On the eve of Victory Day, I would like to raise several important, fundamental issues. I will try to outline in general terms the pre-war potential of the USSR and Nazi Germany, and will also provide data on human losses on both sides, including the latest. There is also the latest data on the number of dead Yakut residents.

The issue of losses in the Second World War has been discussed throughout the world for several years. There are various assessments, including sensational ones. Quantitative indicators are influenced not only by various calculation methods, but also by ideology and a subjective approach.

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

The USSR’s war against Germany and its allies is presented to the Western public as “unknown.” Some residents of Western countries, judging by polls, claim in all seriousness that the USSR and Germany were allies in that war.

The second favorite saying of some Westerners and home-grown “Western-style” liberal democrats is 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, the retreating detachments were shot,” “ millions of prisoners,” without the help of the allied troops, the Red Army’s victory 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 implementation of orders from the Headquarters of Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, as a result of which Soviet troops suffered unreasonably high losses.

And few people pay attention to the fact that during the period of active defensive and even 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 combat note about the large losses of personnel of a particular military unit in order to receive replenishment.

As always, the truth is in the middle!

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

Captured documents available in the USSR, in particular, 10-day reports from OKW (the highest military command of the Wehrmacht), were classified, and only recently have military historians 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 as a result of the German occupation and the deportation of Soviet people to German penal servitude.

Then N.S. Khrushchev, in 1961, having debunked 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 killed as a result of military and other enemy actions, those who died as a result of military and other enemy actions, those who died as a result of the 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 and did not return after its ending.

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

- 6.3 million military personnel were killed or died from wounds,

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

- 4.5 million– were captured and disappeared;

General demographic losses – 26.6 million Human.

German casualties:

- 4.046 million military personnel were killed, died of wounds, or 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 data is now emerging.

The beginning of the war is 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 feasible was the “Barbarossa” plan prepared by the Wehrmacht General Staff?

It should be noted that in June 1941 the total population of Germany, including its direct allies, was 283 million people, and in the USSR - 160 million. Germany's direct allies at that time were: Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia. In the summer of 1941, the Wehrmacht personnel numbered 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, and over 10,000 aircraft (excluding the weapons of allied military formations).

General characteristics of the Red Army of the USSR for June 1941. The total number was 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, and Transcaucasia. It must be said that the Wehrmacht divisions were staffed according to wartime levels, and each had 14-16 thousand people. Soviet divisions were staffed according to peacetime levels 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.

Soviet artillery provided powerful firepower. On the eve of the war, the Red Army had 67,335 guns and mortars. Katyusha multiple launch rocket systems began to arrive. In terms of combat qualities, Soviet field artillery was superior to German, but was poorly equipped with mechanized traction. The needs for special artillery tractors were met by 20.5%.

In the western military districts of the Red Army Air Force, there were 7,009 fighters, and 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, and mortars. And thus, Hitler’s hopes to carry out a “blitzkrieg” against the USSR were calculated taking into account real conditions and the distribution of available armed forces and means. In addition, Germany already had practical military experience gained as a result of military operations in other European countries. Surprise, aggressiveness, coordination of all forces and means, precise execution of orders from the Wehrmacht General Staff, the use of armored forces on a relatively small section of the front - this was a proven, fundamental tactic of action by military formations of Nazi Germany.

This tactic performed exceptionally well in military operations in Europe; Wehrmacht casualties were small. For example, in France, 27,074 German soldiers were killed and 111,034 were 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 en route. These “historic” victories of German weapons incredibly inspired Adolf Hitler, and they were given the order to develop the “Barbarossa” plan - a war against the USSR.

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

In mid-July 1941, the initial period of the war ended. Due to a number of subjective and objective factors, Soviet troops suffered serious losses in manpower and equipment. As a result of heavy fighting, using air supremacy, the German armed forces by this time 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 on the formations of the Western Front. In other words, the Wehrmacht’s priority tasks were completed. But the “blitzkrieg” tactics still failed.

The Germans met fierce resistance from the retreating troops. The NKVD troops and border guards especially distinguished themselves. Here, for example, is the testimony of a former German sergeant major who participated in the attacks on the 9th outpost of the border city 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 to the right and left in order to surround the bridge and capture it intact. 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 failing, the battalion commander ordered fire from 80-mm mortars. Only under their cover did we begin to infiltrate the Soviet shore... We could not advance further as quickly as our command wanted. The Soviet border guards had firing points along the coastline. They sat in them and shot literally until the last cartridge... Nowhere, never have we seen such stamina, such military perseverance... They preferred death to the possibility of captivity or withdrawal...”

Heroic actions made it possible to gain time for the approach of the 99th Infantry Division of Colonel N.I. Dementyev. Active resistance to the enemy continued.

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

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

As you know, the scientific work “History of Yakutia” has been prepared since 2013. Researcher at the Institute for Humanitarian Research and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North SB RAS Marianna Gryaznukhina, the author of the chapter of this scientific work, which talks about the human losses of the Yakut people during the Great Patriotic War, kindly provided the following data: the population of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1941, on the eve of the war, was 419 thousand Human. 62 thousand people were drafted and went to the front as volunteers.

However, this cannot be called the exact number of Yakutians who fought for their Motherland. By the beginning of the war, several hundred people were doing military service in the army, and a number were studying at military schools. Therefore, the number of Yakuts who fought can be considered from 62 to 65 thousand people.

Now about the human losses. In recent years, a figure has been cited - 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, but 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, for the small population of the republic this is a huge loss.

In general, the contribution of the Yakut people to the fight against the “brown plague” is enormous and has not yet been fully studied. Many became combat commanders, demonstrated military training, dedication, and courage in battles, for which they were awarded high military awards. Residents of the Khangalassky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) remember the general with warmth Prituzov (Pripuzov) Andrey Ivanovich. Participant 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 peace in his native Pokrovsk.

