28 Panfilov's men, true or false. The real story of “Panfilov’s 28 Men.” Facts and documentary information. How did the investigation into the feat of the Kazakhs near Dubosekovo begin?

In the years Great Patriotic War many heroic deeds were performed. People gave their own lives so that the future population of the country would be happy and live without worries. Take, for example, the battles Leningrad. The soldiers stopped the cartridges with their chests and went on the offensive to prevent the Germans from moving forward. But did all the exploits we know about actually happen? Let's figure it out and the real story of the heroes - 28 Panfilov's men will help us with this.

As we are used to seeing

We still have school desks told about the real story 28 Panfilovites. Of course, the information given in school is taken as the ideal. Therefore, the story, which has been familiar since youth, goes like this.

In mid-November 1941, when only five months had passed after the start of Hitler's invasion, 28 men from one of the rifle regiments defended themselves near Volokolamsk from the Nazi offensive. The head of the operation was Vasily Klochkov. The fight with the enemies lasted more than four hours. During all this time, the heroes were able to raze about twenty tanks to the ground, stopping the Germans for several hours. Unfortunately, no one managed to survive - everyone was killed. In the spring of 1942, the whole country was already aware of what they had done 28 heroes. An order was issued that stated that posthumous orders of Heroes of the Soviet Union should be awarded to all fallen soldiers. In the summer of the same year, the titles were awarded.

The real story of the heroes - 28 Panfilov's men - Secrets.Net

Or didn't everyone die?

Ivan Dobrobabin, after the end of the war, in 1947, was convicted of treason. According to the prosecutor's office, at the beginning of 1942 he was captured by the Germans, with whom he later remained in the service. A year later, Soviet forces finally got to him, putting him behind bars. But it takes a long time Ivan didn't stay - he ran away. His next action is clear - he left again to serve the Nazis. He worked in the German police, where he arrested citizens of the Soviet Union.

After the end of the war, a forced search was made at Dobrobabin’s house. The police were shocked to find a book about 28 Panfilov men, where Ivan was listed as killed! Of course, he had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The traitor to his homeland understands that his position leaves much to be desired. Therefore, it is advisable to tell the authorities everything that really happened. According to him, he was among these 28 people, but the Nazis did not kill him, but simply shell-shocked him. While checking all the dead, the Germans found Dobrobabina alive and taken prisoner. He did not stay in the camp for long - he managed to escape. Ivan goes to the village where he was born and spent his youth. But it turned out to be occupied by the Germans. It was too late to go back, so he decides to stay in the police service.

This is not the end of the traitor's story. In 1943, the Russian army advances again. Ivan has no choice but to flee to Odessa where his relatives lived. There, of course, no one suspected that the pious Russian soldier was working for the Nazis. When Soviet troops approached the city, Dobrobabin again found himself in the ranks of his compatriots, continuing the joint offensive. The war ended for him Vienna.

After the war, in 1948, a military tribunal took place. Based on the resolution, Ivan Dobrobabina sentenced to fifteen years in prison, confiscation of property and deprivation of all orders and medals, including one of the highest ranks received posthumously. In the mid-50s, the term of imprisonment was reduced to seven years.

His fate after prison was such that he moved to his brother, where he lived to the age of 83 and died an ordinary death.

The newspaper doesn't lie

In 1947, it turns out that not everyone died. One not only remained alive, but also betrayed the country by ending up on German service. The prosecutor's office began an investigation into the events that actually happened.

According to the documents, the newspaper " A red star"was one of the first to publish a note about the heroic feat. The correspondent was Vasily Koroteev. He decided to omit the names of the soldiers, but only said that no one remained alive.

A day later, a small article entitled “The Testament of Panfilov’s Men” appears in the same newspaper. It says that all the fighters were able to stop the enemy’s advance on the Soviet Union. Alexander Krivitsky was the newspaper's secretary at that time. He also signed the article.

After signing the material about the feat of the heroes in “Red Star”, a material appears in which all the names of the dead heroes were published, where, of course, Ivan Dobrobabin.

