On the eve of anniversaries associated with the First World War, descendants of its participants are increasingly becoming active, who, based on scant information, want to find more detailed information about their relatives. This short guide has been compiled especially for such people.
The main body of documents about the combat path of participants in the First World War is located in the Russian State Military Historical Archive(city of Moscow, website: rgvia.rf). The most important thing you need to know to begin with is whether your ancestor was an officer (from ensign and above) or a lower rank (this includes both non-commissioned officers and sub-ensigns). If you are an officer, everything is simple. You need to come to the archive, contact the “Catalog” department and give your full name. relative. The archive employee will check in the electronic catalog whether there is a track record for such a person (fund 409). There is a slightly greater than 50% chance that a track record will be found. Then you order it, wait a few days, and then write out from it the combat route, numbers of units and formations where your ancestor served, then order documents from the relevant funds, etc. If you can’t visit the Russian State Historical Archive, you can try to find information about a relative -officer in open sources:
The author of this site, Alexey Likhotvorik, did a great thing: he digitized the highest orders for the military department, through which the awards of various orders (St. Anne, St. Stanislav, etc.) were approved. To find a relative, you can use the general search on the site.
Gurdov Pavel Vasilievich (1882-1915), captain
This project is an open database and photo archive of officers and formations of the Russian Imperial Army of the early twentieth century. The portal provides information about 56 thousand people who served in the period from 1900 to 1917.
Shmukler Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (1891-1961), non-commissioned officer
Let us note that back in the 2000s, V. M. Shabanov’s reference book on holders of the Order of St. George and the Arms of St. George was published. In 2008, another catalog was prepared at the Dukhovnaya Niva publishing house (it was mainly handled by the historian V.L. Yushko), which collected information only about the holders of the Order of St. George and provided small portraits and extracts from the orders for which he was awarded (it is necessary to say, such extracts for both officers and lower ranks are of the same type and do not reveal all the circumstances of the feat, since the wording was tailored to a specific article from the statute; if you are interested specifically in the description of the feat, you need to look up the award documents on the basis of which the decision of the St. George’s Duma was made) .
Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (1889-1920), lieutenant
The portal is dedicated to Russia's losses during the First World War. Its basis is a card index of losses (more than 10 million cards: 6 million have been digitized so far, 2.2 million have been posted). These cards were compiled for the wounded, shell-shocked, and out of action for other reasons. In addition, the portal will contain data from the RGVIA Fund 16196 (this is a list of losses). There are also some track records.
Bogoslovsky Andrey Alexandrovich (1869-1918), military priest
It is more difficult to search if your ancestor was of lower rank. To search in the RGVIA databases, you need to know the unit (regiment) where he served. Place of birth or conscription will not work. If the regiment is known, it is necessary to take an inventory of the fund of this regiment - it may contain documents related to replenishment (including personalized lists of arrivals), awards, etc. In addition, the inventory of Fund 16196 contains lists of losses by regiment. Now these lists have been digitized, and working with them has become easier.
If there is no information at all about the place of service of a relative, you need to contact various electronic databases:
The same (still incomplete, but regularly updated) portal about losses during the First World War. If your ancestor was wounded or shell-shocked, then a card could be kept in his name. Then you will find out the place of duty. Next, you need to contact the RGVIA.
Ivanova Rimma Mikhailovna (1894-1915), sister of mercy
This electronic database brings together lists of those killed and wounded that were published in newspapers of the time. The rank, full name, and place of residence were indicated. It is convenient to search if you know where your relative is from. The main disadvantage is that the place of service is not indicated, so at best, on this portal you can find confirmation of the fact that a person was injured or killed, but there will not be enough data to go to the archive.
Kryuchkov Kozma Firsovich (1890-1919), Don Cossack
- Consolidated lists of holders of the St. George Cross 1914-1922
More than a million lower ranks became Knights of St. George. S.V. Patrikeev, a famous collector, created consolidated lists for 15 years at the Russian State Historical Archive (they were compiled during the war years, but in the 1920s they were used for waste paper). There are more than one million people on the lists. The disadvantage of the lists is that they are arranged by cross numbers (these are serial numbers and have nothing to do with the order of awarding), but the advantage is that the documents are posted in pdf format via the link, this allows for an automatic search.
Nesterov Petr Nikolaevich (1887-1914) pilot ace
- A list of St. George's cavaliers is also possible *, but it is less complete than Patrikeev's directory
If your ancestor was drafted in the Ryazan, Voronezh provinces, Crimea, or served in the Black Sea Fleet, you are very lucky. There is such a great man - Alexander Grigorov. He and his team compiled the corresponding books of memory of the First World War for these provinces and the fleet.