How can one not remember on the eve of Victory Day about the Yakut snipers - two of whom were included in the legendary top ten snipers of the Second World War. This is a Yakut Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov, on whose personal account there are 429 killed Nazis. Before becoming a sniper, he destroyed several dozen fascists with a machine gun and machine gun. And Fyodor Matveevich received the Hero of the Soviet Union only in 1965. The man is a legend!

The second one is Evenk Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov- 489 killed Nazis. He taught sniper training to young Red Army soldiers. 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 sniper warfare, for which it paid dearly. During the war, the Nazis began hastily learning the art of snipers using captured Soviet military training films and instructions for snipers. At the front they used the same Soviet captured Mosin and SVT rifles. Only by 1944 did the Wehrmacht military units include trained snipers.

Our colleague, lawyer, Honored Lawyer of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), has passed the worthy path of a 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, and the hero himself received severe concussions. He has dozens of military victories, hundreds of killed enemies, and a large number of broken and burned enemy heavy equipment, including German tanks. As Yuri Nikolaevich recalled, the calculation of enemy losses was carried out by the commander of the 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, of which he was proud. Today Yuri Nikolaevich 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 us turn to the latest publications of a prominent Russian military historian Igor Ludvigovich 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 the Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht High Command - OKW, Wilhelm Keitel, 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 of this is united by the concept of “irretrievable losses.” "

Historian Gharibyan calculated German losses based on 10-day OKW reports, and the following data was obtained:

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

Missing – 4,591,511 people.

The total irretrievable losses are 17,801,340 people, including disabled people, prisoners, and those who died from diseases.

These figures concern only two countries – Germany and Austria. The losses of Romania, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia and other countries that fought against the USSR are not taken into account here.

Thus, Hungary, with its population of nine million, lost 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 killed, which the Western media prefer to “shamefully” keep silent about.

To sum up, we must admit that the USSR had to fight virtually one on one (in 1941-1943) with all of Europe, except 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 human resources of Germany's direct allies.

As a result, the Soviet people, showing the will to Victory and 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 village of Batamai, Ordzhonikidze 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 Yakut residents 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).

In the twentieth century, more than 250 wars and major military conflicts took place on our planet, including two world wars, but the bloodiest and most brutal in the history of mankind was the 2nd World War, unleashed by Nazi Germany and its allies in September 1939. For five years there was a massive extermination of people. Due to the lack of reliable statistics, the total number of casualties among military personnel and civilians of many states participating in the war has not yet been established. Estimates of the death toll vary widely across studies. However, it is generally accepted that more than 55 million people died during the Second World War. Almost half of all those killed were civilians. More than 5.5 million innocent people were killed in the fascist death camps Majdanek and Auschwitz alone. In total, 11 million citizens from all European countries were tortured in Hitler's concentration camps, including about 6 million Jews.

The main burden of the fight against fascism fell on the shoulders of the Soviet Union and its Armed Forces. This war became the Great Patriotic War for our people. The victory of the Soviet people in this war came at a high price. The total direct human losses of the USSR, according to the Population Statistics Department of the USSR State Statistics Committee and the Center for the Study of Population Problems at Moscow State University, amounted to 26.6 million. Of these, in the territories occupied by the Nazis and their allies, as well as during forced labor in Germany, 13,684,448 civilian Soviet citizens were deliberately destroyed and died. These are the tasks that Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler set for the commanders of the SS divisions “Totenkopf”, “Reich”, “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” on April 24, 1943 at a meeting in the building of Kharkov University: “I want to say and think that those to whom I I’m saying this, and they already understand that we must wage our war and our campaign with the thought of how best to take away human resources from the Russians - alive or dead? We do this when we kill them or capture them and force them to really work, when we try to take possession of an occupied area, and when we leave deserted territory to the enemy. Either they must be driven to Germany and become its labor force, or die in battle. And leaving people to the enemy so that he can have labor and military strength again is, by and large, absolutely wrong. This cannot be allowed to happen. And if this line of exterminating people is consistently pursued in the war, which I am convinced of, then the Russians will lose their strength and bleed to death already during this year and next winter.” The Nazis acted in accordance with their ideology throughout the war. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet people were tortured in concentration camps in Smolensk, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Lvov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel Kaunas, Riga and many others. During the two years of occupation of Kyiv, tens of thousands of people of different nationalities were shot on its territory in Babi Yar - Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies. Including, on September 29 and 30, 1941 alone, Sonderkommando 4A executed 33,771 people. Heinrich Himmler gave cannibalistic instructions in his letter dated September 7, 1943 to the Supreme Fuhrer of the SS and the Ukrainian Police Prützmann: “Everything must be done so that when retreating from Ukraine not a single person, not a single head of cattle, not a single gram of grain, or meter of railway track, so that not a single house would survive, not a single mine would survive, and not a single well would remain unpoisoned. The enemy must be left with a completely burned and devastated country.” In Belarus, the occupiers burned over 9,200 villages, of which 619 together with their inhabitants. In total, during the occupation in the Byelorussian SSR, 1,409,235 civilians died, another 399 thousand people were forcibly taken to forced labor in Germany, of which more than 275 thousand did not return home. In Smolensk and its environs, during the 26 months of occupation, the Nazis killed more than 135 thousand civilians and prisoners of war, more than 87 thousand citizens were taken to forced labor in Germany. When Smolensk was liberated in September 1943, only 20 thousand inhabitants remained. In Simferopol, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Karabuzar, Kerch and Feodosia from November 16 to December 15, 1941, Task Force D shot 17,645 Jews, 2,504 Crimean Cossacks, 824 Gypsies and 212 communists and partisans.

