Order No . 270 Order No . 270 , dated August 16 , 1941 , was issued by Joseph Stalin acting as People ' s Commissar of Defense . By the time of the order ' s issuance , German troops had achieved overwhelming successes in their advancement deep into Soviet territory . Their successful blitzkrieg strategy disorganized the Soviet defense system , led to encirclement of several Soviet divisions and even some armies and deteriorated morale of the Red Army ' s command staff . The command staff ' s morale was already low from the pre - war period as a result of Stalin ' s purges . The order was aimed primarily to raise command staff ' s morale , although in a very brutal manner . In the preamble , the order gives examples of troops fighting in encirclement , as well as cases of surrender by military command . The first article directed that any commanders or commissars " tearing away their insignia and deserting or surrendering " should be considered malicious deserters . The order required superiors to shoot these deserters on the spot . Their family members were subjected to arrest . The second article demanded that encircled soldiers must use every possibility to fight on , and to demand that their commanders organize the fighting ; according to the order , anyone attempting to surrender instead of fighting must be killed and their family members deprived of any state welfare and assistance . The order also required division commanders to demote and , if necessary , even to shoot on the spot those commanders who failed to command the battle directly in the battlefield . Commenting on that order , Stalin declared : " There are no Soviet prisoners of war , only traitors . " See also . Rough Translation is as follows : Order No . 270 : August 16 , 1941 Not only our friends admit , but our enemies must also admit that in our war of liberation from ( German - Fascist ) Nazi invaders , that elements of the Red Army , the vast majority of them , their commanders and commissars conduct themselves with good behavior , courageously , and sometimes they are just heroic . Even those parts of our army , who by circumstance were detached from the army and were surrounded , maintain a spirit of resistance and courage , will not allow themselves to surrender , are attempting to inflict ever more damage to the enemy and out of the environment . It is known that the individual parts of the army that were surrounded by the enemy , use all means in order to cause damage to the enemy and break out of the encirclement . Deputy Commander of the Western Front , Lieutenant Boldin , while in the 10th Army near Bialystok , surrounded by German troops , organized from left in the enemy ' s rear Red Army troops , who fought for 45 days behind enemy lines and made their way to the main forces of the Western Front . They Army troops , who fought for 45 days behind enemy lines and made their way to the main forces of the Western Front . They destroyed the headquarters of the two German regiments , 26 tanks , 1049 cars , vehicles and staff cars , 147 motorcycles , 5 batteries of artillery , 4 mortars , 15 machine guns , eight machine guns , one airplane at the airport and a warehouse bombs . More than a thousand German soldiers and officers were killed . August 11 , Lieutenant General Boldin Germans struck from behind , broke through the German front , and united with our troops , and led one of the military environment 1654 and commander of the Red Army , including 103 wounded . Commissioner of the 8th Mechanized Corps brigade commissar and commander of Popiel 406 cn Colonel Novikov fight was taken out of the environment of the armed 1 , 778 . In a bitter battle with the Germans , the group Novikov - Popel was 650 kilometers , causing huge losses the enemy ' s rear . The commander of the 3rd Army , Lieutenant - General Kuznetsov and member of the Military Council of Army Commissar 2nd Rank Biryukov fought taken out of the environment 498 armed soldiers and commanders of the 3rd Army , and organized out of the encirclement of the 108th and 64th Infantry Divisions . All these and many other similar facts about the resistance of our troops , high morale of our soldiers , commanders and commissars . But we can not hide and that recently there have been some shameful facts surrender . Certain generals is a bad example to our troops . The commander of the 28th Army , Lieutenant General Katchalov , being together with a staff of troops surrounded , showed cowardice and surrendered to the German fascists . The headquarters of Katchalov came from an environment , a sample from the environment of the group Katchalov , and Lt . Gen . Katchalov chose to surrender , chose to defect to the enemy . Lieutenant - General [ 1 ] Ponedelin , commander of the 12th Army was encircled enemy had ample opportunity to get through to her , as did the vast majority of his army . But Ponedelin not shown due persistence and will to win , panicked , scared and surrendered to the enemy , deserted to the enemy , thus committing the crime to the country as a break military oath . The commander of the 13th Infantry Corps , Major General Kirillov , was surrounded by German forces , rather than to fulfill his duty to the country , entrusted to him to organize For stubborn resistance of the enemy and out of the encirclement , deserted the field of battle and surrendered to the enemy . As a result of the 13th Rifle Corps were broken , and some of them without serious resistance surrendered . It should be noted that in all the above facts surrender to the enemy military council member armies , commanders , political workers , osobotdelschiki that were present in the environment , showed an unacceptable distraction , shameful cowardice and not even tried to get the wind up to prevent Kachalova Ponedelinym , Kirillov and others to surrender to the enemy . These shameful facts surrender our sworn enemy suggests that the Red Army , bravely and selflessly protect them from their vile invaders Soviet Motherland , there are unstable , cowardly , cowardly elements . And these cowardly elements are not only among the Red Army , but also among the commanding staff . As you know , some commanders and political workers by their behavior , not only at the front of the Red Army did not show a sample of courage , strength and love of country , and vice versa hide in crevices in the offices are busy , do not see and do not observe the field of battle , and when the first serious challenges to combat shrink from the enemy , tear off his insignia , a deserter from the battlefield . Can I put up with the Red Army cowards , deserters to the enemy and surrendering him prisoner or such craven chiefs , who at the first hitch on the front tears off his insignia and desert in the rear ? No you can not ! If unleash these cowards and deserters , they lay the short time our army and destroy our country . Cowards and deserters must be destroyed . Can we assume battalion commanders and commanders of regiments , who hide in crevices during the fight , do not see the battlefield , there was no progress on the field of battle and still think they regimental commanders and battalions ? No you can not ! This is not the commanders of regiments and battalions , and impostors . If unleashed such impostors , they soon turn our army into a solid office . These impostors should immediately dismiss from office , to reduce the post , in the rank and file transfer , and if necessary shot on the spot , bringing to their place of bold and courageous people from the ranks of junior command personnel or of the soldiers . I hereby order : Commanders and political officers in combat tears off his insignia and deserters to the rear or surrendering to the enemy , considered malicious deserters whose families are subject to arrest as a family have violated the oath and betrayed their homeland deserters . Require all higher commanders and commissars shot on the spot such deserters of command personnel . Was encircled enemy units and formations selflessly fight to the last , to protect materiel as the apple of an eye , on his way to the rear of the enemy troops , defeating the fascist dogs . Require each soldier , regardless of his or her position , require the superior , if part of it is in the environment , fight to the last , to make way for his own , and if such a boss or group of Red Army instead of organizing resistance to the enemy will choose to give up his prisoner , - Destroy them by all means , both ground and air , and the families who surrendered captured Soviet soldiers deny public assistance and help . Oblige commanders and commissars divisions immediately shift from post commanders of battalions and regiments , hiding in crevices during the battle and those who fear direct its fight on the battlefield , to reduce their positions as impostors , translate the ranks , and when necessary to shoot them on the spot , bringing to their place of bold and courageous people of junior command personnel or from the ranks of the Red Army excelled . The order read in all companies , squadrons , batteries , squadrons , teams and staffs . Supreme High Command of Red Army Chairman of the National Defence - STALIN Deputy . Chairman of the State Defence Committee V . Molotov Marshal S . Boudin Marshal Timoshenko Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov Army General Zhukov