IN Lately There is a great interest in genealogy in finding relatives who died in war or went missing. In the first case, everything is clear: there is exact date death, the place of death and burial of a soldier or officer is known. Not everything is going so well for the descendants of those who went missing during the hard times of war, disappeared from the face of the earth, and no one still knows anything about them. The war will not be over until the remains are interred. the last soldier who laid down his life on the battlefields. We are looking for and will continue to look for these unknown heroes.
My regular reader Vadim contacted me with a request to find at least some traces of his ancestor.
I’ll start in order: Stepannikov Mikhail Lukyanovich, born in 1900, place of birth - the village of Novo-Troitskoye Oktyabrsky district then still Orenburg province.
He was called up for war on November 14, 1941, and in August 1942 he was already listed as missing in action. Where to look for his traces? First, let's arm ourselves with what we have, and then we will write requests to various institutions.
Naturally, I immediately turn to the site obd-memorial.ru
The search engine gives me the following information:
Stepannikov Mikhail Lukyanovich born in 1900.
Information in the database is given according to the Report post-war period No. 60362 dated September 13, 1946. That is, after the war, lists of such missing persons were compiled throughout the country at the request of their relatives. Vasilisa Ivanovna Stepannikova was looking for Mikhail Lukyanovich.
The questionnaire dated 08/08/1946 states that Mikhail Lukyanovich Stepannikov, born in the village of Novo-Troitskoye, Nizhne-Gumbetovsky village council, born in 1900, was drafted into the war in 1941. Mikhail lived in Dobrovolchesky, Novo-Gumbetovsky village council. Rank: Red Army soldier, shooter. It is indicated that written communication with him ceased on May 14, 1942.
If we take into account that communication was interrupted in May, and he was declared missing only in August, the time of his death should be associated precisely with this interval.
I was interested in the item in the questionnaire: military address according to the last letter:
p/p 368 rifle regiment 3, battalion company 7.
In the summary data on Mikhail Lukyanovich it is written: last place services of the 368th joint venture (rifle regiment). But if you look closely at original text questionnaire, then it will be written exactly p/p 368, which means field mail, and the rifle regiment and field postal station are different formations within one division. PPS is part of a division, not a subdivision of a regiment.
Often, knowing the number of the teaching staff or as in the application form, you can determine which division this teaching staff or training unit is. belonged. On the website SOLDAT.RU there is a search engine, which you ask the number of the teaching staff and it gives the number of the division that included the field postal station. In our case, item 368 was part of 337 rifle division first formation.
A few words about her. As of 11/01/1941 it is a reserve of the Supreme High Command Headquarters of the 57th Army. As of 01/01/1942 -57 separate army subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the South-Western direction. It was formed in October 1941 in Krasnoarmeisky, Rostov region.
By the end of January, rifle regiments and other formations of the 337th Rifle Division fought on the Seversky Donets, near Morozovka, Olkhovatka, Zhukovka, Gusarovka, Volobuevka, Shurovka. Now it's Kharkov region Ukraine.
On June 5, 1942, having suffered significant casualties, the division was disbanded. As I already said, contact with the fighter ceased on May 14, 1942, and the division was disbanded on June 5, that is, it no longer fought. That is, the time period possible moment deaths narrowed: May 14 - June 5. In August he was declared missing only because there was no further news of him.
But everything that is written here requires, of course, verification and documentary confirmation. I have an article in the pedigree section “Sample of a questionnaire - a request to the archives of the Ministry of Defense to search for the fate of a serviceman,” print out the questionnaire, fill it out and send it to the address of the Podolsk archive. I worked with them and received from them exactly the information I needed.
Why else do you need to contact Podolsk? In the archive you can find the combat path of the division you need, literally written out by hour and day. Presumably knowing when a relative disappeared, you can narrow the search for the place of his disappearance to a few kilometers. Information on Stepannikov Mikhail Lukyanovich is in TsAMO ( Central Archives Ministry of Defense), in fund number 58, inventory - 18004, file 2317. Good luck with your search.
Determination of the type of troops
Branch of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and bodies is determined based on a study of citizens who are not in the reserve. They study all citizens liable for military service for conscription and rational distribution of them among types, branches of the Armed Forces, other troops, military formations and bodies (clause 22 of the Instructions, approved by Order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation dated October 2, 2007 N 400).
