28 Panfilov soldiers during the war. Panfilov Heroes

Even from school textbooks, we all know about the famous feat of 28 Panfilov’s men, who at one time, under the command of Major General I.V. Panfilov, at the cost of his own life, stopped the Nazis on the outskirts of Moscow. Modern views of historians on the legendary battle at Dubosekovo present the situation in a completely different light. Some of them even question the official version of the fight.

On November 16, 41, the personnel of the 4th company held the defense on the territory of Dubosekovo. A detachment of 28 people, led by political instructor V. Klochkov, defeated the Nazis in a difficult battle, destroying about 18 enemy tanks.

After the war, all "Panfilov" included in the list of the military instructor, posthumously received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The most interesting began already in the post-war years. Some of the posthumously awarded soldiers were still alive. In 1947, information surfaced that two participants in the battle had passed the camps. To understand all this, the prosecutor's office began checking all the circumstances of the battle. Indeed, not everyone died in the battle near Dubosekovo, as stated in official reports.

The version that there was no battle at all, as such, has been publicly voiced by many historians. Sergey Mironenko, who at that time was in charge of the state archive, officially stated that the whole story about the brave Panfilovites is just a myth.
On the basis of declassified archives, some historians have concluded that the famous feat was a fiction of Krasnaya Zvezda journalist Alexander Krivitsky, who first reported the battle.
Once on the front line, he tried to write an essay about the events. The whole story was recorded from the words of the current division commissar, who spoke in great detail about the battle. The battle was fought by the 4th company, which consisted of soldiers in the amount of over 120 people, and not 28 heroes, as was later stated in the printed publication. Many facts are distorted. But there really was a fight.

A little later, during interrogation at the prosecutor's office, Krivitsky, who published the story of the feat, admitted that the information was written based on the stories of the soldiers. A few years later, during the re-investigation, Krivitsky stated that he was forced under threat of arrest to admit his article was fiction.

After examining all the materials, historians came to the conclusion that the battle still took place. On the basis of archival documents, it was established that the division that fought near Dubosekovo included not only Russians. The main part was represented by Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Kirghiz. In this regard, by the way: It was the recorded words of V. Klochkov that caused the most doubts that the journalist was reliable in his story: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”. Questions began to arise both from fellow journalists and from the military prosecutor's office. Alexander Krivitsky admitted that there is fiction in his essay: “In terms of sensations and actions, 28 characters are my literary conjecture.”

In fact, the company was very poorly equipped. But the fighters tried their best to survive. All the events of this legendary battle were subsequently described by the historian B. Sokolov, recreating the real picture of the battle.

Based on the explanations of the witnesses of the battle and hundreds of declassified archives, historians nevertheless managed to establish the truth - there really was a battle, and there was a feat. Only the fact of the existence of these same 28 Panfilovites remained a big question.

Original taken from kritik in The real story of "28 Panfilov". Facts and documentary information

Today I will go to the film "28 Panfilov's". And I would like to know the real story of these "heroic" people, so that when writing a review about the film - to know how much the script distorts reality.

The calculation of the 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K on the outskirts of the village near Moscow, November - December 1941

The most famous of the soldiers of the division were 28 people ("Panfilov's heroes", or "28 Panfilov's heroes") from among the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment. According to the version of the event widely spread in the USSR, on November 16, when a new German offensive against Moscow began, the soldiers of the 4th company, led by political instructor Vasily Klochkov, carried out defense in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction, 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, accomplished a feat, during a 4-hour battle, destroying 18 enemy tanks. All 28 people, called heroes in Soviet historiography, died (later they began to write "almost all"). The phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”, Which, according to the Krasnaya Zvezda journalists, was uttered by political instructor Klochkov before his death, was included in Soviet school and university history textbooks.

In 1948 and 1988, the official version of the feat was studied by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as fiction. According to Sergei Mironenko, "there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths planted by the state." At the same time, the very fact of heavy defensive battles of the 316th rifle division against the 2nd and 11th German tank divisions (approx. disputed.

Historical analysis

According to the materials of the investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda first reported on the feat of the heroes on November 27, 1941 in an essay by front-line correspondent V. I. Koroteev. The article about the participants in the battle said that "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed"; the commander of the detachment, according to Koroteev, was "commissar Diev."

