The order on the declassification of the archive documents of the Red Army and Navy during the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945 was signed on May 8, 2007. The document makes public all data that the Defense Ministry considers no longer sensitive.
"We have declassified archive documents from the Central Archives of the Defense Ministry, the Central Navy archives, and the Military Medical archives," Colonel Sergei Ilyenkov said, adding that the defense ministry's main archives alone contain over 4 million declassified files from the war period.
He said the decision would allow researchers and other users to gain open access to the bulk of information on events during the bloodiest war in Soviet history, but some documents will remain secret.
"The files on court martial decisions were not included in the order [for declassification]," Ilyenkov said.
The official also said that according to the latest confirmed data Russia lost about 26.6 million military personnel and civilians in World War II.
The total estimated loss of life during World War II, irrespective of political alignment, was approximately 72 million people, including about 47 million civilians.
