How many victims in the second world. How many people died in World War II in the USSR and in the world

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

The main burden of the fight against fascism fell on the shoulders of the Soviet Union and its Armed Forces. This war became for our people - the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet people won this war at a high price. The total direct human losses of the USSR, according to the Department of Population Statistics 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 in forced labor in Germany, 13,684,448 peaceful Soviet citizens were deliberately destroyed and died. Here are the tasks that Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler set before the commanders of the SS divisions "Dead Head", "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 say this, and without that they understand that we must wage our war and our campaign with the thought of how best to take human resources from the Russians - dead or alive? We do this when we kill them or take them prisoner and make them really work, when we try to take possession of an occupied area and when we leave uninhabited territory to the enemy. Either they must be driven to Germany, and become her labor force, or die in battle. And to leave people to the enemy so that he again has a working and military force, by and large, is absolutely not right. This cannot be allowed. And if this line of extermination of people is consistently pursued in the war, as I am convinced, then the Russians will already lose their strength and bleed to death during this year and next winter. In accordance with their ideology, the Nazis acted throughout the war. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet people were tortured to death in concentration camps in Smolensk, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Lvov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel Kaunas, Riga and many others. During the two years of the occupation of Kyiv, on its territory in Babi Yar, tens of thousands of people of different nationalities were shot - Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies. Including, only on September 29 and 30, 1941, 33,771 people were executed by Sonderkommando 4A. Cannibalistic instructions were given by Heinrich Himmler in his letter dated September 7, 1943 to Prützmann, High Fuhrer of the SS and Police of Ukraine: “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, not meters of railroad tracks, so that not a single house survived, not a single mine was preserved, and there was not a single well that was not poisoned. The enemy must be left with a totally burned and devastated country. In Belarus, the invaders burned over 9,200 villages, of which 619 were together with the inhabitants. In total, during the occupation in the Byelorussian SSR, 1,409,235 civilians died, another 399 thousand people were forcibly taken to Germany for forced labor, 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 driven away for forced labor in Germany. When Smolensk was liberated in September 1943, only 20 thousand inhabitants remained in it. In Simferopol, Evpatoria, Alushta, Karabuzar, Kerch and Feodosiya, from November 16 to December 15, 1941, 17,645 Jews, 2,504 Crimean Cossacks, 824 Gypsies and 212 communists and partisans were shot by task force D.

More than three million peaceful Soviet citizens died from combat action in the 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 acting 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. There will be more chaos in Russia if the inhabitants of Soviet cities are inclined to flee into the depths of Russia. Therefore, before the capture of 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. Only in Leningrad and its suburbs about a million civilians died during the blockade. In Stalingrad in August 1942 alone, more than 40,000 civilians were killed during the barbaric, massed German air raids.

The total demographic losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR amounted to 8,668,400 people. This figure includes military personnel who died and went missing in action, died from wounds and illnesses, did not return from captivity, were shot by court sentences and died in disasters. Of these, during the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the brown plague, more than 1 million Soviet soldiers and officers gave their lives. Including for the liberation of Poland, 600,212 people died, Czechoslovakia - 139,918 people, Hungary - 140,004 people, Germany - 101,961 people, Romania - 68,993 people, Austria - 26,006 people, Yugoslavia - 7995 people, Norway - 3436 people. and Bulgaria - 977. During the liberation of China and Korea from the Japanese invaders, 9963 soldiers of the Red Army died.

During the war years, according to various estimates, from 5.2 to 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war passed through the 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 in German captivity died. In the judgment of the Nuremberg Trials, the ill-treatment of Soviet prisoners of war was qualified as a crime against humanity.

It should be noted that the overwhelming number of Soviet servicemen missing and taken prisoner falls on the first two years of the war. The sudden attack of fascist Germany on the USSR put the Red Army, which was in a 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 500,000 people liable for military service mobilized by military registration and enlistment offices did not get into their units. In the course of the rapidly developing German offensive, they, having no weapons and equipment, ended up in the territory occupied by the enemy 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 so. Units and formations that were surrounded, destroyed records of personnel and losses, in order to avoid its capture by the enemy. Therefore, many who died in battle were listed as missing or were not taken into account at all. Approximately the same picture emerged in 1942 as a result of a series of unsuccessful offensive and defensive operations for the Red Army. By the end of 1942, the number of Red Army soldiers missing and taken prisoner had dropped sharply.

