How many people died in the second world Russian. The biggest wars in terms of the number of victims

I think it's hard to find a person on earth who hasn't heard about World War II. Also in school years we had to study a large number of textbooks that told in detail about this sad period in the history of our country. But as detailed as World War II has been in our textbooks, one question has consistently remained and remains controversial: how many people died in World War II.

How many people died in Russia

After I read and listened to a lot of information about World War II again, I realized that No one has been able to count the exact number of deaths.

It's no secret to anyone that Russia suffered huge losses in WWII. FROM redi dead people were not only the military, but also the civilian population of the country. The war years were terrible and black. Everywhere there was death, hunger and poverty. Over time, very young boys (15-17 years old) began to be taken to the front, we all understand that at that age they were just children. Nonetheless, The Russian people fought for their freedom and independence with particular courage.

According to the latest official data, the number Russian people, who died during World War II, equals 26 million 562 thousand people.

How many people died in Germany during WWII

Everyone knows that the German army also fought very hard for its victory. to the front was about 9 million mobilized human, about half of them died, respectively, 4.5 million. As for the losses among the civilian population of Germany during the Second World War, the numbers are 3 million. In total, it turns out that during the Second World War lost about 12 million people. Don't you think it's strange that this figure is much less than in Russia?

How many people died in World War II

As you already understood, every country during the Second World War suffered really serious losses both among the military and among the civilian population. Do not forget that in addition to Russia and Germany, many more countries took part in the war (Ukraine, Belarus, and so on), and each of them lost one or another number of people. I tried for a very long time to find exact number of deaths in World War II, but I never succeeded, because this the number is so huge that hardly anyone will be able to recognize her. I can only say that according to the latest data, the number of deaths during the Second World War exceeds 100 million people.

I think that The Second World War will forever remain in our memory.. The main thing is that we never forget about those who gave us our bright future, and about the bitter price our ancestors paid for the victory.

In 1993, after the collapse of the USSR, the first public Soviet statistics of losses during World War II appeared, created under the leadership of General Grigory Krivosheev by order of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Here is an article by the St. Petersburg amateur historian Vyacheslav Krasikov about what the Soviet military genius actually calculated.

The topic of Soviet losses in World War II is still taboo in Russia, primarily because of the unwillingness of society and the state to look at this problem in an adult way. The only "statistical" study on this topic is the work "Secrecy Removed: Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in Wars, Combat Operations and Military Conflicts" published in 1993. In 1997, an English-language edition of the study was published, and in 2001, the second edition of "Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts" appeared.

If you do not pay attention to the shamefully late appearance of statistics on Soviet losses in general (almost 50 years after the end of the war), the work of Krivosheev, who headed the team of employees of the Ministry of Defense, did not make a big splash in the scientific world (of course, for the post-Soviet autochthons, it became a balm per capita, since it brought Soviet losses to the same level as German ones). One of the main sources of data for the team of authors led by Krivosheev is the General Staff Fund in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO), which is still classified, and where access to researchers is closed. That is, it is objectively impossible to verify the accuracy of the work of military archivists. For this reason, in the West, the scientific community, which has been dealing with the issue of losses in World War II for almost 60 years, reacted coolly to the work of Krivosheev and simply did not even notice it.

In Russia, there have been repeated attempts to criticize the study of Grigory Krivosheev - critics reproached the general for methodological inaccuracies, the use of unverified and unproven data, purely arithmetic inconsistencies, and so on. As an example, you can see. We want to offer our readers not so much another criticism of Krivosheev's work itself, but an attempt to introduce new, additional data (for example, party and Komsomol statistics) into circulation, which will shed more light on the size of total Soviet losses. Perhaps this will contribute in the future to their gradual approach to reality and the development of a normal, civilized scientific discussion in Russia. The article by Vyacheslav Krasikov, in which all links are affixed, can be downloaded in full. All the scans of the books he refers to

Soviet historiography: how many are left unforgotten?

After a war in civilized countries, it is customary to reflect on the course of battles by subjecting them to a critical discussion in the light of enemy documents that have become available. Such work, of course, requires maximum objectivity. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to draw the right conclusions so as not to repeat past mistakes. However, the works that were published in the USSR in the first post-war decade cannot be called historical research even with a big stretch. They consisted mainly of cliches on the theme of the inevitability of victory under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, the original superiority of Soviet military art and the genius of Comrade Stalin. Memoirs during the life of the “leader of the peoples” were almost never published, and the little that came out of print looked more like fantastic literature. There was essentially no serious work for censorship in such a situation. Unless to identify those who are not diligent enough in the matter of glorification. Therefore, this institution turned out to be completely unprepared for the surprises and metamorphoses of the hectic Khrushchev “thaw”.

However, the information explosion of the 50s is the merit of more than one Nikita Sergeevich. The blissful idyll described above was destroyed by banal human ambition.

The fact is that in the West the process of understanding the recent hostilities proceeded in a normal civilized way. The generals talked about their achievements and shared their smart thoughts with the public. The Soviet military elite, of course, also wanted to participate in such an interesting and exciting process, but the "Kremlin highlander" did not like this kind of activity. But after March 1953, this obstacle disappeared. As a result, Soviet censorship was immediately attacked by an order to publish translations of some works about the Second World War written by former enemies and allies. AT this case limited themselves to cuts of especially unpleasant pages and editorial comments that helped Soviet readers to “correctly” understand the work of foreigners “prone to falsification”. But when, following this, a large number of their own gold-chasing authors received permission to publish their memoirs, the process of “comprehension” finally got out of control. And it led to completely unexpected results for its initiators. Many events and figures became public knowledge, which, complementing and clarifying each other, formed a completely different mosaic than the previously existing picture of the war. What is worth only one threefold increase in the official figure of the total losses of the USSR from 7 to 20 million people.

Of course, the writers themselves understood "what's what" and tried to pass over their own failures in silence. But something was reported about such moments in the battle path of former comrades-in-arms. In connection with what appeared and side effects. Such as a public scandal with written complaints against each other in the Central Committee of the CPSU, Marshals Zhukov and Chuikov, who did not share the victorious laurels. In addition, any pleasant, at first glance, fact can destroy the myth created over the years in one fell swoop. For example, the information, flattering for high-ranking "home front workers", that the Soviet industry was constantly producing more equipment than the German one, inevitably called into question the general's bragging about victories "not by number, but by skill."

Thus, military-historical science has taken, on the scale of the Soviet Union, a gigantic step forward. After that, it became impossible to return to Stalin's times. Nevertheless, with the coming to power of Brezhnev, they again tried to streamline the affairs in the field of coverage of the events of the Great Patriotic War.

Thus, by the middle of the 1980s, the intellectual environment of the Russian historiography of the Second World War was finally formed. Most of the specialists who are developing this topic today have been nourished by its traditions. It cannot, of course, be argued that all historians continue to cling to the stereotypes of "the times of Ochakov and the conquest of the Crimea." Suffice it to recall the “perestroika” euphoria of revelations that ended in a grandiose scandal in 1991, when, in order to please the generals from history, who literally went into a “protective” hysteria, the editorial board of the new 10-volume “History of the Great Patriotic War” was purged, since its authors wanted to rise to objective analysis performed according to Western scientific standards. As a result, the "rootless cosmopolitans" were excommunicated from the archives, as well as the corresponding organizational conclusions. The head of the Institute of Military History, General D. A. Volkogonov, was relieved of his post, and most of his young assistants were dismissed from the army. Control over the work on the preparation of the 10-volume book was tightened, for which they connected to it marshals and generals tested and proven in their previous activities. Nevertheless, a fairly large amount of statistical information on this topic during the post-war decades managed to break out of the archival doors. Let's try to systematize it.

Official Soviet figures

If we carefully trace the history of how the “numerical equivalents” of the victims of World War II changed in the USSR, we will immediately find that these changes were not in the nature of random digital chaos, but were subject to an easily traced relationship and strict logic.

Until the end of the 80s of the last century, this logic boiled down to the fact that propaganda, although very, very slowly, but gradually still gave way to science - albeit overly ideological, but based on archival materials. Therefore, Stalin's 7,000,000 total military losses of the USSR under Khrushchev turned into 20,000,000, under Brezhnev into "more than 20,000,000", and under Gorbachev into "more than 27,000,000". In the same direction, the numbers of losses of the Armed Forces "danced" as well. As a result, already in the early 60s, it was officially recognized that more than 10,000,000 soldiers died at the front alone (not counting those who did not return from captivity). In the 70s of the last century, the figure of "more than 10,000,000 dead at the front" (not counting those killed in captivity) became generally accepted. She was cited in the most authoritative publications of the time. As an example, it suffices to recall an article by Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Colonel-General of the Medical Service E. I. Smirnov, published in a collection that was prepared jointly by the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense, and saw the light in the publishing house Nauka ".

By the way, in the same year, another "landmark" book was presented to the readers' judgment - "The Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic war 1941-1945 ″, where the numbers of army losses and Red Army soldiers who died in captivity were published. For example, up to 7 million civilians (?) and up to 4 million captured Red Army soldiers died in German concentration camps alone, which gives a total of up to 14 million dead Red Army soldiers (10 million at the front and 4 million in captivity). Here, apparently, it is also appropriate to recall that then in the USSR each such figure was official state - it necessarily passed through the strictest censorship "sieve" - ​​it was repeatedly rechecked and often reproduced in various reference and information publications.

In principle, in the USSR in the 70s, in fact, it was recognized that the losses of the army by those who died at the front and in captivity for 1941-1945 amounted to approximately 16,000,000 - 17,000,000 people. True, the statistics were published in a somewhat veiled form.

Here in the 1st volume of the Soviet Military Encyclopedia (article "Combat losses") it is said: " So, if in the 1st World War about 10 million people were killed and died from wounds, then in the 2nd World War only the losses killed on the fronts amounted to 27 million people» . These are precisely army losses, since the total number of deaths in World War II in the same publication is defined as 50 million people.

If we subtract from these 27,000,000 losses of the Armed Forces of all participants in the Second World War, except for the USSR, then the remainder will be about 16-17 million. It is these figures that are the number of dead military personnel recognized in the USSR (at the front and in captivity). To count "everyone except the USSR", then it was possible according to the book by Boris Urlanis "Wars and the population of Europe", which was first published in the Union in 1960. Now it is easy to find it on the Internet under the name "History of military losses".

