No Stepping Back on the Steppes

For more than a year, the Russian Steppes had been home to the bloodiest and hardest-fought battles of the Second World War.  The German onslaught, started on June 22, 1941, had continued largely unchecked for nearly six months, halting in early December just 15 miles from downtown Moscow.  One intrepid German soldier reportedly ripped through the city on his motorcycle and was shot down just 2 miles from the Kremlin.

And that was as close as the German Army got.  A large-scale Soviet counterattack pushed the Germans back, providing as much as 150 miles of desperately needed breathing space for the endangered Soviet capital during that first winter of war.  But it wasn’t just manpower and guns and tanks and airplanes that stemmed the Germans during the Russian campaign.  All of those things were critical, but the force of will that drove the men also contributed to the salvation of the Soviets.  And that force came first from Russia’s top man: Josef Stalin.

There were numerous tactics employed by the Russians to maintain order among the soldiers and to prevent retreat or capture, most of them involving terror and death.  For example, it became a capital offense for a soldier to cause a self-inflicted wound…anyone caught doing so would be executed immediately.  There was order No. 270, in which capture was considered a betrayal of the Motherland, and any soldier surrendering was not only under an immediate sentence of death, but could also expect his (or her) family to be punished as well.

Then there was order No. 227.  Issued on July 28, 1942, it ordered that no soldier could retreat from his position for any reason without orders.  And again, for any soldier caught doing so, the sentence was swift, sure, and without trial or mercy…death.

The tenacity of the war in Russia made these types of orders possible.  The “precipice of collapse” over which each army, at various points, hung made these types of orders necessary.

Recommended Reading: Absolute War