More than three million civilian Soviet citizens died from combat exposure in front-line areas, in besieged and besieged cities, from hunger, frostbite and disease. Here is how the military diary of the command of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht for October 20, 1941 recommends action against Soviet cities: “It is unacceptable to sacrifice the lives of German soldiers to save Russian cities from fires or to supply them at the expense of the German homeland. The chaos in Russia will become greater if the inhabitants of Soviet cities are inclined to flee into the interior of Russia. Therefore, before taking cities, it is necessary to break their resistance with artillery fire and force the population to flee. These measures should be communicated to all commanders." In Leningrad and its suburbs alone, about a million civilians died during the siege. In Stalingrad, in August 1942 alone, more than 40 thousand civilians died during barbaric, massive German air raids.

The total demographic losses of the USSR Armed Forces amounted to 8,668,400 people. This figure includes military personnel killed and missing in action, those who died from wounds and illnesses, those who did not return from captivity, those who were executed by court verdicts, and those who died in disasters. Of these, more than 1 million Soviet soldiers and officers gave their lives during the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the brown plague. Including 600,212 people died for the liberation of Poland, Czechoslovakia - 139,918 people, Hungary - 140,004 people, Germany - 101,961 people, Romania - 68,993 people, Austria - 26,006 people, Yugoslavia - 7,995 people, Norway - 3436 people. and Bulgaria - 977. During the liberation of China and Korea from Japanese invaders, 9963 Red Army soldiers died.

During the war years, according to various estimates, from 5.2 to 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war passed through German camps. Of this number, from 3.3 to 3.9 million people died, which is more than 60% of the total number of those in captivity. At the same time, about 4% of the prisoners of war of Western countries died in German captivity. In the verdict of the Nuremberg trials, the cruel treatment of Soviet prisoners of war was qualified as a crime against humanity.

It should be noted that the overwhelming number of Soviet military personnel missing and captured occurred in the first two years of the war. The sudden attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR put the Red Army, which was in the stage of deep reorganization, in an extremely difficult situation. The border districts lost most of their personnel in a short time. In addition, more than 500 thousand conscripts mobilized by military registration and enlistment offices never made it to their units. During the rapidly developing German offensive, they, lacking weapons and equipment, found themselves in enemy-occupied territory and most of them were captured or died in the first days of the war. In the conditions of heavy defensive battles in the first months of the war, the headquarters were unable to properly organize the accounting of losses, and often simply did not have the opportunity to do this. Units and formations that were surrounded destroyed records of personnel and losses in order to avoid being captured by the enemy. Therefore, many who died in battle were listed as missing or were not counted at all. Approximately the same picture emerged in 1942 as a result of a number of offensive and defensive operations that were unsuccessful for the Red Army. By the end of 1942, the number of Red Army soldiers missing and captured had sharply decreased.

Thus, the large number of victims suffered by the Soviet Union is explained by the policy of genocide directed against its citizens by the aggressor, whose main goal was the physical destruction of most of the population of the USSR. In addition, military operations on the territory of the Soviet Union lasted more than three years and the front passed through it twice, first from west to east to Petrozavodsk, Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad and the Caucasus, and then in the opposite direction, which led to huge losses among civilians , which cannot be compared with similar losses in Germany, on whose territory the fighting took place for less than five months.

To establish the identity of military personnel who died during hostilities, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (NKO USSR) dated March 15, 1941 No. 138, the “Regulations on personal accounting of losses and burial of deceased personnel of the Red Army in wartime” was introduced. On the basis of this order, medallions were introduced in the form of a plastic pencil case with a parchment insert in two copies, the so-called address tape, into which personal information about the serviceman was entered. In the event of the death of a serviceman, it was assumed that one copy of the address tape would be seized by the funeral team and subsequently transferred to the unit headquarters to add the deceased to the list of casualties. The second copy was to be left in the medallion with the deceased. In reality, during the hostilities this requirement was practically not met. In most cases, the medallions were simply removed from the deceased by the funeral team, making subsequent identification of the remains impossible. The unjustified cancellation of medallions in units of the Red Army, in accordance with the order of the USSR NKO dated November 17, 1942 No. 376, led to an increase in the number of unidentified dead soldiers and commanders, which also added to the lists of missing persons.

At the same time, it must be taken into account that in the Red Army at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War there was no centralized system of personal registration of military personnel (except for regular officers). Personal records of citizens called up for military service were kept at the level of military commissariats. There was no general database of personal information about military personnel called up and mobilized into the Red Army. In the future, this led to a large number of errors and duplication of information when accounting for irretrievable losses, as well as the appearance of “dead souls” when the biographical data of military personnel was distorted in reports of losses.

Based on the order of the NCO of the USSR dated July 29, 1941 No. 0254, maintaining personal records of losses in formations and units of the Red Army was entrusted to the Department for recording personal losses and the letter bureau of the Main Directorate for the Formation and Recruitment of Red Army Troops. In accordance with the order of the NPO of the USSR dated January 31, 1942 No. 25, the Department was reorganized into the Central Bureau for Personal Accounting of Losses of the Active Army of the Main Directorate of the Red Army. However, the order of the NCO of the USSR dated April 12, 1942 “On personal accounting of irretrievable losses at the fronts” stated that “As a result of untimely and incomplete submission of lists of losses by military units, there was a large discrepancy between the data of numerical and personal accounting of losses. Currently, no more than one third of the actual number of those killed is on personal records. The personal records of missing and captured people are even further from the truth.” After a series of reorganizations and the transfer in 1943 of the accounting of personal losses of senior commanding personnel to the Main Personnel Directorate of NPOs of the USSR, the body responsible for personal accounting of losses was renamed the Directorate for Personal Accounting of Losses of Junior Commanders and Rank-and-Old Personnel and Pension Provision of Workers. The most intensive work on registering irreparable losses and issuing notices to relatives began after the end of the war and continued intensively until January 1, 1948. Considering that information about the fate of a large number of military personnel was not received from military units, in 1946 it was decided to take into account irretrievable losses based on submissions from military registration and enlistment offices. For this purpose, a door-to-door survey was conducted throughout the USSR to identify dead and missing military personnel who were not registered.

