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Every spring, summer and autumn I get this strange sort of yearning inside me to go and look for the soldiers. Of the estimated 70 million people killed in World War Two, 26 million died on the Eastern front - and up to four million of them are still officially considered missing in action. Marina holds up an object she has found, it looks like a bar of soap, but it is actually TNT. I was shocked. They are determined to continue until the last man is found. "What those diggers have achieved means so much to me. Brought to you by the Premier Content Network. Each dug up soldier is photographed as well as their location recorded and the information entered into a digital database. They all operate under the umbrella of the Defense Ministry and have command structures integrated into the Armed Forces. She feels estranged whenever her Moscow friends talk about not having enough to buy a new car or a set of designer clothes. But here, on the dig, I feel we are doing something which is needed.". Free shipping. Tracing a soldiers family can also take years, even decades, to do especially if the said family has moved elsewhere after WWII. feed; Telegram Channel; Telegram Group; The History Channel. Come spring, they will resume their digging in the fields and forests where countless people were killed. There will definitely be work for our grandchildren," says Marina. Ilya, a former army officer, found his first soldier in a walk through the countryside 3 decades ago. The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in southeastern Ukraine climbed to 41 on Tuesday after the body of a child . WWII - YouTube 0:00 / 45:04 Digging up Russia 's missing army. Olga and Marina are working in an area near the town of Lyuban which is just 80 kilometers away from St. Petersburg going south. It's amazing to see such rare items found in remarkable condition. I was shocked. The twins' elderly mother was stunned when she heard his name - Alexander Golik - the family had searched in vain for years. salaries and take part in regular military training while retaining their civilian jobs. These teams, who look for the soldiers bones, are called white diggers differentiating them from the black diggers those who dig through and search for metals, guns, coins and even gold teeth which they then sell to specialist dealers or online but leave the bones on the ground. As most of these relatives are old and not in the very best of health conditions, the group tries to prepare them and break the news gently to them though they have been waiting for this break from their loved one for a long time. I cant tell you how grateful I am, she emotionally says as her eyes fill with tears. Red cloth was draped over the walls of the freshly-dug grave a respectful gesture that in normal circumstances was only granted to army generals. "In just three months the German death machine covered more than 2,000km (1,250 miles) of our land. We Excavated a Blown German Truck with Interesting Things! Russian War Diggers : We found a German Dugout. According to her, her mother had remarried a few years after her father was declared missing in action and everyone insisted she call her stepfather daddy but she refused as she had an inkling who her real daddy was. Post navigation. The less information there is. The governing council of the USSR issued decrees in 1963 about destroying any traces of war. Visibly moved, as coffin after coffin is carried past to be buried, some of them look up to the sky. The more years that go by. "They actively planted new trees on the battlefield - they ploughed furrows and put the trees exactly in the places where the unburied soldiers were lying," Marina says. But the Red Army fought hard, desperately over the next two years just so they could cut through the Germans line. Russian war diggers (Youtube) Firstly, apologies if this has already been the subject of discussion elsewhere. All iron similar to. Finding the dead is only one part of their mission. We are true patriots, said Alexander, 31, who declined to provide his surname. You can't help feeling touched by it.". "When we told them that we had found their father's remains, for them the feeling was just indescribable. Here is another find by Russian War Diggers. If there were ukranian positions where theyre shooting at, no sniper would be so much as bothered by russians shooting at the wind. Russian Dagger Belt Suspensions Dirk Soviet Union USSR EX. . Ukraine's capital came under one of the biggest attacks of the war as Russia's invading forces fired dozens of missiles across the country. Another major motivating factor is money. Sergei Krivenko, the head of Citizen, Army & the Law, an NGO providing legal assistance to Russian soldiers, confirmed that BARS fighters often lacked proper contracts although he said he did not know whether this was intentional or merely the result of incompetence. The diggers are exposed to horrors, too, as they seek to discover the remains and names of these WWII fallen soldiers. Website production by Catherine Wynne. Throughout the seven decades that passed, the only connection