How the “special officer” became interested in me. The life of a special sergeant is hard and unprepossessing. Who is a special officer during the war?

In many films about war, the image of a special officer evokes anger, contempt and even hatred. After watching them, many people formed the opinion that special officers are people who can shoot an innocent person with virtually no trial or investigation. That these people are not familiar with the concepts of mercy and compassion, justice and honesty.

So who are they - special officers? those who sought to imprison any person, or the people on whose shoulders a heavy burden fell during the Great Patriotic War? Let's figure it out.

Special department

It was created at the end of 1918 and belonged to the counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. His most important task was to protect state security and combat espionage.

In April 1943, special departments began to bear a different name - SMERSH bodies (stands for "death to spies"). They created their own network of agents and opened files on all soldiers and officers.

Specialists during the war

We know from films that if a special officer came to a military unit, people could not expect anything good. A natural question arises: what was it really like?

A huge number of military personnel did not have certificates. A huge number of undocumented people were constantly moving across the front line. German spies could carry out their activities without much difficulty. Therefore, it was quite natural for the special officers to have an increased interest in people who were in and out of encirclement. In difficult conditions, they had to establish the identities of people and be able to identify German agents.

For a long time in the Soviet Union it was believed that the special forces created special detachments that were supposed to shoot retreating military units. In fact, everything was different.

Special officers are people who risked their lives no less than the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Together with everyone else, they took part in the offensive and retreated, and if the commander died, then they had to take command and raise the soldiers to attack. They showed miracles of selflessness and heroism at the front. At the same time, they had to fight alarmists and cowards, as well as identify enemy infiltrators and spies.

1. Special officers could not shoot military personnel without trial. In only one case could they use weapons: when someone tried to go over to the side of the enemy. But then each such situation was thoroughly investigated. In other cases, they only transferred information about identified violations to the military prosecutor's office.
2. At the beginning of the war, a large number of experienced, specially trained and legally educated employees of special departments died. In their place they were forced to take people without training and the necessary knowledge, who often violated the law.
3. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were a total of about four hundred employees in special departments.

Thus, special officers are, first of all, people who tried to honestly fulfill the mission assigned to them to protect the state.

Under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. Subsequently, with the formation of special departments of fronts, military districts, fleets, armies, flotillas and special departments under the provincial Chekas, a unified centralized system of security agencies in the troops was created. In 1934-38 military counterintelligence, as the Special, then the 5th Department, is part of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR. In March 1938, with the abolition of the GUGB, the 2nd Directorate (special departments) of the NKVD of the USSR was created on the basis of the 5th Department. Already in September 1938, the Special Department was recreated as the 4th Department of the GUGB. Subordinate to special departments (DS) in the Red Army, the Red Army, and the NKVD troops.

Ranks, uniforms and insignia

The Regulations on Special Bodies of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, announced on May 23, 1936 by joint order of the NKO/NKVD of the USSR No. 91/183, and which established, including insignia and uniforms for military counterintelligence officers, stipulated that in the case of joint permission of the chiefs OO GUGB NKVD USSR and the Directorate of Command Staff of the Red Army, employees of special agencies who had a military or special military-technical education or army command experience were granted the right to wear uniforms and insignia of the command or military-technical personnel of the units they serve.

At the same time, the personnel of the central apparatus of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR and the apparatus of special departments of the UGB of territorial internal affairs bodies, as well as persons working outside the Red Army and the Navy and their subordinate institutions, are given the uniform of the NKVD state security command staff. Both before the formation of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and after July 1934, operational workers of special bodies used uniforms and buttonholes (in the ground forces) or sleeve patches (in the navy) of those military units or institutions to which they were assigned for service.

Insignia

For employees of special departments, insignia were established by category in accordance with their position:

11th category (2 diamonds): - heads of department, part of the OGPU Center; - Secretary of the OGPU Center; - deputies and assistants to the heads of the regional PO OGPU/GPU; - heads of the OGPU corps, the regional navy, groups of troops and their deputies.

10th category (1 diamond): - employees for special assignments, detective officers of the OGPU Center; - heads of the branch of the OO regional PP OGPU/GPU, OO NKVD VO, army, navy, regional navy, group of troops; - heads of the OGPU division, separate brigade, flotilla.

