World War II casualties of the Soviet Union explained

World War II losses of the Soviet Union were about 27,000,000 both civilian and military from all war-related causes,[1] although exact figures are disputed. A figure of 20 million was considered official during the Soviet era. The post-Soviet government of Russia puts the Soviet war losses at 26.6 million,[2] on the basis of the 1993 study by the Russian Academy of Sciences, including people dying as a result of effects of the war. This includes 8,668,400 military deaths as calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defence.[2]

The figures published by the Russian Ministry of Defence have been accepted by most historians outside Russia. However, the official figure of 8.7 million military deaths has been disputed by Russian scholars who believe that the number of dead and missing POWs is not correct and new research is necessary to determine actual losses.[3] Officials at the Russian Central Defense Ministry Archive (CDMA) maintain that their database lists the names of roughly 14 million dead and missing service personnel.[4] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated in 2009 that more than 2.4 million people are still officially considered missing in action, and that of the 9.5 million persons buried in mass graves, six million are unidentified.[5] Some Russian scholars put the total number of losses in the war, both civilian and military, at over 40 million.[6] [7] In 2020, Mikhail Meltyukhov, who works with the Russian Federal archival project, claimed that 15.9–17.4 million civilians were killed on Soviet territory by Germany and its allies during the war.

Summary of Russian sources

The war related deaths detailed in Russian sources are as follows.

Military losses

Krivosheev's analysis

In 1993, the Russian Ministry of Defense report authored by a group headed by General G. F. Krivosheev detailed military casualties. Their sources were Soviet reports from the field and other archive documents that were secret during the Soviet era, including a secret Soviet General Staff report from 1966 to 1968. Krivosheev's study puts Soviet military dead and missing at 8.7 million and is often cited by historians. Krivosheev maintained that the figure of 8.668 million is correct because it excludes called up reservists that were never inducted, men who were duplicated as conscripts because they were conscripted again into the Soviet army and Navy during the war as territories were being liberated and non-combat related causes. The statistic of 8.668 million military dead includes only the combat related deaths of the forces in the field units of the Army and Navy and does not include civilian support forces in rear areas, conscripted reservists killed before being listed on active strength, militia units, and Soviet partisan dead, Krivosheev maintained that they should be included with civilian war losses.[13]

Soviet World War II military casualties 1939–45 by period
Dead and missingWounded and sick
Battle of Khalkhin Gol 19399,70315,952
Invasion of Poland 19391,4752,383
Winter War 1939–40126,875264,908
2969
World War II 1941–45[14] 8,668,40022,326,905
(including 14,685,593 wounded and 7,641,312 sick)
Total8,806,48222,610,217

The schedule below summarizes Soviet casualties from 1941 to 1945.

Military dead and missing (1941–45) by cause!Cause!!Estimate
KIA or died of wounds6,329,600
Missing in action500,000
Noncombat deaths of units at the front
(sickness, accidents, etc.)		555,500
Died or killed while POW1,283,200
Total irrecoverable losses (from listed strength)8,668,400
Reconciliation of missing
Missing in action 500,000
Missing later re-conscripted 940,000
POW deaths 1,283,000
POW returned to USSR1,836,000
Total reported missing 4,559,000

Krivosheev's analysis shows that 4,559,000 were reported missing (including 3,396,400 per field reports and an additional 1,162,600 estimated based on German documents), out of which 500,000 were missing and presumed dead, 939,700 were re-conscripted during the war as territories were liberated, 1,836,000 returned to the U.S.S.R. after the war, while the balance of 1,283,300 died in German captivity as POWs or did not return to the USSR. Krivoshhev wrote, "According to German sources 673,000 died in captivity. Of the remaining 1,110,300, Soviet sources indicate that over half also died in captivity". Sources published outside of Russia put total POW dead at 3.0 million. Krivosheev maintains that this figure based on German sources includes civilian personnel that were not included in the reports of the Army and Navy field forces. In a 1999 article Krivosheev noted that after the war 180,000 liberated POWs did not return to the USSR and most likely settled in other countries, Krivosheev did not mention this in the English language translation of his study.[15] According to declassified documents from the Soviet archives 960,039 surviving Soviet military POW were turned over to the Soviet authorities by the Western powers and 865,735 were released by the Soviet forces in territory they occupied.[16]

Reconciliation of Soviet forces 1941–1945
Description Balance
Army & Navy strength – June 1941 4,902,000
Drafted during war 29,575,000
Discharged during war (9,693,000)
Army & Navy strength in June 1945 (12,840,000)
Losses of conscripted reservists 1941 not officially inducted (500,000)
Subtotal: operational losses 11,444,000
Missing later re-conscripted (940,000)
Liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000)
Total losses 8,668,000

The June 1945 force strength of 12,840,000 included 11,390,600 on active service; 1,046,000 in hospital; and 403,200 in civilian departments.

Numbers of wounded & sick by category
according to Military Medical Service
Wounded!Sick Total
Total14,685,593 7,641,312 22,326,905
Of these:
Discharged (3,050,733) (747,425)(3,798,158)
Returned to duty(10,530,750) (6,626,493)(17,157,243)
Died (also included in irrecoverable losses) (1,104,110) (267,394)(1,371,504)
Casualties 1941–1945 According to Field Reports
Description Irrecoverable losses Wounded & sick Total losses
1941 3rd Q 2,129,677 687,626 2,817,303
1941 4th Q 1,007,996 648,521 1,656,517
1942 1st Q675,315 1,179,457 1,854,772
1942 2nd Q 842,898 706,647 1,549,545
1942 3rd Q 1,224,4951,283,062 2,507,557
1942 4th Q 515,508 941,8961,457,404
1943 1st Q 726,714 1,425,692 2,152,406
1943 2nd Q 191,904 490,637 682,541
1943 3rd Q 803,856 2,060,805 2,864,661
1943 4th Q 589,955 1,567,940 2,157,895
1944 1st Q 570,761 1,572,7422,143,503
1944 2nd Q344,258 965,208 1,309,466
1944 3rd Q 510,790 1,545,4422,056,232
1944 4th Q 338,082 1,031,3581,369,440
1945 1st Q 557,521 1,594,635 2,152,156
1945 2nd Q 243,296 618,055861,351
Campaign in Far East 12,031 24,425 36,456
Subtotal operational losses: Army & Navy11,285,057 18,344,148 29,629,205
Add: losses border/internal service troops159,100
Subtotal: operational losses11,444,100
Less: missing later re-conscripted(939,700)
Less: liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000)
Total irrecoverable losses 8,668,400

