Soldier's medallion. How Search Troops Find Fallen War Heroes

Direct and indirect evidence in establishing the identity of a serviceman.

All finds, allowing to establish information about their owners, are classified into direct and indirect evidence in establishing the identity of their owner.
Named finds (spoons, mugs, pots, etc.) are circumstantial evidence in establishing the identity of the victims.
To establish the identity of the remains to a specific person and the name of the deceased, it is necessary to have finds that are direct evidence of this, namely: documents proving the identity of a serviceman. Such finds for the servicemen of the Red Army, first of all, are mortal medallions, and for the servicemen of the Wehrmacht - identification tokens. Along with mortal medallions, direct evidence in establishing the identity of a deceased military servant is identity documents issued by various instances and departments in the name of a specific person, provided that this document is found along with the remains and subsequent confirmation from any sources about the fact and the place of death of this person. Such documents can be a Red Army book, a military ID, various certificates, party and Komsomol cards, etc.

Even such a find can be used to establish the name and fate of the soldier.

The identity of a serviceman can also be established by the discovered numbered government awards and registration numbers of military vehicles.
Archival documents containing information about the awardees and information about the composition of the crew of combat vehicles, if there is additional information about the fate of the military, can also be considered as direct evidence in establishing names.
Attempts to use named finds as direct evidence lead to frequent errors. Therefore, such findings, first of all, should be used as circumstantial evidence.
Finds of all categories can be used as an evidence base in the list-based establishment of names - on the basis of historical and archival research and analysis of the results of search operations. There are known cases when the remains were found with a medallion belonging to another person. Therefore, information obtained on the basis of direct and indirect evidence requires verification and clarification of information about the fate of servicemen from additional sources. Such sources are information from archival funds, books of memory, registration documents of military registration and enlistment offices. Clarification of information is necessary in order to exclude an error in establishing the fate of a serviceman, even in the presence of direct evidence.

Mortal medallions.

The soldier's mortal medallion was used to identify the identity of servicemen in the Red Army long before the start of World War II and was introduced by Order of the RVS dated 14.08.1925 No. 856 as an identity document. The medallion was issued to all those enrolled in military service, regardless of the type of troops. The first samples of medallions were made in the form of a flat tin box measuring 50x33x4 mm with a braid to be worn around the neck. Inside the box was a standard form to fill in with data on its owner - name, year and place of birth, place of call and address of the next of kin. Usually the wife, mother, or father was indicated.
In the course of hostilities, it became obvious that the tin medallion was leaking, and the parchment insert quickly deteriorated. In connection with this order of the NCO of 03/15/1941 No. 138, new medallions were put into circulation in the form of a plastic octahedral cylindrical case, inside which a paper form was inserted in duplicate.
On October 7, 1941, by order of the NKO of the USSR, the Red Army book was also introduced as the main document proving the identity of a serviceman - an ordinary and junior command staff. An identity card was issued to the officers.

In wartime, other forms of capsules were also made. In some factories, the capsule caps were made with an eyelet for a braid, which allowed the capsule to be worn around the neck. In besieged Leningrad, they were issued round, made of porous plastic, which, unfortunately, absorbs moisture, and therefore the blank in such a capsule is very poorly preserved. During the search, you can also find a wooden and metal capsule. Metal capsules were made round and rectangular.
Since the inception of the search movement, search engines have asked the question: "Why are so few killed have mortal medallions with them?" Not everyone knows this at the present time.

Due to the inaccessibility of information about the events of those years, a version was born that lives on today. Say, there was a total superstition among the soldiers - if you carry a mortal medallion with you, you will be killed. Therefore, many of these "death row" soldiers simply threw away or did not fill out the insert forms. In fact, in difficult front-line conditions, practical soldiers found the use of medallion capsules for other purposes. For example, if you cut off the bottom of the capsule and cut out an insert with a thin hole from the wood, you will get a mouthpiece, and you can smoke precious tobacco without a trace. And the insert itself, in extreme cases, could come in handy for a roll-up. It is convenient to store sewing and gramophone needles, threads and other small household items in a whole capsule. Including, sometimes vital. Cases of fish hook medallion capsules are known to be found.

But these are not the main reasons for the lack of medallions among the killed.
One of the main reasons is the imperfection and frequently changing system of registration of the personnel of the Red Army. This is convincingly evidenced by the table below of the chronology of NCO orders regarding the registration of personnel and irrecoverable losses of the Red Army.

date		Non-profit organization order
01.24.1917 g.		World War I. A cervical mark has been introduced to identify the killed and wounded.
08/14/1925		Medallion introduced. Issued upon arrival at the unit simultaneously with the service (Red Army) book.
08/25/1937		The medallion has been canceled. The Red Army book remained.
12/21/1939		NCO Order No. 238. A medallion and instructions on how to use medallions in wartime have been introduced.
06/20/1940		The Red Army book and the mortal medallion were canceled.
03/15/1941		A medallion and a new regulation on the personal registration of losses and burial of the deceased personnel of the spacecraft in wartime were introduced. The document is based on the position of the order of the NCO No. 238 of 12.21.39.
07.10.1941 g.		A Red Army book has been introduced in addition to the medallion.
11/17/1942		The medallion has been canceled. Motivation - a Red Army book is enough. Some servicemen continued to store medallions on their own initiative during 1943.

