Each region has its own unique Internet celebrity culture, which in China may be the spirit of the social shake, the Olympian, the lord of the shadow stream, the chopping wood to feed the horse, plum Ziqi, while Russia and the former Soviet Union are digging graves and fighting to touch the gold lieutenant.
He is not digging ancient tombs and fighting zombies like Hu Bayi in "Ghost Blowing Lights"; he specializes in digging up the remnants of the World War II War more than 70 years ago.
Open Youtube, type a few keywords for digging graves, and you'll find millions of dollars.
The routine of this kind of gold lieutenant-style video is to introduce while digging, simple and rude.
If you dig out good things, such as the packages of Nazi officers, and casually display personal belongings, the number of video views can easily exceed a million.
△ A blogger dug into a German officer's storage box, which contained not only a Ruger pistol, an Iron Cross, but also some Nazi gold bars
In fact, this culture of gold-digging lieutenants has become a social phenomenon in the former Soviet Union.
There are now tens of thousands of "gold-touching lieutenants" carrying various equipment in swamps and permafrost, trying to reproduce the treasure hunting miracle in the video.
△ That's pretty much how it feels
In the former Soviet Union, the "Gold Digging Colonel" was called the "Digging Party" in the middle and Chinese. Maybe it's because I don't understand it, or maybe it's because this matter is far away, so the part of speech seems to be slightly neutral, and it feels almost the same as the wool party and the shoe party.
But in fact, they are not as simple as you think, and it can even be said that they are freaks born in the pain of the times.
The prevalence of this social phenomenon of Slavic touching the gold captain was reflected in the 2008 Russian phenomenon film "We Come from the Future":
△ 《Мы из будущего" Chinese translated as "Lost in the Tomb"
The story is that a senior student in the history department of a Russian university, with his own knowledge of the history of World War II, mastered the skill of "finding the dragon point" for the ruins of the ancient battlefield.
After dropping out of school, he took a vote of his brothers and looked around for the graves of warriors who had not been properly buried, dug up the tombs, and sold the medals and equipment in their tombs to the merchants for a large profit.
△ A fragment of the Order of Courage of the USSR traded in Мы из буущего
After looting the things, the exhumed remains of the warriors were directly abandoned in the wilderness, and even became a tool for their entertainment.
△ The shot of the Soviet army skull as a target in "Мы из будущего"
Although the story of the film is fictional, alternate, and even integrated into the traversal link, many of its sources of information are real.
The medal sold by Sergey in the film is called "Медаль «За отвагу»", which translates into Chinese as the Medal of Courage. Created in October 1938 to reward combat heroes who defend the motherland. After its dissolution, it remains in the medal system of the Russian Federation and is still in use today.
△ Medal of Courage, Медаль «За отвагу»
In 1938-1991, the Soviet Union issued nearly 4.7 million such medals, of which 4.2 million were awarded during the Soviet-German War; because of the urgency of the war, many medals were awarded directly in the line of fire, and many soldiers wore them on the battlefield.
This habit of wearing wartime medals with them became the driving force behind the search for the remains of missing soldiers.
△ On April 29, 1945, in the berlin subway to encircle and suppress the German army, it can be clearly seen from the picture that some soldiers have the habit of wearing medals in wartime
The Soviet Union had a fairly complete and mature medal system, each of which had a certificate that recorded the honorable acts of the warriors, proving how specific dedication and sacrifices these heroes had made under the grand narrative of victory.
Such a meaningful medal, after the rough excavation of lieutenants who touched the gold, only 40 euros on the Soviet medal internet can bring home the glory of the martyr's life in his pocket and become his own collection.
This kind of trading is never an isolated case.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, going to antiquities stores and roadsides in the former Soviet Union to buy Soviet-era objects has become a punch-in-card move, regardless of whether it is medals, flags, party membership cards, watches, statues, and large hanging statues.
But with the rise of Internet e-commerce, the business of the once Local has become international, the sales volume has become larger and larger, and all the items with obvious ideology, even the belt buckles of the soldiers killed in the Great Patriotic War, have become the legacy of the Red Empire and the darling of the military collection community.