A few survived!

If you believe the chronicle of events about the real history of 28 Panfilov’s men, then it becomes clear that during the verification of the heroes’ case, Ivan Dobrobabin was not the only survivor of that battle. According to sources, at least five more people besides him did not die. During the battle, they were all wounded, but survived. Some of them were captured by the Nazis.

Daniil Kuzhebergenov, one of the participants in the battle, was also captured. He stayed there for only a few hours, which was quite enough for the prosecutor’s office to admit that he himself surrendered to the Germans. This led to his name being replaced by another at the award ceremony. Of course, he did not receive the award. And until the end of his life he was not recognized as a participant in the battle.

The prosecutor's office studied all the materials of the case and came to the conclusion that there was no story about the 28 Panfilovites. The journalist supposedly made this up. How true this is is known only to the archive, where all the documents of that time are stored.

Interrogation of the commander

Ilya Karpov is the commander of the 1075th regiment, where all 28 people served. When the prosecutor's office conducted an investigation, Karpov was also present. He said that there were no 28 heroes who stopped the Germans.

In fact, at that time the fascists were opposed by the fourth company, from which over a hundred people died. Not a single newspaper correspondent approached the regiment commander for an explanation. Of course, Karpov did not talk about any 28 soldiers, since they simply did not exist. He was completely unaware of what was the basis for writing an article in the newspaper.

In the winter of 1941, a correspondent from the newspaper “ A red star", from which the commander learns about certain Panfilovites who defended the Motherland. The newspapermen admitted that this is exactly how many people were needed to write the note.

According to journalists

Alexander Krivitsky, who was a correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, reports that his material about 28 Panfilovites standing in defense of the country is a complete fiction. None of the soldiers testified to the journalist.

According to the prosecutor's office that conducted the investigation, everyone who was in the battle died. Two men from the company raised their hands, which only meant that they were ready to surrender to the Germans. Our soldiers did not tolerate betrayal and killed two traitors themselves. There was not a word in the documents about the number of people who died in the battle. Moreover, the names remained unknown.

When the journalist returned to the capital again, he told the editor “ Red Star"about a battle where Russian soldiers took part. Later, when asked about the number of people participating, Krivitsky replied that there were about forty people, two of whom were traitors. Gradually the number dropped to thirty people, two of whom surrendered to the Germans. Therefore, exactly 28 people are considered heroes.

Local residents think that...

According to the local population, at that time there were actually fierce battles with Nazi forces. Six people who were found dead were buried in this area. There is no doubt that Soviet soldiers truly heroically defended the country.

The story of the 28 Panfilov men who defended Moscow is known to almost everyone. At the same time, disputes constantly arise around the reliability of these events, first described in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. The Kremlin, for example, believes that “the story in one form or another with the Panfilov heroes really took place.” Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said this. Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky even stated that no one should question the reliability and authenticity of the soldiers’ feat on the outskirts of Moscow. Experts discussed whether the story about 28 Panfilov men was true.

Questions:

What is the story of the 28 Panfilov men based on?

Nikita Petrov

The story about the feat of the Panfilov guardsmen was published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on November 28, 1941 by the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky. Already the title of his article - “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” - seemed to contain the exact number of heroes, and the text itself quite categorically stated: “All twenty-eight laid down their heads. They died, but did not let the enemy through.” Later, Krivitsky himself admitted that he wrote the article on behalf of the editor of Krasnaya Zvezda, who gave him a fictitious number of deaths.

Mikhail Myagkov

The story is based on a real battle that took place in one of the most critical moments defense of Moscow. The first to describe it were the war correspondents of Red Star. Their source is eyewitness accounts recorded at the end of November 1941. It was then that the figure of 28 Panfilov men appeared. There are also transcripts of conversations with other servicemen of the 316th Infantry (Panfilov) Division, which are stored in the scientific archive of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Why are there disputes about the veracity of the story about 28 Panfilov men?