9th category (3 rectangles): - authorized PA of the OGPU Center; - assistant department heads and detective officers of the regional PO OGPU/GPU; - detective officers of the OO OGPU VO, army, navy, group of troops, division, brigade, flotilla.

8th category (2 rectangles): - assistants to the commissioner, assistant secretary of the OGPU Center; - authorized representatives, secretaries of PA regional PP OGPU/GPU; - authorized OO OGPU VO, army, navy, group of forces, division, brigade, flotilla and regiment.

Form

After the introduction of personal ranks for the GUGB in the fall of 1935, the question of uniforms arose among the leaders of the NKVD. The regulatory documents clearly noted that the employees of the special bodies of the GUGB NKVD “were assigned the uniform of the units they served,” and it also contained a somewhat strange condition: “... and with the insignia of the GUGB.” A lively correspondence began between the People's Commissariat and the Authorities. The NKVD's reasoning was quite understandable. Finally, on May 23, 1936, the Regulations on the special bodies of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR were announced, according to which uniforms and uniforms were established for employees of OO corps, fleets, special sections of divisions, brigades, fortified areas, flotillas, as well as individual operatives attached to units and institutions of the Red Army. insignia of the military-political composition of the relevant branches of the military according to the special ranks assigned to them by the state security agencies: - 2 diamonds - senior major of the State Security Service; - 1 diamond - major GB; - 3 rectangles - captain GB; - 2 rectangles - senior lieutenant of the State Security Service; - 1 rectangle - GB lieutenant; - 3 squares - junior lieutenant and sergeant of the State Security Service. Thus, the special officers, in the form of the political composition of the branch of the military to which the unit they served belonged, began to have, as it were, two ranks - the actual assigned special GB rank and the rank by which they were known in the unit (for example, GB major - brigade commissar). The personnel of the central apparatus of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR and the apparatus of special departments of the UGB of territorial internal affairs bodies, as well as persons working outside the Red Army and the Navy and their subordinate institutions, were assigned uniforms of state security command personnel. This situation remained until 1941, when military counterintelligence for a short time came under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense (On the basis of the GUGB NKVD, the 3rd NPO Directorate was formed). In May-July 1941, employees of the PA (now 3 Directorates/departments) began to be certified in the ranks of political personnel. After the return of military counterintelligence to the NKVD (since August 1941 - the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR), special officers again began to be recertified for special GB ranks. However, these re-certifications had no effect on the uniform.

Until February 1941, military counterintelligence officers directly in their units wore the uniform of the service branch with insignia of political personnel (the presence of sleeve stars of political personnel and the absence of sleeve insignia of state security) and were called either special ranks of state security or ranks of political personnel. The personnel of the 4th department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (from September 29, 1938 to February 26, 1941 served as military counterintelligence) wore uniforms and state security insignia and had the rank of “GB Sergeant - GB Commissar General” " - special state security ranks. In the period from February 1941 to July-August 1941, military counterintelligence officers also wore the uniform of the service branch of the armed forces with insignia of political personnel and had only political personnel ranks. Employees of the central apparatus (3rd NPO Directorate) during the same period wore GB uniforms and GB special ranks (Head of the 3rd NPO Directorate, GB Major A. N. Mikheev, deputy chief - GB Major N. A. Osetrov, and so on) . On July 17, 1941, with the formation of the Directorate of Special Departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, counterintelligence officers in the troops switched to the special ranks of the GB (but also probably used the ranks of political personnel). The uniform remained the same - political personnel.

On April 19, 1943, on the basis of the Directorate of Special Departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" was created and transferred to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. Former special officers became subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense. In this regard, almost all of them were awarded general army ranks, that is, without the prefix “state security” in their personal rank. On May 3, 1946, the GUKR "SMERSH" NGOs of the USSR were reorganized again into the MGB OO.

Functions of special departments

The functions of the Special Department of the NKVD (chief, deputy, intelligence officers) included monitoring the political and moral state of the unit, identifying state criminals (traitors, spies, saboteurs, terrorists, counter-revolutionary organizations and groups of people conducting anti-Soviet agitation, and others), conducting investigations into state crimes under the supervision of the prosecutor's office and transfer cases to military tribunals.

