The total number of deaths in World War II. How many people actually died in World War II

The losses incurred during the Second World War are estimated differently by specialists in the field of history. In this case, different methods of initial data and methods of calculation are used. Today in Russia, the data provided by the research group, which worked as part of a project conducted by the specialists of the Military Memorial, are recognized as official.

As of 2001, when the research data were once again clarified, it is generally accepted that during the years of the war against Nazi fascism, the Soviet Union lost 6.9 million military personnel. Nearly four and a half million Soviet soldiers and officers were captured or went missing. The country's total human losses are most impressive: taking into account the dead civilians they amounted to 26 million 600 thousand people.

The losses of fascist Germany turned out to be significantly lower and amounted to a little more than 4 million military personnel. The total losses of the German side as a result of the actions are estimated at 6.6 million people; this includes the civilian population. Allied Germany lost less than a million soldiers killed. The overwhelming number of deaths on both sides of the military confrontation amounted to.

Losses of the Second World War: questions remain

Earlier, completely different official data on their own losses were adopted in Russia. Almost until the end of the existence of the USSR, there were practically no serious studies on this issue, since most of the data were closed. In the Soviet Union, after the end of the war, estimates of losses, named by I.V. Stalin, who determined this figure to be 7 million people. After coming to power N.S. Khrushchev, it turned out that the country had lost about 20 million people.

When a team of reformers led by M.S. Gorbachev, it was decided to create a research, at the disposal of which documents from the archives and other reference materials. Those data on losses in the Second World War that are used were made public only in 1990.

Historians of other countries do not dispute the results of the research of their Russian colleagues. The total human losses suffered by all countries that participated in the Second World War in one way or another are practically impossible to calculate exactly. Numbers from 45 to 60 million people are called. Some historians believe that as new information is found and counting methods are refined, the upper total losses all warring countries can be up to 70 million people.

The newspaper "Tomorrow" clarifies the results of the Second World War, for us - the Patriotic War. As usual, this happens in polemics with historical falsifications.

Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences G. A. Kumanev and a special commission of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Department of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, using previously closed statistics in 1990, established that human casualties in the Armed Forces of the USSR, as well as the border and internal troops of the country during the Great Patriotic War wars amounted to 8,668,400 people, which is only 18,900 more than the number of losses of the armed forces of Germany and its allies who fought against the USSR. That is, the losses in the war of German military personnel with the allies and the USSR were almost the same. The well-known historian Yu. V. Emelyanov considers the indicated number of losses to be correct.

Member of the Great Patriotic War, Doctor of Historical Sciences B. G. Solovyov and Candidate of Sciences V. V. Sukhodeev (2001) write: “During the years of the Great Patriotic War (including the campaign for Far East against Japan in 1945) the total irretrievable demographic losses (killed, missing, captured and never returned from it, died from wounds, illnesses and as a result of accidents) of the Soviet Armed Forces, together with the border and internal troops, amounted to 8 million 668 400 thousand people ... Our irretrievable losses over the years of the war are as follows: 1941 (for half a year of the war) - 27.8%; 1942 - 28.2%; 1943 - 20.5%; 1944 - 15.6%; 1945 - 7.5 percent of total losses. Consequently, according to the above historians, our losses for the first year and a half of the war amounted to 57.6 percent, and for the remaining 2.5 years - 42.4 percent.

They also support the results of serious research work carried out by a group of military and civilian experts, including employees of the General Staff, published in 1993 in a work entitled: “Secrecy removed. Losses armed forces USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts” and in the publications of General of the Army M. A. Gareev.

I draw the reader's attention to the fact that these data are not the personal opinion of boys and uncles in love with the West, but scientific research, conducted by a group of scientists with a deep analysis and a rigorous calculation of the irretrievable losses of the Soviet army during the Great Patriotic War.

“In the war with the fascist bloc, we suffered huge losses. They are received with great sorrow by the people. They hit the fate of millions of families with a heavy blow. But these were sacrifices made in the name of saving the Motherland, the life of future generations. And dirty speculation unfolded in last years around losses, the deliberate, malevolent exaggeration of their scale is deeply immoral. They continue even after the publication of previously closed materials. Under the false mask of philanthropy, well-thought-out calculations are hidden by any means to desecrate the Soviet past, a great feat accomplished by the people, ”wrote the above-mentioned scientists.

Our losses were justified. Even some Americans understood this at the time. “So, in a greeting received from the United States in June 1943, it was emphasized: “Many young Americans survived thanks to the sacrifices that were made by the defenders of Stalingrad. Every Red Army soldier who defends his Soviet land, by killing a Nazi, thereby saves a life and american soldiers. We will keep this in mind when calculating our debt to the Soviet ally.

For the irretrievable losses of Soviet military personnel in the amount of 8 million. 668 thousand 400 people are indicated by the scientist O. A. Platonov. The specified number of losses included irretrievable losses of the Red Army, Navy, border troops, internal troops and state security agencies.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. A. Kumanev in his book “Feat and Forgery” wrote that the Eastern Front accounted for 73% of the casualties of the Nazi troops during World War II. Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front lost 75% of their aircraft, 74% of their artillery, and 75% of their tanks and assault guns.

And this despite the fact that on the Eastern Front they did not surrender in hundreds of thousands, as on the Western Front, but fought fiercely, fearing in captivity retribution for the crimes committed on Soviet soil.

