V.V. Bibikov

Remember by name.
Electronic database "Alphabetical lists of losses of the lower ranks in 1914-1918."
Project of the Union for the Revival of Pedigree Traditions (SVRT)

In the middle of this year, the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War will be celebrated.

First World War one of the largest armed conflicts in human history. Prior to that, it was called the "Great War", "Second Patriotic War". And I well remember the words of my grandmother, who called her "German". In Soviet historiography, the war was considered "unjust and predatory" and before the start of World War II, it was referred to only as "imperialist".

As a result of the war, four empires ceased to exist: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German.

The participating countries lost more than 10 million people killed soldiers, about 12 million civilians killed and about 55 million people were injured.

It is known that during that war in Russian Empire about 15.5 million soldiers were mobilized. Of these, about 1.7 million died, about 3.8 million were injured, and almost 3.5 million were captured.

Often, studying the history of our vast country, we perfectly remember the dates and events that took place in it for many centuries, without thinking at all that all these events were directly related to the fate of our ancestors. The history of a country and society is made up of the stories and destinies of many individuals. Studying the history of one's family, knowing one's roots, one's pedigree helps to realize the significance of each individual person, allows you to feel your belonging to the family and clan, acts as a kind of link, prevents the separation and alienation of people in the modern world.

That is why SVRT, an organization engaged in the promotion of genealogy, considered it its duty, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, to restore the names of ordinary soldiers - heroes great war.

The idea of ​​systematizing the losses of the lower ranks in the First World War came to us back in 2010. From that moment, the search for documents began, where these data would be reflected.

According to available information, the lists of losses compiled during the First World War are now stored in regional archives in the funds of provincial governments. They are also in the collections of the largest libraries in Russia.

Approximately two years ago, these lists began to be posted on the electronic resources of the Russian State Library and online library "Tsarskoe Selo". Enthusiasts also appeared who began processing the lists, but most of them were engaged in sampling only for a particular county, at best, provinces, or the processed lists were subject to various conditions that limited free access to them.

Seeing this state of affairs, the Union for the Revival of Bloodline Traditions decided to optimize all the lists available in the public domain and make them available to everyone. The work was based on the alphabetization of the lists according to the territories of the Russian Empire. This principle of processing lists allows you to search for the person you are looking for as quickly as possible. For the first time, we turned to these lists in August 2012, and since August 2013, the project “The First World War, 1914-1918” began to be systematically implemented. Alphabetical lists of casualties of the lower ranks.

Under this project, we began to form a team of voluntary assistants, volunteers began to actively join us, wishing to help in its implementation. The project was headed by Nikolay Ivanovich Chernukhin, a member of the SVRT, a doctor living in the Stavropol Territory, on whose shoulders the main work on the project implementation fell.

Currently, the project is working at full capacity, the lists are being actively processed and posted on the CBRT website for free access. The project involves 59 volunteers: these are members of our Union, and just people living in our country and abroad, united by a common goal.

Thanks to the active participation of such volunteers as Bogatyrev V.I., Gavrilchenko P.V., Efimenko T.D., Kalenov D.M., Kravtsova E.M., Myasnikova N.A., Naumova E.E., Shchennikov A. N. and many others, the project has practical content and is nearing completion.

At the moment, all the lists found in the public domain have been dismantled and are being worked on. Of the 97 territories on the lists, 96 territories have already been processed and posted on our website. The formed database already contains information about more than one million people of the lower ranks, and each of us can now look for our relatives there.

The lists posted on the websites of the previously mentioned libraries contain information about about 1 million people, and in total about 1.8 million people were counted.

Unfortunately, not all lists are freely available, but only about half, but work continues, including the search for missing information.

Our developments are already beginning to be used, and samples for the respective territories are posted on regional sites.

We welcome any help, including providing us with the missing lists. Elena Kravtsova and Andrey Gorbonosov have helped and continue to help us in this. Some of the lists were provided by Boris Alekseev.

The real results of the project can be found on the CBRT website.

