Military Graves Research Articles

The Semantics of Prussian Weapon Décor

The proposed article reveals the principles of the semantics of the decor that adorned the weapons of the Prussians mainly in the Viking Age.The conclusions are:
 1. In Roman times, the Aestii, the ancestors of the Prussians, provided the blades of their combat knives with carvings, apparently designed to enhance the real power of this weapon in a mystical way. Triangular figures filled with vertical hollows are also presented on Prussian daggers, but their semantic meaning is not clear.
 2. At the end of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Prussians, under the influence of German and Avar swords, create their single-edged blades («long sax» type), the scabbard of which is decorated with silver plates with a basmen pattern. The details of this pattern − stripes of figures of the Kegelkönig type – may
 have a protective value and are associated with the cult of Perkūnas.
 3. In the Viking Age, individual swords found in Prussian military graves have a semantically significant decor associated with the function of mystical amplification of the power of these weapons. True, they were produced outside the land of the Prussians. Swords of the Kazakevičius Desiukiškių type with images of sacrificial goats can be considered the only local in origin.
 4. In the XI century Prussian craftsmen furnish spear and javelin bushings with flame-like decor, possibly related to «military magic». By the end of the XI century jewelers simplify their creations and decorate spear sleeves with silver foil forged with
 horizontal strips of copper/bronze wire. This ornament is purely decorative.
 5. In pre-Orden times, individual specimens of lop-butted axes are decorated with figurines of sacrificial goats. This is a sign that these axes, being actually not military weapons, belong to sacrificial ceremonies held in Prussian communities by
 priests or leaders.

ФОРМУВАННЯ НОВИХ ВІЙСЬКОВИХ ЦВИНТАРІВ В ІСТОРИЧНИХ МІСТАХ ГАЛИЧИНИ

Cemeteries are an integral part of the cultural landscape of every city or town, evidence of the ideology and spiritual life of their time. Military cemeteries may not be in every settlement, but they very clearly record their time, history, ideology. Today we have just such an important and historical moment and we have a war again in our country. Which means dead heroes. And this in turn means new military cemeteries. Galicia has a rich history of military cemetery formation. The first military cemeteries appeared in Galicia, and thus in Lviv during the First World War. That is, in the early twentieth century. The twentieth century was further marked by a series of events which replenished the number of military cemeteries.. These are the Second World War and the struggle for the Ukrainian state. Regardless of the status and the age of the cemetery, from an architectural point of view, the cemetery is a very vulnerable object that requires continuous care and ordering. Military cemeteries are additionally overlaid with an ideological component that complicates their existence. Let's take a look at how thedead warriors were treated in the past. In ancient Greece, mounds were heap up on the battlefields, which were both graves of the dead and symbols of victory. On the tops of mounds, stone lions were installed as a symbol of invincibility and courage. And during the Enlightenment, when burial was restricted in churches and churchyard cemeteries, new cemeteries were built outside the city walls. The changes also concerned the approach to the dead in general and the dead heroes in particular. The attitude towards soldiers' anonymity has changed.The first soldiers to be honored with a memorial tombstone were soldiers killed during the domestic wars of the French Revolution. Until the First World War, no military cemeteries were created in Europe. It was the First World War that provoked the need for the establishment of military cemeteries in our latitude. The Departments of Military Graves were engaged in construction of military cemeteries In Galicia with headquarters in Krakow, Przemysl and Lviv. Lychakiv Cemetery became the place of the first military burials of the First World War in Lviv. After the First World War the Polish state in Lviv builds a pantheon on the Lychakiv Cemetery in the so-called "Lviv Eagles" for Polish soldiers who died for Poland's independence in the Polish-Ukrainian war. The Second World War is breaking out in Europe very quickly. The front passes through the Galicia several times. . After the war Galicia was split between the Soviet Union and Socialist Poland. . In 1951, the Eagle Memorial in Lviv was destroyed. In 1971, the graves and the colonnade were destroyed by tanks and construction equipment. Military burials of World War I in Lviv were also located at the Yaniv Cemetery. In particular, a military memorial to UGA shooters, which was destroyed by the Soviet authorities in 1971 by bulldozers. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, events began to reverse. In 1998 a construction of the memorial for the soldiers of the Ukrainian Galician Army was started at the Lychakiv Cemetery, and in 2005 it was solemnly opened. In 1997-1999, a memorial to the UGA shooters was restored at Yaniv Cemetery in Lviv. In 1990, the restoration of the Memorial of the Lviv Eagles at Lychakiv Cemetery began. In 2014, in the independent Ukraine, the execution of the celestial hundred took place. The fallen heroes returned to their homes. In Lviv, they are buried at the Memorial to the soldiers of the Ukrainian Galician Army at the Lychakiv Cemetery. Other cities also hold memorials to the victims. Very soon, after the shooting of the celestial hundred, the war began. It is still going on. And the expense of the losses we incur in this war does not stop. The question of the military cemetery to the heroes of the modern war remains open.

