28 Panfilovites named year. The feat of Panfilov's men: the future of Russia lies with the heroes of the past

The All-Russian State (!) Television and Radio Broadcasting Company happily, as if it had found the wallet lost by a pensioner, reported on yet another exposure of Soviet myths. This time it turned out that the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes was invented by Soviet journalists. The news was immediately picked up, spread all over the Internet and began to be discussed with gusto. In general, today is another holiday for some guys.

But the thing is that the State Archives of Russia published a certificate-report on the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes. The report was prepared by the Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces, Lieutenant General of Justice N. Afanasyev, on May 10, 1948. Why it was necessary to publish this report right now remains to be seen. For now, let’s just be curious about what is contained in the report and why such a certificate was needed at all.

It turns out that it all started with the fact that in 1947, a certain I.E. was arrested for treason. Dobrobabin. It turned out that gr. Dobrobabin took part in the battles in the Dubosekovo area, for which he was awarded the Hero Star Soviet Union and where he surrendered to the Germans.

It further turned out that, in addition to Dobrobabin, several more people out of the 28 dead Panfilov heroes remained alive, and therefore it was decided to organize a check of the circumstances of that famous battle. As a result of the inspection, it turned out that for the first time about the battle of the guardsmen of the division named after. Panfilov was reported in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on November 27, 1941. At the same time, the article by journalist Koroteev stated that all Panfilov’s participants in the battle died and that out of fifty-four German tanks, eighteen were destroyed. The next day, that is, November 28, an editorial by the literary secretary of the newspaper, Krivitsky, entitled “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes,” appeared in Krasnaya Zvezda. Krivitsky wrote that there were twenty-nine fighters, but one of them surrendered and was shot by his comrades. The remaining twenty-eight "died, but did not let the enemy through." Later, already in January 1942, Krivitsky returned to this topic again, and “Red Star” spoke in detail about the battle, about the experiences of the fighters, named by name. And in July 1942, all of the listed fighters were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Further, the reference report states that all works of art dedicated to the 28 Panfilov heroes are based on articles from “Red Star”. By the way, no one made a secret out of this. Thus, N. Tikhonov, the author of the poem “The Tale of 28 Guardsmen,” reported that he was based solely on Krivitsky’s article and that he had no other materials.

But what actually happened near Dubosekovo? Was there a feat? Or maybe the Germans did not look at Moscow through binoculars, and the Soviet soldier did not defend his capital, and somehow, unnoticed by everyone, they surrendered Moscow to Hitler?

The Main Political Directorate of the Red Army conducted its own inspection of the circumstances of that battle in 1942, and this is what was established. The 4th company of the 1075th Infantry Regiment occupied the defense of Nelidovo - Dubosekovo - Petelino. As a result of the battles with the advancing enemy, the regiment suffered big losses and moved to a new one defensive line. "The Legend of 28 Heroically Fought and fallen heroes began with an article by O. Ognev (“Kazakhstanskaya Pravda” dated 2.4.42), and then with articles by Krivitsky and others.”

As we see, everyone is mistaken, even Glavpurkka: Krivitsky’s article appeared much earlier than Ognev’s article.

Local residents were also interviewed, showing that the battle of Panfilov’s division near the village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo junction took place, the Germans were repulsed as a result of this battle, and political instructor Klochkov actually died in this battle.

Koroteev, who first wrote about 28 heroes, said that the commissar of the Panfilov division, Egorov, told him about the heroic battles near Moscow, in particular, about the battle of one company with German tanks. The commissioner recommended that he read the political report and write about this battle. “The police report spoke about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks”, that the company was fighting to the death, and that two people surrendered. But neither the names of the fighters nor their number were mentioned. When the newspaper publication was being prepared, the journalists decided to proceed from the fact that there were thirty to forty people in the company at that time, minus two traitors. This is how 28 Panfilov heroes appeared.

As for the military themselves and the command of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, the regiment commander I.V. Kaprov showed literally the following: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction.” And further: “...On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, the 4th company fought as part of the 2nd battalion and really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about in the newspapers...”

What happens? Was there a Panfilov division? Was. Did you take the fight at the Dubosekovo crossing? Accepted. Did you fight off the Germans? Beat it off. Is this a feat or... so-so? Perhaps that is still a feat. So what is the lie? It turns out that the number is 28. But, excuse me, the state TV channel reported: « famous feat Panfilov's men completely and completely a fiction of Soviet journalists, the State Archive of Russia confirmed. A document, the author of which is the chief military prosecutor of the USSR Nikolai Afanasyev, has been declassified. Back in 1948, he reported to Andrei Zhdanov that the story about the heroism of 28 soldiers of the division under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov was made up.” Entirely and completely - this means that there was neither a division nor a feat. However, nothing of the sort appears in the published documents. From the documents it follows that there were not 28 heroes, but much more. Everything else could not be refuted. It turns out that the number of heroes has grown, but the feat turned out to be fiction? That is, the feat is counted only when the number of heroes is twenty-eight?

No. It’s just that this is not a feat of Panfilov’s men - an invention of Soviet journalists, but the exposure of the feat of Panfilov’s men is “entirely and completely” an invention of journalists in Russia, or more precisely, of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. In other words, in the year of the seventieth anniversary of the Victory, the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company took on the role of falsifier and slanderer. And to put it even more narrowly, the state that talks so much about the inadmissibility of revising history and especially the history of the Great Patriotic War, should hit yourself in the back of the head. Because this state itself promotes both revision with falsification and slander with false revelations. What exactly contributes to this is another question - negligence, political myopia, recruitment of narrow-minded employees, or malicious intent, but one way or another, the state itself has now acted as a falsifier of its own history, taking upon itself the functions of self-destruction.

Of course, any people and any state have their own myths. Myth shapes a person’s relationship to the world around him, explains this world and gives it meaning. Moreover, a myth is not necessarily a fiction. Myth researcher, philosopher A.M. Piatigorsky defined myth as a story about an “unusual” person with “unusual behavior.” Myth is never created on purpose; it is always close to a person. Everything that a person surrounds himself with is a myth, since all things are always loaded with meaning.

The feat of Panfilov's men is also a myth, because this is a story about extraordinary people and extraordinary behavior. But this does not mean that the feat did not happen, that it was a fiction. This feat illustrates folk heroism and people's attitude towards war and the enemy. And it doesn’t matter whether Klochkov said his famous words or not. In any case, Klochkov-Krivitsky’s words explain the actions of those who died under enemy tanks.

The essence of what happened seventy years ago is not who said what, whether the fourth or fifth company fought, and where there were how many people there were - twenty-eight or thirty-five. And if not twenty-eight died at the Dubosekovo crossing Soviet soldiers, but six or one hundred and fifty-three, this will absolutely not change anything and will not affect anything. "28" became a symbol. Like the Brest Fortress, like the Black Sea sailors. These symbols denote steadfastness and devotion to duty; behind them are people who die but do not give up. Disputing these symbols is not only blasphemous, but also as absurd as trying to find out: is it true that “there were only three of us left out of eighteen guys” and “only seven young soldiers remained alive”? Did Seryozhka live on Malaya Bronnaya, and Vitka on Mokhovaya?

