28 Panfilovites as it really was. Panfilov's feat: Russia's future belongs to the heroes of the past

November 16, 1941 at the Dubosekovo junction 1075, the regiment of the 316th division took up a battle with superior enemy forces. The 316 division, commanded by Major General Panfilov, was in the direction of the main attack throughout October. The heroism of Panfilov's men immediately became known to the Soviet people, and the division and its commander after the battles in the Volokolamsk direction became legendary. Unsurprisingly, the heroic division received increased media attention. On November 16, 1075, the regiment was attacked by superior German forces. The regiment repulsed the attack, knocking out several tanks. The Germans pulled up their reserves and broke through the defenses by evening. Heroically resisting, the Soviet soldiers were forced to retreat, suffering huge losses. The rest of the division's formations suffered the same fate as the regiment. Almost defeated during the November battles, she was forced to retreat to the Istra line. On November 18, General Panfilov himself was killed in battle. Subsequently, the 316 division was transformed into the 8th Guards Rifle Division and took part in the battles near the famous village of Kryukovo on the Leningradskoye Highway. And only at the end of December 1941. she retreated to re-form to the rear. The commander of the 1075 regiment Kaprov recalled: “By November 16, 1941, the regiment I commanded was on the left flank of the division and covered the exits from Volokolamsk to Moscow and the railroad. The 2nd battalion took up defensive positions: Novo-Nikolskoe settlement- pos. Petelino and passing Dubosekovo.... \u003e The fourth company was commanded by Captain Gundilovich, political instructor Klochkov ... By November 16, 1941, the company had 120- 140 people. ... \u003e. There were 10 battalion areas in total.- 12 enemy tanks. How many tanks went to the sector of the 4th company, I do not know, or rather, I cannot determine. By means of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this tank attack of the Germans was repulsed. In battle, the regiment destroyed 5- 6 German tanks, and the Germans withdrew ... Around 14.00- At 15.00, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire on all positions of the regiment, and German tanks went on the attack again. ... \u003e More than 50 tanks attacked the regiment's sector, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, since this sector was most accessible to enemy tanks. For about 40- 45 minutes, enemy tanks crushed the location of the 2nd battalion, including the section of the 4th company. ... > When I got over the railroad embankment, people who had survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most from the attack; led by the company commander Gundilovich, 20 people survived- 25, the rest all died. The rest of the companies suffered less damage. " The Soviet people learned about the heroism of the Division from the Izvestia newspaper after 3 days. November 19, 1941 it published a note by G. Ivanov "8th Guards Division in Battles", which describes the battle of one of the companies. The encircled company put up heroic resistance, knocking out 9 tanks (3 of them burned out), and forced the rest to retreat. There is no data on where Ivanov received the information, but the information is, firstly, plausible, and secondly, operational, from which it can be concluded that Ivanov received it from sources close to the front line. Thirdly, the information did not raise questions in the Authorities. But more on that below. Koroteev Approximately a week later, the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Koroteev visited the headquarters of the 16th Army (which included Panfilov's division). This is how he himself describes in 1948. during interrogation by the investigator, the way in which he received the information. " Approximately 23-On November 24, 1941, together with the war correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When leaving the headquarters of the army, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division, Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and said that our people are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Yegorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks attacked the line of the company, and the company detained them, destroying some of them. Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but told from the words of the regiment commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks ... Egorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously got acquainted 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 was killed, 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 say about the number of company soldiers killed 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 Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Ortenberg about the situation, told about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I replied that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... I did not know that an editorial was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me up again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided in the front line to write about only one traitor. On November 27, 1941, my short correspondence was published in the newspaper, and on November 28, Krasnaya Zvezda published the leading Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes, written by Krivitsky" .
Whether not trusting Koroteev's literary abilities, or guided by considerations of subordination in the journalistic table of ranks, or for some other reason, the editor-in-chief of Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg instructs to write the editorial not to the "getter" of information, but to lit. the secretary of the newspaper A.Yu. Krivitsky. Which with ardor gets down to business, and already on November 28 in the "Krasnaya Zvezda" there appears an editorial filled with pathos entitled "Testament
28 fallen heroes. " " Resistance might have seemed insane. Fifty armored monsters against twenty-nine men! In what war, in what times did such an unequal battle take place! But the Soviet fighters accepted him without flinching. They did not back down, did not back down. "We have no way back,"- they said to themselves. Only one out of twenty-nine was faint-hearted. When the Germans, confident of their easy victory, shouted to the guards- "Give it up!"- only one raised his hands up. A volley immediately rang out. Several guardsmen at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at the coward and the traitor. It was the homeland that punished the apostate. Already eighteen warped tanks froze motionless on the battlefield. The battle lasted more than four hours, and the armored fist of the fascists could not break through the line defended by the guards. But then the ammunition ran out, the cartridges in the anti-tank rifle stores ran out. There were no more grenades. Fascist vehicles approached the trench. The Germans jumped out of the hatches, wanting to take alive the surviving brave men and deal with them. But there is only one soldier in the field, if he is a Soviet soldier! Political instructor Diev rallied the remaining comrades around him and a bloody battle ensued again. Our people fought, remembering the old motto: "The Guard dies, but does not surrender." And they laid down their heads- all twenty eight. Killed, but did not let the enemy pass!" - writes Krivitsky, showing an example of how a journalist has no right to work. We were too lazy to check the information. Or they were frightened - after all, for this it is necessary to travel closer to the front line and endanger the precious journalistic life. And this is unacceptable: it is the women who give birth to soldiers, but there are few journalists, and they must be protected. How many fighters fought is unknown? Well, let there be thirty people. Are there two traitors for thirty people? Well, let there be one. What is the name of the political instructor? There, like some hero by the name of Diev was mentioned, so let it be Diev! How many tanks were destroyed? Well, let there be 18.50 tanks in the regiment's sector? Not heroic enough, let it be 50 to 28. The rear journalists apparently did not even think that this number was completely implausible. Neither Koroteev nor Krivitsky are professional military journalists wearing shoulder straps! - did not even think about how physically 54 tanks can attack in a sector defended by 28 people. Provided that about 50 tanks, this is a lot even for the area defended by the regiment, which is clearly shown by Kaprov's testimony cited above. The journalist Chernyshev from "Komsomolskaya Pravda", together with Koroteev "received information" at the headquarters of the 16th Army, also wrote an article entitled "Glory to the fearless patriots." Where he described the battle described to him by the division commissar who did not participate in it from the words of the regiment commissar who did not participate in it. For the sake of reliability, he even added the names of Lieutenant Timeless and senior political instructor Kalachev, it is not known, from himself or from the words of someone from the staff officers of the 16th Army. This is how not the most successful literary works appeared, which generalized and "creatively" reworked the real events of mid-November. Well, it would seem, God bless it. After all, why not consider the articles of Chernyshev and Krivitsky as literary fiction based on real facts of mass heroism, and close this topic? But, alas, it doesn't work. After all, if Chernyshev had enough conscience and common sense to stop at what had been "achieved," then Krivitsky and Ortenberg decided to squeeze out as much as possible from the heroic theme. In January 1942, Krivitsky publishes an essay "On 28 Fallen Heroes", in which he lists by name those who died in the battle he himself had invented. And Ortenberg, who personally sucked the number 28 out of his finger, prints it! Ortenberg “When guardsmen die in battle, winged glory flies from the military banner and invisibly becomes an honorable and permanent guard at the head of the dead. News of the feat of twenty-eight Panfilov guardsmen, who laid down their heads on the battlefield, spread far across Soviet soil. of all the details of their death, the names of the heroes had not yet been named, their bodies still rested on the ground captured by the enemy, but rumors about the fabulous valor of twenty-eight Soviet heroes had already bypassed the fronts. Only now have we managed to restore the complete picture of the death of a handful of brave guardsmen " - Krivitsky writes with pride. A. Yu. Krivitskiy We have already seen the method of "establishing a complete picture of the battle". And that's where the surnames come from. Throughout November and half of December, the 1075th regiment (like the entire division) fought bloody stubborn battles, repeatedly changing its locations. In some companies, 20% of the personnel remained alive. And as soon as the regiment is withdrawn to the rear for reorganization, a Moscow journalist arrives in it (as the one who distinguished himself most and suffered in the battles of November 16), along with the divisional commissar. And they demand to name the names of 28 people who fought off the attack of German tanks on November 16. That, of course, confuses the commander and commissar of the regiment. From the testimony of the regiment commander I.V. Kaprova to the investigator of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office: " At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn to form, the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Krivitsky came to my regiment together with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Yegorov. Then 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, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, had fought with German tanks, but I did not know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... Captain Gundilovich gave the name of Krivitsky from memory, who talked to him about this subject, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about my surnames" . On an urgent request, or rather an order, to name the 28 names of those who fought with the tanks on November 16, the regiment commander Kaprov names the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, and sends the journalist to the company commander Gundilovich. When asked "where exactly did you fight on November 16," he replies that he fought in the Dubosekovo area. And the requirement to name 28 by name of the fighters is satisfied as follows. From the testimony of Krivitsky to the investigator of the GVP: "Kaprov did not tell me the names, but instructed Mukhamedyarov and Gundilovich to do this, who made a list, taking information from some kind of statement or list. Thus, I have a list of the names of 28 Panfilovites who died in battle with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction. Arriving in Moscow, I wrote to the newspaper the basement under the heading "On 28 Fallen Heroes"; the basement was sent for a visa to PUR. During a conversation with comrade Krapivin in PUR, he wondered 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. The basement was placed in the "Red Star" on January 22, 1942. Here I used the stories of Gundilovich, Kaprov, Mukhamedyarov, Egorov. As for the 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 sayonly with a boy of 14 years old15, which showed the grave where Klochkov is buried. ... In 1943, from the division where 28 Panfilov heroes were and fought, they sent me a letter of awarding me the rank of a Guardsman. I was in the division only three or four times. " Gundilovich P.M. Commander of the 4th company. Thus, the myth of 28 is already taking on flesh. Now there is a place for a fight and 28 names, selected, however, in a completely random way. The latter almost killed the journalist Krivitsky. After a month and a half of the hardest fighting (let me remind you that only on November 16, the company lost over 100 people), when the composition of the company was constantly changing, even the best commander will not be able to accurately take into account the losses in killed and wounded. Therefore, among the "28 heroically fallen" were: - Sergeant Dobrobabin, who deserted and later worked as a policeman (about him below). - Kuzhebergenov, a messenger who did not participate in the battle and was captured by the Germans. - row. Notarov, as it turned out later, fell two days before the battle on November 16. - row. Timofeev, who was wounded in German captivity. - Sergeant Major Shemyakin and a number. Shadrin, seriously wounded and taken to the rear hospitals. The last three were later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A discrepancy also occurred with the surname of the political instructor, already named in the first publication by Diev, and in the company lists who bore the surname Klochkov. Apparently, the surname Diev belongs to some other person. And I will talk about some research in this direction at the end of the article. The name of the hero, for some reason, sunk into the head of the headquarters employee, and he called it to journalists on November 23-24. So Diev was mentioned in November's note by Koroteev and the editorial by Krivitsky. And when Krivitsky received 28 names of soldiers and saw that the deceased political instructor of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion bore the name Klochkov, the journalist, without batting an eye, invented another story. He explained the confusion with the names of the political instructor by the fact that the political instructor was Klochkov according to his passport, and one of the Ukrainian fighters jokingly christened him Diev. He was already a very active (active) person. Krivitsky developed a stormy activity. The matter was not limited to articles alone; by the end of the war, books about 28 Panfilov's men were already in print. The feat was adopted by Soviet propaganda as an exemplary feat. Krivitsky wrote tirelessly, the battle at Dubosekovo acquired absolutely incredible, truly fabulous details. Krivitsky painted in detail who said what and who thought what, his books were published in large editions and translated into foreign languages... 28 Panfilovites were the most powerful business project of their time in the field of PR. It almost ended soon after the war. In 1947. the "fallen hero" Dobrobabin was arrested, who managed to defect, work as a policeman, flee to another area when the Red Army attacked, and was recruited into the army from the liberated territory, hiding his service in the police. His own impudence ruined him (as it almost did Krivitsky). Anyone else with such a biography would have lurked, but Dobrobabin, armed with Krivitsky's book about his heroism, went to demand the star of the hero. And after checking he was arrested. During the check, the prosecutor's office found out that four more "fallen heroes" were still alive, and decided to investigate the case. The results of the work of the Stalinist prosecutor's office are known and published: http://statearchive.ru/607 The conclusion of people in uniform is unambiguous. Thus, the materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, highlighted in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent of Koroteev, the editor of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Ortenberg, and in particular the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky. This fiction was repeated in the works of writers N. Tikhonov, V. Stavsky, A. Beck, N. Kuznetsov, V. Lipko, M. Svetlov and others and was widely popularized among the population of the Soviet Union. The memory of 28 Panfilovites was immortalized by the installation of a monument in the village. Nelidovo, Moscow region. A marble obelisk with a memorial plaque is installed in the Alma-Ata Park of Culture and Leisure; Federation park and several streets of the republic's capital are named after them. The names of 28 Panfilovites were assigned to many schools, enterprises and collective farms of the Soviet Union.

Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces

lieutenant general of justice

N. Afanasyev.

The investigation by the prosecutor's office was directed as intended - i.e. Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov, Secretary of the Central Committee, in charge of the ideological and propaganda direction. But the case was not given a course. As the historian Alexei Isaev, the author of the book "anti-suvorov", which studied in detail the history of "28 Panfilov's men", said about this: “In my opinion, it would be wiser if Krivitsky was“ rolled up ”to Verkhoyansk for this. Then the story would be extremely instructive and would remain in journalism textbooks as an example of how not to do it. But the Soviet government, represented by such a person, as A.A.Zhdanov,showed softness. " Isaev also drew attention to the fact that the data on the losses of such a number of tanks should undoubtedly be reflected in the German archives. And they were always reflected. But nothing similar to the destruction of two dozen tanks on November 16 at Dubosekovo was found. It is also important to note that during the entire war and post-war period, this was the only case when the prosecutor's office was engaged in such an investigation. The consequences of journalistic and human baseness could be very far-reaching. 28 people who did not distinguish themselves in any way received the stars of Heroes, which disavowed the very concept of feat. The mass heroism of hundreds of people is forgotten and replaced by a feat 28, moreover, invented for career purposes. The party leadership is put in the position of hostages when it is forced to follow the lead of an irresponsible and shameless hack. Moreover, one of the Panfilovites turned out to be a policeman. Letting him go now? Or plant a "hero"? Both solutions are bad. What if this story leaks overseas? With what relish the enemy will pounce on her in the Cold War! One thing is impossible to agree with Isaev: that Zhdanov showed softness. Zhdanov sent the received document to members of the Politburo and personally to Stalin. Thus, the fact that the case was not given a course is not on the conscience of Andrei Alexandrovich. Moreover, since Zhdanov reported the circumstances of the case to other top party leaders, it can be assumed that he wanted to give the case a legitimate course. It seems that only a progressive illness and early death prevented Zhdanov from dotting it in this matter. But be that as it may, Krivitsky got off with a slight fright. Someone may ask, is it so important whether forgery is exposed or not? Is it necessary to "say to the end who is the bastard," as Mayakovsky said? Time has shown that then, in the 48th year, of course, it was necessary to do this. There are among us (and, alas, there are more and more of them) such patriots who sincerely believe that any lie can and should be used if it is aimed at a "good patriotic" cause. Let's try to take their position. Let's forget that for the rest of their lives the 28 Panfilovites fed Krivitsky and fed him much more satisfying than an ordinary Soviet man. That all his life he (like his boss at the "Krasnaya Zvezda" Ortenberg) wrote about the war and painted feats, raising children on opuses, the degree of conscientiousness of which we already know. That Krivitsky, who was in the division 3-4 times during the whole war, according to his own statement, received the rank of guardsman on a par with the true heroes of the war. That the mythical feat of 28 overshadowed the real mass heroism. That the stars of heroes were received by people who were no different from any of the hundreds of thousands of other ordinary participants in the battle for Moscow. That out of a hundred dead soldiers, 4 companies "were honored" to be ranked among heroes, only 28, and about the soldiers of neighboring companies, each of which lost up to 4/5 of its composition, no one remembered. That there was a policeman and a deserter among the heroes ... In a word, let us forget about the moral side of the matter and begin to be guided by considerations of "pragmatic patriotism" a la modern Russian professional patriots. But even from this position, the myth of 28 had to be exposed. For the forgery of Krivitsky, not exposed in time, backfired on Perestroika.

Restructuring

Putin zero

One gets the impression that the authors of both this and other similar emotional letters are inclined to support, without deeply understanding the essence of the issue, any campaign fanned by the press. This time they warmly responded to the call of Kumanev and Dobrobaba. Katusev F.A.Alien glory of Ivan Dobrobaba

The Soviet soldiers have already dined twice. First in the post-war years, then in Perestroika. But new times require new varieties of corpse-eating. The USSR was destroyed for the sake of the triumph of the market economy - or rather, for the sake of the possibility of legal enrichment, which it gives. And the former secretaries of regional committees, Komsomol leaders, security officers and directors of enterprises, having ruined a great country, turned thanks to the market economy into those against whom they once vowed to fight at party meetings, and into those from whom they swore to defend the Soviet people. The market economy has its own laws. Demand gives rise to supply, and if anything the humiliated people were all right with, it was the demand for the heroic deeds of their ancestors. And it began. In the USSR, parades on Red Square were held in the jubilee years - 1965, 75, 85 and 90. Starting Yeltsin, they became annual. Victory Day is celebrated on such a scale that Brezhnev never dreamed of, not to mention Stalin, who celebrated the anniversary twice, and then decided that he should not rest on his laurels, he had to move forward. For new reasons for pride. They carry around the city disguised "veterans" who are suitable as sons as a real veteran, paint everything they can in St. George's (not red!) Colors. Nightclubs invite you to the "Victory Night" party, food workers hang guards' ribbons on "Danish cod". Stickers "T-34" are hung on BMWs, and "On Berlin" - on Volkswagen, striptease competitions (sorry, modern dance) and bodybuilding competitions are timed to coincide with Victory Day. Toilets and cans of beer are painted in patriotic colors ... And many already consider this the norm. The film directed by Shallope is from the same series. Challope's motives have nothing to do with patriotism. As he himself says in

According to the classic version of the feat, 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

At the request of citizens

State Archives of the Russian Federation, headed by Doctor historical sciences Sergey 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. Afanasyeva "About 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, "says a message on the website of the State Archives of the Russian Federation.

The publication of this reference-report is not a sensation - everyone who is interested in the history of the feat is aware of its existence.

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

Political instructor Vasily Klochkov. Photo: Public Domain

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 Klochkovheld a defense against the advancing Nazis in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Dubosekovo junction, 7 kilometers southeast 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 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 the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay Krivitsky, was awarded the posthumous 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 was arrested and prosecuted for treason Ivan 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 Kharkov 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 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 participated in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but was not killed, but received a shell shock and was captured. Having escaped from the prisoner of war camp, Dobrobabin did not make his way to his own, 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 his 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-Kishinev operation, the capture of Budapest and Vienna, ended the war in Austria.

By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Kiev military district on June 8, 1948, Ivan Dobrobabin was sentenced to 15 years in prison with disqualification for 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 newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda in an essay by a front correspondent Vasily Koroteeva... 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, Krasnaya Zvezda 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 - Klochkov Vasily Georgievich, Dobrobabin Ivan Evstafievich, Shepetkov Ivan Alekseevich, Kryuchkov Abram Ivanovich, Mitin Gavriil Stepanovich, Kasaev Alikbay, Petrenko Grigory Alekseevich, Esibulatov Kovalnikov Narksutbay Mikhailovich, Dutov Pyotr Danilovich, Mitchenko Nikita, Shopokov Duishenkul, Konkin Grigory Efimovich, Shadrin Ivan Demidovich, Moskalenko Nikolay, Yemtsov Pyotr Kuzmich, Kuzhebergenov Daniil Alexandrovich, Timofeev Dmitry Fomich, Yamil'evich Romanov, Yamil'yevich Bofimov, Nikolay Igarovich Alexandrovich , Bezrodny Grigory, Sengirbaev Musabek, Maximov Nikolay, Ananiev Nikolay.

Archbishop Pitirim of Volokolamsk and his entourage, participants in the World Conference "Religious Leaders for Saving the Sacred Gift of Life from a Nuclear Catastrophe", laid wreaths at the memorial at the Dubosekovo junction - at the site of the feat of 28 soldiers. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin

Survivors of Dubosekovo

In 1947, prosecutors who were checking 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 changed to 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, employees of the prosecutor's office, having studied all the materials and heard the testimony of witnesses, came to the conclusion that "the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, 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."

Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War 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. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Savostyanov

Testimony of the regiment commander

This conclusion is based on the interrogations of Krivitsky, Koroteev and the commander of the 1075th rifle regiment Ilya Kaprova... 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, the 4th company fought with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people from the company died, not 28, as they wrote 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 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 they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the "Krasnaya Zvezda", about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn to form, the correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda Krivitsky came to my regiment together with representatives of the division's political department Glushko and Egorov... Then 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 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 did not know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... The captain gave the names of Krivitsky from memory Gundilovich, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov's men in the regiment and could not be. "

Tank T-34 on the distant approaches to the capital, in the area of \u200b\u200bVolokolamskoe highway, Western Front. November 1941. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Interrogations of journalists

Alexander Krivitsky testified during interrogation: “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 answered him that I had invented it I 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 me the grave where Klochkov was buried. "

And here is what Vasily Koroteev said: “Approximately 23-24 November 1941, I, 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 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 participate in the battle with German tanks ... Egorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously got acquainted with the political report received from the regiment ...

The political report said about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company was "to death" - it was killed, 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 killed in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this 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 replied that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... I did not know that an editorial was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me up again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided in the front line to write about only one traitor. "

Calculation of the PTRD-41 anti-tank gun in position during the battle for Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"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.

First, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Andrey Zhdanov, to whom the findings of the prosecutor's investigation were reported, did not give them any progress. Let's say a party leader decided to "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 refused to testify that the description of the battle at Dubosekovo was completely invented by me and that none of the seriously wounded or those who remained I didn’t speak to the Panfilovites before the article was published, then soon I’ll find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.

The regiment commander Kaprov, in his other testimony, was also not so categorical: “At 14-15 o'clock the Germans opened heavy artillery fire ... and again went on the attack with tanks ... More than 50 tanks were advancing in the regiment's sectors, with the main attack directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion , including the section 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 was able to get out of the dugout: the railroad embankment saved me, people who survived after attacks by German tanks. The 4th company suffered the most: 20-25 people, led by the company commander Gundilovich, survived. The rest of the companies suffered less. "

"Memorial to the heroes of Panfilov" at the Dubosekovo junction. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

There was a battle at Dubosekovo, the company fought heroically

The testimony of local residents testifies that on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo crossing, a battle between Soviet soldiers and the advancing Germans was really going on. 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 Rifle 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 all did not die.

But there is no doubt that their perseverance and courage, their self-sacrifice made it possible to defend Moscow.

Of the 28 people who were included in the lists of heroes, 6 who were considered dead, wounded and shell-shocked, miraculously survived. One of them turned out to be faint-hearted Ivan Dobrobabin. Does this cancel the feat of the other 27?

Memorial in Dubosekovo. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Lodo27

300 Spartans - a myth propagated by the Greek state?

One of the most famous military feats in the history of mankind, which everyone has heard about, is the feat of 300 Spartans, who in 480 BC fell in the Battle of Thermopylae 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, under Pheromopylae not all of the 300 soldiers died king Leonidas... Warrior Pantin, sent by Leonidas as a messenger and only therefore did not appear on the battlefield, hanged himself, for in Sparta he was awaited by shame and contempt. 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 Coward. And this despite the fact that he fought heroically in the subsequent battles with the Persians.

Despite all these circumstances, you are unlikely to see Greek historians or the head of the Greek archives 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

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. The phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" became a symbol of the defenders of the Motherland for decades to come.

In the fall of 2015, the film "Panfilov's 28" directed by the director Andrey Shaliopa... 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). 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.

The memorable battle, better known as the feat of 28 Panfilov's men, took place exactly 74 years ago. During this time, it was overgrown with many legends, ranging from simple doubts that there was no such battle at all, to bewilderment: how did the people from among the Panfilovites who were listed as dead end up alive?

Recall that in the summer, an official report was published from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, according to which the whole story is a fantasy of journalists. See the extract at the end of the article. Nevertheless, there are many myths and legends with this story. Books, articles are published, films are made. Curious is the opinion of the author of the book about the heroism of the Panfilovites.

Opinion of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Laila Akhmetova. She is the co-author of the book "Panfilovites: 60 days of feat that have become a legend."

MYTH ONE

Doubts about the feat of the Panfilovites appeared when people began to appear who were considered dead and were awarded posthumously.

- Yes, some of the fighters were alive after the battle. We know the specifics of the Soviet years: if we said that everyone died, then everyone died. And then someone survived. Accordingly, everything must be done to prevent this from happening. Soviet propaganda wanted to talk about these people only as heroes who died.

For three days - November 15, 16 and 17 - the great and massive feat of the Panfilov division continued. All were heroes. But at the top, they decided to name only one unit and show exactly the war against tanks, which at that time everyone was very afraid. The title of hero was awarded to those who fought at the Dubosekovo junction. Here came the main blow of the Germans.

In principle, the Germans occupied the height. By that time, dusk had fallen, but the enemy did not take advantage and did not develop success. And when the Germans launched an offensive the next day, they met fierce resistance after a kilometer. This was a new battle tactic that General Panfilov created. Therefore, the resistance of the Panfilovites was not the same as that of others, and the Germans got stuck near Moscow, and did not go by leaps and bounds.

MYTH TWO

During the investigation, back in soviet time, found the regimental commander, who testified that there was no battle at the Dubosekovo junction.

- I read the interrogation protocols. In the testimony of the regiment commander, who allegedly said that there was no battle at the Dubosekovo junction, there are no such words. He only admitted that he had not witnessed the battle. This was his regiment, and he could not abandon the dead comrades.

It's just that after the war, following the path that had been rolled out from the pre-war years, they decided to organize a "military business" - the system could not live without repression. But the marshals and generals gained immense popularity among the people, which began to grow since the time of the battle of Moscow. Who were the heroes? Panfilovites. There was no one to protect them at that time. General Ivan Panfilov died on November 18, 1941. Army commander Rokossovsky is in Poland, front commander Zhukov is in Odessa.

This is how the "military business" began - they began to collect dirt. Collected, of course, under torture. And those who could not bear the torture said what they said. Then the "military case" was canceled and the documents were hidden in the archive. From time to time, depending on the conjuncture, this issue was raised. This is the third wave of information warfare against Panfilovites in 75 years.

Photo: Fund of the Military History Museum at the Army House

MYTH THREE

The essay about Panfilov's men was written on the assignment "to find some kind of feat", but the author found out about the battle near Dubosekovo by accident.

- Krivitsky is not the first to write about this battle. The journalists interviewed Ivan Natarov, a survivor who was lying in the hospital. He passed away three weeks after the fight. However, Natarov was wounded in the middle of the battle, so he could only tell about its first part.

The survivors told much later about something else. But they tried not to listen to them. Naturally, they also interviewed the commanders. And here I see a discrepancy. They write: the regiment commander said that there was no battle. Nevertheless, he also talked about the massive feat of the Panfilovites during these three days and about the battle at the Dubosekovo junction.

MYTH FOURTH

The essay on Panfilov's men was written from the words of higher commanders, the author of the text never visited the battlefield.

- Indeed, the journalists could not be at the battle site. First, this land was under the Germans, then it was covered with deep snow, mined. Excavated only at the end of April 1942. And after the war, Kazakh writers-Panfilov's Bauyrzhan Momysh-uly, Dmitry Snegin, Malik Gabdullin, recalling the November battles, noted that they had not been interviewed.

It is remarkable that each of them left their memories of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. But for some reason we do not read their works, do not quote them, we are not proud of all the Panfilovites of those years.

Photo: Mikhail Mikhin

MYTH FIVE

The phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" does not belong to a participant in the battle, it was invented by a journalist.

- On November 16, during the day, the Germans took the offensive at least three times in the area near Dubosekovo. In the morning, senior sergeant Gabriel Mitin was in command of the battle. He died before lunch. Sergeant Ivan Dobrobabin took command. He was concussed and passed out. The sergeant was dragged away to where the wounded were carried. Several surviving soldiers, all wounded, held the line. They knew the order: you can't retreat.

How many of them are left after lunch is unknown. By this time, political instructor Vasily Klochkov arrived with orderly Daniil Kozhubergenov. He knew that there was a battle everywhere, there would be no help, he had to hold on. And then he made the decision to stay with this handful of fighters to the end. His task was to cheer up the soldiers, support them with words and go to another unit. Thus, see the entire division. But here the picture was the most difficult.

He stayed with the soldiers and said: "It seems that we will have to die, guys ..." - and then the well-known words. The phrase "Nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind" is taken from the order of the front commander Georgy Zhukov. Political instructor Vasily Klochkov was simply obliged to tell it to all soldiers and officers.

At the beginning of December 1941, practically the same words were said by Bauyrzhan Momysh-uly, preparing for a battle near the village of Kryukovo. But by that time the words "Great Russia, but nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" Were not yet known. And this is also a well-known fact. There was just a different interpretation. The publication with these words appeared later.

REFERENCE

The battle took place on November 16, 1941, when the German army made another attempt to storm Moscow. At the Dubosekovo crossing, the fighters of the second battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment met a detachment of fifty enemy tanks. They were able to defend their positions, destroying about eighteen tanks, as a result of which the enemy had to retreat. However, most of the Soviet soldiers died.

The country learned about the feat of the Panfilovites from an article in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, published literally a few days after the battle.

The first report on the feat of 28 Panfilovites in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on November 28, 1941

At the very beginning of the article, I promised an extract-report of the State Archives of Russia, which officially debunked the myth about the feat of the “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 (State Archive of the Russian Federation. F. R -8131) "

Original taken from kritik в The real story of "28 Panfilov's men". Facts and documentary information

Today I will go to the film "Panfilov's 28". And I would like to know the real story of these "heroic" people, so that when writing a review about the film - to know how much the script distorts reality.

Calculation of the 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K on the outskirts of a village near Moscow, November - December 1941

The most famous of the division's soldiers were 28 people ("Panfilov heroes", or "28 Panfilov heroes") from among the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment. According to the widespread version of the event in the USSR, on November 16, when a new German offensive against Moscow began, the soldiers of the 4th company, led by political instructor Vasily Klochkov, defended in the area of \u200b\u200bDubosekovo junction 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, performed a feat, during a 4-hour battle, destroying 18 enemy tanks. All 28 people, called heroes in Soviet historiography, died (later they began to write "almost all"). The phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!", Which, according to the journalists of "Krasnaya Zvezda", was uttered by political instructor Klochkov before his death, was included in Soviet school and university history textbooks.

In 1948 and 1988, the official version of the feat was studied by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as fiction. According to Sergei Mironenko, "there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths imposed by the state." At the same time, the very fact of heavy defensive battles of the 316th rifle division against the 2nd and 11th German tank divisions (approx. The number of personnel of the German divisions significantly exceeded the Soviet one) in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16, 1941 and the heroism shown by the division fighters did not contested.

Historical analysis

According to the materials of the investigation of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, the heroic deed of the heroes was first reported by the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on November 27, 1941, in an essay by the front correspondent V. I. Koroteev. The article about the participants in the battle said that "every one was killed, but the enemy was not allowed to pass"; the commander of the detachment, according to Koroteev, was "Commissar Diev".

According to other sources, the first publication about the feat appeared on November 19, 1941, just two days after the events at the Dubosekovo crossing. Izvestia correspondent G. Ivanov in his article "8th Guards Division in Battles" describes a battle surrounded by one of the companies that defended on the left flank of the 1075th Infantry Regiment I. V. Kaprov: 9 tanks were knocked out, 3 were burned, the rest turned back.

Criticism of the official version

Critics of the official version, as a rule, cite the following arguments and assumptions:
Neither the commander of the 2nd battalion (which included the 4th company), Major Reshetnikov, nor the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, nor the commander of the 316th division, Major-General Panfilov, nor the commander of the 16 1st Army, Lieutenant General Rokossovsky. German sources also do not report anything about him (while the loss of 18 tanks in one battle at the end of 1941 would have been a significant event for the Germans).
It is unclear how Koroteev and Krivitsky learned a large number of the details of this battle. Information that the information was received in the hospital from a mortally wounded participant in the battle Natarov is doubtful, since, according to the documents, Natarov died two days before the battle, on November 14.
By November 16, the strength of the 4th company was full, that is, it could not have only 28 soldiers. According to the testimony of the commander of the 1075th rifle regiment IV Kaprov, the company had about 140 people.

Investigation materials

In November 1947, IE Dobrobabin was arrested by the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkiv garrison and prosecuted for treason to the Motherland. 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 Kharkov 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 compulsory 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 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 USSR Chief Military Prosecutor's Office conducted a thorough investigation of the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor of the country's Armed Forces, Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev, to the Prosecutor General of the USSR G.N.Safonov on May 10, 1948. On the basis of this report, on June 11, a certificate was drawn up, signed by Safonov, addressed to A.A. Zhdanov.

For the first time, E.V. Kardin publicly questioned the veracity of the story about Panfilov's men, having published an article "Legends and Facts" in the Novy Mir magazine (February 1966). After that, however, he received a personal rebuff from Leonid Brezhnev, who called the denial of the official version "a slander against the heroic history of our party and our people."

A number of new publications followed in the late 1980s. An important argument was the publication of declassified materials from the 1948 military prosecutor's office investigation. In 1997, the Novy Mir magazine, authored by Nikolai Petrov and Olga Edelman, published an article "New about Soviet heroes", in which it was stated (including on the basis of the text of the top secret information "On 28 Panfilov's men" given in the article) that On May 10, 1948, the official version of the feat was studied by the USSR Chief Military Prosecutor's Office and recognized as a literary fiction.

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

... There was no battle of 28 Panfilov's soldiers with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is sheer fiction. On this day, the 4th company fought with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people from the company died, not 28, as they wrote 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 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 they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the "Krasnaya Zvezda", about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn to form, the correspondent of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Krivitsky came to my regiment together with representatives of the division's political department Glushko and Yegorov. Then 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 against German tanks. I told him that the whole regiment, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, had fought with German tanks, but I did not know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen ... Captain Gundilovich gave the name of Krivitsky from memory, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov's men in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about the names. Subsequently, after lengthy clarifications of surnames, it was only in April 1942 that the division headquarters sent ready-made award lists and a general list of 28 guardsmen to my regiment for signature. I signed these sheets for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 guardsmen. Who was the initiator of the compilation of the list and award lists for 28 guardsmen - I do not know.

Calculation of the PTRD-41 anti-tank gun in position during the battle for Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942

The materials of the interrogation of the correspondent of Koroteev are also given:

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

The political report said about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company was "to death" - it was killed, 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 killed in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this 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 replied that the composition of the company, apparently, was incomplete, about 30-40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors ... I did not know that an editorial was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me up again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since two out of 30 turned out to be traitors. Ortenberg said that it was impossible to write about two traitors, and, apparently, after consulting with someone, he decided in the front line to write about only one traitor.

Interrogated newspaper secretary Krivitsky testified:

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

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

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

Conclusion of the investigation by the prosecutor's office:

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

The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR again dealt with the circumstances of the feat in 1988, as a result of which the Chief Military Prosecutor, Lieutenant-General of Justice AF Katusev, published the article "Foreign Glory" in the Military Historical Journal (1990, No. 8-9). In it, he concluded that "the massive feat of the entire company, the entire regiment, the entire division was downplayed by the irresponsibility of not entirely conscientious journalists to the scale of a mythical platoon." The director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences S.V. Mironenko adheres to the same opinion.

Documentary evidence of the battle

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 whether 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 ...

By means 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 retreated. 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, with the main attack 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 left the village of Krasikovo ... Then Sergeant Dobrobabin, the platoon commander was, hung down. We opened fire on the machine gunners ... It was at about 7 in the morning ... We repulsed the machine gunners ... We destroyed people under 80.

After this attack, political instructor Klochkov crept up 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. "Nothing," says the political instructor, "we will be able to repel 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 ... from the left side. On the right side, Musabek Singerbaev, a Kazakh, ran up to this tank ... Then I was wounded ... I received three shrapnel wounds and a 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, were 400 killed, 600 missing, 100 wounded.

Testimony of the chairman of the Nelidovsky village council Smirnova at the investigation in the case of Panfilov:

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 \u200b\u200bour village and the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 and were recaptured by Soviet Army units on December 20, 1941. At that time, there were large snow drifts, which lasted until February 1942, due to which we did not collect the corpses of those killed on the battlefield and did not perform burials.

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

German tanks attack Soviet positions in the Istra region, November 25, 1941

Reconstruction of the battle

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

The 316th Infantry Division took up defensive positions on the Dubosekovo front - 8 km southeast of Volokolamsk, that is, approximately 18-20 kilometers along the front, which was a lot for a formation weakened in battles. On the left flank, the neighbor was the 126th Rifle Division, on the right - the combined regiment of cadets of the Moscow Infantry School named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

On November 16, the division was attacked by the forces of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Germans with the task of improving positions for the offensive of the 5th Army Corps, scheduled for November 18 The first blow was delivered by two battle groups on the positions of the 1075th Infantry Regiment. On the left flank, where the 2nd battalion occupied the positions, the stronger 1st battle group, consisting of a tank battalion with artillery and infantry units, advanced. The task of the day was to occupy the villages of Rozhdestveno and Lystsevo, 8 km north of the Dubosekovo junction.

The 1075th Infantry Regiment in previous battles suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment, but before new battles it was significantly replenished with personnel. According to the testimony of the regiment commander, Colonel IV Kaprov, the 4th company had 120-140 people (according to the staff of the 04/600 division, there should be 162 people in the company). The question of artillery armament of the regiment is not completely clear. According to the state, the regiment was supposed to have a battery of four 76-mm regimental guns and an anti-tank battery of six 45-mm guns. There is information that the regiment actually had two 76-mm regimental guns of the 1927 model, several 76-mm mountain guns of the 1909 model and 75-mm French divisional guns Mle. 1897. The anti-tank capabilities of these guns were low - regimental guns pierced only 31 mm of armor from 500 m, armor-piercing shells were not supposed to be used for mountain guns at all. Outdated French cannons had weak ballistics; nothing is known about the presence of armor-piercing shells for them. At the same time, it is known that, on November 16, 1941, the 316th Infantry Division as a whole had twelve 45-mm anti-tank guns, twenty-six 76-mm divisional guns, seventeen 122-mm howitzers and five 122-mm corps guns, which could be used in battle with German tanks. The neighbor, the 50th Cavalry Division, also had its own artillery.

Infantry anti-tank weapons of the regiment were represented by 11 anti-tank rifles PTRD (of which in the 2nd battalion - 4 guns), RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails. The real combat capabilities of these weapons were low: anti-tank rifles were notable for low armor penetration, especially when using cartridges with B-32 bullets, and could only hit German tanks from close range exclusively to the side and stern at an angle close to 90 degrees, which in a frontal situation a tank attack was unlikely. In addition, the battle at Dubosekovo was the first case of the use of anti-tank rifles of this type, the production of which was just beginning to unfold. Anti-tank grenades were an even weaker means - they pierced up to 15-20 mm of armor, provided they directly adjoined the armor plate, so it was recommended to throw them on the roof of the tank, which in battle was a very difficult and extremely dangerous task. To increase the lethality of these grenades, fighters usually tied them together in several pieces. Statistics show that the proportion of tanks destroyed by anti-tank grenades is extremely small.

On the morning of November 16, German tank crews conducted reconnaissance in force. According to the recollections of the regiment commander, Colonel IV Kaprov, “in total 10-12 enemy tanks marched in the battalion's sector. How many tanks went to the sector of the 4th company, I do not know, or rather, I cannot determine ... In battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans retreated. " Then the enemy pulled up reserves and with renewed vigor fell upon the positions of the regiment. After 40-50 minutes of the battle, the Soviet defense was broken through, and the regiment, in fact, was defeated. Kaprov personally collected the surviving fighters and took them to new positions. According to the regiment commander IV Kaprov, “Gundilovich's 4th company suffered the most in the battle. Only 20-25 people survived. led by a company commander of 140 people. The rest of the companies suffered less. More than 100 people died in the 4th rifle company. The company fought heroically. " Thus, it was not possible to stop the enemy at the Dubosekovo crossing, the positions of the regiment were crushed by the enemy, and its remnants retreated to a new defensive line. According to Soviet data, in the battles on November 16, the entire 1075th regiment knocked out and destroyed 9 enemy tanks.

Breakthrough of German troops in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16-21, 1941. Red arrows mark the advance of the 1st combat group through the battle formations of the 1075th rifle regiment in the Nelidovo-Dubosekovo-Shiryaevo sector, blue - the second. The dotted line indicates the starting positions for the morning, afternoon and evening of November 16 (pink, purple and blue, respectively)

In general, as a result of the battles on November 16-20 in the Volokolamsk direction, Soviet troops stopped the offensive of two tank and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. Realizing the futility and impossibility of achieving success in the Volokolamsk direction, von Bock transferred the 4th tank group to the Leningradskoe highway. At the same time, on November 26, the 8th Guards Rifle Division was also transferred to the Leningradskoye Highway in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kryukovo, where, like on the Volokolamskoye Highway, together with other units, it stopped the 4th tank group of the Wehrmacht.

Watch the documentary: “Panfilovites. The Truth About Feat "

Conclusion: it is up to us, of course, to decide where the story is a little "embellished" and where it is really true.
In any case, a number of factors indicate that this story and the feat of people has the right to exist ....

On November 16, 1941, the Wehrmacht troops moved on to the second - decisive - stage of the offensive against Moscow. They were located about 80 km from the capital - Kaluga, Mozhaisk and Borovsk near Moscow were taken back in October. For a decisive offensive on Moscow, the 51st Division was deployed - these units were supposed to smash the flanks of the Soviet defense and surround the city. At Volokolamsk on November 16, the 2nd Panzer Division of the German Army Group Center went on the offensive. On the way, she had a patrol of Dubosekovo, which was defended by the soldiers of the 1075th rifle regiment of the 316th rifle division, which will very soon become known as Panfilov.

On this day, the division's soldiers will take on the battle, which will mark the beginning of the history of 28 Panfilov heroes - first described in the pages of "Krasnaya Zvezda", their history will later play a role in raising the soldiers' morale more than once. Including in the days of the German offensive at Stalingrad. Later, some of the information reported by Krasnaya Zvezda journalists in their editorial will be challenged, and the story of the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes will become one of the most discussed episodes of the Great Patriotic War. However, no matter how much controversy was going on around the first publications, it is impossible to question the very fact of the feat of the Panfilov soldiers in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. One can only assume that the heroes that day could have turned out to be many more famous 28.

Decisive blow

At the end of October, the second stage of the German offensive on Moscow was completed - the Soviet units were defeated near Vyazma, the Germans reached Moscow, on October 15, the capital was declared a state of siege, on November 7, a military parade was held on Red Square, which in its importance was equated to a military one. operations, - most of the formations went directly from the square to the front. By that time, the Germans were at a distance of 80-100 km from Moscow, the battles were fought on the near approaches to the capital.

