How the legend of 28 Panfilov heroes was created in the Soviet press
... Even from a young age, I was convinced that there is no event in the world,
which the newspaper would tell truthfully...
D. Orwell "Remembering the war in Spain"
“There is a wink in your story,” said the fat man,
and I saw him looking at me with disgust...
M. A. Bulgakov "Theatrical novel"
which the newspaper would tell truthfully...
D. Orwell "Remembering the war in Spain"
“There is a wink in your story,” said the fat man,
and I saw him looking at me with disgust...
M. A. Bulgakov "Theatrical novel"
Article in the newspaper "Izvestia"
This story began November 18 1941 years since the appearance in the newspaper "Izvestia" of the article "8th Guards Division in battles", written by a correspondent G. Ivanov. The note was timed to coincide with the renaming of the 316th Rifle Division (hereinafter 316th Rifle Division) into the 8th Guards Division (hereinafter 8th Guards Rifle Division).
In the text, among several combat episodes, a description was given of the battle "on the left flank of commander Kaprov's unit" against "60 tanks and up to one regiment of infantry. In the course of the battlea group of German tanks surrounded a division of Soviet soldiers, opened dagger fire". But the soldiers were not afraid, they hid in the trenches, waited for the enemy to come closer, and then brought down on him "flurry of anti-tank fire”, as a result of which 9 enemy tanks were hit, 3 burned, the rest turned back. Eventually "having beaten off the attack, our rifle company moved forward, and, taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, connected with its unit».
Thus, it followed from the publication that 12 enemy tanks were put out of action by a company of fighters, and the task of the battle was "...make a path forward, reach the connection with the main forces' has been successfully resolved. There was no mention of the company's own losses.
Unfortunately, the article did not indicate on what date and near which settlement this heroic battle took place. And only by the name of the regiment commander, knowledgeable people could guess that we are talking about the 1075th rifle regiment (hereinafter 1075 joint venture) 316th division.
It is worth noting that the article traces some echoes of the information set out in the Report of the head of the political department 316 sd to the head of the political department 16 A "about the heroism of the soldiers of the 1075th Infantry Regiment”, shown on 16.11.1941/50/60. The Report also featured XNUMX-XNUMX German tanks attacking the regiment and "quite a large number of infantry”, 9 wrecked tanks are mentioned, and it is also indicated that the enemy attacked the left flank of the division “in the area of the 1075th regiment”.
However, the data contained in the Report allow us to conclude that the battles of the rifle companies of the 1075th regiment that day were not as successful as Ivanov described. And there was a good reason for that:
“1075 joint ventures against such a number of tanks had 2 anti-tank platoons and one anti-tank gun. The effectiveness of the PTR against heavy tanks of the project is not high, because it was not possible to delay the movement of the tanks of the project, and there is also no information about how many tanks of the project of the PTR were put out of action.
That is, no "flurry of anti-tank fire“It couldn’t be, and with the presence of combat personnel in the companies, the situation was, to put it mildly, seams.
Also, the Report does not say anything about the fact that some company of fighters disabled 12 enemy tanks. It only states that "according to unspecified data, at least 1075 tanks were shot down in the area of 9 joint ventures". Moreover, it is not reported by whom exactly it was hit (shooters or divisional artillerymen). And the data is unspecified, i.e., information about the number of destroyed tanks is in the status of rumors. And it was not possible to double-check them - the regiment retreated, therefore, it is possible to find out the truth only from the documents of the enemy.
Thus, the information reported by the newspaperman that the tank attack was repulsed, as well as other details of the battle he told of some company of the 1075th joint venture (and that it eventually connected with its unit) are not confirmed in the text of the Report.
Article in the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda"
25 November 1941, a large article is published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper V. Chernysheva “Glory to the fearless patriots. A feat for which the guardsmen forever glorified themselves, ”which describes in detail a battle similar to the one that Ivanov had previously described.
Only now the heroes were no longer a company, but "a group of Red Army soldiers led by political commissar Diev", who gave his fighters the command"No step back. Stand to death!". And the commander of Kaprov was no longer mentioned in it. At first, the guards fought a heavy four-hour battle against 54 light and medium tanks, destroyed 18 "armored monstersand killed hundreds of fascists.
Then the Germans launched heavy tanks into the attack. By that time "the bombers came out with grenades and bottles of combustible mixture", and finally "in an unequal battle, Soviet patriots died the death of the brave". Well, the tanks, apparently, still overcame the defensive line (although this is not directly said).
