Liberation80: Mostly Unknown Soldiers Buried in Cemetery in Michalovce

Michalovce, April 10 (TASR) - According to archival data, approximately 17,648 fallen soldiers are buried in the Red Army Central Military Cemetery in Michalovce (Kosice region). Individual and common graves cover an area of about 17,000 square metres. Only a few hundred of the soldiers buried there have been identified. Martin Gresa of the Gisela-Stellung Military History Club told TASR that this is paradoxical because the Red Army kept detailed records of fallen soldiers that have been preserved. Gresa stated that the problem with identification was that during the post-war exhumations, the Czechoslovak authorities didn't have extensive documentation that included detailed name lists and plans of the original war graves. "If a list wasn't preserved in the village, such as in the form of inscriptions on makeshift tombstones or in other forms, the details of the fallen were often deposited in the graves, for example, in bottles. These soldiers were then automatically registered as unknown," he explained. Even after more than 80 years, an intensive search for the fate of these soldiers continues, especially by their descendants. "During my volunteer work aimed at searching for information about fallen soldiers, I've come across dozens of cases. In many of them, thanks to a thorough study of archival materials, we've managed to clarify the final resting place of these soldiers. Some of their descendants subsequently came to Slovakia to pay tribute to the memory of their loved ones," added Gresa, noting that these families came from Slovakia as well as from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, the USA and France. Modern technologies, such as geo-referencing historical maps that are compared with current geographic data, are of significant help in processing historical information more accurately. "This process often leads to valuable additional information that helps to reconstruct the circumstances of a soldier's death, determine where he was killed, the original burial site and the route of his exhumation and transportation to the central cemetery," he added. The Red Army Central Military Cemetery in Michalovce is included on the list of national cultural monuments. am/df