How to find out where your grandfather fought in WWII. How to find information about participants in the Great Patriotic War

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, military 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 Sort out family archives

Ask your family and friends, sort through family archives and write down all the information which you will recognize. Pay special attention to letters and official documents from the front - the postal stamp contains the number of the military unit.

The transcript can be found on the website www.soldat.ru

2 Consult Databases

First of all, check the electronic archives:

Enter the veteran's information into the search fields.

If you don't find anything - try different spellings of your 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.

Look beyond the search results that appear at the top! Please read the entire document for more information. If the document is multi-page, open the title page - there may be a part number there. Knowing the unit number, you can determine the unit's combat path.

Check out Memory Books— they are stored in military registration and enlistment offices, archives, and local history museums. Information about soldiers was entered into the books according to three criteria: 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, Pobeda Square, 3, index 121096) - all books published before 1996 are stored there.

3 Send a request to the official archives

in the metric book (stored in regional archives)
in civil registration records (stored in regional archives or in civil registry offices)
in household books (stored in the archives of district administrations)
in personal files (kept at companies)

4 Make a request to the military registration and enlistment office

Do written request to the military registration and enlistment office— indicate in it all the information you have about the veteran (full name, year and place of birth, place of conscription, rank, etc.).

If possible, visit the military registration and enlistment office in person. Before visiting, be sure to:

Copy the sheets of the draft books containing information about soldiers drafted on the same day as your relative.
Check all names through the Memorial OBD website (www.obd-memorial.ru)

There is a possibility that 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 battle path can be traced on the “Memory of the People” website

Good day everyone!

Not long ago I tried to help an acquaintance find relatives who fought in the Second World War (1941-1945). Oddly enough, we managed to find his grandfather quite quickly, the number of his unit where he fought, and also looked at several of his awards. My friend was pleased and proud of his grandfather, but I started 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 write this article). Moreover, many old people don’t like to talk about the front, and it’s not uncommon for family members to not even know all of their grandfather’s awards!

By the way, many people mistakenly believe (and I did until recently) that in order to find anything, you need to know a lot of information about a person, know how to access archives (and where to go), have a lot of free time, etc. . But in fact, now, to try to start a search, it’s enough to know your first and last name.

And so, below I will consider several interesting sites in more detail...

No. 1: 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 military archives are entered: where and who fought, what awards he received, what feats, etc. Absolutely everyone is included, regardless of rank and scale of achievement. I can add that the site’s database has no analogues in size.

Then you will see a list of found people: note that there can be a lot of them if your relative has a common first and last name. Opposite each person his year of birth, rank, order, medal (if any) will be displayed.

The card itself displays quite a lot of information about the person: rank, place of conscription, place of service, date of feat (if any), archival documents about the award, registration card, photo of a piece of paper describing the feat, medals and orders (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 find information about him here, then you will receive pretty decent information to continue the search (you will know the year of birth, the unit where you served, where you were drafted from, etc. details that many no longer 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 archival data. Therefore, if you haven’t found anything, try to come back after some time and search again, also use the sites that I will give below.

No. 2: OBD Memorial

The full name of the site is Generalized Data Bank.

The main goal of this site is to enable citizens to find and learn about the fate of their relatives, find out their burial place, where they served, and other information.

The Military Memorial Center of the Russian Armed Forces has carried out unique work, as a result of which you can use a reference system of global importance!

The data used to populate the database of this site is taken from official archival documents located in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Central Naval Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Military Archive, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, etc.

During the work, more than 16.8 million documents and over 45 thousand passports of military graves were scanned and posted online.

How to search for a person in the OBD

Yes, in general it’s standard. On the main page of the site, enter all the information you know into the search fields. It would be very nice to enter at least the first name, last name, and patronymic. Then click the search button (example below).

In the data found, you will see the date and place of birth of the person, which you can use to navigate and start viewing the necessary 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 look at the scanned sheet itself with archival data.

No. 3: Memory of the people

Another site with a huge database created by the Ministry of Defense. The main goal of the project is to enable all users to obtain information about participants in the Great Patriotic War through new web tools and the development of generalized data banks “Memorial” and “Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”

To start searching for a person, just enter his full name (if any, then his year of birth). Then click the "Find" button.

