What forces did the 28 Panfilov men resist? Panfilov's heroes

Whenever you are in the city of Almaty, as a graduate of the Almaty Higher General Command School or on the affairs of the International Union " Combat brotherhood“My comrades and I are walking to the Park named after the 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, where the Monument of the same name to the Panfilov Guardsmen, who defended Moscow with their breasts, is erected and pay tribute to and gratitude to the people and the country’s leadership for preserving the historical memory of the feat Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War.

The monument was installed in former capital Kazakhstan in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Victory, in 1975 in the form of a granite monument on which hero soldiers carved from stone are located. International images of Panfilov's men are a symbol of heroism. The Eternal Flame burns in front of the monument. Near eternal flame there are cubes under which are embedded capsules with samples of earth that were delivered from the hero cities. The famous words of political instructor Vasily Klochkov are carved on the memorial: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind us.”

The people of Kazakhstan, friendly to us, from young to old, sacredly preserve the memory of their heroes and fellow countrymen, of the courageous resistance of 316 rifle division, whose fighters held back the onslaught of a German tank column for 4 hours on November 16, 1941 and destroyed 18 out of 50 tanks.
And against this background, an explosion of indignation and indignation caused me and my comrades in the new July attempt of some Russian media to convince us that the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes is nothing more than the fiction of a military journalist. There were no Panfilovites, there was no heroism. They are literally in once again made an attempt to impose the opinion that our ancestors were not heroes fighting for freedom and independence. The conclusion is incorrect.
Attempts to debunk national exploits aimed at weakening the moral pillars of our people can only be made by an enemy.

The essence of another attempt to debunk the national feat of our people. In Komsomolskaya Pravda, under the general title “Secrets of the State Archive,” an interview was published with the director of this archive, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, who, answering the correspondent’s questions, shamelessly ridiculed the feat of twenty-eight Panfilov heroes-defenders of the capital, calling it a myth, claiming , “that there were no heroically fallen Panfilov heroes”
The historian Mironenko, working in the archive, became familiar with the materials of the “investigation of the case of 28 Panfilov men”, set out in 1948 in a letter from the Chief Military Prosecutor. They were prepared too clumsily, the conclusions were, as they say, “sewn with white thread.” Employees of the military prosecutor's office clearly overdid it, trying to demonstrate to the country's political leadership their hyper-vigilance. As a result, the “case” was not given any further progress, and it was sent to the archives, where a historian discovered it.
Back at the Academy named after M.V. Frunze, while studying the history of military art, I literally studied the history of the Great Patriotic War from primary sources. It is known that the battle for Moscow in the autumn-winter of 1941, which buried the monstrous fascist “blitzkrieg”, is the most major battle not only the Great Patriotic War, the Second World War, but also all the wars that thundered on earth. It was the Battle of Moscow that became the turning point in this unheard of brutal military conflict of the 20th century. Is it true, Western historians adhere to a different point of view, considering the turning point the battle of El Alamein (Egypt), where the 8th British Army dealt a crushing blow to the Italian-German troops. However, 23 times less manpower took part in this battle than in Moscow.

More than 7 million people were drawn into the orbit of the grandiose battle for the Soviet capital on both sides. On the fields of the Moscow region, 3.4 million more soldiers and officers fought than in Battle of Stalingrad, 3 million more than Kursk Bulge, and 3.5 million more than in the Berlin operation.
The multinational 316th Motorized Rifle Division consisted of 40 percent Kazakhs, 30 percent of the fighters were Russians, and the same number were representatives of 26 other peoples of the Soviet Union. Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, an experienced military leader who fought in the First World War and then in the Civil War, was appointed commander.

On October 24, five simultaneously German divisions launched an offensive in the direction of Volokolamsk. Their forces were several times greater than those of the defenders. On October 26, the situation near Volokolamsk deteriorated sharply. Army General Zhukov gave the order to Lieutenant General Rokossovsky: “Volokolamsk station, Volokolamsk city - under your personal responsibility, comrade. Stalin forbade surrendering to the enemy...
Near Dubosekovo there was a stronghold of a platoon of the 4th company, which until November 15 was commanded by Lieutenant Dzhura Shirmatov. But he was wounded and evacuated to the hospital. He was replaced by assistant platoon commander Sergeant Ivan Dobrobabin.
The enemy was met with fire from anti-tank rifles, Molotov cocktails, and grenades. 28 soldiers repelled attacks by infantry and 50 enemy tanks. IN unequal struggle Almost all of them died, but, having destroyed 18 German vehicles, they did not leave their positions. As a result of the battle, the Nazis were delayed for more than 6 hours and were unable to break through the division's defenses.
Dubosekovo, which was destined to become the site of a military feat of unprecedented sacrifice, where the famous battle between Panfilov’s men and the enemy took place.