The study of citizens who are not in the reserves is carried out in two stages (clause 25 of the Instructions).
The first stage is the study of all citizens who, based on the results of initial military registration, are recognized as fit for military service or fit for military service with minor restrictions. The study is carried out from the moment of initial military registration until citizens reach the age of 18 years.
The second stage is the study of citizens who, based on the results of the first stage of study, are subject to conscription for military service and do not have the right to be exempt from execution military duty and conscription for military service, deferment from conscription for military service. This stage is carried out during the period of preparation and conduct of events related to their conscription for military service (after citizens reach the age of 18 years).
Citizens are studied by accumulating and systematizing information about the state of their health and physical development, psychological and moral and business qualities, education, vocational training, marital status.
During the study, documents containing information about the citizen are analyzed, including those received from organizations where he works (studies), from medical institutions, internal affairs bodies, inquiry bodies, preliminary investigation bodies and federal courts, civil registry bodies, public organizations, in which citizens are trained for military service, from organizations that operate residential premises, and educational institutions in which citizens are trained in military specialties.
Individual conversations are also conducted with the citizen, his parents (other legal representatives), teachers educational institution, in which he works or studies (clause 24 of the Instructions).
In addition, when studying citizens, the training they received in military-patriotic youth and children's associations is also taken into account (clause 2 of article 14, article 15 of the Law of March 28, 1998 N 53-FZ).
Based on the results of the first stage of studying citizens, the military commissioner preliminarily determines the branch of the military to which the citizen can be sent to undergo military service upon conscription (clause 14 of the Instructions).
Based on the results of the second stage, the military commissar draws up a study sheet for the conscript, which includes a conclusion on his preliminary appointment to a certain branch of the Armed Forces (paragraphs 27, 28 of the Instructions).
During conscription for military service, citizens are subject to professional psychological selection (testing). Based on assessment psychological qualities and taking into account the education and professional preparedness of conscripts, a specialist in professional psychological selection (employee of the department of the military commissariat) makes a conclusion on the advisability of distributing them among the branches of the Armed Forces (clause 37 of the Instructions).
When making a decision on conscription, the draft commission reasonably determines the branch of the Armed Forces where the citizen will be sent for military service (clause 51 of the Instructions).
Determining the location military service
The specific place of military service is determined at the city assembly point by the conscription commission of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation when sending a citizen to the Armed Forces.
Conscripts with children, as well as sick and elderly parents (women over 55 years old, men over 60 years old), but who do not have the right to a deferment from conscription for military service, are, if possible, sent for military service to military units of the Armed Forces , other troops, military formations and bodies stationed near their place of residence, within established standards conscription of citizens for military service for the relevant municipalities. In this case, the citizen must submit documents confirming these circumstances to the draft commission (clause 38 of the Instructions).
Citizens have no other grounds for choosing a place for military service.
Prepared based on the material
lawyer Trignin V.G.,
Moscow Bar Association
"Military Bar Association"
If you want to establish the fate of your relative who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War, then get ready for long and labor-intensive work. Don’t expect that all you have to do is ask a question and someone will tell you in detail about your relative. And there is no magic key to the secret door, behind which there is a box with the inscription “The Most detailed information about Sergeant Ivanov I.I. for his great-grandson Edik." Information about a person, if preserved, is scattered across dozens of archives in tiny, often unrelated, fragments. It may turn out that after spending several years searching, you will not learn anything new about your relative. But it's possible that Lucky case will reward you after just a few months of searching.
Below is a simplified search algorithm. It may seem complicated. In reality, everything is much more complicated. Here are ways to find information if it is preserved somewhere. But the information you need might not have been preserved at all: the hardest of all wars was going on, not only individual military personnel were dying - regiments, divisions, armies were dying, documents disappeared, reports were lost, archives were burned... It is especially difficult (and sometimes impossible) to find out the fate of military personnel , killed or missing in action in encirclement in 1941 and the summer of 1942.
