The story of 28 Panfilov's men. What did the Soviet authorities hide about the feat of the Panfilovites

The emergence of the official version

The history of the emergence of the official version of events is set out in the materials of the investigation of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. The feat of the heroes was first reported by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on November 27, 1941 in an essay by the front-line correspondent V. I. Koroteev. The article about the participants in the battle said that "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed."

Over fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guards from the division. Panfilov… Only one out of twenty-nine was cowardly… only one raised his hands up… several guardsmen at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at a coward and a traitor…

The editorial went on to say that the remaining 28 guards destroyed 18 enemy tanks and "lay down their lives - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy through ... "The editorial was written by the literary secretary of the Red Star A. Yu. Krivitsky. The names of the guardsmen who fought and died, both in the first and in the second article, were not indicated.

Criticism of the official version

Critics of the official version, as a rule, give the following arguments and assumptions:

Investigation materials

In November 1947, the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkov garrison arrested and prosecuted I. E. Dobrobabin for treason. According to the case file, 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 temporarily German-occupied village of Perekop, Valkovsky district, Kharkiv region. In March 1943, when this area was liberated from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by the Soviet authorities, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing active traitorous activities, arrests of Soviet citizens and the direct implementation of forced sending labor to Germany.

When Dobrobabin was arrested, a book about 28 Panfilov heroes was found, and it turned out that he was one of the main participants in this heroic battle, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By interrogation of Dobrobabin, it was established that in the Dubosekov area he was indeed slightly wounded and captured by the Germans, but did not perform any feats, and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes is not true. In this regard, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a thorough investigation into the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The results were reported by the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Armed Forces of the country, Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev, to the USSR Prosecutor General G.N. Safonov on May 10, 1948. On the basis of this report, on June 11, a certificate signed by Safonov was drawn up, addressed to A. A. Zhdanov.

For the first time, V. Kardin publicly doubted the authenticity of the story about the Panfilovites, who published the article “Legends and Facts” in the journal Novy Mir (February 1966). A number of new publications followed in the late 1980s. An important argument was the publication of declassified materials from the 1948 investigation by the military prosecutor's office.

In particular, these materials contain the testimony of the former commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, I. V. Kaprov:

... There was no battle between 28 Panfilov's men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and really fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company, and not 28, as they wrote about it 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 could not speak, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I do not know on the basis of what materials they wrote in the newspapers, in particular in the Red Star, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilov. At the end of December 1941, when the division was assigned to the formation, the correspondent of the "Red Star" Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Yegorov. Here I first heard about 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 whole 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 gave names to Krivitsky from memory, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me about my last name. Subsequently, after lengthy clarifications of surnames, only in April 1942 from the headquarters of the division were sent ready-made award lists and a general list of 28 guardsmen to my regiment for signature. I signed these sheets for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 guardsmen. Who was the initiator of compiling the list and award lists for 28 guards - I do not know.

The materials of the interrogation of the correspondent Koroteev are also given (clarifying the origin of the number 28):

Around November 23-24, 1941, together with Chernyshev, a war correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When we left the army headquarters, we met the commissar of the 8th Panfilov division Yegorov, who spoke about the extremely difficult situation at the front and reported that our people are fighting heroically in all areas. In particular, Egorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks advanced on the line of the company, and the company delayed them, destroying some of them. Yegorov himself was not a participant in the battle, but spoke from the words of the regimental commissar, who also did not participate in the battle with German tanks ... Yegorov recommended writing in the newspaper about the heroic battle of the company with enemy tanks, having previously read the political report received from the regiment ...

The political report spoke of 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, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our fighters. The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander either. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Yegorov 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, about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that the composition of 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 front line on this topic was being prepared, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since out of 30 two 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 front line.

The interrogated secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky testified:

During a conversation with Comrade Krapivin in PUR, 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,” I answered him that I invented it myself ...

... In terms of sensations and actions, 28 heroes are my literary conjecture. I did not talk to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I spoke only with a boy of 14-15 years old, who showed the grave where Klochkov was buried.

... In 1943, from the division where 28 Panfilov heroes were and fought, they sent me a letter of awarding me the title of guardsman. I was only in the division three or four times.

The conclusion of the investigation of the prosecutor's office:

Thus, the materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky.

Official version support

Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov defended the official version, relying, in particular, on the study of the historian G.A. Kumanev "Feat and Forgery". In September 2011, the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya published an article Shamelessly ridiculed feat, which included a letter from the marshal criticizing Mironenko. The same letter, with slight cuts, was also published by Komsomolskaya Pravda:

... It turned out that not all "twenty-eight" were dead. What of it? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded, shell-shocked, against all odds, survived the battle on November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that an enemy tank column was stopped at the Dubosekovo junction, rushing towards Moscow? Doesn't refute. Yes, indeed, it later became known that not all 28 heroes died in that battle. So, G. M. Shemyakin and I. R. Vasiliev were seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital. D. F. Timofeev and I. D. Shadrin were taken prisoner by the wounded and experienced all the horrors of fascist captivity. The fate of D. A. Kuzhebergenov and I. E. Dobrobabin, who also survived, but for various reasons excluded from the list of Heroes and have not yet been restored in this capacity, was not easy, although their participation in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, in principle, does not cause no doubt, which was convincingly proved in his study by the doctor of historical sciences G. A. Kumanev, who personally met with them. ... By the way, the fate of these "resurrected from the dead" Panfilov heroes was the reason for writing in May 1948 a letter from the Chief Military Prosecutor, Lieutenant General of Justice N.P. Afanasyev, to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Zhdanov ...

However, Andrey Alexandrovich Zhdanov ... immediately determined that all the materials of the "investigation of the case of 28 Panfilovites", set out in the letter of the Chief Military Prosecutor, were prepared too clumsily, the conclusions, as they say, were "sewn with white threads." ... As a result, the "case" was not given further progress, and it was sent to the archive ...

D. Yazov cited the words of the correspondent of Krasnaya Zvezda A. Yu. Krivitsky, who was accused of the fact that the feat of 28 Panfilov's men was the fruit of his author's imagination. Recalling the course of the investigation, A. Yu. Krivitsky said:

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 before the publication of the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such an environment, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.

Documentary evidence of the battle

The commander of the 1075th regiment, I. Kaprov (testimonies given during the investigation of the Panfilov case):

... In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120-140 people. My command post was behind the Dubosekovo junction, 1.5 km from the position of the 4th company (2nd battalion). I don’t remember now whether there were anti-tank rifles in the 4th company, but I repeat that in the entire 2nd battalion there were only 4 anti-tank rifles ... In total, there were 10-12 enemy tanks in the sector of the 2nd battalion. How many tanks went (directly) to the sector of the 4th company, I don’t know, or rather, I can’t determine ...

With the resources of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this tank attack was repulsed. In battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans withdrew. At 14-15 hours, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire ... and again went on the attack with tanks ... More than 50 tanks attacked in the regiment’s sectors, and the main blow was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one the tank even went to the location of the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the booth, so that I accidentally managed to get out of the dugout: the embankment of the railway saved me, people who survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by the company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The rest of the companies suffered less.

According to archival data of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941 destroyed 15 (according to other sources - 16) tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. The losses of the regiment, according to the report of its commander, amounted to 400 people killed, 600 people missing, 100 people wounded.

Testimony of the chairman of the Nelidovsky village council Smirnova during the investigation into the Panfilov case:

The battle of the Panfilov division near our village of Nelidovo and the Dubosekovo junction took place on November 16, 1941. During this battle, all our residents, including myself, hid in shelters ... The Germans entered the area of ​​\u200b\u200bour village and the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 and were repulsed by units of the Soviet Army on December 20, 1941. At that 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 perform funerals.

... In the early days of February 1942, we found only three corpses on the battlefield, which we buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of our village. And then already in March 1942, when it began to melt, military units carried three more corpses to the mass grave, including the corpse of political instructor Klochkov, who was identified by the soldiers. So in the mass grave of the Panfilov heroes, which is located on the outskirts of our village of Nelidovo, 6 fighters of the Soviet Army are buried. No more corpses were found on the territory of the Nelidovsky village council.

From a note by Colonel-General S. M. Shtemenko to the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR N. A. Bulganin on August 28, 1948:

No operational documents and documents through political bodies specifically mentioning the heroic feat that really took place and the death of 28 Panfilov’s men in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction were found at all ... Only one document confirms the death of the political instructor of the 4th company Klochkov (mentioned among the 28th mi). Therefore, we can clearly assume that the first reports about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men on November 16, 1941 were made by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, in which Koroteev’s essay, the newspaper’s editorial and Krivitsky’s essay “On 28 Fallen Heroes” were published. These reports, apparently, served as the basis for the presentation of 28 people to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Battle reenactment

By the end of October 1941, the first stage of the German operation "Typhoon" (attack on Moscow) was completed. German troops, having defeated parts of three Soviet fronts near Vyazma, reached the near approaches to Moscow. At the same time, the German troops suffered losses and needed some respite to rest the units, put them in order and replenish. By November 2, the front line in the Volokolamsk direction had stabilized, the German units temporarily went on the defensive. On November 16, German troops again went on the offensive, planning to defeat the Soviet units, surround Moscow and victoriously end the 1941 campaign.