Unfortunately, this article did not indicate on what date and near which settlement the heroic battle took place. And it is not even said which regiment and division the heroes belonged to. Therefore, arguing objectively, one cannot conclude that Chernyshev described the same battle as Ivanov. And the finale of the battle in the articles of military correspondents was completely different: Ivanov’s company (apparently without great losses) left its positions and escaped from the encirclement, while Chernyshev’s all the heroes died the death of the brave, “but did not take a single step back.”
Article in the newspaper "Red Star"
The next day 26 November Correspondent's article published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper V. Koroteeva “Panfilov’s guardsmen in the battles for Moscow”, where it is said that several dozen guardsmen of the 5th company of the N regiment, instructed by the words of political instructor Diev: “we are ordered not to retreat”, took the battle with 54 enemy tanks. As a result, 7 tanks were hit by them and 9 burned. The battle lasted more than four hours, daredevils "everyone died, but the enemy was not missed". But then the regiment approached and, despite the fact that "the Germans brought in an infantry regiment", the guards did not flinch, and"stubbornly fought back, defending the positions of Diev».
Eventually "as a result of the battle, the enemy lost 800 soldiers and officers killed and 18 tanks". From the final sentence of the article "- No step back! - the guardsmen repeat the words of the combat order and unbendingly, firmly stand and hold the lines of defense”, the impression was created that the guardsmen defeated the enemy in this battle - they held their defensive line.
From the content of the publication, it can be assumed that Koroteev spoke about the same battle as V. Chernyshev - the same 54 German tanks appear in the article, of which 18 were hit by the guards, and most importantly, the daredevils were led by the same political instructor Diev.
But Koroteev added an important additional detail - what happened after the "handful of daredevils" died in an unequal battle: some regiment approached, that is, the fighters still managed to hold out until the main forces approached, and the enemy was stopped.
Next article in the newspaper "Red Star"
Then the head of the literature and art department of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper enters the literary stage. Zinovy Yurievich Krivitsky and quickly becomes the main chronicler of the heroic battle of 28 Panfilov.
November 28 1941 years on the front page of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper is an article written by him “Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” (under which Krivitsky did not put his last name for some reason). It detailed how 29 men from the Panfilov division engaged 50 enemy tanks, and provided specific details not found in previously published articles.
It turns out that the Germans, before entering the battle, shouted “Surrender!” to the guards, and then one of our fighters lost heart, raised his hands up to surrender, but was immediately shot by his comrades.
The remaining 28 people, under the command of political instructor Diev, who admonished them with a brief phrase “Not a step back!”, fought a hard battle for more than four hours and knocked out 18 enemy tanks, which “frozen motionless on the battlefield". Eventually "...they laid down their heads - all twenty-eight. They died, but did not miss the enemy! Our regiment arrived in time, and the enemy tank group was stopped».
It should be noted that in this article the place where the battle took place and the date of this event were not precisely indicated. But on the other hand, the outcome of the battle finally became clear - the enemy tank group on the line defended by the fallen heroes was nevertheless stopped.
However, after reading the article, bewilderment arose: if all the heroes died, then how did the correspondent know the details of the battle? Not from the Nazis?
The second article of Krivitsky
January 22 1942 years in the same newspaper, the following article by Krivitsky “On 28 Fallen Heroes” was published, which provided many details that were not included in the first publication.
In particular, it was reported that the heroes ("Sergeant Dobrobabin's unit"") were in the regiment under the command of Kaprov, the battle took place on November 16 at the Dubosekovo junction, and "before twenty-eight heroes, lurking in the trench at the very junction, repelled a powerful tank attack, they withstood many hours of battle with enemy machine gunners', which in battle '... walked, as if for a walk, to their full height ...", and were stopped by well-aimed fire of the guards. Then they approached the line to help the machine gunners "twenty armored monsters».
And only at this tense moment, a political instructor suddenly appeared from somewhere, whose last name turned out to be not Diev at all, but Klochkov. And he uttered in the final of the battle not at all the words that he spoke in the first essay, but the phrase that later became known throughout the country: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat. Behind Moscow».