Krivosheev's group estimated losses for the early part of the war, because from 1941 to 1942 no surrounded or defeated divisions reported their casualties.

Total wounded and sick includes 15,205,592 wounded, 3,047,675 sick and 90,881 frostbite cases. Included in the total of 11.444 million irrecoverable losses are 1,100,327 died of wounds in hospital.

Field reports stated the number of wounded and sick as 18,344,148, while the records of the military medical service show a total of 22,326,905. According to Krivosheev the difference can be explained by the fact that the medical service included sick personnel who did not take part in the fighting.

Total losses by age group
Age group Total losses % of total losses
Under 20 years 1,560,00018.0
21–25 1,907,00022.0
26–30 1,517,00017.5
31–35 1,430,20016.5
36–40 1,040,20012
41–45 693,5008
46–50 433,4005
over 50 years 86,7001
All age groups 8,668,400100

Criticism of Krivosheev

Krivosheev's analysis has been disputed by independent scholars in Russia. His critics maintain that he underestimated the number of missing in action and POW deaths and deaths of service personnel in rear area hospitals. Makhmut Gareev, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, maintains that the published information on Soviet casualties is the work of the individual authors and not based on official data. According to Gareev the Russian government has not disclosed the actual losses in the war.[17]

POW deaths

Western scholars estimate 3.3 million dead out of 5.7 million total Soviet POW captured.[22] According to German figures 5,734,000 Soviet POWs were taken[23] [24] Between 22 June 1941 and the end of the war, roughly 5.7 million members of the Red Army fell into German hands. In January 1945, 930,000 were still in German camps. A million at most had been released, most of whom were so-called ‘volunteers’ (Hilfswillige) for (often compulsory) auxiliary service in the Wehrmacht. Another 500,000, as estimated by the Army High Command, had either fled or been liberated. The remaining 3,300,000 (57.5 percent of the total) had perished.".[25] However, according to Krivosheev the Germans claimed to have captured up to 5.750 million POWs, he maintains that the figures in Nazi propaganda included civilians and military reservists that were caught up in the German encirclement's. Krivosheev puts the number of Soviet military POW that actually were sent to the camps at 4,059,000. Krivosheev maintained that the figure of 3.0 million POW dead reported in western sources included partisans, militia and civilian men of military age taken as POWs in the early stages of the war in 1941. In addition to the German-held POW Romania captured 82,090 Soviet POWs, 5,221 died, 3,331 escaped, and 13,682 were released [26] Finland captured 64,188 Soviet POWs, at least 18,318 were documented to have died in Finnish prisoner of war camps.[27]

Analysis of S. N. Mikhalev

In 2000, S. N. Mikhalev[28] published a study of Soviet casualties. From 1989 to 1996 he was an associate of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defence. Mikhalev disputed Krivosheev's figure of 8.7 million military war dead, he put Soviet military dead at more than 10.9 million persons based on his analysis of those conscripted. He maintained that the official figures could not be reconciled to the total men drafted and that POW deaths were understated. Mikhalev put the total irreplaceable losses at 13.7 million; he believed that the official figures understated POW and missing losses, that the deaths of service personnel convicted of offenses were not included with the overall losses and that the number who died of wounds was understated.

Reconciliation of conscripted persons
DescriptionKrivosheevMikhalevDifference
Army & Navy – June 1941 4,902,000 4,704,000[29] (198,000)
Drafted during war[30] 29,575,000 29,575,000 0
Discharged during war[31] (9,693,000)(9,693,000) 0
Army & Navy – June 1945(12,840,000) (11,999,000)[32] 841,000
Conscripted reservists (500,000) 0[33] 500,000
Subtotal: operational losses 11,444,00012,587,000 1,143,000
MIA re-conscripted[34] (940,000)0 940,000
Liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000)(1,836,000) 0
Losses of NKVD & border troops[35] 0 159,000 159,000
Losses in the Far East August 19450 12,000[36] 12,000
Total irrecoverable losses 8,668,000 10,922,000 [37] 2,254,000

Notes:

Convicted of offences by Soviet military

S. N. Mikhalev included in his figure irrecoverable losses the deaths of 994,300 Soviet military personnel that were convicted of offences during the course of the war (422,700 sent to penal battalions, 135,000 executed and 436,600 imprisoned)

Russian Military Archives database

An alternative method is to determine losses from the Russian Military Archives database of individual war dead. S. A. Il'Enkov, an official at the Russian Military Archives, maintained that the "complex military situation at the front did not always allow for the conduct of a full accounting of losses, especially in the first years of the war" He pointed out that in the reports from the field units did not include deaths in rear area hospitals of wounded personnel. Il'Enkov maintained that the information in the Russian Military Archives alphabetical card-indexes "is a priceless treasure of history, which can assist in resolving the problems of the price of Soviet victory" Il'Enkov maintained it could provide an accurate accounting of war losses. He concluded by stating, "We established the number of irreplaceable losses of our Armed Forces at the time of the Great Patriotic War of about 13,850,000. Krivosheev maintained that the database of individual war dead is unreliable because some personnel records are duplicated and others omitted.[13]

Critics

Critics of the official figures by the Russian Ministry of Defense base their arguments on self analyses of documents in the Soviet archives and demographic models of the Soviet population during the Stalin era.

