How many Soviet soldiers went missing during the Great Patriotic War. Information about the number of servicemen who went missing during the Great Patriotic War

On this page we have collected resources that will help you find a soldier (deceased relative or friend), search for the dead and missing in the Great Patriotic War.

Volunteer project "Archive Battalion"

Volunteer project "Archive Battalion" for the restoration of information about the participants in the wars of the XX century accepts and processes applications for the study of the combat path of participants in the Great Patriotic War.

Memory of the people

The Memory of the People project was implemented in accordance with the decision of the Russian Organizing Committee Victory of July 2013, supported by the order of the President and the Decree of the Government of Russia in 2014. The project provides for the publication on the Internet of archival documents and documents on the losses and awards of soldiers and officers of the First World War, the development of the projects previously implemented by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the Second World War OBD Memorial and the Feat of the People into one project - the Memory of the People.

The feat of the people

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation presents a unique information resource of open access, filled with all the documents available in the military archives on the progress and results of the main military operations, exploits and awards of all the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. As of August 8, 2012, the data bank contains information on 12,670,837 awards.

Generalized databank "Memorial"

The generalized data bank contains information about the defenders of the Fatherland who died and went missing during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. The work was done on a large scale: tens of thousands of documents were collected and converted into electronic form, with a total volume of more than 10 million sheets. The personal information contained in them amounted to more than 20 million records.

Immortal Regiment of Russia

The All-Russian public civil-patriotic movement "The Immortal Regiment of Russia" collects stories about the participants of the Great Patriotic War. The database is updated daily. Here you can not only add your veteran soldier to the All-Russian "piggy bank", but also search for existing ones.

Electronic memory book "Immortal Regiment - Moscow"

The Immortal Regiment - Moscow, together with the My Documents Public Services Centers, collect information about the residents of the capital who took part in the Great Patriotic War. Now there are already more than 193 thousand names in the archive.

"Soldat.ru" - database of those killed in the Second World War

Soldat.ru is the oldest Russian Internet portal for establishing the fate of the dead and missing servicemen and searching for their loved ones.

"Winners" - Soldiers of the Great War

With our project, we want to thank the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War living next to us by name and tell about their feat. The project "Winners" was created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory. Then we managed to collect lists of more than a million veterans living near us.

The site also contains a stunning interactive and animated map of the Great Patriotic War.

Electronic memorial "Remember Pro"

On the “RememberPro” social site, each registered user can create a memory page, a photo gallery of a deceased close and dear person, talk about his biography, honor the memory of the deceased, leave words of memory and gratitude. You can also find a deceased relative and friend, search for those killed and missing in the Great Patriotic War.

Memorial of the Great Patriotic War

The site is conceived as a people's encyclopedia, a virtual Memorial to the fallen participants of the Great War, where everyone can leave their comments on any entry, supplement information about the War Participant with photos and memories, and turn to other project participants for help. There are about 60,000 project participants. More than 400,000 cards have been registered.

MIPOD "Immortal Regiment"

The site has a large database of participants in the Great Patriotic War. The chronicle is maintained by community members. Now there are already more than 400 thousand names in the archive.

Find a soldier. A reminder for those who are looking for their heroes

1. Check the data on the OBD Memorial website

Verifying the person's data, open the "advanced search" tab and try by typing only the last name, then the last name and first name, then the full data. Also try to check the information by setting the parameters of the surname, and the name and patronymic only with initials.

2. Send a request to the archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The request must be sent to the address: 142100 Moscow region, Podolsk, Kirova st., 74. "Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation".

In an envelope, enclose letters in which you clearly state the information you have and state the purpose of the request. Enclose one blank envelope, filling in your home address as the recipient's address.

3. Check the data on the site "Feat of the People"

If you do not have information on awards, you can refer to the website "Feat of the People". In the "People and awards" tab, enter the data as requested.

4. Check the information on the parameters

There are additional ways that can also help you find and identify information about your veteran. The site "Soldat.ru" presents a list of search technologies, we draw your attention to some of them:

• Database of Internet links to school museums of the Russian Federation, in which there are expositions about the combat routes of units and formations of the Soviet Army
• How to establish the fate of a soldier who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War
• Information on materials held by the tracing service of the International Red Cross
• Request forms for search, evacuation and search of graves through the Center for Tracing and Information of the Russian Red Cross (

In June 1941, the longest and bloodiest war in the history of Russia began. All the forces of the Soviet Union were thrown to overcome the enemy forces advancing from Western Europe. The war with the Third Reich required large material investments and human lives. During these five years, many citizens of the USSR died, many families broke up, and tens of thousands of soldiers promised, but could not return home.

