Battalions of Death

Battalions of Death
Батальо́ны сме́рти
Shock troops of the Russian Eighth Army. They later formed the Kornilov Shock Regiment.
Active	1916–1917
Country	Russian Empire  Russian Republic
Branch	Imperial Russian Army Russian Army (from 1917)
Type	Shock troops
Size	600,000[1]
Engagements	World War I
Commanders
Notable commanders	Aleksei Brusilov Lavr Kornilov

The Battalions of Death (Russian: батальо́ны сме́рти), also called shock battalions (Russian: уда́рные батальо́ны), were infantry shock troops established by the Russian Imperial Army during World War I.

There were two different types of these units: the "battalions of death" were formed using many civilian volunteers recruited across Russia and given a short training in stormtrooper tactics with grenades. The "shock battalions" were created from soldiers of existing military units, in some cases with entire regiments being designated as shock units, and received additional training with grenades and machine guns. All of the shock unit members were able to wear red and black chevrons and the death's head skull insignia. The volunteers for these units mainly came from officers, sergeants, or civilians, while the ordinary soldiers were less likely to join.^[2]