The fate of some Panfilov

• Momyshuly, Bauyrzhan. After the war, the brave officer continued to serve in the Armed Forces of the USSR. In 1948 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1950 - Senior Lecturer at the Military Academy of Logistics and Supply of the Soviet Army. Since December 1955, Colonel Momysh-uly has been in reserve. Member of the Writers' Union of the USSR. He entered the history of military science as the author of tactical maneuvers and strategies that are still being studied in military universities. He lectured on combat training during a visit to Cuba in 1963 (published in Spanish-language newspapers). He met with the Minister of Defense of Cuba, Raul Castro, and was awarded the title of honorary commander of the 51st regiment of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. In the military educational institutions of the USA, Cuba, Israel, Nicaragua, the military experience of Momyshuly is studied separately. "Volokolamsk Highway" became a required reading book for members of the Palmach, and later for officers of the Israel Defense Forces. Fernando Heredia wrote that "most Cubans begin their study of Marxism-Leninism from Volokolamsk Highway." He died on June 10, 1982.

Alma-Ata, park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen. A memorial stone dedicated to Grigory Shemyakin, who was born in 1906 (old style) or 1907 (new style) and actually died in 1973, but the year of death is engraved on the stone as 1941, since, according to the official version, all 28 Panfilovites died.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Daniil Aleksandrovich. Liaison officer Klochkov. He did not directly participate in the battle, since in the morning he was sent with a report to Dubosekovo, where he was captured. On the evening of November 16, he escaped from captivity to the forest. For some time he was in the occupied territory, after which he was discovered by the horsemen of General L. M. Dovator, who were in a raid on the German rear. After the release of the Dovator connection from the raid, he was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he had not participated in the battle, and was sent back to the Dovator division. By this time, a submission had already been drawn up for conferring the title of Hero on him, but after an investigation, his name was changed to Askar Kozhabergenov. Died in 1976.

• Kozhabergenov (Kuzhebergenov) Askar (Aliaskar). He arrived in Panfilov's division in January 1942 (thus, he could not participate in the battle at Dubosekov). In the same month, he died during a raid by the Panfilov division on the German rear. Included in the submission for the title of Hero instead of Daniil Aleksandrovich Kozhabergenov, after it turned out that the latter was still alive. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

• Vasiliev, Illarion Romanovich. In the battle on November 16, he was seriously wounded and ended up in the hospital (according to various versions, he was either evacuated from the battlefield, or picked up by local residents after the battle and sent to the hospital, or crawled for three days and was picked up by Dovator's horsemen). After recovery, he was sent to the active army, to the rear unit. In 1943 he was demobilized from the army for health reasons. After the publication of the Decree on awarding him the title of Hero (posthumously), he announced his participation in the battle. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received the star of the Hero. He died in 1969 in Kemerovo.

• Natarov, Ivan Moiseevich. According to Krivitsky's articles, he took part in the battle near Dubosekov, was seriously wounded, taken to the hospital and, dying, told Krivitsky about the feat of the Panfilovites. According to the political report of the military commissar of the 1075th Infantry Regiment Mukhamedyarov, stored in the TsAMO funds, he died two days before the battle - on November 14. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, together with other Panfilovites, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

• Timofeev, Dmitry Fomich. During the battle he was wounded and taken prisoner. In captivity, he managed to survive, after the end of the war he returned to his homeland. Claimed to receive the star of the Hero, after appropriate verification, he received it without much publicity shortly before his death in 1950.

• Shemyakin, Grigory Melentievich. During the battle, he was wounded and ended up in the hospital (there is information that he was picked up by soldiers of the Dovator division). After the publication of the Decree on awarding him the title of Hero (posthumously), he announced his participation in the battle. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received the star of the Hero. He died in 1973 in Alma-Ata.

• Shadrin, Ivan Demidovich. After the battle on November 16, he was captured in an unconscious state, according to his own statement. Until 1945 he was in a concentration camp, after his release he spent another 2 years in a Soviet filtration camp for former prisoners of war. In 1947 he returned home to the Altai Territory, where no one was waiting for him - he was considered dead, and his wife lived in his house with her new husband. For two years he was interrupted by odd jobs, until in 1949 the secretary of the district committee, who learned his story, wrote about him to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After appropriate verification, without much publicity, he received the star of the Hero. Died in 1985.

Memory

see also

Notes

1. M. M. Kozlov. The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985. - S. 526.
2. Reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites". State archive of the Russian Federation. F.R - 8131 ch. Op. 37. D. 4041. Ll. 310-320. Published in the journal "New World", 1997, No. 6, p.148
3. "Adjusted for the myth" POISK - newspaper of the Russian scientific community
4. Ponomarev Anton. Heroes Panfilov, who in 1941 stopped the Germans on the outskirts of Moscow, are remembered in Russia, First channel(November 16, 2011). Retrieved November 16, 2012.
5. Gorohovsky A. The famous feat of twenty-eight Panfilov's men at the Dubosekovo junction was invented by the journalists of the Red Star and the party leadership of the Red Army // Data: newspaper. - 11/17/2000.
6. In particular, the loss of 10 tanks on November 6, 1941 in the battles near Mtsensk made a strong negative impression on the command of the 4th Panzer Division and was especially noted in Guderian's memoirs - Kolomiets M. 1st Guards Tank Brigade in the battles for Moscow // Front illustration. - No. 4. - 2007.
7. "The Red Army soldier Natarov, being wounded, continued the battle and fought and fired from his rifle to the last breath and heroically died in battle." Political report of A. L. Mukhamedyarov dated November 14, 1941. Published: Zhuk Yu. A. Unknown pages of the battle for Moscow. Moscow battle. Facts and myths. - M.: AST, 2008.
8. Shamelessly ridiculed feat // Soviet Russia. - 1.9.2011.
9. Marshal Dmitry Yazov: “28 Panfilov heroes - fiction? And who then stopped the Germans? // TVNZ. - 15.9.2011.
10. Cardin V. Legends and facts. Years later // Questions of Literature. - No. 6, 2000.
11. Transcript of the program "The Price of Victory" 10/16/2006. Radio "Echo of Moscow". Author - Andrey Viktorovich Martynov, historian, Ph.D. (Retrieved November 16, 2012)
12. Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in the "cauldrons". - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008. - S. 327.
13. Fedoseev S. Infantry against tanks // Around the world: Journal. - April 2005. - No. 4 (2775).
14. Shirokorad A. B.. God of War of the Third Reich. - M.: 2003. - S. 38-39.
15. Alien Glory // Military History Journal. - 1990. - No. 8, 9.
16. See material in the program "Searchers" from March 19, 2008 [ clarify]
17. Dobrobabin, during the investigation on the issue of rehabilitation, stated: “I really served in the police, I understand that I committed a crime against the Motherland”; confirmed that, in fear of punishment, he voluntarily left the village of Perekop with the retreating Germans. He also claimed that he "did not have any real opportunity to go over to the side of the Soviet troops or join a partisan detachment", which was considered inappropriate to the circumstances of the case.
18. Dobrobabin Ivan Evstafievich Heroes of the Country. Patriotic Internet project "Heroes of the Country" (2000-2012).

75 years ago, on November 16, 1941, the most famous battle of the Panfilov division took place - at the Dubosekovo junction near Moscow. Until now, historians and lovers of military history are arguing about whether there were 28 Panfilovites or more. One thing is certain: the 8th Guards was one of the active formations that defended Moscow.

 

On the morning of November 15, 1941, the troops of Army Group Center, having completed the regrouping, launched a decisive offensive against parts of the Western and Kalinin fronts. The main striking force of the last German attack on Moscow was the 3rd and 4th Panzer Groups.

The strategic Volokolamsk Highway was defended by the 16th Army of Konstantin Rokossovsky, which also included the 316th Infantry Division attached to it earlier under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov. Panfilov's formation was severely weakened in the previous October battles, when the German offensive was stopped in the first phase of Operation Typhoon.

On November 16, the positions of the 316th were attacked by the forces of two German tank and one infantry divisions. In the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction, located 9 kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk, the defense was held by the 4th company of the 1075th regiment under the command of Captain Pavel Gundilovich.

A fierce battle ensued with units of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht under the command of General Rudolf Fayel. Stop the enemy - failed. The forces were unequal, and after a while the Germans broke through the positions of the regiment, which was forced to retreat. No more than 25 people survived from Gundilovich's company.

