Along with the study of the balance of power on the world stage and the reassessment of the role of all those who participated in the coalition against Hitler, a quite reasonable question is increasingly arising: "How many people died in World War II?" Now all modern media and some historical documents continue to support the old ones, but at the same time create new myths around this topic.
One of the most inveterate says that the Soviet Union won only thanks to the colossal losses that exceeded the loss in enemy manpower. The latest, most modern myths that are being imposed on the whole world by the West include the opinion that without the help of the United States, victory would have been impossible, allegedly all this is only because of their skill in waging war. However, thanks to statistics, it is possible to conduct an analysis and still find out how many people died in World War II and who made the main contribution to the victory.
How many fought forUSSR?
Of course, the Soviet Union suffered huge losses, brave soldiers sometimes went to their deaths with understanding. Everyone knows this. In order to find out how many people died in World War II in the USSR, it is necessary to turn to dry statistical figures. According to the 1939 census, approximately 190 million people lived in the USSR. The annual increase was about 2%, which amounted to 3 million. So, it is easy to calculate that by 1941 the population was 196 million people.
We continue to reason and back up everything with facts and numbers. So, any industrialized country, even with full total mobilization, could not afford such a luxury as to call for more than 10% of the population to fight. Thus, the approximate number of Soviet troops should have been 19.5 million. Based on the fact that at first men born in the period from 1896 to 1923 and further until 1928 were called up, it is worth adding another one and a half million each year, from which follows that the total number of all the military for the entire period of the war was 27 million.
How many of them died?
In order to find out how many people died in World War II, it is necessary to subtract about 2 million from the total number of soldiers on the territory of the Soviet Union for the reason that they fought against the USSR (in the form of various groups, such as the OUN and ROA).
25 million remain, of which 10 were still in service at the end of the war. Thus, approximately 15 million soldiers left the army, but it should be taken into account thatthat not all of them were dead. For example, about 2.5 million were released from captivity, and some more were simply commissioned for injury. Thus, the official figures are constantly fluctuating, but it is still possible to derive an average value: 8 or 9 million people died, and these are precisely the military.
What really happened?
The problem is that it wasn't just the military that were killed. Now consider the question of how many people died in World War II precisely among the civilian population. The fact is that official data indicate the following: out of 27 million people in total losses (offered to us by the official version), it is necessary to subtract 9 million military men, whom we calculated earlier using simple arithmetic calculations. Thus, it turns out the figure of 18 million is the civilian population. Now consider it in more detail.
In order to calculate how many people died in World War II in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, it is necessary to turn again to dry, but irrefutable statistics, which indicate the following. The Germans occupied the territory of the USSR, in which, after the evacuation, about 65 million people lived, which was one third.
Poland lost about one-fifth of the population in this war, despite the fact that the front line, the Warsaw uprisings, etc. passed many times on its territory. During the war, Warsaw was practically destroyed to the ground, which gives about 20% of the dead population.
Belaruslost about a quarter of the population, and this despite the fact that fierce battles and partisan activities took place on the territory of the republic.
On the territory of Ukraine, the losses amounted to about one-sixth of the entire population, and this despite the fact that there were a huge number of punishers, partisans, resistance units and various fascist "rabble" roaming the forests.
Losses among the population in the occupied territory
What percentage of civilian casu alties should be characteristic of the entire occupied part of the territory of the USSR? Most likely no higher than in Ukraine (the population of Ukraine is approximately two-thirds of the total population of the occupied part of the Soviet Union).
Then you can take the number 11 as a basis, which turned out when two-thirds were taken away from the total 65 million. Thus, we get the classic 20 million total losses. But even this figure is gross and inaccurate to the maximum. Therefore, it is clear that in the official report on how many people died in the Second World War among the military and civilians, the numbers are exaggerated.
How many people died in World War II in the US
The United States of America also suffered losses in both equipment and manpower. Of course, they were insignificant compared to the USSR, so after the end of the war they could be calculated quite accurately. Thus, the figure turned out to be 407, 3 thousand dead. As for the civilian population, it almost did not turn out to be among the dead citizens of America, since onno hostilities took place in this country. Losses total 5 thousand people, mostly passengers of passing ships and sailors of the merchant fleet, who were hit by German submarines.
How many people died in World War II in Germany
As for the official figures regarding German losses, they look at least strange, since the number of missing is almost the same as the dead, but in fact everyone understands that they are unlikely to be found and return home. If we add together all the missing and killed, we get 4.5 million. Among civilians - 2.5 million. Isn't that strange? After all, then the number of losses of the USSR turns out to be doubled. Against this background, there are some myths, conjectures and misconceptions about how many people died in World War II in Russia.
Myths about German losses
The most important myth that stubbornly spread throughout the Soviet Union after the end of the war is the comparison of German and Soviet losses. Thus, the figure of German losses was also taken into circulation, which remained at the level of 13.5 million.
In fact, the German historian general Bupkhart Müller-Hillebrand announced the following figures, which were based on a centralized accounting of German losses. During the war years, they amounted to 3.2 million people, 0.8 million died in captivity. In the East, about 0.5 million did not survive captivity,and 3 more died in battles, in the West - 300 thousand.
Of course, Germany, together with the USSR, waged the most cruel war of all times and peoples, which did not mean a drop of pity and compassion. Most of the civilians and prisoners on both sides were dying of starvation. This was due to the fact that neither the Germans nor the Russians could provide food for their prisoners, as starvation would then starve their own peoples even more.
Result of the war
Historians still cannot calculate exactly how many people died in World War II. In the world, different figures are being voiced every now and then: it all started with 50 million people, then 70, and now even more. But the same losses that, for example, Asia suffered from the consequences of the war and outbreaks of epidemics against this background, which claimed a huge number of lives, will probably never be possible to calculate. Therefore, even the above data, which were collected from various authoritative sources, is far from conclusive. And the exact answer to this question will most likely never be possible.
