It authorizes “blocking units” (also “barrier troops” and “anti-retreat forces”) to treat their own soldiers as the enemy. It echoes Stalin’s wartime order “No. 227” that was widely known as “Not a step back”.
This concept first arose in 1918, during the Russian Civil War, when War Commissar Leon Trotsky ordered unreliable Red Army front-line troops to be shot by blocking detachments if deserting or retreating without permission.
(Pikemalt saab lugeda Eesti Elu 11. novembri 2022 paber- ja digilehest)