It was believed that all the defenders at Dubosekovo were killed. But in fact, seven survived. In one of the hospitals, Red Star correspondent A. Krivitsky managed to find Private Ivan Natarov. Seriously wounded, he, exhausted from loss of blood, reached the forest. Here he was picked up by scouts. The story of the dying soldier was recorded by a journalist. Later, studying the circumstances of the battle at Dubosekovo, Krivitsky wrote an essay about 28 Panfilov heroes, which appeared in “Red Star” on January 22, 1942. This battle did not go unnoticed General Staff Red Army.

While still at the academy, I had the opportunity to work with the three-volume book “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow,” published in 1943 under the editorship of Marshal of the Soviet Union B. M. Shaposhnikov. The authors of the book, literally in hot pursuit, gave not only detailed description feat of the Panfilov men, but also showed its significance for the entire operation: “The glorious battle of these heroes was not only a feat of courage, but also had great tactical significance, since it delayed the advance of the Germans for many hours, enabled other units to take convenient positions, and prevented a breakthrough enemy tank mass on the highway and did not allow them to break through the anti-tank defenses in this area.”
And here are the words of Marshal G.K. Zhukov: “...The feat of 28 Panfilov men is unforgettable, it is always a bright immortal reality for me.”
So don’t you dare doubt, gentlemen, spiteful critics from the media who have questioned the feat of Panfilov’s men.
Yes, during the Great Patriotic War on the formation of consciousness Soviet warrior and the winner was charged with all the propaganda and educational work, but it was based on historical truth and facts. This work cannot be built on myths and legends.
Political instructor Klochkov uttered a phrase to the sign, filled not only with patriotic pathos, but also with philosophical meaning. As the commander of the reconnaissance company of the 66th Motorized Rifle Brigade in Afghanistan, I know for certain that in war such “winged” words often burst from the very soul.

All Panfilov's men were considered dead, Heroes of the Soviet Union posthumously. And here they came from “the other world”! I. Vasiliev and G. Shemyakin were cured, lived unnoticed, and quietly passed away. Three (I. Dobrobabin, D. Timofeev and I. Shchadrin) were captured in an unconscious state, two of them later returned, and one said that he had not performed any feat (rather, he was forced to renounce). “Killed and that’s it!” - such was the logic of the guardians of Stalin’s moral principles.
Soldier D. Kozhubergenov, severely shell-shocked and covered with earth, was discovered by scouts of L. M. Dovator, commander of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps. He came to his senses and began to fight the enemy again. The horsemen were proud that among them was the Panfilov hero. But for Kozhubergenov himself, this popularity had sad consequences. Since he was the first to “rise from the grave,” he was arrested and everything was done to ensure that he remained “dead.” After interrogations “with bias” and threats against his family, he was forced to sign a document stating “non-participation in the battle at Dubosekovo.” After that he was sent to the front. The NKVD authorities forced the regiment command to reissue Kozhubergenov’s award list. And the hero passed away unrecognized, insulted.

Even more tragic was the fate of Dobrobabin, who essentially led the battle. Political instructor Klochkov appeared at the moment when the battle was already underway. By the way, some question his famous words addressed to the soldiers: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!” The deceased political instructor, of course, will never be able to repeat them again, just as the fighter Natarov, who retold these words to the “Red Star” correspondent, will not be able to repeat them. Having studied a huge amount of materials about the war, we can say that Shell-shocked, Dobrobabin was captured and was in a camp near Mozhaisk. When the Germans began to take prisoners to the rear, Dobrobabin broke the bars in the carriage at night and jumped out as it moved. For a long time he made his way through the occupied territory, unsuccessfully searching for partisans. After wandering for several months, sick and swollen from hunger, he secretly arrived in the German-occupied village of Perekop (Kharkov region), to his brother, who sheltered him.

