Finding remains on the East Front

[Ricky B]

... I find their ID tags, paper stuck in a tube, to be incredibly 19th century but I guess they didn't really care too much about the boys at that time.

I think some of it was their culture under Soviet leadership anyway, but also their desperation, and focus on survival. I don't think they had the time to give much effort to anything but beating the Germans, at whatever cost.

I had a lady from Leningrad/St Petersburg that worked for me about 13 years ago. Her father was a high level general in the military, her grandfather had fought in the war. Apparently, her grandparents were Russians living in the Brest-Litovsk area before the war, not in the military. I don't know the details but right before the fighting started she said they left the area, implying there was some knowledge of the coming attack, or maybe they left right after the attack started. Anyway, as the train headed east, her grandfather was pulled off the train and assigned to a rifle battalion - I guess immediate conscription. Surprisingly, he survived the war, but that image of grabbing anyone able to fight, handing them rifles (if they had them) and putting the person into a unit heading to battle still amazes me.

Rick