The Zhlobinski Penal Battalion

Meanwhile, in a small village called Kaakharjahr, just inside the Jhamjarhistan border, one of Trotsky’s battalions was about to march to the rendezvous with the great man himself. This was the penal battalion from Zhlobin in Belarus, commanded by one Komandir-Eskatrony Solomon Rosenberg. Solomon was a passionate Trotskyite and his well-meaning but incompetent leadership had meant that he ended up in command of a battalion of criminals. The criminals had been released from prison in the October Revolution and had been causing mayhem across Central Asia ever since. Discipline was very strict in the penal battalion and was imposed mainly by the arch-sadist of a politicheskiy rukovoditel (political officer), Politruk Vykopannyy Korova. Here we see the Zhlobinski Penal Battalion formed up by the River Jham, ready to march. Their battle-cry, ‘dobycha ili smert’ echoes through the village.