So, a sensation took place. Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky presented new documents from declassified state security archives. It follows from them that the famous battle of 28 Panfilov heroes at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941, firstly, really happened. And secondly, it exactly corresponds to the idea that has developed over the years, is known to everyone and, in the end, has become almost identical to the very concept of “feat”. At least when it comes to the Battle of Moscow.
This story, like any other, has a beginning. In the fall of 2016, Vladimir Rostislavovich, discussing the film “28 Panfilov’s Men,” noted: “Even if this story were invented from beginning to end, this is a holy legend that simply cannot be touched... There were 28, 30, 38 of them, even maybe 48 of these 130? We do not know. And no one knows. And no one will ever know. And there’s no point in finding out.”
Now, two years later, it turns out that, of course, it’s impossible to touch the legend, but it’s still possible. But there is still meaning in learning.
This was found out based on the results of the work of the Russian Military Historical Society in the archives. “In the fall of 2018, a case classified as “Smersh” 1942-1944 was declassified, in which 3 new evidence was discovered that there was a battle between 28 Panfilov men, 2 new descriptions of the battle, numerous details surrounding the feat,” says Vladimir Medinsky.
In general, there was a lot in favor of the fact that such documents should have appeared. For the simple reason that for quite some time now the certificate-report of the Military Prosecutor’s Office from 1948 has been declassified and accessible to everyone, the final part of which reads: “Thus, the investigation materials have established that the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men, covered in the press, is fiction of the correspondent Koroteeva, editor of "Red Star" Ortenberg and in particular - the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky».
The existence of this certificate introduced obvious dissonance into the coverage of the history of the Battle of Moscow and gave some publicists a reason to question over and over again even the very fact of the defense of the Dubosekovo crossing. Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to challenge the facts stated in it.
No, attempts have been made, including from the Russian Military Historical Society. In particular, Vladimir Medinsky himself, being a Doctor of Historical Sciences, quite rightly appealed to scientific concept“criticism of historical sources” and repeatedly noted: “This investigation was carried out late, seven years after the events, it was politically biased, since a new wave of repressions against the generals was being prepared, incriminating evidence was collected on Zhukov, who commanded the troops near Moscow...”
Other critics noted that the testimony of the commander of the 1075th regiment Ilya Kaprova, who stated more clearly than others that there was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks on November 16, which was, to put it mildly, controversial. They say that the colonel, who was subordinate to the 4th company of Panfilov’s heroes, did not witness the battle, was far away, and his command post was surrounded. And in general, as a result of those events, he was removed from command.
Other questions were also asked: why, as witnesses, the Military Prosecutor’s Office did not interrogate the survivors of the direct participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, - Vasilyeva And Shemyakina- to whom state awards were presented back in 1942?
In a word, there was criticism of the source from the Military Prosecutor's Office, and it was significant. But it only impressed specialists or people very interested in the topic. One thing was clear: it was vital to find another document. One that could be contrasted with a “politically biased” reference report. Preferably, it comes from a structure that is at least as powerful as the Military Prosecutor’s Office.
One should agree one hundred percent with Vladimir Medinsky’s assessment. This is truly a great success. The new document, the file from the military counterintelligence "Smersh", meets all the requirements and can really serve as a counterbalance to the certificate from the Military Prosecutor's Office. In addition, counterintelligence officers interviewed people who were not inferior in authority to the regiment commander. In particular, the new evidence is the testimony of the second person after the commander - the military commissar of that very 1075th regiment Akhmedzhan Mukhamedyarov: “Up to 50 enemy tanks were moving against the second platoon in two echelons. The unequal battle lasted 4-5 hours, the heroes, bringing the tanks to close range, knocked out and destroyed 18 enemy tanks with hand grenades and bottles of fuel. After all the fighters of this platoon, led by the political instructor of this platoon, so. Klochkov were killed and crushed by tanks, the enemy managed to break through the regiment’s line of defense and move forward.”
Another undoubted success can be considered that in the “case with the stamp “Smersh”” there was evidence of precisely that same private, Illarion Vasilyev, whom the Military Prosecutor’s Office ignored: “On the morning of November 16, 1941, the Germans launched an attack on our defense... Political instructor Comrade Klochkov ordered us to leave the trenches into passable cracks and told us that we were left alone at the line, we would not retreat, but would fight to the last... We let the tanks in, crawled up to them from about 7 meters and put them under the tracks bunches of grenades, and bottles of flammable liquid were thrown into the cracks of tank crews. We destroyed a large group of tanks. I remember that at my end on the left flank, where I was, five tanks were knocked out.”
In short, the entire corpus of documents found and each of them separately is a very great success, which falls to the lot of researchers not that often. Vladimir Medinsky even calls to “put a dot on top of a dot,” that is, to once and for all stop the debate about what exactly the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men was.
Another thing is that criticism of historical sources has not yet been canceled. Let's say, people may appear who interpret the new turn as a clash between two companies: the Military Prosecutor's Office vs. Smersh, judges vs. counterintelligence. Journalistic excesses cannot be ruled out. Thus, some are already questioning the newly found and published testimony of military commissar Akhmedzhan Mukhamedyarov: they say, he, too, like the regiment commander, was removed from office. And for the same thing.
A dot over a dot can become an ellipsis. And become an incentive for further study of the history of the brightest and most heroic episode of the Battle of Moscow.
According to the classic version of the feat, on November 16, 1941, 28 people from the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, led by the political instructor of the 4th company Vasily Klochkov
At the request of citizens
State Archives Russian Federation, headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, gave a new reason for discussion about the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes.
“Due to numerous requests from citizens, institutions and organizations, we are posting a certificate-report of the chief military prosecutor N. Afanasyeva“About 28 Panfilovites” dated May 10, 1948, based on the results of an investigation by the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, stored in the collections of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office,” says a message on the website of the State Archives of the Russian Federation.
The publication of this certificate-report is not a sensation - its existence is known to everyone who was interested in the history of the feat.
