On November 16, 1941, with a new offensive by the fascist army on Moscow at the Dubosekovo junction, 28 soldiers from the division of General Panfilov performed their immortal feat.

By the end of October 1941, the first stage of the German offensive operation on Moscow called "Typhoon" was completed. German troops, having defeated parts of three Soviet fronts near Vyazma, reached the closest approaches to Moscow.

In the same time german troops suffered losses and needed some respite for the units to rest, put them in order and replenishment. By November 2, the front line in the Volokolamsk direction had stabilized, the German units temporarily went over to the defensive.

On November 16, German troops went on the offensive again, planning to defeat the Soviet units, encircle Moscow and victoriously end the 1941 campaign. On the Volokolamsk direction, the Germans were blocked by the 316th rifle division of Major General I.V. Panfilov, who defended on a 41-kilometer-long front from the village of Lvovo to the Bolychevo state farm.

Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov
On the right flank, its neighbor was the 126th Infantry Division, on the left - the 50th Cavalry Division from the Dovator corps.

Lev Mikhailovich Dovator
On November 16, the division was attacked by the forces of two German tank divisions: Lieutenant General Rudolf Fayel's 2nd Panzer Division attacked positions of the 316th Infantry Division in the center of defense, and Major General Walter Scheller's 11th Panzer Division struck 1075 positions in the Dubosekovo area 1st Infantry Regiment, at the junction with the 50th Cavalry Division.

PzKpfw-IIIG 11th tank division at the Dubosekovo junction. Year of release - 1937; weight - 15.4 t; crew - 5 people; armor - 14.5 mm; gun - 37 mm; speed - 32 km / h
The main blow fell on the position of the 2nd battalion of the regiment.

The 1075th Infantry Regiment in previous battles suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment, but before new battles it was significantly replenished with personnel. The question of artillery armament of the regiment is not completely clear. According to the state, the regiment was supposed to have a battery of four 76-mm regimental guns and an anti-tank battery of six 45-mm guns.

45-mm anti-tank gun model 1937
Morally outdated French guns also had weak ballistics; nothing is known about the presence of armor-piercing shells for them. However, it is known that for firing at tanks from guns of this type, shrapnel shells were used, the fuse of which was set to strike. From a 500-meter distance, such a projectile penetrated 31 millimeters of German armor.

At the same time, it is known that in general the 316th Infantry Division as of November 16, 1941 had 12 - 45-mm anti-tank guns, 26 - 76-mm divisional guns, 17 - 122-mm howitzers and 5 - 122-mm corps guns. that could be used in battle with German tanks. The neighbor, the 50th Cavalry Division, also had its own artillery. The regiment's infantry anti-tank weapons were represented by 11 ATGMs (four of them were in the second battalion), RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails.

Anti-tank guns were distinguished by high armor penetration, especially when using cartridges with B-31 bullets, which had a tungsten carbide core.

PTRDs could hit German tanks only at close range from a 300-meter distance, piercing 35-mm armor at such a distance.

The battle at the Dubosekovo junction was the first case of the use of anti-tank rifles, the production of which was just beginning to unfold, and their number was still insufficient.

It was here, near Dubosekov, that the fourth company of the 1075th rifle regiment took on the battle. According to the staff of the 04/600 division, the company was supposed to have 162 people, and by December 16 there were about 120 people in the stand. Where did the number 28 come from?

The fact is that on the eve of the battle, a special group of tank destroyers in the amount of about 30 people was created from among the most persistent and well-aimed fighters, the command of which was entrusted to the 30-year-old political instructor Vasily Klochkov.

Vasily Georgievich Klochkov-Diev
All anti-tank guns were transferred to this group, and therefore the number of destroyed tanks does not look fantastic at all - out of 54 tanks moving towards Panfilov, the heroes managed to destroy 18 vehicles, the loss of 13 of which was admitted by the Germans themselves. But the Germans recognized the tank as lost only if it could not be restored, and if after the battle the tank was sent for overhaul with the replacement of the engine or weapons, such a tank was not considered lost.

A few days later, the list of these soldiers was compiled from memory by the company commander, Captain Gundilovich, at the request of the Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent, Alexander Yuryevich Krivitsky. The captain may not have remembered someone, but someone probably got on this list by mistake - he died earlier or fought with the Germans as part of another unit, because the group included not only the captain's subordinates, but also volunteers from other units shelf.

Despite the fact that, at the end of the battle, the battlefield remained with the Germans, and most of our fighters who participated in this battle were killed, the homeland did not forget the feat of the heroes, and already on November 27 the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda first informed the people of this feat, and on the next day, an editorial appeared in the same newspaper under the heading "The Testament of the 28 Fallen Heroes." This article indicated that 29 Panfilov men fought with enemy tanks. At the same time, the 29th was called a traitor. In fact, this 29th was sent by Klochkov with a report to Dubosekovo. However, there were already Germans in the village and the soldier Daniil Kozhabergenov was captured. On the evening of November 16, he escaped from captivity to the forest. For some time he was in the occupied territory, after which he was discovered by the horsemen of Dovator, who were in a raid along the German rear. After Dovator's compound left the raid, he was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he had not participated in the battle, and was sent back to Dovator's division.

The main blow falls on the positions of the 2nd battalion, which occupied the defense line of Petelino-Shiryaevo-Dubosekovo. The 4th company of this battalion covered the most important section - a railway crossing near Dubosekovo, behind which a direct road to Moscow opened. The firing points immediately before the move were organized by the soldiers of the 2nd platoon of tank destroyers - a total of 29 people. They were armed with anti-tank PTRD rifles, as well as anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails. There was one machine gun.

RPG-40 grenade

Bottles with COP
On the eve of this battle, the commander of the second platoon, D. Shirmatov, was wounded, so the "Panfilovites" commanded the platoon commander Sergeant I. Ye. Dobrobabin.

Ivan Efstafievich Dobrobabin
He made sure that the firing positions were equipped conscientiously - five full-profile trenches were dug, reinforced with railway sleepers.

Reconstruction of Panfilov's trenches
At 8 o'clock in the morning on November 16, the first fascists appeared near the fortifications. The "Panfilovites" hid themselves and did not show their presence. As soon as most of the Germans climbed to the height in front of the positions, Dobrobabin gave a short whistle. A machine gun immediately responded, shooting the Germans point-blank, from a hundred meters.