All of the above statistics on army losses were repeatedly reproduced in the USSR until the end of the 80s. But in 1990, the Russian General Staff published the results of its own new "updated" calculations of irretrievable army losses. Surprisingly, they somehow mysteriously turned out not more than the previous "stagnant", but less. Moreover, less cool - almost in 2 times. Specifically, 8,668,400 people. The solution to the puzzle here is simple - during the period of Gorbachev's perestroika, history again became politicized to the limit, turning into a propaganda tool. And the "big stripes" from the Ministry of Defense decided in this manner "on the sly" to improve the "patriotic" statistics.

Therefore, no explanation for such a strange arithmetic metamorphosis followed. On the contrary, soon these 8.668.400 (again without explanation) were "detailed" in the reference book "Secrecy stamp removed", which was then supplemented and republished. And what is most striking is that Soviet figures were instantly forgotten - they simply quietly disappeared from books published under the patronage of the state. But the question to the logical absurdity of such a situation remained:

It turns out that in the USSR for 3 decades they tried to "denigrate" one of their main achievements - the victory over Nazi Germany - they pretended that they fought worse than they actually did and for this they published false data on army losses, inflated by two times.

And the real "beautiful" statistics were kept under the heading "secret" ...

Vulture of secrecy eating the dead

Analyzing all the amazing data of Krivosheev's "research", one can write several solid monographs. Different authors are most often carried away by examples of analyzing the results of individual operations. These are, of course, good visual illustrations. However, they call into question only partial figures - against the background of general losses, they are not very large.

Krivosheev hides the bulk of the losses among the “re-conscripted”. In the "Secret Classification" he indicates their number as "more than 2 million", and in "Russia in the Wars" he generally throws out from the text of the book an indication of the number of this category of conscripts. He simply writes that the total number of mobilized people is 34,476,700 - excluding those re-conscripted. The exact number of those re-conscripted - 2,237,000 people - was named by Krivosheev in only one article, published in a small-circulation collection sixteen years ago.

Who are the "re-called"? This is, for example, when a person was seriously wounded in 1941 and after a long treatment was "written off" from the army "for health reasons." But, when in the second half of the war human resources were already coming to an end, the medical requirements were revised and lowered. As a result, the man was again recognized as fit for service and drafted into the army. And in 1944 he was killed. Thus, Krivosheev counts this person in the mobilized only once. But he “takes out” twice from the ranks of the army - first as a disabled person, and then as a dead man. Ultimately, it turns out that one of the "withdrawn" hides from accounting in the amount of total irretrievable losses.

Another example. The man was mobilized, but was soon transferred to the NKVD troops. A few months later, this part of the NKVD was transferred back to the Red Army (for example, on the Leningrad Front in 1942, an entire division was immediately transferred from the NKVD to the Red Army - they simply changed their number). But Krivosheev takes this soldier into account in the initial transfer from the army to the NKVD, but does not notice the return transfer from the NKVD to the Red Army (since those re-conscripted from him are excluded from the list of those mobilized). Therefore, it turns out that the person is again "hidden" - in fact, he is in the army of the post-war period, but Krivosheev is not taken into account.

Another example. The man was mobilized, but in 1941 he went missing - he remained surrounded and "taken root" among the civilian population. In 1943, this territory was liberated, and the "Primak" was again drafted into the army. However, in 1944, his leg was torn off. As a result, disability and write-off "on the net." Krivosheev subtracts this person from 34,476,700 as many as three times - first as a missing person, then among 939,700 called up in the former occupied territory of the encirclement, and also as a disabled person. It turns out that "hides" two losses.

It would take a long time to list all the tricks used in the handbook to "improve" statistics. But it is much more productive to recalculate the figures that Krivosheev offers as base ones. But to recalculate in normal logic - without "patriotic" cunning. To do this, let us again turn to the statistics indicated by the general in the small-circulation collection of losses already mentioned above.

Then we will get:
4.826.900 - the number of the Red Army and the RKKF on June 22, 1941.
31.812.200 - The number of mobilized (together with the re-conscripted) for the entire war.
In total - 36.639.100 people.

After the end of hostilities in Europe (at the beginning of June 1945), there were 12,839,800 people in the Red Army and the Red Army (including the wounded in hospitals). From here you can find out the total losses: 36.639.100 - 12.839.800 = 23.799.300

Next, we count those who, for various reasons, left the Armed Forces of the USSR alive, but not at the front:
3.798.200 - commission for health reasons.
3.614.600 - transferred to the industry, MPVO and VOKhR.
1.174.600 - transferred to the NKVD.
250.400 - transferred to the Allied armies.
206.000 - expelled as unreliable.
436.600 - convicted and sent to places of detention.
212.400 - no deserters found.
Total - 9.692.800

Let us subtract these “living” from the total losses and thus find out how many people died at the front and in captivity, and were also released from captivity in the last weeks of the war.
23.799.300 – 9.692.800 = 14.106.500

To establish the final number of demographic losses that fell to the share of the Armed Forces, it is necessary to subtract from 14,106,500 those who returned from captivity, but did not enter the army again. Krivosheev with a similar purpose deducts 1,836,000 people registered by the repatriation authorities. This is another trick. In the collection "War and Society", prepared by Russian Academy Sciences and the Institute of Russian History published an article by Zemskov V.N. “Repatriation of Displaced Soviet Citizens”, which details all the components of the number of prisoners of war of interest to us.

It turns out that 286,299 prisoners were released on the territory of the USSR before the end of 1944. Of these, 228,068 people were re-mobilized into the army. And in 1944-1945 (during the period of hostilities outside the borders of the USSR), 659,190 people were released and mobilized into the army. In other words, they are also already counted among the re-conscripted.

That is, 887.258 (228.068 + 659.190) former prisoners at the beginning of June 1945 were among the 12.839.800 souls who served in the Red Army and the Red Army. Consequently, from 14.106.500 it is necessary to subtract not 1.8 million, but approximately 950.000 released from captivity, but not re-mobilized into the army during the war.

As a result, we get at least 13,150,000 servicemen of the Red Army and the Red Army Fleet who died at the front in 1941-1945, were captured and were among the "defectors". However, this is not all. Krivosheev also "hides" losses (killed, died in captivity and defectors) among those written off for health reasons. Here, "Secrecy removed" p. 136 (or "Russia in the wars ..." p. 243). In the figure of 3,798,158 commissioned invalids, he also takes into account those who were sent on leave for injury. In other words, people did not leave the army - in fact, they were in its ranks, and the reference book excludes them and thus “hides” at least several hundred thousand more dead.

That is, if we proceed from the figures that Krivosheev himself proposes as the initial basis for calculations, but handle them without general juggling, then we will get not 8.668.400 dead at the front, in captivity and "defectors", but about 13.500. 000.

Through the lens of party statistics

However, those data on the number of those mobilized in 1941-1945, which are declared by Krivosheev as "base" figures for calculating losses, also seem to be underestimated. A similar conclusion suggests itself if we check the reference book with the official statistics of the AUCP(b) and VLKSM. These calculations are much more accurate than army reports, since in the Red Army people often did not even have documents and even posthumous medallions (the Interpreter's blog partially touched on the related topic of tokens in the Red Army). And communists and Komsomol members were taken into account incomparably better. Each of them necessarily had a party card in his hands, regularly participated in party meetings, the protocols of which (indicating the nominal number of the “cell”) were sent to Moscow.

These data went separately from the army - along a parallel party line. And this figure in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev USSR was published much more willingly - censorship treated it more condescendingly - as indicators of ideological victories, where even losses were perceived as proof of the unity of society and the devotion of the people to the socialist system.

The essence of the calculation boils down to the fact that the losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in terms of Komsomol members and communists are known quite accurately. In total, by the beginning of the war in the USSR, there were a little less than 4,000,000 members of the CPSU (b). Of these, 563,000 were in the Armed Forces. During the war years, 5,319,297 people joined the party. And immediately after the end of hostilities, its ranks consisted of about 5,500,000 people. Of which 3.324.000 served in the Armed Forces.

That is, the total losses of members of the CPSU (b) amounted to more than 3,800,000 people. Of which about 3,000,000 died at the front in the ranks of the Armed Forces. In total, approximately 6,900,000 communists passed through the Armed Forces of the USSR in 1941-1945 (out of 9,300,000 in the party during the same period of time). This figure is made up of 3,000,000 dead at the front, 3,324,000 who were in the Armed Forces immediately after the end of hostilities in Europe, as well as about 600,000 invalids who were commissioned from the Armed Forces in 1941-1945.

Here it is very useful to pay attention to the ratio of killed and disabled 3,000,000 to 600,000 = 5:1. And Krivosheev has 8.668.400 to 3.798.000 = 2.3:1. This is a very telling fact. Let us repeat once again that Party members were counted incomparably more carefully than non-Party members. They were issued a party card without fail, in each unit (up to the company level) their own party cell was organized, which took into account each newly arrived party member. Therefore, party statistics were much more accurate than regular army statistics. And the difference in this very accuracy is clearly illustrated by the ratio between the dead and the disabled among non-party and communists in official Soviet figures and by Krivosheev.

Now let's move on to the Komsomol members. As of June 1941, there were 1,926,000 people in the Komsomol from the Red Army and the RKKF. Still, at least several tens of thousands of people were registered in the Komsomol organizations of the NKVD troops. Therefore, it can be assumed that by the beginning of the war there were about 2,000,000 members of the Komsomol in the Armed Forces of the USSR.

More than 3,500,000 members of the Komsomol were called up for Armed forces during the war years. In the Armed Forces themselves, over 5,000,000 people were accepted into the ranks of the Komsomol during the war years.

That is, in total, more than 10,500,000 people passed through the Komsomol in the Armed Forces in 1941-1945. Of these, 1,769,458 people joined the CPSU (b). Thus, it turns out that in total at least 15,600,000 communists and Komsomol members passed through the Armed Forces in 1941-1945 (about 6,900,000 communists + more than 10,500,000 Komsomol members - 1,769,458 Komsomol members who joined the CPSU (b).

This is approximately 43% of the 36,639,100 people who, according to Krivosheev, passed through the Armed Forces during the war years. However, the official Soviet statistics of the 1960s and 1980s do not confirm this ratio. It says that at the beginning of January 1942 there were 1,750,000 Komsomol members and 1,234,373 Communists in the Armed Forces. This is a little over 25% of the entire armed forces, numbering about 11.5 million people (together with the wounded who were being treated).

Even after twelve months, the proportion of communists and Komsomol members was no more than 33%. At the beginning of January 1943, there were 1,938,327 Communists and 2,200,200 Komsomol members in the Armed Forces. That is, 1.938.327 + 2.200.000 = 4.150.000 communists and Komsomol members from the Armed Forces, who had approximately 13.000.000 people.

