The Resource "Memory of the People" was created so that each user could find out where they fought and what awards were received by their grandfathers or great-grandfathers who took part in the Great Patriotic War. Within the framework of the project, such archival documentation as award lists, orders, operational descriptions of the situation on the battlefield and other original written evidence of the events of those years were digitized. The site enables each user to find information about their relatives and create a personal archive from the documents presented on the site. And, if you want to know how to search for WWII participants by the names of those who returned from the war using the Memory of the People resource, then read on.
Memory of the People project
To start the search, open https://pamyat-naroda.ru/, go to the “Heroes of War” section, or use the form on the main page (in this case, we will be automatically transferred to “Heroes of War” anyway). Enter the requested data (last name, first name, patronymic and year of birth) into the search bar of the Memory of the People service and press the Enter key on the keyboard or LMB on the word “Find”.
Search for a fighter from the main page of the site If there is not enough data and it was not possible to find a participant in the hostilities, click "Refine" and enter the information that we know:
- The place where the fighter was born.
- Awarded title.
- Place of service.
- The date the participant dropped out or died.
- The ID of the record in the database.
In the event that this information is not enough, we expand additional fields under the data entry form and fill in each line with the information we know.
Entering additional information In our case, only 4 documents were found. But it so happens that the personal data of the participants in the Second World War coincide, and the search becomes difficult. Or there are a lot of documents, among which it is difficult to find what you need. To simplify the search, a panel is provided above the results.
Refinement panel makes it easy to find If we need information about which unit was commanded by the WWII participant whom we are looking for, or what awards he had, then click on the desired section on the above panel and shorten the search circle. When switching between these sections on the right in the block "Sources of information" are displayed the places where information about the awards or combat activities of the WWII participant is taken from. Below the search results is a list of all the awards to which the fighter is represented.
Viewing and saving documents
So, the search has been completed, and we have several results of the Memory of the People service we need. How to save them so as not to lose valuable information and constantly have access to it? Opposite each of the documents there are icons with which you can:
- View original.
- Download the file to your computer (scanned copy of an act, order or other document in jpg format).
- Add information about a participant in hostilities to your personal archive on the Memory of the People website.
What can be done with documents If the load on the resource is too high, access to the personal archive and the documents stored in it may be limited. Therefore, if information about a participant in the Second World War is necessary for study or work, it is better to save it to a folder on your computer.
Detailed information about the heroes of the war on the site of the Memory of the People
Now let's see where on the "People's Memory" resource there is more detailed information about the war hero found by his last name. We click on the personal data of the participant of the Second World War. A page opens, where the surname, name, patronymic and rank of the fighter are indicated.
Reward Details
Also here is information about the award that we selected in the search results: who awarded, when the feat was performed, information about the place of birth and call of the hero and other data, including the name of the archive from where this data was taken. Scrolling down the page below, we see the scanned document. This is a line in the award list.
Switching between sections, we read:
- "Feat" - a detailed description of the feat for the accomplishment of which the fighter was nominated for an award, contained in the combat log or other documents that reflected the course of hostilities.
- “The first page of an order or decree” - information about the front and the combat unit in which the WWII participant served, as well as on behalf of whom and for what he was awarded.
- "Award sheet" - a document certifying the presentation of the award, with the personal data of the fighter and a summary of the feat.
Line in the award list Documents from this page can be saved to a computer, scaled in height and / or width, and enlarged / reduced. It is also possible to view the originals of the submitted documents.
Combat path of the hero / unit
The "People's Memory" resource allows us to track the combat path traveled by the hero and the unit in which he served. To do this, from the “Awarding documents” section, go to the “Combat path of the hero / unit”.
Combat path of the hero / unit This page lists all the units in which the fighter served. Switching between them, we see his path and all the hostilities in which he participated during the Second World War. Each of the coordinates of the military path means a specific battle. On the left in the table, the dates of operations are indicated, tied to coordinates on the map.
The military path is shown from the very beginning (from the place of conscription in the district military registration and enlistment office) to the victorious end. The scale of the map can be increased so that the outlines of the villages where the battles took place or near which our army followed. This effect makes it possible to examine in detail the course of the war. There are symbols below the map. Guided by them, we understand at what time the fighter we are looking for was in the hospital, received awards, where he was born, where he was called from and much more. Also, in the panel above the map, you can add a higher-level part, which included the unit where the war hero served, and a lower-level one. All these nuances allow you to recreate a more complete picture of the events of the Second World War.
When you click on a specific coordinate of the path in the upper right corner of the map, we see a plate that contains the following information:
- The name of the unit where the fighter served.
- The date of the battle indicated on the map.
