The legendary battle at the Dubosekovo junction took place exactly 75 years ago. The weather then, in November 1941, was the same as it is now - in November 2016: a convincing minus was fixed by snowfall and drifting snow. The German was clearly in a hurry to take the Soviet capital in the calendar autumn and especially ironed the Volokolamsk bridgehead with bombing.

The regiments that the German command was going to march to Red Square landed 100 kilometers from Moscow. The 316th motorized rifle division stood across the brave columns of the Wehrmacht, dragged out the fighting for four long days; as a result, she forced the enemy to transfer troops to another direction, and gave her own the opportunity to regroup forces for the effective defense of Moscow.

Volokolamsk. Moscow region / Alexander Zhuravlev

Tactics, as is known, justified itself, and even the most frenzied critic does not undertake to dispute these well-known facts. And the point here is not at all the success of Soviet propaganda. The battle for Moscow firmly settled both in the fields of those, and in archival funds, and in our memory from the Soviet school, where they taught - for which the division was given the name of its divisional commander.

Anniversaries are always another reason to throw up, pat, troll. And when a big anniversary, promoted, ideologically fragile - even more so. "The Feat of Twenty-Eight" is a constant field of irreconcilable "trench" battles in the landscape of social networks, where the line of contact has scarred the entire length of the Internet. Say that you believe in 28 Panfilovites, and I will immediately tell you who you are. And I'll label it.

One or two documents to kindle "Facebook justice". Yes, and the matter is small - to sow doubts. Trolling is not a problem these days - anyone, any way. The reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites" by the chief military prosecutor of the USSR Afanasyev became a turning point for the entire Panfilov story. The battle near Moscow was openly called a Soviet fake.

“The materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky. This fiction was repeated in the works of writers N. Tikhonov, V. Stavsky, A. Bek, N. Kuznetsov, V. Lipko, M. Svetlov and others, and was widely popularized among the population of the Soviet Union, "concludes the chief military prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces Nikolai Afanasyev in his investigation.

The counterargument was the date of the investigation of the feat by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. Skeptics immediately picked up: since they dug so deeply, and made conclusions so boldly, it means that there was an order from above. "The legend of 28 Panfilov's men" was openly popularized by Zhukov, but after the war the marshal fell into disgrace, and a publicly debunked feat could seriously spoil the commander's blood.

Monument to the Panfilov Heroes at the Dubosekovo junction / Alexander Zhuravlev

However, the hasty and "inconsistent conclusions" of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office were noticed in time "where necessary": Afanasiev's prosecutor's certificate was shoved under the carpet, and the version of the "false feat" was hushed up. And they even asked themselves the question: who benefits from all this - to deny the feat near Moscow? Krivitsky only confirmed in the 1970s that such a "order", typical of the Stalinist regime, directly demanded from him a recognition that "28 Panfilovites are the fruit of his author's imagination."

“I was told that if I refuse to testify that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that I didn’t talk to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilov before the publication of the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In the circumstances, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction, ”recalls the literary secretary of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Alexander Krivitsky.

But go and call 28 Panfilov's a myth - and opponents will immediately peck and hang shameful tags. A sharp line, where an adequate discussion is easily turned off, the society roughly cuts into two irreconcilable parts. Draining another document - and shreds flew through the back streets. While some are attacking, others are defending themselves, pulling up reserves in order to get a decent "response". Just have time for the fan, you know what to throw ...

"Those who are now trying to denigrate the feat of the soldiers of the 8th Guards Division themselves admit that during the defense of Moscow, such and such a sector of the front was defended by a division formed in Almaty - the 8th Guards Rifle Division. The critics themselves admit this. Everything else is insinuations "The clearest example of our heritage is that during the war years, all peoples united and, despite any hardships, stood up as a united front to defend their Fatherland. And now they want to knock it out from us and plant other positions that are alien to us," said the chairman of the Almaty City Committee of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War Kupesbai Zhanpeisov.

The story of that battle was hyped to the point of legend by the editors of Krasnaya Zvezda, the masters of the Soviet military editorial. Front-line correspondent Koroteev found a front-line report about the battle of Dubosekovo and, with the note "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed," sent it to his boss, the editor-in-chief of Krasnaya Zvezda, Ortenberg. So, from a real front-line feat, the Soviet media worker began to scrupulously “cut down” the motif of pop songs.

“On arrival in Moscow, I reported the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I replied that there were about 30 people and that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... Thus, the number of those who fought appeared - 28 people. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and decided to write about only one traitor in the front line, ”from the testimony of the Krasnaya Zvezda front-line correspondent Vasily Koroteev to the Chief Military Prosecutor.

For a report from the scene, Ortenberg sent his subordinate, the literary secretary Krivitsky. The feat was supposed to hook the reader with heroic details. And Krivitsky sincerely believed that he did not play the game, directing certain moments. Country in the conditions of war and offensive of Nazi Germany. For the editor-in-chief of the "Red Star" the issue of propaganda was not in principle. Later, during interrogation, he directly admits that he imposed the number "28" on Krivitsky, as well as the format of the editorial: the testament of the fallen heroes.

"Krivitsky said: it is necessary that there be 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the entire regiment and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion fought with German tanks, and really fought heroically, but about I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... More than 100 people died from the company, and not 28, as they wrote in the newspapers, "- from the testimony of the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, Ilya Kaprov, to the Chief Military Prosecutor.

The place of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction / Alexander Zhuravlev

The Kaprov regiment, according to the materials of his interrogation, stated that he first heard about 28 Panfilovites only at the end of the 41st. There was never any documentation of that legendary battle in the division. And no one from the command officially confirmed anything to the correspondent Krivitsky, he entered the names himself, from memory. In the division, they generally learned about their heroes when award sheets came from the Center for 28 especially distinguished ones. Such a reporter's flight on the version of an accidental editorial error does not stretch in any way.

Krivitsky at the battle site near Dubosekovo does not find any participants in the feat or eyewitnesses and is limited to a survey of the local population, but they sat out at home, in basements and also heard the history of the Panfilovites only from words. And when the "Red Star" publishes that story, the real feat is finally hidden behind the screen of legend and doomed to eternal doubts. In his final version, the literary secretary Krivitsky writes about 29 Panfilovites: 28 heroes and 1 traitor.

Quote from the newspaper "Red Banner" / illustration site

During interrogations, Krivitsky himself called the legend of 28 Panfilovites "literary conjecture". The document of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office was declassified only in 2015, and it was he who provoked a new fuss - a new reason to dispel the "myth 28". I had a little doubt - and immediately got caught ... As soon as you begin to deny a dry, it would seem, figure, you immediately cast a shadow over the entire battle near Moscow. And nothing else.

The laws of propaganda have not changed much since the Soviet era, it's just that now there is a choice - whose position to take. And the choice is tough. Yes or no. Either on that, western side of the Dubosekovo junction, or on this one. And look - make no mistake. Remember, and more than once. And - with a chevron on the avatar of either a "quilted jacket" soviet, or a convert "maydanuty". There is no third.