According to other sources, the first publication about the feat appeared on November 19, 1941, just two days after the events at the Dubosekovo junction. Izvestia correspondent G. Ivanov in his article “The 8th Guards Division in Battles” describes the battle surrounded by one of the companies defending on the left flank of the 1075th Infantry Regiment of I.V. Kaprov: 9 tanks were knocked out, 3 were burned, the rest turned back.

Criticism of the official version

Critics of the official version, as a rule, give the following arguments and assumptions:
Neither the commander of the 2nd battalion (which included the 4th company), Major Reshetnikov, nor the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, nor the commander of the 316th division, Major General Panfilov, nor the commander of the 16th th Army, Lieutenant General Rokossovsky. German sources do not report anything about him either (while the loss of 18 tanks in one battle at the end of 1941 would have been a noticeable event for the Germans).
It is not clear how Koroteev and Krivitsky learned a large number of details of this battle. The information that the information was received in the hospital from the mortally wounded participant in the battle, Natarov, is doubtful, since, according to the documents, Natarov died two days before the battle, on November 14th.
By November 16, the number of personnel of the 4th company was complete, that is, it could not have only 28 soldiers. According to the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment I. V. Kaprov, there were about 140 people in the company.

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 village of Perekop, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region, temporarily occupied by the Germans. 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 treacherous 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 Prosecutor General of the USSR 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, E. 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). After that, however, he received a personal rebuke from Leonid Brezhnev, who called the denial of the official version "slandering the heroic history of our party and our people."

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 1997, the Novy Mir magazine, authored by Nikolai Petrov and Olga Edelman, published an article “New about Soviet heroes”, which stated (including on the basis of the text of the top secret certificate “About 28 Panfilovites” given in the article) that On May 10, 1948, the official version of the feat was studied by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as literary fiction.

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, they sent ready-made award lists and a general list of 28 guardsmen to me in the 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 calculation of the anti-tank rifle PTRD-41 in position during the battle for Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942

The materials of the interrogation of the correspondent Koroteev are also given:

Around November 23-24, 1941, together with the war 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 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 talked 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 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 - behind Moscow,” 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 guards, 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 ...

The Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR was again involved in the circumstances of the feat in 1988, as a result of which the chief military prosecutor, Lieutenant General of Justice A.F. Katusev, published the article “Alien Glory” in the Military History Journal (1990, No. 8-9). In it, he concluded that "the mass feat of the entire company, the entire regiment, the entire division, by the irresponsibility of not entirely conscientious journalists, was downplayed to the scale of a mythical platoon." The director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical Sciences S. V. Mironenko, shares the same opinion.

Documentary evidence of the battle

Commander of the 1075th regiment I. V. 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.

On the 16th, at 6 am, the Germans began bombing our right and left flanks, and we got a fair amount of damage. 35 planes bombed us.

After the air bombardment, a column of submachine gunners left the village of Krasikovo ... Then Sergeant Dobrobabin, who was a platoon commander, hung down. We opened fire on the submachine gunners… It was around 7 in the morning… We beat off the submachine gunners… We killed about 80 people.

After this attack, political instructor Klochkov crept up to our trenches and began to talk. Greeted us. "How did you get through the fight?" - "Nothing, survived." He says: “Tanks are moving, we will still have to endure a fight here ... There are a lot of tanks coming, but there are more of us. 20 tanks, will not hit every brother in a tank.

We all trained in the fighter battalion. They did not give themselves such horror as to immediately panic. We were in the trenches. “Nothing,” says the political instructor, “we will be able to repel the attack of the tanks: there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind.”

We took the fight with these tanks. From the right flank, they were hit with an anti-tank rifle, but we didn’t have it ... They began to jump out of the trenches and throw bundles of grenades under the tanks ... They threw bottles of fuel on the crews. I don’t know what was torn there, only healthy explosions were in the tanks ... I had to blow up two heavy tanks. We repulsed this attack, destroyed 15 tanks. Tanks 5 retreated in the opposite direction to the village of Zhdanovo ... In the first battle, there were no losses on my left flank.

