Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-2/193-225

Abstract

The article is devoted to the findings of military-patriotic search teams. It provides the results of the anthropological study and restoration of the lifetime appearance of the soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War based on the exhumed remains. The work was carried out in the Laboratory of Anthropological Reconstruction of the Center for Physical Anthropology of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEA RAS) within the research project "Restoring the appearance of fallen WWII soldiers". Project participants: employees of the IEA RAS, the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, students of Moscow State University and Russian State University for the Humanities, volunteers. The aim of the work is to obtain the most complete information about the appearance of soldiers who were found many years later on the battlefields. We also consider it important to draw attention to specific episodes of the war. Contour and graphic reconstructions (face and profile) were made for each individual, verbal descriptions of appearance were prepared. Tables of individual measurements of the postcranial skeletons and skulls are presented. Based on osteological data, body length and constitution were determined. Individual lifetime head sizes were calculated based on craniometric data. Eight people are immortalized in portraits. It is possible that readers will identify their relatives who went to the front and did not return. And some more gaps in our knowledge of the Second World War will be filled by the new information.