28 Panfilovites where the battle took place in 1941. Not too strong enemy stubbornly defends
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Do you know who Panfilov's men are? What feat did they accomplish? We will answer these and other questions in the article. Servicemen of the 316th Rifle Division, which was formed in the cities of Frunze of the Kyrgyz USSR and Alma-Ata of the Kazakh USSR, and subsequently became known as the 8th Guards Division, are called Panfilovites. They participated in 1941 in the defense of Moscow under the leadership of Major General I.V. Panfilov, who had previously served as commissar of the army of the Kirghiz SSR.
Version
What are Panfilov's men famous for? Their feat is known to many. The 1075th rifle regiment (4th company, 2nd battalion) served 28 people who received the greatest fame. It was they who began to be called the "Panfilov heroes". In the USSR, a version of the event that happened in 1941, on November 16, was widely circulated. It was on this day that the Germans began to attack Moscow again, and the soldiers of the 4th company performed a feat. They carried out defense seven kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk (Dubosekovo junction area) under the leadership of political instructor Vasily Klochkov. During the battle, which lasted four hours, the soldiers were able to destroy 18 Nazi tanks.
In Soviet historiography, it is written that all 28 people called heroes died (later they began to indicate "practically all").
According to the correspondents of the "Krasnaya Zvezda" political instructor Klochkov, before his death, uttered the phrase: "Great is Mother Russia, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" She was included in Soviet university and school history textbooks.
Consensus
Did Panfilov's men really accomplish the feat? In 1948 and 1988, the uniform version of the act was studied by the USSR Chief Army Prosecutor's Office and recognized as an artistic invention. The open publication of these documents by Sergei Mironenko caused an impressive public response.
At the same time, the historical fact is the heavy fortification battles of the 316th rifle division against the 35th infantry and the 2nd tank divisions, which took place in 1941, on November 16, in the Volokolamsk direction. In fact, the entire personnel of the 1075th regiment took part in the battle. Writer's variants of the battle usually do not indicate that the real heroes of the battle had to fight not only with tanks, but also with the numerous infantry of the enemy.
Major General Panfilov commanded a typical military formation during the battles on the Moscow course. His division was poorly trained, motley, hastily created to plug the holes that had appeared in the Soviet defense. The defending Red Army did not have a sufficient number of serious anti-tank weapons. That is why stubborn resistance to the blow of powerful iron machines is a feat and also Sergey Mironenko is not questioned.
Despite the debate, the scientific consensus is that the true facts of the battles were recorded by war correspondents in a distorted form. Further, on the basis of these articles, books that were far from the actual historical facts were prepared.
Memories
So what are Panfilov's men famous for? The feat of these people is priceless. Captain Gundilovich Pavel named the names of 28 missing and killed soldiers, whom he was able to recall from the results of the battle, to journalist Alexander Krivitsky (some believe that Krivitsky himself found these names in the lists of missing and dead).
In Russia and other former Soviet republics, steles and other monuments have been installed, on which the names of these 28 soldiers are inscribed, and they are included in the official anthem of Moscow. However, according to the documents, some of the named persons were captured (Timofeev, Shadrin, Kozhubergenov), others died earlier (Shopokov, Natarov), or later (Bondarenko). Some were crippled in battle, but survived (Shemyakin, Vasiliev), and I. E. Dobrobabin even energetically helped the Nazis and was subsequently convicted.
Criticism
And yet, is the feat of the Panfilovites true or fiction? Sergey Mironenko believes that there was no feat, that this is one of the legends imposed by the state. Critics of the official version, as a rule, cite the following assumptions and arguments:
- It is unclear how Krivitsky and Koroteev learned the impressive number of details of the battle. Information that the information was received in the hospital from the participant in the battle, Notarov, who was mortally wounded, is doubtful. Indeed, in accordance with the documents, this person died on November 14, two days before the battle.
- Neither the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, nor the commander of the 316th formation, Major-General Panfilov, nor the commander of the 2nd battalion (in which the 4th company was located), Major Reshetnikov, nor the commander of the 16th army to Lieutenant General Rokossovsky. German sources also do not report anything about him.
- By November 16, the 4th company was 100% manned with soldiers, that is, it could not consist of only 28 fighters. I.V. Kaprov (commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment) claimed that there were about 140 souls in the company.
Inquiry facts
People decided to find out whether the feat of the Panfilovites was true or fiction. The military prosecutor's office of the garrison of the city of Kharkov in November 1947 for treason to the Motherland arrested and prosecuted I. E. Dobrobabin. Experts found out that Dobrobabin, while still fighting at the front, surrendered to the Nazis of his own free will and in the spring of 1942 went to serve them.
This man took the post of the chief of police of the village of Perekop temporarily captured by the Germans (Valkovsky district of the Kharkov region). When he was arrested, they found a book about 28 Panfilov heroes in his possession, and it turned out that he took part in this daring battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. During interrogation, it turned out that Dobrobabin at Dubosekovo was really easily wounded and captured by the Germans, but he did not perform any feats, and everything that the authors told about him in the book does not correspond to reality.
Are 28 Panfilovites fictional characters? The USSR General Military Prosecutor's Office thoroughly studied the history of the battle at the Dubosekovsky patrol. For the first time, E.V. Kardin publicly doubted the authenticity of the novel about Panfilov's men, having published the article "Facts and Legends" in the almanac "New World" (1996, February).