The wonderful researcher Yu. Mukhin also writes about our losses of 8.6 million people, including those who died from accidents, diseases and those who died in German captivity. This number of 8 million 668 thousand 400 people of irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 is recognized by the majority of Russian scientists, historians and researchers. But, in my opinion, the indicated losses of Soviet military personnel are significantly overestimated.

German losses by the majority of Russian scientists, historians and researchers are indicated in the amount of 8 million 649 thousand 500 people.

G. A. Kumanev draws attention to the huge number Soviet losses military personnel in German prisoner of war camps and writes the following: “While out of 4 million 126 thousand military personnel of the Nazi troops taken prisoner, 580 thousand 548 people died, and the rest returned home, out of 4 million 559 thousand Soviet military personnel taken prisoner , only 1 million 836 thousand people returned to their homeland. From 2.5 to 3.5 million died in Nazi camps.” The number of German prisoners who died may be surprising, but one must take into account that people always die, and among the captured Germans there were many frostbitten and emaciated, as, for example, near Stalingrad, as well as the wounded.

V. V. Sukhodeev writes that 1 million 894 thousand people returned from German captivity. 65 people, and 2 million 665 thousand 935 Soviet soldiers and officers died in German concentration camps. Due to the destruction of Soviet prisoners of war by the Germans, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War had irretrievable losses approximately equal to the losses of the armed forces of Germany and its allies who fought against the USSR.

Directly in battles with the German armed forces and the armies of their allies, the Soviet Armed Forces lost 2 million 655 thousand 935 less Soviet soldiers and officers in the period from 06/22/1941 to 05/09/1945. This is explained by the fact that 2 million 665 thousand 935 Soviet prisoners of war died in German captivity.

If the Soviet side in Soviet captivity had killed 2 million 094 thousand 287 (in addition to the dead 580 thousand 548) prisoners of war of the fascist bloc, then the losses of Germany and its allies would have exceeded the losses of the Soviet army by 2 million 094 thousand 287 people.

Only the criminal murder of our prisoners of war by the Germans led to almost equal irretrievable losses of servicemen of the German and Soviet armies during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

So which army fought better? Of course, the Soviet Red Army. With an approximate equality of prisoners, she destroyed more than 2 million more enemy soldiers and officers in battle. And this despite the fact that our troops stormed the largest cities in Europe and took the very capital of Germany - the city of Berlin.

Our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought brilliantly and showed the highest degree nobility, sparing the German prisoners of war. They had the full moral right not to take them prisoner for the crimes committed, shooting them on the spot. But the Russian soldier never showed cruelty towards the defeated enemy.

The main trick of liberal revisionists when describing losses is to write down any number and let the Russians prove it wrong, and in the meantime they will come up with a new fake. And how can you prove it? After all, the true exposers of the liberal revisionists are not allowed on television.

By the way, they tirelessly shout that all the people who returned prisoners and were driven to work in Germany were tried in the USSR and sent to forced labor camps. This is also another lie. Yu. V. Emelyanov, based on the data of the historian V. Zemskov, writes that by March 1, 1946, 2,427,906 who returned from Germany Soviet people were sent to their place of residence, 801,152 - to serve in the army, and 608,095 - to the worker battalions of the People's Commissariat of Defense. Of the total number of those who returned, 272,867 (6.5%) were placed at the disposal of the NKVD. These, as a rule, were those who committed criminal offenses, including those who took part in the battles against the Soviet troops, such as, for example, the “Vlasovites”.

After 1945, 148,000 "Vlasovites" entered the special settlements. On the occasion of the victory, they were released from criminal liability for treason, limiting themselves to exile. In 1951-1952, 93.5 thousand people were released from their number.

Most of the Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians who served in the German army as privates and junior commanders were sent home before the end of 1945.

V.V. Sukhodeev writes that up to 70% of former prisoners of war were returned to the active army, only 6% of former prisoners of war who collaborated with the Nazis were arrested and sent to penal battalions. But, apparently, many of them were forgiven.

But the United States, with its 5th column inside Russia, presented the most humane and fair Soviet government in the world as the most cruel and unjust government, and the most kind, modest, courageous and freedom-loving Russian people in the world were presented as a people of slaves. Yes, they imagined that the Russians themselves believed in it.

It is high time for us to throw off the veil from our eyes and see Soviet Russia in all the splendor of her great victories and achievements.

Estimates of the losses of Soviet citizens in the Great Patriotic War have a huge spread: from 19 to 36 million. The first detailed calculations were made by a Russian emigrant, demographer Timashev in 1948 - he got 19 million. B. Sokolov called the maximum figure - 46 million. The latest calculations show that only the military of the USSR lost 13.5 million people, while the total losses were over 27 million.

At the end of the war, long before any historical and demographic studies, Stalin gave a figure: 5.3 million people were killed in the war. He included in it the missing persons (obviously, in most cases - prisoners). In March 1946, in an interview with a correspondent for the Pravda newspaper, the generalissimo estimated the casualties at 7 million. The increase was due to civilians who died in the occupied territory or were driven to Germany.

