In the history of the Armed Forces of our country, the Red Banner Panfilov Division occupies a prominent place, the composition of which was manned from representatives of almost thirty nationalities inhabiting the USSR. Their role in protecting Moscow from the fascist hordes torn to it is indelible in people's memory. But the people of the older generation are also reminded of the propaganda hype 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 as early as the years of the Imperialist War - in 1915 on the Southwestern Front. Participating in the fighting 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 in February 1917 the autocracy was overthrown and processes began in the country aimed at democratizing society, 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 Vasilievich was waiting for unspeakable luck - the infantry regiment, to which he was enlisted, became part of the Chapaev division, and thus Panfilov, commanding at first a platoon and then a company, was able to gain combat experience under the command of one of the most famous and legendary military leaders in the 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 the opportunity to participate in battles with the Czechoslovak Corps formations, White Poles, as well as the armies of Kolchak, Denikin and Ataman Dutov. Panfilov ended the civil war in Ukraine, leading units that were tasked with fighting numerous gang units formed mainly from local nationalists. In addition, in those years, Ivan Vasilievich was instructed to command one of the platoons of the border guards battalion.
In 1921, the command sent Ivan Vasilyevich to study at the Kiev school of higher command staff of the Red Army, which he graduated with honors from two years later. By this time, Soviet power had already been established in the European part of the country, but fierce fighting continued in the Central Asian republics, and a young graduate was sent to the Turkestan front to fight the Basmachi.
It was in Central Asia that the career of the future legendary divisional commander was further developed. For ten years (1927-1937) he led the regiment school of the 4th Turkestan Rifle Regiment, commanded the rifle battalion, mountain rifle regiment, and in 1937 became the chief of staff of the Central Asian military district. The next 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 capabilities.
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 staffed . She soon became one of the two who in the history of the Red Army was given the name of their commanders. The first was the Chapaevskaya, and the second was the Panfilov division. She was destined to go down in history as an example of the mass heroism of soldiers and commanders.
Formed in July 1941, the Panfilov Division, the national composition of which included almost all the representatives of the Central Asian republics, a month later entered into battle with the Nazis in the Novgorod region, and in October was redeployed to Volokolamsk. There, as a result of stubborn battles, she was able not only to defend her position, but also completely defeat four German divisions, including two infantry, tank and motorized, with heroic counterattacks. Panfilov’s during this period destroyed about 9 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, and also shot down about 80 tanks.
Although the general situation at the front forced the division headed by I.V. Panfilov to abandon the defended positions and retreat in accordance with the general tactical plan of the command, she was one of the first at the front to be awarded the honorary right to be called the guards.
A very curious document has survived to this day, upon reading which one involuntarily overflows with pride for those people who once blocked the way to the Nazis. This is the report of the commander of the 4th German tank brigade. In it, he calls the Panfilov’s “wild division” and reports that it is absolutely impossible to fight these people: they are real fanatics and are not at all afraid of death. Of course, the German general was mistaken: they were afraid of death, but duty was put above life.
The official version of the event
In November of the same year, events occurred that, outlined by means of Soviet propaganda, made the division and its commander famous throughout the country. We are talking about the famous battle in which the fighters managed to destroy 18 enemy tanks near Dubosekovo junction in a short time, despite the fact that there were only 28 of them.
In those days, the Panfilov division fought fiercely with the enemy, who tried to surround her and destroy the headquarters. According to the version widely circulated by Soviet propaganda, on November 16, soldiers of the 4th company, commanded by political instructor V.G. Klochkov, defending Dubosekovo, located 8 kilometers from Volokolamsk, and repelling the attack by fifty enemy tanks, performed an unprecedented feat. In a battle lasting four hours, they succeeded in destroying 18 enemy vehicles, and forcing the rest to turn back.
All of them, according to the same version, died the death of the brave. The political instructor Klochkov himself, dying, allegedly uttered a phrase that later became a propaganda cliche: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat: Moscow is behind!” Having fulfilled his duty, the Panfilov division stopped the further advance of the enemy in the Volokolamsk direction. In those days, falling under heavy enemy mortar fire, the division commander, Lieutenant General I.V. Panfilov, also died.
The dispelled myth
Unfortunately, this story, when examined in detail, raised some doubts among researchers. After the war - in 1948 - a prosecutor’s investigation of the incident was carried out. As a result, the chief military prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Justice Afanasyev, was forced to state that the feat attributed to 28 Panfilov’s heroes was fiction.
Risen from the Dead Traitor
The impetus for the start of the investigation was very curious circumstances. The fact is that a year earlier in Kharkov they managed to arrest the traitor of the Motherland and the former Nazi accomplice I.E. Dobrobabin. During a search, among other things, he discovered a book popular at that time and published in mass circulation about the exploit of 28 Panfilov’s men.
Turning over its pages, the investigator stumbled upon information that plunged him into amazement: it turned out that his person under investigation appeared 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 Hero of the Soviet Union. It is quite clear that after this “discovery” it was necessary to verify the remaining facts set forth by the authors of the popular publication.