A significant number of military personnel recorded as dead and missing during the Great Patriotic War actually survived. So, from 1948 to 1960. it was found that 84,252 officers were mistakenly included in the lists of irretrievable losses and in fact remained alive. But this data was not included in the general statistics. How many privates and sergeants actually survived, but are included in the lists of irretrievable losses, is still not known. Although the Directive of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces of the Soviet Army dated May 3, 1959 No. 120 n/s obligated military commissariats to carry out a reconciliation of the alphabetical books of registration of dead and missing military personnel with the registration data of military registration and enlistment offices in order to identify the military personnel who were actually alive, its implementation has not been completed to this day. Thus, before placing on memorial plaques the names of Red Army soldiers who fell in battles for the village of Bolshoye Ustye on the Ugra River, the Historical and Archival Search Center “Fate” (IAPC “Fate”) in 1994 clarified the fates of 1,500 military personnel whose names were established based on reports from military units. Information about their fates was cross-checked through the card index of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO RF), military commissariats, local authorities at the place of residence of the victims and their relatives. At the same time, 109 military personnel were identified who survived or died at a later time. Moreover, the majority of the surviving soldiers were not re-registered in the TsAMO RF card file.

Also, during the compilation in 1994 of a name database of military personnel who died in the area of ​​​​the village of Myasnoy Bor, Novgorod region, the IAPTs "Fate" found that out of 12,802 military personnel included in the database, 1,286 people (more than 10%) were taken into account in reports about irreparable losses twice. This is explained by the fact that the first time the deceased was counted after the battle by the military unit in which he actually fought, and the second time by the military unit whose funeral team collected and buried the bodies of the dead. The database did not include military personnel missing in action in the area, which would likely have increased the number of duplicates. It should be noted that the statistical accounting of losses was carried out on the basis of digital data taken from the lists of names presented in the reports of military units, categorized by categories of losses. This ultimately led to a serious distortion of data on the irretrievable losses of Red Army soldiers in the direction of their increase.

In the course of work to establish the fates of Red Army servicemen who died and disappeared on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, the IAPTs "Fate" identified several more types of duplication of losses. Thus, some officers are simultaneously registered as officers and enlisted personnel; military personnel of the border troops and the navy are partially registered, in addition to departmental archives, in the Central Aviation Administration of the Russian Federation.

Work to clarify data on the casualties suffered by the USSR during the war is still ongoing. In accordance with a number of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation and his Decree No. 37 of January 22, 2006 “Issues of perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland,” an interdepartmental commission was created in Russia to assess human and material losses during the Great Patriotic War. The main goal of the commission is by 2010 to finally determine the losses of the military and civilian population during the Great Patriotic War, as well as to calculate material costs for more than a four-year period of combat operations. The Russian Ministry of Defense is implementing the Memorial OBD project to systematize registration data and documents about fallen soldiers. The implementation of the main technical part of the project - the creation of the United Data Bank and the website http://www.obd-memorial.ru - is carried out by a specialized organization - the Electronic Archive Corporation. The main goal of the project is to enable millions of citizens to determine the fate or find information about their dead or missing relatives and friends, and determine the place of their burial. No country in the world has such a data bank and free access to documents on the losses of the armed forces. In addition, enthusiasts from search teams are still working on the fields of past battles. Thanks to the soldiers' medallions they discovered, the fates of thousands of military personnel who went missing on both sides of the front were established.

Poland, the first to be subjected to Hitler's invasion during the 2nd World War, also suffered huge losses - 6 million people, the vast majority of the civilian population. The losses of the Polish armed forces amounted to 123,200 people. Including: September campaign of 1939 (invasion of Hitler’s troops into Poland) – 66,300 people; 1st and 2nd Polish armies in the East - 13,200 people; Polish troops in France and Norway in 1940 - 2,100 people; Polish troops in the British army - 7,900 people; Warsaw Uprising of 1944 – 13,000 people; Guerrilla warfare – 20,000 people. .

The allies of the Soviet Union in the anti-Hitler coalition also suffered significant losses during the fighting. Thus, the total losses of the armed forces of the British Commonwealth on the Western, African and Pacific fronts in dead and missing amounted to 590,621 people. Of these: – United Kingdom and colonies – 383,667 people; – undivided India – 87,031 people; – Australia – 40,458 people; – Canada – 53,174 people; – New Zealand – 11,928 people; – South Africa – 14,363 people.

In addition, during the fighting, about 350 thousand British Commonwealth troops were captured by the enemy. Of these, 77,744 people, including merchant seamen, were captured by the Japanese.

It must be taken into account that the role of the British armed forces in the 2nd World War was limited mainly to combat operations at sea and in the air. In addition, the United Kingdom lost 67,100 civilians.

The total losses of the armed forces of the United States of America in killed and missing on the Pacific and Western fronts were: 416,837 people. Of these, army losses amounted to 318,274 people. (including the Air Force lost 88,119 people), Navy - 62,614 people, Marine Corps - 24,511 people, US Coast Guard - 1,917 people, US Merchant Marine - 9,521 people.

In addition, 124,079 US military personnel (including 41,057 Air Force personnel) were captured by the enemy during combat operations. Of these, 21,580 military personnel were captured by the Japanese.

France lost 567,000 people. Of these, the French armed forces lost 217,600 people killed or missing. During the years of occupation, 350,000 civilians died in France.

More than a million French troops were captured by the Germans in 1940.

Yugoslavia lost 1,027,000 people in World War II. Including the losses of the armed forces amounted to 446,000 people and 581,000 civilians.