On its basis, the head of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, citizen Mironenko, himself made statements that “there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths propagated by the state.”
But before we talk about myth and truth, let's remember the classic story of Panfilov's heroes.
Classic version of the feat
Political instructor Vasily Klochkov. Photo: Public Domain
According to it, on November 16, 1941, 28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, led by the political instructor of the 4th company Vasily Klochkov held the defense against the advancing Nazis in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, 7 kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk. During the 4-hour battle, they destroyed 18 enemy tanks, and the German advance towards Moscow was suspended. All 28 fighters were killed in the battle.
In April 1942, when the feat of 28 Panfilov men became widely known in the country, the command of the Western Front issued a petition to award all 28 soldiers the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay Krivitsky, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The “resurrected” Dobrobabin managed to serve the Germans and take Vienna
The investigation, a certificate-report on the results of which was published by GARF, began in November 1947, when the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison was arrested and prosecuted for treason against the Motherland. Ivan Dobrobabin. According to the case materials, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 entered their service. He served as chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region. In March 1943, during the liberation of this area from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by Soviet authorities, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing active treasonous activities, arrests of Soviet citizens and the direct implementation of forced sending labor to Germany.
When Dobrobabin was arrested again after the war, during a search they found a book about 28 Panfilov heroes, in which it was written in black and white that he... was one of the dead heroes and, accordingly, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Dobrobabin, understanding the situation he found himself in, honestly told how it happened. He actually took part in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but was not killed, but received a shell shock and was captured. Having escaped from the prisoner of war camp, Dobrobabin did not make his way to his own people, but went to his native village, which was under occupation, where he soon accepted the elder’s offer to join the police.
But this is not all the vicissitudes of his fate. When the Red Army went on the offensive again in 1943, Dobrobabin fled to his relatives in the Odessa region, where no one knew about his work for the Germans, waited for the arrival of Soviet troops, and was again called up to military service, participated in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the capture of Budapest and Vienna, ended the war in Austria.
By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Kiev Military District on June 8, 1948, Ivan Dobrobabin was sentenced to 15 years in prison with disqualification for five years, confiscation of property and deprivation of medals “For the Defense of Moscow” and “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941.” -1945”, “For the capture of Vienna” and “For the capture of Budapest”; By decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of February 11, 1949, he was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the 1955 amnesty, his sentence was reduced to 7 years, after which he was released.
Ivan Dobrobabin moved in with his brother and lived ordinary life and died in December 1996 at the age of 83.
Krivitsky list
But let's go back to 1947, when it turned out that one of the 28 Panfilov men, not only was alive, but also got dirty with his service with the Germans. The prosecutor's office was ordered to check all the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing in order to find out how everything really happened.
According to the materials of the prosecutor's office, the first description of the battle of the Panfilov guardsmen who stopped German tanks appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in an essay by a front-line correspondent Vasily Koroteeva. This note did not name the names of the heroes, but said that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.”
The next day, the editorial “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” appeared in the Red Star, which stated that 28 soldiers stopped the advance of 50 enemy tanks, destroying 18 of them. The note was signed by the literary secretary of “Red Star” Alexander Krivitsky.
And finally, on January 22, 1942, signed by Alexander Krivitsky, the material “About 28 Fallen Heroes” appeared, which became the basis for the classic version of the feat. There, for the first time, all 28 heroes were named by name - Klochkov Vasily Georgievich, Dobrobabin Ivan Evstafievich, Shepetkov Ivan Alekseevich, Kryuchkov Abram Ivanovich, Mitin Gavriil Stepanovich, Kasaev Alikbay, Petrenko Grigory Alekseevich, Esibulatov Narsutbay, Kaleinikov Dmitry Mitrofanovich, Natarov Ivan Moiseevich, Shemyakin Grigor th Mikhailovich, Dutov Pyotr Danilovich, Mitchenko Nikita, Shopokov Duishenkul, Konkin Grigory Efimovich, Shadrin Ivan Demidovich, Moskalenko Nikolay, Yemtsov Pyotr Kuzmich, Kuzhebergenov Daniil Alexandrovich, Timofeev Dmitry Fomich, Trofimov Nikolay Ignatievich, Bondarenko Yakov Alexandrovich, Vasiliev Larion Romanovich, Bel Ashev Nikolay Nikonorovich , Bezrodny Grigory, Sengirbaev Musabek, Maksimov Nikolay, Ananyev Nikolay.
Archbishop Pitirim of Volokolamsk and his entourage, participants in the World Conference “Religious Leaders for Saving the Sacred Gift of Life from a Nuclear Catastrophe,” laid wreaths at the memorial at the Dubosekovo crossing, the site of the feat of 28 soldiers. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin
Survivors of Dubosekovo
In 1947, prosecutors checking the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing found out that not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. “Resurrected” Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin. Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive.
All of them were wounded in the battle at Dubosekovo; Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev passed through German captivity.
It was especially difficult for Daniil Kuzhebergenov. He spent only a few hours in captivity, but that was enough to accuse him of voluntarily surrendering to the Germans. As a result, in the presentation for the award, his name was replaced by a namesake, who, even theoretically, could not participate in that battle. And if the rest of the survivors, except for Dobrobabin, were recognized as heroes, then Daniil Kuzhebergenov, until his death in 1976, remained only a partially recognized participant in the legendary battle.
Meanwhile, employees of the prosecutor's office, having studied all the materials and heard the testimony of witnesses, came to the conclusion - “the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of the Red Star Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky.”
Heroes of Panfilov, veterans of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Savostyanov
Testimony of the regiment commander
This conclusion is based on interrogations of Krivitsky, Koroteev and the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment Ilya Kaprova. All 28 Panfilov heroes served in Karpov’s regiment.
