1 March 2026Admin1 min read
Researching individual Soviet WWII veterans requires navigating several key Russian archives. This guide introduces the three most important sources for genealogical and military research.
**ЦАМО (Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence)**
Located in Podolsk near Moscow, ЦАМО is the primary repository for Soviet military records from WWII. It holds unit diaries, casualty lists, award citations, personal files of officers, and records of military tribunals. Access is available both on-site and increasingly through digitised records online.
**ГАРФ (State Archive of the Russian Federation)**
ГАРФ in Moscow holds records related to civilian government functions during the war, including records of evacuated populations, prisoner-of-war documentation, and post-war repatriation files. It is particularly useful for researching Soviet citizens who ended up abroad during the war.
**OBD Memorial (obd-memorial.ru)**
The Generalised Database "Memorial" is an online resource maintained by the Russian Ministry of Defence. It contains digitised records of Soviet military losses, including casualty lists, burial records, hospital records, and prisoner-of-war cards. The database is searchable by name, date of birth, military unit, and place of burial.
For researchers working on Soviet burials in the UK, the recommended workflow is to start with OBD Memorial for initial identification, then cross-reference findings with CWGC records, and finally consult ЦАМО for detailed personal files where available.