Other soldiers of the platoon also opened heavy fire. The enemy, having lost about 70 people, rolled back in disarray. After this first collision, the 2nd platoon had no losses at all.

Soon, German artillery fire fell on the railway crossing, after which the German submachine gunners again rose to the attack. She was again beaten back, and again without loss. In the afternoon, two German PzKpfw-IIIG tanks appeared at Dubosekovo, accompanied by an infantry platoon. The Panfilov men managed to destroy several infantrymen and set one tank on fire, after which the enemy retreated again. The relative calm in front of Dubosekovo was due to the fact that a fierce battle had been raging on the positions of the 5th and 6th companies of the 2nd battalion for a long time.

Regrouping, the Germans conducted a short artillery preparation and threw a tank battalion into the attack, supported by two companies of machine gunners. The tanks went in a deployed front, 15-20 tanks in a group, in several waves.

The main blow was delivered in the direction of Dubosekovo as the most tank-accessible area.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, before the move, a heated battle broke out. Anti-tank rifles, of course, could not stop the offensive of a dozen German tanks, and the battle began near the village itself. The soldiers had to jump out of the trenches under cannon and machine-gun fire, in order to throw a bunch of anti-tank grenades or a Molotov cocktail for sure. At the same time, they still had to repel the attacks of enemy machine gunners, shoot at the tankers jumping out of the burning tanks ...

As a participant in that battle testifies, one of the platoon soldiers could not stand it and jumped out of the trench with his hands up. Carefully aiming, Vasiliev removed the traitor.

From the explosions in the air, there was a constant curtain of dirty snow, soot and smoke. This is probably why Dobrobabin did not notice how the enemy on the right and left practically destroyed the 1st and 3rd platoons. One by one, the soldiers and his platoon perished, but the number of destroyed tanks also grew. The seriously wounded were hastily dragged into the dugout equipped in the positions. The slightly wounded did not go anywhere and continued to fire ...

Finally, having lost several tanks and up to two infantry platoons before the move, the enemy began to retreat. One of the last shells fired by the Germans severely concussed Dobrobabin, and he lost consciousness for a long time.

The command was taken by the political instructor of the 4th company V.G. Klochkov, sent to the position of the second platoon of the company by Gundilovich. The surviving fighters later spoke of Klochkov respectfully - without any pathetic phrases, he raised the spirit of the fighters, exhausted and sooty after hours of battle.

The soul of the detachment of guards was political instructor V.G. Klochkov. Already in the first days of the fighting near the walls of the capital, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and was honored to participate in the military parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.

Vasily Klochkov made his way into the trenches at the Dubosekovo junction and stayed with his soldiers to the end. Twenty black, with white crosses, clanking caterpillars, smugly rumbling fascist tanks, an avalanche approached the Dubosekovsky trench. The Nazi infantry ran after the tanks. Klochkov remarked: “There are many tanks, but there are more of us. Twenty pieces of tanks, less than one tank per brother. " The warriors decided to fight to the death. The tanks advanced very close. The battle began. The command was given by political instructor Klochkov. Under fire, Panfilov's men jumped out of the trench and threw bundles of grenades under the tracks of tanks, and bottles of fuel - on the engine unit or the gas tank.

For four hours a firestorm raged over the trenches of the brave men. Shells exploded, bottles with a combustible mixture flew, shells hissed and whistle, flames raged, melting snow, earth and armor. The enemy could not stand it and retreated. Fourteen steel monsters with ominous white crosses on their sides blazed on the battlefield. The survivors fled home. Thinned the ranks of the defenders. In the haze of the approaching twilight, the rumble of engines was heard again. After filling his wounds, filling his belly with fire and lead, the enemy, seized by a new attack of rage, again rushed to the attack - 30 tanks moved on a handful of brave men.

Political instructor Klochkov looked at the soldiers. “Thirty tanks, friends!” He said. Probably, we will have to die here for the glory of the Motherland. Let the Motherland know how we fight here, how we defend Moscow. We have nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind. "

The country then heard for the first time
Klochkova legendary words:
- Guys! Russia is great for us,
And to retreat to us
Nowhere! Moscow!
Moscow is behind us!
And like an old song
He exclaimed:
Let's die near Moscow!

K. Sharipov

These words of Klochkov entered the hearts of the fighters as a call to the Motherland, a demand, its order, instilling in them a new strength of selfless courage. Now it was already clear that in this battle the soldiers would find their own death, but still they wanted to make the enemy pay dearly for their lives. The soldiers, bleeding to death, did not leave their combat posts. The attack of the Nazis was drowned out. Suddenly, another heavy tank tries to break through to the trench. Political instructor Klochkov stands up to meet him. His hand grips a bunch of grenades - the last bunch. Badly wounded with grenades, he rushed to the enemy tank and blew it up.

The brave political instructor did not hear how a strong explosion echoed across the snowy expanses. Next to Klochkov, head to head, lay the wounded soldier Ivan Nashtarov and, as if in a dream, from somewhere far away, heard the voice of the political instructor "We are dying, brother ... Someday they will remember us ... If you live, tell us ...". The second attack was repulsed. Again the enemy did not pass. He tossed about in smoke and flame and, finally, backing away, growling in impotent rage, turned to a shameful flight, leaving 18 of his 50 tanks to burn out. The resilience of 28 Soviet heroes of the heroes turned out to be stronger than the enemy's armor. More than 150 fascist conquerors lay in the snow at the site of the fierce battle. The battlefield died down. The legendary trench was silent. The defenders of their native land performed what had to be done. Stretching out their weary hands, as if covering the wounded, blood-soaked native land with their lifeless bodies, those who stood were lying. For boundless courage, heroism, military valor and courage, the Soviet government posthumously awarded the participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction the high title of Hero Soviet Union.

The Panfilovites became a terrible curse for the Nazis, legends circulated about the strength and courage of the heroes. On November 17, 1941, the 316th Rifle Division was renamed the 8th Guards Rifle Division and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Hundreds of guardsmen were awarded orders and medals.

On November 19, the division lost its commander ... It fought for 36 days under the command of General I.V. Panfilov 316th Rifle Division, defending the capital in the main direction.

Not having achieved decisive successes in the Volokolamsk direction, the main enemy forces turned to Solnechnogorsk, where they intended to break through first to Leningradskoe, then to Dmitrovskoe highway and enter Moscow from the north-west.