During interrogation at the prosecutor’s office in 1948, Kaprov testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and they really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men, and I couldn’t talk about it, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I don’t know on the basis of what materials they wrote in newspapers, in particular in Krasnaya Zvezda, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilova. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn for formation, the Red Star correspondent Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the division’s political department Glushko And Egorov. Here I first heard about the 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary to have 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the entire regiment fought with German tanks, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen... The captain gave Krivitsky’s last name from memory Gundilovic, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were and could not be any documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men in the regiment.”
T-34 tank on the distant approaches to the capital, in the Volokolamsk highway area, Western Front. November 1941. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Interrogations of journalists
Alexander Krivitsky testified during interrogation: “When talking at the PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind,” I told him that I made it up I myself...
...As far as the feelings and actions of the 28 heroes are concerned, this is my literary conjecture. I did not talk to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I only spoke with a boy of about 14-15 years old, who showed me the grave where Klochkov was buried.”
And here’s what Vasily Koroteev said: “Around November 23-24, 1941, I, together with a war correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Chernyshev was at the headquarters of the 16th Army... When leaving the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov Division, Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and said that our people were fighting heroically in all sectors. In particular, Egorov gave an example of the heroic battle of one company with German tanks; 54 tanks advanced on the company’s line, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them. Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regiment commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks... Egorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously become acquainted with the political report received from the regiment...The political report spoke about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company stood “to the death” - it died, but did not retreat, and only two people turned out to be traitors, they raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers. The report did not say about the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and their names were not mentioned. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Egorov did not advise us to try to get into the regiment...
Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, and talked about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that the company apparently was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors... I didn’t know that the front line was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of people who fought was 28, since out of 30 two turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided to write about only one traitor in the editorial.”
Crew of the PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle in position during the Battle of Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
“I was told that I would end up in Kolyma”
So, there was no feat of the 28 Panfilov heroes, and this is a literary fiction? This is what the head of GARF Mironenko and his supporters think.
But don't rush to conclusions.
Firstly, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Andrey Zhdanov, to whom the findings of the prosecutor's investigation were reported, did not give them any progress. Let’s say a party leader decided to “drop the question.”
Alexander Krivitsky in the 1970s talked about how the investigation of the prosecutor’s office proceeded in 1947-1948: “I was told that if I refuse to testify, that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that none of the seriously wounded or those who remained I didn’t talk to any living Panfilovites before publishing the article, then I’ll soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.”
Regimental commander Kaprov in his other testimony was also not so categorical: “At 14-15 o’clock the Germans opened strong artillery fire... and again went on the attack with tanks... More than 50 tanks were advancing in the regiment’s sectors, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion , including the sector of the 4th company, and one tank even went to the location of the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the hut, so that I was accidentally able to get out of the dugout: the embankment saved me railway, people who had survived the attack by German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The remaining companies suffered less."
“Memorial to the Panfilov heroes” at the Dubosekovo crossing. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
There was a battle at Dubosekovo, the company fought heroically
Testimony from local residents indicates that on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo crossing, there really was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the advancing Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of surrounding villages.
No one doubts that the soldiers of the 4th company at the Dubosekovo junction fought heroically.
There is no doubt that the 316th Infantry Division of General Panfilov, in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction in November 1941, managed to hold back the enemy’s onslaught, which became the most important factor that allowed the Nazis to be defeated near Moscow.
According to archival data from the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941 destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 soldiers at the Dubosekovo crossing did not destroy 18 tanks and not all of them died.
But there is no doubt that their perseverance and courage, their self-sacrifice made it possible to defend Moscow.
Of the 28 people included in the lists of heroes, 6, who were considered dead, wounded and shell-shocked, miraculously survived. One of them turned out to be Ivan Dobrobabin who was cowardly. Does this negate the feat of the other 27?
Memorial in Dubosekovo. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Lodo27
300 Spartans - a myth propagated by the Greek state?
One of the most famous military exploits in the history of mankind, which everyone has heard about, is the feat of the 300 Spartans who fell in the Battle of Thermopylae against the 200,000-strong Persian army in 480 BC.
Not everyone knows that it was not only 300 Spartans who fought the Persians at Thermopylae. The total number of the Greek army, representing not only Sparta, but also other policies, according to various estimates, ranged from 5,000 to 12,000 people. Of these, about 4,000 died in the battle, and about 400 were captured. Moreover, according to Herodotus, at Theromopylae not all of the 300 warriors died Tsar Leonid. Warrior Pantin, sent by Leonidas as a messenger and only therefore not being on the battlefield, hanged himself, because shame and contempt awaited him in Sparta. Aristodemus, who was not on the battlefield only because of illness, drank the cup of shame to the end, living the rest of his years with the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. And this despite the fact that he fought heroically in subsequent battles with the Persians.
Despite all these circumstances, you are unlikely to see Greek historians or the head of the Greek archive frantically bombarding the Greek media with materials about how “the 300 Spartans are a myth propagated by the state.”
So why, tell me, will Russia never stop trying to trample on its heroes who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland?
Heroes remain heroes
Historians agree that the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes was of great significance, playing an exceptional mobilizing role, becoming an example of perseverance, courage and self-sacrifice. The phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!” became a symbol of the defenders of the Motherland for decades to come.
In the fall of 2015, the film “Panfilov’s 28” directed by Andrey Shalopa. Fundraising for the film, which will tell the classic story of the feat of the defenders of Moscow, was and is being carried out using the crowdfunding method. The project “Panfilov’s 28” raised 31 million rubles, which makes it one of the most successful crowdfunding projects in Russian cinema.
Perhaps this is the best answer to the question of what the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes means for our contemporaries.
Original taken from kritik in The real story of “Panfilov’s 28 Men”. Facts and documentary information
Today I’m going to see the film “Panfilov’s 28 Men”. And I would like to know the real story of these “heroic” people, so that when writing a review of the film, I would know how much the script distorts reality.