Tsaregradsky Georgy Savvich (1888-1957), military doctor
If you are also looking for the burial place of a deceased relative, then similar data for many regiments is presented in the city archive (TsGIA) of St. Petersburg. It preserved the registers of regiments and hospitals. Let us note inventory 128 (Fund 19, Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg). If you look through it, then somewhere towards the end you will come across metric books on the shelves. For a nominal fee you can watch them from home. If only information about the place of conscription is known, then you need to go to the regional archives and look at the funds of military commanders and military presences.
*For technical reasons, these sites may be temporarily unavailable
A unique Internet resource has been launched in Russia - the electronic archive “In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914–1918”. It has already published more than 2.5 million personal cards for dead, wounded, captured and missing servicemen of the Russian army.
About 25 thousand of them were drafted in Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Zemgale - the then Livonia and Courland provinces. With Latgale there is less clarity: more than 36 thousand cards of military personnel who came to the tsarist army from the Vitebsk province have already been published. However, the province “covered” not only Latgale, but also a significant part of today’s Belarus. But, for example, there are already almost 7 thousand cards marked “Dvinsky” and “Rezhitsky” counties. Finally, part of the modern territory of Latvia during the First World War was administratively part of the Kovno and Pskov provinces, and approximately half of the former Livonia province today is the territory of Estonia.
The portal became operational thanks to the joint efforts of the Federal Archival Agency, the Russian Historical Society and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Its filling is still ongoing.
It is planned to complete the process of transferring 9 million cards to the Internet in a year, when the world celebrates the centenary of the end of the First World War.
...The Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), the largest in the country, is located in the Lefortovo Palace, once built by order of Peter I. Information about the Russian army, from the end of the 17th century to 1918, is stored here. To the right of the entrance arch is an inconspicuous entrance and a lone policeman who allows you into the territory only with a passport. Having an official identification document is perhaps the main condition for access to archival documents.
The head of the scientific and reference department, Oleg Chistyakov, says that interest in the archive has been steadily growing over recent years. Behind him is the entrance to the reading room, which is visited by about 70 people every day.
People have become interested in history, genealogy... Most of the visitors to the reading room are those who are looking for relatives, or genealogists working on someone else's order. As a percentage [among visitors], there are now fewer professional scientists than those who study the history of their family,” explains Chistyakov.
Visitors quietly pass by into the reading room. After they fill out a not very complicated form, the archive employee will open a personal file on them, where he will note the documents issued. Chistyakov says that despite the launch of the resource on the Internet, in many cases it is still necessary to contact the archive directly. He recalls that during the Soviet era, the archive was not formally considered closed, but getting into it “was problematic.”
It was necessary to provide sufficiently serious reasons to get into the archive. This was usually associated with scientific work, when the documents necessary for admission could be obtained from a research institute, a union of writers or journalists, and other official organizations.
Now there are no special restrictions.
Documents may not be provided, for example, if they themselves are in poor condition and handing them over could harm them. Then they are given out either under supervision, or an archive employee looks at it for free and passes on information from the document to the visitor,” says Chistyakov as he walks, opening the door to a room with metal cabinets. They contain personal cards of participants in military events of 1914-1918.
Sample RGVIA account:
● Itneris, Adam Tomov(ich), married Lutheran from Gazenpot (Aizput) district,
● Skuin(ish), Fedor (Theodor) Andreev(ich), a single Lutheran from Sterlitamak district (near Orenburg in Russia),
● Heinrich-Viktor Yanov(ich) Fischer, a single Lutheran from Grobinsky (Grobinsky) district,
● David Eliyas(ovich) Friedman, a single Jew from Tukum district,
● Yan Andreev(ich) Grayer, a single Lutheran from Grobinsky district,
And their comrades in arms - Gerasimov, Nikolai Vasilyevich, a married Old Believer from Dvina (Daugavpils) district, Ozolin, Evald Karlov (ich), a single Lutheran from Gazenpot (Aizput) district, Yoskvad, Kazimir Mikelev (ich), a single Catholic from Grobinsky district of Palanginskaya volost, Karl Ansov(ich) Berzin, single Lutheran from Aizpute district, Ans Yakovlev(ich) Gail, single Lutheran from Mitava (Jelgava) district, Borukh Peritsev(ich) Perau, single Jew from Aizpute district, Kipste, Indrik Yanovich, single a Lutheran from the Prekulinsky volost of the Grobinsky district and more than 100 more soldiers of the 20th mortar artillery division, who went missing in 1914-1915 during the fighting in East Prussia. (The full list is on the RGVIA website).
