Day of Remembrance of the soldiers who died in the First World War. Day of Remembrance of Russian soldiers who died in the First World War

The warriors who fell in the Great War were undeservedly forgotten. Therefore, in the summer of 2012, a proposal was made to supplement the law “On military glory and Memorable Dates of Russia” new event. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Law No. 285-FZ “On Amending Article 1.1 of the Federal Law “On the Days of Military Glory and Commemorative Dates of Russia”, which fixed August 1 as the annual date for celebrating the Day of Remembrance Russian soldiers who died in the First World War. Celebrated on August 1, starting from 2013

On August 1, 1914, 102 years ago, Russia entered in one of the largest and bloodiest armed wars in the history of mankind - the First World War. The reason for the First World War was the assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian student Gavrila Princip, one of the members of the terrorist organization Mlada Bosna, which fought for the reunification of all South Slavic peoples into one state.

It began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. As a result of the war, four empires were erased from the world map: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German. The participating countries lost about 12 million people killed, about 55 million were injured.

Before the First World Armed Forces Russian Empire numbered 12 million people, and it was the largest army in that war. Russia's losses in the First World War amounted to more than 2 million killed on the fronts and more than 3 million prisoners, the losses of the civilian population of the Russian Empire exceeded 1 million people.

We must remember the important role that Russia played in that war. One can argue for a long time about which front - the Western (Allied) or Eastern (Russian) - was more important, but the important fact is that without the participation of our country, the Entente would hardly have been able to achieve the final victory.

Interesting Facts.

Participants of the First World War

Quadruple Union : Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria.

Entente : Russia, France, Great Britain.

In 1914 Russia had 283 aircraft. They carried out only reconnaissance, as they did not have military weapons on board. When meeting the enemy, they simply dispersed in different directions.

The first air ramming occurred on August 26, 1914 by staff captain P.I. Nesterov. And a few days earlier, on August 22, he made the first "dead loop".

The world's first bomber squadron was a four-engine biplane formation, which was named "Ilya Muromets" and was used in December 1914.

The tank was first used in the years great war to break through the enemy front. It got its name from the word tank, which in English means "tank" or "tank". However, the Russians called it "tub". In order to ferry all the tanks to the front, England started a rumor that Russia had ordered water tanks from them. And these combat vehicles were transported by rail without loss.

After the first months of the 1st World War, the front lines froze, fenced in with barbed wire and covered with minefields. It was during this period that four-legged friends of people, dogs, were unexpectedly widely used.

In the First World War, dogs were used as orderly dogs. , messengers (they carried orders to the front line in capsules attached to the body). Dogs were also used to lay telegraph wires.

The First World War led to global socio-political, social, economic, political and cultural changes in the world.

One of the most terrible phenomena that our planet has known is the First World War. The 38 countries that took part in it suffered massive losses for four years, about 11 million people died in this terrible massacre. In Russia, on August 1, every year, the memory of the victims of this monstrous war is honored.

A bit of history

This is the first such global military conflict, in which more than half of the countries of the Earth took part (38 out of 59 that existed at that time). June 28, 1914 is considered the beginning of the war, on this day the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Frank Ferdinant, was killed by Serbian nationalists. Austria-Hungary at that time was under the "informal control" of Germany, and under their pressure declared war on Serbia. Russia, as a supporter of the Serbian state, is forced to announce a general mobilization, and on June 30 joined the military conflict, along with Great Britain, France, and Turkey.

1914 was devastating for the opponents, first Austria-Hungary loses Galicia, and then the Ottoman army is defeated in Transcaucasia. 1915, on the contrary, brought losses for Russia - it loses control over Galicia, and then part of the Baltic states and Poland. The turning point came in 1916 when Germany was unable to break through the defenses of France, the Austro-Hungarians were defeated, and in the Caucasus the Russian army recaptured Erzurum and Trebizond. March 3, 1918 Germany tried to transfer all its forces to Western Front for a massive attack, but suffered a final defeat.

When they celebrate

Despite the significance of the date, for a long time in Russia this day was not celebrated at all, although the First World War caused no less damage to our country and the world as a whole. Only in June 2012, a member of the Federation Council, Anatoly Ivanovich Lisitsyn, proposed amending the law on "memorable dates" and adding August 1 to the list of "days military glory". The President of the Russian Federation, Putin V.V., signed the relevant documents on December 30, 2012. Thus, the official status, the day of remembrance of the victims of the First World War, has been acquired since 2013.