The Netherlands suffered 301,000 casualties, including 21,000 military personnel and 280,000 civilian deaths.

Greece lost 806,900 people killed. Including the armed forces lost 35,100 people, and the civilian population 771,800 people.

Belgium lost 86,100 people killed. Of these, military casualties amounted to 12,100 people and civilian casualties 74,000.

Norway lost 9,500 people, including 3,000 military personnel.

The 2nd World War, unleashed by the “Thousand Year” Reich, turned into a disaster for Germany itself and its satellites. The real losses of the German armed forces are still not known, although by the beginning of the war a centralized system of personal registration of military personnel had been created in Germany. Each German soldier, immediately upon arrival at the reserve military unit, was given a personal identification mark (die Erknnungsmarke), which was an oval-shaped aluminum plate. The badge consisted of two halves, on each of which were stamped: the personal number of the serviceman, the name of the military unit that issued the badge. Both halves of the personal identification mark easily broke off from each other due to the presence of longitudinal cuts in the major axis of the oval. When the body of a dead serviceman was found, one half of the sign was broken off and sent along with a casualty report. The other half remained with the deceased in case subsequent identification was necessary during reburial. The inscription and number on the personal identification badge were reproduced in all personal documents of the serviceman; the German command persistently sought this. Each military unit kept accurate lists of issued personal identification marks. Copies of these lists were sent to the Berlin Central Bureau for the Accounting of War Casualties and Prisoners of War (WAST). At the same time, during the defeat of a military unit during hostilities and retreat, it was difficult to carry out a complete personal accounting of dead and missing military personnel. For example, several Wehrmacht servicemen, whose remains were discovered during search operations carried out by the Historical and Archival Search Center "Fate" at the sites of former battles on the Ugra River in the Kaluga region, where intense fighting took place in March - April 1942, according to the WAST service, they were counted only as conscripts into the German army. There was no information about their further fate. They were not even listed as missing.

Starting with the defeat at Stalingrad, the German loss accounting system began to malfunction, and in 1944 and 1945, suffering defeat after defeat, the German command simply physically could not account for all its irretrievable losses. Since March 1945, their registration stopped altogether. Even earlier, on January 31, 1945, the Imperial Statistical Office stopped keeping records of the civilian population killed by air raids.

The position of the German Wehrmacht in 1944-1945 is a mirror reflection of the position of the Red Army in 1941-1942. Only we were able to survive and win, and Germany was defeated. At the end of the war, mass migration of the German population began, which continued after the collapse of the Third Reich. The German Empire within the borders of 1939 ceased to exist. Moreover, in 1949, Germany itself was divided into two independent states - the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. In this regard, it is quite difficult to identify the real direct human losses of Germany in the 2nd World War. All studies of German losses are based on data from German documents from the war period, which cannot reflect actual losses. They can only talk about registered losses, which is not at all the same thing, especially for a country that has suffered a crushing defeat. It should be taken into account that access to documents on military losses stored in WAST is still closed to historians.

According to incomplete available data, the irretrievable losses of Germany and its allies (killed, died of wounds, captured and missing) amounted to 11,949,000 people. This includes human losses of the German armed forces - 6,923,700 people, similar losses of Germany's allies (Hungary, Italy, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia) - 1,725,800 people, as well as losses of the civilian population of the Third Reich - 3,300,000 people - this those killed by bombings and hostilities, missing persons, victims of fascist terror.

The German civilian population suffered the heaviest casualties as a result of the strategic bombing of German cities by British and American aircraft. According to incomplete data, these victims exceed 635 thousand people. Thus, as a result of four air raids carried out by the Royal British Air Force from July 24 to August 3, 1943, on the city of Hamburg, using incendiary and high-explosive bombs, 42,600 people were killed and 37 thousand were seriously injured. Three raids by British and American strategic bombers on the city of Dresden on February 13 and 14, 1945 had even more catastrophic consequences. As a result of combined attacks with incendiary and high-explosive bombs on residential areas of the city, at least 135 thousand people died from the resulting fire tornado, incl. city ​​residents, refugees, foreign workers and prisoners of war.

According to official data given in a statistical study of the group headed by General G.F. Krivosheev, until May 9, 1945, the Red Army captured more than 3,777,000 enemy troops. 381 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and 137 thousand soldiers of the armies allied to Germany (except Japan) died in captivity, that is, only 518 thousand people, which is 14.9% of all recorded enemy prisoners of war. After the end of the Soviet-Japanese War, out of 640 thousand military personnel of the Japanese army captured by the Red Army in August - September 1945, 62 thousand people (less than 10%) died in captivity.

Italian losses in World War 2 amounted to 454,500 people, of which 301,400 died in the armed forces (of which 71,590 on the Soviet-German front).

According to various estimates, from 5,424,000 to 20,365,000 civilians became victims of Japanese aggression, including from famine and epidemics, in the countries of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Thus, civilian casualties in China are estimated from 3,695,000 to 12,392,000 people, in Indochina from 457,000 to 1,500,000 people, in Korea from 378,000 to 500,000 people. Indonesia 375,000 people, Singapore 283,000 people, Philippines - 119,000 people, Burma - 60,000 people, Pacific Islands - 57,000 people.

The losses of the Chinese armed forces in killed and wounded exceeded 5 million people.

331,584 military personnel from different countries died in Japanese captivity. Including 270,000 from China, 20,000 from the Philippines, 12,935 from the US, 12,433 from the UK, 8,500 from the Netherlands, 7,412 from Australia, 273 from Canada and 31 from New Zealand.

The aggressive plans of Imperial Japan were also costly. Its armed forces lost 1,940,900 military personnel killed or missing, including the army - 1,526,000 people and the navy - 414,900. 40,000 military personnel were captured. Japan's civilian population suffered 580,000 casualties.

