USSR Casualty Figures - 11-18 Million - Why?

According to various casualty figures I have seen the USSR lost between 6 and 11 million military service people and as many as 7 million civilians. Its been some time since I studied WWII but I don't recall why the USSR has such a disproportionate number of casualties when compared to other combatants, both Allied and Axis. Thanks for any light you can shed.

20 Million Russians died in WW2

Nazi atrocities. Stratospheric number of POWs and their barbaric treatment. Wasteful strategies/tactics producing huge casualties.

Two gentlemen shared in the responsibility - Hitler and Stalin. The former for his philosophy of race war against 'inferiors', which lead his underlings into an unprecedented spree of murder against helpless POWs and civilians. The latter for his paranoia, which lead him to savage his armed forces during the purges of the 30s, leaving them crippled during the combat. The result was that whole armies were destroyed during the opening phases of the war. In addition, his answer to military weakness was discipline by terror, in which the Soviet armed forces executed vast numbers of troops for real or imagined lapses in performance.

Hitler rightly gets recognition for his guilt, but in my opinion Stalin is often let off too lightly, especially by today's neo-Marxists and Communists in the former Soviet Union.

. . .

AND, in some sense, because the Red Army was doing most of the fighting, compared to the 'remote' UK, USA, and other allied forces. From '41 to '44, the German army was fighting a war with the Soviet Union, and skirmishing with everyone else

{snip re 18 million Russian dead}

More like 20 million.

The vast majority were prisoners murdered/worked to death in captivity by the Germans or were civilians exterminated during 'anti-partisan' operations. The Red Army also suffered a few million combat deaths.

And people wonder why there were atrocities when the Russians invaded Germany.

Cheers

USSR lost between 6 and 11 million military service people and 7 million civilians. I don't recall why the USSR has such a disproportionate number of

Dear Jason,

First reason

<snip>

First reason - Hitler's intention to wage a war of racial extermination in the East.

In the first 7 weeks of Operation Barbarossa, the Purged, unalerted, sneak-attacked Red Army inflicted more than 3x the KIA on the German Army as the un-Purged, fully alerted, war-declared-nine-months-ago-by-us Anglo-French Armies did.

Stuart Wilkes

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This has been discussed before, but I feel it is important to repeat it. The US and Britain were right for making an alliance with Stalin's USSR. Stalin led a country that was still behind Germany in industrial and technological power when the war started (although they did turn out a lot of good equipment as the war progressed). Stalin, before the war, did not attack other countries (his moves against Bessarabia, the Baltic States and Finland were a response to German moves eastwards). Stalin made war against his own people, whereas Hitler attacked others, or those viewed as aliens within his own country. Churchill rightly concluded that, EVENTUALLY, Communism would collapse, as was indeed the case. Communism is NOMINALLY a humanistic philosophy that talks about the brotherhood of mankind , whereas Nazism was inherently racist and agressive. Thus Churchill and Roosevelt realized that Germany was the immediate enemy and everything possible had to be done to stop them, even making a pact with the devil, Stalin.

With best regards, Ilya Chernyh. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sure, the Red Army was the best cure for the disease it did create. The existence of the Soviet Union helped to legitimize the Nazis in Germany and in Western Europe. The (controlled from Moscow) KPD destabilized the situation in Germany both fighting in the streets and opposing the Socialists in the Reichstag. Even if the German occupation was terrible it was milder for non-Jews than the forced collectivisation and Great Hunger.

Later - who was the Red Army? Certainly not only Stalin or Zhukov, but millions of people of tens nationalities, including the Poles - both the Soviet and the Polish citizens, both in the Red Army, Stroybats and 'Polish' army. Many nations worked for the Red Army, e.g. the Polish sklaves deported 1939-1941,like my father. So thank you that you appreciate the work of my father.

The Soviet nations created not only the Red Army, but also the Axis troops. So the Soviet Union was in some way the main German ally in 1945, after the veer of the Rumanians.

Poland has payed for the Red Army 'help' with 45 years of Soviet occupation so I don't think I owe something to the Red Army. If the USA owes something to the Red Army - don't forget the Polish armies fighting in the East and the Home Army soldiers helping the Red Army and murdered as Nazis.