Thus, a 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, hostilities 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 was fought for less than five months.

To establish the identity of the servicemen who died during the hostilities, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (NKO USSR) dated March 15, 1941 No. 138, the "Regulations on the personal accounting of losses and burial of the dead personnel of the Red Army in wartime" were 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. When a serviceman died, it was assumed that one copy of the address tape would be seized by the funeral team with subsequent transfer to the headquarters of the unit to include the deceased in the lists of losses. 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 dead by the funeral team, which made it impossible for the subsequent identification of the remains. The unjustified cancellation of medallions in the Red Army units, in accordance with the order of the NPO of the USSR dated November 17, 1942 No. 376, led to an increase in the number of unidentified dead soldiers and commanders, which also replenished the lists of missing people.

At the same time, it must be taken into account that by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army did not have a centralized system for the personal accounting 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 taking into account irretrievable losses, as well as the appearance of "dead souls", with the distortion of the biographical data of servicemen in loss reports.

On the basis of the order of the NCO of the USSR dated July 29, 1941 No. 0254, personal loss records for formations and units of the Red Army were entrusted to the Department for Accounting for Personal Losses and the Bureau of Letters of the Main Directorate for the Formation and Manning 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, in the order of the NCO of the USSR dated April 12, 1942, “On the personal accounting of irretrievable losses on the fronts,” it was stated that “As a result of the untimely and incomplete submission of lists of losses by the military units, there was a large discrepancy between the data of numerical and personal accounting of losses. At present, no more than one third of the actual number of those killed is on a personal record. The personal records of the missing and captured are even more far from the truth. After a series of reorganizations and the transfer in 1943 of accounting for personal losses of senior commanding staff to the Main Directorate of Personnel of the NCO of the USSR, the body responsible for personal accounting of losses was renamed the Directorate for Personal Recording of Losses of Junior Commanders and Enlisted Personnel and Pensions for Workers. The most intensive work on the registration of irretrievable losses and the issuance of notices to relatives began after the end of the war and continued intensively until January 1, 1948. Considering that no information was received from military units about the fate of a large number of military personnel, in 1946 it was decided to take into account irretrievable losses according to submissions from the military registration and enlistment offices. For this purpose, a door-to-door survey was conducted throughout the USSR to identify unregistered dead and missing servicemen.

A significant number of military personnel recorded during the Great Patriotic War as dead and missing in action actually survived. So, from 1948 to 1960. it was found that 84,252 officers were erroneously listed as irretrievable losses and actually survived. But these data were 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 Land Forces of the Soviet Army dated May 3, 1959 No. 120 n / s obliged the military commissariats to verify the alphabetical books of registration of the dead and missing military personnel with the credentials of the military registration and enlistment offices in order to identify the military personnel who actually survived, its implementation has not been completed to this day. So, before putting on the memorial plates the names of the soldiers of the Red Army who fell in the battles for the village of Bolshoye Ustye on the Ugra River, the Historical and Archival Search Center "Fate" (IAPTs "Fate") in 1994 clarified the fate of 1500 servicemen, whose names were established according to reports from military units. Information about their fate 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 dead and their relatives. At the same time, 109 servicemen were identified who survived or died at a later time. Moreover, most of the surviving soldiers in the TsAMO RF card index were not recounted.

Also, in the course of compiling in 1994 a nominal database of servicemen who died near the village of Myasnoy Bor, Novgorod Region, the IAPTs "Fate" found that out of 12,802 servicemen included in the database, 1,286 people (more than 10%) were taken into account in the reports about irretrievable losses twice. This is explained by the fact that the first time the deceased was taken into account after the battle by the military unit in which he really fought, and the second time by the military unit, the funeral team of which collected and buried the bodies of the dead. The database did not include servicemen who went missing in the area, which would likely increase the number of doubles. It should be noted that statistical accounting of losses was carried out on the basis of numerical data taken from the nominal lists presented in the reports of military units, classified by category of losses. As a result, this led to a serious distortion of the data on the irretrievable losses of the Red Army servicemen in the direction of their increase.

In the course of work to establish the fate of the Red Army soldiers who died and went missing on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, the IAPTs "Fate" revealed several more types of duplication of losses. So, some officers simultaneously go through the records of officers and enlisted personnel, the military personnel of the border troops and the navy are partially recorded, in addition to departmental archives, in the TsAMO of the Russian Federation.

