History 08/01/20 “Mortal” a medallion of a soldier: what to do veterans

Identification medallion of a soldier, often called a death medallion or just “suicide”, was introduced in the red army order of the revolutionary military Council in 1925 and was intended for storing all the necessary information about the soldier to identify his person in case of injury or death. However, search teams, leading excavations on the site of the battles of the great Patriotic war, the death medallions – discovery are infrequent. And there are my reasons.

What was the death medallion

Originally a soldier’s death the medallion in the army was introduced by analogy with the “amulet”, a short-lived in 1917 in tsarist army before the revolution, and was a rectangular box suspended from galvanized steel of size 50×33×4 mm, which was invested parchment sheet with full name, address, military rank, blood group and other necessary personal data, with the exception of the name of the military unit, to indicate that the medallion was forbidden. Then during the great Patriotic war “amulet” has been replaced with a screw-textolite, hard rubber, sometimes plastic cylindrical pencil case, in which a piece of personal data has invested in two copies. In the case of death of the soldier one copy sent to the office, and the second remained with the body of the deceased after the funeral and went to his family.

Why death locket fell out of use

In practice, this method of storing sensitive information, such as the wearing of an identification medallion and largely not justified. In the absence of parchment soldiers often left their details on plain paper or on a piece of newspaper, and the medallion was not sealed and not heat resistant, so that the liner quickly came into disrepair. In addition, the soldiers often believed the wearing of the death medallion a bad primetea and either throw it out or used for other purposes: to adapt the container for storage of needles and other small household items, reworked into the mouthpiece, etc. And in November 1942 an identification medallion and is officially abolished, replacing it with the red book, after which possession could have been initiated by the military solely on their own.

Homemade counterparts death locket

as a makeshift mortal medallion soldiers of the Soviet army used the sleeve from the cartridge to the rifle Mosin. From the bullet, emptied the powder inside the shells was a note with all your personal data and then the hole was shut up inverted bullet. Went used also cupboards in lacquered wood, which were made by soldiers or artisanal cooperatives. Also the red army soldiers were often signed their names to various elements of the ammunition and equipment, due to which a body is recognized by the search engines so far. So personal names are found on the pots, mugs, belts, and more often on aluminum spoons that were hidden behind the leg of the boot or belt. However, the full name of the fighters signed their stuff not always, because not always been possible post-mortem identification, and often did it for simple household needs, that things are not lost and are not confused. A reliable method for the identification of victims in the Great Patriotic war are still preserved and suitable for the reading of soldiers ‘ books, membership cards, certificates and other personal paper identity, and occasionally there are also medals, the number of which it is possible to establish the identity of the recipients.

Source:
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