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World War II casualties of the Soviet Union

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World War II casualties of the Soviet Union from all related causes were commonly estimated in excess of 20,000,000, both civilians and military, although the statistics vary to a great extent. The current assessment by the Russian Government is that total losses were 26.6 million both civilians and military, with military dead being 8.7 million. The official figures have been disputed by some researchers in Russia. This article covers the details of the Russian government analysis as well as a presentation of sources disputing the official figures

File:Khatyn Memorial, Belarus.jpg
Khatyn Memorial, Belarus
Kiev, June 23, 1941

Military losses

File:Mosca41.jpg
Soviet troops( Battle of Moscow 1941)

Krivosheev's Analysis

File:Lydia Litvyak.JPG
Soviet fighter ace Lydia Litvyak was killed in action on August 1, 1943. 800,000 women served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the war. Some served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles.

In 1993 the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a report authored by G. I. Krivosheev that details Soviet military casualties in World War II. The sources for the figures were Soviet "reports from the field and other archive documents" that were considered secret during the Soviet era. Krivosheev's analysis that puts Soviet military dead and missing at 8.7 million is the official figure used by the Russian government[1] and is often cited in the Russian media. However Krivosheev's study has been disputed by some writers in Russia (see section below on criticism of Krivosheev). Outside of Russia Krivosheev's analysis has generally been accepted by historians.

The schedules below summarizes Krivosheev's analysis.

Soviet World War II military casualties 1939-1945[2][3]
Dead and missing Wounded and sick
Battle of Khalkhin Gol 1939

[2][4]

9,703 15,952
Invasion of Poland 1939[2][5] 1,475 2,383
Winter War 1939-1940[2][5] 126,875 264,908
World War II 1941-1945[6][7] 8,668,400 22,326,905
Total 8,806,453 22,610,148

Source of Figures:G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 51–97

The Schedule below summarizes Soviet casualties from 1941-1945.

Starting attack in Leningrad battlefront
Military dead and missing (1941–45)[8][9]
KIA or died of wounds 6,329,600
Noncombat deaths (sickness, accidents,etc.) 555,500
Subtotal KIA, died of wounds and Noncombat deaths 6,885,100
MIA and POW 4,559,000
Total operational losses during war 11,444,100
Less:Missing Returned to Duty (939,700)
Less:POWs returned to USSR (1,836,000)
Total irrecoverable losses (from listed strength) 8,668,400

Source of Figures:G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85–97

Soviet Prisoners of War
Reconciliation of missing according to Krivosheev
Missing and presumed killed in action 500,000
POW died in captivity 1,103,300
Missing returned to duty 939,700
POW returned to USSR 1,836,000
POW emigrated to other countries 180,000
Total Reported Missing 4,559,000

Source of Figures: G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85–97 The report of G. I. Krivosheev shows that of all the men serving in the military during the war, there were about 4,559,000 reported missing (including 3,396,400 per field reports and an additional 1,162,600 estimated by Krivosheev), out of which 500,000 were missing and presumed dead, 939,700 were conscripted back into the Soviet army during the war as territories were being liberated, 1,103,300 POW died in captivity and 1,836,000 returned to the U.S.S.R. after the war.[10][11] In a 1999 article Krivosheev noted that 2,016,000 POW survived the war, of which 1,836,000 POWs are known to have returned to the U.S.S.R. after the war and another 180,000 liberated POWs who most likely emigrated to other countries.[12]

Soviet conscripts 1941
Reconciliation of Soviet Forces 1941-1945 According to Krivosheev
Description Balance
Red Army & Navy Strength- June 1941 4,902,000
Drafted during war 29,575,000
Discharged during war (9,693,000)
Red Army & Navy strength- June 1945 (12,840,000)
Losses of Conscripted Reservists 1941 not inducted in ranks (500,000)
Subtotal: Operational Losses 11,444,000
Missing Later Re-conscripted (940,000)
Liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000)
Total Irrecoverable Losses 8,668,000

Discharged during war of 9,693,000 includes( sent on sick leave 3,798,200; transferred to work in industry, anti-aircraft defense and armed guards 3,614,600; sent to NKVD troops and organs 1,174,600; transferred to Polish, Czechoslovak and Romanian armies 250,400; imprisoned 436,600; discharged 206,000; missing in rear areas 212,400)

Red Army & Navy strength- June 1945 12,840,000 includes (11,390,600 on active service; in hospital 1,046,000; in civilian departments 403,200)

Source of Figures:G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85–97

Carrying a wounded soldier on the Leningrad Front.
Numbers of Wounded & Sick by category
According to records of military medical service
Wounded Sick Total
14,685,593 7,641,312 22,326,905
Of these:
Discharged (3,050,733) (747,425) (3,798,158)
Returned to Duty (10,530,750) (6,626,493) (17,157,243)
Died (also included in irrecoverable losses) (1,104,110) (267,394) (1,371,504)

Source of Figures:G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Page 89

Casualties of Soviet Forces 1941-1945 According to Field Reports
Description Irrecoverable Losses Wounded & Sick Total Losses
1941 3rd Q 2,129,677 687,626 2,817,303
1941 4th Q 1,007,996 648,521 1,656,517
1942 1st Q 675,315 1,179,457 1,854,772
1942 2nd Q 842,898 706,647 1,549,545
1942 3rd Q 1,224,495 1,283,062 2,507,557
1942 4th Q 515,508 941,896 1,457,404
1943 1st Q 726,714 1,425,692 2,152,406
1943 2nd Q 191,904 490,637 682,541
1943 3rd Q 803,856 2,060,805 2,864,661
1943 4th Q 589,955 1,567,940 2,157,895
1944 1st Q 570,761 1,572,742 2,143,503
1944 2nd Q 344,258 965,208 1,309,466
1944 3rd Q 510,790 1,545,442 2,056,232
1944 4th Q 338,082 1,031,358 1,369,440
1945 1st Q 557,521 1,594,635 2,152,156
1945 2nd Q 243,296 618,055 861,351
Campaign in Far East 12,031 24,425 36,456
Subtotal Operational Losses:Army & Navy 11,285,057 18,344,148 29,629,205
Add:Losses Border/Internal Service Troops 159,100
Subtotal:Operational Losses 11,444,100
Less:Missing Later Re-conscripted (939,700)
Less:Liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000)
Total Irrecoverable Losses 8,668,400

Source of Figures:G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85–97

Total wounded and sick includes: Wounded 15,205,592; Sick 3,047,675; Frostbite cases 90,881

According to the field reports the number of wounded and sick was 18,344,148, however the records of the military medical service show a total of 22,326,905. According to Krivosheev the difference can be explained by the fact that the sick and wounded figures of the medical service include sick personnel who did not take part in the fighting.[13]

Monument in Israel to Jewish war dead in the Soviet Army
Soviet military dead and Missing by nationality (1941–45)[14]
Total Percentage
Russians 5,756,000 66.402%
Ukrainians 1,377,400 15.890%
Belarusians 252,900 2.917%
Tatars 187,700 2.165%
Jews 142,500 1.644%
Kazakhs 125,500 1.448%
Uzbeks 117,900 1.360%
Armenians 83,700 0.966%
Georgians 79,500 0.917%
Others 545,300 6.291%
Total 8,668,000 100.0%

Criticism of Krivosheev

German photograph of Soviet war dead in early 1942

Krivosheev's analysis that puts Soviet military dead at 8.7 million is the official figure used by the Russian government and is often cited in the Russian media. Outside of Russia Krivosheev's analysis has generally been accepted by historians. However Krivosheev is disputed by some historians in Russia.