All the volunteers who have already shown practical results were acknowledged by the Board of the SVRT, some of them were awarded with the Signs of the SVRT of the III degree for selfless and noble work. Upon completion of the project, the most active participants will be presented with orders and medals of the Russian Imperial House.

I would like to present our project with the help of a small electronic presentation of scans from the CBRT website. So,

Frame 1 Screensaver of the project from the CBRT website.

Frame 2 On the main page of our site there are buttons for the largest projects of the SVRT, among them there is a button with the image of a good soldier during the war of 1914-1918.

Frame 3 By clicking on this button, we get to the page of the site dedicated to this project.

Frame 4 Here we see brief annotation project, name list of project participants (site visitors should know who prepared the lists of losses for work). Next is the alphabet of letters: by clicking on one of them, you can get to the page on which the provinces are located, the name of which begins with the corresponding letter. Just below the alphabet is a reminder that the territorial division of the Russian Empire is not in all cases identical to the modern one. For people involved in genealogy, this is an obvious thing, but for the rest of the Internet users, this is not at all the case.

Frame 5 By clicking, for example, on the letter "O" we see three provinces at once: Olonets, Orenburg and Oryol. Next, you should click in the corresponding province on the letter with which the desired surname begins.

Frame 6 Now we get to the pivot table. The table contains several columns with persons beginning with the corresponding letter. Column headings: rank, full name, religion, marital status, county, parish (settlement), reason for leaving, date of leaving, published list number and page in the list.

Frame 8 Why did a person get on the list of losses twice? From the data of the list it follows that on May 31, 1915 he was wounded, but left in the ranks, and on July 16 of the same year it is recorded that he was wounded and apparently sent to the hospital. I easily found his potential father in my database - Stepan Yakovlevich. Comparing the dates of birth of the sisters, brothers, nephews of the hero, I understood why he had not been included in the family tree earlier. Georgy Stefanovich probably did not return to his native village after the war, and there could be several reasons. Perhaps the “vortex of revolution” radically changed the fate of a person, or perhaps he was mortally wounded, which is why he did not get into the electoral lists of 1917, which I looked through in the archive. Now I know that Georgy Stefanovich Bibikov is my second cousin, a participant in that “forgotten war”. Such indirect genealogical information can be obtained from these lists, i.e. these lists are a good addition to the well-known OBD-Memorial database, which we all actively use. But, of course, the main goal of working on the lists is to list by name the undeservedly forgotten heroes of the First World War of 1914-1918.

Frame 9 CBRT forum page introduced. You can follow the discussion of the project, its developments, additional information on the project, as well as participate in discussions, conversations and discussions on our forum.

Frame 10 The most active participants of the project are marked with our award, the badge "Participant of the SVRT project". The sign is approved in three degrees and is awarded for each project separately. The picture shows the 3rd and 2nd degrees of the sign. Currently, 20 project participants have been awarded this badge.

Join our project, remember your great-grandfathers!

Bibikov V.V. — President of the Union for the Revival of Pedigree Traditions, member of the Public Council under the Federal Archival Agency, member of the Council of the Russian Genealogical Federation, active member Historical-Genealogical Society in Moscow.

On the eve of the anniversaries associated with the First World War, the descendants of its participants are increasingly active, who, on the basis of scarce information, want to find more detailed information about their relatives. This short guide has been written especially for such people.

The main array of documents on the combat path of participants in the First World War is located in the Russian State Military Historical Archive(Moscow city, website: rgvia.rf). The most important thing you need to know first is whether your ancestor was an officer (from ensign and above) or a lower rank (this includes both non-commissioned officers and ensigns). If an officer - everything is simple. You need to come to the archive, contact the "Catalog" department and give your full name. relative. The archive employee will check in the electronic catalog whether there is a track record for such a person (fund 409). With a probability slightly higher than 50%, the track record will be found. Then you order it, wait a few days, and then write out the combat path from it, the numbers of the units and formations where your ancestor served, then order documents from the relevant funds, etc. If you can’t visit the RGVIA, you can try to find information about the relative -officer in open sources:

The author of this site, Aleksey Likhotvorik, did a great thing: he digitized the highest orders for the military department, through which various awards were approved (St. Anna, St. Stanislav, etc.). To search for a relative, you can use the general search on the site.