Rally in honor of the opening of the monument to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War in Volokolamsk / Alexander Zhuravlev

• “There, not 28 fighters fought against tanks, the 4th company died there. They all died, but they didn’t let the Germans through. 28 guardsmen, 100 Panfilov guardsmen is a matter of a different plan. to allow a revision of the common history so as not to repeat the tragic mistakes that were made in the pre-war years," said Bulat Sultanov, professor at the Kazakh-German University.
• “Indeed, the outcome of the war was decided - now we can talk about it - by Siberians and Kazakhstanis, Kazakhs. Of course, somewhere in the park, the names could be written inaccurately, someone after the battle could be captured, there could be inaccuracies, but no one has the right to dispute,” insists the scientific secretary of the National Congress of Historians Ziyabek Kabuldinov.
• “They begin to say that the Soviet people and the Soviet Army fought under the guns of the NKVD. Each new generation comes and tries to revise it. We do not learn to respect history as it is, regardless of political or ideological predilections, or modern fashion, which is dictated from where- sometimes financed," Maharram Maharramov, a deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is convinced.

Those on this, eastern side, honestly admit: it is high time to publicly apologize to the entire 4th company. Not 28 died fighting off German tanks, but a good hundred. These are two-thirds of the real heroes of the battle of Moscow, whose names are not even "googled". We must apologize and repent if necessary, but the legend of 28 is no longer touched. It’s not our business to rethink the exploits of grandfathers.

“In an unequal battle with fascist tanks at the Dubosekovo junction, the fourth company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment of the Panfilov division met. There were 130 of them. As the regiment commander Kaprov later recalled, only 20-25 people remained alive,” says the head museum complex "Volokolamsk Kremlin" Galina Odina.

• “The current generation of Kazakhstanis and Russians should carefully preserve the memory of how the Soviet people fought for their freedom and how many victims they laid on the single altar of Victory. The surrender of the Soviet capital could postpone the day of victory over the fascist yoke for a long time. at the opening of the monument to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, Vice-President of JSC Aluminum of Kazakhstan (ERG) Begziya Iskakova.
• “It seems to me that everyone who was not afraid to face the enemy, who in November-December 1941 fought to the death for his country was a hero. And in the trenches, it seems to me, people did not divide each other by nationality, religion, origin. And as long as we remember this, everything will be in order: in every region, house, family," Nurzhan Omarov, assistant to the military attache of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation, said at a rally in Volokolamsk.
• “In the hearts of the young, their generation is entrusted with the task of keeping this feat and this memory. You can’t give anyone a chance to try to refute it once again, and maybe again and again, in a few years, I don’t know, but these attempts will continue,” - Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region of the Russian Federation Elmira Khaymurzina addressed the audience in the Victory Park of Volokolamsk.

Unexploded grenade of the 41st year / Alexander Zhuravlev

A small journalistic mistake that provoked big political consequences is not frankly drawn by history. If the legend 28 was only strengthened by the stars of the heroes, then they definitely would not have given the name of the division general for a fictitious feat in those days. The country that defeated fascism had enough real feats even without semi-mythical stories. Why fence extra gardens.

“In the entire history of the Soviet Army, only two divisions were named after their commanders: the 25th Chapaev division and the 8th Guards Panfilov division. No other division was named after its commander,” said the guide of the museum of Panfilov heroes in the village of Nelidovo Larisa Musician.

Who really benefits from debunking a legend to a myth? Is it possible that the country has so many feats promoted far beyond the borders, or at least human deeds, about which no less Borat fakes have been heard? Is there anything else you can be truly proud of? Why deny something you can't change - your own history? And why don't such facts, including facts, become the very bond that we have been unsuccessfully looking for for 25 years?

The emergence of the official version

The history of the emergence of the official version of events is set out in the materials of the investigation of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. The feat of the heroes was first reported by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper 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 "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed."

Over fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guards from the division. Panfilov… Only one out of twenty-nine was cowardly… only one raised his hands up… several guardsmen 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 guards destroyed 18 enemy tanks and "lay down their lives - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy through ... "The editorial was written by the literary secretary of the Red Star A. Yu. Krivitsky. The names of the guardsmen 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, give the following arguments and assumptions:

Investigation materials

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

When Dobrobabin was arrested, a book about 28 Panfilov heroes was found, 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 interrogation of Dobrobabin, it was established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed slightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes is not true. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a thorough investigation into the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Armed Forces of the country, Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev, to the USSR Prosecutor General G.N. Safonov on May 10, 1948. On the basis of this report, on June 11, a certificate signed by Safonov was drawn up, addressed to A. A. Zhdanov.

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

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

... There was no battle between 28 Panfilov's men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company, and not 28, as they wrote about it in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov's men, and I could not speak, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I do not know on the basis of what materials they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the Red Star, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was assigned to the formation, the correspondent of the "Red Star" Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Yegorov. Here I first heard about 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary to have 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the whole regiment, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, fought with German tanks, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... Captain Gundilovich gave names to Krivitsky from memory, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about my last name. Subsequently, after lengthy clarifications of surnames, only in April 1942 from the headquarters of the division were 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 compiling the list and award lists for 28 guards - I do not know.

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

Around November 23-24, 1941, together with the military correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When we left the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and reported that our people are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Egorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks advanced on the line of the company, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them. Yegorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regimental commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks ... Yegorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously read the political report received from the regiment ...

The political report spoke of the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company stood "to the death" - it died, but did not retreat, and only two people turned out to be traitors, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our fighters. 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 from conversations with the regiment commander either. 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 the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him 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 didn’t know that a front line on this topic was being prepared, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since out of 30 two turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided to write about only one traitor in the front line.

The interrogated secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky testified:

During a conversation in PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow,” I answered him that I invented it myself ...

... In terms of sensations and actions, 28 heroes are my literary conjecture. I did not talk 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 of awarding me the title of guardsman. I was only in the division three or four times.

The conclusion of the investigation of the prosecutor's office:

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

Official version support

Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov defended the official version, relying, in particular, on the study of the historian G.A. Kumanev "Feat and Forgery". In September 2011, the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya published an article Shamelessly ridiculed feat, which included a letter from the marshal criticizing Mironenko. The same letter, with slight cuts, was also published by Komsomolskaya Pravda:

... It turned out that not all "twenty-eight" were dead. What of it? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded, shell-shocked, against all odds, survived the battle on November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that an enemy tank column was stopped at the Dubosekovo junction, rushing towards Moscow? Doesn't refute. Yes, indeed, it later became known that not all 28 heroes died in that battle. So, G. M. Shemyakin and I. R. Vasiliev were seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital. D. F. Timofeev and I. D. Shadrin were taken prisoner by the wounded and experienced all the horrors of fascist captivity. The fate of D. A. Kuzhebergenov and I. E. Dobrobabin, who also survived, but for various reasons excluded from the list of Heroes and have not yet been restored in this capacity, was not easy, although their participation in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, in principle, does not cause no doubt, which was convincingly proved in his study by the doctor of historical sciences G. A. Kumanev, who personally met with them. ... By the way, the fate of these "resurrected 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, Andrey Alexandrovich Zhdanov ... immediately determined that all the materials of the "investigation of the case of 28 Panfilovites", set out in the letter of the Chief Military Prosecutor, were prepared too clumsily, the conclusions, as they say, were "sewn with white threads." ... As a result, the "case" was not given further progress, and it was sent to the archive ...

