The further the era of heavy war, mass deaths, heroism and exploits of Soviet people goes, the more it becomes necessary to recall the events of those years. In 2017, more than seventy years have passed. Entire generations of Russians who have never seen a war were born and even died. But despite the long period, there are still many white spots in the history of the country. For example, where to find participants of the Second World War?
Identification Issues
There are still questions about how to find a participant in the Second World War by the name of such and such. How many of them, nameless, remain on the battlefields? A great many. Of course, relatives, volunteers, official authorities were looking for them and are looking for them. But there are still many that have not been found, and this process will not be completed soon. Although the movement, of course, is. In the twenty-first century, information about participants in the Second World War helps to find new means of information retrieval. In particular, material about the soldiers of the past war can now be found thanks to the emergence and rapid development of new technologies.
Web search
How to find a WWII participant by last name on the World Wide Web? The first step in the search for a veteran of a past war should be the collection of any, even the smallest, data - facts, statistics, old photographs from the war remaining in family dusty archives. Some material may remain with relatives who have various written sources - letters from the war, military newspapers, various documents. When the vast majority of evidence is accumulated, you can work with the Internet by looking at the content of specialized sites (by the way, most of the content of such resources is regularly updated). Usually they contain data about the soldiers of the last battle.
Site “Feat of the people”
How to find a WWII participant by last name through the “Feat of the People” website? The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has created a unique site working on accumulating most of the facts and statistics about the front-line soldiers of past battles. Here you can find a variety of archival materials, selected on the subject of the battles of the past war. The resource menu is equipped with a good interface, with the support of which you can easily select the necessary material on topics that concern society. Such information is always relevant.
Winners Site
How to find a WWII participant by last name through the Winners website? A good, informative, unique in terms of the proposed content, a bank of documents of different subjects affecting the events of the war period. The content of the site includes a large amount of material about front-line soldiers of the Russian Federation and other countries of the near and far abroad. All materials are accumulated thanks to the voluntary actions of the population, businessmen, government agencies of Russia.
Television programs
How to find a WWII participant by last name through television programs? If you ask the workers of a specialized international project that does not know the comparison with other programs for support, “Wait for me”, there is an opportunity to find the largest amount of material about the wanted war veteran of the past war. At the same time, material about killed and perished war veterans is often sought from all sides hostile in the war years. You can analyze the content of the site (or send a message asking). It is possible to fill out a questionnaire. And in this case, it remains to hope for positive results.
Specialized sites
Find information about the participant of the Second World War, you can find unique materials on such serious sites as Memorial, Memory of the People and others. Here, on the pages of the sections, rare information is published, unique data on the war as a whole and on individual historical figures. The lack of content is a strong ideological side, which often reduces the value of the material.
Other sources
You can find the dead participant in the Second World War by other sources. For example, it is possible to analyze the “Book of memory” (“Soldiers of Victory”). In a multi-volume book, fighters and commanders who died in the war are listed in alphabetical order with a short biography in the war. The disadvantage is omissions in the information. There are various electronic libraries (Red Army, "Old Newspapers") and archives of the battles of the war (Central Asia, RGASPI, RGAVMF, etc.). The funds of these organizations contain information about the battles, little-known data about the life of the country during the years of the heavy war, and about the people killed at that time.
In addition to special sites, other bodies will help find the grandfather-participant of the Second World War. Various institutions of a school and extra-curricular type, scientific and cultural organizations will support those who wish to find the dead grandfather. You can ask them to share information about your relative who died during the years of a difficult and painful war.
Shared Sites
Nowadays, every Russian can do a noble, albeit difficult, task - to search for data on war veterans of the war era, materials on those killed and missing. To study the originals, where individual information about veterans is located, there are many common sites that are quite popular.
Where can I find participants in the Second World War? There are many sources. For example, podvignaroda ("Feat of the People") is a free-of-charge website for materials on the awarded and rewarding era of past battles, from which more than seventy years have passed. Obd-memorial is a site for analyzing the available material about war veterans, warriors of the war period, battles killed and lost in the crucible, and post-war Stalinism. You can also find the grandfather who participated in the Great Patriotic War on the site pamyat-naroda ("Memory of the People") - this is a free access bank for materials on the fate of war veterans. The search for military cemeteries of that period, materials on awards, on the military fate of front-line soldiers, on moments of military history.
Where can I find participants of the Second World War in the lists published on the Internet:
- Dokst - materials about those killed in the countries of the fascist bloc.
- Polk - data on domestic warriors of different eras who were missing in the battles of the twentieth century.
- Pomnite-nas (Remember Us) - Pictures of military graves.
Published editions
Where to find the deceased participant of the Second World War in published publications?
Otechestvort.rf, rf-poisk - an electronic version of the publication “Names from the Soldiers' Medallions” (volumes I - VI). Here are in alphabetical order materials about those killed during the war, the ashes of which, found during excavations, were identified.
How to search?
After you familiarize yourself with the sources, you need to give a brief instruction on finding the war veteran you need.
Finding information about the participants of the Second World War is not too difficult. Try to find a soldier by name with the support of one of the specialized sites. Initially, you can simply examine the materials published on the portal and excerpts from separate archives with information about those who were killed and lost in military hard times and about the future life of those who managed to stay alive without dying in the Nazi camps or in the Stalinist Gulag.
Carry out a more thorough search using a special electronic questionnaire. Place the personal data of the soldier in the appropriate columns. In the event that additional material is available to you, in particular, the time of service and rank, the awards with which the front-line soldier was noted, be sure to mark them. If the initial search does not fully succeed, and the results of the work remain negative, do not lose heart. The databases on these sites are updated from time to time. In addition, make an attempt to view material on the front-line soldier on websites with the support of various Internet search engines. It is enough to put the veteran’s data in the search bar, as well as any additional information, to see various material about him.
How else to find lists of participants in the Second World War? You can try to search for a front-line soldier by personal data by analyzing the generalized Memorial database of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation located on the official website. There is also a questionnaire to fill out data about the veteran. According to the results of the study, you will receive information about the life of the front-line soldier, obtained from the surviving lists of "Reports of irretrievable losses." All kinds of detected data can be useful in further investigations.
It is recommended to take an interest in the military registration and enlistment office at the place of conscription of the front-line soldier at the beginning of the service in order to find it according to personal data. Submit an application with a request to provide data on the wanted front-line soldier, noting your level of kinship and all information found about him. Then expect an answer.
If you could not find a person who participated in the Second World War, contact the Central Administration of the Moscow Region, located in the Podolsk city near Moscow. It is enough to send a message to the address of this body with a request to convey material about the disappeared front-line soldier during the battles. After a certain time, they will send you an answer with materials about the burial place of the wanted front-line soldier or his further place of residence if the veteran returned from the war alive.
The search for war veterans is a noble cause, many are engaged in search operations and excavations of their own free will to help others find their dead relatives. The feat accomplished by the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War should not be forgotten, because "as soon as the people cease to remember the last war, the next comes."