As can be seen from the table, the rank and file of the Red Army during the Finnish War and until the spring of 1941, legally, did not have any identity documents. The results of the Finnish campaign showed the inadmissibility of such a situation. Despite an attempt to rectify the situation, due to various circumstances (sluggishness, confusion of the beginning of the war, etc.), including practically the whole of 1941, the servicemen were left without medallions, as evidenced by the results of the search work no less convincingly. In search practice, very rarely, the owners of found medallions are counted as dead or missing in 41st. The main reason for this is that medallions have not yet been issued to the overwhelming majority of servicemen. The state of affairs improved only with the stabilization of the front and the restoration of factories and plants. As a result, identification medallions were issued more or less regularly during the incomplete 1942. And the war, as you know, lasted four years. This is one of the main reasons for the lack of medallions among the victims.
Contrary to superstition, the soldiers tried not to be unidentified in case of death, and relatives or friends were informed about their fate. Many facts speak convincingly about this. For example, in the absence of a capsule, the soldiers used the cartridge case as its capacity.
In the absence of a standard form, the fighters wrote down their data on any piece of paper.
Another, no less important, reason for the absence of mortal medallions from the dead is the bad execution of the system for recording irrecoverable losses in the Red Army.
According to the NCO regulation, which determines the procedure for removing corpses from the battlefields and their burial, the funeral team, before burying the corpses, had to tear off one copy of the form for transfer to the unit headquarters as confirmation of the death of a soldier and accounting for losses. The second copy, in order not to depersonalize the corpses, was ordered to be put back into the capsule and left in the victim's pocket (see the text of the document below). In difficult combat conditions, which especially distinguished the first two years of the war, this condition was often fulfilled poorly, and often not at all. Funeral teams, which did not exist in the list of units, did not always have the opportunity to carry out the burial properly. This also explains the presence of many "mounted" killed and somehow buried in "improvised" graves.
Medallion inserts were very often removed without tearing off the halves (empty capsules), and more often they were simply taken away with the capsule. This is the third circumstance that explains the fact that most of the remains of the dead are found without medallions or with empty capsules. The latter circumstance suggests that the dead, found without medallions, for the most part, according to the registration documents, are not listed as missing, but killed and even buried.
There are other reasons for the presence of empty capsules with remains. For example, in the capsule, the soldier put a non-standard note that was retrieved by the funeral team.
Below is a slightly abbreviated text of the REGULATIONS ON PERSONAL ACCOUNTING OF LOSSES AND BURALS OF THE DEATED PERSONAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY DURING WAR TIME, announced with the order of the NCO No. 138 of 03/15/1941 on the introduction of the regulation and the supply of troops with medallions and loose leaflets.

Section 1.

General position.
1.1. The regulation on the personal registration of losses and the burial of the deceased personnel of the Red Army in wartime determines the system of personal registration of losses at the front, the procedure for burying the dead and establishes the rules for notifying the population of the country about the fate of their relatives - servicemen of the army in the field.
1.3. Notification of the family of a deceased soldier is a document for filing a petition for a pension.

Section 2.
Personal registration in military units, formations and institutions of the Red Army.
2.4. every commander and chief, starting from the squad leader and above, under any battle conditions is obliged to keep accurate records of the personnel of the subunit or unit subordinate to him.
The personal record should indicate: in what battles and where the fighter participated, the junior commander, how he behaved in these battles (brave - loyal to the Motherland; coward - deserter).
When leaving the unit (due to injury, illness), the characteristics of the behavior of a soldier in battle should be concentrated in the headquarters, unit.
2.5. the replenishment arriving at the unit and part of it is taken on a personal account before it is put into battle ...
2.6. at the end of each battle, the commander of the subunit, the unit checks the personnel and immediately reports on the command about irrecoverable losses.

Accounting at the headquarters of the regiment (separate unit).
2.11. personal registration of losses at the headquarters of the regiment and a separate unit is made according to the personal lists of personal losses in the units that make up the regiment (a separate unit), and on the basis of checking the personnel of some units for a sample.
2.12. After the exact establishment of personal losses through strict control, the regiment headquarters announces in the order for the regiment a list of those who left the regiment, makes changes to the regiment headquarters accounting documents and submits a list of personal losses of all regiment personnel to the division headquarters every three days (form 2).
2.13. Upon establishing the death of a serviceman and the place of his burial, the regiment headquarters (separate unit) immediately sends a notification (form 4, "funeral" - author's note) directly to relatives at their place of residence - to the commanding staff of the cadre (regular servicemen, as a rule, officers - author's note) and junior commanders of long-term service; to the district military commissariat - to the rank and file and junior commanders of the conscript service and the reserve.
2.14. Servicemen, missing, are counted at the headquarters of the regiment within 15 days as temporarily retired. ..
After a 15-day period, the missing are entered into the list of irrecoverable losses, units are excluded from the lists with a report on command.
After 45 days, relatives are notified of the missing. If later the fate of the missing servicemen is clarified, then additional information is immediately reported about them both on command and to the RVC or relatives.
2.15. The commander of the regiment (separate unit) is fully responsible for the accurate accounting of losses in the regiment and for the timely reporting of losses to the division headquarters.
Approx. the author - this procedure worked well in the rear units and aviation, in the infantry, especially during the period of active hostilities, a lot changed in 15 and 45 days and did not have time, which is one of the reasons many relatives did not receive notifications.

Registration at the headquarters of the division (brigade), corps.
2.16. Personal records of losses at the headquarters of a division (brigade), corps are made according to the personal lists of personal losses of units that make up the division (brigade), corps, according to medallion inserts seized from servicemen who died in the division's zone of action, and according to the personal lists of personal personal losses. the composition of the headquarters of the division (brigade), corps.
2. 17. After the establishment of personal losses through strict control by the division headquarters, the corps compiles personal lists (form 2A) of irrecoverable losses (killed, dead from wounds, missing and taken prisoner, approx. Author - numerical data) for all parts , including the rear services that are part of the division (brigade), and are sent three times a month by the 1st, 10th and 20th day of each month to the Red Army General Staff Staffing Directorate (GUK). The headquarters of the corps presents named lists of losses only for the management of the corps, corps units and rear medical institutions directly subordinate to the corps.
Approx. ed. - similar accounting requirements were prescribed to the headquarters of armies, fronts and medical institutions.