Male war dead

Andreev, Darski and Karkova (ADK) put total losses at 26.6 million. The authors did not dispute Krivoshev's report of 8.7 million military dead. Their demographic study estimated the total war dead of 26.6 million included 20.0 million males and 6.6 million females. In mid-1941 the USSR hosted 8.3 million more females; by 1946 this gap had grown to 22.8 million, an increase of 13.5 million.

Civilian losses

A 1995 paper published by M.V. Filimoshin, an associate of the Russian Defense Ministry, put the civilian death toll in the regions occupied by Germany at 13.7 million. Filimoshin cited sources from Soviet era to support his figures and used the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to deaths of 7.4 million civilians caused by direct, intentional violence. Civilians killed in reprisals during the Soviet partisan war account for a major portion. Filimoshin estimated that civilian forced laborer deaths in Germany totaled 2.1 million. Germany had a policy of forced confiscation of food that resulted in famine deaths of an estimated 6% of the population, or 4.1 million. Russian government sources currently cite these civilian casualty figures in their official statements.[49]

+Russian Academy of Science estimate
Deaths caused by the result of direct, intentional actions of violence7,420,135
Deaths of forced laborers in Germany2,164,313
Deaths due to famine and disease in the occupied regions4,100,000
Total13,684,448

Total population losses

Demographic studies of the population losses

Studies by Andreev, Darski and Kharkova

E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova ("ADK") authored The Population of the Soviet Union 1922–1991, which was published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993. Andreev worked in the Department of Demography Research Institute of the Central Statistical Bureau (now the Research Institute of Statistics of Federal State Statistical Service of Russia). The study estimated total Soviet war losses of 26.6 million. As of 2015, this was the official Russian government figure for total losses. These losses are a demographic estimate rather than an exact accounting.

Total Soviet losses by demographic balance (1941–45) per (ADK)
Population in June 1941196,700,000
Births during war12,300,000
Death by natural causes during war of those alive before war(11,900,000)
War related deaths of those alive before war(25,300,000)
War related deaths of those born during war(1,300,000)
Total population 1 January 1946170,500,000

Notes:

Total War Deaths by Age Group and Gender
Age Group Mid 1941–Males (millions) 1941–45 Male War Deaths (millions) % Age GroupMid 1941–Females (millions)1941–45 Female War Deaths (millions)% Age Group Mid 1941–Total Population (millions) 1941–45 Total War Deaths (millions) % Age Group Excess Male Deaths (Millions)
0–14 27.879 1.425 5.1% 27.984 1.398 5.0% 55.863 2.823 5.1% .027
15–19 11.092 1.064 9.6% 11.220 0.340 3.0% 22.312 1.404 6.3%.723
20–34 24.948 9.005 36.1% 26.3302.663 10.1% 51.278 11.668 22.8%6.342
35–49 18.497 6.139 33.2% 20.236 781 3.9% 38.733 6.920 17.9%5.358
Over 49 11.999 2.418 20.2%16.976 1.380 8.1% 28.975 3.798 13.1%1.038
All Age Groups94.41520.05121.2% 102.746 6.5626.4% 197.161 26.613 13.5%13.489

Remarks:

Voters lists in 1946 election

Another study, The Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959, analyzed voters in the February 1946 Soviet election to estimate the surviving population over the age of 18 at the end of the war. The population under 18 was estimated based on the 1959 census. Official records listed 101.7 million registered voters and 94.0 million actual voters, 7.7 million less than the expected figure. ADK maintained that the official results of the 1946 election are not a good source for estimating the population. They believe that the total of expected voters should be increased by 10.5 million because the roll of voters excluded those deprived of their rights, in prison or in exile. ADK maintained that many young military men did not participate in the election, and an overestimation of women in rural areas without internal passports who sought to avoid compulsory heavy labor. Included in the voter total were 29.9 million "excess" women. However number of expected voters estimated by ADK the gap between males and females was 21.4 million, which approximates the 20.7 million gap revealed by the 1959 census. The prewar population of 1939 (including the annexed territories) had an excess of 7.9 million females. The ADK analysis found that the gap had increased by about 13.5 million.[43]

Alternative sources of demographic losses

Russian demographer Rybakovsky found a wide range of estimates for total war dead. He estimated the actual population in 1941 at 196.7 million and losses at 27–28 million. He cited figures that range from 21.7 to 46 million. Rybakovsky acknowledged that the components used to compute losses are uncertain and disputed.

Population estimates for mid-1941 range from 191.8 to 200.1 million, while the population at the end of 1945 range from 167.0 million up to 170.6 million. Based on the pre-war birth rate, the population shortfall was about 20 million births in 1946. Some were born and died during the war, while the balance was never born. Only rough estimates are available for each group. Estimates for the population of the territories annexed from 1939 to 1945 range from 17 to 23 million persons.

Rybakovsky provided a list of the various estimates of Soviet war losses by Russian scholars since 1988.

