1941 Stalin's order No. 270

75 years ago, on August 16, 1941, the order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 270 signed by Stalin was issued in the USSR. It read: "... recently, there have been several shameful facts of surrender. Some generals set a bad example for our troops ...

I order:

Commanders and political workers who, during a battle, tear off their insignia and desert to the rear or surrender to the enemy, are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as the families of deserters who violated the oath and betrayed their homeland.

To oblige all higher commanders and commissars to shoot such deserters from the command staff on the spot.

Units and subunits that are surrounded by the enemy selflessly fight to the last opportunity, protect the materiel as the apple of their eye, break through to their rear of enemy troops, inflicting defeat on fascist dogs.

Oblige every serviceman, regardless of his official position, to demand from a superior commander, if part of him is surrounded, to fight to the last opportunity in order to break through to his own, and if such a commander or part of the Red Army, instead of organizing a rebuff to the enemy, prefer to surrender to him as a prisoner - destroy them by all means, both ground and air, and deprive the families of Red Army soldiers who have surrendered of state benefits and assistance.

These draconian measures, however, did not lead to the desired result. The largest "cauldrons", Kiev and Vyazemsky, in each of which more than 600 thousand prisoners were taken, were formed in September and October 1941, after the issuance of order No. 270.