Military memorial heritage as a social phenomenon and an international legal problem: on the way to a solution

This article discusses conceptual approaches to understanding the problem of international legal protection of Soviet monuments, military graves and places of memory of the Great Patriotic War (military memorial heritage (MMH) sites) in the form of the formation of a new sub-branch of international law — military memorial law, the necessity of introducing the concept of "military memorial heritage" into legal circulation is justified, a mechanism for the legal protection of MMH sites is proposed. The article outlines some issues of the formation of a special International Charter "On the protection of the military memorial heritage", and reveals a number of its legal aspectsworked out in social practice by the tools of public diplomacy during the International Relay of Memory and Gratitude "The Fatherland of a Feat — to the Fatherland of a Hero".The material for the study is made up of the works of Russian and foreign scientists and social practitioners in the field of historical and social memory, considering monuments and memorial places symbolizing the exploits and victims of the Great Patriotic War as sites of a specific heritage of civilization that require special legal protection at both national and supranational and international levels. The experimental project in which the first regulatory standards were worked out in the field of perpetuating the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland in the projections of a number of inter-municipal agreements is the Russian electric power industry and the distribution power grid complex.By the methods of participant observation and independent legal expert review, during the implementation of more than 20 inter-municipal agreements established on the basis of the feats of citizens of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War (40 villages and cities with a population of 2 million people), as well as by monitoring the situation with the preservation of monuments in more than 200 villages and cities of about 10 countries of the world, a number of regulatory norms have been worked for the future international legal act in the format of a Charter (or Convention), their description is given and the author's version of the proposed structure is formulated.

Проблемы квалификации преступных действий по реабилитации нацизма (ст. 354.1 Уголовного кодекса Российской Федерации)

The object of the study is the problems of the application of Article 354.1, Rehabilitation of Nazism, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in domestic legal practice; the focus is on criminal law norms on the rehabilitation of Nazism and related crimes and the practice of their application. The aim of the study is to identify and analyze specific problems of law enforcement officers that arise during the implementation of Article 354.1 in legal practice, to propose solutions to them. In the course of the study, the author analyzed the history of the appearance of this legal norm in Russian criminal law and its subsequent transformations, illustrated the problems of distinguishing between finished and unfinished crimes related to the rehabilitation of Nazism by the example of real criminal cases, and also revealed uncertainty in the legal qualification of criminal acts desecrating military graves, monuments, steles, obelisks, and others memorial structures or objects perpetuating the memory of those killed in the defense of the Fatherland or its interests. In preparing the article, the author used the dialectical method of scientific cognition, which imposes requirements for the study of domestic law enforcement processes in dynamics, and special methods: historical-legal, formal-logical, content analysis, and others. The empirical base of the study is the data obtained as a result of the analysis and generalization of the casual judicial practice in criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to refuse to accept a citizen's complaint for violation of their constitutional rights by Part One of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, materials of judicial and investigative practice of federal courts and investigative bodies of various regions of Russia. The use of an extensive information base, including theoretical provisions and conclusions contained in the applied research works of Russian scientists, the use of general and special scientific methods of cognition and a representative base of forensic investigative practice determines the necessary degree of reliability of the obtained results. The author concludes that the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation should clarify the specifics of the implementation of Article 354.1 in law enforcement practice and formulate criteria for distinguishing the corpus delicti from the one contained in Article 243.4, Destruction or Damage to Military Graves, Monuments, Steles, Obelisks, Other Memorial Structures or Objects Perpetuating the Memory of Those Killed in Defense of the Fatherland or Its Interests or Dedicated to the Days of Russian Military Glory, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Ljutomer parish during the Great War

Drawing on archival materials from the Archdiocesan Archives Maribor and especially on an overview of church records and news items from the Slovenian press, the contribution aims to shed new light on the developments that took place in the parish of Ljutomer during the First World War. These entailed not only a wave of refugees from the Littoral and local casualties but also the presence of military graves in Ljutomer cemeteries, which is a lesser-known fact today.