Well, from now on let’s say not “28 Panfilov heroes”, but “128 Panfilov heroes”. Will this make it easier for us? Will we stop feeling deceived by the totalitarian regime?

During military operations, during any chaos, confusion and confusion are quite natural. Sometimes it is difficult to obtain accurate data and then you have to be content with approximate ones. Journalist Koroteev and editor of Krasnaya Zvezda, Major General Ortenberg, settled on twenty-eight fighters. So what?

There is no doubt that the feat took place, and no one could refute it. Even if Soviet journalists tied a pink bow on this feat, even if they gave an inaccurate number of those who fought and died, the essence of what was happening was in no way shaken. And to assert on this basis that “the famous feat of Panfilov’s men is entirely an invention of Soviet journalists” simply means to sign either professional incompetence or bias. Or maybe both at the same time.

Comments 22

Comments

22. Lebyadkin : Re: So was there a feat?..
2015-07-25 at 10:56

Yogi to personally testify to what became known to me by chance. Panfilov division- there was, and part of it took the fight, because the division either did not receive the order to retreat to previously prepared positions in a timely manner, or did not “want to retreat.” I have known this since the 80s of the last century from a then still living participant in the defense of Moscow.
That is - I repeat - there was such a division, and part of it fought near Dubosekovo. This is the truth. The rest - in detail - is unknown to me.

21. Vladimir Petrovich : Re: So was there a feat?..
2015-07-24 at 14:37

In what true goal those who, under the guise of establishing the truth, debunk epics about the exploits of our soldiers. It was not by chance that I designated them as epics, because in each such event there may quite logically be inaccuracies and this does not at all undermine the credibility of the primary information. The war reporter was impressed by the events that allowed a handful of people to stop a powerful motorized fist aimed at Moscow. How much could he find out then, in the context of ongoing combat interaction? What kind of accuracy can we talk about? Why take someone at their word? We all know there was a feat, even if not twenty-eight (even if more or less), whether skillfully or not, but these people stopped the fascist machine near Moscow. Honor and praise to them. And delving into the bodies and destinies of people to expose inaccuracies is a dirty and undignified business. So it’s all about who needs it and why. Liberals serving foreign interests need this; they need this in order to lower the possible self-esteem of Russians. Make them doubt and lose faith in the greatness of the victories and achievements that our grandfathers accomplished. This is done consistently and steadily. This is done from high scientific stands. And now only those who remember are awarded a sour smile ice battle, The Holy Prince is positioned as a bandit and racketeer. This really happens in our science because we don’t look at who we trust. To whom we trust our memory and our history, we cannot be simple-minded in this matter.

20. Oleg Moskovsky : Russian Stalinist, at 17
2015-07-24 at 09:05

//And everything else is sheer squalor and pathetic parodies of US blockbusters like the opus "Alexander. Battle of the Neva" (compare with the Soviet film of the brilliant Eisenstein in 1938 with the epic Cherkasov in leading role and the brilliant music of Prokofiev).//

I completely agree. For example, Sergei Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky" has entered the modern repertoire of the world's most famous symphony orchestras! Moreover, performed by an Italian symphony orchestra, it is accompanied by footage from this great film with subtitles. And how many such masterpieces she gave us? Stalin era in art? And can't be counted. What now? Complete creative impotence of modern “cultural figures”. Moreover, it was Stalin who turned art towards the people, made it patriotic in content, and mercilessly got rid of the liberal-Jewish spirit and anti-Russian orientation characteristic of the Leninist stage. And what do we see on screens now? The same liberal-Jewish spirit and Russophobia. As is the era, so is the art.

19. Alyosha :
2015-07-24 at 04:22

If we take the post-Soviet era, then not a single one worthwhile historical film nothing was filmed, except for "Ermak", which was filmed by Soviet directors Krasnopolsky and Uskov, and in which the main roles were played by Soviet actors. One film in 25 years is strong!

18. Korotkov A.V. : Reply to 17., Russian Stalinist:
2015-07-23 at 23:02

compare with the Soviet film of the brilliant Eisenstein in 1938 with the epic Cherkasov in the title role and the brilliant music of Prokofiev).

I hope they will release the result on media. And it would be nice to have an undamaged version (with original titles and soundtrack).

17. Russian Stalinist : Answer to 16., Tuljak:
2015-07-23 at 20:50

Absolutely true.
Since the early 30s Soviet Power(i.e. Stalin personally) took a firm course towards the revival of Russian History, which you rightly wrote about, citing a lot specific examples from all areas of art and culture. It is impossible to deny such facts, just talk them out.
If we take the post-Soviet era, then not a single worthwhile historical film was made, except for “Ermak,” which was filmed by Soviet directors Krasnopolsky and Uskov, and in which the main roles were played by Soviet actors. One film in 25 years is strong!
And everything else is pure squalor and pathetic parodies of US blockbusters like the opus “Alexander. Battle of the Neva” (compare with the Soviet film by the brilliant Eisenstein of 1938 with the epic Cherkasov in the title role and the brilliant music of Prokofiev).

16. Tuljak : Reply to 11., Sergey Vladimirovich:
2015-07-23 at 19:49

The trouble is that we are only now learning about many of the exploits of our ancestors. They didn’t teach this at school, although our school was much better than the current one.

Here I strongly disagree with you! And at school they taught this and there are films about A. Nevsky and about Suvorov and about Ushakov and about Nakhimov and about Minin and Pozharsky and about Peter the Great and about Ivan the Terrible and about Mikhailo Lomonosov and about Yaroslav the Wise and about Vs Rudnev and the cruiser " Varyag" and about Emelyan Pugachev and about Andreev, the creator of the Russian Ensemble of Russian Balalaika and about Pyatnitsky with his world-famous Russian Folk Choir and many others and others historical figures TO Soviet era! And there are simply countless films about the Second World War! And how many films, poems, songs were composed about simple man Labor! You will not find ANY profession about which at least one film has not been made, poems, songs have not been composed, films have not been written, etc. etc... And thousands of books were written about all this! If you bring the ENTIRE LIST of what was shown on movies and television screens, written in books, composed in poems and songs, depicted in paintings, and even filmed in cartoons for children, then this LIST will not only more than cover EVERYTHING in this regard done with current government, but it also turns out (if this is measured in percentage terms) that in 25 years of “democracy” NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE AT ALL in Russia!!! And if you also take and look at what has been done, it turns out that more than half are LIES and REWRITING HISTORY!!! These two documentaries, in our times - RARE! Basically, this is nonsense about Bondarchuk’s “Stalingrad”, lies about MiGalkov’s “Citadel”, “Bastards”, 4 days in May”, “Penal Battalion” and other abominations on which GOD FORbid we teach the history of Russia to our children!

