Belsat reporters have received a copy of the document stating that some Homiel schoolchildren and students were made in the “voluntary-compulsingory” manner to watch the propaganda film called “Panfilov’s Twenty-Eight Guardsmen”.
The paper is an appeal of the “Gomelkinovideoprokat” Director to the head of the education department of the Homiel Oblast Executive Committee. The Director requests the officials “to assist in the broad screening” of the Russian movie.
The screeenings began on November 24 and will last until 8 December.
“Panfilov’s Twenty-Eight Guardsmen” tells the story of soldiers of the 4th Company of the 316th Infantry Division of Major General Panfilov, who, allegedly, lost their lives in 1941, destroying 18 tanks of the Wehrmacht during the defense of Moscow.
According to historians and archival documents, the fate of this heroic group is a myth, and Panfilov feat is a fiction by “Red Star” correspondents. This is evidenced by documents available already in the Stalinist period, which last year were published by the Russian State Archives.
The movie was created with donations from Russians, Belarusians, Kazakhs and Ukrainians. Almost $ 600K, more than half of the funds, was collected through crowdfunding.