13,000,000, since Krivosheev himself claims that since 1943 the USSR maintained an army of 11,500,000 people (plus about 1,500,000 in hospitals). In the middle of 1943, the proportion of communists and non-party people did not increase very noticeably, reaching only 36% in July. At the beginning of January 1944, there were 2,702,566 Communists and approximately 2,400,000 Komsomol members in the Armed Forces. I have not yet found a more accurate figure, but in December 1943 it was exactly 2,400,000 - the highest number in the entire war. That is, in January 1943 it could not be more. It turns out - 2.702.566 + 2.400.000 = approximately 5.100.000 communists and Komsomol members from the army of 13.000.000 people - about 40%.

At the beginning of January 1945, there were 3,030,758 Communists and 2,202,945 Komsomol members in the Armed Forces. That is, at the beginning of 1945, the share of communists and Komsomol members (3.030.758 + 2.202.945) from the army of about 13,000,000 people was again about 40%. Here it is also appropriate to recall that the bulk of the losses of the Red Army and the Red Army (respectively, the number of those mobilized to replace them) occurred in the first year and a half of the war, when the share of the CPSU (b) and the Komsomol was less than 33%. That is, it turns out that the average share of communists and Komsomol members in the Armed Forces during the war was no more than 35%. In other words, if we take as a basis the total number of communists and Komsomol members (15,600,000), then the number of people who passed through the Armed Forces of the USSR in 1941-1945 will be approximately 44,000,000. And not 36.639.100, as indicated by Krivosheev. Accordingly, the overall losses will also increase.

By the way, the total losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR for 1941-1945 can also be approximately calculated, if we start from the official Soviet data on losses among communists and Komsomol members, published in the 60-80s. They say that the army organizations of the CPSU (b) lost approximately 3,000,000 people. And the VLKSM organizations number about 4,000,000 people. In other words, 35% of the army lost 7,000,000. Consequently, all the Armed Forces lost about 19,000,000 - 20,000,000 souls (killed at the front, killed in captivity and became "defectors").

Losses in 1941

Analyzing the dynamics of the number of communists and Komsomol members in the Armed Forces, one can quite clearly calculate Soviet front-line losses over the years of the war. They are also at least twice (more often than twice) higher than the data published in the Krivosheev reference book.

For example, Krivosheev reports that in June-December 1941, the Red Army irretrievably lost (killed, missing, died from wounds and diseases) 3,137,673 people. This figure is easy to verify. The encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" reports that by June 1941 there were 563,000 communists in the army and navy. It is further indicated that over 500,000 members of the CPSU (b) died in the first six months of the war. And that on January 1, 1942, there were 1,234,373 party members in the army and navy.

How to find out what is the meaning of "above"? The twelfth volume of The History of the Second World War 1939-1945 states that during the first six months of the war, more than 1,100,000 communists joined army and navy organizations from civilians. It turns out: 563 (as of June 22) + "over" 1,100,000 (mobilized) = "over" 1,663,000 communists.
Further. In the sixth volume "History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945" from the plate "Numerical growth of the party" you can find out that the military party organizations accepted into their ranks in July-December 1941 145,870 people.

It turns out: “More than” 1.663.000 + 145.870 = “more than” 1.808.870 communists were involved in the Red Army in June-December 1941. Now from this amount we subtract the amount that was on January 1, 1942:
"Over" 1.808.870 - 1.234.373 = "Over" 574.497

It was we who received the irretrievable losses of the CPSU (b) - killed, captured, missing.

Now let's decide on the Komsomol members. From the "Soviet Military Encyclopedia" you can find out that by the beginning of the war there were 1,926,000 members of the Komsomol in the army and navy. The encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" reports that over 2,000,000 Komsomol members were drafted into the army and navy during the first six months of the war and indicates that in addition, 207,000 people were already accepted into the Komsomol in the ranks of the Red Army and the RKKF. We also see there that by the end of 1941, the Komsomol organizations in the Armed Forces numbered 1,750,000 people.

We calculate - 1.926.000 + "over" 2.000.000 + 207.000 = "over" 4.133.000. This is the total number of Komsomol members who passed through the Armed Forces in 1941. Now you can find out irretrievable losses. From the total, we subtract what was available on January 1, 1942: “Over” 4.133.000 - 1.750.000 = “over” 2.383.000.

It was we who got the dead, the missing, the prisoners.

However, here the figure should be slightly reduced - by the number of those who left the Komsomol by age. That is, about one tenth of those remaining in the ranks. It is also necessary to take away the Komsomol members who joined the CPSU (b) - approximately 70,000 people. Thus, according to a very conservative estimate, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army and the RKKF among the communists and Komsomol members amounted to at least 2,500,000 souls. And Krivosheev has the number 3.137.673 in this column. Of course, together with non-party people.

3.137.673 - 2.500.000 = 637.673 - this remains on the non-partisans.

How many non-party people were mobilized in 1941? Krivosheev writes that by the beginning of the war there were 4,826,907 souls in the Red Army and Navy. In addition, at the training camp in the ranks of the Red Army at that time there were another 805.264 people. It turns out - 4.826.907 + 805.264 = 5.632.171 people by June 22, 1941.

How many people were mobilized in June - December 1941? We find the answer in an article by General Gradoselsky, published in the Military Historical Journal. From the analysis of the figures given there, we can conclude that during the two mobilizations of 1941, more than 14,000,000 people came to the Red Army and the Red Army (excluding militias). And in total, 5.632.171 + more than 14.000.000 = approximately 20.000.000 people were involved in the army in 1941 in this way. This means that from 20,000,000 we subtract "more than" 1,808,870 Communists and about 4,000,000 Komsomol members. We get about 14,000,000 non-party people.

And, if you look at these figures through the statistics of the losses of the Krivosheev reference book, it turns out that 6,000,000 communists and Komsomol members irretrievably lost 2,500,000 people. And 14,000,000 non-party 637,673 people ...

Simply put, the losses of non-party people are underestimated at least six times. And the total irretrievable losses of the Soviet Armed Forces in 1941 should not be 3.137.673, but 6-7 million. This is at the bare minimum. Most likely more.

In this regard, it is useful to recall that the German Armed Forces in 1941 lost about 300,000 people killed and missing on the Eastern Front. That is, for each of their soldiers, the Germans took at least 20 souls from the Soviet side. Most likely, more - up to 25. This is approximately the same ratio with which European armies of the 19th and 20th centuries beat African savages in colonial wars.

The difference in the information that governments communicated to their peoples also looks about the same. Hitler in one of his last public speaking in March 1945 announced that Germany had lost 6,000,000 men in the war. Now historians believe that this did not differ much from reality, determining the final total of 6,500,000-7,000,000 dead at the front and in the rear. Stalin in 1946 said that Soviet losses were about 7,000,000 lives. Over the next half century, the figure of human losses in the USSR increased to 27,000,000. And there is a strong suspicion that this is not the limit.

At the same time, as the study of the balance of power on the world stage and the review of the role of all those who participated in the coalition against Hitler proceeds, the quite reasonable question more and more often arises: "How many people died in World War II?" Now all modern media and some historical documents continue to support the old ones, but at the same time create new myths around this topic.

One of the most hardened says that the Soviet Union won only thanks to colossal losses that exceeded the loss in enemy manpower. The latest, most modern myths that are being imposed on the whole world by the West include the opinion that without the help of the United States, victory would have been impossible, allegedly all this is only because of their skill in waging war. However, thanks to statistics, it is possible to conduct an analysis and still find out how many people died in World War II and who made the main contribution to the victory.

How many fought for the USSR?

Undoubtedly, he suffered huge losses, brave soldiers sometimes went to their deaths with understanding. Everyone knows this. In order to find out how many people died in World War II in the USSR, it is necessary to turn to dry statistical figures. According to the 1939 census, approximately 190 million people lived in the USSR. The annual increase was about 2%, which amounted to 3 million. So, it is easy to calculate that by 1941 the population was 196 million people.

We continue to argue and back up everything with facts and figures. So, any industrially developed country, even with full total mobilization, could not afford such a luxury as to call for more than 10% of the population to fight. Thus, the approximate number of Soviet troops should have been 19.5 million. Based on the fact that at first men born in the period from 1896 to 1923 and further to 1928 were called up, it is worth adding another one and a half million each year, from which it follows that the total number of all the military for the entire period of the war was 27 million people.

How many of them died?

In order to find out how many people died in World War II, it is necessary to subtract about 2 million from the total number of soldiers on the territory of the Soviet Union for the reason that they fought against the USSR (in the form of various groups, such as the OUN and the ROA).

25 million remain, of which 10 were still in service at the end of the war. Thus, approximately 15 million soldiers left the army, but it should be borne in mind that not all of them were dead. For example, about 2.5 million were released from captivity, and some more were simply commissioned due to injury. Thus, the official figures are constantly fluctuating, but it is still possible to derive an average value: 8 or 9 million people died, and these are precisely the military.

What really happened?

The problem is that not only the military were killed. Now consider the question of how many people died in World War II precisely among the civilian population. The fact is that official data indicate the following: out of 27 million people of total losses (offered to us by the official version), it is necessary to take away 9 million military men, whom we calculated earlier using simple arithmetic calculations. Thus, it turns out the figure of 18 million is the civilian population. Now let's look at it in more detail.

In order to calculate how many people died in World War II in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, it is necessary to turn again to dry, but irrefutable statistics, which indicate the following. The Germans occupied the territory of the USSR, in which, after the evacuation, about 65 million people lived, which was one third.

Poland lost about one-fifth of the population in this war, despite the fact that the front line passed through its territory many times, etc. During the war, Warsaw was practically destroyed to the ground, which makes up about 20% of the dead population.

Belarus has lost about a quarter of the population, and this despite the fact that fierce battles and partisan activities took place on the territory of the republic.

On the territory of Ukraine, the losses amounted to approximately one-sixth of the entire population, and this despite the fact that a huge number of punishers, partisans, resistance units and various fascist "rabble" roaming the forests acted.

Losses among the population in the occupied territory

What percentage of casualties among the civilian population should be characteristic of the entire occupied part of the territory of the USSR? Most likely, no higher than about two-thirds of the total population of the occupied part of the Soviet Union).

Then you can take the number 11 as a basis, which turned out when two-thirds were taken away from the total 65 million. Thus, we get the classic 20 million total losses. But even this figure is gross and inaccurate to the maximum. Therefore, it is clear that in the official report on how many people died in World War II among the military and civilians, the figures are exaggerated.