Ljutomer parish during the Great War

Drawing on archival materials from the Archdiocesan Archives Maribor and especially on an overview of church records and news items from the Slovenian press, the contribution aims to shed new light on the developments that took place in the parish of Ljutomer during the First World War. These entailed not only a wave of refugees from the Littoral and local casualties but also the presence of military graves in Ljutomer cemeteries, which is a lesser-known fact today.

Ljutomer parish during the Great War

Drawing on archival materials from the Archdiocesan Archives Maribor and especially on an overview of church records and news items from the Slovenian press, the contribution aims to shed new light on the developments that took place in the parish of Ljutomer during the First World War. These entailed not only a wave of refugees from the Littoral and local casualties but also the presence of military graves in Ljutomer cemeteries, which is a lesser-known fact today.

Peculiarities of Ownership to Sunken Property Located in the Territorial Waters of the Russian Federation

The paper is devoted to the analysis of various aspects of the legal regulation of ownership to sunken property located within the territorial waters of the Russian Federation. The following areas of application of the rules governing the ownership to sunken (submerged) property are considered as the subject of regulation of ownership to sunken property and geographical arrangement in relation with regard to maritime areas. The author justifies the expediency of the Russian Federation’s accession to the International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks of 2007 that regulates the universal mechanism of liability insurance for the removal of wrecks. It is concluded that it is necessary for Russian courts to take into account the judicial and arbitration practice of dispute resolution arising from the application of unified norms that have accumulated in the States Parties to international treaties on the law of the sea. Numerous legal gaps have been identified in the special legal regulation of ownership of sunken property that are proposed to be eliminated by legislative amendments. The author dwells on the necessity of defining a clear procedure for the removal and destruction of sunken objects, ways of exercising the rights of persons who accidentally raised sunken property, as well as consideration of the issue of submerged ships and vessels that plays an important role in the protection of the environment from pollution by harmful substances and ensuring the safety of navigation at the state level by adopting a federal program in Russia on raising, removal, disposal of sunken property also as an objective before different departments. As a conclusion, the author emphasizes the need to register all submerged objects in the territorial waters of Russia on a specialized account in order to prevent unauthorized work on such objects, declare by a special government decree all submerged ships and vessels containing the remains of the soldiers killed in action as military graves, as well as conduct systematic scientific and technical studies of all submerged objects in order to identify the real environmental safety of the marine environment.

The Presidential Grants Fund as an Instrument of the Policy of Remembrance for the Great Patriotic War

The presented research is devoted to the study of the role of the Presidential Grants Fund in the implementation of the memorial policy in relation to the events of the Great Patriotic War. The methodological base of the study is formed through a combination of comparative and structural analysis. The author concludes that the activity of the Presidential Grants Fund on the field of memorial policy is built outside the context of a clear strategy for implementing the policy of memory. Currently, the Fund allocates funds primarily to support local and regional initiatives that are not linked to each other in a single system. There is a clear imbalance in the territorial distribution of grants in terms of their number and size in favor of projects of participants from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Part of the grants is allocated for the solution of tasks assigned by law to the sphere of responsibility of local self-government bodies (for example, this concerns projects for the improvement of military graves).

Проблемы разграничения статей 243 и 243.4 Уголовного кодекса Российской Федерации

The article is devoted to the study of such elements of crimes as Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation destruction or damage of cultural heritage objects (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation included in the unified State register of cultural heritage objects (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation, identified cultural heritage objects, natural complexes, objects taken under state protection, or cultural values) (hereinafter Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and art. The article 243.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation destruction or damage of military graves, as well as monuments, steles, obelisks, other memorial structures or objects that perpetuate the memory of those who died in the defense of the Fatherland or its interests or dedicated to the days of military glory of Russia (hereinafter Article 243.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). As an article 243.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is a novel in the criminal law of Russia, it was necessary to compare it with other related crimes in order to study possible problems and controversial questions of qualification. The article provides a comparative analysis of crimes against public morality provided for in Articles 243 and 243.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article examines their similarities and differences in such parameters of a socially dangerous act as: subject, object, subjective part and objective pa of the crime, as well as responsibility for the crime committed. The controversial issues of qualification of related crimes are studied and possible ways of their solution are given.

About possible attribution of chain mail artifacts from military burials of the Sadon burial ground

Abstract: the article deals with the finds of chain mail artifacts from two military graves of the early medieval Sadon burial ground of the Alanian culture. According to similar items from the Lombard military burials of the Castel Trosino burial ground in Italy, samples from Sadon are presumably interpreted as gloves designed to protect the hand in combat conditions. Fragments of leather preserved on mail items from the Sadon may be remnants of products in the form of mittens or gloves; a rectangular piece of chain mail mesh was sewn to them from the back to protect the hand.