These objects, symbolizing the honor of the Red Army, are just the lowest commodities in a huge industry.
△ Red flag medals and belt buckles unearthed from the soldiers' cemetery; in addition to selling and robbing, a considerable part of many objects in this market are for tomb robbery
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, military souvenirs around the world exceed $50 million a year, and Nazi objects are generally more valuable than things from other countries during World War II.
Fueled by this trend, the market for Nazi war souvenirs has become more and more popular, such as the steel helmets of various models of German soldiers who have fallen in the german army, which have nearly 7 times increased in the past decade or so.
At the highest end are weapons and equipment such as tanks and cars, as well as things used by celebrities, and if famous Nazis have used them, the price can fly more.
△ Herman Goering's uniform can sell for $126,000 (2015)
△ Auschwitz Physician Mengele's diary, nicknamed "Angel of Death," sold for $245,000 (2011)
△ A well-preserved Type IV (H) tank known as the "German Army Horse" for $2.5 million
Such high-end products can not be sought, and not everyone can get it, and the number is small; but the equipment, uniforms, and medal relics located at the relatively low end of the industry can be different, and the "volume" is continuous, and the batch of excavated objects continues to fill the increasing desire of world war II cultural relics collectors.
So why must the former Soviet Union become a treasure trove of the Diggers?
△ Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad during the Soviet era. Later, in order to commemorate the victory of the battle, the government erected the famous monument "Родина-мать зовёт".
Because most of these areas were the most tragic battlefields on the Eastern Front during World War II, at that time, both sides fought brutally for victory, invested a lot of weapons, manpower and material resources, and were left behind in various places in the course of fierce battles to become cultural relics.
Between June 1941 and May 1945, more than 10 million soldiers died on both sides, in addition to 4 million missing persons, most of whom were buried in dust and not properly buried and recorded. The medals, archives, and daily necessities on these large numbers of missing people have also enriched the collecting dimension of this field.
△ The most brutal Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front, with about 2 million casualties on both sides, and the average soldier could not live for 9 minutes
On the other hand, the super-large-scale battles on the bloody battlefield make these war relics very concentrated, as long as they are studied, they can determine the approximate location, and the difficulty coefficient is low.
Coupled with the climatic and geographical conditions of the high latitudes, the remnants of the war will sink into soft mud during the rainy season; the war souvenirs wrapped in neutral soil can therefore be well preserved; so the digging party can always get almost new World War II artifacts, excellent quality and sufficient quantities.
△ In 2017, the Diggers unearthed an ammunition box at the battlefield site: it was filled with various personal items, well preserved, and included a box of cigars
Many people may think that after the war, didn't the government clean up the scene? The Soviet government did clear up, but because of the sparsely populated nature of the Russian region, many war remnants were forgotten and gradually hidden in the mud swamp.
Abundant resources, vast market, can be said to be the time and place are all living together, only need people to work hard in technology, belongs to the appropriate low investment and high returns. As a result, more and more young people from the former Soviet Union joined the field, wanting to make a fortune from the legacy of war.
Westerners have given these "diggers" a precise term: Black Digger, Чёрные копатели, specifically refers to tomb robbers who obtain wealth by illegally excavating the remains of ancient Battlefields of World War II and plundering the remains of soldiers.
Most of the people who do Black Digger are young people in the former Soviet Union who are "post-80s and post-90s", although the market is vast, the profits are considerable, and sometimes they are lucky enough to even dig out all kinds of rare war treasures and achieve class leaps. But falling to the grassroots level is not an easy task.
△ In 2008, a group of Polish diggers dug out a No. 4 assault gun from the soil, and only three of these tanks survived; according to 2011 auction data, the price of such tanks without engines was 425,000 euros
First of all, doing this is at risk of death, so you must have experience and military literacy in the wild. In the battlefield jungle after less than a hundred years, thunder, rotten eggs burst and other conditions abound, no military literacy, direct Game Over, not to mention making money.
△ In the area where Black Digger is active, many shells lie flat on the ground
Secondly, this matter is not enough to have a single arm of strength, but also to have a brain, not only have to read historical books and war memoirs every day to find the general location, but also have to chat with the old villagers nearby to determine the specific location. At first glance, it seems that they are about to catch up with the professional capabilities of investigative journalists.