As it turned out later, not all 28 Panfilov men died in this unparalleled battle. Red Army soldier Nashtarov, seriously wounded, gathered his last strength, crawled off the battlefield and was picked up by our scouts at night. In the hospital, he spoke about the feat of Soviet soldiers. He died three days after the battle. The Red Army soldiers Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev, Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin were half-dead were picked up on the battlefield and after being cured they returned to their native division. The Red Army soldier Ivan Demidovich Shadrin was captured by the Germans in an unconscious state during the battle. For more than three years, he experienced all the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, remaining loyal to his homeland and the Soviet people. Vasiliev died in the city of Kemerovo, Shemyakin died in Alma-Ata in December 1973, Shadrin died, who lived in the Kirovsky settlement of the Alma-Ata region.

The names of the Panfilov heroes are included in the annals of the Great Patriotic War gold letters

By the end of the day, despite stubborn resistance, the 1075th Rifle Regiment was driven out of its positions and forced to retreat. An example of self-sacrifice was shown not only by Panfilov's men near Dubosekovo. Two days later, 11 sappers of the 1077th rifle regiment from the same 316th Panfilov division for a long time delayed the offensive of 27 German tanks with infantry near the village of Strokovo at the cost of their lives.

For two days of fighting, the 1075th regiment lost 400 people killed, 100 wounded and 600 missing. From the 4th company, which defended Dubosekovo, hardly a fifth of them remained. The losses in the 5th and 6th companies were even heavier.

Contrary to legends, not all "Panfilovs" were killed in the battle - seven fighters from the 2nd platoon survived, and all were seriously wounded. These are Natarov, Vasiliev, Shemyakin, Shadrin, Timofeev, Kozhubergenov and Dobrobabin. Before the arrival of the Germans, local residents managed to deliver the most seriously wounded Natarov and Vasiliev to the medical battalion. Shemyakin, heavily shell-shocked, was crawling through the forest from the village, where he was discovered by the cavalrymen of General Dovator. The Germans managed to take two prisoners - Shadrin (he was unconscious) and Timofeev (seriously wounded).

Natarov, taken to the medical battalion, soon died of his wounds. Before his death, he managed to tell something about the battle at Dubosekovo. So this story fell into the hands of A. Krivitsky, literary editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

But, as we remember, six people still survived from the second platoon - Vasiliev and Shemyakin recovered in hospitals, Shadrin and Timofeev went through the hell of concentration camps, and Kozhubergenov and Dobrobabin continued to fight for their own people. Therefore, when they declared themselves, the NKVD reacted to this very nervously. Shadrin and Timofeev were immediately recorded as traitors. It is not known what else they were doing while being held captive by the Nazis. The rest were looked at very suspiciously - after all, the whole country knows that all 28 heroes died! And if these say that they are alive. So they are either impostors or cowards. And it remains to be seen which is worse.

After lengthy interrogations, four of them - Vasiliev, Shemyakin, Shadrin and Timofeev - were given the Gold Stars of Heroes of the Soviet Union, but without publicity. Two “Panfilovites” - Kozhubergenov and Dobrobabin - have not been recognized until now.

Panfilov heroes

Konkin Grigory Efimovich (1911-1941)

Departure Dubosekovo:

Memorial in Dubosekovo:

https: //www.site/2016-11-15/pochemu_dazhe_spustya_75_let_istoriya_28_geroev_panfilovcev_vyzyvaet_spory

"They held the line with blood and life"

Why, even after 75 years, the story of 28 Panfilov heroes is controversial

Major General Ivan Panfilov (left), chief of staff of the 316th division Ivan Serebryakov (center), battalion commissar Sergei Yegorov. Photo taken on November 18, 1941 S. Kalmykov / RIA Novosti

75 years ago, on November 16, 1941, the 316 division of General Ivan Panfilov took a battle with German divisions advancing along the Volokolamskoe highway to Moscow. Through the efforts of the military correspondents, this battle became known throughout the country as a feat of 28 Panfilov's men. Decades later, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Doctor historical sciences Vladimir Medinsky called all those who “try to touch” this “holy legend” as “done to scum” ..

The first information about the battles in the area of ​​Volokolamskoe highway with the participation of the division of "Commander Panfilov" appeared on November 19, 1941 in an article by the correspondent of the Izvestia newspaper G. Ivanov "8th Guards Division in battles." It reported about the awarding of the military unit with the Order of the Red Banner, the renaming from the 316th rifle regiment to the 8th guards and, below, about the battle of one of the companies of the 1075th rifle regiment.

“And then something happened that cannot be talked about without enthusiasm,” the correspondent wrote. - As soon as the enemy approached 25-30 meters, a group of heroes unleashed a barrage of anti-tank fire on him. As a result of a hot battle, nine tanks were knocked out, three were burned, and the rest, unable to withstand the stubborn resistance of the daredevils, turned back. "

"Wild division"

The 316th division was formed in Alma-Ata by August 1941, consisting of 1073, 1075, 1077 infantry and 857 artillery regiments. It was headed by the military commissar of the Kyrgyz ASSR, Major General Ivan Panfilov. On August 18, 1941, the division was transferred to the front in Novgorod. Having taken up positions in the second echelon of the army in the area of ​​the village of Kresttsy, the division has been equipping a defensive zone for a month. In early October, the division was transferred to Moscow. Until November, the soldiers of the 316th division take part in the defense of Volokolamsk, fighting off attacks from four Wehrmacht divisions (2, 5, 11 - tank and 35th infantry).

By the beginning of November, when the Germans broke through the defenses of their neighbors, Panfilov's division was withdrawing to a new line and took up defenses east and southeast of Volokolamsk. On November 16-20, fighters of the 316th fight against two tank and infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht, who were trying to break through at the junction of the Panfilovites and the cavalry group of Major General Lev Dovator along Volokolamskoe Highway to Moscow. On November 18, the day before the renaming, in the battles for the village of Gusenevo from a splinter of a German mine that hit the temple, according to the recollections of Colonel Mikhail Katukov (later Marshal of the USSR Armored Forces), Divisional Commander Ivan Panfilov dies.

In the battles of November 16-20, the 316th Rifle / 8th Guards Division, together with Dovator's group and the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, delayed the offensive of the 46th Motorized Corps (5th and 11th Panzer Divisions) and 5th Army Corps (2 Panzer, 35th and 106 infantry divisions). A few days later, when retreating through the Istra reservoir and the Istra River, all drainages were blown up, which again complicated the advance of German troops to Moscow.

