Park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen(Kaz. 28th Guardshyl-Panfilovshylar Atyndagy Parks) is a city park located in the Medeu district of Almaty on an area of about 18 hectares. Bounded by Kunaev, Gogol, Zenkov, Kazybek bi streets. Founded in the 70s of the 19th century. The main tree species: elm, oak, aspen, maple, poplar, pine, spruce. Together with the surrounding buildings, it is one of the most picturesque urban planning ensembles of the city. The park is a monument of history, architecture and landscape art (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 1182 of November 25, 1993 was included in the Almaty State Historical, Architectural and Memorial Reserve).
Story
The park was founded during the construction of Verny on the site of the village cemetery (in 1921, the cemetery was destroyed by a mudflow). The graves of the Kolpakovsky family, daughter Leonilla Kolpakovskaya (burial in 1860) and grandson Vladimir Bazilevsky (1882; the tombstone was restored in 2011), have been preserved. The mass grave in memory of the victims of the earthquake on May 28, 1887 was also lost. The Old Cemetery Park was later connected to the Cathedral Park and received the name City Garden. P. M. Zenkov took part in the regular layout of the garden.
The name of the park changed regularly: in 1899, in connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth of A. S. Pushkin, the park was named “Pushkin Garden”, in 1919 - the Park of Fallen Freedom Fighters, in connection with the burial here of A. Berezovsky and Co. Ovcharov and other heroes of the Soviet Semirechye, then called the “local park named after Lenin”, with the prohibition of city burials, in the years before 1927 it was called differently: “the garden of Gubkompomarma” (1925), “public park of May 1”. In 1927, during the transformation of Almaty into the capital of Soviet Kazakhstan, the park was named the park of the “Federation of Soviet Republics”, in 1942 - the name of 28 Panfilov guardsmen in memory of the feat accomplished during the Great Patriotic War during the defense of Moscow by 28 soldiers 1075 regiment of the 316th Infantry Division.
On December 10, 2010, a solemn opening ceremony of the monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union, writer Bauyrzhan Momysh-uly took place in the park. The authors of the monument are Kazakh sculptors Nurlan Dalbay and Rasul Satybaldiev. The ceremony was attended by Deputy Akim of the city of Almaty Serik Seidumanov, the son of the hero Bakhytzhan Momyshuly, scientists, social and political figures, associates, relatives and family friends.
Today, healthy trees are being cut down and vandalism is taking place in the park.
Building
Museum of Folk Musical Instruments named after Ykylas organized in 1980. The building in which the museum is located (formerly the Officers' Assembly House) was built in 1908. The museum's fund contains over 1000 storage units, over 60 types and varieties of Kazakh folk musical instruments, which were used by outstanding singers-improvisers, poets and composers Birzhan-sal, Abay Kunanbaev, Ykylas Dukenov, Kyzyl zhyrau, Akhmet Zhubanov, Kenen Azerbaev and others . The design of the museum uses motifs of Kazakh folk patterns ( agash- tree of life, shynjara- traveling waves, uzilmes- curly stem). It is an architectural and historical monument. An example of wooden architecture. Included in the register of historical and cultural monuments (1979), included in the Almaty State Historical and Architectural Reserve (November 25, 1993).
Monuments
Memorial of Glory was built in 1975 for the 30th anniversary of the Victory in the park of 28 Panfilov guardsmen on the eastern side, in the same year the Eternal Flame was lit. The opening of the four-part memorial complex took place on May 8, 1975. The first part - the high relief “Oath” (on the left side) - is dedicated to young fighters for Soviet power in Kazakhstan. The central part of the triptych - “Feat” - captures the images of Panfilov’s heroes who defended Moscow with their breasts. On the right is the composition “Trumpeters of Glory”, which gives the entire memorial an optimistic sound; its images embody the hymn of a triumphant life. Near the Eternal Flame are massive cubes made of labradorite, under which are walled up capsules with earth delivered from the hero cities. It is a monument of art, architecture and history (included in the register on April 20, 1980), included in the Almaty State Historical, Architectural and Memorial Reserve (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 46 of November 25, 1993).
