The Penal Battalion

Military historians do not like to talk about penal prisoners; their mass graves are unmarked. Penal battalions were thrown into attacks on the most impregnable areas of the German defense. It was not at all necessary for the penal battalions to be supplied with ammunition and provisions; they often obtained food and weapons themselves, in battle. Death surrounded them on all sides: in front they were mowed down by enemy machine guns, and behind them by machine guns of NKVD barrage detachments. The film tells about the tragic fates of penal prisoners, whose lives were used to achieve victory during the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War...