Work to clarify the data on the victims suffered by the USSR during the war years continues to this day. In accordance with a number of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation and his Decree of January 22, 2006 No. 37 “Issues of perpetuating the memory of those who died defending the Fatherland”, an interdepartmental commission was established in Russia to assess human and material losses during the Great Patriotic War. The main goal of the commission is to finally determine by 2010 the losses of the military and civilian population during the Great Patriotic War, as well as to calculate the material costs for more than a four-year period of hostilities. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is implementing the Memorial OBD project to systematize credentials and documents about fallen soldiers. The implementation of the main technical part of the project - the creation of the United Data Bank and the site http://www.obd-memorial.ru - is carried out by a specialized organization - the Corporation "Electronic Archive". 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, to 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 former battles. Thanks to the soldiers' medallions they discovered, the fate of thousands of servicemen who went missing on both sides of the front was established.

Poland, which was the first to be invaded by Hitler 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: the September campaign of 1939 (the invasion of Nazi 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 hostilities. 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 hostilities, about 350 thousand soldiers of the British Commonwealth were captured by the enemy. Of these, 77,744, including merchant marine sailors, were captured by the Japanese.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Netherlands lost 301,000 dead, including 21,000 military personnel and 280,000 civilians.

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

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

Norway lost 9,500 men, 3,000 of them 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 in Germany a centralized system of personal records of military personnel was created. Immediately upon arrival at the reserve military unit, each German soldier 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 are engraved: 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 badge was broken off and sent along with a loss report. The other half remained on the deceased in case of need for subsequent identification during reburial. The inscription and number on the personal identification mark were reproduced in all personal documents of the serviceman, this was persistently sought by the German command. Each military unit kept accurate lists of issued personal identification marks. Copies of these lists were sent to the Berlin Central Office for the Accounting of War Losses and Prisoners of War (WAST). At the same time, during the defeat of a military unit during the hostilities and retreat, it was difficult to carry out a complete personal account of the dead and missing servicemen. So, for example, several Wehrmacht servicemen, whose remains were discovered during the search work carried out by the Historical and Archival Search Center "Fate" at the sites of past battles on the Ugra River in the Kaluga Region, where intense hostilities were fought in March - April 1942, according to the WAST service, they were only counted as drafted into the German army. There was no information about their future fate. They were not even listed as missing.

Starting with the defeat at Stalingrad, the German loss accounting system began to falter, and in 1944 and 1945, suffering defeat after defeat, the German command simply could not physically take into account all its irretrievable losses. From March 1945, their registration ceased altogether. Even earlier, on January 31, 1945, the Imperial Statistical Office stopped keeping records of the civilian population who died from air raids.

The position of the German Wehrmacht in 1944-1945 is a mirror image of the position of the Red Army in 1941-1942. Only we were able to survive and win, and Germany was defeated. Even at the end of the war, the 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 FRG. In this regard, it is rather 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 real losses. They can only talk about losses taken into account, which is not at all the same thing, especially for a country that has suffered a crushing defeat. At the same time, 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 the casualties 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 the loss of the civilian population of the Third Reich - 3,300,000 people - this those who died from the bombing and hostilities, the missing, the victims of the 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. So, 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 died and 37 thousand were seriously injured. Even more disastrous were the three raids by British and American strategic bombers on the city of Dresden on February 13 and 14, 1945. As a result of combined strikes with incendiary and high-explosive bombs on residential areas of the city, at least 135 thousand people died from the resulting fire tornado, incl. residents of the city, refugees, foreign workers and prisoners of war.

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

The losses of Italy in the 2nd World War amounted to 454,500 people, of which 301,400 were killed in the armed forces (of which 71,590 were 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, the victims of the civilian population of China are estimated from 3,695,000 to 12,392,000 people, Indo-China from 457,000 to 1,500,000 people, 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 armed forces of China in dead 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 dead and missing, including the army - 1,526,000 people and the fleet - 414,900. 40,000 military personnel were captured. Japan's civilian population lost 580,000.

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

Only as a result of the attack of American heavy bombers on Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945, using incendiary and high-explosive bombs, 83,793 people died.