D. Yazov cited the words of the correspondent of Krasnaya Zvezda A. Yu. Krivitsky, who was accused of the fact that the feat of 28 Panfilov's men was the fruit of his author's imagination. Recalling the course of the investigation, A. Yu. Krivitsky said:

I was told that if I refuse to testify that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that I did not talk to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilov before the publication of the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such an environment, 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 (testimonies given during the investigation of the Panfilov case):

... In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120-140 people. My command post was behind the Dubosekovo junction, 1.5 km from the position of the 4th company (2nd battalion). I don’t remember now whether there were anti-tank rifles in the 4th company, but I repeat that in the entire 2nd battalion there were only 4 anti-tank rifles ... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the sector of the 2nd battalion. How many tanks went (directly) to the sector of the 4th company, I don’t know, or rather, I can’t determine ...

With the resources 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 hours, 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 to the location of the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the booth, so that I accidentally managed to get out of the dugout: the embankment of the railway saved me, people who survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by the company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The rest of the companies suffered less.

According to 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 losses of the regiment, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 people killed, 600 people missing, 100 people wounded.

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

The battle of the Panfilov division near our village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo junction took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, hid in shelters ... The Germans entered the area of ​​\u200b\u200bour village and the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by units of the Soviet Army 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 funerals.

... In the early days of 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 carried three more corpses to the mass grave, including the corpse of political instructor Klochkov, who was identified by the soldiers. So in the mass grave of the Panfilov heroes, which is located on the outskirts of our village of Nelidovo, 6 fighters of the Soviet Army are buried. No more corpses were found on the territory of the Nelidovsky village 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:

No operational documents and documents through political bodies specifically mentioning the heroic feat that actually took place and the death of 28 Panfilov’s men in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction were found at all ... Only one document confirms the death of the political instructor of the 4th company Klochkov (mentioned among the 28th mi). Therefore, it can be clearly assumed that the first reports about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men on November 16, 1941 were made by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, in which Koroteev’s essay, the newspaper’s editorial and Krivitsky’s essay “On 28 Fallen Heroes” were published. These reports, apparently, served as the basis for the presentation of 28 people to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Battle reenactment

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

The fate of some Panfilov

• 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. He lectured 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 of the USA, Cuba, Israel, Nicaragua, the military experience of Momyshuly is studied separately. "Volokolamsk Highway" became a required reading book for members of the Palmach, and later for officers of the Israel Defense Forces. Fernando Heredia wrote that "most Cubans begin their study of Marxism-Leninism from Volokolamsk Highway." He 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 (according to the old style) or in 1907 (according to the 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 Panfilov died.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Daniil Alexandrovich. Liaison officer 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 the release of the Dovator connection from the raid, he was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he had not participated in the battle, and was sent back to the Dovator 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. Died in 1976.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Askar (Aliaskar). He arrived in 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. Included in the submission for the title of Hero instead of Daniil Aleksandrovich Kozhabergenov, after it turned out that the latter was still alive. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

• 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 picked up by local residents after the battle and sent to the hospital, or crawled for three days and was picked up by Dovator's horsemen). After recovery, he was sent to the active army, to the rear unit. 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 the star of the Hero. He died in 1969 in Kemerovo.

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

• 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. Claimed to receive the star of the Hero, after appropriate verification, he received it without much publicity shortly before his death in 1950.

• Shemyakin, Grigory Melentievich. During the battle, he was wounded and ended up in the hospital (there is information that he was picked up by soldiers of the Dovator 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 the star of the Hero. He died in 1973 in Alma-Ata.

• 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 another 2 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 her 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 the star of the Hero. Died in 1985.

Memory

see also

Notes

1. M. M. Kozlov. The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985. - S. 526.
2. Reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites". State archive of the Russian Federation. F.R - 8131 ch. Op. 37. D. 4041. Ll. 310-320. Published in the journal "New World", 1997, No. 6, p.148
3. "Adjusted for the myth" POISK - newspaper of the Russian scientific community
4. Ponomarev Anton. Heroes Panfilov, 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. Gorohovsky A. The famous feat of twenty-eight Panfilov's men at the Dubosekovo junction was invented by the journalists of the Red Star and the party leadership of the Red Army // Data: 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. "The Red Army soldier Natarov, being wounded, continued the battle and fought and fired from his rifle to the last breath and heroically died in battle." Political report of A. L. Mukhamedyarov dated November 14, 1941. Published: 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 - fiction? And who then stopped the Germans? // TVNZ. - 15.9.2011.
10. Cardin V. Legends and facts. Years later // Questions of Literature. - No. 6, 2000.
11. Transcript of the program "The Price of Victory" 10/16/2006. Radio "Echo of Moscow". Author - Andrey Viktorovich Martynov, historian, Ph.D. (Retrieved November 16, 2012)
12. Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in the "cauldrons". - 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. Alien Glory // Military History Journal. - 1990. - No. 8, 9.
16. See material in the program "Searchers" from March 19, 2008 [ clarify]
17. Dobrobabin, during the investigation on the issue of rehabilitation, stated: “I really served in the police, I understand that I committed a crime against the Motherland”; confirmed that, in fear of punishment, he voluntarily left the village of Perekop with the retreating Germans. He also claimed that he "did not have any real opportunity to go over to the side of the Soviet troops or join a partisan detachment", which was considered inappropriate to the circumstances of the case.

07:57 02.08.2017

All of us, citizens who are not indifferent to the past, present and future of Russia, know about the feat of the Panfilov heroes, who in 1941 stood to their death at the walls of Moscow. On November 15-16, the Nazis launched two strike groups, created in the first half of November 1941, on the offensive, trying to bypass Moscow from the north through Klin - Solnechnogorsk and from the south through Tula - Kashira.