15. Sergey Vladimirovich : Answer to 13., Alyosha:
2015-07-23 at 18:45

Alexey, this is rather a question of faith... Faith in your people, who were increasingly thinking about the heavenly than the earthly... "Battle for the convoy", "Attack of the dead" Thank you. I only recently learned about the Battle of Fate. And I once wrote a poem about Osovets: http://www.stihi.ru/2015/01/26/7846

14. Sergey Vladimirovich : 28 Panfilovites
2015-07-23 at 18:33

I read a book, I already wrote about it, it was called “Red Smoke”. A collection of stories about border guards. ... The retreating regiment and 28 border guards who joined the regiment, who were left to cover the regiment’s retreat... They could have left the position after they saw a “red smoke rocket.” Most likely, they understood that there would be no missile - the regiment had to break away. During the day of the battle, having small arms and grenades, they crushed an infantry battalion, several tanks and armored personnel carriers. This was reported in the afterword as a proven fact by the archives of the USSR Armed Forces.

13. Alyosha : Answer to 7., Sergey Vladimirovich:
2015-07-23 at 18:24

Alexey, this is rather a question of faith... Faith in your people, who were increasingly thinking about the heavenly than the earthly..."Battle for the convoy", "Attack of the dead"

12. Sergey Abachiev : Great, Svetlana!
2015-07-23 at 18:22

The only trouble is the disparity between the number of VGTRK viewers and the number of visitors to the portal. Well, nothing! The Lord sees the truth and the “small flock” is in His sight and even in special honor!

11. Sergey Vladimirovich : Answer to 8., Tuljak:
2015-07-23 at 17:56

“And there is only one warrior in the field, since he is tailored in Russian.” There is an excellent documentary about the feat of N. Sirotin: http://goo.gl/c54BBT Here is another Feat of Russian Soldiers at the beginning of the war, no less indicative: http://goo.gl/SjQz19

9. Leonid Bolotin : The battles for the defense of Moscow - as if it were yesterday
2015-07-23 at 17:13

In 1964, my Father worked as Izvestia’s own correspondent for Uzbekistan, and at his office in Tashkent there was a public reception room, which was headed by a retired colonel, originally from Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name, but I think I’ll somehow find his first and last name in Father’s archives. In June 1964, my father took me to Moscow to rest with me in the “Izvestia” rest home “Pakhra” for my psychological rehabilitation after the serious operation that I underwent in April. But my father went not only on vacation, but combined it with business. We flew to Moscow together with the head of the public reception, a retired colonel. We were accommodated in the old part of the Moscow Hotel - in the former Grand Hotel; the windows of our rooms overlooked the Lenin Museum, which looked like a fairy-tale palace. And then in the morning next day I woke up alone in the room, but I heard Father’s voice behind the wall and went to the room where the colonel was staying... I came there and slowly sat down in a large chair so as not to interrupt the conversation.
At the beginning of the war, the colonel served in the division of General Panfilov, of course, in a different - more junior rank, and so he told the Father, and then he began to turn to me. He spoke very casually about the battles near Moscow in October and snowy November 1941.
At first I didn’t understand anything, because I didn’t catch the beginning of the conversation: stingy words The narrators were so strong and accurate, although without the slightest floweriness, which made my first impression of the story that this happened several months ago - in the fall of 1963. And I was gripped by horror because Moscow had recently been threatened by such an attack... And only then, from the “everyday” story, without the slightest pathos, I realized that we were talking about the autumn of 1941, and I calmed down and began to listen more carefully. The colonel called the numbers of large and small units and settlements, mileage to the outskirts of Moscow, and losses, losses, losses - half of the personnel, two-thirds, three-quarters. Basically, large losses occurred after the death of the guard, Major General Panfilov; the general died to take care of his soldiers. And the losses were among those who found themselves on the front lines just a few weeks before the fighting. Before this, the division arrived from Kazakhstan, first near Novgorod, and then was transferred to Moscow... But before that, Panfilov’s fighters, during exercises in Kazakhstan, took classes against “tank fear” by driving tractors and bulldozers into training trenches... This is what distinguishes their success in the fight with German equipment during the Nazis' final attempt to attack and capture Moscow.
The colonel said almost nothing about himself, only mentioned himself in connection with some moments that he witnessed, for example, when he said something about General Panfilov...
And although I was only six and a half years old, I already heard something about the feat of “28 Panfilov’s men.” The country was preparing for the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Victory, and in television programs, on the radio, in newspapers and magazines (Mom taught me to read at the beginning of the sixth year of my life, and then I was already looking through “Pioneer Truth,” which was prescribed for my sister, I loved leaf through “The Week” - a supplement to “Izvestia”, the magazine “Pioneer”), they talked a lot about the war. And in my favorite books - the Children's Encyclopedia in yellow binding, Vershigora's two-volume book about Kovpak with many photographs, there was also a lot about the war. But then for the first time I heard about General Panfilov himself, both about his division and about his death. That’s why I listened to the colonel, holding my breath with my eyes wide open.
And only many years later, when I myself had passed forty, I understood where my feeling from the colonel’s story came from, as if it was something that had happened quite recently. This is exactly how the war veteran felt about his recent past; for him it was like yesterday. And his feeling was transmitted to me through the story.
So now, I perceive what happened in 1992 as a very recent past, although during this period a whole generation of people was born and grew up. But I remember the pictures that arose in my mind, in my inner gaze from the simple words of the colonel: I saw these columns of German tanks and other enemy armored vehicles, I saw the uniform German soldiers and officers, heard their guttural speech, which the narrator-colonel had once seen and heard, saw trains and my fellow countrymen from Central Asia, and echelons of Siberians
The attempt to belittle the feat of all Panfilov’s men cut me to the heart. There was a similar information attack in 2011, when the 70th Battle of Moscow was celebrated. The scoundrels from historiography just can’t calm down. They need to scientifically hit the tinsel, the tinsel, the tinsel!!!
http://www.sovross.r...s.php?name=News& ;file=article&sid=588848

8. Tuljak : Answer to 5., Sergey Vladimirovich:
2015-07-23 at 17:09

6. Alyosha : Re: There was a feat
2015-07-23 at 16:34

At dawn, over the horizon,
They came in the roar of a motor
Making holes in the world with sights.
Two companies of black mastodons,
Long accustomed to the taste of blood,
And in the main tank there is a commander.
Hiding the hawkish gaze
Behind the thick turret armor,
Driven into battle by ancient force,
He observed through the pupil of the device
How his tanks walked like pigs
Crushing a foreign land for them
Elephant-like, multi-ton weight,
Bathing trucks in white snow
And the soot of trash is high...

And in the heads of the crews,
Deafened in caterpillar running
An obsessive thought was beating:
Break through with a bang and shine
To Moscow, while autumn lasts,
Breaking barriers and obstacles.
But they were waiting for them behind the copse.
Two times less - twenty-eight.
True, not tanks, but soldiers.
And they waited. And merged tightly
With steel Krupp armor
In the arms of fire and death.
And the tanks froze tightly,
Among the snowy land...

Whoever is dead in soul, well, don’t believe it.

5. Sergey Vladimirovich : And one warrior in the field...
2015-07-23 at 15:22

“And there is only one warrior in the field, since he is tailored in Russian.”

