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In reply to the discussion: Putin wants to promote objective truth about WWII [View all]Botany
(70,503 posts)Your english is very good but nobody in America says, "just so you could withhold your gratitude and engage in decadent what-aboutism."
After seeing millions of Soviet troops captured in the early days of the German blitzkrieg, Joseph Stalin issued August 1941s Order No. 270, which proclaimed that any troops who surrendered or allowed themselves to be captured were traitors in the eyes of the law and would be executed if they ever returned to Russia. The dictator later upped the ante with July 1942s famous Order No. 227, better known as the Not One Step Backward! rule, which decreed that cowards were to be liquidated on the spot. Under this order, any troops who retreated were to be shelled or gunned down by so-called blocking detachmentsspecial units who were positioned behind their own lines and charged with shooting any soldier who tried to flee. Stalins draconian orders were designed to increase the Red Armys fighting spirit, but they werent empty threats. According to some estimates, Soviet barrier troops may have killed as many as 150,000 of their own men over the course of the war, including some 15,000 during the Battle of Stalingrad.
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-things-you-should-know-about-wwiis-eastern-front