Gurdov Pavel Vasilyevich (1882-1915), captain

This project is an open database and photo archive of officers and formations of the Russian Imperial Army of the early 20th century. The portal provides information about 56 thousand people who were in the service in the period from 1900 to 1917.

Shmukler Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (1891-1961), non-commissioned officer

It should be noted that back in the 2000s, a reference book by V. M. Shabanov on holders of the Order of St. George and St. George's weapons was published. In 2008, the publishing house "Dukhovnaya Niva" prepared another catalog (it was mainly dealt with by the historian V.L. Yushko), which collected information only about the holders of the Order of St. George and provided small portraits and extracts from orders, for which he was awarded (need to say that such extracts for both officers and lower ranks are of the same type and do not reveal all the circumstances of the feat, since the wording was adjusted to a specific article from the statute; if you are interested in the description of the feat, you need to raise award documents, on the basis of which the decision of the St. George's Duma was made) .

Bochkareva Maria Leontievna (1889-1920), Lieutenant

The portal is dedicated to the losses of Russia during the First World War. Its basis is a card index of losses (more than 10 million cards: so far 6 million have been digitized, 2.2 million have been posted). These cards were drawn up for the wounded, shell-shocked, who were out of action for other reasons. In addition, data from the RGVIA Fund 16196 (this is a list of losses) will be posted on the portal. There are also some track records.

Bogoslovsky Andrei Alexandrovich (1869-1918), military priest

It is more difficult to search if your ancestor was a lower rank. To search in the RGVIA databases, you need to know the unit (regiment) where he served. Place of birth or call will not work. If the regiment is known, it is necessary to take the inventories of the fund of this regiment - it may contain documents related to replenishment (including nominal lists of arrivals), awards, etc. In addition, lists of losses by regiments are stored in the inventories of Foundation 16196. Now these lists have been digitized, and it has become easier to work with them.

If there is absolutely no information about the place of service of a relative, you need to refer to various electronic databases:

The same (still incomplete, but regularly updated) portal about losses during the First World War. If your ancestor was wounded or shell-shocked, then a card could be kept in his name. Then you will know the place of service. Next, you need to contact the RGVIA.

Ivanova Rimma Mikhailovna (1894-1915), sister of mercy

This electronic database brings together the lists of those killed and wounded that were published in the newspapers of the time. The title, full name, place of residence were indicated. It is convenient to search if you know where your relative is from. The main disadvantage is that the place of service is not indicated, so at best on this portal you can find confirmation of the fact of injury or death of a person, but there will not be enough data to go to the archive.

Kryuchkov Kozma Firsovich (1890-1919), Don Cossack

- Consolidated lists of holders of the St. George Cross 1914-1922

More than a million lower ranks became St. George Knights. S. V. Patrikeyev, a well-known collector, spent 15 years at the RGVIA creating consolidated lists (they were compiled during the war years, but in the 1920s they were put into waste paper). There are more than one million people on the list. The disadvantage of the lists is that they are arranged according to the numbers of the crosses (these are factory numbers, they have nothing to do with the order of awarding), and the advantage is that documents in pdf format are posted on the link, this allows for automatic search.

Nesterov Petr Nikolaevich (1887-1914) ace pilot

- A list of St. George Knights can also be *, but it is less complete than Patrikeev's reference book

If your ancestor was drafted in the Ryazan, Voronezh provinces, in the Crimea, or served in the Black Sea Fleet, you are very lucky. There is such great person- Alexander Grigorov. He and his team compiled the corresponding books in memory of the First World War for these provinces and the fleet.