Name - Nikolai. Patronymic - Vladimirovich. Last name: Sirotinin. Height - One hundred sixty-four centimeters. Weight - fifty-four kilograms. Rank - senior sergeant. Russian. Military profession- artilleryman, gun commander. Age - twenty years. Rustic. 55th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. The same division whose units were stationed in Brest Fortress and near her.
Anti-tank gun, caliber - 76 millimeters, weight in firing position is one and a half tons. Sixty shells. Carbine, cartridges. The weight of the projectile is nine kilograms. The most effective fire on armored targets is 600 meters, direct fire. The direction of defense is simple - for the Motherland.

Enemy: the second tank group of the Fuhrer Guderian's favorite. 4th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht, vanguard. A column of 59 German tanks.

Main German battle tank T-III: weight - 20 tons, Maybach engine 250 hp, speed 32 km/h. Crew - 5 people. Dimensions: 5.69x2.81x2.335m. Armament: 37 mm cannon and three MG34 machine guns.

Two hundred tankers, 150 machine guns, 59 cannons, 1200 tons of German iron.

The tank battalion was covered by a company of infantry in trucks, on foot and on horses and bicycles. Namely: four officers, 26 non-commissioned officers, 161 soldiers. Armament: 47 pistols, 16 Schmeissers, 132 carbines, 12 light machine guns, 3 anti-tank rifles, three 50-mm mortars. 22 horses, 9 horse-drawn carts, 1 field kitchen, 9 bicycles. Tracked-wheeled armored vehicles. Motorcyclists.

The direction of movement couldn't be more important - Moscow.

July 17, 1941. The small Belarusian village of Sokolnichi. Bridge over the narrow river Dobrist. Swampy shores. Across the river, in the greenery of the second month of summer, a single cannon and a soldier were lost in camouflage. Rearguard of an artillery battery of a rifle regiment. In front of the bridge, on the other side of the river, there is a road clogged with German tanks - Varshavka. Behind, feverishly rushing to the new line of defense, the Sozh River, was the native rifle regiment.

The main thing is time so that they have time to take the line and dig in.

I think they won’t let you fire more than thirty times,” said the battery commander, “close the bridge and retreat.” Take the gun lock with you in your duffel bag. Horse behind the barn. You'll catch up.
- No, comrade senior lieutenant, I’ll do everything. I’m a villager, just leave me some more shells, and it will be faster for you and it will be easier for the horses, not so hard,” the little sergeant looked up calmly and confidently, as if before doing the usual and hard rural work on his land in the village in the Orlov region. From the village of Sokolnichi to district center Krichev - five kilometers. A few minutes drive. But on July 17, 1941, it took the Nazis two and a half hours to cover this distance.

Eyewitnesses say that at the beginning of the battle the commander was somewhere nearby - he was making adjustments, but as soon as Sirotinin’s first shot knocked out the lead tank before entering the bridge, and then the last one, which fell into the sector of fire of the gun on the road, he went after the battery. The bridge was blocked. The task is completed. But Sirotinini did not comply with the second half of the commander’s order to withdraw. He had sixty shells. And ten German tanks stuck in a swamp while trying to get off the road. And more tanks are on the way. And armored vehicles. And infantry, Hitler's arrogance, invaders, occupiers in gray uniforms in the gun's firing range.

And the battle began. And when you have a weapon in your hands, full of ammunition, and there’s an enemy in front, and behind... . He turned inside out, but got it right. There would be a desire. He aimed, fired, detected a hit, brought a shell, aimed, fired, shell...

Civilized, orderly, correct Europe, which fell at the feet of the fascists almost without a fight, ended in Brest, but they have not yet understood this. And the senior sergeant explained this truth to them diligently, in a language they understood and without sparing himself. The teacher overwhelmed his audience with iron arguments on the spot, and regretted only one thing: that he might not have had time to convey this truth to every soldier in the German column and to those who follow them. The students, the senior sergeant, turned out to be unimportant and never mastered the topic. Except for those very zealous who stayed with him to study educational material forever. And even the Germans appreciated the perfection and simplicity of the presentation of the material performed by the sergeant and his combat training manual.

Oberleutnant Friedrich Hoenfeld. Quote from the diary: “In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier was buried. He fought the battle alone. He fired at our tanks and infantry from a cannon. It seemed that there would be no end to the battle. His bravery was amazing.

It was real hell. The tanks caught fire one after another. The infantry, hiding behind the armor, lay down. The commanders are at a loss. They cannot understand the source of the heavy fire. It seems like the whole battery is beating. Aimed fire. Where did this battery come from? The column contains 59 tanks, a company of infantry, and armored vehicles. And all our might is powerless before Russian fire. Intelligence reported that the way was clear. What amazed us most was that there was only one fighter fighting against us. And we thought that a whole artillery battery was firing at us."

Realizing that they would not break the Russian artillerymen with a head-on attack, the Nazis took a detour. Having surrounded Sirotinin's position, they opened heavy fire. And only after that the gun fell silent and the carbine stopped firing. What amazed the Germans most was that only one fighter fought against them.

“Everyone was amazed that the hero was a youth, almost a boy. In the ranks of German soldiers, he would have stood last on the right flank. He fired fifty-seven shots at us from a cannon and then continued to hit us with a carbine. He scattered the frontal attack of the infantry "Destroyed ten tanks and armored vehicles. A whole cemetery of our soldiers remained next to his grave."

The colonel turned out to be wiser than his junior officer. And it is also known: the Germans were so amazed by the courage of the Russian soldier that they buried him with military honors.

“Everyone was surprised at his courage. The colonel said before the grave: “If all the Fuhrer’s soldiers were like him, they would have conquered the whole world.” They fired three times in volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian. Is such admiration necessary?

Oberleutnant Hoenfeld still did not understand what kind of war Germany was involved in and with whom. Oberleutnant Hoenfeld was killed near Tula in the summer of 1942. Soviet soldiers discovered his diary and handed it over to military journalist Fyodor Selivanov.

Name - Nikolai. Patronymic - Vladimirovich. Last name: Sirotinin. Height - One hundred sixty-four centimeters. Weight - fifty-four kilograms. Rank - senior sergeant. Russian. Military profession - artilleryman, gun commander. Age - twenty years. Rustic. 55th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. And, five hundred fascists, two hundred machine guns, fifty-nine cannons. One thousand two hundred tons of German iron.

Senior Sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, commander of an anti-tank battery gun, was buried with full military honors by soldiers and officers of the fourth tank division Wehrmacht on the banks of the Dobryst River, near the village of Sokolnichi.

Unknown feat one thousand nine hundred and forty-one. For which he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class, posthumously, nineteen years later, in 1960.
http://tvspas.ru/pub...pole_voin/16-1-0-597

4. Russian Stalinist : Answer to 2., Rudovsky:
2015-07-23 at 14:53

Does it matter how many tanks were knocked out there - 10, 15 or 18? Was there a battle? Was. Did people die? Died. Was Moscow ultimately defended? They defended it. And what the journalists attributed there, that it was popular rumor, is a secondary matter. You need to know and study all this, but without mocking the history of your country and mockery.