In the West, this figure was perceived with skepticism. Already in the late 1940s, the first calculations of the demographic balance of the USSR for the war years, contradicting Soviet data, appeared. An illustrative example is the estimates of the Russian emigrant, demographer N.S. Timashev, published in the New York "New Journal" in 1948. Here is his methodology:

The all-Union census of the population of the USSR in 1939 determined its number at 170.5 million. The increase in 1937-1940 reached, according to his assumption, almost 2% per year. Consequently, the population of the USSR by the middle of 1941 should have reached 178.7 million. But in 1939-1940 Western Ukraine and Belarus, the three Baltic states, the Karelian lands of Finland were annexed to the USSR, and Romania returned Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Therefore, after subtracting the Karelian population who went to Finland, the Poles who fled to the west, and the Germans repatriated to Germany, these territorial acquisitions gave a population increase of 20.5 million. Considering that the birth rate in the annexed territories was no more than 1% per year, that is, lower than in the USSR, and also taking into account the short time interval between their entry into the USSR and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the author determined the population growth for these territories by mid-1941 at 300 thousand. Sequentially adding the above figures, he received 200 .7 million who lived in the USSR on the eve of June 22, 1941.

Next, Timashev divided 200 million into three age groups, again relying on the data of the All-Union Census of 1939: adults (over 18 years old) -117.2 million, adolescents (from 8 to 18 years old) - 44.5 million, children (under 8 years old) - 38.8 million In doing so, he took into account two important circumstances. First: in 1939-1940 from childhood two very weak annual flows, born in 1931-1932, during the famine, which covered large areas of the USSR and negatively affected the size of the adolescent group, passed into the group of teenagers. Second, there were more people over 20 in the former Polish lands and the Baltic states than in the USSR.

Timashev supplemented these three age groups with the number of Soviet prisoners. He did it in the following way. By the time of the elections of deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in December 1937, the population of the USSR reached 167 million, of which voters accounted for 56.36% of total figure, and the population over 18, according to the All-Union census of 1939, reached 58.3%. The resulting difference of 2%, or 3.3 million, in his opinion, was the population of the Gulag (including the number of those executed). This turned out to be close to the truth.

Next, Timashev moved on to post-war figures. The number of voters included in the voting lists for the elections of deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the spring of 1946 amounted to 101.7 million. Adding to this figure 4 million prisoners of the Gulag calculated by him, he received 106 million of the adult population in the USSR at the beginning of 1946. Calculating the teenage group, he took as a basis 31.3 million students in primary and high school in 1947/48 academic year, compared with the data of 1939 (31.4 million schoolchildren within the borders of the USSR until September 17, 1939) and received a figure of 39 million. Calculating the children's group, he proceeded from the fact that by the beginning of the war the birth rate in the USSR was approximately 38 per thousand, the second quarter of 1942, it fell by 37.5%, and in 1943-1945 - by half.

Subtracting from each annual group the percentage due according to the normal mortality table for the USSR, he received at the beginning of 1946 36 million children. Thus, according to his statistical calculations, in the USSR at the beginning of 1946 there were 106 million adults, 39 million adolescents and 36 million children, and a total of 181 million. Timashev’s conclusion is as follows: the population of the USSR in 1946 was 19 million less than in 1941.

Approximately the same results came and other Western researchers. In 1946, under the auspices of the League of Nations, F. Lorimer's book "The Population of the USSR" was published. According to one of his hypotheses, during the war the population of the USSR decreased by 20 million people.

In an article published in 1953 "Casual losses in the Second World War", the German researcher G. Arntz concluded that "20 million people is the figure closest to the truth of the total losses of the Soviet Union in the Second World War." The collection, which includes this article, was translated and published in the USSR in 1957 under the title "Results of the Second World War". Thus, four years after Stalin's death, Soviet censorship let the figure of 20 million into the open press, thereby indirectly recognizing it as true and making it the property of at least specialists - historians, international affairs, etc.

Only in 1961, Khrushchev, in a letter to the Swedish Prime Minister Erlander, admitted that the war against fascism "claimed two tens of millions of lives of Soviet people." Thus, in comparison with Stalin, Khrushchev increased the Soviet casualties by almost 3 times.

In 1965, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, Brezhnev spoke of "more than 20 million" human lives lost by the Soviet people in the war. In the 6th and final volume of the fundamental “History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union” published at the same time, it was stated that out of the 20 million dead, almost half “are military and civilians killed and tortured by the Nazis in the occupied Soviet territory.” In fact, 20 years after the end of the war, the USSR Ministry of Defense recognized the death of 10 million Soviet servicemen.

Four decades later, the head of the Center for Military History of Russia of the Institute Russian history Professor G. Kumanev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a footnote, told the truth about the calculations that military historians carried out in the early 1960s when preparing the “History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union”: “Our losses in the war were then determined at 26 million. But it turned out to be high authorities the accepted figure is "over 20 million".

As a result, "20 million" not only took root for decades in historical literature but also became part of the national identity.

In 1990, M. Gorbachev published a new figure of losses, obtained as a result of research by demographic scientists, - "almost 27 million people."

In 1991, B. Sokolov's book “The Price of Victory. The Great Patriotic War: the unknown about the known. In it, direct military losses of the USSR were estimated at about 30 million, including 14.7 million military personnel, and "actual and potential losses" - at 46 million, including 16 million unborn children.

A little later, Sokolov clarified these figures (brought new losses). He received the loss figure as follows. From the size of the Soviet population at the end of June 1941, which he determined at 209.3 million, he subtracted 166 million who, in his opinion, lived in the USSR on January 1, 1946 and received 43.3 million dead. Then, from the resulting number, he subtracted the irretrievable losses of the armed forces (26.4 million) and received the irretrievable losses of the civilian population - 16.9 million.

