Served in Home Guard in World War II. Every new search gets to me as if it was the first one, says Rafik. I can't tell you how grateful I am.". Olga works for the BBC Russian Service and after a few weeks spent in the forest as a digger, she finds her city and work life a little hard. She employs the help of her metal detector as she scans the forest, walking slowly, carefully and thoroughly under the pine trees; only the sound her instrument makes breaks the silence of the surroundings. This work connects us to our past. As what the leader of the Exploration group, Alexander Konoplov,puts in: The more data we can collect from the spot, the better the chance we have to identify a soldier.. Heziel Pitogo is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Brought to you by the Premier Content Network. "Let's try to enhance purple colours on this yellow paper," he says. Alexander, who was business owner before he devoted his whole time being a digger, found a bullet case stopped up with a small piece of wood which he hoped was an improvised ID tag. They are not buried very deep, she comments then adds, Sometimes we find them just beneath the moss and a few layers of fallen leaves. Here you have a head there a leg She pauses and gazes at the fire. It's like an anchor which helps us to stay in place even during a storm.". But tracing a soldier's family can take years - on occasions more than a decade - especially if the family moved after the war. 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. When her friends in Moscow complain about not being able to afford a good enough car or designer clothes, she feels alienated. 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 . When we told them that we had found their fathers remains, for them the feeling was just indescribable. After that there were more and more and more, and we realized these bodies were to be found everywhere and on a massive scale.. 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. 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. but only actively promoted by the authorities in late 2021 in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine. As of recent times, diggers have uncovered 2,000 remains. 898K views 7 years ago VICE International S1 E23 In World War 2 thousands of soldiers were killed on the border of Germany and Russia. Meanwhile, Marina found something and held it up it looked like a box of soap, only it was not, it was TNT. Listen to Lucy Ash's report on the Russians Digging up the dead on the BBC iPlayer. "It has become the meaning of our lives. , - Sony FDR-AX100E- Sony HDR-PJ650E-Action Cam Sony FDR-X3000R -GoPro Hero 7 Tesoro TejonGarret AT ProGarret Pro pointerGolden Mask Deep Hunter Pro 2 , , , , , , , , , , , excavation, WOT, , treasure, , gagarin, , wot, world of tanks, , , , , , , , , , , 2017, , , , , , , , , ww2, dig The mine, a bleak and dull brown man-made canyon which stretches over 35 square kilometres, yields 25 million . Do not expect her to be politically correct. The Exploration group is just one of the 600 groups of diggers at work all throughout Russia who were able to discover a total of 500,000 remains of WWII soldiers at present. I was crossing a swamp when suddenly I saw some boots sticking out of the mud, he recounts. Ukraine's top human rights organization, Center for Civil Liberties, has requests concerning around 900 civilians captured by Russia since the war began, with more than half still in custody. Many are believed to come from small towns and rural areas with higher poverty rates and fewer job opportunities. to eastern Ukraine in August in an attempt to stop successful advances by the Ukrainian army. Warring countries, Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner exchange with a total of 100 soldiers returning to their respective home countries, according to authorities from both countries on Sunday, January 8. KYIV, Ukraine. Russias newly created 3rd Army Corps, for example, was made up of volunteers and given modern equipment before reportedly being. She recently unearthed a helmet and in order to find its owner, the team had to uproot two nearby trees. But there are also many honest Ukrainian and Russian women. Nevskaya Dubrovka, on the banks of the River Neva, was the scene of one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Leningrad siege. A sad fact,though, is that most of the time, writings in these papers are illegible. RaRe. Many of their bodies were never found. In less than three months, the advancing German army had encircled the city and started pounding it from the air. During business in the House, Thursday, Matero . "Black Diggers" Dig Up, Repair, and Sell WWII Weapons Featured 02/09/2012 Groups in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus operate around areas where firece battles were fought in WWII digging up and selling long ago dropped weapons. Remembering diggers' plight in Russia Posted Wed 28 Apr 2010, 8:32pm Updated Wed 28 Apr 2010, 9:28pm The presence of Australian troops in Russia during the Russian Civil War is something that most Australian are unaware of, but an Australian author and a Russian historian are trying to change that. . Nazi War Diggers was cancelled by the National Geographic channel in 2014, and by Foxtel in Australia this year, after archaeologists slammed its gruesome content. In times of war, they can be deployed. They are persistent to continue until every fallen man has been found though that could take a lifetime of work. I've recently found myself watching the 'Russian war diggers' Youtube channel. We signed some papers, but it wasnt with the Defense Ministry, Alexander told The Moscow Times. , , , . An eternal flame may burn at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow but for these volunteers, the best means to honor those who have fallen during WWII is to give them back their identities. The ceremony acted as the culmination of the diggers months of hard work. There will definitely be work for our grandchildren," says Marina. 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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. You are no longer the same person you were before.". If you crouch down in the woods near Lyuban, a series of grooves in the earth can be clearly made out. 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 states. | Medieval Compilation. "Being unknown is nothing to be proud of. Please take the time to read our policy about trolls and the rules. When, in 1942, people in First Lt Kustov's home village heard he was missing, they suspected him of deserting and collaborating with the Germans. One month later, he was badly injured by artillery fire near the Ukrainian village of Makiivka amid intense fighting in the east of the country. On the battlefield in Ukraine, volunteers fight alongside regular soldiers, men drafted during the Kremlins partial mobilization announced in September and Wagner Group mercenaries. Here is another find by Russian War Diggers. Russia has been accused of hiding evidence of war crimes as videos showed the destruction of a theatre in Mariupol. We are engaged in the search and burial lost Red Army soldiers/ If we can to know their names, we looking for relatives and bury them on their native land with all. "Once you've seen that, you'll never forget it. "But the skeletons were all mixed up and smashed. 