The history of the Great Patriotic War is full of heroic pages.However, in the 70 years that have passed since the Victory Day, a lot of falsifications have been revealed, as well as stories about how certain events have occurred that raise doubts about their reliability. Among them, the feat of 28 panfilovites, which is mentioned in the anthem of Moscow and which has more than once become the basis for scenarios of feature films.
In the first months after the start of the Great Patriotic War in the cities of Frunzeand Alma-Ata, the 316th Infantry Division was formed, commanded by the then military commander of the Kirghiz SSR, Major-General IV Panfilov. In late August 1945, this military formation became part of the active army and was sent to the front near Novgorod. Two months later he was transferred to the Volokolamsk area and ordered to occupy a 40 km long defense zone. The soldiers of Panfilov's division had to constantly carry on exhausting fights. And only in the last week of October 1941 they were killed and burned 80 units of enemy equipment, and the enemy lost more than 9 thousand officers and soldiers.
The division under the command of Panfilov had in itsconsisting of 2 artillery regiments. In addition, she was subordinate to one tank company. However, one of its infantry regiments was poorly prepared, since it was formed shortly before it was sent to the front. The Panfilovites, as they were later called in the Soviet press, were opposed by three tank and one rifle divisions of the Wehrmacht. The enemies launched the offensive on October 15.
One of the most famous Soviet patrioticlegends that originated during the Great Patriotic War, tells about the events at the Dubosekovo crossing, which allegedly took place on November 16, 1941. For the first time she appeared in the newspaper "Red Star", in an essay on the front-line corps of V. Koroteyev. According to this source, 28 people who were in the fourth company of the second battalion of the 1075th regiment commanded by the political instructor V. Klochkov, during the fierce 4-hour battle, 18 enemy tanks were destroyed. Almost all of them died in an unequal battle. The article also contained a phrase that, according to Koroteev, before the death, Klochkov said: "Russia is great, but nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow!"
The day after the first article in "Redstar "was published material under the authorship of A. Yu. Krivitsky, entitled as" Testament of 28 fallen heroes ", which the journalist called only as Panfilov. The feat of the soldiers and their political instructors was described in detail, but the publication did not mention the names of the participants in the events. They first came to the press only on January 22, when all the same Krivitsky presented the exploit of Panfilovites in the unfolded essay, speaking as an eyewitness of those events. It is interesting that Izvestia wrote about battles near Volokolamsk as early as November 19 and reported only 9 poditsyh tanks and 3 burned.
The story of the heroes, who at the cost of their lives defended the capital,shook the Soviet people and the soldiers who fought on all fronts, and the command of the Western Front prepared a petition addressed to the People's Commissar of Defense, about assigning the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union to the 28 brave soldiers mentioned in A. Krivitsky's article. As a result, on July 21, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Council signed a decree.
Already in 1948 a large-scaleAn investigation aimed at ascertaining whether or not the feat of the 28 Panfilists was really taking place. The reason was that a year before, one in IE had been arrested in Kharkov by IE Dobrobabin. He was brought to justice with the phrase "for treason", since the investigators of the military prosecutor's office found incontrovertible facts confirming that during the war he voluntarily surrendered himself and entered the service of the invaders. In particular, it was possible to establish that this former policeman in 1941 was a participant in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing. Moreover, it turned out that he and Dobrobabin, mentioned in the article of Krivitsky, are one and the same person, and he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero. Further investigation made it possible to consider everything stated in the articles in which the exploit of Panfilovites near Moscow was described, falsification. The revealed facts formed the basis for the certificate signed by the then Prosecutor General of the USSR G. Safonov, which was presented to AA Zhdanov on June 11, 1948.
The results of the investigation, whichdoubt the fact that the feat of the Panfilovites in the form described in the publications of the "Red Star" took place in fact, and did not get into the Soviet press. Only in 1966 in the "New World" appeared the first article concerning the November battles of Dubosekovo. In it, the author called for studying the facts concerning who the Panfilovites were, whose feat was described in all history textbooks. However, this topic was not further developed in the Soviet press until the beginning of perestroika, when thousands of archival documents were declassified, including the results of the 1948 investigation, which established that the exploit of Panfilov's heroes is just a literary fiction.
The light on how and why in 1941 happeneddistortion of the facts concerning Panfilov warriors, sheds a transcript of interrogation of Koroteyev's correspondent. In particular, he points out that on his return from the front he reported on the battle of the 5th Company of the 316th Infantry Division, which fell on the battlefield and did not surrender its positions to the editor of the Red Star. He asked how many there were fighters, and Koroteev, who knew that she was understaffed, replied that 30-40, adding that he himself was not in the 1075th Rifle Regiment, since it was impossible to get into his position. In addition, he said that, according to a political report from the regiment, two soldiers tried to surrender, but were shot by their comrades. Thus, it was decided to publish the figure 28 and write only about one smalodushnichavshim fighter. So there was a legend and fictional "perished, all as one, Panfilovites," whose exploits were sung in poems and songs.
Today it is blasphemous to argue about whetherheroes of the Panfilovites. The feat of all those soldiers of the 316th Infantry Division, who honestly performed their duty in November 1941, is certain, as is their great merit in the fact that the Soviet troops did not allow the fascist invaders to the capital of our Motherland. Another thing is that the fact that among the awarded were traitors is an insult to the memory of real heroes who did not spare their lives for the sake of achieving the Great Victory, the 70th anniversary of which will soon be celebrated by all mankind that does not suffer from historical amnesia.