“It is possible to name the number of killed Red Army soldiers during the entire war close to reality, if we determine that month of 1942, when the losses of the Red Army by the dead were taken into account most fully and when it had almost no losses as prisoners. For a number of reasons, we chose November 1942 as such a month and extended the ratio of the number of dead and wounded obtained for it to the entire period of the war. As a result, we came to a figure of 22.4 million killed in battle and died from wounds, illnesses, accidents and shot by the tribunals of Soviet military personnel.

To the 22.4 million received in this way, he added 4 million fighters and commanders of the Red Army who died in enemy captivity. And so it turned out 26.4 million irretrievable losses suffered by the armed forces.

In addition to B. Sokolov, similar calculations were made by L. Polyakov, A. Kvasha, V. Kozlov and others. The methodological weakness of this kind of calculations is obvious: the researchers proceeded from the difference in the size of the Soviet population in 1941, which is known very approximately, and the size of the post-war population of the USSR, which is almost impossible to determine exactly. It was this difference that they considered the total loss of life.

In 1993 it was published statistical study“Secret stamp removed: losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts”, prepared by a team of authors headed by General G. Krivosheev. Previously secret archival documents became the main source of statistical data, primarily the reporting materials of the General Staff. However, the losses of entire fronts and armies in the first months, and the authors specifically stipulated this, were obtained by them by calculation. In addition, the reports of the General Staff did not include the losses of units that were organizationally not part of the Soviet armed forces (army, navy, border and internal troops NKVD of the USSR), but who took a direct part in the battles - civil uprising, partisan detachments, underground groups.

Finally, the number of prisoners of war and missing persons is clearly underestimated: this category of losses, according to the reports of the General Staff, totals 4.5 million, of which 2.8 million remained alive (were repatriated after the end of the war or re-conscripted into the ranks of the Red Army on the territory liberated from the occupiers), and, accordingly, total number those who did not return from captivity, including those who did not wish to return to the USSR, amounted to 1.7 million.

As a result, the statistical data of the handbook “The Classification Removed” were immediately perceived as requiring clarifications and additions. And in 1998, thanks to the publication of V. Litovkin “During the war, our army lost 11 million 944 thousand 100 people”, these data were replenished by 500 thousand reserve reservists drafted into the army, but not yet enrolled in the lists military units and died on the way to the front.

V. Litovkin's study says that from 1946 to 1968, a special commission of the General Staff, headed by General S. Shtemenko, prepared a statistical reference book on the losses of 1941-1945. At the end of the work of the commission, Shtemenko reported to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal A. Grechko: “Taking into account that the statistical collection contains information of national importance, the publication of which in the press (including closed) or in any other way is currently not necessary and undesirable, the collection is supposed to be stored in the General Staff as a special document, to which a strictly limited circle of persons will be allowed to familiarize themselves. And the prepared collection was under seven seals until the team led by General G. Krivosheev made public his information.

V. Litovkin's research sowed even greater doubts about the completeness of the information published in the collection “Secret Classification Removed”, because a natural question arose: were all the data contained in the “Statistical Collection of the Shtemenko Commission” declassified?

For example, according to the data given in the article, during the war years, military justice authorities convicted 994 thousand people, of which 422 thousand were sent to penal units, 436 thousand to places of detention. The remaining 136 thousand were apparently shot.

And yet, the handbook “The Classification Removed” significantly expanded and supplemented the ideas of not only historians, but of all Russian society about the price of the Victory of 1945. Suffice it to refer to the statistical calculation: from June to November 1941, the Armed Forces of the USSR lost 24 thousand people daily, of which 17 thousand were killed and up to 7 thousand were wounded, and from January 1944 to May 1945 -20 thousand people, of which 5.2 thousand killed and 14.8 thousand wounded.

In 2001, a significantly expanded statistical publication appeared - “Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century. Losses of the armed forces. The authors supplemented the materials of the General Staff with reports from military headquarters about losses and notices from the military registration and enlistment offices about the dead and missing, which were sent to relatives at the place of residence. And the figure of losses received by him increased to 9 million 168 thousand 400 people. These data were reproduced in the 2nd volume of the collective work of the staff of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Population of Russia in the 20th century. Historical essays”, published under the editorship of Academician Yu. Polyakov.

In 2004, the second, corrected and supplemented, edition of the book by the head of the Center for Military History of Russia at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor G. Kumanev, "Feat and Forgery: Pages of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", was published. It provides data on losses: about 27 million Soviet citizens. And in the footnotes to them, the same addition mentioned above appeared, explaining that the calculations of military historians back in the early 1960s gave a figure of 26 million, but the "high authorities" preferred to take for " historical truth» other: «over 20 million»

Meanwhile, historians and demographers continued to look for new approaches to ascertaining the magnitude of the losses of the USSR in the war.

The historian Ilyenkov, who served in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, followed an interesting path. He tried to calculate the irretrievable losses of the personnel of the Red Army on the basis of card indexes of irretrievable losses of privates, sergeants and officers. These file cabinets began to be created when, on July 9, 1941, a department for recording personal losses was organized as part of the Main Directorate for the Formation and Manning of the Red Army (GUFKKA). The duties of the department included personal accounting of losses and the compilation of an alphabetical file of losses.