Nikita Petrov

Doubts about the authenticity of this story arose already in 1942, and the reason was that not all of the recipients died, and those who survived, as it turned out, were captured, and some even served with the Germans. The conclusions of the Military Prosecutor's Office in 1948, which checked all these circumstances, were not made public, but were partially leaked. Subsequently, rumors that this feat was fictitious and unreal only grew and multiplied. By the mid-1960s, the voices of doubters became so noticeable that the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee could no longer ignore it. At one of the meetings on November 10, 1966, Leonid Brezhnev said with indignation: “What is sacred and most dear in the hearts of our people is criticized in some works, in magazines and other publications. After all, some of our writers agree, and they are published, to the point that there was supposedly no Aurora salvo, that it was supposedly a blank shot, and so on, that there were not 28 Panfilov men, that there were fewer of them, this fact was almost invented , that there was no Klochkov and his call, that “Moscow is behind us and we have nowhere to retreat.” But if under Soviet censorship it was possible to prohibit discussion of this topic, then after August 1991, in the conditions of a free press, documents were made public that left no doubt that this was a myth.

Mikhail Myagkov

The essence of the dispute is that some (including the former director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation S.V. Mironenko) take the position that the names of 28 Panfilov men were taken out of thin air, such a battle did not take place. They refer to the report of the chief military prosecutor N. Afanasyev from 1948, which states that the feat of 28 Panfilov men is an invention of military journalists. Their goal is to expose the myth. But let's not be naive. The goal of the whistleblowers is to show the untenable the whole meaning of the sacrificial struggle for their homeland. Since there were no heroic deeds, there were no people who were ready to undertake them, and there won’t be today. That is, it would be better if the Americans freed us, or at least imposed democracy. Others say that there was a battle and these 28 took part in it, although there were many more who distinguished themselves in the Panfilov division. I am close to the position of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G.A. Kumanev, who writes: “It turned out that not all of the “twenty-eight” were dead. What of this? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded and shell-shocked, survived against all odds in the battle of November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that an enemy tank column rushing towards Moscow was stopped at the Dubosekovo crossing? Doesn’t refute.”

Was there a battle near Dubosekovo?

Nikita Petrov

According to scientific publications based on archive materials, including German ones, it has been established that on November 16, 1941, the 1st and 2nd German tank groups launched an offensive in the morning at 07:40 and, having passed the village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo platform, already By 9 o'clock in the morning they occupied Bolshoye Nikolskoye and Petelino. That is, the tanks were not stopped. And by the end of the day, tank groups captured Rozhdestveno and Lystsevo, having advanced more than ten kilometers in a day. Later, on the territory of the Nelidovo village council, residents first found the bodies of three dead Red Army soldiers, then in the spring three more, including political instructor Klochkov. They are all buried in mass grave on the outskirts of the village of Nelidovo. That is, the real picture of the events of November 16 does not at all correspond to the myth launched by Krivitsky.

Mikhail Myagkov

Yes, I was. On the day the new German attack on Moscow began - November 16, 1941 - the 316th Infantry Division of General Panfilov was attacked by one infantry and two tank divisions of the Wehrmacht. But it was not possible to reach the capital in two or three jumps. Enemy tanks got stuck in our defense. It is a fact that at that time the entire 316th Panfilov division, the entire 1075th regiment and its entire 4th company, which included the legendary 28 Panfilov men, fought heroically. After the war, regiment commander I.V. Karpov noted: “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.” Already on November 18, 1941, the 316th Division was renamed the 8th Guards Division and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On this day, its legendary commander, Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, died in battle.

Are Panfilov's men real people?

Nikita Petrov

All those awarded by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942 were real people, but they did not do what was attributed to them. The history of the emergence of the list for presentation for awards in itself indicates the random nature of its formation and the deliberate adjustment of the number of awardees to the figure 28 specified in newspaper essays.