Political instructor Klochkov noticed that the second batch of tanks was moving, and said: “Comrades, we will probably have to die here for the glory of our homeland. Let the motherland know how we fight, how we defend Moscow. Moscow is behind, we have nowhere to retreat. ... When the second batch of tanks approached, Klochkov jumped out of the trench with grenades. The fighters behind him... In this last attack, I blew up two tanks - a heavy one and a light one. The tanks were on fire. Then I got under the third tank... on the left side. On the right side, Musabek Singerbaev, a Kazakh, ran up to this tank... Then I was wounded... He received three shrapnel wounds and a shell shock.

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.

German tanks attack Soviet positions in the Istra region, November 25, 1941

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 316th Rifle Division took up defensive positions on the Dubosekovo front - 8 km southeast of Volokolamsk, that is, approximately 18-20 kilometers along the front, which was a lot for a formation weakened in battles. On the left flank, the neighbor was the 126th Infantry Division, on the right - the combined regiment of cadets of the Moscow Infantry School named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

On November 16, the division was attacked by the forces of the German 2nd Panzer Division with the task of improving positions for the offensive of the 5th Army Corps, scheduled for November 18th. The first blow was delivered by two battle groups against the positions of the 1075th Infantry Regiment. On the left flank, where the 2nd battalion occupied positions, the stronger 1st battle group was advancing as part of a tank battalion with artillery and infantry units. The task of the day was to occupy the villages of Rozhdestveno and Lystsevo, 8 km north of the Dubosekovo junction.

The 1075th Rifle Regiment suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment in previous battles, but before new battles it was significantly replenished with personnel. According to the testimony of the commander of the regiment, Colonel I. V. Kaprov, there were 120-140 people in the 4th company (according to the staff of division 04/600, there should be 162 people in the company). The question of the artillery armament of the regiment is not completely clear. According to the state, the regiment was supposed to have a battery of four 76-mm regimental guns and an anti-tank battery of six 45-mm guns. There is evidence that the regiment actually had two 76-mm regimental guns of the 1927 model, several 76-mm mountain guns of the 1909 model of the year and 75-mm French divisional guns Mle.1897. The anti-tank capabilities of these guns were not high - regimental guns pierced only 31 mm of armor from 500 m, armor-piercing shells were not supposed to be attached to mountain guns at all. The obsolete French guns had weak ballistics, nothing is known about the presence of armor-piercing shells for them. At the same time, it is known that on November 16, 1941, the 316th Rifle Division had twelve 45-mm anti-tank guns, twenty-six 76-mm divisional guns, seventeen 122-mm howitzers and five 122-mm corps guns, which could be used in combat with German tanks. The neighbor, the 50th Cavalry Division, also had its own artillery.

The infantry anti-tank weapons of the regiment were represented by 11 PTRD anti-tank rifles (of which 4 guns were in the 2nd battalion), RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails. The real combat capabilities of these weapons were not high: anti-tank guns had low armor penetration, especially when using cartridges with B-32 bullets, and could only hit German tanks at close range, exclusively to the side and stern at an angle close to 90 degrees, which in a frontal situation a tank attack was unlikely. In addition, the battle near Dubosekovo was the first case of the use of anti-tank rifles of this type, the production of which was just beginning to unfold. Anti-tank grenades were an even weaker means - they pierced up to 15-20 mm of armor, provided they were in direct contact with the armor plate, so it was recommended to throw them on the roof of the tank, which was a very difficult and extremely dangerous task in battle. To increase the destructive power of these grenades, fighters usually tied them together in several pieces. Statistics show that the proportion of tanks destroyed by anti-tank grenades is extremely small.

On the morning of November 16, German tankers conducted reconnaissance in force. According to the memoirs of the regiment commander, Colonel I.V. Kaprov, “in total, 10-12 enemy tanks were moving along the battalion sector. How many tanks went to the site of the 4th company, I don’t know, or rather, I can’t determine ... In the battle, the regiment destroyed 5-6 German tanks, and the Germans retreated. Then the enemy pulled up reserves and with new force fell upon the positions of the regiment. After 40-50 minutes of battle, the Soviet defense was broken through, and the regiment, in fact, was defeated. Kaprov personally collected the surviving fighters and took them to new positions. According to the commander of the regiment I. V. Kaprov, “the 4th company of Gundilovich suffered the most in the battle. Only 20-25 survived. led by a company commander of 140 people. The rest of the companies suffered less. More than 100 people died in the 4th rifle company. The company fought heroically." Thus, it was not possible to stop the enemy at the Dubosekovo junction, the positions of the regiment were crushed by the enemy, and its remnants retreated to a new defensive line. According to Soviet data, in the battles of November 16, the entire 1075th regiment knocked out and destroyed 9 enemy tanks.