© Photo: Anna Sergeeva/ ZUMAPRESS.com/ Globallookpress/ Russian Ministry of Defense/ Vladimir Pesnya/ RIA Novosti

All of us, citizens who are not indifferent to the past, present and future of Russia, know about the feat of the Panfilov heroes, who in 1941 stood to their death at the walls of Moscow. On November 15-16, the Nazis launched two strike groups, created in the first half of November 1941, on the offensive, trying to bypass Moscow from the north through Klin - Solnechnogorsk and from the south through Tula - Kashira. In particular, the Germans planned to go to Moscow along the Volokolamsk highway, but at the Dubosekovo junction, 28 fighters from the 316th Infantry Division, Major General I.V. Panfilov, fought with a company of German infantry, and then with German tanks. The battle lasted over four hours. A handful of Soviet soldiers stood in the way of German tanks and, at the cost of their lives, did not let the Germans through to the Volokolamsk highway. Almost everyone died. The feat of 28 Panfilov’s men went down in history, as they thought then, forever, and the words of the company’s political instructor V. G. Klochkov: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind!” - all the defenders of Moscow knew. The commander of the 316th Infantry Division, Major General Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov, laid down his bright head near Moscow on November 18, 1941. In the journal Novy Mir, the denial of the feat of the Panfilovites began in 1997: under the authorship of Nikolai Petrov and Olga Edelman, an article “New about Soviet heroes” was published. heroes. In their opinion, the correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper V. I. Koroteev did not understand the events, the editor-in-chief D. Ortenberg also did not understand, the correspondent A. Yu. Krivitsky also did not understand, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR also did not understand and undeservedly awarded Panfilov heroes. It seems that it was not the indicated persons who did not understand the events, but the persons who question the fact of the feat, since they have absolutely no idea of ​​the USSR in the harsh wartime, the degree of responsibility for the work performed by each citizen of the country. It is naive to believe that an article in a newspaper was enough to be nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But Westerners, until recently, had no reason to question the fact of the feat of the Panfilovites. And suddenly for them, like manna from heaven, a certificate appears, which the prosecutor's office allegedly addressed to Zhdanov. Very opportunely, the director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironenko extracted this certificate from the dark hiding places. As in that saying, the Westerners did not have a penny and suddenly an altyn appeared. All persons who seek to turn the real feat of the Panfilovites into a myth, and the myth invented by the persons advancing on the feat, turn into real events, have one thing in common: they all refer to the certificate - Afanasyev's report. It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that their texts do not contain the sources themselves, to which the authors refer. The last reception of the Westerners was pointed out by the remarkable historian, researcher A.V. Great Patriotic War by an English citizen V. B. Rezun, who is published in Russia under the pseudonym Viktor Suvorov. At one time, this Suvorov filled up the shelves of Russian stores with “historical” books about the war (apparently, he has very rich sponsors), and in each book there are links , links to open Soviet sources, texts from these books. But if you see fit, take your time, and find the books that the author refers to, you will find that in many cases their texts do not correspond at all to the texts given by him in his books. I'm not talking about the possibilities of today's technology, capable of creating any document with a signature, seal and date. With the beginning of perestroika, dozens of these “documents” suddenly began to be found, and Westerners began to wave them like flags of irrefutable evidence of the truth. The whistleblowers contradict themselves. For example, they write that “as a result, already on July 21, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Council signed a corresponding decree” on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 Panfilovites. With the word "already" they tend to emphasize the haste in rewarding the heroes. In fact, the word “already” in the text is inappropriate, since the Panfilov’s feat was accomplished on November 16, 1941, and the decree on rewarding was issued eight months after the feat, which indicates that there was enough time to verify the accuracy of the information provided. In articles devoted to the feat of heroes -Panfilovites during the Great Patriotic War, many write that already in 1948 a large-scale investigation was carried out to establish whether the feat of 28 Panfilovites really took place. But not a single article asked why the prosecutor's office, which in 1947 dealt with the case of Dobrobabin, began to deal with another matter, namely, to assess whether the feat of 28 Panfilov's men took place or not. Who authorized the prosecutor's office to investigate the issue of the feat of 28 Panfilovites? A large-scale investigation was allegedly carried out by investigators from the Kharkov military prosecutor's office, who allegedly came to the conclusion that everything stated in the articles describing the feat of the Panfilovites near Moscow is a falsification. Only now, the authors of the articles, to one degree or another denying the feat of 28 Panfilov's men, did not show the conclusion of the prosecutor's office to any of the readers and did not even cite a single verbatim excerpt from the case file. This suggests that they did not familiarize themselves with the materials of the prosecutor's office, but completely trusted S. Mironenko's comments. Not only official, but also any justified exposure is not visible in the information provided. It is suspicious that the documents that cast doubt on the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men were discovered during the Khrushchev thaw and Gorbachev’s perestroika, that is, during mass falsifications and forgeries. In fact, as Doctor of Historical Sciences, Minister of Culture V.R. Prosecutor's Office (GVP) dated May 10, 1948 showed: “There was a battle near Dubosekovo. It was led by the 4th company of the 1075th rifle regiment. But S. Mironenko does not notice this conclusion of the prosecutor’s office, but stubbornly imposes on the public the opinion that there was no battle at Dubosekovo. His attitude to the feat in the articles of Sergei Mironenko’s associates is expressed unequivocally as an insult to the memory of real heroes who did not spare their lives for the sake of achieving the Great Victory. But none of the real heroes are named. It turns out that the real heroes are those who do not have a name, whom the country does not know. Replacing real heroes with virtual ones means depriving the nation of its heroes. Our enemies understand this and constantly reproach us for glorifying individual heroes and forgetting about thousands of others. Another source tells us: “In July 2015, the State Archive published on its official website a scanned copy of the certificate-report of the Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR Nikolai Afanasyev about "the so-called feat of 28 Panfilov"". In a report prepared in May 1948, it was reported that the story of the feat of 28 fighters of the division under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov, who at the cost of their lives stopped German tanks in the battle near Moscow on November 19, 1941, was actually invented by a newspaper employee " Red Star. Was there such a certificate? Most likely, not a feat, but a certificate was invented. It is hard to believe that I. V. Stalin in 1947-1948 could allow such a desecration of the memory of heroes. It is possible that this reference-report by Afanasyev appeared decades later, since no one knew or wrote anything about it for more than half a century. If archives with tens of thousands of documents burned down in Moscow and St. Petersburg and no one was held responsible for this, then hardly anyone will be afraid of responsibility for a fake certificate. Vladimir Tikhomirov, trying to explain Stalin's position, wrote the following: “Of course, this episode itself about the falsification of the feat during the battle of Moscow (under the leadership of Zhukov) did not mean anything, but this case was the very brick with which the Chekists built the execution wall for the Marshal of Victory ... However, Afanasyev's report was not useful. Apparently, the leader of the peoples decided to forgive the marshal, or he was simply frightened by the increased power of the MGB. As a result, Zhukov got off with a strict party reprimand. K. Zhukov got off not with a reprimand, but with a link away from Moscow to a position that was far from being a marshal. With this decision, I. V. Stalin saved G. K. Zhukov from trial for the illegal export of material values ​​from Germany, and did not build a firing line, as the author writes. It must be understood that Stalin constantly supported and promoted G.K. Zhukov. It was G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Konev that Stalin instructed in 1945 to lead the fronts that took Berlin. In a few short paragraphs, the author managed to denigrate both the MGB and Dobrobabin. And the author is unaware that on November 16, 1941, Dobrobabin fought like a hero. One must not love Russia to write like that. What is worth one phrase of the author: "Heroes were not enough then." And he writes this about a time when there were so many heroes that there were not enough correspondents to describe the exploits of our soldiers and officers. At that time, even cowards became heroes. The author also managed to slander I.V. Stalin, under whose leadership the USSR during the war years produced