Casualty estimates
Analyst Deaths (in millions)
A. Kvasha (1988) 26–27
A. Samsonov (1988) 26–27
Yu. Polyakov (1989) 26–27
L.L. Rybakovsky (1989) 27–28
I. Kurganov (1990) 44
S. Ivanov (1990) 46
E. M. Andreev (1990)26.6
A. Samsonov (1991) 26–27
A. Shevyakov (1991) 27.7
A. Shevyakov (1992) 29.5
V. Eliseev, S. Mikhalev (1992) 21.8
A. Sokolov (1995) 21.7–23.7
Boris Sokolov (1998) 43.3

Estimates of losses by individual Republics

Former Soviet republicsThe contemporary nations that were formerly Soviet Republics dispute Krivosheev's analysis. In a live broadcast of 16 December 2010, A Conversation with Vladimir Putin, he maintained that the Russian Federation had suffered the greatest proportional losses in World War II—70 percent of the total.[55] Official estimates by the former republics of the USSR claim military casualties exceeding those of Krivosheev's report by 3.5 times. It is claimed by the website sovsekretno.ru that there are no Memory Books published in the USSR, Russia and the other contemporary republics in the 80s and 90s listing casualties of 25 percent of the draft or less, but there are many Memory Books with 50 per cent and more with some telling us of a 70, 75, 76 and up to 79 per cent mortality rate among the conscripted.[56]

(A) The Ukrainian authorities and historians ardently dispute these figures. Military casualties alone may be estimated as exceeding 7 million, according to the final volume of the Ukrainian book "In the memory of posterity" and research of V. E. Korol, writes an American (former Soviet) Doctor of History Vilen Lyulechnik.[57] Former President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych maintains that Ukraine has lost more than 10 million lives during the Second World War.[58]

(B) According to a Belarusian military historian, Doctor of History, professor V. Lemeshonok, the Belarusian military casualties, including partisans and underground group members, exceed 682,291.[59]

(C) The Memory Book of Tatarstan Government contains names of about 350,000 inhabitants of the republic, mostly Tatars.[60]

(D) Israeli historian Yitzhak Arad maintains that about 200,000 Soviet Jews or 40 per cent of all draft were killed in battles or captivity — the highest percentage of all nations of the USSR.[61]

(E) Kazakhstan estimates its military casualties at 601,029.[60]

(F) Armenians estimate their military casualties at over 300,000.[62]

(G) Georgians also estimate their military casualties at over 300,000.[63]

(I) Among the others, Azerbaijanis claim military casualties of 300,000,[64] Bashkirs of about 300,000,[65] Mordvas of 130,000 and Chuvashes of 106,470.[66] But one of the most tragic figures comes from a Far Eastern republic of Yakutia and its small nation. 37,965 citizens, mostly Yakuts, or 60.74 per cent of 62,509 drafted have not returned home with 7,000 regarded missing. About 69,000 died of severe famine in the republic. This nation could not restore its population even under 1959 census.[67] [68] [69] The record breaking estimates of 700,000 military casualties out of a total 1,25 million Turkmenian citizens (with slightly less than 60 per cent being Turkmens) are attributed to the late President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov. Historians do not regard them as being trustworthy.[70]

Estimated losses for each Soviet Republic

Russian historian Vadim Erlikman pegs total war deaths at 10.7 million, exceeding Krivosheev's 8.7 million by an extra two million. This extra two million would presumably include Soviet POWs that died in Nazi captivity, partisans, and militia.

Deaths by Soviet republic! Soviet Republic !! Population 1940 !! Military Dead !! Civilian Dead !! Total !! Deaths as
% 1940 Pop.
1,320,000 150,000 30,000 180,000 13.6%
3,270,000210,000 90,000 300,000 9.1%
9,050,000 620,000 1,670,000 2,290,000 25.3%
1,050,00030,000 50,000 80,000 7.6%
Georgian SSR3,610,000190,000 110,000 300,000 8.3%
Kazakh SSR6,150,000 310,000 350,000 660,000 10.7%
1,530,000 70,000 50,000 120,000 7.8%
1,890,000 30,000230,000 260,000 13.7%
2,930,000 25,000 350,000 375,000 12.7%
Moldavian SSR2,470,000 50,000 120,000 170,000 6.9%
110,100,000 6,750,000 7,200,000 13,950,000 12.7% (A)
1,530,000 50,00070,000 120,000 7.8%
1,300,00070,000 30,000 100,000 7.7%
6,550,000 330,000 220,000 550,000 8.4%
41,340,000 1,650,000 5,200,000 6,850,00016.3% (B)
Unidentified -165,000 130,000 295,000
194,090,000 10,700,000 15,900,000 26,600,000 13.7%

OBD Memorial database

The names of Soviet war dead are presented at the OBD (Central Data Bank) Memorial database online.[71]

Causes

The Red Army suffered catastrophic losses of men and equipment during the first months of the German invasion. In the spring of 1941 Stalin ignored the warnings of his intelligence services of a planned German invasion and refused to put the Armed forces on alert. The bulk of the Soviet combat units were deployed in the border regions in a lower state of readiness. In the face of the German onslaught the Soviet forces were caught by surprise. Large numbers of Soviet soldiers were captured and many perished due to the brutal mistreatment of POWs by the Nazis.[72] Earl F. Ziemke maintained high Soviet losses can be attributed to 'less efficient medical services and the Soviet tactics, which throughout the war tended to be expensive in terms of human life"[73]

Russian scholars attribute the high civilian death toll to the Nazi Generalplan Ost which treated Soviet peoples as "subhumans", they use the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to civilian losses in the occupied USSR. German occupation policies implemented under the Hunger Plan resulted in the confiscation of food stocks which resulted in famine in the occupied regions. During the Soviet era the partisan campaign behind the lines was portrayed as the struggle of the local population against the German occupation.[74] To suppress the partisan units the Nazi occupation forces engaged in a campaign of brutal reprisals against innocent civilians. The extensive fighting destroyed agricultural land, infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food. During the war Soviet civilians were taken to Germany as forced laborers under inhumane conditions.[75]

Summary of the estimates and their sources

Estimates for Soviet losses in the Second World War range from 7 million to over 43 million. During the Communist era in the Soviet Union historical writing about World War II was subject to censorship and only official approved statistical data was published. In the USSR during the Glasnost period under Gorbachev and in post communist Russia the casualties in World War II were re-evaluated and the official figures revised.

