Order of the people's commissar of defense of the USSR № 227 («Not a step back!»): moral and political assessment

The article gives a moral and political assessment of the provisions of orders No. 270 and 227, which prohibited the retreat of Soviet soldiers under the threat of severe criminal penalties. The authors come to the conclusion that it is impossible to assess the events of the war in terms of peacetime and accepted in it attitudes about good and evil. Recognizing the brutality of orders, we should agree with their necessity and effectiveness in the current military situation during the Great Patriotic war.