The consequences of the atomic bombing were terrible, when the US Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities. The city of Hiroshima was atomically bombed 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 bombing 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 bombardment, 73 thousand people died or went missing in the city, later another 35 thousand people died from radiation and wounds. In total, more than 500 thousand civilians suffered as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The price paid by mankind in the 2nd World War for the victory over the madmen, who were eager for world domination and who tried to implement the cannibalistic racial theory, turned out to be extremely high. The pain of loss has not subsided yet, the participants in the war and its eyewitnesses are still alive. They say that time heals, but not in this case. At present, the international community is faced with new challenges and threats. Eastward expansion of NATO, 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, to revise the results of World War II enshrined in the UN Charter and other international legal documents, to challenge the basic and irrefutable facts of the extermination of millions of peaceful innocent people, to glorify the Nazis and their minions, 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. Great Patriotic War. 1941 - 1945. Illustrated Encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005.S. 430.

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

3. Great Patriotic War. 1941 - 1945. Illustrated Encyclopedia. – M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005.S. 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) and others. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1995.S. 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 .: Military Publishing House, 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 the Argon publishing house, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). S. 103.

7. Babi Yar. Book of memory / comp. I.M. Levitas.- K .: Publishing house "Stal", 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). S. 232.

9. War, People, Victory: materials of the international scientific. conf. Moscow, March 15-16, 2005 / (responsible editors M.Yu. Myagkov, Yu.A. Nikiforov); Inst. history of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - M.: Nauka, 2008. The contribution of Belarus to the victory in the Great Patriotic War A.A. Kovalenya, A.M. Litvin. S. 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). S. 123.

11. Great Patriotic War. 1941 - 1945. Illustrated Encyclopedia. - M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005. S. 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 the Argon publishing house, Berlin (1st and 2nd editions). 68.

13. Essays on the history of Leningrad. L., 1967. T. 5. S. 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. Classification removed: Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts: Statistical study / V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov, V.V. Gurkin and others; under the general
edited by G.K. Krivosheev. – M.: Military Publishing, 1993.S. 325.

16. Great Patriotic War. 1941 - 1945. Illustrated Encyclopedia. - M .: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2005 .; Soviet prisoners of war in Germany. D.K. Sokolov. S. 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. Guidelines for search and exhumation work. / V.E. Martynov A.V. Mezhenko and others / Association "War Memorials". - 3rd ed. Revised and expanded. - M .: LLP "Lux-art", 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 1941 - 1945. (reference and statistical materials). Under the general editorship of Army General A.P. Beloborodov. Military publishing house of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. Moscow, 1963, p. 359.

21. "Report on the 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: Ed. Polygon, 1994. S. 329.

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

28. B.Ts.Urlanis. History of military losses. St. Petersburg: Ed. Polygon, 1994. S. 329.

30. B.Ts.Urlanis. History of military losses. St. Petersburg: Ed. Polygon, 1994. S. 326.

36. Guidelines for search and exhumation work. / V.E. Martynov A.V. Mezhenko and others / Association "War Memorials". - 3rd ed. Revised and expanded. - M .: LLP "Lux-art", 1997. P.34.

37. D. Irving. Destruction of Dresden. The largest bombing of World War II / Per. 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 bombing of World War II / Per. from English. L.A.Igorevsky. - M .: CJSC Tsentrpoligraf. 2005. P.50.

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

41. D. Irving. The destruction of Dresden ... S.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 vol. M., 1973-1982. T.12. S. 151.

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

50. Great Patriotic War 1941 - 1945: Encyclopedia. – / ch. ed. M.M. Kozlov. Editorial board: Yu.Ya. .

Martynov V. E.
Electronic scientific and educational journal "History", 2010 T.1. Release 2.

In 1945, the most "bloody" war of the 20th century ended, causing terrible destruction and claiming millions of lives. From our article you can find out what losses the countries participating in the Second World War suffered.

Total losses

62 countries were involved in the most global military conflict of the 20th century, 40 of which were directly involved in hostilities. Their losses in World War II are primarily calculated among the military and civilian population, which amounted to about 70 million people.

Financial losses (the price of lost property) of all parties to the conflict were significant: about $2,600 billion. The countries spent 60% of their income on providing the army and conducting military operations. The total spending reached $4 trillion.

World War II led to huge destruction (about 10 thousand large cities and towns). In the USSR alone, more than 1,700 cities, 70,000 villages, and 32,000 enterprises suffered from bombing. The opponents destroyed about 96,000 Soviet tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, 37,000 armored vehicles.

