Order No . 227 Order No . 227 issued on July 28 , 1942 was a grand order issued by Joseph Stalin who was acting as the People ' s Commissar of Defense . It is famous for its line " Not a step back ! " ( / Ni shagu nazad ! ) , which became a slogan of Soviet resistance . The Order . During the first part of Great Patriotic War , Soviets experienced heavy losses along with mass retreat and desertion . Stalin released order No . 227 to reestablish discipline in Soviet Army . The order itself has a very passionate preamble . “ Enemy throws to battle new forces and doesn ’ t encounter its heavy losses , crawls to into Soviet lands , capturing new regions , havocs and destroys our cities and villages , rapes and kills Soviet population … German occupant forces by all means want to take Kuban and Northern Caucasus rich in bread and oil … Units of South front led by scaremongers left Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without orders from Moscow , they covered their colours with shame . " Population of our country loves and respects the Red Army , but now people are disappointed that the Red Army leaves our people to be enslaved by German oppressors and runs further to the east . Some not so smart people comfort themselves by conversations that we can run further to the east , because we have a lot of land , many people and we ’ ll always have plenty of bread . They use this to justify their infamous actions on the fronts . " … but further retreat to the east means to sentence to death our people and our Motherland , every bit of our land given to the enemy will enforce him and will weaken our defense , our Motherland . ” Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky wrote in his book " The Matter of my Whole Life " : “ … Order N 227 is one of the most powerful document of war years due to patriotic and emotional content … the document was motivated by rough and dark times … while reading it we were thinking to ourselves if we do everything it takes to win the battle . ” No commander had the right to retreat without an order . Anyone who did so was subject to a military tribunal of the corresponding seniority level . Order No . 227 established that each Front must create 1 to 3 " penal battalion s " ( штрафбат , штрафной батальон , " shtrafbat " , shtrafnoy battalion ) of up to 800 middle class commanders and high class commanders accused of disciplinary problems , which were sent to the most dangerous sections of the front lines . Each Front had to create penal companies for privates and NCO s . By the end of 1942 there were 24 , 993 people serving in the penal battalions , which increased to 177 , 694 people in 1943 . The number decreased over the next two years to 143 , 457 and 81 , 766 people in 1944 and 1945 , respectively , for a total of 427 , 910 soldiers who were assigned to penal battalions during the course of the war . The order also directed that each Army must create " blocking detachments " ( barrier troops ( заградотряд , заградительный отряд ) ) which would shoot " cowards " and fleeing panicked troops at the rear . Both measures were cited in the preamble of the order as having been successfully used by the Germans during their winter retreat . The requirement for Armies to maintain companies of barrier troops was withdrawn after just three months , on October 29 , 1942 . Intended to galvanize the morale of the hard - pressed Soviet Army and emphasize patriotism , it had a generally detrimental effect and was not consistently implemented by commanders who viewed diverting troops to create barrier units as a waste of manpower , so by October 1942 the idea of regular blocking units was quietly dropped . By 20 November 1944 the blocking units were officially disbanded .