Mikhail Myagkov

The real political instructor Klochkov fought and died near Dubosekovo. It was there that the remaining 28 heroes fought. There are their names, photographs, service records. They were not aliens, as they try to make us believe today. It’s fortunate that one of these 28 survived. By the way, General I.V. himself Panfilov, who served since the First World War, knew that soldiers should be trained not to die, but to destroy the enemy. Artillery ambushes, special troikas of fighters armed with grenades and Molotov cocktails are his merit and his tactics. The result is the recognition of German generals: “The 316th Russian division has many well-trained soldiers and is waging an amazingly stubborn fight.”

What is the historical significance of the story of Panfilov's 28 men?

Nikita Petrov

It is safe to say that the history of the emergence and debunking of any historical myth is instructive and important. We should never forget that truth is always concrete. And in this case, both Krivitsky’s essay in “Red Star” and numerous book publications by him and other authors did not pass the test of specificity and compliance with historical sources. The second lesson is also important, emerging in today’s controversy around the 28 Panfilovites. The education of patriotic feelings cannot be based on lies or “deception that elevates us.” The truth always comes out sooner or later. And the result of many years of deception and ideological fooling will be the cynicism of the younger generation and disbelief in nothing.

Mikhail Myagkov

This is a fight symbol. And this symbol helped us win in 1945. Today, the memory of 28 Panfilov’s men is part of our great truth about the war. The truth that has entered our gene pool shapes our historical consciousness. Anyone who today does not believe that these 28 could stop 18 German tanks would probably be the first to run from the battlefield at Dubosekovo on a frosty November day in 1941. And one more thing: does anyone today consider that the Spartans who stopped the Persians in the 5th century BC were not three hundred, but perhaps more or less? No. The number three hundred has gone down in history, culture, and has become a legend. So the feat of the 28 became legendary when the legend was made up of history.

Russia will never stop trying to trample on its heroes who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland.

At the request of citizens

State Archives Russian Federation, headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, gave a new reason for discussion about the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes.

« In connection with numerous appeals from citizens, institutions and organizations, we are posting a certificate-report of the Chief Military Prosecutor N. Afanasyev “About 28 Panfilovites” dated May 10, 1948, based on the results of the investigation of the Main 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 certificate-report is not a sensation - its existence is known to everyone who was interested in the history of the feat.

On its basis, the head of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Citizen Mironenko, himself made statements that “there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths propagated by the state.”

But before we talk about myth and truth, let's remember the classic story of Panfilov's heroes.

Classic version of the feat

According to it, on 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 to the south. east of Volokolamsk.

During the 4-hour battle, they destroyed 18 enemy tanks, and the German advance towards Moscow was suspended. All 28 fighters were killed in the battle.

In April 1942, when the feat of 28 Panfilov men became widely known in the country, the command of the Western Front issued a petition to award all 28 soldiers the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in Krivitsky’s essay were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The “resurrected” Dobrobabin managed to serve the Germans and take Vienna

The investigation, a certificate report on the results of which was published by GARF, began in November 1947, when the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison arrested and prosecuted Ivan Dobrobabin for treason.

According to the case materials, while at the front, Dobrobabin voluntarily surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 entered their service. He served as chief of police in the village of Perekop, temporarily occupied by the Germans, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region.

In March 1943, during the liberation of this area from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by Soviet authorities, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing active treasonous activities, arrests of Soviet citizens and the direct implementation of forced sending labor to Germany.

When Dobrobabin was arrested again after the war, 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, understanding the situation he found himself in, honestly told how it happened. He actually took part 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 people, 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 the Red Army went on the offensive again in 1943, 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 Iasi-Kishinev operation, the capture of Budapest and Vienna, ended the war in Austria.

By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District on June 8, 1948, Ivan Dobrobabin was sentenced to 15 years in prison with disqualification for five years, confiscation of property and deprivation of medals “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War” Patriotic War 1941–1945”, “For the capture of Vienna” and “For the capture of Budapest”; By 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 and lived ordinary life and died in December 1996 at the age of 83.