From the beginning of the war to October 1941, special departments and detachments of the NKVD troops detained 657,364 military personnel who lagged behind their units and fled from the front. Among this mass, 1,505 spies and 308 saboteurs were identified and exposed. As of December 1941, special departments arrested 4,647 traitors, 3,325 cowards and alarmists, 13,887 deserters, 4,295 distributors of provocative rumors, 2,358 self-shooters, and 4,214 for banditry and looting.

see also

In the late 70s - early 80s of the 20th century, the functions of special departments serving military units on the Soviet-Turkish border, rather unofficially, included the function of blocking breakthroughs from the side of the border deep into Soviet territory within the border zone. The operations were carried out in direct connection with border groups leading the pursuit from the border. In these operations, which do not have official confirmation, the most active participants were privates and sergeants of the so-called security departments of special departments, who sometimes came into fire contact with the violators who managed to overcome the border barriers and go deeper into the territory of the USSR up to 5-7 km. Operations of this kind were never made public and, perhaps, were not documented for a simple reason: the border is inviolable. Thanks to the officers of the special departments of military counterintelligence, the soldiers and sergeants of the security departments had very high individual combat training, allowing them to operate effectively not only as part of small, 3-5 people, mobile groups, but also individually.

Notes

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Synonyms:

See what “Special Officer” is in other dictionaries:

Employee, individualist Dictionary of Russian synonyms. specialist noun, number of synonyms: 2 individualist (3) ... Synonym dictionary

special officer- SPECIALIST, a, m. Employee of the Special Department (for example, in the army, in security agencies); about any person who behaves in a special way. Why don’t you drink, special officer or something? Give him a penalty as a special officer... Dictionary of Russian argot

special officer- , a, m. An employee of a special department, a special unit. ◘ I order you, the special officer shouted, and no joke to me. He clicked the shutter. Zhitkov, 1989, 188. The special officers and tribunal officers got out of captivity and zealously set about searching for the capture of the rebels: they caught ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Council of Deputies

M. coll. An employee of a special department dealing with issues of political reliability and state security (in the USSR). Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova

special officer- especially ist, and... Russian spelling dictionary

A; m. Razg. An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... encyclopedic Dictionary

special officer- A; m.; decomposition An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... Dictionary of many expressions

special officer- special/ist/ … Morphemic-spelling dictionary

especially- Adj. to special...

special- a, e. What is it about someone’s specialness, individuality; in the language of which there are no special, individual figures, features... Ukrainian Tlumach Dictionary

Books

• Razumniki: How to develop a successful personality, Amanda Ripley, How to teach a child to think critically? How do other countries grow wise and what role do fathers and readers play? How can I steal school for my child? Schotake global testing… Publisher:

SPECIALIST, a, m. Employee of the Special Department (for example, in the army, in security agencies); about any person who behaves in a special way. Why don’t you drink, special officer or something? Give him a penalty as a special officer... Dictionary of Russian argot

special officer- , a, m. An employee of a special department, a special unit. ◘ I order you, the special officer shouted, and no joke to me. He clicked the shutter. Zhitkov, 1989, 188. The special officers and tribunal officers got out of captivity and zealously set about searching for the capture of the rebels: they caught ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Council of Deputies

A special department is a military counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. Special departments were created on December 19, 1918 by a decree of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), according to which the front and army Chekas were merged with the bodies of the Military ... ... Wikipedia

special officer- especially ist, and... Russian spelling dictionary

A; m. Razg. An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... encyclopedic Dictionary

special officer- A; m.; decomposition An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... Dictionary of many expressions

special officer- special/ist/ … Morphemic-spelling dictionary

especially- Adj. to special...

special- a, e. What is it about someone’s specialness, individuality; in the language of which there are no special, individual figures, features... Ukrainian Tlumach Dictionary