Tsaregradsky Georgy Savvich (1888-1957), military doctor

If you are also looking for the burial place of a deceased relative, then similar data for many regiments are presented in the city archive (TsGIA) of St. Petersburg. It preserved the parish registers of regiments and infirmaries. Note inventory 128 (Fund 19, TsGIA St. Petersburg). If you look through it, then somewhere closer to the end you will come across parish books on the shelves. For a nominal fee, they can be viewed from home. If only data on the place of conscription is known, then one must go to the regional archives and look at the funds of military commanders and military presences.

*For technical reasons, these sites may be temporarily unavailable

A unique Internet resource has been launched in Russia - the electronic archive "In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918". It has already published more than 2.5 million personal cards for the dead, wounded, captured and missing military personnel. Russian army.

About 25 thousand of them were called up in Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Zemgale - the then Livonian and Courland provinces. With Latgale, there is less clarity: more than 36 thousand cards of servicemen who came to the tsarist army from the Vitebsk province have already been published. However, the province "covered" not only Latgale, but also a significant part of today's Belarus. But, for example, there are almost 7,000 cards marked "Dvinsky" and "Rezhitsky" counties. Finally, part of the modern territory of Latvia during the First World War was administratively part of the Kovno and Pskov provinces, and about half of the former Livonian province today is the territory of Estonia.

The portal was launched thanks to the joint efforts of the Federal Archival Agency, the Russian Historical Society and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Its completion is still ongoing.

It is planned to complete the process of transferring 9 million cards to the Internet in a year, when the world will celebrate the centenary of the end of the First World War.

... The Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), the largest in the country, is located in the Lefortovo Palace, once built by order of Peter I. Information about the Russian army is stored here, starting from late XVII century and ending in 1918. To the right of the entrance arch is an inconspicuous entrance and a lone policeman who lets you into the territory only with a passport. The presence of an official identity document is, perhaps, the main condition for access to archival documents.

Oleg Chistyakov, head of the department of scientific and reference apparatus, says that interest in the archive has been steadily growing over the past years. Behind him is the entrance to the reading room, which is visited by about 70 people every day.

People have become interested in history, genealogy... Most of the visitors to the reading room are those who are looking for relatives, or genealogists working on someone else's order. As a percentage [among visitors], there are now fewer professional scientists than those who are engaged in the history of their family,” Chistyakov explains.

Visitors quietly pass by into the reading room. After they fill out not the most difficult questionnaire, the archive employee will open a personal file for them, where they will mark the issued documents. Chistyakov says that, despite the launch of the resource on the Internet, in many cases you still have to go directly to the archive. He recalls that in the days of the USSR, the archive was not formally considered closed, but getting into it “was problematic.”

It was necessary to provide sufficiently serious reasons to get into the archive. This was usually associated with scientific work when the documents required for admission could be obtained from research institute, the union of writers or journalists and other official organizations.

Now there are no special restrictions.

Documents may not be provided, for example, if they themselves are in poor condition and handing them over could harm them. Then they are given out either under supervision, or the archive employee looks at it for free and passes the information from the document to the visitor, - Chistyakov says on the go, opening the door to a room with metal cabinets. They contain personal cards of participants in the military events of 1914-1918.

Sample account RGVIA:

● Itneris, Adam Tomov (ich), a married Lutheran from the Gazenpot (Aizput) district,
● Skuin (sh), Fedor (Theodor) Andreev (ich), a single Lutheran from Sterlitamak district (near Orenburg in Russia),
● Heinrich-Victor Yanov (ich) Fischer, a single Lutheran from the Grobinsky (Grobinsky) district,
● David Elias (ovich) Fridman, a single Jew from the Tukums district,
● Yan Andreev (ich) Greyer, a single Lutheran from the Grobiński district,

And their comrades-in-arms - Gerasimov, Nikolai Vasilievich, a married Old Believer from the Dvina (Daugavpils) district, Ozolin, Evald Karlov (ich), a single Lutheran from the Gazenpot (Aizputsky) district, Yoskvad, Kazimir Mikelev (ich), a single Catholic from the Grobinsky district of Palanginskaya parish, Karl Ansov (ich) Berzin, a single Lutheran from the Aizpute district, Ans Yakovlev (ich) Gail, a single Lutheran from the Mitava (Jelgava) district, Borukh Peritsev (ich) Perau, a single Jew from the Aizpute district, Kipste, Indrik Yanovich, a single a Lutheran from the Prekulinskaya volost of the Grobinsky district and more than 100 soldiers of the 20th mortar artillery division, who went missing in 1914-1915 during the fighting in East Prussia. ( Full list- on the RGVIA website).