Accounting was carried out according to the following categories: 1) dead - according to reports from military units, 2) dead - according to reports from military registration and enlistment offices, 3) missing - according to reports from military units, 4) missing - according to reports from military registration and enlistment offices, 5) those who died in German captivity , 6) those who died from diseases, 7) those who died from wounds - according to reports from military units, those who died from wounds - according to reports from military registration and enlistment offices. At the same time, the following were taken into account: deserters; military personnel sentenced to imprisonment in forced labor camps; sentenced to the highest measure of punishment - execution; removed from the register of irretrievable losses as survivors; those who are suspected of having served with the Germans (the so-called "signals") and those who were captured, but survived. These soldiers were not included in the list of irretrievable losses.

After the war, the file cabinets were deposited in the Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense (now the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation). Since the early 1990s, the archives have begun counting index cards by alphabetical letters and loss categories. As of November 1, 2000, 20 letters of the alphabet were processed, and a preliminary calculation was made on the remaining 6 letters that were not counted, which fluctuated up or down by 30-40 thousand personalities.

Calculated 20 letters in 8 categories of losses of privates and sergeants of the Red Army gave the following figures: 9 million 524 thousand 398 people. At the same time, 116 thousand 513 people were removed from the register of irretrievable losses, as they turned out to be alive according to the reports of the military registration and enlistment offices.

A preliminary calculation of 6 uncounted letters gave 2 million 910 thousand people of irretrievable losses. The result of the calculations turned out as follows: 12 million 434 thousand 398 Red Army soldiers and sergeants lost the Red Army in 1941-1945 (Recall that this is without the loss of the Navy, internal and border troops of the NKVD of the USSR.)

The alphabetical card file of irretrievable losses of officers of the Red Army, which is also stored in the TsAMO of the Russian Federation, was calculated using the same methodology. They amounted to about 1 million 100 thousand people.

Thus, the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War lost 13 million 534 thousand 398 soldiers and commanders in the dead, missing, dead from wounds, diseases and in captivity.

These data are 4 million 865 thousand 998 people higher than the irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR (listed composition) according to the General Staff, which included the Red Army, sailors, border guards, internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR.

Finally, we note another new trend in the study of the demographic results of the Great Patriotic War. Before the collapse of the USSR, there was no need to assess the human losses for individual republics or nationalities. And only at the end of the twentieth century, L. Rybakovsky tried to calculate the approximate value of the human losses of the RSFSR within its then borders. According to his estimates, it amounted to approximately 13 million people - slightly less than half of the total losses of the USSR.

(Quotes: S. Golotik and V. Minaev - “The demographic losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War: history of calculations", "New Historical Bulletin", No. 16, 2007)

On the eve of Victory Day, I would like to touch upon several important, fundamental issues. I will try in in general terms to characterize the pre-war potential of the USSR and Nazi Germany, as well as give data on human losses on both sides, including the latest. There is also the latest data on the number of dead Yakuts.

The issue of losses in World War II has been discussed all over the world for more than a year. There are various estimates, including sensational ones. Quantitative indicators are affected not only various methods counting, but also ideology, subjective approach.

Western countries, led by the United States and England, tirelessly repeat the mantra that victory was “forged” by them in the sands North Africa, Normandy, on sea ​​routes North Atlantic and through the bombing of industrial facilities in Germany and its allies.

The war of the USSR against Germany and its allies is presented to the Western layman as "unknown". Some residents Western countries, judging by the polls, in all seriousness they say that the USSR and Germany were allies in that war.

The second favorite saying of some Westerners and homegrown liberal democrats of the “Western persuasion” that the Victory over fascism was “littered with the corpses of Soviet soldiers”, “one rifle for four”, “the command threw its soldiers at machine guns, retreating was shot by detachments”, “ millions of prisoners”, without the help of the Allied troops, the victory of the Red Army over the enemy would have been impossible.

Unfortunately, after N.S. Khrushchev came to power, some of the Soviet military leaders, in order to elevate their role in the battle against the “brown plague” of the 20th century, described in their memoirs the execution of orders from the Headquarters of the commander-in-chief I.V. Stalin, as a result of which the Soviet troops suffered unreasonably high losses.

And few people pay attention to the fact that during the period of active defensive and offensive battles, the main task was and is to achieve replenishment - additional troops from the reserve. And in order to satisfy the request, you need to provide such a drill note about the heavy losses of the personnel of a particular military unit in order to receive replenishment.

As always, the truth lies in the middle!

At the same time, official data on the losses of the Nazi armies from Soviet side were often clearly underestimated or, on the contrary, overestimated, which led to a complete distortion of the statistical data on the military losses of Nazi Germany and its direct allies.

Captured documents available in the USSR, in particular, 10-day reports of OKW (the high military command of the Wehrmacht), were classified, and only in recent times military historians have gained access to them.

For the first time, I.V. Stalin announced the losses of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War in 1946. He said that as a result of the German invasion, the Soviet Union irretrievably lost about seven million people in battles with the Germans, as well as due to the German occupation and the deportation of Soviet people to German penal servitude.

Then N.S. Khrushchev, in 1961, debunking Stalin's personality cult, in a conversation with the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, mentioned that 20 million people died in the war.

And, finally, a group of researchers led by G.F. Krivosheev estimates the total human losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, determined by the demographic balance method, at 26.6 million people. This includes all those who died as a result of military and other actions of the enemy, who died as a result of military and other actions of the enemy, who died as a result of an increased mortality rate during the war in the occupied territory and in the rear, as well as persons who emigrated from the USSR during the war years and did not return after her graduation.