The article also explained the mystery of how the correspondent learned the details of the battle. Turns out, "... this was told by Natarov, who was already on his deathbed. He was recently found in the hospital. He crawled that night to the forest, wandered, exhausted from loss of blood, for several days, until he came across a group of our scouts ...And most importantly, the article listed the names, surnames and patronymics of 28 dead heroes (the patronymics of several were not given).
In the essay, as in an earlier publication by Krivitsky, the positions of the brave men were attacked by 50 enemy tanks, but now they were brought into battle "two echelons"- first 20 vehicles, and after some time another 30 after them. The exact number of tanks destroyed was no longer given, it was only mentioned that at first 14 tanks advancing in the "first echelon" were hit and burned, and then "knocked out and burning about a dozen tanks”, advancing in the second echelon.
But this time the outcome of the battle, which lasted about 5 hours, was different: the German tanks still managed to break through the line of defense of the guards...
At the end of the article, it was described how, after the liberation of Dubosekovo, the author, together with the military commissar of the division, regimental commissar Egorov, Colonel Kaprov, the head of the political department of the division Galushko, captain Gundilovich and soldiers of the 8th Guards. the SD went to the battlefield, found a corpse in the snow without documents, and solemnly buried it with a triple salute from a rifle weapons. The discovery of other corpses of fallen heroes was not reported in the article.
In passing, it is worth mentioning the published March 22 1942 in the newspaper "Red Star" article N. Tikhonov "The Word of 28 Guards", which is a poetic poem describing the same battle at the Dubosekovo junction. And although the author, out of modesty, writes that the weakness of his verse does not convey what happened, in reality the verse conveys to the reader many curious details.
For example, the author reproduces poetic conversations between fighters before and during the battle, reports that the battle continued until dark, and even for some reason compares the Bolshevik guards with the guards of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. The reader also learns that, according to poetic information, Ivan Natarov, who is still listed as buried in a mass grave in the village. Nelidovo, in fact, remained alive and in the infirmary managed to report the details of the battle before his death.
In conclusion, I would like to note that, despite some discrepancies in individual information, five of the six above-mentioned articles share a common message: the authors assure the reader that the guardsmen defending the capital are fighting bravely, do not surrender and do not retreat a single step without an order, and also they mention a common hero - political instructor Diev, therefore, they describe the same battle.
Thus, thanks to numerous publications in Soviet newspapers, a detailed description of the battle of 28 Panfilov’s soldiers soon acquired the status of a historical event and even entered the essays on the combat path of the 1942th Guards compiled after 8. sd and its units (for example, see "Essay on the combat path of the 2nd division 857 ap").
Moreover, a brief description of the battle of 28 Panfilov’s men was even included in the three-volume study “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow” compiled by the General Staff of the KA (1943). Moreover, the number of German tanks destroyed by the heroes in his text has already reached 26 (see B. M. Shaposhnikov “The Battle for Moscow. The Moscow operation of the Western Front on November 16, 1941 - January 31, 1942”, AST Moscow, Tranzitkniga, S. 59).
Now it is already difficult to determine the reasons for this phenomenon: either this was the merit of Krivitsky's bright literary talent, or it is necessary to pay tribute to the zeal of the political affairs workers, who conscientiously carry out the instructions of the authorities to bring the newspaper description to all fighters and commanders - a dark matter ...
Selected publications by Krivitsky
The next stage of Krivitsky's individual creativity was written and published by several publishing houses in 1942-1945. 12-page brochure "About 28 Fallen Heroes" (14x10 cm; circulation of 120 copies).
Well, the apogee of his individual writing work, dedicated to the Panfilovites, was the brochure “1943 Panfilov Heroes” composed and published in 28 - 40 pages, circulation of 100 copies.
After the end of the war, the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers described by Krivitsky at the Dubosekovo junction was mentioned in numerous literary publications, and was also included in the memoirs of various Soviet military leaders. And as a result of repeated repetitions, he finally acquired the status of an undoubted historical event, and at the same time immortalized Krivitsky, who became the main chronicler of this heroic battle.
In the 60s, the writer did not deny himself the pleasure of once again publishing his first article “The Testament of 28 Fallen Heroes” in the book “I Will Never Forget” (1964), where he even decided to tell readers what information served as the basis for writing the article:
“Shortly after moving into the Pravda building, the editor handed me four lines of a political report, which, among many others, came from the political department of one of the divisions defending Moscow. It said that a group of fighters led by political instructor Diev repulsed the attack of 50 tanks. Neither the names of the fighters, nor the exact line at which the battle broke out - nothing is known. Only the surname of the political instructor, the mention of Dubosekovo's departure, and the very fact, exciting, like an alarming, strong song ... "
It turned out to be a piquant situation: if Krivitsky was not cunning, then in fact he admitted that he simply invented numerous details of the battle described in his first editorial. And it seems that he also lied about the political report, because the document containing the “four lines” indicated by him, or at least Diev’s surname, has not been found to this day.