- The number of documents attesting to this event.
Description of the battle in the selected coordinate After clicking on the number of documents of the units found, the next page with written evidence of specific battles is loaded. When searching for the required order / report / report, you can use the general list or narrow the search range by switching between the section names. That is, if we only need combat logs or maps / schemes, then we click on the selected category and look for the document that is needed, or we look through everything in turn in the Memory of the People. You can also use a convenient filter located to the right of the list of documents. By unchecking or checking the boxes in the sections we need, we narrow the search circle and search for information faster.
By clicking on the name of a report or diagram, journal or order, we study the original evidence of those events, written or drawn by the participants in the war themselves. According to the available information, we will find out in which archive each of the documents is now located, and who compiled them. From this page, you can save the found written evidence of the combat path of a WWII participant by the name of those who returned from the war to your personal archive on the site.
Thus, performing a search for WWII participants by the names of those who returned from the war on the Memory of the People website, you can not only get information about the hero's awards, but also as fully as possible (as far as the available documents allow) track the course of battles from the very place of the fighter's call-up.
Write in the comments below the article if you need more information. A lot of people look at them and can help in finding the necessary information.
Today, the development of modern technologies has taken a step forward and you can find any information. Every resident of Russia can use the official website to find out about the participants in the Second World War, the period 1941-1945. Therefore, it is not so difficult to answer the question of how to find participants in the Second World War by last name, this will be described below.
WWII participant, find by last name - official site
Today, special resources have been created, thanks to which you can find missing soldiers and war veterans who are still alive. It's worth noting that these are useful resources that many people use. Several sites have been created today, but reliable information should be taken from the official one: http://www.obd-memorial.ru. It is easy to work on it, you need to fill in the fields that are presented on the start page. On them you can get acquainted with extracts and documents that were relevant about seventy years ago.
To find a specific person, it is worth setting up filters. The information that is needed is the full name, if there are other data, then thanks to them you can find the desired person faster. You can indicate the years of service, military awards, orders and relatives of the veteran. If you failed to identify the necessary information, then this is not a reason for the upset. You can try your attempt after a while. The data on the sites is regularly updated. You can try to find a person using search sites like Yandex.
It is worth noting that the data on the site is filled by volunteers who are excavating at the sites of the war. Everything that they find in the fields concerning the war of the period 1941-1945 is published on this portal. Websites can be replenished by people and social services that work with the elderly. War veterans often share facts from their lives with their interlocutors. And war is such a period of life that sinks into the soul of an old man for a long time.
Find awards of a WWII participant by last name
Several years ago, a resource appeared on the Internet, thanks to which you can find the awards received by the participants in the war. On this resource in electronic format, documents are stored that confirm the awards of people who took part in the war. All data is in the public domain and anyone can get acquainted with it. There is information taken from the archives.
The purpose of this project is to preserve the memory of each of the heroes of the Victory. There are only facts and no false information. Recently, it was found that the resource contains more than twelve million information about the awards. To find out if your relative has been awarded, you need to enter his initials in the Search for awards column. If no information is found, then you can subscribe to updates that will come to you by e-mail.
Find a relative of a WWII participant by last name
To date, no such resource has yet been invented where one could find out about the relatives of the participants in the war. But over time, it is planned to create it. Although on the official website, where you can find the participants in the war, information about his relatives may also appear, if it was known earlier. Also on this site you can independently indicate the relationship with the war veteran. Only this needs to be supported by some documents, you need to prove your relationship with the veteran.
But if there is such a need to find relatives of war veterans, then you can apply to the military registration and enlistment office and raise the entire archive of documents, which should indicate the information you are interested in.
How to find participants of the Second World War
The question of how to find a WWII participant by last name is not uncommon today. But the answer to it will be formulated below. Recently, people are interested in the participants in the war, they are prompted by the seventieth anniversary of the victory, which does not disregard a single veteran. A good database of participants in the Second World War is on the database "Memorial" Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which is freely available, that is, anyone can use it. You can replenish the questionnaire about the participant of the Second World War, if he is your relative, only the knowledge must be reliable.
To find a participant in the Great War, you can contact the military registration and enlistment office, which called a person to serve. You will need to write a statement that you are a relative and want to know about the fate of a person or talk about him. After a while, your proposal will be considered and you will be contacted.
If you were unable to search for your relative, you can contact the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense, which is located in the city of Podolsk. It is not necessary to go there in person, you can write a letter to tell you about the missing relative. After some time, you should receive an official answer, which will indicate either the place of burial or the place of residence of the person.
If a participant in the war died of combat wounds or died in captivity, then in order to find out as much facts as possible about him, you need to write a letter to the FSB, which can search the archives for information about the person.
