Distant loved ones: how to search for relatives who disappeared during the Great Patriotic War

In recent years, thanks to modern technologies and the work of archivists, millions of documents from the war years have become available to ordinary users. This greatly simplified the search for information about those family members who are still missing since the Great Patriotic War or whose information has been lost. Those who already have basic information will now be able to learn more about their relative's combat path. In addition, information is still provided in the archives themselves. All of this in the end is not just records in a database, but living destinies, memories, and an important way to express gratitude. Izvestia tells you how to search for information about the burial site of WWII soldiers and what you need to know.

How to start searching for loved ones who disappeared in the war

To start the search, you need to collect as much information as possible. The main thing is to know the last name, first name, patronymic and year of birth of a relative who died or went missing. For a deeper search, you may need details such as the place of birth, the full name of the mother, wife, and the place of conscription. Information about rewards may also be useful.

— The award lists contain a description of the feat and what award the fighter received for this feat. Accordingly, if he died, the place of burial is sometimes indicated there," Dmitry Belov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, director of the Regional History Research Center at the Volgograd State Academy of Postgraduate Education, said in a conversation with Izvestia.

If a loved one is an officer, then it is necessary to indicate the rank and name of the school where he studied, and a personal file was opened for each officer, Belov added. If your relative is a private or a sergeant, then there is less chance of finding information, but he may be on the list of those who received a salary. Everything has value, and relevant documents can be found in the archive, the historian is sure.

In addition, if the letters have been preserved, then using the number of the field postal station on the envelope stamp, you can set the number of the division and regiment. The dating and location of the letters can provide additional information of great value.

Online resources with information about WWII soldiers

One of the fastest and most accessible ways to find relatives is the Memorial generalized database, created on the initiative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in 2007. Here you can find the primary burial sites of more than 5 million soldiers and officers who fought during the Great Patriotic War. In total, the database contains about 17 million electronic copies of loss documents and 20 million personal records of Red Army losses during the war.

You can also find out the fate of relatives who participated in the Great Patriotic War, get acquainted with authentic archival documents and get information about awards using the Memory of the People database. It contains original archival materials containing information about the participants and the course of the war. The website has also been created and operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense.

Individual documents, archival materials and memoirs — for example, if you want to learn more about the ancestor's military path — can be found on the military historical resource "Militera".

Which archives should I look for information about WWII soldiers in?

An important source of information is the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, where documents of the Russian and Soviet armies from 1941 to the present are kept. The largest archive contains about 9 million files related to the period of the Great Patriotic War. It is recommended to attach all the documents that you have to the request so that specialists can quickly find the necessary documents.

In addition, you can get the necessary information with the help of the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarchive), whose website provides detailed information on finding a relative who participated in the Great Patriotic War.

Another useful source is the Russian Red Cross Search and Information Center (RCC Center), which has unique archives, including files of evacuees, children from orphanages, displaced persons, and a registration file that has been maintained since the Center was founded. In total, the archive contains about 15 million documents.

What to do with errors in military documents

On the eve of May 9, interest in searching for relatives who died during the Great Patriotic War is increasing. This can be observed in the work of open databases (WDS) for participants of the Great Patriotic War, who are constantly "hanging out" on the eve of the May holidays, the Center for Genealogical Research told Izvestia.

"At the places of service of a relative, which, as a rule, can be established in the course of working with the DIA, we conduct a search through the documents of these military units, study the combat logs, which allows us to identify the battlefields in which the customer's relative took part," the center's press service said.

It happens that in this way it is possible to restore the combat path and even the place of death of a fighter who was considered missing, for example, due to errors in filling out documents.

Often during the war years, the last name, first name or patronymic of a fighter could be incorrectly written in papers, which makes it difficult to determine his fate in the future. In order to clarify the data, you should use different methods of typing words. For example, experts recommend manually processing all variants of surnames, first names and patronymics that differ by one or two letters from the one you are looking for. However, some modern databases base this probability initially.

— When you search for Kirillovich, for example, she will find surnames with one "l" and two. In a variety of ways. Give or take one or two vowels or one or two letters," notes historian Belov.

As a rule, citizens who are interested in the military exploits of their ancestors first turn to thematic databases. If independent searches do not give the desired result, memory books, reference books and military maps can help. There are also various organizations that carry out genealogical research on a paid basis, and thematic forums where you can ask for tips from more experienced people.