Monument to Kazakh soldiers who died in Afghanistan, was opened on February 15, 2003 next to the Memorial of Glory. Sculptor - Kazbek Satybaldin, architects Tokhtar Eraliev and Vladimir Sidorov.
Park financing
The cost of the complex of works, which included organizing the cleaning of the territory, maintenance, operation, repair and security of facilities and improvement elements, was:
Sources
- TsGA RK, f.44, op.1, d.50689, l.108, l.108 ver.
- TsGA RK, f.153, op.1, d.379v, l.46, l.46 ver.
- Voronov A. The mystery of architect “B” // Evening Alma-Ata. - 1983. - No. 88.
Notes
- Park named after the 28 Panfilov guardsmen. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014.
- RESOLUTION of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ALMATY STATE HISTORICAL-ARCHITECTURAL AND MEMORIAL RESERVE dated November 25, 1993 No. 1182. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014.
- Parks of culture and recreation// Alma-Ata. Encyclopedia / Ed. M.K. Kozybaeva. - Alma-Ata: Ch. ed. Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983. - P. 413-414. - 608 p. - 60,000 copies.
- Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR dated January 26, 1982 No. 38 “On historical and cultural monuments of the Kazakh SSR of Republican significance.”
- Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated January 14, 1997 No. 65. Republican Center for Legal Information. Retrieved January 14, 1997. Archived August 8, 0207.
Today, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan spoke about the fact of vandalism in the park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen, located in the center of Almaty, and that the police do not care about it.
At a special press conference in Almaty, representatives of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan spoke about the scandalous incident that occurred on May 22.
In the park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen in Almaty, unknown persons threw eggs at the monument to the memory of the Kazakh heroes who defended Moscow during the Great Patriotic War.
The first to notice this was a resident of the city, Ivan Ageev, who was walking through the park early in the morning (the young man took part in a press conference).
He called the police and invited them to write a statement, but law enforcement officers, who also saw the act of vandalism with their own eyes, refused to take any action, since the witness did not have photographs or videos of hooligan acts previously committed by anyone.
Social activists don't give up
Participants in the Almaty press conference announced their intention to give the case wide publicity in order to condemn what happened and, most importantly, to prevent this from happening in the future.
The granddaughter of General Ivan Panfilov, Aigul Baikadamova, believes that the incident is the last straw in a series of events and initiatives that have taken place in recent years around the Memorial of Glory.
“This is a dangerous trend and cannot be ignored. At one time they wanted to rename the park, they wanted to remove the inscription: “Great is Russia, but there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind!” Like, what does Russia have to do with it? But at that time there was one country, one people, common pain, if we forget about this, if we begin to violate this principle, then what awaits us in the future?
Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the AGK KNPK Vyacheslav Artemyev connected what happened with the lack of spirituality of the younger generation:
“Behind this fact is a phenomenon called spirituality, and it is about spirituality that President Nazarbayev recently wrote about. This concept is broad and capacious; it also includes culture, which is a system of prohibitions that does not allow one to violate the memory and feelings of other people. The culture of modern youth needs to be developed.”
But the general task of contemporaries is to develop culture so that young people better understand what can and cannot be done.
Culture begins at school
Members of the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan cited as an example those negative changes that cannot contribute to the growth of patriotism and responsibility in children.
Even the fact that many schools have lost their honorary names also suggests that they prefer to forget history.
The 23rd Almaty school was named after Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Klochkov, the 83rd was named after Hero of the USSR Shemyakin, there are only a few named schools left, says Aigul Baikadamova. “And patriotism starts from here – with names, with reverence and knowledge of history.”