The archive also provides paid services, which are often used by researchers who do not live in Moscow. Their number has also been increasing in recent years.
Those interested in archival data from abroad can send a request or come in person. Unofficially, but still, those who come here from abroad receive increased attention and they are tried to be served first. Still, the person came from afar... It’s difficult, of course, to say from which countries people apply more often. The spread is large. But, probably, there are a lot of requests from Eastern Europe, for example, Poland, because it was part of the Russian Empire,” explains Chistyakov, adding that there are practically no difficulties in working with foreigners due to the language barrier.
And search requests are also coming in from Latvia, which was also once part of the Russian Empire. Those who were unable to find relatives in the data already published on the Internet are contacting us.
Sample registration card of the RGVIA: Berzin, Karl Andreevich, private of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, drafted from the Torken volost of the Volmarsky (Valmiera) district of the Livland province. On July 27, 1915, he was wounded near the village of Petrilov (present-day Western Ukraine). Killed in battle on September 3, 1916 in the Korytnitsky forest (now Western Ukraine).
Sometimes difficulties in searching may be associated not so much with the fact that the information has not yet been digitized, but with differences in the spelling of names or names of settlements:
The problem of transcribing foreign surnames and localities is always present. The portal's search engine returns similar options, but this does not provide a guarantee. You should try to enter surnames and titles in all possible versions in Cyrillic.
There are no step-by-step instructions for finding relatives - or rather, there are no universal instructions. You need to enter any known parameters and in any combinations into the appropriate search fields. Maybe someone knows only the part number and last name, while others know the year of birth, place, and other data. The more data, the more accurate the search. But, Chistyakov emphasizes again, you need to enter information into the search request form in Russian.
The structure of the Internet portal is intuitive, he believes. The data for each soldier is organized in such a way that, knowing only the first and last name of the wanted person, you can easily find the number of the unit in which he served, as well as track the movements of the soldier during the military campaign. If, as a result of independent attempts, it is not possible to find the required information on the site, you can send a request to archive specialists, who themselves will conduct a search using the data provided, but such a service is already paid. Its form is on the archive website.
Sample registration card of the RGVIA: Latsit, Karl Yakobovich, a married Lutheran who was called up from Valka (Valka) to become a huntsman in the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment. On June 17, 1915, he was captured near the village of Alexandria (in Poland).
Such a request will also be needed in order to find data not only on those who suffered in the war, but also on survivors (the archive website has a detailed price list with paid services). So, for example, you can ask an archive employee to look at data about a particular person in databases, handwritten or typewritten inventories. The issuance of found information is charged per page depending on the safety of the document and the complexity of reading. The most expensive entry, 6 rubles (about 10 euro cents), is an entry from one page from a handwritten inventory of the 18th century.
Later typewritten pages are valued at 1.5 rubles.
Oleg Chistyakov explains that it is difficult to calculate in advance the cost of responding to a remote request. Answers to questions based on found documents are also priced on a page-by-page basis, but many factors influence the final price. This is the safety of the documents, and how old it is, and how well the ink has survived. If you try to indicate the minimum cost of a response and assume that the author of the request is lucky and the data about the person will be on one card from the catalog, he will have to pay 1.5 rubles for this. In addition, for a short written answer, even if the search was unsuccessful, you will need to pay 200 rubles. It turns out that the lower limit is 201 rubles 50 kopecks (about 3 euros), and the upper limit is almost impossible to determine - amounts can reach five figures. Therefore, those who have the opportunity to personally come to the archive can save money.
Kan, Ab-Leib Mendelev (ich), grenadier of the 12th Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment. Originally from Kreslavka (Kraslava) Dvina (Daugavpils) district. Killed on September 20, 1916 near the village of Zaturce (today's Poland).
Requests through a form on the website will have to be filled out in Russian, but archive staff say they will be happy to help people who are trying to find their roots. Perhaps no one will be particularly surprised, even if the request is prepared by an online translator. The main thing is to understand the essence of the issue. There is no specific response time in the archive, but it usually takes about a week. Much depends on the order of priority, but employees admit - although this is not entirely fair - that they try to process foreign requests faster.
In general, with a successful combination of circumstances, it is possible to trace the history of this family back to the time of Ivan the Terrible. True, this costs a lot of effort, because you need to visit more than just one archive, but travel around the archives in different cities of the country and even neighboring countries. Therefore, such work is very expensive,” explains Chistyakov, moving into the room where visitors work with documents captured on film.