Registration in the district (city) military commissariat.
2.25. The district (city) military commissar keeps the received notifications from military units on the killed, died from wounds, missing servicemen for registration, and gives a notification from the district military enlistment office to the relatives of the serviceman (form 4) ...
2.26. In the event of the return of a soldier from the front, to which a notification was sent by the military unit as a deceased, the RVC finds out the reason for his return and immediately informs the Staffing Directorate of the General Staff of the spacecraft, at the same time establishes the correctness of the receipt of the pension by his family.
2.27. The district military commissariat systematically monitors the correctness of the appointment and issuance of pensions by the regional security service to the families of the dead servicemen.
Approx. ed. The Pension Regulations are currently legally binding. The relatives of the victims found by the search engines, according to the registration documents listed as missing, have the legal right to apply for a pension and compensation for the past years.

Section 3.
Appointment of medallions with information about military personnel.
3.28. To account for the losses of personnel in wartime and in order to instill skills in storing a medallion even in peacetime, each serviceman from the moment of his arrival at the unit is issued a medallion with a loose leaf in two copies, which is recorded in the clothing certificate and kept with him until he is retired ...
The presence of the medallion and the correctness of the filling of the insert are periodically checked by the Red Army and junior command personnel at the morning examination, and by the commanding personnel - when the unit leaves the field, for tactical exercises.
When a serviceman is transferred to another part, the medallion is entered into the serviceman's clothing certificate.
The medallion is worn in a special pocket sewn on the outside of the waistband of your trousers (on the right side).
The medallion insert is filled in duplicate. One copy of the medallion insert from the killed and those who died from wounds is taken out and stored at the headquarters of the unit or a medical institution, and the second copy, folded into a medallion, remains with the killed or died from wounds.
3.29. The teams, dressed up to clear the battlefields, take out one copy of the medallion insert from the dead and transfer it to the headquarters of the unit, by order of which they cleared the battlefield.
3.30. The death of a serviceman is reported by the part to which the teams, after clearing the battlefield, received an insert of the medallion removed from the dead person, regardless of which part the soldier belonged to.
3.31. The inserts taken from the medallions of the killed servicemen are kept by the unit commanders at the unit headquarters, on the basis of which lists are drawn up (form 2) and sent to the division headquarters. Individual units that are not part of the division submit lists (Form 2) to the headquarters of the unit to which they are directly subordinate.
3.32. The head of transport accompanying them is obliged to report in detail to the person receiving the wounded about the persons who died of wounds on the way to medical institutions, the number of those who died on the way, where they were left for burial (or buried) and by whose order and where they will be buried ... one copy of the medallion insert taken from the deceased on the way shall be handed over to the person receiving the wounded. If the deceased does not have a medallion on the way, the accompanying person is obliged to take measures to establish the identity of the deceased. The head of the medical institution informs about the dead on the way (form 3) on a par with the dead in the hospital.

Section 4.
Accounting for losses in the Manning Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army.
3.33. Personal records of the losses of the personnel of the Red Army (killed, died of wounds, missing, taken prisoner) is concentrated in the Directorate for Manning the Troops of the General Staff of the Red Army.
3.34. The Troops Manning Directorate is responsible for:
- keep a personal record of the losses of the Red Army for individual units and formations (division, brigade, corps, army, front) and a reference card index of losses of personnel of the Red Army during hostilities;
- to compile alphabetical lists of casualties of the Red Army personnel and provide information on the requests of relatives and institutions about those killed at the front ...

Deputy Chief
Of the General Staff of the Red Army
Lieutenant General V. Sokolovsky.
TsAMO RF, f. 4, op. 12, d. 97, l. 263-272. Script.

The document is presented with some abbreviations; Section 5 has been omitted, which defines the procedure for burying those killed in battle.
In November 1942, for unknown reasons, the medallions were canceled, which led to an increase in the number of unidentified deaths. A Red Army book remained as an identity card for private and junior command personnel.

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Introduction

In April 2015, I completed the project “How the Missing Disappeared”. The work on the project fascinated me, and I decided to continue it.

When I conducted a questionnaire among the students of the school, it turned out that 30% of them have missing persons (Appendix 8), so the search movement in Russia is still very relevant , since during the excavation it is possible to raise not only the remains of the fallen heroes, but also to establish their names. In order to establish the name of a soldier, you need to find a soldier's medallion.

Target work: entering the search work to find a soldier, his soldier's medallion, establish the name of the soldier and find his relatives.

Tasks:

1. Find out what a "soldier's medallion" is, find information about soldiers' medallions during the Great Patriotic War.

2. Take part in a search expedition - "Memory Watch".

3. Collect data on the work with the medallion note and the search for the relatives of the deceased soldier.

4. Present the results of the work in the form of a presentation.

Hypothesis: If you find a soldier's medallion during a search operation, it will help to establish the identity of the deceased soldier.

An object Research: Soldier's Medallion.

Thing research: identification of the deceased soldier using a medallion.

Methods research: study of literature, collection of information on this issue, conversation with the commander of the search group "Duty" of the city of Kirov, participation in the expedition, study of documents.

1.What is a soldier's medallion?

First, I turned to the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language V.I. Dahl and learned that the word "medallion" is "a medal worn around the neck, in the form of an amulet." The soldier's medallion was also called mortal. And the word "mortal" means "temporary, able to lose life."

