"Research" - A Guide.

[Tal Inbar]

TEXT AND PICTURES CREDIT - OUR SUPER MODERATOR DAVE

(THANKS FOR THIS G R E A T JOB!)

What is it?

There are two trains of Western thought on the former Soviet Union. One side thinks that the 'Sovs' were quite disorganized, leading people forward en masse to be slaughtered through outdated tactics, technology gone wrong, and so on. The other side thinks of them from the Communist-political point of view, and sees them as an extremely cold, ruthless, micromanaging, and above all, able to easily track each and every one of their citizens through their daily life.

Well, honestly, neither, yet both, are true. The exact details of each philosophy can be debated ad nauseum, but that is best left for the people much unlike yours truly; people with little letters behind their names, thick glasses and '400 pound heads' (as we call them.)

For the rest of us, the answer lies somewhere in the middle ground of the two views. Here's the truth: the Soviet military kept excellent records on each of their personnel. While most other countries did as well, over half the records for American personnel got 'cooked' by arson in 1973, the Brits won't let you look at anything later than WW1, and so on.

Since there is no longer a Soviet military, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has opened its archives, allowing researchers to 'dig' through and find records of individual personnel. This was actually possible prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, however, it was normally only made available to the veterans themselves, and their next of kin.

Nowadays, a researcher can go to the Central Archives in Padolsk, about a forty minute train ride from Moscow, and for a fee, pull up the records on an individual.