Losses of the USSR allies in the Second World War. Estimation of the ratio of losses on the Soviet-German and Western Front

In fact, it is somewhat strange to ask the question of who won the 2nd World War:
it would seem obvious that all people of good will won it, taking up arms to destroy the infection of German Nazism; for example, even the Americans, who took part in hostilities with the Germans only when the outcome of the war was already decided, won it.

But when one of the sides decides to attribute the Victory in the Great War only to itself, and if this side is the same American one, then one must answer here.
The answer is that if we count who exactly actually earned Great Victory, who paid for it with their blood and who it really belongs to, then it becomes obvious that it certainly does not belong to the USA or Great Britain, not to mention France.
This Victory belongs to Soviet Russia and its people.

Specific gravity Western and Eastern Front in World War II

In order to assess the importance of the eastern front in the victory over Nazi Germany, one can compare the number of German divisions that took part in hostilities on different fronts (Table 2) and compare the number of defeated divisions (Table 3). In previous years, these figures circulated widely in our historical and socio-political literature. However, the combat composition of even divisions of the same type could differ somewhat. And what is a defeated division? Set aside for reformation? In what condition (cases of complete destruction of large units are quite rare)? How much time and resources did it take to restore it?

It would be more interesting and representative to compare the losses of personnel and equipment on various fronts. In this aspect, the documents of the so-called secret Flensburg archive (a secret archive found in Flensburg during the war) are extremely interesting ( Whitaker's Almanach, 1946, p.300) and quoted in ( B.Ts. Urlanis. History of military losses. M., St. Petersburg: POLYGON AST, 1995, 558 p.) (Table 1). The archive contained information about losses only up to November 30, 1944, only for ground forces, and perhaps the data was not entirely complete. However overall ratio losses on the fronts can be determined from them.

Table No. 1.
Distribution of German losses ground forces on separate fronts until November 30, 1944

As can be seen from the data of the Flensburg archive, by November 30, 1944 more than 70% losses of fascist German troops occurred on the eastern front. And that's just German troops. If we also take into account the losses of Germany’s allies, almost all of whom (except Italy) fought only on the Eastern Front, this ratio will reach 75% (it is not entirely clear where the Wehrmacht losses in the Polish campaign are included in that document, but taking them into account changes the overall balance by only a quarter percent).

Of course, the bloody battles of the end of the war are still ahead. The Ardennes and the crossing of the Rhine are still ahead. But there is also the Balaton operation ahead, largest operation for the capture of Berlin. And on final stage war, most German divisions are still concentrated on the eastern front (Table 2). So over the last six months of the war, the percentage of losses attributable to the eastern front could not change much.

It may also be noted that these data cover losses of ground forces only. According to rough estimates ( Kriegstugebuch des Oberkomandos der Wehrmacht Band IV. Usraefe Werlag für Wehrwessen. Frankfurt ane Main.), the losses of the German Air Force were distributed approximately equally between the Western and Eastern Fronts, and 2/3 of the losses of the German Navy can be attributed to Western allies. However, more than 90% of all losses of the German armed forces, according to the same archive, were due to ground forces. Therefore, we can assume that the above figures give a more or less correct picture of the distribution of total losses along the fronts.

Table No. 2.
Average number of divisions of Germany and its allies that took part in hostilities on different fronts
(summarized data on
B.Ts. Urlanis. History of military losses. M., St. Petersburg: POLYGON AST, 1995, 558 p.
TsAMO. F 13, op.3028, d.10, l.1-15.
Brief recording of interrogations by A. Jodl. 06/17/45 GOU General Staff. Inventory No. 60481.)

Table No. 3.

Irrevocable losses German army(that is, together with prisoners of war) on all fronts amounted to 11,844 thousand people.
Of these 7 181,1 fall on the Soviet-German front ( Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: Statistical research. M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2001, 608 p.).

In the West, the Battle of El Alamein was compared in terms of its significance to the Battle of Stalingrad. Let's compare:

Table No. 4.
Losses of Nazi troops and the troops of their allies at Stalingrad and El Alamein
(data from:
History of military art: Textbook for military academies of the Soviet Armed Forces / B.V. Panov, V.N. Kiselev, I.I. Kartavtsev et al. M.: Voenizdat, 1984. 535 p.
History of the Great Patriotic War Soviet Union 1941-1945: In 6 volumes, M.: Military Publishing House, 1960-1965.)

Let us note at the same time that the Japanese ground army numbered 3.8 million people. Of these, 2 million were in China and Korea. Those. not in the area of ​​operations of US troops.

In general, as can be seen from the above data, the Soviet-German front accounted for about 70% of the losses of the Nazi troops. Thus, the situation with the distribution of losses and, consequently, with the ratio of the intensity of combat operations along the fronts of the 2nd World War was mirrored to the situation during the 1st World War:

Data used from:
S.A. Fedosov. poVeda or Pobeda ( statistical analysis losses in the Second World War) // XXV Russian school on problems of science and technology, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Victory (June 21-23, 2005, Miass). Brief messages: Ekaterinburg, 2005. pp. 365-367..

IN military history very often it always happens that someone who has suffered a huge, shameful defeat then, decades, and sometimes even centuries later, tries, quite unsuccessfully, to turn his failure into victory. Such precedents have taken place since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. Now, in the era of global media and the Internet, the scale of falsification, especially of the history of the Second World War, has reached enormous proportions.

It has gotten to the point where in the USA and Western countries a significant part of the population, and sometimes a large one(!), are seriously convinced that Berlin was taken by the Anglo-Americans, and the Eastern Front was secondary for Hitler’s Wehrmacht... Moreover, special attention this falsification campaign focuses on countries other than those that were part of the organization Warsaw Pact, and but and former Soviet republics, where every year the number of those who begin to believe in such fabrications only increases.

Unfortunately, we can state with confidence that the activities of all those who are trying to resist this phenomenon, including the Russian state, still remains ineffective and episodic.

In fact, this question is fundamental for all anti-fascist forces, since it is one thing when victory is won through unparalleled heroism and the utmost effort of all the forces of the people, and another when the enemy is defeated through the so-called “filling up with corpses” and fear of machine guns allegedly behind the backs of the “barrier detachments” troops.

Such false statements from beginning to end break the connection between generations and make people, primarily Russians, lose faith in the power of their people, dooming them in advance to defeat in the ongoing global confrontation.

The instrument of falsifications and lies regarding the Second World War is in an effective way cause a split in society and further contribute to the conditions for the formation of intrastate conflicts that can directly threaten the security of the state.

Meanwhile, absolutely reliable data has been preserved in the archives, testifying to the gigantic losses Hitler Germany suffered precisely on the Eastern Front.

Let us not forget that the Nazis here actively pursued a policy of total extermination of the civilian population of the USSR and prisoners of war of the Red Army, which cannot be said about the Soviet troops and their attitude towards the Germans themselves. Remember "Hitlers come and go, but German people remains..."?

Thus, the excess of losses among citizens of the USSR over the losses of citizens of a united Europe that was part of the Third Reich was predetermined from the beginning. And anyone who tries to blame the USSR and its leadership for this is simply committing blasphemy against all those who died.

So, let's turn to the evidence of German archives.

On March 1, 1939, the German army consisted of 3.2 million people. By September 1, 1939, the number armed forces Germany was brought to 4.6 million people, of which 2.7 million served in the ground forces, 1 million in the reserve army, the rest in the Air Force and Navy.

In total, at the beginning of the World War there were 103 divisions, that is, about 45 thousand military personnel were involved in supporting the combat activities of one division.

Such modest efforts were accompanied by the introduction of compulsory labor service for persons between 18 and 25 years of age. The number of working women increased to 13.8 million people, which accounted for a third of all workers and employees. In Germany at that time, a non-working woman was a rarity.

Officially, the Germans call their losses 10,572 people killed in the war with Poland, 30,322 wounded and 3,409 missing. Although, according to the report BA/MA RH 7/653, the losses in Poland were 16,843, and 320 missing. The number of missing people has been reduced by 10 times, and the number of killed by 1.5 times more.

In every occupied country, not to mention its allies in the war with the USSR, Nazi Germany attracted economic activity population of such countries. For example, the occupation of Poland gave the Third Reich the opportunity to soften labor conscription for its women, because 420 thousand captive Poles were put to work, and in October 1939 they established labor conscription for the entire population of Poland from 18 to 60 years of both sexes.

Thus, the statement that all of Europe fought against the USSR is by no means an exaggeration. And during the information wars of our time, this very Europe needs to be reminded of this in all its languages.

Victory over the USSR and its occupation should have become, if not the final, but an obligatory condition for achieving the goals of world domination.

At the time of the attack, Germany, in addition to the 7.4 million Germans already mobilized, could have called up about 8 million more. But at least 3-5 million had to be left for work in Germany itself, and the organization occupation order in the conquered territories. After all, work in the Gestapo, SD, Abwehr, etc. should have just true Aryans. That is, the mobilization reserve in Germany itself actually amounted to 3-5 million people.

Still lived in Europe large number the so-called “Volksdeutsche”, or ethnic Germans, from among them, 3-4 million people could be mobilized. The influx of conscripts provided another 0.6 million people annually. To the approximate maximum strength of the Wehrmacht, one could add conscripts from among the conquered peoples, but their number should not, for reasons of combat capability and stability, exceed 10-20%, maybe 30%, of the total number.

Mobilization in Germany in 1939 began with older ages. Consequently, in the normal course of events, that is, in the victorious Drang nach Osten, the mob resource would have been 15-16 million people, and in a less successful set of circumstances, about 25-30 million people (over 6 years of war, about 3 6 million conscripts), Germany's labor force, even without women and prisoners of war, amounted to 30-35 million people. In addition, during the war in German army 0.5 million women were drafted, not counting civilian employees.

By 1940, the population of the Third Reich had increased to 90 million people, and taking into account the satellites and conquered countries, it reached a figure of 297 million people.

According to official data from the 1939 population census, 170 million people lived in the USSR; after the annexation Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Bukovina and Bessarabia, the population of the USSR on June 1, 1941 was just over 196 million people.

As you know, about 34.5 million people passed through the Red Army during the war. This amounted to about 70% of the total number of men aged 15-49 years in 1941.

By December 1941, the USSR had lost 7% of the country's territory, where 74.5 million people lived before the start of the Second World War. In June-December of the same year, about 17 million people were evacuated.

Thus, dry statistical figures indicate that in principle there could not have been any “filled up with corpses”, “with sticks on machine guns” and other false slanderous fabrications, because the number of those conscripted into the Red Army was approximately comparable to the mobilization resource Germany itself, not to mention the satellite countries of the Third Reich.

By the way, prisoners of war from these countries - France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Finland, etc. following the results of the war in the East, 1.1 million citizens were counted in the USSR European countries, among them - 500 thousand Hungarians, almost 157 thousand Austrians, 70 thousand Czechs and Slovaks, 60 thousand Poles, about 50 thousand Italians, 23 thousand French, 50 thousand Spaniards. There were also Dutch, Finns, Norwegians, Danes, Belgians and many others.

During the war on the Eastern Front, Hungary lost almost 810 thousand people, Italy - almost 100 thousand, Romania - about 500 thousand, Finland - almost 100 thousand.

Thanks to such help from Europe, the Germans were able to mobilize 25% of the entire population into the army, while the USSR mobilized “only” 17% of its citizens.

If German losses were minimal, and the Red Army, as Mark Solonin and others like him claim, “collapsed” in 1941, then why was it then that in the fall of 1941 the entire contingent born in 1922 was called up in Germany and the question arose about the conscription of persons born in 1923? year of birth?

They were called up by the summer of 1942. At the beginning of the war, mobilization began with older conscription ages, with the contingent born in 1894-1906. This means that since the autumn of 1941, at least 16 ages were called up during the war alone, this is about 8.8 million Germans within the borders of Germany in 1937, counting the average number of conscription age, as Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel testifies, at 550,000 people.

Consequently, during the summer-autumn of 1941 alone, at least 1.4 million people were called up, so the number of Wehrmacht as of 06/22/41 was 7.2-7.4 million people. And, finally, if the Red Army was “filled with corpses,” then why did they announce total mobilization in Germany after the defeat at Stalingrad?

And the last question: in October 1944, “super-total” mobilization was announced in the Third Reich, and all unfit for service men from 16 to 65 years old were collected into Volkssturm battalions. Where did those several million Germans and their allies go?

945 Where did the adult Wehrmacht soldiers go???

You won’t believe it, but modern falsifiers and professional liars of our time were successfully opposed in the past... by US observers who, on December 11, 1941, assessed German losses in Eastern Company killed in 1.3 million people, which is about 8 times more than the German figure of 167 thousand people on December 1, 1941...

By the way, the Germans themselves echoed them then...

The Reich Minister of Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, wrote in his diary on June 29, 1941: “The Russians are defending themselves bravely. Their command is operating operationally better than in the early days.”...

“Already the battles of June 1941 showed us what the new Soviet army was like,” recalled General Blumentritt, chief of staff of the 4th Army, which was advancing in Belarus. “We lost up to fifty percent of our personnel in battles...”

General G. Doerr in the book “The March on Stalingrad” had information about 100 thousand killed in the 6th Army in the last week of January 1943 alone. His data is indirectly confirmed by the number of 147.2 thousand German corpses buried by Soviet troops in Stalingrad.

Wehrmacht veterans Wieder and Adam say: “In 1943, Wehrmacht defeats were matched by victories. "Cemeteries" were shown Soviet tanks, cars, killed and captured. In the newsreels, after several shots were fired, the Russians fled. But in the cinema halls, where the wounded German front-line soldiers were sitting, there was whistling and screaming - lies! Not a single soldier or officer now speaks disparagingly about Ivan, although not long ago they spoke so often. The Red Army soldier acts more and more every day as a master of close combat, street fighting and skillful camouflage."

Colonel General G. Frisner, commander of Army Group “Southern Ukraine”: “It is absolutely fair that the highest Soviet command, starting with Stalingrad, often exceeded all our expectations. It skillfully carried out rapid maneuver and transfer of troops, shifting the direction of the main attack, showed skill in creating bridgeheads and equipping starting positions on them for the subsequent transition to the offensive...

And it’s completely “unclear” (but in fact it’s clear!) where in the works of falsifiers the enormous fire superiority of the Red Army disappears, especially after 1942, when in the directions of the main attacks literally two or three meters apart large artillery was lined up, from 122 mm and higher calibers, as well as the famous Katyushas? Who was hit by hundreds and thousands of Soviet attack aircraft and bombers? After all, in the end, it’s not about Mars, but about German troops...

Finally, if the losses of the Red Army were so large, what prevented the Germans in the most critical periods for them, if their losses were so minimal, as false historians claim, was not to declare total and super-total mobilizations, but simply to call up the conscripts they allegedly had and create for yourself in decisive sectors of the front a victorious, at least 3-fold according to all the canons of military science, superiority in numbers for a decisive offensive? But these conscripts were never found...

Only this serves as a clear confirmation of the fact that in reality the Wehrmacht’s casualties were gigantic.

And it remains to be stated that in the case of falsification of losses of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, there is a skillfully organized massive campaign carried out within the framework of information war to review the results of Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam and aim to get rid of Russia as a geopolitical competitor.

Igor Matveev, military expert, colonel

Our planet knew a lot bloody battles and battles. Our entire history consisted of various internecine conflicts. But only the human and material losses in the Second World War made humanity think about the importance of everyone’s life. Only after it did people begin to understand how easy it is to untie carnage and how difficult it is to stop her. This war showed all the peoples of the Earth how important peace is for everyone.

The importance of studying the history of the twentieth century

The younger generation sometimes does not understand the differences. History has been rewritten many times in the years since they ended, so young people are no longer so interested in those distant events. Often these people do not even really know who took part in those events and what losses humanity suffered in World War II. But we must not forget the history of our country. If you watch American films about World War II today, you might think that it was only thanks to the US Army that victory over the Second World War became possible. Nazi Germany. That is why it is so necessary to convey to our younger generation the role of the Soviet Union in these sad events. In fact greatest losses In World War II, it was the people of the USSR who suffered.

Prerequisites for the bloodiest war

This armed conflict between two world military-political coalitions, which became the biggest massacre in human history, began on September 1, 1939 (in contrast to the Great Patriotic War, which lasted from June 22, 1941 to May 8, 1945 G.). It ended only on September 2, 1945. Thus, this war lasted 6 many years. There are several reasons for this conflict. These include: a deep global economic crisis, the aggressive policies of some states, and the negative consequences of the Versailles-Washington system in force at that time.

Participants in an international conflict

IN this conflict 62 countries were involved to some degree. And this despite the fact that at that time there were only 73 sovereign states. Fierce battles took place on three continents. Naval battles were conducted in four oceans (Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic). The number of warring countries changed several times throughout the war. Some states participated in active military operations, while others simply helped their coalition allies in any way (equipment, equipment, food).

Anti-Hitler coalition

Initially, there were 3 states in this coalition: Poland, France, Great Britain. This is due to the fact that it was after the attack on these countries that Germany began to carry out active fighting on the territory of these countries. In 1941, countries such as the USSR, USA, and China were drawn into the war. Further, Australia, Norway, Canada, Nepal, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Belgium, New Zealand, Denmark, Luxembourg, Albania, the Union of South Africa, San Marino, and Turkey joined the coalition. To one degree or another, countries such as Guatemala, Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, Chile, Paraguay, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Nicaragua also became coalition allies. , Haiti, El Salvador, Bolivia. They were joined by Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Liberia, Mongolia. During the war years to anti-Hitler coalition Those states that were no longer allies of Germany also joined. These are Iran (since 1941), Iraq and Italy (since 1943), Bulgaria and Romania (since 1944), Finland and Hungary (since 1945).

On the side Nazi bloc there were states such as Germany, Japan, Slovakia, Croatia, Iraq and Iran (until 1941), Finland, Bulgaria, Romania (until 1944), Italy (until 1943), Hungary (until 1945) , Thailand (Siam), Manchukuo. In some occupied territories, this coalition created puppet states that had virtually no influence on the world battlefield. These include: the Italian Social Republic, Vichy France, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Various collaborationist troops created from among the inhabitants of the opposing countries often fought on the side of the Nazi bloc. The largest of them were RONA, ROA, SS divisions created from foreigners (Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Estonian, Norwegian-Danish, 2 Belgian, Dutch, Latvian, Bosnian, Albanian and French). Volunteer armies of neutral countries such as Spain, Portugal and Sweden fought on the side of this bloc.

Consequences of the war

Despite the fact that over the long years of the Second World War the situation on the world stage changed several times, its result was complete victory anti-Hitler coalition. Following this, the largest international organization United Nations (abbreviated as UN). The result of victory in this war was the condemnation of fascist ideology and the prohibition of Nazism during the Nuremberg trials. After the end of this world conflict, the role of France and Great Britain in world politics decreased significantly, and the USA and the USSR became real superpowers, dividing new spheres of influence among themselves. Two camps of countries with diametrically opposed socio-political systems (capitalist and socialist) were created. After World War II, a period of decolonization of empires began throughout the planet.

Theater of Operations

Germany, Second world war for which it was an attempt to become the only superpower, conducted military operations in five directions at once:

• Western European: Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France.
• Mediterranean: Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Libya, Egypt, North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq.
• Eastern European: USSR, Poland, Norway, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Yugoslavia, Barents, Baltic and Black Sea.
• African: Ethiopia, Somalia, Madagascar, Kenya, Sudan, Equatorial Africa.
• Pacific (in commonwealth with Japan): China, Korea, South Sakhalin, Far East, Mongolia, Kuril Islands, Aleutian Islands, Hong Kong, Indochina, Burma, Malaya, Sarawak, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, Brunei, New Guinea, Sabah, Papua, Guam, Solomon Islands, Hawaii, Philippines, Midway, Marianas and other numerous Pacific Islands.

The beginning and end of the war

They began to be calculated from the moment of the invasion of German troops into the territory of Poland. Hitler for a long time prepared the ground for an attack on this state. On August 31, 1939, the German press reported the seizure of a radio station in Gleiwitz by the Polish military (although this was a provocation of saboteurs), and already at 4 o’clock in the morning on September 1, 1939, the warship Schleswig-Holstein began shelling the fortifications in Westerplatte (Poland). Together with the troops of Slovakia, Germany began to occupy foreign territories. France and Great Britain demanded that Hitler withdraw troops from Poland, but he refused. Already on September 3, 1939, France, Australia, England, and New Zealand declared war on Germany. Then they were joined by Canada, Newfoundland, the Union of South Africa, and Nepal. This is how the bloody Second World War began to quickly gain momentum. The USSR, although it urgently introduced universal military duty, until June 22, 1941, he never declared war on Germany.

In the spring of 1940, Hitler's troops began the occupation of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Next I headed to France. In June 1940, Italy began to fight on Hitler's side. In the spring of 1941, it quickly captured Greece and Yugoslavia. On June 22, 1941, she attacked the USSR. On the side of Germany in these military actions were Romania, Finland, Hungary, and Italy. Up to 70% of all active Nazi divisions fought on all Soviet-German fronts. The defeat of the enemy in the battle for Moscow thwarted Hitler’s notorious plan - “Blitzkrieg” ( lightning war). Thanks to this, already in 1941 the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition began. On December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States also entered this war. For a long time, the army of this country fought its enemies only in Pacific Ocean. The so-called second front, Great Britain and the United States, promised to open in the summer of 1942. But, despite the fierce fighting on the territory of the Soviet Union, the partners in the anti-Hitler coalition were in no hurry to engage in hostilities in Western Europe. This is due to the fact that the USA and England were waiting for the complete weakening of the USSR. Only when it became obvious that at a rapid pace it began to liberate not only its territory, but also countries Eastern Europe, the Allies hastened to open a Second Front. This happened on June 6, 1944 (2 years after the promised date). From that moment on, the Anglo-American coalition sought to be the first to liberate Europe from German troops. Despite all the efforts of the Allies, Soviet Army she was the first to occupy the Reichstag, on which she erected her own. But even the unconditional surrender of Germany did not stop the Second World War. Military operations continued in Czechoslovakia for some time. Also in the Pacific, hostilities almost never ceased. Only after the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) with atomic bombs by the Americans did the Japanese emperor realize the futility of further resistance. As a result of this attack, about 300 thousand people died. peaceful people. This bloody international conflict ended only on September 2, 1945. It was on this day that Japan signed the act of surrender.

Victims of the world conflict

The first large-scale losses in World War II suffered Polish people. The army of this country could not resist more strong opponent represented by German troops. This war had an unprecedented impact on all of humanity. About 80% of all people living on Earth at that time (more than 1.7 billion people) were drawn into the war. Military actions took place on the territory of more than 40 states. Over the 6 years of this world conflict, about 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces of all armies. According to the latest data, human losses amount to about 50 million people. At the same time, only 27 million people were killed on the fronts. The remaining victims were civilians. Most human lives lost countries such as the USSR (27 million), Germany (13 million), Poland (6 million), Japan (2.5 million), China (5 million). The human losses of other warring countries were: Yugoslavia (1.7 million), Italy (0.5 million), Romania (0.5 million), Great Britain (0.4 million), Greece (0.4 million). ), Hungary (0.43 million), France (0.6 million), USA (0.3 million), New Zealand, Australia (40 thousand), Belgium (88 thousand), Africa (10 thousand .), Canada (40 thousand). More than 11 million people were killed in fascist concentration camps.

Losses from international conflict

It is simply amazing what losses the Second World War brought to humanity. History shows the $4 trillion that went into military spending. Among the warring states material costs amounted to about 70% national income. For several years, the industry of many countries was completely reoriented to the production military equipment. Thus, the USA, USSR, Great Britain and Germany produced more than 600 thousand combat and transport aircraft during the war years. The weapons of World War II became even more effective and deadly in 6 years. The most brilliant minds of the warring countries were busy only with its improvement. The Second World War forced us to come up with a lot of new weapons. Tanks from Germany and the Soviet Union were constantly modernized throughout the war. At the same time, more and more advanced machines were created to destroy the enemy. Their number was in the thousands. Thus, more than 280 thousand armored vehicles, tanks, and self-propelled guns alone were produced. More than 1 million different vehicles rolled off the assembly lines of military factories. artillery pieces; about 5 million machine guns; 53 million machine guns, carbines and rifles. Colossal destruction and destruction of several thousand cities and other settlements brought with it the Second World War. The history of mankind without it could have followed a completely different scenario. Because of it, all countries were set back in their development many years ago. Colossal resources and efforts of millions of people were spent eliminating the consequences of this international military conflict.

USSR losses

A very high price had to be paid for the Second World War to end quickly. USSR losses amounted to about 27 million people. (last count 1990). Unfortunately, it is unlikely that it will ever be possible to obtain accurate data, but this figure is the closest to the truth. There are several different estimates of USSR losses. Thus, according to the latest method, about 6.3 million are considered killed or died from their wounds; 0.5 million died from diseases, sentenced to death, died in accidents; 4.5 million missing and captured. The total demographic losses of the Soviet Union amount to more than 26.6 million people. Besides huge amount killed in this conflict, the USSR suffered enormous material losses. According to estimates, they amounted to more than 2,600 billion rubles. During World War II, hundreds of cities were partially or completely destroyed. More than 70 thousand villages were wiped off the face of the earth. 32 thousand large industrial enterprises were completely destroyed. It was almost completely destroyed agriculture European part of the USSR. Restoring the country to pre-war levels took several years of incredible effort and enormous expense.

“Washed in blood”? Lies and truth about losses in the Great Patriotic War Viktor Nikolaevich Zemskov

Losses of the allies of Germany and the USSR on Soviet-German front

According to the team of G.F. Krivosheev, the total irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front amounted to 8649.3 thousand people. But these data, apparently, are noticeably overestimated. First of all, legitimate doubts arise from the striking discrepancy in the figures of irretrievable human losses of Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front when comparing research data from 1993 and 2001. Unlike the USSR, population censuses were carried out in all warring countries soon after the war (no later than 1951), so work to determine real numbers their losses are based on a much more accurate demographic base than in the USSR. And although in the eight years that passed between the above-mentioned publications by G.F. Krivosheev, this base has not changed; the total irretrievable losses of Germany’s satellites were clarified by him. They suddenly decreased by 257.6 thousand people. (while the number of those captured increased by 33.2 thousand), despite the additional inclusion of Slovakia in their number. But, what is even more surprising, Germany’s irretrievable losses suddenly increased by exactly the same amount. And at the same time, the number of German prisoners immediately increased by 1004.7 thousand.

An extremely interesting phenomenon emerges: the composition of the allies has changed, the figures for types of losses in both works vary significantly, but as a result, the final number of irretrievable losses has remained practically unchanged. Accordingly, the ratio remained unchanged – 1:1.3. Isn’t this another clear evidence of an indicator previously agreed upon with the “highest authority”?

Heated discussions around the extensive information released by the team of G.F. Krivosheev, have not weakened since the release of its first edition in 1993. But the spears of those arguing are broken mainly over the magnitude of the losses of the main participants in the battles on the fields of the Great Patriotic War - the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. At the same time, their allies, who fought shoulder to shoulder with them, most often remain in the shadows. Meanwhile, their contribution to the fierce struggle on the Eastern Front was not at all small. This especially applies to Germany’s satellite countries. Almost from the very first days of the war, the troops of Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Finland took its side. IN total they fielded 31 divisions and 18 brigades against the Soviet Union, which accounted for more than 30% of the Wehrmacht formations involved in the first line. And in a matter of weeks, the Italian expeditionary force also joined them.

The military contingents of all these states were operationally subordinate to the German command. However, at the same time, they still retained relative independence and kept their own records of successes, failures and losses. The Red Army soldiers and commanders who fell into the hands of the Finns and, partly, the Romanians remained in their prisoner-of-war camps until these countries exited the war. Rest foreign citizens, who fought on the side of Germany on the Eastern Front, as well as the units, units and formations formed from them, were organically part of the Wehrmacht, so their losses were included in its decline.

But the irretrievable losses of the armies of the above countries had a noticeable impact on general level losses of opponents of the USSR. G.F. did not pass them by either. Krivosheev. In his book on p. 514 there is a table entitled “Irreversible human losses of the armed forces of the countries allied to Germany on the Soviet-German front from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945.” Two circumstances related to it immediately catch the eye: firstly, the amazing detail and accuracy of the numbers there. The vast majority of data is counted to one person. And secondly, there is not a single link to any Soviet sources, nor to foreign ones.

Apparently most The information included there was obtained from reports of fronts (armies) on the results of operations carried out. Those who directly worked with the primary documents of TsAMO saw these fantastic figures. If you add them up, then by the beginning of 1944 there should have been no ground army left in Germany at all. The only exception here is information about the number of prisoners of war who ended up in Soviet camps, and their future fate. Therefore, reliable figures for the losses of the German satellites must be sought in the works of authoritative historians who have devoted substantial monographs to their participation in the war. And such historians, of course, exist and are well known to everyone interested in this important topic.

These include, first of all, Mark Axworthy, one of the authors of the monograph “Third Axis Fourth Ally. Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945", dedicated to the participation of the Romanian army in the Second World War. Immediately after its publication in 1995, the monograph became a universally recognized classic. Since then, not a single serious study on this subject can do without references to it. And what appeared seven years later basic research armed forces of Slovakia during the same period of time, “Axis Slovakia: Hitler’s Slavic Wedge, 1938–1945” rightfully takes a similar place in the topic of this book, which has previously been very little studied.

The issues of the participation of the Hungarian armed forces on the side of Germany in the battles on the Eastern Front have been best covered to date by the well-known historian Leo Niehorster in his detailed work “The Royal Hungarian Army, 1920–1945”. His information about the human losses of the Hungarian army was supplemented by the Hungarian scientist Tamas Stark, who published the book “Hungary’s Human Losses in” specifically on this topic. World War II". A reliable figure for the losses of the Italian expeditionary force in the USSR was found in the authoritative statistical publication “ The World War II Databook, prepared by John Ellis. And the voluminous collection of documents and materials “Prisoners of War in the USSR. 1939–1956."

Finally, the losses of the Finnish army in 1941–1945. most comprehensively disclosed in the six-volume edition official history of this war "Jatkosodan historia", published in Helsinki in 1988–1994. At the same time total quantity Finnish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army can be learned from the good monograph by Professor D.D. Frolov “Soviet-Finnish captivity. 1939–1944. On both sides of the barbed wire." He worked a lot as Soviet archives, and in National Archives Finland and significantly clarified previously known data on the number and fate of Finnish military personnel in Soviet captivity. So, if, according to G.F. Krivosheev, there were 2377 of them, of which 403 died, or 17%, then D.D. Frolov counted 3114 captured Finns. 997 of them (32%) did not survive the war.

Information from the above sources is summarized in the following table:

Table 13

Irreversible losses of the armed forces of Germany's allies on the Soviet-German front

Note: * Excluded from the number of Hungarian prisoners of war were 10,352 people released in Budapest during raids, and 70 thousand who capitulated after the end of the war.

There is a serious discrepancy between the final figure of irretrievable losses of the armed forces of Germany's allies calculated in the table and the data of G.F. Krivosheev is more than obvious. He got 1,468,145 people, or 41% more. One of the main reasons for such a significant difference has already been mentioned by us earlier. True to himself G.F. Krivosheev, without further ado, as in the case of the Germans, included everyone in the number of prisoners of war taken by the Red Army before May 9, 1945, including military personnel who capitulated after the end of the war, and even, partially, interned civilians.

Information by G.F. Krivosheev’s statement about the irretrievable losses of the armed forces of the USSR allies on the Soviet-German front is also far from reliable. This applies primarily to his data on Romanian losses. In addition, Finland’s participation in the war against Germany is not reflected at all. But the Finns fought the Germans on the side of the USSR for almost 7 months, from October 1, 1944 to April 25, 1945. These events were called in Finland “ Lapland War" Interestingly, G.F. Krivosheev carefully took into account the 72 Mongolian soldiers lost in the war with Japan, and for some reason chose to completely ignore the 1036 Finns killed and missing in battles with the Wehrmacht on the extreme northern flank of the Soviet-German front. But they, among other things, captured 2,600 Germans and, in accordance with the agreement, handed them over to the Soviet Union.

Table 14

Irreversible losses of the armed forces of the USSR allies on the Soviet-German front

The total data obtained in the table on the irretrievable losses of the armed forces of the USSR allies on the Soviet-German front during the Great Patriotic War differ from the figures of G.F. Krivosheev (76,122 people) more than one and a half times. Moreover, in contrast to the losses of Germany’s satellites, which he significantly exaggerated, the losses of the USSR’s allies were underestimated by him to an even greater extent.

The reasons for such distortions are more than clear: the team of G.F. Krivosheev diligently solved the task assigned to him to adjust the final ratio of irretrievable losses of opponents on the Soviet-German front to a more or less acceptable value. But fulfilling a political order has nothing to do with the search for truth, which is what conscientious historians should engage in.