Tracing a soldiers family can also take years, even decades, to do especially if the said family has moved elsewhere after WWII. Warring countries, Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner exchange with a total of 100 soldiers returning to their respective home countries, according to authorities from both countries on Sunday, January 8. I cant tell you how grateful I am, she emotionally says as her eyes fill with tears. Heziel Pitogo is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Read about our approach to external linking. An eternal flame may burn at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow but for these volunteers, the best means to honor those who have fallen during WWII is to give them back their identities. Near a naked flame its still dangerous, even though it has been lying in the ground for 70 years, she pointed out. This looked like the best place for this topic. Red cloth was draped over the walls of the freshly-dug grave a respectful gesture that in normal circumstances was only granted to army generals. After that there were more and more and more, and we realised these bodies were to be found everywhere - and on a massive scale.". Many are believed to come from small towns and rural areas with higher poverty rates and fewer job opportunities. With four children to raise, times went tough for the widowed woman. Early in the war, Amsterdam's former alderman Marieke van Doorninck called for action to get off Russian gas, which created a community-wide effort called 15% GasTerug, . They are still lying where they fell. salaries and take part in regular military training while retaining their civilian jobs. Please select the Tab Content in the Widget Settings. They branded his young son and daughter traitor's children and the family were forced to leave. As of recent times, diggers have uncovered 2,000 remains. , , , . But it could be a life's work - or more. The workers had went through far worse horrors than ploughing through lands with human remains strewn about. We are the ones who made him unknown.". Player View Grid View 20/20 1 /20 palehorse95 Uploaded 02/07/2012 182 Ratings 83,577 Views 181 Comments 18 Favorites Here is another find by Russian War Diggers. They destroyed the church and even struck police officers who tried to control the enraged mob. There are no official figures for the numbers of Russian "volunteers" currently in Ukraine, but they include tens of thousands of men fighting in regional battalions raised by local authorities and given names like "Tiger," units of Cossacks and Russia's so-called Special Combat Army Reserve. Home; Ancient History. Olga Ivshina walks slowly and carefully through the pine trees, the beeps of her metal detector punctuating the quiet of the forest. From the archives, the diggers worked out that Kustov had been the commander of one of Stalin's notorious shtrafbats, a battalion made up of prisoners and deserters. They try to rid these unknown soldiers their anonymity. This work connects us to our past. | Medieval Compilation. Check - Russian war diggers YouTube statistics and Real-Time subscriber count. Then we found a pelvis and some ribs between the roots. All the dead were what are referred to in Russia as volunteers an umbrella term for the tens of thousands of men who have chosen to join the military specifically to take part in combat operations in Ukraine. HH calls for an end to Russia, Ukraine war. It's amazing to see such rare items found in remarkable condition. The soldiers are waiting for us waiting for the chance to finally go home.. But when he turns it upside down in his hand, what comes out of it is not a roll of paper, but a trickle of brown liquid. The most essential key in this is the ID tag. We are engaged in the search and burial lost Red Army soldiers/ If we can to know their names, we looking for relatives and bury them on their native land with all. Marina and Olga are just two of the many volunteers of the Exploration group who journeyed 12 hours via an army truck just to get to the forest located near St. Petersburg. WWII 159,726 views Jul 14, 2016 Almost 30 million Russians lost their lives in World War. $390.00. In an area nearby, MarinaKoutchinskaya bends on her knees and searches through the mud. There are more than 100 coffins - each contains the bones of 12 to 15 men. Most terrifying Heavy Weapons of the US Military in the Future ( Video ), The End of a Superpower The Collapse of the Soviet Union, Boiling and Burning Alive: A Medieval Punishment of Searing Pain, Death by Pressing and Crushing: A Medieval Punishment Youd Want to Avoid, 65 Medieval Facts, Beasts, Torture Methods, Jobs & MORE! The question is, how could the workers go through and plough through a land with a tractor when they could visibly see it littered with the bodies of the dead, unburied soldiers? In addition, hundreds of Second World War artefacts are gathered. Among the crowd of relatives, also, wereTatiana Uzarevich and Lyudmila Marinkina, twin sisters in their 50s who have traveled for nine hours via plane from the remote area of Kamchatka into the site to pay their last respects to their grandfather. Please select the Tab Content in the Widget Settings. There must have been 30 or 40 soldiers in there. I was shocked. Why does the US have 800 Military Bases around the World? Free shipping. Of the estimated 70 million people killed in World War Two, 26 million died on the Eastern front - and up to four million of them are still officially considered missing in action. Near River Nevas banks and close to the mass grave the diggers found, a Russian Orthodox priest says prayers while walking around the bright red coffins placed on the grass as the relatives -children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren of the identified soldiers the diggers have unearthed watched, some openly shedding their tears. Reply. , units of Cossacks and Russias so-called Special Combat Army Reserve. 