Japan suffered the main civilian casualties from US Air Force attacks - the carpet bombing of Japanese cities at the end of the war and the atomic bombings in August 1945.

The American heavy bomber attack on Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, using incendiary and high-explosive bombs alone, killed 83,793 people.

The consequences of the atomic bombings were terrible when the US Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities. The city of Hiroshima was subjected to atomic bombing on August 6, 1945. The crew of the plane that bombed the city included a representative of the British Air Force. As a result of the bomb explosion in Hiroshima, about 200 thousand people died or went missing, more than 160 thousand people were injured and exposed to radioactive radiation. The second atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945 on the city of Nagasaki. As a result of the bombing, 73 thousand people died or went missing in the city; later, another 35 thousand people died from radiation exposure and wounds. In total, more than 500 thousand civilians were injured as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The price paid by humanity in the 2nd World War for the victory over the madmen who were striving for world domination and trying to implement the cannibalistic racial theory turned out to be extremely high. The pain of loss has not yet subsided; the participants in the war and its eyewitnesses are still alive. They say that time heals, but not in this case. Currently, the international community is faced with new challenges and threats. The expansion of NATO to the east, the bombing and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the occupation of Iraq, aggression against South Ossetia and the genocide of its population, the policy of discrimination against the Russian population in the Baltic republics that are members of the European Union, international terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons threaten peace and security on the planet. Against this background, attempts are being made to rewrite history, subject to revisions enshrined in the UN Charter and other international legal documents, the results of the 2nd World War, to challenge the basic and irrefutable facts of the extermination of millions of innocent civilians, to glorify the Nazis and their henchmen, and also to denigrate the liberators from fascism. These phenomena are fraught with a chain reaction - the revival of theories of racial purity and superiority, the spread of a new wave of xenophobia.

Notes:

1. The Great Patriotic War. 1941 – 1945. Illustrated encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005.P. 430.

2. German original version of the catalog of the documentary exhibition “War against the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945”, edited by Reinhard Rürup, published in 1991 by Argon, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). P. 269

3. Great Patriotic War. 1941 – 1945. Illustrated encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005.P. 430.

4. All-Russian Book of Memory, 1941-1945: Review volume. – /Editorial Board: E.M.Chekharin (chairman), V.V.Volodin, D.I.Karabanov (deputy chairmen), etc. – M.: Voenizdat, 1995.P. 396.

5. All-Russian Book of Memory, 1941-1945: Review volume. – /Editorial Board: E.M. Chekharin (chairman), V.V. Volodin, D.I. Karabanov (deputy chairmen), etc. - M.: Voenizdat, 1995. P. 407.

6. German original version of the catalog of the documentary exhibition “War against the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945”, edited by Reinhard Rürup, published in 1991 by Argon, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). P. 103.

7. Babi Yar. Book of memory/comp. I.M. Levitas. - K.: Publishing house "Steel", 2005. P.24.

8. German original version of the catalog of the documentary exhibition “War against the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945”, edited by Reinhard Rürup, published in 1991 by Argon, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). P. 232.

9. War, People, Victory: materials of international scientific research. conf. Moscow, March 15-16, 2005 / (responsible editor: M.Yu. Myagkov, Yu.A. Nikiforov); Institute of General history of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – M.: Nauka, 2008. Contribution of Belarus to the victory in the Great Patriotic War A.A. Kovalenya, A.M. Litvin. P. 249.

10. German original version of the catalog of the documentary exhibition “War against the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945”, edited by Reinhard Rürup, published in 1991 by Argon, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). P. 123.

11. Great Patriotic War. 1941 – 1945. Illustrated encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005. P. 430.

12. German original version of the catalog of the documentary exhibition “War against the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945”, edited by Reinhard Rürup, published in 1991 by Argon, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). P. 68.

13. Essays on the history of Leningrad. L., 1967. T. 5. P. 692.

14. Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century: Losses of the Armed Forces - a statistical study. Under the general editorship of G.F. Krivosheev. – M. “OLMA-PRESS”, 2001

15. Classified as classified: Losses of the USSR Armed Forces in wars, hostilities and military conflicts: Statistical study / V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov, V.V. Gurkin and others; under general
Edited by G.K. Krivosheev. – M.: Military Publishing House, 1993. P. 325.

16. Great Patriotic War. 1941 – 1945. Illustrated encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005.; Soviet prisoners of war in Germany. D.K. Sokolov. P. 142.

17. Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century: Losses of the Armed Forces - a statistical study. Under the general editorship of G.F. Krivosheev. – M. “OLMA-PRESS”, 2001

18. Guide to search and exhumation work. / V.E. Martynov A.V. Mezhenko and others / Association “War Memorials”. – 3rd ed. Revised and expanded. – M.: Lux-art LLP, 1997. P.30.

19. TsAMO RF, f.229, op. 159, d.44, l.122.

20. Military personnel of the Soviet state in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. (reference and statistical materials). Under the general editorship of Army General A.P. Beloborodov. Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Moscow, 1963, p. 359.

21. “Report on losses and military damage caused to Poland in 1939 – 1945.” Warsaw, 1947. P. 36.

23. American Military Casualties and Burials. Wash., 1993. P. 290.

24. B.Ts.Urlanis. History of military losses. St. Petersburg: Publishing house. Polygon, 1994. P. 329.

27. American Military Casualties and Burials. Wash., 1993. P. 290.

28. B.Ts.Urlanis. History of military losses. St. Petersburg: Publishing house. Polygon, 1994. P. 329.

30. B.Ts.Urlanis. History of military losses. St. Petersburg: Publishing house. Polygon, 1994. P. 326.

36. Guide to search and exhumation work. / V.E. Martynov A.V. Mezhenko and others / Association “War Memorials”. – 3rd ed. Revised and expanded. – M.: Lux-art LLP, 1997. P.34.

37. D. Irving. Destruction of Dresden. The largest scale bombing of the Second World War / Transl. from English L.A. Igorevsky. – M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2005. P.16.

38. All-Russian Book of Memory, 1941-1945...P.452.

39. D. Irving. Destruction of Dresden. The largest scale bombing of the Second World War / Transl. from English L.A. Igorevsky. – M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf. 2005. P.50.

40. D. Irving. The destruction of Dresden... P.54.

41. D. Irving. The destruction of Dresden... P.265.

42. Great Patriotic War. 1941 – 1945….; Foreign prisoners of war in the USSR...S. 139.

44. Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century: Losses of the Armed Forces - a statistical study. Under the general editorship of G.F. Krivosheev. – M. “OLMA-PRESS”, 2001.

46. ​​History of the Second World War. 1939 – 1945: In 12 vols. M., 1973-1982. T.12. P. 151.

49. D. Irving. The destruction of Dresden...P.11.

50. The Great Patriotic War 1941 – 1945: encyclopedia. – / ch. ed. M.M. Kozlov. Editorial Board: Yu.Ya. Barabash, P.A. Zhilin (Deputy Chief Editor, V.I. Kanatov (responsible Secretary) and others // Atomic weapons. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985. P. 71 .

Martynov V. E.
Electronic scientific and educational journal “History”, 2010 T.1. Issue 2.

World War II in facts and figures

Ernest Hemingway from the preface to the book "A Farewell to Arms!"

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Having left the city, halfway to the front headquarters, we immediately heard and saw desperate shooting across the entire horizon with tracer bullets and shells. And they realized that the war was over. It couldn't mean anything else. I suddenly felt bad. I was ashamed in front of my comrades, but in the end I had to stop the Jeep and get out. I started having some kind of spasms in my throat and esophagus, and I started vomiting saliva, bitterness, and bile. I don't know why. Probably from nervous release, which expressed itself in such an absurd way. During all these four years of war, under different circumstances, I tried very hard to be a restrained person and, it seems, I really was one. And here, at the moment when I suddenly realized that the war was over, something happened - my nerves gave way. The comrades did not laugh or joke, they were silent.

Konstantin Simonov. "Different days of the war. A writer's diary"

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Surrender of Japan

The terms of Japan's surrender were set out in the Potsdam Declaration, signed on July 26, 1945 by the governments of Great Britain, the United States, and China. However, the Japanese government refused to accept them.

The situation changed after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the USSR's entry into the war against Japan (August 9, 1945).

But even despite this, members of the Supreme Military Council of Japan were not inclined to accept the terms of surrender. Some of them believed that the continuation of hostilities would lead to significant losses of Soviet and American troops, which would make it possible to conclude a truce on terms favorable to Japan.

On August 9, 1945, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and a number of members of the Japanese government asked the emperor to intervene in the situation in order to quickly accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. On the night of August 10, Emperor Hirohito, who shared the Japanese government's fear of the complete destruction of the Japanese nation, ordered the Supreme Military Council to accept unconditional surrender. On August 14, the emperor's speech was recorded in which he announced Japan's unconditional surrender and the end of the war.

On the night of August 15, a number of officers of the Ministry of the Army and employees of the Imperial Guard attempted to seize the imperial palace, place the emperor under house arrest and destroy the recording of his speech in order to prevent the surrender of Japan. The rebellion was suppressed.

At noon on August 15, Hirohito's speech was broadcast by radio. This was the first address of the Emperor of Japan to ordinary people.

The Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, on board the American battleship Missouri. This put an end to the bloodiest war of the 20th century.

LOSSES OF PARTIES

Allies

USSR

From June 22, 1941 to September 2, 1945, about 26.6 million people died. Total material losses - $2 trillion 569 billion (about 30% of all national wealth); military expenses - $192 billion in 1945 prices. 1,710 cities and towns, 70 thousand villages and villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed.

China

From September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945, from 3 million to 3.75 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians died in the war against Japan. In total, during the years of the war with Japan (from 1931 to 1945), China's losses amounted, according to official Chinese statistics, to more than 35 million military and civilians.

Poland

From September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945, about 240 thousand military personnel and about 6 million civilians died. The territory of the country was occupied by Germany, and resistance forces operated.

Yugoslavia

From April 6, 1941 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 446 thousand military personnel and from 581 thousand to 1.4 million civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany, and resistance units were active.

France

From September 3, 1939 to May 8, 1945, 201,568 military personnel and about 400 thousand civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany and there was a resistance movement. Material losses - 21 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

United Kingdom

From September 3, 1939 to September 2, 1945, 382,600 military personnel and 67,100 civilians died. Material losses - about 120 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

USA

From December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945, 407,316 military personnel and about 6 thousand civilians died. The costs of military operations are about 341 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

Greece

From October 28, 1940 to May 8, 1945, about 35 thousand military personnel and from 300 to 600 thousand civilians died.

Czechoslovakia

From September 1, 1939 to May 11, 1945, according to various estimates, from 35 thousand to 46 thousand military personnel and from 294 thousand to 320 thousand civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany. Volunteer units fought as part of the Allied armed forces.

India

From September 3, 1939 to September 2, 1945, about 87 thousand military personnel died. The civilian population did not suffer direct losses, but a number of researchers consider the deaths of 1.5 to 2.5 million Indians during the famine of 1943 (caused by an increase in food supplies to the British army) to be a direct consequence of the war.