she had with with the lost dad she longed for was a black-and-white photograph of their old family home. Fallen soldiers have oftentimes been found with grenades still in their backpacks and there are also artillery shells sticking out of the trees. World War One is known for the advent of trench warfare, with opposing forces pitched against one another from dug-in positions. Kustov's children took his remains and buried them next to their mother, who had waited her whole life for her husband to return. During business in the House, Thursday, Matero . Little is known about the social background of the men volunteering in Ukraine, but a. reportedly have military experience and many fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when Russia backed a separatist uprising against Kyiv. 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Read about our approach to external linking. While ideology likely is one motivation for these soldiers, incentives such as high salaries, bonuses and opportunities for promotion and medals as well as pressure from families are also believed to play a major role. "Everything seems so pointless - even my job as a journalist - and sometimes I think, 'What am I doing?' On January 2, a crowd wielding batons descended on a Catholic church in a village in central India. . If one crouches down in the woods near Lyuban, streaks of trenches can be made out clearly in the earth. Here you have a head there a leg She pauses and gazes at the fire. Our team is represented by many people. Then we found a pelvis and some ribs between the roots. Olga Ivshina walks slowly and carefully through the pine trees, the beeps of her metal detector punctuating the quiet of the forest. She even says that there are times she feels her job as a journalist is pointless, a different feeling she gets from when she is in the forest digging bodies out where she feels she is doing a very important task. On the battlefield in Ukraine, volunteers fight alongside regular soldiers, men drafted during the Kremlins partial mobilization announced in September and Wagner Group mercenaries. "They are not buried very deep," she says. If you take a map showing where battles took place, then see where all the new forest plantations and building projects were located, youll find they coincide with the front line. A mobilized soldier doesnt know his comrades when he goes to the front.. My mum was so hungry all the time, she begged the other kids for pieces of bread at school, she adds. If the years-old ID tag is not decipherable on site, it is packed carefully and is sent to the teams headquarters located in the Volga city of Kazan. Many of their bodies were never found. But nature is working against us. Being a volunteer body hunter has its dangers, too. The incident was just one of the most recent examples of violence . Being unknown is nothing to be proud of. Volunteer battalions in particular BARS units have been heavily promoted by, Glory Hunters or Gold Diggers? Please select the Tab Content in the Widget Settings. "From reading over masses of personal and official records in Australia and the US, and seeing the paths men take, the lives they lived and the loves they pursued - the fluidity of sexuality, especially in war, becomes really clear," Smaal says. Reportedly, there have been other diggers from different groups who have lost their lives while in volunteering mission elsewhere in Russia. "The more data we can collect from the spot, the better the chance we have to identify a soldier," says Alexander Konoplov, the leader of the Exploration group. The initial "acquaintance" with them turned out to be somewhat emotional." $390.00. Here is a video from the Russian War Diggers where the Germans Hurriedly threw their Equipment in the River. In just three months the German death machine covered more than 2,000km (1,250 miles) of our land. The soldiers may have been thrown into the pit by their comrades or local villagers as a hasty form of burial, or even by the German Army, anxious to prevent an epidemic among its troops. Discover short videos related to russian war diggers on TikTok. Russia said on Friday its forces had wrested control of the war-scarred town of Soledar in east Ukraine, its first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks, although Ukraine said fierce . For Olga - who sang hymns to Communism in her primary school, then learnt about profit and loss at secondary school - volunteering as a digger also provides a moral compass in confusing times. Exploration is one of 600 groups of diggers from all over Russia who have found and reburied a total of 500,000 soldiers so far. She has spent most of her holidays being a volunteer body hunter far away from her home, business and her young son for the past 12 years. So many Red Army units were killed, wiped out or surrounded how could anyone think about burials, let alone records of burials, in such conditions? Kudinsky pointed out. 