Data on the losses of G. Krivosheev's group are considered official. In 2001, the revised figures were as follows. USSR casualties:

- 6.3 million military personnel killed or died of wounds,

- 555 thousand died from diseases, as a result of accidents, incidents, sentenced to death,

- 4.5 million- were captured and disappeared without a trace;

General demographic losses - 26.6 million Human.

German casualties:

- 4.046 million servicemen died, died of wounds, went missing.

At the same time, the irretrievable losses of the armies of the USSR and Germany (including prisoners of war) are 11.5 million and 8.6 million (not counting 1.6 million prisoners of war after May 9, 1945), respectively.

However, new information is now emerging.

The beginning of the war - June 22, 1941. What was the balance of power between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union? What forces and capabilities did Hitler count on when preparing an attack on the USSR? How realistic was the Barbarossa plan prepared by the Wehrmacht General Staff?

It should be noted that in June 1941 the total population of Germany, together with direct allies, amounted to 283 million man, and in the USSR - 160 million. The direct allies of Germany at that time were: Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia. For the summer of 1941 personnel Wehrmacht was 8.5 million people, four army groups with a total number of 7.4 million people were concentrated on the border with the USSR. Nazi Germany was armed with 5,636 tanks, more than 61,000 guns of various calibers, over 10,000 aircraft (excluding the weapons of allied military formations).

General characteristics of the Red Army of the USSR for June 1941. Total population amounted to 5.5 million military personnel. The number of divisions of the Red Army is 300, of which 170 divisions were concentrated on the western borders (3.9 million people), the rest were stationed in the Far East (which is why Japan did not attack), in Central Asia, Transcaucasia. I must say that the divisions of the Wehrmacht were staffed according to the states of wartime, and each had 14-16 thousand people. Soviet divisions were staffed according to peacetime states and consisted of 7-8 thousand people.

The Red Army was armed with 11,000 tanks, of which 1,861 were T-34 tanks and 1,239 were KV tanks (the best in the world at that time). The rest of the tanks - BT-2, BT-5, BT-7, T-26, SU-5 with weak weapons, many vehicles were idle due to lack of spare parts. Most of the tanks were to be replaced with new vehicles. More than 60% of the tanks were in the troops of the western border districts.

Powerful firepower represented Soviet artillery. On the eve of the war, the Red Army had 67,335 guns and mortars. Systems began to arrive salvo fire"Katyusha". In terms of fighting qualities, the Soviet field artillery surpassed the German one, but was poorly provided with mechanized traction. The need for special artillery tractors was met by 20.5%.

In the western military districts, the Red Army Air Force had 7,009 fighters, long-range aviation had 1,333 aircraft.

So, at the first stage of the war, qualitative and quantitative characteristics were on the side of the enemy. The Nazis had a significant advantage in manpower, automatic weapons, mortars. And thus, Hitler's hopes to carry out a "blitzkrieg" against the USSR were calculated taking into account the real conditions, the alignment of the available armed forces and means. In addition, Germany already had practical military experience gained as a result of hostilities in other European countries. Surprise, aggressiveness, coordination of all forces and means, clear execution of orders general staff Wehrmacht, the use of armored forces on a relatively small sector of the front - this was a proven, fundamental tactic of the military formations of Nazi Germany.

This tactic has worked exceptionally well in military operations in Europe; losses in Wehrmacht manpower were small. For example, in France, 27,074 were killed German soldier, 111,034 wounded. At the same time, the German army captured 1.8 million French soldiers. The war ended in 40 days. The victory was absolute.

In Poland, the Wehrmacht lost 16,843 soldiers, Greece - 1,484, Norway - 1,317 and another 2,375 died on the way. These "historic" victories German weapons inspired Adolf Hitler indescribably, and they were ordered to develop the Barbarossa plan - a war against the USSR.

It should also be noted that the question of surrender was never raised by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, the Stavka quite soberly analyzed and calculated the current martial law. In any case, in the first months of the war there was no panic at the main headquarters of the armies; alarmists were shot on the spot.

In mid-July 1941, the initial period war. Due to a number of subjective and objective factors, the Soviet troops suffered serious losses in manpower and equipment. As a result of heavy fighting, using air supremacy, the German armed forces by that moment had reached the borders of the Western Dvina and the middle reaches of the Dnieper, advancing to a depth of 300 to 600 km and inflicting major defeats on the Red Army, especially formations Western Front. In other words, the priority tasks of the Wehrmacht were completed. But the tactics of "blitzkrieg" still failed.

The Germans met with fierce resistance from the retreating troops. The troops of the NKVD and the border guards were especially distinguished. Here, for example, are the testimonies of a former German sergeant who participated in the attacks on the 9th outpost of the border town of Przemysl: “... The fire was terrible! We left a lot of corpses on the bridge, but we never took possession of it right away. Then the commander of my battalion gave the order to ford the river on the right and left in order to surround the bridge and capture it whole. But as soon as we rushed into the river, the Russian border guards began to pour fire on us here too. The losses were terrible ... Seeing that the plan was frustrated, the battalion commander ordered to open fire from 80-mm mortars. Only under their cover did we begin to infiltrate onto the Soviet coast ... We could not move further as quickly as our command wanted. The Soviet border guards had firing points along the coastline. They sat down in them and shot literally to the last bullet ... Nowhere, never have we seen such stamina, such military tenacity ... They preferred death to the possibility of captivity or retreat ... "

Heroic actions gave the opportunity to buy time for the approach of the 99th rifle division Colonel N.I. Dementiev. Active resistance to the enemy continued.