5 Most Mysterious Abandoned Military Bases, World War 2 Tank Pulled From Bog After 60 years, 15 Of The Greatest Warrior Cultures From History, British Union of Fascists March October 3rd 1937, Archival Footage 1950s British Railways Trains Signaling. Conditions are basic - they camp in the woods - and some days they have to wade waist-deep through mud to find the bodies of the fallen. The relics we found were Startling! Russian authorities have actively encouraged volunteers to join the military since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 20th Century Battlefields Documentary Series (2007), Al Murray's Road to Berlin Documentary Series (2004), America : The Story of the US Documentary Series (2010), Andrew Marr's History of the World Documentary Series (2012), Apocalypse: Stalin Documentary Series (2018), Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler Documentary Series (2013), Battle Stations Documentary Series (2000), Battlefield : Vietnam Documentary Series (1999), Britain's Biggest Warship Documentary Series (2018), Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty Documentary Series (2014), Britain's Bloody Crown Documentary Series (2016), Churchill's Bodyguard Documentary Series (2005), Crusade in the Pacific : World War 2 Documentary Series (1951), Liberty, The American Revolution Documentary Series (1997), Pacific : The Lost Evidence Documentary Series (2005), Russia's Lost Princesses Documentary Series (2014), The Big Picture Documentary Series (1964), The Complete History of the Second World War Documentary Series, The Conquerors Documentary Series (2005), The Hitler Chronicles Documentary Series (2018), The Inca: Masters of the Clouds Documentary Series, The Lost Evidence Documentary Series (2004), The Pacific War in Color (2018) Documentary Series, The Road to War Documentary Series (1989), The Unknown War Documentary Series (1978), Tony Robinson's History of Britain Documentary Series (2020), Wings of the Luftwaffe Documentary Series ( 1992), World War 1 in Colour Documentary Series (2003), World War II in Colour Documentary Series (2009). Australia's oldest person. The Red Army fought with every available resources they had just so they could secure a narrow stretch on the riverbank in a bid to break the Germans blockade. History relics ww2. "Every spring, summer and autumn I get this strange sort of yearning inside me to go and look for the soldiers," she says. They are part of a group called Exploration who have travelled for 24 hours in a cramped army truck to get to this forest near St Petersburg. 9.8K subscribers in the russiawarinukraine community. There will definitely be work for our grandchildren, says Marina. Diggers from other groups elsewhere in Russia have lost their lives. "Being unknown is nothing to be proud of. "When you call the relatives, before telling them the news, you try to prepare them. It's what it's all for - bringing a semblance of order to the moral chaos of the past, and paying tribute to those who gave their lives. These unknown soldiers are what these volunteer body hunters are looking for. 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One other thing about digging up WW11 relics is the danger from shells and grenades that have been buried, and lain there slowly deteriorating and becoming more dangerous over the past 70 or so years. There are so many unburied soldiers, it will take decades to find them. The less information there is. On the battlefield in Ukraine, volunteers fight alongside regular soldiers, men drafted during the Kremlins partial mobilization announced in September and Wagner Group mercenaries. We are the official search squad. Crossing Continents is broadcast on Thursdays at 11:00GMT. Being unknown is nothing to be proud of. The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in southeastern Ukraine climbed to 41 on Tuesday after the body of a child . "From reading over masses of personal and official records in Australia and the US, and seeing the paths men take, the lives they lived and the loves they pursued - the fluidity of sexuality, especially in war, becomes really clear," Smaal says. As Lyudmila supplies, because her grandfather was missing in action, her grandmother did not hold the right to any financial support given to other relatives of soldiers who served in the Great patriotic War. The Diggers were a small group who preached and attempted to practise a primitive communism based on the claim