1946 to 1987

Joseph Stalin in March 1946 stated that Soviet war losses were 7 million dead. This was to be the official figure until the Khrushchev era. In November 1961 Nikita Khrushchev stated that Soviet war losses were 20 million; this was to be the official figure until the Gorbachev era of Glasnost. Leonid Brezhnev in 1965 put the Soviet death toll in the war at "more than 20 million" Ivan Konev in a May 1965 Soviet Ministry of Defense press conference stated that Soviet military dead in World War II were 10 million. In 1971, the Soviet demographer Boris Urlanis put losses at 20 million including 6,074,000 civilians and 3,912,000 prisoners of war killed by Nazi Germany, military dead were put at 10 million.

Documents from the Extraordinary State Commission prepared in March 1946 not but published until the 1990s listed 6,074,857 civilians killed, 3,912,283 prisoner of war dead, 3,999,796 deaths during German forced labor and 641,803 civilian famine deaths during Siege of Leningrad.[76] The Soviet general staff put losses at 8,668,000 dead and missing, however the General Staffs figures were not published until 1993. Also 688,772[77] Soviet citizens who remained in western countries after the war were included with the war losses.

1988 to 1992

During the period of Glasnost, the official figure of 20 million war dead was challenged by Soviet scholars. In 1988–1989, estimates of 26 to 28 million total war dead appeared in the Soviet press. The Russian scholar Dmitri Volkogonov, writing at this, time estimated total war deaths at 26–27,000,000, including 10,000,000 in the military.[78] In March 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev established a committee to investigate Soviet war losses. In a May 1990 speech, Gorbachev gave the figure for total Soviet losses at "almost 27 million". This revised figure was the result of research by the committee set up by Gorbachev that estimated total war dead at between 26 and 27 million. In January 1990, M.A. Moiseev, Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces, disclosed for the first time in an interview that Soviet military war dead totaled 8,668,400.[79] In 1991, the Russian scholar A.A. Shevyakov published an article with summary of civilian losses based on his analysis of the archival records of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, civilian dead were given as 17.7 million. In a second article in 1992, A.A. Shevyakov gave a figure of 20.8 million civilian dead; no explanation for the difference was given.

Russians published in the West 1950–83

In 1949, Soviet Colonel Kalinov defected to the west, where he published a book claiming that Soviet records indicated the military loss of 13.6 million men, including 2.6 million POW dead.[80] Sergei Maksudov, a Russian demographer living in the west, estimated Soviet war losses at between 24.5 and 27.4 million, including 7.5 million military dead.[81] [82] The Soviet mathematician Iosif G. Dyadkin published a study in the United States that estimated the total Soviet population losses from 1939 to 1945, due to the war and political repression, at 30 million. Dyadkin was imprisoned for publishing this study in the west.

Western scholars

Historians writing outside of the Soviet Union and Russia have evaluated the various Russian language sources and have offered their estimates of Soviet war dead. Here is a listing of estimates by recognized scholars published in the West.

Source Military Dead Civilian Dead Total Dead
Frank Lorimer (1946),[83] 5,000,000 11,000,00016,000,000
(within 1940 borders)
Pierre George (1946)[84] 7,000,000 10,000,00017,000,000
N. S. Timasheff (1948),[85] 7,000,000 18,300,00025,300,000
Helmut Arntz (1953)[86] 13,600,000 7,000,00020,000,000+
Jean-Noël Biraben (1958)[87] 8,000,0006,700,00014,700,000
Warren W. Eason (1959)[88] [89] 10,000,000 15,000,00025,000,000
E. Ziemke (1968) more than
12,000,000
Albert Seaton (1971) 10,000,000
Gil Elliot (1972)[90] 10,000,000 10,000,00020,000,000
Charles Messenger (1989)[91] 20,000,000
John Keegan (1989)[92] 7,000,000 7,000,00014,000,000
R. J. Rummel (1990)[93] 7,000,000 12,250,000 19,625,000
plus 10,000,000
due to Soviet repression
John Ellis (1993)[94] 11,000,000 6,700,00017,700,000
Michael Ellman and Sergei Maksudov (1994) 8,700,000 18,000,000 26–27,000,000
Norman Davies (1996)[95] 8–9,000,000 16–19,000,000 24–28,000,000
Richard Overy (1997) 8,668,400 17,000,000 25,000,000
Mark Mazower (1998)[96] 9,500,000 10,000,000 19,500,000
David Wallechinsky (1995)[97] 13,600,000 20–26,000,000
Micheal Clodfelter (2002)[98] 8,668,400 20–26,000,000
Michael Haynes (2003) [99] 8,700,000 17,900,00026,600,000
Martin Gilbert (2004)[100] 10,000,000
KIA
& 3,300,000
POW 		7,000,000 20,000,000+
H. P. Willmott (2004)[101] 8,700,000 16,900,000 25,600,000
Tony Judt (2005)[102] 8,600,000 16,000,000 24,600,000
Norman Davies (2006)[103] 8,668,000 18,332,00027,000,000
Cambridge History of Russia (2006)8,700,000+13,700,000
in Nazi occupied USSR
and 2,600,000
in interior USSR		24–26,000,000
Steven Rosefielde (2010)[104] 8,700,000
"all causes" 		"17,700,000
or 20,300,000" 		"26,400,000
to 29,000,000"
plus 5,458,000
due to Soviet repression