An ordinary battle, of which there were dozens in the history of the division, would have remained unfamous if it were not for the military newspapers of Izvestia and Krasnaya Zvezda. The latter have been especially hard at work. In particular, on November 28, 1941, the leading article "Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes" was printed in the main press organ of the Red Army, signed by the literary secretary Alexander Krivitsky.

 
His brisk pen told that "the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guardsmen from the Panfilov division" were attacked at once by more than 50 German tanks. The result of the battle along Krivitsky was as follows: all 28 heroes (except for one traitor who raised his hands) died in a four-hour battle, knocking out 18 enemy armored vehicles with grenades and armor-piercing rifles and not letting the enemy through the line they were defending.

In an essay dated January 22, 1942, "About 28 Fallen Heroes," Krivitsky spoke in more detail about their feat, for the first time calling them by their last names. In particular, he called the political instructor the organizer of the battle. Vasily Klochkov.

 

According to him, he "was the first to notice the direction of movement of enemy tanks and hurried into the trench. - Well, friends," the political instructor told the soldiers. "Twenty tanks. Less than one per brother. That's not so much!" The article again stated that the total number of German tanks was 50, of which at least 14 were knocked out, and all the heroes were killed.

On July 21, 1942, all 28 fighters mentioned in Krivitsky's article were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As expected, posthumously. In addition, they were immortalized in many articles and poems. For example, in the famous song "My dear capital" it was said: "And twenty-eight / / Your bravest sons will live for centuries."

After the war in 1947, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office conducted a detailed investigation of the battle at the Dubosekovo junction. The fact is that one of the 28 heroes, Ivan Dobrobabin, turned out to be alive and after the legendary battle was captured by the Germans, and then served in the occupied territory as the head of the local police.

The conclusions of the military prosecutors called into question the articles of Krivitsky, but their investigation was shelved - the demythologization of the heroes was considered inappropriate.

The opinion of colleagues was confirmed by a new investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR - in 1988. The head of the department, Alexander Katusev, came to the conclusion that "the mass feat of the entire company, the entire regiment, the entire division was downplayed by the irresponsibility of not entirely conscientious journalists to the scale of a mythical platoon."

On the other hand, the military historian Georgy Kumanev disagreed with the summary of the military prosecutors. Based on his conversations with Dobrobabin and several surviving participants in that battle, he stated that the feat of 28 Panfilov soldiers was.

 

  (c) warsh
"The feat consisted in the fact that they had to detain 53 tanks and a company of submachine gunners at any cost," Kumanev said. According to him, by the end of more than four hours of battle, reserves came up and closed the gap in the defense. He stressed that, despite the fact that the enemy captured Dubosekovo, 28 fighters still saved Moscow. As for Dobrobabin, he, according to the historian, did not give an oath to the Germans, did not wear a policeman uniform and warned people about raids.

 

  (c) warsh
From a military historian Alexey Isaev- a different view of events. According to him, the German documents did not reflect the loss of 18 tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941. He stressed that by the end of the day the anti-tank artillery crews and the reserves brought up by the command had really stopped the enemy offensive.

He believes that the Panfilov division is truly legendary, and it was deservedly awarded the title of Guards. "But not for the feat described in Krivitsky's articles, but for actions near Volokolamsk back in October 1941," he said. Isaev , emphasizing that this is an episode of the war documented by both sides.

The 316th Rifle Division was formed by Major General Ivan Panfilov a month in Alma-Ata shortly after the start of the war. The vast majority of its members included people who did not have combat training and had not previously served in the army.

 
But Ivan Vasilyevich himself had considerable experience. Behind him was the First World War, the Civil War, where he fought in the famous Chapaev division and battles with the Basmachi. Being the military commissar of the Kirghiz SSR before the war, he was well aware of the traditions and languages ​​of his subordinates, a considerable part of which were fighters from Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

In response, the soldiers respectfully called him "Dad", "Aksakal", appreciating his care. Those who reached Berlin wrote on the Reichstag "Thank you, Dad, for the felt boots! Panfilovites." But at the same time, the 48-year-old general was a strict commander who did not tolerate sloppiness and violation of discipline.

The newly formed division was lucky - it was not immediately thrown into battle. In September 1941, she occupied positions in the second echelon of the 52nd Army in the Novgorod region, equipping positions. The divisional commander took advantage of this to develop the skills of fighting enemy tanks, the role of which was played by tractors.

Panfilov also encouraged sabotage raids by his subordinates behind German lines, believing that his fighters should not be afraid of the enemy, who can and should be beaten everywhere. In particular, Vasily Klochkov, political instructor of the 4th company, distinguished himself in one of them, who defeated an entire German unit, losing two of his fighters in battle.

The study did not last long. In connection with the German offensive on Moscow, the 316th was hastily transferred to the central direction to close the gaps formed on the Western Front after the encirclement of a number of Soviet armies. On October 12, 1941, the fighters of the division dug in near Volokolamsk, where the Mozhaisk defense line passed.

An unfired formation, consisting of recruits, placed in the direction of the main attack of the enemy, occupied a defense zone five times greater than pre-war ideas about tactics - 41 kilometers instead of 12. All hope was for artillery, and there were only 54 of them in the artillery regiment of the division and a separate anti-aircraft division tools.

The command reinforced the Panfilovites with a number of artillery units, adding another 141 guns and giving a tank company to help. But there was not enough ammunition and gunners needed increased skill in repelling enemy attacks.

On October 15, two tank (2nd and 11th) and one infantry (35th) divisions of the Germans, who had extensive combat experience, were well armed and determined to break through the next line occupied by the Red Army, fell on the positions of the Soviet division, on the way to the cherished goal - the capital of the USSR.
During fierce battles, the Wehrmacht, supported by the Luftwaffe, managed to push the Panfilovites for several kilometers, but did not break through their positions. The 316th stood to the death despite heavy losses.

 
He played his part in repelling enemy attacks and an unexpected blow to the Nazi rear of the battalion under the command of a senior lieutenant Baurzhan Momyshuly, which left the environment in exemplary order.

Volokolamsk was abandoned only at the end of October 1941, when the enemy broke through in other sectors of the front, and there was a danger of encirclement of the division. But the Panfilovites retreated not far, and since the Soviet troops offered fierce resistance in other directions, the German offensive finally ran out of steam on this. The troops of Army Group Center, in general, took two weeks to regroup and pull up reserves.

November 18, 1941 the division was awarded the title of 8th Guards Rifle. Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov managed to rejoice at such a high assessment of the achievements of his fighters - and in the evening of the same day he was killed by a mine fragment in the village of Gusenevo near Moscow.

Fierce battles in the Volokolamsk direction in the second half of November 1941, the Panfilovites fought shoulder to shoulder, along with the horsemen of the 2nd Cavalry Corps of General Lev Dovator and the crews of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade of Colonel Mikhail Katukov. They held back the onslaught of the 46th motorized and 5th army corps of the Germans. On November 26, all three of these guard formations were transferred to the Leningrad Highway, in the area of ​​​​the village of Kryukovo, where a very dangerous situation had developed for the Western Front.

She changed hands 8 (!) times until she was finally liberated from German troops on December 7, 1941 by the forces of the 8th Guards Rifle Division and the 1st Guards Tank Brigade. That's what Krivitsky had to paint about and make films for the shalops.