Aigul Bakhytzhanovna gave the example of school-lyceum No. 5 in Kyzylorda, which still bears the name of Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Panfilov:
“They have always been proud of this name and history, and to this day they initiate first-graders into Panfilov. Today, in order to keep children interested in the past, it is necessary to use modern technologies. Telling children that their great-grandfathers fought, showing where and how they can find information about them on the Internet.”
The website contains scans of documents from an investigation conducted by the military prosecutor's office in 1947 in Kharkov, from which it follows that the famous feat of 28 Panfilov heroes is a work of fiction. At the same time, judging by various documentary evidence, units of General Ivan Panfilov’s division actually fought heroically against German tanks in November 1941 near Moscow.
On November 28, 1941, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published a large article, “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes,” which described how, in the battle on November 16, the remnants of one of the companies of the 1075th Infantry Regiment of the 8th Guards Division at the Dubosekovo junction near Moscow were stopped at the cost of their own life of dozens of enemy tanks.
“Over fifty enemy tanks moved to the lines occupied by twenty-nine Soviet guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilov... Only one out of twenty-nine became faint-hearted... only one raised his hands up... several guardsmen at the same time, without saying a word, without a command, shot at the coward and traitor..." wrote the literary secretary of "Red Star" Alexander Krivitsky.
The editorial said that 28 guardsmen destroyed 18 enemy tanks and “laid down their heads - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not let the enemy pass..." The names of the guardsmen who fought and died were not indicated in the first publications.
On January 22, 1942, in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Krivitsky published an essay under the heading “About 28 Fallen Heroes,” in which he described individual details of the battle, the personal experiences of the participants and named their names for the first time.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in Krivitsky’s essay were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The version outlined by Krivitsky became the official state version, included in all history textbooks, despite the fact that it later turned out that six of the 28 named heroes survived.
Refutation of the official version
In the magazine "New World" in June 1997, materials from the investigation conducted by the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkov garrison in November 1947 were reprinted. Scans of these documents have now been published on the State Archives website, which confirms their authenticity.
The investigation began with the arrest and accusation of treason against Ivan Dobrobabin. According to the case materials, being a soldier of the Red Army, he surrendered to the Germans and in the spring of 1942 became the chief of police of a village near Kharkov. At the same time, Dobrobabin, as it turned out, was one of Panfilov’s heroes.
After this, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR conducted a detailed investigation into the history of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, the results of which were reported in a secret report to Andrei Zhdanov. The main conclusion: the feat of 28 Panfilovites is a literary fiction of the editors of “Red Star”.
Investigators interviewed the author of the very first short note about the feat, Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent Vasily Koroteev, literary secretary Alexander Krivitsky, editor-in-chief of the publication David Ortenberg, and former commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment Ilya Karpov.
According to Koroteev’s fame, the commissar of the 8th division told him about the heroic confrontation of a certain company against 54 tanks on November 23-24 at the headquarters of the 16th Army with reference to the political instructor of the regiment, who, however, was not there himself either. The political report said that the 5th company of the 1075th regiment died, but did not retreat, and only two people tried to surrender. The report did not mention names; there was no way to contact the regiment commander.
As it becomes clear from Koroteev’s testimony, based on his short note about this clash, Krivitsky and Ortenberg composed a story about the battle. The correspondent told the editor-in-chief that there were probably 30 people left in the company, so minus the two traitors the total was 28.
“I told him that the entire 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... Krivitsky’s last name was given to Krivitsky from memory by Captain Gundilovich, who had conversations with him on this topic , there were and could not be any documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov men in the regiment,” said Karpov.
The list of names of heroes was formed, according to him, in the spring of 1942 at the division headquarters. The regiment commander also noted that it was not the 5th, but the 4th company that fought heroically.
“...There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and they really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about in the newspapers.”
Krivitsky also testified during interrogation that the famous words of political instructor Klochkov, “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind,” he came up with himself. He also called the descriptions of the feelings and actions of 28 characters literary fiction.
