The combat path of a veteran of the Second World War by last name. How to find a WWII veteran by first and last name? An overview of useful resources on the web. Search for unknown ancestors

Database

www.podvignaroda.ru

www.obd-memorial.ru

www.pamyat-naroda.ru

www.rkka.ru/ihandbook.htm

www.moypolk.ru

www.dokst.ru

www.polk.ru

www.pomnite-nas.ru

www.permgani.ru

fatherland.rf, rf-poisk.ru

rf-poisk.ru/page/34

soldat.com

memento.sebastopol.ua

memory-book.com.ua

soldat.ru - a set of directories for self-search of information about the fate of military personnel (including a directory of field postal stations of the Red Army in 1941-1945, a directory of conditional names of military units (institutions) in 1939-1943, a directory of the deployment of hospitals of the Red Army in 1941-1945 years);

www.rkka.ru - a directory of military abbreviations (as well as charters, instructions, directives, orders and personal documents of wartime).

Libraries

oldgazette.ru - old newspapers (including the war period);

www.rkka.ru - description of military operations of the Second World War, post-war analysis of the events of the Second World War, military memoirs.

military cards

www.rkka.ru - military topographic maps with combat situation (by periods of war and operations).

Search engine sites

www.rf-poisk.ru is the official website of the Russian Search Movement.

Partners of the Victory Stars project

www.mil.ru - Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

www.histrf.ru - Russian Military Historical Society.

www.rgo.ru - Russian Geographical Society.

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Database

www.podvignaroda.ru - a publicly available electronic bank of documents on awardees and awards during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945;

www.obd-memorial.ru - a generalized data bank about the defenders of the Fatherland, who died and went missing during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period;

www.pamyat-naroda.ru is a public data bank about the fate of the participants in the Great Patriotic War. Search for places of primary burials and documents about awards, about service, about victories and hardships on the battlefields;

www.rkka.ru/ihandbook.htm - awarded the Order of the Red Banner in the period from 1921 to 1931;

www.moypolk.ru - information about the participants of the Great Patriotic War, including home front workers - the living, the dead, the dead and the missing. Collected and replenished by participants of the all-Russian action "Immortal Regiment";

www.dokst.ru - information about those who died in captivity in Germany;

www.polk.ru - information about Soviet and Russian soldiers who went missing in the wars of the 20th century (including the pages "The Great Patriotic War" and "Undelivered awards");

www.pomnite-nas.ru - photographs and descriptions of military graves;

www.permgani.ru - database on the website of the Perm State Archive of Recent History. Includes basic biographical information about former Red Army servicemen (natives of the Perm Territory or those called up for military service from the territory of the Kama region), who during the Great Patriotic War were surrounded and (or) captured by the enemy, and after returning to their homeland underwent a special state check (filtration);

fatherland.rf, rf-poisk.ru - electronic version of the book "Names from Soldiers' Medallions", volumes 1-6. They contain alphabetical information about those who died during the war years, whose remains, discovered during the search work, were identified;

rf-poisk.ru/page/34/ – memory books (by regions of Russia, with direct links and annotations);

soldat.ru - books of memory (for individual regions, military branches, individual units and formations, about those who died in captivity, those who died in Afghanistan, Chechnya);

memento.sebastopol.ua - Crimean virtual necropolis;

memory-book.com.ua - electronic memory book of Ukraine;

rgvarchive.ru - Russian State Military Archive (RGVA). The archive stores documents on the combat operations of the Red Army units in 1937-1939. near Lake Khasan, on the Khalkhin Gol River, in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. Here are documents of the border and internal troops of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD-MVD of the USSR since 1918; documents of the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and institutions of its system (GUPVI of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR) for the period 1939-1960; personal documents of Soviet military leaders; documents of foreign origin (trophy). On the website of the archive you can also find guides and reference books that make it easier to work with it.

rgaspi.org - Russian State Archive of Socio-Political Information (RGASPI). The period of the Great Patriotic War in RGASPI is represented by the documents of the emergency body of state power - the State Defense Committee (GKO, 1941-1945) and the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander;

The further the era of a difficult war, mass deaths, heroism and exploits of the 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 were born and even died who had never seen a war. But despite the long period, there are still many white spots in the history of the country. For example, where to find participants in the Second World War?

