STALIN'S ORDERS Flashcards
When was???
ORDER NO 270 (1) NO RETREAT!
Retreating: lose war materials e.g tanks / rifles.
June 1941 - Soviet airforce had been decimated within a week! Planes bombed on the ground.
16th Aug 1941 - fairly immediate response to invasion on June 22nd.
To all in communist party, not propaganda. A demand for those in positions of power to use harsh measures. First few weeks of war = terrible.
Many RA soldiers retreating behind Urals, surrendering to Nazis.
Stalin threatens leaders’ / deserters’ families to ensure they stay loyal. Extreme measure - punishing own civilians when at war!
Demands:
1) If surrounded, fight as long as poss
2) Don’t allow yourself to be taken POW
3) No aid given from USSR/ Red Cross to any POWS. Families no longer get state aid - state control all aspects of society e.g. housing / food / jobs - can easily be deprived
4) If u show fear - shot. No one is safe.
Divide & conquer - young, eager soldiers can exploit the senior soldiers’ fear, take their position.
ORDER NO 0027 (2)
first order (order 270) insufficient. People still surrendering, losing war materials. STALIN’S SEVERE LEADERSHIP INITIALLY DOESN’T WORK!
Ultimately: both orders not very successful.
Blocking detachments / smersh units brought in Sep 1941. NKVD utilised, used to shooting their own men.
Urgent - Stalin only gave 5 days for NKVD to sort this out - Stalin desperate.
ORDER NO 227 (3) NOT A STEP BACK!
July 28th, 1942
Stalin’s motivations:
- lots of important, industrial towns & cities were captured, developed under 5yps. Breadbaskets of USSR, supplied grain.
- German brutality demoralising to Ukrainians / USSR. ‘Abandoned’ by Stalin.
Use of block detachments - 200,000 dead.
Punishment units. ‘Mine sweepers’ - 430,00 disgraced soldiers die. Stalin shedding soldiers.
USSR retreating for over a year! Loss of civilians living in enemy territories, collective farms taken, industry captured. Low morale.
Invokes ‘motherland’ - patriotic.
“regardless of cost” - victory = priority
Shot if you retreat!
Talks about rebuilding east of Urals, brick by brick. They COULD resupply the military!!
(THE WINTER RETREAT OF THE NAZIS)
Not just Stalin’s leadership that led to success!!
-55 degrees!!
Germans - no winter coats, petrol (?) in tanks, freezes at lower temperature than diesel!
Dec 1941 - Feb 1942 - Nazis getting bogged down by winter!
Hitler copied Stalin’s military orders - used penal battalions like Stalin, shoot ‘cowards’.