Books

• Razumniki: How to develop a successful personality, Amanda Ripley, How to teach a child to think critically? How do other countries grow wise and what role do fathers and readers play? How can I steal school for my child? Schotake global testing... Publisher: K.FUND, Manufacturer: K.FUND,
• The peculiarity of the child. Safety Rules (set of 9 posters), Amanda Rippley, Set of 9 color double-sided posters. Topics: Safety at home Safety on the street Safety on the road Safety on a bicycle Not safe in the hour of a thunderstorm Be careful:… Series:

For those who served in the army, especially in officer positions, it is well known who the “special officers” are. These are representatives of the KGB (and now the FSB) in army units. Their main task at all times was to carry out work to prevent the intelligence activities of the enemy (actual and potential) in the army. Essentially, these are army counterintelligence agents.
Their activities were of a very specific nature; they carried out their work quietly, inconspicuously, using methods only known to them. They were jokingly called “shut up, shut up.”
As a rule, ordinary military officers became “special officers”, as if they were “removed” from the troops and returned back to army units after special training and worked there as “special officers.”
They had fairly large powers, and in matters of their competence they went directly to the commanders of the units to which they were attached. The commanders were obliged to provide them with all possible assistance and assistance in solving special problems.
However, this in no way gave the right to “special officers” to interfere in issues of combat and political training, or to command personnel at any levels and units of the military body.
It must be said that they never did this, they had enough of their own worries, however, in any family there is a black sheep. Unfortunately, even in this environment there were overly ambitious or simply not smart officers who sometimes exceeded their powers.
“Grandfather Zhenya” once told me about one such incident from his life during our next meeting.

It was 1938. The situation in the Far East was extremely tense. The Japanese became completely insolent, provocations on the border became commonplace. In this situation, says Emelyan Filaretovich, the regiment mastered the new I-16 fighters that had just been received under the rearmament program. This car was special, in which aircraft designer Polikarpov tried to combine speed and maneuverability as much as possible, which he succeeded brilliantly, but nothing comes easy without loss. The machine turned out to be quite difficult to operate and required good flight training from the pilots.
The regiment intensively mastered the new aircraft, flights took place every day, with maximum tension, because there was no time for “relaxation”. The command to engage in hostilities could be received at any moment.
Technology always remains technology, especially new, not fully “broken-in”. Problems, naturally, arose, but where could you get away from them? Once during the flight, when landing with me, the general recalls, one of the landing gear wheels on the plane did not come out and I had to land the car on the only other one, but, thank God, everything worked out. However, fortunately, there were no serious accidents, let alone catastrophes.
On this day, one plane crashed during landing, i.e. after touching, he stuck his nose into the ground and damaged the propeller blades. This happens most often when, for one reason or another, the landing gear wheels jam after landing.
The case, of course, is not pleasant, but not from the category of “emergency”. My deputy was in charge of the flights that day. He informed me about the incident and I immediately hurried to the airfield. However, a few minutes earlier, the regimental “special officer”, Senior Lieutenant Krutilin, rode there on a bicycle.
He was a “lad”, I’ll tell you Kostya, not a pleasant one, he always “poked his nose” into things that weren’t his own and tried to command not only the flight and technical personnel, but even, sometimes, squadron commanders. More than once I had to carefully put him in his place, but still smoothing out the “sharp corners”, trying to resolve conflict situations as diplomatically as possible.
However, what happened this time drove me crazy!
I discovered that flights have been stopped. What’s the matter, I asked the deputy, why aren’t we flying?
- Senior Lieutenant Krutilin, the deputy reports, ordered to stop flights due to an accident on the airfield. I didn’t start a conflict and decided to wait for you.
Where is he, I ask?
- Yes, there he is with his bicycle standing to the side.
Send a soldier, tell him that I am calling him here.
Krutilin walked up with an untied gait, without saying a word, showing with all his appearance that he was the real master of the regiment.
Comrade senior lieutenant, weren’t you taught in the army how to approach and report to the senior commander when he calls you?
- And you are not my boss for me to report to you!
Everyone was taken aback, they didn’t even expect such “greyhound” from him, they were looking to see what I would do in response. It was clearly visible that Krutilin was provoking me to an inappropriate act, so that I would break loose and do something that I had no right to do, or give up in front of him in front of my subordinates.
Get out of here, and don't set foot on the airfield without my personal permission!
“Well, you, Major, will bitterly regret this,” Krutilin, who had turned white with anger and frustration, squeezed out, grabbed his bicycle and rode off from the airfield.
I gave the command to continue flying and went to regimental headquarters. No one else saw Krutilin in the regiment's disposition, and a day later I was summoned to the commander.
Blucher had the head of the political department of the Army and the head of the special department.
Reported his arrival as expected. The commander greeted him and, with a gesture of his hand, invited the head of the special department to ask questions.
- Comrade Major, explain why you expelled the representative of the special department from the regiment, or did you yourself decide to catch spies in the regiment?
- No, comrades colonel, no one expelled Krutilin from the regiment, but only from the airfield, where he has no right to enter during flights without the permission of his superior.
- Why didn’t he allow him?
“He didn’t ask permission from the flight director; moreover, he ordered the flights to stop.”
- So did he stop?
- Yes, before my arrival at the airfield.
- Who has the right to stop or continue flights?
- Only the flight director and I personally, the regiment commander.
- And what about Krutilin, how did he explain his actions to you?
- No way, he started to be rude in front of the personnel, so I kicked him out of the airfield and told him to appear at the airfield, if necessary, during flights with my personal permission.
- So you didn’t kick him out of the regiment?
- Of course, what right would I have to do this, and why, I understand that spies will still have to be caught, and that’s his business.
- Yes, that's for sure!
The head of the special department smiled, stood up, and turned to Blucher.
- Comrade commander, I have no more questions for the major.
“And even more so for me,” Vasily Konstantinovich answered. Do you have any questions for us?
“In working order, if you allow me,” I answered.
“Well, we’ve agreed,” Blucher summed up the conversation.
- May I go?
- Yes, of course, go and work.

