REIDING’S LIST

"For me, this cemetery is less a place of sorrow than a source of life. If the Soviet soldiers seemed to me the faceless dead from a distant country, now they came to life thanks to the photos and stories of their relatives whom I was able to find. All of them have their own face. I made them people like you and me, with their own history and destiny, who have relatives that had not had a clue what happened to their beloved husbands and fathers for more than fifty years," writes the Dutch journalist Remko Reiding in his book "A Child of the Field of Glory."

In his book, he collected the results of his studies, each of which means individual human destiny. It's about Soviet soldiers who died in Nazi concentration camps and in hard labor reburied later in the Netherlands. Many of them are still listed as missing. But thanks to the efforts of Remko, about 200 people have already been identified.

For this work, the journalist undertook his own initiative. For 18 years, he has been searching the archives to identify the soldiers resting on the Field of Glory and telling them about the fate of their father, grandfather, from whom they may still be waiting for the news.

Remko has also identified some Azerbaijani soldiers as well. But the journalist believes that this number can grow if he succeeds in investigating the Azerbaijani archives.

Dear Remko, please tell us about your research. Where did you get the idea of investigating the graves and documents of Soviet soldiers killed in fascist concentration camps in Holland and when you started your work?

I learned about the existence of a Soviet cemetery in my city in 1998, when I studied at the school of journalism and worked as a sports journalist in a local newspaper. Then I had just returned from Moscow, where I was practicing under the student exchange program. There I managed to fall in love with Russia and began to study Russian. The editor of our newspaper later told me about a "Russian trace" in our history.

As it turned out, on the outskirts of the cities of Amersfoort and Leusden there is a burial with gravestones and inscriptions in the Cyrillic alphabet: "Soviet warrior …" or "Unknown Soviet warrior". In the local archive, I found the same records, but already in Latin. And nothing more. I realized that their relatives were not found, the soldiers are missing. And I can be the first to find them. This was in line with my youthful ambitions. But all the same, the main thing was to fulfill the moral duty.

As far as we know, among the graves you have examined there are also the graves of Azerbaijani soldiers, and you have already established the identities of two of them with the help of specialists.

I managed to identify one soldier from Azerbaijan, Babish Babayev from the village of Kumlak, Oguz Region. Unfortunately, his relatives are still not found. I also singled out one Russian soldier who lived in Azerbaijan: Andrei Antonovich Zakharov. At least two more soldiers, most likely from Azerbaijan, are buried in this burial. But I found there only their names, and they are probably incorrectly written: Takhiz Veliyev and Shanbala Salamov.

You have established the identities of many soldiers by examining documents in Russia. Do you plan to carry out similar work in Azerbaijan?

I tried to trace the relatives of soldiers in Azerbaijan but, unfortunately, unsuccessfully. I very much hope that the Azerbaijani authorities and people will gladly help to trace the families of these soldiers, because their relatives probably wait for 75 years for news of their relatives.

What are the results of your research as a whole? How many Soviet soldiers are buried in Holland? What needs to be done to establish their identity, nationality and other data?

There are 865 soldiers buried in the Soviet Field of Glory. They are buried in a mass grave, but the tombstones are separate. Then they were part of the Soviet Union. I have been looking for their documents for nineteen years. Thanks to this work in the archives, I have managed to identify many of the soldiers, so I know where they come from. I have traced the families of more than 200 soldiers and told them that their husband, father, brother, grandfather or uncle were no longer missing, but were actually buried in the Netherlands.

Are there books or films based on your research? Do you think about new publications?

There are thousands of publications about me and my search in different countries. I wrote a book, A Child of the Field of Glory, which is translated into Russian. Several documentaries about my research have been filmed. There are several websites (for example, www.soldaat.su). And this work continues.