And in 1997, the same magazine published an article by Olga Edelman and Nikolai Petrov "New about the heroes of the USSR", which said that the official version of the feat had been studied by the USSR Chief Army Prosecutor's Office in 1948 and recognized as a literary invention.
Testimony of Krivitsky
The interrogated Krivitsky (the newspaper's secretary) testified that 28 Panfilovites were his literary fiction. He said he did not speak to any of the surviving or wounded guardsmen. Of the local residents, he communicated only with a boy of 14-15 years old, who brought him to the grave where Klochkov was buried.
From the unit, which served as 28 heroes, in 1943 he was sent a certificate of conferring the title of Guardsman. He visited the division three or four times. Krapivin asked Krivitsky where he found the famous statement of political instructor Klochkov about the impossibility of retreat. And he replied that he had composed it himself.
Output
So, the materials of the investigation revealed that the Panfilov heroes are a fiction of the editor of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Ortenberg, journalist Koroteev, and most of all Krivitsky (newspaper secretary).
In 1988, the Chief Army Prosecutor's Office of the USSR again took up the circumstances of the feat. As a result, the military chief prosecutor of justice, Lieutenant-General AF Katusev, published an article titled "Someone else's glory" in the Military Historical Journal (1990, No. 8-9). He wrote in it that the massive feat of the entire division, the entire regiment, by the negligence of dishonest correspondents, was reduced to the scale of a fabulous platoon. The director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences, has the same opinion. S. V. Mironenko.
Support
Surely the Panfilov heroes actually existed. Marshal of the Soviet Union DT Yazov defended the official version. He relied on the analysis of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. A. Kumanev "Forgery and feat". In 2011 (September) the newspaper "Soviet Russia" published an article "Shamelessly ridiculed feat", including a letter from the marshal, in which he criticized Mironenko.
The battle at Dubosekovo was studied by the writer V.O. Osipov. According to his data and the testimony of the soldiers of Panfilov's unit, it is said that the author of the famous above phrase is precisely the political instructor Klochkov, and not the correspondent Krivitsky. Klochkov's personal letters were found, which have survived to this day. In them, he wrote to his wife about his feeling of special guarantee for Moscow. Among other things, similar appeals were published in the divisional newspaper in Panfilov's addresses.
Ideological significance
Today even children know what a feat the Panfilovites performed. Researcher of the IRI RAS KS Drozdov (Candidate of Historical Sciences) believes that the battle at the Dubosekovo junction played "an extraordinary mobilizing role, becoming an example of self-sacrifice, courage and perseverance." She was set as an example for the soldiers of the Red Army by Soviet propaganda. Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T.Yazov believes that the actions of the Panfilovites became a model of perseverance for the defenders of Leningrad and Stalingrad, with their name our soldiers repelled the furious attacks of the enemy on the Kursk Bulge.
In years Great Patriotic War many heroic deeds were accomplished. People gave their own lives so that the future population of the country was happy and lived without worries. Take fights from Leningrad... The soldiers stopped the cartridges with their chest, went on the offensive to prevent the Germans from going forward. But were all the feats that we know of actually been? Let's figure out the real history of the heroes - 28 Panfilovites will help us with this.
As we used to see
We were told about a real story from school desks. 28 Panfilovites... Of course, the information given in the school is taken as an ideal. Therefore, the story, which has been familiar since adolescence, sounds like this.
In mid-November 1941, when only five months had passed since the start of the Nazi invasion, 28 people from one of the rifle regiments defended themselves near Volokolamsk from the fascist offensive. The head of the operation was Vasily Klochkov. The fight against the enemies lasted more than four hours. For all the time, the heroes were able to raze about twenty tanks, stopping the Germans for several hours. Unfortunately, no one managed to survive - everyone was killed. In the spring of 1942, the whole country was already aware of what they had done 28 heroes... An order was issued stating that the posthumous orders of Heroes of the Soviet Union were awarded to all fallen soldiers. In the summer of the same year, the titles were awarded.
The real story of the heroes - 28 Panfilovites - Secrets. No
Or did not everyone die?
Ivan Dobrobabin, after the end of the war, in 1947, was convicted of treason to the country. According to the prosecutor's office, at the beginning of 1942 he was captured by the Germans, who later remained in the service. A year later, Soviet forces still got to him, putting him behind bars. But there is a long time Ivan did not stay - he fled. His next action is clear - he again left to serve the fascists. He worked for the German police, where he arrested citizens of the Soviet Union.
After the end of the war, a forced search was made at Dobrobabin's house. The police were shocked to find a book about 28 Panfilov's men, where Ivan was listed as killed! Of course, he had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The traitor to his homeland understands that his position leaves much to be desired. Therefore, it is advisable to tell the authorities everything that actually happened. According to him, he was among these 28 people, but the Nazis did not kill him, but simply shell-shocked. Checking all the dead, the Germans found Dobrobabin alive and taken prisoner. He did not stay in the camp for long - he managed to escape. Ivan goes to the village where he was born and spent his youth. But it turned out to be occupied by the Germans. It was too late to go back, so he decides to stay in the police service.
The story of the traitor is not over yet. In 1943, the Russian army is advancing again. Ivan has no choice but to run to Odessa where his relatives lived. There, of course, no one suspected that the pious Russian soldier was working for the Nazis. When Soviet troops approached the city, Dobrobabin again found himself in the ranks of his compatriots, continuing the joint offensive. The war for him ended in Vienna.