What also complicates the search is the fact that there have often been wars and revolutions in our country, so there are significant gaps in the documentation. It is sometimes impossible to restore them at all, and the cost of the work of professional genealogists can amount to millions of rubles.
True, according to Chistyakov, the work of Russian archives today is much better coordinated than several decades ago. And the attitude towards documents is now more scrupulous.
Sample registration card of the RGVIA: Zhunda, Vikenty Lyudvigovich, private of the 97th Livland Infantry Regiment. Originally from the Malinovsky volost of the Dvinsky (Daugavpils) district. Killed on January 19, 1915.
- The complexity of our work lies in the incompleteness of the documents. The main data was collected in 1917-1918, that is, during the period of war and revolution, and much was lost in the process. In the Russian Empire there was no archiving at all, and many documents were destroyed simply as unnecessary,” notes Chistyakov sadly and immediately corrects himself: “Then it was considered unnecessary.” And then there were also waste paper campaigns in the 20s... The country simply did not have enough paper, so some of the documents were lost. Now all pre-revolutionary and pre-war documents are prohibited from destruction.
He says that the digitization of documents continues and expresses hope that by the centenary of the end of the First World War, it will be possible to find on the Internet all available information about its participants from the Russian Empire.
What we are doing now - publishing archival documents - has never happened before. In this regard, the project is unique. In addition, we are working to expand access to documents and continue digitization. Our archive is not complete, like many others, which are regularly replenished, although people who study the history of their family often come to us and donate some documents. This is often done in order to preserve data for one’s descendants,” summarizes the head of the archive’s scientific reference department.
To the question about the fate of the archives on those who served in the Red Army during the Second World War and the post-war Soviet army, Chistyakov answers - this data is stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA, not to be confused with the RGVIA). There you can find documents on the periods 1918-1939 and after 1945, and information from the Second World War is posted on the People's Memory portal.
How to search on the portal in Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914–1918
http://gwar.mil.ru
Search by territory
It should be taken into account that the database (judging by the results) can store both the place of birth of a person and the place from which he was called.
Sample registration card of the RGVIA: Abel, Yukum Yanov (ich), private of the 1st Ust-Dvinsk Latvian battalion. Lutheran, originally from Grobinsky district, called up from Libau (Liepaja), was treated for illness (not injury) in the infirmary in Wesenberg (today Rakvere in Estonia). Discharged. Date unknown.
The search form theoretically allows you to narrow the range even to a populated area - as long as it is indicated on the map. If we are talking about a small village or city, you can, without specifying any more data, look at all the available data on those called from there. So, while for Riga the number of records is 1587, for Tukums - 113, for Bauska - 36, and for Ogre - only 4.
It is necessary to enter the historical name of the settlement - as it was indicated in Russian documents of that time (in our example, Riga remained Riga, and the three other cities for search purposes became, respectively, Tukkum, Bausk and Oger). True, there is such a map (albeit not very legible) in the “Maps” section. There you can also outline the territory for which you should search for data - on a slightly modified regular Google map (however, as Rus.Lsm.lv was convinced, this function does not work well - not to say “does not work at all”).
The historical names of Latvian settlements in German spelling, which became the basis for Russian, can be viewed on Wikipedia.
Finally, you can limit the search only to counties or even provinces, but in this case we are talking about thousands of records - for example, a search in Wenden (i.e. Cesis) county gives 2401 results. Again, we must take into account that the search form requires the full name of the county: if you enter “Wenden” in the “county” field, the result will be zero. It is necessary to enter “Wendensky”.
The old Russian names of counties and county towns can be found on Wikipedia - for the Courland, Livonia, Vitebsk and Kovno provinces, respectively.
Search by first and last name
Sample RGVIA registration card: Ballod, Edward, patronymic not specified (possibly illegitimate son). Private of the 4th Vidzeme Latvian Rifle Regiment, 19 years old, literate, Lutheran from the Marienburg manor in the Goldbek volost (today the village of Kolbergis, formerly Jaunaluksne) in the Valka district (in the Aluksne region). Before being drafted, he was a gardener. Wounded near Riga on January 12, 1917, on January 30 he was admitted for treatment to the infirmary in Nizhny Tagil.
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It turned out to be the most useful function. However, there are a few things to consider here.
On the one hand, first and last names should be entered in accordance with the spelling adopted 100 years ago (the letters Ѣ, Ѳ and I, abolished by the Bolsheviks, as well as a hard sign after all consonants at the end of the word, fortunately, are not required to be entered). On the other hand, the clerks of the tsarist army clearly did not have any respect for the national traditions of other peoples, nor an ear for music (and perhaps even in general), and in many cases - judging by the results - even literacy in Russian.