How many people died in World War II in the USA

The United States of America also suffered losses in both equipment and manpower. Of course, they were insignificant compared to the USSR, so after the end of the war they could be calculated quite accurately. Thus, the figure turned out to be 407.3 thousand dead. As for the civilian population, there were almost none among the dead citizens of America, since no hostilities were conducted on the territory of this country. Losses total 5 thousand people, mostly passengers of passing ships and sailors of the merchant fleet, who were hit by German submarines.

How many people died in World War II in Germany

As for the official figures regarding German losses, they look at least strange, since the number of missing people is almost the same as the dead, but in fact everyone understands that they are unlikely to be found and return home. If we add together all the missing and killed, we get 4.5 million. Among civilians - 2.5 million. Isn't it strange? After all, then the number of losses of the USSR turns out to be doubled. Against this background, there are some myths, conjectures and misconceptions about how many people died in World War II in Russia.

Myths about German losses

The most important myth that stubbornly spread throughout the Soviet Union after the end of the war is the comparison of German and Soviet losses. Thus, the figure of German losses was also taken into circulation, which remained at the level of 13.5 million.

In fact, the German historian general Bupkhart Müller-Hillebrand voiced the following figures, which were based on a centralized account of German losses. During the war years, they amounted to 3.2 million people, 0.8 million died in captivity. In the East, about 0.5 million did not survive captivity, and another 3 died in battle, in the West - 300 thousand.

Of course, Germany, together with the USSR, waged the most cruel war of all times and peoples, which did not mean a drop of pity and compassion. Most of the civilians and prisoners on both sides were dying of starvation. This was due to the fact that neither the Germans nor the Russians could provide food for their prisoners, as the famine would then starve their own peoples even more.

Outcome of the war

Historians still cannot calculate exactly how many people died in World War II. In the world, different figures are being voiced every now and then: it all started with 50 million people, then 70, and now even more. But the same losses that, for example, Asia suffered from the consequences of the war and outbreaks of epidemics against this background, which claimed a huge number of lives, will probably never be possible to calculate. Therefore, even the above data, which were collected from various authoritative sources, is far from conclusive. And it will most likely never be possible to get an exact answer to this question.

Before jumping into explanations, statistics, and so on, let's first clarify what we mean. This article discusses the losses suffered by the Red Army, the Wehrmacht and the troops of the satellite countries of the Third Reich, as well as the civilian population of the USSR and Germany, only in the period from 06/22/1941 until the end of hostilities in Europe (unfortunately, in the case of Germany, this is practically impracticable). The Soviet-Finnish war and the "liberation" campaign of the Red Army were deliberately excluded. The issue of the losses of the USSR and Germany has been repeatedly raised in the press, there are endless disputes on the Internet and on television, but the researchers of this issue cannot come to a common denominator, because, as a rule, all arguments come down to emotional and politicized statements. This once again proves how painful this issue is in the domestic. The purpose of the article is not to "clarify" the final truth in this matter, but an attempt to summarize the various data contained in disparate sources. We leave the right to draw a conclusion to the reader.

With all the variety of literature and online resources about the Great Patriotic War, ideas about it in many respects suffer from a certain superficiality. The main reason for this is the ideologization of this or that research or work, and it does not matter what kind of ideology it is - communist or anti-communist. The interpretation of such a grandiose event in the light of any ideology is obviously false.

It is especially bitter to read lately that the war of 1941-45. was just a clash of two totalitarian regimes, where one, they say, fully corresponded to the other. We will try to look at this war from the point of view of the most justified - geopolitical.

Germany of the 1930s, with all its Nazi "peculiarities", directly and steadily continued that powerful desire for primacy in Europe, which for centuries determined the path of the German nation. Even the purely liberal German sociologist Max Weber wrote during the 1st World War: “... we, 70 million Germans ... are obliged to be an empire. We have to do it even if we are afraid to fail.” The roots of this aspiration of the Germans go back centuries, as a rule, the Nazi appeal to medieval and even pagan Germany is interpreted as a purely ideological event, as the construction of a myth mobilizing the nation.

From my point of view, everything is more complicated: it was the Germanic tribes that created the empire of Charlemagne, and later the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation was formed on its foundation. And it was the “empire of the German nation” that created what is called “European civilization” and began the aggressive policy of Europeans from the sacramental “Drang nach osten” - “onslaught to the east”, because half of the “originally” German lands, up to the 8th-10th centuries, belonged to Slavic tribes. Therefore, the assignment of the name "Plan Barbarossa" to the plan of war against the "barbarian" USSR is not a coincidence. This ideology of "primacy" of Germany as the fundamental force of "European" civilization was the original cause of two world wars. Moreover, at the beginning of World War II, Germany was able to really (albeit briefly) fulfill its aspirations.

Invading the borders of one or another European country, the German troops met amazing resistance in their weakness and indecision. Short-term clashes between the armies of European countries with the German troops invading their borders, with the exception of Poland, were rather the observance of a certain “custom” of war than actual resistance.

Much has been written about the exaggerated European "resistance movement" that allegedly inflicted enormous damage on Germany and testified that Europe categorically rejected its unification under German leadership. But, with the exception of Yugoslavia, Albania, Poland and Greece, the extent of the Resistance is the same ideological myth. Undoubtedly, the regime established by Germany in the occupied countries did not suit the general population. In Germany itself, there was also resistance to the regime, but in neither case was this the resistance of the country and the nation as a whole. For example, in the resistance movement in France, 20 thousand people died in 5 years; over the same 5 years, about 50 thousand Frenchmen who fought on the side of the Germans died, that is, 2.5 times more!

AT Soviet time the exaggeration of the Resistance was introduced into the minds as a useful ideological myth, they say, our fight against Germany was supported by all of Europe. In reality, as already mentioned, only 4 countries offered serious resistance to the invaders, which is explained by their “patriarchy”: they were alien not so much to the “German” orders implanted by the Reich as to the pan-European ones, because these countries, in their way of life and consciousness, are largely not belonged to European civilization (although geographically included in Europe).

Thus, by 1941, almost all of continental Europe, one way or another, but without much upheaval, became part of the new empire with Germany at the head. Of the two dozen European countries that existed, almost half - Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia - joined the war against the USSR together with Germany, sending their armed forces to the Eastern Front (Denmark and Spain without a formal announcement wars). The rest of the European countries did not take part in the hostilities against the USSR, but somehow "worked" for Germany, or rather, for the newly formed European Empire. A misconception about the events in Europe made us completely forget about many real events of that time. So, for example, the Anglo-American troops under the command of Eisenhower in November 1942 in North Africa fought at first not with the Germans, but with a 200,000-strong French army, despite a quick “victory” (Jean Darlan, due to the clear superiority of the Allied forces, ordered the French troops to surrender), 584 Americans, 597 British and 1,600 French were killed in the fighting. Of course, these are meager losses on the scale of the entire Second World War, but they show that the situation was somewhat more complicated than is usually thought.

The Red Army in the battles on the Eastern Front captured half a million prisoners who are citizens of countries that did not seem to be at war with the USSR! It can be objected that these are the "victims" of German violence, which drove them into the Russian expanses. But the Germans were no more stupid than you and me and would hardly have allowed a completely unreliable contingent to the front. And while another great and multinational army won victories in Russia, Europe was, by and large, on its side. Franz Halder in his diary on June 30, 1941 recorded Hitler's words: "European unity as a result of a common war against Russia." And Hitler quite correctly assessed the situation. In fact, the geopolitical goals of the war against the USSR were carried out not only by the Germans, but by 300 million Europeans, united on various grounds - from forced submission to desired cooperation - but, one way or another, acting together. Only thanks to the reliance on continental Europe, the Germans were able to mobilize 25% of the entire population into the army (for reference: the USSR mobilized 17% of its citizens). In a word, the strength and technical equipment of the army that invaded the USSR was provided by tens of millions of skilled workers throughout Europe.

Why did I need such a long introduction? The answer is simple. Finally, we must realize that the USSR fought not only with the German Third Reich, but with almost all of Europe. Unfortunately, the eternal "Russophobia" of Europe was superimposed by the fear of the "terrible beast" - Bolshevism. Many volunteers from European countries who fought in Russia fought precisely against the communist ideology alien to them. No fewer of them were conscious haters of the "inferior" Slavs, infected with the plague of racial superiority. The modern German historian R. Ruhrup writes:

"Many documents of the Third Reich imprinted the image of the enemy - Russian, deeply rooted in German history and society. Such views were characteristic even of those officers and soldiers who were not convinced or enthusiastic Nazis. They (these soldiers and officers) also shared ideas about" eternal struggle" of the Germans ... about the protection of European culture from the "Asian hordes", about the cultural vocation and the right to rule the Germans in the East. The image of an enemy of this type was widespread in Germany, he belonged to the "spiritual values".

And this geopolitical consciousness was characteristic not only of the Germans, as such. After June 22, 1941, volunteer legions appeared by leaps and bounds, later turning into the SS divisions "Nordland" (Scandinavian), "Langemark" (Belgian-Flemish), "Charlemagne" (French). Guess where they defended "European civilization"? That's right, quite far from Western Europe, in Belarus, in Ukraine, in Russia. The German professor K. Pfeffer wrote in 1953: “Most of the volunteers from Western European countries went to the Eastern Front because they saw this as a GENERAL task for the entire West ...” It was with the forces of almost all of Europe that the USSR was destined to face, and not only with Germany, and this clash was not “two totalitarianisms”, but “civilized and progressive” Europe with the “barbarian state of subhumans”, which for so long frightened Europeans from the east.

1. Losses of the USSR

According to the official data of the 1939 census, 170 million people lived in the USSR - significantly more than in any other single country in Europe. The entire population of Europe (excluding the USSR) was 400 million people. By the beginning of World War II, the population of the Soviet Union differed from the population of future enemies and allies by a high mortality rate and low life expectancy. Nevertheless, the high birth rate ensured a significant increase in the population (2% in 1938–39). Also, the difference from Europe was in the youth of the population of the USSR: the proportion of children under 15 years old was 35%. It was this feature that made it possible relatively quickly (within 10 years) to restore the pre-war population. The share of the urban population was only 32% (for comparison: in the UK - more than 80%, in France - 50%, in Germany - 70%, in the USA - 60%, and only in Japan did it have the same value as in USSR).

In 1939, the population of the USSR increased markedly after the entry into the country of new regions (Western Ukraine and Belarus, the Baltic states, Bukovina and Bessarabia), whose population ranged from 20 to 22.5 million people. The total population of the USSR, according to the certificate of the CSB on January 1, 1941, was determined at 198,588 thousand people (including the RSFSR - 111,745 thousand people). According to modern estimates, it was still less, and on June 1, 41 it was 196.7 million people.