After the war, in 1948, a military tribunal was held. Based on the decree, Ivana Dobrobabin sentenced to fifteen years in prison, confiscation of property and deprivation of all orders and medals, including one of the highest titles received posthumously. In the mid-1950s, the term of imprisonment was reduced to seven years.
His fate after prison developed in such a way that he moved to his brother, where he lived to be 83 years old and dies an ordinary death.
The newspaper doesn't lie
In 1947, it turns out that not everyone died. One not only remained alive, but also betrayed the country, being in the German service. The prosecutor's office began an investigation into the events that actually happened.
According to the documents, the newspaper “ The Red Star Was one of the first to publish a note about the heroic deeds. The correspondent was Vasily Koroteev. He decided to omit the names of the soldiers, but only said that no one was left alive.
A day later, a small article appeared in the same newspaper entitled “The Testament of the Panfilovites”. It says that all the fighters were able to stop the enemy's advance on the Soviet Union. Alexander Krivitsky was the newspaper's secretary at the time. He also signed the article.
After the signing of the material about the heroic deeds of the heroes in "Krasnaya Zvezda" there is a material in which all the names of the deceased heroes were published, where, of course, they showed off Ivan Dobrobabin.
Several survived!
If you believe the chronicle of events about the real history of 28 Panfilovites, it becomes clear that during the check on the heroes' case Ivan Dobrobabin was not the only survivor of that battle. According to sources, in addition to him, at least five more people were not killed. During the battle, they were all injured, but survived. Some of them were captured by the Nazis.
Daniil Kuzhebergenov, one of the participants in the battle, was also captured. He stayed there for only a few hours, which was quite enough for the prosecutor's office to admit that he himself surrendered to the Germans. This led to the fact that at the award ceremony his name was changed to something else. Of course, he did not receive the award. And until the end of his life he was not recognized as a participant in the battle.
The prosecutor's office studied all the materials of the case and came to the conclusion that there was no story about 28 Panfilov's men. The journalist supposedly invented it. How true this is is known only to the archive, where all the documents of that time are kept.
Commander interrogation
Ilya Karpov is the commander of the 1075th regiment, where all 28 people served. When the prosecutor's office was conducting the investigation, Karpov was also present. He said that there were no 28 heroes who stopped the Germans.
In fact, at that time the fascists were opposed by the fourth company, of which over a hundred people died. Not a single newspaper correspondent approached the regiment commander for an explanation. Of course, Karpov did not talk about any 28 soldiers, since they simply did not exist. He was completely unaware of what was the basis for writing an article for the newspaper.
In the winter of 1941, a correspondent for the newspaper “ The Red Star", From which the commander learns about some Panfilovites who defended the Motherland. The newspapermen admitted that this was exactly the number of people needed to write a note.
According to journalists
Krivitsky Alexander, who was a correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, reports that his material about 28 Panfilov's men defending the country is a complete fiction. None of the soldiers gave evidence to the journalist.
According to the prosecutor's office conducting the investigation, everyone who was in the battle was killed. Two men from the company raised their hands, which only meant that they were ready to surrender to the Germans. Our soldiers did not tolerate betrayal and themselves killed two traitors. The documents did not contain a word about the number of people who died in the battle. And the surnames, all the more, remained unknown.
When the journalist returned to the capital, he told the editor “ Red Star»About a battle where Russian soldiers took part. Later, when asked about the number of people involved, Krivitsky replied that there were about forty people, two of whom were traitors. Gradually, the number dropped to thirty people, two of whom surrendered to the Germans. Therefore, exactly 28 people are considered heroes.
Locals think that ...
According to the local population, at that time there were actually fierce battles with Nazi forces. Six people who turned out to be dead were buried in these parts. There is no doubt that Soviet soldiers really heroically defended the country.
In Russia, attempts to trample on their heroes, who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland, will never stop.
At the request of citizens
The State Archives of the Russian Federation, headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, gave a new reason for discussion about the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes.
« In connection with the numerous appeals of citizens, institutions and organizations, we are posting a certificate-report of the Chief Military Prosecutor N. Afanasyev "On 28 Panfilov's men" dated May 10, 1948 based on the results of an investigation by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, stored in the fund of the USSR Prosecutor's Office ", - said in a message on the website of the State Archives of the Russian Federation.
The publication of this reference-report is not a sensation - its existence is known to everyone who was interested in the history of the feat.
On its basis, the head of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, citizen Mironenko, himself made statements that "there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths imposed by the state."
But before talking about myth and truth, let's recall the classic story of Panfilov's heroes.
Classic version of the feat
According to her, on November 16, 1941, 28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, headed by the political instructor of the 4th company Vasily Klochkov, held the defense against the advancing Nazis in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, 7 kilometers to the south- east of Volokolamsk.
During the 4-hour battle, they destroyed 18 enemy tanks, and the advance of the Germans towards Moscow was suspended. All 28 soldiers were killed in the battle.
In April 1942, when the feat of 28 Panfilov's soldiers became widely known in the country, the command of the Western Front came out with a petition to confer the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on all 28 soldiers. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in Krivitsky's essay were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
"Resurrected" Dobrobabin managed to serve the Germans and take Vienna
The investigation, a report on the results of which was published by the GARF, began in November 1947, when the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison arrested and prosecuted Ivan 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 the chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, in the Valkovsky district of the Kharkiv region.
