World War II casualties of the Soviet Union

Summary of Russian sources

• The Krivosheev study listed 8,668,400 irreplaceable losses : 5,226,800 killed in action, 1,102,800 died of wounds in field hospitals, 555,500 non combat deaths, POW deaths and missing were 4,559,000. Deductions were 939,700 who "were encircled or missing in action in occupied areas who were reconscripted once areas liberated" and 1,836,000 POWs returned from captivity.
• The Krivosheev study listed 500,000 reservists captured by the enemy after being conscripted but before being taken on strength.
• Russian sources report 2,164,000 deaths as civilian "forced labor in Germany". Viktor Zemskov believed that these were actually military deaths not included in the Krivosheev report. Zemskov put the military death toll at 11.5 million.
• Convicts and deserters listed in the Krivosheev study. 994,300 were sentenced by court martial and 212,400 were reported as deserters. They are not included with the 8.668 million irreplaceable losses listed by Krivosheev.
• Russian sources list 7.420 million civilians killed in the war, including the siege of Leningrad. Sources cited for this figure are from the Soviet period. The figure of 7.4 million has been disputed by Viktor Zemskov who believed that the actual civilian death toll was at least 4.5 million. He maintained that the official figures included POWs, persons who emigrated from the country, persons evacuated during the war counted as missing as well as militia and partisan fighters.
• Russian sources maintain that there were 4.1 million famine deaths in the regions occupied by Germany.
• Gulag prisoners. According to Viktor Zemskov "due to general difficulties in 1941–1945 in the camps, the GULAG and prisons about 1.0 million prisoners died. Anne Applebaum cites Russian sources that put the Gulag death toll from 1941–45 at 932,000.
• Deportation of ethnic minorities. Russian sources put the death toll at 309,000
• War-related deaths of those born during war – according to Andreev, Darski and Kharkova, there was an increase in infant mortality of 1.3 million.

  Military losses

Krivosheev's analysis

• Discharged during war of 9,693,000 includes 3,798,200 sent on sick leave; 3,614,600 transferred to work in industry, anti-aircraft defense and armed guards; 1,174,600 sent to NKVD troops and organs; 250,400 transferred to Polish, Czechoslovak and Romanian armies; 436,600 imprisoned; 206,000 discharged; and 212,400 not found after deserting, detached from troop convoy or missing in military districts in the interior.
• During the war 422,700 men were sent to penal units at the front and not discharged.

Criticism of Krivosheev

• The data listed in the Krivosheev study has been disputed, S. N. Mikhalev put the losses of the combat forces at 10,922,000 Historian Viktor Zemskov estimated total military dead at 11.5 million. In his book Christian Hartmann puts the total at 11.4 million. Some researchers in Russia put the total demographic losses of the military at nearly 14.0 million. S. N. Mikahlev put total losses at 13.7 million S.A.Il'Enkov at the Russian military archives believes total losses were 13.850 million.
• Krivosheev's critics maintain that he underestimated the numbers of missing and POWs. According to Viktor Zemskov total POW dead were 2.3 million and the number missing in action 1.5 million, 2.2 million more than Krivosheev. He noted that the figure includes military prisoners as well as militias, guerrillas, special units of various civil departments. S.N. Mikhalev maintained that Krivosheev understated irrecoverable losses by 2.254 million Data published in Russia indicate Soviet POW losses of 2,543,000
• 1,046,000 sent to hospital were deducted from the total strength at the end of the war. In Krivosheev's figures 3,798,000 personnel were discharged for medical reasons of whom 2,576,000 became invalids. Kiriosheev does not include the balance of 1,222,000 with the war dead. S. A. Il'Enkov, an official at the Russian Military Archives, maintained that the "complex military situation at the front did not always allow for the conduct of a full accounting of losses, especially in the first years of the war". He pointed out that the reports from the field units did not include deaths in rear area hospitals of wounded and sick personnel. S.N Mikhalev put total losses at 13.7 million, based on his analysis of Ministry of Defense documents that a total of 2.6 million service personnel died of sickness or wounds in hospitals, 1.5 million more than the figure in the Krivosheev study.
• 994,300 Personnel convicted of offenses, according to Krivosheev 422,700, were sent to "penal sub-units at the front". S.N. Mikhalev maintained that the penal sub-units are not included with the casualties reported by the forces in the field. According to S.N. Mikhalev 135,000 service personnel were executed after being convicted, he believed that they are not included with the non-combat losses of the frontal units. Krivosheev maintains that those executed are included with non-combat losses of the field forces. Krivosheev lists an additional 436,600 personnel as being "imprisoned" during the war and were deducted from the total on active duty at the end of the war. However S.N. Mikhalev includes those imprisoned with irrecoverable losses