Breakthrough of German troops in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16-21, 1941. The red arrows mark the advance of the 1st battle group through the battle formations of the 1075th rifle regiment in the Nelidovo-Dubosekovo-Shiryaevo sector, the blue arrows mark the second. The dotted line indicates the starting positions for the morning, afternoon and evening of November 16 (pink, purple and blue, respectively)

In general, as a result of the battles on November 16-20 in the Volokolamsk direction, Soviet troops stopped the offensive of two tank and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. Realizing the futility and impossibility of achieving success in the Volokolamsk direction, von Bock transferred the 4th Panzer Group to the Leningrad Highway. At the same time, on November 26, the 8th Guards Rifle Division was also transferred to the Leningradskoye Highway in the area of ​​​​the village of Kryukovo, where, like on the Volokolamsk Highway, together with other units, it stopped the 4th Wehrmacht Panzer Group.

Watch a documentary film: “Panfilov's men. The truth about the feat "

Conclusion: of course, it is up to us to decide where the story was “embellished” a little, and where it is really true.
In any case, a number of factors indicate that this story and the feat of people has the right to exist ....

“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 defeated 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 that a group of tank destroyers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment, led by political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov, gave at night near Dubosekovo, entered all history textbooks. 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.

The feat of 28 Panfilov heroes

November 16, 1941 under the new the advance of the fascist army on Moscow at the Dubosekovo junction, 28 fighters from the division of General Panfilov performed their immortal feat

By the end of October 1941, the first stage of the German operation of the attack on Moscow called "Typhoon" 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. In the Volokolamsk direction, the Germans were blocked by the 316th Infantry Division of Major General I.V. Panfilov, who took up defense at the front with a length of 41 kilometers from the village of Lvovo to the Bolychevo state farm.

Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov

On the right flank, its neighbor was the 126th rifle division, on the left - the 50th cavalry division from the corps Dovator.

Lev Mikhailovich Dovator

On November 16, the division was attacked by the forces of two German tank divisions: the 2nd tank division of Lieutenant General Rudolf Fayel attacked the positions of the 316th rifle division in the center of defense, and the 11th tank division of Major General Walter Scheller hit in the area Dubosekovo on the positions of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, at the junction with the 50th Cavalry Division.

Walter Scheller

PzKpfw-IIIG of the 11th Panzer Division at the Dubosekovo junction

year of issue - 1937; weight - 15.4 tons; crew - 5 people; armor - 14.5 mm;gun - 37 mm;

speed - 32 km/h

The main blow fell on the positions of the 2nd battalion of the regiment.

The 1075th Rifle Regiment suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment in previous battles, but before new battles it was significantly replenished with personnel. The question of the artillery armament of the regiment is not completely clear. According to the staff, the regiment was supposed to have a battery of four 76-mm regimental guns and an anti-tank battery of six 45-mm guns.

The obsolete French guns also had poor ballistics; nothing is known about the presence of armor-piercing shells for them. However, it is known that for firing at tanks from guns of this type, shrapnel shells were used, the fuse of which was set to strike. From a 500-meter distance, such a projectile pierced 31 millimeters of German armor.

At the same time, it is known that, in general, the 316th Rifle Division on November 16, 1941 had 12 - 45 mm anti-tank guns, 26 - 76 mm divisional guns, 17 - 122 mm howitzers and 5 - 122 mm corps guns , which could be used in combat with German tanks. The neighbor, the 50th Cavalry Division, also had its own artillery. The infantry anti-tank weapons of the regiment were represented by 11 ATGMs (four of them were in the second battalion), RPG-40 grenades and Molotov cocktails.

Anti-tank guns distinguished by high armor penetration, especially when using cartridges with B-31 bullets that had a tungsten carbide core.

PTRD could hit German tanks only at close range from a 300-meter distance, breaking through 35-mm armor at that distance.