Also, according to the testimony of local residents and the command of the 1075th regiment, the bodies of six killed Red Army soldiers were found at the battle site near Dubosekovo after the snow melted in the spring.
Criticism of the rebuttal
Former Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov (still alive) spoke in defense of the official version after the publication of the 1947 investigation documents. In September 2011, Yazov published the material “Shamelessly ridiculed feat” in the newspaper “Soviet Russia”.
“It turned out that not all “twenty-eight” were dead. What of this? The fact that six of the twenty-eight named heroes, being wounded and shell-shocked, survived against all odds in the battle of November 16, 1941, refutes the fact that an enemy tank column rushing towards Moscow was stopped at the Dubosekovo crossing? Doesn’t refute,” Yazov wrote.
Yazov and Kumanev refer to the memoirs of Krivitsky, who in the 70s said that he testified in 1947 under pressure.
“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 soldiers before publishing the article, then I would soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction,” the journalist told Kumanev.
In 2012 and... O. head The scientific archive of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Konstantin Drozdov published documents from the scientific archive of the Islamic Republic of Iran with transcripts of conversations with Panfilov’s men, participants in the battles near Moscow, which were recorded by employees of the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War in 1942-1947.
Drozdov suggested that this case of debunking the feat in 1947 was of a “custom” nature and was directed against Georgy Zhukov, who was one of the main initiators of awarding the 28 Panfilov men. (Soon after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Marshal of Victory fell into disgrace, as Stalin and his entourage suspected him of intending to seize supreme power in the USSR).
Evidence of the feat
The commander of the 1075th regiment, Karpov, told the investigation in 1947 that the 2nd battalion (including the 4th company, consisting of 120-140 people) on the morning of November 16, 1941 repelled an attack by 10-12 enemy tanks, 5-6 German tanks were destroyed. and the Germans retreated.
“At 14-15 o’clock the Germans opened strong artillery fire... and again went on the attack with tanks... More than 50 tanks were advancing on the regiment’s sectors, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion, including the sector of the 4th company, and one tank even went to the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the hut, so that I was accidentally able to get out of the dugout: I was saved by the embankment of the railway, and people who had survived the attack by German tanks began to gather around me. The 4th company suffered the most: led by company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The remaining companies suffered less."
One of the surviving soldiers of the 4th company, officially considered a “Panfilovite,” Ivan Vasiliev, spoke about the battle in December 1942 (transcript published by Drozdov).
“We took on these tanks. They fired from an anti-tank rifle from the right flank, but we didn’t have one... They started jumping out of the trenches and throwing bunches of grenades under the tanks... They threw bottles of fuel at the crews. I don’t know what was exploding there, there were only big explosions in the tanks... I had to blow up two heavy tanks. We repulsed this attack and destroyed 15 tanks. 5 tanks 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 our homeland know how we fight, how we defend Moscow. Moscow is behind us, we have nowhere to retreat.” ... When the second batch of tanks approached, Klochkov jumped out of the trench with grenades. The soldiers are behind him... In this last attack, I blew up two tanks - a heavy one and a light one. The tanks were burning. Then I got under the third tank... from the left side. On the right side, Pyotr Singerbaev - a Kazakh - ran up to this tank... Then I was wounded... I received three shrapnel wounds and a concussion.”
According to the USSR Ministry of Defense, the entire 1075th Infantry Regiment on November 16, 1941 destroyed 15-16 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.
Results and conclusions
The battle involving 28 Panfilov men, described in Soviet textbooks, apparently did not take place. However, there is no doubt that on November 16, the positions of the 1075th regiment were attacked by two waves of several dozen German tanks. The Red Army soldiers had a small number of newly acquired anti-tank rifles, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails. All these means can be used against tanks only at a distance of several tens of meters and are ineffective. As a result of the attack, the positions of the Soviet troops in this sector were broken through, and the regiment retreated to reserve positions.