The main points of their criticism are as follows:

  • POW Deaths-Krivosheev's analysis puts Soviet POW deaths at about 1.1 million, however most estimates by Western historians for Soviet prisoners of war deaths is about 3 million out of 5.7 million total POW's in German hands.[15][16] Russian researcher Vadim Erlikman puts Soviet military dead at 10.6 million, he maintains that Soviet military casualties should also include the deaths of an additional estimated 1,500,000 conscripted reservists captured before being listed on active strength as well as draft age men treated as military POW by Germany, also about 150,000 militia and 250,000 Soviet partisan dead.[17]
    However according to Krivosheev the figure of 3.0 million POW dead probably includes partisans, militia, and many civilian men of military age taken as POW, they are considered civilian deaths in the official figures.[18]
  • Reconciliation of persons conscripted-S. N. Mikhalev published an analysis that maintains Krivosheev's report is flawed, Mikhalev puts the actual military death toll at 10.9 million based on his reconciliation of persons conscripted. .[19]
  • Russian Military Archives data base of individual war dead The analysis of Krivosheev is based on the field reports of the Red Army and the reconciliation of the balance for persons conscripted. An alternative method to determine Soviet war losses is the Russian Military Archives data base of individual war dead. S. A. Il’enkov an official of the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense maintains "We established the number of irreplaceable losses of our Armed Forces at the time of the Great Patriotic War of about 13,850,000.[20]
  • Historical revisionism in Russia Some researchers in Russia maintain that the official figures of 8.7 million military dead and the total population loss of 26.6 million is an attempt by the Russian government to suppress the truth about the huge loss of life in the Stalin era. They believe the Russian government should conduct new investigations on losses suffered in the war. These critics base their arguments on their own analysis of documents in the Soviet archives and on alternative demographic models of the Soviet population during the Stalin era.
    Russian historian Igor Ivlev published a study in Russia which puts total war dead at 38.5 million including military dead of 20.5 million based on his analysis of documents from the Soviet archives, all these sources reveal military losses exceeding those of Krivosheev's report by 2 — 2.5 times. Igor Ivlev does not include deaths due to natural causes in his figures. He maintains that all deaths from 1941-1945 should be attributed to the war .[21]
    Boris Sokolov a Russian academic published a study in Russia that estimated total war dead at 43.3 million including 26.4 million in the military. Writing in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies Sokolov cites documentation from the Soviet archives that indicate casualties were far greater than those in the Krivosheev study.[22][23]
    Writing in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies V. E. Korol estimated overall Soviet war dead at 46 million persons including military dead of 23 million. He maintains that the official figure of 8.7 million military war dead was “groundless” based the actual accounts, cited by Korol, of the individual battles on the eastern front, Korol maintains that these solid sources are more than sufficient, and it is practically impossible to refute them. V. E. Korol believes that the official figures of Krivosheev are an attempt to cover up the disregard for human life by the military leaders under Stalin’s totalitarian system [24]

Rebuttal by Krivosheev

In 2002 G.F. Krivosheev, author of the 1993 official study of military casualties, defended the results of his report that found 8.668 million military war dead. Krivosheev maintains that the figures were derived in a scientific manner by a team of professional researchers who had access to the military archives. He also maintains that the results of the study reflect a realistic view of casualties based on the military operational situation during the war. Krivosheev believes that the Central Archives data base of individual war dead is not reliable because some personnel records are duplicated and others omitted[25]

Civilian losses

Excuted Partisan Minsk
Tanya Savicheva Diary

The Russian Academy of Science puts the civilian death toll in the regions occupied by Germany at 13.7 million. Contemporary Russian sources use the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to civilian losses in the occupied USSR caused by the result of direct, intentional actions of violence. Civilians killed in reprisals during the Soviet partisan war account for a major part of the huge toll.[26] Russian sources generally do not break down Jewish Holocaust deaths separately. Martin Gilbert puts Jewish losses at one million within the borders of 1939; Holocaust deaths in the annexed territories were another 1.5 million bringing the total in Soviet territory to about 2.5 million.[27] These losses include deaths in the siege of Leningrad. David Glantz has noted that Soviet era sources put the number of dead in the Siege of Leningrad at “greater than 800,000” and that a Russian source from 2000 put the number of dead at 1,000,000.[28] However, other Russian historians have put the death toll in the siege of Leningrad at between 1.4 and 2.0 million persons.[29] The report of the Russian Academy of Science lists the deaths of civilian forced laborers in Germany totaling 2,164,313. G. I. Krivosheev in the report on military casualties gives a total of 1,103,300 POW dead. The total of these two figures is 3,267,613, which is in close agreement with estimates by western historians of about 3 million deaths of prisoners in German captivity. In the occupied regions Nazi Germany had a policy of forced confiscation of food that resulted in the famine deaths of an estimated 6% of the population, 4.1 million persons.[30]

Soviet civilian war dead(1941–45)[31][32][33]
Deaths caused by the result of direct, intentional actions of violence 7,420,379 [34]
Deaths of forced laborers in Germany 2,164,313[34]
Deaths due to famine and disease in the occupied regions 4,100,000[35]
Total 13,684,692

Source: The figures for civilian losses are taken from a report published by the Russian Academy of Science Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles (In Russian). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 -M. V. Philimoshin of the War Ministry of the Russian Federation About the results of calculation of losses among civilian population of the USSR and Russian Federation 1941-1945 Pages 124-131

  • These figures are for the regions of the USSR occupied by Germany with a population of about 70 million persons.[26]
  • These casualties are for 1941-1945 within the 1946-1991 borders of the USSR.[36] Included with civilian losses are deaths in the territories annexed by the USSR in 1939-1940 including 600,000 in the Baltic states[17] and 1,500,000 in Eastern Poland.[37]
  • In addition to the losses listed above an estimated 2.5 to 3.2 million civilians died due to famine and disease in non-occupied territory of the USSR which was caused by wartime shortages in the rear areas.[38]
  • Documents from the Soviet archives list the total deaths of prisoners in the Gulag from 1941 to 1945 at 621,637. In the 1995 Report by the Russian Academy of Science V.N. Zemskov noted "due to general difficulties in 1941-1945 in the camps, the GULAG and prisons about 1.0 million prisoners died[39]
  • These figures do not include an additional 622,000 persons who did not return to the USSR after 1946 according to the 1993 Russian Academy of Science report on total war losses by E.M. Andreev[40]

Total Population losses

Volkovo cemetery, Lenningrad 1942

Studies by E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK)

Population of the Soviet Union 1922-1991

Russian demographers E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK) authored a study of the Soviet population from 1922-1991 which was published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993. They estimated total Soviet population losses of 26.6 million in the war. This is the current official Russian government figure for total losses.[36] These losses are a demographic estimate of excess deaths, not an exact accounting of losses. The main areas of uncertainty when calculating losses were the estimated figures for increase in the Soviet population in the territories annexed from 1939–1945 and the loss of population due to emigration during and after the war. The figures also include victims of Soviet repression as well as the deaths of Soviet citizens in German military service.[41] Michael Haynes has noted that "We do not know the total number of deaths as a result of the war and related policies". We do know that the demographic estimate of excess deaths was 26.6 million plus an additional 16.1 million natural deaths that would have occurred in peacetime, bringing the total dead to 42.7 million. At this time the actual total number of deaths caused by the war is unknown since among the 16.1 million "natural deaths" some would have died peacefully and others as a result of the war.[42]

Total Soviet losses by demographic balance (1941–45)[43]
Population in June 1941 196,700,000
Population at the end of 1945 170,500,000
Born before June 1941 and living by end of 1945 159,500,000
Total loss of population born before the war period 37,200,000
Add wartime increase in Infant Mortality 1,300,000
Less Natural deaths at 1940 level (not including Infant Mortality of 4.2 million) (11,900,000)
Total population loss (in excess of pre-war level) 26,600,000