Population of some countries for 1938–40

USSR - 170.6 (196.7) million people;
Germany - 77.4 million people;
France - 40.1 million people;
Great Britain - 51.1 million people;
Italy - 42.4 million people;
Finland - 3.8 million people;
USA - 132.1 million people;
Japan - 71.9 million people.

By 1940, the population of the Reich had increased to 90 million people, and taking into account satellites and conquered countries - 297 million people. By December 1941, the USSR had lost 7% of the country's territory, on which 74.5 million people lived before the start of the Second World War. This once again emphasizes that despite Hitler's assurances, the USSR had no advantages in human resources over the Third Reich.

During the entire period of the Great Patriotic War in our country, 34.5 million people put on military uniforms. This amounted to about 70% of the total number of men aged 15–49 in 1941. The number of women in the Red Army was approximately 500,000. Only Germany had a higher percentage of those called up, but as we said earlier, the shortage work force the Germans covered at the expense of the workers of Europe and prisoners of war. In the USSR, such a deficit was covered by the increased length of the working day and the widespread use of the labor of women, children and the elderly.

On the direct irretrievable losses of the Red Army for a long time did not speak in the USSR. In a private conversation, Marshal Konev in 1962 called the figure 10 million people, the well-known defector - Colonel Kalinov, who fled to the West in 1949 - 13.6 million people. The figure of 10 million people was published in the French version of the book "Wars and Population" by B. Ts. Urlanis, a well-known Soviet demographer. In 1993 and 2001, the authors of the well-known monograph “Secrecy Removed” (edited by G. Krivosheev) published the figure of 8.7 million people; at the moment, it is indicated in most reference literature. But the authors themselves state that it does not include: 500,000 conscripts called up for mobilization and captured by the enemy, but not included in the lists of units and formations. The almost completely dead militiamen of Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and other large cities are also not taken into account. Currently the most complete lists irretrievable losses of Soviet soldiers amount to 13.7 million people, but approximately 12-15% of the records are repeated. According to the article “Dead Souls of the Great Patriotic War” (“NG”, 22.06.99), the historical and archival search center “Destiny” of the “War Memorials” association found that due to double and even triple counting, the number of dead soldiers was 43 and 2 th Shock armies in the battles studied by the center were overestimated by 10-12%. Since these figures refer to the period when accounting for losses in the Red Army was not accurate enough, it can be assumed that in the whole war, due to double counting, the number of dead Red Army soldiers is overestimated by about 5–7%, i.e., by 0.2– 0.4 million people

On the issue of prisoners. The American researcher A. Dallin, according to archival German data, estimates their number at 5.7 million people. Of these, 3.8 million died in captivity, that is, 63%. Domestic historians estimate the number of captured Red Army soldiers at 4.6 million people, of which 2.9 million died. Unlike German sources, this does not include civilians (for example, railway workers), as well as seriously wounded who remained on the battlefield occupied by the enemy, and subsequently died from wounds or shot (about 470-500 thousand). The situation of prisoners of war was especially desperate in the first year of the war, when more than half of their total number (2.8 million people) was captured, and their labor had not yet been used in interests of the Reich. Open-air camps, hunger and cold, illness and lack of medicines, cruel treatment, mass executions of the sick and incapable of work, and simply of all those who are objectionable, primarily commissars and Jews. Unable to cope with the flow of prisoners and guided by political and propaganda motives, the occupiers in 1941 sent home over 300 thousand prisoners of war, mainly natives of western Ukraine and Belarus. Subsequently, this practice was discontinued.

Also, do not forget that approximately 1 million prisoners of war were transferred from captivity to the auxiliary units of the Wehrmacht. In many cases, this was the only chance for prisoners to survive. Again, most of these people, according to German data, at the first opportunity tried to desert from units and formations of the Wehrmacht. In the local auxiliary forces of the German army stood out:

1) voluntary helpers (hiwi)
2) order service (one)
3) front-line auxiliary parts (noise)
4) police and defense teams (gema).

At the beginning of 1943, the Wehrmacht operated: up to 400 thousand Khivs, from 60 to 70 thousand Odies, and 80 thousand in the eastern battalions.

Some of the prisoners of war and the population of the occupied territories made a conscious choice in favor of cooperation with the Germans. So, in the SS division "Galicia" for 13,000 "places" there were 82,000 volunteers. More than 100 thousand Latvians, 36 thousand Lithuanians and 10 thousand Estonians served in the German army, mainly in the SS troops.

In addition, several million people from the occupied territories were deported to forced labor in the Reich. The ChGK (Extraordinary State Commission) immediately after the war estimated their number at 4.259 million people. More recent studies give a figure of 5.45 million people, of which 850-1000 thousand died.

Estimates of the direct physical extermination of the civilian population, according to the ChGK of 1946.

RSFSR - 706 thousand people.
Ukrainian SSR - 3256.2 thousand people.
BSSR - 1547 thousand people
Lit. SSR - 437.5 thousand people.
Lat. SSR - 313.8 thousand people.
Est. SSR - 61.3 thousand people.
Mold. SSR - 61 thousand people.
Karelo-Fin. SSR - 8 thousand people. (ten)

Such high figures for Lithuania and Latvia are explained by the fact that there were death camps and concentration camps for prisoners of war. The losses of the population in the front line during the hostilities were also huge. However, it is virtually impossible to determine them. The minimum allowable value is the number of deaths in besieged Leningrad, that is, 800 thousand people. In 1942, the infant mortality rate in Leningrad reached 74.8%, that is, out of 100 newborns, about 75 babies died!

Another important question. How many former Soviet citizens chose not to return to the USSR after the end of the Great Patriotic War? According to Soviet archival data, the number of "second emigration" was 620 thousand people. 170,000 Germans, Bessarabians and Bukovinians, 150,000 Ukrainians, 109,000 Latvians, 230,000 Estonians and Lithuanians, and only 32,000 Russians. Today, this estimate seems to be clearly underestimated. According to modern data, emigration from the USSR amounted to 1.3 million people. Which gives us a difference of almost 700 thousand, previously attributed to irretrievable losses of the population.

So, what are the losses of the Red Army, the civilian population of the USSR and the general demographic losses in the Great Patriotic War. For twenty years, the main estimate was the figure of 20 million people, "far-fetched" by N. Khrushchev. In 1990, as a result of the work of a special commission of the General Staff and the USSR State Statistics Committee, a more reasonable estimate of 26.6 million people appeared. At the moment it is official. Attention is drawn to the fact that back in 1948, the American sociologist Timashev gave an assessment of the losses of the USSR in the war, which practically coincided with the assessment of the General Staff Commission. Maksudov's assessment made in 1977 also coincides with the data of the Krivosheev Commission. According to the commission of G. F. Krivosheev.

So let's summarize:

Post-war estimate of the losses of the Red Army: 7 million people.
Timashev: Red Army - 12.2 million people, civilian population 14.2 million people, direct casualties 26.4 million people, total demographic 37.3 million.
Arntts and Khrushchev: direct human: 20 million people.
Biraben and Solzhenitsyn: Red Army 20 million people, civilian population 22.6 million people, direct human resources 42.6 million, total demographic 62.9 million people.
Maksudov: Red Army - 11.8 million people, civilian population 12.7 million people, direct casualties 24.5 million people. It is impossible not to make a reservation that S. Maksudov (A.P. Babenyshev, Harvard University, USA) determined the purely combat losses of the spacecraft at 8.8 million people
Rybakovsky: direct human 30 million people.
Andreev, Darsky, Kharkov (General Staff, Krivosheev Commission): direct combat losses of the Red Army 8.7 million (11,994 including prisoners of war) people. Civilian population (including prisoners of war) 17.9 million people. Direct human losses 26.6 million people.
B. Sokolov: the loss of the Red Army - 26 million people
M. Harrison: total losses of the USSR - 23.9 - 25.8 million people.

What do we have in the "dry" residue? We will be guided by simple logic.

The estimate of the losses of the Red Army, given in 1947 (7 million) is not credible, because not all calculations, even with the imperfection of the Soviet system, were completed.

Khrushchev's assessment is also not confirmed. On the other hand, the “Solzhenitsyn” 20 million people lost only to the army or even 44 million are just as unfounded (without denying some talent of A. Solzhenitsyn as a writer, all the facts and figures in his writings are not confirmed by a single document and understand where he came from that took - impossible).

Boris Sokolov is trying to explain to us that the losses of the armed forces of the USSR alone amounted to 26 million people. He is guided by the indirect method of calculations. The losses of the officers of the Red Army are quite accurately known, according to Sokolov, this is 784 thousand people (1941–44). , displays the ratio of the losses of the officer corps to the rank and file of the Wehrmacht, as 1:25, that is, 4%. And, without hesitation, he extrapolates this technique to the Red Army, receiving his own 26 million irretrievable losses. However, this approach, on closer examination, turns out to be inherently false. Firstly, 4% of officer losses is not an upper limit, for example, in the Polish campaign, the Wehrmacht lost 12% of officers to the total losses of the Armed Forces. Secondly, it would be useful for Mr. Sokolov to know that with the regular strength of the German infantry regiment of 3049 officers, there were 75 people in it, that is, 2.5%. And in the Soviet infantry regiment, with a strength of 1582 people, there are 159 officers, i.e. 10%. Thirdly, appealing to the Wehrmacht, Sokolov forgets that the more combat experience in the troops, the lower the losses among officers. In the Polish campaign, the loss of German officers is -12%, in the French - 7%, and on the Eastern Front - already 4%.

The same can be applied to the Red Army: if at the end of the war the loss of officers (not according to Sokolov, but according to statistics) was 8-9%, then at the beginning of the Second World War it could have been 24%. It turns out, like a schizophrenic, everything is logical and correct, only the initial premise is incorrect. Why did we dwell on Sokolov's theory in such detail? Yes, because Mr. Sokolov very often sets out his figures in the media.

In view of the foregoing, discarding the obviously underestimated and overestimated estimates of losses, we get: the Krivosheev Commission - 8.7 million people (with prisoners of war 11.994 million data for 2001), Maksudov - the losses are even slightly lower than the official ones - 11.8 million people. (1977 −93), Timashev - 12.2 million people. (1948). The opinion of M. Harrison can also be included here, with the level of total losses indicated by him, the losses of the army should fit into this interval. These data were obtained by various calculation methods, since both Timashev and Maksudov, respectively, did not have access to the archives of the USSR and Russian Defense Ministry. It seems that the losses of the USSR Armed Forces in the Second World War lie very close to such a "heap" group of results. Let's not forget that these figures include 2.6-3.2 million destroyed Soviet prisoners of war.