Krutilin was removed from the regiment and was replaced by a captain, a good, intelligent officer, with whom a common language was immediately found and all issues were resolved without any problems.
And fate brought Krutilin together again, this time during the war. He came to my regiment to ask, he didn’t want to go to the infantry, they say, we are old acquaintances from the Far East. Naturally, I put him out there, I knew what kind of goose he was.
- Emelyan Filaretovich, well, in general, this sore subject, repression, how did you manage to avoid all this?
- This is the year 1937, I fought in Spain then, and when I returned, everything had already passed. As you can see, even conflict situations with the “special officers” were resolved objectively, no one was arrested or brought to trial “for no reason.” And even more so during the war, it was necessary to fight, people died, every pilot, and especially the commander, was specially registered; they did not touch anyone without a serious reason. In my regiment and then in the division, no one was ever arrested through the special department.
What about Stalin, what was he like?
- I saw him quite closely several times at various events. He was a serious man and very authoritative. Something really unusual came from him. Glubokoye was respected. In any case, I personally can’t say anything bad about him. Well, there was no need to communicate; after all, the level is incomparably different. But I met Marshal Zhukov many times. It was he who personally asked me to go to China as the chief military adviser.
- What, you already asked?
- Yes, that’s right, because the work there had to be special. Of course, I perceived his request as an order, I didn’t think twice about it, it’s necessary, it means it’s necessary, but that’s a different story.
Okay, let's go have tea, Nila Pavlovna has already been waiting for us.

Kyiv. December 2011

Barrier detachments and special officers

What are barrier detachments?

These are bloody executioners who sat with machine guns behind the field troops and almost - shot them in the back! - say the storytellers.

The barrier detachments appeared not even after the order “Not a step back,” but a year earlier, in July 1941. But here’s the problem: there are no memories of how these units were “shot in the back”! They checked the documents of the soldiers going to the rear so that they would not desert.

Let's say, it is documented that the barrier detachments from August 1 to October 1, 1942 detained 140,755 deserters. Of them:

arrested - 3980;

shot - 1189;

sent to penal companies - 2776;

sent to penal battalions - 185;

returned to their units and transfer points - 131,094.

The vast majority are not punished at all! (Except for being sent to the front - well, what can you do? War...)

Don't believe eyewitnesses and documents? Then put yourself in the shoes of the participants in the events.

