The war graves agreement between the Russian Federation and Germany was signed on December 16, 1992 and came into force on July 21, 1994. The “Association for International Cooperation in the Maintenance of Soldier Memorials” (Soldatengedenkstätten Association) was named by the Russian side as the official point of contact for the Volksbund: Wojennyje Memorialy.
The war graves agreement was the first contract of its kind with a state of the former Soviet Union and paved the way for negotiations with other states of the former Soviet Union.
The German losses in the territory of the former Soviet Union during the Second World War are estimated at 2.2 million war dead. Death or grave reports are available for over 1.88 million war dead. The number of registered burial sites comes to 118,000.
In the past few years, the location and current state of 813 POW and internee cemeteries in 37 areas of Russia have been recorded. So far, more than 100 military cemeteries, POW and internee cemeteries have been built or restored in the Russian Federation excluding former East Prussia.
Particularly worthy of mention are the war cemeteries in Novgorod, Rossoschka / Volgograd, Korostyn on Lake Ilmen, Sologubowka near St. Petersburg, Petschenga (Parkkina) on the Barents Sea, Salla / Kola Peninsula, Korpowo near Demjansk, Rshew, Nishnjaja-Dubrowenka / Smolensk and in former East Prussia: Germau / Ruskoe, Insterburg / Tschernjachowsk, Fischhausen / Primorsk, Schloßberg / Dobrovolsk and Pillau / Baltijsk, which have already been completed. In 2006, work began on the development of the collective cemeteries of Kursk and Krasnodar-Apscheronsk. On June 30, 2006, the Tilsit/Sovjetsk cemetery was opened to the public. The Sebezh collective burial ground in the Pskov region was dedicated on August 5, 2007.
In 2006-2007, POW cemeteries such as Teplitschuyj (Kemerovo region), Ryazan (Ryazan Oblast), Kemeshkovo (Vladimir Oblast), Leshnewo (Imanovo Oblast), Uglitsch (Yaroslavl Oblast), Cherepowez (Vologda Oblast) and Petrosuwodsk (Autonomous Republic of Karelia) were converted into collective cemeteries with a memorial character for the prisoners of war.
In the Russian Federation, the Commission completed the Apscheronsk collective cemetery in 2008. The inscriptions for the war dead in Rossoschka, the Stalingrad memorial, whose names could not be recovered, were added to and the construction of a visitors' pavilion was completed. The cemeteries in Pechenga, Sologubovka and Korpovo were restored. Various measures were taken to supplement the prisoner-of-war cemeteries in Borovichi, Shibotovo, Yegla, Ryazan and Kameshkovo. The same applies to the collective cemeteries of Heiligenbeil/Mamonowo, Germau/Russkoje, Königsberg, Tilsit/Sowjetsk, Pillau/Baltisk, Insterburg/Tschernajowsk, Fischhausen and Schlossberg/Dobrowolsk in the area of the former northern East Prussia.
In 2010, after many years of negotiations with the regional administration in Smolensk, the Volksbund was allocated a site of approx. 5 hectares on the southern side of the district town of Duchowschtschina in the Smolensk region for the construction of a collective cemetery. The first burials took place in 2010 and will continue. The expansion of the cemetery began in 2012. The inauguration took place on August 3, 2013.