On this day, it is customary to remember the soldiers who gave their lives in this terrible war and saved our future. Memorial services are held in all church institutions, flowers and wreaths are brought to the graves of the dead. Rallies and processions are held on the central streets and parks, lectures are held in schools and military units, which tell about the heroic deeds of the soldiers and the significance of the Russians in the outcome of the battle.

Good to know

1) The First World War covered more than half of the Earth's territory, unfolded in Europe, the Middle and Far East, Africa, in the waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans.

2) During the hostilities, more than 11 million people died, while the Russian Empire suffered heavy losses, about 2 million died.

3) Despite the fact that the war ended in 1918, the burials of the fallen soldiers continued for another two years, due to a large number dead. mass grave was located in the village of Vsekhsvyatskoye, not far from Moscow. The government of the USSR underestimated the importance of this place and tried to consign to oblivion everything related to that large-scale disaster, and in 1930 transformed the cemetery into a park. In 1994 this place was transformed into memorial Complex victims of the First World War.

4) Russia had the weakest weapons at the start of hostilities. The flight troops numbered 283 aircraft, but did not have weapons on board, they only carried out reconnaissance. In a collision with the enemy, the pilot had to fly away as quickly as possible.

5) For the first time, tanks began to be used at the beginning of the war. This word translated from English means "cistern", in Russia it was called "tub". In order to transfer all the vehicles from England, where they were made, to Russia, without loss, they had to start a rumor that Russia had bought water tanks from them, such a trick made it possible to transport the tanks over a long distance without loss.

History is an example for the present, how to make sure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated, and an example of what they can lead to. Let's remember the sacrifice that our ancestors made so that today Russia and its citizens live in peace and tranquility.

On August 1, Russia celebrates the Day of Remembrance of Russian soldiers who died in the First World War of 1914-1918. For a long time, the First World War, in which millions of subjects of the Russian Empire died, was undeservedly overlooked - in Soviet period ours was regarded as an imperialist war, so they were in no hurry to perpetuate the memory of Russian soldiers who fell in land and sea battles or died of wounds. The situation has changed only recently. On December 30, 2012, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation of December 30, 2012 "On Amendments to Article 1.1 of the Federal Law" On the Days of Military Glory and Commemorative Dates of Russia" was adopted. In accordance with these changes, on August 1, Russia remembers those who died in during the First World War Russian military personnel.

Date August 1st for memorial day was not chosen by chance. As you know, the First World War began on July 28, 1914 with the declaration of war on Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reason for the declaration of war was the assassination in Sarajevo by the Serbian nationalist Gavrila Princip of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, which occurred on June 28. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on the Russian Empire and invaded its territory. Simultaneously with the declaration of war on Russia, German troops invaded the territory of neighboring Luxembourg, and then Belgium. On August 3, Germany declared war on France, and on August 6, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. So the war acquired a European, and then a world character. In the 20th century, this was the first such large-scale armed conflict, in which 38 states out of 59 independent countries of the world that existed at that time took part. But not all of the countries participating in the First World War suffered such serious losses as Russia.

The consequences of the First World War for our country were deplorable. Firstly, a huge number of both military personnel and civilians died. Secondly, it was the First World War that became the starting point for the revolution and the subsequent Civil War and the collapse of the Russian Empire. In 1918, Russia as a single state actually ceased to exist, and following the results of the Civil War, with great difficulty, it was possible to restore its unity, and within smaller boundaries than before. So, Russia lost Poland and Finland, until 1940 the Baltic states were independent.

The death of millions of Russians during the First World War was a serious demographic blow to our country, given that soldiers and officers of the army who die at the front are always a young, active, healthy part of the population. Any war is a serious demographic blow, and the consequences of the death of millions of our fellow citizens in the First and Second World Wars, in the Civil War had a very strong impact on the population of our country, in many ways becoming one of the key reasons for the unhappy demographic situation.

For the entire first world war The Russian Empire mobilized 12 million people into the army and navy. The losses of the active army are estimated, depending on the sources, in the range of 700 thousand - 1.7 million people. So, according to the data of the Main Directorate of the General Staff in 1917, the Russian army lost 511,068 killed and 264,301 missing, in total - 775,369 people. Lieutenant General Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin (1875-1944), Russian military leader and military historian, assessed casualties imperial army 1.3 million people, and modern foreign historians raise this bar to 1.7 million people. The modern historian Sergei Volkov writes that in the Russian Empire they were mobilized for military service 39% of the male population aged 15-49 years, and for every 1000 mobilized, in turn, 45 were killed. In terms of the absolute number of soldiers killed at the front, the Russian Empire ranks second after Germany among the countries participating in the First World War.