In the dictionary of S.I. Ozhegova, the meaning of the word "medallion" is "worn on a chain around the neck, a small, usually oval case with something nested inside." The word "mortal" means "one who does not live forever, such as death seeks."

During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army used twisting plastic pencil cases (medallions), into which a piece of paper with the data of a soldier was inserted (Appendix 1). On the form of the insert, the soldier entered data about himself: - surname, name, patronymic; - year of birth; - military rank; - native - republic, territory, region, city, district, s / council, village; - family information: address, FULL NAME. wife, closest relative; - what district military commissariat is called; - blood type.

The form was filled in two copies. In the event of the death of a soldier, one copy was sent to the office, the second remained with the body and was handed over to relatives after burial.

During the Great Patriotic War, other forms of capsules were also made. In some factories, the capsule caps were made with an eyelet for the braid, which allowed the capsule to be worn around the neck. In besieged Leningrad, they were issued round from porous plastic, which, unfortunately, absorbs moisture, and therefore the blank in such a capsule is very poorly preserved. During the search, you can also find a wooden and metal capsule. Metal capsules were made round and rectangular.

If the soldiers for some reason did not have enough pencil case, they used cartridge cases from the cartridge to the Mosin rifle. Pulling out the bullet, the soldier emptied the gunpowder, put a note in the cartridge case, and then plugged the hole with an inverted bullet.

But why didn't all the soldiers have a medallion with them? It turns out that one of the reasons was that the soldiers threw him out, thereby frightening off death and did not believe in their death. They also used medallion capsules for other purposes. It was convenient to store sewing needles, threads and other small household items in a whole capsule. Cases of fish hook medallion capsules are known to be found. But these are not the main reasons for the lack of medallions among the killed. The fact is that on November 17, 1942, the medallion was canceled by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense No. 376 "On the removal of medallions from the supply of the Red Army." Therefore, the soldiers who died at the end of 1942 and subsequent years were without mortal medallions. But some servicemen continued to keep medallions on their own initiative during 1943.

This way of storing personal information is not the most practical one. Water, which over time penetrates the inside of the pencil case, often destroys the paper or puts it in such a state that the text cannot be read. The safety of the records depends on the conditions in which the pencil case was, how well it was twisted. Using special techniques developed by the members of the search teams, the pencil case should be opened in a special way, so as not to damage or lose the information stored in it.

After examining the information, I concluded that the soldier's medallion is a very important link in the process of identifying the soldiers of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. The cancellation of the medallion led to an increase in the number of missing servicemen due to the impossibility of identifying the deceased.

I wanted to take part in the search for a soldier's medallion myself, to be present at all stages of collecting information about it.

2. Where and how can a soldier's medallion be found? Participation in a military archaeological expedition.

In the spring, my mother and I went on a search all-Russian expedition "Memory Watch-2015" as part of the "Duty" detachment of the Kirov boarding school. The commander of the detachment is Ozhegova Yulia Valerievna. The expedition took place from April 22 to May 8 near the village of Staroye Ramushevo, Starorussky district, Novgorod region. To exist in natural conditions for half a month, the detachment needs to equip the camp. Our detachment has been building a dugout for several years. It has a place to rest and sleep, a stove and a place to dry shoes, electricity and light. A campfire is set up in the camp, there is a dining table, grocery and repair tents and a place for washing (Appendix 2).

2.2 Technique and tactics of search work.

Wake up in the camp at 7-30, an hour is allocated to put yourself in order, have breakfast and at 8-30 go to work in the forest. Each person has a probe and a sapper shovel in their hands, and some have a metal detector. We walked 5 km from the camp to the Aleksandrovka tract. There used to be very fierce battles in that place. Arriving at the place of work, the members of the detachment scatter through the forest. They work with a probe, sticking it into the ground, and by knocking they determine what they stumbled upon: a tree root, a stone, a shell fragment or a bone. Every time, stumbling upon something suspicious, you need to use a spatula or knife to try to clean this place of turf and get this item. So, over and over again experience is gained in identifying objects by sound. Other members of the squad work as a metal detector. The device determines the metal in the ground, its composition and shape (Appendix 3).

I really wanted to find a fighter myself. Every time I went to work, I thought that luck would smile on me today. In search work, the important qualities are patience and endurance. Once I was called as an assistant for the exhumation of a soldier. It was found by my elder friend. Together with him and a small group of guys, we began to raise the remains of a soldier.

2.3. Personal belongings of the deceased soldier.

Carefully remove the sod, fold it separately to the side. A large area needs to be cleared from the turf to make it easier to pick up the remains. And then we begin to clean bone by bone from the ground, working somewhere with a broom, somewhere with a brush. And now the outlines of a fighter appear: in what position he lies, in what clothes he was, what personal things are next to him. Often there is a duffel bag with a soldier: its fabric rots, but part of the contents remains. It can contain a spoon, mug, toothbrush, knife, razor, shaving brush. A bowler hat was usually attached to the duffel bag. A harness, belts, buckles, and a pouch for spare cartridges are often kept (Appendix 4).

And, of course, the dream of every search engine is to find the coveted black pencil case - a soldier's medallion. It was kept by a soldier in a pouch, or the breast pocket of a tunic. It could be kept in a cap or a lapel of a winter hat, and also in shoes. Search engines very carefully scan these places for the presence of a medallion, loosening every lump of earth with their fingers.

Our fighter was not lying very deep, under a thick layer of turf. From the location of his remains, we can say that he was lying on his stomach, clasping his duffel bag with his hands. They found personal items with him: buttons, a pectoral cross, boots, belts, a buckle, a mug, a spoon and, of course, a medallion! Search engines experience an inexplicable joy when they find it. Because the soldier's medallion is the link between the past and the present. This is a real chance to establish the name of the soldier and find his relatives (Appendix 5).

