Great Patriotic war archeology artifacts as part of cultural heritage

The paper examines the cultural characteristics of objects discovered by search parties on the Great Patriotic War battlefields. The informative capacity of these artefacts has been analyzed from the viewpoint of philosophers, historians, cultural historians and museologists. The transformation process of things abandoned on a battlefield from military debris into objects of museum value was traced. The finds of the searchers are evaluated through the prism of “cultural heritage” and “military-historical heritage”. The boundaries of these concepts and their application to relics of the Great Patriotic War were analyzed on the basis of the views of Russian and scholars abroad. Objects found at battlefields are investigated from the perspective of the emerging auxiliary historical science of industrial-age military archaeology. A definition of “The subject of military archaeology of the Great Patriotic War” has been proffered by the author. The significance of the artefacts exposed is revealed, showing the importance of each war-time finds.