Unexpected turn of events
After the collapse of the USSR, when the “gates of glasnost” opened wide, publications began to appear in the press, where it was reported that some Panfilov heroes who were listed as buried in a mass grave actually remained alive.
In total, there were 6 people, and one of them, Dobrobabin, who appears in Krivitsky's publications as a brave and cheerful sergeant, was captured on November 16.11.1941, XNUMX, then was released by the Nazis (they usually freed Ukrainian prisoners of war from camps), returned to his place of birth to the Ukrainian village of Perekop and got a job with the police there. And when, after the war, this fact was revealed by military counterintelligence, the Panfilov hero was deprived of all awards and convicted of treason.
Using these facts, the authors of some publications of the 90s stated that there was no battle of 28 heroes at the Dubosekovo junction, they say, all this is an invention of communist propaganda. For 28 people, armed only with anti-tank missiles and bottles of combustible mixture, are physically unable to withstand 50 tanks in battle, and even at the same time destroy 18 tanks and pile on 800 Fritz.
What caused counter-publications in response, where the authors defended the historicity of the battle at Dubosekovo, mainly using numerous memoirs of veterans of the 8th Guards as an argument. sd, which, although they did not participate in this battle, but (according to them) on 16.11.1941/XNUMX/XNUMX fought the Germans near the junction, therefore they saw this battle and even personally knew political instructor Klochkov.
As a result, people interested in the history of the Great Patriotic War and, in particular, the battle for Moscow, were divided into two warring camps: those who believed that there really was a battle near the Dubosekovo junction on November 16.11.1941, 18, during which the enemy lost XNUMX tanks, and those those who believed that this tank battle did not take place - the event is not historical, but fictional.
Thanks to the Internet, disputes around the Dubosekovo battle have repeatedly flared up at various historical forums and virtual conferences. Yes, and individual figures of Russian culture often expressed their opinion on the issue of the historicity of this event.
Help-report of the prosecutor's office
A new round of controversy around the battle near Dubosekovo began to spin after the publication in the Novy Mir magazine (No. 6, 1997) of the article “New about Soviet heroes” (N. Petrov, O. Edelman). In it, the authors expressed the opinion that the history of the Great Patriotic War is surrounded and entangled in myths, and as one such myth they cited the battle of 28 Panfilov soldiers at the Dubosekovo junction.
But most importantly, substantiating their assertion, the authors named an archival document - the Reference-report "On 28 Panfilovites" (1948) compiled in the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. Moreover, they even published it in their article in full.
It seemed that the final conclusion of this historical document:
“thus, the materials of the investigation established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is fiction correspondent Koroteev, editor of Krasnaya Zvezda Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky ... "
was supposed to put a fat final point in the dispute about the historicity of the battle.
But, alas, he didn’t put it - disputes among historians and history buffs about the historicity of the battle of 28 Panfilov’s soldiers near Dubosekovo only flared up with renewed vigor.
Supporters of the “fight was” version immediately called the text of the Reference-report a historical falsification, and the authors were accused of forgery.
But the publication of the original document on the GARF website made the assertion of falsification untenable, but, alas, did not lead to the termination of disputes either.
Defenders of the historicity of the battle immediately seized on the fragment of the testimony of KSP 1075 by I. V. Kaprov contained in the Help:
“... There was no battle between 28 Panfilov’s men and German tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 15, 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 ... "
And they said that this fragment convincingly proves that on November 16.11.1941, XNUMX, a tank battle at the Dubosekovo junction definitely was. And how many Panfilovites participated in it, 28 or 128, is of no fundamental importance. Just as it doesn’t matter how many tanks they destroyed in this battle, the number of destroyed tanks does not affect the historical authenticity of the event. And if someone doubts the historicity of this battle, then he is a scoundrel who hates his country and tries to distort its heroic history.
