugouts. The “contact” of this difficult contingent with the 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 in the fine division, no one went to the punitive company or battalion again.
NEVER in the penal divisions no one appealed to the authorities "citizen". Only “comrade”. And the commanders did not call their subordinates penalty.
NEVER the commanders of the penal divisions and units were not appointed penalty. The commander of an assault battalion, as a rule, is a lieutenant colonel, and the commanders of five of his mouths: three rifle, mortar and machine-gun - cadre officers, NOT penal penalties. Of the officers of the penalty box appointed platoon commanders.
NOBODY, except political workers, did not “bless” the penalty box before the battle. The blessing of soldiers and officers of the penal battalion before the battle by the PRIEST is bullshit, mockery of the truth and unworthy flirting with the Church. The scene is completely false. Is it the Church’s film that made the money? This was not the case in the Red Army. And could not be.
The film distorts history World War II and causes, taking into account the importance, possibilities and influence of television, irreparable harm to a new generation that does 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 so. Demonstration on television "Penalty" in the most expensive for the war veterans Victory Day can not but cause condemnation and disappointment.
If the filmmakers (dir. Nick. Dostal, scenes. Ed. Volodarsky), as they deserved it, would be “demoted to the ranks”, I would be happy to enlist them in the 163 51 penalty company of the Army, whose deputy commander I was ...
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