As a genealogist, I like to do this through documents. The good news is that researching WWII Soviet soldiers is one of the easier parts of Eastern European genealogy. The reason for this is the unique for this area degree of digitization and searchability of this subject. The online databases are very comprehensive, and impressive in their scale, even internationally. I am happy to share my tips on finding Soviet military records online.
If your ancestor / relative perished in the war, start with:
Memorial (Обобщенный банк данных «Мемориал») is a database of those Soviet soldiers who perished in WWII, launched in 2007. The database contains over 17 mln digital copies of documents about life losses of Red Army soldiers and 20 mln name entries of those who died in the Great Patriotic War. It also has information about the burials of over 5 mln soldiers and officers, as well as the names of 1 mln of Soviet prisoners of war in the Nazi captivity. The website has an English language version, including information about the project, its sources and most importantly the fields of the search. Although the search itself only works for Cyrillic letter key words, it is still a big help for non-Russian speakers to know what each field stands for. The documents found in this database are very useful for genealogical purposes. The so called “report on losses” document offers information like year and place of birth, military rank, place of death, home address and the closest relative.
If your ancestor / relative survived the war, start with:
Feat of the People (Обобщенный банк данных «Подвиг народа в Великой Отечественной войне 1941–1945 гг.») is a database on those who survived and received a military award / decoration, launched in 2010. It includes over 12,5 mln records about those who were decorated with medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit", and cca 22 mln cards on the decorations awarded on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Victory over the Nazi Germany. Similarly to the above database, it has an English language version, with the same exception that the search words need to be in Russian. Also like the previous project, the work on this database is ongoing and constantly updated with new records. The information in this database includes the place of birth and conscription, military rank, and a detailed description of the “heroic deed” for which a person was decorated.
Next, go to this resource:
Memory of the People (Портал “Память народа”) provides a more modern and interactive database, based on the two databases, mentioned above. People and events from the military records were linked to locations, providing a unique opportunity for a great visualization. It shows you the exact itinerary of the researched person in the war on a map, from conscription till demobilization (or death), with all the battles and operations they took part in, as well as hospitalization and place of burial (if applicable). To see the itinerary visualization you need to click on "Боевой путь" button below the found entry under. On the downside, this website and the database do not have English language version.
This is how a war itinerary looks like:
Memory of the People also has a new page where you can upload or search for a photo of a Soviet WWII veteran.
Something to keep in mind, when using these databases, is that Memorial and Feat of the People require exact spelling of key words, while the Memory of the People allows for fuzzy search.
Other resources
Documentation Centre Dresden, run by the Saxon Memorial Foundation (Die Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten), helps trace victims of the Nazi regime. It offers a number of online databases, including ones on Members of the Red Army held by Germany as prisoners of war, Soviet citizens who died in Saxony, and more. The Center also accepts inquiries, in particular about the inmates of former concentration camps in Saxony.
The Immortal Regiment (Бессмертный полк России) was launched in 2015. Despite the political agenda and controversy behind the project, their database is a great tool for relative search. Its unique feature is that the names and stories of the WWII veterans are added by their relatives. So, one can not only find a WWII veteran, but also get in touch with the living relatives.
All-Russian Burial Search Center (Всероссийский информационно-поисковый центр) is a unified database of the results of the military burial search expeditions (exhumation, identifying unknown graves, and other field trip findings). Their old search can be used as well. Unfortunately, only available in Russian.
The Reclaimed Names (Возвращенные Имена) is a relatively small database, containing only 209,647 names. Among its useful features is The Siege of Leningrad database, with 631,063 names.
Veterany project (Ветераны) of a TV channel, where relatives can upload their stories, names and photos of Soviet veterans
Ukraine’s Electronic Book of Remembrance (Проект «Электронная Книга Памяти Украины 1941-1945») is a database of the Ukrainian Union of Burial Search. It contains cca 929,120 names of Soviet veterans from Ukraine.
Martyrology (Мартирологія) database by Ukraine's National Museum of Second World War. It is work in progress. So far it only contains data from Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions.
List of the victims of mass-killings in Babi Yar, a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, 1941—1943.
List of Persons mobilized during the Second World War in Ukrainian SSR
Book of Remembrance of Jewish Soldiers Perished in the War with Fascism 1941-1945 (Книга памяти воинов-евреев павших в боях с нацизмом 1941-1945, Volume 4, 1997, Moscow.
Finland, prisoners of war and extraditions 1939-1955 is a database compiled by the Finnish National Archives, containing information on prisoner-of-war and civilian deaths on both Finnish prisoner-of-war-camps and camps for civilian internees in Eastern Karelia.
Soldat.ru offer a list of Soviet prisoners-of-war who died in Finland, 1941-1944, and a list of Burials of the Soviet military personnel, who died in Finland in 1941 - 1944.
Perm Krai prisoner-of-war database contains information of the captured soldiers from this area, the date and place of their captivity.
Soviet military graves in Hungary provides a list of Hungarian towns with burial places of Soviet military personnel, with details on their location, names of the buried persons.