Exposed rigging
Documents were immediately requested that made it possible to draw up an objective picture of the hostilities in which the Panfilov division then participated. The list of those who died at the end of November 1941, reports of all clashes with the enemy, reports of unit commanders and even intercepted German radiograms immediately laid down on the table of the investigator of the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov region.
As a result, as was said above, the investigation proved with all conviction that the facts presented in the book are fiction and there is a deliberate falsification of the events that have occurred. In May 1948, Lieutenant General Afanasyev personally reported on these findings to the USSR Prosecutor General G. N. Sofonov, who, in turn, drew up a document sent to him by A. A. Zhdanov.
The myth born of the pen of a journalist
The initiator of the historical falsification, as it was established by the investigation, was the editor of the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg. At his direction, the next issue published an article written by a newspaper reporter Krivitsky, which contained partially unverified, and partially deliberately fictitious material. As a result of this, the myth of a small handful of heroes who managed to stop the tank armada of the enemy was born.
During the interrogation, Krivitsky, who had by then taken one of the leading posts in the editorial office of the newspaper Krasnoye Znamya, admitted that the famous dying phrase of political instructor Klochkov “Great Russia, but nowhere to retreat ...” was invented by himself, as, by the way, everything else written in a book. But even without his recognition, the lie was obvious: from whom could he hear those words, because, according to him, all the participants in the battle were killed and there were no witnesses left?
Thanks to the story he made up, the author of falsification himself 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 unparalleled heroism of 28 Panfilov’s people. And besides everything else, this story gave a tangible impetus to his further career growth.
Historical forgery
What really happened? This question is answered by further studies of the historians of World War II. It can be seen from them that at that time the Panfilov division really fought in this area with several German corps. Moreover, at the Dubosekovo junction area they took on a particularly fierce character.
However, neither our, nor even the enemy’s military reports mention the battle described in the sensational newspaper article, due to which the Panfilov division became the center of general attention then. The death toll in those days also does not match the data cited by Krivitsky. There were many killed: there were heavy battles, but these were completely different people.
The former commander of the rifle regiment stationed in that area at the time of the events described showed that the Dubosekovo detachment was protected by a company that was completely destroyed during the fighting, but there were 100 of them, he said, in those days. Panfilov’s division suffered heavy losses, and this company replenished their number. However, only 9 tanks were destroyed, of which 3 were burned in place, 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.
The myth picked up by Soviet propaganda
This myth in the postwar years was widespread thanks to Soviet propaganda. The materials of the 1948 prosecutor’s inspection were kept secret, and the attempt made in 1966 by an employee of the New World magazine, E. V. Kardin, to identify the inconsistency of the official version in his article, received a sharp rebuke from L. I. Brezhnev. The CPSU Secretary General called the published materials slandering the party and the heroic history of our country.
Only in the years of perestroika, when the materials of the 1948 investigation were finally declassified, was it possible, without detracting from the glory that the Panfilov division deservedly deserved, to bring to the general public the fact of distortion of the events of the past war.
However, in spite of such an unfortunate incident, the culprits of which were the excessively zealous Soviet propagandists, the great contribution of Panfilov’s to the victory over the fascists should be recognized. In November of that year, their division became officially called Panfilov. Only in the Volokolamsk direction from November 16 to 21 did it, in conjunction with other units and formations of the Soviet army, stop the advancement of two German corps and one tank division.
The subsequent fate of the division
The further combat path of the Panfilov division was difficult, full of losses, but, as before, was covered with glory. In the first months of 1942, she, along with other Soviet units, participated in battles against the SS Dead Head division. The fighting took place with an unusual bitterness on both sides and caused numerous losses both in the ranks of Panfilov’s and their opponents.
Having fought with honor up to 1945, that is, almost before 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, due to its high combat qualities and partly due to the propaganda hype raised around it, was known to the whole country, was completely restored. The territory of Estonia was chosen as its location. 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 the weapons and equipment be transferred to them in the republic. This appeal was prompted by national security considerations and therefore met with support in Moscow.
Having joined the Turkestan military district, the Panfilov division, which by that time had replenished to a large extent recruits from the Central Asian republics, was partially stationed in the Kyrgyz SSR, and partially in the Kazakh. For the state, which included various republics, this was quite normal. But in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the history of the Panfilov division underwent several dramatic moments.
Suffice it to say that, being part of the Northern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, it was completely abolished in 2003 and completely disbanded. It is difficult to say who and by what political or other interests made such a decision. However, the illustrious division ceased to exist.
Only eight years later, when the seventieth anniversary of its founding was celebrated, it was re-formed and received its former name. Today, its place of deployment is the city of Tokmok, located near Bishkek. The Panfilov division, the national composition of which today is mainly a conglomeration of the peoples living in Kyrgyzstan, serves under the command of Colonel Nurlan Isabekovich Kiresheev, a native of those places.