Electronic Book of Memory as a Historical Source for Studying the Irretrievable Human Losses of the Kuibyshev Region in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940

Abstract

The article considers a mass electronic source on the problem of irretrievable human losses of the USSR during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, available to researchers in the form of a database on several information portals. It is indicated that it was based on the printed Book of Memory dedicated to the fallen soldiers in local wars and conflicts of the twentieth century. The analysis of its representativeness is carried out. The exceptional reliability of the resource is confirmed by the fact that during its creation a huge array of documents from federal and local archives was included in the scientific circulation. The information capabilities of the database for studying the human damage of one of the regions - the Kuibyshev (now Samara) region - were revealed. The relevance of the study is caused by insufficient study of this topic, with the undoubted importance of understanding the deed of all the fallen in the performance of military duty. The author uses the unique capabilities of an electronic resource to fill in the “blank spots” in the issue of human losses. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that quantitative methods of study are applied to it for the first time within the framework of regional history. The number of dead Kuibyshevites during the “winter war” (1737 people) was established, their analysis: age composition, distribution of losses by rank, military branch, cause of death, chronology was carried out.