At the same time, how the study of the alignment of forces on the world stage and the revision of the role of all those who participated in the coalition against Hitler is going on, the quite reasonable question often arises: "How many people died in the Second World War?" Now all modern media and some historical documents continue to support the old ones, but at the same time create new myths around this topic.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 imposed on the whole world by the West include the opinion that without the help of the USA, victory would have been impossible, supposedly all this only because of their skill in waging war. However, thanks to statistics, you can analyze and still find out how many people died in the Second World War and who contributed most to the victory.
How many fought for the USSR?
Of course, the Soviet Union suffered huge losses, brave soldiers sometimes with understanding went to death. This is common knowledge. In order to find out how many people died in the Second World War in the USSR, it is necessary to turn to dry statistical numbers. According to the census of 1939, 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 figures. So, any industrially developed country, even with complete total mobilization, could not afford the luxury of calling for more than 10% of the population to fight. Thus, the approximate number of Soviet troops was to be 19.5 million. Based on the fact that at first men born between 1896 and 1923 and then until 1928 were called up, it’s worth adding another one and a half million for each year, which implies that the total number of all military personnel 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 the Second World War, it is necessary to subtract about 2 million from the total number of military personnel in the territory of the Soviet Union for the reason that they fought against the USSR (in the form of different groups, such as OUN and ROA).
25 million remain, of which 10 at the end of the war were still in service. Thus, approximately 15 million soldiers dropped out of the army, but it should be borne in mind that not all of them were dead. For example, about 2.5 million were released from captivity, and some more were simply commissary for injuring. Thus, the official figures are constantly fluctuating, but nevertheless, an average value can be deduced: 8 or 9 million people died, and this is precisely the military.
What really happened?
The problem is that not only the military were killed. Now consider the question of how many people died in the Second World War among the civilian population. The fact is that official data indicate the following: out of 27 million people of total losses (the official version offers us), it is necessary to take away 9 million military men, whom we calculated earlier using simple arithmetic calculations. Thus, the figure of 18 million is precisely 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, you must again turn to dry, but irrefutable statistics, which indicate the following. The Germans occupied the territory of the USSR, on which about 65 million people lived after the evacuation, which amounted to one third.
Poland lost about one fifth of the population in this war, despite the fact that on its territory the front line, Warsaw uprisings, and so on passed many times. During the war, Warsaw was almost completely destroyed, which accounts for about 20% of the dead population.
Belarus lost about a quarter of the population, and this despite the fact that fierce battles and activities of partisans took place on the territory of the republic.
In Ukraine, the losses amounted to about one sixth of the total population, and this despite the fact that there were a huge number of punishers, partisans, resistance groups and various fascist "rabble" wandering through the forests.
Losses among the population in the occupied territory
What percentage of civilian casualties should be characteristic of the entire occupied part of the USSR? Most likely, no higher than in Ukraine (the population of Ukraine is about 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 happened when two-thirds were taken from the total 65 million. Thus we get the classic 20 million total losses. But even this figure is maximally crude and inaccurate. Therefore, it can be seen that in the official report on how many people died in the Second World War, all among the military and civilians, the numbers are exaggerated.
How many people died in World War II in the USA
The United States also suffered losses in both technology and manpower. Of course, they were insignificant in comparison with the USSR, so after the war they could be calculated quite accurately. Thus, the figure was 407.3 thousand dead. As for the civilian population, it was almost not among the dead American citizens, since no military operations were conducted on the territory of this country. Losses amount to 5 thousand people, mainly passengers of passing ships and merchant marine sailors who were hit by German submarines.
How many people died in World War II in Germany
As for the official figures regarding the German casualties, they look at least strange, since the number of missing people is almost the same as the dead, but in fact it is clear to everyone that they are unlikely to be found and will return home. If we put together all those who were not found 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 is doubled. Against this background, there are some myths, conjectures and misconceptions about how many people died in World War II in Russia.
German Loss Myths
The most important myth that has persistently spread throughout the Soviet Union since the end of the war is the juxtaposition 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 Muller-Gillebrand voiced the following figures, which were based on a centralized accounting of losses in Germany. During the war they amounted to 3.2 million people, 0.8 million died in captivity. About 0.5 million were not survived in the East, and 3 more died in battles, and 300 thousand in the West.
Of course, Germany, together with the USSR, waged the most severe war of all times and peoples, which did not imply a drop of pity and compassion. The majority of civilians and prisoners on one or the other hand were starving. This was due to the fact that neither the Germans nor the Russians could provide food for their prisoners, since then their own peoples would starve even more.
War outcome
Historians still can’t calculate exactly how many people died in World War II. Different numbers are being voiced all over the world: it all started with 50 million people, then 70, and now even more. But the same losses that Asia, for example, suffered from the consequences of the war and outbreaks of epidemics against this background, which claimed a huge number of lives, probably will never be possible to calculate. Therefore, even the above data, which were collected from various authoritative sources, is far from final. And the exact answer to this question will most likely never be possible.