Let's say you are a fighter in a detachment. You are few, narrow ribbon. The main danger for you is the advancing Germans (they kill communists and security officers without looking); and the only protection is the field troops sitting in front. Will you shoot your defense, dooming yourself to death?

Now imagine that you are an army soldier, and a detachment lies behind you. If you are a good soldier, then these guys don’t bother you at all: you are not going to skimp. But if you are a coward...

Who is more terrible: a handful of security officers in the rear - or an approaching armada of Germans? Of course, the Germans. If you are afraid, then, saving your life, you will simply press yourself into the ground until they get close and raise your hands. And you don’t care about this detachment! Simply put, he simply will not have the opportunity to shoot you in the back.

Conclusion: the blocking detachments did NOT shoot the army soldiers in the back. This is confirmed by documents, eyewitness memories, and psychology.

It happened that they even entered into battle. For example, on September 13, 1942, the 112th Rifle Division, under enemy pressure, withdrew from its occupied line. Then the defense detachment of the 62nd Army took over the defense under the leadership of State Security Lieutenant Khlystov. The detachment fought for four days...

Since 1943 they were used as regular defensive units, and in 1944 they were disbanded.

Who are the “special officers”?

These are employees of the Special Department of the NKVD, which was engaged in counterintelligence. The barrier detachments, by the way, were not one of them.

In April 1943, the Special Departments were transformed into SMERSH (which means “Death to Spies”), but the SMERSH members were still called special officers out of habit. The system became more complicated: from now on, there were three counterintelligence services in parallel, three different SMERSH - in the People's Commissariat of Defense (chief - V. Abakumov, subordinate personally to Stalin), in the People's Commissariat of the Navy (chief - People's Commissar of the Navy N. Kuznetsov) and in the NKVD. Employees of each SMERSH worked only within their own department, and the first two were not formally subordinate to state security.

However, the overwhelming majority of managers remained career security officers.

About the work of SMERSH, read Vladimir Bogomolov’s wonderful novel “The Moment of Truth”: it is based on real events and documents. Here's a piece from it:

“Counterintelligence is not about mysterious beauties, restaurants, jazz and all-knowing friars, as shown in films and novels. This is huge hard work... for the fourth year, fifteen to eighteen hours every day - from the front line and throughout the operational rear... Huge salty work and blood... Only in recent months have dozens of excellent cleaners died, but I have never been in a restaurant during the entire war was.

Our conditions are such that any experienced Sherlock, even from the capital’s criminal justice system, would hang himself on the first branch out of despair.

In any criminal investigation - fingerprinting, operational records, laboratory and scientific and technical departments; there is a guard or a janitor at every step, ready to help in word and deed. And we have?..

The width of the front strip is over three hundred kilometers, the depth of the rear area is more than six hundred. Hundreds of cities, hundreds of hub and line stations; every day - thousands of soldiers, sergeants and officers moving to the front and along the roads, forests and large thicket areas everywhere. But the residents here, in the western regions, are intimidated, silent, and you can’t get any meaningful words out of them. And all our equipment, except for personal weapons, is Pasha’s captured camera.

Moreover, the criminal justice system deals with the amateur performances of individuals, and we deal with criminals, who are followed by the strongest state, who are trained not by semi-literate farmers, but by sophisticated agents, trained in special schools, supplied with legends, equipment and documents by experienced professionals.”

As elsewhere, there were also cowards among the special officers - but they did not define the face of this courageous and necessary profession.

All our people who were captured were then put in the Gulag! - the storytellers sing. - And in general, the special officers were brutally vicious!

Oh, of course. By the way, it’s funny: it’s the enemies of the Russian state and the Russian people who hate Russian state security. Thieves also hate the police. Does this surprise you?

Okay, let's look at the facts.

During the war, tribunals handed down 450,000 death sentences and approximately the same number of other punishments. At that time, 34.5 million people passed through the Armed Forces, which means that 3% were convicted.

“Other punishments” - what is this?

In the first year of the war, front-line criminals were sent to rear camps and prisons. There was much safer than on the front line. The mortality rate in the notorious Gulag did not exceed 5% per year, only in 1943 it jumped to 20%; an infantryman served on average for 3 months - then either to the ground or to a hospital. And many began to deliberately commit small crimes in order to save themselves. This is called hidden desertion.