Total irrecoverable losses armed forces USSR (Red Army, Navy, NKVD) in the Great Patriotic War amounted to 11.944 thousand people. It should be noted right away that these are not dead, but for various reasons excluded from the lists of units. According to the order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense N 023 dated February 4, 1944, irretrievable losses include “those killed in battle, missing at the front, those who died from wounds on the battlefield and in medical institutions, died from diseases acquired at the front, or died at the front from other causes and were captured by the enemy." Of this number, 5.059 thousand people were missing. In turn, from among the missing most of ended up in German captivity(and only less than a third of them survived to liberation), many died on the battlefield, and many of those who ended up in occupied territory were subsequently re-conscripted into the army. The distribution of irretrievable losses and missing persons by year of war (let me remind you that the second number is part of the first) is shown in the table:
|
Year |
Irrevocable losses (thousand people) |
Killed and died from wounds (thousand people) |
|
|
Total |
Missing |
||
|
1941 |
3.137 |
2.335 |
|
|
1942 |
3.258 |
1.515 |
|
|
1943 |
2.312 |
||
|
1944 |
1.763 |
||
|
1945 |
|||
|
Total |
11.944 |
5.059 |
9.168 |
In total, 9,168 thousand military personnel were killed or died from wounds in the Great Patriotic War, and the total direct human losses Soviet Union for all the years of the Great Patriotic War are estimated at 26.6 million people. (Numerical data on losses are taken from the works of Colonel General G.F. Krivosheev, 1998-2002, which seem to us the most reliable and least politicized of all known estimates of USSR losses in the Great Patriotic War.)
1. First steps
1.1. Searching for a home
First of all, you need to know exactly your last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth and place of birth. Without this information it will be very difficult to search.
The place of birth must be indicated in accordance with the administrative-territorial division of the USSR in pre-war years. The correspondence between pre-revolutionary, pre-war and modern administrative-territorial divisions can be found on the Internet. (Directory administrative division USSR in 1939-1945 on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
It is usually not difficult to find out the time of conscription and the place of residence of the conscript. Based on his place of residence, one can determine which District Military Commissariat (RMC) he was called up to.
Ranks can be determined by insignia in surviving photographs. If the rank is unknown, then belonging to private, command and political composition can be determined very roughly by the education and pre-war biography of the serviceman.
If a medal or order that a serviceman was awarded during the war has been preserved, then by the award number you can determine the number of the military unit and even find out a description of the feat or military merits of the recipient.
It is imperative to interview the relatives of the serviceman. Much time has passed since the end of the war, and the soldier’s parents are no longer alive, and his wife, brothers and sisters are very old, much has been forgotten. But when talking with them, some minor detail may emerge: the name of the area, the presence of letters from the front, words from a long-lost “funeral”... Write everything down and for each individual fact be sure to indicate the source: “story by S.I. Smirnova 10.05 .2008". It is necessary to write down the source because contradictory information may appear (the grandmother said one thing, but the certificate states something else), and you will have to choose a more plausible source. It should be taken into account that family legends sometimes convey some events with distortions (something was forgotten, something was confused, something was “improved” by the narrator...).
It is very important at this stage to determine in the troops of which People's Commissariats (People's Commissariat, or in modern terms - ministries) your relative served: People's Commissariat of Defense ( ground troops and aviation), Navy(including coastal units and naval aviation), People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD troops, border units). The files of different departments are stored in different archives. (Addresses of departmental archives on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
The main task at the first stage should be to find out the date of death and the number of the military unit in which the serviceman was a member for at least some time.
1.2. If letters from the front have been preserved
All letters from the front were reviewed by military censorship, servicemen were warned about this, therefore, letters usually did not indicate names and numbers military units, names of settlements, etc.
The first thing you need to determine is the number of the Field Postal Station (PPS or “field mail”). By the teaching staff number it is often possible to determine number military unit. ("Directory of field postal stations of the Red Army in 1941-1945", "Directory military units- field posts of the Red Army in 1943-1945" on the website SOLDAT.ru. ) It should be borne in mind that it is not always possible to determine a specific unit (regiment, battalion, company) within a military unit. ("Recommendations" on the website SOLDAT.ru. )
Before September 5, 1942, the address of a military unit usually consisted of the PPS number and the numbers of specific military units served by this PPS (regiment, battalion, company, platoon). After September 5, 1942, the actual numbers of military units were not indicated in the address, and instead of them, within each specific PPS, conditional addressee numbers were entered. Such conditional numbers could include from two to five to six characters (letters and numbers). It is impossible to determine the actual number of the military unit by the conventional number of the addressee. In this case, by the PPS number, only the number of the division or army can be determined, and the number of the regiment, battalion, company will remain unknown, because Each army had its own unit coding system.