The share of Russian soldiers who participated in the First World War fell hard trials. Those of them who did not die on the fronts of the First World War, for the most part, took part in the revolutions and the Civil War, and yesterday's comrades and colleagues were on opposite sides of the barricades. no luck and fallen heroes. Back in 1915, the All-Russian Fraternal Cemetery was opened for the burial of fallen soldiers on the lands of the village of All Saints near Moscow. But, of course, not all the dead were buried there. Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers went missing, were buried unidentified in battlefields.

The losses of the officer corps were also very high. Russian army especially in infantry and cavalry. Thus, direct combat losses in the form of killed, dead from wounds on the battlefield, wounded, missing and captured, amounted to over 70 thousand officers of the Russian army, including 208 generals, 3368 staff officers, 67772 chief officers. Most of the losses were among warrant officers - the youngest officer rank. They numbered 37392 people, that is, more than half of the total number of losses of the officer corps.

If we talk exclusively about the officers killed and who died from wounds, then their number is about 24 thousand people. The infantry regiments of the active army during the war changed from 3 to 5 officers. At the same time, almost the entire cadre of junior officers of the Russian army was out of action in the first year of the war, which led to numerous transformational changes in the armed forces.

Colossal lack of junior officers could not be replenished in other ways, except for a significant simplification of the very procedure for promotion to officer ranks. As a result, the officer corps became much more heterogeneous in origin than before. The social composition of the officers of the Russian army changed radically, which subsequently led to the involvement of a huge number of officers in various ranks in the revolution and civil war.

If, before the start of the war, the vast majority of Russian army officers were educated in cadet corps and military schools, then with the outbreak of hostilities the situation changed. Firstly, military schools switched to the shortest six-month or even three-month course of study, and their graduates were awarded the rank of ensign, not second lieutenant. Secondly, several dozens of ensign schools were opened in Russia with the same period of study, but open to the admission of persons with an education of at least 4 grades of gymnasiums, graduates of city and county schools. Thirdly, reserve warrant officers began to be actively accepted into the army - people who had experience in army service and who passed the officer's exam after demobilization. Fourthly, it was also widely practiced to promote ensigns and non-commissioned officers to the officer ranks of the army for special merits. But even these measures could hardly cover the growing needs of the Russian army for officers, since the losses among the officer corps were very impressive.

Millions of Russian soldiers and officers were injured in the war of varying severity. The General Staff in 1917 estimated the total number of wounded at 3,223,508. Nikolai Golovin writes about 3,850,000 wounded, and Western sources call an even more impressive figure - 4.9 million people were wounded. General Golovin cites in his work “Russia's Military Efforts in the World War” and a very interesting alignment of the percentage of wounded soldiers to the military branches of the Russian imperial army. The first attempts to count the number of wounded were carried out by Dr. V.G. Avramov and published in Soviet Russia in 1920 in Izvestia People's Commissariat healthcare." It is clear that in percentage the largest number of wounded were in the infantry. 94.1% of all Russian wounded soldiers and officers served in the infantry, 2.6% - in the border guards, another 1.7% of the wounded - in the cavalry, 1.1% - in the artillery, 0.3% - in engineering troops.

The colossal losses in the infantry were due, firstly, to the mass nature of this type of troops, which was the backbone of the imperial army, and secondly, to insufficient technical equipment, which forced the command to fill this gap with manpower. This circumstance, by the way, is named among the main reasons for such large-scale losses by General Golovin himself. Comparing the losses of the Russian army by the wounded with those of the French army - the largest army in Europe before the start of the war, Golovin establishes that the Russian infantry lost 1.5 times more soldiers wounded than the French infantry, and in the cavalry the number of wounded in the Russian army was 2.5 times higher than in the French army. A significantly smaller number of wounded were in the artillery and engineering troops, which was explained by the specifics of service in these branches of the military.

The problem of the wounded was exacerbated by the low level of medical support both in the army and in the rear. The main task of the medical service during the war years was, first of all, the evacuation of all the wounded to the rear. It was believed that the most important task was to remove the wounded as far as possible from the front line, but the issues of their recovery, restoring health, were of much less interest to the command, and there was practically no infrastructure to address these issues. Hence - a huge number of disabled people, as well as those who died from wounds and diseases already in the rear.