The commander of the 4th Panzer Group, which was defeated in the autumn battles with the 316th Division, Colonel-General Erich Hoepner called the enemy in his reports to the commander of the Center Group, Fedor von Bock, “a wild division fighting in violation of all charters and rules of engagement. whose soldiers do not surrender, are extremely fanatical and do not fear death. "

In December, Panfilov's 8th Guards Division liberated Kryukovo, in January-April 1942 it fought with the SS "Dead's Head" division and participated in the Demyansk operation. But only the battles of November 16, 1941 were included in all textbooks on the history of the Great Patriotic War under the title “feat of 28 Panfilov's men”.

The role of the media in the history of Panfilovites

Perhaps the most important role in this was played by journalists. Eight days after Ivanov's article in Izvestia about the 8th Guards Division, on November 27, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an article by war correspondent Vasily Koroteev "Panfilov's guards in the battles for Moscow." “For more than four hours a group of fighters from the fifth company was holding back 54 German tanks. With their blood and their lives, the guards held the line. They killed every one of them, but did not let the enemy pass, - it was reported in this publication. - The guardsmen stubbornly fought back, defending the position of Diev. As a result of the battle, the enemy lost 800 soldiers and officers killed and 18 tanks. "

The next day, November 28, the editorial of the same "Krasnaya Zvezda" published an article "The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes" by the newspaper's literary secretary Alexander Krivitsky, in which the exact number of Panfilovites died for the first time. “Only one out of twenty-nine was faint-hearted. When the Germans, confident of their easy victory, shouted to the guardsmen: "Surrender!" - only one raised his hands up. Several guardsmen at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at the coward and the traitor. It was the Red Army guards who did not hesitate to destroy one who wanted to cast a shadow on the twenty-eight brave by his betrayal, ”Krivitsky wrote.

The names of the "twenty-eight brave" were first listed in the publication "On 28 Fallen Heroes" dated January 22, 1942, all in the same "Red Star" signed by the same Krivitsky. In it, in particular, it was revealed who was actually the political instructor Diev: “The political instructor of the company Klochkov got to the trench. Only now we learned his real name. The country glorified him under the name Dieva. This is what the Ukrainian Red Army soldier Bondarenko called him once. He said: “Our political instructor is constantly doing” - in Ukrainian it means “works”. In the same publication, a phrase attributed to Vasily Klochkov appeared, later included in all textbooks: “... Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat. Behind Moscow! "

RIA News

The feat of 28 fighters described by Koroteev and Krivitsky caused a wide response and was replicated in various, including poetic, works. The completely logical conclusion of this story at that time was the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942 to award all 28 dead people the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

“Today we publish the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 fallen heroes-guards: Ananiev, Bezrodny, Bolotov, Bondarenko, Vasiliev, Dobrobabin, Dutov, Emtsov, Esibulatov, Keleinikov, Kasagenov, Kloberchkov, Kryuchkov, Maksimov, Mitin, Mitchenko, Moskalenko, Natarov, Petrenko, Sengirbaev, Timofeev, Trofimov, Shadrin, Shapokov, Shemyakin, Shepetkov. Their names sparkle in the rays of golden stars and bring to mind the harsh days of November last year, "the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published on July 22.

"Two traitors are too much for an editorial."

It would seem that everything is on this: the journalists, as they say, “worked out the topic”, the country recognized its heroes, the country's leadership honorably noted their feat. But in November 1947, the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison arrested Ivan Dobrobabin for treason. According to the information available to the prosecutor's office, Dobrobabin went to the Germans in the spring of 1942 and served in the German police. During the investigation, it suddenly turned out that it was he who was the very same Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin, who was listed as one of the 28 dead Panfilov heroes, and he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, from the testimony of the detainee himself, it turned out that nothing that had been told about the 28 Panfilov heroes earlier, including about him, actually happened. In the course of the investigation undertaken by the prosecutor's office, it also turned out that of the 28 heroically killed in the battle at Dubosekovo Soviet soldiers four more from the list - Vasiliev, Shemyakin, Shadrin and Kuzhebergenov - did not actually die.

Dmitry Astakhov / RIA Novosti

The authors of the original source were summoned for questioning - Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent Vasily Koroteev, literary editor Alexander Krivitsky and editor-in-chief David Ortenberg. It turned out that they did not go to the front line, and the episode with the battle at the Dubosekovo junction was described from hearsay. Moreover, when Koroteev wrote the first note and returned to Moscow, editor-in-chief Ortenberg, preparing the material for publication, asked him to clarify how many people were in the company. Koroteev replied that it was about 30, but there were two traitors. The editor decided that two for the editorial was too much, as a result, 29 people appeared, one of whom was shot by the fighters themselves. The names of the fighters were given to the correspondent Krivitsky from the lists of personnel by the company commander, Captain Pavel Gundilovich.

By the way, there is an opinion that the investigation into the case of 28 Panfilov's men, undertaken by the military prosecutor's office, is part of a campaign sanctioned by Joseph Stalin against the command of the armed forces of the USSR. Including against the "Marshal of Victory" Georgy Zhukov, whose authority after the war was extremely high level, and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky. In the fall of 1941, it was Rokossovsky who commanded the 16th army, which included Panfilov's 316th rifle division.

Medinsky vs Mironenko

Now, after 75 years, there is no longer any of the true witnesses of this story. The last of the 28 Panfilovites listed on that list, Ivan Dobrobabin, passed away 20 years ago, in 1996. During the Soviet era, it was not customary to publicly question the "feat of 28 Panfilovites" described by Krasnaya Zvezda journalists. In the Yeltsin era, everything depended on the teacher. Democratic historians told schoolchildren as it is - the story is the fruit of the creativity of journalists, which served as an example of heroism. Others continued to give the same line of presentation.

Unexpectedly, the story got a new sound after the interview of the General Director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, given to the Kommersant newspaper in April 2015, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War.

litrossia.ru

In an interview with reporters, Mironenko quoted the reference report of the Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces Nikolai Afanasyev on May 10, 1948: “The feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, highlighted in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent of Koroteev, the editor of Krasnaya Zvezda, Ortenberg, and in particular the literary secretary Krivitsky's newspapers. This fiction was repeated in the works of the writers N. Tikhonov, V. Stavsky, A. Beck, N. Kuznetsov, V. Lipko, Svetlov and others and was widely popularized among the population of the Soviet Union. " “There are historical facts, there are documents that confirm them. And let psychologists do the rest, ”Mironenko stressed then.