Source:E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK) Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993

Total War Deaths by Age Group and Gender

Age Group Mid 1941-Males (millions) 1941-45 Male War Deaths (millions) % Age Group Mid 1941- Females (millions) 1941-45 Female War Deaths(millions) % Age Group Mid 1941-Total Population (millions) 1941-45 Total War Deaths (millions) % Age Group Excess Male Deaths(Millions)
0-14 27.879 1.425 5.1% 27.984 1.398 5.0% 55.863 2.823 5.1% .027
15-19 11.092 1.064 9.6% 11.220 0.340 3.0% 22.312 1.404 6.3% .723
20-34 24.948 9.005 36.1% 26.330 2.663 10.1% 51.278 11.668 22.8% 6.342
35-49 18.497 6.139 33.2% 20.236 781 3.9% 38.733 6.920 17.9% 5.358
Over 49 11.999 2.418 20.2% 16.976 1.380 8.1% 28.975 3.798 13.1% 1.038
All Age Groups 94.415 20.051 21.2% 102.746 6.562 6.4% 197.161 26.613 13.5% 13.489

Source:Andreev, EM, et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 978-5-02-013479-9 Page 78 (Population of the Soviet Union 1922-1991 Russian Academy of Science)

Remarks:

Age Group 0-14- The deaths of 2.8 million children was due primarily to the famine and disease caused by the war.

Age Group 15-19 The excess deaths of 724,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. The draft age in the USSR was 18 during the war.

Age Group 20-34 The excess deaths of 6,342,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. The deaths of 2,663,000 women is an indication that women were also involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.

Age Group 35-49 The excess deaths of 5,358,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses.

Age Group over 49 The excess deaths of 1,038,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. Some men from the older age group did serve in the Armed Forces. They were involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.

All Age Groups- The excess deaths of 13,489,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses with the regular forces as well the partisan forces. The figures are a clear indication that many Soviet civilians died in the war as a result of Nazi reprisals as well as famine and disease caused by wartime shortages which took a large toll.

The (ADK) study did not dispute Krivoshev's report that put military dead at 8.7 million. However according to the study from mid 1941-1945 there were 26.6 million war dead, 20.1 million males and 6.6 million females, a difference of 13.5 million more male deaths. In mid 1941 there were 8.3 million more females in the Soviet population, by 1946 this gap was 22.8 million more females than males, an increase of 13.5 million[44]

B. Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959

In the study Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959 Andreev, Darski and Kharkova (ADK) analyzed the 1946 voters lists of the Soviet elections. The February 1946 population taken from the list of voters in Soviet elections compared to the 1939 census shows demographic gap between males and females of 22.8 million, over 14-million more than with Krivoshev's report that put military dead at 8.7 million. The authors maintained that many young men were missed from the voters lists. They also suggest that the 1946 voters lists did not include 6.4 million persons allegedly deprived of their rights, in prison or in exile, although an international historical and civil rights society Memorial knows of only 4 million deprived of their rights to vote from mid twenties to 1953. They also noted that there was a overestimation of women of older years because persons in rural areas without internal passports sought to avoid compulsory heavy labor by adding years of age [45] In any case the gap mentioned did not include the 7 million surplus of males of draft age from the new territories aquired in 1939-1940.

Estimated Losses of each Soviet Republic

The casualties of each Soviet Republic estimated by Vadim Erlikman

Erlikman pegs total war deaths at 10.7 million, exceeding Krivosheev's 8.7 million by an extra two million. This extra two million would presumably include Soviet POWs that died in Nazi captivity, partisans, and those who fought on the side of the Axis (for example, Moldova was a part of Romania at the time).

Soviet Republic Population 1940 Military Dead Civilian Dead Total Deaths as % 1940 Pop.
Armenia 1,320,000 150,000 30,000 180,000 13.6%
Azerbaijan 3,270,000 210,000 90,000 300,000 9.1%
Belarus 9,050,000 620,000 1,670,000 2,290,000 25.3%
Estonia 1,050,000 30,000 50,000 80,000 7.6%
Georgia 3,610,000 190,000 110,000 300,000 8.3%
Kazakhstan 6,150,000 310,000 350,000 660,000 10.7%
Kyrgyzstan 1,530,000 70,000 50,000 120,000 7.8%
Latvia 1,890,000 30,000 230,000 260,000 13.7%
Lithuania 2,930,000 25,000 350,000 375,000 12.7%
Moldova 2,470,000 50,000 120,000 170,000 6.9%
Russia 110,100,000 6,750,000 7,200,000 13,950,000 12.7%
Tajikistan 1,530,000 50,000 70,000 120,000 7.8%
Turkmenistan 1,300,000 70,000 30,000 100,000 7.7%
Uzbekistan 6,550,000 330,000 220,000 550,000 8.4%
Ukraine 41,340,000 1,650,000 5,200,000 6,850,000 16.3%
Unidentified - 165,000 130,000 295,000
Total USSR 194,090,000 10,700,000 15,900,000 26,600,000 13.7%
  • The source of the figures on the table is Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 pp. 23–35 Erlikman notes that these figures are his estimates.

OBD Memorial database of Soviet War Dead

The names of Soviet war dead are presented at the OBD(Central Data Bank) Memorial database online.[46]

Tomb of the unknown soldier in Voronezh

Causes

Soviet Prisoners of War held in German camp
Citizens of Leningrad leaving their houses destroyed by German bombing.

The Red Army suffered catastrophic losses of men and equipment during the first months of the German invasion.,[3][47] In the spring of 1941 Stalin ignored the warnings of his intelligence services of a planned German invasion and refused to put the Armed forces on alert. The units in the border regions were not prepared to face the German onslaught and were caught by surprise. Large numbers of Soviet soldiers were captured and many perished due to the brutal mistreatment of POWs by the Nazis[48] U.S. Army historians maintain the high Soviet losses can be attributed to 'less efficient medical services and the Soviet tactics, which throughout the war tended to be expensive in terms of human life"[49]

Russian scholars attribute the high civilian death toll to the Nazi Generalplan Ost which treated the Soviet people as "subhuman". Contemporary Russian sources use the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to civilian losses in the occupied USSR. To suppress the partisan units the Nazi occupation forces engaged in a campaign of brutal reprisals against innocent civilians. The extensive fighting destroyed agricultural land, infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food. The Nazis confiscated food stocks which resulted in famine in the occupied regions. During the war Soviet civilians were taken to Germany as forced laborers under inhuman conditions.[50][51]

The Estimates and their Sources

Soviet and Russian Estimates

Estimates for Soviet losses in the Second World War range from 7 million to over 43 million.[52] During the Communist era in the Soviet Union historical writing about World War II was subject to censorship and only official approved statistical data was published. In the USSR during the Glasnost period under Gorbachev and in post communist Russia the casualties in World War II were re-evaluated and the official figures revised. In 1993 the Russian government issued reports on war losses that gave total dead of 26.6 million persons including military losses of 8,668,400 military personnel, since then these figures have been accepted by the Russian government as being correct. However, the official figures have been disputed by Russian scholars.

