Retreat-blocking detachments of Russian army in the Great Patriotic War

The article deals with the peculiarities of bringing up to strength and using in the field forces permanent and non-permanent retreat-blocking detachments during the Great Patriotic War. The author shows that the role of blocking units of the Red army in the great Patriotic war should not be neither exaggerated nor underestimated. Their creation was due to the crisis situation at the front and was merely one of the measures to strengthen military discipline, prevent the escape of troops from the battlefield, capture spies, saboteurs and deserters, return to the military units those who fled from the battlefield and stragglers.