Next, you will be shown all found people with similar initials. By opening a card for a person, you will find out: his date of birth, place of conscription, military units, awards, dates of feats, numbers of funds - sources of information, archive, you can see scans of what awards were given for.

In addition, on this site you can see what the path along which your grandfather moved and fought was like. (example on the map below: the beginning of the journey near Novosibirsk, then Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny, etc.).

Note: the map is quite large, and the screenshot below shows a small piece of it.

Where my 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 also read this article:.

In it you will learn how to correctly create a request to the archive, how to formalize it, and where exactly to send it. In general, very useful information.

Well, that’s all for me, I hope I helped, if not find it, then at least gave useful “food” to start searching.

If Human has already served in the armed forces, then you have several options to find out reliable information about the place of military service. Of course, such information is specific, and it is not distributed left and right. That is why the circle of people admitted to this information is very narrow. Usually it is given only to close relatives.

Instructions

Firstly, now we all live in the age of developed information technology: try searching for information on the Internet. If you know the number of the military unit, then enter it into the search engine. As practice shows, now almost every part has its own group on social networks, which you can easily find by identification number. And then, as they say, it’s a matter of technique. On the forum, ask local “old-timers” if they know such and such Human and, and if so, where and how they served together.

If the Internet does not help, proceed to plan B. After demobilization, each serviceman is required to put a mark on his military service in the army at the military registration and enlistment office at the place of registration from where he was taken into the army. Then he is obliged to provide accurate information about the place and time of military service, the branch of service, the number of the military unit, and the exact address. Therefore, the easiest way to find out the information you are interested in is to contact the military registration and enlistment office.

If you only have approximate information about your duty station Human and, for example, a district or district, then you will have to do painstaking work. Make or find (on the same Internet) a list of all military units in this area with exact addresses and telephone numbers. Then call these parts and ask for the information you are interested in. Of course, it’s not at all a fact that they will willingly provide it to you, but the chance still remains.

The ideal option is a special request from law enforcement agencies or the prosecutor's office, but this is usually required if Human is involved in any criminal case as an accused or witness. You can only obtain this information indirectly, either as a participant, or by attending an open court hearing.

On this page we have collected resources that will help you find a soldier (deceased relative or friend), search for those killed and missing in the Great Patriotic War.

Volunteer project “Archive Battalion”

The volunteer project “Archive Battalion” to restore information about participants in wars of the 20th century accepts and processes applications for research into the combat path of participants in the Great Patriotic War.

Memory of the people

The People's Memory project was implemented in accordance with the decision of the Russian Victory Organizing Committee of July 2013, supported by the instructions of the President and the Decree of the Russian Government in 2014. The project provides for the publication on the Internet of archival documents and documents about the losses and awards of soldiers and officers of the First World War, the development of the projects previously implemented by the Russian Ministry of Defense about the Second World War OBD Memorial and Feat of the People into one project - Memory of the People.

Feat of the people

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation presents a unique open access information resource, filled with all documents available in military archives about the progress and results of major combat operations, exploits and awards of all soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. As of August 8, 2012, the data bank contains information on 12,670,837 awards.

Generalized database "Memorial"

The generalized data bank contains information about the defenders of the Fatherland who died and disappeared during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. The work was done on a large scale: tens of thousands of documents were collected and converted into electronic form, with a total volume of more than 10 million sheets. The personal information contained in them amounted to more than 20 million records.

Immortal Regiment of Russia

The all-Russian public civil-patriotic movement “Immortal Regiment of Russia” collects stories about participants in the Great Patriotic War. The database is updated daily. Here you can not only add your veteran soldier to the all-Russian “piggy bank”, but also search through existing ones.

Electronic book of memory “Immortal Regiment - Moscow”

“Immortal Regiment - Moscow” together with the “My Documents” State Service Centers are collecting information about residents of the capital who took part in the Great Patriotic War. Now there are already more than 193 thousand names in the archive.

“Soldat.ru” - database of those killed in the Second World War

Soldat.ru is the oldest portal on the Russian Internet for establishing the fate of dead and missing military personnel and searching for their loved ones.

"The Winners" - Soldiers of the Great War

With our project we want to thank by name the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War living next to us and talk about their feat. The “Winners” project was created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory. Then we managed to collect lists of more than a million veterans living near us.

The site also contains a stunning interactive and animated map of the fighting of the Great Patriotic War.

Electronic memorial “Remember About”

On the social website “PomniPro”, each registered user can create a memory page, a photo gallery of a deceased loved one, talk about his biography, honor the memory of the deceased, leave words of memory and gratitude. You can also find a deceased relative and friend, search for those killed and missing in the Great Patriotic War.

Memorial of the Great Patriotic War

The site is conceived as a people's encyclopedia, a virtual Memorial to the fallen participants of the Great War, where everyone can leave their comments on any entry, supplement information about the War Participant with photographs and memories, and turn to other project participants for help. There are about 60,000 project participants. More than 400,000 cards have been registered.

MIPOD "Immortal Regiment"

The site has a large database of participants in the Great Patriotic War. The chronicle is maintained by community members. Now there are more than 400 thousand names in the archive.

Find a soldier. A reminder for those who are looking for their heroes

1. Check the data on the OBD Memorial website

When checking data about a person, open the “advanced search” tab and make attempts by typing only the last name, then the last name and first name, then the full data. Also try to check the information by setting the last name parameters, and the first and patronymic parameters only with initials.

2. Send a request to the archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The request must be sent to the address: 142100 Moscow region, Podolsk, Kirova St., 74. "Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."

Enclose the letter in the envelope, clearly stating the information you have and stating the purpose of the request. Enclose one blank envelope with your home address as the recipient's address.

3. Check the data on the “Feat of the People” website

If you do not have information on awards, you can go to the “Feat of the People” website. In the “People and Awards” tab, enter the information requested.

4. Check parameter information

There are additional ways that can also help you find and identify information about your veteran. The website “Soldat.ru” presents a list of search technologies, we draw your attention to some of them:

Database of Internet links to school museums of the Russian Federation, which have exhibitions about the combat routes of units and formations of the Soviet Army
How to establish the fate of a serviceman who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War
Information on materials held by the International Red Cross Tracing Service
Request forms for search, evacuation and search of graves through the Tracing and Information Center of the Russian Red Cross (

Not everything is known about the war yet.

Not all the pages have been written yet.

And time increases in value.

So we need to hurry up, friends!

The attack on the Soviet Union was the most serious crime of imperialism in its entire history, full of atrocities. The only question was: if Nazi Germany wins, the world will be thrown back to the darkest times of the past; if the USSR wins, the people of the Earth will be saved from complete destruction, and the road to further progress will open before them. This is exactly how the Soviet and party leadership explained to the Soviet people and the entire world community the complexity of the current situation after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR.

The whole country rose up to fight the enemy. The bloody battles with superior forces of Hitler's hordes, which were waged by the Red Army, were imbued with the greatest, unparalleled heroism. From the heights of the past years, it is clearly visible today that the role and significance of those battles turned out to be much greater than they were seen then. It was on those heroic and tragic frontiers of the forty-first year that the greatest trials passed, the personnel forces of the Soviet army were strengthened, and matured. Our Motherland suffered huge losses. The roads of retreat were difficult and tragic, the grief of the loss of dear and close people was immeasurable. At the cost of incredible efforts and sacrifices, the hours and days the country needed for the speedy mobilization and deployment of its forces were won.

The Soviet army fought on a huge front from the ice of the Arctic to the Black Sea. Russian soldiers shaded every inch of land with their hearts, not sparing blood and life. History has never known such an impulse, such unanimity with which the Soviet people stood up to defend their Motherland. “The Motherland is in danger!”, “The Motherland is calling!”, “Everything for the front, everything for victory over the enemy!” - these are the main aspirations of the Soviet people at the front and in the rear.