Historical facts show that it was the USSR that of all the participants in the anti-Hitler coalition suffered the most serious losses. Special measures were taken to clarify the death toll. In 1959 a population census was carried out (the first since the war). Then the figure of 20 million victims sounded. To date, other specified data (26.6 million) are known, announced by the state commission in 2011. They coincided with the figures announced in 1990. Most of the dead were civilians.

Rice. 1. The ruined city of the Second World War.

human sacrifice

Unfortunately, the exact number of victims is still unknown. Objective reasons (lack of official documentation) complicate the count, so many continue to be listed as missing.

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Before talking about the dead, let us indicate the number of people called up for service by states whose participation in the war was key, and who suffered during the hostilities:

• Germany : 17,893,200 soldiers, of which: 5,435,000 wounded, 4,100,000 were captured;
• Japan : 9 058 811: 3 600 000: 1 644 614;
• Italy : 3,100,000: 350 thousand: 620 thousand;
• USSR : 34,476,700: 15,685,593: about 5 million;
• Great Britain : 5,896,000: 280 thousand: 192 thousand;
• USA : 16 112 566: 671 846: 130 201;
• China : 17,250,521: 7 million: 750 thousand;
• France : 6 million: 280 thousand: 2,673,000

Rice. 2. Wounded soldiers from World War II.

For convenience, here is a table of countries' losses in World War II. The number of deaths in it is indicated, taking into account all causes of death, approximately (average figures between the minimum and maximum):

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

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

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

Losses of the Second World War: questions remain

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

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

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

The Second World War, which involved four-fifths of the world's population, became the bloodiest in the history of mankind. Through the fault of the imperialists, mass extermination of people took place for six years in various regions of the globe.

More than 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. Many tens of millions were killed, injured, left disabled. Civilian casualties increased sharply. They accounted for almost half of the total losses, while in the First World War - 5 percent.

It is extremely difficult to accurately determine the number of dead military personnel and civilians for a number of countries, since in many of them there are no statistics on population losses for the war as a whole, or these data do not reflect the actual situation. In addition, the fascists tried in every possible way to hide their atrocities, and after the war their ideological advocates deliberately distorted the indicators of the casualties of individual countries. All this was the reason for significant discrepancies in the estimate of the number of deaths. The most authoritative studies show that more than 50 million people died during the Second World War.

In addition to direct human losses, many warring states also suffered large indirect losses. The mobilization of a significant part of the male population into the armed forces, the accelerated involvement of women in the system of socially organized labor, material and domestic difficulties, etc., have dramatically changed the mode of population reproduction, lowered birth rates and increased mortality.

The states of Europe suffered the largest direct and indirect population losses. About 40 million people died here, that is, significantly more than on other continents combined. During the war years, in almost all European countries, the conditions for the existence and development of the population deteriorated for a long time.

In 1938, the population of European countries was 390.6 million people, and in 1945 - 380.9 million. If not for the war, with the same birth and death rates, it would have increased over the years by about 12 million people . The war seriously deformed the age, gender, family and marriage structure of the population of the continent. The quality and, in many countries, the level of general education and vocational training have declined significantly.

Half of the human losses in Europe are in the USSR. They amounted to over 20 million people, a significant part of them - the civilian population who died in the Nazi death camps, as a result of fascist repression, disease and hunger, from enemy air raids. The losses of the USSR significantly exceed the human losses of its Western allies. The country has lost a large part of the population of the most able-bodied and productive ages, with labor experience and professional training. The great losses of the Soviet Union were due primarily to the fact that it took upon itself the main blow of Nazi Germany and for a long time alone opposed the fascist bloc in Europe. They are explained by the particularly cruel policy of mass extermination of Soviet people, which was pursued by the aggressor.

A difficult demographic situation developed after the Second World War in Poland and Yugoslavia, which lost a significant part of their population: Poland - 6 million, Yugoslavia - 1.7 million people.

The fascist leadership set as its goal to change the demographic process in Europe, and subsequently throughout the world. This provided for the mass physical destruction of the conquered peoples, as well as forcible birth control. Along with this, the Nazis sought to stimulate the growth of the "chosen" nations in order to gain a foothold in the occupied territories. However, the war led to great losses in Germany itself - over 13 million people were killed, wounded, captured, missing. Fascist Italy lost 500,000 dead.