Crew of a 45-mm 53-K anti-tank gun on the outskirts of a village near Moscow, November - December 1941
The most famous of the division's soldiers were 28 people (“Panfilov heroes”, or “28 Panfilov heroes”) from among the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment. According to the widely spread version of the event in the USSR, on November 16, when a new German offensive on Moscow began, soldiers of the 4th company, led by political instructor Vasily Klochkov, while defending in the area of the Dubosekovo crossing, 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, accomplished a feat during a 4-hour battle, destroying 18 enemy tanks. All 28 people, called heroes in Soviet historiography, died (later they began to write “almost all”). The phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!”, which, according to Red Star journalists, was said by political instructor Klochkov before his death, was included in Soviet school and university history textbooks.
In 1948 and 1988, the official version of the feat was studied by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as fiction. According to Sergei Mironenko, “there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths propagated by the state.” At the same time, the very fact of heavy defensive battles of the 316th rifle division against the 2nd and 11th German tank divisions (approx. the number of personnel of the German divisions significantly exceeded the Soviet one) in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16, 1941, and the heroism shown by the division’s fighters was not disputed.
Historical analysis
According to the materials of the investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, the newspaper "Red Star" first reported about the heroic deed on November 27, 1941 in an essay by front-line correspondent V.I. Koroteev. The article about the participants in the battle said that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through”; the commander of the detachment, according to Koroteev, was “Commissar Diev.”
According to other sources, the first publication about the feat appeared on November 19, 1941, just two days after the events at the Dubosekovo crossing. Izvestia correspondent G. Ivanov in his article “8th Guards Division in Battles” describes the battle surrounded by one of the companies defending on the left flank of the 1075th Infantry Regiment of I.V. Kaprova: 9 tanks were knocked out, 3 were burned, the rest turned back.
Criticism of the official version
Critics of the official version usually cite the following arguments and assumptions:
Neither the commander of the 2nd battalion (which included the 4th company), Major Reshetnikov, nor the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, nor the commander of the 316th division, Major General Panfilov, nor the commander of the 16th th Army Lieutenant General Rokossovsky. German sources say nothing about it either (while the loss of 18 tanks in one battle at the end of 1941 would have been a noticeable event for the Germans).
It is unclear how Koroteev and Krivitsky learned a large number of details of this battle. The information that information was received in the hospital from a mortally wounded participant in the battle, Natarov, is doubtful, since, according to documents, Natarov died two days before the battle, on November 14.
By November 16, the 4th Company was at full strength, meaning it could not have only 28 soldiers. According to the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, I.V. Kaprova, there were about 140 people in the company.
Investigation materials
In November 1947, the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkov garrison arrested and prosecuted I.E. Dobrobabin for treason. According to the case materials, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 entered their service. He served as chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region. In March 1943, during the liberation of this area from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by Soviet authorities, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing active treasonous activities, arrests of Soviet citizens and the direct implementation of forced sending labor to Germany.
During Dobrobabin’s arrest, a book about 28 Panfilov heroes was found, and it turned out that he was listed as one of the main participants in this heroic battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Dobrobabin’s interrogation established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed slightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that was written about him in the book about Panfilov’s heroes does not correspond to reality. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a detailed investigation into the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor Armed Forces country by Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev to the USSR Prosecutor General G.N. Safonov May 10, 1948. Based on this report, on June 11, a certificate was drawn up signed by Safonov and addressed to A. A. Zhdanov.
For the first time, E. V. Cardin publicly doubted the reliability of the story about Panfilov’s men, who published the article “Legends and Facts” in the magazine “New World” (February 1966). After this, however, he received a personal rebuke from Leonid Brezhnev, who called the denial of the official version “slander against the heroic history of our party and our people.”
A number of new publications followed in the late 1980s. An important argument was the publication of declassified materials from the investigation of the military prosecutor's office in 1948. In 1997, the New World magazine, authored by Nikolai Petrov and Olga Edelman, published an article “New about Soviet heroes”, in which it was stated (including on the basis of the text of the top secret certificate “About 28 Panfilovites” given in the article) that on May 10, 1948, the official version of the feat was studied by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as literary fiction.
In particular, these materials contain the testimony of the former commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, I.V. Kaprova:
...There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and they really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men, and I couldn’t talk about it, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I don’t know on the basis of what materials they wrote in newspapers, in particular in Krasnaya Zvezda, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilova. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn for formation, the Red Star correspondent Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Egorov. Here I first heard about the 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary to have 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the entire regiment and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion fought with German tanks, but I know nothing about the battle of 28 guardsmen... Krivitsky’s last name was given to Krivitsky from memory by Captain Gundilovich, who had conversations with him on this topic, There were and could not be any documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov men in the regiment. Nobody asked me about last names. Subsequently, after lengthy clarification of the names, it was only in April 1942 that the division headquarters sent ready-made award sheets and a general list of 28 guardsmen to my regiment for signature. I signed these sheets to award 28 guardsmen the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I don’t know who initiated the compilation of the list and award sheets for 28 guardsmen.
Crew of the PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle in position during the Battle of Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942
Materials from the interrogation of correspondent Koroteev are also given:
Around November 23-24, 1941, I, together with the war correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Chernyshev, was at the headquarters of the 16th Army... When leaving the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division Egorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and reported that our people are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Egorov gave an example of the heroic battle of one company with German tanks; 54 tanks advanced on the company’s line, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them. Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regiment commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks... Egorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously become acquainted with the political report received from the regiment...
The political report spoke about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company stood “to the death” - it died, but did not retreat, and only two people turned out to be traitors, they raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers. The report did not say about the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and their names were not mentioned. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Egorov did not advise us to try to get into the regiment.
Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, and talked about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that the company apparently was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors... I didn’t know that the front line was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of those who fought appeared to be 28, since out of 30 two turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided to write about only one traitor in the editorial.
The interrogated secretary of the newspaper, Krivitsky, testified:
During a conversation at the PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he asked where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us,” I told him that I had invented it myself...
...As far as the feelings and actions of the 28 heroes are concerned, this is my literary conjecture. I did not talk to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I only spoke with a boy of about 14-15 years old, who showed me the grave where Klochkov was buried.
