The War Memorial to the Panfilov’s Heroes is located near the Dubosekovo railway station in the area of Volokolamsk (120 km from Moscow). It is dedicated to one of the episodes of the Battle of Moscow, which was one of the largest and fiercest battles of the WWII. In many villages west of Moscow, there are memorials or mass graves, but the Memorial to the Panfilov’s Heroes is one of the largest in the Moscow region.
The Battle for Moscow lasted from October 1941 to April 1942. In total, more than 7 million soldiers from both sides participated in it. The Germans threw more than half of the entire numerical strength of their army on the Eastern Front to capture Moscow. The conquest of the capital of the Soviet Union was the main goal of the German campaign in Russia.
The battle near the village of Dubosekovo was preceded by extremely negative circumstances of the defeat of the Soviet troops. In German historiography, these events are called "Operation Typhoon". Two Tank groups of Goth and Guderian were advancing on Moscow, as well as a large number of infantry divisions. They were able to surround and defeat several Soviet armies of the Bryansk, Reserve and Central Fronts in the pockets near Vyazma and Bryansk. The main events of the Vyazma pocket took place on Bogoroditsky field. 600 thousand people were trapped and captured here.
The retreating Soviet troops lost control, and the road to attack Moscow was opened. The defense of Moscow was entrusted to General Zhukov, but there were almost no troops left to organize the defense. There was only hope for the perseverance and mass heroism of the Soviet soldiers of separated divisions in each section of the Defense of Moscow.
The Battle of Dubosekovo
One of the examples of mass heroism of soldiers was the battle in Dubosekovo (near the village of Nelidovo), which became widely known in the Soviet press and was used to raise the morale of soldiers.
The Soviet historiography tells how General Panfilov formed the 316th Infantry Division in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan). It consisted of soldiers of different nations: Kazakhs, Russians, Kyrgyz and others. In Kazakhstan, the name of Panfilov is still honored, and the central park of Alma-Ata is named after 28 Panfilov’s heroes.
In October 1941, the Panfiolv division was transferred to the defense of Moscow, where the soldiers showed mass heroism. They defended a section of several tens of kilometers on the Volokolamsk highway, delaying the advance of significantly stronger German troops. All the soldiers of this division were called "Panfilovites".
On November 16, 1941, a battle took place near the Dubsekovo station, where the 2nd platoon of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion, 1075 infantry regiment of the 316 Panfilov division took part. The platoon consisted of 28 people. The platoon commander was wounded before the battle. The platoon soldiers stopped several attacks by German tanks. They had only a cannon, anti-tank rifles, grenades and Molotov cocktails.
Subsequently , the place of the company commander was taken by the political instructor of the company Vasily Klochkov, who uttered the famous words "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind." All 28 people were killed during the battle, but were able to blow up several German tanks and delay the offensive on Moscow.
All 28 soldiers of this platoon were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union, and the words of Political Instructor Klochkov: "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat – Moscow is behind" were repeatedly replicated in the Soviet press, motivating soldiers to defend the capital.
Memorial to the Feat 28
Officially, the memorial is called "Feat 28", but more often, it is called the Memorial to the Panfilov’s Heroes. It was created near the Dubosekovo station, where the 2nd platoon of the 4th company consisting of 28 people fought. In the village of Nelidovo there is a mass grave where they are buried, there are also small museums dedicated to these events.
The Memorial to the Panfilov’s Heroes is the largest war memorial in the Moscow region. It consists of 6 figures of soldiers, 10 meters high. These figures depict warriors of six nationalities, of which Panfilov`s division consisted. They are installed with their backs to Moscow and facing west, from where the German troops were moving. There is a small museum next to the memorial to the Panfilov’s heroes.
In the 1990s, some "historians" decided to question the feat of these soldiers. They referred to archival data that the course of the battle at Dubosekov was different. Perhaps it can be argued that the political instructor Klochkov did not say the words "Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat – Moscow is behind" before crawling under a tank with a grenade.
However, this memorial is dedicated to the massive feat of soldiers of individual divisions during the Battle for Moscow. They were actually put to certain death in order to detain the many times greater forces of the German troops who were advancing on Moscow after the defeat of the Soviet troops in the Vyazemsky and Bryansk pocket. As a result, German troops approached Moscow by 25-30 km.
At that time, the Soviet command was forming new armies, which launched an offensive on December 5. During this offensive, the entire German group that was advancing on Moscow was defeated and pushed back from the capital at a distance of 150-300 km. This was the first defeat of the German army of such magnitude during the WWII. In the following years, during the Battle of Stalingrad, as well as after the Battle of Kursk, the Germans lost the strategic initiative and retreated to Russia.