See also

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Book: Lopez Aubin Bernard Guillerat Fenby, Jean Nicolas Vincent Nicolas Jonathan. World War II Infographics. Thames & Hudson. 2019. 146.
  2. Web site: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации. MOD Russian Federation. On Question of war Losses (in Russian). MOD Russian Federation. 12 November 2017.
  3. Viktor . Zemskov . О масштабах людских потерь CCCР в Великой Отечественной Войне . ru . About the scale of human losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War . Военно-исторический архив [Military Historical Archive] . 2012 . 9 . 59–71 . Демоскоп Weekly [Democcope Weekly].
  4. Web site: УШЛИ ПОД ДЕРН . ru . Gone under the sod.
  5. Web site: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev . Medvedev orders precise Soviet WWII death toll . Fox News . Associated Press . 23 December 2017.
  6. News: Bershidsky . Leonid . A Message to Putin From 42 Million Dead . Bloomberg . 10 May 2017 . 31 August 2017.
  7. Web site: dead . 5 July 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180705150605/https://polkrf.ru/news/1275/parlamentskie_slushaniya_patrioticheskoe_vospitanie_bessmertnyiy_polk . Парламентские слушания "Патриотическое воспитание граждан России: "Бессмертный полк" . Parliamentary hearings "Patriotic education of Russian citizens:" Immortal Regiment" . 5 July 2018 . Бессмертный полк России [Immortal Regiment of Russia] . 19 June 2019.
  8. (135,000 executed; 422,700 sent to penal units at the front and 436,600 imprisoned after sentencing)
  9. "Суммируя все вышеприведённые составляющие прямых гражданских потерь, к которым без всяких натяжек применим термин «жертвы войны», мы определяем их общее количество величиной, как минимум, 4,5 млн. человек." ["Summing up all the above components of direct civilian casualties, to which the term “war victims” applies without any stretch, we determine their total number of at least 4.5 million people."]
  10. Deaths resulting from harsh conditions, like lack of food and medicine, on Soviet territory not occupied by the Germans were due to wartime shortages
  11. Book: Applebaum . Anne . Gulag . 2003 . Anchor . USA . 1400034094 . 582–83.
  12. Book: Pohl . J. Otto . Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949 . 1999 . Greenwood Press . Connecticut . 0313309213 . 8.
  13. Г.Ф. . КРИВОШЕЕВ . Историк должен ЛИКОВАТЬ и ГОРЕВАТЬ со своим народом . ВОЕННО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ ЖУРНАЛ . 11 . 2002 . ru.
    G.F. . Krivosheev . Historians Should Triumph and Grieve with their People . Military History Journal . 11 . 2002.
  14. Includes 12,031 dead and missing in the Invasion of Manchuria
  15. ru . НЕКОТОРЫЕ НОВЫЕ ДАННЫЕ АНАЛИЗА СИЛ И ПОТЕРЬ НА СОВЕТСКО-ГЕРМАНСКОМ ФРОНТЕ . Г.Ф. . КРИВОШЕЕВ . Мир истории . 1999 . 1 . так как в конце войны в лагерях для военнопленных было зарегистрировано 2 016 тыс. человек, из них вернулось 1 836 тыс. человек, а 180 тыс. не вернулось.
    G.F. . Krivosheev . Some new data analysis on forces and losses on the Soviet-German front . Mir Istorii . 1999 . 1 . since at the end of the war 2,016 thousand people were registered in prisoner-of-war camps, 1,836 thousand people returned, and 180 thousand did not return.
  16. Web site: Zemskov . Viktor . Репатриация перемещённых советских граждан . ru . Repatriation of Soviet citizens abroad . 6 April 2017.
    Web site: Zemskov . Viktor . РЕПАТРИАЦИЯ СОВЕТСКИХ ГРАЖДАН И ИХ ДАЛЬНЕЙШАЯ СУДЬБА (1944—1956 гг.) . ru . Repatriation of Soviet Citizens and their Farest Destiny (1944–1956) . 1 October 2018.
  17. Makhmut Gareev, Battles on the military historical front(in Russian), Moscow 2008. p.496
  18. Hartmann, Christian (2013). Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 157.
  19. Viktor . Zemskov . "Статистический лабиринт". Общая численность советских военнопленных и масштабы их смертности . ru . "The statistical maze." The total number of Soviet prisoners of war and the extent of their mortality . Российская история . 2011 . 3 . 22–32 . Демоскоп Weekly [Democcope Weekly].
  20. Web site: Mortality of Soviet POWs . Human Losses in World War II . 10 November 2016 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20120323212757/http://ww2stats.com/pow_ger_dead_sov.html . 23 March 2012.
  21. (the 1997 English translation and 2001 Russian edition put figure at 422,700, however the 1993 Russian edition lists "about 400,000" in penal sub-units)
  22. Encyclopedia: Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War . . Holocaust Encyclopedia. 15 June 2011.
  23. Book: Clodfelter, Micheal . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=OYCwJgAACAAJ}} Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1494–2007]. 2008. McFarland. 978-0-7864-3319-3 . 515–516. (1941 – 3,335,000; 1942 – 1,1653,000; 1943 – 565,000; 1944 – 147,000; 1945 – 34,000)
  24. Book: Clodfelter, Micheal . Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1494–2015, Fourth Edition. 464. (1941 – 3,335,000; 1942 – 1,1653,000; 1943 – 565,000; 1944 – 147,000; 1945 – 34,000)
  25. Christian Streit: Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die Sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, 1941–1945, Bonn: Dietz (3. Aufl., 1. Aufl. 1978) pp.244–249,
  26. Mark Axworthy. Third Axis Fourth Ally. Arms and Armour 1995;, pp 216–17
  27. fi . Ylikangas . Heikki . Heikki Ylikankaan selvitys Valtioneuvoston kanslialle . Government of Finland . https://web.archive.org/web/20070808084421/http://www2.vnk.fi/julkaisukansio/2004/j05-heikki-ylikankaan/pdf/fi.pdf . 8 August 2007 . dead.
  28. Web site: Памяти профессора Михалева Сергея Николаевича.
  29. Mikhalev excludes Construction troops whose casualties were not included in the field reports.