twice as many weapons as Germany, together with Europe that worked for it, and won not only the Battle of Moscow, but also throughout the war, defeating the armies of Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland. The author guesses that the reader will not understand why Stalin allowed some military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison to make a statement about the falsification of the feat of the Panfilov heroes. In an effort to explain this paradox, the author actually declared the conclusions of the Kharkov prosecutor's office about the feat of 28 Panfilovites untrue, since the author himself indicates that the prosecutor's office made its statement to fight Zhukov. And how the author begins the article! They broke into the apartment, hit in the teeth. Fiction, fiction, detective story, like the whole article. And on the basis of such articles, the feat of our soldiers is called into question! It is alarming that the copies of the documents were not only published, but also commented on by the director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Sergei Mironenko, endowed with full power. Then S. Mironenko stated that in reality there were no 28 Panfilovites, and their feat was an invention of Soviet propaganda. Elena Panfilova, the granddaughter of the commander of the 316th Infantry Division Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, answers the following question about the feat of the Panfilovites: “I don’t understand who this topic needs to be brought up again. Not so long ago, my mother, Maya Ivanovna, passed away. She was the daughter of Ivan Vasilievich, from childhood she knew that her father was a hero, he died on November 18, 1941, along with his soldiers. And suddenly it turns out - "it was not like that, the feat was invented." Let such statements be on the conscience of those who make them. Even the Germans recognized, were amazed and bowed before the heroism of the soldiers of the Panfilov division and called this division wild and fearless. Do they doubt their own? We recently visited Volokolamsk for commemorative events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow. We were received very warmly there. There were many young people. None of them asked if there was a feat. They know: there was.” Boris Sokolov, a cameraman during the Great Patriotic War, explains: “Panfilov, of course, there were not 28. But much more - hundreds, a division! The journalist of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, where the article about the feat first appeared, decided to voice this particular figure and these names. As I understand it, the commander of the unit, in turn, voiced them to him - whom he, the commander, was able to remember literally on the run. Later it turned out that three of those who were listed as dead after that battle at Dubosekovo actually remained alive. But to double-check information under exploding shells, to take detailed interviews with eyewitnesses at the table, as you understand, was unrealistic. I’m telling you as a documentary filmmaker: it was on this front line that Panfilov’s division soldiers stopped the German tanks. ”The second granddaughter, Aigul, to the question of Sergei Prudnikov about her attitude to the fact that the feat of the Panfilovites had become a topic of heated discussion in society, replied:“ This is a sore subject. In general, all these "whistleblowers" are masters who, without having fought, without sniffing gunpowder, without knowing anything in practice, undertake to argue what is right and what is wrong. My mother, for example, always wanted to meet the historian Volkogonov, who in the late 1980s suddenly began to assert that the Soviet Union was not preparing for war. She was indignant: why didn’t I prepare if I graduated from the courses of sanitary troopers, had the badge "Voroshilovsky shooter"? We prepared, we knew what would happen! In 1994, on the eve of the New Year, we in Alma-Ata in the newspaper "Karavan" published a huge article - "28 Panfilov: a true story or fiction?" A certain journalist Rakip Nasyrov went to Dubosekovo, walked around, looked and decided, he simply decided that this battle could not have happened at all, General Panfilov is a non-professional and the general's epaulettes should be torn off him! When this article came out, my first thought was - just don't show my mom. What is it, the veterans have already cut off the phone! And, frankly, this publication stole several years of life from my mother ... ". The third granddaughter of I.V. Panfilov, Aula, said:" I never thought that we would have to protect our comrades and parents who had already died. Ildar Sharipov wrote: “What is written about this feat in Wikipedia can be considered a vile substitution. The author of an article by a respected, in general, source reports that the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers on the Volokolamsk highway is a fiction of a writer and military correspondent. Not true! There is a substitution of meanings, concepts, whose deep roots grow from two perestroikas - Khrushchev's and Gorbachev's. It's no secret that the main goal in a war is victory. Everything that helps to bring it closer and achieve it is strengthened and multiplied. Everything that interferes is discarded in one way or another. The time for analysis comes after the war and after the victory. So it was in the case of the Panfilovites. Three years after the victory, a prosecutor's check was carried out, the results of which leave no doubt: near Dubosekovo, where that battle took place, more than a hundred brave soldiers from different parts of the USSR died a heroic death. Most of the Panfilovites died, but the Nazis were not allowed to enter Moscow ... On November 24, 2016, the screening of the domestic film "28 Panfilovites" starts. It is noteworthy that the funds for its creation came, including from ordinary Russians - more than 30 million (30 million 762 thousand 62 rubles - L.M.) rubles were collected using the Internet, which is almost a record in our country. ”Money sent 35086 people. “It was a real miracle,” Andrey Shalopa said at the Panfilov's show for journalists. Such trust of thousands of people was incredibly touching, but at the same time we felt an unprecedented responsibility.” While people were sending money to shoot the film, the head of the State Archives, Sergei Mironenko, published on the agency's website and commented on Afanasyev's report. But people listened not to Mironenko, but to those who died in battle, their grandfathers and fathers who died and were alive, who managed to convey the truth to their children and grandchildren. In 2015, the Moscow group of Panfilov veterans asked to bring to justice the director of the Russian State Archives, Sergei Mironenko, and the head of the Federal Archival Agency Andrey Artizov for their discussion in the press about the feat of 28 Panfilov's men. One can understand these people who miraculously survived the battles, defended Moscow and the country, but in their old age they were denounced by the above persons. Mironenko was removed from office. Apparently, there were reasons. Professor Andrei Klimov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, during his lecture, when asked if 28 Panfilov heroes existed at all, answered: “Today I will try to prove that this is not a myth. The fighting of the Panfilovites became a symbol of fearlessness and unshakable will to win, the indestructible military brotherhood of representatives of the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union. And he proved it. Doctor of Historical Sciences Minister of Culture V.R. Medinsky said that 28 Panfilov’s men are like 300 Spartans. And Ivan Proshkin, assessing the feat of the Panfilovites, correctly noted: “The feat of the Panfilovites: the future of Russia belongs to the heroes of the past.” The armies of Germany and its allies in June 1941 were twice the size of the Red Army, but thanks to the courage of Soviet soldiers and officers, the presence in the Red Army of the best artillery in the world, self-loading automatic rifles, machine guns and other small arms, the receipt of new, superior to German, medium tanks T-34 and heavy KV tanks, aircraft, the presence in the army of a huge number of obsolete weapons, but capable of incapacitating enemy infantry and equipment, the Red Army withstood the first blow and onslaught of the enemy. Despite the fact that the Nazis could not take Leningrad and abandon the liberated divisions near Moscow, the position of our troops near Moscow remained critical. According to all theoretical calculations, the USSR should have lost this war. The United States predicted that we would hold out for several months, England - several weeks, and for Germany, August was the deadline for capturing Moscow, and October - the territory of the USSR to the Urals along the Moscow - Astrakhan line. All these forecasts and plans were justified. The USA and England knew well the strength of the troops of Germany and its allies, and the Germans meticulously calculated everything. The capture of Moscow could well have taken place, and this meant one thing for the peoples of the USSR - death. Hitler repeatedly declared that he was waging a war of extermination in the east. Our Soviet people were not exterminated thanks to the feat accomplished by our people, our army, 28 Panfilovites. And all this talk that in 1812 the troops left Moscow, but Russia won the war with Europe, does not take into account a number of factors. At that time, Moscow was not the capital of the Russian Empire, the defense of the country did not depend on the work of its industry, the possibilities of Napoleon's army to seize the territory of Russia after the capture of Moscow were limited due to the lack of military equipment of the twentieth century. Whether or not to be Russia depended on the results of the Moscow battle , live or not live Russian and other peoples of the USSR. On one of the most difficult directions near Moscow in the Volokolamsk region, the 316th Rifle Division of Major