2.4. The Mortal Medallion is the soldier's last message.

The medallion is a pencil case in which a note about the fighter's personal data was embedded. The note was a special form, or the soldier himself wrote the note on a piece of paper. Sometimes this appeal was directly addressed to those people who find it. For instance: « Dear comrade, please send it to such addresses. Smolensk, Art. Pochinok ... Starovoitova M.V. Marusya, goodbye, I loved you to the last drop of my life. Your Lenya ".

Our soldier's medallion was opened on the spot and found that inside there was a note in good condition. Further investigation of the contents was in the camp. To read the medallion, you need to prepare tools: a plate with clean water, sheets of clean paper, needles, coins for fixing the note. Experienced searchers have opened the medallion. The note easily fell into a plate of water, then it was picked up on a piece of paper and spun. Having fixed the edges of the note with coins, it was laid out and allowed to dry, covered with another clean sheet. The next day, it turned out that nothing was visible on the letterhead. Probably, the pencil mark disappeared over time. But we didn't get upset, as there is still laboratory analysis. The notes are scanned and, if the recording is already practically indistinguishable, processed using computer programs. We did the same with our package insert. By the end of the watch we received the joyful news that our medallion had been read! And our soldier had a name: Yakov Ivanovich Sysoev, born in 1918, a native of the Udmurt Republic, junior sergeant of the 127th separate rifle brigade. And a little later, the news came that relatives of the fighter were also found (Appendix 6).

During the "Memory Watch-2015" forces of our detachment were raised and buried 20 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Found 1 medallion. The remains of Y.I. Sysoev folded separately for sending the soldier home.

3. Search for the relatives of the deceased soldier.

Upon arrival home, the thought of how the soldier's relatives were found did not leave me. I decided to find out about this from the commander of our detachment: Ozhegova Yulia Valerievna. During a conversation with her, I learned about the main stages of searching for relatives:

1. Write down the personal details of the fighter from the medallion note form.

2. Turn to local search engines of the region or republic where the soldier is from.

3. Look through the Book of Memory for the presence of a record about this fighter.

4. Try to make a request to the military registration and enlistment office, from where he was called up.

5. Go to the website of the generalized data bank "Memorial" and try

find military documents about the missing person (reports on the loss of army personnel, certificates of the dead and missing, as well as descriptions and lists of burials of Soviet soldiers and officers, and others).

The personal data of our fighter was sent to the search engines of Udmurtia. A week later they found the relatives of Yakov Ivanovich. There was also such information that he disappeared without a trace on June 5, 1942 near the Aleksandrovka tract of the Starorussky district of the Novgorod region. He is survived by a little son Gena and wife Varvara.

The remains of the soldier were transferred to his relatives. On May 15, 2014, Yakov Ivanovich was buried with military honors in the village of Syam - Mozhga, Republic of Udmurtia (Appendix 7).

Conclusion

I found out what a "soldier's medallion" is, took part in the expedition - "Memory Watch": raising a soldier with a medallion, with the help of adults, I collected data on the work with a soldier's medallion's note and the search for relatives of the deceased soldier, established the name of the soldier.

Thus, my hypothesis was confirmed. The soldier's medallion is an important link in the process of identifying a soldier.

Since the medallions were canceled at the end of 1942, and many of the dead soldiers did not have them, it is now necessary to search for soldiers who died in the war, establish their names and search for relatives. A soldier's medallion is a link between the past war and real life.

Literature

The Great Patriotic War: 1941-1945: Encyclopedia for schoolchildren / Comp. I. A. Damaskin, P. A. Koshel.-M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2001.-447s.: Ill .

We are walking on the ground, watered with blood ...: Collection of articles, stories and diaries. / Comp. Yashkova T.V., Smenenko Y. T.- Kirov: COOMPO "Debt", 2005.-296s.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: illustrated edition / V.I.Dal.-M.: Eksmo, 2012.- 896s.: Ill.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language / S.I. Ozhegov http://www.ozhegov.org/

OBD Memorial http://www.obd-memorial.ru/html/index.html

Forum of antiques and military history http://forum.ww2.ru/index.php?showtopic=29917

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%96%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0% BD% D0% BD% D0% BE% D1% 81% D0% BB% D1% 83% D0% B6% D0% B0% D1% 89% D0% B5% D0% B3% D0% BE

Appendix 1: Soldier's Medallion. Note.

Appendix 2: Field Camp. Old Ramushevo.

Appendix 3: Tactics of search work.

Appendix 4: Personal belongings of a fighter.

Appendix 5: The remains of a soldier.

Appendix 6: Identifying a Fighter. Sysoev Yakov Ivanovich.

Appendix 7: Burial with military honors in the village of Syam - Mozhga.

Appendix 8: Questioning of primary school students of school number 74:

1) How many years ago did the Second World War end?

2) Are there any participants in the Second World War in your family?

3) Are there any missing persons?

80 people participated. All 80 people had some of their relatives who fought at the front. 28 children (30%) answered that there were missing persons in their family during the Great Patriotic War.

MEDALLION OF A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Valueva Nadezhda

Morgun Maria

6th grade 2nd platoon, MBOU Lyceum named after Major General V.I. Khismatulin,Surgut

Starkova-Ashurilaeva Nadezhda Arkadyevna

scientific director,teacher of the first qualification category, head of the Center for Continuing Education for Children,MBOU Lyceum named after Major General Khismatulin V.I.,Surgut

Relevance: After the end of the Great Patriotic War, many nameless remained: fraternal military graves, the remains of the dead, missing. It is necessary to find all, without exception, the remains of Soviet servicemen, to establish the identity of whom it is possible and to reburial with honors, giving their civic duty to those unnamed heroes who gave their lives for their country during the Great Patriotic War.