The archive also provides paid services, which are often used by researchers who do not live in Moscow. Their number in last years also increases.

Those who are interested in archival data from abroad can send a request or come in person. Unofficially, but still, those who come here from abroad receive increased attention and they are tried to be served in the first place. Nevertheless, the person arrived from afar ... It is difficult, of course, to say from which countries they turn more often. The spread is large. But, probably, there are a lot of requests from Eastern Europe, for example, Poland, because it was part of the Russian Empire, - Chistyakov explains, adding that there are practically no difficulties in working with foreigners due to the language barrier.

And from Latvia, which was also once part of the Russian Empire, there are also search requests. Those who could not find relatives in the data already published on the Internet are contacting.

Sample registration card RGVIA: Berzin, Karl Andreevich, private of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, drafted from the Torkensky volost of the Volmarsky (Valmiersky) district of the Livonian province. On July 27, 1915, he was wounded near the village of Petrilov (present-day Western Ukraine). He died in battle on September 3, 1916 in the Korytnitsky forest (now Western Ukraine).
Sometimes difficulties in the search can be associated not so much with the fact that the information has not yet been digitized, but with differences in the spelling of names or names of settlements:

The problem of transcription of foreign surnames and localities is always there. The portal search engine gives close options, but this does not give a guarantee. You should try to enter surnames and names in all options Cyrillic.

There are no step-by-step instructions for finding relatives - more precisely, there is no universal instruction. You need to enter any known parameters in the appropriate search fields and in any combination. Maybe someone knows only the part number and last name, and someone knows the year of birth, and the place, and other data. The more data, the more accurate the search. But, Chistyakov emphasizes again, it is necessary to enter information into the search query form in Russian.

The structure of the Internet portal is intuitive, he believes. The data for each soldier is organized in such a way that, knowing only the name and surname of the wanted person, you can easily find the number of the unit in which he served, as well as track the movement of a fighter during a military campaign. If, as a result of independent attempts, it is not possible to find the required information on the site, you can send a request to the archive specialists, who themselves will conduct a search using the data provided, but this service is already paid. Its form is on the website of the archive.

A sample of the RGVIA registration card: Latsit, Karl Yakobovich, a married Lutheran, who was called from Valka (Valka) to the huntsman of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment. June 17, 1915 was taken prisoner near the village of Alexandria (on the territory of Poland).
Such a request will also be needed in order to find data not only on those who suffered in the war, but also on the survivors (the archive website has a detailed price list with paid services). So, for example, you can ask the archive employee to look in databases, handwritten or typewritten inventories for data about a particular person. The issuance of the information found is charged per page, depending on the safety of the document and the complexity of reading. The most expensive, 6 rubles (about 10 euro cents), is an entry from one page from a manuscript inventory of the 18th century.

Later typewritten pages are valued at 1.5 rubles.

Oleg Chistyakov explains that it is difficult to calculate the cost of a response to a remote request in advance. Answers to questions about the documents found are also evaluated page by page, but many factors affect the final price. This is the safety of documents, and how old it is, and how well the ink has survived. If you try to indicate the minimum cost of a response and assume that the author of the request is lucky and the person's data will be on one card from the catalog, he will have to pay 1.5 rubles for this. In addition, for a short written answer, even if the search was unsuccessful, you will need to pay 200 rubles. It turns out that the lower bar is 201 rubles 50 kopecks (about 3 euros), and it is almost impossible to determine the upper bar - the amounts can even be five-digit. Therefore, those who have the opportunity to personally come to the archive can save money.