General Panfilov fought in a defense zone about 40 kilometers long. The division was attacked by three tank and one rifle divisions of the Wehrmacht. Considering that one rifle division of the Wehrmacht was twice as large as one rifle division of the Red Army, then we can say that three tank and two German rifle divisions attacked Panfilov's division.I. V. Panfilov found a solution that dramatically improves the ability to fight tanks. The organization of the defense of the 316th Infantry Division is still being studied by the military of many countries. Panfilov prepared his division well, including in terms of fighting enemy tanks. He explained that a tank is the same tractor, but with a cannon, and taught to destroy tanks, not to be afraid of them. Given that most of the army fighters were called up from villages and villages (all skilled workers were booked and produced weapons), such an explanation was clear to them. On November 16, 1941, the most terrible blow fell on the Panfilovites, who were holding the defense at the Dubosekovo junction. The defense was held by the soldiers of the 4th company of the 1075th regiment under the command of political instructor Vasily Klochkov. They were attacked by 50 tanks and infantry. The battle lasted over four hours. Despite huge losses, the Germans continued to attack the positions of the Panfilovites. Most of the Panfilovites, of course, understood that, given the existing balance of forces, they were not destined to stay alive, but Russians, Kazakhs, and fighters of other nationalities fought to the death in Russian. Commander Vasily Klochkov , like the soldiers, he understood that he would die, but he could not even allow the thought of leaving positions, of allowing a breakthrough of enemy troops. That is why he said: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat. Behind Moscow! These words of a man going to his death for his Motherland, for all those who lived in our country at that time, for us who live today, expressed the thoughts and feelings of all the fighters who fought near Moscow. These were the words of the entire Soviet people, who stood in the way of the enemy with an irresistible force. Political instructor Klochkov died, being seriously wounded, throwing himself with a bunch of grenades under a German tank and blowing it up with him. As they say now, not all died, but 22 out of 28 Panfilov soldiers who fought nearby under the command of Klochkov. The Germans did not break through to the Volokolamsk highway. Eighteen tanks and hundreds of his soldiers were left by the enemy on the battlefield. But S. Mironenko and his associates poked papers of dubious origin in our faces and shouted that there was no feat of 28 Panfilov soldiers and Klochkov did not utter the above words. But even in these papers, put on public display by Mironenko, it is written that there was a battle near Dubosekovo on November 16, 1941. In addition to these papers, there are other archival documents confirming the untruthfulness of Mironenko's words. For example, information from the political report of the head of the political department of the 316th rifle division, battalion commissar Galushko, to the head of the political department of the 16th army, regimental commissar Maslenov. The village of Gusenevo, November 17, 1941: “... in the morning of 11/16/1941, at 08:00, the enemy launched an offensive on the left flank of our defense in the area of ​​​​1075 SP. The enemy attacked in the amount of 50-60 heavy and medium tanks and a rather large the number of infantry and machine gunners. 1075 SP suffered heavy losses, two companies were completely lost, data on losses are being specified, we will report in the next report. 1075 SP fought to the last opportunity, the command of the regiment left the command post only when enemy tanks appeared at the command post. "This whole team of ill-wishers often lies in an effort to cover up the heroic past of our people with black paint, deprive the nation of dignity, form a new Russian, shy past of his Motherland and feeling his own inferiority. For example, Vladimir Tikhomirov writes: “For a long time Afanasyev's secret report haunted historians. For the first time, these documents were unearthed by the front-line soldier and publicist Emil Kardin, who published the article "Legends and Facts" in the journal "New World" in 1966. The article received a sharp rebuke from General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev himself, who called Cardin a slanderer. Nevertheless, rumors about the report periodically surfaced in various publications of “samizdat”. The “whistleblowers” ​​are not telling the truth. In the article "Legends and Facts", published in 1966 in the journal "New World", there is not a word about Afanasiev's secret report. E. Cardin in "Legends and Facts" glorifies his own and criticizes not his own historians and publicists, in particular, A. Krivitsky. He writes: “Years have passed since then, and it turned out: several of the twenty-eight Panfilovites are alive! A. Krivitsky also mentions this in the book "I will not forget forever." He names the names of Shemyakin, Vasiliev, Shadrin, reports that they sent him their photographs. But he does not make any changes to the description of the battle, he does not give any new details. Whether he saw them or not, whether he finally tried to find out from the direct participants how this unprecedented duel went, nothing is known. , which is referred to by "whistleblower". They understand that their arguments are impure, and with false statements that in 1966 E. Cardin wrote about the prosecutor's statements of 1947 and the reports of 1948, denying the feat of the Panfilovites, they are trying to mislead our society. They are trying to say with an untrue statement that already in 1966 there were memorandums, copies of which were presented by Sergei Mironenko. But such information is not confirmed in the article "Legends and Facts", which is pointed out by "whistleblowers". There is no mention of reports denying the feat of the Panfilov heroes, neither in 1966, nor in 1976, nor even in 1986, nor in all of these decades. In a copy of the memorandum of the alleged Prosecutor General of the USSR G. N. Safonov, there is no signature of Safonov, which causes doubt about the authenticity of the document. Also, the position of Safonov is not indicated, which could not have been in the document sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to Comrade Zhdanov. The type of document is also not indicated, that is, a memorandum, order, presentation, decision, etc. There are no patronymic initials, as in the West, there are no date, day, month and year of sending the document. In the upper left corner is someone's signature and printed: 17/V, but the year is not indicated. In the upper right corner is written: "July 11, 48" (moreover, the number 4 is written in pencil, and the number 8 is typed). Further in the same corner it is written: No. 145 LSS. The letter "L" is usually placed when registering orders for personnel, but this is not an order. In the same corner is written in pencil: owls. secret ... - and then the entry was made according to a different text. Is it possible to trust a document without a signature, position and date with a number of other comments? But this so-called document formed the basis for denying the feat of the Panfilov heroes. In the copy of the second reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites" (one must come up with such a name!) The chief military prosecutor of the country, N.P. Afanasyev, does not contain the person to whom the report is addressed. It can only be judged from the comments of S. Mironenko's associates that the report was intended for the USSR Prosecutor G. N. Safonov. In the certificate, too, as is customary in the West, there are no patronymic initials. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. A. Kumanev, who defended the truth about the Panfilov heroes, did not accidentally name his article “Feat and forgery”, and Marshal of the Soviet Union D. T. Yazov agreed with him. Every citizen of Russia must understand that the alleged signature of the Chief Prosecutor of the USSR N. P. Afanasyev, standing under the so-called certificate-report, cannot be taken as a weighty argument for denying the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men on November 16, 1941 in the battle of Moscow. Sergey Mironenko, who published a copy of the certificate - the report of the chief military prosecutor of the country N. P. Afanasyev and the memorandum without the signature of the Prosecutor General of the USSR G. N. Safonov, claims that he was guided by the desire for truth, but the factual material points to other goals. At the beginning of his speech, he refers to German sources, and at the end he states the following: "This is the vile essence of the Soviet state, for which real heroes mean nothing." What undisguised hatred for the Panfilov heroes, whom he declares to be fictional heroes, but does not name a single real hero of the Moscow battle! The West and its servants inside Russia are trying to deprive us of their heroes, to convince us that among, for example, 28 Panfilov heroes star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, there were no heroes. The Westerners began to debunk the heroes even during perestroika and, as it seems to them, they have now debunked all the heroes and great people of Russia. It would seem that there should be no doubt that 28 Panfilov’s men fought heroically near Moscow and almost all died. Two, as it turned out later, were captured, four more remained alive. So why is there so much noise? The order of forces unfriendly to Russia is clearly visible, mockery of those who are pure and holy for the people, and of all of us who love Russia, are proud of its history and culture, its labor and feats of arms. Author: Leonid Maslovsky The opinion expressed in the publication of Leonid Maslovsky is his personal position and may not coincide with the opinion of the editors of the website of the Zvezda TV channel.

