Kuzhebergenov's arrest In May 1942, the
NKVD arrested a
Western Front soldier, Danil Kuzhebergenov, for allegedly "giving himself up to the enemy" by trying to surrender. When he was interrogated, the suspect claimed that he was the same Danil Kuzhebergenov that was listed as one of the Twenty-Eight Guardsmen. The NKVD discovered that he indeed served in the 4th Company of the 1075th Regiment's 2nd Battalion. Kuzhebergenov claimed that during 16 November he was knocked unconscious by an explosion and picked up by a German burial detail who presumed he was dead. He later managed to escape and joined General
Dovator's Cavalry Division. The man was later recognized by other participants as one of the soldiers in Dubosekovo. The NKVD forced Kuzhebergenov to sign a confession in which he professed to having been an impersonator who was never present at the area of the battle and based his claims on material gleaned from the newspapers. Commissar Muhamedyarov wrote a letter in which he claimed to have erroneously ascribed Danil Kuzhebergenov as one of the Guardsmen instead of another soldier, Askar Kuzhebergenov, who was henceforth listed among the Twenty-Eight in official publications. According to the division's records, a soldier by that name joined it during January 1942 and was killed shortly after. Danil Kuzhebergenov was imprisoned on charges of impersonation and cowardice and later sent to a penal battalion. His criminal record as a "traitor to the Motherland" was never expunged. On 21 July 1942, the Guardsmen were all posthumously awarded the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union.
Afanasyev Report In November 1947, the
Kharkov Military Prosecutor's Office arrested Ivan Dobrobabin, a resident of the Kyrgyz town
Kant, on suspicion of collaboration with the enemy. Dobrobabin told the investigators that he was one of the Panfilov Guardsmen. His claim was verified; he indeed was the same Ivan Dobrobabin who was listed as one of the dead in Dubosekovo. Dobrobabin claimed that during the clash on 16 November, he was captured by the Germans but managed to escape. He then decided to return to his native town of
Perekop, in Ukraine, which was under German occupation. There, Dobrobabin joined the local
Hilfspolizei and was made its chief. He was accused of participating in anti-
partisan activity and of assisting the
deportation of forced laborers to Germany. In 1944, when the German defeat was imminent, he fled his village and re-enlisted into the Red Army. Dobrobabin was convicted and sent to fifteen years in prison. The Dobrobabin affair led to an official investigation of the Panfilov Guardsmen story. A military judge, Lieutenant-General Nikolai Afanasyev, supervised the process. When he interviewed Kaprov, the Colonel told him that although heavy fighting took place in Dubosekovo, the Guardsmen did not perform the deeds attributed to them by the press. When questioned, Krivitsky admitted that he made up most of the details which were published in his articles, including Klochkov's famous last words and the dying Natarov's tale – documents from the 1075th Regiment's staff later revealed that Ivan Natarov was killed two days before the battle. Ortenberg and Koroteev told the judge that their main motive was to boost the morale of the Soviet troops and therefore they published Egorov's story. In addition to Kuzhubergenov, who the investigation confirmed to have been one of the Twenty-Eight, and Dobrobabin, four other surviving Guardsmen were located by the commission: Grigory Shemiakin and Illarion Vasilyev were injured severely on the 16 November incident and evacuated to hospitals; Dmitry Timofeev and Ivan Shadrin were taken prisoner but eventually repatriated to the Soviet Union. In his report, submitted to the
Procurator General of the Soviet Union on 10 May 1948 and passed on to
Joseph Stalin and
Andrei Zhdanov, Afanasyev concluded that the Panfilov Guardsmen's last stand "did not occur. It was a pure fantasy."
Post-war era In spite of the Afanasyev report, the wartime version of the events was adhered to. Memorials to the fallen heroes were built throughout the Soviet Union, including five 12-meter tall statues near the site of the battle and the
Twenty-Eight Guardsmen Park in
Alma Ata (Almaty). The
municipal anthem of Moscow makes a reference to the city's "twenty-eight brave sons". Some Soviet military historians tried to reconcile "the Feat of the 28" with the known facts about the real course of hostilities. Thus, in the official six-volume "History of the Great Patriotic War" by Pospelov it was stated that "28 heroes" were part of the 1077th Regiment. This regiment did hold its ground in the battle on November 16, but these positions were 20 kilometers away from the Dubosekovo station. In 1966, the popular Soviet literary magazine
Novyi mir published an article entitled ("Legends and facts") by . There were some serious questions posed of Krivitsky and the canonized version of "28 heroes". Kadrin named several survivors and asked why no further studies has been made. Such thoughts were slapped down personally by
Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Union's Head of State: "Some of our authors even say that ... there were no 28 Panfilov men, ... that this fact was perhaps invented, that Klochkov did not exist, and neither did his appeal 'There is nowhere to retreat – we have our backs to Moscow!' These are slanders against ... the heroic history of our party and
Soviet people."
Memorials •
Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, Almaty, Kazakhstan •
Guardsmen's Memorial, Dubosekovo – 10-meter statues of six figures. •
Monument to Panfilov's Guardsmen, Moscow – was a statue, now a wall == Contemporary Russia ==