Krivitsky 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 his service with the Germans. The prosecutor's office was ordered to check all the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing 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 German tanks appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in an essay by front-line correspondent Vasily Koroteev. This note did not name the names of the heroes, but said that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.”

The next day, the editorial “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” appeared in the Red Star, 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 “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 for 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 Narsutbay, Kaleinikov Dmitry Mitrofanovich, Natarov Ivan Moiseevich, Shemyakin Grigor th Mikhailovich, Dutov Pyotr Danilovich,

Mitchenko Nikita, Shopokov Duishenkul, Konkin Grigory Efimovich, Shadrin Ivan Demidovich, Moskalenko Nikolay, Emtsov Pyotr Kuzmich, Kuzhebergenov Daniil Alexandrovich, Timofeev Dmitry Fomich, Trofimov Nikolay Ignatievich, Bondarenko Yakov Alexandrovich, Vasiliev Larion Romanovich, Belashev Nikolay Nikonorovich, Bezrodny Grigor y, Sengirbaev Musabek , Maksimov Nikolay, Ananyev Nikolay.

Survivors of Dubosekovo

In 1947, prosecutors checking the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing 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 passed through German captivity.

It was especially difficult for Daniil Kuzhebergenov. He spent only a few hours in captivity, but that was enough to accuse him of voluntarily surrendering to the Germans.

As a result, in the presentation for the award, his name was replaced by a namesake, who, even theoretically, could not participate in that battle. And if the rest of the survivors, except for 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 - “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.”

Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace

Testimony of the regiment commander

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

During interrogation at the prosecutor’s office in 1948, Kaprov testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks 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 political department of the division 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, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, fought with German tanks, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen...

Captain Gundilovich, who had conversations with him on this topic, gave Krivitsky’s last name from memory; there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov men in the regiment and there could not have been.”

Interrogations of journalists

Alexander Krivitsky testified during interrogation: “When talking at the PUR with Comrade Krapivin, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov, written in my basement: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us,” I answered him that I had invented this myself...

...As far as the feelings and actions of the 28 heroes are concerned, this is my literary conjecture. I did not speak with any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I only spoke with a boy of about 14–15 years old, who showed me the grave where Klochkov was buried.”

Guard senior sergeant Nikolai Bogdashko. Cossacks against tanks. 45 cavalrymen repeated the feat of Panfilov’s men. And here’s what Vasily Koroteev said: “Around November 23–24, 1941, I, together with the war correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Chernyshev, was at the headquarters of the 16th Army...

When leaving the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division, Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and said that our people were fighting heroically in all sectors. In particular, Egorov gave an example of the heroic battle of one company with German tanks; 54 tanks advanced on the company’s line, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them.

Egorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke 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 become acquainted with the political report received from the regiment...

The political report spoke about the battle of the fifth company with enemy tanks and that the company stood “to the death” - it died, but did not retreat, and only two people turned out to be traitors, they 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 who died in this battle, and their names were not mentioned. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Egorov did not advise us to try to get into the regiment...

Upon arrival in Moscow, I reported the situation to the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Ortenberg, and talked about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that the company apparently was incomplete, about 30–40 people; I also said that two of these people turned out to be traitors...

I didn’t know that a forward was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of people who fought was 28, since two of the 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 to write about only one traitor in the editorial.”

“I was told that I would end up in Kolyma”

So, there was no feat of the 28 Panfilov heroes, and this is a literary fiction? This is what the head of GARF Mironenko and his supporters think.

But don't rush to conclusions.

Firstly, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Andrei Zhdanov, to whom the conclusions of the prosecutor's investigation were reported, did not give any progress. Let’s say a party leader decided to “drop the question.”

Alexander Krivitsky in the 1970s talked about how the investigation by the prosecutor's office proceeded in 1947–1948:

“I was told that if I refuse to testify that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that I did not talk to any of the seriously wounded or surviving Panfilov soldiers before publishing the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.”

Regimental Commander Kaprov was also not so categorical in his other testimony: “At 14-15 hours the Germans opened strong artillery fire... and again went on the attack with tanks...

