Panfilov's feat (official version)
Panfilov's men are soldiers of the 316th Infantry Division (from November 18, 1941 - the 8th Guards Division, 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, who occupied defense positions 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, showed unparalleled heroism and stamina on November 16.
Panfilov's men in a 4-hour battle destroyed 18 enemy tanks and almost all of them died, including Klochkov, but the German tanks did not miss. 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 Podvig 28 was erected on the site of the battle.
28 Panfilovites (alternative versions of the feat)
Modern historians present the battle at Dubosekovo in a completely different light. Some of them even question the official version of the battle of 28 Panfilovites.
How many Panfilovites were there?
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The investigation, which was carried out after the war by the MGB and the military prosecutor's office, showed that not 28 Panfilof guardsmen took part in the legendary battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but a company of 120-140 men, which was crushed by German tanks, having managed to knock out only 5-6 of them. No more than 25-30 soldiers survived, the rest died or were captured.
The error crept into the first newspaper reports about the feat of Panfilov, because the journalists, from the words of 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 deserted to the Nazis, the editor-in-chief of Krasnaya Zvezda, David Ortenberg, deducted 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 allegedly shot right there. Two traitors, and even 30 people, would be very many and would not allow talking about an insignificant renegade.
Mention of the fight
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 of him in German sources either (and the loss in one battle of 18 tanks for the end of 1941 was a notable event for the Nazis).
Legendary feat fiction of journalists?
The version that there was no battle as such was publicly voiced by many historians. Sergei Mironenko, who was then in charge of 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 journalist of "Krasnaya Zvezda" Alexander Krivitsky (the literary secretary of the newspaper), who was the first to tell about the battle. Once on the front line, he tried to write an essay about the events taking place. Everything about the battle was recorded from the words of the current divisional commissar, who told about the battle in great detail. The battle was led by the 4th company, which consisted of more than 120 soldiers, and not 28 heroes, as was later said in the print edition. Many facts are distorted.
During interrogation, Krivitsky testified: During a conversation with Comrade Krapivin in the PUR, he asked where I got the words of political instructor Klochkov: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind”, - I told him that I had invented it myself …
Krivitsky and Koroteev, the authors of the material published in Krasnaya Zvezda, during the check stated that they were based only on the oral stories of the fellow soldiers of the dead and their colleagues, war correspondents, but they did not know anyone who could for certain know the details of the battle. The military prosecutor's office concluded that the story in the form in which it was published in Krasnaya Zvezda was a fictional fiction of journalists. But the battle actually took place.
Unexpected arrest
1948 - in the Kharkov region. arrested, captured during the war by the Germans, a former soldier Dobrobabin. During his arrest, a book was found with him, describing the feat of the Panfilovites and, in particular, his name was indicated as one of the dead participants in the battle. The main military prosecutor's office of the USSR carried out an investigation, during which it was possible to find out that several more people who were believed to have died in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction actually survived, and the described clash, cited by journalists, has no direct documentary evidence - and the fact of the battle itself is in doubt was not installed.
Not only Ivan Dobrobabin survived. Daniil Kuzhebergenov, Grigory Shemyakin, Illarion Vasiliev, Ivan Shadrin were "resurrected". Later it became known that Dmitry Timofeev was also alive. All of them were wounded in the battle at Dubosekovo, Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev went 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 (the 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 sheer fiction. That afternoon, at the Dubosekovo junction, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with tanks of the Germans, and in reality it fought heroically. More than 100 people perished from the company, and not 28, as it is written in the newspapers. None of the correspondents contacted me at that time; I never informed anyone about the battle of 28 Panfilovites, and I could not tell, because there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this score. I do not know, based on what materials were written in the newspapers, in particular in the "Krasnaya Zvezda", about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division im. Panfilov.
Memorial at the Dubosekovo junction, dedicated to the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes.
The battle at Dubosekovo was
According to the testimony of local residents, on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo junction, in reality 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 doubts 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 be defeated near Moscow.
According to the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941, destroyed 15 or 16 tanks and about 800 enemy personnel. That is, we can say that 28 soldiers at the Dubosekovo junction did not destroy 18 tanks and all did not die.
conclusions
Based on the explanations of eyewitnesses of the battle and hundreds of declassified archives, historians still managed to establish the truth - the battle actually took place, and there was a feat. Only the fact of the existence of these very 28 Panfilovites remained a big question.