Official Soviet era Estimates made 1946 to 1987

Joseph Stalin in March 1946 stated that Soviet war losses were 7 million dead. This was to be the official figure until the Khrushchev era.[41] In November 1961 Nikita Khrushchev stated that Soviet war losses were 20 million, this was to be the official figure until the Gorbachev era of Glasnost.[41][53] Leonid Brezhnev in 1965 put the Soviet death toll in the war at “more than 20 million”[54] Ivan Konev at in a May 1965 Soviet Ministry of Defense press conference stated that Soviet military dead in World War II were 10 million.[55] In 1971 the Soviet demographer Boris Urlanis put losses at 20 million including 6,074,000 civilians and 3,912,000 prisoners of war killed by Nazi Germany, military dead were put at 10 million[56]

Period of Glasnost 1988 to 1992

During the period of Glasnost the official figure of 20 million war dead was challenged by Soviet scholars. In 1988-1989 estimates of 26 to 28 million total war dead appeared in the Soviet press.[52] The Russian scholar Dmitri Volkogonov writing at this time estimated total war deaths at 26-27,000,000 including 10,000,000 in the military[57] In March 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev set up a committee to investigate Soviet losses in the war. In a May 1990 speech Gorbachev gave the figure for total Soviet losses at "almost 27 million". This revised figure was the result of research by the committee set up by Gorbachev that estimated total war dead at between 26 and 27 million .[41] In January 1990 M.A. Moiseev Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces disclosed for the first time in an interview that Soviet military war dead totaled 8,668,400.[58]

From 1942-1946 the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission collected information on Nazi crimes in the USSR. The reports of the Commission detailing the number of civilian deaths were kept secret until the collapse of the USSR. In 1991 the Russian scholar A.A. Shevyakov published an article with summary of civilian losses based on the reports of this commission, civilian dead were given as 18.3 million. In a second article in 1992 A.A. Shevyakov gave a figure of 20.8 million civilian dead, no explanation for the difference was given.[41][59][60]

Official Figures Released in 1993-1995 by Russian Government

In 1993 the Russian Col-General G.F. Krivosheev published a study that gave total Soviet military dead and missing in the war of 8,668,400. These figures were based on official documentation that was previously classified secret in the Soviet era. This study by Krivosheev is the current official Russian Ministry of Defense accounting for military casualties from 1941–1945.[8][9] A report published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993 estimated that the total Soviet population losses were 26.6 million. This is the current official Russian government figure for total losses in the war.[36][41] In 1995 the Russian Academy of Science published a series of articles that analyzed Soviet losses in the war. An article detailed civilian deaths in the German occupied USSR totaling 13.7 million, which includes 7.4 million victims of Nazi genocide and reprisals; 2.2 million deaths of persons deported to Germany for forced labor; and 4.1 million famine and disease deaths in occupied territory. They also estimated an additional 3 million deaths due to famine and disease in the regions not occupied by Germany[61]

Estimates disputing the official Soviet and Russian government figures

Estimates by Russians published in the West 1950-1983

In 1949 a Soviet Colonel Kalinov defected to the west, he published a book claiming that Soviet records indicated the military loss of 13.6 million men including 2.6 million POW dead.[62][63][64] Sergei Maksudov a Russian demographer living in the west estimated Soviet war losses at between 24.5 and 27.4 million, including 7.5 million military dead.[41][65][66] The Soviet mathematician Iosif G. Dyadkin published a study in the United States that estimated the total Soviet population losses from 1939–1945 due to the war and political repression at 30 million. Dyadkin was imprisoned for publishing this study in the west.[67]

S. N. Mikhalev

In 2000 the late Dr. S. N. Mikhalev of the History department of Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University[68] published a critical analysis of the official Russian wartime casualty statistics, From 1989 to 1996 Mikhalev was an associate of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defence. Mikalev estimated actual Soviet military war dead at more than 10.9 million persons. He maintained that the official figures cannot be reconciled to the total men drafted and that POW deaths were understated. Mikhalev believed that the official figure of 26.6 million war dead should not be regarded as definitive. In 1995 the Russian Academy of Science published his analysis of the demographic balance of the USSR in the war that indicated total losses ranging from 21.240 million to 25.854 million, with the mid range being 23.568 million total war dead. Mikhalev pointed out that the figures for total war deaths are based on a range of possible estimates for the pre-war population in 1939 and the population of the annexed territories that are by no means certain.[19][69]

The following schedule shows the reconciliation of losses of the field reports to the actual number of mobilized persons[70][71][72]

Description Balance per Kirvosheev Balance per Mikhalev Difference
Red Army & Navy Strength- June 1941 ( A.) 4,902,000 4,704,000 (198,000)
Drafted during war ( B.) 29,575,000 29,575,000 0
Discharged during war (C.) (9,693,000) (9,693,000) 0
Red Army & Navy strength- June 1945 (D.) (12,840,000) (11,999,000) 841,000
conscripted reservists (E.) (500,000) 0 500,000
Subtotal: Operational Losses 11,444,000 12,587,000 1,143,000
MIA Re-conscripted (F.) (940,000) 0 940,000
Liberated POW returned to USSR (1,836,000) (1,836,000) 0
Losses of NKVD & Border Troops (G.) 0 159,000 159,000
Losses in the Far East August 1945 H. 0 12,000 12,000
Total Irrecoverable Losses 8,668,000 10,922,000 2,254,000

Notes:

A. Strength Red Army June 1941- Mikhalev excludes Construction troops whose casualties were not included in the field reports.
B. Drafted during war -Excludes those drafted twice.
C.Discharged during war-Includes those sent on sick leave, those sent to industry, NKVD or foreign units and 437,000 imprisoned after sentencing
D. Red Army strength June 1945-Mikhalev excludes 403,000 Construction troops whose casualties were not included in the field reports and 437,000 imprisoned after sentencing already deducted in number of discharged
E.Conscripted reservists captured in 1941 before being listed on active strength. Mikhalev maintains that they were a military operational losses that should be included with total casualties
F. MIA Re-conscripted were men conscripted back into the Soviet army during the war as territories were being liberated. Mikhalev maintains that they should not be deducted because were included in the Red Army strength in June 1945 and that the number conscripted excludes those drafted twice.
G.NKVD & Border Troops -Mikhalev adds these losses to the total because they were not part of the Red Army balance in June 1945.
H.Losses in the Far East August 1945- Mikhalev adds these losses to the total because they were not part of the Red Army balance in June 1945

S. A. Il’enkov

The analysis of Krivosheev and Mikhalev is based on the field reports of the Red Army and the reconciliation of the balance for persons conscripted. An alternative method to determine Soviet war losses is the Russian Military Archives data base of individual war dead. S. A. Il’enkov an official of the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense maintains that “ complex military situation at the front did not always allow for the conduct of a full accounting of losses”. He pointed out that reports from the field units did not include deaths in rear area hospitals of wounded personnel. Il’enkov maintains that the information in the Russian Military Archives alphabetical card-indexes can assist in solving the problem of determining the total number of Soviet military war dead.[73] In an article published by the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense Il’enkov described the work of the archives to reconcile data base of individual war dead. He believes the work has progressed to the point where we can determine an accurate accounting of war losses. Il’enkov concluded by stating "We established the number of irreplaceable losses of our Armed Forces at the time of the Great Patriotic War of about 13,850,000.[74]

Vadim Erlikman

Russian researcher Vadim Erlikman puts Soviet military dead at 10.6 million, he maintains that Soviet military casualties should also include the deaths of an additional estimated 1,500,000 conscripted reservists captured before being listed on active strength as well as draft age men treated as military POW by Germany, also about 150,000 militia and 250,000 Soviet partisan dead.[17]

Dmitry Yazov

In May 2009 the former Russian Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov put the death toll in the war at 37 million (27 to 28 million civilians and 8.6 million military)[75]