Since March 1943, when the invaders were driven away, Dobrobabin was again on the front line, commanding a rifle squad. For courage he received the Order of Glory, III degree, and several medals.
In December 1947, the front-line soldier came to visit his second homeland - the city of Tokmak (Kyrgyzstan), from where he went to war as part of the 316th division. And then he was arrested on a false denunciation and transported to Ukraine, brought before the tribunal of the Kyiv Military District - “for aiding the enemy.” Then everything happened in the worst traditions of the totalitarian years: an accelerated biased investigation and a cruel sentence - 15 years in the camps. The real reason for the reprisal against Dobrobabin was that Stalin’s henchmen were not satisfied with the “resurrection of a hero from the dead,” who, moreover, had been in captivity and in occupied territory. They generally decided to “deal with” Panfilov’s men, for which it was necessary to present their feat as an “act of mass heroism”, without mentioning specific individuals.
Journalist A. Krivitsky, editor-in-chief“Red Star” D. Ortenberg, writer N. Tikhonov, commander and commissar of the 1075th regiment I. Kaprov and A. Mukhamedyarov. Under the threat of being sentenced, Krivitsky and Kaprov were forced to sign everything that was required of them. Having fabricated a fake, the “guardians of the law” immediately presented it to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) A. Zhdanov. But he considered that the material was prepared too “clumsily”, the stick was clearly gone too far, and did not move forward with the matter.
It was not possible to consign the memory of Panfilov’s men to oblivion. A grandiose memorial ensemble has been created at the site of the feat; the features of the battle at Dubosekovo are studied in military universities, including foreign ones. People continued to be concerned about the fate of D. Kozhubergenov and I. Dobrobabin; for 30 years, many spoke out in defense of the honor and dignity of these heroes. By 1990, films had been made about them - “Fate”, “Feat and Fraud”, “ Unfinished War Ivan Dobrobabin." It would seem that justice had triumphed, but from the office of the chief military prosecutor of that time, A. Katusev, there was again a whiff of Stalinism. He not only declared the need to ban the screening of these films, but also brought to light the “linden” document from 1948 (the same one presented to Zhdanov). Slanders against fallen heroes were published. Many years later, unfortunately, retired Colonel Ibatullin also took advantage of it.

It's time to defend the Motherland! from those who, foaming at the mouth, explain that our troops went on the attack only because someone from behind threatened to shoot them in the back, that people were dumb from fear and therefore, willy-nilly, went to defend their Motherland, that Soviet heroes it is a myth that we showered Hitler with corpses, and from those who shout that the people won the war, not the commanders.
Those who make blasphemous attempts to debunk national exploits aimed at weakening the moral support of our people are our enemy.

Military expert,
First Deputy Chairman
All-Russian Organization "BATTLE BROTHERHOOD" G.M. Shorokhov

ALMATY, December 3 – Sputnik. The case classified as “Smersh” from 1942-1944, declassified in the fall of this year, puts an end to the debate about the role of Kazakhstanis in the defense of Moscow on November 16, 1941 at the Dubosekovo crossing.

How did the investigation into the feat of the Kazakhs near Dubosekovo begin?

In order to finally establish the truth, representatives of the Russian Military Historical Society had to study previously classified archives for two years, reports the Minister of Culture Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky in the publication "Rossiyskaya Gazeta".

Indisputable evidence was discovered by researchers in one of the folders “Main Directorate of Counterintelligence “Smersh”, 1st Baltic Direction.” To collect materials, according to the chronology of discovered documents, special department It took the NKVD, and subsequently the Smersh employees, two years. And a hot pursuit investigation was carried out.

The collection of factual data about what happened near Dubosekovo began from the moment when Red Army soldier Daniil Kuzhebergenov was arrested. He was suspected of the fact that, while fighting as part of units in the Volokolamsk direction, in mid-November 1941 he surrendered to the enemy with weapons in his hands. His escape, which he made a few hours later, aroused even more suspicion among the special forces. By that time, Kuzhebergenov, according to the security officers, was among the 28 Panfilov heroes who died.

At first, Daniil claimed that he really participated in that battle, but then, according to the surviving papers, he retracted his words. As a result, another Kuzhebergenov, Askar, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) among 28.

It was the unexpected “resurrection” of Daniil Kuzhabergenov that became the reason for the start of a more extensive investigation into the circumstances of the battle and an article written about him by the military correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Krivitsky.