Battle at the Dubosekovo junction became the first case of the use of anti-tank rifles, the production of which was just beginning to unfold, and their number was still insufficient.

Right here at Dubosekova, and the fourth company of the 1075th rifle regiment accepted the battle. According to the staff of division 04/600, there should have been 162 people in the company, and by December 16 there were about 120 people in the standing. Where did the number 28 come from?

The fact is that on the eve of the battle, from among the most persistent and most accurate fighters, a special group of tank destroyers was created in the amount of about 30 people, commanded by a 30-year-old political instructor Vasily Klochkov.

Vasily Georgievich Klochkov - Diev

All anti-tank guns were transferred to this group, and therefore the number of tanks destroyed does not look fantastic at all - out of 54 tanks moving towards the Panfilovites, the heroes managed to destroy 18 vehicles, the loss of 13 of which was recognized by the Germans themselves. But the Germans recognized the tank as lost only if it could not be restored, and if after the battle the tank was sent for major repairs with the replacement of the engine or weapons, such a tank was not considered lost.

A list of these fighters a few days later was compiled from memory by the company commander, Captain Gundilovich, at the request of the Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent Alexander Yuryevich Krivitsky. The captain may not have remembered someone, and someone probably got on this list by mistake - he died earlier or fought with the Germans as part of another unit, because the group included not only the captain's subordinates, but also volunteers from other units a shelf.

Despite the fact that, following the results of the battle, the battlefield remained with the Germans, and most of our fighters who participated in this battle died, the homeland did not forget the heroic deed of the heroes, and already on November 27, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper for the first time informed the people about this feat, and on the following day, an editorial appeared in the same newspaper under the headline "Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes". This article indicated that 29 Panfilov soldiers fought with enemy tanks. At the same time, the 29th was called a traitor. In fact, this 29th was sent Klochkov with a report to Dubosekovo. However, there were already Germans and a fighter in the village. Daniil Kozhabergenov was taken prisoner. 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 horsemen Dovator who are in the raid on the German rear. After connection exit Dovator from the raid, was interrogated by a special department, admitted that he did not participate in the battle, and was sent back to the division Dovator.

The main blow fell on the positions of the 2nd battalion, which occupied the Petelino-Shiryaevo-Dubosekovo defense line. The 4th company of this battalion covered the most important section - the railway crossing near Dubosekovo, behind which a direct road to Moscow opened. The firing points immediately before the move were organized by the soldiers of the 2nd platoon of tank destroyers - a total of 29 people. They were armed with PTRD anti-tank rifles, as well as anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails. There was one machine gun.

bottles with cop

On the eve of this battle, the commander of the second platoon, D. Shirmatov, was wounded, therefore, the “Panfilovites” were commanded by the castle platoon commander, sergeant I. E. Dobrobabin.

Ivan Efstafievich Dobrobabin

He made sure that the firing positions were equipped to the conscience - five full-profile trenches were dug, reinforced with railway sleepers.

reconstruction of the trenches "Panfilov"

At 8 am on November 16, the first Nazis appeared near the fortifications. The “Panfilovites” hid and did not show their presence. As soon as most of the Germans climbed to the heights in front of the positions, Dobrobabin whistled briefly. The machine gun immediately responded, shooting the Germans at close range, from a hundred meters.

Opened heavy fire and other soldiers of the platoon. The enemy, having lost about 70 people, rolled back in disorder. After this first encounter, 2nd Platoon had no casualties at all.
Soon, German artillery fire fell on the railway crossing, after which the German submachine gunners again went on the attack. She was repulsed again, and again without loss. In the afternoon, two German PzKpfw-IIIG tanks appeared near Dubosekovo, accompanied by an infantry platoon. The Panfilovites managed to destroy several infantrymen and set fire to one tank, after which the enemy retreated again. The relative calm in front of Dubosekovo was explained by the fact that a fierce battle had been in full swing at the positions of the 5th and 6th companies of the 2nd battalion for a long time.

Having regrouped, the Germans carried out a short artillery preparation and threw a tank battalion into the attack with the support of two companies of machine gunners. The tanks were deployed front, 15-20 tanks in a group, in several waves.