The emergence of the official version

The history of the emergence of the official version of events is set out in the materials of the investigation of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. The feat of the heroes was first reported by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper 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 "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed."

Over fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guards from the division. Panfilov… Only one out of twenty-nine was cowardly… only one raised his hands up… several guardsmen 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 guards destroyed 18 enemy tanks and "lay down their lives - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy through ... "The editorial was written by the literary secretary of the Red Star A. Yu. Krivitsky. The names of the guardsmen 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, give the following arguments and assumptions:

Investigation materials

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

When Dobrobabin was arrested, a book about 28 Panfilov heroes was found, 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 interrogation of Dobrobabin, it was established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed slightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes is not true. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a thorough investigation into the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Armed Forces of the country, Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev, to the USSR Prosecutor General G.N. Safonov on May 10, 1948. On the basis of this report, on June 11, a certificate signed by Safonov was drawn up, addressed to A. A. Zhdanov.

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

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

... There was no battle between 28 Panfilov's men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company, and not 28, as they wrote about it in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov's men, and I could not speak, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I do not know on the basis of what materials they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the Red Star, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was assigned to the formation, the correspondent of the "Red Star" Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Yegorov. Here I first heard about 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary to have 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the whole regiment, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, fought with German tanks, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... Captain Gundilovich gave names to Krivitsky from memory, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about my last name. Subsequently, after lengthy clarifications of surnames, only in April 1942 from the headquarters of the division were 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 compiling the list and award lists for 28 guards - I do not know.

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

Around November 23-24, 1941, together with the military correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When we left the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and reported that our people are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Egorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks advanced on the line of the company, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them. Yegorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regimental commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks ... Yegorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously read the political report received from the regiment ...

The political report spoke of the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company stood "to the death" - it died, but did not retreat, and only two people turned out to be traitors, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our fighters. 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 from conversations with the regiment commander either. 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 the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him 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 didn’t know that a front line on this topic was being prepared, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since out of 30 two turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided to write about only one traitor in the front line.

The interrogated secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky testified:

During a conversation in PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow,” I answered him that I invented it myself ...

... In terms of sensations and actions, 28 heroes are my literary conjecture. I did not talk 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 of awarding me the title of guardsman. I was only in the division three or four times.

The conclusion of the investigation of the prosecutor's office:

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

Official version support

Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov defended the official version, relying, in particular, on the study of the historian G.A. Kumanev "Feat and Forgery". In September 2011, the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya published an article Shamelessly ridiculed feat, which included a letter from the marshal criticizing Mironenko. The same letter, with slight cuts, was also published by Komsomolskaya Pravda:

... It turned out that not all "twenty-eight" were dead. What of it? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded, shell-shocked, against all odds, survived the battle on November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that an enemy tank column was stopped at the Dubosekovo junction, rushing towards Moscow? Doesn't refute. Yes, indeed, it later became known that not all 28 heroes died in that battle. So, G. M. Shemyakin and I. R. Vasiliev were seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital. D. F. Timofeev and I. D. Shadrin were taken prisoner by the wounded and experienced all the horrors of fascist captivity. The fate of D. A. Kuzhebergenov and I. E. Dobrobabin, who also survived, but for various reasons excluded from the list of Heroes and have not yet been restored in this capacity, was not easy, although their participation in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, in principle, does not cause no doubt, which was convincingly proved in his study by the doctor of historical sciences G. A. Kumanev, who personally met with them. ... By the way, the fate of these "resurrected 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, Andrey Alexandrovich Zhdanov ... immediately determined that all the materials of the "investigation of the case of 28 Panfilovites", set out in the letter of the Chief Military Prosecutor, were prepared too clumsily, the conclusions, as they say, were "sewn with white threads." ... As a result, the "case" was not given further progress, and it was sent to the archive ...

D. Yazov cited the words of the correspondent of Krasnaya Zvezda A. Yu. Krivitsky, who was accused of the fact that the feat of 28 Panfilov's men was the fruit of his author's imagination. Recalling the course of the investigation, A. Yu. Krivitsky said:

I was told that if I refuse to testify that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that I did not talk to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilov before the publication of the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such an environment, 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 (testimonies given during the investigation of the Panfilov case):

... In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120-140 people. My command post was behind the Dubosekovo junction, 1.5 km from the position of the 4th company (2nd battalion). I don’t remember now whether there were anti-tank rifles in the 4th company, but I repeat that in the entire 2nd battalion there were only 4 anti-tank rifles ... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the sector of the 2nd battalion. How many tanks went (directly) to the sector of the 4th company, I don’t know, or rather, I can’t determine ...

With the resources 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 hours, 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 to the location of the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the booth, so that I accidentally managed to get out of the dugout: the embankment of the railway saved me, people who survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by the company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The rest of the companies suffered less.

According to 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 losses of the regiment, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 people killed, 600 people missing, 100 people wounded.

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

The battle of the Panfilov division near our village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo junction took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, hid in shelters ... The Germans entered the area of ​​\u200b\u200bour village and the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by units of the Soviet Army 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 funerals.

