Memorial page · research project
«Necropolis» — Soviet military graves in the United Kingdom
A multi-year study by Roman Firsov: every name, every place, every date — documented. Memory that does not dissolve with time.
Roman Firsov — project author
Historian · member of the My Regiment Governing Council
From 2016 to 2019, Roman Firsov led the «Necropolis» section within the Russian Heritage in Great Britain committee. Those years involved sustained work in TsAMO and GARF, with Commonwealth War Graves Commission records and on-site documentation at the burial places themselves. The result is a body of precisely established names, ranks, and dates of birth and death. His research has been published in the museum journal Mir Muzeya and forms the basis of the archival section of the My Regiment platform.
About the «Necropolis» project
«Necropolis» is not simply a list of burial sites. It is the work of restoring the names of people whose graves came to lie in foreign ground — far from their homeland, far from their families. Every name in this archive is the product of cross-referencing several independent sources: Soviet central military archives, the British CWGC records, and direct on-site documentation.
Within the United Kingdom, 18 Soviet burial sites from the Second World War have been verified. They are spread across 10 cemeteries in England — from the military cemetery at Aldershot, which holds the largest concentration of Soviet graves, to individual burials in small rural parishes. Alongside the military graves, the archive includes records of Soviet civilians who died in the United Kingdom during the war years.
A separate strand of research is the Russian aviation necropolis of the United Kingdom, including figures from émigré military aviation in the first half of the twentieth century (for example, Prince K. A. Lobanov-Rostovsky, 1887–1976). This is work at the intersection of three histories: Soviet, émigré, and British.
Sources & methodology
Russian archives
TsAMO (Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defence) and GARF (State Archive of the Russian Federation) — primary documents on Soviet servicemen and civilians who ended up on the territory of the United Kingdom.
CWGC
Commonwealth War Graves Commission — the official British records of wartime burials of foreign nationals. Cross-referenced with Russian sources for verification.
Military Attaché list (2011)
A verified list of Soviet burial sites compiled by the Russian Military Attaché as of 1 January 2011: dates of death, ranks, years of birth.
On-site documentation
Systematic photographic documentation of gravestones, cemetery views, and TWGPP records — confirming the current state of each burial site.
Archive materials
Published research, official lists, and photographic archives on Soviet military burials in the United Kingdom. 6 documents.
📜Official sources2
Official List of Soviet Military Burials in the UK (2011)
Verified list of Soviet burials compiled by the Russian Military Attaché as of 1 January 2011, containing official death dates, ranks, and birth years.
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CWGC Records: Soviet Nationals Buried in the United Kingdom
Official Commonwealth War Graves Commission data on Soviet military personnel and civilians interred in British cemeteries, with cross-references to Russian archive sources.
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📚Research3
Guide to Soviet Military Graves in the United Kingdom
Roman Firsov's research synthesis: 18 Soviet soldiers, 10 British cemeteries, with full citations to TsAMO/OBD «Memorial» and CWGC. Source .docx attached.
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Russian Aviation Necropolis of Great Britain
The Great Ouseburn memorial and the story of the Soviet officers killed there — Hero of the Soviet Union Major S.A. Asyamov and members of the military mission to the UK. Air crash, 30 April 1942.
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Aldershot Military Cemetery: Soviet Section
Aldershot Military Cemetery. Among 819 World War burials, one is the grave of Soviet Army Private Vasili Lukyanov (1925–1945).
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The platform’s full historical archive
«Necropolis» is part of a broader archive of research and documents on Soviet military history in the United Kingdom.
Go to the historical archive