This is not the first time Mironenko has made such statements. A similar interview with him came out, for example, back in 2011 in Komsomolskaya Pravda. However, this was the reason for a violent reaction from the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, also Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Medinsky. At that time he recommended that archival workers (meaning, obviously, Mironenko) to do “what the state pays them money for, and not to master related professions,” that is, “to present documents to people”. “And then let the journalists draw conclusions,” stressed Medinsky (a journalist by education).

medialeaks.ru

In March 2016, Mironenko was forced to resign from the post of director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation. In October, Medinsky presented Feature Film about 28 Panfilov's men to the presidents of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev during their meeting in Astana. Communicating after watching the tape with journalists, Medinsky said: “My deepest conviction is that even if this story was invented from beginning to end, even if it were not for Panfilov, even if there was nothing, it is a holy legend, that you just can't touch. And the people who do this are utter scum. "

Subjectively, only one thing is surprising - irreconcilability. Moreover, there are not so many contradictions in the position outlined by Mironenko and in the position outlined by Medinsky: this is a legend formed as an example of courage and heroism. Yes, it does not correspond to historical facts. But is it still worth arguing about? After all, 28 Panfilovites is something akin to the story of 300 Spartans - a story that has become a legend, and a legend that has become history. This should already be accepted as a fact. Historical.

The emergence of the official version

History of origin official version events set out in the materials of the investigation of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. The heroic deeds of the heroes were first reported by the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on November 27, 1941, in an essay by the front-line correspondent V. I. Koroteev. The article about the participants in the battle said that "every one was killed, but the enemy was not allowed to pass."

More than fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guards from the division named after. Panfilov ... Only one out of twenty-nine was faint-hearted ... only one raised his hands up ... several guards at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at a coward and a traitor ...

The editorial went on to say that the remaining 28 Guardsmen destroyed 18 enemy tanks and “laid down their heads — all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy pass ... ”The editorial was written by A. Yu. Krivitsky, the literary secretary of the Red Star. The names of the guards who fought and died, both in the first and in the second article, were not indicated.

Criticism of the official version

Critics of the official version, as a rule, cite the following arguments and assumptions:

Investigation materials

In November 1947, the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkov garrison was arrested and prosecuted for treason to the Motherland I. E. Dobrobabin. According to the case file, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 entered their service. He served as the chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, in the Valkovsky district of the Kharkiv region. In March 1943, when the area was liberated from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested by the Soviet authorities as a traitor, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again took a job in the German police, continuing his active treacherous activities, arresting Soviet citizens and direct implementation of the compulsory sending labor to Germany.

When Dobrobabin was arrested, a book was found about 28 Panfilov heroes, and it turned out that he was one of the main participants in this heroic battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By interrogating Dobrobabin, it was established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed lightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes does not correspond to reality. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a thorough investigation of the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor Armed Forces country by Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev to the Prosecutor General of the USSR G.N. Safonov May 10, 1948. On the basis of this report, on June 11, a certificate was drawn up, signed by Safonov, addressed to A. A. Zhdanov.

For the first time, V. Kardin publicly questioned the veracity of the story about the Panfilovites, who published an article “Legends and Facts” in the Novy Mir magazine (February 1966). A number of new publications followed in the late 1980s. An important argument was the publication of declassified materials from the 1948 military prosecutor's office investigation.

In particular, these materials contain the testimony of the former commander of the 1075th rifle regiment I.V. Kaprov:

... There was no battle of 28 Panfilov's men with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is sheer fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, the 4th company fought with German tanks as part of the 2nd battalion, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as they wrote in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never spoke to anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilovites, and he could not speak, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political reports on this matter. I do not know on the basis of what materials were written in the newspapers, in particular in the "Krasnaya Zvezda", about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division im. Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn to form, the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Krivitsky came to my regiment together with representatives of the division's political department Glushko and Yegorov. It was then that I first heard about 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary that there were 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought against 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 ... Captain Gundilovich gave the name to Krivitsky from memory, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov's men in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about the surnames. Subsequently, after lengthy clarifications of surnames, it was only in April 1942 that the division headquarters sent ready-made award lists and a general list of 28 guardsmen to my regiment for signature. I signed these sheets for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 guardsmen. Who was the initiator of the compilation of the list and award lists for 28 guardsmen - I do not know.

The materials of the interrogation of the correspondent of Koroteev are also cited (clarifying the origin of the number 28):

Approximately 23-24 November 1941, together with the war correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When leaving the headquarters of the army, 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 are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Yegorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks attacked the line of the company, and the company detained them, destroying some of them. Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but told 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 heroic battle companies with enemy tanks, having previously familiarized themselves with the political report received from the regiment ...

The political report said that the fifth company was fighting with enemy tanks and that the company was "to death" - it died, but did not leave, and only two people turned out to be traitors, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers. The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this even from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Yegorov did not advise us to try to get into the regiment.

Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported to the editor of the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg about the situation, told about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... I did not know that an editorial was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me up again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided in the front line to write about only one traitor.

Interrogated newspaper secretary Krivitsky testified:

When talking to Comrade Krapivin in PUR, 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”, - I told him that I had invented it myself ...

… In terms of sensations and actions of 28 heroes - this is my literary speculation. I did not speak to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I spoke only with a boy of 14-15 years old, who showed the grave where Klochkov was buried.

... In 1943, from the division where 28 Panfilov heroes were and fought, they sent me a letter about conferring the title of a Guardsman on me. I was in the division only three or four times.

Conclusion of the investigation by the prosecutor's office:

Thus, the materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, highlighted in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent of Koroteev, the editor of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky.

Official version support

The official version was defended by Marshal of the Soviet Union DT Yazov, who relied, in particular, on the research of the historian G. A. Kumanev "Feat and Forgery." In September 2011, the newspaper "Soviet Russia" published the material "Shamelessly ridiculed feat", which included a letter from Marshal criticizing Mironenko. The same letter with small abbreviations was published by Komsomolskaya Pravda:

... It turned out that not all "twenty-eight" were killed. What of this? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded, shell-shocked, in spite of everything, survived the battle on November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that a tank column of the enemy, rushing to Moscow, was stopped at the Dubosekovo junction? Does not refute. Yes, indeed, later it became known that not all 28 heroes were killed in that battle. So, GM Shemyakin and IR Vasiliev were seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital. DF Timofeev and ID Shadrin were captured as wounded and experienced all the horrors of fascist captivity. The fate of D.A.Kuzhebergenov and I.E. doubts, which was convincingly proved in his research by Doctor of Historical Sciences G.A.Kumanev, who personally met with them. ... By the way, the fate of these "risen from the dead" Panfilov heroes was the reason for writing in May 1948 a letter from the Chief Military Prosecutor Lieutenant General of Justice N. P. Afanasyev to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Zhdanov ...

However, Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ... immediately determined that all the materials of the "investigation into the case of 28 Panfilov's men", set out in the letter of the Chief Military Prosecutor, were prepared too clumsily, the conclusions, as they say, were "sewn with white thread." ... As a result of the further course, the "case" was not given, and it was sent to the archive ...

D. Yazov cited the words of the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" A. Yu. Krivitsky, who was accused that the feat of 28 Panfilovites was a figment of his author's imagination. Recalling the progress of the investigation, A. Yu. Krivitsky said:

I was told that if I refuse to testify that the description of the battle near Dubosekovo was completely invented by me and that I had not spoken to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilovites before the article was published, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.

Documentary evidence of the battle

The commander of the 1075th regiment I. Kaprov (testimony given during the investigation in the Panfilov's 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 if the 4th company had anti-tank guns, but I repeat that the entire 2nd battalion had only 4 anti-tank guns ... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the 2nd battalion's sector. How many tanks went (directly) to the sector of the 4th company, I do not know, or rather, I cannot determine ...

With the help of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this tank attack was repulsed. In battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans withdrew. At 14-15 o'clock, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire ... and again went on the attack with tanks ... More than 50 tanks attacked in the regiment's sectors, and the main blow was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one the tank even went out to the location of the regiment's command post and lit the hay and the booth, so I accidentally was able to get out of the dugout: the embankment saved me railroad, people who had survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: 20-25 people, led by the company commander Gundilovich, survived. The rest of the companies suffered less.

According to the archival data of 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 regiment's losses, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 killed, 600 missing, 100 wounded.

Testimony of the chairman of the Nelidovsky village council Smirnova during the investigation of the Panfilov's case:

The battle of the Panfilov division near our village of Nelidovo and the patrol of Dubosekovo took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, were hiding in shelters ... The Germans entered the area of ​​our village and the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by Soviet Army units on December 20, 1941. At that 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 perform burials.

... 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 already in March 1942, when it began to melt, military units took three more corpses to the mass grave, including the corpse of political instructor Klochkov, who was identified by the soldiers. So in the common grave of the Panfilov heroes, which is located on the outskirts of our village Nelidovo, 6 soldiers of the Soviet Army are buried. No more corpses were found on the territory of the Nelidovsky s / council.

From a note by Colonel-General S. M. Shtemenko to the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR N. A. Bulganin on August 28, 1948:

Any operational documents and documents on the line of political bodies, specifically mentioning the actual heroic deed and death of 28 Panfilovites in the area of ​​Dubosekovo crossing, have not been found at all ... Only one document confirms the death of the political instructor of the 4th company Klochkov (mentioned among 28 mi). Consequently, it can be clearly considered that the first reports about the battle of 28 Panfilovites on November 16, 1941 were made by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, in which Koroteev's essay, the leading newspaper and Krivitsky's essay "On 28 fallen heroes" were published. These messages, apparently, served as the basis for the presentation of 28 people to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Reconstruction of the battle

By the end of October 1941, the first stage of the German Operation Typhoon (the offensive against Moscow) was completed. German troops, having defeated parts of three Soviet fronts near Vyazma, reached the closest approaches to Moscow. At the same time, the German troops suffered losses and needed some respite for the units to rest, put them in order and replenish them. By November 2, the front line in the Volokolamsk direction had stabilized, the German units temporarily went over to the defensive. On November 16, German troops went on the offensive again, planning to defeat the Soviet units, encircle Moscow and victoriously end the 1941 campaign.

The fate of some Panfilovites

• Momyshuly, Bauyrzhan... After the war, the brave officer continued to serve in the Armed Forces of the USSR. In 1948 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1950 - senior lecturer at the Military Academy of Logistics and Supply of the Soviet Army. Since December 1955, Colonel Momysh-uly has been in reserve. Member of the Writers' Union of the USSR. He entered the history of military science as the author of tactical maneuvers and strategies that are still being studied in military universities. Gave lectures on combat training during a visit to Cuba in 1963 (published in Spanish-language newspapers). He met with the Minister of Defense of Cuba Raul Castro and was awarded the title of honorary commander of the 51st regiment of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. In the military educational institutions The United States, Cuba, Israel, Nicaragua are separately studying the military experience of Momyshuly. Volokolamskoe Shosse became a must-read for Palmach members, and later for Israel Defense Forces officers. Fernando Heredia wrote that “the majority of Cubans begin the study of Marxism-Leninism from the Volokolamsk Highway. Died on June 10, 1982.

Alma-Ata, park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen. A memorial stone dedicated to Grigory Shemyakin, who was born in 1906 (old style) or 1907 (new style) and actually died in 1973, but the year of death is engraved on the stone as 1941, since, according to the official version, all 28 Panfilovites died.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Daniil Alexandrovich... Liaison to political instructor Klochkov. He did not directly participate in the battle, since in the morning he was sent with a report to Dubosekovo, where he was captured. On the evening of November 16, he escaped from captivity to the forest. For some time he was in the occupied territory, after which he was discovered by the horsemen of General L. M. Dovator, who were in a raid on the German rear. After Dovator's compound left the raid, he was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he had not participated in the battle, and was sent back to Dovator's division. By this time, a submission had already been drawn up for conferring the title of Hero on him, but after an investigation his name was changed to Askar Kozhabergenov. He died in 1976.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Askar (Aliaskar)... Arrived at Panfilov's division in January 1942 (thus, he could not participate in the battle at Dubosekov). In the same month, he died during a raid by the Panfilov division on the German rear. He was included in the presentation for the assignment of the title of Hero instead of Daniil Alexandrovich Kozhabergenov, after it turned out that the latter remained alive. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

• Vasiliev, Illarion Romanovich... In the battle on November 16, he was seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital (according to various versions, he was either evacuated from the battlefield, or after the battle was picked up local residents and sent to the hospital, or crawled for three days and was picked up by Dovator's horsemen). After recovering, he was sent to the active army, to the rear division. In 1943 he was demobilized from the army for health reasons. After the publication of the Decree on awarding him the title of Hero (posthumously), he announced his participation in the battle. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received a Hero's Star. He died in 1969 in Kemerovo.