As a result of stubborn fighting, according to US intelligence services, in December 1941, Germany lost 1.3 million people killed in the war against the USSR, and by March 1943, the Wehrmacht’s losses amounted to 5.42 million people (information declassified by the American side in our time ).

Yakutia 1941. What was the contribution of the peoples of the Yakut ASSR to the fight against Nazi Germany? Our losses. Heroic fighters of the Olonkho Land.

As you know, since 2013, the scientific work "History of Yakutia" has been prepared. Researcher Institute for Humanitarian Research and Problems small peoples North SB RAS Marianna Gryaznukhina, author of this chapter scientific work, which refers to the loss of life of the Yakuts during the Great Patriotic War, kindly provided the following data: the population of the Yakut ASSR in 1941, on the eve of the war, was 419 thousand Human. 62 thousand people were called up and went to the front as volunteers.

However, this cannot be called the exact number of Yakuts who fought for their homeland. Several hundred people by the beginning of the war were military service in the army, a certain number studied in military schools. Therefore, the number of Yakutians who fought can be considered from 62 to 65 thousand people.

Now about human losses. In recent years, a figure has been called - 32 thousand Yakutians, but it also cannot be considered accurate. According to the demographic formula, they did not return to the regions from the war, about 30% of those who fought died. It should be taken into account that 32 thousand did not return to the territory of Yakutia, however, some soldiers and officers remained to live in other regions of the country, some returned late, until the 1950s. Therefore, the number of residents of Yakutia who died at the front is approximately 25 thousand people. Of course, this is a huge loss for the small population of the republic.

In general, the contribution of the Yakut people to the fight against the "brown plague" is huge and has not yet been fully studied. Many became combat commanders, showed military skills, selflessness, courage in battles, for which they were awarded high military awards. Residents of the Khangalassky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) fondly remember General Prituzov (Pripuzov) Andrey Ivanovich. Member of the First World War, commander of the 61st Guards Slavic Red Banner Division. The division fought through Romania, part of Austria and ended its journey in Bulgaria. The military general found his eternal rest in his native Pokrovsk.

How not to remember on the eve of Victory Day about the Yakut snipers - two of which were included in the legendary top ten snipers of World War II. This is Yakut Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov, on whose personal account 429 killed Nazis. Before becoming a sniper, he destroyed several dozen Nazis with a machine gun and machine gun. And Fedor Matveyevich received the Hero of the Soviet Union only in 1965. Legendary person!

The second is Evenk Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov- 489 killed Nazis. He taught sniper business to young soldiers of the Red Army. Originally from the village of Tyanya, Olekminsky district.

It should be noted that until the end of 1942, the Wehrmacht command missed the opportunity of a sniper war, for which they paid dearly. During the war, the Nazis began to hastily learn sniper art from captured Soviet military training films and memos for snipers. At the front, they used the same Soviet captured Mosin and SVT rifles. Only by 1944 military units Wehrmacht had trained snipers.

Our colleague, a lawyer, Honored Lawyer of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) passed the worthy path of a soldier-front-line soldier Yuri Nikolaevich Zharnikov. He began his military career as an artilleryman, in 1943 he retrained as a T-34 driver, his tank was hit twice, the hero himself received severe shell shock. On his account, dozens of military victories, hundreds of killed enemies, a large number of broken and burned enemy heavy equipment, including German tanks. As Yuri Nikolayevich recalled, the calculation of enemy losses was carried out by the commander tank unit, and his concern was the constant maintenance of the mechanical part of the combat vehicle. For military exploits, Yu.N. Zharnikov was awarded many orders and medals, which he was proud of. Today, Yuri Nikolayevich is not among us, but we, the lawyers of Yakutia, keep his memory in our hearts.

Results of the Great Patriotic War. Losses of the German armed forces. The ratio of the losses of Nazi Germany and its direct allies with the losses of the Red Army

Let's turn to latest publications prominent Russian military historian Igor Ludwigovich Garibyan, who did a tremendous amount of statistical work, studying not only Soviet sources, but also captured archival documents of the Wehrmacht General Staff.

According to Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht High Command - OKW, Germany lost 9 million soldiers killed on the Eastern Front, 27 million were seriously wounded (without the possibility of returning to duty), went missing, were captured, all this is united by the concept of "irretrievable losses ".

Historian Gharibian counted German losses from OKW's 10-day reports, and the following figures were obtained:

Germans and Austrians killed during hostilities - 7,541,401 people (data as of April 20, 1945);

Missing - 4,591,511 people.

Total irretrievable losses - 17,801,340 people, including disabled people, prisoners who died from diseases.

These figures refer to only two countries - Germany and Austria. This does not take into account the losses of Romania, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia and other countries that fought against the USSR.

Thus, nine million Hungary lost only 809,000 soldiers and officers killed in the war against the Red Army, mostly young people aged 20 to 29 years. 80,000 civilians died in the fighting. Meanwhile, in the same Hungary in 1944, on the eve of the collapse of the fascist regime, 500,000 Hungarian Jews and Gypsies were exterminated, about which the Western media prefer to be "shamefully" silent.

Summing up, we must admit that the USSR actually had to fight one on one (in 1941-1943) with all of Europe, except for England. All factories in France, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Italy worked for the war. The Wehrmacht was provided not only with military materials, but also with the manpower of Germany's direct allies.

As a result, the Soviet people, showing the will to win, mass heroism both on the battlefield and in the rear, defeated the enemy and defended the Fatherland from the “brown plague” of the 20th century.