The population losses of countries such as France (600 thousand) and Great Britain (370 thousand) are less than the losses of a number of other states participating in the war, but they also had a negative impact on their post-war development.

The peoples of Asia suffered considerable human losses during the war years. The number of dead and wounded in China amounted to over 5 million people. Japan lost 2.5 million people - mostly military personnel. Of the 350,000 civilians who died in Japan, the majority - over 270,000 people - were victims of the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Compared to Europe and Asia, other continents suffered significantly less human losses. In general, they amounted to 400 thousand people. The United States lost about 300 thousand people dead, Australia and New Zealand - over 40 thousand, Africa - 10 thousand people (206).

Large differences in human losses in relation to individual countries, groups of states, regions of the world are due, on the one hand, to the nature and degree of their participation directly in the armed struggle, and on the other hand, to the class and political goals pursued by the warring countries. The latter determined their different attitude towards prisoners of war and the civilian population of the enemy, as well as towards the fate of the population of the allied states and the world as a whole.

Many hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war and millions of civilians were destroyed in the territories occupied by the Nazi and Japanese invaders. With particular ferocity, the Nazis applied their carefully developed policy of the physical destruction of the Soviet people. The Nazis carried out mass deportation of the civilian population to Germany, where they ended up either in hard labor or in concentration camps. Executions, poisoning in gas chambers, beatings, torture, monstrous medical experiments, forced to overwork - all this led to the mass destruction of people. Thus, out of 18 million European citizens who ended up in Nazi concentration camps, more than 11 million people were killed.

The aggressors themselves, although their armed forces were defeated and forced to unconditional surrender, suffered relatively smaller losses, which was evidence of the humane attitude towards prisoners of war and the civilian population of the defeated countries on the part of the victors, primarily the USSR.

The war had a great impact not only on the natural reproduction of the population in all countries of the world, but also on its interstate and internal migration. Already the coming of the fascists to power and the preparation of aggression they began caused the flight of the population from Germany and other European states to the countries of Africa, North and Latin America. The offensive of the fascist armies led to the displacement of the population in almost all countries of Europe. In addition, the Nazis resorted to mass forcible export of labor force from the occupied regions to Germany. War-induced internal migration, accompanied by great hardship and hardship, contributed to an increase in mortality and a decrease in the birth rate. Similar processes took place in Asia.

Thus, the Second World War brought about major changes in the structure of population throughout the world. For a number of countries, including socialist ones, the demographic consequences of the war became one of the most unfavorable factors.

The Second World War confirmed the conclusions of Marxism-Leninism about the enormous impact of the economic factor on the outbreak of wars, the methods of their conduct, their course and results. In the second world war, the most bloody and fierce, the interconnection and interdependence of economic, scientific, social, moral-political and military factors intensified. The results of the actions of the armed forces, along with other factors, were determined by the degree of their economic support. The volume and qualitative structure of the material needs of the armed forces have sharply expanded, and the importance of the timing of the main military-economic measures has increased. The influence of the social system of states on the military economy, its ability to meet the needs of the front, manifested itself with particular force.

One of the important lessons of the Second World War is the strengthening of its reverse impact on the economy. The degree of subordination of the national economy to the needs of the war increased sharply. Almost all branches of the economy worked for her to some extent. The credit and financial system of states, money circulation, domestic and foreign trade underwent a deep restructuring.

In terms of the number of human and material losses, in terms of their immediate and long-term consequences, the Second World War has no equal in history. It far surpassed the First World War in terms of human casualties, expended material resources, the volume of production of military equipment, the intensity of economic efforts and the hardships that most of its participants had to endure.

The experience of the Second World War reminds us that not only the war itself and its consequences, but also the preparations for it, the arms race lead to a serious aggravation of population problems and to undermining the economy. Only a lasting democratic peace creates the necessary conditions for the development of economic and demographic processes in directions that meet the interests of social progress.

The results of Britain's involvement in World War II were mixed. The country retained its independence and made a significant contribution to the victory over fascism, at the same time it lost its role as a world leader and came close to losing its colonial status.