November 16, 1941 at the Dubosekovo 1075 junction, the regiment of the 316th division took the fight with superior enemy forces. The 316th division, commanded by Major General Panfilov, was in the direction of the main attack throughout October. The heroism of the Panfilovites immediately became known to the Soviet people, and the division and its commander became legendary after the battles in the Volokolamsk direction. It is not surprising that the heroic division received increased attention from the press. November 16, 1075 the regiment was attacked by superior German forces. The regiment repelled the attack, knocking out several tanks. The Germans pulled up reserves and broke through the defenses by evening. Heroically resisting, the Soviet soldiers were forced to retreat, having suffered huge losses. The fate of the regiment befell the rest of the formations of the division. Almost defeated during the November battles, she was forced to withdraw to the Istra line. On November 18, General Panfilov himself was killed in battle. Subsequently, the 316th division was transformed into the 8th Guards Rifle Division and took part in the battles near the famous village of Kryukovo on the Leningrad Highway. And only at the end of December 1941. she went to the rear for reorganization. The commander of the 1075 regiment Kaprov recalled: "By November 16, 1941, the regiment I commanded was on the left flank of the division and covered the exits from the city of Volokolamsk to Moscow and the railway. The 2nd battalion took up defense: Novo-Nikolskoye- settlementPetelino and Dubosekovo junction.... > The fourth company was commanded by Captain Gundilovich, political instructor Klochkov... In the company by November 16, 1941 there were 120- 140 people. ... >. There were 10 in total on the battalion site- 12 enemy tanks. How many tanks went to the sector of the 4th company, I do not know, or rather, I cannot determine. With the resources of the regiment and the efforts of the 2nd battalion, this German tank attack was repulsed. In battle, the regiment destroyed 5- 6 German tanks, and the Germans withdrew ... Around 14.00- At 1500, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire on all positions of the regiment, and the German tanks again went on the attack. ... >More than 50 tanks attacked the regiment's sector, with the main attack directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, since this sector was most accessible to enemy tanks. For about 40- 45 minutes enemy tanks crushed the location of the 2nd battalion,including the section of the 4th company. ... > When I got over the railway embankment, people who survived the attack of German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most from the attack; led by the company commander Gundilovich, 20 people survived- 25, the rest all died. The rest of the companies suffered less." The Soviet people learned about the heroism of the Division from the Izvestia newspaper already 3 days later. November 19, 1941 G. Ivanov's note "8th Guards Division in battle" was published in it, which describes the battle of one of the companies. The surrounded company offered heroic resistance, knocking out 9 tanks (3 of them burned down), and forced the rest to retreat. There is no information about where Ivanov got the information from, but the information, firstly, is plausible, and secondly, operational, from which we can conclude that Ivanov received it from sources close to the front line. Thirdly, the information did not raise questions in the Authorities. But more on that below. Koroteev Approximately a week later, Koroteev, a correspondent for Krasnaya Zvezda, visited the headquarters of the 16th Army (which included the Panfilov division). Here is how he himself describes in 1948. during interrogation by the investigator, the way in which he received the information. " Approximately 23-On November 24, 1941, together with the military correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Chernyshev, I was at the headquarters of the 16th army ... When we left 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 fight heroically in all areas. In particular, Yegorov gave an example of a heroic battle of one company with German tanks, 54 tanks were advancing on the line of the company, 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 regimental 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 first read 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, raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our fighters. The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and did not mention their names. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander either. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Yegorov 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, about the company's battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that the composition of 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 front line on this subject was being prepared, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that about 30 people. Thus, the number of 28 people who fought appeared, since out of 30 two 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 front line. On November 27, 1941, my short correspondence was published in the newspaper, and on November 28, the editorial “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” written by Krivitsky was printed in the Red Star" .
Whether not trusting Koroteev's literary abilities, or guided by considerations of subordination in the journalistic table of ranks, or for some other reason, Ortenberg, the editor-in-chief of Krasnaya Zvezda, instructs to write the editorial not to the "getter" of information, but to lit. newspaper secretary A.Yu. Krivitsky. Which enthusiastically sets to work, and already on November 28 in the "Red Star" there appears an editorial filled with pathos called "Testament
28 Fallen Heroes. " Resistance might seem like madness. Fifty armored monsters against twenty-nine people! In what war, in what times did such an unequal battle take place! But the Soviet soldiers accepted him without flinching. They didn't back down, they didn't retreat. "We have no way back"- they said to themselves. Only one out of twenty-nine fainthearted. When the Germans, confident in their easy victory, shouted to the guards- "Surrender!",- only one put his hands up. A volley immediately rang out. Several guards at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at a coward and a traitor. It was the homeland that punished the apostate. Already eighteen warped tanks froze motionless on the battlefield. The battle lasted more than four hours, and the armored fist of the Nazis could not break through the line defended by the guards. But now the ammunition ran out, the cartridges in the stores of anti-tank rifles ran out. There were no more grenades. Fascist vehicles approached the trench. The Germans jumped out of the hatches, wanting to take alive the surviving brave men and deal with them. But there is only one warrior in the field, if he is a Soviet warrior! Politruk Diev grouped the remaining comrades around him and a bloody battle ensued again. Our people fought, remembering the old motto: "The Guard dies, but does not surrender." And they laid down their heads- all twenty-eight. They died, but did not miss the enemy!" - writes Krivitsky, showing an example of how a journalist has no right to work. Too lazy to check the information. Or they got scared - after all, for this you need to go closer to the front line and put the precious journalistic life in jeopardy. And this is unacceptable: women give birth to soldiers, but there are few journalists, and they must be protected. How many fighters fought is unknown? Well, let there be thirty people. Are there two traitors for thirty people? Well, let there be one. What is the name of the politician? There, like some kind of hero by the name of Diev, they mentioned it, so let it be Diev! How many tanks were destroyed? Well, let there be 18. 50 tanks in the regiment's sector? Not heroic enough, let it be 50 to 28 people. The fact that this number is completely implausible, the rear journalists, apparently, did not even think about it. Neither Koroteev nor Krivitsky are professional military journalists wearing epaulettes! - they didn’t even think about how physically 54 tanks could advance in a sector defended by 28 people. Provided that about 50 tanks is a lot even for the area defended by the regiment, which is clearly shown by the above-cited testimony of Kaprov. Journalist Chernyshev from Komsomolskaya Pravda, who, together with Koroteev, "received information" at the headquarters of the 16th Army, also wrote an article entitled "Glory to the fearless patriots". Where he described the battle described to him by the division commissar who did not participate in it from the words of the regiment commissar who did not participate in it. He even added for reliability the names of Lieutenant Bezvremenny and senior political officer Kalachev, it is not known whether from himself or from the words of one of the staff officers of the 16th Army. Thus, not the most successful literary works appeared, generalizing and "creatively" processing the real events of mid-November. Well, it would seem that God is with this. In the end, why not consider the articles of Chernyshev and Krivitsky as literary fiction based on real facts of mass heroism, and close this topic? But, alas, it doesn't work. After all, if Chernyshev had the conscience and common sense to stop at what had been “achieved,” then Krivitsky and Ortenberg decided to squeeze as much as possible out of the heroic theme. In January of the 42nd, Krivitsky published an essay "On 28 Fallen Heroes", in which he already lists by name those who died in a battle he himself invented. And Ortenberg, who personally sucked the number 28 out of his finger, prints it! Ortenberg "When the guardsmen die in battle, the winged glory flies off the military banner and invisibly becomes an honorary and permanent guard at the head of the dead. The news of the feat of twenty-eight Panfilov guardsmen who laid down their heads on the battlefield spread far across the Soviet land. We still did not know all the details of their death, the names of the heroes had not yet been named, their bodies were still resting on the ground captured by the enemy, but the rumors about the fabulous prowess of twenty-eight Soviet heroes were already bypassing the fronts. Only now have we been able to reconstruct the full picture of the death of a handful of brave guardsmen"- proudly writes Krivitsky. Krivitsky A. Yu. We have already seen the method of "establishing a complete picture of the battle". Where did the names come from. Throughout November and half of December, the 1075th regiment (like the entire division) fought bloody stubborn battles, repeatedly changing places of deployment. In some companies, only 20% of the personnel remained alive. And as soon as the regiment is withdrawn to the rear for reorganization, a Moscow journalist arrives in it (as in the most distinguished and injured in the battles of November 16), along with the division commissar. And they demand to name the names of 28 people who fought off the attack of German tanks on November 16th. Which, of course, confuses the commander and commissar of the regiment. From the testimony of the regiment commander I.V. Kaprov to the investigator of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office: " At the end of December 1941, when the division was assigned to the formation, the correspondent of the "Red Star" Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the political department of the division Glushko and Yegorov. Here I first heard about 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 whole 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 gave names to Krivitsky from memory, who talked with him on this topic, there were no documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers in the regiment and could not be. Nobody asked me for my last name." . At an urgent request, or rather an order, to name 28 names of those who fought with tanks on November 16, the Kaprov regiment names the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, and sends the journalist to the company commander Gundilovich. He answers the question "where exactly did you fight on November 16" that he fought in the Dubosekovo area. And the requirement to name 28 fighters by name, satisfies as follows. From the testimony of Krivitsky to the GVP investigator: “Kaprov did not give me names, but instructed Mukhamedyarov and Gundilovich to do this, who compiled a list, taking information from some kind of statement or list. Thus, I got a list of the names of 28 Panfilov soldiers who fell in battle with German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction. Arriving in Moscow, I wrote a basement in the newspaper under the heading "About 28 Fallen Heroes"; the basement was sent for a visa to the PUR. During a conversation with Comrade Krapivin in PUR, 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 - behind Moscow," I answered him that I invented it myself. The basement was placed in the "Red Star" on January 22, 1942. Here I used the stories of Gundilovich, Kaprov, Mukhamedyarov, Egorov. In terms of sensations and actions, 28 characters are my literary conjecture. I did not talk to any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I speakril only with a boy aged 14-15, which showed the grave where Klochkov was buried. ... In 1943, from the division where 28 Panfilov heroes were and fought, they sent me a letter of awarding me the title of guardsman. I was only in the division three or four times." Gundilovich P.M. Commander of the 4th company. Thus, the myth of 28 is already taking shape. Now there is a place of battle and 28 names, selected, however, in a completely random way. The latter almost killed the journalist Krivitsky. After a month and a half of hardest fighting (let me remind you that only on November 16 the company lost over 100 people), when the composition of the company was constantly changing, even the best commander will not be able to accurately take into account the losses in killed and wounded. Therefore, among the "28 heroically fallen" were: - Sergeant Dobrobabin, who deserted and later worked as a policeman (more on him below). - Messenger Kuzhebergenov, who did not participate in the battle and was captured by the Germans. - row. Notarov, as it turned out later, fell two days before the battle on November 16th. - row. Timofeev, who was wounded in German captivity. - foreman Shemyakin and a number. Shadrin, seriously wounded and ended up in the rear hospitals. The last three were later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A discrepancy also occurred with the name of the political instructor, already named Diev in the first publication, and in the lists of the company bearing the name Klochkov. Apparently, the name Diev belongs to some other person. And I will talk about some research in this direction at the end of the article. For some reason, the hero's surname sunk into the head of the headquarters worker, and he called it to journalists on November 23-24. So Diev was mentioned in Koroteev's November note and Krivitsky's editorial. And when Krivitsky received 28 names of fighters and saw that the deceased political instructor of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion had the surname Klochkov, the journalist, without batting an eyelid, invented another story. He explained the confusion with the names of the political instructor by the fact that the political instructor was Klochkov according to his passport, and one of the Ukrainian fighters jokingly dubbed him Diev. He was already a very active (dialny) person. Krivitsky developed a vigorous activity. The matter was not limited to articles alone; by the end of the war, books about 28 Panfilovites were already in print. The feat was adopted by Soviet propaganda as exemplary. Krivitsky wrote tirelessly, the battle at Dubosekovo took on absolutely incredible, truly fabulous details. Krivitsky described in detail who said what and who thought what, his books were published in large editions and translated into foreign languages. 28 Panfilovites were the strongest business project of their time in the field of PR. It almost ended shortly after the war. In 1947 the "fallen hero" Dobrobabin was arrested, who managed to desert, work as a policeman, flee to another area during the offensive of the Red Army, and re-conscript into the army from the liberated territory, hiding his service in the police. It was his own impudence that ruined him (as it almost ruined Krivitsky). Another would have hid with such a biography, but Dobrobabin, armed with Krivitsky's book about his heroism, went to demand the hero's star. And after checking he was arrested. During the check, the prosecutor's office found out that four more "fallen heroes" were still alive, and decided to investigate the case. The results of the work of the Stalinist prosecutor's office are known and published: http://statearchive.ru/607 The conclusion of people in uniform is unequivocal. Thus, the materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is a fiction of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky. This fiction was repeated in the works of writers N. Tikhonov, V. Stavsky, A. Beck, N. Kuznetsov, V. Lipko, M. Svetlov and others and was widely popularized among the population of the Soviet Union. The memory of 28 Panfilovites is immortalized by the installation of a monument in the village. Nelidovo, Moscow region A marble obelisk with a memorial plaque has been installed in the Alma-Ata Park of Culture and Leisure; The Federation Park and several streets of the republic's capital are named after them. The names of 28 Panfilovites were assigned to many schools, enterprises and collective farms of the Soviet Union.

Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR Armed Forces

lieutenant general of justice

N. Afanasiev.

The prosecutor's office's investigation was sent as intended - i.e. Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov, secretary of the Central Committee, who oversaw the ideological and propaganda direction. But the move was not given. As the historian Aleksey Isaev, the author of the book "anti-Suvors", who dealt with the history of "28 Panfilov" in detail, said on this occasion: “In my opinion, it would be wiser if Krivitsky was “rolled up” in Verkhoyansk for this. Then the story would be extremely instructive and would remain in journalism textbooks as an example of how not to do it. But the Soviet government, represented by such a person, like A.A.Zhdanov,showed gentleness." Isaev also drew attention to the fact that the data on the losses of such a number of tanks should undoubtedly have been reflected in the German archives. And they always reflected. But nothing like the destruction of two dozen tanks on November 16 near Dubosekovo was found. It is also important to note that for the entire war and post-war period, this was the only case when the prosecutor's office was engaged in such an investigation. The consequences of journalistic and human meanness could have been very far-reaching. 28 people who did not distinguish themselves in any way received the stars of Heroes, which disavowed the very concept of a feat. The mass heroism of hundreds of people is forgotten and replaced by a feat 28, moreover, invented for career purposes. The party leadership has been put in the position of hostages when it is forced to follow the lead of an irresponsible and unscrupulous scribbler. Moreover, one of the Panfilovites turned out to be a policeman. Let him go now? Or plant a "hero"? Both solutions are bad. What if this story gets out? With what relish will the enemy attack her in the conditions of the Cold War! It is impossible to agree with Isaev on one thing: that Zhdanov showed softness. Zhdanov sent the received document to the members of the Politburo and personally to Stalin. Thus, the fact that the case was not given a move is not on Andrei Alexandrovich's conscience. Moreover, since Zhdanov reported the circumstances of the case to other top party leaders, it can be assumed that he wanted to give the case a legal move. It seems that only a progressive illness and an early death prevented Zhdanov from dotting all the e in this matter. But be that as it may, Krivitsky escaped with a slight fright. Someone might ask, is it really so important whether a forgery is exposed or not? Is it necessary to "say to the end who the bastard is," as Mayakovsky said? Time has shown that then, in the 48th year, of course, it was necessary to do this. There are among us (and, alas, there are more of them) such patriots who sincerely believe that any lie can and should be used if it is aimed at a "good patriotic" cause. Let's try to take their position. Let's forget that for the rest of their lives, 28 Panfilovites fed Krivitsky and fed him much more satisfyingly than an ordinary Soviet person. That all his life he (like his boss on the "Red Star" Ortenberg) wrote about the war and painted exploits, raising children on opuses, the degree of conscientiousness of which we already know. That Krivitsky, who, according to his own statement, was in the division 3-4 times during the entire war, received the rank of guardsman along with the true heroes of the war. That the mythical feat of the 28th overshadowed the real mass heroism. That the stars of heroes were given to people who were no different from any of the hundreds of thousands of other ordinary participants in the battle for Moscow. That out of a hundred dead soldiers of the 4th company, only 28 "honored" to be ranked among the heroes, and no one remembered the soldiers of neighboring companies, each of which lost up to 4/5 of its composition. That among the heroes was a policeman and a deserter ... In a word, let's forget about the moral side of things and begin to be guided by considerations of "pragmatic patriotism" a la modern Russian professional patriots. But even from this position, the myth of 28 had to be exposed. For the forgery of Krivitsky, not exposed in time, backfired on Perestroika.

perestroika

Putin's zero

It seems that the authors of both this and other similar emotional letters are inclined to support, without understanding deeply the essence of the issue, any campaign fanned in the press. This time they warmly responded to the call of Kumanev and Dobrobaba. Katusev F. A. Alien glory of Ivan Dobrobaba

The Soviet soldiers had dinner twice already. First in the post-war years, then in Perestroika. But the new time requires new varieties of corpse-eating. The USSR was destroyed for the sake of the triumph of the market economy - or rather, for the sake of the possibility of legal enrichment, which it gives. And the former secretaries of regional committees, Komsomol leaders, Chekists and directors of enterprises, having ruined a great country, turned thanks to the market economy into those against whom they once swore to fight at party meetings, and into those from whom they swore to protect the Soviet people. The market economy has its own laws. Demand creates supply, and if the humiliated people had anything in order, it was with the demand for the heroic deeds of their ancestors. And it began. In the USSR, parades on Red Square were held in the anniversary years - 1965, 75, 85 and 90. Starting with Yeltsin, they became annual. Victory Day is celebrated on such a grand scale that even Brezhnev never dreamed of, not to mention Stalin, who celebrated the anniversary twice, and then decided that one should not rest on one's laurels, one should move forward. To new reasons for pride. They carry mummers "veterans" around the city, who are fit to be sons as real veterans, paint everything that is possible in St. George's (not red!) colors. Nightclubs invite you to the "victory night" party, food workers hang guards ribbons on "Danish cod". Stickers "T-34" are hung on BMWs, and "To Berlin" on Volkswagens, striptease contests (sorry, modern dance) and bodybuilding competitions are timed to coincide with Victory Day. Dry closets and cans of beer are painted in patriotic colors... And many people already consider this to be the norm. A film directed by Salopa from the same series. Salopa's motives have nothing to do with patriotism. As he himself says in interview , "I really love stories about heroes. And 28 Panfilov's is a very beautiful story. In addition to the fact that this story is real, among other things, it is also very beautiful, because this battle of a small numberbutheroes against a large number of enemies, and the battle, and such, selfless. This is a story, this is a feat, this is a story of selflessness. It is very cool. This is a very famous feat, oh, a very famous feat. Moreover, there, looking back, there are not so many feats of the Great Patriotic War that are immediately heard. This is one of those feats. And there is no movie. What a luck!"(starting at 3:35). And the choice of the scandalous name was clearly deliberate. Could Salopa not know about all the pitfalls? Could not. It is clear that Challopa is deceiving when he says that, starting to create a film, he shoveled a bunch of data, studied archival documents. It is nonsense in our era - for the authors of historical cinema to conduct historical research. But after all, to unearth the necessary evidence and evaluate them is not even a matter of days, but of hours. And all this can be done without leaving home, the Internet provides such an opportunity. Indeed, with more or less careful acquaintance, it would become clear that it is impossible to make a film based on the stories of Krivitsky in the interpretation of Kumanev. And yet, the name "28 ..." was chosen. The version of "conscientious idiocy" is consistent in the case of the regulars of the goblin site. But in the case of those who cut their wool, it does not roll. Everything around which spears were breaking and breaking, and all that had to be done to stop everything and not escalate mass hysteria was to remove 2 things from the film.