Problems of identification

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, remained on the battlefields? Huge set. Of course, their relatives, volunteers, official authorities were looking for them and are looking for them. But there are still a lot of those not found, and this process will not end soon. Although the movement, of course, goes. In the twenty-first century, new means of information retrieval help to find information about the participants in the Great Patriotic War. 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 the past war should be the collection of any, even the smallest data - facts, statistics, old photographs from the war, remaining in dusty family 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 factual data has been accumulated, you can work with the Internet by considering the content of specialized sites (by the way, most of the content of such resources is regularly updated). Usually they contain data about the front-line soldiers of the past battle.

Site "Feat of the people"

How to find a participant in the Great Patriotic War by last name through the site "Feat of the People"? The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has formed a unique site that works to accumulate most of the facts and statistics about the front-line soldiers of past battles. Here you can find a variety of archival materials, selected according to the theme of the battles of the last war. The resource menu is equipped with a good interface, with the support of which you can easily find the right material on topics of concern to society. This information is always up to date.

Site "Winners"

How to find a WWII participant by last name through the Winners website? A good, informative bank of documents, unique in terms of the proposed content, covering the events of the war period. The content of the site includes a large amount of material about the front-line soldiers of the Russian Federation and other countries of near and far abroad. All materials are accumulated thanks to the voluntary actions of the population, businessmen, and state structures of Russia.

Television programs

How to find a WWII participant by last name through television programs? If you ask for support from the employees of a specialized international project that knows no comparison with other programs - "Wait for me", you can get the largest amount of material about the wanted front-line soldier of the past war. At the same time, material about killed and disappeared war veterans is often sought from all sides that were hostile during the war years. You can analyze the content of the site (or send a message with a request). It is possible to fill out a questionnaire. And in this case, it remains to hope for positive results.

Specialized Sites

You can also find information about a participant in the Great Patriotic War, find unique materials on sites that are serious in terms of material volume, such as Memorial, Memory of the People, and others. Here, on the pages of sections, rare information is published, unique data about the war in general and for individual historical figures. The disadvantage of the content is a strong ideological side, which often reduces the value of the material.

Other sources

You can find a deceased participant in the Second World War from other sources. For example, it is possible to analyze the "Book of Memory" ("Soldiers of Victory"). The multi-volume book contains in alphabetical order the soldiers and commanders who died in the war with a short biography in the war. The disadvantage is the gaps in the information. There are various electronic libraries (RKKA, Starye Gazeta) and archives of war battles (CA MO, 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 difficult war, about the people killed at that time.

In addition to special sites, other bodies will also help to find a grandfather who participated in the Great Patriotic War. Those wishing to find the deceased grandfather will be supported by various institutions of the school and out-of-school type, scientific and general cultural organizations. You can ask them to share information about your relative who died during the hard and painful war.

Shared Sites

In our time, every Russian can do a noble, albeit difficult, task - to search for data on front-line soldiers of the war era, materials on those killed and missing. To research the originals, where individual information about veterans is located, there are many general sites that are quite popular.

Where can you find WWII veterans? There are many sources here. For example, podvignaroda ("The feat of the people") is a free for public access site of materials about the awardees and awards of the era of past battles, since which more than seventy years have passed. Obd-memorial - a site for analyzing the available material about veterans, soldiers of the war period, killed and lost in the crucible of battles and post-war Stalinism. You can also find a grandfather who participated in the Second World War on the website pamyat-naroda ("Memory of the people") - this is a free-to-access bank of materials about the fate of veterans of the war era. The search for military cemeteries of that period, materials about awards, about the military fate of front-line soldiers, about moments of military history.

Dokst - materials about those killed in the countries of the fascist bloc.
Polk - data about Russian soldiers of different eras who went missing in the battles of the twentieth century.
Pomnite-nas ("Remember us") - photographs of military graves.

Published editions

Fatherland.rf, rf-poisk - an electronic version of the publication "Names from Soldiers' Medallions" (volumes I - VI). Here, in alphabetical order, are materials about those killed during the war, whose ashes, found during the excavations, were identified.

How to search?

After you have read the sources, you need to give a brief instruction on how to find the front-line soldier you need.

Finding information about the participants in the Second World War is not too difficult. Try to find a front-line soldier by last name with the support of one of the specialized sites. Initially, you can simply explore the materials published on the portal and excerpts from individual archives with information about those killed and lost in the military hard times and about the later life of those who managed to stay alive without dying either in the Nazi camps or in the Stalinist Gulag.

Conduct a more thorough search using a special electronic questionnaire. Place the personal data of the front-line soldier in the appropriate columns. In the case when additional material is available to you, in particular, the time of service and rank, the awards that the front-line soldier was awarded with, be sure to mark them. If the initial search fails completely, 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 about the front-line soldier on the sites with the support of various Internet search engines. It is enough to put the data of the veteran in the search engine line, as well as any additional information, to see various material about him.