During the war, 2,474,935 wounded and poisoned by gas, 1,477,940 patients were evacuated to the rear, but most of the wounded did not actually receive real medical care. The result of this model of organizing medical support was understandable - if in the German army 76% of the wounded returned to service, in the French army - 75% of the wounded, then in the Russian army - no more than 50% of the wounded. At the same time, 11.5% of the wounded died already in the rear, and more than 20% became disabled.

The costs of the evacuation system also included the fact that the wounded and sick soldiers accumulated at distribution points, since the transport system was not able to transport such a large number of people. Naturally, epidemics broke out in places where a large number of the wounded and sick were concentrated, which worsened the already poor sanitary situation in frontline. Given the lack of a real system of social support for the population, war invalids, in the absence of any help from relatives, quickly turned into ordinary beggars, many of them died very quickly after demobilization, being deprived of qualified medical care and care.

During the Soviet period, the events of the First World War were covered mainly in historical literature, no serious steps were taken towards perpetuating the memory of the fallen Russian soldiers. Nevertheless, it was participation in the First World War that became the first combat experience for many famous Soviet commanders. Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev went through the First World War as a non-commissioned officer, and then as a sergeant major of infantry regiments. Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny served as a non-commissioned officer in the dragoon regiments. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov also served as a non-commissioned officer in the dragoon regiment. The junior non-commissioned officer of the dragoon regiment was Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, the junior non-commissioned officer of the artillery was Ivan Stepanovich Konev. Almost all Soviet commanders Great Patriotic War over the age of 40-45 were participants in the First World War.

The authorities began to think about the need to perpetuate the memory of Russian soldiers - heroes of the First World War only at the turn of the 1980s - 1990s, when a revision of the general attitude to the history of our country began. Thus, in 1994, the Moscow government declared the territory of the former Fraternal Cemetery, converted into a park back in the 1930s, a historical and cultural monument. In the central part of the park, a special Memorial and Park Complex of the Heroes of the First World War was created. Gradually, the opening of monuments to the fallen Russian soldiers began in other cities of our country. They also remembered the sisters of mercy - Russian women and girls who provided tremendous assistance to the army in rescuing the wounded. A very large contribution to perpetuating the memory of the dead was the opening of the portal of the Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918, containing links to more than 2.5 million personalities.

The First World War became the most serious test for our country. It is all the more important now, a century after its completion, to remember the true heroes - the soldiers and officers of the Russian army and navy, who gave their lives, accomplished feats and remained faithful to duty, even despite all the inconsistency and controversy of this war. To perpetuate the heroes of that terrible war A lot has been done, but there is still more to be done - and in this the authorities and society should show solidarity. Eternal memory to you, Russian soldiers who fell in the First World War!

Solemn events dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of Russian soldiers who died in the First World War of 1914-1918 were held.

The opening of a new exhibition and the official launch of the Internet portal, which brings together all the information about the soldiers of the Russian army who died, went missing during the First World War, about their exploits and awards, took place on August 1 - the day the Russian Empire entered the war , which has become one of the largest and bloodiest in world history. According to various sources, our country lost about two million of its soldiers in this military conflict. Until recently, their names were forgotten - only specialists, historians and representatives of the archives had access to these documents. We are talking about about 10 million personal cards, each of which is the fate of a person. Now access to many of them is open to everyone on a special website created under the auspices of the Russian Historical Society by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Federal Archival Agency.

Celebrations began with the opening exhibition "Russia on the Eve of Great Upheavals". The exposition is devoted to the history of Russia on the eve of the First World War, the revolution of 1917 and. Opening the exhibition, the Chairman of the Russian Historical Society noted that the beginning of the 20th century in our country was marked by rapid economic growth:

“Russia came out on top in the world in terms of economic growth largely due to the reforms of the government headed by Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin. Russia was preparing for external aggression, so large budget funds were directed to the development of new types of weapons. The financing of the military-industrial complex of that time was quite significant ... The civilian sectors of the economy also developed at a high pace. In a word, before the start, Russia had a very significant economic potential.”

However, at the same time, contradictions within society itself also grew. “They need great upheavals, we need Great Russia!» - said Pyotr Stolypin, speaking in the State Duma on May 10, 1907. Between the First Russian Revolution and the First World War, the distance is only 7-8 years. Transformational processes similar to Stolypin's reforms in other countries stretched out for many centuries. And in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, they seemed to be compressed into a single whole. In a short time, the country has qualitatively changed in several directions at once: legislative representation, a free press appeared, class discriminatory restrictions were removed, the national economy received an impetus for dynamic development.