In conclusion, one should probably agree with Maksudov's opinion that the emigration outflow, which amounted to 1.3 million people, should be excluded from the number of losses, which was not taken into account in the study of the General Staff. By this value, the value of the losses of the USSR in the Second World War should be reduced. In percentage terms, the structure of losses of the USSR looks like this:

41% - aircraft losses (including prisoners of war)
35% - aircraft losses (without prisoners of war, i.e. direct combat)
39% - loss of the population of the occupied territories and the front line (45% with prisoners of war)
8% - home front population
6% - GULAG
6% - emigration outflow.

2. Losses of the Wehrmacht and SS troops

To date, there are no sufficiently reliable figures for the losses of the German army, obtained by direct statistical calculation. This is explained by the absence, for various reasons, of reliable source statistics on German losses.

The picture is more or less clear regarding the number of Wehrmacht prisoners of war on the Soviet-German front. According to Russian sources, Soviet troops 3,172,300 Wehrmacht soldiers were captured, of which 2,388,443 were Germans in the NKVD camps. According to estimates by German historians, there were only about 3.1 million German servicemen in Soviet prisoner of war camps. The discrepancy, as you can see, is about 0.7 million people. This discrepancy is explained by differences in the estimate of the number of Germans who died in captivity: according to Russian archival documents, 356,700 Germans died in Soviet captivity, and according to German researchers, approximately 1.1 million people. It seems that the Russian figure of the Germans who died in captivity is more reliable, and the missing 0.7 million Germans who went missing and did not return from captivity actually died not in captivity, but on the battlefield.

The vast majority of publications devoted to the calculations of the combat demographic losses of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS troops are based on data from the central bureau (department) for accounting for the losses of personnel of the armed forces, which is part of the German General Staff of the Supreme High Command. Moreover, while denying the reliability of Soviet statistics, the German data are regarded as absolutely reliable. But upon closer examination, it turned out that the opinion about the high reliability of the information of this department was greatly exaggerated. Thus, the German historian R. Overmans in the article “The human casualties of the Second World War in Germany” came to the conclusion that “... the channels of information in the Wehrmacht do not reveal the degree of reliability that some authors attribute to them.” As an example, he reports that “... the official report of the loss department at the headquarters of the Wehrmacht, relating to 1944, documented that the losses that were incurred during the Polish, French and Norwegian campaigns and the identification of which did not present any technical difficulties were almost twice as high as originally reported." According to Muller-Gillebrand, which many researchers believe, the demographic losses of the Wehrmacht amounted to 3.2 million people. Another 0.8 million died in captivity. However, according to a certificate from the organizational department of the OKH dated May 1, 1945, only the ground forces, including the SS troops (without the Air Force and Navy), for the period from September 1, 1939 to May 1, 1945, lost 4 million 617.0 thousand people. people This is the most recent report on the losses of the German Armed Forces. In addition, from mid-April 1945, there was no centralized accounting of losses. And since the beginning of 1945, the data is incomplete. It remains a fact that in one of the last radio broadcasts with his participation, Hitler announced the figure of 12.5 million total losses of the German Armed Forces, of which 6.7 million are irretrievable, which exceeds the Müller-Hillebrand data by about two times. This was in March 1945. I do not think that in two months the soldiers of the Red Army did not kill a single German.

In general, the data of the Wehrmacht loss department cannot serve as the initial data for calculating the losses of the German Armed Forces in the Great Patriotic War.

There is another statistics of losses - the statistics of burials of Wehrmacht soldiers. According to the appendix to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany "On the preservation of burial places", the total number of German soldiers who are in recorded burials in the territory of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries is 3 million 226 thousand people. (on the territory of the USSR alone - 2,330,000 burials). This figure can be taken as the starting point for calculating the demographic losses of the Wehrmacht, but it also needs to be adjusted.

Firstly, this figure takes into account only the burial places of the Germans, and a large number of soldiers of other nationalities fought in the Wehrmacht: Austrians (of which 270 thousand people died), Sudeten Germans and Alsatians (230 thousand people died) and representatives of other nationalities and states (357 thousand people died). Of the total number of dead Wehrmacht soldiers of non-German nationality, the Soviet-German front accounts for 75-80%, i.e. 0.6-0.7 million people.

Secondly, this figure refers to the beginning of the 90s of the last century. Since then, the search for German graves in Russia, the CIS countries and Eastern Europe has continued. And the messages that appeared on this topic were not informative enough. For example, the Russian Association of War Memorials, established in 1992, reported that over the 10 years of its existence, it had transferred information about the burial places of 400,000 Wehrmacht soldiers to the German Union for the Care of War Graves. However, whether these were newly discovered burials or whether they have already been taken into account in the figure of 3 million 226 thousand is unclear. Unfortunately, no generalized statistics of the newly discovered graves of Wehrmacht soldiers could be found. Tentatively, it can be assumed that the number of newly discovered graves of Wehrmacht soldiers over the past 10 years is in the range of 0.2–0.4 million people.

Thirdly, many burial places of the dead soldiers of the Wehrmacht on Soviet soil disappeared or were deliberately destroyed. Approximately 0.4–0.6 million Wehrmacht soldiers could be buried in such disappeared and nameless graves.

Fourthly, these data do not include burials of German soldiers killed in battles with Soviet troops in Germany and Western European countries. According to R. Overmans, only in the last three spring months of the war, about 1 million people died. (minimum estimate 700 thousand) In general, on German soil and in Western European countries, approximately 1.2–1.5 million Wehrmacht soldiers died in battles with the Red Army.

Finally, fifthly, the Wehrmacht soldiers who died of “natural” death (0.1–0.2 million people) were also among the buried.

Major General V. Gurkin's articles are devoted to assessing the losses of the Wehrmacht using the balance of the German armed forces during the war years. Its calculated figures are given in the second column of Table. 4. Here, attention is drawn to two figures characterizing the number of Wehrmacht soldiers mobilized during the war, and the number of prisoners of war of Wehrmacht soldiers. The number of those mobilized during the war years (17.9 million people) is taken from the book by B. Müller-Hillebrand “The German Land Army 1933-1945”, vol.Z. At the same time, V.P. Bokhar believes that more were drafted into the Wehrmacht - 19 million people.

The number of prisoners of war of the Wehrmacht was determined by V. Gurkin by summing up the prisoners of war taken by the Red Army (3.178 million people) and the allied forces (4.209 million people) until May 9, 1945. In my opinion, this number is too high: it also included prisoners of war who were not soldiers of the Wehrmacht. The book by Paul Karel and Ponter Beddeker “German Prisoners of War of the Second World War” states: “... In June 1945, the Allied Joint Command became aware that there were 7,614,794 prisoners of war and unarmed military personnel in the “camps, of which 4,209,000 by the time capitulations were already in captivity." Among the indicated 4.2 million German prisoners of war, in addition to Wehrmacht soldiers, there were many other persons. For example, in the French camp of Vitrilet-Francois, among the prisoners, "the youngest was 15 years old, the oldest - almost 70." The authors write about the captive Volksturm, about the organization by the Americans of special "children's" camps, where captured twelve-thirteen-year-old boys from the "Hitler Youth" and "Werwolf" were gathered. Mention is made of the placement of even disabled people in the camps. In the article "My way to Ryazan captivity" (" Map" No. 1, 1992) Heinrich Shippmann noted:

“It should be taken into account that at first they were taken prisoner, although predominantly, but not exclusively, not only Wehrmacht soldiers or SS troops, but also Air Force service personnel, members of the Volkssturm or paramilitary unions (organization “Todt”, “Service labor of the Reich", etc.) Among them were not only men, but also women - and not only Germans, but also the so-called "Volksdeutsche" and "aliens" - Croats, Serbs, Cossacks, North and West Europeans, who in any way fought on the side of the German Wehrmacht or were ranked among it.In addition, during the occupation of Germany in 1945, anyone who wore a uniform was arrested, even if it was the head of the railway station.

In general, among the 4.2 million prisoners of war taken by the Allies before May 9, 1945, approximately 20–25% were not Wehrmacht soldiers. This means that the Allies had 3.1–3.3 million Wehrmacht soldiers in captivity.

The total number of Wehrmacht soldiers who were captured before the surrender was 6.3-6.5 million people.

In general, the demographic combat losses of the Wehrmacht and SS troops on the Soviet-German front are 5.2–6.3 million people, of which 0.36 million died in captivity, and irretrievable losses (including prisoners) 8.2 -9.1 million people It should also be noted that domestic historiography before recent years did not mention some data on the number of Wehrmacht prisoners of war at the end of hostilities in Europe, apparently for ideological reasons, because it is much more pleasant to assume that Europe "fought" against fascism than to realize that a certain and very large number of Europeans deliberately fought in the Wehrmacht. So, according to a note by General Antonov, on May 25, 1945. The Red Army captured 5 million 20 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers alone, of which 600 thousand people (Austrians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Poles, etc.) were released before August after filtration measures, and these prisoners of war were sent to camps The NKVD did not send. Thus, the irretrievable losses of the Wehrmacht in battles with the Red Army can be even higher (about 0.6 - 0.8 million people).

There is another way to "calculate" the losses of Germany and the Third Reich in the war against the USSR. Quite correct, by the way. Let's try to "substitute" the figures relating to Germany into the methodology for calculating the total demographic losses of the USSR. And we will use ONLY the official data of the German side. Thus, the population of Germany in 1939, according to Müller-Hillebrandt (p. 700 of his work, so beloved by supporters of the theory of "clouding with corpses"), was 80.6 million people. At the same time, you and I, the reader, must take into account that this includes 6.76 million Austrians, and the population of the Sudetenland - another 3.64 million people. That is, the population of Germany proper within the borders of 1933 in 1939 was (80.6 - 6.76 - 3.64) 70.2 million people. We figured out these simple mathematical operations. Further: natural mortality in the USSR was 1.5% per year, but in the countries of Western Europe the mortality rate was much lower and amounted to 0.6 - 0.8% per year, Germany was no exception. However, the birth rate in the USSR exceeded the European one in approximately the same proportion, due to which the USSR had a consistently high population growth throughout the pre-war years, starting from 1934.

We know about the results of the post-war population census in the USSR, but few people know that a similar population census was conducted by the Allied occupation authorities on October 29, 1946 in Germany. The census gave the following results:

Soviet zone of occupation (without East Berlin): men - 7.419 million, women - 9.914 million, total: 17.333 million people.

All western zones of occupation, (without western Berlin): men - 20.614 million, women - 24.804 million, total: 45.418 million people.