There comes a time when the search engines go out into the fields where the hostilities took place in order to find soldiers, to bury the remains to the ground, when underwater search expeditions begin in order to find and identify the ships lying at the bottom, the mass graves of soldiers since the Great Patriotic War. war. The search movement has been operating since the 1950s-1960s, every year hundreds, if not thousands of missing soldiers rise from the ground, from craters, from rifle cells and simply from the fields where they fell in the last attack. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people are still missing.

There are many different exhibits in the museum "Loyal Sons of Russia" of the municipal budgetary educational institution of the Lyceum named after Major General Vasily Ivanovich Khismatulin, but the exhibits brought by the cadets of our lyceum as part of the Nord search group are special: these are EXHIBITS found at excavations in the Pskov region ...

We present one of the exhibits of the Museum "Loyal Sons of Russia": a medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War of 1941, which was found in 2008 and transferred to our museum (Figure 1).

Drawing1 ... Medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War - an exhibit of the museum "Loyal Sons of Russia"

Target of our work: to analyze the meaning of the medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

To achieve this goal, the following were determined tasks:

1. Collect information about the soldier's personal identification mark - a medallion.

2. Study the materials about the soldier's medallion.

3. Determine the reasons for the absence of medallions from soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

Methods: study of theoretical material using Internet resources, literary sources, museum exhibits.

1. The introduction of soldiers' medallions.

By order of the NKO (People's Commissar of Defense) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics No. 138 of March 15, 1941, new medallions were introduced in the form of a plastic pencil case with a parchment paper insert. Also, the soldier's medallions of the 1941 model were made in metal and wooden versions. In the cavity of the medallion there was a paper insert of the established sample in two copies. The size of the paper insert is 40x180 mm.

Drawing 2 ... Capsule

The capsule was made of black or brown plastic and consisted of a body and a lid with a threaded connection to each other (Figure 2). Capsule length 50 mm. It should be noted that the paper insert intended for servicemen of the border units of the NKVD troops (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) had a slightly larger size: 53x280 mm and a vertical green stripe 5 mm wide along its entire length. In terms of content, both paper inserts were almost identical.

On the insert form (Figure 3), in the appropriate columns, the soldier entered:

· Full Name;

· year of birth;

· military rank;

· Native - republic, territory, region, city, district, village council, village;

· Information about the family: address, surname, name, patronymic of the wife, next of kin;

What kind of RVC is called (regional military registration and enlistment office);

· Blood group according to Jansky (from I to IV).

Drawing3 ... Liner blank

It was forbidden to indicate the name of the military unit.

There are insert forms on various paper, where the clerk entered the necessary columns by hand, or filled in the entire medallion according to the words of the soldier (there were many illiterate soldiers among the soldiers).

2. Reasons for the absence of medallions from soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

Since the dawn of the search movement, search engines have wondered: Why are so few of those killed have mortal medallions with them? Not everyone knows this at the present time.

1. Due to the unavailability of information about the events of those years, a version was born that lives on today. There was a total superstition among the soldiers: if you carry a mortal medallion with you, you will be killed. The medallion is needed only in one case - if you are killed. To a certain extent, such a sign came from this. The medallions were called "death row". Many soldiers went into battle without a "suicide bomber"; they simply threw him away or did not fill out the insert forms. The Poles, for example, before the Second World War also had such medallions, but in Polish they were called "immortelles". This is a fundamentally different attitude.

In fact, in difficult front-line conditions, practical soldiers found the use of medallion capsules for other purposes. For example, if you cut off the bottom of the capsule and cut out an insert with a thin hole from the wood, you will get a mouthpiece, and you can smoke precious tobacco without a trace. And the insert itself, in extreme cases, could come in handy for a roll-up. It is convenient to store sewing and gramophone needles, threads and other small household items in a whole capsule. Including, sometimes vital. Cases of fish hook medallion capsules are known to be found.

2. But these are not the main reasons for the lack of medallions in the dead. One of the main reasons is the imperfection and frequently changing system of accounting for the personnel of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. In search practice, very rarely, the owners of found medallions are counted as dead or missing in 1941.

The main reason is that medallions have not yet been issued to the overwhelming majority of servicemen. The state of affairs improved only with the stabilization of the front and the restoration of factories and plants. As a result, identification medallions were issued more or less regularly during the incomplete 1942. And the war, as you know, lasted four years. This is one of the main reasons for the lack of medallions among the victims.

Contrary to superstition, the soldiers tried not to be unidentified in case of death, and relatives or friends were informed about their fate. Many facts speak convincingly about this. For example, in the absence of a capsule, the soldiers used the cartridge case as its capacity. In the absence of a standard form, the fighters wrote down their data on any piece of paper.

3. The inserts of the medallions were very often taken out without tearing off the halves (empty capsules), and more often they were simply taken away with the capsule. This is the third circumstance that explains the fact that most of the remains of the dead are found without medallions or with empty capsules. The latter circumstance suggests that the dead, found without medallions, for the most part, according to the registration documents, are not listed as missing, but killed and even buried.

Modern spectral instruments make it possible to read texts made with graphite, ink or printing ink without much difficulty, even if the text has faded significantly. Texts made with plant-based ink are more difficult to read, since they fade away and are washed out almost completely as a result of prolonged exposure to unfavorable conditions.

