"La Garde meurt mais ne se rend pas!": Once Again on the 28 Panfilov Heroes

Abstract

Ikh bylo tol'ko dvadtsat' vosem', A za spinoi byla Moskva! [There were only 28 of them, But they had their backs to Moscow!] -- Song of 28 Panfilov Soldiers (1) Every Soviet citizen got to hear about feat of 28 men from 316th Rifle Division commanded by General Ivan Panfilov. first Soviet multi-volume academic history of war presented their endeavor of 16 November 1941 in following terms: A group of tank destroyers from 1077th Rifle Regiment of 316th Rifle Division accomplished an unprecedented feat at Dubosekovo Station: 28 heroes fought 50 enemy tanks. enemy hoped to break through our defenses at this sector to Volokolamsk Highway and [then] advance on Moscow.... enemy employed 20 tanks.... At that moment, Company Commissar V. G. Klochkov came to trenches of tank destroyers. is not that scary, he told soldiers. is less than one tank per person. courageous Panfilov men destroyed 14 tanks with hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, and anti-tank rifles. remaining tanks retreated. soldiers barely had time to bandage their wounds before 30 more tanks attacked their position.... Commissar Klochkov told his soldiers words that were later to become slogan of all Moscow defenders: Russia is vast, but there is nowhere to retreat--we have our backs to Moscow! Severely wounded, commissar threw himself under an enemy tank with several hand grenades and blew it up. This heroic battle lasted for four hours. enemy lost 18 tanks and dozens of soldiers but failed to break through. (2) As a Russian author observed, the news about unprecedented feat at Dubosekovo Station spread all across country; dozens of articles, brochures, songs, verses and poems were written about courage and valor of 28, and their famous story entered high-school and university textbooks. (3) Most of information in this story is false. described unit was regular infantry rather than tank destroyers. They belonged to 1075th rather than 1077th Rifle Regiment. Germans did not consider Volokolamsk Highway as a shortcut to Moscow; in fact they advanced across highway because they planned no direct assault on Moscow. Instead they intended to envelop Soviet capital from north. There is no hard evidence that famous 28 destroyed any German tanks. units that opposed German tank attack that day were far larger than a 28-man platoon: two companies of 316th Rifle Division defended positions around Dubosekovo and Shiriaevo with about 120-40 soldiers each. It was a sergeant, rather than Commissar Klochkov, who commanded majority of 28 for most of engagement. Klochkov never said flamboyant phrases attributed to him, and it is unknown how and where he died during that day. Finally, 2 of 28 had died two days before this action, and 1 did not participate in it. It is unknown how many of 28 were killed or taken prisoner in this particular action, although it is clear that at least 6 of them survived war, contrary to Stalinist official version of this event, which claimed that all 28 died. These soldiers failed to stop German offensive, and in afternoon of 16 November, German units reached positions they had intended when they compiled their schedule several days earlier. In 1948, Military Prosecutor's Office conducted an investigation of action at Dubosekovo and proved falsity of canonized account. prosecutors summarized outcome of their work: The feat of 28 Panfilov Guards described in media is invention of reporter Koroteev, [and of] Ortenberg, editor of Krasnaia zvezda newspaper, and especially of Krivitskii, literary secretary of newspaper. (4) When prosecutors passed this conclusion on to Politburo, however, Politburo chose to ignore it and kept verdict classified, thus perpetuating myth, which has survived until present. …