In March 1943, when the area was liberated from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested by the Soviet authorities as a traitor, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing his active treacherous activities, arresting Soviet citizens and direct implementation of the compulsory sending labor to Germany.
When, after the war, Dobrobabin was arrested again, during a search they found a book about 28 Panfilov heroes, in which it was written in black and white that he ... was one of the dead heroes and, accordingly, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Dobrobabin, realizing what position he was in, honestly told how it was. He really took part in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but was not killed, but received a shell shock and was taken prisoner.
Escaping from the prisoner of war camp, Dobrobabin did not make his way to his own, but went to his native village, which was under occupation, where he soon accepted the elder's offer to join the police.
But this is not all the vicissitudes of his fate. When in 1943 the Red Army went on the offensive again, Dobrobabin fled to relatives in the Odessa region, where no one knew about his work for the Germans, waited for the arrival of Soviet troops, was again called up for military service, participated in the Jassy-Chisinau operation, the capture of Budapest and Vienna, he ended the war in Austria.
By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Kiev military district on June 8, 1948, Ivan Dobrobabin was sentenced to 15 years in prison with disqualification for a period of five years, confiscation of property and deprivation of medals "For the Defense of Moscow", "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 –1945 "," For the capture of Vienna "and" For the capture of Budapest "; By the decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of February 11, 1949, he was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the 1955 amnesty, his sentence was reduced to 7 years, after which he was released.
Ivan Dobrobabin moved in with his brother, lived an ordinary life and died in December 1996 at the age of 83.
Krivitsky's list
But let's go back to 1947, when it turned out that one of the 28 Panfilov men, not only was alive, but also got dirty with the service of the Germans. The prosecutor's office was ordered to check all the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction in order to find out how everything really happened.
According to the materials of the prosecutor's office, the first description of the battle of the Panfilov guardsmen who stopped the German tanks appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in an essay by the front correspondent Vasily Koroteev. In this note, the names of the heroes were not named, but it was said that "every one was killed, but the enemy was not allowed to pass."
The next day, the Red Star published an editorial "The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes", which stated that 28 soldiers stopped the advance of 50 enemy tanks, destroying 18 of them. The note was signed by the literary secretary of the "Red Star" Alexander Krivitsky.
And finally, on January 22, 1942, signed by Alexander Krivitsky, the material "About 28 fallen heroes" appeared, which became the basis of the classic version of the feat.
There, for the first time, all 28 heroes were named by name - Vasily Georgievich Klochkov, Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin, Ivan Alekseevich Shepetkov, Abram Ivanovich Kryuchkov, Gavriil Mitin Stepanovich, Alikbai Kasaev, Grigory Alekseevich Petrenko, Dmitry Ms. Mikhailovich, Dutov Pyotr Danilovich,
Mitchenko Nikita, Shopokov Duishenkul, Konkin Grigory Efimovich, Shadrin Ivan Demidovich, Moskalenko Nikolay, Emtsov Pyotr Kuzmich, Kuzhebergenov Daniil Aleksandrovich, Timofeev Dmitry Fomich, Trofimov Nikolai Ignatievich, Bezarenko Yakov Aleksandarievich, Nikolayevich Beligon , Maximov Nikolay, Ananiev Nikolay.
Survivors of Dubosekovo
In 1947, prosecutors who checked the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, found out that not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. "Resurrected" Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin. Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive.
All of them were wounded in the battle at Dubosekovo, Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev went through German captivity.
It was especially difficult for Daniil Kuzhebergenov. He spent only a few hours in captivity, but this was enough to accuse him of voluntarily surrendering to the Germans.
As a result, in the presentation for the award, his name was replaced by a namesake, who even theoretically could not participate in that battle. And if the rest of the survivors, except Dobrobabin, were recognized as heroes, then Daniil Kuzhebergenov, until his death in 1976, remained only a partially recognized participant in the legendary battle.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors, after examining all the materials and hearing the testimony of witnesses, came to the conclusion that "the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, highlighted 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."
Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace
Testimony of the regiment commander
This conclusion is based on the interrogations of Krivitsky, Koroteev and the commander of the 1075th rifle regiment Ilya Kaprov. All 28 Panfilov heroes served in Karpov's regiment.
During interrogation in the prosecutor's office in 1948, Kaprov testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov's men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is sheer fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, the 4th company fought with German tanks as part of the 2nd battalion, and really fought heroically.
More than 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as they wrote in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period; I never spoke to anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilovites, and he could not speak, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political reports on this matter.
I do not know on the basis of what materials were written in the newspapers, in particular in the "Krasnaya Zvezda", about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division im. Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn to form, the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Krivitsky, along with representatives of the division's political department, Glushko and Yegorov, came to my regiment.
It was then that I first heard about 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary that there were 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought against German tanks. I told him that the whole regiment fought with German tanks, and in particular the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, but I do not know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ...
The names of Krivitsky were given from memory by Captain Gundilovich, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilovs in the regiment and could not have been. "
Interrogations of journalists
During the interrogation, Alexander Krivitsky testified: “During a conversation with Comrade Krapivin in the PUR, he asked where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind,” I replied that I had invented it myself ...
