Shtrafbat Shtrafbats ( штрафбат , штрафной батальон ) were Soviet penal battalions that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II . The " shtrafbats " were created by Joseph Stalin on July 1942 , via the infamous Order No . 227 ( Директива Ставки ВГК №227 ) . Order No . 227 was a desperate effort to re - instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany . The order — popularized as the " Not one step back ! " ( Ни шагу назад ! , Ni Shagu Nazad ! ) Order — introduced severe punishments , including summary execution , for unauthorized retreats . In his order , Stalin also mentioned Hitler ' s successful use of penal battalions ( See : Strafbattalion ) as a means to ensure obedience among regular Wehrmacht units . This observational remark led directly to the creation of a parallel system for the Soviets . Organization . Pursuant to Order No . 227 , the first penal battalions were originally planned at 800 men ; penal companies were also authorized , consisting of between 150 and 200 men per company . In addition to the battalions already serving with Armies , other battalions , subordinated to Fronts , were introduced . The first penal battalion deployed under the new policy was sent to the Stalingrad Front on August 22 , 1942 , shortly before German troops reached the Volga river . It consisted of 929 disgraced officers convicted under Order No . 227 who were demoted to the lowest enlisted rank and assigned to the penal battalion . After three days of assaults against the Germans , only 300 were alive . Soviet penal units were formally standardized in the order entitled ' Status of Penal Units of the Army ' ( " Положение о штрафных батальонах действующей армии " ) of November 26 , 1942 by Georgiy Zhukov , then a Deputy Commander - in - Chief . Penal battalions or " shtrafbats " were set at 360 men per battalion , and were commanded by midrange and senior Red Army officers and political officers ( " politruk s " ) . Penal companies ( штрафная рота , 100 to 150 per unit ) were commanded by sergeants ( NCOs ) and private s . The total number of people convicted to penal units from September 1942 to May 1945 was 427 , 910 , very few of which were known to have survived the war . However , these totals should be viewed in comparison to the nearly 34 . 5 million men and women who served in the Soviet armed forces during the entire period of the war . Categories . Men ordinarily subject to penal military unit service included : Infantry battalions . Penal battalion service in infantry roles was the most common use of " shtrafniki " , and viewed by many Soviet prisoners as tantamount to a death sentence . The term of service in infantry penal battalions and companies was from one to three months ( the maximum term was usually applied to those qualifying for the death penalty , the standard punishment for Order No . 227 ) . Standard rates of conversion of imprisonment terms into penal battalion terms existed . Convicts sentenced to infantry units were eligible for commutation of sentence and assignment to a Red Army line unit if they either suffered a combat injury ( the crime was considered to be " cleansed in blood " ) or had accomplished extremely heroic deeds in combat . They could also theoretically receive military decorations for outstanding service and if released were considered fully rehabilitated , though those suspected of political disloyalties remained marked men . In reality , the promise of rehabilitation was ( in most cases ) pure propaganda ; penal battalions were administered and commanded by the field units of the NKVD secret police , who treated " shtrafniki " as a worthless subspecies of soldier , useful only for absorbing heavy casualties that would otherwise be inflicted on a more worthy Soviet unit . They were used in attempts to break through particularly stubborn enemy defenses ; to perform hazardous patrols in large groups ( reconnaissance - in - force ) to determine enemy strength ; as sacrificial rearguards during retreats ; and as decoys ( e . g . , wearing dark , instead of snow camouflage clothing to draw enemy fire away from regular Red Army units ) . They were often sent into battle unarmed , or with sticks to mimic rifles . Most prisoners were transferred to the mine - clearing battalions for trampler duty if they survived infantry combat long enough to risk returning to a regular unit . " Trampler " mine - clearing battalions . Smaller battalions were established out of the infantry units to clear minefields as ' tramplers ' - unarmed men who ran through the minefields ( " trampled " ) ahead of regular assault forces to detonate land mines . The worst of all the penal battalion assignments , the tramplers were prepared for their grisly suicide mission s by being heavily fortified with vodka rations by their leaders before attacks . Trampler battalions were assembled from the penal infantry units for major attacks and were usually wiped out to the last man , with their mangled bodies reportedly " marking the safe passage corridor of the late - war Red Army through any minefield " . Air force . In addition to the infantry and mine - clearing penal battalions , which represented the majority , there were air force penal squadrons . Pilots or gunners serving in air force penal squadrons were at a marked disadvantage in obtaining remission of sentence via a combat injury since the nature of air combat usually meant that any injury was fatal . Pilots received no credit for missions flown , and were normally kept in service until they were killed in action . Former Soviet Air Force pilot Artiom Afinogenov recalled the use of air force penal squadrons near Stalingrad : The death rate among gunners serving in penal squadrons was exceptionally high . While prisoners assigned as gunners could theoretically clear their sentences after surviving ten missions , like the infantry they were frequently transferred to penal mine - clearing units before reaching this total . Combat service . Pursuant to Order No . 227 , any attempt to retreat without orders , or even a failure to advance was punished by barrier troops ( ' zagraditel ' nye otriady ' ) or " anti - retreat " detachments of the Soviet special organization known as SMERSH ( " Smert shpionam " ) , Russian for " Death to spies " . SMERSH units were used to shoot retreating men serving in penal units should the latter commence a retreat after failing either to advance to secure an objective , or to stop a German attack via counter - attack . As a result , with nowhere else to go , the penal battalions usually advanced in a frenzy , running forwards until they were killed by enemy minefields , artillery , or heavy machine - gun fire . If the men survived and occupied their objective , they were rounded up and used again in the next assault . The battalions were headed by staffs or ordinary soldiers and officers . While out of the line , discipline was enforced by an armed guard company , backstopped by NKVD or SMERSH detachments . Staff and guards were highly paid and got special pension benefits for their unpleasant and sometimes dangerous work . During the war , Soviet penal units were widely employed . Some units achieved considerable fame ; General Konstantin Rokossovsky ' s well - regarded 16th Army was composed completely of penal infantry units . Rokossovsky himself had been " rescued " from the Gulag by Stalin in 1940 after being imprisoned and tortured for 4 years for supporting Mikhail Tukhachevsky ; after the onset of Blitzkrieg proved Tukhachevsky ' s theories of armored warfare correct , Rokossovsky was quietly released from prison and restored to his rank by Stalin , who even bemusedly commented on Rokossovsky ' s missing fingernails ( which had all been pulled out during his torture ) while assigning him the command . The simultaneous formation of penal units and ancillary rearguard blocking troops in Order No . 227 has occasionally led to a modern misconception that penal units were rearguarded by regular units of the Red Army . Although the practice of using regular army troops as a rearguard or blocking force was briefly implemented , it was soon discovered that the rearguard did not always carry out their orders with regards to penal unit personnel who retreated or fled from the Germans . Consequently , until the end of the war , the task of preventing unauthorized withdrawal of penal unit personnel from the battlefield was handled by the anti - retreat SMERSH detachments of the Soviet NKVD .