Kan, Ab-Leib Mendelev (ich), grenadier of the 12th Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment. Originally from Kreslavka (Kraslava) of the Dvina (Daugavpils) district. He was killed on September 20, 1916 near the village of Zaturce (today's Poland).
Requests through the form on the site will have to be filled out in Russian, but the archive staff say they will be happy to help people who are trying to find their roots. Perhaps no one will be particularly surprised, even if the request is prepared by an online translator. The main thing is to understand the essence of the issue. There is no specific deadline for a response in the archive, but it usually takes about a week. Much depends on the order, but employees admit - although this is not entirely fair, that they try to process foreign requests faster.

In general, with a good combination of circumstances, one can trace the history of a kind up to the time of Ivan the Terrible. True, this is worth a lot of effort, because you need to visit not just one archive, but go around the archive in different cities of the country and even neighboring countries. Therefore, such work is very expensive, - Chistyakov explains, moving into the room where visitors work with documents captured on film.

Complicating the search is the fact that in our country there have often been wars and revolutions, so there are significant gaps in the documentation. It is sometimes impossible to restore them at all, and the cost of the work of professional genealogists can amount to millions of rubles.

True, according to Chistyakov, the work of the Russian archives today is much better coordinated than a few decades ago. Yes, and the attitude to documents is now more scrupulous.

Sample registration card of the RGVIA: Zhunda, Vikenty Ludwigovich, private of the 97th Infantry Regiment of Livonia. Born in the Malinovskaya volost of the Dvina (Daugavpils) district. Killed January 19, 1915.
- The complexity of our work lies in the incompleteness of the documents. The main data were collected in 1917-1918, that is, during the period of war and revolution, and much was lost in the process. In the Russian Empire there was no archive at all, and many documents were destroyed simply as unnecessary, - Chistyakov notes sadly and immediately corrects himself: - Then it was considered that they were unnecessary. And then there were also waste paper campaigns in the 20s ... The country simply did not have enough paper, so some of the documents were lost. Now all pre-revolutionary and pre-war documents are prohibited for destruction.

He says that the digitization of documents continues and expresses the hope that by the centenary of the end of the First World War on the Internet it will be possible to find all available information about its participants from the Russian Empire.

What we are doing now - the publication of archival documents - has never happened before. In this regard, the project is unique. In addition, we are working to expand access to documents, we continue to digitize. Our archive is not completed, like many others, which are regularly replenished, although people who are engaged in the history of their family often come to us and donate some documents. Often this is done in order to preserve the data for their descendants, sums up the head of the department of the scientific reference apparatus of the archive.

When asked about the fate of the archives of those who served in the ranks of the Red Army during the Second World War and the post-war Soviet army, Chistyakov answers that these data are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense Russian Federation and the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA, not to be confused with RGVIA). There you can find documents on the periods 1918-1939 and after 1945, and information from the Second World War is posted on the Memory of the People portal.

How to search on the Portal of the Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918

http://gwar.mil.ru

Search by territory

It should be borne in mind that the database (judging by the results) can store both the place of birth of a person and the place from which he was called.
A sample of the RGVIA registration card: Abel, Yukum Yanov (ich), private of the 1st Ust-Dvinsky Latvian battalion. Lutheran, originally from the Grobiński county, was called up from Libava (Liepaja), was treated for illness (not injury) in the infirmary of the city of Wesenberg (today - Rakvere in Estonia). Discharged. Date unknown.
The search form theoretically allows you to narrow the range even to the settlement - if only it was indicated on the map. If we are talking about a small village or city, you can, without indicating any more data, look at all the available data on those called up from there. So, while for Riga the number of entries is 1587, for Tukums - 113, for Bauska - 36, and for Ogre - only 4.

It is necessary to enter the historical name of the settlement - as it was indicated in Russian documents of that time (in our example, Riga remained Riga, and three other cities, for the purpose of searching, became, respectively, Tukkum, Bausk and Oger). True, in the "Maps" section there is such a map (although not very legible). You can also outline the territory for which you should search for data - on a slightly modified regular Google map (however, as Rus.lsm.lv was convinced, this function does not work well - not to say "does not work at all").