What are the archives of WWII participants

Modern databases and archive systems make it possible to restore the family tree and find: a WWII participant by last name, burial, award lists, information, photographs and reunite with them or honor their memory. The State Archives of the Great Patriotic War participants were founded immediately after the end of hostilities; they store documents and population censuses for the pre-war period and during the war. These archives contain lists of participants in 1941-1945, lists of the dead, missing or those who nevertheless managed to return.

Modern electronic archives are divided into several types and include information in the form of lists of names and surnames with personal information and titles. With different levels of access, they are designed in the form of reference books and are completely dedicated to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War and all the people who were related to it. It is easier to find a participant in the war by the name of a loved one in such publications if it was a military man. To search, it is enough to know the initials, surname, date of birth and rank.

As people move away from the events of those times, they try to restore the family tree and find out as much information about their family members as possible. For many, the family tree breaks off during the war of 1941 to 1945, the electronic archive makes it possible to find namesakes in the list and, by searching for detailed information in the state, more extensive archives, determine the fate of their missing relatives.

The creators of electronic archives of participants in the Great Patriotic War set themselves the goal of:

• publish all the names of war heroes;
• collect all information about the military in one source;
• establish the exact number of victims of World War II;
• Simplify the search for dead and missing relatives and colleagues.

Some reference books collect information about all publications that contain archival data for the years of the Second World War in order to create a single database and determine the best archival reference books in terms of access system, quality of content, and reveal a modern reference system that relates to wartime.

The personal content of electronic reference books includes information from publications collected from the Reference and Bibliographic Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An extensive file cabinet includes not only diverse printed publications, but also archival documents. Most of the lists of the dead were published between 1955 and 2000. Subsequent editions include fragmentary information in smaller volumes, for this reason they are included in a single card index and compiled into collections.

Collections and reference books are divided into three main types:

1. biographical collections of participants of the Great Patriotic War;
2. bibliographic reference books with biographical data;
3. bibliographic aids.

Biographical publications make it possible to find the information you need, but a rare edition contains individual biographies, often such collections contain collective biographies. The basis for these reference books are the memories of those who survived the war and numerous letters describing the events that were found in mass graves after the war. Some sources of information in the form of letters and documents were returned with the mail. Biographical publications are important from the point of view of historiography, but for finding information about the missing, they are of no value. In terms of numbers among the total mass of military literature, they occupy the first place.

In turn, collections of biographies are also divided into several types:

• short collections of individual biographies;
• military biographical essays;
• biographical dictionaries;
• biographical editions with brief reference books.

Brief biographical information about the participants in the Second World War has location restrictions. It is more difficult to collect accurate information about heroes than to describe historical events according to eyewitness accounts, therefore, to search for the dead, missing and heroes, it is better to turn to city, regional and regional directories.

Such publications are not impressive in size, but they provide the most accurate information and grounds for further searches:

• Place and date of birth;
• Educational institution;
• Place of work and military unit;
• Year of departure to the front and rank;
• Grounds for obtaining the title of hero.

Electronic and printed archives of such a plan are always based on documents and involve open access. It is worth paying attention to documentary sources from where personal information was taken, publishing house and conditions of publication.

There are biographical directories, which are characterized by:

• personalization of data;
• a certain order of presentation of data;
• strict order of nominal designations;
• footnotes to confirm the accuracy of the data;
• justification for including names on the list;
• data compactness and portrait printing.

Editions that meet the above parameters are considered the best among the reference literature of wartime. Often, these publications are published in printed format, and they are local. It is better to look for accurate and brief information about your relatives in modern electronic publications, where the catalog of names is much wider, and the information has the same degree of reliability.

How to find a WWII participant by last name?

You can learn about your loved ones who gave their lives for the sake of our Motherland using official Internet services. A whole list of resources for discovering the heroes of the past has already been created.

The databases of these projects are constantly updated in connection with the ongoing work to clarify personal data. If you do not know the exact location of your relatives during the Second World War, modern search engines will only be able to find a person by last name.

Of course, out of a huge number of namesakes it is difficult to find your grandfather or grandmother, but sites are sharpened for accurate search and provide great opportunities for localizing information.

How does search work? – Search for participants in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 by last name.

A popular resource for searching for relatives who disappeared in wartime is http://www.obd-memorial.ru (memorial). The site has a user-friendly interface that even a child can understand.

1. The work with the resource takes place in several stages:
2. Fill in the fields of the start page.
3. We perform a search - we study documents.

If you have additional data, enter it using the filter settings. Often, one last name is not enough for a quality search. Try to remember every detail - any information is simply priceless.

Start with the orders, titles that were awarded to the veteran, or indicate the approximate years of service in the Soviet army.

Databases are constantly updated - do not lose faith!

You could not find a relative in the resource database? – Don't be discouraged, because the databases are constantly updated, use the service in a couple of months. Volunteer enthusiasts are constantly working to find the missing veterans of the Second World War. Information about your relative may appear on the site at any time.

Also, there are alternative search methods, they are not related to information technology, but they do their job just as well. You can apply to the military registration and enlistment office at the place of residence.

It is necessary to prove the fact of kinship with the veteran and write an appropriate statement. Employees of the military registration and enlistment office are obliged to respond to your request and give out all the information they have.

The search for the deceased participant can also be continued in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense or the FSB - employees of these structures will give a detailed written response to your application.

List of modern electronic databases of WWII participants

Electronic directories do not classify personal information depending on whether a person was a participant in hostilities or became a victim of Nazi invaders. The Internet resource consists of a single list of names and brief biographical data. In this extensive list, you can find information about your relatives by last name and first name.

The reliability and accuracy of the data is confirmed by documents and censuses from state, regional and city archives.

The most convenient electronic directories with open access are:

• "Feat of the people" www.podvignaroda.ru. The catalog is a collection of award documents for the period of the Great Patriotic War.
• OBD Memorial www.obd-memorial.ru. The electronic directory contains brief information about the missing soldiers and victims of the war of conquest. The directory includes the period from 1941 to 1945 and the post-war period.
• "Memory of the people" www.pamyat-naroda.ru. Collection of data on the places of burial of dead soldiers and heroes of the war. Here you can get information about the location of mass graves, awards to soldiers, receiving titles, military events and serving at the front and in the rear.
• "Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army" www.rkka.ru This directory includes a list of names of fighters who received the award
• "Order of the Red Banner". The catalog contains data for the period 1921-1931.
• "My regiment" www.moypolk.ru. The directory contains the names of workers who worked in the rear, died at the hands of the invaders or went missing. Information for the electronic archive is collected by members of the Immortal Regiment organization.
• "Polk" www.polk.ru. An electronic database of participants in the Second World War who were not awarded awards and missing participants in the First and Second World Wars. The catalog has a separate page dedicated to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.
• "Remember us" www.pomnite-nas.ru. On the pages of the electronic edition there are photographs of mass and military graves with descriptions of the place of burial and the circumstances under which the participants in the war died.
• "Perm State Archive of Recent History" www.permgani.ru. An electronic database about the inhabitants of Perm and the soldiers who served at the front in this region, received awards, died or went missing. The reference book is designed in the style of a biographical publication with portraits of soldiers who were captured by the Nazi invaders and were filtered after returning to the USSR.
• "Soldat" www.soldat.ru Electronic biographical guide about the soldiers who died and took part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War and historical events. In the catalog of the site you can find archives with the names of Soviet heroes and prisoners of war, photographs of military burial places and documents of war times. Personal information about soldiers includes name, rank, military unit or company, list of battles in which he took part and a list of military awards.
• "Starye Gazeta" oldgazette.ru An electronic bibliographic reference book where you can see wartime newspapers with data on battles, participants, heroes and dead. The information was obtained with the help of Soviet intelligence and military correspondence with reliable data.
• "RF-search" www.rf-poisk.ru. An extensive bibliographic publication entirely devoted to wartime, where you can find not only biographical data on the dead and missing soldiers, but also military maps, as well as photographs of military artifacts.
• "Federal Archival Agency" www.archives.ru. Electronic biographical directory with the names and ranks of fighters. The information is collected from all regional and regional archives dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.
• "Archive of Russia" www.rusarchives.ru. All-Russian electronic name directory of participants in the Great Patriotic War, which contains brief information about the military, awards, ranks and place of service.
• "Archive of the Ministry of Defense" archive.mil.ru Central electronic archive of the Ministry of Defense for searching by the names of the participants in the Great Patriotic War. The site contains data on the missing and dead heroes of the Soviet Union, deported citizens and soldiers who were taken prisoner.
• "Saxon Charitable Foundation" www.dokst.ru. German electronic directory of Soviet citizens and soldiers missing and killed in captivity and Nazis. The information is in the public domain and collected from archives and documents from the Third Reich *

* The Saxon Memorials Association has announced that it has stopped responding to inquiries about the fate of Soviet prisoners of war.
According to the message on the official website, starting from 01/01/2017, in order to receive answers to inquiries, you must contact the VAST (the former Wehrmacht information service), at the following address:
Deutsche Dienststelle
WASt
Eichborndamm 179
13403 Berlin
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Phone: +493041904-0
Fax: +493041904-100
Website: www.dd-wast.de

Electronic catalogs with published sources of information offer reliable information and open access to it for everyone who is interested in restoring the real picture of military events and the names of participants in the Great Patriotic War. The main purpose of the catalogs is to make truthful information about the Second World War publicly available and forever remember the names of the heroes who, at the cost of their lives, saved the country from Nazi ideology and slavery. On the pages of these directories, the names of the military and repressed captives are immortalized, who are part of world history and part of someone's family. A simple search makes it possible to find out your roots and honor the memory of great heroes and great victims of bloody battles.

Video: How to find information about relatives who fought in WWII

Creation of the largest electronic archive of participants in the Great Patriotic War

It was created in the early 2000s by decision of the Russian Organizing Committee. The project was the result of the implementation of the state program for the development of youth in the spirit of patriotism, the electronic catalog and reference data were expanded as the social program for 2010 was implemented.

At the moment, the bulk of the material has already been collected, reference data are periodically updated after processing new archives.

The site has become a project of several departments:

• Federal Archival Agency;
• State archive of the Russian Federation.

In parallel with the creation of a list of participants in hostilities and filling in personal biographical information, a photo gallery was opened with descriptions of iconic battles, camps, outposts, fortifications, points of popular resistance and burial places.

Each page contains valuable information that plays a cultural and educational role, simplifies the search for reliable data about the participants in the war and helps to educate new generations of citizens in the spirit of patriotism. Photo documents presented as historical evidence and revealing real events, their significance for ordinary people of that time, are part of military and personal correspondence. The site indicates the exact number of photographic documents, the authenticity of which has been verified in state archives and graphic laboratories. Each of them demonstrates the greatness of the Russian people, which is present in every soldier.

In total, about 4.5 million photographic documents were extracted from the state archives in the form of negatives, films and photographic prints. The study of most of them made it possible to partially restore the picture of those events and demonstrate to the modern generation the severity and sorrow of the war. The scheme of publication in the most extensive biographical directory of participants in the Great Patriotic War involves several detailed checks.

After the seizure and initial examination, personal data and photographic documents are sent for verification to the Russian State Archives.

In the electronic edition "Victory. 1941-1945" after confirming the reliability of the source, data are published on:

• the number of sources of information;
• subject of each document;
• the physical state of the document;
• copies of the document and the form of its application in wartime.

Sometimes, when compiling the biographical data of the dead and missing participants in the Great Patriotic War, even photographic documents and information from war veterans obtained at meetings in honor of the anniversary of the Great Victory are used. On the website of the electronic directory “Victory. 1941-1945”, which was officially opened on February 19, 2004, published 475 unique photographic documents depicting the most significant events of the Great Patriotic War.

Most photographic documents concern:

• the defeat of the German-Nazi troops after the turning point in 1943 and the beginning of the offensive operation of the Red Army;
• defense of the most significant industrial cities;
• the work of plants and factories in the rear to supply the Soviet troops with food products;
• trials of the Soviet people in the first two years after the start of the war;
• situations in the occupied territories and in captivity of the German-Nazi invaders;
• offensive operations and the entry of Soviet troops into Berlin;
• the solemn return of the Red Army to the Soviet Union after the crushing defeat of Germany;
• meetings of veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the liberation of European countries.

The main materials for compiling the electronic exposition were prepared by:

• State Russian archive of film and photo documents;
• Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg;
• Moscow Central Archive of Audiovisual Documentation;
• State Archive of the Russian Federation;
• State archive of socio-political history.

Additional information, photo and video films, archival records and military correspondence were provided by the archives of the republics that were part of the USSR at the time of the hostilities. Some materials are still collected by the State Archives of Germany and archival agencies of the Eastern European republics. Detailed verification of documents and the collection of additional information help to determine and publish data on the location, time, participants and author of the photo document.

Most of the photographs that were not included in the collection of the electronic directory are under study to clarify the depicted participants in the Patriotic War and determine the location of the image. Without clarification, only rare photographic documents are published, which are of great historical value.

You tell me: “Why look?

Those who were killed here have long disappeared,

Gone are those that might have been waiting for them,

And all of them have long been forgotten ... "

From the song of the search engines

Almost every family in our country has relatives who went missing during the Great Patriotic War. Some scattered information is stored in the family, someone has preserved photographs. But when you see the name of a loved one in the report of the Memorial base, for example, for some reason you more clearly imagine a train under fire, trenches ... And it seems that if you find out at least something else, your soldier will not be so lonely in his unknown grave . And you hope that the soldiers who did not return will not be left without prayers.

About where and how to look for information about the burial place of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War, "Foma" told Dmitry Alexandrovich Belov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Director of the Research Center for Regional History of the Volgograd State Academy of Postgraduate Education, Vice President of the International Charitable Foundation "Battle of Stalingrad".

Step 1. Where to start

The fastest way to find your relative who died in the Great Patriotic War is the Memorial generalized data bank, the base of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO):

For this:

At this stage of the search, the last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, preferably the title, is enough to start. If he is Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich, then, of course, it will be more difficult. It is necessary to show perseverance to make sure that this is exactly the person that is needed, details will be needed - the full name of the wife, mother, the name of the village, the city from where he was called up, the place of birth (in accordance with the administrative-territorial division of the USSR in the pre-war years - approx. ed.).

It is worth paying special attention to the fourth point. There are indeed silly spelling errors in the database. My great-grandfather's name was Andrei Kirillovich. I wrote "Kirillovich" as a normal person with two l, and then I thought that not everyone knows how Kirillovich is spelled ...

Kirillovich scored with one "l" and immediately found a burial place. Also Filippovich - maybe Felippovich, and with one "p", and so on. It is also better to try to change the letters in both the surname and the first name in case they were written by an illiterate person or the original document is poorly readable. Such moments must be taken into account.

Ideally, the result of your search should be a document about the place of burial of a relative and information in which military unit (army, division or regiment) he fought.

If there is no information, one can hope that the search teams that are looking for and burying the remains of soldiers will find something. If the search engines managed to find someone, they turn to the military registration and enlistment office, looking for relatives themselves.

But you can continue to search on your own. In this case, it is necessary to collect the maximum possible amount of information in order to start a qualitatively new stage of the search.

What can help us with this?

Step 2. Gather additional information

Have the letters survived?

The most important thing in letters is the number of the field postal station (FPS) on the stamp of the envelope. It can be used to set the number of a division, regiment, etc.

A powerful resource: a lot of documents on military topics, memoirs, collections. If the number of the division, the area of ​​battles is known, then it is possible to find a description at least in general terms.

Database "Feat of the People"

TsAMO project.

This is a database where there is information about soldiers awarded medals. The database is not yet complete, not all documents have been scanned yet.

This resource has several databases on hospitals. Dial the hospital number, press Enter and see which division he served.

And there are many other reference books on the types of troops, epaulettes, weapons.

But the most valuable thing on the Soldat.ru forum is http://soldat.ru/forum/

If you register on it, you can get advice from completely unfamiliar historians, specialists, anyone who is fond of searching, military enlistment office workers.

To register at the top of this site (see the picture above in the lower right corner), you need to click the "Register" button. Next, you need to fill out the registration form.

Then create a topic (it's better to name it briefly, for example, "No. __-th rifle division. I'm looking for a relative"). After that, your request can be read by everyone who visits this site. Do not doubt! There will be enough such unfamiliar and caring people. Everyone will help you with the information they have. Some will answer, advise, consult, others will recommend sites, scan the documents you need, excerpts from books, etc.

Other resources

There are many more resources that publish interviews of veterans, biographies. But it should be borne in mind that these sources, as a rule, are of no historical value either for the researcher or for someone who wants to use this material in a search.

Instructions for finding information about soldiers who did not return from the front.

Every May 9, the "Immortal Regiment" is held. I would also like to participate, but I know almost nothing about my front-line relatives. Where to look for information?

More than 6.3 million soldiers died in the Great Patriotic War, 4.5 million went missing. The fate of the dead and missing is not known to every family. The reasons for this can be completely different. But, fortunately, today this information can be found out, even if no documents and photographs of the soldier have been preserved. Most of the archival files of the Great Patriotic War period have already been digitized and are stored in public databases on the Internet. With their help, you can trace the military path of a soldier, learn about his injuries, awards, place and circumstances of death, burial place.

The father of my husband's mother was called to the front in July 1941 and died in one of the first battles, - shared the journalist of the Svoikirovsky portal Valentina Rogacheva. - Mother came to the funeral - "Dead." But neither the place of burial, nor any information at all was not. Then the Germans burned down the village where my mother-in-law's family lived during the retreat, and there was no data at all about her father: no photographs, no documents - everything burned down. All her life she dreamed of at least something to know about her father. And so, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Victory, I learned in the news that the data of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War were being digitized. We started looking for information on the Internet. All that we knew was the full name, year of birth and year of conscription. In one of the public databases, they found him in the lists of those buried in a mass grave on the territory of Belarus and a postscript stating that he died in battle. And although the place of burial is not indicated quite definitely, it is now at least clear that he died not in captivity, but in battle, that he was buried, albeit in a mass grave.

So, all you need to know for the first stage of the search is the last name, first name and patronymic of the deceased or missing person, his date and place of birth. This can be obtained from relatives. It is also desirable to know where the soldier was called.

What databases can be used

There are four main databases with documents digitized from the archives, which are constantly updated:

• . A generalized data bank on the dead and missing during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. The personal information contained in them is more than 20 million records;
• . The data bank contains 12.5 million records of awarding orders and medals "For Courage" (about 4.6 million people were awarded) and "For Military Merit" (more than 5.2 million people were awarded), as well as 22 million cards of the accounting award card index and file cabinets of awarding the Orders of the Patriotic War I and II degree to the 40th anniversary of the Victory;
• . The portal was created by the Ministry of Defense by decision of the Russian Organizing Committee "Victory". It summarizes the data banks "Memorial" and "The feat of the people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." Here you can see historical maps and combat logs;
• - website of the all-Russian movement "Immortal Regiment". Users upload data about their front-line relatives on their own. At the moment, there are more than 400 thousand records in the Immortal Regiment database.

Screenshot from obd-memorial.ru

However, it is worth keeping in mind a few points. Firstly, the name of a soldier could be written incorrectly when entering the front (for example, Snigirev instead of Snegirev, Kiril instead of Kirill), the same applies to the date of birth (some recruits themselves asked to change their age in order to get to the front). So if you can’t find a person by the exact full name and date of birth, you can try to write the last name as it would be perceived by ear, and change the year of birth by a couple of years upward or downward. Secondly, if you are looking for information on the place of conscription or birth, you need to remember that the administrative-territorial division of the regions of the RSFSR has changed. For example, Oparinsky, Lalsky and Podosinovsky districts were included in the Kirov region only in 1941, and before that they belonged to the Arkhangelsk region. You can check the administrative division on the website, and you can learn more about the intricacies of searching through databases.

By the way, in rare cases, you can also find letters from the front. For example, on websites and or in the digitized “Letters from the Front” (you need to view it manually). But you have to search by last name and initials.

What if a soldier goes missing?

The count of the missing during the Great Patriotic War is still being carried out. Various researchers call the figure from 4 to 7 million people. It is difficult to determine the exact number, since in front-line reports the missing were sometimes combined with prisoners or entered into lists with the total number of losses. About 500 thousand people were mobilized in the first days of the war, but were not included in the lists of troops. Some families received neither letters from the front, nor "funerals".

Those who fell into German captivity are listed in alphabetical order. If the German camp in which the prisoner of war was located was liberated by the Soviet troops, after the end of the war, such a person could end up in the NKVD check-filtration camp. Alas, there is an electronic database of PFL prisoners only for natives of the Perm Territory. You can try to find filtration and verification cases and captured German cards through the State Archives of the Kirov Region

Search teams can also help in finding information about the missing. Since 1989, “Memory Watches” have been held in the regions where there were hostilities, during which search engines raise the fallen soldiers, identify them, and then search for relatives throughout the country. Some keep documents that help identify a person, in rare cases, letters to relatives or personal items with a signature (for example, a spoon). But, as a rule, a person can be identified by a soldier's medallion - a small metal capsule into which a piece of paper with the soldier's data was inserted.