In the event of the death of a serviceman, one copy of the insert was seized by the funeral team and handed over to the unit headquarters. The second - remained in the medallion with the deceased. But in reality, in conditions of hostilities, this requirement was practically not fulfilled, the medallion was confiscated entirely. On the basis of the inserts taken from the medallions, the names of the dead who remained on the battlefield were established, and lists of irrecoverable losses were drawn up.

It should be noted that during the Great Patriotic War, medallions with wooden and metal cases were used in some units. As a rule, the liners in them do not retain well.

In November 1942, by order of the NKO (People's Commissar of Defense) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics No. 376, the medallions were removed from the supply (Table 1).

Table 1.

Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

date	Non-profit organization order
	World War I. A cervical mark has been introduced to identify the killed and wounded.
	Medallion introduced. Issued upon arrival at the unit simultaneously with the service (Red Army) book.
	The medallion has been canceled. The Red Army book remained.
	NPO Order No. 238. A medallion and instructions on how to use medallions in wartime have been introduced.
	The Red Army book and the mortal medallion were canceled.
	A medallion and a new regulation on the personal registration of losses and burial of the deceased personnel of the spacecraft in wartime were introduced. The document is based on the position of the order of the NCO No. 238 of 12.21.39.
	A Red Army book has been introduced in addition to the medallion.
	The medallion has been canceled. Motivation - a Red Army book is enough. Some servicemen continued to store medallions on their own initiative during 1943.

The medallion has been canceled. Motivation - a Red Army book is enough, but some servicemen during 1943, on their own initiative, continued to store medallions.

The cancellation of the medallion led to an increase in the number of missing servicemen due to the impossibility of identifying the deceased.

First: more than 70 years have passed since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

Second: for example, they found a medallion, a capsule - it is intact and unbroken. Inside there should be a standard piece of paper with text, which should be filled in with a pencil (Figure 4).

Drawing 4 ... Pencil

The pencil is better preserved. Pencil writing is much better in one turn. And if it is written with an ordinary fountain pen, then the ink is blurry. There is a medallion, an ebonite capsule opens, and then it turns out that the capsule is either empty (supposedly it was possible to cheat death - throw a piece of paper out of there), or paper dust spills out from there.

The exhibit of the Loyal Sons of Russia Museum - a soldier's medallion - is interesting and unique. The Great Patriotic War is unlikely to ever end, it will not end not only in the memory of the people and in the history of our country, but also from the point of view of those soldiers who still need to be found and buried. Museums store a lot of information about the past, the present, and it is very important to acquaint children and adults with the exhibits and their history in order to remember the history of our country, so that the irreparable will not be repeated ...

As the great Russian commander Alexander Suvorov said: "The war ends on the day the last soldier who fought in it is buried".

Soldier's medallion

Vitaly Ivanov

A soldier's medallion is raised.

And there is hope

Replenish the list of names

From that endless war.

Find out who is in full growth

Went to the last fight

And who is now among the birches

Lies in the ground damp.

MORTAL MEDALLION

Vyacheslav Kondratyev

He was given to us - black, shiny,

Looks like a lipstick case ...

Ahead, then, the battle is on

And you need to keep it tight.

It contains a surname, blood according to Yansky,

Age - twenty short years ...

Why is it not clear to me,

No graphs for your beloved?

After all, when you get off the ground,

Overcoming fear and trembling,

Don't you remember her

Don't you call her?

Wouldn't it matter

People will find out later -

Whom among the trench everyday

Did you go to defend every day?

And now, without fear of the consequences -

I won't be alive then -

I write ... And let it be known

The name of the one who did not become a wife ...

Bibliography

1. Documents of the group of military archeology "Seeker".

2. "Antiquities and Antiquities", articles about Soldier's medallions.

3. "Names from soldiers' medallions" / Compiled by A.Yu. Konoplev, R.R. Salakhiev. - Kazan: "Fatherland", 2005.

4. Mortal medallions. Portal creator = SF = Veles // SPB.RU. [Electronic resource] - Access mode. - URL: http://www.hranitels.ru (date of access 15.02.2012).

MEDALLION OF A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Valueva Nadezhda

Morgun Maria

6th grade 2nd platoon, MBOU Lyceum named after Major General V.I. Khismatulin,Surgut

Starkova-Ashurilaeva Nadezhda Arkadyevna

scientific director,teacher of the first qualification category, head of the Center for Continuing Education for Children,MBOU Lyceum named after Major General Khismatulin V.I.,Surgut

We present one of the exhibits of the Museum "Loyal Sons of Russia": a medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War of 1941, which was found in 2008 and transferred to our museum (Figure 1).

Drawing1 ... Medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War - an exhibit of the museum "Loyal Sons of Russia"

Target of our work: to analyze the meaning of the medallion of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

To achieve this goal, the following were determined tasks:

1. Collect information about the soldier's personal identification mark - a medallion.

2. Study the materials about the soldier's medallion.

3. Determine the reasons for the absence of medallions from soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

Methods: study of theoretical material using Internet resources, literary sources, museum exhibits.

1. The introduction of soldiers' medallions.

Drawing 2 ... Capsule

On the insert form (Figure 3), in the appropriate columns, the soldier entered:

· Full Name;

· year of birth;

· military rank;

· Native - republic, territory, region, city, district, village council, village;

· Information about the family: address, surname, name, patronymic of the wife, next of kin;

What kind of RVC is called (regional military registration and enlistment office);

· Blood group according to Jansky (from I to IV).

Drawing3 ... Liner blank

It was forbidden to indicate the name of the military unit.

2. Reasons for the absence of medallions from soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

Since the dawn of the search movement, search engines have wondered: Why are so few of those killed have mortal medallions with them? Not everyone knows this at the present time.

It should be noted that during the Great Patriotic War, medallions with wooden and metal cases were used in some units. As a rule, the liners in them do not retain well.