The historical names of Latvian settlements in German spelling, which became the basis of Russian, can be found on Wikipedia.

Finally, it is possible to limit the search to only counties or even provinces, but in this case we are talking about thousands of records - for example, a search in Venden (ie Cēsis) county yields 2401 results. Again, keep in mind that the search form requires the full name of the county: if you enter "Wenden" in the "county" field, the result will be null. It is necessary to enter exactly "Vendensky".

The old Russian names of counties and county towns can be found on Wikipedia - for Courland, Livonia, Vitebsk and Kovno provinces, respectively.

Search by first and last name
Sample registration card RGVIA: Ballod, Eduard, middle name is not indicated (possibly an illegitimate son). Private of the 4th Vidzeme Latvian Rifle Regiment, 19 years old, literate, Lutheran from the Marienburg manor of the Goldbek volost (today - the village of Kolbergis, formerly Jaunaluksne) of the Valk county (in the Aluksne region). Prior to being drafted, he was a gardener. Wounded near Riga on January 12, 1917, on January 30 he entered the infirmary in Nizhny Tagil for treatment.
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Turned out to be the most useful features. However, several features should be taken into account here.

On the one hand, first and last names should be entered in accordance with the spelling adopted 100 years ago (the letters Ѣ, Ѳ and I, canceled by the Bolsheviks, as well as a solid sign after all consonants at the end of the word, fortunately, are not required). On the other hand, the scribes of the tsarist army clearly did not differ either in respect for the national traditions of other peoples, or in musical (and perhaps in general) hearing, and in many cases - judging by the result - also in literacy in Russian.

Therefore, it is rather difficult to predict in advance in what spelling (precisely in the subjunctive mood) this or that surname may appear. However, some general principles it is still possible to formulate.

In most cases, the Latvian endings of surnames are cut off: the surname Ozols is written as Ozol, and Balodis as Balod.
However, sometimes the endings are preserved for some reason and Gulbis (it would seem, why is he better than Balodis?) most often remains Gulbis.
The endings of the names are cut off in the same way, in addition, the names are Russified or Germanized, but not always. Pēteris is spelled as Peter and Jēkab as Yakov or Yakob, however Janis is written as Jan (sometimes Ivan) and Karlis as Karl. Borderline cases are also possible: for example, Martins can be written both as Martin and as Martin.
Often, extra doubling and / or softening of letters appear in surnames. For example, Gulbis can be written as Gulbis, and Balodis as Ballod.
Sometimes absolutely necessary mitigations and diphthongs disappear without a trace, and Berzins, Krumins, Liepins are recorded as Berzin, Krumins and Lepin. (Berzins can also turn into Berezina, and Liepinsh into Lipin, but still infrequently). Briedis can become Bried, and Bredis, and even Brad.
Some clerks apparently thought they knew German and sometimes tried to write down Latvian surnames in the German way, reading z as “ts” and v as “f”. Accordingly, “Tsalit” may actually turn out to be both Tsalitis and Zalitis.

Allies (Entente): France, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Serbia, USA, Italy (participated in the war on the side of the Entente since 1915).

Friends of the Entente (supported the Entente in the war): Montenegro, Belgium, Greece, Brazil, China, Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Siam, Haiti, Liberia, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica.

Question about the causes of the First World War has been one of the most discussed in world historiography since the outbreak of the war in August 1914.

The beginning of the war was facilitated by the widespread strengthening of nationalist sentiments. France hatched plans for the return of the lost territories of Alsace and Lorraine. Italy, even being in alliance with Austria-Hungary, dreamed of returning her lands to Trentino, Trieste and Fiume. The Poles saw in the war an opportunity to recreate a state destroyed by the divisions of the 18th century. Many peoples who inhabited Austria-Hungary aspired to national independence. Russia was convinced that it could not develop without limiting German competition, protecting the Slavs from Austria-Hungary, and expanding influence in the Balkans. In Berlin, the future was associated with the defeat of France and Great Britain and the unification of the countries of Central Europe under the leadership of Germany. In London, it was believed that the people of Great Britain would live in peace only by crushing the main enemy - Germany.

