H-Net Reviews: Five days after Hitler, Stalin issued an equally famous, and momentous, decision. Order No. 227, "Not a Step Back," indicated to Soviet officers and troops in plain and uncompromising language why the withdrawals had to cease, and what the consequences would be if they did not. Retreat, Stalin stressed, was no longer an option, since if it continued the Germans would seize the bulk of Soviet industrial and oil resources, which meant the end of the state. "Russia is large but there is nowhere to retreat," ran the slogan. It was, therefore, the duty of all to fight where they were. To stiffen his troops' resolve, Stalin also ordered the creation of a number of the infamous "blocking detachments," whose function was to shoot Soviet soldiers engaged in unauthorized withdrawals. At almost the same moment that Hitler had begun the fatal dissipation of German resources, then, Stalin had responded with ruthless measures to guarantee the complete mobilization of Soviet strength.