2nd Edition, revised, revised and supplemented. Created back in the years of the fratricidal Civil War, these units became a truly massive phenomenon during the Great Patriotic War, when the number of fines went to tens of thousands. Their combat use is still one of the darkest, most controversial and little-studied pages of history - perhaps no other topic has generated so many myths, not overgrown with so many rumors and legends: "suicide bombers from penal battalions," "detachments shooting at their own," "fields dotted with corpses," etc. etc. This fundamental study, based on recently declassified archival materials and numerous testimonies of veterans, puts an end to this issue, debunking speculative myths about fines and detachments of the Red Army and restoring a true picture of their creation, replenishment and combat application on all fronts of World War II.