How else can I find lists of participants in the Second World War? An attempt can be made to search for a front-line soldier by personal data by analyzing the generalized database "Memorial" of the RF Ministry of Defense, located on the official website. There is also a questionnaire to fill in information about the veteran. As a result of the study, you will receive information about the life of a front-line soldier, obtained from the surviving lists of "Reports of irretrievable losses". All sorts of data discovered can be useful in further searches.

It is recommended to inquire at the military enlistment office at the place of conscription of a front-line soldier at the beginning of the service in order to find him by personal data. Submit an application with a request to provide information about the wanted front-line soldier, noting your level of relationship and all the information found about him. Then wait for a response.

If it was not possible to find a person participating in the Second World War, contact the Central Administration of the Moscow Region, located in the city of Podolsk near Moscow. It is enough to send a message to the address of this body with a request to transfer material about a veteran who disappeared without a trace during the battles. After a certain time, you will be sent a response with materials about the burial place of the wanted front-line soldier or his future place of residence if the veteran returned from the war alive.

The search for front-line soldiers is a noble cause, many are engaged in search work 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 stop remembering the last war, the next one comes."

Many of our readers are interested in the question of how to restore biographical information about their relatives - participants in the Great Patriotic War. Time inexorably separates us from loved ones, sometimes before we were able to realize their merits. Sometimes our relatives pass away in our childhood or even before we are born. In addition, people who survived the war, as a rule, rarely talk about the past. But one day we understand that restoring the biographies of our dear relatives means paying a debt to their memory...

Our guest is a famous historian -, doctor of historical sciences, professor, Head of the Department of General History, Historiography and Archeology, Penza State University.

Sergei Vladislavovich, in recent years, interest in genealogy has noticeably increased. Why do you think?

Belousov S.V.: Genealogy is one of the historical disciplines that deals with the study and compilation of genealogies, ascertaining the origin of individual genera, families and individuals. The occupation of genealogy opens up very broad prospects. The life of a person and family is inextricably linked with the history of society and the state. A person is a witness to various epochal events, and sometimes a direct participant in them. Therefore, through the history of one's own family, one can come to the study of the Little Motherland and the history of the Fatherland.

For many people, the Great Patriotic War, which, no doubt, left its mark on the history of every family, becomes the starting point of a genealogical search. Establishing the historical facts of the participation of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the events of this heroic time allows us to get as close as possible to the issue of forming an active life position in the younger generation and, using the example of family history, instill a sense of patriotism.

Do you think patriots are born or made?

Belousov S.V.: The etymology of the word "patriotism" goes back to the Latin words "pater" (father) and "patria" (fatherland) and means the moral position of a person, which is expressed in love for the Motherland, pride in it, respect for its historical past and readiness for self-sacrifice in the name of her independence and freedom.

Patriotism cannot arise momentarily with the wave of a magic wand. Its formation is a long process in which everyone should be involved: the state, the school, public organizations, the media. But we must not forget that patriotism, an understanding of one's belonging to the Fatherland and its people, is brought up, first of all, in the family. Therefore, the importance of studying the history of the family, turning to the heroic past of our ancestors can hardly be overestimated.

How to establish the fate of a person who took part in hostilities or forged victory in the rear?

Belousov S.V.: The answer to this question is much more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Time is inexorable, and the events of that time are moving further and further into the past. In many families, the real events of the war, in which their ancestor took part, have long been intertwined with facts based on stories, memories, family traditions, which leads to the emergence of myths, and hence the distortion of reality. At the same time, information about a person, if preserved, is scattered across various archives. A genealogical search can sometimes take many years, and sometimes a fluke can immediately reward you for your efforts.

Where to start searching for information about relatives - contemporaries of the Great Patriotic War?

Belousov S.V.: Let's consider some aspects of genealogical search. After all, when starting to solve any search problem, it is necessary to have a given algorithm of actions. It is necessary to start the study by establishing the last name, first name, patronymic, year and place of birth of a person who participated in the war. Without this primary information, further search will be very difficult. The place of residence of a person on the eve of the war, for example, will help to find out which RVC he was called up to. Then all relatives should be interviewed in order to establish various facts from his life (for example, marital status, place of work, etc.), and familiarize himself with the preserved documents, letters and photographs. Their study can also provide the researcher with important additional information about the person of interest. For example, an image on a photo card in military uniform can help determine the branch of service, rank and available awards, and a field post stamp on a letter can help determine the number of the military unit. The main task at this stage is to find out the number of the military unit in which the soldier was at least for some time. This, no doubt, will help in further searches.