Political games

British military historiography often likes to point out that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 effectively untied the hands of the German war machine. At the same time, in Foggy Albion, the Munich Agreement, signed by England together with France, Italy and Germany a year earlier, is bypassed. The result of this conspiracy was the division of Czechoslovakia, which, according to many researchers, was the prelude to World War II.

September 30, 1938 in Munich, Britain and Germany signed another agreement - a declaration of mutual non-aggression, which was the culmination of the British "appeasement policy". Hitler succeeded quite easily in persuading British Prime Minister Arthur Chamberlain that the Munich Accords would be a guarantee of security in Europe.

Historians believe that Britain had high hopes for diplomacy, with the help of which it hoped to rebuild the Versailles system, which was in crisis, although already in 1938 many politicians warned the peacekeepers: "Concessions to Germany will only spur the aggressor!"

Returning to London at the gangplank, Chamberlain said: "I brought peace to our generation." To which Winston Churchill, then a parliamentarian, prophetically remarked: “England was offered a choice between war and dishonor. She has chosen dishonor and will get war."

"Strange War"

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On the same day, the Chamberlain government sent a note of protest to Berlin, and on September 3, Great Britain, as the guarantor of Poland's independence, declared war on Germany. Over the next ten days, the entire British Commonwealth joins it.

By mid-October, the British had moved four divisions to the Continent and taken up positions along the Franco-Belgian border. However, the section between the cities of Mold and Bayel, which is a continuation of the Maginot Line, was far from the epicenter of hostilities. Here, the allies created more than 40 airfields, but instead of bombing German positions, British aviation began to scatter propaganda leaflets appealing to the morality of the Germans.

In the following months, six more British divisions arrive in France, but neither the British nor the French are in a hurry to start active operations. So the "strange war" was waged. The head of the British General Staff, Edmund Ironside, described the situation as follows: "passive waiting with all the excitement and anxiety that follows from this."

The French writer Roland Dorgeles recalled how the Allies calmly watched the movement of German ammunition trains: "apparently the main concern of the high command was not to disturb the enemy."

Historians have no doubt that the "strange war" is due to the wait-and-see attitude of the allies. Both Great Britain and France had to understand where German aggression would turn after the capture of Poland. It is possible that if the Wehrmacht immediately launched an invasion of the USSR after the Polish campaign, then the Allies could support Hitler.

Miracle at Dunkirk

On May 10, 1940, according to the Gelb plan, Germany launched an invasion of Holland, Belgium and France. The political games are over. Churchill, who took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, soberly assessed the strength of the enemy. As soon as the German troops took control of Boulogne and Calais, he decided to evacuate the parts of the British Expeditionary Force that were in the boiler near Dunkirk, and with them the remnants of the French and Belgian divisions. 693 British and about 250 French ships under the command of the English Rear Admiral Bertram Ramsey planned to transport about 350,000 coalition soldiers across the English Channel.

Military experts had little faith in the success of the operation under the sonorous name "Dynamo". The advance detachment of Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps was located a few kilometers from Dunkirk and, if desired, could easily defeat the demoralized allies. But a miracle happened: 337,131 soldiers, most of whom were British, reached the opposite shore with little or no interference.

Hitler unexpectedly stopped the advance of the German troops. Guderian called this decision purely political. Historians differed in their assessment of the controversial episode of the war. Someone believes that the Fuhrer wanted to save strength, but someone is sure of a secret agreement between the British and German governments.

One way or another, after the Dunkirk disaster, Britain remained the only country that had avoided complete defeat and was able to resist the seemingly invincible German machine. On June 10, 1940, the position of England became threatening when fascist Italy entered the war on the side of Nazi Germany.

Battle for England

Germany's plans to force Britain to surrender have not been canceled. In July 1940, British coastal convoys and naval bases were subjected to a massive bombardment by the German Air Force, and in August the Luftwaffe switched to airfields and aircraft factories.

On August 24, German aircraft launched the first bombing attack on central London. Some say it's wrong. The retaliatory attack was not long in coming. A day later, 81 RAF bombers flew to Berlin. No more than a dozen made it to the target, but this was enough to infuriate Hitler. At a meeting of the German command in Holland, it was decided to bring down the entire power of the Luftwaffe on the British Isles.

Within a few weeks, the sky over British cities turned into a boiling cauldron. Got Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Belfast. For the whole of August, at least 1,000 British citizens died. However, from mid-September, the intensity of the bombing began to decline, due to the effective opposition of British fighter aircraft.