The main blow was inflicted in the direction of Dubosekovo as the most tank-accessible area.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, a heated battle broke out before the move. Anti-tank guns, of course, could not stop the advance of a dozen German tanks, and the battle began near the village itself. The soldiers had to jump out of the trenches under gun and machine-gun fire in order to surely throw a bunch of anti-tank grenades or a Molotov cocktail. At the same time, they still had to repel the attacks of enemy machine gunners, shoot at tankers jumping out of tanks on fire ...

As a participant in that battle testifies, one of the platoon soldiers could not stand it and jumped out of the trench with his hands up. Carefully aiming, Vasiliev removed the traitor.
From explosions in the air there was a constant curtain of dirty snow, soot and smoke. This is probably why Dobrobabin did not notice how the enemy practically destroyed the 1st and 3rd platoons on the right and left. Soldiers and his platoon perished one by one, but the number of destroyed tanks also grew. The seriously wounded were hastily dragged into the dugout, equipped in positions. The lightly wounded did not go anywhere and continued to fire ...
Finally, having lost several tanks and up to two infantry platoons before moving, the enemy began to retreat. One of the last shells fired by the Germans severely concussed Dobrobabin, and he lost consciousness for a long time.

The command was taken by the political instructor of the 4th company V. G. Klochkov, sent to the position of the second platoon of the commander Gundilovich. The surviving fighters later spoke respectfully about Klochkov - without any pathetic phrases, he raised the spirit of the fighters, exhausted and sooty by many hours of battle.

The soul of the detachment of guards was a political instructor V.G. Klochkov. Already in the first days of the fighting near the walls of the capital, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and honored to participate in a military parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.
Vasily Klochkov made his way into the trenches at the Dubosekovo junction and stayed with his soldiers to the end. Twenty black, with white crosses, clanging caterpillars, smugly rumbling fascist tanks were advancing on the Dubosekovsky trench in an avalanche. The Nazi infantry ran behind the tanks. Klochkov remarked: “There are a lot of tanks coming, but there are more of us. Twenty tanks, less than one tank per brother. The warriors decided to fight to the death. The tanks moved very close. The fight has begun. The command was given by political instructor Klochkov. Under fire, the Panfilovites jumped out of the trench and threw bundles of grenades under the tracks of tanks, and bottles of fuel on the engine part or gas tank.

For four hours a firestorm raged over the trenches of the brave men. Shells exploded, bottles of combustible mixture flew, shells hissed and whistled, flames raged, melting snow, earth and armor. The enemy could not stand it and retreated. Fourteen steel monsters with ominous white crosses on their sides blazed on the battlefield. The survivors got away. Thinned the ranks of the defenders. In the haze of the advancing twilight, the rumble of motors was heard again. Having licked their wounds, filling their belly with fire and lead, the enemy, seized by a new fit of rage, again rushed to the attack - 30 tanks moved on a handful of brave men.

Political instructor Klochkov looked at the soldiers.
“Thirty tanks, friends!” he said. Probably, we will have to die here for the glory of the Motherland. Let the Motherland find out how we fight here, how we defend Moscow. We have nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow.

These words of Klochkov entered the hearts of the fighters, like a call of the Motherland, a demand, her order, instilling in them a new force of selfless courage. Now it was already clear that in this battle the warriors would find their own death, but still they wanted to make the enemy pay dearly for their lives. The soldiers, bleeding, did not leave their combat posts. The attack of the Nazis bogged down. Suddenly another heavy tank tries to break through to the trench. Political instructor Klochkov stands up to meet him. His hand is clutching a bunch of grenades - the last bunch. Seriously wounded with grenades, he rushed to the enemy tank and blew it up.