...In 1943, from the division where 28 Panfilov heroes were and fought, they sent me a letter conferring on me the rank of guardsman. I was only in the division three or four times.
Conclusion of the prosecutor's office investigation:
Thus, the investigation materials have established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of “Red Star” Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky...
The Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR again dealt with the circumstances of the feat in 1988, as a result of which the chief military prosecutor, Lieutenant General of Justice A. F. Katusev published the article “Alien Glory” in the Military Historical Journal (1990, No. 8-9). In it, he concluded that “the massive feat of the entire company, the entire regiment, the entire division was downplayed by the irresponsibility of not entirely conscientious journalists to the scale of a mythical platoon.” The same opinion is shared by the director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences S. V. Mironenko.
Documentary evidence of the battle
Commander of the 1075th Regiment I.V. Kaprov (testimony given at the investigation into the Panfilov case):
...In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120-140 people. My command post was located behind the Dubosekovo crossing, 1.5 km from the position of the 4th company (2nd battalion). I don’t remember now whether there were anti-tank rifles in the 4th company, but I repeat that in the entire 2nd battalion there were only 4 anti-tank rifles... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the 2nd battalion’s sector. I don’t know how many tanks went (directly) to the 4th company’s sector, or rather, I can’t determine...
With the help of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this tank attack was repulsed. In the battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans retreated. At 14-15 o'clock the Germans opened strong artillery fire... and again went on the attack with tanks... More than 50 tanks were advancing on the regiment's sectors, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one the tank even went to the location of the regiment's command post and set fire to the hay and the hut, so that I was accidentally able to get out of the dugout: I was saved by the embankment of the railway, and people who had survived the attack by German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The remaining companies suffered less.
On the 16th, at 6 am, the Germans began bombing our right and left flanks, and we were getting a fair amount of it. 35 planes bombed us.
After the aerial bombardment, a column of machine gunners left the village of Krasikovo... Then Sergeant Dobrobabin, who was a platoon deputy commander, whistled. We opened fire on the machine gunners... It was around 7 am... We repulsed the machine gunners... We killed about 80 people.
After this attack, political instructor Klochkov approached our trenches and began to talk. He greeted us. “How did you survive the fight?” - “Nothing, we survived.” He says: “Tanks are moving, we’ll have to endure another fight here... There are a lot of tanks coming, but there are more of us. 20 tanks, each brother won’t get one tank.”
We were all trained in a fighter battalion. They didn’t give themselves such horror that they immediately went into panic. We were sitting in the trenches. “It’s okay,” says the political instructor, “we’ll be able to repel the tank attack: there’s nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind us.”
We took the fight to these tanks. They fired from an anti-tank rifle from the right flank, but we didn’t have one... They started jumping out of the trenches and throwing bunches of grenades under the tanks... They threw bottles of fuel at the crews. I don’t know what was exploding there, there were only big explosions in the tanks... I had to blow up two heavy tanks. We repulsed this attack and destroyed 15 tanks. 5 tanks retreated in the opposite direction to the village of Zhdanovo... In the first battle there were no losses on my left flank.
Political instructor Klochkov noticed that the second batch of tanks was moving and said: “Comrades, we will probably have to die here for the glory of our homeland. Let our homeland know how we fight, how we defend Moscow. Moscow is behind us, we have nowhere to retreat.” ... When the second batch of tanks approached, Klochkov jumped out of the trench with grenades. The soldiers are behind him... In this last attack, I blew up two tanks - a heavy one and a light one. The tanks were burning. Then I got under the third tank... from the left side. On the right side, Musabek Singerbaev - a Kazakh - ran up to this tank... Then I was wounded... I received three shrapnel wounds and a concussion.
According to archival data from the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941 destroyed 15 (according to other sources - 16) tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. The losses of the regiment, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 people killed, 600 people missing, 100 people wounded.
Testimony of the chairman of the Nelidovsky village council Smirnova at the investigation into the Panfilov case:
The battle of Panfilov’s division near our village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo crossing took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including me, were hiding in shelters... The Germans entered the area of our village and the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by units of the Soviet Army on December 20, 1941. At this time there were large snow drifts, which continued until February 1942, due to which we did not collect the corpses of those killed on the battlefield and did not conduct funerals.
...In early February 1942, we found only three corpses on the battlefield, which we buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of our village. And then, in March 1942, when it began to melt, military units carried three more corpses to the mass grave, including the corpse of political instructor Klochkov, whom the soldiers identified. So in the mass grave of Panfilov’s heroes, which is located on the outskirts of our village of Nelidovo, 6 soldiers of the Soviet Army are buried. No more corpses were found on the territory of the Nelidovsky Council.
German tanks attack Soviet positions in the Istra region, November 25, 1941
Reconstruction of the battle
By the end of October 1941, the first stage of the German Operation Typhoon (attack on Moscow) was completed. German troops, having defeated units of three Soviet fronts near Vyazma, reached the immediate approaches to Moscow. At the same time, the German troops suffered losses and needed some respite to rest the units, put them in order and replenish them. By November 2, the front line in the Volokolamsk direction had stabilized, and German units temporarily went on the defensive. On November 16, German troops again went on the offensive, planning to defeat Soviet units, encircle Moscow and victoriously end the 1941 campaign.
The 316th Rifle Division occupied defense on the Dubosekovo front - 8 km southeast of Volokolamsk, that is, approximately 18-20 kilometers along the front, which was a lot for a formation weakened in battle. On the left flank the neighbor was the 126th Infantry Division, on the right - a combined regiment of cadets of the Moscow Infantry School named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
On November 16, the division was attacked by the German 2nd Panzer Division with the task of improving positions for the offensive of the 5th Army Corps, scheduled for November 18. The first blow was delivered by two combat groups against the positions of the 1075th Infantry Regiment. On the left flank, where the 2nd battalion occupied positions, the stronger 1st combat group, consisting of a tank battalion with artillery and infantry units, was advancing. The task of the day was to occupy the villages of Rozhdestveno and Lystsevo, 8 km north of the Dubosekovo junction.