How to find participants in the war using a TV show?
Many people are looking for people who went missing on the battlefields to find out whether they are alive or not. And there are a lot of ways to do this. You can use specially created search sites, programs, some associations and groups in social networks, archives and other places. Every year there are fewer and fewer unmarked graves or veterans who were unable to find their relatives. Therefore, the state is doing everything so that the participants in the Second World War find their relatives, and the whole country is proud of them.
Programs that are looking for missing people have recently gained wide popularity, especially we are talking about program "Wait for me", where War Veterans are very often found. After all, many veterans watch this program, hoping to find their relatives and colleagues. This TV project is looking for the missing not only in Russia, but also in other countries, which increases the chances of finding the missing person. You can write a letter to the studio if it is not possible to come in person. You must attach a description of the person and a photograph, if any, to your description.
In this article, we examined how to find participants in the Second World War by last name, what methods and sites are there for this. But in reality it will not be so easy to do. You may have to use several methods at once to find out about your missing relative.
At the moment, the official service for finding awards for the veteran of the Great Patriotic War is at the link.
Additional resources for finding veterans are described in this article.
Search Methods Videos
Several years ago, the implementation of a project began, the purpose of which was to make available for review the list of Soviet soldiers awarded with military orders and medals during the Great Patriotic War. For this, an electronic bank of documents was created, which in digital form contains orders for awards and other documents about soldiers who distinguished themselves in battles. All information in the form of a database is available on the website "Feat of the People" a search by the name of the recipient will give a fairly complete result.
Information can be searched both by the name of the person awarded, and by the number or date of the order. If you want to receive detailed information about what feat or military distinction your relative who participated in the Great Patriotic War was awarded, then on the main page select the item "People and awards" and in the form that opens enter his last name - first name - patronymic (see figure below)
Next, a list of all records that are related to the entered data will open. Of course, the namesakes of the gentleman about whom you want to receive information may also be present there. If the database contains information on several awards, then there will be a separate line for each award. As you can see in the given example (see the image below), the list of awards three times Hero of the Soviet Union A.I. Pokryshkin, interspersed with four distinctions received by his namesake Alexander Ivanovich, junior sergeant born in 1911.
By clicking on the selected line, you can read the description of the feat for which the award was made in the opened document.
Also, there is access to highly detailed supporting documents such as award sheets.
In addition to the surname search, it is possible to get acquainted with a large number of orders, which are grouped by dates, as well as orders and medals that were awarded. To do this, you must select the name of a specific award and the period that interests you.
As a result, a complete list of orders will become available containing information about the awarding of this award at the specified time.
Help service address - http://podvignaroda.mil.ru but the portal "Hero of the People", created in 2010, is only one of the projects that allows you to find out the fate of loved ones who participated in the Great Patriotic War, to trace their combat path, to read descriptions of the exploits for which they were awarded. To feel, thus, the connection between times and generations, to realize the history of your family as part of the great History of your Motherland. Earlier, in 2007, on the initiative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Memorial website was created, containing an electronic databank of soldiers who died during the war. It was created with the aim of giving the descendants living today the opportunity to learn about the place of the last refuge of their ancestors - the fallen defenders of the Fatherland, to establish the fate of the missing relatives and friends, and, most importantly, to help preserve their memory.
OBD "Memorial" search for the victims of the Great Patriotic War
http://www.obd-memorial.ru- “Memorial is a website of the Ministry of Defense for searching by last name, first name, patronymic of the burial place of the deceased soldier, which is used to search for information. Search is also available for a large number of other input data - date and place of birth, date and place of conscription, last duty station, military rank, date of death, country, region and place of burial. Information in the generalized databank (OBD) contains digital copies of documents from a large number of sources - reports of combat units on irrecoverable losses, documents of hospitals and medical battalions, trophy cards of Soviet prisoners of war, passports of burials of military personnel, orders for exclusion from the lists, reports of exhumations, and other archival documents ...
Upon request to the database, information is provided about the places of primary burials of soldiers and officers who died in combat or died from wounds and diseases in hospitals and medical battalions. Records of documents for filling a generalized databank were taken from a large number of state archives, including the Central Archives of the RF Ministry of Defense.
The total number of documents made available on the site is almost 17 million digital copies. These documents contain information on more than 45 thousand passports of military graves, about 20 million personal records about the losses of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War, the primary burial places of more than 5 million Soviet soldiers and officers are indicated. The answer to a query to the database, in many cases, may contain several documents from various sources, this will allow for identification with greater accuracy. Many documents contain information about personalities, in particular, the names and addresses of the relatives to whom the funeral was sent.