Historical overview of the German military cemeteries from the First World War in Flanders

This article gives a historical overview of the German military graves of the First World War in Flanders from 1914 until the present. During this time frame, German war graves have been under control of different authorities: the German Army (1914–1918); the Belgian war graves service (1919–1926); the Amtliche Deutsche Gräberdienst (1926–1940); the German Wehrmacht (1940–1944); several organisations under the authority of the Belgian state (1944–1953); and latterly the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (since 1954). Each of the authorities had its own views and consequently have marked the cemeteries, which were gradually and significantly reduced in number over the years, with their particular stamp. Today, the remaining four German military cemeteries in West Flanders have been recognized as heritage sites, ensuring their long term care and preservation.

Novi izzivi in nove naloge za Cerkev ob koncu prve svetovne vojne na socialnem področju

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paper Language: Original in Slovene (Abstract in Slovene and English, Summary in English) Key words: Diocese of Ljubljana, Diocese of Maribor, charity work, military graves, war orphans, widows, Slovenia Abstract: The events during the war and the time after it brought several consequences for the population of the Slovenian lands. These were noticeable in all areas of personal and community life, and were particularly challenging for church communities, which prepared a series of initiatives to alleviate social distress and to regulate the issues raised by the war. Attention was drawn to various groups of the population: war orphans, widows, disabled soldiers, refugees from the Gorica (Gorizia) region, and the missing. Additional care had to be given to the military graves and the military sections of the cemeteries. The various forms of charitable action needed to be coordinated. The alliance Karitativna zveza became an umbrella organization for said charity work. There were various rallies, the preparation of programs and the raising of funds for the charity work. When the Spanish disease broke out at the end of the war, it was in the ecclesiastical context to find original explanations of this ordeal. The paper also outlines initiatives taken by individual bishops to regulate the situation. They placed greater emphasis on the religious dimension of the event. At the same time, they warned people against taking advantage of affected friends and relatives, and against a disorderly life.

Bones of Contention: China’s World War II Military Graves in India, Burma, and Papua New Guinea

Abstract Exploring the construction and maintenance of Nationalist Chinese soldiers’ graves overseas, this article sheds light on post-World War II commemorative politics. After having fought for the Allies against Japanese aggression in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Chinese expeditionary troops sporadically received posthumous care from Chinese veterans and diaspora groups. In the Southeast Asia Theater, the Chinese soldiers imprisoned in the Japanese-run camps in Rabaul were denied burial in the Allied war cemetery and recognition as military heroes. Analyzing archival documents from China, Taiwan, Britain, Australia, and the United States, I demonstrate how the afterlife of Chinese servicemen under foreign sovereignties mattered in the making of the modern Chinese state and its international status.

Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 in the Discourse of the Ational Memory of the Interwar Volyn

In the public discourse of interwar Volyn, the celebration of memorable events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 took an important place. The bearers of national ideology were politicians, military, public figures who did not accept Bolshevik rule and found themselves in political emigration in Poland. They formed the phenomenon of the state in exile, did not forget the traditions, kept the memory of the liberation struggle. Having settled in Volyn voivodeship, political emigrants intensified socio-political practices associated with the celebration of Ukrainian revolutionary events.The solemn church services, the academies devoted to the proclamation of independence of UNR by the 4thUniversal (Declaration), the Battle of Kruty, the Second Winter Campaign and the Bazar's heroes became traditional. The ordering of military graves, the construction of monuments and tombstones for deceased soldiers contributed to the preservation of the historical memory. After 1926, the priority in the annual commemoration belonged to the memorial services for Symon Petliura and to the academies devoted to his memory.
 Keywords: Ukrainian Revolution, Second Polish Republic, Volyn voivodeship, memorable events, military graves, academies, memorial services

THE PRESERVATION OF SOVIET MONUMENTS AS AN ISSUE OF RECONSTRUCTION OF THE VICTORY OF THE USSR IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE PARADIGM OF EUROPEAN HISTORICAL POLICY

