[Evgeny Velichko]

Hi all, gents.

Some info of interest:

Russia has declassified archives of the Great Patriotic War

Ministry of Defense has declassified archival documents of the Red Army and the Navy (Navy) for 1941 1945гг., Told journalists today head Archival Service of the Armed Forces Sergei Ilyinkov.

Grif secrecy removed from the archival documents in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) in Podolsk, the Central Naval Archives at Gatchina, the Military Medical Archives in St. Petersburg ", - said S. Ilyinkov. According to the Defense Ministry, only one TsAMO declassified more than four million cases for the period of the Great Patriotic War.

Order of the Minister of Defense "on the declassification of archival documents of the Red Army and Navy of the period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 1945гг." was signed on May 8 this year "Now, researchers have gained access to previously inaccessible documents, and perhaps we will soon know a lot about the difficult period in Soviet history," - said the Head of Archive Service.

Recall, May 4 this year public also has access to updated data on the losses of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. As the head of the Military Memorial Center Alexander Kirilin, on specified data, the number of deaths of 8 million 860 thousand 400 personnel.

He explained that in calculating the loss does not take into account the data of hospitals and passport census postwar years. Total, as noted by A. Kirilin, during the war killed an estimated 11 million Soviet citizens who took an active part in hostilities: regular soldiers, militias, guerrillas.

A. Kirilin clarified that in the archives of the Ministry of Defense of the cards contain information about the 18 million dead. However, according to him, these data do not correspond to reality, as they form during the war, unskilled workers and duplicated many times (for one of the deceased received some documents - from military units and hospitals).

It is worth noting that the dispute about the losses of the Soviet army during the Great Patriotic War is still in 1945. In 1946, Stalin declared that the total loss (civilian and military) totaled 7 million. Since then, the number constantly increased. At the time Khrushchev was said about the 20 million dead, and in the years of perestroika - about 27 million.

In 1993 was declared the official data on losses of troops, with which was declassified - 8 million 668 thousand 400. Since then, the figure also increased to the extent of the search teams and work in the archives.



14 June 2007.