Post #4326

🇷🇺 The Embassy of Russia in Cambodia continues to cover the activities of the “Vympel-Poisk MSU” search team. Today we will talk about the most important find of the searchers - a soldier's medallion. 🪖 On the eve of the Great Patriotic War a new type of medallion was introduced – a black hexagonal capsule with a screw-on lid and a double paper insert. The insert contained basic information about the soldier: full name, rank, year and place of birth, recruitment office, and family information. The soldiers of the 8th Division of the People's Militia had exactly such medallions. And almost the only way to discover the name of the perished is to identify them by such a medallion. However, this process is difficult for a few reasons. For decades of exposure to earth and water, even a plastic protected insert often decays and takes the name of the fallen soldier with it forever. It was also considered bad luck among soldiers to fill the medallion, which was also called a “death medallion”, so many of the capsules found are empty. ⭐ The first three photos show the moment of opening a soldier's medallion found during a search expedition in 2018. To prevent the paper insert, which had been in a plastic case for more than 80 years, from falling apart, it is slowly unfolded in a tub of water. 📃 The fourth photo shows the filled insert of the Red Army soldier Shimanov Viktor Vasilyevich. His remains were discovered by the search team in the spring of 2016 near the village of Uvarovo. The machine gunner was only 16 years old when killed. 📷 Daria Smirnova #Victory80#WeRemember#VympelPoiskMSU