Well, the Stalinist prosecutor's office, as is well known, was only engaged in intimidating citizens and forcing them to slander themselves. That is why Krivitsky and other writers, under pressure from investigators, were forced to give false testimony that, they say, they invented the heroic battle at the Dubosekovo junction. Therefore, this Reference-report is worthless on a market day - it does not prove anything.
Naturally, supporters of the version “this tank battle did not take place” (among them the famous historian A.V. Isaev) in response urged their opponents to cool their heads and stop fantasizing, stubbornly defending the myth invented by the newspapermen, because the prosecutor’s check accurately established that the tank battle had There was no Dubosekovo.
But the most curious thing in this dispute of long-standing opponents, now about the correct interpretation of the meaning of the Help, is that both of them completely misinterpret its conclusions.
The prosecutor's office was not at all tasked with establishing whether there was actually a tank battle near the Dubosekovo junction on November 16.11.1941, XNUMX, or whether there was no battle in this defensive area.
The reasons for the inspection were the arrest of the Panfilov hero I. E. Dobrobabin, suspected of treason; and his subsequent confession that he really was in the Dubosekovo region (there he surrendered to the Germans), but did not perform any feats and everything that is written about him in the book about the Panfilov heroes does not correspond to reality. Further, during the investigation of the criminal case, it was established that, in addition to Dobrobabin, 4 more people remained alive, listed as 28 Panfilov soldiers who died in battle with German tanks.
In connection with this, it became necessary to check the very circumstances of the battle of 28 guardsmen from the Panfilov division, which took place on 16.11.1941/16/28 at the Dubosekovo junction, covered in the press. That is, the inspectors were tasked with establishing where the information about this fight originally came from and whether there was a fight at all on November XNUMX with the participation of these XNUMX people.
And during the check, it was found that the heroic battle described in detail in the Soviet press, when 28 shooters of the 8th Guards. sd, armed only with anti-tank missiles, grenades and bottles of combustible mixture, stopped about 50 tanks and about 1 fascists at their turn, has no documentary basis and is the fruit of the creative imagination of newspapermen.
And the employees of the prosecutor's office did not go further than the task set - at that time they already had enough to do. Therefore, during the check, they did not try to find and study archival documents that would allow them to restore the chronology of combat events in the defensive section of the 1075th joint venture for November 16, 1941.
But nevertheless, the prosecutor's office interviewed local residents and (according to their words) established that on November 16.11.1941, 6, there were battles in the vicinity of the village of Nelidovo and again. Dubosekovo really were. And the residents did not know the details of the battles, because at that time they were hiding in shelters. But on the other hand, they reported that in the mass grave of the Panfilov heroes, which is located on the outskirts of the village of Nelidovo, only 28 spacecraft fighters were buried, and not XNUMX. Which was another of the established facts taken into account when formulating the final conclusion of the check.
Therefore, arguing objectively, we can conclude that on the basis of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Certificate, it is impossible to conclude that in reality on November 16.11.1941, XNUMX there was a tank battle directly at the Dubosekovo junction or, conversely, there was no such battle.
Prosecutors only established that correspondents Chernyshev and Koroteev, instead of going to the headquarters of rifle regiments or their battalions and getting information about real heroes and details of their feats, in order to later perpetuate their names and deeds on the pages of newspapers, arrived at headquarters 16 th army. And allegedly there they learned from a political report about a heroic battle that took place on an unknown day and in what place, where some 5th company fought with an unknown number. Then they supplemented what they read with their fantasies and eventually created a myth that several dozen soldiers of the rifle regiment, armed only with anti-tank rifles, grenades and bottles of combustible mixture, managed to stop about 50 German tanks at their turn (advancing with an infantry regiment), and in addition to knock out (burn) 18 of them.
Then Krivitsky, who took the baton, creatively developed this myth by writing his first article, without even leaving the editorial office, allegedly from the words of his boss Ortenberg.
And in his next article, he already gave full rein to his imagination, inventing that there were 28 heroes, and even printed a list with the names of those who allegedly committed this invented feat of randomly selected 28 fighters of the 1075th sp. And at the end of the article, he blatantly lied that the details of the battle he fantasized about became known from the surviving Natarov.
On the one hand, it seems that the appearance of these articles in the newspapers was only useful: they instilled in the hearts of readers the confidence that the fighters of the spacecraft units defending the capital are standing to the death, without an order they will not retreat from their positions and the enemy will not be allowed into the capital. And also publications raised the morale of the fighters and commanders of the spacecraft, being an example to follow.
