Ivan Panfilov (born on December 20, 1892 (January 1, 1893) in Petrovsk, Saratov province - died on November 18, 1941, in the Gusenevo village, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region), he was the Soviet military leader, Major General, Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, posthumous). In 1915, he was drafted into the imperial army and sent to the Russian-German front. In 1918, he voluntarily joined the Red Army and was assigned to the first Saratov Infantry Regiment of the 25th Chapaevsk division. He is the veteran of the Civil war; he fought in the 25th Chapaevsk division. He took part in punitive operations. During one of the shootings, he was charged with aiding and abetting the enemy (the machine gun jammed and the gunner Panfilov was accused of deliberately breaking of the gun). The commander of the division Vasily Chapaev, arrived in order to conduct a tribunal over the accused, however, he acquitted Panfilov and even appointed him as the commander of a machine-gun squad. After the Civil War, he graduated from the Kiev joint infantry school and then he was appointed to the Central Asian Military District. He took an active part in the fight against robber bands. He was a member of the CPSU (b) since 1920. Since 1938, he was the military commissar of the Kirghiz SSR. He died on November 18, 1941, in the village Gusenevo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region, from the splinters of a German mortar shell. This is how Marshall Katukov, whose 4th Tank Brigade fought on a nearby section of the front, describes the time of the death of General Panfilov: "On the morning of November 18, two dozen of tanks and infantry began to surround the Gusenevo village. Major Panfilov was there at a time, in a dugout near a peasant hut. Germans shelled the village with mortars, but the fire was unsighted, and therefore was not of a big concern. Panfilov received a group of Moscow correspondents. When he was informed about the enemy tank attack, he rushed out of the dugout to the street. Other employees of the headquarters of the division followed him. No sooner had Panfilov climb the last step of the dugout the mine exploded. He then fell to the ground. Therefore, without the regaining of consciousness, he died at the hands of his comrades. Examined the wound: it turned out, a tiny splinter struck his temple"
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