Panfilov 28 Martyrs first appeared in the November 27, 1941 issue of the Red Star newspaper, the war correspondent Vasily Koroteev was originally to interview the commander of the 16th Army Rokossovsky, happened to meet the political commissar of the 316th Infantry Division Yegolov, the division because of his outstanding achievements, the division has just been renamed the 8th Guards Infantry Division, Yegolov suggested that he go to the next front line soldiers, there is a company unit independently against 54 German tanks, and eventually all killed, Koroteev wants to know the details of the matter The commissar said that he had also listened to other officers.
Monument to the Panfilov Heroes
Koroteev submitted an article to the Red Star the next day, entitled "Panfilov's Guards in the Battle of Moscow", which included a passage: "The soldiers of the Fifth Company, under the leadership of Instructor Dave, were not afraid in the face of 54 German tanks, they fought to the last drop of blood, wiped out 800 German troops, destroyed 18 tanks, and bought time for the arrival of reinforcements", in which he did not mention the number of soldiers and the time and place where the battle took place.
Commander ivan of the 316th Division. Panfilov was killed in battle
This article is about the 316th Infantry Division, the "5th Company" only occupies a chapter, after the publication of the little response, but attracted the interest of another reporter, Krivicki is a senior reporter and editor of the "Red Star", november 29 published an editorial "Panfilov 28 Martyrs' Last Wishes", before the publication of his superiors had asked him how he knew that it was 28 people, Krivytsky replied that he learned that there was an incomplete company of 30 people all killed, including two deserters killed by comrades he did not write, He argued with his superiors whether to write about the 28 martyrs or 29 martyrs, who believed that 2 out of 30 deserters were too many, and Krivytsky's article still did not mention the time and place where the fighting took place.
Soviet forces at the Battle of Moscow
Stalin saw this article, intends to posthumously award these 28 martyrs the highest honor of the Soviet army - the Order of heroes of the Soviet Union, which requires providing a detailed list, Krivicki went deep into the front line of the 316th Division to interview, only to find that the "instructor Dave" mentioned in the earliest Koroteev article did not exist, and the soldiers had never heard of the 28 warriors, so Koroteev sent a series of reports, saying that "Instructor Dave" was the nickname that the soldiers affectionately called him, and his real name was Klochkov. Also mentioning the time and place where the battle took place: on November 16, 1941, at the Dubosekovo station, the left wing of the 1075 Infantry Regiment, his article greatly boosted the morale of the Soviet army, and all the units learned from the 28 warriors with their actions.
On 16 November, there was indeed a fierce battle at duboshekovo station, and after consulting with the officers of the 316th Division, the list of awards was selected from the dead on this day, and due to the heavy snowfall, most of the bodies were buried, and only a small number of Soviet corpses were found near the Duboshekovo station, so there were both dead and missing people in the award list.
Soviet forces at the Battle of Moscow
In May 1942, the Soviet Interior Forces captured a deserter, he provided the name and unit number of one of the 28 martyrs, according to his confession that he was stunned by shells during the battle on November 16 last year, and when he woke up, the troops had withdrawn, he joined another Soviet unit, the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked him to sign a confession, admitting that he was posing as a hero and promising not to mention it again, and this person was later sent to the punishment camp. In 1947, after the war, the Soviet Union, while liquidating Nazi collaborators, captured a man who claimed to be one of the 28 martyrs, who said he had been captured by the Germans during the fighting in November 1941 and later returned to his hometown of Ukraine to become a pseudo-policeman for his livelihood, and a military court sentenced him to 15 years in prison for treason.
German forces at the Battle of Moscow
The incident aroused the attention of Nikolai Nikolai, then chief judge of the Soviet military tribunal. The vigilance of Lieutenant General Afanayev, who secretly detained and interrogated the initiators, the journalist Krivicki admitted that most of the details were made up by him in order to motivate the then-sluggish troops, and after a comprehensive investigation in addition to the above two, four of the "28 martyrs" survived, two of whom were wounded that day and sent to the field hospital, the other two escaped after being briefly captured, after the war they lived in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Lieutenant General Avanayev presented the report to Stalin and Beria, he wrote at the end: "Never happened, It was all made up," however, and the soviet hierarchy was collectively silent about the report.
Sculpture of the Panfilov martyrs
In 1966, some Soviet media openly questioned the "Panfilov 28 Martyrs", and brezhnev, who was in power, posted in his personal name: "Some of our writers and comrades say that the 28 martyrs do not exist, they are fabricated, and even the instructor Dave's sentence "The Soviet Union is very big, but we have no way to retreat, and behind us is Moscow" is also fabricated, which is a shameless and despicable slander against the entire Soviet people! Since then, the media has collectively closed its voices.
Brezhnev in World War II
In 2015 the director of the Russian State Archives published the report of the investigation of the 1948 Soviet military tribunal, he was quickly dismissed, the Russian Minister of Culture said: "Even if this story is made up from beginning to end, it is sacred and no one is allowed to defile", the 316th Infantry Division was killed in the Battle of Moscow with 3620 killed and 6300 wounded, division commander Ivan. Panfilov was killed, with a loss rate of more than 90 percent, and it is undeniable that journalists fabricated heroic acts, but it is certain that there were acts that were comparable but different in detail, or even more heroic, that did occur.
Stills from Panfilov 28 Warriors
Editors believe that some people have only two views of historical events, mythologized or smeared, these people only pursue the "truth" of small places and ignore goodness and beauty, they are controlled by negative thinking, the battlefield will be the most cowardly group of people, peacetime will be depressed, like a rat all day long fearful, the biggest truth is that the Panfilov Infantry Division has 3620 martyrs, 9920 warriors, The biggest truth is that this story inspired thousands of Soviet officers and soldiers to survive the harsh winter of 1941 when the nation was in danger, why couldn't these 28 people get by? Could it be that the death of all 6 surviving warriors is the perfect ending? Therefore, in 2016, knowing that it was a story, Russia still released the movie "Panfilov 28 Warriors".