  30. Excludes those drafted twice.
  31. Krivosheev includes those sent on sick leave, those sent to industry, NKVD or foreign units and 436,600 imprisoned after sentencing. Mikhalev maintains that this figure includes personnel who died in hospital of wounds and sickness and the deaths of those convicted of offenses.
  32. Mikhalev excludes 403,000 Construction troops whose casualties were not included in the field reports and 437,000 imprisoned after sentencing already deducted in number of discharged
  33. Mikhalev maintains that they were military operational losses that should be included with total casualties
  34. MIA Re-conscripted were men conscripted back into the Soviet army during the war as territories were being liberated. Mikhalev maintains that they should not be deducted because were included in the Red Army strength in June 1945 and that the number conscripted excludes those drafted twice.
  35. NKVD & Border Troops -Mikhalev adds these losses to the total because they were not part of the Red Army balance in June 1945.
  36. Mikhalev adds these losses to the total because they were not part of the Red Army balance in June 1945
  37. In addition Mikhalev believed that an additional 1.8 million deaths in hospital of wounded and sick personnel and 1.0 million convicted of offenses should be added to the total irreplaceable losses
  38. Web site: Meltyukhov. Mikhail. Anatomy of Evil". Plans, directives, orders of the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany for the occupation of the USSR.
  39. Harrison . Mark . 2017 . Counting the Soviet Union's War Dead: Still 26–27 Million . CAGE Online Working Paper Series . 332 . Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) .
  40. Web site: 19 July 2011. Fire in the Storehouse. Mark Solonin. Personal website of historian.
  41. Web site: Ivlev . Igor . Убыль населения СССР в 1941–1945 гг . ru . The decline in the population of the USSR in 1941–1945 . 9 March 2017 . apn.ru . 14 January 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180114070015/http://www.apn.ru/index.php?newsid=36078 . 14 January 2018.
  42. Web site: Ivlev . Igor . Убыль населения СССР в 1941–1945 гг . ru . Loss of Population of the USSR 1941–1945 . 12 March 2017 . soldat.ru . 12 January 2018.
  43. Web site: Ivlev. Igor. The Lies of the general . Demoscope.ru . 5 December 2017 . ru.
  44. Web site: Потери Красной Армии в начальный период Великой Отечественной войны – Лев Лопуховский Борис Кавалерчик. September 2013. podelise.ru. 23 December 2015.
  45. Web site: Великая Отечественная война, 1941–1945; События. Люди. Документы: Краткий исторический справочник. – М.: Политиздат, 1990, – С. 76.. 23 December 2015.
  46. Web site: Таблица 4 ^ Количество пленных и трофеев – Лев Лопуховский Борис Кавалерчик. podelise.ru. 23 December 2015.
  47. Letter to editor by A.N. Mertsalov Voprosy in Istorii(Questions of History) nr 2/3 1991 p. 250
  48. Лев Лопуховский . К вопросу о достоверности официальных данных о безвозвратных потерях в Великой Отечественной войне . Военно-исторический архив . 11. 142 . November 2011.
  49. Web site: Потери гражданского населения. function.mil.ru. 19 June 2019.
  50. Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. 1988.
  51. David M. Glantz, Siege of Leningrad 1941 1944 Cassell 2001 p.320
  52. Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny: sbornik statei. Sankt-Peterburg 1995;, p. 158-Deaths resulting from harsh conditions, like lack of food and medicine, on Soviet territory not occupied by the Germans
  53. Łuczak, Czesław. Szanse i trudnosci bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939–1945. Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI. 1994. The losses of 1.5 million Poles and Jews in the former Polish eastern regions are also included in Poland's total war dead of 5.9 to 6.0 million according to Łuczak.(1.5 million Poles, 3.0 million Jews and 1.0 other ethnic groups)
  54. Book: Hartmann, Christian . Christian Hartmann (historian) . 2013 . Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945 . Oxford University Press . Oxford . 978-0-19-966078-0 . 157.
  55. Web site: Вклад РСФСР в Победу в Великой Отечественной войне.
  56. Web site: Жгучая память (Burning Memory). Sovershenno Secretno (The Top Secret) Monthly. 2 May 2011. www.sovsekretno.ru. 24 December 2015.
  57. Web site: УКРАИНЦЫ В КРАСНОЙ АРМИИ . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131102162039/http://www.rusamny.com/352/t03%28352%29.htm . 2 November 2013.
  58. Web site: В.Янукович . dead . Потери Украины в ВОВ превысили 10 млн. человек . https://web.archive.org/web/20120512102656/http://top.rbc.ru/society/08/05/2011/588498.shtml . 12 May 2012.
  59. Site of the Allied State (Информационно-аналитический портал Союзного государства), soyuz.by›ru/print.aspx?guid=135175
  60. Web site: Жгучая память. www.sovsekretno.ru. 24 December 2015.
  61. Soviet Jews in the War against Nazi Germany . Yad Vashem Studies (Hebrew) . 23 . 1993 . 51–89 .
  62. Web site: ПОБЕДИТЬ И ВЫЖИТЬ! (Win and Survive!). 17 July 2013 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130609123024/http://golosarmenii.am/ru/20402/home/26665 . 9 June 2013 .
  63. Web site: Голос России: Тенгиз Бегишвили -'300 тысяч грузин погибли во второй мировой войне. Никому не дано право, переписывать историю'.
  64. Web site: Азербайджан в годы Второй мировой войны . 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727160828/http://sovzem.mgimo.ru/news/council/186575.phtml . 27 July 2011 . dead . Совет землячеств МГИМО .
  65. Web site: ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫЕ ПОТЕРИ БАШКИРИИ В ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ.
  66. Web site: Совершенно секретно.
