Digging for their lives: Russia's volunteer body hunters

BBC ^ | 13 January 2014 | Lucy Ash

[moose07]

Of the estimated 70 million people killed in World War Two, 26 million died on the Eastern front - and up to four million of them are still officially considered missing in action. But volunteers are now searching the former battlefields for the soldiers' remains, determined to give them a proper burial - and a name.

Olga Ivshina walks slowly and carefully through the pine trees, the beeps of her metal detector punctuating the quiet of the forest. "They are not buried very deep," she says.

"Sometimes we find them just beneath the moss and a few layers of fallen leaves. They are still lying where they fell. The soldiers are waiting for us - waiting for the chance to finally go home."

Nearby, Marina Koutchinskaya is on her knees searching in the mud. For the past 12 years she has spent most of her holidays like this, far away from home, her maternity clothes business, and her young son.

[Snip}

They are part of a group called Exploration who have travelled for 24 hours in a cramped army truck to get to this forest near St Petersburg. Conditions are basic - they camp in the woods - and some days they have to wade waist-deep through mud to find the bodies of the fallen. The work can be dangerous, too. Soldiers are regularly discovered with their grenades still in their backpacks and artillery shells can be seen sticking out of the trees. Diggers from other groups elsewhere in Russia have lost their lives.

Marina holds up an object she has found, it looks like a bar of soap, but it is actually TNT. "Near a naked flame it's still dangerous, even though it has been lying in the ground for 70 years," she says.

[moose07]

Some of the Pictures are of a moving nature,viewer discretion advised.
Facinating and moving.

[BCW]

Stalin & the Soviet Union...cared nothing for lives - just the establishment...funny how that is playing out right now in the US under the current Comrade in Chief...

[moose07]

Same mold,different label.

[jttpwalsh]

I read a moving anecdote, years ago, of when an American Patrol linked up with their Soviet Counterparts, in the last days of WW II, in Europe. Suddenly, a shot rang out, and a Russian was killed, by a sniper. An American jumped into the ditch, where the soldier fell, and grabbed his version of “dog tags”.

The Soviets were clearly puzzled, and asked the G.I. what he was doing. “His family must be notified, that he was killed, in battle”, came the reply. The Russians threw the dog tags back onto the body, and said “When the war is over, and he does not come home, his family will know, that he was killed”.

[sauropod]

.

[moose07]

That says it all.
Didn't even have the manners to go along with the GIs sensibilities.

[donozark]

Interesting article. I suspect the cold climate of Russia has helped preserve remains more so than Indo-China. And these are certainly fine people doing the work as volunteers.

Unfortunately, Putin, like Stalin, has little regard for Russian soldiers killed in the Donbas (Ukraine).

[jttpwalsh]

Russia: A cold place, literally, and figuratively. Thanks for your reply.

[Flick Lives]

I listened to an interesting podcast on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History called “Ghosts of the Ostfront”. It provided a very graphic portrayal of the Hell on Earth that was created for soldiers on both sides when the two biggest mass murdering lunatics. Hitler and Stalin, went to war against each other.

[moose07]

GGG?

[null and void]

Didn't even have the manners to go along with the GIs sensibilities.

Had the survival instinct to know that Stalin would view reporting deaths as undermining moral and the war effort and punish accordingly.

[moose07]

Yes,true.
Just take the tags for a little walk before loosing them.

[BCW]

The History channel should really sit down and record these events - make them known - instead of producing shows about UFO technology...

The students in Middle School and High School should be required to learn this stuff - watch it and hear from those that survived such atrocities...when they grow up and are able to vote - they won’t vote in “community organizers” hell bent on socialism on a grand scale that is meant to destroy the only true and last Republic that stands in the way of stuff like that occurring again...

I had a HS student sitting there with his mother and my wife, both of whom are teachers - and his mother states, “I see you are back from Iraq.” - the boy states, “There is still a war going on over there?”...and this was in late 2006...most do not care to learn history and are shocked when idiots take control and masses die unnecessarily...

[Riley]

I listened to an interesting podcast on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History called “Ghosts of the Ostfront”. It provided a very graphic portrayal of the Hell on Earth that was created for soldiers on both sides when the two biggest mass murdering lunatics. Hitler and Stalin, went to war against each other.

Thanks for the tip on that. Googled and found it.

[IncPen]

A very good read...

[Nailbiter]

thanks