Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov - Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of the Red Army, military leader.
Childhood[]
Ivan was born on December 20, 1892 in the city of Petrovsk, Saratov province. In 1904, Vasily Panfilov’s wife died suddenly. Due to the need to help his father with housework, Ivan did not have time to complete his primary education.
In 1905, Panfilov Jr. got a job in a hired shop. In 1912, the boy's father died. Three years later, Ivan Panfilov entered service in the Russian Imperial Army as part of the 168th reserve battalion of the Penza province. At the beginning of 1917, having received the rank of non-commissioned officer, he went to the Southwestern Russian-German Front in the 638th Infantry Regiment. In the Russian army, Panfilov rose to the rank of company commander and was a member of the regiment committee.
Military service[]
After the revolution, he consciously joined the ranks of the Red Army and ended up in the First Saratov Infantry Regiment of the 25th Chapaev Rifle Division. Panfilov showed himself heroically during the Civil War, after which in 1920 he was sent to the Soviet-Polish war, where he took command of a company of Red Army soldiers. After the war he was transferred to the Central Asian Military District and took part in the battles against the Basmachi.
In 1920 he joined the CPSU. In 1921, he entered the courses at the Kyiv Higher United Military School of Red Army Commanders named after S.S. Kamenev, after graduating from which he received the rank of battalion commander. Soon he headed the 52nd Yaroslavl Rifle Regiment. In his youth, Panfilov led a nomadic life, moving from garrison to garrison. In 1924 he transferred to the Turkestan Front, where he headed the regimental school, and in 1925 he took command of the Pamir detachment. Two years later he returned to Turkestan again.
Since 1931, he was listed as commissar of the 8th separate rifle battalion of the Central Asian Military District, then commander of the 9th Red Banner Mountain Rifle Regiment. During his service, Ivan Panfilov developed theoretical principles of combat. Already in the mid-20s, the military leader realized the inadequacy of combat detachments organized on the principle of mounted divisions using edged weapons.
Ivan Vasilyevich paid great attention to the issue of preserving the life of a soldier during military operations. The military leader made sure that his charges had warm uniforms and the necessary hygiene products. In 1937, Ivan Panfilov took the post of head of the headquarters department of the Central Asian Military District, and a year later received the post of military commissar of the Kirghiz SSR. In the year the Second World War began, Panfilov was promoted to the rank of brigade commander, and a year later he received the rank of major general.
Panfilov did not distinguish soldiers by nationality, he found a common language with all military personnel, for which many called him “General Batya.” Panfilov participated in the creation of the 316th Infantry Division. The commander trained military personnel in conditions of tank combat and developed tactics of using small infantry groups to suppress the enemy’s advance.
World War II[]
Ivan Panfilov met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War as commander of the 316th Rifle Division on the North-Western and Western fronts, which was reorganized in November 1941 into the 8th Guards Division. The military unit consisted mainly of residents of the capital of the Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyzstan. Panfilov’s fighters became famous for conducting defensive battles in the vicinity of Volokolamsk against heavy enemy equipment.
Ivan Panfilov created an artillery defense system, which was supported by mobile infantry groups. According to some reports, Panfilov’s men went behind enemy lines more than once to psychologically prepare for an anti-tank attack. Panfilov was one of the first military leaders to sense the importance of small detachments, which during battle were called “nodes of resistance” or “strong points.”
Panfilov's retreat from Volokolamsk to the east, which he made at the end of October 1941, could have resulted in a military tribunal for him. But the Commander-in-Chief of the 16th Army, Lieutenant General K. Rokossovsky, stood up for Ivan Vasilyevich. On November 16, a bloody battle took place at the defensive position, which lasted 4.5 hours. During the offensive of two tank divisions in the amount of 50 combat vehicles, Soviet soldiers destroyed 18 of them, which went down in history as the feat of 28 Panfilov soldiers.
Opponents called the Soviet Panfilov soldiers savage and fanatical. A day after the legendary battle, the 316th Division was reorganized into the 8th Guards Rifle Division and received the Order of the Red Banner. The military unit met victory on the territory of Courland. On the Reichstag building, the heroes of the division left a thank you inscription in memory of Ivan Panfilov.
Death[]
During the battle on November 18, 1941, Ivan Panfilov was in a hastily organized temporary hut, where he talked with reporters from Moscow newspapers. During a surprise tank attack by the Nazis, Panfilov hurried into the street, where he was wounded in the temple by a fragment of a mine that exploded nearby. Death came instantly.