  67. http://sakhapress.ru/archives/73083 Statement by President of Sakha Republic (Yakutia)
  68. Web site: Idanlib . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131018182120/http://i.aldanlib.ru/portal/page0029.htm . 18 October 2013 .
  69. Web site: Илин № 1–2 '2010.
  70. Web site: В Туркмении решили отказаться от Великой Отечественной войны. Рамблер.Новости.
  71. Web site: ОБД Мемориал.
  72. Richard Overy, Russia's War 1997
  73. Earl F. Ziemke,Stalingrad to Berlin, the German Defeat in the East; Office of the Chief of Military History U.S. Army 1968 pp 500
  74. Book: [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=_wJnAAAAMAAJ}} Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941–1945: A General Outline]. 1974. Progress Publishers . 456–60.
  75. Web site: Crimes of the German Wehrmacht, Hamburg Institute for Social Research 2004 . 26 May 2013 . 8 December 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181208005814/http://www.verbrechen-der-wehrmacht.de/pdf/vdw_en.pdf . dead .
  76. Book: .Жертвы двух диктатур. Остарбайтеры и военнопленные в Третьем Рейхе и их репатриация. – М.: Ваш выбор ЦИРЗ, 1996. – p735-738. (Victims of Two Dictatorships. Ostarbeiters and POW in Third Reich and Their Repatriation) (Russian).
  77. Shevyakov, A. A. Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya 1993 #8
  78. Book: Volkogonov, Dmitriĭ Antonovich . Dmitri Volkogonov. [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=5RatAgAACAAJ}} Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy]. 1996. Prima Pub.. 978-0-7615-0718-5.
  79. Tsena Pobeda . bg . The Price of Victory . Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal [Military History Journal] . 3 . 1990. Interview with M.A. Moiseev Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces.
  80. Book: Cyrille Dimitriévitch Kalinov. [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=UHP3OwAACAAJ}} Les maréchaux soviétiques vous parlent]. 1950. Stock, Delamain et Boutelleau.
  81. S. Maksudov, Pertes subies par la population de l'URSS, 1918–1958, Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique, XVIII, 3, July–September 1977
  82. S. Maksudov Losses Suffered by the Population of the USSR 1918–1958 The Samizdat register II / edited by Roy Medvedev New York : Norton, 1981.(English translation of Maksudov's 1977 article)
  83. Web site: Lorimer. Frank. Population of the Soviet Union pp 180–183. League of Nations Geneva 1946. 29 January 2017.
  84. Esquisse d'une étude démographique de l'Union soviétique Population(Paris) No.3 July–September 1946
  85. N. S. Timasheff: "The Post-war Population of the Soviet Union" The American Journal of Sociology, September 1948
  86. Bilanz des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Oldenburg-Hamburg, 1953. – Professor Dr. Helmut Arntz. Die Menschenverluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg
  87. Jean-Noël Biraben, Essai sur l'évolution démographique de l'U.R.S.S. Population (French Edition) Jun. 1958, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 29–62
  88. Eason, Warren W., "The Soviet Population Today" Foreign Affairs 37 (July 1959): 598–60 6Eason made his calculations based on the preliminary results of the 1959 Soviet census. His estimate was 25 million deaths of those persons alive at the beginning of the war and an additional wartime loss of 20,000,000 children under age 5 due to a decline in births and an increase infant mortality, thus bringing the total to 45,000,000
  89. Web site: Warren Eason Obituary – Columbus, OH – The Columbus Dispatch. The Columbus Dispatch.
  90. Book: Elliot, Gil . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=prZWAAAAYAAJ}} Twentieth century book of the dead]. 1973. Ballantine Books . 978-0-684-13115-3.
  91. Book: Messenger, Charles . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=kY0UAQAAIAAJ}} The chronological atlas of World War Two]. 1 August 1989. Macmillan.
  92. Book: Keegan, John . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=HN_PQ1G8LAUC}} The Second World War]. 31 August 2011. Random House. 978-1-4464-9649-7.
  93. R. J. Rummel Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917 Table 7.A pp. 167 Transaction 1990
  94. Book: Ellis, John . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=T72aQgAACAAJ}} World War II: A Statistical Survey : the Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants]. 1993. Facts on File. 978-0-8160-2971-6.
  95. Book: Davies, Norman . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=jrVW9W9eiYMC}} Europe: A History]. 1996. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-820171-7 . .
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  99. Michael Haynes, Counting Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: a Note Europe-Asia Studies Vol.55, No. 2, 2003, 300–309
  100. Book: Gilbert, Martin . Martin Gilbert. [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=jkLAu1AewAkC}} The Second World War: A Complete History]. 1 June 2004. Henry Holt and Company. 978-0-8050-7623-3.
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  102. Tony Judt Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)
  103. Book: Davies, Norman . . 2006 . 367. However on p. 24 Davies put Soviet military dead at 11,000,000.
  104. Book: Rosefielde, Steven . [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=7_eMAgAAQBAJ}} Red Holocaust]. 16 December 2009. Routledge. 978-1-135-19517-5.
  105. Book: David M. . Glantz. Jonathan M. . House. [{{google books |plainurl=y |id=WS2ArgEACAAJ}} When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler]. 16 October 2015. University Press of Kansas. 978-0-7006-2121-7.
  106. Web site: Deutschen Historischen Verantwortung für die Ukraine. .

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