Absolutely true.
But the fact is that some subjects are very itching to debunk “Soviet myths”, to dip us into the toilet, so they cling to numbers and minor details.
Yeah, there were not 28 Panfilovites there, but 128 - which means the commies were whistling as always. There was no feat!
There, not 100, but 25 tanks were knocked out - there was no heroism!
On that day the thickness snow cover was 5 cm, not 7 cm - there was no feat!
That day the sun came out from behind the clouds at 13.25, and not at 13.15 - there was no feat!
Klochkov did not say a word about Moscow, but simply cursed - there was no feat!
And using such bastardly flawed logic they “debunk” myths.

3. Vyatchanin : Legend, not myth
2015-07-23 at 12:48

Yes, it was IMPOSSIBLE in the harsh year of 1941 for a journalist to conduct a detailed investigation into the feat of the Panfilov heroes who stopped a column of tanks near Moscow. The newspaper article was written in hot pursuit, the participants in the battle died, and there was no one to interview. Therefore, the journalist had to use in detail fiction. Moreover, main task The front-line newspaper was propaganda: to inspire the battle against the Nazis.
Does a journalist have the right to use fiction? All textbooks on journalism will say: artistic fiction when creating a journalistic work is acceptable if it does not distort the essence of the event. Boris Polevoy took the story of the one-legged pilot Maresyev and wrote a wonderful story based on documentary evidence. But he still “embellished” one fact in order to strengthen the image of the hero. During the operation, the literary Meresyev asks the surgeon to amputate his gangrenous leg without anesthesia, and the real Maresyev After the story was published, he admitted that he did not make such a request. However, many cases of amputation of limbs without anesthesia due to the absence of such at the front can be found. But this detail does not negate the feat of the real Maresyev.
As for the definition of myth, it would be better to call the feat of the 28 Panfilov heroes a legend, since a myth in everyday life is still understood as a fairy tale. Legend is oral genre about the exploits of heroes, transmitted from mouth to mouth, which has a documentary basis, but acquires invented details during the retelling. Thus, S.S. Smirnov’s story about the feat of a permanent sentry, who stood guard for 9 years in the city of Osinovets, has the subtitle “Almost a Legend.” The writer spent a long time collecting from different sources information about the permanent guard, but never found out his exact name and surname, his age and further fate.

2. Rudovsky : Re: So was there a feat?..
2015-07-23 at 11:14

Some kind of nonsense.
I went to this memorial in June (after I-V monastery) with a small group of travelers. And there were several dozen people there - obviously, those who decided to visit this place out of respect for the memory of the victims. Moreover, people are entirely in 2, 3 and even 4 family generations.
What difference does it make how many tanks were knocked out there - 10, 15 or 18?
Was there a fight? Was. Did people die? Died. Was Moscow ultimately defended? They defended it. And what the journalists attributed there, that it was popular rumor, is a secondary matter. You need to know and study all this, but without mocking the history of your country and mockery.

1. Alyosha : Re: So was there a feat?..
2015-07-23 at 04:53

"... a state that talks so much about the inadmissibility of revising history and especially the history of the Great Patriotic War should hit itself in the back of the head. Because this very state itself contributes to both revision with falsification and slander with false revelations. What exactly does it contribute to, this is another question - negligence, political myopia, recruitment of narrow-minded employees, or malicious intent, but one way or another, the state itself has now acted as a falsifier of its own history, taking upon itself the functions of self-destruction."

If two or three people in the state voice some correct things, this does not mean at all that everyone else accepts them as a guide to action.
Quite the opposite. These are the rules of the game. And the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe.

Illustration copyright RIA Novosti Image caption The monument to 28 Panfilov men hangs over the crossing in Dubosekovo near Moscow

The State Archive of Russia has declassified documents exposing the canonical Soviet history about 28 Panfilov heroes. Despite the debunking, many continue to believe in the original version of the myth. The BBC is trying to understand the mythologization of the military image.

The battle at the Dubosekovo crossing in the Volokolamsk district of the Moscow region in November 1941 was indeed part of a large-scale campaign to defend Moscow from Wehrmacht troops, and specifically the 316th Infantry Division was stationed near Dubosekovo.

For the first time, a message about the feat of 28 heroes allegedly killed in battle with the Nazis appeared in an essay by correspondent Vasily Koroteev in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, which was edited by Alexander Krivitsky.

The same correspondent, according to archival data, coined the widely quoted phrase: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat. Moscow is behind.”

“Over 50 enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by 29 Soviet guardsmen from the Panfilov division... Only one of the 29 became faint-hearted... only one raised his hands up... several guardsmen simultaneously, without saying a word, without a command, shot at the coward and a traitor,” said the note, which told about the destruction of 18 enemy tanks by this group of people.

Arrest with a book about yourself

Despite the glorification of Soviet times, questions about both the authorship of the phrase and the absence of reports of a one-time loss in German military chronicles large group tanks were raised quite regularly.

To finally clarify the situation, the state archive on Wednesday - “in connection with numerous appeals from citizens” - posted a certificate-report from the chief military prosecutor of the Second World War, Nikolai Afanasyev, which tells about the four surviving Panfilovites, one of whom actually worked for the Germans after being captured.

“In November 1947, the military prosecutor’s office of the Kharkov garrison arrested and prosecuted for treason against the Motherland Mr. Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin. The investigation materials established that, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 he entered their service. service [...] 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 battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union,” the certificate says. dated May 10, 1948.

The investigation then established that, in addition to Dobrobabin, four more soldiers survived the battle near Dubosekov - Illarion Vasiliev, Grigory Shemyakin, Ivan Shadrin and Daniil Kuzhebergenov.

Soldier Ivan Natarov, who, according to Krasnaya Zvezda journalists, spoke about the feat on his deathbed, was killed on November 14 - two days before the expected battle.

Glorifying crowdfunding

At the same time, by July 19, the film “Panfilov’s 28 Men” will be completed in Russia, half of the budget of which - 33 million rubles out of 60 million (580 thousand dollars out of about 1 million) - was collected on the basis of crowdfunding.

The director of the film, Kim Druzhinin, told the BBC Russian Service that he was aware of Dobrobabin’s case, but considered the coverage of his case to be controversial, since some historians doubt the exposure of the “Red Star” version.

“We were making a film about a feat, about heroes. In our film there is a resolution to this not very good dispute. The 316th division was really there, there were battles there - and why debunk the feat at a time when the country especially needs heroes,” - said the director.

According to Druzhinin, the remaining funding for the film was provided by the Ministry of Culture and a certain “permanent partner.”

The film's premiere is scheduled for November 16, when canonical Soviet historiography will celebrate the 74th anniversary of the "feat of Panfilov's men."

Generous donors

In a comment to the publication "Titr", the producer of the film "Panfilov's 28 Men" Andrei Shalyopa said that he does not doubt the valor of the fighters, and the cultural figure called the refutation of falsifications "a weakening of the moral pillars of the people."

In early July, Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky called the upcoming film unique and noted that the Ministry of Culture of Kazakhstan, where the 316th Infantry Division, along with Kyrgyzstan, was initially formed, also took part in its financing.

Crowdfunding for the project was launched at the end of 2013.

