Penalty Strike

by Alexander V. Pyl'cyn, Bair Irincheev (Translator), Artem Drabkin

- Extremely rare (possibly the only) book-length account of a Soviet penal unit in World War II - Gritty, intense style conveys the brutality of war on the Eastern Front Composed of convicts--soldiers who conducted "unauthorized retreats," former Soviet POWs deemed untrustworthy, and Gulag prisoners--the Red Army's penal units received the most difficult, dangerous assignments, such as breaking through the enemy's defenses. So punishing was life in these units that officers in regular formations threatened to send recalcitrant troops to penal battalions. Alexander Pyl'cyn led his penal unit through the Soviets' massive offensive in the summer of 1944, the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the bitter assault on Berlin in 1945. He survived the war, but 80 percent of his men did not.

Genres: World War II, Military History, History, War, Nonfiction, Memoir, Military Fiction

206 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tomasz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pure, unadulterated Stalinist propaganda, additionally burdened with the atrocity masquerading as translation. This is, I think, the rock bottom poorest publication of this sort it was my misfortune to read, but I guess there will be tankies rubbing one off to Pyl'cyn. Sad, really.

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked at the first chapter. It is a classic memoir. That is, a
plain recollection of events, starting from the author's childhood and
pre-war years (he was born on the Far East of the USSR to the family
of railroad workers, his father died in the GULAG and both of his
brothers died in WWII, Pyltsyn himself volunteered for the army in
the first days of the war). From the writing style he sounds like a
dyed in the wool Soviet career soldier. The first chapter is full of
little details about the soviet life that I find endearing and I am
sure you'll appreciate. So, I vote we read it.

A word of
caution - Pyltsyn is a "primary source". He reads like an extended
battlefield report augmented by an impossible number of cliches and a
few personal anecdotes. I guess since he is a career officer, that's
what he writes. I hope that the poetry of his that he includes is not
translated as it is atrocious.

So, he is no Stephen Ambrose. Actually, he is more of a Richard
Winters (of the Easy Company) type. Probably even far more heroic. He
nonchalantly describes him leading an attack with 80% casualty rate,
another attack over a minefield and an attack over the Oder River
where only 13-some people out of his company survived. His love and
adventures with his wife-to-be are touching (despite the horrible
poetry).

Pyltsyn is a model Soviet citizen and a communist through and
through. He is the resident of the country where sex did not exist.
Actually, his memoirs (except for the incredible heroics and the
interesting composition of his battalion) is fairly typical of Soviet
literature. Back in the days, it felt like this was the only kind of
literature that was allowed to exist (which is why reading was not
much fun). Apparently, Pyltsyn is well known as he cites several
newspaper articles and books about himself. One of his annoying
features is his constant chatter about medals and military
decorations. If feels that it never dawned on him (he was 21 when the
war was over) that it is not a costume party. I much rather like
Winters' grim determination.

Anyhow, it takes a bit of Ambrose and Spielberg to imagine the events
described by Pyltsyn. It is interesting how the penal soldiers yearned
to get into hand-to-hand combat, something the Germans seldom
withstood. It seems that the fighting was to get to the enemy trenches
and to hack them up there.

The penal battalion as described by Pyltsyn seems like a reasonable if
harsh enterprise: their weapons were modern and in good supply, they
were well-fed and officered. Also, since the penal battalion was
composed of convicted officers, they were motivated to fight.

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The tagline here is that this only has value to those well read on WW2/the Eastern Front/Stalinist Russia and anyone else should turn back now and not worry about the rest of the review.

For those who are still with me, there is some value. There is clear bias which is both what makes it valuable but also not for the common reader. Despite being published in the 2000's it reads like it was written to go through a 60's Soviet censorship process. This is not surprising coming from a 40 year Soviet officer who laments the dissolution of the 1990's but means you need previous knowledge to spot the downplaying the whitewashing that goes on, especially when it comes to the Soviet advance into Germany proper for what it is; some combination of true belief, coping with the war and lived experiences, and decades of propaganda skewing what you recall. There are even cracks in the authors own story, where he vehemently says the penal battalions were not used for cannon fodder before admitting they were sent walking through a minefield without prior knowledge to clear it and always spearheaded assaults or trying to claim the incident of executed and murdered German civilians was a horrible one of atrocity and limited events instead of a widespread occurrence among Soviet troops. A real stark comparison to a recent read of **A Woman in Berlin**.

But this is one of the least combat forward memoirs from a combat soldier I've read, by the author's own admission he was asked to have some focus on their day to day living and that section of the soldier's experience. And in this way the work is both unique and valuable for the historical record. There are so few Soviet/Eastern Front memoirs in general that we kinda need to take what we can get in firsthand accounts and the non-combat portion is something I don't believe you'll find elsewhere. Made even more valuable and unique coming from a penal battalion leader where the casualty rates were so high.

Though, do be warned, it's a slog to get through. I assume this was originally written in Russian and would be fascinated to know how it reads there because this is not a good read. I imagine it's a combination of Pyl'cyn not being a good writer and the translator doing a poor job taking his poor writing into another language. Although, if it was Pyl'cyn writing in a second language that could also explain some of the prose and organizing that makes this a grind and a slog to get through.

[Jonathan Tilden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honor Among the Dishonored

When we hear the term “penal battalion,” we may think of dangerous criminals, former asylum residents, bloodthirsty beasts. Such is not the case, and this is the perfect piece to challenge those beliefs, those myths that have been passed down, the misconceptions we may have. This is the story of a man, who was brave and honorable, providing first-hand accounts of men who were the same - regardless of their scarlet title, which was very often undeserved.

[Paul Reska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent inside look of WW2 Penal battalions

This book gives an insight into the Soviet penal battalions in combat. The author provides first person account of the final battles and the use of the penal company

[Lesley Oddi]

Interesting perspective.

It was interesting to read a personal memoir of a Soviet officer during the second world war. I enjoyed reading the book.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

During World War II, there were special units in the Red Army made up criminals and others who had violated some law(s) of the Soviet state. These were known as Penal Battalions and members were usually sentenced to serve a certain amount of time, unless they shed blood for Mother Russia (fatally or otherwise), or proved themselves in combat with the Germans. The author was a commander in one of these battalions and saw a fair amount of action, being wounded three times and receiving several decorations for combat.

The book is fairly light on action, but still provides an interesting look into a relatively unknown type of unit, at least by Western standards. The Penal Battalions were often given dangerous assignments and sometimes treated as cannon fodder (there's an example of this in the book), and when it came time for glory or recognition they were not given any. Military decorations were extremely important to the members of the battalions as they were one of the ways they could be released from penal duty and returned to their original unit. Bone up on your Russian military awards as you'll read about quite a few in this book.

A good addition to any library of the war on the Eastern Front in World War II.

[David Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author seems to be a died-in-the-wool communist. I suppose that's only natural if one is to survive 40 years in the Soviet army, through WWII and the Stalin years. But it forces one to apply a filter when reading the book - the Soviets only rarely committed atrocities in Germany (the author only mentions seeing one); German civilians feared the Soviets because of propaganda (as if a campaign of rape didn't actually happen); Soviet soldiers, even those in penal battalions, were all patriotic; and so on. But it is an interesting read. Pyl'cyn tells us about his battles and his wounds, and there's a love story in here.