Over 50 tanks were advancing in the regiment's sectors, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one tank even went to the regimental command post and set fire to the hay and the booth, so I accidentally was able to get out of the dugout: the embankment saved me railway, people who had survived the attack by German tanks began to gather around me.

The 4th company suffered the most: led by company commander Gundilovic, 20–25 people survived. The remaining companies suffered less."

There was a battle at Dubosekovo, the company fought heroically

Testimony from local residents indicates that on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo crossing, there really was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the advancing Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of 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, which allowed the Nazis to be defeated near Moscow.

According to archival data from 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 crossing did not destroy 18 tanks and not all of them died.

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

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

300 Spartans - a myth propagated by the Greek state?

One of the most famous military exploits in the history of mankind, which everyone has heard about, is the feat of the 300 Spartans who fell in the Battle of Thermopylae against the 200,000-strong Persian army in 480 BC.

Not everyone knows that it was not only 300 Spartans who fought 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 4,000 died in the battle, and about 400 were captured. Moreover, according to Herodotus, not all of the 300 warriors of King Leonidas died at Theromopylae. The warrior Pantin, sent by Leonidas as a messenger and only therefore not being on the battlefield, hanged himself, because shame and contempt awaited him in Sparta.

Aristodemus, who was not on the battlefield only because of illness, drank the cup of shame to the end, living the rest of his years with the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. And this despite the fact that he fought heroically in subsequent battles with the Persians.

Despite all these circumstances, you are unlikely to see Greek historians or the head of the Greek archive frantically bombarding the Greek media with materials about how “300 Spartans are a myth propagated by the state.”

So why, tell me, will Russia never stop trying to trample on its heroes who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland?

Heroes remain heroes

Director of the film “Panfilov’s 28 Men”: “There is nowhere to retreat” Historians agree that the feat of the 28 Panfilov heroes was of great significance, playing an exceptional mobilizing role, becoming an example of perseverance, courage and self-sacrifice. Phrase " Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!"became a symbol of the defenders of the Motherland for decades to come.

In the fall of 2015, the film “Panfilov's 28 Men” directed by Andrei Shalopa should be released on Russian screens. Fundraising for the film, which will tell the classic story of the feat of the defenders of Moscow, was and is being carried out using the crowdfunding method.

Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace

The project “Panfilov’s 28” raised 31 million rubles, which makes it one of the most successful crowdfunding projects in Russian cinema.

Perhaps this is the best answer to the question of what the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes means for our contemporaries.

For two years, representatives of the Russian Military Historical Society studied the archives. Declassified case classified as “Smersh” 1942-1944. designed to put an end to endless attempts at ideological reconstruction of the feat of our soldiers at the Dubosekovo crossing in 1941. Among the evidence of the feat are two descriptions of the battle, three new evidence that Panfilov’s men really fought to the death, details of how the heroes died, as well as confirmation of the phrase spoken by political instructor Klochkov:

Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!

There is evidence, but where did the long-term doubts come from? For decades, the feat of 28 Panfilov men was shrouded in many versions, conjectures and assumptions.

Photo: Diego Fiore / Shutterstock.com

It all started with articles by journalist Koroteev and literary secretary Krivitsky, who talked about the unequal battle of Panfilov’s men on the pages of “Red Star”. (“Testament of 28 fallen heroes” dated November 28, 1941, “About 28 fallen heroes” dated January 22, 1942). The first article described some details of the battle, during which 18 enemy tanks were destroyed.

Over fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guardsmen from the division. Panfilov... Only one out of twenty-nine became faint-hearted... only one raised his hands up... several guardsmen simultaneously, without saying a word, without a command, shot at the coward and traitor... laid down their heads - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy through...

In the second, January article, Krivitsky already published the names and surnames of Panfilov’s men who died in the unequal battle.

