Going on the attack, they did not shout “Hurray!” or “For the Motherland!” For Stalin!". They carried out the order at any cost, regardless of losses. And those who survived remained silent about their military past for almost half a century... This book contains memories of veterans who fought in penal battalions and penal companies of the Red Army. This is the “trench truth” of the front-line soldiers who fell under Stalin’s order No. 227 “Not a step back!” - both the commanders of penal units and the condemned prisoners from the “variable composition”, “who atoned for their guilt with blood”