Therefore, it is quite difficult to predict in advance in what spelling this or that surname may appear (namely, in the subjunctive mood). However, some general principles can still be formulated.
In most cases, the Latvian endings of surnames are cut off: the surname Ozols is written as Ozol, and Balodis as Balod.
However, sometimes the endings are preserved for some reason and Gulbis (it would seem, well, why is he better than Balodis?) most often remains Gulbis.
The endings of names are cut off in the same way, in addition, names are Russified or Germanized, but not always. Peteris is written as Peter, and Ekab as Yakov or Jacob, but Janis is written as Jan (sometimes Ivan), and Karlis as Karl. Borderline cases are also possible: for example, Martins can be written both as Martin and as Martyn.
Often, unnecessary doublings and/or softenings of letters appear in surnames. For example, Gulbis can be written as Gulbis, and Balodis as Ballod.
Sometimes absolutely necessary softenings and diphthongs disappear without a trace, and Berzins, Krumins, Liepins are written as Berzin, Krumin and Lepin. (Berzins can also turn into Berezin, and Liepins into Lipin, but still not often). Briedis can become Bried, and Bredis, and even Brad.
Some clerks apparently believed that they spoke German and sometimes tried to write down Latvian surnames in the German way, reading z as “ts” and v as “f”. Accordingly, “Tsalit” may actually turn out to be both Tsalitis and Zalitis.
For many years this war remained silent. In the USSR she was considered inglorious and anti-people, and therefore unworthy of public attention. Outside the Union borders, the pages of its history were turned timidly and slowly: victories burned with death, defeats with the tears of those who only yesterday received front-line letters and urgent telegrams. After a long pause, they started talking about the war with their eyes wide open. Not only official documents, but also private archives emerged from the shadow of silence, feeding the soil of great history.
In the year of commemoration of the events of a century ago, historians eagerly throw out the bloody statistics of the war: 10 million killed and 20 million wounded from 38 participating countries (or three-quarters of the world's population), which lasted 4 years, 3 months and 10 days (from August 1, 1914 to November 11 1918) were engulfed in a whirlwind of unprecedented scale and cruelty. But there is hardly a historian who would dare to say how many military documents and evidence have been classified, forgotten and lost since the fatal shot of Gavrilo Princip. An even more difficult task is to get out of closets and attics the history of one life, family or small homeland. This is the closed space that, in synthesis with official narratives, can change the punctuation marks in the main sentences printed in red letters in history textbooks.
From the world according to the document: Europeans are writing their war history
Personal archives began to be used as an alternative source of great history in the 1970s. In Britain, where there has long been a strong tradition of oral and written accounts, historian Alf Peacock recorded interviews with eyewitnesses of the First World War. Among them were participants in the Battle of Ypres, doctors saving the lives of the wounded, and even soldiers fleeing the battlefield. The historian’s work did not go unnoticed. The tapes containing the stories of 231 people were sent to staff and volunteers at the York Oral History Society. In 2012, audio recordings of eyewitnesses attracted the interest of the UK Heritage Lottery Fund, which allocated almost fifty thousand pounds for the digitization of unique materials. As a result, 250 hours of film were transferred to a book and a CD.
But the matter did not end there either. Inspired by the example of fellow historians, the British Imperial War Museum and the online community Zooniverse.org set about digitizing the diaries of English soldiers and officers. Once again, the deciphering and publication of one and a half million pages of World War I archives was not without the help of volunteers. This extensive evidence base subsequently served as the basis for over a thousand BBC radio programmes.
“Europeana 1914-1918” is a special digital resource dedicated earlier
unpublished documents of the First World War. It included about
400 thousand documents,660 hours of film recordings and 90 thousand personal files and belongings.
The enthusiasm and sense of inner duty of volunteers paved the way to one of the largest digital collections from the First World War, “Europeana 1914-1918”. This online resource, opened on January 28 this year, has already grown to global status: it brings together the collections of many organizations around the world, including archives in Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Initially, the collection of archival materials was created by twenty European countries. It included about 400 thousand documents, 660 hours of unique film materials and 90 thousand personal files and belongings of war participants. “This is a unique collection of historical artifacts that have never been exhibited or published anywhere before,” says Europeana executive director Jill Cousins. “Much of the content is open-licensed, allowing it to be reused over and over again, and we would love for a wide range of people to be able to use the contents of the collection in their own projects.”