But, on the other hand, there was also significant harm.
The information contained in the articles that only 28 fighters without artillery support were able to defend their line in battle against 50 tanks and an enemy infantry regiment could instill false confidence in the commanders of rifle regiments and battalions who had no combat experience that this was really possible, and as a result lead to wrong tactical decisions. And the fighters who found themselves in a similar situation and (it is clear why) quickly knocked out by the enemy from their positions (retreated without an order), on the basis of such publications, could be accused of cowardice and sent to a penal company.
Accordingly, among the fighters, who had already taken a sip of dashing in battles with real German tanks, such publications aroused surprise and a reasonable question, how could such stories get on the front page of the main newspaper of the KA, giving rise to distrust of Soviet newspapers.
In addition, such fictions were ideological time bombs - decades later, the truth could break out and eventually cause people from the younger generation to doubt the reality of other heroic deeds covered in the Soviet press and included in school history textbooks.
And in a good way, Krivitsky should have been severely punished for his lies. But in this case, his boss Ortenberg, who at the time of the publication of those articles was a major general and executive editor of the main newspaper of the Red Army, would also have to be punished. And this would eventually entail the necessity of recognizing the fact that during the war the Red Star misled its readers.
Moreover, the publication, even in a narrow circle of the party apparatus, of the fact that 28 people received the highest degree of distinction in the USSR without any verification only on the basis of dubious newspaper publications, was an ideological state of emergency and could lead to unpleasant consequences for propaganda officials with a rank higher than Ortenberg.
And also to hurt the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR N. A. Bulganin and Marshal of the USSR G. K. Zhukov, who approved award lists for 1942 people in 28 without conducting a thorough check of the circumstances of the feat described in them.
Apparently, that is why the results of the investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office were not widely publicized, the material was sent to the archive, the writers escaped with only a slight fright, and the myth born by them continued its work for the benefit of Soviet propaganda and to the delight of Krivitsky.
On the testimony of I. V. Kaprov and the final conclusion
Separately, I consider it necessary to evaluate the testimony of KSP 1075 of I. V. Kaprov set out in the Certificate, in particular, his words:
“... 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 ... "
Personally, I have a big doubt that the regiment commander, whose regiment in the fall of 1941 was actually completely defeated 2 times within a month, his battalions repeatedly left their positions without an order, and he himself was even removed from his post for their unauthorized departure, 6 years after the events, he was able to remember exactly what exactly happened on November 16, 1941.
Usually, in the memory of a person who participated in heavy protracted battles, when thousands of people die before his eyes and absolute hell is created around him, only some terrible fragments that are not specified in time and not tied to geographical landmarks remain, which he tries his best to forget as soon as possible. . Therefore, a replacement often occurs in his memory: a person forgets what was in reality, but instead “remembers” what was not, having heard some stories from colleagues or read something in publications. After that, it is affirmed in the opinion that he also remembers exactly that the events happened exactly as he heard or read.
Therefore, the fact that the above-mentioned memoirs of I. V. Kaprov are recorded in the Prosecutor’s Office’s Certificate does not at all give them historical authenticity, as some supporters of the “fight was” version sometimes claim (while forgetting that they themselves previously denied the evidence value of the Certificate and called into question the truthfulness of the testimonies of the citizens interviewed during the inspection).
Thus, the question of how the combat situation actually developed on November 16, 1941 in the defensive sector of the 1075th joint venture is still waiting for its meticulous researcher. And the archival materials published to date are already enough to conduct a thorough objective analysis and build a historical version that restores actual events with quite acceptable accuracy.
But there are serious doubts that such an impartial historical article will ever appear. For some reason, people have an acute dislike for historians, who destroy by their research the myths that have developed in society, elevated to the status of historical dogmas. And they are especially sensitive to attempts to cast doubt on the reliability of some of the exploits of the spacecraft soldiers widely reported in the Soviet press.
Moreover, people do not even like those researchers who are rather cautiously trying to hint to them that, perhaps, some ideas that have developed in their minds about individual battles of the Great Patriotic War are false, and such obviously improbable events, most likely, did not exist in reality.
Because of this, not many historians are eager to publish studies that destroy the myths that exist in society about the battles of the Great Patriotic War period.
So there is good reason to believe that the debate about the heroic Panfilov tank battle at the Dubosekovo junction will continue for several more decades ...
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