Photo: serovglobus.ru

It indicated the name, military rank, year and place of birth, place of mobilization and family address. An archive of records from all found medallions can be found on the Internet: they are entered in special books - “Names from Soldiers' Medallions”, which are published on the Search Movement of Russia. Having found a familiar name in the lists, you can find out when, where and by whom the fighter was found. If the record contains information that the relatives of the deceased have been found, you can request their contacts in the search party. You can also search for information by the name of the fighter.

And now briefly:

1. We find out from the relatives of the deceased his full name, place and date of birth, as well as the year and place of conscription.

2. Looking for information in databases. First of all, through OBD "Memorial". We are trying to type a full name with errors: the way they are perceived by ear.

3. We are looking for additional information: we find out the soldier’s combat path and awards on the website “Memory of the People”.

4. We are looking for digitized or decoded front-line letters on the Internet by the name of a fighter.

Estimates of the number of missing Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War are still ongoing. However, given the lack of information and the inconsistency of some of the information, this will not be easy.

Counting Difficulties

Almost every Russian family has relatives who went missing during the Great Patriotic War. It is no longer possible to know the fate of many of them. So, the talented military pilot Leonid Khrushchev, the son of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (in 1953-1964), Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, is still considered missing.

In 1966-1968, a commission of the General Staff conducted the calculation of human losses in the Great Patriotic War; in 1988-1993, a team of military historians was engaged in mixing and verifying the materials of all previous commissions. Despite this, we still do not know exactly how many Soviet soldiers and officers died in this war, especially since there is no exact data on the number of missing people.

Today, the data on losses, which were published in 1993 by a group of researchers led by consultant of the Military Memorial Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Grigory Krivosheev, are recognized as official. However, Doctor of Historical Sciences Makhmut Gareev does not consider these data to be final, finding many flaws in the commission's calculations. In particular, some researchers call the figure of the total losses of the Soviet Union during the war years at 26.6 million incorrect.

Writer Raphael Grugman points out a number of pitfalls that the commission did not pay attention to and which will be difficult for any researcher. In particular, the commission did not take into account such a category of persons as policemen and Vlasovites killed by partisans and killed in battles with the Red Army. What types of losses are they attributed to - dead or missing? Or even rank as an enemy camp?

Often, in front-line reports, the missing were combined with prisoners, which today introduces considerable confusion when counting them. For example, it is not clear to whom to rank the soldiers who did not return from captivity, because among them were those who died, those who joined the enemy, and those who remained abroad.

Very often, the missing persons were included in the lists with the total number of losses. So, after the Kyiv defensive operation (1941), the missing were attributed to those killed and taken prisoner - more than 616 thousand people in total.

To date, there are many unmarked graves where Soviet soldiers are buried, and it is completely unclear how many of them are listed as missing. Let's not forget the deserters. Only according to official data, about 500 thousand mobilized disappeared without a trace on the way to the military enlistment offices.

Another problem is the almost complete destruction in the 1950s of the registration cards of the military reserve and the rank and file of the Red Army. That is, we do not know the real number of those mobilized during the Great Patriotic War, which makes it difficult to calculate real losses and single out the “missing” category among them.

Such different numbers

The results of a fundamental study by the Krivosheev group of the losses of personnel of the Armed Forces of the USSR in combat operations for the period from 1918 to 1989 were published in the book “Secrecy Removed. Losses of the Armed Forces in wars, hostilities and military conflicts.

In particular, it says that during the years of the Great Patriotic War (including during the campaign in the Far East against Japan in 1945), the total irretrievable demographic losses (killed, missing, captured and did not return from it, died from wounds, illnesses and as a result of accidents) of the Soviet Armed Forces, together with the border and internal troops, amounted to 8 million 668 thousand 400 people.

But there are researchers who bring the scale of Soviet losses to completely unthinkable values. The most impressive figures are given by the writer and historian Boris Sokolov, who estimated the total number of deaths in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces in 1941-1945 at 26.4 million people, with German losses on the Soviet-German front at 2.6 million (ratio 10: one). In total, he counted 46 million Soviet citizens who died in the Great Patriotic War.