The portal also has access to data that have been classified for decades, namely about Soviet soldiers and officers who were captured by Germany. Documents showing the name and number of the POW camp, which were drawn up after release from captivity, are presented. In some cases, documents issued upon request make it possible to establish the place and circumstances of the death of a soldier.
It is possible to search according to the data of military commissariats and military transit points, such as the name of the runway, the date of arrival and departure, where it came from and the place of departure, the last duty station, the number of the team and others. Thanks to such a tool, you can learn in more detail about the fate of your warrior ancestor, trace his military path. The site database is constantly updated with new information.
"Memory of the People" - the third project of the Ministry of Defense
https://pamyat-naroda.ru- Launched in May 2015, to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. It is the largest portal on the Internet containing databases of digital copies of wartime archival documents. A truly colossal work has been done during the creation of this site. It is no exaggeration to say that the site contains almost the entire history of the Great Patriotic War, embodied in documents about personalities and battles.
The portal is based on the generalized databanks of the first two projects of the RF Ministry of Defense “Memorial” and “People's Feat”, which were significantly expanded and new data were added to them. The site's database contains over 425 thousand copies of documents from the armies and fronts. In addition, the site contains copies of the original documents on the conduct of 216 military operations.
It is possible to search by many types of input data - the last name, first name, patronymic of a warrior, number of the award list, place of burial and others.
A feature of the project is its clarity, when these documents are linked to geographical maps and the chronological scale of military events. On interactive maps, you can track the combat paths of the Red Army units using more than 6 million document anchor points. Also, on modern maps, more than 12 million places of exploits of Soviet soldiers are marked, with a detailed description and indication of awards. More than 100 thousand original maps of military operations have been superimposed on modern geographic maps. Thanks to this, any user, even new to history and geography, can clearly see the course of the war on a global scale. And taking into account the georeferencing to personal data maps from archival documents, he has the opportunity to trace in detail in space and time the combat path of his ancestor-warrior from the place of recruitment to the place of the last battle and the last refuge or until returning home, for those he remained alive.
The consolidation of all data in one portal made it possible for people to search for the necessary information themselves and made it much easier to access the archival documents of the war years. Everything that had been consigned to oblivion for decades in the archival corridors and for some reason secret folders has now become available for everyone to familiarize themselves with. This portal is also regularly updated with new data from the archives.
Each of the projects mentioned above has its own focus and objectives. Therefore, when looking for information about relatives and friends who participated in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, for completeness of data collection, it is better to look through all three projects. Then separate fragments of invaluable archival information will form an integral picture of the military path of the ancestor-soldier.
Emotional entries in the award lists, recorded in the first days, or even hours after the battle, are a lively look of the commander and colleagues at the hero's feat. The general picture of the circumstances of the feat is complemented by the records of the logs of combat actions and documents of operational management. These lines are the most eloquent testimonies of the fate of soldiers and officers, whose descendants are obliged to remember their feat. Descriptions of battles, compiled not by armchair historians, but by direct participants in the events in scanty lines of reports, allow us to look at the war from a different angle than through the prism of interpretations in history textbooks.
Good day everyone!
Not so long ago I tried to help a friend find relatives who fought in the Second World War (1941-1945). Oddly enough, we quickly managed to find his grandfather, the number of his unit where he fought, also looked at several of his awards. The acquaintance was satisfied and proud of his grandfather, but I was thinking ...
I think that almost every family has relatives who participated in the Great Patriotic War, and many would like to know more about them (which is why I decided to sketch this article). Moreover, many old people do not like to talk about the front, and it is not uncommon in a family that they do not even know all the awards of their grandfather!
By the way, many people mistakenly believe (and I, until recently) that in order to find at least something, you need to know a lot of information about a person, know how to access the archives (and where to go), have a lot of free time, etc. ... But in fact, now, to try to start a search, it is enough to know the first and last name.
And so, below I will consider several interesting sites in more detail ...
# 1: The feat of the people
A very, very interesting site created by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It is a large database in which all available documents from the military archives are entered: where and who fought, what awards he received, what feats, etc. Absolutely everything is entered, regardless of the rank and scale of the feat. I can add that the site database has no analogues in terms of its size.
Then you will be presented with a list of the people found: note that there can be a lot of them if your relative has a common first and last name. Opposite each person will be displayed his year of birth, rank, order, medal (if any).
In the card itself, a lot of information is displayed per person: rank, place of call, place of service, date of the feat (if any), archival documents about the award, registration card, photo of a leaflet with a description of the feat, medal and order (example below).