Even if you know the location, you have to rely on some luck.
Not only did you have to choose equipment based on the local geomorphological features, but you also had to pray that your detector would find the belt buckle of the fallen soldier and find the treasure. Once the location is determined, immediately start digging and looting all valuable goods.
Most of the most valuable things are officers' medals, well-preserved weapons and daily necessities, but this almost perfect quality is hard to find; in fact, the remains of the missing have dog tags on them, which is enough to make them a lot of money.
A few years ago, the Diggers found a secret Arsenal of German weapons with countless brand-new weapons. Among them, the MG machine gun is the most eye-catching, which can sell for more than $80,000 in the US gun market.
Identification cards for ordinary Nazi soldiers can sell for $60 on the market, while SS identification cards can sell for hundreds of dollars, which is even higher than the monthly salary of teachers in parts of Eastern Europe.
△ The picture above is an SS identification plate, the way to identify the two is very simple, as long as there is an SS logo, it is an SS
△ During World War II, the identification technology used by Soviet soldiers was capsules with notes, and the price in the market was much lower than that of Nazi soldiers
Money was the first driving force of Black Diggers, and they didn't care if the dead could be returned to their homeland.
Because most of the burial sites at that time were joint tombs or battlefield remains, they could often find a piece of bones; however, after their looting, the bones were in the wilderness, and the tight identity cards were lost, and it became more difficult to identify and collect the bones.
△ After stealing the tomb, he threw the bones like this, which was quite vicious
This tragedy is amply verified in the story of a German named Schäfer searching for the remains of his uncle.
His uncle was shot in the chest by partisans in 1942 and fell into the arms of his comrades-in-arms before dying, silently reciting the names of his family; after his death, he was buried together in a field cemetery, which was hastily buried by the German army before the retreat to prevent Soviet destruction.
When Schäfer judged the location based on the veterans' diaries and field reports, went through the formalities, and went to dig with the relevant personnel, he found that he had already been dug up by Black Digger, with bones scattered on the ground and identification cards gone. He could no longer find his family, and he could never be allowed to return to his hometown.
Photograph of Heinrich Gilgenbach
After being shot, he survived a few more days in a field hospital.
The last letter from this period became the most cherished memory of his family
Black Digger's approach is tantamount to giving these war dead a second death. The first time was physical, and the second time was spiritual: no one could find them again, no one could return to their homeland, and all that was left for the soul was forgetting.
But the Black DIggers don't see it that way, they have their own "values", a Black Digger named Sebastian told the Guardian:
They didn't care whether the bones were Russians or Germans, invaders or defenders, all the same in the face of money.
He did not think that taking away all the valuable war memorabilia, such as the Medal of the Dead of War, was considered a tomb robbery; because no one remembered them. And they didn't take the deceased's gold teeth or jewelry, which was not considered theft.
This kind of excavation is of course illegal.
While many countries in Eastern Europe have introduced bills that impose heavy penalties for the theft of World War II war remnants and the graves of lost soldiers, the effect has been lackluster, and Black Digger will not only single-handedly pick out sparsely populated undergrounders, but also bribe the police to ensure their safety.
You may ask, then these people are so smart, why do they have to dig graves?
It's because of poverty.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economy of various places withered: unemployment rates and suicide rates soared, so many young people were quite frustrated and poor, so they began to fight underground ideas, planning to use the war heritage there to make money.
△ Number of unemployed in the Russian Federation for 1991-2019
From：worldbank
You may think that Black Digger's approach has long been shouted at by everyone and become the object of criticism.
But in fact, the title of "looking for the missing soldier" is becoming a gimmick for the media, a practice of attracting clicks from the media in the Western world, and is quite popular with the audience.
As early as 2014, Western media produced Nazi War Diggers, a television program dedicated to digging up soldiers' graves, which was criticized by critics for frequently confusing soldiers' bones, but was still popular with audiences. Even the weekend viewership of the Discovery Channel in Poland reached 87% at one point.
The same is true of today's Youtuber.
