New website helps Russians trace war dead

Kyt · Dec 28, 2007

RussiaToday : News : New website helps Russians trace war dead

Nineteen million documents stored in the archives of Russia's Defence Ministry have been digitalised. The aim of the project was to help people find relatives killed or never found during World War II. The site has attracted millions of visitors from across the world. All you need is a last name in order to trace a person.

It took a year of tireless work to sort and scan the records. Before scanning, the documents needed to be smoothed out to guarantee no information was lost.

Now, the website OBD Memorial allows people looking for their lost friends and relatives to carry out their own investigations into what happened.

Records include not only the name, date and place of birth and death, but also scans of original documents.

Head of the Military Memorial Centre, General Aleksandr Kirilin, says he receives dozens of grateful letters. People who've spent years trying to trace their relatives were eventually able to find them within minutes using the new resource.

Once, he says, researchers came across a mass grave with 148 bodies. But there was only one name tag. “We searched the database. And found the names of all the remaining servicemen buried in the grave. According to the records, they were buried exactly where we found them,” he said.

Organisers of the project say there's still a lot of work to keep them busy next year - scanning more documents, adding new names and helping more people find out where their loved ones came to rest.
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Kyt · Dec 28, 2007

Kyiv Post. More than 3 million Soviet WWII soldiers still listed as missing in action

MOSCOW (AP) - More than 3 million Soviet soldiers who fought in WWII are still listed as missing in action, a senior general was quoted as saying Tuesday - the figure reflecting the enormous scope of the nation's wartime losses.

Gen. Vladimir Isakov, a deputy defense minister, made the statement while attending the burial of the remains of 121 Red Army soldiers who died in the battle of Moscow in 1941, Russian news reports said.

An estimated 27 million Soviets died during the conflict, known to most Russians as the Great Patriotic War, and much of the western part of the country was ravaged during four years of epic battles. Many historians believe the actual Soviet losses were significantly higher.
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spidge · Dec 28, 2007

Kyt said: ↑

Kyiv Post. More than 3 million Soviet WWII soldiers still listed as missing in action
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It is quite horrific to imagine death on this scale. For the first half of the 20th century, it definitely was not the place to be.

Antipodean Andy · Dec 30, 2007

Kyt said: ↑

Kyiv Post. More than 3 million Soviet WWII soldiers still listed as missing in action
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Absolutely gob-smacked to read that.

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New website helps Russians trace war dead

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