The Battle of England is better characterized by numbers. In total, 2913 aircraft of the British Air Force and 4549 Luftwaffe aircraft were involved in air battles. The losses of the parties by historians are estimated at 1547 downed fighters of the Royal Air Force and 1887 German aircraft.

mistress of the seas

It is known that after the successful bombing of England, Hitler intended to launch Operation Sea Lion to invade the British Isles. However, the desired air superiority was not achieved. In turn, the military command of the Reich was skeptical about the landing operation. According to the German generals, the strength of the German army was precisely on land, and not at sea.

Military experts were sure that the British land army was no stronger than the broken French armed forces, and Germany had every chance of defeating the troops of the United Kingdom in a ground operation. The English military historian Liddell Hart noted that England managed to hold on only due to the water barrier.

In Berlin, they realized that the German fleet was noticeably inferior to the English. For example, by the beginning of the war, the British Navy had seven active aircraft carriers and six more on the slipway, while Germany was never able to equip at least one of its aircraft carriers. In the open sea, the presence of carrier-based aircraft could predetermine the outcome of any battle.

The German submarine fleet was only able to inflict serious damage on British merchant ships. However, having sunk 783 German submarines with US support, the British Navy won the Battle of the Atlantic. Until February 1942, the Fuhrer hoped to conquer England from the sea, until the commander of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Erich Raeder, finally convinced him to abandon this idea.

Colonial interests

As early as the beginning of 1939, the UK Chiefs of Staff Committee recognized the defense of Egypt with its Suez Canal as one of the strategically most important tasks. Hence the special attention of the armed forces of the Kingdom to the Mediterranean theater of operations.

Unfortunately, the British had to fight not at sea, but in the desert. May-June 1942 turned out for England, according to historians, a "shameful defeat" near Tobruk from the African corps of Erwin Rommel. And this is with a twofold superiority of the British in strength and technology!

The British managed to turn the tide of the North African campaign only in October 1942 at the Battle of El Alamein. Again, having a significant advantage (for example, in aviation 1200:120), the British Expeditionary Force of General Montgomery managed to defeat a group of 4 German and 8 Italian divisions under the command of the already familiar Rommel.

Churchill remarked about this battle: “Before El Alamein, we did not win a single victory. Since El Alamein, we haven't suffered a single defeat." By May 1943, British and American troops forced the 250,000th Italo-German grouping in Tunisia to capitulate, which opened the way for the Allies to Italy. In North Africa, the British lost about 220 thousand soldiers and officers.

And again Europe

On June 6, 1944, with the opening of the Second Front, British troops had the opportunity to redeem themselves for their shameful flight from the Continent four years earlier. The overall leadership of the allied ground forces was entrusted to the experienced Montgomery. The total superiority of the allies by the end of August crushed the resistance of the Germans in France.

In a different vein, events unfolded in December 1944 near the Ardennes, when a German armored group literally pushed through the lines of American troops. In the Ardennes meat grinder, the US army lost over 19 thousand soldiers, the British no more than two hundred.

This ratio of losses led to disagreements in the camp of the allies. American Generals Bradley and Patton threatened to resign if Montgomery did not relinquish leadership of the army. Montgomery's self-confident statement at a press conference on January 7, 1945, that it was British troops who had saved the Americans from the prospect of encirclement, jeopardized the conduct of a further joint operation. Only thanks to the intervention of the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, Dwight Eisenhower, the conflict was settled.

By the end of 1944, the Soviet Union had liberated a significant part of the Balkan Peninsula, which caused serious concern in Britain. Churchill, who did not want to lose control over the important Mediterranean region, proposed to Stalin the division of the sphere of influence, as a result of which Moscow got Romania, London got Greece.

In fact, with the tacit consent of the USSR and the USA, Great Britain crushed the resistance of the Greek communist forces and on January 11, 1945, established full control over Attica. It was then that a new enemy clearly loomed on the horizon of British foreign policy. “In my eyes, the Soviet threat has already replaced the Nazi enemy,” Churchill recalled in his memoirs.

According to the 12-volume History of the Second World War, Great Britain, along with the colonies, lost 450,000 people in World War II. Britain's spending on the war accounted for more than half of foreign investment, the Kingdom's external debt by the end of the war reached 3 billion pounds. The United Kingdom paid off all its debts only by 2006.