In November 1942, by order of the NKO (People's Commissar of Defense) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics No. 376, the medallions were removed from the supply (Table 1).

Table 1.

Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

date	Non-profit organization order
	World War I. A cervical mark has been introduced to identify the killed and wounded.
	Medallion introduced. Issued upon arrival at the unit simultaneously with the service (Red Army) book.
	The medallion has been canceled. The Red Army book remained.
	NPO Order No. 238. A medallion and instructions on how to use medallions in wartime have been introduced.
	The Red Army book and the mortal medallion were canceled.
	A medallion and a new regulation on the personal registration of losses and burial of the deceased personnel of the spacecraft in wartime were introduced. The document is based on the position of the order of the NCO No. 238 of 12.21.39.
	A Red Army book has been introduced in addition to the medallion.
	The medallion has been canceled. Motivation - a Red Army book is enough. Some servicemen continued to store medallions on their own initiative during 1943.

The medallion has been canceled. Motivation - a Red Army book is enough, but some servicemen during 1943, on their own initiative, continued to store medallions.

The cancellation of the medallion led to an increase in the number of missing servicemen due to the impossibility of identifying the deceased.

First: more than 70 years have passed since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

Second: for example, they found a medallion, a capsule - it is intact and unbroken. Inside there should be a standard piece of paper with text, which should be filled in with a pencil (Figure 4).

Drawing 4 ... Pencil

As the great Russian commander Alexander Suvorov said: "The war ends on the day the last soldier who fought in it is buried".

Soldier's medallion

Vitaly Ivanov

A soldier's medallion is raised.

And there is hope

Replenish the list of names

From that endless war.

Find out who is in full growth

Went to the last fight

And who is now among the birches

Lies in the ground damp.

MORTAL MEDALLION

Vyacheslav Kondratyev

He was given to us - black, shiny,

Looks like a lipstick case ...

Ahead, then, the battle is on

And you need to keep it tight.

It contains a surname, blood according to Yansky,

Age - twenty short years ...

Why is it not clear to me,

No graphs for your beloved?

After all, when you get off the ground,

Overcoming fear and trembling,

Don't you remember her

Don't you call her?

Wouldn't it matter

People will find out later -

Whom among the trench everyday

Did you go to defend every day?

And now, without fear of the consequences -

I won't be alive then -

I write ... And let it be known

The name of the one who did not become a wife ...

Bibliography

1. Documents of the group of military archeology "Seeker".

2. "Antiquities and Antiquities", articles about Soldier's medallions.

3. "Names from soldiers' medallions" / Compiled by A.Yu. Konoplev, R.R. Salakhiev. - Kazan: "Fatherland", 2005.

4. Mortal medallions. Portal creator = SF = Veles // SPB.RU. [Electronic resource] - Access mode. - URL: http://www.hranitels.ru (date of access 15.02.2012).

Soldier's mortal medallion in the Red Army was introduced on 08/14/1925 and actually copied the "amulet" of the army of tsarist Russia. The medallion was issued to all those enrolled in military service, regardless of the type of troops. The first samples of medallions were made in the form of a flat tin box ("amulet"), measuring 50x33x4 mm with an eyelet for a cord when worn around the neck. A standard form was put inside the box, and in its absence, any piece of paper with the owner's data. The insert form contained the following columns: surname, name, patronymic, year of birth, military rank; native: republic, territory, region, city, district, village council, village; family address; surname, name and patronymic of a relative; what district military registration and enlistment office is called; blood type. It was forbidden to indicate the name of the military unit in the medallion. In the course of hostilities, it became obvious that the tin medallion was not airtight, and the parchment insert quickly deteriorated.

In connection with this order of the NCO of 03/15/1941 No. 138, new medallions were put into circulation in the form of a textolite or ebonite six / octagonal or round cylindrical case, inside which a piece of paper with the soldier's data was inserted. The length of a standard pencil case with a screwed lid was 50 mm, the width was 14 mm, and the inner diameter was 8 mm. The pencil case could have an eyelet on the lid for the cord. Either a special form or an ordinary handwritten note was used. The form was filled in two copies. In the event of the death of a serviceman, one copy was sent to the unit's office, the second remained with the body of the deceased. In wartime, other forms of capsules were also made. In besieged Leningrad, they were issued round, made of porous plastic that absorbed moisture, and therefore the blank in such a capsule was poorly preserved. Round and rectangular metal capsules were also made.

There are homemade posthumous medallions, for which they used the cartridge cases from the cartridge to the Mosin rifle. After pulling out the bullet, the soldier poured out the gunpowder, put a note in the cartridge case, and then plugged the hole with an inverted bullet. There are also known wooden pencil cases, which were made both by handicraft artels and by the military themselves. These capsules were coated with varnish, and this briefly extended their durability.

As practice has shown, the medallions used in the Red Army turned out to be very impractical: they are water-permeable, not heat-resistant. The handwritten notes were not always legible. In addition, many servicemen did not put the note in the "death medallion" at all, considering it a bad omen. The frequently changing system of registration of the personnel of the Red Army, which, even during the war, either introduced identification marks, then canceled them, also negatively influenced the obligation of servicemen to wear an identification mark. Officially, on the basis of regulatory documents, "mortal medallions" were issued only from mid-1941 to the end of 1942. During the rest of the war, identification marks were worn by military personnel on their own initiative. As a result, unidentified irrecoverable losses of servicemen during the war amounted to more than 40%. However, the main reason for such a disregard for the registration of personnel and irrecoverable losses in the Red Army was the system of insignificance of human life that had been established since the days of serfdom. The postulate - women are still giving birth - is valid today in the post-Soviet territories.