-- Remove "28" from the name. Name "Panfilov's", "Panfilov's heroes", "4th company", "Dubasekovo" ... To the best of your imagination, there are a lot of options. -- To remove policeman Dobrobaba from the film.

And that's it! Not a single person, except for the finished bastards who hate the country and the people, would not turn his tongue to reproach the filmmakers for making a fake. But neither one nor the other was done. Because the filmmakers needed clods of dirt, swearing and squealing on the Internet, trampling on coffins and dancing with the bones of heroes. In a word, PR. The authors deliberately went for this provocation. Consciously and cynically, because they could not help but guess how many tubs of slop will pour out about "28", and how joyfully some of our fellow citizens will begin to shout "invented a feat." Moreover, once again the topic of the mythical 28 was raised not by the "liberals" and "white tape scum", but by Shalope and Puchkov the goblin. It was they who, by their provocation, ensured that dirt again poured on the country and its history. Let's see what clever businessmen have achieved with this. - "Well-wishers" of Russia in the country itself and beyond its borders received another trump card in their hands. The Russians are so stupid, unable to deal with elementary things and with donkey stubbornness insist on a stupid and long-debunked myth. Incl. minister of culture. And the President, who visited the film on October 4th. Amazing! Scandal only increases commercial success. To whom is war, and to whom is mother dear. - On the Internet, a squabble is rare in intensity, and all these demonic dances take place on the bones of fallen soldiers. Very well, the more interest in the next commercial project, the better. - The split in the left-patriotic camp, and the largest, perhaps, since the "Kurginanomachy". As usual, with mutual abuse and dirt. Young fans of the Goblin are now forced to write down even the historian Isaev as "liberals" and "white ribbons". Who in every way did more to expose the anti-Soviet myths than the Medina-Puchkov-old men. And he made less money doing it. Well, good! Need more swearing! - All those who think and are able to google beyond Wikipedia, but have not yet decided who they are with, have decided. They neigh out loud over what kind of ministers-propagandists we have, and drift into the camp of those for whom not only goblins, Medina-old scoundrels, but also "Rashka-parashka"! But Shalope and the Goblin don't care. The main thing is that the film pays off thanks to the scandal! The results are amazing, to say the least.
And what difference does it make, whether this is all true or not true, some will ask the question again. After all, the main thing is that there should be a propaganda effect - this is how other patriots argue. Without even noticing that they are reasoning exactly as Goebbels once argued. And exactly as Goebbels declares to those who do not like the glorification of a fictitious feat, that they are not patriots. Moreover, their argumentation simply coincides verbatim with Dobrobaba's argumentation! Say, you deny the heroism of the policeman and the cooking of journalists - agree to the point that we did not win the war either. Do not love your homeland, scoundrels!
Monument to Dobrobaba in Tsimlyansk. Already with a star, but so far with an unofficial one. Vlasov next? But Goebbels, unlike his current Russian associates, desperately using his arguments to justify the film - old people, Medina and other goblins - was a smart man. And he understood that from such outright nonsense, if there is a propaganda effect, then with a "-" sign. Goebbels would have twisted his finger at his temple and sent such an employee to the eastern front for stupidity and unsuitability. Let's finish with the nasty PR campaign that preceded the film, and talk about him. Perhaps, despite everything, the film itself turned out to be correct? No. Here it is necessary to make a small digression into the history of the film. Shalyopa and Puchkov collected money for it for several years. And how many more years they would collect more (and there, you see, either the donkey or the padishah will die), is unknown. However, there were sponsors who gave the missing money, which the Internet managed to collect only 20% of the final cost of the film. The main sponsor (read, customer) was the Ministry of Culture headed by Medinsky. It was then that the aforementioned microgoebbels, working according to manuals, joined the PR of the film. Starikov, Marakhovsky, etc.
The notorious Russian Military Historical Society, which is also headed by Medinsky, also took an active part in the promotion of the film. And which has recently been marked by such actions as the sticker of royal eagles on the cars of the Victory parade, the monument to Nicholas II in Belgrade and ... the installation of the same board to Mannerheim. And where in the scientific council (headed by the same Churov) sits the already known Kumanev. By the way, when Medinsky writes angry rebukes to the "complete scum", he does not quote anyone, but his deputy for the RVIO Kumanev. Actually, there is no one to quote from academic historians besides Kumanev ... Or rather, we already have someone: now we have Medinsky academic historian himself: the same doctor of science as Kumanev, but not yet an academician, this is ahead. Krivitsky gives birth to Kumanev, Kumanev gives birth to Medinsky... And what will happen next is scary to think about.
Thus, in addition to the people who chipped in for a "correct and honest" pro-Soviet film, the picture also got another customer. Whose kung fu do you think was better? Let's see! Not a single red flag in the film, which was allegedly filmed in order to differ in the pro-Soviet direction from the Bondarchuk-Mikhalkovs. Not a single mention of Soviet power and Comrade Stalin. The film never mentions Soviet internationalism. This is despite the fact that half of the division (including this regiment) are Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. They shouted that they would make a Soviet film! But in the end, the White Guard sponsor ordered, and the principal authors of the "honest and correct" film acted like girls. Those who are danced by the one who treats them. But in the film there is Dobrobaba. They don’t call him by his last name, but they call him by his first name and patronymic. Apparently, the authors of the film felt a spiritual kinship with the policeman: " In my opinion, it is better not to consider a traitor a traitor than to humiliate a real hero. Dobrobabin was a man who wanted to live, not die" . - dir. Shallopa. Moreover, the Dobrobaby in the film, perhaps, is the most. And he behaves most heroically: in full accordance with his own stories, recorded by Kumanev.

REFERENCE

The Perekop Village Council hereby certifies that during the period of the German occupation of the village of Perekop from October 1941 to September 1943, the German occupiers and the elders who assisted and assisted them and the local rural police were: 1) kidnapped youthto Germany for hard labor -170 people; 2) stolen cattle -up to 100 goals;

5/II -- 1948

The real Deev?