... In the early days of 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 carried three more corpses to the mass grave, including the corpse of political instructor Klochkov, who was identified by the soldiers. So in the mass grave of the Panfilov heroes, which is located on the outskirts of our village of Nelidovo, 6 fighters of the Soviet Army are buried. No more corpses were found on the territory of the Nelidovsky village 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:

No operational documents and documents through political bodies specifically mentioning the heroic feat that actually took place and the death of 28 Panfilov’s men in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction were found at all ... Only one document confirms the death of the political instructor of the 4th company Klochkov (mentioned among the 28th mi). Therefore, it can be clearly assumed that the first reports about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men on November 16, 1941 were made by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, in which Koroteev’s essay, the newspaper’s editorial and Krivitsky’s essay “On 28 Fallen Heroes” were published. These reports, apparently, served as the basis for the presentation of 28 people to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Battle reenactment

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

The fate of some Panfilov

• 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. He lectured 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 of the USA, Cuba, Israel, Nicaragua, the military experience of Momyshuly is studied separately. "Volokolamsk Highway" became a required reading book for members of the Palmach, and later for officers of the Israel Defense Forces. Fernando Heredia wrote that "most Cubans begin their study of Marxism-Leninism from Volokolamsk Highway." He 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 (according to the old style) or in 1907 (according to the 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 Panfilov died.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Daniil Alexandrovich. Liaison officer 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 the release of the Dovator connection from the raid, he was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he had not participated in the battle, and was sent back to the Dovator 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. Died in 1976.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Askar (Aliaskar). He arrived in 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. Included in the submission for the title of Hero instead of Daniil Aleksandrovich Kozhabergenov, after it turned out that the latter was still alive. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

• 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 picked up by local residents after the battle and sent to the hospital, or crawled for three days and was picked up by Dovator's horsemen). After recovery, he was sent to the active army, to the rear unit. 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 the star of the Hero. He died in 1969 in Kemerovo.

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

• 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. Claimed to receive the star of the Hero, after appropriate verification, he received it without much publicity shortly before his death in 1950.

• Shemyakin, Grigory Melentievich. During the battle, he was wounded and ended up in the hospital (there is information that he was picked up by soldiers of the Dovator 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 the star of the Hero. He died in 1973 in Alma-Ata.

• 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 another 2 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 her 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 the star of the Hero. Died in 1985.

Memory

see also

Notes

1. M. M. Kozlov. The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985. - S. 526.
2. Reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites". State archive of the Russian Federation. F.R - 8131 ch. Op. 37. D. 4041. Ll. 310-320. Published in the journal "New World", 1997, No. 6, p.148
3. "Adjusted for the myth" POISK - newspaper of the Russian scientific community
4. Ponomarev Anton. Heroes Panfilov, 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. Gorohovsky A. The famous feat of twenty-eight Panfilov's men at the Dubosekovo junction was invented by the journalists of the Red Star and the party leadership of the Red Army // Data: 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. "The Red Army soldier Natarov, being wounded, continued the battle and fought and fired from his rifle to the last breath and heroically died in battle." Political report of A. L. Mukhamedyarov dated November 14, 1941. Published: 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 - fiction? And who then stopped the Germans? // TVNZ. - 15.9.2011.
10. Cardin V. Legends and facts. Years later // Questions of Literature. - No. 6, 2000.
11. Transcript of the program "The Price of Victory" 10/16/2006. Radio "Echo of Moscow". Author - Andrey Viktorovich Martynov, historian, Ph.D. (Retrieved November 16, 2012)
12. Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in the "cauldrons". - 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. Alien Glory // Military History Journal. - 1990. - No. 8, 9.
16. See material in the program "Searchers" from March 19, 2008 [ clarify]
17. Dobrobabin, during the investigation on the issue of rehabilitation, stated: “I really served in the police, I understand that I committed a crime against the Motherland”; confirmed that, in fear of punishment, he voluntarily left the village of Perekop with the retreating Germans. He also claimed that he "did not have any real opportunity to go over to the side of the Soviet troops or join a partisan detachment", which was considered inappropriate to the circumstances of the case.

Panfilov’s men are soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division (from November 18, 1941 - the 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 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 showed unparalleled heroism and stamina, occupying defenses 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction.

Panfilov's men in a 4-hour battle destroyed 18 enemy tanks and almost all of them were killed, including Klochkov, but did not let the German tanks through. 28 Panfilovites 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 28" was erected on the site of the battle.

28 Panfilovites (alternative versions of the feat)

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

How many Panfilov's were there?

An investigation conducted after the war by the MGB and the military prosecutor's office showed that in the legendary battle at the Dubosekovo junction, not 28 "Panfilofian guardsmen" took part, but a company in full force 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.

The error crept into the first newspaper reports about the feat of the Panfilovites, because the journalists, according to 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 Nazis, the editor-in-chief of the Red Star, David Ortenberg, subtracted two traitors from 30 and got the number 28, which became canonical. However, in the essay, he allowed to write only about one traitor, whom the Red Army soldiers allegedly shot right there. Two traitors, and even 30 people, would be a lot and would not allow talking about an insignificant renegade.

Combat mentions

There is no mention of a battle with such details in either 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 Lieutenant Rokossovsky. There are no reports about him in German sources either (and after all, the loss of 18 tanks in one battle at the end of 1941 was a notable event for the Nazis).

The legendary feat fiction of journalists?

The version that there was no battle, as such, was publicly voiced by many historians. Sergei Mironenko, who then headed the state archive, officially declared that the whole story about the feat of the Panfilovites is just a myth. Based on the declassified archives, some of the historians came to the conclusion that the legendary feat was a fiction of the Krasnaya Zvezda journalist Alexander Krivitsky (the newspaper's literary secretary), who was the first to tell about the battle. Once on the front line, he tried to write an essay about the events. Everything about the battle was recorded from the words of the current division commissar, who spoke in great detail about the battle. The battle was fought by the 4th company, which consisted of soldiers in the amount of more than 120 people, and not 28 heroes, as was later stated in the printed publication. Many facts are distorted.

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

Krivitsky and Koroteev, the authors of the material published in Krasnaya Zvezda, during the check stated that they were based only on the oral stories of fellow soldiers of the dead and their colleagues, war correspondents, but they were not familiar with anyone who could know for sure the details of the battle. The military prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that the story in the form in which it was published in Krasnaya Zvezda was an artistic fiction of journalists. But there really was a fight.

Sudden arrest

1948 - in the Kharkov region. arrested during the war captured by the Germans, a former soldier Dobrobabin. During his arrest, a book was found with him describing the feat of the Panfilovites and, in particular, his name was also indicated as one of the dead participants in the battle. The Chief 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 dead in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction actually survived, and the described clash given by journalists has no direct documentary evidence - and the very fact of the battle is in doubt did not set.

Not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. "Resurrected" Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin. Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive. All of them were wounded in the battle near Dubosekovo, Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev passed through German captivity.

From the testimony of the regiment commander Kaprov

All 28 Panfilov heroes served in the regiment of Ilya Karpov. During interrogation in the prosecutor's office in 1948, Kaprov (commander of the 1075th rifle regiment) testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov’s men and fascist tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. That day, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and in fact fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company and not 28, as it is 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 say, because there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I do not know, based on what materials they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the Red Star, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilov.

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

The battle at Dubosekovo was

According to the testimonies of local residents, on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo junction, in fact, there was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of the surrounding villages.

No one questions the fact 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 that allowed the Germans to defeat near Moscow.

According to the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, on November 16, 1941, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 fighters at the Dubosekovo junction did not destroy 18 tanks and did not all die.

conclusions

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