The article is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather - Stroev Gavril Egorovich, a resident of the Batamay village of the Ordzhonikidzevsky district of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the chairman of the Zarya collective farm, who died heroically in the Great Patriotic War in 1943, and all the Yakuts who did not return from the war.

Yuri PRIPUZOV,

President of the Yakut Republican

bar association "Petersburg",

Honored Lawyer of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

For the first time after the end of the Second World War, it was impossible to count the losses. Scientists tried to keep accurate statistics of the dead of the Second World War by nationality, but the information became really accessible only after the collapse of the USSR. Many believed that the victory over the Nazis was due to a large number dead. The statistics of the Second World War were not seriously kept by anyone.

The Soviet government deliberately manipulated the numbers. Initially, the number of deaths during the war was about 50 million people. But by the end of the 1990s, the figure had risen to 72 million.

The table provides a comparison of the losses of the two great 20th century:

Briefly about the beginning of hostilities

The USSR entered the war without a single ally (1941–1942). Initially, the battles were fought with defeat. The statistics of the victims of the Second World War in those years demonstrates a huge number of irretrievably lost soldiers and military equipment. The main destructive moment was the seizure of territories by the enemy, rich in the defense industry.

The SS authorities suspected a possible attack on the country. But, visible preparations for war were not conducted. The effect of a surprise attack played into the hands of the aggressor. The seizure of the territories of the USSR was carried out with great speed. Military equipment and weapons in Germany were enough for a large-scale military campaign.

The number of deaths during WWII

The statistics of losses in World War II are only approximate. Each researcher has his own data and calculations. 61 states participated in this battle, and hostilities took place on the territory of 40 countries. The war affected about 1.7 billion people. The main blow was taken by the Soviet Union. According to historians, the losses of the USSR amounted to about 26 million people.

At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union was very weak in terms of the production of equipment and military weapons. However, the statistics of those who died in World War II show that the number of deaths by year by the end of the battle had significantly decreased. The reason is the rapid development of the economy. The country learned to produce high-quality defensive means against the aggressor, and the technique had multiple advantages over the fascist industrial blocs.

As for prisoners of war, most of they were from the USSR. In 1941, the prison camps were overcrowded. Later, the Germans began to let them go. At the end of this year, about 320,000 prisoners of war were released. The bulk of them were Ukrainians, Belarusians and Balts.

Official statistics of those killed in World War II points to colossal losses among Ukrainians. Their number is much greater than the French, Americans and British combined. As the statistics of the Second World War show, Ukraine lost about 8-10 million people. This includes all combatants (killed, dead, prisoners, evacuees).

The price of the victory of the Soviet authorities over the aggressor could be much less. The main reason is the unpreparedness of the USSR for a sudden invasion German troops. The stocks of ammunition and equipment did not correspond to the scale of the unfolding war.

About 3% of men born in 1923 survived. The reason is the lack military training. The guys were taken to the front straight from school. Persons with an average were sent to fast courses for pilots or to train platoon commanders.

German losses

The Germans very carefully concealed the statistics of those killed in World War II. It is somehow strange that in the battle of the century the number of military units lost by the aggressor was only 4.5 million. The statistics of the Second World War regarding the dead, wounded or captured were underestimated by the Germans several times. The remains of the dead are still being dug up in the battlefields.

However, the German was strong and persistent. Hitler at the end of 1941 was ready to celebrate the victory over the Soviet people. Thanks to the allies, the SS was prepared both in terms of food and logistics. The SS factories produced many high-quality weapons. However, losses in the Second World War began to grow significantly.

After a while, the fuse of the Germans began to decrease. The soldiers understood that they could not withstand the popular fury. The Soviet command began to correctly build military plans and tactics. The statistics of the Second World War in terms of the dead began to change.

AT war time around the world, the population died not only from hostilities by the enemy, but also from the spread different kind, hunger. The losses of China in the Second World War are especially noticeable. The statistics of the dead is in second place after the USSR. More than 11 million Chinese died. Although the Chinese have their own statistics of those killed in World War II. It does not correspond to the numerous opinions of historians.

Results of the Second World War

Given the scale of hostilities, as well as the lack of desire to reduce losses, it affected the number of victims. It was not possible to prevent the losses of countries in the Second World War, the statistics of which were studied by different historians.

The statistics of the Second World War (infographics) would have been different if it were not for the many mistakes made by the commanders in chief, who initially did not attach importance to the production and preparation of military equipment and technology.

The results of the second world war according to statistics more than cruel, not only in terms of shed blood, but also in the destructive scale of cities and villages. World War II statistics (losses by country):

1. The Soviet Union - about 26 million people.
2. China - more than 11 million
3. Germany - more than 7 million
4. Poland - about 7 million
5. Japan - 1.8 million
6. Yugoslavia - 1.7 million
7. Romania - about 1 million
8. France - more than 800 thousand.
9. Hungary - 750 thousand
10. Austria - more than 500 thousand.

Some countries or certain groups of people fundamentally fought on the side of the Germans, as they did not like the Soviet policy and Stalin's approach to leading the country. But, despite this, the military campaign ended with the victory of the Soviet government over the Nazis. World War II served good lesson for the politicians of the time. Such casualties could have been avoided in the Second World War on one condition - preparation for an invasion, regardless of whether the country was threatened with an attack.

The main factor that contributed to the victory of the USSR in the fight against fascism was the unity of the nation and the desire to defend the honor of their homeland.