In general, quite informative and complete. I recommend starting your search for a person from this site. If you are lucky, and you will find data about him here, then you will get pretty decent information to continue your search (you will know the year of birth, part of where he served, where he was called from, etc. details that many do not already know about).
By the way, despite the fact that all the basic information has already been posted on the site, from time to time it is updated with new archived data. Therefore, if you did not find anything, try to log in after a while and search again, also use the sites that I will give below.
# 2: OBD Memorial
The full name of the site is the Generalized Data Bank.
The main purpose of this site is to enable citizens to find and learn about the fate of their relatives, find out the place of their burial, where they served, and other information.
The Military Memorial Center of the RF Armed Forces carried out a unique work, as a result of which you can use the reference system of global importance!
The data used to fill the database of this site are taken from official archival documents located in the Central Archive of the RF Ministry of Defense, the Central Naval Archive of the RF Ministry of Defense, the Russian State Military Archive, the State Archive of the RF, etc.
During the work, more than 16.8 million documents, over 45 thousand passports of military graves were scanned and posted on the network.
How to search for a person in the OBD
Yes, in general, it is standard. On the main page of the site, enter in the search fields all the information that you know. It would be very nice to enter at least first name, last name, and patronymic. Then click the search button (example below).
In the data found, you will see the person's date and place of birth, by which you can navigate and start looking through the required profiles.
In the questionnaire, you can find out the following information: full name, date and place of birth, date and place of conscription, military rank, reason for retirement, date of retirement, name of the source of information, fund number, source of information. And also see the scanned sheet itself with archived data.
No. 3: Memory of the people
Another huge database site created by the Department of Defense. The main goal of the project is to enable all users to obtain information about the participants in the Great Patriotic War through new web tools and the development of generalized data banks "Memorial" and "The feat of the people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
To start searching for a person, you just need to enter his full name (if any, then another year of birth). Then click the "Find" button.
Next, you will be shown all found people with similar initials. Having opened the card for a person, you will find out: the date of his birth, place of conscription, military units, awards, dates of exploits, numbers of funds - sources of information, archive, you can see scans for which awards were given.
In addition, on this site you can see what the path that your grandfather took and fought on was. (example on the map below: the beginning of the path near Novosibirsk, then Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny, etc.).
Note: the map is large enough, and the screenshot below shows a small piece of it.
Where grandfather was and fought - the path on the map!
If you are looking for the burial place of your relatives who participated in the Second World War, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with this article:.
In it you will learn how to correctly create a request to the archive, how to issue it, where to send it specifically. In general, very useful information.
Well, that's all for me, I hope helped if not find, then at least gave useful "food" to start the search.
How to find your relative - a participant in the Great Patriotic War by last name, how to find out information about his awards, military ranks, combat path and place of death? This memo will help you collect the most detailed information about your ancestor, a participant in the Second World War.
1 Parse family archives
Ask relatives and friends, sort out family archives and write down all the information that you will recognize. Pay special attention to letters and official documents from the front - the number of the military unit is encrypted in the postage stamp.
The decryption can be found on the website www.soldat.ru
2 Refer to databases
First of all, check the electronic archives:
Enter your veteran information into the search fields.
If you didn't find anything - try different spellings of first name, last name and place of birth.
If the surname is common, use the advanced search and enter additional information.
Check your databases regularly- they are constantly updated and new information about your soldier may appear.
Don't be limited to search results that show up at the top! Study the entire document for more information. If the document is multi-page, open the title page - there may be a part number. Knowing the unit number, you can determine the combat path of the unit.
Check out Books of Memory- they are kept in military registration and enlistment offices, archives, local history museums. Information about the soldiers was entered into the books on three grounds: place of birth, place of conscription, and place of burial. If there is no information, contact the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (Moscow, Pobedy sq., 3, index 121096) - all books published before 1996 are stored there.
3 Submit your request to the official archives
- in the metric book (stored in the regional archives)
- in the records of acts of civil status (stored in the regional archives or in the departments of the registry office)
- in household books (stored in the archives of district administrations)
- in a personal file (stored at enterprises)
4 Make a request to the military registration and enlistment office
Make written request to the conscription office- indicate in it all the data you have about the veteran (name, year and place of birth, place of recruitment, rank, etc.).
If possible, visit the conscription office in person. Before visiting, be sure to:
- Copy the sheets of the draft books containing information about the soldiers called up on the same day as your relative.
- Check all the names through the website of the Memorial WBS (www.obd-memorial.ru)
Chances are they were sent to the same place as your relative.
5 Find out where your relative served
Knowing the unit number (division, battalion, etc.), you can understand exactly where and when your ancestor fought. The combat path can be traced on the site "Memory of the People"