In addition, international tensions were exacerbated by a series of diplomatic crises - the Franco-German clash in Morocco in 1905-1906; the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908-1909; Balkan wars in 1912-1913.

The immediate cause for the war was the Sarajevo massacre. June 28, 1914 Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nineteen-year-old Serbian student Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of the secret organization "Young Bosnia", fighting to unite all South Slavic peoples in one state.

July 23, 1914 Austria-Hungary, enlisting the support of Germany, presented an ultimatum to Serbia and demanded that its military formations be allowed into the territory of Serbia in order to prevent hostile actions together with the Serbian forces.

Serbia's response to the ultimatum did not satisfy Austria-Hungary, and July 28, 1914 she declared war on Serbia. Russia, having received assurances of support from France, openly opposed Austria-Hungary and July 30, 1914 announced a general mobilization. Germany, taking advantage of this occasion, announced August 1, 1914 Russian war, and August 3, 1914- France. After the German invasion August 4, 1914 Britain declared war on Germany in Belgium.

The First World War consisted of five campaigns. During first campaign in 1914 Germany invaded Belgium and northern France, but was defeated at the Battle of the Marne. Russia captured part of East Prussia and Galicia (the East Prussian operation and the Battle of Galicia), but then was defeated as a result of the German and Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive.

Campaign of 1915 associated with the entry into the war of Italy, the disruption of the German plan to withdraw Russia from the war and the bloody inconclusive battles on the Western Front.

Campaign of 1916 associated with the entry into the war of Romania and the conduct of an exhausting positional war on all fronts.

Campaign of 1917 associated with the US entry into the war, Russia's revolutionary exit from the war, and a number of successive offensive operations on the Western Front (Operation Nivelle, operations in the Messines region, on Ypres, near Verdun, near Cambrai).

Campaign of 1918 characterized by a transition from positional defense to a general offensive of the Entente armed forces. From the second half of 1918, the Allies prepared and deployed retaliatory offensive operations(Amiens, Saint-Miyel, Marne), during which the results of the German offensive were liquidated, and in September 1918 they went on the general offensive. By November 1, 1918, the allies liberated the territory of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, entered the territory of Bulgaria after the armistice and invaded the territory of Austria-Hungary. Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies on September 29, 1918, Turkey on October 30, 1918, Austria-Hungary on November 3, 1918, and Germany on November 11, 1918.

June 28, 1919 signed at the Paris Peace Conference Treaty of Versailles with Germany, officially ending the First World War of 1914-1918.

On September 10, 1919, the Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed with Austria; November 27, 1919 - Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria; June 4, 1920 - Treaty of Trianon with Hungary; August 20, 1920 - Treaty of Sevres with Turkey.

In total, the First World War lasted 1568 days. 38 states participated in it, in which 70% of the world's population lived. The armed struggle was carried out on the fronts with a total length of 2500-4000 km. The total losses of all warring countries amounted to about 9.5 million people killed and 20 million people wounded. At the same time, the losses of the Entente amounted to about 6 million people killed, the losses of the Central Powers were about 4 million people killed.

During the First World War, for the first time in history, tanks, aircraft, submarines, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, mortars, grenade launchers, bomb throwers, flamethrowers, super-heavy artillery, hand grenades, chemical and smoke shells, poisonous substances were used. New types of artillery appeared: anti-aircraft, anti-tank, infantry escorts. Aviation became an independent branch of the military, which began to be subdivided into reconnaissance, fighter and bomber. There were tank troops, chemical troops, air defense troops, naval aviation. The role of the engineering troops increased and the role of the cavalry decreased.

The results of the First World War were the liquidation of four empires: German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, the latter two being divided, and Germany and Russia were cut down territorially. As a result, new independent states appeared on the map of Europe: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Finland.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources