The Great Patriotic War claimed many lives. Millions of people went missing, millions died. Up to the end, nothing is known about the fate of most front-line soldiers to their relatives and friends to the end. Many people try to find their relatives: fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers. With the help of modern communications, it has become much easier to learn about the fate of the dead or missing at the front.
Instruction manual
1
Start your search with modern Internet resources: the electronic archive bank accessible to everyone, “The Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, ” and the Generalized Memorial data bank, which contains information about the defenders of the Fatherland. Enter in the search the name and surname of the soldier you are looking for, and perhaps you will find the necessary information, for example, find out where he had to fight, what year it was, what rank he was awarded, what awards he was assigned to, and why he ended his participation in the battles. Information for filling the data banks is taken from official archival documents stored in the Central Naval Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in the Office of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to perpetuate the memory of those killed in the defense of the Fatherland. The archival documents that specify the losses (documents of medical battalions and hospitals, captured cards of prisoners of war, funerals, etc.), documents of the burial places of Soviet soldiers and officers carry much information.
2
Do not despair if you cannot immediately find the information you need about the war veteran. Data is constantly updated, over time it will appear. In the meantime, contact the search engines involved in the excavation of the remains at the battlefield, the study of graves and the search for a variety of information about the defenders of the Fatherland during the war. Register on special forums dedicated to this topic and ask about the front-line operator you are interested in.
3
Provide search engines with the following information about the front-line soldier: the address of the military registration and enlistment office, which called him up for service, the year of calling, the number of the unit that the person you are interested in (contact the regional military registration and enlistment office to get this information). Scan with a scanner and send saved letters or a funeral to the forum. Any information will come in handy.
4
Send a letter to the Book of Memory Publishing House, send a request to TsAMO or go to the archive yourself. It is possible that there you will find out the number of the unit in which the person you need fought, and you can find out his future fate.
5
Carefully analyze all the information available and received, show persistence and patience, you may be able to figure out where the soldier you are interested in defending the homeland, even if he was considered missing.