If you take a look at the entire course of the Great Patriotic War, you can trace the main stages through which the Soviet people ascended to their world-historic victory: the defeat of fascist troops near Moscow, which buried Hitler’s plan for a “blitzkrieg” war. Victory of the Soviet army in the grandiose Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus. Defeat of enemy troops on the Kursk Bulge and on the Dnieper. Complete expulsion of fascist invaders from the territory of the USSR. Deliverance from fascist domination of the peoples of Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Finland. Finally, victory over the fascist coalition, crowned by the Red Banner hoisted over the Reichstag in Berlin, and the crushing defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army. The long-awaited victory came at a very high price, at the cost of millions of human lives, soldiers and officers who did not return from the battlefield, including our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Childhood. Adolescence. Youth

My grandfather Semyon Ivanovich Chebakov was born on January 22, 1914 in the village of Pizipovo, Alikovsky District, Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, into the family of a middle peasant. Long before the Great Patriotic War, he graduated from 4th grade in the neighboring village of Yuskassy, and then continued his studies at the Chuvash-Sorma school. During 1927 - 1929, grandfather studied in Cheboksary, at the school of metalworkers' school. After which his independent work began: from 1930 to 1933, Semyon Ivanovich worked as a builder at the Molotov Automobile Plant in the city of Gorky. Then, from 1933 to 1937, my grandfather worked hard at the same plant, but already as a mechanic - mechanic. And in 1938 he entered the Gorky School of Mechanics of MTS, after graduating in 1940, my grandfather began working as a mechanic.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, in the period from 1940 to 1941, my grandfather Chebakov S.I. was a cadet of the regimental school 21 OPMB (Kiev military registration and enlistment office). After that, he took advanced training courses for Red Army command personnel in the city of Leningrad together with his brother Pyotr Ivanovich.

Chebakov Semyon Ivanovich, 1937

When the Great Patriotic War began, my grandfather turned 27 years old. On October 12, 1941, he and his brother went to the front to defend their homeland from the enemy. My grandfather beat the Nazis until the Victory, and went through a difficult battle path. From 1941 to 1943, he served as commander of a repair platoon section of the 64th Brigade on the Fourth Ukrainian Front. Then, from 1943 to 1946, he was the commander of a section of Park Platoon No. 9 of the VIMPMB on the Second Belorussian Front.

Unfortunately, my grandfather’s brother Chebakov Pyotr Ivanovich did not reach the great Victory; in 1944 he went missing.

The usual festive fireworks -

The capital celebrates the victory,

But veterans will be recognized

By orders, not by persons.

And the pain of war, already alien,

Is it close or far to my grandchildren?

He is not dead, not alive.

Listed as missing.

They, who defended the country,

Her Victory was not recognized.

They met the war

And in forty-four they detained me.

"With an unknown fate" -

The news arrived in an envelope.

He is not dead, not alive,

He is a man without a date of death.

Difficult steps towards the great Victory...

Our fellow countrymen are participants in the war. Chebakov Semyon Ivanovich (second from left)

My grandfather Semyon Ivanovich Chebakov was a participant in various operations during the Great Patriotic War. But from the stories of my parents, I know that when my grandfather remembered the war, he was very worried, tears welled up in his eyes. Therefore, relatives tried not to bother their grandfather, a front-line soldier, with difficult memories. I was born 13 years after my grandfather’s death, which means I did not have the opportunity to communicate with him personally. It's a pity! Therefore, while studying the history of the Great Patriotic War, I became acquainted with special interest in those battles, engagements, and military operations in which my grandfather could have participated as part of the Soviet troops of the Second Belarusian Fourth Front.

“Belarusian Operation” (June 23 - August 29, 1944), which was one of the largest strategic offensive operations during the Great Patriotic War. The Belarusian liberation operation took place under the code name “Bagration”. The purpose of the operation is the defeat of the Nazi Army Group Center and the liberation of Belarus with subsequent access to the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Four fronts took part in the offensive: First Baltic, First Belorussian, Second Belorussian and Third Belorussian. During the Belarusian operation, Soviet troops liberated all of Belarus, most of Lithuania and Latvia, entered the territory of Poland and advanced to the borders of East Prussia. I am proud that my grandfather also took part in this bloody military operation, which means he also contributed to the great common Victory over the enemy!

Chebakov Semyon Ivanovich (left) 1952 city of Zapeschiki (former Bessarabia)

Studying the history of the Great Patriotic War, I learned that in January 1944, Soviet troops launched a new offensive with the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, as a result of which the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted. And in April 1944, the forces of the First, Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts liberated Right Bank Ukraine and Odessa. In May 1944, the Fourth Ukrainian Front captured Crimea, the Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts successfully carried out the Iasi-Kishinev operation, defeated the troops of the Southern Ukraine group and liberated Chisinau. This brilliant victory gave impetus to the beginning of the liberation uprising in Bucharest and Romania's exit from the fascist bloc. The occupation was lifted by the forces of the Second Ukrainian Front in September 1944.

