Sending a fuckload of people to clog up the Nazi meat grinder with their bodies isn't heroism

Except that is just the "mongol horde" myth spread by the nazis. The soviet military was a modern military which fought as a modern military. The "not one step back" order was directed at higher officers who favored unnecessary withdrawals at the expense of ceding territory that the nazis would start exterminating and of leaving the flanks of other army formations vulnerable.