Russia collects archives
After a protracted silence, Russian archives have also begun to reconstruct a small history of the big war. If we talk about very little, then we will have to return again to the European venture to create an international collection of archival documents. Few people know that the Russian State Library made a significant contribution to the creation of “Europeans 1914-1918,” providing 270 photographs from its own collections for online use. The Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents houses an even richer collection, numbering over a hundred albums on the history of the war. A detailed list of photographic documents from the archive can be found on the Rosarkhiv website.
The largest complex of documents on the First World War to date is stored within the walls of the Lefortovo Palace, where the funds of the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA) are housed. The Lefortovo archive of military materials contains almost half a million items dating back to the period of the Great War. At a distance of two thousand kilometers from it, in an ancient town near Tyumen, Yalutorovsk, the digitization of documents began. By the end of 2018, the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, it is planned to scan over 7.7 million cards from the Bureau for the Accounting of Losses on the Fronts of the First World War.
Once these racks with a total length of 1120 meters were part of a unit for conducting “special office work for collecting and recording information about those who retired due to death or injury, as well as missing military ranks.” In a few years, an inventory of scanned documents will be posted on the website of the Russian State Military Historical Archive, and the archives will be available on the basis of an electronic application. However, today archivists in Yalutorovsk are already working on requests from individuals and institutions: if the required name is on the lists, the applicant receives a copy of it. With great gratitude, the Tyumen branch of the RGVIA is ready to accept personal (family) archives dating back to the war period.
TSAMO.ORG is an online archive of German documents from the First World War.
He combined 465 cases with a total volume of 36,142 sheets, which are provided
on an open access basis.
Another extensive archival and historical project TSAMO.ORG is a child of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO). Since 1953, it has housed a large collection of German documents from the First World War. For many years, these materials had neither annotations nor translations and were inaccessible to visitors to the archive. With the support of the German Historical Institute in Moscow, the electronic collection “German Documents of the First World War” was born in mid-July of this year, which contains 465 files with a total volume of 36,142 pages. Most of the digital archive of TsAMO are maps and diagrams (787!), orders and instructions, combat logs of military units, personal files of military personnel and other personnel records documents, special propaganda materials in the enemy army, information reports, personal correspondence, photographs and etc. Electronic versions of digitized documents are publicly available on the website tsamo.org.
The authors of a special project designed with creative inspiration and painstaking work by Lenta.ru and Rambler Infographics claim the title of an alternative textbook of domestic and world history. This site, which is not devoid of aesthetic pretensions, contains facts, thoughts, things and documents about the First World War, which still connect us with the events of the First World War. “Time is often compared to water, and its course to the flow of a river. You can drown in time, you can disappear without a trace, but it also brings the most unexpected artifacts to the surface,” the authors of the special project warn the reader. We can readily agree with them. In order for the cruel rapids of this winding river to leave living marks in the hearts of contemporaries, people, events, things and documents must not remain silent, for silence gives birth to oblivion, and oblivion is a direct path to mistakes.
The goal of the project is to enable citizens to determine the fate or find information about their relatives and friends who took part in the war of 1914-1918.
I would like to separately note this resource as another opportunity to search for genealogical information.
Let me remind you that in August 2014, a monument to the residents of Tsaritsyn to participants in the First World War was erected in Volgograd.
original photo - http://v1.ru/
On the eve of the anniversary, a personal list of killed, wounded and missing residents of the Tsaritsyn district of the Saratov province was published on the website, where funds were also being raised for the installation of the monument. This list was compiled by sampling from lists of the same name published in periodicals of that time. I dare say the name is inaccurate: the published list reflects data on losses not only of natives of Tsaritsynsky district, but also of Kamyshinsky.
The compiler of the list, alas, is not indicated. One can only assume that this is Andrei T. - this is how the author of a similar list published on the Tsaritsyn.rf website is designated.
For our region, whose pre-revolutionary historiography is very scarce due to documented losses during the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars, such initiatives are extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, these lists reflect only information (or rather, only a small part of it) about those districts of the Saratov province that are directly related to the modern Volgograd region. Some of the districts within our region during the First World War belonged to the Don Army Region and, alas, the authors of the list did not include information about losses among their residents.
As mentioned above, these lists were compiled by sampling information from the “Name lists of killed, wounded and missing lower ranks”, published by the Military Printing House of Empress Catherine the Great (Petrograd). The indicated “Name lists...” can be found on many resources; I prefer the National Library of Russia. 
If we talk about the number of such lists, it is unknown to me. A search in the electronic catalog of the National Library of Russia gives 979 results, for the request “Name list of killed, wounded Don Army Region” - 62, similar to the toponym “Saratov Province” - 87.