It is known that since the mid-summer of 1944, Soviet units were already conducting military operations on the territory of Romania and Poland, liberating these countries from fascist occupation and establishing pro-Soviet regimes there. And in January 1945, earlier than planned, the Vistula-Oder operation of the Soviet army began. On March 10, Soviet troops crossed the Oder and found themselves 80 km from Berlin. By mid-April 1945, the main groupings of German troops were defeated on the Soviet-German front. Yugoslavia, the eastern part of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania were liberated from fascist occupation. Pressed on all sides by the Soviet Army and Allied troops, the remnants of the German army were doomed. On April 25, 1945, troops of the Soviet fronts converged in the Potsdam area and surrounded the 300,000-strong Berlin enemy group. The rapid offensive of the Soviet units, advancing with battles and with heavy losses to encircle the capital of the Reich, was also dictated by political considerations. After bloody battles on May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison capitulated. Late in the evening of May 8, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. On May 9, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Prague. The war in Europe is over. On September 2, 1945, after the surrender of militaristic Japan, World War II ended.

Certificate (medal “For Victory over Germany”)

A page from my grandfather's Order Book

The price of victory is very high...

Indeed, the price of victory was enormous. A third of the country's national wealth was destroyed. Cities, villages and towns were destroyed. A huge number of plants, factories, mines, and many kilometers of railway lines were destroyed. Several million Soviet people died on the battlefields, in concentration camps, in occupied territories, in besieged Leningrad, and in the rear. The USSR lost 27 million people.

Notice of the missing brother of Chebakov Pyotr Ivanovich

A funeral was flying from the front

On a young boy

And he was still lying in the crater...

Oh, how merciless the war is!

And tanks passed by...

Someone else's speech... and he lay there,

And I remembered my sister and mother,

He lay there and died quietly.

The chest was pierced right through,

And the blood flowed into the black snow,

And he, with blue eyes,

I met my last dawn.

No, he didn't cry, he smiled,

And I remembered my home,

And overcoming the pain, he stood up,

And it was difficult to lift the machine gun...

The heart remembers, will never forget...

After the war, my grandfather Semyon Ivanovich Chebakov wanted to continue to serve his Motherland, but in May 1946 he was demobilized from the army due to illness. He was awarded the rank of First Lieutenant. My grandfather has the following awards: medal “For Victory over Germany” (No. 0268504), Order of the Red Star (No. 2719433), as well as anniversary medals. All of them are now stored in our family archive. And every year on the day of the Great Victory we remember our grandfather, looking at his military awards, photographs and mentally talking to him.

Grandfather has medals

They gave them to him for his bravery.

He then went on reconnaissance

And he shot at the Nazis accurately.

I was at the front during that war,

Defended my country!

In the post-war period from 1947 to 1957, grandfather worked in the Alikovsky district as a tax inspector. In 1948, on July 22, he married Tamara Aristarkhovna. They raised four children, gave them an education, and put them on their feet. Until the end of his life, my grandfather Semyon Ivanovich worked as the chairman of a collective farm in the village of Pizipovo, Alikovsky district. Many old-timers of our village still remember him with respect. Semyon Ivanovich died in 1984. But he continues to live in our memory and in our hearts. I want to say not only to my grandfather, but to all participants in the Great Patriotic War: " Thank you grandfather for the Victory!"

Great events do not fade, going into the depths of history. Their meaning is revealed more and more fully over time. And today, decades after the end of the Great Patriotic War, we read with unflagging interest every line telling about the heroism, courage of a private or a general, and with spiritual trepidation we become familiar with the documents, memories and relics that have come down to us. We must know everything, remember everything. The exploits of the older generations are the immortal legacy of the young. The glorious names of those who fearlessly, not sparing their lives and blood, walked towards the lead rain, liberating their fatherland, saving the peoples of other countries from the fascist yoke, will never be erased in our memory. They will forever shine in the heroic chronicle of our country, showing new and new generations an example of great love for the Fatherland and hatred of its enemies.

Monument to those killed and missing in action in the war (village of Pizipovo. There are 109 names, among them Semyon Ivanovich’s brother, Pyotr Ivanovich).