In 2006, the Russian Ministry of Defence declassified about a hundred pages of archived documents concerning Soviet preparedness for the German invasion on 22 June 1941 at the Eastern Front of World War II.
[citation needed] The documents coming from the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defence were written mostly by seven Soviet military commanders (Pyotr Sobennikov, Pavel Abramidze, Mikhail Zashibalov, Nikolai Ivanov, Ivan Bagramian, Boris Fomin and Kuzma Derevyanko) at the request of the fact-finding panel of the Military History Department of the General Staff of the Soviet Army.
[2] Headed by Colonel General Alexander Pokrovsky, the panel was formed in 1952 and put five questions about the preparedness of the Baltic, Kiev and Belorussian military districts.
[2] The questions were addressed to persons who on the eve of Operation Barbarossa held high-ranking military positions, down to division and corps commanders.
Derevyanko, in particular, wrote that two or three months before the invasion the command and staff of the Baltic Military District had reliable information about Germany's strengthening and preparation for the war.
[2] Sobennikov noted that he refused to execute an order he had received on the night of 22 June to withdraw the troops from the state border and his men stayed on positions.