The history of the Second World War is full of heroic pages. However, over the 70 years that have passed since the Victory Day, a lot of falsifications were revealed, as well as stories about how some events occurred that raised doubts about their reliability. Among them, the feat of 28 Panfilov’s, which is mentioned in the anthem of Moscow and which more than once became the basis for scenarios of feature films.
Background
In the first months after the start of the Second World War , the 316th Infantry Division was formed in the cities of Frunze and Alma-Ata, the command of which was assigned to the then military commissar of the Kyrgyz SSR, Major General I.V. Panfilov. At the end of August 1941, this military unit became part of the army and was sent to the front near Novgorod. Two months later, he was transferred to the Volokolamsk area and ordered to occupy a 40-km defense strip. The soldiers of Panfilov’s division had to constantly conduct debilitating battles. Moreover, in the last week of October 1941 alone, they destroyed and burned 80 units of enemy equipment, and the enemy’s losses in manpower amounted to more than 9 thousand officers and soldiers.
The division under the command of Panfilov included 2 artillery regiments. In addition, in her submission was one tank company. However, one of its rifle regiments was poorly prepared, as it was formed shortly before being sent to the front. Panfilovites, as they later became known in the Soviet press, were opposed by three armored and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. Enemies went on the offensive on October 15.
Panfilov’s feat near Moscow: version of the Soviet period
One of the most famous Soviet patriotic legends that arose 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 the essay of the front correspondent V. Koroteyev. 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. Moreover, almost all of them died in an unequal battle. The article also quoted a phrase that, according to Koroteyev, Klochkov said before his death: “Russia is great, but nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow!”
The feat of 28 Panfilov’s: the story of one falsification
The day after the first article in the “Red Star”, a material was published under the authorship of A. Yu. Krivitsky, entitled “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes,” which the journalist referred to only as Panfilov’s. The feat of the soldiers and their political instructor was described in detail, but the names of the participants in the events were not mentioned in the publication. They first hit the press only on January 22, when the same Krivitsky presented the Panfilov’s feat in a detailed essay, acting as an eyewitness to those events. It is interesting that Izvestia wrote about the battles near Volokolamsk on November 19 and reported a total of 9 wrecked tanks and 3 burned.
The story of the heroes who defended the capital at the cost of life shocked Soviet people and warriors who fought on all fronts, and the command of the Western Front prepared a petition addressed to the People’s Commissar of Defense to assign 28 brave soldiers mentioned in the article by A. Krivitsky, ranks of Heroes of the Soviet Union. As a result, on July 21, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Council signed a decree.
Official exposure
Already in 1948, a large-scale investigation was carried out, with the aim of establishing whether the feat of 28 Panfilov’s really took place. The reason was that a year earlier, a certain I.E. Dobrobabin was arrested in Kharkov. He was brought to justice with the wording “for treason”, as investigators from the military prosecutor’s office found irrefutable facts confirming that during the war 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 at Dubosekovo. Moreover, it turned out that he and Dobrobabin, mentioned in the article by Krivitsky, are one and the same person, and he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero. Further investigation made it possible to consider everything stated in the articles, which described the exploit of the Panfilovites near Moscow, as falsification. The revealed facts formed the basis of the certificate signed by the then Prosecutor General of the USSR G. Safonov, which was submitted 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 Panfilov’s feat in the form described in the publications of the Red Star, actually took place, did not get into the Soviet press. It was only in 1966 in the “New World” that the first article appeared concerning the November battles at Dubosekovo. In it, the author called to study the facts regarding who Panfilov’s were, whose feat was described in all history textbooks. However, this topic was not further developed 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 heroes of Panfilov’s was just a literary fiction.
Where did the number 28 come from
The light on how and why in 1941 there was a distortion of facts concerning the Panfilov warriors is shed by the transcript of the interrogation of the correspondent Koroteev. In particular, he points out that upon his return from the front, he outlined information about the battle of the 5th company of the 316th Infantry Division, which fell on the battlefield, without giving up its positions, to the editor of “Red Star”. He asked how many fighters there were, and Koroteev, who knew that she was understaffed, replied that he was 30-40, adding that he himself was not in the 1075th rifle regiment, since it was impossible to get into his position. In addition, he said that, according to political reports 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 self-righteous fighter. Thus a legend appeared and the fictional “perished, all as one, Panfilov’s”, whose feat was sung in verses and songs.
Attitude to the feat
Today it’s blasphemous to argue about whether the Panfilov’s heroes were. The feat of all those soldiers of the 316th Infantry Division, who honestly performed their duty in November 1941, is undeniable, as is their great merit in the fact that the Soviet troops did not allow the Nazi invaders to the capital of our Motherland. Another thing is that the fact that traitors were among the awarded is an insult to the memory of real heroes who did not spare their lives in order to achieve the Great Victory, the 70th anniversary of which will soon be celebrated by all mankind, not suffering from historical amnesia.