How can the Internet help in finding information about a relative's military career?

Belousov S.V.: The Internet can provide invaluable assistance in collecting primary information, where there are military historical forums that can answer some questions of interest to the researcher, and various databases are located (for example, the structure of the Red Army on the eve of the war, tables of correspondence of field mail numbers to military units, locations and numbers
evacuation hospitals). See, for example, forums and materials posted on the sites soldat.ru, pobediteli.ru, etc. When studying the history of the participation of grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the Great Patriotic War, if their fate is connected with the history of the Penza region, you can use the information posted on the site ""Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten". The National Book of Memory of the Penza Region, which is administered by S.A. Dvoryankin.

The Great Patriotic War brought a lot of destruction to the entire Soviet Union. And the biggest losses were people. Families who still want to find their relatives were destroyed.

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For this, such an opportunity works as a search for veterans of the Great Patriotic War by last name in Russia (the Great Patriotic War) in 2019.

What you need to know

In the Russian Federation, there is a problem of finding those citizens who were participants in hostilities. Basically, these are the dead and missing heroes of Russia.

The search may be of interest to those who are looking for data about their own relatives. And perhaps some records in the databases will help find the places of their burial or the last place of residence. In addition, the bank of undelivered medals is still full.

In 2019, there are many Internet resources that allow you to search for information depending on the amount of data that a citizen has in his hands.

Thanks to these information retrieval and storage systems, each person can freely search and find data about their own relatives or help other people find theirs. Because cases about them can be forgotten in the archives more than 20 years ago.

Important Concepts

In the course of this topic, the average user may have difficulty understanding a number of terms. Their decryption in advance will allow you to process the necessary information more quickly:

concept	Its designation
Veteran	The title, which is assigned to a person for services to the country and the state. It can be service in military units, or hard work in production.
WWII	The Great Patriotic War, which began in 1941 and ended in 1945. It was part of the time period of World War II, although it began earlier - in 1939 and ended later, with the surrender of Japan in 1946
Reward	An insignia that is used to express a special degree of gratitude for certain merits
Portal	A large site located on the Internet and including a collection of information intended for the general public and open to access from anywhere in the world

Where to begin

Initially, you should understand that the search will be carried out on several sites and portals. Separate pieces of information are collected on different resources.

And if the first time it was not possible to find a relative, then you can try another site. Mandatory components of the search should be information about the participant in the war.

Various resources allow you to find data of this nature:

about the dead and missing;
working in the rear;
received awards;
those who died in German concentration camps;
about awarded living combatants.

All of these indicators can be searched. Therefore, you need to decide in which area this operation will be performed. After that, you can turn to selecting the desired portal for the search.

It is better to make a list of several - this will increase the options for matches, verification of information. Plus, some sites may have an incomplete base and lack of any details..

The legislative framework

The Immortal Regiment in Russia acts as a public patriotic organization. In this regard, their work, and the work of the resources of these institutions, is subject to accounting in terms of Federal Law No. 82-FZ “On Public Associations”.

This legal document allows the creation of international relations between societies - in accordance with Article 46. This makes it possible to exchange information and information on various issues.

Many discrepancies exist within the framework of the activities of such resources with Federal Law No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data”. Article 8 defines the categories of sources of such information that are available to all people. Directories and databases can be considered as such. In this case, it will be necessary to obtain consent to the publication of information.

In most cases, Internet resources place data based on requests from citizens - relatives of the dead, who want to enter information about their ancestor.

But there are also situations when documents of a state nature are declassified. In this case, Federal Law No. 261-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Personal Data”” applies. Article 9, paragraph 7, refers to consent in the event of a person's death.

How to find WWII veterans by last name

Search by last name is one of the most difficult options. The fact is that the more information there is about a citizen, the easier it is to find him. Plus, the last name can be quite common..

And this complicates the search, since the spread will be large. It should be borne in mind that databases on different sites consist of a different amount of information about people. Thus, the data range from 9 to 13 million people.

In order for the procedure to be successful, it is worthwhile to clarify in advance the following list of data:

surname, name and patronymic;
date of birth - year, month and day;
place of residence or from which settlement he was called up for service, in which unit he served.

This is the minimum data set that will allow you to find the necessary WWII veteran. Next, you can decide on the option of the search method. Because there are a lot of them for 2019.