However, official science calls such calculations absurd, since during all the years of the war, taking into account the pre-war number of military personnel, no more than 34.5 million people were mobilized, of which about 27 million were direct participants in the war. Based on Sokolov's statistics, the Soviet Union finished off the enemy with the forces of only a few hundred thousand military, which does not fit in with the realities of the war.

Not returning from the war

Krivosheev's group conducted a statistical study of a large array of archival documents and other materials containing information about casualties in the army and navy, border and internal troops of the NKVD. Initially, the number of all irretrievable losses of soldiers and officers during the war was determined at approximately 11.5 million people.

Later, 939.7 thousand military personnel were excluded from this number; The researchers also subtracted from their calculations 1 million 836 thousand former servicemen who returned from captivity after the end of the war.

After long calculations, reconciliations with various sources, in particular, with the reports of the troops and the data of the repatriation authorities, the category of irretrievable losses acquired the figure of 8 million 668 thousand 400 people. The number of missing and captured by the commission was estimated at 3 million 396.4 thousand people.

It is known that in the first months of the war there were significant losses, the nature of which was not documented (information about them was collected later, including from the German archives). They amounted to 1 million 162.6 thousand people. Where to take them? It was decided, to the servicemen who were missing and were taken prisoner. In the end, it turned out 4 million 559 thousand people.

Russian publicist and journalist Leonid Radzikhovsky calls this figure too high and writes his own - 1 million 783 thousand 300 people. True, he does not include all the prisoners in it, but only those who did not return home.

Yours or someone else's?

Many Soviet citizens in the first months of the war ended up in the occupied territory of the USSR. According to German sources, by May 1943, 70 thousand Soviet citizens, mostly from among prisoners of war, served in the police of the Military Directorate and about 300 thousand in police teams. Only representatives of the Turkic and Caucasian peoples in the German military formations, there were about 150 thousand people.

After the end of the war, part of the Soviet citizens who went over to the side of the enemy was repatriated and excluded from the category of losses. But some part went missing, dying or not wanting to return to their homeland. This raises a methodological problem that researchers face. If, at the time of being captured, Soviet servicemen were justifiably counted among our losses, then, therefore, after entering the service in the German army and police, can they be credited to the enemy’s account? For now, this is a debatable issue.

It is even more difficult to qualify Soviet prisoners of war already listed as missing, some of whom deliberately went over to the side of the Reich. Among them, including about 100 thousand Latvians, 36 thousand Lithuanians and 10 thousand Estonians. Can they be considered irretrievable losses? Clarification of this issue will have a significant impact on the results of the count of missing persons.

Return names

In January 2009, in St. Petersburg, at a meeting of the Russian organizing committee "Victory", data on the number of missing people were announced by the President of the Russian Federation. Those who could not be found either among the dead or among the former prisoners of war turned out to be 2.4 million people. The names of 6 million soldiers out of 9.5 million who are in the registered 47,000 mass graves in our country and abroad also remain unknown.

It is curious that the data on the number of missing Soviet soldiers coincide with the number of those in the German army. In a German radiotelegram from the Wehrmacht’s Loss Records Department dated May 22, 1945, the number 2.4 million people is noted opposite the category “missing”.

Many independent researchers believe that the real number of missing Soviet soldiers is much higher than the official one. This can be evidenced by the analysis of the Books of Memory, where about half of the citizens who were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army and did not return from the war are marked as missing.

Candidate of military sciences Lev Lopukhovsky believes that the official data on the results of the work of the Krivosheev group are underestimated by 5-6 million people. According to him, the commission did not take into account the huge category of militia soldiers who died, went missing and were captured, which is at least 4 million.

Losses in the category of "missing" Lopukhovsky urged to compare with the data of the card files of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense. Only the number of missing sergeants and soldiers there exceeds 7 million people. The names of these servicemen are recorded in the reports of the commanders of military units (1,720,951 people) and in the registration data of military registration and enlistment offices (5,435,311 people).

All this suggests that there is no more or less exact figure reflecting the number of missing Soviet soldiers. Today, the missing soldiers and officers, as well as the military personnel not buried properly, but taken into account in the losses, are the main object of activity for the Russian search movement. It should be noted that to date, Russian search teams have returned the names of approximately 28,000 soldiers previously considered missing.