“The country also had serious problems. The first of these was the agrarian question, which was unsuccessfully solved by Pyotr Stolypin, but it was necessary to solve it much earlier. The imbalance between the industrial sector and the agricultural sector created some instability in the economic system of the country as a whole. And this instability affected initial period war, when Russia was unable to provide the army with the necessary number of shells and artillery pieces, it took a huge mobilization of all the forces of the state,

Said, examining the exhibition, the director of the Institute Russian history RAS Yuri Petrov.

On the part of the Russian Empire, 12 million people were involved in the war. Data about them for a long time was known only to a narrow circle of specialists - all cases were kept in archives. These documents were not classified, but access to them was limited. Now, thanks to the created Internet site "In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918", all history lovers from anywhere in the world can get acquainted with them online.

“Today we are presenting an electronic portal of losses of the Russian army in the First World War. This archive has been located in the Tyumen region for the last few decades. I especially want to thank the Russian Ministry of Defense, which got involved in this work and created the organizational and financial conditions for the digitization of the file of losses of Russian soldiers in the First World War, coordinated the work of historians, archivists and specialists in the field of information technology,”

Noted Sergei Naryshkin.

According to him, the project to digitize the file of losses during the First World War aroused great interest from the very beginning. Work on the digitization of documents has not yet been completed, but the creators of the resource have already decided to make this card index public. On this moment there are about 2.5 million cards in the public domain, and there are about 10 million of them in total. Work on digitization continues, the site data bank will be constantly updated. Moreover, anyone can take part in this process: by registering, each Internet user will be able to publish on the portal, for example, photographs from personal, family archives.

“Today we are opening the first part of the project. This is an interactive resource, so we plan to use feedback from users who will be able to express their comments and additions. The basis of the portal presented today is the so-called documents of the activities of a special office for the collection and registration of information about veterans who have left due to death, as well as missing military forces operating against the enemy army. This institution was created already in the autumn of 1914, at the very beginning of the war, and in 1918 its files and file cabinets were transferred to the Bureau for Recording Losses on the Fronts in the First World War as part of the People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs "

The head of the Federal Archival Agency clarified in his speech Andrey Artizov.

Work on the creation of the portal "In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918" began in 2015. The portal was developed taking into account the fact that modern users, as a rule, have very scarce information about their ancestors who lived a hundred or more years ago. Therefore, the site search is possible not only by last name, first name, patronymic, date and place of birth, but also by dates and places of service. A whole list of search filters has been created on the portal: you can often find your loved ones knowing only indirect information, such as, for example, place of residence. Moreover, users will not have to get confused in the outdated names of volosts and provinces - to search, it will be enough to highlight the cursor on the electronic geographical map the approximate place where the person lived.

The electronic map also contains interactive markers of military operations, by clicking on which you can get a brief historical background about this operation.

“Russia has fulfilled all its allied obligations, the Russian army has participated in all major battles. And we can fully assert that the victory of England and France over Germany and its allies was won thanks to the courage and heroism of Russian soldiers and officers, - said the head of the department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for perpetuating the memory of those who died defending the Fatherland Vladimir Popov. - About 40 were involved in the Great War of 1914-1918 independent states more than 73 million people took part in it. 10 million died, of which more than two million were Russians.”

Behind every card, whether digitized or still in the archives, is a true human story. During the presentation of the project, copies of two such cards were handed over to the descendants of the heroes of the First World War. Among them is the director of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Alexander Nikonov, whose grandfather went through the entire war. During one of the operations on the Austrian front in February 1916, he received severe frostbite on his feet and ended up in a hospital in Kharkov, as stated in the document.

“Grandfather was born in 1894, he was a goldenrod worker, that is, a jeweler, he worked in the Bronnitskaya artel. My grandmother told me about how he got cold feet. I remember when I was little, he showed me his legs, he did not have two fingers on his left foot, ”

told Alexander Nikonov.

Despite the huge historical meaning World War I, it has long been called the "forgotten war". In the Soviet Union, for obvious reasons, the focus of attention of historians and society was the revolutionary process. No one thought about preserving the memory of the soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army. Now this gap has been filled. Copying of the main set of documents for the portal "In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918" is in full swing. This work is expected to be completed in full in 2018.