Defence of Moscow: 83rd anniversary of the heroic feat of the Panfilov Division

On November 16, 1941, during the defence of Moscow from the fascist invaders, 28 soldiers from General Panfilov's Division performed their immortal feat in a battle at the Dubosekovo siding, destroying about two dozen German tanks and stopping the German advance.

The battle that a group of tank destroyers of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment led by political instructor Vasily Georgievich Klochkov fought off at night near Dubosekovo has entered all history books.

Over the course of four hours, Panfilov's men repelled several enemy attacks and destroyed 18 tanks. When they ran out of ammunition and grenades, political instructor Klochkov gathered the surviving fighters around him and addressed them with the words: "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind us!", which became the motto of all the defenders of the capital.

Most of the legendary warriors who performed this unparalleled feat, including Vasily Klochkov, died a heroic death that night. The rest were seriously wounded.

The country learned about Klochkov's words about Great Russia and the feat of the soldiers of the Panfilov Division on November 28, 1941, from an article in Krasnaya Zvezda.

In 1942, all participants in the battle near Dubosekovo were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Soviet command.

Source

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We will expose and destroy provocateurs and those spreading panicked rumours

Artist: Vladimir Milashevski, 1941

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‼️ Just like in 1941, so now — be on guard and do not fall for provocative rumours that instill fear, uncertainty and doubt!

In his speech at the Red Square parade on the 7th of November 1941, Iosif Stalin said:

The enemy is not as strong as some frightened intellectuals portray it. The devil is not so terrible as they paint him.
The «frightened intellectuals», in today’s terms, would be the liberal 5th column.

Here is a short fragment of an article «How Stalin dismantled the 5th column in the fall of 1941»

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The problem of the 5th column existed, exists and will exist, perhaps, forever. It is not so easy to identify the 5th column, only the master can do this. And Stalin did it in October 1941!

Reading the memoirs of Academician Vernadsky, you discover two details that seem to contradict each other. Many people see this in the media about the Defence of Moscow: they say that the hardest days were October 16-17, that's when panic arose. The «worst» part of the population, it must be assumed, imagined that German tanks were about to enter Moscow, trampling the streets with their tracks. There were some reasons for this hallucination - first of all, the fact that on the morning of October 16, the Sovinformburo did not give, as always, a summary from the theatre of military operations, and it was briefly reported that the Germans broke through the front. And that's it.

In addition of the case with the radio, the top management instructed to open industrial goods stores, where everything was distributed for free — take as much as you like. And grocery stores received instructions to dispense food on the food cards up to the end of the month and even gave more than what the card norms provided for — from which many concluded that all food stocks are being liquidated and this can only mean one thing — the end. Even the trams stopped running.

Some strangers called the institutions and shouted at the directors that it was necessary to leave Moscow immediately, leave it as soon as possible. Many directors who had transport at their disposal filled these trucks with food, plus grabbed huge amounts of state money, and tried to leave Moscow, but the population quickly organised themselves into people's outposts, these cars were stopped and panickers were killed. There is a (very poor) reconstruction of these posts in the 1985 movie "Battle for Moscow".

By the evening, policemen joined the people's outposts and also began to participate in the elimination of alarmists.

But not everyone rushed out of the city, obeying the calls of unfamiliar voices on the phone, not all the directors turned out to be cheap panickers — there were many who continued their work. Many people not in high positions remained calm — they formed the backbone of the people's outposts, which dealt with the alarmists.

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Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was in fact in Moscow on November 16-17 and participated as a member of Komsomol in the people's outposts. She is the epitome of steadfastness! Reportedly, according to her mother’s words, Zoya said about the 5th columnists at that time: «The ship is not yet sinking, but the despicable rats are already running.»

Let us remember Zoya’s words, and her example!

#BattleForMoscow #Stalin

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