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The Red Army fought with every available resources they had just so they could secure a narrow stretch on the riverbank in a bid to break the Germans blockade. He noticed a comment posted by the freelance model and artist about her attraction to mature men. Images courtesy of Dean Arnett, Lucy Ash, Olga Ivshina and Maxim Lomakin. Instead, theirs were made of small ebony capsules with an equally small piece of paper inside containing their personal details. But how could anyone - farmers or workmen - get on a tractor and plough over land littered with human remains? These teams are known as the "white diggers", but there are also those dubbed "black diggers" who search for medals, guns, coins or even gold teeth which they sell online or to specialist dealers. It's our Hobby. Skip to content. Tweet. MD4030 https://ali.ski/ZpXE4 https://ali.ski/EV6L6 https://ali.ski/xAPMd https://vk.com/gonchar452 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgq394dLhg-PdS7Ao4tlGMgInstagram https://www.instagram.com/gagarin_archeology/Telegramm yuriy_gagarin https://t.me/yuriy_gagarin . Ilya adds up that the digging has become embedded in their souls, that they need to continue doing it to find peace for themselves it has become the meaning of their lives. He was one of the soldiers buried in the mass grave as the diggers found his ID tag in the location. One of these is Valentina Aliyeva who came to bury the father she had not seen since she was four years old. Why does the US have 800 Military Bases around the World? She will speak her mind, she will voice her opinions. Conditions are basic - they camp in the woods - and some days they have to wade waist-deep through mud to find the bodies of the fallen. Ebony ID tags; a volunteer tries to decipher their contents; a grenade found in the forest. However, that explanation is not enough as to why the battlefields were not cleared and the dead no identified and given at least proper burials. In the van sat his crew of six diggers and a flatulent 150-pound Italian mastiff named Bagram, all of them violently jostling back and forth on the bumpy road while Rebecca Black's song Friday. For seven decades, the only link she had with him was a black and white photo of their former family home. PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he is concerned about the ongoing . On the battlefield in Ukraine, volunteers fight alongside regular soldiers, men drafted during the Kremlins partial mobilization announced in September and, One of the largest volunteer groups is Russia's Special Combat Army Reserve known as BARS (snow leopard in Russian) was. In an area nearby, MarinaKoutchinskaya bends on her knees and searches through the mud. "Being unknown is nothing to be proud of. Most terrifying Heavy Weapons of the US Military in the Future ( Video ), The End of a Superpower The Collapse of the Soviet Union, Boiling and Burning Alive: A Medieval Punishment of Searing Pain, Death by Pressing and Crushing: A Medieval Punishment Youd Want to Avoid, 65 Medieval Facts, Beasts, Torture Methods, Jobs & MORE! to eastern Ukraine in August in an attempt to stop successful advances by the Ukrainian army. But tracing a soldier's family can take years - on occasions more than a decade - especially if the family moved after the war. In just less than three months, the coming German troops were able to encircle the whole city while starting to attack it through air. Russia's Lost Princesses - Documentary Series (2014) Walking Through History - Documentary Series (2013) Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire - Documentary Series (2006) Royal Secrets - Documentary Series ( 1996 ) Military History Naval History Battlefield Mysteries Military Museums Military Generals Roman Military Wars War Documentaries Diggers from other groups elsewhere in Russia have lost their lives. Many of their bodies were never found. "Let's try to enhance purple colours on this yellow paper," he says. There are over 100 coffins with each containing the bones of 12 to 15 men in that reburial ceremony that day. . The belief was that if the family lent him a few coins, he would come home to repay the loan. Russia's defense ministry said in a statement that as a result of the negotiation process, 50 Russian soldiers captured . Now there is a group of \"Black Diggers\" that illegally dig up the remains of German and Russian soldiers to sell the military artifacts they find.Up Next: The Celebrity Millionaires of Competitive Gaming - http://bit.ly/eSports-P1China's Elite Female Bodyguards - http://bit.ly/Elite-Female-BodyguardsWatch more stories from the global VICE family: http://bit.ly/VICE-INTL-Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICECheck out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-VideosVideos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.comMore videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideosLike VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/viceFollow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/viceRead our Tumblr: http://vicemag.tumblr.comFollow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vice While retaining their civilian jobs in a village in central India from dug-in positions Catholic church in a through... 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