The 1075th Infantry Regiment suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment in previous battles, but before the new battles it was significantly replenished with personnel. According to the testimony of the regiment commander, Colonel I.V. Kaprova, there were 120-140 people in the 4th company (according to the staff of the 04/600 division, there should be 162 people in the company). The issue with the artillery armament of the regiment is not completely clear. According to the staff, the regiment was supposed to have a battery of four 76-mm regimental guns and an anti-tank battery of six 45-mm guns. There is information that the regiment actually had two 76-mm regimental guns of the 1927 model, several 76-mm mountain guns of the 1909 model and 75-mm French divisional guns Mle.1897. The anti-tank capabilities of these guns were low - regimental guns penetrated only 31 mm of armor from 500 m, and mountain guns were not equipped with armor-piercing shells at all. The outdated French guns had weak ballistics, and nothing is known about the presence of armor-piercing shells for them. At the same time, it is known that in total the 316th Rifle Division on November 16, 1941 had twelve 45-mm anti-tank guns, twenty-six 76-mm divisional guns, seventeen 122-mm howitzers and five 122-mm hull guns that could be used in battle with German tanks. Our neighbor, the 50th Cavalry Division, also had its own artillery.
The regiment's infantry anti-tank weapons were represented by 11 PTRD anti-tank rifles (of which the 2nd battalion had 4 rifles), RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails. The real combat capabilities of these weapons were low: anti-tank rifles had low armor penetration, especially when using cartridges with B-32 bullets, and could only hit German tanks at close range, exclusively at the side and stern at an angle close to 90 degrees, which in a frontal situation a tank attack was unlikely. In addition, the battle near Dubosekovo was the first case of the use of anti-tank rifles of this type, the production of which was just beginning to develop. Anti-tank grenades were an even weaker weapon - they penetrated up to 15-20 mm of armor provided they were in direct contact with the armor plate, so it was recommended to throw them onto the roof of the tank, which in battle was a very difficult and extremely dangerous task. To increase the destructive power of these grenades, fighters usually tied several of them together. Statistics show that the proportion of tanks destroyed by anti-tank grenades is extremely small.
On the morning of November 16, German tank crews conducted reconnaissance in force. According to the memoirs of the regiment commander, Colonel I.V. Kaprova, “in total, 10-12 enemy tanks were in the battalion’s sector. I don’t know how many tanks went to the 4th company’s site, or rather, I can’t determine... In the battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans retreated.” Then the enemy brought up reserves and attacked the regiment's positions with renewed force. After 40-50 minutes of battle, the Soviet defense was broken through, and the regiment was essentially destroyed. Kaprov personally collected the surviving soldiers and took them to new positions. According to regiment commander I.V. Kaprova, “in the battle, Gundilovich’s 4th company suffered the most. Only 20-25 people survived. led by a company of 140 people. The remaining companies suffered less. More than 100 people died in the 4th Rifle Company. The company fought heroically." Thus, it was not possible to stop the enemy at the Dubosekovo junction; the regiment’s positions were crushed by the enemy, and its remnants retreated to a new defensive line. According to Soviet data, in the battles of November 16, the entire 1075th regiment knocked out and destroyed 9 enemy tanks.
Breakthrough of German troops in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16-21, 1941. Red arrows mark the advance of the 1st combat group through the battle formations of the 1075th Infantry Regiment in the Nelidovo-Dubosekovo-Shiryaevo sector, blue arrows indicate the second. The dotted lines indicate the starting positions for the morning, afternoon and evening of November 16 (pink, purple and blue, respectively)
In general, as a result of the battles on November 16-20 in the Volokolamsk direction, Soviet troops stopped the advance of two tank and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. Realizing the futility and impossibility of achieving success in the Volokolamsk direction, von Bock transferred the 4th Panzer Group to the Leningradskoe Highway. At the same time, on November 26, the 8th Guards Rifle Division was also transferred to the Leningradskoye Highway in the area of the village of Kryukovo, where, as on the Volokolamskoye Highway, together with other units it stopped the 4th Tank Group of the Wehrmacht.
Watch the documentary: “Panfilov's Men. The truth about the feat"
Conclusion: of course, it’s up to us to decide where they “embellished” the story a little, and where it really is the truth.
In any case, a number of factors indicate that this story and the feat of people has the right to exist….
On the eve of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the start of the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow, the “democratic” public and press once again raised the question of whether there were actually 28 Panfilovites, myth or reality their feat. Today, in the press, on television and on the Internet, discussions have once again flared up about the reality of political instructor Vasily Klochkov (Deev), the significance of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction and the influence of the battle near Moscow on the entire course of not only the Great Patriotic War, but also the Second World War. In the West, it is customary to compare the Moscow defensive-counteroffensive battle with the attack of the English corps near El Alamein (North Africa), which won the first victory over the combined group of German-Italian troops under the command of E. Rommel. True, the “researchers” of this fact do not focus on the number of military units, of which 23 times less were deployed in the sands of Egypt than near Moscow.
28 Panfilovites - myth or truth
The first investigation, which did not reach the general public, was carried out in 1942 by special departments of the NKVD (since 1943, SMERSH agencies) after the facts were established that not all the soldiers of the fourth company died, and some of the 28 Panfilov men were captured by to the Germans. In the conclusion of the Military Prosecutor's Office of 1948, also marked “for official use,” A. Krivitsky’s article, published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in November 1941, was called “fiction.”
Of course, the events at Dubosekovo were not subject to wide public discussion, but among the people, in the kitchens of the intelligentsia, quite often, after a glass of vodka, doubts were expressed regarding not only the significance of the counter-offensive near Moscow, but also the contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory in World War II. These facts were so widespread that the fifth (ideological) department of the KGB reported them to Yu.V. Andropov, and he reported to the General Secretary of the CPSU L.I. Brezhnev, to which he immediately responded at the November 1966 plenum. Brezhnev called the facts of V. Klochkov’s denial of reality and his phrases “Moscow is behind us and we have nowhere to retreat” unacceptable, and rumors about the unreality of 28 Panfilov’s men should be considered provocative.