Regimental Commander Karpov himself claims that the 4th company actually took the main blow and fought heroically, as a result of which out of 120-140 personnel, 20-25 remained alive.
That is, there was a feat, but its circumstances differ from what is written in textbooks, and “Panfilov’s men” should be called not 28, but at least the entire composition of the 4th company, which, with minimal anti-tank weapons, selflessly resisted heavy equipment.
This feat also had a result: as a result of clashes on November 16-20, 1941 in the Volokolamsk direction, Soviet troops stopped the advance of two tank and one infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. The German command was forced to change the direction of the breakthrough to Moscow, which ultimately never happened.
State Archive of the Russian Federation, headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, gave a new reason for discussion about the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes.
“Due to numerous requests from citizens, institutions and organizations, we are posting a certificate-report of the chief military prosecutor N. Afanasyeva“About 28 Panfilovites” dated May 10, 1948, based on the results of an investigation by the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, stored in the collections of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office,” says a message on the website of the State Archive of the Russian Federation.
The publication of this certificate-report is not a sensation - its existence is known to everyone who was interested in the history of the feat.
On its basis, the head of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, citizen Mironenko, himself made statements that “there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths propagated by the state.”
But before we talk about myth and truth, let's remember the classic story of Panfilov's heroes.
Classic version of the feat
Political instructor Vasily Klochkov. Photo: Public Domain
According to it, on November 16, 1941, 28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment, led by the political instructor of the 4th company Vasily Klochkov held the defense against the advancing Nazis in the area of the Dubosekovo crossing, 7 kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk. During the 4-hour battle, they destroyed 18 enemy tanks, and the German advance towards Moscow was suspended. All 28 fighters died in the battle.
In April 1942, when the feat of 28 Panfilov men became widely known in the country, the command of the Western Front issued a petition to award all 28 soldiers the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 21, 1942, all 28 guardsmen listed in the essay Krivitsky, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The “resurrected” Dobrobabin managed to serve the Germans and take Vienna
The investigation, a certificate-report on the results of which was published by GARF, began in November 1947, when the military prosecutor's office of the Kharkov garrison was arrested and prosecuted for treason against the Motherland. Ivan Dobrobabin. According to the case materials, 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, temporarily occupied by the Germans, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region. In March 1943, during the liberation of this area from the Germans, Dobrobabin was arrested as a traitor by Soviet authorities, but escaped from custody, again went over to the Germans and again got a job in the German police, continuing active treasonous activities, arrests of Soviet citizens and the direct implementation of forced sending labor to Germany.
When Dobrobabin was arrested again after the war, during a search they found a book about 28 Panfilov heroes, in which it was written in black and white that he... was one of the dead heroes and, accordingly, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Dobrobabin, understanding the situation he found himself in, honestly told how it happened. He actually took part in the battle at the Dubosekovo junction, but was not killed, but received a shell shock and was captured. Having escaped from the prisoner of war camp, Dobrobabin did not make his way to his own people, but went to his native village, which was under occupation, where he soon accepted the elder’s offer to join the police.
But this is not all the vicissitudes of his fate. When the Red Army went on the offensive again in 1943, Dobrobabin fled to his relatives in the Odessa region, where no one knew about his work for the Germans, waited for the arrival of Soviet troops, was again called up for military service, participated in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the capture of Budapest and Vienna, ended the war in Austria.
By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District on June 8, 1948, Ivan Dobrobabin was sentenced to 15 years in prison with disqualification for five years, confiscation of property and deprivation of medals “For the Defense of Moscow” and “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941.” -1945”, “For the capture of Vienna” and “For the capture of Budapest”; By decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of February 11, 1949, he was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the 1955 amnesty, his sentence was reduced to 7 years, after which he was released.
Ivan Dobrobabin moved in with his brother, lived an ordinary life and died in December 1996 at the age of 83.