The most generous donor who made an open transfer of funds was Severodvinsk resident Andrei Fokin, who donated 1 million rubles to the authors of the film.

“I wouldn’t call it charity. It’s the hope that there will be more stories about exploits and self-sacrifice than “fine battalions”, “bastards” and other slag like the films “Burnt by the Sun - 2”. I want my children to watch good cinema,” Fokin explained to the Pravda Severa publication the reasons for his action.

Shock of revelations

A month ago general manager State Archives of Russia Sergei Mironenko at World Congress Russian press in Moscow personally told about how the USSR military prosecutor's office recognized the official version of the feat as fiction.

His comment caused a strong reaction from the journalists present.

According to eyewitnesses, some of the correspondents even accused Mironenko of Russophobia.

“It was also a shock to me that there were no Panfilovites. We learned all 28 names by heart at school,” he said then editor-in-chief radio station "Echo of Moscow" Alexey Venediktov.

Myth in the service of the state?

Director of the Levada Center Lev Gudkov, in a conversation with the BBC, noted that already in the 1960s, refutations of Soviet myths about military operations appeared in Russian.

“[Publicist Emil] Cardin began to refute these myths in the 60s in Novy Mir. There he refuted... these Panfilovites and so on. Firstly, they are reproduced simply because such public policy historical memory, and no structure, no public organizations, there is no public discussion about this, therefore it does not transfer to other channels of reproduction itself historical knowledge", the sociologist complains.

In addition, according to Gudkov, denial of facts in cases of debunking historical inaccuracies supports ideas about national pride.

"There is some demand on the part of society to maintain this heroic image of ourselves - non-aggressive, defending, always the victim of an attack, but in the event external aggression– mobilizing around the authorities. This is society main value which is heroic self-sacrifice for the sake of preserving the whole,” said the sociologist.

"Isolation and sovereignty"

According to the head of the Levada Center, the reproduction and maintenance of myths is a characteristic of isolated societies.

“Now in Russia it’s been more than 10 years since everything has been paved and cleared, and the voices of historians are definitely not heard in the media mass media, V best case scenario here some Soviet or militaristic myths are reproduced and the emphasis is placed only on the symbols of imperial greatness, great power and so on,” says the Doctor of Philosophy.

Streets in 12 cities of Russia and Ukraine, as well as several parks, are named in honor of Panfilov’s men. Fallen soldiers are also mentioned in Moscow's anthem and dozens of works of art.

One of the leading French anthropologists, Claude Lévi-Strauss, wrote a lot about the creation of myths based on real events in closed communities.

As the scientist argued, myths are characterized by a layered structure, in which each subsequent bearer enriches the previous myth.

“Society does not reject positive, even false, interpretations,” wrote the creator of structural anthropology.

21.11.2015 0 71714

One of the most famous feats committed during the Great Patriotic War is considered feat of 28 Panfilov men- warriors guards division, commanded by Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov.

Almost three quarters of a century have passed since then. And now some historians have begun to publicly assert that there was no battle between Panfilov’s men and German tanks on November 16, 1941 near Dubosekovo, as well as a massive feat of the guardsmen. All this was allegedly invented by the newspaper men from Krasnaya Zvezda. Where is the truth?

Monument to 28 Panfilov heroes at the Dubosekovo junction

Generally accepted version

Events, as they are depicted in numerous books and articles about Panfilov’s heroes, developed like this. On November 15, 1941, German troops launched a new attack on Moscow. In some places, the front approached the capital by 25 kilometers. Our troops offered fierce resistance to the Nazis.

On November 16, in the area of ​​the Dubosekovo railway crossing, not far from the Volokolamsk highway, Panfilov’s men knocked out 18 tanks in a four-hour battle and stopped the enemy.

All our soldiers died in that battle, including political instructor V.G. Klochkov, who said the words before the battle that became famous: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!” In July 1942, 28 Panfilov men were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

How it was

However, in reality, events at the Dubosekovo crossing developed somewhat differently. After the war, it turned out that several Panfilov men who were awarded the title of hero were alive, and several others who were on the award list were in battle on November 16th. various reasons did not participate.

In 1948, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR opened a case and conducted a special closed investigation. His materials were transferred to the Politburo of the Central Committee. They also decided not to reconsider the issue of awards.

Let's try to reconstruct the events of those dramatic days on the basis of surviving documents. On November 16, the German 11th Tank Division attacked the positions of the 1075th Infantry Regiment in the Dubosekovo area. The main blow fell on the 2nd battalion, where there were only four anti-tank rifles, RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails.

According to the testimony former commander regiment I.V. Kaprova, there were then 10-12 enemy tanks against the 2nd battalion. 5-6 tanks were destroyed - and the Germans retreated. At two o'clock in the afternoon the enemy began a heavy artillery bombardment - and again his tanks went on the attack. Over 50 tanks were now advancing on the regiment's location. The main attack was again directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion.

According to archival data from the Ministry of Defense, the 1075th Infantry Regiment destroyed 15-16 tanks and about 800 German soldiers on November 16. The regiment's losses, according to the commander's report, amounted to 400 people killed, 100 people wounded, 600 people were declared missing.

Most of them are also killed or seriously wounded, trapped under deep snow. The 4th company of the 2nd battalion suffered the most. At the beginning of the battle there were from 120 to 140 people in it, but no more than thirty survived.

German tanks overthrew our defenses and occupied the Dubosekov area, but they were at least four hours late. During this time, our command managed to regroup forces, pull up reserves and close the breakthrough.

The Germans no longer advanced in this direction towards Moscow. And on December 5-6, a general counter-offensive of Soviet troops began - and by the beginning of January 1942, the enemy was driven back 100-250 kilometers from the capital.

Birth of a legend

How was the legend of the 28 Panfilov heroes born? The military prosecutor's office also looked into this. Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent Vasily Koroteev, who was the first to write about Panfilov’s heroes, testified during the investigation in 1948: “Around November 23-24, 1941, I, together with the war correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Chernyshev, were 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 were advancing on the company line - and the company detained them and destroyed some of them. Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regiment commissar... Egorov recommended writing about it in the newspaper heroic battle companies with enemy tanks, having previously become acquainted with the political report received from the regiment.

The political report spoke of the company’s battle with enemy tanks and that the company fought to the death and died. But she 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 fighters. The report did not say about the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and their names were not mentioned. 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 newspaper “Red Star” Ortenberg. I told about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I told him that the company’s composition was apparently incomplete, about 30 people -40; I also said that two of these turned out to be traitors.”

Koroteev’s essay about Panfilov’s heroes was published in “Red Star” on November 27, 1941. It said that the participants in the battle “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.” On November 28, the same newspaper published an editorial entitled “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes.”

It was written by the literary secretary of the newspaper Alexander Krivitsky. On January 22, 1942, the same Krivitsky published an essay in “Red Star” entitled “About 28 fallen heroes.” As an eyewitness or as a person who heard the stories of the soldiers, he writes about their personal experiences, about the heroic behavior of the guardsmen and for the first time names 28 names of the dead.

In April 1942, the command Western Front appealed to the People's Commissar of Defense with a petition to award the soldiers named in the publication the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In July, a corresponding decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Council.

