In the history of the Armed Forces of our country, a prominent place is occupied by the Red Banner Panfilov Division, which was staffed by representatives of almost thirty nationalities that inhabited the USSR. Their role in protecting Moscow from the fascist hordes rushing towards it is indelible in human memory. But people of the older generation also remember the propaganda excitement that was raised around the “feat of 28 Panfilov’s”, which later turned out to be just an idle fiction of a journalist.
Legendary Division Commander
Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov began to master military science back in the years of the Imperialist war - in 1915 on the South-Western Front. Participating in hostilities as part of the 638th Olpinsky Regiment, he rose to the rank of sergeant major, which corresponds to the senior sergeant of the modern army. When the autocracy was overthrown in February 1917 and processes aimed at democratizing society began in the country, Panfilov joined the committee of his regiment.
In the very first days of the Civil War, he became a Red Army soldier. It should be noted that Ivan Vasilyevich was waiting for an unspeakablegood luck - the infantry regiment in which he was enrolled became part of the Chapaev division, and thus Panfilov, commanding a platoon first, and then a company, got the opportunity to gain combat experience under the command of one of the most famous and legendary commanders in the entire history of the Red Army. This experience was useful to him in future battles.
In the fire of the Civil War
In the period from 1918 to 1920, he had a chance to participate in battles with formations of the Czechoslovak corps, the White Poles, as well as the armies of Kolchak, Denikin and Ataman Dutov. Panfilov ended the civil war in Ukraine, leading units whose task was to fight numerous bandit formations, formed mainly from local nationalists. In addition, in those years, Ivan Vasilievich was instructed to command one of the platoons of the battalion of border guards.
In 1921, the command sent Ivan Vasilyevich to study at the Kyiv School of the Higher Command of the Red Army, which he graduated with honors two years later. By this time, Soviet power had already been established in the European part of the country, but fierce battles were still going on in the republics of Central Asia, and the young graduate was sent to the Turkestan front to fight the Basmachi.
It was in Central Asia that the career of the future legendary division commander was further developed. For ten years (1927-1937) he directed the regimental school of the 4th Turkestan rifle regiment, commanded a rifle battalion, a mountain rifle regiment, and in 1937 became chief of staff of the Central Asian military district. Nextan important step is his appointment in 1939 to the post of military commissar of Kyrgyzstan. In the last pre-war year, Ivan Vasilyevich was awarded the rank of major general for his services in strengthening the country's defense capability.
Formation of a division and sending it to the front
In July 1941, by order of the military commissar of Kyrgyzstan, Major General I. V. Panfilov, the 316th Infantry Division began to be completed. She soon became one of the two who in the entire history of the Red Army were given the name of their commanders. The first was Chapaevskaya, and the second was this Panfilov division. She was destined to go down in history as a model of mass heroism of soldiers and commanders.
Formed in July 1941, the Panfilov division, whose national composition included almost all representatives of the Central Asian republics, entered the battle with the Nazis in the Novgorod region a month later, and in October was redeployed near Volokolamsk. There, as a result of stubborn battles, she was able not only to defend her positions, but also with heroic counterattacks to completely defeat four German divisions, among which were two infantry, tank and motorized. During this period, the Panfilovites destroyed about 9 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, and also knocked out about 80 tanks.
Although the general situation at the front forced the division led by I. V. Panfilov to leave the positions defended by it and retreat in accordance with the general tactical plan of the command, it was one of the first at the front was awarded an honorarythe right to be called Guards.
To this day, a very curious document has been preserved, when reading which one involuntarily overflows with pride for those people who once blocked the path of the Nazis. This is a report from the commander of the 4th German tank brigade. In it, he calls the Panfilovites a “wild division” and reports that it is absolutely impossible to fight with these people: they are real fanatics and are not at all afraid of death. Of course, the German general was wrong: they were afraid of death, but they put the fulfillment of duty above life.