Introduction. The study of the problem of searching for and legitimizing non-standard measures for the preservation of Soviet military graves of the Second World War in European countries does not lose its topoicality. The given problem is caused by the historical policy, which recently began to be carried out by a number of European states, particularly with the purpose of reviewing the attitude of the nations to places of memory, symbolizing the exploits and victorious events of the Red Army in the liberation of Europe from the Nazi invaders. Materials and methods. In the course of the research the following methods were used: comparative analysis, system method, logical analysis method, document analysis method. Results. As an optimal measure, which can unite the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the author proposes a program for reconstructing the victory of the USSR in the Second World War. The program includes the reconstruction of the main strategic operations, crossings of rivers, liberation of cities, towns and villages, descriptions of the exploits for which Soviet soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Discussion and conclusion. Using the vulgar theory of the “two occupations” (fascist and Soviet) and the agencies specially designed for the politicization of history (the Institutes of the national memory of Poland and Ukraine), the current ruling elites of a number of European states under the patronage of the United States began to remove and demolish monuments and tombs with the symbols of the USSR on their territories under the banner of anticommunism. As if there was no coming to power of National Socialism infused with racism, xenophobia and chauvinism in Germany in the 30s of the last century. The complete neglect of the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-1946 is demonstrated.

AMAZONS IN VIKING AGE

Amazons are usually associated with the period of the early Iron Age. However, a large number of graves of armed women of the early Middle Ages are known in the territory of Eurasia. In the Scandinavian countries, the period of the 9th — the first half of the 11th centuries was called the «Viking Age». This period is related to the military, commercial and demographic expansion of the Scandinavians. During the archaeological researches, burials of women with weapons were recorded in the cemeteries of Denmark, Norway and Southern Sweden. They constitute a small series of 16 funerary complexes.
 Typically, the female warriors were buried in individual graves, and only occasionally they were accompanied by a woman or a child. Only in two cases armed man and woman of equal social level were placed in one grave. In the necropolis, the graves of the Amazons are usually localized among the military graves. On the territory of Western Europe, both rites of burial of warriors — inhumation and cremation are registered.
 The age range of female warriors is quite wide — from 10 to 50—60 years, with the domination of young women. The material complex showed that women’s weapons were intended for both remote (bows and arrows, spears) and close combat (swords, knives, axes). And in this period preference was given to axes. Several graves of female warriors were accompanied by a horse or a set of horse ammunition. This means that women could also fight in the equestrian battles.
 Based on the range and the number of weapons, the Amazons of the Viking Age mainly were part of the lightly armed units. These women took up arms on a par with men in moments of acute necessity — periods of seizing of new territories or defending their lands from an external enemy.

La question des sépultures des morts de la guerre d’Indochine suivi du Rapport de la mission du capitaine Belmont à Diên Biên Phu du 8 au 23 juin 1955

With the end of the Indochina War and the French withdrawal from North Vietnam came up the question of the graves of the Far East Expeditionary Corps ‘soldiers. Since the conquest (end of the XIXth Century) these were managed by a specific body : L’Oeuvre des tombes militaires en Indochine (The Charity of military graves in Indochina). It became quickly evident that this benevolent organization was no more able to regroup and repatriate the corpses and that the state must take over these tasks.This article is followed by the report written by Captain Belmont, an officer send to Diên Biên Phu one year after the end of the battle to seek the graves of the French Union soldiers. A mission that was not followed up.

Military graves from the Late Roman necropolis at slog in Ravna (Timacum Minus)

The necropolises of the Roman fortification and settlement Timacum Minus, in the village of Ravna, near Knjazevac, were partially explored by systematical and rescue archaeological excavations. The most extensively explored was the part of the Late Roman necropolis on the eastern slope of the Slog hill, about 400m west of the fortification, where 80 graves from this period have been investigated. The analysis of the human osteological material, and the archaeological finds from the aforementioned necropolis, confirmed 17 military graves, containing adult male individuals with traces of injuries, stress markers and pathological changes, characteristic of a military population, as well as military equipment and weapons. At the time of the formation of the Late Roman necropolis at the site of Slog, during the second half of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century, the garrison of the Timacum Minus fortification consisted of an equestrian unit of pseudocomitatenses Timacenses, a part of the auxiliary formation that secured the forts and roads in the Timok region. Among the graves from the three phases of the Late Roman necropolis, similarities as well as certain differences are apparent, indicating changes in the structure of the civilian and military population of Timacum Minus.

In the German Federal Republic: The maintenance of military graves in accordance with the Geneva Conventions

The Central Tracing Agency in Geneva has always had, amongst many other tasks in time of war, that of tracing the graves of missing military personnel. If we are more especially considering the Second World War, we can see that this activity began for the Central Prisoners of War Agency (its official title at that time), when hundreds of thousands of regimental enquiries were opened for French prisoners of war in Germany, in order to discover the fate of French military personnel missing during the summer of 1940.