Krivitsky list
But let's go back to 1947, when it turned out that one of the 28 Panfilov men, not only was alive, but also got dirty with his service with the Germans. The prosecutor's office was ordered to check all the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing in order to find out how everything really happened.
According to the materials of the prosecutor's office, the first description of the battle of the Panfilov guardsmen who stopped German tanks appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in an essay by a front-line correspondent Vasily Koroteeva. This note did not name the names of the heroes, but said that “every one of them died, but they did not let the enemy through.”
The next day, the editorial “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” appeared in the Red Star, which stated that 28 soldiers stopped the advance of 50 enemy tanks, destroying 18 of them. The note was signed by the literary secretary of “Red Star” Alexander Krivitsky.
And finally, on January 22, 1942, signed by Alexander Krivitsky, the material “About 28 Fallen Heroes” appeared, which became the basis for the classic version of the feat. There, for the first time, all 28 heroes were named by name - Klochkov Vasily Georgievich, Dobrobabin Ivan Evstafievich, Shepetkov Ivan Alekseevich, Kryuchkov Abram Ivanovich, Mitin Gavriil Stepanovich, Kasaev Alikbay, Petrenko Grigory Alekseevich, Esibulatov Narsutbay, Kaleinikov Dmitry Mitrofanovich, Natarov Ivan Moiseevich, Shemyakin Gri gory Mikhailovich, Dutov Pyotr Danilovich, Mitchenko Nikita, Shopokov Duishenkul, Konkin Grigory Efimovich, Shadrin Ivan Demidovich, Moskalenko Nikolay, Yemtsov Pyotr Kuzmich, Kuzhebergenov Daniil Alexandrovich, Timofeev Dmitry Fomich, Trofimov Nikolay Ignatievich, Bondarenko Yakov Alexandrovich, Vasiliev Larion Romanovich, Belashev Nikolay Nikonorovich , Bezrodny Grigory, Sengirbaev Musabek, Maksimov Nikolay, Ananyev Nikolay.
Archbishop Pitirim of Volokolamsk and his entourage, participants in the World Conference “Religious Leaders for Saving the Sacred Gift of Life from a Nuclear Catastrophe,” laid wreaths at the memorial at the Dubosekovo crossing, the site of the feat of 28 soldiers. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin
Survivors of Dubosekovo
In 1947, prosecutors checking the circumstances of the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing found out that 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 at Dubosekovo; Kuzhebergenov, Shadrin and Timofeev passed through German captivity.
It was especially difficult for Daniil Kuzhebergenov. He spent only a few hours in captivity, but that was enough to accuse him of voluntarily surrendering to the Germans. As a result, in the presentation for the award, his name was replaced by a namesake, who, even theoretically, could not participate in that battle. And if the rest of the survivors, except for Dobrobabin, were recognized as heroes, then Daniil Kuzhebergenov, until his death in 1976, remained only a partially recognized participant in the legendary battle.
Meanwhile, employees of the prosecutor's office, having studied all the materials and heard the testimony of witnesses, came to the conclusion - “the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of the Red Star Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky.”
Panfilov heroes, veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 Illarion Romanovich Vasiliev (left) and Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Savostyanov
Testimony of the regiment commander
This conclusion is based on interrogations of Krivitsky, Koroteev and the commander of the 1075th Infantry Regiment Ilya Kaprova. All 28 Panfilov heroes served in Karpov’s regiment.