Official version of the event
In November of the same year, events took place that, in the presentation of their means of Soviet propaganda, made the division and its commander known throughout the country. We are talking about the famous battle in which the soldiers managed to destroy 18 enemy tanks near the Dubosekovo junction, despite the fact that there were only 28 of them.
The Panfilov division in those days fought fierce battles with the enemy, who tried to surround it and destroy the headquarters. According to the version widely disseminated by Soviet propaganda, on November 16, the soldiers of the 4th company, commanded by political instructor V. G. Klochkov, defending the Dubosekovo junction, located 8 kilometers from Volokolamsk, and repelling the attack of fifty enemy tanks, accomplished an unprecedented feat. In a battle that lasted four hours, they managed to destroy 18 enemy combat vehicles, and force the rest to turn back.
All of them, according to the same version, died the death of the brave. Political instructor Klochkov himself, dying,allegedly uttered a phrase that later became a propaganda cliché: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat: behind is Moscow!” Having fulfilled its duty, the Panfilov division stopped the further advance of the enemy in the Volokolamsk direction. On the same days, falling under heavy enemy mortar fire, the division commander himself, Lieutenant General I. V. Panfilov, also died.
Myth busted
Unfortunately, this story, when examined in detail, caused certain doubts among the researchers. Already after the war - in 1948 - a prosecutor's investigation of this incident was carried out. As a result, the chief military prosecutor of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Lieutenant General of Justice Afanasiev, was forced to state that the feat attributed to 28 Panfilov heroes was a fiction.
Resurrected traitor
The impetus for the beginning of the investigation was very curious circumstances. The fact is that a year before that, in Kharkov, they managed to arrest the traitor to the Motherland and the former accomplice of the Nazis, I. E. Dobrobabin. During a search, among other things, a book about the feat of 28 Panfilov's soldiers, popular at that time and published in mass circulation, was found in his possession.
Flipping through its pages, the investigator stumbled upon information that plunged him into amazement: it turned out that his defendant appears in it as one of the main participants in the events. Moreover, the book said that he died heroically and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. It is quite clear that after this "discovery" it was necessary to verify the rest of the facts stated by the authorspopular edition.
Falsification Exposed
Immediately, documents were requested that allowed an objective idea of the hostilities in which the Panfilov division then participated. The list of the dead at the end of November 1941, reports of all clashes with the enemy, reports of unit commanders and even intercepted German radio messages immediately lay on the table of the investigator of the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov region.
As a result, as mentioned above, the investigation convincingly proved that the facts set forth in the book are fiction and there is a deliberate falsification of the events. In May 1948, Lieutenant-General Afanasyev personally reported these findings to the Prosecutor General of the USSR G. N. Sofonov, who, in turn, drew up a document sent to A. A. Zhdanov.
A myth born from a journalist's pen
The initiator of the historical falsification, as it was established by the investigation, was the editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Ortenberg. At his direction, an article written by a newspaper reporter Krivitsky was published in the next issue, which contained partly unverified and partly deliberately fictional material. As a result, a myth was born about a small handful of heroes who managed to stop the enemy tank armada.
During interrogation, Krivitsky, who by that time had occupied one of the leading posts in the editorial office of the Krasnoye Znamya newspaper, admitted that the famous dying phrase of political instructor Klochkov “Russia is great, and retreatnowhere … was invented by him, as, indeed, everything else written in the book. But even without his confession, the lie was obvious: from whom could he hear those words, because, according to his version, all the participants in the battle died and there were no witnesses left?
The author of the falsification himself, thanks to the story he invented, managed to create a name for himself in literary circles, write and publish several books, become the author or at least co-author of several poems and poems about the unprecedented heroism of 28 Panfilov's men. And among other things, this story gave a tangible impetus to his further career growth.
Historical forgery
What really happened? This question is answered by further studies of historians of the Patriotic War. It can be seen from them that at that time the Panfilov division really fought in this area with several German corps. Moreover, in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, they took on a particularly fierce character.