After a short respite, the Wehrmacht again went on the offensive on November 15, 16 and 17 to break through to Moscow and end the campaign before the end of 1941. With two strikes - on Klin-Rogachevo and Tula-Kashira - it was planned to cut the flanks of the Soviet defense. Moscow was defended by reserve units, divisions already exhausted in battles, and consolidated formations of graduates of military schools - at the same time, new reserves were already drawn to the capital for the counteroffensive planned in early December. But the command could not throw them into battle before the start of the counteroffensive.

On November 16, the German 2nd Panzer Division launched an offensive near Volokolamsk to clear the way for the 5th Army Corps' offensive planned for November 18. One of the first on its way was the Dubosekovo patrol, which was defended by the 316th Rifle Division, which had just recovered from the fighting, which was almost 20 km long, under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov.

Feature article"Red Star"

On November 27, 1941, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published an essay by the war correspondent Koroteev, which told about the feat of the soldiers who took the battle at the Dubosekovo junction: those killed, but did not let the Germans reach Moscow. The next day, November 28, the newspaper devoted to them the editorial "Testament of 28 fallen heroes" written by the newspaper's literary secretary Krivitsky - for the first time in the press it was mentioned that they were talking about Panfilovites and their number was indicated - 28 people. However, the names of the dead fighters were not named. They were indicated in Krivitsky's essay "On 28 Fallen Heroes", published by Krasnaya Zvezda on January 22, 1942 - by this time, the troops of the Kalinin Front, after a series of successes won at the beginning of the month, had stopped near Rzhev, faced with fierce resistance from German units. Stubborn, bloody and exhausting battles here will last until March next year.

According to journalists, after the start of the German offensive on November 16, the fighters of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment fought enemy tanks for four hours, destroying 18 vehicles. They all died. It was thanks to these publications that the phrase of the political instructor Klochkov, who died that day, became widely known: "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind." After publications in Krasnaya Zvezda, all 28 people were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and a book was published about their feat. According to the memoirs of many front-line soldiers, the feat of 28 fighters played an "exceptional mobilizing" role in a number of major battles of the Great Patriotic War - including Stalingrad and the Kursk Bulge.

Unexpected arrest

However, after the war, in 1948, a former soldier Dobrobabin, who had been captured during the war, was arrested in the Kharkov region. During his arrest, a book was found with him, which described the feat of the Panfilovites and, in particular, indicated his name as one of the dead participants in the battle. At the initiative of the USSR Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, an investigation was carried out, during which it turned out that several more people who were believed to have died in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction actually survived, and the description of the collision given by journalists has no direct documentary evidence - at the same time, the fact itself the battle was not questioned.

During the check, Krivitsky and Koroteev, the authors of the materials in Krasnaya Zvezda, first stated that they were based only on the oral stories of fellow soldiers of the deceased and their colleagues, war correspondents, but they did not know anyone who could have known for certain about the details of the battle. Later, Krivitsky said that he was forced to give this testimony under pressure. The military prosecutor's office concluded that the story in the form in which it was presented in Krasnaya Zvezda was a fiction of journalists - however, how exactly on that day the soldiers of the Panfilov division stopped the advance of German tanks had yet to be established.

"There were thousands of heroes"

The very fact of conducting heavy defensive battles in the defense sector of the 4th company during the German offensive on Moscow was not questioned either before or after this check. On the contrary, the history of the Panfilov division fighters is a rare case when the number of heroes could only increase.

So, many of those who at one time or another disputed the well-known version of the description of the feat of the Panfilovites pointed out that the journalists underestimated the courage of other fighters of the same unit.

“The mass heroism shown at the Dubosekovo junction was replaced by the resilience of only a“ group ”or“ platoon ”. The existence of such a unit is not confirmed by the documents of the military archives. They testify to something else - there were thousands of heroes, ”notes the explorer of the feat, retired Major General Vasily Maksimovich Malkin.

Nevertheless, in the battle on November 16, according to the recollections of the participants, it was the very same 4th company, which, according to the materials of Krasnaya Zvezda, the soldiers belonged to, really took the greatest blow. This was also stated by Colonel Ilya Vasilyevich Kaprov, who commanded the 1075th regiment during the days of the German offensive near Moscow. However, according to him, the company was fully staffed by the beginning of the battle, which means that more than 28 fighters went to meet their death.

“In the battle, Gundilovich's 4th company suffered the most. Only 20-25 people survived, led by a company commander of 140 people. The rest of the companies suffered less. More than 100 people died in the 4th rifle company. The company fought heroically, ”Colonel Ilya Vasilyevich Kaprov later recalled.

"Nowhere to retreat"

When the prosecutor's office after the war began checking the information indicated in Krasnaya Zvezda, the newspaper's literary secretary Krivitsky said that the phrase “Great Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind” has no documentary evidence and is the fruit of his artistic invention.

However, a number of witnesses - including fighters from the Panfilov division - and documentary sources (primarily letters addressed to his wife) confirm that the phrase that went down in history, or at least was very consonant with it on that day by political instructor Klochkov, was most likely actually uttered ...

30-year-old Vasily Klochkov, who in the fall of 1941 repeatedly wrote to his family about a special sense of responsibility for Moscow and addressed the soldiers with similar words from the pages of the divisional newspaper, was among those heroes of the first publications about the feat of Panfilov's soldiers, whose death in battle with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction November 16, 1941 was never questioned. After the battle, his body was identified by the division fighters and buried by local residents. Like the others, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Near the village of Kryukovo

And no matter how the history of Panfilov's fighters actually developed - whether there were 28, 100 or thousands of them - it was by forces, including the Panfilov division exhausted in battles, that by November 20 the offensive of two tank and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht was stopped in the Volokolamsk direction.

The fighters of the famous 4th company and their fellow soldiers intervened in the plans of the commander of the Army Group Center attacking Moscow, Von Bock. Faced with their stubborn resistance, he was forced to transfer the entire 4th tank group to the Leningradskoe highway. Where, by the irony of the front-line fate, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kryukovo, its units again met with the forces of the Panfilov division and its 4th company drawn in this direction. The offensive in the Kryukovo area was stopped by Soviet troops.