that the land belonged to the whole people of England. "Everything seems so pointless - even my job as a journalist - and sometimes I think, 'What am I doing?' And even more so, theydve been turned into swiss cheese while . Meanwhile, Marina found something and held it up it looked like a box of soap, only it was not, it was TNT. Nazi War Diggers was cancelled by the National Geographic channel in 2014, and by Foxtel in Australia this year, after archaeologists slammed its gruesome content. "They actively planted new trees on the battlefield - they ploughed furrows and put the trees exactly in the places where the unburied soldiers were lying," Marina says. It was being used as an air raid shelter when an air strike killed up to 600. They successfully brought a sense of semblance of order into a picture of moral chaos in Russias history and were able to pay homage to those who lost their lives to WWII. But attempts to take the city by storm fell through, so Hitler decided to starve it into surrender. Kustov's children took his remains and buried them next to their mother, who had waited her whole life for her husband to return. Provide it, let her enjoy it and then let her go back to her own things. We signed some papers, but it wasnt with the Defense Ministry, Alexander told The Moscow Times. We have a zero-tolerance policy regarding racism, stereotyping, bigotry, and death-mongering. Archaeologists complained about its methods after seeing a preview. "When we cleaned away some clumps of earth from the roots we saw two hands tangled up in them. The remains are decomposing and it is getting harder to find the bones, ID tags and army kit.. The Associated Press. @russianwardiggers3815 2.64K subscribers Subscribe Home Videos Playlists Community Channels About Videos Play all 27:02 Found incredible german stuf, Searching WW2 relics 2.6K views1 year ago 23:27. One of the largest volunteer groups is Russia's Special Combat Army Reserve known as BARS (snow leopard in Russian) was set up in 2015 but only actively promoted by the authorities in late 2021 in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine. Do not expect her to be politically correct. Then I scraped away some moss and saw a soldier. LUETZERATH, Germany (Reuters) -Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was detained alongside other activists on Tuesday during protests against the demolition of a village to make way for a coal mine expansion but was released after an identity check, according to police. Russias volunteer body hunters individuals who are willing to devout their time and effort to scouring previous WWII battlefields to look for the remains of missing soldiers; their act aimed to giving them a proper burial and a name. Read about our approach to external linking. Countless of the Russian troops, used as mere cannon fodders, were killed within the area. So many Red Army units were killed, wiped out or surrounded how could anyone think about burials, let alone records of burials, in such conditions? Kudinsky pointed out. Military Summary And Analysis 10.01.2023 Ukraine Faces "Tougher Assaults" in Soledar, 700 Russian Troops Killed, US to Send Stryker Vehicles? RAYNALDO, 61, from Illinois, USA, met his partner Ronyea Keyaira, 27, online. They are determined to continue until the last man is found. Because of these suspicions, his young son and daughter were branded as children of a traitor and his family was forced to leave the said village. When they were unable to trace his family, the group put out an appeal on the evening news. Russian War Diggers : We found a German Dugout. "If they refused to plough a field because there were corpses or bones in it, they'd just be sacked," says Ilya. , . "They are not buried very deep," she says. "What those diggers have achieved means so much to me. They knew that he hadnt just deserted, that he couldnt have behaved like that, but there was never any proof until 60 years later, he recounted. He then added that Russia focused on rebuilding the war-torn country immediately after WWII ended. For seven decades, the only link she had with him was a black and white photo of their former family home. Thirty-five people have been killed in a missile attack on an apartment building in Dnipro; a Russian national who is reportedly a former high ranking member of the Wagner Group is seeking asylum . Based on the information they gathered from the archives, the diggers found out Kustov was one of Stalins commanders tasked in leading his well-knownshtrafbats,a unit made up of deserters and prisoners. Lined young men dressed in Soviet-styled army uniforms acted as the guard of honor for the event. At no point did we hear any fire from the "Ukranian Side", all fire was from them shooting out into nothing. The History Channel for an in-depth view of the Past, Here is another Relics find from the Russian War Diggers. There are times they find old coins with the soldiers remains given by their families. The children, grand-children and great-grand-children of the soldiers they unearthed look on, some quietly sobbing. "Every new search gets to me as if it was the first one," says Rafik. 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