But let's go back to 1948. The military prosecutor's office also interrogated Krivitsky.

In particular, he showed:

“During a conversation at the PUR (the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army. - Author’s note) they were interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!” I replied that I had invented it myself... In part the same feelings and actions of 28 characters - 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.”

Former commander of the 1075th regiment Ilya Kaprov said that he gave the names of the fighters to Krivitsky from memory
Captain Gundilovich. Of course, the entire regiment fought with German tanks on November 16, he added, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, which found itself in the direction of the enemy’s main attack.

Incomplete familiarity with materials prosecutor's investigation 1948 led some researchers to incorrect conclusions and disoriented a number of journalists.

More than a hundred of our fighters - Russians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks - died in the Dubosekovo crossing area. All of them deserve the title of heroes. In the most difficult conditions, poorly armed, the guards delayed the tank offensive of the Nazis.

The enemy never reached the Volokolamsk highway. There was a feat. Only the wings of glory and historical recognition did not touch all of Panfilov’s heroes. This often happens in war.

Vasily MITSUROV, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Panfilov's soldiers - soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division (from November 18, 1941 - 8th Guards, from November 23 - named after its deceased commander, Major General I.V. Panfilov), who showed in October - November 1941 during the Moscow battles of mass heroism in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction.

On November 16, 28 soldiers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment under the command of political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov, who occupied the defense 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo crossing, showed unprecedented heroism and fortitude on November 16.

Panfilov’s men in a 4-hour battle destroyed 18 enemy tanks and almost all died, including Klochkov, but did not let the German tanks pass. 28 Panfilov men were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This battle is known in history as the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes. 1975 - the memorial ensemble “Feat of 28” was erected at the site of the battle.”

28 Panfilovites ( alternative versions feat)

Modern historians present the battle at Dubosekovo in a completely different light. Some of them even question the official version of the battle of 28 Panfilov men.

How many Panfilovites were there?

The investigation, which was carried out after the war by the MGB and the military prosecutor's office, showed that in the legendary battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, it was not 28 “Panfilof guards” who took part, but a full company of 120–140 people, which was crushed by German tanks, having managed to knock out only 5-6 of them. No more than 25–30 fighters survived, the rest died or were captured.

An error crept in in the first newspaper reports about the feat of Panfilov’s men, because journalists, from the words of political workers, decided that the company was incomplete and consisted of only 30 people. Since it was known that at the beginning of the battle two fighters defected to the fascists, Red Star editor-in-chief David Ortenberg subtracted two traitors from 30 and received the number 28, which became canonical. However, in the essay he allowed to write only about one traitor, whom the Red Army soldiers allegedly immediately shot. Two traitors, and even for 30 people, would be a lot and would not allow us to talk about an insignificant renegade.

Mentions of combat

There is no mention of the battle with such details either in Soviet or German official documents. 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 Army, General, says anything about him - Lieutenant Rokossovsky. There are no reports about it in German sources either (and the loss of 18 tanks in one battle was a notable event for the Nazis at the end of 1941).

Is the legendary feat a fiction of journalists?

The version that there was no battle as such at all was publicly voiced by many historians. Sergei Mironenko, who then headed the state archive, officially stated that the whole story about the feat of Panfilov’s men is just a myth. Based on declassified archives, some historians have concluded that legendary feat was the invention of Krasnaya Zvezda journalist Alexander Krivitsky (literary secretary of the newspaper), who was the first to talk about the battle. Finding himself on the front line, he tried to write an essay about the events taking place. Everything about the battle was recorded from the words of the current division commissar, who spoke about the battle in great detail. The battle was fought by the 4th company, which consisted of more than 120 soldiers, and not 28 heroes, as was later said in the printed publication. Many facts are distorted.

During interrogation, Krivitsky testified: During a conversation in the PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us,” I told him that I had invented this myself...

Krivitsky and Koroteev, the authors of the material published in Krasnaya Zvezda, stated during the investigation that they were based only on oral stories of fellow soldiers who died and their colleagues, war correspondents, but were not familiar with anyone who could definitely know the details of the battle. The military prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that the story, as published in Krasnaya Zvezda, was the work of journalists. But the battle actually took place.

Unexpected arrest

1948 - in the Kharkov region. They arrested the former soldier Dobrobabin, who was captured by the Germans during the war. During his arrest, a book was found with him, describing the feat of Panfilov’s men and, in particular, his name was indicated as one of the dead participants in the battle. The main military prosecutor's office of the USSR conducted an investigation, during which it was possible to find out that several more people who were considered killed in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing actually survived, and the described clash cited by journalists does not have direct documentary evidence - and the very fact of the battle is in doubt was not installed.

Not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. They “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.

From the testimony of Colonel Kaprova

All 28 Panfilov heroes served in Ilya Karpov’s regiment. During interrogation at the prosecutor's office in 1948, Kaprov (commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment) testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and fascist tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. That day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and in fact fought heroically. More than 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as written in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me at that time; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men, and I couldn’t tell anyone, because there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I don’t know, based on what materials they wrote in newspapers, in particular in Krasnaya Zvezda, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilova.

Memorial at the Dubosekovo crossing, dedicated to the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes

There was a battle at Dubosekovo

According to the testimony local residents, on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo crossing, there was actually a battle between Soviet soldiers and the 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 Rifle Division of General Panfilov in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction in November 1941 was able to hold back the enemy onslaught, which became the most important factor, which allowed the Germans to be defeated near Moscow.

According to the archives of 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.

Conclusions

Based on the explanations of eyewitnesses of the battle and hundreds of declassified archives, historians still managed to establish the truth - there actually was a battle, and there was a feat. Only the fact of the existence of these same 28 Panfilovites remains a big question.

75 years ago, on November 16, 1941, the most famous battle of the Panfilov division took place - at the Dubosekovo junction near Moscow. Until now, historians and amateurs military history they argue about whether there were 28 Panfilovites or more. One thing is certain: the 8th Guards was one of the active formations defending Moscow.

 

On the morning of November 15, 1941, the troops of Army Group Center, having completed their regrouping, moved to decisive offensive against parts of the Western and Kalinin Front. The main striking force of the last German attack on Moscow was the 3rd and 4th tank groups.

Strategic Volokolamsk highway It was defended by the 16th Army of Konstantin Rokossovsky, which included the previously assigned 316th Rifle Division under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov. Panfilov’s formation was greatly weakened in the previous October battles, when it was stopped German offensive in the first phase of Operation Typhoon.

On November 16, the 316th's positions were attacked by two German tank and one infantry divisions. In the area of ​​the Dubosekovo crossing, located 9 kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk, the defense was held by the 4th company of the 1075th regiment under the command of Captain Pavel Gundilovich.

A fierce battle ensued with units of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht under the command of General Rudolf Fayel. It was not possible to stop the enemy. The forces were unequal, and after some time the Germans broke through the positions of the regiment, which was forced to retreat. No more than 25 people from Gundilovich's company survived.