Although many Youtubers who took these videos claimed in their profiles that they were great people who collected bones and identified missing soldiers. But the pedagogical language and the illegal electronic detectors that follow it still make one wonder: are they actors who attract audiences with grave-digging curiosities, or are they real acts of kindness?
According to Bloomberg, inspired by such programs, more and more people are beginning to try to disturb the habitats of warriors and try to make a lot of money through the undead.
But it's not just the growing number of Black Diggers that inspire this kind of video.
More and more good people have also begun to dig up the eternal resting place of the warriors, but what they have to do is not to plunder and earn money, but to send their souls back to their land and help the undead return home.
They formed volunteer groups to dig up places where fierce fighting had taken place, collect the body, and send him home. Although each country has such an institution as the Committee for the Management of the Remains of Fallen Soldiers, it is up to professionals who are familiar with the situation to implement it.
The ages and identities of these volunteers vary, ranging from journalists to farmers to unemployed. But there is a key similarity between them, which is to be responsible for the beings in their own land, and in their view, only when the last undead return home is the real end of a war.
△ Volunteers are looking for the identity of the bones according to the note in the Soviet capsule, but because of the superstition that many Soviet troops refuse to write personal information, it is difficult
In Latvia, there are dozens of such groups of bone volunteers. In the case of the more famous Legenda, for example, they can collect the remains of about 700 soldiers a year.
Latvia, a former Soviet union, was the main battlefield of the Battle of Courland at the end of World War II, where 350,000 elite German troops fought six major bloody battles with the Soviets, and more than 100,000 German troops were killed here.
△ The Battle of Courland is actually the story of 350,000 German troops defending the isolated city. In the end, 180,000 of them were all sent to Siberia as coolies. It is worth mentioning that the place where they fought was the jurisdiction of the Teutonic Knights 6 centuries ago, and the decline of the Knights was also due to the Slavs of the East.
At each time of the event, these volunteers put on uniforms and gather at the war memorial in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and take a unified car to the excavation site to volunteer work.
The time per excavation is less fixed, sometimes 1 day, sometimes 2 days, or even longer. The workflow is similar to Black Digger, which is to locate and then dig.
But the difference is that they have absolute respect for the remains, try to converge according to the information of the identity plate, find the relics as much as possible, put them into the containment bag, and hand them over to the service agencies of the country to which they belong, so that their souls will return to their homeland and their souls will no longer wander.
△ Bags of remains collected by Latvian volunteers
No one would deny that it was a good deed, but that doesn't mean they'll be treated well.
Handling explosives has always been a dangerous thing in the process of constricting bones. Because you can't be sure if weapons such as mines and grenades will suddenly detonate and take your life with you.
On the other hand, it comes from Black Digger. The volunteers' acts of kindness, in their opinion, are cut off from people and money, so they will often drive them away with weapons; sometimes, they will even divide the fields and strictly prohibit volunteers from entering.
△ A volunteer searching for remains in a Latvian forest thought he had detected a soldier's belt buckle and reached out to pull it. But unexpectedly pulled out was the fuse of the Soviet F1 grenade, which fortunately did not explode.
But even so, the volunteers have struggled to find the remains, and Latvian volunteer groups have helped rebury the remains of 15,000 forgotten soldiers.
△ German remains waiting to be reburyed
In the eyes of a member of the regiment named Ivan, the number of millions of soldiers missing, perhaps just a rational expression on the report, is a vast area of Black Digger's income, but for the family behind the numbers, it is the hope of taking him home.
There is a saying in the Chinese soul-summoning ceremony, which is called: Man has his soil, and the soul returns to his hometown. This means that people, all of whom have roots, must return to their homeland after death in order for their souls to be at peace.
This emotion may be common to all mankind. It doesn't matter what nationality, what political opinions. After all, before they became warriors, they were just husbands, sons or fathers of their own families, and they were loved.
Born to be human, you deserve the respect you deserve. Isn't it?
Resources:
01.https://www.taringa.net/+offtopic/soldados-rusos-descubren-el-cofre-de-un-nazi_xy12j
02.https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/grave-robbers.html
03. Medals and Medals of the USSR, White Mountain Publishing House
Design/Typography: Venterson
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