Igor Ivlev

Russian historian Igor Ivlev, director of Archangelsk-city State Social Memorial Center "Poisk", based on his analysis of documentation from the Soviet era puts total Soviet losses in the war at 38.5 million persons including military dead of 20.58 million and 18 million civilians. Ivlev's calculations are presented on the internet site which he hosts www.soldat.ru. In 2012 this research was published Russia. [21] He maintains that documents from the Soviet era indicate that official figures are understated and that the Russian government should conduct new investigations on losses suffered in the war. The data was obtained from different sources, files that were verified; including death or missed in action notifications, unclaimed personal bank deposits, front and rear hospital reports, Communist Party and Young Communist League membership files, electorate base population and the gap between men and women prior and after the War. These sources reveal military losses exceeding those of Krivosheev's report by 2 — 2.5 times.[21]The main points of Igor Ivlev's analysis are as follows:.[21] The total demographic losses of the Soviet male population capable for military service is 20,580,000. A reconciliation of men drafted indicates 19.4 to 19.7 million dead and missing military personnel. The card files in the Russian Archives contains the names of 16.7 million dead and missing, in addition Ivlev maintains that 1.75 million missing and 1.0 to 1.2 million who died of wounds in rear area hospitals are not included in the Russian archives card files. The list of Soviet electorate voters for February 10, 1946 indicates a gap of 22.7 million males compared to the 1939 figures not including the inflow of population with the territories aquired in 1939-1940. Ivlev's calculations include 8,5 deaths due to natural causes, as already put down by demographers in civilian losses of 17,92 million in the December issue of the "Journal of Sociological Research" [76], but they do not include 11,9 million arbitrarily added by Krivosheev, who makes out he does not know of the 8,5 million deaths due to natural causes already calculated. According to Ivlev the personal records of those soldiers drafted before and during the war were reportedly destroyed under a secret order of the Soviet Defense Ministry soon after Stalin’s death in 1953 and most war draft related documents are still classified.

USSR war losses according to Igor Ivlev

Total Soviet losses by demographic balance (1941–45)
Population in June 1941 196,700,000
Population at the end of 1945 170,500,000
Born before June 1941 and living by end of 1945 159,500,000
Total loss of population born before the war period 37,200,000
Add wartime increase in Infant Mortality 1,300,000
Less deaths due to natural causes 8,500,000
Total population loss due to war 38,500,000

According to Ivlev there were only 8.5 million deaths due to natural causes during the war years. Ivlev maintains that the 11.9 million additional deaths due to natural causes in the offiial figures are a "trick" to lower the figure of war dead.

Source:Published in "Military History Archive", 2012, № 9, p. 41-58 [77]

1939 Census data and the 1946 election voters list

This is a table comparing the 1939 Census data and the 1946 election voters list which shows Igor Ivlev's calculations of the demographic gap between males and females. It shows an over 14-million gap with Krivoshev's report that put military dead at 8.7 million.

Date of Registration/Inflow/Loss Males of 1886—1927 Years of Birth Females of 1886—1927 Years of Birth Imbalance The Gap of Imbalances
17.01.1939(census) 52,398,674 55,820,204 3,421,530
Inflow of 1939-1940 with New Territories 7,002,600* 7,002,600 Insignificant
10.02.1946(voters in election) 27,146,000 53,331,000 26,185,000 22,763,470
Losses without Inflow of 1939-1940 25,252,674 2,489,204

Sources of Figures:

1. E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK) Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959, Moscow, Informatica, 1998, Chapter 7. The authors maintained that the 1946 voters lists were incomplete and that many young men were missed. The authors point out that the 1946 voters lists did not include 6.4 million persons deprived of their rights, in prison or in exile. They also noted that there was a overestimation of women because persons in rural areas without internal passports sought to avoid compulsory heavy labor[78]

2. RSAI, f.1562, inv. 336, file 604 "USSR Population Census of 1939. Population by Age", Table 11.

Boris Sokolov

In 1996 Boris Sokolov a Russian academic published a study that estimated total war dead at 43.3 million including 26.4 million in the military. Sokolov’s own calculations show that the official figures for population in 1941 to be understated by 12.7 million and the population in 1946 to be overstated by 4.0 million, thus resulting in 16.7 million additional war dead bringing the total to 43.3 million.[79] Sokolov's analysis of Soviet war losses has been published in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.[23] The Russian demographer Dr. L. L. Rybakovsky dismissed these hypothetical calculations and believes they are not based on sound judgment.[80]

V. E. Korol

Writing in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies V. E. Korol estimated overall Soviet war dead at 46 million persons including military dead of 23 million. He maintains that the official figure of 8.7 million military war dead was “groundless” based the actual accounts, cited by Korol, of the individual battles on the eastern front, Korol maintains that these solid sources are more than sufficient, and it is practically impossible to refute them. V. E. Korol believes that the official figures of Krivosheev are an attempt to cover up the disregard for human life by the military leaders under Stalin’s totalitarian system . Korol cites Soviet authors writing during the Glasnost era that put wartime losses much higher than the official figures; In 1990 General I. A. Gerasimov published information from the Russian Military Archives data base of individual war dead and missing that put losses at 16.2 million enlisted men and 1.2 million officers. Krol also cited historian-archivist Iu. Geller who put total Soviet war dead at losses at 46 million including military dead of 23 million.[24] and A.N. Mertsalov writing in the Journal Voprosy Istorii(Questions of History) estimating 14 million military dead based on documents in the Russian Military Archives.[81][82]

Hypothetical population loss for children unborn due to the war

Some Russian writers have argued that war losses should also include the hypothetical population loss for children unborn due to the war, using this methodology total losses would be about 46 million.[83]


