Soviet Shtrafbats (1942 – 1945 AD)
Living in the Soviet Union during WWII was undoubtedly hard. Being sentenced to a Russian prison was worse. Fighting for your life against a seemingly unstoppable Nazi war machine, in the dead of winter, was likely horrific. Having to endure all three is virtually unimaginable. Nevertheless, this was indeed the case for approximately 422,000 Soviet convicts who were forced to serve the Red Army on the Eastern Front during the closing years of the Second World War. Not surprisingly, very few of these soldiers survived to tell their stories.
Joseph Stalin’s shtrafbats were Soviet penal battalions that filled three roles. First, they served as an example of what Stalin did to cowards and conscientious objectors, thereby increasing the discipline and obedience of the regular Red Army. Putting convicts on the front lines also emptied Soviet prisons, which consequently lessened the fiscal strain on an already burdened wartime economy. Finally, the penal battalions served as low-cost cannon fodder that could be used to slow the advance of approaching Nazi forces. Prisoners were often sent out to battle, for instance, without boots or weapons.
All of this was fine from Stalin’s perspective. On the ground, however, life was insufferable in the shtrafbats. Literally forced to follow the communist decree, that Soviets take “not one step back” in the face of advancing German lines, penal battalions were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Barrier troops, stationed behind the penal battalions, would shoot anyone retreating from the front lines. Most shtrafbat soldiers consequently rushed straight into the jaws of death. Fortunate prisoners were killed quickly. The unlucky ones were gathered up by the barrier patrols and forced to repeat the task in future engagements.