The article considers the hostilities in the Tula direction in October – November 1941 in the general context of the Moscow battle. Planning an operation to seize Moscow, the German command assigned the main role in the offensive to tank armies, which were supposed to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops on the strategic flanks, to encircle the Soviet capital. In the southern Tula direction the 2nd Panzer Army advanced, striving to occupy an important industrial center – Tula at a go. Having broken through the defenses of the Soviet 50th Army, the enemy reached Tula at the end of October. All attempts to take the city by storm have failed, and the enemy decided to change the plan of action, which was finally thwarted by a counterattack by the troops of the Bryansk Front. In the second half of November 1941, the German command made a last attempt to take Moscow. The general concept of the operation remained the same – the encirclement of the city by tank armies. The 2nd Panzer Army was used to some tactical success in the Tula direction, but all attempts to develop it into an operational one were stopped by the Soviet troops. Thus, the successful defense of Tula became one of the factors in the disruption of the German plan to capture Moscow and prepared the conditions for the Red Army to launch a counteroffensive.