Apparently, the surname "Diev", heard by Chernyshov and Koroteev at the headquarters of the 16th Army, is a distortion of the surname Georgiev. ml. political instructor Andrey Nikolaevich Georgiev, who was the commissar of the tank destroyer detachment, really died in an unequal battle with German tanks, remaining at the head of a small detachment to cover the exit from the encirclement of our units. Political instructor Georgiev, introduced to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, appears in the memoirs of the commandant of the headquarters of the regiment Melnikov as Yegordiev. Obviously, from the confusion of the names of Georgiev-Egordiev, a mistake occurred. When transmitting information about the feat along the chain from the regiment to the headquarters of the division, and then to correspondents, he turned into Yegor Diev. So the surname Diev appeared in the articles of Chernyshev and Koroteev, written on the traces that had not yet cooled down. When Krivitsky was looking for real names in order to fit them under his nonsense, he did not find the end of this story. Yes, and I hardly looked for it. He announced the first murdered political officer that came to hand as Diev (he turned out to be Klochkov), and out of more than 100 names of the dead soldiers of his company, he randomly chose the remaining 27. This is what true heroism looked like in those November days of 1941. Even in those days, what was done by the tank destroyer unit under the command of Commander Ugryumov and Commissar Georgiev deserved to be known at the army headquarters. Let's give the floor to the award list. Georgiev Andrey Nikolaevich. ml. political instructor. Commissar of the fighter detachment of the 1073rd Infantry Regiment of the 8th Guards. Division Panfilov. born in 1916 Russian. Member of the CPSU (b). ... 17 fighters, led by Commissar Georgiev, fought fiercely and stubbornly in an unequal battle under the hurricane fire of tanks, machine guns, and submachine gunners. Commissar Georgiev personally inspiring the fighters himself, to his full height with a bunch of grenades with the slogan "For the Motherland, for Stalin!" rushed to the tank and destroyed it. Of the first 4 tanks, 2 tanks were destroyed, 2 were shot down and turned back.... ... regiment and 690 infantry regiment left the encirclement .... Of the 17 daredevils, 13 died in this battle. At the moment of throwing a grenade to completely explode the wrecked tanks, Commissar Georgiev was also killed with a shell in the chest.
In addition to identifying the names (there are no Dievs in the lists of the Panfilov division) and describing the feat, there is one more circumstance that allows us to think that it is Andrei Nikolaevich Georgiev who is that political instructor Diev. This place is from the book "Volokolamsk Highway" by Alexander Beck. The narration in the book is conducted in the first person - on behalf of the battalion commander Momysh-Ula. And in it, the red commander and his biographer never deviate from what Momysh-Uly saw personally, with his own eyes. Except for one short episode. Putting the map in his lap, he continued to listen. - And Ugryumov? - Panfilov's face immediately seemed to be older, the folds around the mouth became sharper. - And Georgiev? At the bridge? I see. Is anyone left alive? Wait a minute, I'll point it out. ... Panfilov softly, without knocking, hung up and returned Dorfman's card. - Do you remember, Comrade Momysh-Uly, Lieutenant Ugryumov? I briefly answered: - Yes. Of course, I should not remember the snub-nosed, freckled lieutenant, whom the cook Vakhitov once surrounded with porridge, who looks like a country boy - a boy with a reasonable speech and a strong hand. - He died ... Did you know political instructor Georgiev? Also died. Almost all of this little detachment laid down their heads. But did not miss the tanks. Nine cars were blown up, the rest left. You see, Comrade Dorfman, things are getting clearer. But there are still many mysteries. - Panfilov scratched his cropped head. It looks like a book with torn pages. It is necessary that these pages do not disappear. We need to restore them. Read this book. Let us also pay attention to the fact that even in the very first note of correspondent Ivanov, written in hot pursuit on November 19, this number of tanks was mentioned: 9. It is clear that we are talking about the same feat, rumors about which were heard by Krivitsky and turned them for commercial purposes into a shameless deceitful concoction. No, it was no accident that such an uncharacteristic episode got into this book. Baurdzhan Momysh-Uly and his biographer Alexander Bek knew who the hero really was. And they gave a subtle hint in the book through the mouth of General Panfilov. "... a book with torn pages. These pages must not be lost. We must restore them. Read this book."- bequeathed to us by General Panfilov. And we're following the orders of the dead general.

Krivitsky, apparently, was not aware that these were the words of the colonel of the Napoleonic Guards, according to legend, said at Waterloo.

Since 1947 the death penalty was abolished, but since 1950. in relation to traitors to the Motherland (i.e. Dobrobaba) was introduced again. Moreover, the law had retroactive effect, i. a convicted person during the abolition of the death penalty could be shot.

According to the same logic, the Ukrainian "Heavenly Hundred" appeared. Was there a fact of killing people? Was. They came to the Maidan because they wanted the best? Yes. What else do you need, katsapskaya scum? Or do you not love Ukraine?

“How to determine what supported us in those immeasurably difficult days? We were ordinary Soviet people. We loved our country. Every inch of land given to the enemy seemed like a cut off piece of his own body.

From the memoirs of Z.S. Shekhtman, former commander of the 1077th regiment of the 8th Guards Rifle Division named after I.V. Panfilov

The 316th Rifle Division under the command of General Panfilov was the force that was supposed to keep the enemy out of the Volokolamsk direction. The last echelon of fighters from the area of ​​Kresttsov and Borovichi arrived at the Volokolamsk station on October 11, 1941. There was no prepared defense, just as there were no other troops.

The division took up defensive positions on the 41st kilometer front from Ruza to Lotoshino and immediately began to create centers of resistance on the likely directions of the enemy's attack. Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov was sure that the enemy would bet on tanks as the main strike force. But ... “A brave and skillful tank is not afraid,” said Panfilov.

“We will not surrender to the enemy of Moscow,” I.V. Panfilov wrote to his wife Maria Ivanovna, “we destroy the reptile by the thousands, hundreds of its tanks. The division is fighting well...” Only from October 20 to October 27, the 316th rifle division knocked out and burned 80 tanks, more than nine thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed.

Exhausting battles did not stop, by the end of October the front of the division was already 20 kilometers - from the Dubosekovo junction to the settlement of Teryaevo. Having brought up new forces, replacing the broken divisions with new ones and concentrating more than 350 tanks against Panfilov's division, by mid-November the enemy was ready for a general offensive. “We will have breakfast in Volokolamsk, and we will have dinner in Moscow,” the Nazis calculated.

On the right flank, the 1077th regiment of the rifle division held the defense, in the center were two battalions of the 1073rd regiment of Major Elin, on the left flank, in the most critical section of Dubosekovo - Nelidovo, seven kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk, was the 1075th Regiment of Colonel Ilya Vasilyevich Kaprov. It was against him that the main forces of the enemy were concentrated, trying to break through to the Volokolamsk highway and to the railway.

On November 16, 1941, the enemy offensive began. The battle, which was given at night near Dubosekovo by a group of tank destroyers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment, led by political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov, was included in all history books. For four hours, the Panfilovites held back the tanks and infantry of the enemy. They repelled several enemy attacks and destroyed 18 tanks. Most of the legendary warriors who accomplished this unprecedented feat, including Vasily Klochkov, died that night the death of the brave. The rest (D.F. Timofeev, G.M. Shemyakin, I.D. Shadrin, D.A. Kozhubergenov and I.R. Vasiliev) were seriously wounded. The battle near Dubosekovo went down in history as a feat of 28 Panfilov soldiers, all its participants in 1942 were awarded the title of heroes of the Soviet Union by the Soviet command ...

The Panfilovites became a terrible curse for the Nazis, and there were legends about the strength and courage of the heroes. On November 17, 1941, the 316th Rifle Division was renamed the 8th Guards Rifle Division and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Hundreds of guardsmen were awarded orders and medals.

On November 19, the division lost its commander ... 36 days fought under the command of General I.V. Panfilov 316th Rifle Division, defending the capital in the main direction. Even during his lifetime, the soldiers of the division in fierce battles destroyed over 30 thousand fascist soldiers and officers and more than 150 tanks.

Having not achieved decisive successes in the Volokolamsk direction, the main enemy forces turned to Solnechnogorsk, where they intended to break through first to Leningradskoe, then to Dmitrovskoe highway and enter Moscow from the north-west.

In 1967, in the village of Nelidovo, located one and a half kilometers from the Dubosekovo junction, the Panfilov Heroes Museum was opened. In 1975, a memorial ensemble of granite "Feat 28" was erected at the site of the battle (sculptors N.S. Lyubimov, A.G. Postol, V.A. Fedorov, architects V.E. Datyuk, Yu.G. Krivushchenko, I. I. Stepanov, engineer S.P. Khadzhibaronov), consisting of six monumental figures, personifying the warriors of six nationalities, who fought in the ranks of 28 Panfilov's men.

In the Volokolamsky district of the Moscow region, at the memorial to 28 Panfilov heroes, the closing of the all-Russian military-patriotic action "Memory Watch", dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the start of the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow, took place. In 1941, here, at the Dubosekovo junction, the fighters of Ivan Panfilov's division stopped German tanks at the cost of their lives. Thousands of people came to the celebrations. And the participants of military-patriotic associations showed the historical reconstruction of the legendary battle, after which the premiere screening of the film "28 Panfilov's Men" was held at the Lama Sports Palace in Volokolamsk.

... Shots are heard on the field near the memorial to the Panfilov heroes. Then the firing becomes continuous, and tanks enter the field. An explosion, the dead are falling, the orderlies rush to the wounded. The legendary battle at the Dubosekovo junction was recreated by the pupils of military-patriotic associations who came here from different cities.

Reconstruction allows options for interpreting the plot. But when it comes to the real events that formed the basis of the shown representation, the assessments here are already different. Disputes about the events of the past do not subside until now. How many Panfilov's were there, did they really stop the armada of German tanks, did they all die in battle or did someone survive. Some doubted that there was no battle at Dubosekovo at all - they say, there is no evidence of it in the archives, and the Germans drove through that place without even noticing.

Without women and "good Germans"

About all this a couple of hours after the celebrations at the memorial from the stage of the Sports Palace in Volokolamsk, where the pre-premiere screening of the film "28 Panfilov's Men" will take place, the Minister of Culture will say Vladimir Medinsky. A few months ago, he called those who questioned the feat of the heroes "complete scum" "complete scum."

Today, the minister said, he wrote his speech on a piece of paper in order to avoid unnecessary emotions, but he did not back down from the thought voiced earlier. He also talked about the film. The fact that money was collected for it by the whole world and that more than 35 thousand people responded. That the film was shot contrary to all the laws of the genre - it does not contain any historical characters or "good Germans", as they now like to show. And, fortunately, there are no stars: not in the sense of good actors, but in the sense that the same physiognomies wandering from picture to picture do not blur the impression.