  POW deaths

Analysis of S. N. Mikhalev

Convicted of offences by Soviet military

Russian Military Archives database

Critics

• On 14 February 2017 at a hearing of the Russian State Duma a presentation by legislator Nikolai Zemtsov, a member of the non-governmental organization Immortal regiment of Russia, maintained that documents of the now defunct Soviet Gosplan indicated that Soviet war dead were almost 42 million. However scholars believe that these figures are without serious foundation.
• Mark Solonin–Solonin maintains that Krivosheev covered up casualties that were three to four times greater than Germany's. Solonin claimed that Russian official sources that list deaths of 13.7 million civilians due to the German occupation include victims of Stalinist repression. He points out that the current figures for civilian war dead are taken from Soviet era sources. Solonin estimates total losses as somewhat under 20 million. Military dead numbered at least 10.7 million, excluding 2.18 million soldiers who are unaccounted for, half of whom he assumed died. He asserted that some deserted or emigrated and that a higher death toll is possible. Solonin's estimate is that 5–6 million civilians were killed by the invaders and over 1 million civilians perished in the Siege of Leningrad and in Stalingrad. He claimed that 6–9 million Soviets fell to Stalin's repressions, although in contemporary Russian official sources they are included with civilian war dead.
• Viktor Zemskov–Zemskov maintained that the population loss due to the war was 20 million, including 16 million direct losses and 4 million deaths due to the deterioration in living conditions. He maintains that the Russian Academy of Science figure of 26.6 million total war dead includes about 7 million deaths due to natural causes based on the mortality rate that prevailed before the war. Zemskov maintains that military dead numbered 11.5 million, including nearly 4 million POWs. He maintains that the figure of 6.8 million civilian deaths in occupied regions was overstated because it included persons who were evacuated to the rear areas. He submitted an estimate of 4.5 million civilians who were Nazi victims or were killed in the occupied zone. Zemskov maintains that the government figure of 2.1 million civilian deaths due to forced labor in Germany was inflated compared to German wartime records that put the deaths of forced workers at 200,000.
• In 2017 the Russian historian Igor Ivlev put Soviet war dead at 42 million people. According to Ivlev, Soviet State Planning Committee documents put the Soviet population at 205 million in June 1941 and 169.8 million for June 1945. Taking into account the 17.6 million births and 10.3 million natural deaths, leaving almost 42 million in war-related losses according to his research. The details of Ivlev's calculations were first announced at a parliamentary readings about the number of losses of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Ivlev's figures are endorsed by the Russian civic organization Immortal Regiment and have been discussed in the Russian media recently. Ivlev has published a summary of his arguments on the Russian website Demoscope Weekly. According to Ivlev's calculations based on the number of Soviet Communist party and Komsomol members conscripted, military dead and missing were 17.8 million.
• Lev Lopukhovsky/Boris Kavalerchik–Lopukhovsky and Kavalerchik label Krivosheev's transfer of military casualties to civilian losses as "ingratitude and blasphemy over their cherished memory". They demanded that the Russian government reinvestigate the matter. They state that Krivosheev's group understated loses in the crucial period of 1941–1942.
• Boris Sokolov – In 1996 Sokolov published a study that estimated total war dead at 43.3 million including 26.4 million in the military. Sokolov's calculations claimed that official population figures in 1941 were understated by 12.7 million and the population in 1946 overstated by 4.0 million, yielding 16.7 million additional war dead, bringing the total to 43.3 million.
• V. E. Korol–Korol estimated overall Soviet war dead at 46 million including military dead of 23 million. He claimed that the official figure of 8.7 million military dead was "groundless", based on battle accounts from across the Eastern Front. Korol held that the official figures of Krivosheev were an attempt to cover up the disregard for human life by the military leaders under Stalin. Korol cited Soviet authors writing during the Glasnost era that put wartime losses much higher than the official figures; In 1990 General I. A. Gerasimov published information from the Russian Military Archives database that put losses at 16.2 million enlisted men and 1.2 million officers. Korol also cited historian-archivist Iu. Geller who put losses at 46 million, including military dead of 23 million. and A.N. Mertsalov's estimate of 14 million military dead based on documents in the Russian Military Archives.
• Hypothetical population loss for children unborn due to the war– Some Russian writers have argued that war losses should also include the hypothetical population loss for children unborn due to the war; using this methodology total losses would be about 46 million.
• A compilation made in March 2008 of the individuals listed in the card files put total dead and missing at 14,241,000