Later, in times of general openness and irresponsibility not only for the spoken word, but also for the written phrase, the director of the State Archives S.V. Mironenko published his historical research on the pages of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. He not only published tendentious facts compiled from the prosecutor's investigation of 1948, but also argued that the feat of Panfilov's men was a myth, and their names were invented by correspondent A. Krivitsky.
Today, due to the openness of archives and the all-pervasiveness of the Internet, any interested historian can independently draw a conclusion about who the 28 Panfilovites are - myth or truth.
A little history
For the first time, mention of the heroic battle of the 4th company of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, 316th Infantry Division at the Dubosekovo junction, during which 15 tanks were destroyed (according to the Wehrmacht archives, only 13), was published by the front-line correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper V.I. Koroteev 27 November 1941. A day later, in the editorial of the same newspaper edition, the editorial secretary A.Yu. Krivitsky published extensive material “About 28 fallen heroes”, which listed military ranks and the names of 28 fallen heroes. All further publications were written either by Alexander Yuryevich, or based on his editorial dated November 28, 1941.
The death of an entire platoon, whose fighters disrupted a tank breakthrough by their death, destroying 15 tanks, received a wide public response, and in July 1942, all 28 Panfilov men mentioned in A. Krivitsky’s first publication were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the same time, in the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR there was a clarification - “posthumously”. Thus, the fact of the death of the soldiers of the fourth company was legitimized.
In fact, of the 28 “posthumously” awarded Heroes of the Soviet Union, not all died. Two of them (G. Shemyakin and I. Vasiliev) were wounded and were treated in the hospital for a long time, but survived. Participants in the battle D. Timofeev and I. Shadrin were captured, but were not deprived of a high award.
I. Dobrobabin, having been captured, went into service with the Germans, which he ended up as the chief of police in the village of Perekop, after the liberation of which he again fought in units of the Red Army. In 1948, after the end of the investigation by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, he was stripped of the title of Hero and served 7 years in “places not so remote.” His attempts during “glasnost” to achieve rehabilitation failed.
Initially included in the list for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, political commissar V. Klochkov’s liaison officer Daniil Aleksandrovich Kozhabergenov did not participate in the battle at Dubosekovo, and was sent with a report to the battalion headquarters and was captured. He fled from there and took part in a raid on the fascist rear as part of the formation of General Lev Dovator. After returning from the raid, he was interrogated by SMERSH authorities and truthfully described all the vicissitudes of this period of his life. No reprisals from the NKVD D.A. Kozhabergenov was not subjected, however, in the Decree on conferring the highest award, his person was replaced by a relative of Askar Kozhabergenov. And here lies the secret of one of the bureaucratic incidents, of which there were probably a sufficient number during the bloodiest war in human history. Modern research has established that Askar was enrolled in the 316th Infantry Division in January 1942 and, therefore, could not take part in the battle at Dubosekovo. A. Kozhabergenov died in January 1942 during a raid by one of the Panfilov detachments along the German rear.
Today it has been documented that the names of all 28 participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, who were either killed or missing, were dictated from memory to A.Yu. Krivitsky by the commander of the fourth company, Captain Pavel Gundilovich. The captain's name was initially listed in the documents for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but then in the final version of the Decree he was awarded the Order of Lenin. Pavel Gundilovich died in April 1942 during the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow.
The bodies of six soldiers found after the liberation of the village in February - April 1942 were buried in a mass grave near the Dubosekovo crossing in the village of Nelidovo. Among the dead, the body of political instructor Vasily Klochkov was identified with one hundred percent probability.
So was it a feat?
Let's look at the bare facts... According to German archives, the Soviet defense in the Dubosekovo area was supposed to be broken through by battle group 1, consisting of a shock tank battalion supported by a rifle regiment. An anti-tank company and an artillery battalion were attached to the group, which were supposed to neutralize Soviet tanks (if they were brought into battle). The losses established by the German side were 13 tanks, 8 of which were hit by anti-tank grenades or anti-tank rifles, and 5 were burned with bottles of Molotov cocktails. The tank battalion was equipped with PzKpfw IV tanks with a crew of 5 people. Thus, the Nazis lost 65 people only due to the destruction of tanks. But we must also take into account the loss of manpower of the fighters of the fascist rifle regiment, which was necessarily accompanied by a breakthrough.
Therefore, the question “Panfilov’s 28 men - a myth or a real reality?” is, to say the least, immoral. And better than a catchphrase Russian Minister Cultures V.R. Medinsky - “...their feat is symbolic and is in the same series of feats as the 300 Spartans,” it is impossible to say about this battle.
On June 7, a certificate dated May 10, 1948, compiled by military prosecutor N. Afanasyev, was published on the website of the State Archives of the Russian Federation. The pages contain a brief report on the progress of the investigation into the famous myth of “Panfilov’s 28 men.”
“Panfilov Heroes” - 28 people from the personnel of the 316th Infantry Division who participated in the defense of Moscow in 1941 under the command of Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov. During the Soviet era, the legend about them became widespread: supposedly on November 16, during a new offensive of the German army on the capital, the guards destroyed 18 enemy tanks. However, since then, reports have appeared more than once that the story of “Panfilov’s 28 men” is a myth constructed as part of state propaganda. A document published by the State Archives of the Russian Federation confirmed that this story is an ordinary Soviet fairy tale.
The report begins by telling about the fate of one of the “Panfilovites” - Sergeant Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin. In 1942, he was captured by the Germans and agreed to become chief of police in the occupied village of Perekop. When the liberation of the Kharkov region began in 1943, Dobrobabin was arrested for treason, but escaped and again ended up in the German army. After 5 years, Ivan was finally taken into custody, he admitted guilt and received 15 years for high treason. During Dobrobabin’s arrest, they found a book “About 28 Panfilov Heroes”: it described the battles in the Dubosekovo area. But information about the exploits of the soldiers and Ivan himself was never confirmed.
The first message about the guardsmen of Panfilov’s division appeared on November 27, 1941 in the newspaper “Red Star”, written by front-line correspondent V.I. Koroteev. The essay described the battles of the 5th company under the command of political instructor V.G. Dieva, when soldiers destroyed 18 German tanks. At the end there was information that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.” The next day, the same publication published an editorial by literary secretary A.Yu. Krivitsky, which said that 29 Panfilov men fought with enemy tanks. The material was called “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes,” because, according to the newspaper, one of the guards wanted to surrender, but was shot by his colleagues. The article ended with the following saying: “all 28 of them laid down their heads. They died, but did not let the enemy through.” The soldiers' names were not indicated.
On January 22, 1942, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an essay entitled “About 28 Fallen Heroes,” written by the same Alexander Krivitsky. Only now the author poses as an eyewitness to military events, naming for the first time the names of the participants and the details of their deaths. All the poems, verses and essays telling the story of the “Panfilovites” only retell the materials of the literary secretary in different interpretations. On July 21, 1942, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.
In May 1942 at Western Front A Red Army soldier of the Guards Division named after was arrested. Panfilova Kuzhebergenov Daniil Aleksandrovich for attempting to surrender to German captivity. During interrogations, it turned out that he was on the list of 28 dead guardsmen. It turned out that Daniil did not participate in the battles near Dubosekov, but simply gave testimony based on newspaper reports where they wrote about him as a hero. Having received this data, Colonel I.V. Kaprov reported to the awards department of the State Administration of the NGO that Kuzhebergenov was mistakenly included among the “28 Panfilovites.”
Already in August 1942, a check began against three applicants for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from among 28 guardsmen. The Military Prosecutor's Office, the battalion commissar, as well as the senior instructor of GlavPURKKA dealt with the cases of Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev, Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin and Ivan Demidovich Shadrin. The resulting report stated that 28 heroes were on the list of the 4th company, which occupied the defense of Dubosekov. Due to the serious impact of superior enemy forces, the regiment suffered heavy losses and retreated to a defensive line. For the withdrawal, regiment commander I.V. Kaprov and military commissar Mukhomedyarov were removed from their positions. Nothing was said about the exploits of the 28 guardsmen during the battles.
Monument to 28 Panfilov guardsmen. Almaty
Local residents from the nearby village of Nelidovo said that Panfilov’s division fought near them on November 16, 1941. However, the Germans were repulsed only on December 20 by the arriving units Soviet army. Due to prolonged snowfalls, the corpses of the dead were not collected and funerals were not held. Therefore, in February 1942, several bodies were found on the battlefield, including the corpse of political instructor V.G. Klyuchkova. In the organized mass grave in which it is believed that Panfilov’s men are buried, in fact lie 6 soldiers of the Soviet army. Other residents of the village said that after the battle they saw the surviving guardsmen Illarion Vasiliev and Ivan Dobrobabin. Thus, the only established message about the feat of “28 Panfilov’s men” is the November message in “Red Star” by correspondent V.I. Koroteev and secretary Krivitsky.
On November 23-24, when leaving the headquarters, Koroteev met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division S.A. Egorova. He told him about the soldiers of one company who held back the advance of 54 tanks. Sergei Andreevich himself was not a participant in the fighting and spoke from the words of another commissar, who was also not present there. The correspondent got acquainted with the report about the company that “stood to death - died, but did not retreat,” in which only two turned out to be traitors. When Vasily Ignatievich arrived in Moscow, he reported to the editor of “Red Star” D.I. Ortenberg the situation and suggested writing about the heroic feat of the guards. David Iosifovich liked the idea: he clarified the number of soldiers several times and decided that from the incomplete composition of the company (about 30-40 people) it was enough to subtract two deserters and get the same number 28. On November 27, 1941, a short article was published in the newspaper, and on November 28 - the previously mentioned editorial “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes”.
During interrogations, Kravitsky and Ortenberg confirmed each other’s words: the author said that the idea for the article was suggested to him by the editor himself, but he does not know where the number of guardsmen came from and their names. Alexander Yuryevich even went to the village of Dubosekovo to talk with regiment commander Karpov, commissar Mukhamelyarov and company commander Gundilovich. They told him about the dead and the feat, but they themselves did not participate in the battle. The famous expression “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind” is a literary invention of the author. The editor was happy to post such material and provided it with the slogan “Death or Victory.”
War memorial. Village Dubosekovo
The decisive part of the investigation was the testimony of the former commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, I.V. Kaprova:
“There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 15, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. I didn’t say anything to anyone, none of the correspondents contacted me at that time, and I couldn’t talk about the feat of 28 guardsmen, because there was no such battle. And I didn’t write a report on this matter. Later, I heard about this for the first time when, in a conversation with me, Krivitsky stated that exactly this number of guardsmen was needed, to which I told him that the entire regiment was fighting German tanks. The names for the article were dictated by Captain Gundilovich, but there were and could not be any documents about the 28 Panfilov men in the regiment. I don’t know who initiated the compilation of award sheets and lists of 28 guardsmen.”
Thus, it becomes clear that “28 Panfilov’s Men” is a fiction of “Red Star”: editor Ortenberg, literary secretary Krivitsky and correspondent Koroteev. Unfortunately, this investigation did not prevent the erection of a monument to the guardsmen in the village of Nelidovo, Moscow region, and naming schools, streets, enterprises and collective farms of the Soviet Union after their names. Moreover, in the fall of 2015 a feature film will be released - “Twenty-eight Panfilov’s Men”. Funds for the production of the film were collected through a crowdfunding campaign and funding from the Ministry of Culture - a total of about 60 million rubles.