Vladimir Palikhata unites the Remains Search Teams of Russia

Over 25 years have passed since the adoption of the Law «On immortalization of the memory of the deceased in the defense of the Motherland». During this time, many search team associations, public organizations and detachments were established, the remains search practice as well as legislative foundation for it were developed.

In addition, during that period, the range of existing problems became apparent, and the necessity to find a solution to them is obviously maturing at present.

Accumulating the gained experience and the high intellectual ability of the Remains Search Team public organization participants actively covering the members of the Russian Federation with their activities, the public organization will be intensively developing the search center, replacing vague talks with real actions and achievements. The head of the Remains Search Team of Russia, a businessman and philanthropist Vladimir Palikhata, has been supporting search teams for a long time and is familiar with the problems the search teams are facing.

The transcript of the interview with the vice-president of the Remains Search Team of Russia, Anton Karpov is saying:

«The notion of the historical and search direction in the military archeology is known under different names, yet the very concept first appeared in the Soviet Union. Back then people were organizing themselves into small squads, brigades, detachments — as a rule, they were based on simply the tourist groups. Since then, certain legal acts have been introduced to regulate the system of search teams on the more solid grounds, in particular the law «On perpetuation of memory of the deceased while protecting the Motherland».

Since 1993, when this law was adopted, a certain circle of issues of search teams has been formed, which is now being actively solved by law makers, together with the Ministry of Defense. Say, there is quite a bit number of unaccounted war graves, there are lots of burial grounds that were savagely relocated in the 70s: this was the so called policy of enlargement of the war graves when an excavator would arrive to where the battles were taking place, or where there used to be a hospital, would dig a pit and its content would be shifted to the memorial ground. Undoubtedly, the best intentions were underlying these actions, yet it was done not quite the way it should have been. Another problem which has been lately reported with more intensity in the media, which is also the point of discussion by our fellow search teams of Russia is the large-scale or selective construction at the territories which were the battlefields in the period of the World War II, without making the necessary archeological works, i.e. quite often the construction is developed literally on the bones of the warriors…

A decision was made by the action group that included representatives of the entrepreneurship, politics, and mass media to consolidate their efforts to establish the pan-Russian public organization that would be coordinating the work of the remains search teams, to cooperate with the ministry of defense on the issues of perpetuation of the memory of the fallen defenders of the Motherland. It is certainly directly connected to the military and patriotic upbringing of the youth since we do understand what kind of times we are living now: firstly, the international political situation is very difficult, besides, the ill-wishers are trying to reconsider the results of the World War II by all means, which shall not be allowed under no circumstances.

We will continue developing our cooperation with the ministry of defense, we are planning to cooperate with the DOSAAF organization — the Volunteer Society for the Promotion of the Army, Aviation and Navy. At present, organizational issues which solution is pending, have also become imminent. Let’s say this is an interaction with the clergy, because they have repeatedly encountered difficulties when the reburial ceremony takes place, but it is difficult to find a representative of the church to hold a special church service. If this problem is to be solved, I believe this will be a good achievement. The main driving factor in the search activity is the call of heart and soul, and therefore all our activities are conducted solely on a royalty-free basis. The gratuitousness determines the cleanliness of the thoughts, the people entering our search team association, are moved by the feeling of patriotism, love for the Motherland and deep respect for those warriors and civilians that fell defending our country from the Nazi aggressors. Of course, it happens that non-profit public organizations receive government grants, implement them, and direct them for a good cause, but not all search teams have such possibilities. And in principle, all the state needs to do now is increasing the size of these grants, revising the budget. Therefore, among other things, we consider it necessary to attract private money, donations to the search teams from the businessmen.

We want to secure this connection between business and search teams — that is, between people who work «on the ground» and those who have the opportunity to finance. I would like to emphasize again that the activities of our public organization are as transparent as possible, open to all, including accounting. I believe that this is important, because often questions occur where was the money spent, and are they being spent correctly? I would like to say a few words about our director. Vladimir Mironovich Palikhata is a famous businessman and philanthropist, a head of the Moscow Chess Federation, who is sponsoring the search teams. He knows in detail and understands what is really happening in the search world, and he does not have to be explained what we are doing, where we invest money and so on. He himself, so to speak, feels the situation with his finger-tips; moreover, he has a vast experience of interaction with educational organizations. Therefore, we believe that the organization, headed by him, has good chances to succeed in fulfilling its main task. And the main task is to organize searches and excavations, to discover the burial of the missing soldiers, to explore the documents and, if possible, to establish their names, to find relatives and to carefully and with reverence to rebuild the remains. Everything else — carrying out various events, congresses, conferences and so on — these tasks are secondary, auxiliary.

The main thing, I emphasize, is the official solemn laying the remains of the World War II soldiers to rest. This is always our number one task. «