  Male war dead

Civilian losses

• The sources cited for these figures are from the Soviet period. The Statistic of 7.420 million civilian war dead has been disputed by Viktor Zemskov who believed that the actual civilian death toll was at least 4.5 million. He maintained that the official figures included POWs, persons who emigrated from the country and militia/partisan fighters. According to his analysis the forced laborer death figure of 2.164 million includes the balance of losses not reported in Krivosheev's figure of 8.668 million military war dead, including POWs
• Civilian losses include 57,000 killed in bombing raids.
• Russian sources include Jewish Holocaust deaths among total civilian dead. Gilbert put Jewish losses at one million within 1939 borders; Holocaust deaths in the numbered an additional 1.5 million, bringing total Jewish losses to 2.5 million.
• Civilian losses include deaths in the siege of Leningrad. According to David Glantz the 1945 Soviet estimate presented at the Nuremberg Trials was 642,000 civilian deaths. He noted that Soviet era source from 1965 put the number of dead in the Siege of Leningrad at "greater than 800,000" and that a Russian source from 2000 put the number of dead at 1,000,000. Other Russian historians put the Leningrad death toll at between 1.4 and 2.0 million.
• Russian sources maintain that there were 4.1 million famine deaths in the regions occupied by Germany. Russian sources also report 2.5 to 3.2 million Soviet civilians who died due to famine and disease in non-occupied territory of the USSR, which was caused by wartime shortages in the rear areas.
• These casualties are for 1941–1945 within the 1946–1991 borders of the USSR. Included with civilian losses are deaths in the territories annexed by the USSR in 1939–1940 including 600,000 in the Baltic states and 1,500,000 in Eastern Poland.
• Documents from the Soviet archives number the total deaths of prisoners in the Gulag from 1941 to 1945 at 621,637. In a 1995 report Viktor Zemskov noted "due to general difficulties in 1941–1945 in the camps, the GULAG and prisons about 1.0 million prisoners died.

  Total population losses

Demographic studies of the population losses

Studies by Andreev, Darski and Kharkova

• According to Andreev, Darski and Kharkova the total population loss due to the war was 26.6 million. They maintain that between 9-10 million of the total Soviet war dead were due to the worsening of life conditions in the entire USSR, including the region that was not occupied. The total loss of 26.6 million is based on the assumptions that the wartime increase in infant mortality was 1.3 million and that persons dying of natural causes declined during the war. Overall the annual Mortality rate declined from 2.17% in 1940 to 1.58% in 1946 The decline in persons dying of natural causes during the war was due to the fact that a disproportionate number of adults, especially men were killed during the war, than those persons under 18 and women who survived. The figure for births during the war is based on a post war survey of the Total fertility rate which put the number of births during the war at about one half of the prewar level. The main areas of uncertainty were the estimated figures for the population in the territories annexed from 1939–1945 and the loss of population due to emigration during and after the war. The figures include victims of Soviet repression and the deaths of Soviet citizens in German military service. Michael Haynes noted, "We do not know the total number of deaths as a result of the war and related policies". We do know that the demographic estimate of excess deaths was 26.6 million plus an additional 11.9 million natural deaths of persons born before the war and 4.2 million children born during the war that would have occurred in peacetime, bringing the total dead to 42.7 million. At this time the actual total number of deaths caused by the war is unknown since among the 16.1 million "natural deaths" some would have died peacefully and others as a result of the war.
• Civilian deaths were detailed in the Russian study - Human Losses of the USSR in the Period of WWII: Civilian deaths by intentional actions of violence 7,420,000; Deaths of forced laborers 2,164,000; Deaths due to famine and disease 8,500,000.
• The official total military dead per the analysis of Krivosheev is 8,668,000. The Russian Ministry of Defense maintains that their figure of 8.668 million is correct based on a reconciliation of those conscripted. The official toll of 2,164,000 forced laborers dead could include POWs considered civilians by the military. Critics of Krivosheev maintain that the war dead should include an additional 2.9 million persons, according to their analysis the number of POWs and missing was understated in the official figures. Viktor Zemskov puts total military dead at 11.5 million. A recent academic study put Soviet military dead at 11.4 million.
• In addition to the war dead there were 622,000 persons who remained abroad after the war.
• Births and natural deaths during war are rough estimates since vital statistics were inaccurate.
• Figures do not include an estimated 20 million children not born because the war depressed fertility/birth rates.
• ADK pointed out that the beginning population in 1941 and the ending population at 1 January 1946 are rough estimates since figures for the territories annexed in 1939–1940 and emigration from the USSR during the war are based on fragmentary information.

• 0–14–The deaths of 2.8 million children was due primarily to famine and disease caused by the war.
• 15–19–The excess deaths of 724,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. The wartime draft age was 18.
• 20–34–The excess deaths of 6,342,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. The deaths of 2,663,000 women is an indication that they were involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.
• 35–49–The excess deaths of 5,358,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses.
• Over 49–The excess deaths of 1,038,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses. Some served in the Armed Forces. Others were involved in the partisan war and became victims of Nazi reprisals.
• All Ages–The excess deaths of 13,489,000 males compared to females was due primarily to military losses with regular forces as well partisan forces. The figures are a clear indication that many Soviet civilians died in the war from reprisals, famine and disease.

  Voters lists in 1946 election

Alternative sources of demographic losses

Estimates of losses by individual Republics

Estimated losses for each Soviet Republic

• The source of the figures on the table is Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. pp. 23–35 Erlikman notes that these figures are his estimates. This table includes civilian losses in Transcaucasian and Central Asian republics due to famine and disease caused by wartime shortfalls estimated by Vadim Erlikman.

  OBD Memorial database

Causes

Summary of the estimates and their sources

1946 to 1987

1988 to 1992

Russians published in the West 1950–83

Western scholars

• David Glantz maintains that "the war with Nazi Germany cost the Soviet Union at least 29 million military casualties" "The exact numbers can never be established, and some revisionists have attempted to put the number as high as 50 million"
• Richard Overy believes the "figures for military dead published in 1993... give the fullest account yet available, but they omit three operations that were clear failures. The official figures themselves must be viewed critically, given the difficulty of knowing in the chaos of 1941 and 1942 exactly who had been killed, wounded or even conscripted" Regarding military dead Richard Overy believes that "for the present the figure of 8.6 million must be regarded as the most reliable"
• The authors of the Cambridge History of Russia have provided an analysis of Soviet wartime casualties. Overall losses were about 25 million persons plus or minus 1 million. Red Army records indicate 8.7 million military deaths, "this figure is actually the lower limit". The official figures understate POW losses and armed partisan deaths. Excess civilian deaths in the Nazi occupied USSR were 13.7 million persons including 2 million Jews. There were an additional 2.6 million deaths in the interior regions of the Soviet Union. The authors maintain "scope for error in this number is very wide". At least 1 million perished in the wartime GULAG camps or in deportations. Other deaths occurred in the wartime evacuations and due to war related malnutrition and disease in the interior. The authors maintain that both Stalin and Hitler "were both responsible but in different ways" for these deaths.

• Steven Rosefielde puts the war related demographic losses of the USSR from 1941–45 at 22.0 to 26.0 million persons. The actual wartime losses are higher because some persons who would have died peacefully actually perished as a result of the war. Rosefielde estimated the actual military dead at 8.7 million men and 17.7 to 20.3 million civilians killed by the Nazis in the war In addition to these war deaths Rosefielde also estimated the excess deaths attributed to the "total potential crimes against humanity" due to Soviet repression at 2.183 million persons in 1939–40 and 5.458 million from 1941–1945. The figures for losses due to Soviet repression do not include 1 million military deaths of men drafted from the Gulag into penal suicide battalions.
• According to historian Timothy Snyder "More inhabitants of Soviet Ukraine died in the Second World War than inhabitants of Soviet Russia as calculated by Russian historians." These remarks were presented at the conference "Germany's Historical Responsibility towards Ukraine", German Bundestag, Berlin, Germany, 20 June 2017.