Berlin (all sectors of occupation), men - 1.29 million, women - 1.89 million, total: 3.18 million people.

The total population of Germany is 65?931?000 people. A purely arithmetic operation of 70.2 million - 66 million, it seems, gives a decrease of only 4.2 million. However, everything is not so simple.

At the time of the census in the USSR, the number of children born since the beginning of 1941 was about 11 million, the birth rate in the USSR during the war years fell sharply and amounted to only 1.37% per year of the pre-war population. Birth rate in Germany and Peaceful time did not exceed 2% per year of the population. Suppose it fell only 2 times, and not 3, as in the USSR. That is, the natural increase in the population during the years of the war and the first post-war year was about 5% of the pre-war population, and in numbers amounted to 3.5-3.8 million children. This figure must be added to the final figure of the decline in the population of Germany. Now the arithmetic is different: the total population loss is 4.2 million + 3.5 million = 7.7 million people. But this is not the final figure either; for completeness of calculations, we need to subtract from the figure of population loss the figure of natural mortality for the years of the war and 1946, which is 2.8 million people (let's take the figure of 0.8% to be "higher"). Now the total decline in the population of Germany, caused by the war, is 4.9 million people. Which, in general, is very “similar” to the number of irretrievable losses ground forces Reich given by Müller-Gillebrandt. So what did the USSR, which lost 26.6 million of its citizens in the war, really “fill up with corpses” of its enemy? Patience, dear reader, let's still bring our calculations to their logical conclusion.

The fact is that the population of Germany proper in 1946 grew by at least another 6.5 million people, and presumably even by 8 million! By the time of the 1946 census (according to German, by the way, data published back in 1996 by the "Union of Exiles", and in total about 15 million Germans were "forcibly displaced") only from the Sudetenland, Poznan and Upper Silesia were evicted to Germany 6.5 million Germans. About 1 - 1.5 million Germans fled from Alsace and Lorraine (unfortunately, there are no more accurate data). That is, these 6.5 - 8 million must be added to the losses of Germany proper. And these are “slightly” different figures: 4.9 million + 7.25 million (arithmetic average of the number of Germans “expelled” to their homeland) = 12.15 million. Actually, this is 17.3% (!) of the German population in 1939. Well, that's not all!

I emphasize once again: the Third Reich is not even ONLY Germany at all! By the time of the attack on the USSR, the Third Reich “officially” included: Germany (70.2 million people), Austria (6.76 million people), Sudetenland (3.64 million people), captured from Poland "Baltic corridor", Poznan and Upper Silesia (9.36 million people), Luxembourg, Lorraine and Alsace (2.2 million people), and even Upper Corinthia cut off from Yugoslavia, a total of 92.16 million people.

These are all territories that were officially included in the Reich, and whose inhabitants were subject to conscription into the Wehrmacht. We will not take into account the “Imperial Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” and the “Governorship of Poland” (although ethnic Germans were drafted into the Wehrmacht from these territories). And ALL of these territories until the beginning of 1945 remained under the control of the Nazis. Now we get the “final calculation” if we take into account that the losses of Austria are known to us and amount to 300,000 people, that is, 4.43% of the country's population (which, of course, is much less in % than Germany). It will not be a big "stretch" to assume that the population of the remaining areas of the Reich suffered the same percentage losses as a result of the war, which will give us another 673,000 people. As a result, the total human losses of the Third Reich are 12.15 million + 0.3 million + 0.6 million people. = 13.05 million people. This "number" is already more like the truth. Taking into account the fact that these losses include 0.5 - 0.75 million dead civilians (and not 3.5 million), we get the losses of the Third Reich Armed Forces equal to 12.3 million people irretrievably. Considering that even the Germans recognize the loss of their Armed Forces in the East as 75-80% of all losses on all fronts, then the Reich Armed Forces lost about 9.2 million in battles with the Red Army (75% of 12.3 million) man irrevocably. Of course, by no means all of them were killed, but having data on the released (2.35 million), as well as prisoners of war who died in captivity (0.38 million), it can be said quite accurately that actually killed and died from wounds and in captivity, and also missing, but not captured (read "killed", and this is 0.7 million!), The Third Reich Armed Forces lost about 5.6-6 million people during the campaign to the East. According to these calculations, the irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the Third Reich (without allies) are correlated as 1.3: 1, and the combat losses of the Red Army (data from the team led by Krivosheev) and the Armed Forces of the Reich as 1.6: 1.

The procedure for calculating the total human losses of Germany

The population in 1939 was 70.2 million people.
The population in 1946 was 65.93 million people.
Natural mortality 2.8 million people.
Natural increase (birth rate) 3.5 million people.
Emigration inflow of 7.25 million people.
Total losses ((70.2 - 65.93 - 2.8) + 3.5 + 7.25 = 12.22) 12.15 million people.

Every tenth German died! Every twelfth was captured!!!

Conclusion
In this article, the author does not pretend to seek out the "golden section" and "truth in last resort". The data presented in it are available in the scientific literature and the web. It's just that they are all scattered and scattered across various sources. The author expresses his personal opinion: it is impossible to trust the German and Soviet sources of the war, because their own losses are underestimated by at least 2-3 times, the losses of the enemy are exaggerated by the same 2-3 times. It is all the more strange that German sources, in contrast to Soviet ones, are recognized as completely “reliable”, although, as the simplest analysis shows, this is not so.

The irretrievable losses of the USSR Armed Forces in the Second World War amount to 11.5 - 12.0 million people irrevocably, with actual combat demographic losses of 8.7-9.3 million people. The losses of the Wehrmacht and the SS troops on the Eastern Front amount to 8.0 - 8.9 million people irrevocably, of which 5.2-6.1 million are purely combat demographics (including those who died in captivity) people. In addition to the losses of the German Armed Forces themselves on the Eastern Front, it is necessary to add the losses of the satellite countries, and this is neither more nor less than 850 thousand (including those who died in captivity) people killed and more than 600 thousand prisoners. Total 12.0 (largest) million versus 9.05 (lowest) million.

A logical question: where is the “filling up with corpses”, about which Western, and now domestic “open” and “democratic” sources talk so much? The percentage of dead Soviet prisoners of war, even according to the most benign estimates, is at least 55%, and German, according to the largest, no more than 23%. Maybe the whole difference in losses is explained simply by the inhuman conditions of the prisoners?

The author is aware that these articles differ from the latest officially proclaimed version of the losses: the losses of the USSR Armed Forces - 6.8 million servicemen killed, and 4.4 million captured and missing, Germany's losses - 4.046 million servicemen dead, dead from wounds, missing (including 442.1 thousand dead in captivity), the loss of satellite countries 806 thousand killed and 662 thousand prisoners. Irretrievable losses of the armies of the USSR and Germany (including prisoners of war) - 11.5 million and 8.6 million people. The total loss of Germany 11.2 million people. (for example on Wikipedia)

The issue with the civilian population is more terrible against 14.4 (the smallest number) million people of the victims of the Second World War in the USSR - 3.2 million people (the largest number) of victims from the German side. So who fought with whom? It is also necessary to mention that without denying the Holocaust of the Jews, German society still does not perceive the “Slavic” Holocaust, if everything is known about the suffering of the Jewish people in the West (thousands of works), then they prefer to “modestly” keep quiet about the crimes against the Slavic peoples. The non-participation of our researchers, for example, in the all-German "dispute of historians" only exacerbates this situation.

I would like to end the article with the phrase of an unknown British officer. When he saw a column of Soviet prisoners of war being driven past the "international" camp, he said: "I forgive the Russians in advance for everything they do to Germany."

The article was written in 2007. Since then, the author has not changed his opinion. That is, there was no “stupid” flooding with corpses from the side of the Red Army, however, as well as a special numerical superiority. This is also proved by the recent appearance of a large layer of Russian “oral history”, that is, memoirs of ordinary participants in the Second World War. For example, Electron Priklonsky, the author of The Diary of a Self-Propelled Soldier, mentions that during the entire war he saw two “killing fields”: when our troops were attacked in the Baltic states and they fell under machine gun flank fire, and when the Germans broke through from the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky pocket. The example is a single one, but nevertheless, it is valuable in that the diary of the war period, which means it is quite objective.

Assessment of the ratio of losses based on the results of a comparative analysis of losses in the wars of the last two centuries

The application of the method of comparative analysis, the foundations of which were laid by Jomini, to the assessment of the ratio of losses requires statistical data on wars different eras. Unfortunately, more or less complete statistics are available only for the wars of the last two centuries. Data on irretrievable combat losses in the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries, summarized based on the results of the work of domestic and foreign historians, are given in Table. The last three columns of the table demonstrate the obvious dependence of the outcome of the war on the magnitude of the relative losses (losses expressed as a percentage of the total number of the army) - the relative losses of the winner in the war are always less than that of the vanquished, and this dependence has a stable, recurring character (it is valid for all types of wars), that is, it has all the features of the law.

This law - let's call it the law of relative losses - can be formulated as follows: in any war, victory goes to the army that has the least relative losses.

Note that the absolute numbers of irretrievable losses for the victorious side can be either less (Patriotic War of 1812, Russian-Turkish, Franco-Prussian wars), or more than those of the defeated side (Crimean, World War I, Soviet-Finnish) , but the relative losses of the winner are always less than those of the loser.

The difference between the relative losses of the winner and the loser characterizes the degree of persuasiveness of the victory. Wars with close values ​​of the relative losses of the parties end with peace treaties with the defeated side retaining the existing political system and army (for example, the Russo-Japanese War). In wars ending, like the Great Patriotic War, in the complete surrender of the enemy (the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871), the relative losses of the winner are significantly less than the relative losses of the vanquished (by at least 30%). In other words, than more loss, the greater must be the size of the army in order to win a convincing victory. If the losses of an army are 2 times greater than those of the enemy, then in order to win the war, its strength must be at least 2.6 times the strength of the opposing army.

And now let's return to the Great Patriotic War and see what human resources the USSR and Nazi Germany had during the war. Available data on the strength of the opposing sides on the Soviet-German front are given in Table. 6.

From Table. 6 it follows that the number of Soviet participants in the war was only 1.4-1.5 times the total number of opposing troops and 1.6-1.8 times the regular German army. In accordance with the law of relative losses, with such an excess in the number of participants in the war, the losses of the Red Army, which destroyed the fascist military machine, in principle could not exceed the losses of the armies of the fascist bloc by more than 10-15%, and the losses of regular German troops - by more than 25-30 %. This means that the upper limit of the ratio of irretrievable combat losses of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht is the ratio of 1.3:1.