Since “Name lists...” are not the only (although the most valuable) source of information about losses in the First World War, and also the fact that searching through them is very labor-intensive and difficult (although there is a live search in the RSL electronic library) , I recommend turning to the SVRT project.
The project is an information and reference system; searching for information here is quite simple. You can discuss the project on the Union forum, where you can also view background information (for example, in case of difficulty in determining the search territory).
In addition to the "Name lists...", the following sources were used to form the database:
- information from the Russian State Historical Archive;
- information from regional state archives (Kirov, Omsk regions) and departmental divisions (official website of the Stavropol Territory Committee for Archives);
- periodicals (military and literary magazine "Razvedchik" and its supplement "Highest Orders", Tula Provincial Gazette) and ongoing publications ("Name Lists...").
- Memorial book of participants of the First World War - natives of the Tsarevokokshay district of the Kazan province.
Let's search for information on the project website for our region.
The search territories are the Saratov province (here we are interested in the Tsaritsyn and Kamyshin districts) and the Don Army Region (here - the 2nd Don, Ust-Medveditsky and Kamyshin districts).
Saratov province, Tsaritsyn district. 1736 records found. 
Saratov province, Kamyshinsky district. 1607 entries. 
Region of the Don Army, 2nd Don District. 505 records found. 
Region of the Don Army, Ust-Medveditsky district. 1066 records found here. 
Region of the Don Army, Khopersky district. 656 records found. 
Thus, we see the undeniable advantage of this resource as a source of information. In the “Name list of killed, wounded and missing residents of the Tsaritsyn district of the Saratov province” published in 2014 and already mentioned at the beginning of the text, there are only 355 names.
In total, in the already formed and operating database as of August 1, 2014, there are 1,012,943 records of lower ranks. Anyone can become a participant in the SVRT project; the team employs more than 60 volunteers.
Read more about this and other (no less interesting) SVRT projects on-line .
V.V. Bibikov
Remember by name.
Electronic database “Alphabetical lists of losses of lower ranks 1914-1918.”
Project of the Union for the Revival of Genealogical Traditions (SVRT)
The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War will be celebrated in the middle of this year.
The First World War is one of the most widespread armed conflicts in human history. Before that, it was called the “Great War”, “Second Patriotic War”. And I remember well the words of my grandmother, who called her “German”. In Soviet historiography, the war was considered “unjust and aggressive” and before the outbreak of World War II it was called nothing less than “imperialist.”
As a result of the war, four empires ceased to exist: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German.
The participating countries lost more than 10 million people in soldiers killed, about 12 million civilians killed and about 55 million people were wounded.
It is known that during that war, about 15.5 million soldiers were mobilized in the Russian Empire. Of these, about 1.7 million were killed, about 3.8 million were wounded, and almost 3.5 million were captured.
Often, when studying the history of our huge country, we perfectly remember the dates and events that took place in it over many centuries, without thinking at all that all these events were directly related to the fate of our ancestors. The history of a country and society is made up of the stories and destinies of many individual people. Studying the history of one’s family, knowing one’s roots, one’s pedigree helps to realize the importance of each individual person, allows one to feel one’s belonging to a family and clan, acts as a kind of connecting link, and prevents the disunity and alienation of people in the modern world.
That is why SVRT, an organization engaged in the promotion of genealogy, considered it its duty on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War to restore the names of ordinary soldiers - heroes of the Great War.
The idea of systematizing the losses of lower ranks in the First World War came to us back in 2010. From that moment on, the search began for documents where this data would be reflected.
According to available information, lists of losses compiled during the First World War are now stored in regional archives in the funds of provincial boards. They are also available in the collections of the largest libraries in Russia.
About two years ago, these lists began to be posted on the electronic resources of the Russian State Library and the Tsarskoye Selo online library. There were also enthusiasts who began processing the lists, but most of them were engaged in sampling only for a specific district, at best a province, or the processed lists were subject to various kinds of conditions limiting free access to them.
Seeing this state of affairs, the Union for the Revival of Genealogical Traditions decided to optimize all publicly available lists and make them available to everyone. The work was based on the alphabetization of lists for the territories of the Russian Empire. This principle of processing lists allows you to quickly search for the person you are looking for. We first turned to these lists in August 2012, and since August 2013, the project “The First World War, 1914-1918” began to be systematically implemented. Alphabetical lists of losses of lower ranks.”
