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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 numbered over 20,000,000, both civilians and military, although the exact figures are disputed. The number of 20 million was considered official during Soviet era. In 1993 a study by the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated total Soviet population losses due to the war at 26.6 million, including military dead of 8.7 million calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defense. These figures have been accepted by most historians outside of Russia. However the official figure of 8.7 million military dead has been disputed by some Russian historians who believe the number of POW dead and missing is understated. Officials at the Russian Central Defense Ministry Archive (CDMA) maintain that their database lists the names of roughly 14 million dead and missing service personnel. Some critics in Russia put total losses in the war, both civilians and military, at over 40 million.

Contents

Krivosheev's analysis

A 1993 Russian Ministry of Defense report authored by a group headed by General G. I. Krivosheev detailed military casualties. Their sources were Soviet reports from the field and other archive documents that were secret during the Soviet era, including a secret Soviet General Staff report from 1966–68. Krivosheev's study puts Soviet military dead and missing at 8.7 million and is often cited by historians. In April 2016 the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation issued a statement that put Soviet military war dead at 8,668,400.Krivosheev maintains that the figure of 8.668 million is correct because it excludes called up reservists that were never inducted, men who were duplicated as conscripts because they were conscripted again into the Soviet army and Navy during the war as territories were being liberated and non combat civilian personnel. The statistic of 8.668 million military dead includes only the deaths of the forces in the field units of the Army and Navy A1and does not include civilian support forces in rear areas, conscripted reservists killed before being listed on active strength, militia units, and Soviet partisan dead, Krivosheev maintains that they should be included with civilian war losses

The Schedule below summarizes Soviet casualties from 1941–1945.

Krivosheev's analysis shows that 4,559,000 were reported missing (including 3,396,400 per field reports and an additional 1,162,600 estimated based on German documents), out of which 500,000 were missing and presumed dead, 939,700 were re-conscripted during the war as territories were liberated, 1,836,000 returned to the U.S.S.R. after the war, while the balance of 1,283,300 died in German captivity as POWs or did not return to the USSR. Krivoshhev wrote "According to German sources 673,000 died in captivity. Of the remaining 1,110,300, Soviet sources indicate that over half also died captivity". Sources published outside of Russia put total POW dead at 3.0 million. Krivosheev maintains that this figure based on German sources includes civilian personnel that were not included in the reports of the Army and Navy field forces. In a 1999 article Krivosheev noted that 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 settled in other countries.

  • Discharged during war of 9,693,000 includes 3,798,200 sent on sick leave; 3,614,600 transferred to work in industry, anti-aircraft defense and armed guards; 1,174,600 sent to NKVD troops and organs; 250,400 transferred to Polish, Czechoslovak and Romanian armies; 436,600 imprisoned; 206,000 discharged; and 212,400 missing in rear areas.
  • During the war 422,700 men were sent were sent to penal units at the front and not discharged.

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

    Krivosheev's group estimated losses for the early part of the war, because from 1941–1942 no surrounded or defeated divisions reported their casualties. Thus field reports from that period are regarded by historians as unreliable.

    Total wounded and sick includes 15,205,592 wounded, 3,047,675 sick and 90,881 frostbite cases.

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

    Criticism of Krivosheev

    Krivosheev's analysis has generally been accepted by historians, however his study has been disputed by some independent researchers in Russia. His critics maintain that he understated the number of missing in action and POW deaths and deaths of service personnel in rear area hospitals.

    POW deaths

    Krivosheev's analysis put Soviet military POW dead and service personnel remaining abroad at 1.283 million, while most estimates by Western historians are about 3 million out of 5.7 million total.

    A Russian historian Vadim Erlikman put Soviet military dead at 10.6 million including 2.6 million POW; he included the deaths of an estimated 1,500,000 conscripted reservists who were captured before they were listed on troop registers as well as draft age men treated as military POWs by Germany, along with 150,000 militia and 250,000 Soviet partisans.

    Krivosheev maintained that the figure of 3.0 million POW dead reported in western sources included partisans, militia and civilian men of military age taken as POWs in the early stages of the war in 1941. According to S. A. Il'Enkov, the Russian Military Archives database of individual war dead (which lists over 7 million missing soldiers and sergeants). This is in conflict with Krivosheev's analysis.