… In terms of sensations and actions of 28 heroes - this is my literary speculation. I did not speak to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I spoke only with a boy of 14-15 years old, who showed the grave where Klochkov was buried. "
Guard Senior Sergeant Nikolai Bogdashko. Cossacks against tanks. 45 cavalrymen repeated the feat of Panfilov's men And here is what Vasily Koroteev said: “Approximately 23-24 November 1941, together with the war correspondent of the newspaper“ Komsomolskaya Pravda ”Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th Army ...
When leaving the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division, Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and said that our people were fighting heroically in all sectors. In particular, Yegorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks attacked the line of the company, and the company detained them, destroying some of them.
Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but told from the words of the regiment commissar, who also did not take part in the battle with German tanks ... Egorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously familiarized himself with the political report received from the regiment ...
The political report said that the fifth company was fighting with enemy tanks and that the company was "to death" - it died, but did not leave, and only two people turned out to be traitors, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers.
The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this even from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Yegorov did not advise us to try to get into the regiment ...
Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported to the editor of the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg about the situation, told about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ...
I did not know that a front line was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me up again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors.
Ortenberg said that one cannot write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided to write in the front line about only one traitor. "
"I was told that I would find myself in Kolyma"
So, there was no feat of 28 Panfilov heroes, and this is literary fiction? This is the opinion of the head of GARF Mironenko and his supporters.
But don't jump to conclusions.
Firstly, the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Andrei Zhdanov, to whom the findings of the prosecutor's investigation were reported, did not make any progress. Let's say a party leader decided to "leave the question".
Alexander Krivitsky in the 1970s talked about how the investigation of the prosecutor's office went in 1947-1948:
“I was told that if I refuse to testify that the description of the battle near Dubosekovo was completely invented by me and that I had not spoken to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilovites before the article was published, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo is my literary fiction. "
Kompolka Kaprov, in his other testimony, was also not so categorical: “At 14-15 o'clock the Germans opened heavy artillery fire ... and again went to 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 tank even went out to the location of the regiment's command post and lit hay and a booth, so I accidentally I was able to get out of the dugout: I was saved by the embankment of the railway, people who had survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me.
The 4th company suffered the most: 20–25 people, led by the company commander Gundilovich, survived. The rest of the companies suffered less. "
There was a battle at Dubosekovo, the company fought heroically
The testimony of local residents testifies that on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo junction, there really was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the advancing Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of the surrounding villages.
No one doubts that the soldiers of the 4th company at the Dubosekovo junction fought heroically.
There is no doubt that the 316th Infantry Division of General Panfilov in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction in November 1941 managed to hold back the enemy's onslaught, which became the most important factor that allowed the Nazis to be defeated near Moscow.
According to the archival data of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941, destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 soldiers at the Dubosekovo junction did not destroy 18 tanks and not all of them were killed.
But there is no doubt that their perseverance and courage, their self-sacrifice made it possible to defend Moscow.
Of the 28 people included in the lists of heroes, 6 who were considered dead, wounded and shell-shocked, miraculously survived. One of them turned out to be cowardly Ivan Dobrobabin. Does this cancel the feat of the other 27?
300 Spartans - a myth propagated by the Greek state?
One of the most famous military feats in the history of mankind, which everyone has heard about, is the feat of 300 Spartans, who fell in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC against a 200,000-strong Persian army.
Not everyone knows that not only 300 Spartans fought with the Persians at Thermopylae. The total number of the Greek army, representing not only Sparta, but also other policies, according to various estimates, ranged from 5,000 to 12,000 people.
Of these, about 4000 died in the battle, and about 400 were captured. Moreover, according to Herodotus, not all of the 300 soldiers of Tsar Leonidas perished under Pheromopylae. The warrior Pantin, sent by Leonidas as a messenger and only for this reason did not appear on the battlefield, hanged himself, for in Sparta shame and contempt awaited him.
Aristodemus, who did not find himself on the battlefield only because of illness, drank the cup of shame to the end, having lived the rest of the years with the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. And this despite the fact that he heroically fought in the subsequent battles with the Persians.
Despite all these circumstances, you are unlikely to see Greek historians or the head of the Greek archive frenziedly bombarding the Greek media with materials that "300 Spartans are a myth propagated by the state."
So why, tell me, Russia does not stop trying to trample on its heroes, who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland?
Heroes remain heroes
The director of the film "28 Panfilov's men": "Nowhere to retreat" Historians agree that the feat of 28 Panfilov's heroes was of great importance, having played an exceptional mobilizing role, becoming an example of perseverance, courage and self-sacrifice. Phrase " Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!"Has become a symbol of the defenders of the Motherland for decades to come.
In the fall of 2015, the film "Panfilov's 28" directed by Andrei Shaliopa is to be released in Russia. Fundraising for the painting, which will tell the classic story of the feat of the defenders of Moscow, took place and continues by the method of crowdfunding (public funding).
Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace
The project "Panfilov's 28" raised 31 million rubles, which makes it one of the most successful crowdfunding projects in Russian cinema.
Perhaps this is the best answer to the question of what the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes is for our contemporaries.
Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind "- these words were uttered right here, not far from the village of Dubosekovo, in cold November 1941. Pronounced them just before the battle Klochkov Vasily Georgievich - political instructor of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion 1075- 1st Infantry Regiment of the 316th Infantry Division of the 16th Army of the Western Front One of 28 Panfilov heroes
On November 16, 1941, a group of tank destroyers of the 2nd platoon of the 4th company of the 1075th regiment of the 316th rifle division entered the battle with dozens of German tanks and machine gunners. The platoon commander D. Shirmatov was wounded on the eve of the battle, and he was evacuated to the rear, so the platoon commander took over
Panfilov's men competently prepared to meet the enemy: they dug five trenches in advance, reinforced them with sleepers, prepared weapons - rifles, a machine gun, anti-tank grenades, Molotov cocktails, two anti-tank rifles (ATR). They decided to fight to the death. In the morning, German submachine gunners launched an attack on the village of Krasikovo. Letting them come to a distance of 100-150 meters, the soldiers opened fire. Dozens of Nazis were killed.
Later, the second attack was repulsed, accompanied by shelling. When two tanks, accompanied by submachine gunners, moved to the position of Panfilov, the fighters managed to set one tank on fire, and there was a short lull. After another artillery barrage, at about noon, German tanks went on the attack again, with a deployed front, in waves, 15-20 tanks in a group. More than 50 tanks attacked the sector of the entire regiment, but their main blow was directed at the position of the Dobrobabin platoon. This sector was most vulnerable to a tank attack.
Panfilov's survivor
A mortal battle began with armored vehicles. The tanks had to be moved closer in order to be sure to throw anti-tank grenades and bottles with a combustible mixture. From the explosions of enemy shells, a curtain of snow, soot and earth stood in the air. The Panfilovites did not notice that our units from the right flank withdrew to other lines. One after another, the fighters were killed and wounded, but the tanks they knocked out flared up, burned.
Dobrobabin sent the seriously wounded to the dugout at the trench. 14 German tanks were knocked out and set on fire, dozens of fascists were killed, and the attack failed. However, Dobrobabin himself lost consciousness in the midst of the battle from a terrible explosion and did not know that the political instructor of the 4th company managed to get to the Panfilovites.
The battle of Dubosekovo went down in history as a feat of 28 Panfilov's men, all of its participants were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1942. The remains of the fallen Panfilov heroes in the spring of 1942 were buried with military honors in the village of Nelidovo.
In 1967, in the village of Nelidovo (1.5 km from Dubosekovo), the Museum of Panfilov's heroes was opened. The museum has exhibits associated with the names of the Panfilov heroes -
There is a mass grave in the village of Nelidovo.
In 1975, a memorial ensemble "Podvig 28" (granite, sculptors.
So let's try to look at least superficially who Panfilov's men are, what actually happened under the village of Dubosekovo.
"Panfilov" division numbered 316 was recruited from residents of Alma-Ata (now Almaty) and Frunze (now Bishkek) immediately after the beginning of the Second World War. It was formed in a month from Russians and Kazakhs, who for the most part did not even do military service, i.e. from recruits who had neither combat experience nor military training.
In connection with the beginning of the German offensive against Moscow (Operation Typhoon), the 316th division was transferred to the central direction. On October 12, 1941, the division was unloaded near Volokolamsk, where it began to prepare its defensive line within the Mozhaisk defense line. The total length of this line, from the state farm Bolychevo to the village of Lvovo, was 41 km.
The 316th division, not fired, from recruits, not having a full payroll, received a strip of 41 km. And this is in the direction of the main blow. Moreover, the length of the front of the division was 5 (!) Times higher than the standard, and for each kilometer of the front there were 5 times less soldiers and fire weapons than was considered necessary to create a sufficiently strong defense.
The lack of guns in the "Panfilov" division itself (54 guns) was covered by the attached artillery reinforcement units (another 141 guns). But this gain was greatly devalued by the lack of ammunition.
That is, on the whole, the defense, although it was very competently organized, was very "liquid", having several times less than it should be, the density of troops and fire weapons.
German troops reached the Mozhaisk line of defense by October 15. The 316th division was opposed by the German 2nd and 11th Panzer and 35th Infantry Divisions. All formations were well armed and had vast combat experience. The Germans counted on easily, on the move, to shoot down Panfilov's men from their line.
Calculation of the 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K on the outskirts of a village near Moscow, November - December 1941
On October 16, the 2nd Panzer Division unsuccessfully attacked the left flank of the "Panfilov" division - the position of the 1075th regiment. German attacks were repelled. On October 17, the blow was delivered by large forces. In the course of several attacks, the Germans managed to advance literally a kilometer, the defense of Panfilov's men held out. On October 18, the Germans further strengthened the attacking group and forced the 1075th regiment to withdraw. But the Germans were stopped by the heroic resistance of the artillery units.
Total: in three days of fierce fighting, having a huge numerical and fire superiority and relying on complete air supremacy, the Germans were able to advance only a few kilometers. The Panfilov division held out. Volokolamsk was abandoned by them only at the end of October, when the Germans broke through in other sectors and there was a threat of encirclement of the division.
What happened before Dubosekovo? The Germans, leading a swift (according to plans) offensive on Moscow, managed to advance in the Volokolamsk direction by less than two dozen kilometers in half a month of battles. And they got up, pulling up reinforcements and rear. On November 2, the front line stabilized.
Was it a feat? Yes, it was generally a miracle.
... On November 16, the next stage of the German offensive began. The 4th Panzer Group of the Wehrmacht was rushing to Moscow. Our division was attacked by three Germans. The 316th division was to be swept out of the way.
The positions of the 1075th regiment stretched from the exit from Volokolamsk to the exit from Dubosekovo. That is, for one incompletely equipped regiment there was a front larger than that laid down in defense for a full-blooded division. On the Novo-Nikolskoye (now Bolshoye Nikolskoye) - Dubosekovo sector, that is, on a 4 km front, the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment held the defenses.
Actually, at Dubosekovo-Petelino, the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment held the defense, the same one in which the legendary Klochkov was political instructor. That is, the company, which consisted of less than one and a half hundred soldiers, had more than a kilometer of front in an open field.
German tanks attack Soviet positions in the Istra region, November 25, 1941
11 TD struck at the positions of the 1075th regiment. In this case, the main blow fell on the 2nd battalion. With the indicated density of defense, with such a difference in forces, it is impossible to hold the front in an oncoming strike. But Panfilov's division held out. The 2nd battalion also held out for long, impossibly long hours. The Germans repulsed the first blow. With the second blow, the German Panzer Division crushed the battalion. But the units withdrew in battles, with terrible losses, but delaying the enemy. The 4th company has 20-25 people left. That is about one in every six. The Germans from November 16 to 20, in 5 days of fighting, managed to advance only 12 km.
Testimony of the chairman of the Nelidovsky village council Smirnova during the investigation of the Panfilov's case:
The battle of the Panfilov division near our village of Nelidovo and the patrol of Dubosekovo took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, were hiding in shelters ... The Germans entered the area of our village and the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by Soviet Army units on December 20, 1941. At that time, there were large snow drifts, which continued until February 1942, due to which we did not collect the corpses of those killed on the battlefield and did not perform burials.
It was during these battles that the division was awarded and became an example to follow. On November 17, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, on November 18, she was awarded the title of the Guards. On November 23, the division received the honorary title of Panfilov.
Were these battles heroic? Were Panfilov's men a feat?
Well, what else? What other name can you think of?
Calculation of the PTRD-41 anti-tank gun in position during the battle for Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942
Well, now about "yeah, but there weren't 28 of them, the journalist gave other details." Well, in reality, the feat never strictly coincides with newspaper descriptions in hot pursuit. Newspaper descriptions are not a report from a commission from headquarters.
Correspondent Krivitsky arrived at the front, asked the commander: "What's going on here?" The commander said: “Yesterday there was a battle, during which 28 people, 28 Panfilov's men were killed. All took a heroic death, they held the line. " After that, the article "28 Panfilovites" was published. Later it turned out that the number 28 is not accurate, someone survived.
One way or another - the number "28" is forever imprinted in our history.
And historical science is powerless here, not to mention arithmetic and statistics.
But the wrong figure 28 does not refute the feat of the Panfilovites. Colonel-General Erich Hepner, who commanded the 4th Panzer Group, whose strike forces were defeated in battles with the 8th Guards Division, calls it in his reports to the commander of the Center Group, Fedor von Bock, “a wild division fighting in violation of all regulations and the rules of warfare, whose soldiers do not surrender, are extremely fanatical and do not fear death "
"Memorial to the Heroes of Panfilov" at the Dubosekovo junction
The feat of the Panfilovites was.
The feat of individual companies was.
And we are no longer given the opportunity to learn all the details of this feat, the feat of each company. And when there is no way to find out all the facts, the legend remains.
But this legend is true, because it speaks of a real feat of real people.
Because no one invented German tanks. And in the capital of our country they were never seen - also because they were met by unthinkable Panfilovites.
Panfilov, Ivan Vasilievich(pictured on the left)
(December 20, 1892 (January 1, 1893), Petrovsk, Saratov province - November 18, 1941, near the village of Gusenevo, Moscow region) - Soviet military leader, major general, Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, posthumously).
In 1915 he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army and sent to the Russian-German front. In 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army and was a participant in the civil war, fought in the 25th Chapaevskaya rifle division. He took an active part in the fight against the Basmachi. Since 1938 - military commissar of the Kirghiz SSR.
During the Great Patriotic War - the commander of the 316th rifle division (from November 17, 1941 - the 8th Guards, famous for heavy defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction). He died on November 18, 1941 near the village of Gusenevo, Volokolamsk District, Moscow Region, from fragments of a German mortar mine.
According to the memoirs of his granddaughter Aigul Baikadamova, he considered the main vocation of a military leader to preserve the lives of soldiers in the war, a warm attitude and care. The soldiers called Panfilov "General Batya". He told the soldiers and commanders: "I don't need you to die, I need you to stay alive!" There is information that before the war Panfilov sent dispatches to the Kremlin with requests to take care of warm clothes, uniforms for soldiers and other household needs. In 1945, war correspondents captured the inscriptions on the walls of the Reichstag: “We are Panfilov's soldiers. Thank you, Dad, for your boots "
According to granddaughter Aigul Baykadamova, Panfilov managed to find a "common language" with his multinational division, since "he lived for a long time in Central Asia, knew the manners, customs, languages of these peoples and was able to become a real father-commander for them."