During interrogation at the prosecutor’s office in 1948, Kaprov testified: “There was no battle between 28 Panfilov men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941 - this is a complete fiction. On this day, at the Dubosekovo crossing, as part of the 2nd battalion, the 4th company fought with German tanks, and they really fought heroically. Over 100 people from the company died, and not 28, as was written about 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 couldn’t talk about it, since there was no such battle. I did not write any political report on this matter. I don’t know on the basis of what materials they wrote in newspapers, in particular in Krasnaya Zvezda, about the battle of 28 guardsmen from the division named after. Panfilova. At the end of December 1941, when the division was withdrawn for formation, the Red Star correspondent Krivitsky came to my regiment along with representatives of the division’s political department Glushko And Egorov. Here I first heard about the 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 entire regiment fought with German tanks, and especially the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, but I don’t know anything about the battle of 28 guardsmen... The captain gave Krivitsky’s last name from memory Gundilovic, who had conversations with him on this topic, there were and could not be any documents about the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men in the regiment.”
T-34 tank on the distant approaches to the capital, in the Volokolamsk highway area, Western Front. November 1941. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Interrogations of journalists
Alexander Krivitsky testified during interrogation: “When talking at the PUR with Comrade Krapivin, 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 told him that I made it up I myself...
...As far as the feelings and actions of the 28 heroes are concerned, this is my literary conjecture. I did not speak with any of the wounded or surviving guardsmen. From the local population, I only spoke with a boy of about 14-15 years old, who showed me the grave where Klochkov was buried.”
And here’s what Vasily Koroteev said: “Around November 23-24, 1941, I, together with a war correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Chernyshev was at the headquarters of the 16th Army... When leaving 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 were fighting heroically in all sectors. In particular, Egorov gave an example of the heroic battle of one company with German tanks; 54 tanks advanced on the company’s line, 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 regiment 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 previously become acquainted with 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, they raised their hands to surrender to the Germans, but they were destroyed by our soldiers. The report did not mention the number of company soldiers who died in this battle, and their names were not mentioned. We did not establish this from conversations with the regiment commander. It was impossible to get into the regiment, and Egorov 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, and talked about the company’s battle with enemy tanks. Ortenberg asked me how many people were in the company. I answered him that 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 the front line was being prepared on this topic, but Ortenberg called me again and asked how many people were in the company. I told him that there were about 30 people. Thus, the number of people who fought was 28, 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 editorial.”
Crew of the PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle in position during the Battle of Moscow. Moscow region, winter 1941-1942. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
“I was told that I would end up in Kolyma”
So, there was no feat of the 28 Panfilov heroes, and this is a literary fiction? This is what the head of GARF Mironenko and his supporters think.
But don't rush to conclusions.
Firstly, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Andrey Zhdanov, to whom the findings of the prosecutor's investigation were reported, did not give them any progress. Let’s say a party leader decided to “drop the question.”
Alexander Krivitsky in the 1970s talked about how the investigation of the prosecutor’s office proceeded in 1947-1948: “I was told that if I refuse to testify, that I completely invented the description of the battle at Dubosekovo and that none of the seriously wounded or those who remained I didn’t talk to any living Panfilovites before publishing the article, then I’ll soon find myself in Pechora or Kolyma. In such a situation, I had to say that the battle at Dubosekovo was my literary fiction.”
Regimental commander Kaprov in his other testimony was also not so categorical: “At 14-15 o’clock the Germans opened strong artillery fire... and again went on the attack with tanks... More than 50 tanks were advancing in the regiment’s sectors, and the main attack was directed at the positions of the 2nd battalion , including the section of the 4th company, and one tank even went to the location of the regiment’s command post and set fire to the hay and the hut, so that I was accidentally able to get out of the dugout: I was saved by the embankment of the railway, people who had survived after began to gather around me attacks by German tanks. The 4th company suffered the most: led by company commander Gundilovich, 20-25 people survived. The remaining companies suffered less."
“Memorial to the Panfilov heroes” at the Dubosekovo crossing. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
There was a battle at Dubosekovo, the company fought heroically
Testimony from local residents indicates that on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo crossing, there really was a battle between Soviet soldiers and the advancing Germans. Six fighters, including political instructor Klochkov, were buried by residents of 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 Infantry Division of General Panfilov, in defensive battles in the Volokolamsk direction in November 1941, managed to hold back the enemy’s onslaught, which became the most important factor that allowed the Nazis to be defeated near Moscow.
