Standard response.
It wasn’t high level politicians who were machine-gunning Cossacks, jews, Poles, etc. by the millions. Those machine gun carrying russians could have dispensed with the “high level politicians” many, many times. But they didn’t.
RE Lee put sharpshooter companies behind his attacking infantry brigades, to kill men who would not attack hard enough.
Stalin improved that with machine gun detachments, in “blocking battalions” for the same purpose.