Through the war archives

Archival documentation allows you to find information about those who served in different years, in accordance with the combat operations they took part in. The history of the veteran can be traced through records about him.

Such data is mainly stored in Moscow:

These are the main archives, but there are many of them throughout the country, so you should search in accordance with the place of service of a citizen. This can be done by contacting the military commissariat that called him.

Mechanism of action through sites

Thanks to sites, you can get information about a person without leaving your home. In this case, you only need a set of existing information and time. Next, you need to select the portal through which the search is carried out. And after that, information about the person is entered into the search form.

For example, Ivanov, drafted in 1943. The system generates a list, looking through which you can find your relative. If such an operation did not give the desired result, it is worth trying to use another site.

Memorial

OBD Memorial allows you to find information about a citizen according to a short list of data:

year of birth;
rank.

Based on this information, data is obtained about the fate of a person - whether he is in the database of the dead or missing.

Photo: search for WWII veterans by last name on the Memorial website

There is also an advanced search option, which includes entering data about:

what documents to search;
place of conscription, burial;
date and place of departure;
What hospitals were you in?

It is possible to search for prisoners in the camps:

Photo: search for prisoners in the camps on the Memorial website

Winners

This site was created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory and has more than 1.5 million veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Information about those who were in Russia and about those who are now considered a citizen of another country is included.

The search has a standard form that prompts you to write the full name of the veteran and select the region of his residence:

There is also an interactive map of hostilities on this site. With its help, you can view the progress of troops. And each of the stages is accompanied by a detailed commentary.

Photo: interactive map of hostilities on the Winner website

The feat of the people

This Internet resource contains more than 12.5 million records of exploits, and for 2015, statistics have established that more than 500,000 unassigned awards found their owners through this site.

The portal contains three divisions:

people and awards;
the documents;
geography of hostilities.

All known data can be used for the search. There are both standard and advanced searches:

Photo: search for WWII veterans by last name on the website of the feat of the People

Initially, you need to go to the organization's website and click the people and awards button. Then a standard search will appear, making it possible to expand it and enter more information about the veteran.

Other options

The site My Regiment involves the search not only for the military, but also for those who lived in the rear and worked. It contains data on the dead, missing and living people.

Photo: search for WWII veterans by last name on the My Regiment website

At the standard level, you can enter any information about a person, and then conduct an augmented search indicating ranks, place of residence, and so on. Plus, you can tell your own story about a WWII veteran from your own family. To do this, they register on the site and write a story.

Is it possible to search by awards

It is easiest to find a veteran by awards. If there are insignia left or it is known about the assignment of any rank, then such a search will be effective. After all, this uniqueizes the request of a citizen and a more thorough search will be carried out in the database.

Search for information about the participants of the Great Patriotic War on the Internet.

The well-known Memorial base does not always provide information (as, for example, with my relatives). Look for other bases.

Database

www.podvignaroda.ru - a publicly accessible electronic bank of documents on awardees and awards during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

www.obd-memorial.ru - a generalized data bank about the defenders of the Fatherland, the dead and missing during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period

www.pamyat-naroda.ru - a public data bank about the fate of the participants in the Great Patriotic War. Search for places of primary burials and documents about awards, about service, about victories and hardships on the battlefields

www.polk.ru - information about Soviet and Russian soldiers who went missing in the wars of the 20th century (including the pages "The Great Patriotic War" and "Undelivered awards").

www.permgani.ru - a database on the website of the Perm State Archive of Recent History, which includes the main biographical information on former Red Army servicemen (natives of the Perm Territory or called up for military service from the territory of the Kama region), who were surrounded during the Great Patriotic War and (or) captured by the enemy, and after returning to their homeland, they underwent a special state check (filtration).

memory books

http://rf-poisk.ru - electronic version of the book "Names from soldiers' medallions", volumes 1-6. They contain alphabetical information about those who died during the war years, whose remains, discovered during the search, were identified.

http://soldat.ru - books of memory (for individual regions, military branches, individual units and formations, about those who died in captivity, those who died in Afghanistan, Chechnya).

Reference books

http://soldat.ru - a set of directories for independent search for information about the fate of military personnel (including a directory of field postal stations of the Red Army in 1941-1945, a directory of conditional names of military units (institutions) in 1939 - 1943, a directory of the deployment of hospitals of the Red Army in 1941-1945)

www.rkka.ru - a directory of military abbreviations (as well as charters, instructions, directives, orders and personal documents of wartime).