• Natarov, Ivan Moiseevich... According to Krivitsky's articles, he participated in the battle at Dubosekov, was seriously wounded, taken to the hospital and, dying, told Krivitsky about the feat of Panfilov's men. According to the political report of the military commissar of the 1075th rifle regiment Mukhamedyarov, stored in the TsAMO funds, he died two days before the battle - on November 14. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

• Timofeev, Dmitry Fomich... During the battle he was wounded and taken prisoner. In captivity, he managed to survive, after the end of the war he returned to his homeland. He applied for a Hero's star, after the appropriate verification received it without much publicity shortly before his death in 1950.

• Shemyakin, Grigory Melentyevich... During the battle he was wounded and ended up in the hospital (there is information that he was picked up by the soldiers of the Dovator's division). After the publication of the Decree on awarding him the title of Hero (posthumously), he announced his participation in the battle. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received a Hero's Star. He died in 1973 in Almaty.

• Shadrin, Ivan Demidovich... After the battle on November 16, he was captured in an unconscious state, according to his own statement. Until 1945 he was in a concentration camp, after his release he spent 2 more years in a Soviet filtration camp for former prisoners of war. In 1947, he returned home to the Altai Territory, where no one was waiting for him - he was considered dead, and his wife lived in his house with a new husband. For two years he was interrupted by odd jobs, until in 1949 the secretary of the district committee, who learned his story, wrote about him to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received a Hero's Star. He died in 1985.

Memory

see also

Notes (edit)

1. M. M. Kozlov. The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1985 .-- P. 526.
2. Help-report "About 28 Panfilov's men". State Archives of the Russian Federation. F.R - 8131 sc. Op. 37.D. 4041. LL. 310-320. Published in the magazine "New World", 1997, No. 6, p.148
3. "Adjusted for the myth" POISK - the newspaper of the Russian scientific community
4. Ponomarev Anton... The Panfilov heroes, who in 1941 stopped the Germans on the outskirts of Moscow, are remembered in Russia, First channel(November 16, 2011). Retrieved November 16, 2012.
5. Gorokhovsky A. The famous feat of twenty-eight Panfilov's men at the Dubosekovo junction was invented by the Krasnaya Zvezda journalists and the party leadership of the Red Army // Facts: newspaper. - 11/17/2000.
6. In particular, the loss of 10 tanks on November 6, 1941 in the battles near Mtsensk made a strong negative impression on the command of the 4th Panzer Division and was especially noted in Guderian's memoirs - Kolomiets M... 1st Guards Tank Brigade in the battles for Moscow // Front illustration. - No. 4. - 2007.
7. "Red Army soldier Natarov, being wounded, continued the battle and fought and fired from his rifle until his last breath and died heroically in the battle." Political report of A. L. Mukhamedyarov dated November 14, 1941. Posted by: Zhuk Yu. A... Unknown pages of the battle for Moscow. Moscow battle. Facts and myths. - M .: AST, 2008.
8. Shamelessly ridiculed feat // Soviet Russia. - 1.9.2011.
9. Marshal Dmitry Yazov: “28 Panfilov heroes - an invention? Who then stopped the Germans? " // TVNZ. - 15.9.2011.
10. Cardin B... Legends and facts. Years later // Voprosy literatury. - No. 6, 2000.
11. Transcript of the program "The Price of Victory" 10/16/2006. Radio "Echo of Moscow". Author - Martynov Andrey Viktorovich, historian, Ph.D. (Retrieved November 16, 2012)
12. Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in the "boilers". - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 .-- S. 327.
13. Fedoseev S. Infantry against tanks // Around the world: magazine. - April 2005. - No. 4 (2775).
14. Shirokorad A. B.... God of War of the Third Reich. - M .: 2003. - S. 38-39.
15. Someone else's glory // Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal. - 1990. - No. 8, 9.
16. See material in the program "Searchers" on March 19, 2008 [ clarify]
17. During the investigation on the issue of rehabilitation, Dobrobabin stated: “I really served in the police, I understand that I have committed a crime before the Motherland”; confirmed that in fear of punishment he voluntarily left the village of Perekop with the retreating Germans. He also argued that he “had no real opportunity to go over to the side of the Soviet troops or go to partisan detachment», Which was considered inappropriate to the circumstances of the case.

75 years ago, on November 16, 1941, near Volokolamsk, in the area of ​​the crossing between Dubosekovo and the village of Nelidovo, a battle took place between the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment of the 316th rifle division under the command of General Panfilov and a column of German tanks trying to break through to Moscow. As a result of the battle, the tanks were stopped and the Germans decided to break through in other directions. This is what is an immutable fact.

Everything else is apocryphal. Even now, with all the development of means of tracking and surveillance, the military cannot say for sure how much and what exactly they destroyed. What can we say about the autumn of 1941. Practically nothing is known: neither how many people died on either side, nor how many tanks were destroyed, nor even how many and what kind of weapons the Panfilovites who opposed the tanks had. There are estimates. But there are no exact numbers.

Of the evaluations, two deserve attention.

The first is a story that is included in the official mythology of the war, invented by the literary secretary of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Krivitsky. 28 soldiers of the 4th company destroyed 18 enemy tanks and all were killed.

The second estimate is the testimony of the commander of the 1075 regiment, Kaprov. The 4th company was fully staffed (120-140 people - even here there is no exact figure!). 20-25 people survived after the battle. In total, on that day, the entire 1,075 rifle regiment destroyed 15 or 16 enemy tanks.

And what do we see when comparing these estimates? We see their unconditional correlation.

In November 1947, the prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison arrested the former policeman Ivan Dobrobabin. According to the certificate-report of the chief military prosecutor Afanasyev, a book about 28 Panfilov heroes was found during the search at Dobrobabin's. And in this book, Dobrobabin was written - one of these fallen Panfilov heroes. The hero of the USSR.

Surprised by such a wonderful resurrection with rebirth, the prosecutor's office decided to conduct a check, as a result of which it turned out that, in addition to Dobrobabin, 4 more dead heroes remained alive. Moreover, one of them got into Panfilov's division only in January 1942. And, on the contrary, one of the 28 heroes who died allegedly on November 16, died on November 14. In general, everything is invented by Krivitsky, sums up the military prosecutor Afanasyev. Then he notices that there are monuments to the 28 Panfilov heroes, parks, streets, schools and collective farms are named after them. And no matter how bad it turned out.