The film ended to applause from the audience. He is truly deserving. It’s like a chronicle, but not soulless, but a kind of home video shot by someone close. This is before the fight. And then it’s as if the broadcast starts from the front line, in which there is neither pathos, nor picture poses, where no one deliberately swears, but speaks the language of his time. Even the phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat" from the mouth of the political instructor Klochkova who played Alexey Makarov, which has become a favorite of women after the recently shown on TV "Mysterious Passion", does not sound like a slogan, but like a parting word from an older comrade - heavy, but honest. By the way, there are no women in the film at all, which means that there is no love line, but even without these "props" the film looks in one breath.

A sip of adrenaline

The film was shot not only on the basis of archival materials and literary works, but also on the basis of the stories of war veterans, the director said. Andrey Shalopa. The general's granddaughter helped Ivan Panfilov - Aigul Baikadamova. During the laying of wreaths at the memorial in Dubosekovo, I approached this short, strict woman who was holding a portrait of her grandfather in her hands. Together with her niece Aigul, she came from Alma-Ata - in 1941, it was in Central Asia that the general formed the 316th rifle division. For his descendants, all this liberal chatter around the feat of the Panfilovites is a sore subject.

“Those who are trying to “expose” the events of the past did not fight, did not sniff gunpowder, but they take it upon themselves to argue what is right and what is not,” shared Aigul Bakhytzhanovna. - In 1994, in Alma-Ata, an article “28 Panfilovites: a true story or a fiction” was published. The head of the agricultural department of the newspaper "Kazakhstanskaya Pravda" went to Dubosekovo and decided that the battle simply could not take place there and that General Panfilov was a non-professional, from whom the general's shoulder straps should be removed. This story greatly undermined the health of my mother. Unfortunately, she is no longer alive.

Alexei Makarov (left), who played the role of political officer KLOCHKOV in the film "28 Panfilov's Men", arrived in Volokolamsk for the premiere

“After watching the film “28 Panfilov’s Men,” I could not recover for a long time - such an adrenaline rush,” Baikadamova shared. “It’s like I’ve been in that fight myself. It is important to understand that 28 Panfilov's men are a symbol. Every day the whole division showed mass heroism. I know the director of the film Andrei Shalopa well, many of the guys from the film crew - they are very young people. From all of them I heard the word "responsibility" more than once. That is, they are well aware that this topic is very important for millions of people.

Regarding the discussions around her. We met with the participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, who remained alive - Shemyakin,Shadrin And Vasiliev. Both they and the regimental commander Kaprov and commissioner Mukhamedyarov confirmed the fact of the battle. And the dispute about the number of its participants is not appropriate at all, because when such a meat grinder is going on, there is no time for statistics. Former Director of the State Archive Mironenko, who called the feat of 28 Panfilov's a myth, received a bunch of dividends on this topic. It is beneath our dignity to enter into an argument with him. Such people need to be responded to with actions - such as the Immortal Regiment, Light a Candle of Memory, and the international memorial watch “We are millions of Panfilov's”. These projects are ours with my younger sister, her name is Alua, care. Yesterday the first international rally of young Panfilovites from the CIS countries took place: my niece Valentina is the president of General Panfilov's public foundation.

Valya, by the way, bears the name of my mother, the eldest daughter of Ivan Vasilievich, who fought in the Panfilov division. She volunteered for the front at the age of 18 - she served on the front line as a nurse. Few people knew whose daughter she was, Father Valentine saw twice during the war. The fact that he died, she heard from a wounded soldier. Having lost the commander, he did not hesitate to cry. Mom did not believe at first, she hoped that the general was alive, but when the top command of the division came to her, she realized that this was true.

“There are no military men among the descendants of General Panfilov,” continues the granddaughter of the famous military leader. - My older sister is a musicologist, followed in the footsteps of her father Bakhytzhan Baikadamova- composer, founder of Kazakh choral music. Daughter Aliya graduated from the Institute of National Economy. The older sister's daughter also works in the field of economics, and the son is a leading specialist in banking software.

Both I and my family often meet with young people. I am sure that we must educate in our children a respectful attitude towards the past. No one should be allowed to rewrite history and take Victory away from us.

Journalists threatened with Kolyma

To understand where the talk came from that the description of the events at the Dubosekovo junction in Krasnaya Zvezda is not true, you will have to go back to November 1941, when an essay by a front-line correspondent appeared in this newspaper Vladimir Koroteev. In January 1942, the literary editor Alexander Krivitsky added details to it. It was about 28 soldiers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, who destroyed 18 enemy tanks. All 28 became Heroes of the Soviet Union - posthumously.

However, in November 1947, during the investigation of the Military Prosecutor's Office, it turned out that one of the Panfilov Ivan Dobrobabin, did not die. In 1942, he was captured and entered the service of the Germans. In 1943, he was arrested as a traitor to the Motherland, but he fled and again became a policeman with the Fritz.

After the war, he was arrested again. It was then that it turned out that this man was one of the Panfilovites. Much later, Ivan presented eyewitness accounts that he did not participate in the massacres, but, on the contrary, warned fellow villagers about them and even helped a wounded Red Army soldier escape. Nevertheless, Dobrobabin's rehabilitation was denied. In 1996 he died.

After this story, they decided to check all the fighters of the 4th company and found out that five more were still alive.

The employees of the "Red Star" had to admit that they, indeed, added some details on their own. But these people also told that they were threatened in the prosecutor's office: if they refuse to testify that they invented the description of the battle near Dubosekovo, they would be sent to Kolyma.

horses against tanks

When someone, under the guise of a desire for truth, tries to cancel someone's merits, I would like to invite these people to search for undeservedly forgotten names - also for the sake of restoring historical justice. The turning point in the war, which began in the late autumn and early winter of 1941, was largely due to such an outstanding general as Pavel Alekseevich Belov, and many have heard of this hero?

As we know, in the fall of 1941, the fascist leadership finally realized that they could not take Moscow head-on. Then it was decided to surround the city, breaking it with a lightning throw of the tank army Guderian. It was planned to penetrate the defenses of the Soviet troops along the Klin-Dmitrov-Noginsk line and the Tula-Stalinogorsk (now Novomoskovsk)-Kashira line and close the pincers in the Noginsk region.

One on one with an enemy tank - just like 75 years ago

Guderian's tanks were approaching Kashira. But the surrender of the city opened a direct road to Noginsk. In addition, the Kashirskaya state district power station was located on the Oka, which was necessary to supply electricity to the arms factories of Tula. However, there was no one to defend the city - only the cavalry corps under the command of Pavel Belov. And already on November 27, our horsemen launched a counterattack on the Guderian armada and threw it back from Kashira. Six thousand mounted soldiers blocked the path of 100 tanks, several thousand vehicles, hundreds of guns, tens of thousands of well-armed soldiers.

By November 30, the Germans were driven out of the Kashira region, and by December 7 - the beginning of the general counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow - the city was liberated.

Belov's tactics were as follows. When German tankers stopped for the night, they had to warm up their engines in the morning. At this time, our fighters fell upon them, destroyed the guards, and then set fire to or blew up the tanks.

In the memoirs of the Chief of Staff of the German Ground Forces, Belov's name is mentioned more often. Zhukov, Stalin and other military leaders. The general was never a public person and died on December 3, 1962.

"The days of blitzkrieg are gone"

* The battle for Moscow went on in two periods: defensive (September 30 - December 4, 1941) and offensive, which consisted of two stages: the counteroffensive (December 5, 1941 - January 7, 1942) and the general offensive of the Soviet troops (7 - 10 January - April 20, 1942).

* More than 7 million people participated in the battles. This is more than in the Berlin operation, included in the Guinness Book as the largest battle of the Second World War.

* As a result of the counter-offensive near Moscow and the general offensive of the Soviet troops, the German units were pushed back 100-250 km from the capital.

* The hopes of the German command for a fleeting war did not come true. General Günther Blumentritt wrote: “Now it was important for the political leaders of Germany to understand that the days of the blitzkrieg had sunk into the past. We were confronted by an army far superior in its fighting qualities to all other armies that we had ever encountered on the battlefield.

* In the Battle of Moscow, the Germans lost over 400 thousand people, 1300 tanks, 2500 guns, over 15 thousand vehicles and many other equipment.

* During the war, the metropolitan metro was not only a bomb shelter. A library was opened at the Kurskaya station, shops and hairdressers worked in the metro. During the war years, 217 children were born in the subway.

.* In the most difficult days, when the Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow, more than 100 thousand people signed up for the people's militia, and 250 thousand Muscovites, mostly women and teenagers, dug anti-tank ditches.