The history of the Second World War is full of heroic pages. However, over the 70 years that have passed since the Victory, many falsifications have been revealed, as well as stories about how certain events took place that raise doubts about their authenticity. Among them is the feat of 28 Panfilovites, which is mentioned in the anthem of Moscow and which more than once became the basis for feature film scripts.
Backstory
In the first months after the start of the Second World War in the cities of Frunze and Alma-Ata, the 316th Infantry Division was formed, the command of which was entrusted to the then military commissar of the Kyrgyz SSR, Major General IV Panfilov. At the end of August 1941, this military unit became part of the active army and was sent to the front near Novgorod. Two months later, he was transferred to the Volokolamsk region and ordered to take up a 40 km defense zone. The soldiers of the Panfilov division had to constantly wage exhausting battles. Moreover, only in the last week of October 1941, they knocked out and burned 80 units of enemy equipment, and lossesthe enemy in manpower amounted to more than 9 thousand officers and soldiers.
The division under the command of Panfilov included 2 artillery regiments. In addition, she had one tank company under her command. However, one of its rifle regiments was poorly prepared, as it was formed shortly before leaving for the front. The Panfilovites, as they were later called in the Soviet press, were opposed by three tank and one rifle divisions of the Wehrmacht. Enemies went on the offensive on October 15.
The feat of the Panfilovites near Moscow: a version of the Soviet period
One of the most famous Soviet patriotic legends, which originated during the Great Patriotic War, tells about the events at the Dubosekovo junction, which allegedly took place on November 16, 1941. She first appeared in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, in an essay by front correspondent V. Koroteev. According to this source, 28 people who were part of the fourth company of the second battalion of the 1075th regiment, commanded by political instructor V. Klochkov, destroyed 18 enemy tanks during a fierce 4-hour battle. At the same time, almost all of them died in an unequal battle. The article also cited a phrase that, according to Koroteev, Klochkov uttered before his death: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”
The feat of 28 Panfilov's men: the story of one falsification
The next day after the first article in Krasnaya Zvezda, a material was published by A. Yu. Krivitsky, en titled “Testament of 28 fallen heroes”, whomthe journalist called it none other than the Panfilovites. The feat of the soldiers and their political instructor was described in detail, but the publication did not mention the names of the participants in the events. They first got into the press only on January 22, when the same Krivitsky presented the feat of the Panfilovites in a detailed essay, acting as an eyewitness to those events. Interestingly, Izvestia wrote about the battles near Volokolamsk as early as November 19 and reported only 9 tanks destroyed and 3 burned.
The story of the heroes who defended the capital at the cost of their lives shocked the Soviet people and soldiers who fought on all fronts, and the command of the Western Front prepared a petition addressed to the People's Commissar of Defense to appropriate the 28 brave soldiers indicated in article by A. Krivitsky, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As a result, already on July 21, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Council signed the corresponding decree.
Official exposure
Already in 1948, a large-scale investigation was carried out to establish whether the feat of 28 Panfilov's men really took place. The reason was that a year before that, a certain I. E. Dobrobabin had been arrested in Kharkov. He was prosecuted with the wording “for treason,” as investigators from the military prosecutor’s office discovered irrefutable facts confirming that during the war years he voluntarily surrendered and entered the service of the invaders. In particular, it was possible to establish that this former policeman in 1941 was a participant in the battle near the Dubosekovo junction. Moreover, it turned out that he and Dobrobabin, mentioned in Krivitsky's article, -the same person, and he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero. Further investigation made it possible to consider everything stated in the articles in which the feat of the Panfilovites near Moscow was described as a falsification. The revealed facts formed the basis of a certificate signed by the then Prosecutor General of the USSR G. Safonov, which was presented to A. A. Zhdanov on June 11, 1948.
Criticism in the press
The results of the investigation, which cast doubt on the fact that the feat of the Panfilovites in the form described in the publications of the Red Star, actually took place, did not get into the Soviet press. Only in 1966 did the first article appear in Novy Mir concerning the November battles near Dubosekovo. In it, the author urged to study the facts concerning who the Panfilovites were, whose feat was described in all history textbooks. However, this topic did not receive further development in the Soviet press until the beginning of perestroika, when thousands of archival documents were declassified, including the results of the 1948 investigation, which established that the feat of the Panfilov heroes was just a literary fiction.
Where did the number 28 come from
Light on how and why in 1941 there was a distortion of the facts concerning the Panfilov soldiers, sheds a transcript of the interrogation of the correspondent Koroteev. In particular, he points out that upon his return from the front, he presented information about the battle of the 5th company of the 316th rifle division, which fell on the battlefield without giving up its positions, to the editor of Krasnaya Zvezda. He asked him how many fighters there were, andKoroteev, who knew that she was understaffed, replied that 30-40, adding that he himself was not in the 1075th rifle regiment, since it turned out to be impossible to get through to his position. In addition, he said that, according to a political report from the regiment, two soldiers tried to surrender, but were shot dead by their comrades. Thus, it was decided to publish the number 28 and write about only one faint-hearted fighter. This is how the legend and the fictitious “Panfilov’s dead, all as one”, whose feat was sung in poems and songs, appeared.
Attitude towards achievement
Today it is blasphemous to argue about whether the Panfilovites were heroes. The feat of all those soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division, who honestly fulfilled their duty in November 1941, is undoubted, as is their great merit in the fact that the Soviet troops did not allow the fascist invaders into the capital of our Motherland. Another thing is that the fact that traitors were among those awarded is an insult to the memory of real heroes who did not spare their lives for the sake of achieving the Great Victory, the 70th anniversary of which will soon be celebrated by all mankind, who does not suffer from historical amnesia.