The brave political instructor did not hear how a strong explosion echoed through the snow-covered expanses. Next to Klochkov, head to head, lay the wounded soldier Ivan Nashtarov and, as if through a dream, from somewhere far away, he heard the voice of the political instructor “We are dying, brother ... Someday they will remember us ... If you live, tell us ... ". Second attack repulsed. Again the enemy did not pass. He rushed about in smoke and flames and, finally, backing away, growling in impotent rage, turned into a shameful flight, leaving 18 of his 50 tanks to burn out. The resilience of 28 Soviet hero heroes turned out to be stronger than enemy armor. More than 150 fascist conquerors lay on the snow at the site of a fierce battle. The battlefield was silent. The legendary trench was silent. The defenders of their native land did what they had to do. Spreading their weary arms, as if covering their wounded, blood-soaked native land with their lifeless bodies, lay those who stood. For boundless courage, heroism, military prowess and courage, the Soviet government posthumously awarded the participants in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
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.
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.
As it turned out later, not all 28 Panfilov soldiers fell in this unprecedented battle. The Red Army soldier Nashtarov, seriously wounded, having gathered his last strength, crawled away from the battlefield and was picked up by our scouts at night. In the hospital, he spoke about the feat of Soviet soldiers. Three days after the battle, he died. The Red Army soldiers Illarion Romanovich Vasilyev, Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin were picked up half-dead on the battlefield and, after being cured, returned to their native division. Red Army soldier Ivan Demidovich Shadrin during the battle in an unconscious state was captured by the Germans. For more than three years, he experienced all the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, while remaining faithful to his homeland and the Soviet people. Vasiliev died in the city of Kemerovo, Shemyakin died in Alma-Ata in December 1973, Shadrin, who lived in the village of Kirovsky, Alma-Ata region, died.
The names of the Panfilov heroes are included in the annals of the Great Patriotic War in gold letters

By the end of the day, despite stubborn resistance, the 1075th Rifle Regiment was driven out of its positions and forced to retreat. An example of self-sacrifice was shown not only by the “Panfilovites” near Dubosekovo. Two days later, 11 sappers of the 1077th Infantry Regiment from the same Panfilov's 316th Division delayed the advance of 27 German tanks with infantry near the village of Strokovo for a long time at the cost of their lives.

In two days of fighting, the 1075th regiment lost 400 people killed, 100 wounded and 600 missing. From the 4th company, which defended Dubosekovo, hardly a fifth remained. In the 5th and 6th companies, the losses were even heavier.

Contrary to the legends, not all "Panfilov" died in battle - seven soldiers survived from the 2nd platoon, and all were seriously wounded. These are Natarov, Vasiliev, Shemyakin, Shadrin, Timofeev, Kozhubergenov and Dobrobabin. Before the arrival of the Germans, local residents managed to deliver the most seriously wounded Natarov and Vasiliev to the medical battalion. Shemyakin, seriously shell-shocked, crawled through the forest from the village, where he was discovered by the cavalrymen of General Dovator. The Germans managed to capture two - Shadrin (he was unconscious) and Timofeev (heavily wounded).

Natarov, taken to the medical battalion, soon died of his wounds. Before his death, he managed to tell something about the battle at Dubosekovo. So this story fell into the hands of the literary editor of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper A. Krivitsky.

But, as we remember, six people survived from the second platoon - Vasiliev and Shemyakin recovered in hospitals, Shadrin and Timofeev went through the hell of concentration camps, and Kozhubergenov and Dobrobabin continued to fight for their own. Therefore, when they declared themselves, the NKVD reacted to this very nervously. Shadrin and Timofeev were immediately written down as traitors. It is not known what else they did in captivity of the Nazis. The rest were looked at very suspiciously - after all, the whole country knows that all 28 heroes died! And if they say that they are alive. So they are either impostors or cowards. And we don't know which is worse.

Panfilov’s men are soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division (from November 18, 1941 - the 8th Guards, from November 23 - named after its deceased commander, Major General I.V. Panfilov), who showed in October - November 1941 during the Moscow battles mass heroism in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction.

On November 16, 28 soldiers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment under the command of political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov showed unparalleled heroism and stamina, occupying defenses 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction.

Panfilov's men in a 4-hour battle destroyed 18 enemy tanks and almost all of them were killed, including Klochkov, but did not let the German tanks through. 28 Panfilovites were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This battle is known in history as the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes. 1975 - the memorial ensemble "Feat 28" was erected on the site of the battle.

28 Panfilovites (alternative versions of the feat)

Modern historians see the battle at Dubosekovo in a completely different light. Some of them even question the official version of the battle of 28 Panfilov.

How many Panfilov's were there?

The investigation, which was conducted after the war by the MGB and the military prosecutor's office, showed that not 28 "Panfilofian guardsmen" took part in the legendary battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but a full company of 120-140 people, which was crushed by German tanks, having managed to knock out only 5-6 of them. No more than 25-30 fighters survived, the rest died or were captured.