In addition to the teaching staff number, the stamp (in the center) contains the date of registration of the letter on the teaching staff (in fact, the date the letter was sent) - it will also be useful in further searches. The text of the letter may contain information about the rank of the serviceman, his military specialty, about awards, about belonging to a private, junior command (sergeant), command (officer) or political structure, etc.
2. Internet search
2.1. United Data Bank "Memorial"
2.1.1. The largest resource on the Internet is the official website of the Ministry of Defense “Joint Data Bank “Memorial””. The data bank was created on the basis of documents stored in TsAMO: reports on irretrievable losses, journals of those who died in hospitals, alphabetical lists burials, German personal cards for prisoners of war, post-war lists of those who did not return from the war, etc. Currently (2008) the site is operating in test mode. The site allows you to search by last name, place of conscription, year of birth and some others. keywords. It is possible to view scanographs of source documents that mention the found person.
When searching, you should also check for consonant surnames and first names, especially if the surname is difficult to perceive by ear - with repeated rewriting, the surname could be distorted. An error could also have been made by the operator when entering handwritten information into the computer.
In some cases, there are several documents for one serviceman, for example: a report on irretrievable losses, a personal list of those who died from wounds, an alphabetical list of those who died in the hospital, a registration card military burial and so on. And of course, very often there are no documents for a serviceman - this mainly applies to missing persons in initial period war.
2.2.1. In addition to the Memorial OBD website, there are several accessible databases on the Internet with a search by surname (Links page on the SOLDIER website.ru).
2.2.2. Regardless of the search results on the site " OBD Memorial" and in databases it is necessary to search in several search engines on the Internet, specifying known information about the relative as the search string. Even if the search engine tells you something interesting about your request, you should repeat the search for different combinations of words, check synonyms and possible abbreviations of terms, titles, names.
2.2.3. You should definitely visit genealogical and military history sites and forums, look through section catalogs military literature on websites electronic libraries. Read the memoirs of soldiers and officers found on the Internet who served in the same sector of the front as your relative, as well as descriptions of the combat operations of the front, army, division in which he served. This will help you a lot in your future work. . And it’s simply useful to know about the everyday life of that great war.
2.2.4. You should not completely trust information received from the Internet - often no one is responsible for its reliability, so always try to check the facts obtained from other sources. If you cannot check, then make a note or simply remember which of the information was obtained from an unverified source. In the future, you will often come across information that is unlikely, unreliable, doubtful, or even, most likely, false. For example, very soon you will have a list of namesakes, a wanted relative, whose biographical facts coincide with the ones you need. There is no need to throw anything away, but be sure to indicate for each new fact the source from which you received it - maybe in a year you will have new information that will force you to re-evaluate the information you collected.
2.2.5. If you have a desire to ask your question at a military-historical forum right now, don’t rush. First, read the posts on this forum over the past weeks. It may turn out that similar questions have already been asked more than once, and regular forum visitors have already answered them in detail - in this case, your question will cause irritation. In addition, each forum has its own rules and traditions, and if you want to receive a friendly response, then try not to violate the norms of behavior accepted on the forum. Typically, when writing your first message to a forum, you should introduce yourself. And don't forget to include your address Email for those who want to respond to you by letter.
2.3. Books of Memory
2.3.1. In many regions of the country, Books of Memory have been published, which contain alphabetical lists of residents of the region who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War. Books of Memory are multi-volume publications, they can be found in regional library and in the military registration and enlistment offices of the region, but it is difficult to find them outside the region. In some regions of the country, in addition to the regional Book of Memory, Books of Memory of individual districts have been published. Some Books are available in electronic versions on the Internet. Since publications from different territories, regions, republics and districts were prepared by different editorial teams, the set personal information and the design of different editions is different. As a rule, the Books of Memory of regions indicate military personnel who were born or drafted into the army in this region. Both Books of Memory should be checked: the one published at the place of birth and the one published at the place where the serviceman was recruited. (Links to electronic versions Books of Memory on the Internet on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
In the Books of Memory of some regions on whose territory they were fought fighting, provides information about military personnel who died and were buried in the region. If you know in which region a serviceman died, you need to check the Book of Memory of the corresponding region.
2.3.2. A large database of fallen military personnel is available in the museum at Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow, and museum employees provide certificates both in person and by telephone, but the database installed in the museum is abbreviated (contains only the last name, first name, patronymic and year of birth), and the full database, created with public money, is now is private property and practically inaccessible. In addition, with the advent of the OBD Memorial website on the Internet, both databases can be considered outdated.
2.3.3. If you are unable to access your the necessary Books In memory, you can ask to check the book of the desired area on an online forum with military-historical or genealogical topics. In addition, many cities have their own websites on the Internet, and most of these websites have their own regional forums. You can ask a question or make a request on just such a forum, and you will most likely be given advice or a hint, and, if the locality is small, then you can find out some question at the military registration and enlistment office or museum.
It should be borne in mind that there are also errors in the Books of Memory, their number depends on the conscientiousness of the editorial team.
3. Obtaining information from the archive
3.1. On personal registration of dead and missing military personnel
3.1.1. This subsection provides brief information about the personal records of military personnel killed and missing during the Great Patriotic War. Knowledge of the basic features of record keeping is necessary for further work with archival documents.
3.1.2. It should be noted that during the war, the registration of dead military personnel was organized quite clearly (as far as possible under war conditions). At intervals of 10 days (sometimes less often), each military unit of the Active Army sent to the higher headquarters a named list of irretrievable losses - “Report on irretrievable losses...”. This report for each deceased serviceman indicated: last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, rank, position, date and place of death, place of burial, military registration and enlistment office, residential address and the names of parents or wife. Reports from different parts gathered at the Troop Recruitment Directorate General Staff Red Army (later - in the Central Bureau of Losses of the Red Army). Similar reports were submitted by hospitals about military personnel who died from wounds and illnesses.
After the war, these reports were transferred to TsAMO, and on their basis a card file of irretrievable losses was compiled. Information from the report of the military unit was transferred to the serviceman’s personal card; the card indicated the number of the military unit and the number under which this report was recorded.
3.1.3. Notification of the death of a serviceman was sent by the headquarters of the unit in which the deceased served, as a rule, to the military registration and enlistment office. A duplicate notice was issued at the military registration and enlistment office, which was sent to relatives, and on its basis a pension was subsequently issued. The original notices remained in storage at the military registration and enlistment office. The original notice had a round seal and a corner stamp with the name of the military unit or its conventional five-digit number. Some of the notices were sent by the headquarters of military units directly to relatives, bypassing the military registration and enlistment office, which was a violation of the established procedure. Some of the post-war issuance notices were issued by district military registration and enlistment offices on the proposal of the Central Bureau of Losses. All notices issued by military registration and enlistment offices bore the seal and details of the military registration and enlistment office, and the number of the military unit, as a rule, was not given.
The notification of the death of a serviceman indicated: the name of the unit, rank, position, date and place of death of the serviceman and place of burial. (Image of the notice of death of a serviceman on the SOLDIER website.ru.)
3.1.4. It is necessary to distinguish between two ways of indicating the names of military units in open (unclassified) correspondence:
a) in the period 1941-42. the documents indicated the actual name of the unit - for example, 1254th Infantry Regiment (sometimes indicating the division number);
b) in the period 1943-45. the conventional name of the military unit was indicated - for example, “military unit 57950”, which corresponded to the same 1254 sp. Five-digit numbers were assigned to NPO units, and four-digit numbers to NKVD units.
3.1.5. A serviceman who was absent from his unit for an unknown reason was considered missing, and the search for him for 15 days did not yield any results. Information about missing persons was also transmitted to higher headquarters, and notification of the missing person was sent to relatives. In this case, the notice of a missing serviceman indicated the name of the military unit, the date and place of the disappearance of the serviceman.
Most of the military personnel listed as missing died during the retreat, or during reconnaissance in force, or while surrounded, i.e. in cases where the battlefield remained with the enemy. Witness their death by force various reasons it was difficult. The missing persons also included:
- military personnel who were captured,
- deserters,
- business travelers who did not arrive at their destination,
- scouts who did not return from a mission,
- the personnel of entire units and subunits in the event that they were defeated and there were no commanders left who could reliably report up the chain of command about specific types of losses.
However, the reason for the soldier’s absence could not only be his death. For example, a warrior who fell behind a unit on the march could be included in another military unit, in which he then continued to fight. A wounded person from the battlefield could be evacuated by soldiers of another unit and sent directly to the hospital. There are known cases when relatives received several notices (“funerals”) during the war, but the person turned out to be alive.
3.1.6. In cases where no information about irretrievable losses was received from a military unit to a higher headquarters (for example, in the case of the death of a unit or its headquarters while surrounded, loss of documents), notification to relatives could not be sent, because lists of the unit's military personnel were among the lost staff documents.
3.1.7. After the end of the war, district military registration and enlistment offices carried out work to collect information about military personnel who did not return from the war (door-to-door survey). In addition, the relatives of a serviceman who did not return from the war could, on their own initiative, draw up a “Questionnaire for a person who did not return from the war” at the military registration and enlistment office.
Based on information from the military registration and enlistment offices, the file of losses was replenished with cards compiled based on the results of a survey of relatives. Such cards could contain the entry “correspondence was interrupted in December 1942,” and the number of the military unit was usually missing. If the card drawn up on the basis of a report from the military registration and enlistment office indicates the number of the military unit, then it should be treated as probable, conjectural. The date of the disappearance of the serviceman in this case was established by the military commissar, usually by adding three to six months to the date last letter. The directive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR recommended that district military commissars set a date for missing persons according to the following rules:
1) if the relatives of a serviceman who did not return from the war lived in unoccupied territory, then three months should be added to the date of the last letter received,
2) if the relatives of a serviceman who did not return from the war remained in the occupied territory during the war, then three months should have been added to the date of liberation of the territory.
Door-to-door survey sheets and questionnaires are also stored in TsAMO (department 9), and they may contain information that is not on the card. When filling out the card, not all the information given in the house-to-house survey sheet was usually entered into it. or questionnaire, since there was no way to verify the information recorded from the words of relatives. Therefore, if it is known that the family of a serviceman received letters from him from the front, but these letters were subsequently lost, then some information from these letters (PPS number, date of the letter) may appear in the house-to-house survey reports. When responding to a request about the fate of a serviceman, archive workers do not have the opportunity to find records of a door-to-door survey. You will have to look for them yourself, but, most likely, during a personal visit to the archive. The RVC report number indicating the year is stamped on the back of the personal card. After the appearance of the Memorial OBD website on the Internet, it became possible to conduct an independent search for source documents.
3.2. Brief information about archives
Most of the documents relating to the period of the Great Patriotic War are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO). Below we will mainly describe the search for military personnel People's Commissariat Defense (NPO) and, accordingly, links will be made to the TsAMO archive, since it is in it that the archives of the People's Commissariat of Defense (and then the Ministry of Defense) are stored from June 22, 1941 to the eighties. (Addresses of departmental archives on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
The file of dead and missing NGO servicemen during the Great Patriotic War is stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO). Similar loss files are available in:
a) Central Naval Archive in Gatchina - on the personnel of the fleet, coastal service and naval aviation,
b) Russian State Military Archive in Moscow - for persons who served in the bodies, formations and units of the NKVD,
c) archive of the Federal border service FSB of the Russian Federation in the city of Pushkino, Moscow region - for border guards.
In addition to the archives listed, the necessary documentation may be in state regional archives and departmental archives.
Some information can be obtained on the OBD Memorial website
To obtain information about the fate of a serviceman, you must send a request to TsAMO (or to the other archives mentioned above), in which you must briefly indicate the known information about the serviceman. It is also recommended to include a stamped envelope with your home address in the envelope to speed up the response. (TsAMO postal address and sample application on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
If military rank serviceman is unknown or there is reason to believe that he could have been assigned officer rank, then in the application to TsAMO you should write “Please check the personal card files and loss card files of the 6th, 9th, 11th departments of TsAMO” (in departments 6, 9, 11, card files are kept, respectively, for political, private and non-commissioned officers).
It is recommended that at the same time, in the same letter, you send an application with a request to “Clarify awards” and indicate the last name, first name, patronymic, year and place of birth of the serviceman. TsAMO has a card index of all awarded servicemen of the Red Army, and it may turn out that the serviceman you are looking for was awarded a medal or order. (Image of the “Registration Card of the Awarded Person” and the request form on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
Due to insufficient funding for the archive, a response from it may take 6-12 months to arrive by mail, so if possible, it is better to visit the archive in person. (Address of TsAMO on the website SOLDAT.ru.) You can also fill out a request at the military registration and enlistment office, in this case the request to the archive will be issued on the letterhead of the military registration and enlistment office with the signature of the military registration and enlistment office and a seal.
Since 2007, only citizens of the Russian Federation have been allowed into TsAMO - this is the instruction of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which, apparently, has forgotten that natives of all republics of the USSR fought and died in the war.
3.4. A response has been received from TsAMO. Response Analysis
Thus, the letter from TsAMO (or the result independent search in the Memorial ODB) may contain 4 answer options:
1) A message about the death of a serviceman, indicating the number of the military unit, date and place of death, rank and place of burial.
2) A message about a missing serviceman indicating the number of the military unit, the date and place of the loss.
3) A report about a missing serviceman, compiled on the basis of a survey of relatives, with incomplete, unverified or unreliable information.
4) A message about the absence of information about the serviceman in the casualty file.
If you are lucky and the response from TsAMO contains the name of the military unit, then you can proceed to clarify battle path military personnel (see below)
If you are VERY lucky, and in the TsAMO’s card index of awardees there was a registration card for your relative, and an extract from it was sent to you in the archive’s response, then you should familiarize yourself with the award sheet in the same TsAMO, which contains short description feat or merit of the recipient. The description of work at TsAMO is given below, and you can skip the description of the search at the military registration and enlistment office.
If it was not possible to establish the number of the military unit in which your relative served, then you will have to continue the search in the military registration and enlistment office and in other departmental archives. More on this below.
4. Search for information at the place of recruitment
4.1. Brief information about the organization of work in the RVC to staff the Active Army
4.1.1. In order to correctly submit a request to the district military registration and enlistment office (RMC), you should familiarize yourself with the organization of the RMC’s work on staffing the Active Army (DA).
4.1.2. The RVC carried out the conscription and mobilization of citizens, as well as their distribution to places of service.
Citizens conscripted into the army (i.e., who had not previously served) could be sent
- to a reserve or training regiment or brigade stationed at that time near the place of conscription,
- to a military unit formed in this area.
Citizens mobilized from the reserve (i.e., who had already served in the army) could be sent directly to the front as part of marching companies or battalions.
4.1.3. Marching companies (battalions) were usually not sent directly to a combat unit, but first arrived at an army or front-line transit point (PP) or to an army or front-line reserve rifle regiment (or reserve rifle brigade).
4.1.4. Newly formed, reformed or understaffed military units were sent to the front and participated in hostilities under their numbers.
4.1.5. Reserve regiments and brigades received unprepared military contingents, carried out initial military training and sent military personnel to the front or to educational establishments. Sending to the front was usually carried out as part of marching companies or battalions. It is necessary to distinguish between permanent and variable composition of reserve military units. The permanent staff included military personnel who ensured the functioning of the military unit: regimental headquarters, management, battalion, company and platoon commanders, medical unit employees, separate company communications, etc. The variable composition included military personnel enrolled in the reserve unit for military training. The period of stay in spare parts of variable composition ranged from several weeks to several months.
4.1.6. At the military registration and enlistment office, a “Conscription Card” was issued for each conscript (that is, those drafted for the first time and who had not previously served in the army). It contained information about the conscript, the results of a medical examination and information about parents. on her back side The penultimate paragraph contains the number of the draft team and the date the team was sent. (Image of the draft card on the SOLDIER website.ru.)
4.1.7. A person liable for military service in the reserve is a person who has completed active military service in the Red Army and the Red Navy, and is in the 1st or 2nd category reserve. Upon arrival at the RVK at the place of residence from service (or for other circumstances), a “Registration card of the person liable for military service” was created, in which there was no information about relatives, medical data was briefly given, the dates of issuance of the mobilization order and the place of registration, the conditional number of the conscription team were indicated. , to which the person liable for military service was assigned when mobilization was announced. Also, information about the issue of a military ID, place of work, position, and home address was entered into the registration card. The second copy of the registration card was located at the headquarters of the unit to which the citizen was assigned. (Image of a military service member’s registration card on the SOLDIER website.ru.)
Under the numbers of conscription teams, pre-existing personnel formations and their units were specially encrypted, which, upon mobilization, were supposed to expand to the number of wartime personnel due to the call-up of reserve personnel assigned to them. Accordingly, the RVC may retain lists of such conscription teams, and in different RVCs for the same personnel military unit the number of the conscription team was the same, because The personnel military unit to which specific conscripts were sent was the same.
4.1.8. In addition to the above documents, each RVC kept the following logs:
- Alphabet books called in Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War...,
- Alphabet books for registering the dead...,
- Name lists of privates and sergeants registered as dead and missing...
The above-mentioned “Alphabetical books of those drafted into the Soviet Army...” were compiled on the basis of Conscription Cards and Registration Cards of those liable for military service, but have a significantly smaller set of information compared to the original documents. In many military registration and enlistment offices, conscription cards and registration cards were destroyed after the expiration of the storage period. Some military registration and enlistment offices still keep these documents.
4.1.9. When sending a conscription team, a “Name list for the conscription team” was compiled at the military registration and enlistment office. In addition to the nominal list of military personnel, it contains the number of the military unit (conditional - “military unit N 1234”, or actual - “333 s.d.”) and the address of this unit. (Image of the name list for the team on the SOLDIER website.ru.) In many military registration and enlistment offices, "Name lists..." were destroyed after the expiration of the storage period. They are still kept in some military registration and enlistment offices.
4.2. Searching for information at the military registration and enlistment office
4.2.1. If the response from the archive does not indicate the number of the military unit or if there is no information about the serviceman in the archive, then you will have to continue the search at the military registration and enlistment office at the place of conscription. You can send an application to the military registration and enlistment office by mail or appear in person. The latter is, of course, preferable. If the exact address the military registration and enlistment office is unknown, then on the envelope you can write only the name of the city (without indicating the street and house), and in the “To” column write: “District military registration and enlistment office” - the letter will arrive. The application must indicate all known information about the serviceman. (Sample application to RVC and postal codes on the SOLDIER website.ru.)
Since registration documents were compiled for conscripts and mobilized different names, and it is not always known whether the wanted person served in the army before the war, then in the application to the RVC it is recommended to ask for copies of both documents: the Conscription Card and the Registration Card of the Person liable for Military Service.
4.2.2. If the response received from RVC indicates the conditional number of the military unit, then you need to determine the actual number. ("Directory of the conventional names of military units (institutions) in 1939 - 1943" and "Directory of military units - field posts of the Red Army in 1943-1945" on the website SOLDAT.ru.)
4.2.3. It should be recalled that the archives of military registration and enlistment offices located in the temporarily occupied territories in western regions and republics of the Soviet Union could have been lost.
4.2.4. Find information about personnel and the direction of marching companies and battalions is very complicated, because in the process of following the front line, marching units could be redirected to transit points(PP), located along the route, or re-equipped in spare rifle regiments and brigades of armies and fronts. Marching companies that arrived at a combat unit were sometimes, due to circumstances, immediately brought into battle without being properly enrolled in the unit's staff.
4.3. Spare parts and military units of local formation
4.3.1. If it is not possible to find out at the military registration and enlistment office where the conscript was sent, then the search should be continued in the funds spare and educational units, stationed at that time near settlement call. Usually, previously unserved conscripts were sent to them for training. Further search information should be produced in the documents of these parts at TsAMO. (Directory "Deployment of spare and training units" on the website SOLDIAT.ru.)