The figures for the ratio of irretrievable combat losses given in Table. 6 do not exceed the value of the upper limit of the loss ratio obtained above. However, this does not mean that they are final and not subject to change. As new documents, statistical materials, research results appear, the losses of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht (Tables 1-5) can be refined, changed in one direction or another, their ratio can also change, but it cannot be higher than 1.3 :one.

Sources:
1. Central Statistical Bureau of the USSR "Number, composition and movement of the population of the USSR" M 1965
2. "The population of Russia in the 20th century" M. 2001
3. Arntts "Casual losses in the Second World War" M. 1957
4. Frumkin G. Population Changes in Europe since 1939 N.Y. 1951
5. Dallin A. German rule in Russia 1941–1945 N.Y.- London 1957
6. "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century" M.2001
7. Polyan P. Victims of two dictatorships M. 1996.
8. Thorwald J. The Illusion. Soviet soldiers in Hitler,s Army N. Y. 1975
9. Collection of messages of the Extraordinary State Commission M. 1946
10. Zemskov. Birth of the second emigration 1944–1952 SI 1991 No. 4
11. Timasheff N. S. The postwar population of the Soviet Union 1948
13 Timasheff N. S. The postwar population of the Soviet Union 1948
14. Arnts. Human losses in World War II M. 1957; "International Life" 1961 No. 12
15. Biraben J. N. Population 1976.
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17. The population of the USSR for 70 years. Edited by Rybakovsky L. L. M 1988
18. Andreev, Darsky, Kharkov. "Population of the Soviet Union 1922–1991" M 1993
19. Sokolov B. " New Newspaper"No. 22, 2005," The Price of Victory - "M. 1991
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29. E. Beevor "The Fall of Berlin" M.2003

The largest wars in the history of mankind in terms of the number of deaths.

The earliest war known to have been excavated took place approximately 14,000 years ago.

It is impossible to calculate the exact number of victims, because in addition to the death of soldiers on the battlefield, there is the death of civilians from the effects of weapons of war, as well as the death of civilians from the consequences of hostilities, for example, from hunger, hypothermia, and disease.

Below is a list of the largest wars by the number of victims.

The reasons for the wars indicated below are very different, but the number of victims exceeds millions.

1. Civil War in Nigeria (Biafra War of Independence). The death toll is over 1,000,000.

The main conflict was between the government forces of Nigeria and the separatists of the Republic of Biafra. The self-proclaimed republic was supported by a number of European states, among them, such as France, Portugal, and Spain. Nigeria was supported by England and the USSR. The UN did not recognize the self-proclaimed republic. Weapons and finances were sufficient on both sides. The main victims of the war were the civilian population, who died of starvation and various diseases.

2. Imjin War. The death toll is over 1,000,000.

1592 - 1598. Japan made 2 attempts to invade the Korean Peninsula in 1592 and 1597. Both invasions did not lead to the capture of the territory. The first invasion by Japan involved 220,000 soldiers, several hundred combat and transport ships.

The Korean troops were defeated, but at the end of 1592, China transferred part of the army to Korea, but was defeated; in 1593, China transferred another part of the army, which managed to achieve some success. Peace was made. The second invasion in 1597 was not successful for Japan and in 1598 hostilities were stopped.

3. Iran–Iraq War (death toll: 1 million)

1980-1988 years. The longest war in the 20th century. The war began with the invasion of Iraq on September 22, 1980. The war can be called positional - trench warfare, using small arms. Widely used in the war chemical weapon. The initiative passed from one side to another, so in 1980 the successful offensive of the Iraqi army was stopped, and in 1981 the initiative passed to the side of Iraq. On August 20, 1988, a truce was signed.

4. Korean War (death toll: 1.2 million)

1950-1953 years. War between North and South Korea. The war started with an invasion North Korea into the territory of South Korea. Despite the support of North Korea Soviet Union, Stalin opposed the war, because he feared that this conflict could lead to World War 3 and even nuclear war. On July 27, 1953, a ceasefire agreement was signed.

5. Mexican Revolution (death toll between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000)

1910-1917. The revolution fundamentally changed the culture of Mexico and the policies of the government. But at that time the population of Mexico was 15,000,000 people and the losses during the revolution were significant. The prerequisites for the revolution were very different, but as a result of the valuable millions of victims, Mexico strengthened its sovereignty and weakened its dependence on the United States.

6. The conquests of Chuck's army. First half of the 19th century. (death toll 2,000,000 people)

The local ruler Chaka (1787 - 1828) founded the state - KwaZulu. He raised and armed a large army, which conquered disputed territories. The army plundered and ravaged the tribes in the occupied territories. The victims were the local Aboriginal tribes.

7. Goguryeo-Sui wars (death toll 2,000,000)

These wars include a series of wars between the Chinese Sui Empire and the Korean state of Goguryeo. The wars took place on the following dates:

· war of 598

· war of 612

· war of 613

· war of 614

In the end, the Koreans managed to repel the advance of the Chinese troops and win.

The total number of human casualties is much higher because civilian casualties are not taken into account.

8. Wars of religion in France (death toll between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000)

The religious wars in France are also known as the Huguenot wars. Occurred between 1562 and 1598. They arose on religious grounds as a result of a conflict between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). In 1998, the Edict of Nantes was adopted, which legalized freedom of religion. On August 24, 1572, Catholics staged a mass beating of Protestants, first in Paris, and then throughout France. It happened on the eve of the feast of St. Barthomew, this day went down in history as St. Bartholomew's night, on that day more than 30,000 people died in Paris.

9. Second Congo War (2,400,000 to 5,400,000 dead)

The deadliest war in the history of modern Africa, also known as the African World War and the Great War of Africa. The war lasted from 1998 to 2003, 9 states and more than 20 separate armed groups participated. The main victims of the war are the civilian population, which died due to disease and starvation.

10. Napoleonic Wars (death toll between 3,000,000 and 6,000,000)

The Napoleonic Wars are an armed conflict between France, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, and a number of European states, including Russia. Thanks to Russia, Napoleon's army was defeated. Different sources give different data on the victims, but most scientists believe that the number of victims, including civilians from hunger and epidemics, reaches 5,000,000 people.

11. Thirty Years' War (Death toll between 3,000,000 and 11,500,000)

1618 - 1648. The war began as a conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the crumbling Holy Roman Empire, but a number of other states were gradually drawn into it. The number of victims of the Thirty Years' War, according to most scholars, is 8,000,000 people.

12. Chinese Civil War (death toll 8,000,000)

The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang ( political party Republic of China) and forces loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. The war began in 1927 and essentially ended when the main active fighting ceased in 1950. Although historians give the end date of the war as December 22, 1936, the conflict eventually led to the formation of two de facto states, the Republic of China (now known as Taiwan) and China People's Republic in mainland China. During the war, both sides carried out massive atrocities.

13. Russian Civil War (death toll between 7,000,000 and 12,000,000)

1917 - 1922. The struggle for power of various political directions, armed groups. But basically the two largest and most organized forces fought - the Red Army and the White Army. The civil war in Russia is considered the greatest national catastrophe in Europe, in the entire history of its existence. The main victims of the war are the civilian population.

14. Wars led by Tamerlane (number of victims from 8,000,000 to 20,000,000 people)

In the second half of the 14th century, Tamerlane waged cruel, bloody conquests in Western, South, Central Asia, in southern Russia. Tamerlane became the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world, conquering Egypt, Syria and Ottoman Empire. Historians believe that 5% of the total population of the Earth died at the hands of his soldiers.

15. Dungan uprising (number of victims from 8,000,000 to 20,400,000 people)

1862 - 1869. The Dungan uprising is a war on ethnic and religious grounds between the Hans (a Chinese ethnic group originally from East Asia) and Chinese Muslims. At the head of the rebels against the existing government were the spiritual mentors of Xinjiao, who declared jihad to be unfaithful.

16. Conquest of North and South America (number of victims from 8,400,000 to 148,000,000 people)

1492 - 1691. During the 200 years of colonization of America, tens of millions of the local population were killed by European colonialists. However, there is no exact number of victims, since there are no initial estimates of the original size of the indigenous population of America. The conquest of America is the largest extermination of the indigenous population by other peoples in history.

17. An Lushan rebellion (number of victims from 13,000,000 to 36,000,000 people)

755 - 763 AD Rebellion against the Tang Dynasty. According to scientists, up to two children of the entire population of China could die during this conflict.

18. World War I (18,000,000 casualties)

1914-1918 years. War between groups of states in Europe and their allies. The war claimed 11,000,000 servicemen who died directly during the fighting. 7,000,000 civilians died during the course of the war.

19. Taiping Rebellion (20,000,000 - 30,000,000 casualties)

1850 - 1864. Revolt of peasants in China. The Taiping Rebellion spread throughout China against the Manchu Qing Dynasty. With the support of England and France, the Qing troops brutally suppressed the rebels.

20. Manchu conquest of China (25,000,000 casualties)

1618 - 1683 years. Qing Dynasty war, to conquer territories of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result of long wars and various battles, the Manchu dynasty managed to conquer almost all the strategic territories of China. The war claimed tens of millions of human lives.

21. Sino-Japanese War (25,000,000 - 30,000,000 casualties)

1937 - 1945. War between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. Separate hostilities began in 1931. The war ended with the defeat of Japan with the help of allied forces, mainly the USSR. The United States inflicted 2 nuclear strikes in Japan, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On September 9, 1945, the government of the Republic of China accepted the surrender from the commander of Japanese troops in China, General Okamura Yasuji.

22. Wars of the Three Kingdoms (number of victims 36,000,000 - 40,000,000 people)

220-280 AD Not to be confused with war (England, Scotland and Ireland between 1639 and 1651). The war of three states - Wei, Shu and Wu for complete power in China. Each side tried to unite China under its command. The bloodiest period in the history of China, which led to millions of victims.

23. Mongol conquests (number of victims 40,000,000 - 70,000,000 people)

1206 - 1337. Raids across the territories of Asia and Eastern Europe with the formation of the state of the Golden Horde. The raids were distinguished by their cruelty. The Mongols spread the bubonic plague over vast territories, from which people died, not having immunity to this disease.

24. World War II (number of victims 60,000,000 - 85,000,000 people)

The most brutal war in the history of mankind, when people were destroyed on a racial and ethnic basis with the help of technical devices. The extermination of peoples was organized by the rulers of Germany and their allies, led by Hitler. Up to 100,000,000 servicemen fought on the battlefields on both sides. With the decisive role of the USSR, fascist Germany and its allies were defeated.