    Reconciliation of conscripts

    In 2000 S. N. Mikhalev published a study of Soviet casualties. From 1989 to 1996 he was an associate of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defence. Mikhalev disputed Krivosheev's figure of 8.7 million military war dead, he estimated Soviet military 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 was not definitive. In 1995 the Russian Academy of Science published his analysis that indicated total population losses, including civilians and military, range from 21.240 million to 25.854 million. Mikhalev pointed out that his figures were based on a range of possible estimates for the pre-war population in 1939 and the population of the annexed territories that remained uncertain.

    Notes:

    Russian Military Archives database

    An alternative method is to determine losses the Russian Military Archives database of individual war dead. S. A. Il'Enkov, an official at the Russian Military Archives, maintained that the "complex military situation at the front did not always allow for the conduct of a full accounting of losses, especially in the first years of the war" He pointed out that in the reports from the field units did not include deaths in rear area hospitals of wounded personnel. Il'Enkov maintained that the information in the Russian Military Archives alphabetical card-indexes "is a priceless treasure of history, which can assist in resolving the problems of the price of Soviet victory" Il'Enkov maintained it could provide an accurate accounting of war losses. 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. A more recent compilation made in March 2008 of the individuals listed in the card files put total dead and missing at 14,241,000 (13,271,269 enlisted men and 970,000 officers) This database does not include all men killed in the war; graves registration teams continue to identify war dead who are not currently included.

    Critics

    Critics in Russia of the official figures base their arguments analyses of documents in the Soviet archives and on alternative demographic models of the Soviet population during the Stalin era. They requested that the Russian government reinvestigate the subject. Critics and their arguments:

  • Mark Solonin–Solonin maintains that Krivoshev covered up casualties that were three to four times greater than Germany's. Solonin claimed that Russian official sources that list deaths of 13.7 million civilians due to the German occupation include victims of Stalinist repression. He points out that the current figures for civilian war dead are taken from Soviet era sources. Solonin estimates total losses as somewhat under 20 million. Military dead numbered at least 10.7 million, excluding 2.18 million soldiers who are unaccounted for, half of whom he assumed died. He asserted that some deserted or emigrated and that a higher death toll is possible. Solonin's estimate is that 5–6 million civilians were killed by the invaders (including 2.83 million Jews) and over 1 million civilians perished in the Siege of Leningrad and in Stalingrad. He claimed that 6–9 million Soviets fell to Stalin's repressions, although in contemporary Russian official sources they are included with civilian war dead.
  • Viktor Zemskov–Zemskov maintained that the population loss due to the war was 20 million, including 16 million direct losses and 4 million deaths due to the deterioration in living conditions. He maintains that the Russian Academy of Science figure of 26.6 million total war dead includes about 7 million deaths due to natural causes based on the mortality rate that prevailed before the war. Zemskov maintains that military dead numbered 11.5 million, including nearly 4 million POWs. He maintains that the figure of 6.8 million civilian deaths in occupied regions was overstated because it included persons who were evacuated to the rear areas. He submitted an estimate of 4.5 million civilians who were Nazi victims or were killed in the occupied zone. Zemskov maintains that the government figure of 2.1 million civilian deaths due to forced labor in Germany was inflated compared to German wartime records that put the deaths of forced workers at 200,000.
  • "Washed in Blood"–This study claimed that actual losses were 2–2.5 times more than 8.7 million. Igor Ivlev put losses at 38.5 million, including military dead of 20.58 million and 18 million civilians. He too requested that the Russian government conduct a new investigation. The study's data was based on death or MIA notifications, unclaimed personal bank deposits, front and rear hospital reports, Communist Party and Young Communist League membership files, the 1946 Soviet electorate and the changing gap between men and women before and after the War.
  • Lev Lopukhovsky/Boris Kavalerchik–Lopukhovsky and Kavalerchik label Krivosheev's transfer of military casualties to civilian losses as "ingratitude and blasphemy over their cherished memory". They demanded that the Russian government reinvestigate the matter. They state that Krivosheev's group understated loses in the crucial period of 1941–1942.
  • Boris Sokolov – In 1996 Sokolov published a study that estimated total war dead at 43.3 million including 26.4 million in the military. Sokolov's calculations claimed that official population figures in 1941 were understated by 12.7 million and the population in 1946 overstated by 4.0 million, yielding 16.7 million additional war dead, bringing the total to 43.3 million. Russian demographer Rybakovsky dismissed these calculations as not being based on sound judgment.
  • V. E. Korol–Korol estimated overall Soviet war dead at 46 million including military dead of 23 million. He claimed that the official figure of 8.7 million military dead was "groundless", based on battle accounts from across the Eastern Front. Korol held that the official figures of Krivosheev were an attempt to cover up the disregard for human life by the military leaders under Stalin. Korol cited 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 database that put losses at 16.2 million enlisted men and 1.2 million officers. Korol also cited historian-archivist Iu. Geller who put losses at 46 million, including military dead of 23 million. and A.N. Mertsalov's estimate of 14 million military dead based on documents in the Russian Military Archives.
  • 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.