The battle lasted more than four hours. Already fourteen tanks stood motionless on the battlefield. Sergeant Dobrobabin has already been killed, fighter Shemyakin has been killed... Konkin, Shadrin, Timofeev and Trofimov are dead... With inflamed eyes, Klochkov looked at his comrades - “Thirty tanks, friends,” he told the soldiers, “we will all have to die, probably. Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat. Moscow is behind us.”... Kuzhebergenov walks straight under the barrel of an enemy machine gun, arms crossed over his chest, and falls dead...

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, at the request of the command of the Western Front, all 28 guardsmen who were listed in Krivitsky’s article were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Russian State University for the Humanities historian Alexander Krushelnitsky is not inclined to believe that there were exactly 50 tanks, as was written in the article, but at the same time he does not question the feat of Panfilov’s men and other defenders of Moscow.

Tanks never went into battle just like that, on their own. Behind them came the infantrymen who carried out the breakthrough. Subsequently, the Germans simply called them “shell grenadiers.” And the density of machine-gun fire that these infantrymen created was such that not one of the 28, if there were only 28 of them and if they were armed only exclusively with small arms and Molotov cocktails, not one of them simply survived would. Because 50 tanks are not even 50 cars on the road. Any person who served in the army, who underwent the so-called tank test, knows what a tank attack is. And he knows how high a degree of courage is required to simply stay in place, not to run. Honor and glory to those of our guys, may the kingdom of heaven be upon them, who then died near Moscow, who did not run and actually stopped the tanks. Many more of our soldiers died there. And the whole trouble is that those who died there are still nameless. And this is a huge number of people.

Many historians, oddly enough, were wary of the information about the disclosure of new documents about the feat of 28 Panfilov men. Some are convinced that the feat at the Dubosekovo crossing is just Krivitsky’s author’s fantasy. But in this case there is a purely scientific approach. The same cannot be said about those who are directly interested in the deheroization of our history. Many of them specifically drew attention at one time to the fact that articles about Panfilov’s men and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya appeared in newspapers almost simultaneously. Conspiracy attempts and desires once again There were many accusations of deliberate glorification for propaganda purposes of people who fought on the fields of the Great Patriotic War. In the case of the Panfilovites, the reason for doubt was a certificate - the report of the chief military prosecutor N. Afanasyev “About 28 Panfilovites” dated May 10, 1948, which in our time was presented by the State Archives of the Russian Federation and with which it all began:

Based on the materials of the inspection, as well as the personal explanations of Koroteev, Krivitsky and the editor of “Red Star” Ortenberg, it was established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, Ortenberg and especially Krivitsky.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The note itself told how in November 1947, the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison arrested Ivan Evstafievich Dobrobabin for treason. . During his arrest, they found a book about “28 Panfilov heroes,” and he himself was listed as one of the participants in the heroic battle at Dubosekovo, for which he received the title of Hero.

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During the interrogation of Dobrobabin, it turned out that other participants in the battle were also alive, there were no feats, and everything that was written about Panfilov’s men was nothing more than fiction. Based on this stuffing, it was decided to conduct a more detailed investigation. The articles of “Red Star” were subjected to detailed analysis.

One more circumstance was also taken into account. In May 1942, Red Army soldier Daniil Aleksandrovich Kuzhebergenov was arrested for voluntarily surrendering to German captivity, posing as a surviving Panfilov hero. Later, he admitted that he did not participate in the battle of Dubosekovo, but gave evidence based on newspaper articles, taking advantage of the fact that his name was indicated in the essay.

At the request of the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, instead of Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Askar Kuzhebergenov, who allegedly died in a battle with German tanks near Dubosekovo, was included in the Decree on awarding. However, Askar is not listed on the lists of the 4th company of the Kuzherbegenovs and, thus, could not have been among the “28 Panfilovites.”

