Strzał w plecy. Przyczynek do badania dziejów rosyjskich oddziałów zaporowych
A Shot in the Back: A Source-Based Contribution to the History of Russian Blocking Detachments

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to issues related to the process of learning about the history of disciplining soldiers through intimidation with rifles in order to prevent combat behaviour considered ‘unworthy’. The subject of discussion is the situation that arose on the eastern front of the Great War in the area of fighting near Rawka and Bzura in June (‘May’) 1915, when one of the Russian units abandoned its positions. This event may have been a reaction to the German army's massive use of artillery and chemical weapons on the section of the front occupied by this unit. Russian source documents that provide insight into this situation are analysed here. These include, in particular, two orders to fire on soldiers of their own army if they attempted to leave their designated combat positions without permission, and the report by the commander of the 54th Opolcheniye Infantry Brigade on the reasons for that squad's withdrawal from its position on the Bzura River. The issue of the secrecy surrounding these two orders, which at the time seemed unusual and beyond the scope of routine warfare, is also problematised. Indirectly, the article attempts to capture the hitherto poorly researched phase of the formation of the strategies of Russian (and later Soviet) barrier troops, which, were during WWI, and with particular intensity after July 1942 during WWI, and still are now experienced over time.

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