Largest archive on WW2 in the works

Russia plans to create the largest archive dedicated to the Second World War. This may be timed for the 70^th anniversary of the Great Victory, in five years.

Incomplete archives, possessed by Russia, include thousands of documents containing information about the war. But unique materials are sometimes inaccessible for people and mistreated. The situation may be altered with the help of a special archive for the documents related to the Second World War, says the head of the Federal Archive Agency Andrei Artizov:

"To create such an archive, we need to build a large complex of buildings to place all the documents on the history of the Red Army's military actions. We would be able to pass numerous military documents along to the archive, like those of Hitler's chancellery, the Reich's Security Services and others. In compliance with the existing legislation, they are part of Russia's property".

The approval of the Russian government for creating a united archive of Second World War documents has been already obtained and a regulatory legal act is being prepared at present.

The future archive will comprise large informational resources, emerging as a result of digitized documents and other works, related to creating modern search and information means of archive documents. Among such means Andrei Artizov is reckoning a database of those killed in the Second World War and combatants:

"About 20 million entries are included in the base, established on the budget money and open for Internet users. This information source, maintained by a commercial entity, should obviously become part of the archive".

Integration of all the bases on the losses of Germans or Hungarians, for example, which could be found in Russian archives, may result in the appearance of priceless reference materials. They will allow building a picture of all the victims and tragic events, connected with the war, and provide for a quick search of relevant information both in Russia and abroad. If the entire information gathered and put together, Andrei Artizov say, the archive will account for 13 billion documents, which would comply with the contribution of our country to the Victory.