An ordinary battle, of which there were dozens in the history of the division, would have remained unknown if not for the military newspapers of Izvestia and Krasnaya Zvezda. The latter ones especially tried. In particular, on November 28, 1941, the main press organ of the Red Army published the editorial “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” signed by the literary secretary Alexander Krivitsky.

 
His lively pen said that “the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guardsmen from the Panfilov division” were attacked by over 50 German tanks at once. The result of the battle according to Krivitsky was this: all 28 heroes (except for one traitor who raised his hands) died in a four-hour battle, knocking out 18 enemy armored vehicles with grenades and armor-piercing rifles and not letting the enemy through the line they defended.

In an essay dated January 22, 1942, “About 28 Fallen Heroes,” Krivitsky spoke in more detail about their feat, calling them by their last names for the first time. In particular, he named the political instructor as the organizer of the battle Vasily Klochkova.

 

According to him, he “was the first to notice the direction of movement of the enemy tanks and hurried into the trench. “Well, friends,” the political instructor said to the soldiers. “Twenty tanks. Less than one per brother. That’s not that much!” The article reiterated that total number There were 50 German tanks, of which at least 14 were knocked out, and all the heroes were killed.

On July 21, 1942, all 28 fighters mentioned in Krivitsky’s article were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As expected, posthumously. In addition, they were immortalized in many articles and poems. For example, in famous song“My dear capital” it said: “And twenty-eight//Your bravest sons will live throughout the centuries.”

After the war in 1947, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office conducted a detailed investigation into the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing. The fact is that one of the 28 heroes, Ivan Dobrobabin, turned out to be alive and, after a legendary battle, was captured by the Germans, and then served in the occupied territory as the chief of the local police.

The conclusions of military prosecutors cast doubt on Krivitsky’s articles, but their investigation was shelved - demythologizing the heroes was considered inappropriate.

The opinion of colleagues was confirmed by a new investigation by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR - in 1988. The head of the department, Alexander Katusev, came to the conclusion 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.”

In turn, the military historian Georgy Kumanev did not agree with the summary of the military prosecutors. Based on his conversations with Dobrobabin and several surviving participants in that battle, he stated that the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men happened.

 

  (c) warsh
“The feat was that they absolutely had to detain 53 tanks and a company of machine gunners at any cost,” says Kumanev. According to him, by the end of the more than four-hour battle, reserves arrived and closed the gap in the defense. He emphasized that, despite the fact that the enemy captured Dubosekovo, 28 fighters still saved Moscow. As for Dobrobabin, he, according to the historian, did not take an oath to the Germans, did not wear a police uniform and warned people about raids.

 

  (c) warsh
From a military historian Alexey Isaev- a different perspective on events. According to him, German documents did not reflect the loss of 18 tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941. He emphasized that the enemy offensive was actually stopped by the end of the day by anti-tank artillery crews and reserves brought up by the command.

He believes that the Panfilov division is truly legendary, and it was completely deservedly awarded the title of guards. “But not for the feat described in Krivitsky’s articles, but for actions near Volokolamsk back in October 1941,” said Isaev , emphasizing that this is an episode of the war documented by both sides.

The 316th Rifle Division was formed by Major General Ivan Panfilov for a month in Almaty shortly after the start of the war. It consisted, overwhelmingly, of people who had no combat training and had not previously served in the army.

 
But Ivan Vasilyevich himself had considerable experience. The First World War is behind us, civil war, where he fought in the famous Chapaev division and battles with the Basmachi. Having been the military commissar of the Kirghiz SSR before the war, he knew well the traditions and languages ​​of his subordinates, a considerable part of whom were fighters from Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

In response, the soldiers respectfully called him “Dad”, “Aksakal”, appreciating his care. Those who reached Berlin wrote on the Reichstag “Thank you, Dad, for the felt boots! Panfilov’s men.” But at the same time, the 48-year-old general was a strict commander who did not tolerate sloppiness or violation of discipline.

The newly assembled division was lucky - it was not immediately thrown into battle. In September 1941, she occupied positions in the second echelon of the 52nd Army in the Novgorod region, equipping positions. The division commander took advantage of this to train the soldiers’ skills in fighting enemy tanks, the role of which was played by tractors.

Panfilov also encouraged sabotage raids by his subordinates behind German lines, believing that his soldiers should not be afraid of the enemy, who could and should be beaten everywhere. In particular, political instructor of the 4th company Vasily Klochkov distinguished himself in one of them, who defeated an entire division of the Germans, losing his two soldiers in battle.

The study did not last long. In connection with the German offensive on Moscow, the 316th was hastily transferred to the central direction to close the gaps that formed on the Western Front after the encirclement of a number Soviet armies. On October 12, 1941, the division’s soldiers dug in near Volokolamsk, where the Mozhaisk defense line passed.

An unfired formation, consisting of recruits, placed in the direction of the main attack of the enemy, occupied a defensive zone five times greater than pre-war ideas about tactics - 41 kilometers instead of 12. All hope was in artillery, and there were only 54 of them in the division’s artillery regiment and a separate anti-aircraft division guns.

The command reinforced Panfilov’s troops with a number of artillery units, adding another 141 guns and providing assistance tank company. But there was not enough ammunition and the gunners were required to have increased skill in repelling enemy attacks.

October 15 in position Soviet division two tank (2nd and 11th) and one infantry (35th) divisions of the Germans collapsed, which had extensive combat experience, were well armed and were determined to immediately break through the next line occupied by the Red Army soldiers on the way to their cherished goal - capital of the USSR.
During fierce battles, the Wehrmacht, supported by the Luftwaffe, managed to push Panfilov's troops back several kilometers, but did not break through their positions. The 316th stood to the death, despite heavy losses.

 
Played a role in repelling enemy attacks and an unexpected blow to the Nazi rear of the battalion under the command of Senior Lieutenant Baurzhan Momyshuly, who emerged from the encirclement in exemplary order.

Volokolamsk was abandoned only at the end of October 1941, when the enemy broke through in other sectors of the front, and there was a danger of encirclement of the division. But Panfilov’s men retreated not far, and since in other directions Soviet troops They put up fierce resistance, and the German offensive finally fizzled out. The troops of Army Group Center, in general, needed two weeks to regroup and bring up reserves.

On November 18, 1941, the division was awarded the title of 8th Guards Rifle. Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov managed to rejoice so much highly appreciated achievements of his fighters - and in the evening of the same day he was killed by a mine fragment in the village of Gusenevo near Moscow.

Fierce battles in the Volokolamsk direction in the second half of November 1941, Panfilov’s men fought shoulder to shoulder together with the cavalry of the 2nd Cavalry Corps of General Lev Dovator and the crews of the 1st Guards tank brigade Colonel Mikhail Katukov. They held back the onslaught of the 46th motorized and 5th army corps Germans. On November 26, all three of these guards formations were transferred to the Leningradskoye Highway, in the area of ​​​​the village of Kryukovo, where a very dangerous situation arose for the Western Front.

It changed hands 8 (!) times until it was finally freed from German troops December 7, 1941 by the forces of the 8th Guards Rifle Division and the 1st Guards Tank Brigade. This is what the Krivitskys had to paint about and make films about.