    • Male war dead

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

    Krivosheev's rebuttal

    In 2002 Krivosheev defended his report. He maintained that it was derived in a scientific manner by a team of professional researchers who had access to the military archives and that it reflected a realistic view of casualties based on the operational situation during the war. He maintained that the database of individual war dead is unreliable, because some personnel records are duplicated and others omitted.

    Civilian losses

    A 1995 paper published by the M.V. Philimoshin, an associate of the Russian Defense Ministry, put the civilian death toll in the regions occupied by Germany at 13.7 million. Philimoshin cited sources from Soviet era to support his figures and used the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to deaths of 7.4 million civilians caused by direct, intentional violence. Civilians killed in reprisals during the Soviet partisan war account for a major portion. Philimoshin estimated that civilian forced laborer deaths in Germany totaled 2,164,313. Germany had a policy of forced confiscation of food that resulted in famine deaths of an estimated 6% of the population or 4.1 million. Russian government sources currently cite these civilian casualty figures in their official statements.

  • Russian sources generally include Jewish Holocaust deaths among total civilian dead. Gilbert put Jewish losses at one million within 1939 borders; Holocaust deaths in the annexed territories numbered an additional 1.5 million, bringing total Jewish losses to 2.5 million.
  • Civilian losses include deaths in the siege of Leningrad. According to David Glantz the 1945 Soviet estimate presented at the Nurnberg trials was 642,000 civilian deaths. He noted that Soviet era source from 1965 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. Other Russian historians put the Leningrad death toll at between 1.4 and 2.0 million.
  • These figures are for the regions occupied by Germany, with a population of about 70 million.
  • These casualties are for 1941–1945 within the 1946–1991 borders of the USSR. Included with civilian losses are deaths in the territories annexed by the USSR in 1939–1940 including 600,000 in the Baltic states and 1,500,000 in Eastern Poland.
  • In addition to the losses listed above an estimated 2.5 to 3.2 million Soviet civilians died due to famine and disease in non-occupied territory of the USSR, which was caused by wartime shortages in the rear areas.
  • Documents from the Soviet archives number the total deaths of prisoners in the Gulag from 1941 to 1945 at 621,637. In a 1995 report Viktor Zemskov noted "due to general difficulties in 1941–1945 in the camps, the GULAG and prisons about 1.0 million prisoners died.
  • Mark Solonin claimed that the figures of civilian casualties were deliberately inflated in order to hide the number of Stalin's own victims. Solonin's estimates of civilian casualties are 5–6 million killed by Germans (including Holocaust victims) and over a million who died during the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad. The attitude of the Germans toward the non-Jewish Soviet population, as he states, while cruel, was pragmatical and thus not genocidal (exceptions happened, but not as a general policy). Also, he claims that the Soviet documents for civilian casualties per republic are inconsistent with the populations of said republics, unless one assumes the soldiers who died while held in camps upon that territory are included.

    • Population of the Soviet Union 1922–91

    Andreev, Darski and Kharkova (ADK) authored The Population of the Soviet Union 1922–1991, which was published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993. Andreev worked in the Department of Demography Research Institute of the Central Statistical Bureau (now the Research Institute of Statistics of Federal State Statistical Service of Russia). The study estimated total Soviet war losses of 26.6 million. As of 2015 this was the official Russian government figure for total losses. These losses are a demographic estimate rather than an exact accounting. The main areas of uncertainty were the estimated figures for the population in the territories annexed from 1939–1945 and the loss of population due to emigration during and after the war. The figures include victims of Soviet repression and the deaths of Soviet citizens in German military service. Michael Haynes noted, "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 11.9 million natural deaths of persons born before the war and 4.2 million children born during the war 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.