It was on this certificate that the heroic story of “28 Panfilov’s men” crumbled in 1948. Krivitsky himself subsequently admitted that he was under pressure at that time. There are also publicly available testimonies from local residents, from which it follows that the battle did take place. This is how the chairman of the Nelidovo Council, Smirnova, described that day:

The battle of Panfilov’s division near our village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo crossing took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, were hiding in shelters... The Germans entered the area of ​​our village and the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by units of the Soviet Army on December 20, 1941. At this time there were large snow drifts, which continued until February 1942, due to which we did not collect the corpses of those killed on the battlefield and did not conduct funerals. ...In early February 1942, we found only three corpses on the battlefield, which we buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of the village.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About the same thing can be read in the stories of other residents. They also recalled how they carried the corpse of political instructor Klochkov to the mass grave. According to Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Lavrov, it is too early to draw 100% conclusions about what actually happened at the Dubosekovo crossing, since any historical documents require detailed and thorough study.

“Now the Minister of Culture (Vladimir Medinsky - approx. Constantinople) came out with the fact that documents had been found confirming that there were 28 of them, that this was the battle. But I haven’t seen the documents themselves yet. You need to watch them and only then respond to them. Historical science such that they will find only one document, and it turns out that it was not quite as it was thought before. But if we take the position of Mironenko, the scientific director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, then he was based on documents from 1948 as a professional historian. The minister said that for us the myth is more important than the historical truth. But if Medinsky’s assistants found documents confirming his, Medinsky’s, position, and confirming what was published during the war, well, wonderful. Even if we proceed from the documents of 1948, it was certainly a feat. And not 28, but much more of people".

Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky today refers to earlier documents from 1942-43, which indicate that the feat of 28 Panfilovites took place. As for who might need the falsification, there is a version that it was necessary against the backdrop of a wave of repression by the army generals and it was necessary to find at least some reasons to bring army officials to justice. Historians and publicists are now actively discussing the latest information about the feat of 28 Panfilov men.

V. Medinsky. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

As for this particular battle, my position remains the same, that in the form, in the form in which this battle was described and then replicated in Soviet propaganda materials, this battle did not happen, says the editor-in-chief of the Skepticism magazine, Ph.D. Sciences Sergey Soloviev. - This feat of Panfilov’s division does not devalue, but this particular episode with the words of political instructor Klochkov: there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind, and 18 destroyed tanks by 28 soldiers did not happen. From my point of view, there was certainly a feat that was accomplished by the soldiers and commanders of Panfilov’s division during the defense of Moscow, who, under the most difficult conditions, managed to stop the German offensive at the cost of their own lives. Not excluding Panfilov himself.

Russian State University for the Humanities historian Alexander Krushelnitsky does not question the feat of Panfilov and his fighters.

No one ever dared to challenge Panfilov’s feat. Panfilov died a heroic death defending his homeland. And a huge number of soldiers, commanders, and political workers subordinate to him shared his fate. I would like to look at that scoundrel who would question the very heroism of the dead. All those who died in the Great Patriotic War are all unconditional heroes. And there is no conversation.

I. Panfilov. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

And indeed, for the common man, all this hype that has arisen around the feat of Panfilov’s men is perhaps unnecessary. This should be considered as an occasion to remember once again the heroism of our soldiers who died a brave death on the fields of the Great Patriotic War.

Let the experts understand the documents. The most important thing is that we already believe in the feat of people that they accomplished, defending not only the capital, but all of Mother Russia and all of Europe from Hitler’s evil spirits. And the more children know and remember the words, even if fictitious, of political instructor Klochkov that “there is nowhere to retreat,” the more secure the feat of our entire people will be.

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

Everything else is apocrypha. Even now, with all the development of tracking and surveillance means, the military cannot say exactly how much and what exactly they destroyed. What can we say about the autumn of 1941? Almost nothing is known: not how many people died on both sides, not exactly how many tanks were destroyed, not even how many and what kind of weapons the Panfilovites who opposed the tanks had. There are estimates. But there are no exact numbers.

Two of the assessments deserve attention.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the grandiose monument in the field near the village of Nelidovo stands there completely on purpose.

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

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

A legend is just a legend, because it cannot be canceled by any means. historical facts. The legend is above the facts. She is more than facts.

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