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. Little is known about the social background of the men volunteering in Ukraine, but a high percentage reportedly have military experience and many fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when Russia backed a separatist uprising against Kyiv. The Russian and Belarusian air forces began a joint exercise Monday in Belarus, which borders Ukraine and served as a staging ground for Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.The drills are set . Olga Ivshina walks slowly and carefully through the pine trees, the beeps of her metal detector punctuating the quiet of the forest. In World War 2 thousands of soldiers were killed on the border of Germany and Russia. Alexander was quickly deployed to the frontlines in Ukraine after he joined a Russian unit for volunteer soldiers in October because he wanted to "defend his motherland." . Tracing a soldiers family can also take years, even decades, to do especially if the said family has moved elsewhere after WWII. A Day in the Life of a Medieval Barber aka Budget Surgeon!? But nature is working against us. 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. Once youve seen that, youll never forget it. Reportedly, there have been other diggers from different groups who have lost their lives while in volunteering mission elsewhere in Russia. Russian authorities have actively encouraged volunteers to join the military since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The relics we found were Startling! . There will definitely be work for our grandchildren, says Marina. Olga and Marina are working near the town of Lyuban, 80km (50 miles) south of St Petersburg. Sure, there are lots of girls who look for rich guys just to get some money out of them. Valentina Aliyeva is here to bury the father she has not seen since she was four years old. There are no official figures for the numbers of Russian "volunteers" currently in Ukraine, but they include tens of thousands of men fighting in regional battalions raised by local authorities and given names like "Tiger," units of Cossacks and Russia's so-called Special Combat Army Reserve. The soldier had a family, he had children, he fell in love. Tatiana and Lyudmilas elderly mother was shocked when she heard his name, Alexander Golik, being announced; the family had been left desolate because of his disappearance. All iron similar to. - Russian war diggers 974K subscribers Join Subscribe 34K Share Save 8.6M views 4 years ago Answers for your questions VK https://vk.com/gonchar452 FB. Now there is a. "There must have been 30 or 40 soldiers in there. Free shipping. $390.00. We start to see some letters". Alexander has a strict set of guidelines about how the remains should be excavated, labelled and stored. Volunteers can receive as much as 300,000 rubles ($4,175) a month several times higher than average salaries in rural regions. "Some wrote, 'If I am killed, please pass this on to my girlfriend or my mum.' Report rulebreaking comments for moderator review. A lot of countries had been scarred because of WWII but no other suffered loss as much as the Soviet Union did. When Ilya Prokoviev found Kustovs body and was able to identify it, it took him months to track his family down and inform them of the discovery. Nazi War Diggers, which was also pulled from its schedule by Foxtel in Australia in 2015, consists of four one-hour episodes during which the excavation team traces, exposes, and recovers the remains of Russian and German soldiers killed in action. They all operate under the umbrella of the Defense Ministry and have command structures integrated into the Armed Forces. They are not interested in identifying the soldiers - they just leave the bones in the ground. Discover short videos related to russian war diggers on TikTok. Menu. , units of Cossacks and Russias so-called Special Combat Army Reserve. Another major motivating factor is money. Read about our approach to external linking. Among the crowd of relatives, also, wereTatiana Uzarevich and Lyudmila Marinkina, twin sisters in their 50s who have traveled for nine hours via plane from the remote area of Kamchatka into the site to pay their last respects to their grandfather. Exploration and Russias Other Digger Groups. John Campbell Ross. . Recently, she was able to unearth a helmet and in order for them to find its wearer, the team had to pull out two trees nearby. This is nowhere remotely close to Bakhmut. "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. 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. These unknown soldiers are what these volunteer body hunters are looking for. 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?". Finding the dead is only one part of their mission. Others were left blank because many soldiers were superstitious - they believed filling in the forms would lead to certain death. "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. There are so many unburied soldiers, it will take decades to find them. Analogous to the British Territorial Army or the United States Army Reserve, those enrolled in BARS receive salaries and take part in regular military training while retaining their civilian jobs. They are still lying where they fell. Here, in an area of just 10 sq km, an estimated 19,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in just a few days in 1942. Skip to content. "Every new search gets to me as if it was the first one," says Rafik. feed; Telegram Channel; Telegram Group; The History Channel. The Shadowy World of Russias Volunteers Fighting in Ukraine. The grave appeared to be hastily prepared by the Russian soldiers, villagers or even the German troops in a move to prevent an epidemic from occurring with the dead just thrown in unceremoniously. "My mother remarried some years later and everyone told me to call my stepfather Daddy. 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 At that time, individuals who didnt have jobs in Soviet Union were non-persons living as if they didnt exist; nobody wanted to be like that, thus, they were forced to go through with the job. 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They are part of a group called Exploration who have travelled for 24 hours in a cramped army truck to get to this forest near St Petersburg. Plus, it was less than two decades after the war. 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. He instructed The Moscow Occasions from his hospital . "There are so many unburied soldiers, it will take decades to find them. Russian war diggers (Youtube) Firstly, apologies if this has already been the subject of discussion elsewhere. Many unburied soldiers, it will take decades to find them are working near the town of,... They are not interested in identifying the soldiers - they believed filling in the House, Thursday Matero... Just leave the bones in the woods near Lyuban, 80km ( 50 miles ) south St! 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