And on the basis of this document, the champions of historical truth now argue: nothing happened. There was no battle at the Dubosekovo junction. There was no stopped tank breakthrough. There were no Panfilov heroes.

But they were. The fact that not all of these specific 28 people took part in that battle is a fact. The fact that they were not the ones who stopped those tanks is a particular thing. The fact that the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, perhaps, was not awarded to other heroes of this battle is also a particularity. Unpleasant, but particular.

However, all these particulars do not negate the main thing - 28 Panfilov heroes existed. And they accomplished their feat - they did not allow German tanks to reach the Volokolamsk highway. There were more than 28 of them, but there were definitely 28 among them. Even with any other names.

And the grandiose monument in the field near the village of Nelidovo stands there for no reason.

When the champions of the historical truth cite the words of the regiment commander Kaprov as their final argument: "There was no battle of 28 Panfilov's men with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is sheer fiction," for some reason they never cite what he said further: "On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, the 4th company fought with German tanks as part of the 2nd battalion, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company, and not 28, as they wrote in the newspapers." That's all. The whole myth is only in the list of surnames. Well, and, perhaps, in the words of the anthem of Moscow: "And in centuries twenty-eight of your bravest sons will live." Since there were no sons of Moscow in the division of General Panfilov, it was formed in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

And the fact that the literary secretary Krivitsky did not know how to work with texture is not a problem of the Panfilov heroes. This is the problem of Krivitsky himself. That's why he was a literary secretary, not an investigative journalist. Although it must be admitted that the legend invented and disseminated by him about the confrontation of 28 heroes and 50 German tanks had a rather large impact on the morale of the Red Army. For one phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind" he should have written out a prize. True, not for journalism, but for PR.

After all, a legend is a legend that it cannot be undone by any historical facts... Legend over facts. She's more facts.

Of course, it is necessary to argue about what exactly and how happened 75 years ago, on November 16, 1941, at the junction of Dubosekovo and the village of Nelidovo. It is necessary to find out the details, compare them, clarify the numbers and circumstances. But it is completely pointless to fight the legend at the same time. Moreover, the legend, in general, does not contradict any established facts, except for the list of names.
The Gospels also tell the same story in quite different ways. But because of this we will not assert that there was neither Christ nor the apostles.

“How can we determine what sustained us in those immeasurably difficult days? We were ordinary Soviet people. We loved our homeland. Every inch of land given to the enemy seemed like a cut off piece of its own body. "

From the memoirs of Z.S. Shekhtman, the former commander of the 1077th regiment of the 8th Guards Rifle named after I.V. Panfilov division

The 316th Rifle Division under the command of General Panfilov was the force that had to keep the enemy out of the Volokolamsk direction. The last echelon of fighters from the Kresttsy and Borovichi area arrived at the Volokolamsk station on October 11, 1941. There was no prepared defense, just as there were no other troops.

The division took up defenses on the 41st kilometer front from Ruza to Lotoshino and immediately began to create nodes of resistance in the likely directions of the enemy's strike. Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov was sure that the enemy would bet on tanks as the main striking force. But ... “A brave and skillful person is not afraid of a tank,” said Panfilov.

“We will not surrender to the enemy of Moscow,” Ivan Panfilov wrote to his wife Maria Ivanovna, “we are destroying the bastard in thousands, hundreds of his tanks. The division is fighting well ... ”From October 20 to October 27 alone, the 316th rifle division knocked out and burned 80 tanks, and destroyed more than nine thousand enemy soldiers and officers.

The exhausting battles did not stop, by the end of October the front of the division was already 20 kilometers - from the Dubosekovo junction to settlement Teryaevo. Pulling up new forces, replacing the defeated divisions with new ones and concentrating more than 350 tanks against Panfilov's division, by mid-November the enemy was ready for a general offensive. “We will have breakfast in Volokolamsk, and we will have dinner in Moscow,” the Nazis counted.

On the right flank, the 1077th regiment of the rifle division held the defense, in the center were two battalions of the 1073rd regiment of Major Yelin, on the left flank, in the most important section Dubosekovo - Nelidovo, seven kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk, was the 1075th regiment of Colonel Ilya Vasilyevich Kaprov. It was against him that the main forces of the enemy were concentrated, trying to break through to the Volokolamsk highway and to the railway.

On November 16, 1941, the enemy's offensive began. The battle, which was fired at night near Dubosekovo by a group of tank destroyers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment, led by political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov, entered all history textbooks. For four hours, Panfilov's men held back enemy tanks and infantry. They repulsed several enemy attacks and destroyed 18 tanks. Most of the legendary warriors who performed this unparalleled feat, including Vasily Klochkov, died a heroic death that night. The rest (D.F. Timofeev, G.M. Shemyakin, I.D.Shadrin, D.A. Kozhubergenov and I.R. Vasiliev) were seriously wounded. The battle of Dubosekovo went down in history as a feat of 28 Panfilov's men, all of its participants in 1942 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Soviet command ...

The Panfilovites became a terrible curse for the Nazis, legends circulated about the strength and courage of the heroes. On November 17, 1941, the 316th Rifle Division was renamed the 8th Guards Rifle Division and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Hundreds of guardsmen were awarded orders and medals.

On November 19, the division lost its commander ... It fought for 36 days under the command of General I.V. Panfilov 316th Rifle Division, defending the capital in the main direction. Even during his lifetime, the soldiers of the division in fierce battles destroyed over 30 thousand fascist soldiers and officers and more than 150 tanks.

Not having achieved decisive successes in the Volokolamsk direction, the main enemy forces turned to Solnechnogorsk, where they intended to break through first to Leningradskoe, then to Dmitrovskoe highway and enter Moscow from the north-west.

In 1967, in the village of Nelidovo, located one and a half kilometers from the Dubosekovo junction, the Museum of Panfilov's heroes was opened. In 1975, a memorial granite ensemble "Podvig 28" was erected on the site of the battle (sculptors N.S. Lyubimov, A.G. Postol, V.A.Fyodorov, architects V.E.Datyuk, Yu.G. Krivushchenko, I. Stepanov, engineer S.P. Khadzhibaronov), consisting of six monumental figures personifying warriors of six nationalities who fought in the ranks of 28 Panfilovites.