Canada

From September 10, 1939 to September 2, 1945, 42 thousand military personnel and about 1 thousand 600 merchant seamen died. Material losses amounted to about 45 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

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I saw women, they were crying for the dead. They cried because we lied too much. You know how survivors return from war, how much space they take up, how loudly they boast of their exploits, how terrible they portray death. Of course! They might not come back either

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. "Citadel"

Hitler's coalition (Axis countries)

Germany

From September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 3.2 to 4.7 million military personnel died, civilian losses ranged from 1.4 million to 3.6 million people. The costs of military operations are about 272 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

Japan

From December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945, 1.27 million military personnel were killed, non-combat losses - 620 thousand, 140 thousand were wounded, 85 thousand people were missing; civilian casualties - 380 thousand people. Military expenses - 56 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

Italy

From June 10, 1940 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 150 thousand to 400 thousand military personnel died, 131 thousand were missing. Civilian losses ranged from 60 thousand to 152 thousand people. Military expenses - about 94 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.

Hungary

From June 27, 1941 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 120 thousand to 200 thousand military personnel died. Civilian casualties are about 450 thousand people.

Romania

From June 22, 1941 to May 7, 1945, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 520 thousand military personnel and from 200 thousand to 460 thousand civilians died. Romania was initially on the side of the Axis countries; on August 25, 1944, it declared war on Germany.

Finland

From June 26, 1941 to May 7, 1945, about 83 thousand military personnel and about 2 thousand civilians died. On March 4, 1945, the country declared war on Germany.

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It is still not possible to reliably assess the material losses suffered by the countries on whose territory the war took place.

Over the course of six years, many large cities, including some state capitals, suffered total destruction. The scale of destruction was such that after the end of the war these cities were built almost anew. Many cultural values ​​were irretrievably lost.

RESULTS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (from left to right) at the Yalta (Crimean) Conference (TASS Photo Chronicle)

The allies in the anti-Hitler coalition began to discuss the post-war structure of the world even at the height of hostilities.

On August 14, 1941, on board a warship in the Atlantic Ocean near Fr. Newfoundland (Canada), US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the so-called. "Atlantic Charter"- a document declaring the goals of the two countries in the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as their vision of the post-war world order.

On January 1, 1942, Roosevelt, Churchill, as well as the USSR Ambassador to the USA Maxim Litvinov and the Chinese representative Song Tzu-wen signed a document that later became known as "Declaration of the United Nations". The next day, the declaration was signed by representatives of 22 other states. Commitments were made to make every effort to achieve victory and not to conclude a separate peace. It is from this date that the United Nations traces its history, although the final agreement on the creation of this organization was reached only in 1945 in Yalta during a meeting of the leaders of the three countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. It was agreed that the UN's activities would be based on the principle of unanimity of the great powers - permanent members of the Security Council with the right of veto.

In total, three summits took place during the war.

The first one took place in Tehran November 28 - December 1, 1943. The main issue was the opening of a second front in Western Europe. It was also decided to involve Turkey in the anti-Hitler coalition. Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan after the end of hostilities in Europe.

Our planet has known many 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 start a bloodbath and how difficult it is to stop it. 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 only thanks to the US Army did victory over Nazi Germany become possible. 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, it was the people of the USSR who suffered the greatest losses in World War II.

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 long 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

62 countries were involved in this conflict to one degree or another. And this despite the fact that at that time there were only 73 sovereign states on Earth. Fierce battles took place on three continents. Naval battles were fought 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 conduct active military operations 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 also joined by Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Liberia, and Mongolia. During the war years, those states that had ceased to be allies of Germany joined the anti-Hitler coalition. These are Iran (since 1941), Iraq and Italy (since 1943), Bulgaria and Romania (since 1944), Finland and Hungary (since 1945).

On the side of the Nazi bloc were such states 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 World War II the situation on the world stage changed several times, its result was the complete victory of the anti-Hitler coalition. Following this, the largest international organization, the United Nations (abbreviated as UN), was created. 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, for which World War II was an attempt to become the only superpower, fought 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 had been preparing the ground for an attack on this state for a long time. 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 conscription, did not declare war on Germany until June 22, 1941.

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 the 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 not only their territory, but also the countries of Eastern Europe began to be liberated at a rapid pace, 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, the Soviet Army was the first to occupy the Reichstag, where it erected its 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 civilians died. 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 Polish people suffered the first large-scale losses in World War II. The army of this country was unable to withstand a stronger enemy in the form of 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. Countries such as the USSR (27 million), Germany (13 million), Poland (6 million), Japan (2.5 million), and China (5 million) lost the most human lives. 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. For the warring states, material costs amounted to about 70% of national income. For several years, the industry of many countries was completely reoriented to the production of 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 artillery pieces rolled off the assembly lines of military factories; about 5 million machine guns; 53 million machine guns, carbines and rifles. The Second World War brought with it colossal destruction and destruction of several thousand cities and other populated areas. 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. In addition to the huge number of deaths 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. The agriculture of the European part of the USSR was almost completely destroyed. Restoring the country to pre-war levels took several years of incredible effort and enormous expense.

World War II was the most destructive war in the history of mankind. Its consequences are still debated to this day. 80% of the world's population took part in it.

Many questions arise about how many people died in World War II, as different sources of information give different estimates of human casualties between 1939 and 1945. The differences may be explained by where the source information was obtained and the method of calculation used.

Total death toll

It is worth noting that many historians and professors have studied this issue. The number of deaths on the Soviet side was calculated by members of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. According to new archival data, the information of which is provided for 2001, the Great Patriotic War claimed the lives of a total of 27 million people. Of these, more than seven million are military personnel who were killed or died from their injuries.

Conversations about how many people died from 1939 to 1945. as a result of military operations, continue to this day, since it is almost impossible to count losses. Various researchers and historians give their data: from 40 to 60 million people. After the war, the real data was hidden. During Stalin's reign it was said that the USSR's losses amounted to 8 million people. During Brezhnev's time, this figure increased to 20 million, and during the perestroika period - to 36 million.

The free encyclopedia Wikipedia provides the following data: more than 25.5 million military personnel and about 47 million civilians (including all participating countries), i.e. in total, the number of losses exceeds 70 million people.

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