861.015/21: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 25—7:29 a.m.]
1137. Pravda of December 23 publishes a ukase of the Presidium [of the Supreme Council] of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which establishes a new style of banner to be carried by troop units of the Red Army. If this banner is lost as a result of “faintheartedness on the part of the troop unit” its commander and entire officer staff who are “guilty of such shameful conduct” shall be subject to court-martial and the unit disbanded. An accompanying editorial points out that the Army regulations of Peter the Great strictly laid down that soldiers who abandoned their banner in battle should be “hanged on the nearest tree without trial”. It is added that “by no accident” not a Russian banner was lost at battle of Borodino.89 Illustrations of the new form of banner are likewise published.
- Fought on September 7, 1812, against Napoleon I.↩