[RIA] More than two million Soviet soldiers are still considered missing in the Great Patriotic War, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) Mikhail Myagkov told RIA Novosti.
In Russia, December 3 is the Day of the Unknown Soldier. This memorial date, established in 2014, was chosen because it was on this day in 1966, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the defeat of fascist troops near Moscow , that the ashes of the Unknown Soldier were transferred from a mass grave on the Leningradskoe Highway and solemnly reburied near the walls of the Kremlin.
“The work to search for the soldiers of the Red Army who fell in the Great Patriotic War continues to this day - more than two million people are listed as missing today. Thanks to the efforts of search engines, there are fewer unknown soldiers, but given the “pace” of this work - the number of identified soldiers - clarification fate and reburial of the remains will take several more decades,” Myagkov noted.
The historian recalled that in the early 90s, a commission of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces determined the total number of irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War - 8.6 million soldiers.
“How many of them were missing is difficult to determine, since most prisoners of war during the war were also reported as missing in action in the USSR, it was difficult to separate all these categories. However, thanks to the soldier’s medallions and signed things (bowler hats) discovered along with the remains , spoons, and so on), the specific names of the fallen are also being restored,” the agency’s interlocutor explained.
According to Myagkov, since the creation of the RVIO, his search teams have found more than 11 thousand remains of Soviet soldiers, of which 800 people were identified.
Myagkov expressed hope that artificial intelligence technologies being introduced today will be able to help speed up the process of identifying those killed in the Great Patriotic War: “For example, thanks to AI in the future it will be possible to identify the identity of a fighter and restore his appearance from the remains.”