Yep, if you break and ran, Stalin ordered that you be executed. The choice was to die by firing squad, or die from German machine guns. But the third choice was to surrender and hope for better treatment by the Germans.
“Yep, if you break and ran, Stalin ordered that you be executed.”
One of the problems is that is the last major war Russian’s fought. and their army is still built around undertrained and undermotivated conscripts.
Without the commissar standing being them with a pistol they don’t have much interest in risking their life.