The error crept into the first newspaper reports about the feat of the Panfilovites, because the journalists, according to political workers, decided that the company was incomplete and consisted of only 30 people. Since it was known that at the beginning of the battle two fighters defected to the Nazis, the editor-in-chief of the Red Star, David Ortenberg, subtracted two traitors from 30 and got the number 28, which became canonical. However, in the essay, he allowed to write only about one traitor, whom the Red Army soldiers allegedly shot right there. Two traitors, and even 30 people, would be a lot and would not allow talking about an insignificant renegade.

Combat mentions

There is no mention of a battle with such details in either Soviet or German official documents. Neither the commander of the 2nd battalion (which included the 4th company), Major Reshetnikov, nor the commander of the 1075th regiment, Colonel Kaprov, nor the commander of the 316th division, Major General Panfilov, nor the commander of the 16th Army, General Lieutenant Rokossovsky. There are no reports about him in German sources either (and after all, the loss of 18 tanks in one battle for the end of 1941 was a notable event for the Nazis).

The legendary feat fiction of journalists?

The version that there was no battle, as such, was publicly voiced by many historians. Sergei Mironenko, who then headed the state archive, officially stated that the whole story about the feat of the Panfilovites is just a myth. Based on the declassified archives, some of the historians came to the conclusion that the legendary feat was a fiction of the Krasnaya Zvezda journalist Alexander Krivitsky (the newspaper's literary secretary), who was the first to tell about the battle. Once on the front line, he tried to write an essay about the events. Everything about the battle was recorded from the words of the current division commissar, who spoke in great detail about the battle. The battle was fought by the 4th company, which consisted of soldiers in the amount of more than 120 people, and not 28 heroes, as was later stated in the printed publication. Many facts are distorted.

During interrogation, Krivitsky testified: During a conversation with Comrade Krapivin at the PUR, he was interested in where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov from: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow,” I answered him that I invented it myself ...

Krivitsky and Koroteev, the authors of the material published in Krasnaya Zvezda, during the audit stated that they were based only on the oral stories of fellow soldiers of the dead and their colleagues, war correspondents, but they were not familiar with anyone who could know for sure the details of the battle. The military prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that the story in the form in which it was published in Krasnaya Zvezda was an artistic fiction of journalists. But there really was a fight.

Sudden arrest

1948 - in the Kharkov region. arrested during the war captured by the Germans, a former soldier Dobrobabin. During the arrest, a book was found with him, describing the feat of the Panfilovites and, in particular, his name was also indicated as one of the dead participants in the battle. The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted an investigation, during which it was possible to find out that several more people who were considered dead in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction actually survived, and the collision described by journalists has no direct documentary evidence - and the very fact of the battle is in doubt did not set.

Not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. "Resurrected" Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin. Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive. All of them were wounded in the battle near Dubosekovo, Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev passed through German captivity.

From the testimony of the regiment commander Kaprov

All 28 Panfilov heroes served in the regiment of Ilya Karpov. During interrogation in the prosecutor's office in 1948, Kaprov (commander of the 1075th rifle regiment) testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov’s men and fascist tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. That day, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and in fact fought heroically. More than 100 people died from the company and not 28, as it is written in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me at that time; I never told anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men, and I couldn’t say, because there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I do not know, based on 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.

Memorial at the Dubosekovo junction, dedicated to the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes

The battle at Dubosekovo was

According to the testimonies of local residents, on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo junction, in fact, there was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of the surrounding villages.

No one questions the fact that the soldiers of the 4th company at the Dubosekovo junction fought heroically.

There is no doubt that the 316th Rifle Division of General Panfilov, in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction in November 1941, was able to hold back the enemy onslaught, which became the most important factor that allowed the Germans to defeat near Moscow.

According to the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, on November 16, 1941, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 fighters at the Dubosekovo junction did not destroy 18 tanks and did not all die.

findings

Based on the explanations of eyewitnesses of the battle and hundreds of declassified archives, historians nevertheless managed to establish the truth - the battle actually took place, and there was a feat. Only the fact of the existence of these same 28 Panfilovites remained a big question.