We began to form a team of volunteer helpers for this project, and volunteers who wanted to help in its implementation began to actively join us. The project was headed by SVRT member Nikolai Ivanovich Chernukhin, a doctor living in the Stavropol Territory, on whose shoulders the main work of implementing the project fell.
Currently, the project is working in full force, the lists are being actively processed and posted on the SVRT website for free access. 59 volunteers are participating in the project: these are both members of our Union and simply people living in our country and abroad, united by a common goal.
Thanks to the active participation of such volunteers as Bogatyrev V.I., Gavrilchenko P.V., Efimenko T.D., Kalenov D.M., Kravtsova E.M., Myasnikova N.A., Naumova E.E., Shchennikov A. N. and many others, the project has practical content and is nearing completion.
At the moment, all lists found in the public domain have been sorted out and are being worked on. Of the 97 territories on the lists, 96 territories have already been processed and posted on our website. The formed database already contains information about more than one million people of lower ranks, and each of us can now look for our relatives there.
The lists posted on the websites of the previously mentioned libraries contain information about approximately 1 million people, and in total about 1.8 million people were taken into account.
Unfortunately, not all lists are freely available, but only about half, but work continues, including searching for missing information.
People are already beginning to use our findings, and samples for the relevant territories are being posted on regional websites.
We welcome any help, including providing us with the missing lists. Elena Kravtsova and Andrey Gorbonosov helped and continue to help us with this. Some of the lists were provided by Boris Alekseev.
The actual results of the project can be found on the SVRT website.
All volunteers who have already shown practical results are noted with gratitude by the SVRT Board, some of them were awarded SVRT Badges of the III degree for their selfless and noble work. At the end of the project, the most active participants will be nominated for orders and medals of the Russian Imperial House.
I would like to present our project with the help of a small electronic presentation of scans from the SVRT website. So,
Frame 1. Screensaver of the project from the SVRT website.
Frame 2. On the main page of our website there are buttons for the largest SVRT projects, among them there is a button with the image of a gallant soldier during the war of 1914-1918.
Frame 3. By clicking on this button we are taken to the website page dedicated to this project.
Frame 4. Here we see a brief summary of the project, a list of project participants by name (site visitors should know who prepared the lists of losses for the work). Next is an alphabet of letters: by clicking on one of them, you can get to the page on which the provinces are located, the name of which begins with the corresponding letter. Just below the alphabet is a reminder that the territorial division of the Russian Empire is not in all cases identical to the modern one. For people involved in genealogy, this is an obvious thing, but for the rest of the Internet users it is not at all true.
Frame 5. By clicking, for example, on the letter “O” we see three provinces at once: Olonetsk, Orenburg and Oryol. Next, you should click in the corresponding province on the letter with which the desired surname begins.
Frame 6. Now we get to the pivot table. The table contains several columns with persons corresponding to the corresponding letter. Column names: title, full name, religion, marital status, county, parish (settlement), reason for departure, date of departure, number of the published list and page in the list.
Frame 8. Why did a person end up on the list of casualties twice? From the list data it follows that on May 31, 1915 he was wounded, but left in service, and on July 16 of the same year it is recorded that he was wounded and apparently sent to the hospital. I easily found his potential father, Stepan Yakovlevich, in my database. Having compared the dates of birth of the hero’s sisters, brothers, and nephews, I understood why he was not included in the family tree earlier. Georgy Stefanovich probably did not return to his native village after the war, and there could be several reasons. Perhaps the “whirlwind of the revolution” radically changed the person’s fate, or perhaps he was mortally wounded, which is why he was not included in the 1917 election lists, which I looked through in the archive. Now I know that Georgy Stefanovich Bibikov is my second cousin, a participant in that “forgotten war.” This kind of indirect genealogical information can be obtained from these lists, i.e. these lists are a good addition to the well-known OBD-Memorial database, which we all actively use. But, of course, the main goal of working on the lists is to list by name the undeservedly forgotten heroes of the First World War of 1914-1918.
Frame 9. The SVRT forum page is presented. You can follow the discussion of the project, its developments, additional information on the project, as well as participate in discussions, conversations and debates on our forum.
Frame 10. The most active participants in the project are awarded with our award, the “SVRT Project Participant” badge. The badge is approved in three degrees and is awarded for each project separately. The picture shows the 3rd and 2nd degrees of the sign. Currently, 20 project participants have been awarded this badge.
Join our project, remember your great-grandfathers!
Bibikov V.V. — President of the Union for the Revival of Genealogical Traditions, member of the Public Council at the Federal Archival Agency, member of the Council of the Russian Genealogical Federation, full member of the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow.
