Tuesday, June 29, 2021

WWII Letters and Documents - Found Online

Last month, I wrote how I found out that my great-great grandfather's brother's family ended up in Moscow and that not only were he and his wife buried in Moscow, but so was at least one of their daughters, Bluma/Lyuba Tolchinsky Frolov, who would have been my great grandfather's half first cousin.  A reader pointed out that the Bluma/Lyuba's husband wasn't actually buried in the cemetery and had been killed in WWII.  Using that tip, I found information about the husband's service--as well as a handwritten letter that Bluma/Lyuba wrote to try to discover what exactly had happened to her husband.

Letter from Lyuba Frolov, 1944

Thanks to the wonderful Genealogical Translations Facebook group, I have a translation:

To the Chief of the Accounting and Statistics Department, Major-General Shustov
From Frolova L. G,
Living at the address ul.Dinamovskaya 1 ap. 42
Statement

My husband, Yakov Yevdokimovich Frolov, senior political officer, commissar of military unit 9511. Career officer, in the army since 1927, before the war he served in the 30th Tank Division, motto-rifle regiment 9511, was born in 1904, Bezvodny khutor, Kurgan district of the Krasnodarsky kray.

I lost contact with my husband on June 22, 1941.I received a letter from the commander of the military unit, in which it was written that after a day and night battle on June 22, 1941 near Brest, my husband did not return to the military unit.

I receive an allowance (for the loss of my husband) from July 1941 by order 140-42.

Please help me find out about my husband's fate.

August 8, 1944.
Frolova (Mrs. Frolov)

There is other documentation about her husband's Yakov's service, but the most informative seems to have been generated in response to that letter:

Military Document Regarding the Fate of Yakov Frolov

A translation of this document is as follows (and gives a snippet of insight into Bluma/Lyuba right in the first sentence):

Military document establishing the fate of officer Frolov (Yakov Eudokimovich), husband of colleague in financial administration L B Frolov, so that the family can collect pension.

According to facts ascertained by the financial department of the Red Army, Officer J E Frolow, born 1904 in Bezvodni, Kurgan region, Krasnodar area, enlisted in the Red Army in 1927, was a political commissar/instructor in the logistics service [not sure; an acronym]; served in the motorized artillery battalion in the 30th tank division based in Pruzhan, Brest oblast, city of Slobodka [some military acronyms...]. The family was incommunicado with him since the beginning of military activities.
 
From what can be gathered from coworker, it appears that political commissar Frolov perished in the area east of Brest on June 22 1941 [first major battle of Operation Barbarossa - Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union]. Family is still awaiting the necessary documents for the appointing of the pension.

(If you're wondering how to find documents for those who fought for the Soviets in WWII, you must check out Pamyat Naroda.)

So now to figure out what happened to Bluma/Lyuba between these 1944 documents and her 1978 death (as recorded on her grave)!  She would have been my great grandfather's half first cousin.  Hopefully more to come....


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