What the secret archives of Smersh “told” about

All these data from 1942-1943 are very similar to the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office in the case of Panfilov's men in 1948. But only until this moment. Further materials from a later investigation are now being called fabricated by historians, since a wave of repressions against army generals began and reasons were needed to bring high-ranking officials to justice. army officials. That is why the results of the first one, which took place, as they say, in hot pursuit, were then classified and only came to light now.

Documents that fell into the hands of historians several months ago reliably confirm not only that the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing actually took place, but also that the journalist Krivitsky described them very close to reality.

“Testimony of the former military commissar of the 1075th Guards Rifle Regiment... senior battalion commissar Akhmedzhan Latypovich Mukhamedyarov.

Question: - Where and when did 28 Panfilov guardsmen fight with tanks and who specifically led this battle?

Answer: - ...The enemy, having concentrated his main forces on his right flank, decided to strike at the left flank of our defense, that is, at the location of the 4th rifle company in the area of the Dubosekovo, Shiryaevo and Petelino junction. The first enemy attack was directed at the second platoon of the 4th rifle company. The platoon first repelled the attack of enemy machine gunners. The latter, met by friendly and powerful fire from the heroes, leaving up to 80 people killed and wounded on the battlefield, was forced to retreat to their original position."

Further, according to Mukhamedyarov, the German command sent about 50 tanks against the second platoon of the company, which launched an offensive in several echelons. Considering that there was practically no artillery support and there were not enough anti-tank rifles, the defenders of the line were forced to allow armored vehicles to come within close range and disable them with bundles of hand grenades and bottles filled with a flammable mixture. The battle, as a result of which 18 heavy enemy armored vehicles were disabled, lasted about five hours. All 28 platoon soldiers, including political instructor Vasily Klochkov, were killed and crushed by tanks. As a result, the enemy managed to break through the defenses.

Historical sensation from the FSB archives

The authenticity of the feat of the Panfilov heroes was confirmed after a deep study of the archives of the Russian FSB. Thus, researchers were able to discover testimony from the chief of staff of the 1075th Guards Rifle Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Andrei Vetkov.

“... A very large role in the entire preparation of materials and the perversions committed was played by the too much haste shown by both those who prepared the materials and those who checked and promoted these materials. One thing is certain, no matter what crept into the matter, mass heroism, demonstrated in the battle with Nazi tanks in the battle near Dubosekovo on November 16, 1941 is an irrefutable fact, and nothing should erase the blessed memory of the 28 Panfilov heroes who died in the fight against German monsters for the happiness and freedom of their beloved Motherland,” said he is interrogated by the NKVD on July 5, 1942.

Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov (left), commander of the 316th Infantry Division, Major General

As the author of the article, Vladimir Medinsky, notes, it follows from the documents that, speaking about the feat, Andrei Vetkov does not doubt a single word, although he is somewhat confused when it comes to the award list. Then it was important for the investigation to find out where the inaccuracies in the award list came from. But it was no longer possible for Military Correspondent Krivitsky to interrogate the people who formed him and who made mistakes in his stories: one of them, the commander of the 4th Infantry Company Gundilovich, died, and the others were at the fronts and in hospitals hundreds, or even thousands of kilometers away.

It is noted that errors in the award documents could well have crept in as a result of the confusion that reigned at that moment in this sector of the front. Nevertheless, all doubts about the heroism of the Kazakh soldiers are swept away by just one short certificate from the archive, which is cited by the author of the study:

“From the personnel of the 4th company of the 1075th Guards Rifle Regiment, which operated in the battles at the Dubosekovo crossing on 07/06/42, former foreman of the 4th company Dzhivago Philip Trofimovich is serving in the regiment as assistant to the chief of staff. there were no persons from the 4th rifle company operating in the area of the Dubosekovo crossing in the regiment as of 07/06/42."

That is, of all the soldiers listed in the rifle company in October 1941, by the summer of 1942 only one fighter was fighting.

Journalist Krivitsky wrote about what he saw with his own eyes

The accusations that recent years were addressed to the war correspondent Krivitsky, thanks to whom the entire USSR learned about the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes, were also dispelled by documents from the archives that so unexpectedly saw the light.