Monument to Panfilov in Alma-Ata at the southern entrance to the park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen
General Panfilov believed that the time of wars on horseback with sabers was a thing of the past. Therefore, in the process of forming the 316th rifle division, at exercises near Talgar, he organized training to overcome the fear of tanks - for this, tractors moved to the positions of the recruits. Such a concept as Panfilov's loop got into military textbooks: when the forces of combat units were dispersed in several important points, and did not rush at the enemy entirely. During the defense of Moscow, he used a system of deeply echeloned artillery anti-tank defense, as well as mobile barrage detachments. According to rumors, in October 1941, when the battles were going on near Volokolamsk, he organized raids behind enemy lines, "so that the soldiers had the feeling that the enemy is also a living person and can be defeated."
Vasily Klochkov, military commissar of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment of the 316th rifle division of the 16th army of the Western Front, political instructor, Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner. Killed in battle.
The words are attributed to him: "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!"
According to the research of the writer V.O. Osipov and the testimony of the Panfilov division fighters, it is argued that the authorship of the phrase "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" belongs to the political instructor Klochkov, and not to the correspondent Krivitsky: Klochkov's personal letters to his wife have survived, in which he expressed his feelings of special responsibility for Moscow, in addition, approximately the same calls were printed in Panfilov's addresses and in the divisional newspaper.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942 "On conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to the commanding officers and rank-and-file personnel of the Red Army" published in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda No. 170 (5234) dated 07.22.1942
Mistrust in the fact of the feat of the Panfilovites arose when, in November 1947, the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkov garrison was arrested and prosecuted for treason to the Motherland I. E. Dobrobabin. According to the case file, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 entered their service. He served as the chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, in the Valkovsky district of the Kharkiv region. In March 1943, when the area was liberated from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by the Soviet authorities.
When Dobrobabin was arrested, a book was found about 28 Panfilov heroes, and it turned out that he was one of the main participants in this heroic battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By interrogating Dobrobabin, it was established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed lightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes does not correspond to reality. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a thorough investigation of the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction.
The materials of the interrogation of the correspondent of Koroteev were presented.
(clarifying the origin of the number 28):
Approximately 23-24 November 1941, together with the war correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When leaving the headquarters of the army, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division, Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and said that our people are fighting heroically in all areas.
The political report said that the fifth company was fighting with enemy tanks and that the company was "to death" - it died, but did not leave, and only two people turned out to be traitors, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers. The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and did not mention their names.
Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported to the editor of the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg about the situation, told about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... Thus, the number of those who fought was 28, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors.
Documentary evidence of battles
The commander of the 1075th regiment I. V. Kaprov (testimony given at the investigation in the Panfilov's case):
... In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120-140 people. My command post was located behind the Dubosekovo crossing, 1.5 km from the position of the 4th company (2nd battalion). I don't remember now if the 4th company had anti-tank guns, but I repeat that the entire 2nd battalion had only 4 anti-tank guns ... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the 2nd battalion's sector. How many tanks went (directly) to the sector of the 4th company, I do not know, or rather, I cannot determine ...
With the help of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this tank attack was repulsed. In battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans withdrew. At 14-15 o'clock, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire ... and again went on the attack with tanks ... More than 50 tanks attacked in the regiment's sectors, and the main blow was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one the tank even went out to the location of the regiment's command post and lit hay and a booth, so I accidentally was able to get out of the dugout: the railroad embankment saved me, people who survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: 20-25 people, led by the company commander Gundilovich, survived. The rest of the companies suffered less.
On the 16th at 6 in the morning, the German began to bomb our right and left flanks, and we got a lot. 35 planes bombed us.
After the aerial bombardment, the column of submachine gunners from the village of Krasikovo left ... Then Sergeant Dobrobabin, the platoon commander was, hung down. We opened fire on the submachine gunners ... It was at about 7 am ... We repulsed the submachine gunners ... We destroyed people under 80.
After this attack, political instructor Klochkov got close to our trenches and began to talk. He greeted us. "How did you survive the fight?" - "Nothing, we survived." He says: “The tanks are moving, we still have to endure the battle here ... There are many tanks, but there are more of us. 20 pieces of tanks, will not fall on each brother in a tank. "
We were all trained in a fighter battalion. They did not give themselves such horror that they would immediately fall into panic. We sat in the trenches. “Never mind,” says the political instructor, “we will be able to repulse the attack of tanks: there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind.”
We took a fight with these tanks. From the right flank they fired from an anti-tank rifle, but we didn't have it ... They started jumping out of the trenches and throwing bundles of grenades under the tanks ... Bottles of fuel were thrown at the crews. What was bursting there, I don't know, only healthy explosions were in the tanks ... I had to blow up two heavy tanks. We repulsed this attack, destroyed 15 tanks. Tanks 5 retreated in the opposite direction to the village of Zhdanovo ... In the first battle, there were no losses on my left flank.
Political instructor Klochkov noticed that the second batch of tanks was moving and said: “Comrades, we will probably have to die here for the glory of our homeland. Let the Motherland know how we fight, how we defend Moscow. Moscow is behind, we have nowhere to retreat. " ... When the second batch of tanks approached, Klochkov jumped out of the trench with grenades. The fighters are behind him ... In this last attack, I blew up two tanks - heavy and light. The tanks were on fire. Then I got under the third tank ... on the left side. On the right side, Musabek Singerbaev, a Kazakh, ran up to this tank ... Then I was wounded ... I received three shrapnel wounds and a shell shock.
According to the archival data of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941, destroyed 15 (according to other sources - 16) tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. The regiment's losses, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 killed, 600 missing, 100 wounded.