Two questions for the experts

[jefflgarrison]

Question #1:

Is it possible to research anything about a member of the Red Army from the time of their creation? I am asking since one of my stars belonged to a man that joined the Red Army in 1919 at the age of sixteen and was in the Army until 1924. I have contacted someone in Belarus to try to track down information about him since I know an address and position in civilian work in the 40's.


Question #2:

Where there not "reporters" (camera men/women) that followed the Red Army on it's march to Berlin. If there were, would it be possible to find archival photos of action in a certain town? Am wondering if there are photos of fighting in Gdansk other than those few that I have seen.

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by jefflgarrison

Question #1:

Is it possible to research anything about a member of the Red Army from the time of their creation? I am asking since one of my stars belonged to a man that joined the Red Army in 1919 at the age of sixteen and was in the Army until 1924. I have contacted someone in Belarus to try to track down information about him since I know an address and position in civilian work in the 40's.


Question #2:

Where there not "reporters" (camera men/women) that followed the Red Army on it's march to Berlin. If there were, would it be possible to find archival photos of action in a certain town? Am wondering if there are photos of fighting in Gdansk other than those few that I have seen.

#1 you can try, but that early on I think it will be difficult.

#2 there were several reporters and a few have written memoirs, one I recently saw in a bookstore translated into English. Those more familiar with the Russian archives would have to answer on the ability to match the reporters' treks with their photo paths.

[Kirchgoens]

I thought I read somewhere that the majority of the combat footage of the Red Army in the GPW was done by military combat photographers and cameramen. If so, it would also be in archives.

As an example, you can find a pile of US combat footage and stills in the National Archives in their suburban Maryland center. I'd guess the Soviet stuff was done much the same way in some archives somewhere in Russia.

As for reporters, since the Soviet government controlled the "message" so carefully and fully, I'd also guess all the reporters were in uniform or at least on Uncle Joe's payroll. That would probably also mean archives.

I once found on the web a vendor who sold microfiche/microfilm Pravda (I guess the national or Moscow edition?) by the year for between $350 and $500 per year. If you tracked on the dates, you might be able to match a story covering Fortress Danzig. I believe that was a really tough fight, so there's bound to be some good first-hand stuff out there.

[matteti]

Originally Posted by jefflgarrison

Question #2:

Where there not "reporters" (camera men/women) that followed the Red Army on it's march to Berlin. If there were, would it be possible to find archival photos of action in a certain town? Am wondering if there are photos of fighting in Gdansk other than those few that I have seen.

Hello Jeff,
I have a soviet photo album of the GPW which present the best photos of many soviet photo reporters who were following the army in the front (the reporters were possibly even part of the army since many of them received military awards) I have photo of them (the surviving ones) in 1985 on the occasion of the creation of that photo album book and they were their awards. There is also a bio for each reporters... However, I doubt there would be a possibility to get access to their photo database.

[matteti]

[quote=jefflgarrison;73121]
Question #1:

Is it possible to research anything about a member of the Red Army from the time of their creation? I am asking since one of my stars belonged to a man that joined the Red Army in 1919 at the age of sixteen and was in the Army until 1924. I have contacted someone in Belarus to try to track down information about him since I know an address and position in civilian work in the 40's.QUOTE]

Regarding the 1st question, I found out that those documents pre 1941 were kept in other archives

I have never tried to get anything from there, but you check there for more informationL
My first grouping, Lt. Col. of Air Forces Drozdov, Alexey Fedorovich!!!

[Dave]

As far as question #2, there are several good Soviet photo books of the War, to include the set that has one book per year of the War (entitled "1941", "1942", etc...) Most of the photos are captioned and there are well over 1000 photos per book...might be a worthwhile investment.

Dave