Estimates Of Soviet War Dead by Western Scholars

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

Source Military Dead Civilian Dead Total Dead
Frank Lorimer(1946),[84][85] 5,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000
Pierre George (1946)[86] 7,000,000 10,000,000 17,000,000
N. S. Timasheff(1948),[87] 7,000,000 18,300,000 25,300,000
Helmut Arntz (1953)[88][89] 13,600,000 7,000,000 20,000,000+
Jean-Noël Biraben(1958)[90] 8,000,000 6,700,000 14,700,000
Warren W. Eason(1959)[91][92] 10,000,000 15,000,000 25,000,000
E. Ziemke(1968)[49] more than
12,000,000
Albert Seaton(1971)[93] 10,000,000
Gil Elliot (1972)[94] 10,000,000 10,000,000 20,000,000
Charles Messenger(1989)[95] 20,000,000
John Keegan(1989),[96] 7,000,000 7,000,000 14,000,000
R. J. Rummel (1990)[97] 7,000,000 19,125,000 26,125,000 plus 10,000,000 due to Soviet repression
John Ellis(1993)[98] 11,000,000 6,700,000 17,700,000
Michael Ellman and Sergei Maksudov(1994) [41] 8,700,000 18,000,000 26-27,000,000
Norman Davies(1998)[99] 8-9,000,000 16-19,000,000 24-28,000,000
Richard Overy(1997)[100] 8,668,400 17,000,000 25,000,000
Mark Mazower(1998)[101] 9,500,000 10,000,000 19,500,000
David Wallechinsky(1995)[102] 13,600,000 20-26,000,000
Michael Clodfelter (2002)[103] 8,668,400 20-26,000,000
Michael Haynes (2003) [104] 8,700,000 17,900,000 26,600,000
Martin Gilbert(2004)[105] 10,000,000 KIA &
3,300,000 POW		 7,000,000 20,000,000+
H. P. Willmott(2004)[106] 8,700,000 16,900,000 25,600,000
Tony Judt (2005)[107] 8,600,000 16,000,000 24,600,000
Norman Davies(2006)[108] 8,668,000 18,332,000 27,000,000
Cambridge History of Russia(2006)[109] 8.7 million + 13.7 million in Nazi occupied USSR
and 2.6 million in interior USSR		 24-26 million
Steven Rosefielde(2010)[110] 8,700,000 "all causes" "17.7 or 20.3 million" "26.4 to 29 million" plus 5.458 million dead due to Soviet repression
  • David Glantz maintains that “ the war with Nazi Germany cost the Soviet Union at least 29 million military casualties”(dead, wounded and sick) “ The exact numbers can never be established, and some revisionists have attempted to put the number as high as 50 million”[111]
  • Richard Overy believes the figures for military dead published in 1993... give the fullest account yet available, but they omit three operations that were clear failures. The official figures themselves must be viewed critically, given the difficulty of knowing in the chaos of 1941 and 1942 exactly who had been killed, wounded or even conscripted"[112] Regarding military dead Richard Overy believes that "for the present the figure of 8.6 million must be regarded as the most reliable"[113]
  • Norman Davies points out that that not all Soviet war dead were killed by the Nazis, many perished due to Soviet repression. Davies notes It lies in the nature of the problem that the victims of Soviet wartime repressions cannot be easily quantified. The records of the victorious Soviets, unlike those of the defeated Nazis have never been opened for scrutiny. Whether the fraction of Soviet civilians who perished at the hands of their own régime was one quarter, one third or even one half of the whole will never be firmly established until the Soviet government itself comes clean.[114]
  • The authors of the Cambridge History of Russia have provided an analysis of Soviet wartime casualties. Overall losses were about 25 million persons plus or minus 1 million. Red Army records indicate 8.7 million military deaths, “this figure is actually the lower limit”. The official figures understate POW losses and armed partisan deaths. Excess civilian deaths in the Nazi occupied USSR were 13.7 million persons including 2 million Jews. There were an additional 2.6 million deaths in the interior regions of the Soviet Union. The authors maintain “scope for error in this number is very wide”. At least 1 million perished in the wartime GULAG camps or in deportations. Other deaths occurred in the wartime evacuations and due to war related malnutrition and disease in the interior. The authors maintain that both Stalin and Hitler “were both responsible but in different ways” for these deaths.
    The authors of the Cambridge History of Russia believe that “In short the general picture of Soviet wartime losses suggests a jigsaw puzzle. The general outline is clear: people died in colossal numbers but in many different miserable and terrible circumstances. But individual pieces of the puzzle do not fit well; some overlap and others are yet to be found"[115]
  • Steven Rosefielde puts the war related demographic losses of the USSR from 1941 -45 at 22.0 to 26.0 million persons (7.8 million military and 14.2 to 18.2 million civilians). The actual wartime losses are higher because some persons who would have died peacefully actually perished as a result of the war. Rosefielde estimated the actual military dead at 8.7 million men and 17.7 to 20.3 million civilians killed by the Nazis in the war- (exterminated, shot, gassed burned 6.4 or 11.3 million; famine and disease 8.5 or 6.5 million; forced laborer in Germany 2.8 or 3.0 million and 500,000 who did not return to USSR after war.) [116] In addition to these war deaths Rosefielde also estimated the excess deaths attributed to the “total potential crimes against humanity” due to Soviet repression at 2.183 million persons in 1939-40 and 5.458 million from 1941-1945. The figures for losses due to Soviet repression do not include 1 million military deaths of men drafted from the Gulag into penal suicide battalions.[117]

Sources

In the English Language

G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4

Michael Haynes, Counting Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: a Note Europe Asia Studies Vol.55, No. 2, 2003, 300–309

Michael Ellman and S. Maksudov, Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War:a note-World War II- Europe Asia Studies, July 1994

Boris SokolovThe cost of war: Human losses for the USSR and Germany, 1939-1945 The Journal of Soviet Military Studies Volume 9, Issue 1 March 1996

Boris Urlanis, Populations and Wars Progress Moscow 1971

Iosif G. Dyadkin, Unnatural Deaths in the Ussr, 1928-1954 Transaction 1983

S. A. Il'Enkov Concerning the registration of Soviet armed forces' wartime irrevocable losses, 1941-1945 The Journal of Soviet Military Studies Volume 9, Issue 2 June 1996

In the Russian Language

G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4

S. N Mikhalev Liudskie poteri v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941- 1945 gg: Statisticheskoe issledovanie Krasnoiarskii gos. pedagog. universitet • 2000 ISBN: ISBN 978-5-85981-082-6. Mikhalev's book is available in libraries in the U.S. and the UK

Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: сборник статей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of World War II: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0

Andreev, EM, et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 978-5-02-013479-9

A. A. Shevyakov “Gitlerovski genotsid na territoriyakh SSR.” Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 12, 1991 This article by a researcher at the Russian Academy of Science is a brief summary of the work of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission.

A. A. Shevyakov “Zhertvy sredi mirnogo nasseleniya v gody otechestvennoi voiny” Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 11, 1992 This article by a researcher at the Russian Academy of Science gives a detailed breakdown by locality of civilian losses in the occupied USSR based on the reports of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission.

L L Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War (In Russian) Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 6.

L L Rybakovsky The Great Patriotic War Russian Human Losses (In Russian) Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2001. № 6.

Л.Л. РЫБАКОВСКИЙЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ СССР В ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ LL Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War In Russian Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 8.

Б.В. Соколов ЦЕНА ВОЙНЫ:ЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ СССР И ГЕРМАНИИ, 1939-1945 Boris Sokolov, Truth about the Great Patriotic War 1998 ( In Russian) Russian translation of the article that appeared in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies # 3 1996.

S. A. Il’enkov Pamyat O Millionach Pavshik Zaschitnikov Otechestva Nelzya Predavat Zabveniu Voennno-Istoricheskii Arkhiv No. 7(22), Central Military Archives of the Russian Federation 2001, pp. 73–80 ISBN 978-5-89710-005-7,The Memory of those who Fell Defending the Fatherland Cannot be Condemned to Oblivion In Russian -Available at the New York Public Library