According to archival data from 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 crossing did not destroy 18 tanks and not all of them died.
But there is no doubt that their perseverance and courage, their self-sacrifice made it possible to defend Moscow.
Of the 28 people included in the lists of heroes, 6, who were considered dead, wounded and shell-shocked, miraculously survived. The only cowardly one of them turned out to be Ivan Dobrobabin. Does this negate the feat of the other 27?
Memorial in Dubosekovo. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Lodo27
300 Spartans - a myth propagated by the Greek state?
One of the most famous military exploits in the history of mankind, which everyone has heard about, is the feat of the 300 Spartans who fell in the Battle of Thermopylae against the 200,000-strong Persian army in 480 BC.
Not everyone knows that it was not only 300 Spartans who fought the Persians at Thermopylae. The total number of the Greek army, representing not only Sparta, but also other policies, according to various estimates, ranged from 5,000 to 12,000 people. Of these, about 4,000 died in the battle, and about 400 were captured. Moreover, according to Herodotus, at Theromopylae not all of the 300 warriors died Tsar Leonid. Warrior Pantin, sent by Leonidas as a messenger and only therefore not being on the battlefield, hanged himself, because shame and contempt awaited him in Sparta. Aristodemus, who was not on the battlefield only because of illness, drank the cup of shame to the end, living the rest of his years with the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. And this despite the fact that he fought heroically in subsequent battles with the Persians.
Despite all these circumstances, you are unlikely to see Greek historians or the head of the Greek archive frantically bombarding the Greek media with materials about how “the 300 Spartans are a myth propagated by the state.”
So why, tell me, will Russia never stop trying to trample on its heroes who gave their lives in the name of the Fatherland?
Heroes remain heroes
Historians agree that the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes was of great significance, playing an exceptional mobilizing role, becoming an example of perseverance, courage and self-sacrifice. The phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!” became a symbol of the defenders of the Motherland for decades to come.
In the fall of 2015, the film “Panfilov’s 28” directed by Andrey Shalopa. Fundraising for the film, which will tell the classic story of the feat of the defenders of Moscow, was and is being carried out using the crowdfunding method. The project “Panfilov’s 28” raised 31 million rubles, which makes it one of the most successful crowdfunding projects in Russian cinema.
Perhaps this is the best answer to the question of what the feat of 28 Panfilov heroes means for our contemporaries.
Park named after 28 Panfilov guardsmen are located in the Medeu district of Almaty and occupy an area of about 18 hectares. It received its name in the spring of 1942 and was created in honor of the Panfilov division and the heroes of the city who stopped the Nazi advance on Moscow. All courageous residents of the city who died in the struggle for freedom were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the eastern part rises the Museum of Folk Instruments and the House of Officers, the Glory Memorial with the Eternal Flame and the Monument to Internationalist Soldiers. The opening of the complex took place on May 8, 1975 in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Victory.
The memorial is a high relief “Oath”, which is dedicated to those who fought for Soviet power. In the center are the images of Panfilov’s heroes who defended Moscow, on the right side rises the composition “Trumpeters of Glory”, it symbolizes the hymn of a triumphant life. Next to the Eternal Flame there are huge cubes made of labradorite, under which are walled up capsules with the soil of the hero cities.
On the western side of the memorial there is an alley with Tien Shan firs, which were planted by the presidents of different countries who visited Kazakhstan during the period of declaration of independence; on the southern side there is a monument-bust to the hero of the USSR, Major General of the Guards Panfilov. To the north of the memorial, along the Memory Alley, there are stone pedestals with the names of 28 Panfilov heroes.
In the northern part of the park there is a monument to Baurzhan Momysh-uly, in the western part you can see a bust monument to Tokash-Bokin. All park roads intersect in the center and lead to the Holy Ascension Cathedral.