Should he be encouraged? I also think not.

And after the order “Not a step back,” criminals began to be sent to penal units: privates and sergeants - to companies, officers - in battalions. Furthermore. From now on, civilian men convicted of minor crimes and of good health were also sent not to a camp, but to a penal company.

For what? And then, that many rear officers got used to evading the military registration and enlistment office in prison - and deliberately got caught on some small thing. For a coward, a couple of years of the “nightmarish Gulag” is much nicer than a trench under bullets. That is, this is also hidden desertion.

Stalin stopped him.

Now for the important details. They were sent to the penal unit for a period of no more than three months. If a convict received an award or was wounded in combat, he was immediately transferred to a regular unit (or hospital), and the mention of his criminal record disappeared from the documents. An officer who served time in a penal battalion was returned to his previous rank and all rights. If he died, then the title also returned, and his family received maintenance, as for an honest hero. The same thing happened with the privates. And if they went to the camp, their families would not receive any benefits.

By the way, the Wehrmacht also had similar units (as Stalin mentions in the order) - but only three to five served there years, and injury or reward did not shorten the period. Europe, culture, humanism...

After the Victory, all our fines were amnestied, the fact of punishment was erased from their fate.

There were 400,000 of them in total, less than one and a half percent of the Armed Forces.

It is said that they died en masse "attacking with shovels instead of rifles." Of course this is not true. Of these, 50,000 died, that is, 1/8.

The penal units were commanded by ordinary officers. But in ordinary units, a month of service during the war was counted as 6 months (to obtain the next rank), while in penal units, a month was counted as a year. Six months later, these officers were transferred to regular units.

Now about “all the former prisoners imprisoned in the Gulag.”

Yes, those who emerged from captivity or encirclement were placed in special NKVD camps for testing. They were usually kept in them for no more than two months.

Why check? We listen to V. Schellenberg, head of the VI Directorate of the RSHA: “Thousands of Russians were selected from prisoners of war, who, after training, were thrown deep into Russian territory. Their goal, along with the transfer of information, was the political disintegration of the population and sabotage. Other groups were sent to the partisans to fight them. In order to achieve success as quickly as possible, we began to recruit volunteers from among Russian prisoners of war right in the front line.”

Clear? The chief of enemy intelligence says openly: encirclement and prisoners massively recruited! Therefore, checking them was absolutely necessary.

But what are the results of the test? Was everyone imprisoned and executed? Not really…

Here is data on former prisoners held in special camps from October 1941 to March 1944.

Arrested three and a half percent! And after October 1944, no records of prisoners were kept at all; everyone was enrolled in ordinary units.

One more thing.

After the war, 4,199,488 Soviet citizens were repatriated. After checking, only 14% of them were arrested - Vlasovites, policemen, burgomasters, etc.; the rest were released.

How did the “bloody regime” punish these 14%? Shot everyone?

We didn't guess right again.

Half served a six-year special settlement. “The Vlasovites were brought to our area along with captured Germans and placed in the same camps. They lived in their barracks, outside the camp zones, and walked freely, without an escort.” Then their criminal records were cleared, and their work in the settlement was counted towards their work experience. author Sever Alexander

What did the “special officers” do at the front? From 1941 to 1943, military counterintelligence agencies were subordinate to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria. If in Soviet times little and only good things were said about the work of military security officers, then after the collapse of the USSR - a lot and often

From the book The Great Mission of the NKVD author Sever Alexander

“Barrier detachments” Another popular myth is that Lavrentiy Beria allegedly proposed using units of internal troops as barrage detachments. Joseph Stalin liked this idea. As a result, punitive forces from the “NKVD barrier detachments” were shot with machine guns

From the book Russian Holocaust. Origins and stages of the demographic catastrophe in Russia author Matosov Mikhail Vasilievich

7.4. BARGING DEMONSTS AGAINST THE STARVING PEOPLE Answering the question of what was the reason for the terrible famine that befell Russia in 1932–1933, the authors S. Rybas and E. Rybas in the work “Stalin. Fate and Strategy" argue: "The cause of the famine was not the excessive export of grain, but the creation