    Notes:

  • Total population loss 26,616,000 (1939-1945) Total Includes :Civilian deaths by intentional actions of violence 7,420,000 Deaths of forced laborers 2,164,000 Deaths due to famine and disease 4,100,000; Increase in deaths of children born during the war 1,280,000 Military Dead per the field reports 8,668,000 The remaining balance of 2,984,000 is disputed. The Russian Ministry of Defense maintains that their figure of 8.668 million is correct. According to their figures the number of persons conscripted was overstated by 1.440 million and the number of service personnel alive at the end of the war was understated by 1.450 million. Critics of the Russian Ministry of Defense maintain that the war dead should include an additional 2.9 million persons. They maintain that the number of POW's and conscripts was understated in the official figures. Russian historian Viktor Zemskov puts total military dead (1941–45) at 11.5 million A recent academic study put Soviet military dead a 11.4 million
  • In addition to the war dead there were 622,000 persons who remained abroad after the war.
  • Births and natural deaths during war are rough estimates since vital statistics were inaccurate.
  • Figures do not include an estimated 20 million children not born because the war depressed fertility/birth rates.
  • Haynes maintained that the number of deaths caused by the war is unknown since among the deaths by natural causes some would have died peacefully.
  • ADK pointed out that the beginning population in 1941 and the ending population at 1/1/1946 are rough estimates since figures for the territories annexed in 1939–1940 and emigration from the USSR during the war are based on fragmentary information.

    • Remarks:

  • 0–14–The deaths of 2.8 million children was due primarily to famine and disease caused by the war.
  • 15–19–The excess deaths of 724,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. The wartime draft age was 18.
  • 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 they were involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.
  • 35–49–The excess deaths of 5,358,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses.
  • Over 49–The excess deaths of 1,038,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. Some served in the Armed Forces. Others were involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.
  • All Ages–The excess deaths of 13,489,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses with regular forces as well partisan forces. The figures are a clear indication that many Soviet civilians died in the war from reprisals, famine and disease.

    • Voters lists in 1946 election

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

    Alternative sources of demographic losses

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

    Population estimates for mid-1941 range from 191.8–200.1 million, while the population at the end of 1945 range from 167.0 million up to 170.6 million. Based on the pre-war birth rate, the population shortfall was about 20 million births in 1946. Some were born and died during the war, while the balance was never born. Only rough estimates are available for each group. Estimates for the population of the territories annexed from 1939–45 range from 17 to 23 million persons.

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

    Estimates of losses by individual Republic

    Former Soviet republics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Erlikman

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

  • 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. This table includes civilian losses in Transcaucasian and Central Asian republics due to famine and disease caused by wartime shortfalls estimated by Vadim Erlikman.

    • OBD Memorial database

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

    Causes

    The Red Army suffered catastrophic losses of men and equipment during the first months of the German invasion., In the spring of 1941 Stalin ignored the warnings of his intelligence services of a planned German invasion and refused to put the Armed forces on alert. The bulk of the Soviet combat units were deployed in the border regions in a lower state of readiness. In the face of the German onslaught the Soviet forces were caught by surprise. Large numbers of Soviet soldiers were captured and many perished due to the brutal mistreatment of POWs by the Nazis 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"

    Russian scholars attribute the high civilian death toll to the Nazi Generalplan Ost which treated the Soviet people as "subhumans", they use the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to civilian losses in the occupied USSR. German occupation policies implemented under the Hunger Plan resulted in the confiscation of food stocks which resulted in famine in the occupied regions. During the Soviet era the partisan campaign behind the lines was portrayed as the struggle of the local population against the German occupation. To suppress the partisan units the Nazi occupation forces engaged in a campaign of brutal reprisals against innocent civilians. Historian Albert Seaton maintains that the Soviet government's "disregard for life and its contempt for any form of humanity and decency was one of the decisive factors in recruiting and control of the partisan movement". According to Seaton the local population was coerced by the Soviet led partisans to support their campaign which led to the reprisals. The extensive fighting destroyed agricultural land, infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food. During the war Soviet civilians were taken to Germany as forced laborers under inhuman conditions.

    References

    World War II casualties of the Soviet Union Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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