See also

References

  1. ^ Michael Ellman and S. Maksudov, Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War:a note-World War II- Europe Asia Studies, July 1994 Page 677
  2. ^ a b c d G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Page 79
  3. ^ a b G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4
  4. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Table 111
  5. ^ a b G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Tables 111
  6. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85-86 Includes 12,031 dead and missing and 24,425 in the Invasion of Manchuria
  7. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Tables 121 &123
  8. ^ a b G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Table 120
  9. ^ a b G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Page 85
  10. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Table 176
  11. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 85-86
  12. ^ Г.Ф.КРИВОШЕЕВ, НЕКОТОРЫЕ НОВЫЕ ДАННЫЕ АНАЛИЗА СИЛ И ПОТЕРЬ НА СОВЕТСКО-ГЕРМАНСКОМ ФРОНТЕ ,Мир истории 1999 Nr 1- так как в конце войны в лагерях для военнопленных было зарегистрировано 2 016 тыс. человек, из них вернулось 1 836 тыс. человек, а 180 тыс. не вернулось G. Krivosheev, Some new data analysis on forces and losses on the Soviet German front in Mir Istorii 1999-1
  13. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Page 87
  14. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Table 121
  15. ^ R. J. Rummel. Democide Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder. Transaction 1992 ISBN 1-56000-004-X. Table A
  16. ^ "United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust Encyclopedia "Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War"". Ushmm.org. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  17. ^ a b c Erlikhman, Vadim. Потери народонаселения в XX веке: справочник (Population Losses in the 20th century: Reference). Moscow, 2004. ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1
  18. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Pages 230-238
  19. ^ a b S. N Mikhalev Liudskie poteri v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941- 1945 gg: Statisticheskoe issledovanie Krasnoiarskii gos. pedagog. universitet • 2000 ISBN: ISBN 978-5-85981-082-6. Page 28 Mikhalev's book is available in libraries in the U.S. and the UK
  20. ^ S. A. Il’enkov Pamyat O Millionach Pavshik Zaschitnikov Otechestva Nelzya Predavat Zabveniu Voennno-Istoricheskii Arkhiv No. 7(22), Central Military Archives of the Russian Federation 2001, pp. 73-80 ISBN 978-5-89710-005-7, The Memory of those who Fell Defending the Fatherland Cannot be Condemned to Oblivion In Russian -Available at the New York Public Library
  21. ^ a b c d Ivlev, Polyhovskii, Zmeskov and Pyhalov, "Washing with Blood"? Lies and Truth on Losses in Great Patriotic War" Yaouza—Aexmo Publishing House 2012. Игорь Пыхалов, Лев Лопуховский, Виктор Земсков, Игорь Ивлев, Борис Кавалерчик, "Умылись кровью"? Ложь и правда о потерях в Великой Отечественной войне" [1]
  22. ^ Соколов Б.В. Правда о Великой Отечественной войне. СПб., 1998. (B. Sokolov, Truth about the Great Patriotic War In Russian
  23. ^ a b Boris Sokolov The cost of war: Human losses for the USSR and Germany, 1939-1945 The Journal of Soviet Military Studies Volume 9, Issue 1 March 1996,
  24. ^ a b The Price of Victory: Myths and reality, V.E. Korol, Journal of Slavic Military Studies Vol. 9 No. 2 (June 1996) pp 417-423
  25. ^ Г.Ф. КРИВОШЕЕВ, «Историк должен ЛИКОВАТЬ и ГОРЕВАТЬ со своим народом ВОЕННО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ ЖУРНАЛ №11 2002 G. I. Krivosheev “Historians Should Triumph and Grieve with their People, Military History Journal Nr. 11 2002 [dead link‍]
  26. ^ a b Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny:sbornik statei. Sankt-Peterburg 1995 ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 M. V. Philimoshin of the War Ministry of the Russian Federation About the results of calculation of losses among civilian population of the USSR and Russian Federation 1941-1945 Pages 124-131 In Russian (These losses are for the entire territory of the USSR in 1941, including territories annexed in 1939–40).
  27. ^ Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. 1988. ISBN 978-0-688-12364-2
  28. ^ David M. Glantz, Siege of Leningrad 1941 1944 Cassell 2001 ISBN 978-1-4072-2132-8
  29. ^ Л.Л. РЫБАКОВСКИЙ ВЕЛИКАЯ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННАЯ ЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ РОССИИ L. L. Ryebakovsky Russia’s Human Losses in the Great Patriotic War In Russian Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya 2001. № 6. Page 86
  30. ^ Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: сборник статей -Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles. Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 Page 126
  31. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Tables 116-118
  32. ^ Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: рник стсбоатей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0
  33. ^ Perrie, Maureen (2006), The Cambridge History of Russia: The twentieth century, Cambridge University Press, p. 226, ISBN 0-521-81144-9 Total civilian deaths under the German occupation were 13.7 million including 2 million Jews
  34. ^ a b Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: рник стсбоатей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 Pages 124-131 The Russian Academy of Science article by M.V. Philimoshin based this figure on sources published in the Soviet era.
  35. ^ Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: рник стсбоатей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 Pages 124-131 The Russian Academy of Science article by M.V. Philimoshin estimated 6% of the population in the occupied regions died due to war related famine and disease.
  36. ^ a b c Andreev, EM, et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 978-5-02-013479-9
  37. ^ Łuczak, Czesław. Szanse i trudnosci bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939-1945. Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI. 1994. The losses in the former Polish eastern regions are also included in Poland's total war dead of 5.6 to 5.8 million
  38. ^ Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: сборник статей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 Page158 deaths resulting from harsh conditions, like lack of food and medicine, on Soviet territory not occupied by the Germans were due to wartime shortages
  39. ^ Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences). Людские потери СССР в период второй мировой войны: сборник статей (Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Collection of Articles). Saint-Petersburg, 1995. ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 Page174-177 deaths resulting from harsh conditions, like lack of food and medicine, on Soviet territory not occupied by the Germans were due to wartime shortages
  40. ^ Andreev, EM, et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 978-5-02-013479-9 The 1952 Foreign Ministry figures gave a total of 451,100 who return to the USSR after 1946, this figure did not include an additional 170.000 persons who emmigated to Germany and Rumania
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h Michael Ellman and S. Maksudov, Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War:a note-World War II- Europe Asia Studies, July 1994
  42. ^ Michael Haynes, Counting Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: a Note Europe Asia Studies Vol.55, No. 2, 2003, 300–309
  43. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Table 115
  44. ^ Andreev, E.M., et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 978-5-02-013479-9 Page 78
  45. ^ E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK) Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959 Chapter 7(in Russian[2]
  46. ^ OBD Memorial database
  47. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4
  48. ^ Richard Overy, Russia's War 1997
  49. ^ a b Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, the German Defeat in the East;Office of the Chief of Military History U.S. Army 1968 pp 500
  50. ^ Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny:sbornik statei. Sankt-Peterburg 1995 ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0.
  51. ^ Crimes of the German Wehrmacht, Hamburg Institute for Social Research 2004
  52. ^ a b LL Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War In Russian Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 6. P. 108-118
  53. ^ Л.Л. РЫБАКОВСКИЙЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ СССР В ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ LL Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War In Russian Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 8. P.90-91 The Russian researcher L L Rybakovsky assumes that the source of Nikita Khrushchev’s figure of 20 million war dead was the 1957 Soviet translation,(Itogi vtoroj mirovoj vojny. Sbornik statej) of the West German book Bilanz des Zweiten Weltkrieges Hamburg 1953
  54. ^ L L Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War (In Russian) Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 6.
  55. ^ Boris Urlanis, Populations and Wars Progress Moscow 1971 Page 132
  56. ^ Boris Urlanis, Populations and Wars Progress Moscow 1971 Page 284
  57. ^ Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and tragedy 1991