“During the stay of representatives of the newspaper “Krasnaya Zvezda”, with the permission of the division command, they, together with Colonel Kaprov, the head of the division’s political department, senior battalion commissar Golushko, and the commander of the second battalion, Captain Gundilovich, went to the battle area where 28 heroes died, the Dubosekovo crossing,” it says in one of the interrogations of the former military commissar of the regiment Mukhamedyarov.

After returning, the group said that at the battle site, in the trenches and nearby, the bodies of 27 heroes who died during the defense were found. The body of political instructor Vasily Klochkov was not found on the spot, because after his death, secretly from the Germans, local residents found him and “buried him behind the guard’s guardhouse at the Dubosekovo crossing.” It was on the basis of these data that Krivitsky wrote his material about the feat.

“The arithmetic, of course, doesn’t add up. How much was it exactly? At what point in the battle? How many of the 130 company soldiers remained alive - and at the time of which of the tank attacks? But all this “reward arithmetic” could not come together, especially then, given the situation,” writes the author of the article, Vladimir Medinsky.

At the same time, he concludes that the fact of the feat of 28 Kazakh Panfilov heroes not only happened in reality, but turned out to be even more realistic and legendary than we imagined it all these many years.

He wrote that documents had been found confirming the reality of the feat of 28 Panfilov men.

According to the minister, in the fall of 2018, a case classified as “Smersh” from 1942-1944 was declassified, in which three new evidence was discovered that there was a battle between 28 Panfilov men; two new battle descriptions; numerous details of the circumstances surrounding the feat (for example, the words of political instructor Klochkov “There is nowhere to retreat”).

Medinsky noted that the battle and the 28 Panfilov men were always spoken of as a symbol, but now documents have been found that testify to the authenticity of what happened.

“I declare with full responsibility that indeed the fact of an unprecedented manifestation of mass heroism on the part of 28 Panfilov guardsmen led by the company’s political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 took place in the 1075th Guards Rifle Regiment...” the publication says.

In the article, the minister also provided a diagram of the battle and excerpts from declassified documents.

Source: Russian newspaper.

Medinsky states that the exact number of fallen heroes of that battle is unknown.

“How much was it exactly? At what point in the battle? How many of the 130 company soldiers remained alive - and at the time of which of the tank attacks? But all this “reward arithmetic” could not add up, especially then, given the situation... It is clear that under the snow on the battlefield Dubosekov also had those whose names we will never know. And each of them probably fought heroically and deserves a reward. It is clear that some of the 28 “posthumously” awarded ended up, thank God, alive. Some of the 28 may have ended up on this list by chance, personally in this particular battle on this day, in this place, without burning tanks. This, we admit, is not excluded. But the main thing is the fact: what we have always talked about is legendary fight, turned out to be even more realistic than we thought,” the minister writes. — Recently declassified archival materials of the FSB, another historical sensation. Now we can put a dot on top of a dot.”

Classic version of the feat

November 16, 1941 28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, led 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 southeast of Volokolamsk. During the four-hour battle, they destroyed 18 enemy tanks, and the German advance towards Moscow was suspended. All 28 fighters were killed in the battle.

November 1941. An anti-tank gun crew holds the defense on the approaches to Moscow. Photo: NATIONAALARCHIEF.NL

In April 1942, when the feat of 28 Panfilov men became widely known in the country, thanks to the publication of the literary secretary of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Alexander Krivitsky, the command of the Western Front issued a petition to award all 28 soldiers the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay Krivitsky, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

What's wrong?

In 1947, prosecutors checking the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing found that several of the dead were alive: Ivan Dobrobabin, Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin. Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive.

All of them were wounded in the battle at Dubosekovo. Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev passed through German captivity.

Workers of the prosecutor's office, having studied all the materials and heard the testimony of witnesses, came to the conclusion: “the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of the Red Star Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky.”

T-34 tank on the distant approaches to the capital, in the Volokolamsk highway area, Western Front. November 1941. Photo: Wikipedia.

This conclusion is based on interrogations of Krivitsky, Koroteev and the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment Ilya Kaprova. All 28 Panfilov heroes served in Karpov’s regiment.

During interrogation at the prosecutor’s office in 1948, Karpov testified: “There was no fight between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks there was no such thing at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and they really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me during this period. I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men, and I couldn’t talk about it, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I don’t know on the basis of what materials they wrote in newspapers, in particular in Krasnaya Zvezda, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilova.

At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn for formation, the Red Star correspondent Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the division’s political department Glushko And Egorov. Here I first heard about the 28 Panfilov guardsmen. In a conversation with me, Krivitsky said that it was necessary to have 28 Panfilov guardsmen who fought with German tanks. I told him that the entire regiment fought with German tanks, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen... The captain gave Krivitsky’s last name from memory Gundilovic, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were and could not be any documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men in the regiment.”

There was still a fight

Testimony from local residents indicates that on November 16, 1941, there was actually a battle at the Dubosekovo crossing. Soviet soldiers with the advancing Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of surrounding villages.

According to archival data from the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th rifle regiment On November 16, 1941, he destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 soldiers at the Dubosekovo crossing did not destroy 18 tanks and not all of them died.

So, a sensation took place. Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky presented new documents from declassified state security archives. It follows from them that the famous battle of 28 Panfilov heroes at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941, firstly, really happened. And secondly, it exactly corresponds to the idea that has developed over the years, is known to everyone and, in the end, has become almost identical to the very concept of “feat”. At least when it comes to the Battle of Moscow.

This story, like any other, has a beginning. In the fall of 2016, Vladimir Rostislavovich, discussing the film “28 Panfilov’s Men,” noted: “Even if this story were invented from beginning to end, this is a holy legend that simply cannot be touched... There were 28, 30, 38 of them, even maybe 48 of these 130? We don't know. And no one knows. And no one will ever know. And there’s no point in finding out.”

Now, two years later, it turns out that, of course, it’s impossible to touch the legend, but it’s still possible. But there is still meaning in learning.

This was found out based on the results of the work of the Russian Military Historical Society in the archives. “In the fall of 2018, a case classified as “Smersh” 1942-1944 was declassified, in which 3 new evidence was discovered that there was a battle between 28 Panfilov men, 2 new descriptions of the battle, numerous details surrounding the feat,” says Vladimir Medinsky.

In general, there was a lot in favor of the fact that such documents should have appeared. For the simple reason that for quite some time now the certificate-report of the Military Prosecutor’s Office from 1948 has been declassified and accessible to everyone, the final part of which reads: “Thus, the investigation materials have established that the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men, covered in the press, is correspondent's invention Koroteeva, editor of "Red Star" Ortenberg and in particular - the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky».

The existence of this certificate introduced obvious dissonance into the coverage of the history of the Battle of Moscow and gave some publicists a reason to question over and over again even the very fact of the defense of the Dubosekovo crossing. Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to challenge the facts stated in it.

No, attempts have been made, including from the Russian Military Historical Society. In particular, Vladimir Medinsky himself, being a Doctor of Historical Sciences, quite rightly appealed to scientific concept"criticism historical sources” and repeatedly noted: “This investigation was carried out late, seven years after the events, it was politically biased, since a new wave of repressions against the generals was being prepared, incriminating evidence was being collected on Zhukov, who commanded the troops near Moscow...”

Other critics noted that the testimony of the commander of the 1075th regiment Ilya Kaprova, who stated more clearly than others that there was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks on November 16, which was, to put it mildly, controversial. They say that the colonel, who was subordinate to the 4th company of Panfilov’s heroes, was not a witness to the battle, was far away, and his command post got surrounded. And in general, as a result of those events, he was removed from command.

Other questions were also asked: why, as witnesses, the Military Prosecutor’s Office did not interrogate the survivors of the direct participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, - Vasilyeva And Shemyakina- to whom state awards were awarded back in 1942?

In a word, there was criticism of the source from the Military Prosecutor's Office, and it was significant. But it only impressed specialists or people very interested in the topic. One thing was clear: it was vital to find another document. One that could be contrasted with a “politically biased” reference report. Preferably, it comes from a structure that is at least as powerful as the Military Prosecutor’s Office.

One should agree one hundred percent with Vladimir Medinsky’s assessment. This is truly a great success. New document, matter from military counterintelligence“Smersh” meets all the requirements and can actually serve as a counterbalance to the certificate from the Military Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, counterintelligence officers interviewed people who were not inferior in authority to the regiment commander. In particular, the new evidence is the testimony of the second person after the commander - the military commissar of that very 1075th regiment Akhmedzhan Mukhamedyarov: “Up to 50 enemy tanks were moving against the second platoon in two echelons. The unequal battle lasted 4-5 hours, the heroes, having brought the tanks to close range, hand grenades and with bottles of fuel they knocked out and destroyed 18 enemy tanks. After all the fighters of this platoon, led by the political instructor of this platoon, so. Klochkov were killed and crushed by tanks, the enemy managed to break through the regiment’s line of defense and move forward.”

Another undoubted success can be considered that in the “case with the stamp “Smersh”” there was evidence of precisely that same private, Illarion Vasilyev, whom the Military Prosecutor’s Office ignored: “On the morning of November 16, 1941, the Germans launched an attack on our defense... Political instructor Comrade Klochkov ordered us to leave the trenches into passable cracks and told us that we were left alone at the line, we would not retreat, but would fight to the last... We let the tanks in, crawled up to them from about 7 meters and put them under the tracks. bunches of grenades, and bottles of flammable liquid were thrown into the cracks of tank crews. We destroyed large group tanks. I remember that at my end on the left flank, where I was, five tanks were knocked out.”

In short, the entire corpus of documents found and each of them separately is a very great success, which falls to the lot of researchers not that often. Vladimir Medinsky even calls to “put a dot on top of a dot,” that is, to once and for all stop the debate about what exactly the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men was.

Another thing is that criticism of historical sources has not yet been canceled. Let's say, people may appear who interpret the new turn as a clash between two offices: the Military Prosecutor's Office vs. Smersh, judges vs. counterintelligence. Journalistic excesses cannot be ruled out. Thus, some are already questioning the newly found and published testimony of military commissar Akhmedzhan Mukhamedyarov: they say, he, too, like the regiment commander, was removed from office. And for the same thing.

A dot over a dot can become an ellipsis. And become an incentive for further study of the history of the brightest and most heroic episode of the Battle of Moscow.

On June 7, a certificate dated May 10, 1948, compiled by military prosecutor N. Afanasyev, was published on the website of the State Archives of the Russian Federation. The pages contain short report about the progress of the investigation into the famous myth of “Panfilov’s 28 men.”

“Panfilov Heroes” - 28 people from the personnel of the 316th Infantry Division who participated in the defense of Moscow in 1941 under the command of Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov. During the Soviet era, the legend about them became widespread: supposedly on November 16, during a new offensive of the German army on the capital, the guards destroyed 18 enemy tanks. However, since then, reports have appeared more than once that the story of “Panfilov’s 28 men” is a myth constructed as part of state propaganda. A document published by the State Archives of the Russian Federation confirmed that this story is an ordinary Soviet fairy tale.

The report begins by telling about the fate of one of the “Panfilovites” - Sergeant Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin. In 1942, he was captured by the Germans and agreed to become chief of police in the occupied village of Perekop. When the liberation of the Kharkov region began in 1943, Dobrobabin was arrested for treason, but escaped and again ended up in German army. After 5 years, Ivan was finally taken into custody, he admitted guilt and received 15 years for high treason. During Dobrobabin’s arrest, they found a book “About 28 Panfilov Heroes”: it described the battles in the Dubosekovo area. But information about the exploits of the soldiers and Ivan himself was never confirmed.

The first message about the guardsmen of Panfilov’s division appeared on November 27, 1941 in the newspaper “Red Star”, written by front-line correspondent V.I. Koroteev. The essay described the battles of the 5th company under the command of political instructor V.G. Dieva, when soldiers destroyed 18 German tanks. At the end there was information that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.” The next day, the same publication published an editorial by literary secretary A.Yu. Krivitsky, which said that 29 Panfilov men fought with enemy tanks. The material was called “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes,” because, according to the newspaper, one of the guards wanted to surrender, but was shot by his colleagues. The article ended with the following saying: “all 28 of them laid down their heads. They died, but did not let the enemy through.” The soldiers' names were not indicated.

On January 22, 1942, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an essay entitled “About 28 Fallen Heroes,” written by the same Alexander Krivitsky. Only now the author poses as an eyewitness to military events, naming for the first time the names of the participants and the details of their deaths. All the poems, verses and essays telling the story of the “Panfilovites” only retell the materials of the literary secretary in different interpretations. On July 21, 1942, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In May 1942, a Red Army soldier from the Guards Division named after him was arrested on the Western Front. Panfilova Kuzhebergenov Daniil Aleksandrovich for attempting to surrender to German captivity. During interrogations, it turned out that he was on the list of 28 dead guardsmen. It turned out that Daniil did not participate in the battles near Dubosekov, but simply gave testimony based on newspaper reports where they wrote about him as a hero. Having received this data, Colonel I.V. Kaprov reported to the awards department of the State Administration of the NGO that Kuzhebergenov was mistakenly included among the “28 Panfilovites.”

Already in August 1942, a check began against three applicants for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from among 28 guardsmen. The Military Prosecutor's Office, the battalion commissar, as well as the senior instructor of GlavPURKKA dealt with the cases of Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev, Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin and Ivan Demidovich Shadrin. The resulting report stated that 28 heroes were on the list of the 4th company, which occupied the defense of Dubosekov. Due to the serious impact of superior enemy forces, the regiment suffered big losses and retreated to a defensive line. For the withdrawal, regiment commander I.V. Kaprov and military commissar Mukhomedyarov were removed from their positions. Nothing was said about the exploits of the 28 guardsmen during the battles.

Monument to 28 Panfilov guardsmen. Almaty

Local residents from the nearby village of Nelidovo said that Panfilov’s division fought near them on November 16, 1941. However, the Germans were repelled only by arriving units on December 20 Soviet army. Due to prolonged snowfalls, the corpses of the dead were not collected and funerals were not held. Therefore, in February 1942, several bodies were found on the battlefield, including the corpse of political instructor V.G. Klyuchkova. In the organized mass grave, in which it is believed that “Panfilov’s men” are buried, in fact lie 6 soldiers of the Soviet army. Other residents settlement they said that after the battle they saw the surviving guardsmen Illarion Vasiliev and Ivan Dobrobabin. Thus, the only established message about the feat of “28 Panfilov’s men” is the November message in “Red Star” by correspondent V.I. Koroteev and secretary Krivitsky.

On November 23-24, when leaving the headquarters, Koroteev met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division S.A. Egorova. He told him about the soldiers of one company who held back the advance of 54 tanks. Sergei Andreevich himself was not a participant in the fighting and spoke from the words of another commissar, who was also not present there. The correspondent got acquainted with the report about the company that “stood to death - died, but did not retreat,” in which only two turned out to be traitors. When Vasily Ignatievich arrived in Moscow, he reported to the editor of “Red Star” D.I. Ortenberg the situation and suggested writing about the heroic feat of the guards. David Iosifovich liked the idea: he clarified the number of soldiers several times and decided that from the incomplete composition of the company (about 30-40 people) it was enough to subtract two deserters and get the same number 28. On November 27, 1941, a short article was published in the newspaper, and on November 28 - the previously mentioned editorial “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes”.

During interrogations, Kravitsky and Ortenberg confirmed each other’s words: the author said that the idea for the article was suggested to him by the editor himself, but he does not know where the number of guardsmen came from and their names. Alexander Yuryevich even went to the village of Dubosekovo to talk with regiment commander Karpov, commissar Mukhamelyarov and company commander Gundilovich. They told him about the dead and the feat, but they themselves did not participate in the battle. The famous expression “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind” is a literary invention of the author. The editor was happy to post such material and provided it with the slogan “Death or Victory.”

War memorial. Village Dubosekovo

The decisive part of the investigation was the testimony of the former commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, I.V. Kaprova:

“There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 15, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. I didn’t say anything to anyone, none of the correspondents contacted me at that time, and I couldn’t talk about the feat of 28 guardsmen, because there was no such battle. And I didn’t write a report on this matter. Later, I heard about this for the first time when, in a conversation with me, Krivitsky stated that exactly this number of guardsmen was needed, to which I told him that the entire regiment was fighting German tanks. The names for the article were dictated by Captain Gundilovich, but there were and could not be any documents about the 28 Panfilov men in the regiment. I don’t know who initiated the compilation of award sheets and lists of 28 guardsmen.”

Thus, it becomes clear that “28 Panfilov’s Men” is a fiction of “Red Star”: editor Ortenberg, literary secretary Krivitsky and correspondent Koroteev. Unfortunately, this investigation did not stop us from erecting a monument to the guardsmen in the village of Nelidovo, Moscow Region, and naming schools, streets, enterprises and collective farms after them. Soviet Union. Moreover, in the fall of 2015 it will be released feature film- “Twenty-eight Panfilov’s men.” Funds for the production of the film were collected through a crowdfunding campaign and funding from the Ministry of Culture - a total of about 60 million rubles.