However, neither our nor even the enemy military reports mention the battle described in the sensational newspaper article, thanks to which the Panfilov division became the center of everyone's attention at that time. The list of those who died in those days also does not correspond to the data given by Krivitsky. There were many killed: there were heavy battles, but they were completely different people.
The former commander of the rifle regiment stationed in that area at the time of the events described, testified that the Dubosekovo patrol was defended by a company that was completely destroyed during the fighting, but, according to him, there were 100 people, not 28. The Panfilov division in those days suffered heavy losses, and this company replenished their numbers. However, only 9 tanks were hit, of which 3 burned out on the spot, and the rest turned back and left the battlefield. In addition, he emphasized the absurdity of the assumption that 28 lightly armed fighters could successfully withstand 50 enemy tanks on flat terrain.
A myth picked up by Soviet propaganda
This myth became widespread in the post-war years thanks to Soviet propaganda. The materials of the prosecutor's check in 1948 were classified, and an attempt made in 1966 by E. V. Kardin, an employee of the Novy Mir magazine, to reveal the inconsistency of the official version in his article, received a sharp rebuff from L. I. Brezhnev. The Secretary General of the CPSU called the published materials slandering the party and the heroic history of our Motherland.
Only during the years of perestroika, when the materials of the investigation of 1948 were finally declassified, did it succeed, without detracting from the glory that the Panfilov division rightfully deserved, to bring to the attention of the general public the fact of distortion of the events of the past war.
However, despite such an unfortunate incident, the perpetrators of which were excessively zealous Soviet propagandists, one should recognize the great contribution of the Panfilovites to the victory over the Nazis. In November of the same year, their division became officially known as Panfilov. Only in the Volokolamsk direction in the period from November 16 to 21, she, in conjunction with other units and formations of the Soviet army, stoppedadvance of two German corps and one panzer division.
The subsequent fate of the division
The further combat path of the Panfilov division was difficult, full of losses, but, as before, covered with glory. In the first months of 1942, she, along with other Soviet units, took part in the battles against the SS division "Totenkopf". The fighting took place with unusual bitterness on both sides and caused numerous losses both in the ranks of the Panfilovites and their opponents.
Having fought with honor until 1945, that is, almost until the end of the Second World War, the Panfilov division during the attack on the Latvian city of Saldus was surrounded. As a result, almost all of its personnel died, and only 300 people were able to break through the enemy ring. Subsequently, the surviving members of the Panfilov division were assigned to other units and already in their composition ended the war.
Post-war years
In the post-war years, the division, which, thanks to its high fighting qualities and partly due to the propaganda excitement raised around it, was known to the whole country, was completely restored. The territory of Estonia was chosen as the place of its deployment. However, in 1967, the leadership of the Kyrgyz SSR turned to the government of the country with a request that the personnel of the Panfilov division with all weapons and equipment be transferred to them in the republic. This appeal was prompted by national security concerns and therefore met with support in Moscow.
Having become part of the Turkestan military district, the Panfilov division, whose composition by that time waslargely replenished with conscripts from the Central Asian republics, was partially stationed in the Kirghiz SSR, and partially in the Kazakh. For a state that included various republics, this was quite normal. But in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the history of the Panfilov Division has undergone several dramatic moments.
Suffice it to say that, being part of the Northern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, in 2003, completely unexpectedly for everyone, it was abolished and completely disbanded. It is difficult to say who and by virtue of what political or other interests made such a decision. However, the glorified division ceased to exist.
Only eight years later, when the seventieth anniversary of its foundation was celebrated, it was re-formed and received its former name. Today, its location is the city of Tokmok, located not far from Bishkek. The Panfilov division, whose national composition today is mainly a conglomerate of peoples inhabiting Kyrgyzstan, is serving under the command of a native of those places - Colonel Nurlan Isabekovich Kiresheev.