  58. ^ Tsena Pobeda Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal # 3 The Price of Victory –Military History Journal # 3 1990 Interview with M.A. Moiseev Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces.
  59. ^ A. A. Shevyakov “Gitlerovski genotsid na territoriyakh SSR.” Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 12, 1991 This article by a researcher at the Russian Academy of Science is a brief summary of the work of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission.
  60. ^ A. A. Shevyakov “Zherty sredi mirnogo nasseleniya v gody otechestvennoi voiny” Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 11, 1992 This article by a researcher at the Russian Academy of Science gives a detailed breakdown by locality of civilian losses in the occupied USSR based on the reports of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission.
  61. ^ Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny:sbornik statei. Sankt-Peterburg 1995 ISBN 978-5-86789-023-0 M. V. Philimoshin of the War Ministry of the Russian Federation About the results of calculation of losses among civilian population of the USSR and Russian Federation 1941-1945Pages 124-131 In Russian (These losses are for the entire territory of the USSR in 1941, including territories annexed in 1939–40).
  62. ^ Kalinov, Cyrille- Les maréchaux soviétiques vous parlent. Paris 1950
  63. ^ Gregory, Frumkin. Population Changes in Europe Since 1939, Geneva 1951.
  64. ^ S. N Mikhalev Liudskie poteri v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941- 1945 gg: Statisticheskoe issledovanie Krasnoiarskii gos. pedagog. universitet • 2000 ISBN: ISBN 978-5-85981-082-6. Page 36
  65. ^ S. Maksudov, Pertes subies par la population de l'URSS, 1918-1958, Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique, XVIII, 3, July–September 1977
  66. ^ S. Maksudov Losses Suffered by the Population of the USSR 1918-1958 The Samizdat register II / edited by Roy Medvedev New York : Norton, 1981.(English translation of Maksudov's 1977 article)
  67. ^ Iosif G. Dyadkin, Unnatural Deaths in the Ussr, 1928-1954 Transaction 1983 ISBN 978-0-87855-919-0
  68. ^ Obituary of S N Mkhalev
  69. ^ Великая Отечественная: демографические и военно-оперативные потери // Людские потери СССР в Великой Отечественной войне: Сб.ст. - СПб., 1995. - 1,0 п. л.-] The Russian Academy of Science published the details of his analysis of total population losses here
  70. ^ G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4 Page 85-91
  71. ^ G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil ; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 ISBN 5-224-01515-4 Tables 120 and 132
  72. ^ S. N Mikhalev Liudskie poteri v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941- 1945 gg: Statisticheskoe issledovanie Krasnoiarskii gos. pedagog. universitet • 2000 ISBN: ISBN 978-5-85981-082-6. Pages 18-21. S. N Mikhalev Human Losses in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 A Statistical Investigation Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University (In Russin)
  73. ^ S. A. Il'Enkov Concerning the registration of Soviet armed forces' wartime irrevocable losses, 1941-1945 The Journal of Soviet Military Studies Volume 9, Issue 2 June 1996
  74. ^ S. A. Il’enkov Pamyat O Millionach Pavshik Zaschitnikov Otechestva Nelzya Predavat Zabveniu Voennno-Istoricheskii Arkhiv No. 7(22), Central Military Archives of the Russian Federation 2001, pp. 73-80 ISBN 978-5-89710-005-7,( The Memory of those who Fell Defending the Fatherland Cannot be Condemned to Oblivion In Russian -Available at the New York Public Library
  75. ^ Rianovosti, 7. Mai 2009: UdSSR hat im Zweiten Weltkrieg rund 37 Millionen Menschen verloren This figure proably includes persons dying natural deaths unrelated to the war
  76. ^ "Социологические исследования", 1991, № 12, с. 10
  77. ^ (Опубликовано в журнале "Военно-исторический архив", 2012, №9, с. 41-58)
  78. ^ E.M. Andreev, L.E. Darski and T. L. Kharkova (ADK) Demographic History of Russia 1927–1959 Chapter 7(in Russian[3]
  79. ^ Соколов Б.В. Правда о Великой Отечественной войне. СПб., 1998. B. Sokolov, Truth about the Great Patriotic War In Russian
  80. ^ Л.Л. РЫБАКОВСКИЙЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ СССР В ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ LL Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War In Russian Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 8. P. 89
  81. ^ The Price of Victory: Myths and reality, V.E. Korol, Journal of Slavic Military Studies Vol. 9 No. 2 (June 1996) pp 423
  82. ^ Letter to editor by A.N. Mertsalov Voprosy in Istorii(Questions of History) nr 2/3 1991 p. 250
  83. ^ L L Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War (In Russian) Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 6. pp.110-111
  84. ^ Frank Lorimer, The population of the Soviet Union: history and prospects, Geneva, League of Nations, 1946. Pages 181-183.
  85. ^ Lormimer's hypothetical figures, not an estimate, put the total demographic loss at 20.0 million. 9.0 million civilians over age 5 and 6.0 million children under age 5 not born during the war or deaths due to an increase in infant mortality. The figure of 5.0 million military dead was based on information available in early 1946 which was published in the USSR during the war. Lormier's figures are for the USSR in 1939 borders and does not include territories annexed in 1939-1940
  86. ^ Esquisse d'une étude démographique de l'Union soviétique Population(Paris) No.3 July–September 1946
  87. ^ N. S. Timasheff: “The Post-war Population of the Soviet Union”The American Journal of Sociology, September 1948
  88. ^ Bilanz des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Oldenburg-Hamburg, 1953. – Professor Dr. Helmut Arntz . Die Menschenverluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg
  89. ^ Л.Л. РЫБАКОВСКИЙЛЮДСКИЕ ПОТЕРИ СССР В ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ LL Rybakovsky Casualties of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War (In Russian) Sotsiologicheskie issiedovaniya, 2000. № 8. P.90-91 The Russian researcher L L Rybakovsky assumes that the source of Nikita Khrushchev’s figure of 20 million war dead was the 1957 Soviet translation,(Itogi vtoroj mirovoj vojny. Sbornik statej) of the West German book Bilanz des Zweiten Weltkrieges Hamburg 1953
  90. ^ Jean-Noël Biraben, Essai sur l'évolution démographique de l'U.R.S.S. Population (French Edition) Jun., 1958, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 29-62
  91. ^ Eason, Warren W. , “The Soviet Population Today” Foreign Affairs 37 (July 1959): 598-606Eason made his calculations based on the preliminary results of the 1959 Soviet census. His estimate was 25 million deaths of those persons alive at the beginning of the war and an additional wartime loss of 20,000,000 children under age 5 due to a decline in births and an increase infant mortality, thus bringing the total to 45,000,000
  92. ^ Obituary of Warren Eason
  93. ^ Albert Seaton, The Russo-German War 1941-45 Prager 1971 pp 586
  94. ^ Gil Elliot, Twentieth Century Book of the Dead C. Scribner, 1972 ISBN 978-0-684-13115-3
  95. ^ Messenger, Charles, The Chronological Atlas of World War Two (Macmillan, 1989)
  96. ^ Keegan, John, The Second World War (1989)
  97. ^ R. J. Rummel Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917 pp. 167 Transaction 1990 ISBN 978-1-56000-887-3
  98. ^ Ellis John, World War II : a statistical survey 1993
  99. ^ Davies, Norman, Europe A History (1998)
  100. ^ Richard Overy, Russia's War 1997
  101. ^ Mazower, Mark, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century (1998)
  102. ^ Wallechinsky, David, Twentieth Century / History With the Boring Parts Left Out (1995)
  103. ^ Michael Clodfelter. Warfare and Armed Conflicts- A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000. 2nd Ed. 2002 ISBN 978-0-7864-1204-4. Pages 515-516
  104. ^ Michael Haynes, Counting Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: a Note Europe Asia Studies Vol.55, No. 2, 2003, 300–309
  105. ^ Martin Gilbert The Second World War: A Complete History 2004
  106. ^ H. P. Willmott , Robin Cross, Charles Messenger, and Neil Grant , World War II, ISBN 978-0-7566-0521-6
  107. ^ Tony Judt Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)
  108. ^ Davies, Norman, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945 (2006)pp.367 however on p. 24 Davies put Soviet military dead at 11,000,000
  109. ^ Perrie, Maureen (2006), The Cambridge History of Russia: The twentieth century, Cambridge University Press, pp. 225-227
  110. ^ Steven Rosefielde Red Holocaust Routledge, 2009 ISBN 0-415-77757-7 Pages 72 and 179
  111. ^ David M. Glantz & Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed...How the Red Army Stopped Hitler Univ Pr of Kansas, 1998 ISBN 978-0-7006-0899-7 pp285
  112. ^ Richard Overy, Russia's War 1997 pp.XV
  113. ^ Richard Overy, Russia's War 1997 pp.287
  114. ^ Norman Davies ,NOT TWENTY MILLION, NOT RUSSIANS, NOT WAR DEAD, The Independent on December 29, 1987
  115. ^ Perrie, Maureen (2006), The Cambridge History of Russia: The twentieth century, Cambridge University Press, pp. 225-227, ISBN 0-521-81144-9
  116. ^ Steven Rosefielde. Red Holocaust Routledge, 2009 ISBN 0-415-77757-7 Page 72
  117. ^ Steven Rosefielde Red Holocaust Routledge, 2009 ISBN 0-415-77757-7 Page 179

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