World War II 1939-1945 - the largest war in human history, unleashed by fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. 61 states (more than 80% of the world's population) were drawn into the war; military operations were carried out on the territory of 40 states.
In 1941, when the Nazis attacked the USSR, Great Britain was already at war with Germany, and the contradictions between the USA, Germany and Japan were on the verge of armed conflict.
Immediately after the German attack on the USSR, the governments of Great Britain (June 22) and the USA (June 24) came out with support for the Soviet Union in its fight against fascism.
On July 12, 1941, a Soviet-British agreement on joint actions against Germany and its allies was signed in Moscow, which marked the beginning of the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition.
On July 18, 1941, the USSR government signed an agreement with the government of Czechoslovakia, and on July 30 - with the Polish government on a joint fight against a common enemy. Since the territory of these countries was occupied by Nazi Germany, their governments were located in London (Great Britain).
On August 2, 1941, a military-economic agreement was concluded with the United States. At the Moscow meeting, held on September 29-October 1, 1941, the USSR, Great Britain and the USA considered the issue of mutual military supplies and signed the first protocol on them.
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan; On December 11, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
At the end of 1941, the following countries were at war with the aggressor bloc: Australia, Albania, Belgium, Great Britain, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Greece, Denmark, Dominican Republic, India, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Luxembourg, Mongolian People's Republic Republic, Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, El Salvador, USSR, USA, Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Union of South Africa. In the second half of 1942, Brazil and Mexico entered the war against the fascist bloc, in 1943 - Bolivia, Iraq, Iran, Colombia, Chile, in 1944 - Liberia. After February 1945, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt, Lebanon, Paraguay, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Uruguay joined the anti-Hitler coalition. Italy (in 1943), Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania (in 1944), and Finland (in 1945), which were previously part of the aggressive bloc, also declared war on the countries of the Hitlerite coalition. By the end of hostilities with Japan (September 1945), 56 states were at war with the countries of the fascist bloc.
(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. In 8 volumes, 2004. ISBN 5 203 01875 - 8)
The contribution of individual countries to achieving the goals of the anti-Hitler coalition was different. The USA, Great Britain, France and China participated with their armed forces in the fight against the countries of the fascist bloc. Separate units of some other countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, India, Canada, the Philippines, Ethiopia, etc. also took part in the hostilities. Some states of the anti-Hitler coalition (for example, Mexico) helped its main participants mainly with military supplies raw materials.
The USA and Great Britain made a significant contribution to achieving victory over the common enemy.
On June 11, 1942, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement on mutual supplies under Lend-Lease, i.e. loan of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, equipment, strategic raw materials and food.
The first deliveries arrived back in 1941, but the bulk of deliveries occurred in 1943-1944.
According to American official data, at the end of September 1945, 14,795 aircraft, 7,056 tanks, 8,218 anti-aircraft guns, 131,600 machine guns were sent from the USA to the USSR, from Great Britain (until April 30, 1944) - 3,384 aircraft and 4,292 tanks; 1,188 tanks were delivered from Canada, which had been directly involved in providing assistance to the USSR since the summer of 1943. In general, US military supplies during the war years amounted to 4% of the military production of the USSR. In addition to weapons, the USSR received cars, tractors, motorcycles, ships, locomotives, wagons, food and other goods from the United States under Lend-Lease. The Soviet Union supplied the United States with 300 thousand tons of chrome ore, 32 thousand tons of manganese ore, a significant amount of platinum, gold, and timber.
Some of the American cargo (about 1 million tons) did not reach the Soviet Union, because it was destroyed by the enemy during transportation.
There were about ten routes for delivering goods under Lend-Lease to the USSR. Many of them took place in areas of intense hostilities, which required great courage and heroism from those who provided supplies.
Main routes: across the Pacific Ocean through the Far East - 47.1% of all cargo; across the North Atlantic, skirting Scandinavia - to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk - 22.6%; via the South Atlantic, Persian Gulf and Iran - 23.8%; through the ports of the Black Sea 3.9% and through the Arctic 2.6%. Aircraft moved by sea and independently (up to 80%) through Alaska - Chukotka.
Help from the allies came not only through the Lend-Lease program. In the USA, in particular, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was created, which during the war collected and sent goods worth more than one and a half billion dollars to the USSR. In England, a similar committee was headed by Clementine Churchill, the wife of the Prime Minister.
In 1942, an agreement was reached between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA to open a second front in Western Europe. In June 1944, this agreement was implemented - Anglo-American troops landed in Normandy (northwest France), and a second front was opened. This made it possible to withdraw about 560 thousand German troops from the eastern front and contributed to the acceleration of the final defeat of Nazi Germany, which was now forced to fight on two fronts.
The material was prepared based on open sources
World War II in facts and figures
Ernest Hemingway from the preface to the book "A Farewell to Arms!"
Having left the city, halfway to the front headquarters, we immediately heard and saw desperate shooting across the entire horizon with tracer bullets and shells. And they realized that the war was over. It couldn't mean anything else. I suddenly felt bad. I was ashamed in front of my comrades, but in the end I had to stop the Jeep and get out. I started having some kind of spasms in my throat and esophagus, and I started vomiting saliva, bitterness, and bile. I don't know why. Probably from nervous release, which expressed itself in such an absurd way. During all these four years of war, in different circumstances, I tried very hard to be a restrained person and, it seems, I really was one. And here, at the moment when I suddenly realized that the war was over, something happened - my nerves gave way. The comrades did not laugh or joke, they were silent.
Konstantin Simonov. "Different days of the war. A writer's diary"
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Surrender of Japan
The terms of Japan's surrender were set out in the Potsdam Declaration, signed on July 26, 1945 by the governments of Great Britain, the United States, and China. However, the Japanese government refused to accept them.
The situation changed after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the entry into the war against Japan by the USSR (August 9, 1945).
But even despite this, members of the Supreme Military Council of Japan were not inclined to accept the terms of surrender. Some of them believed that the continuation of hostilities would lead to significant losses of Soviet and American troops, which would make it possible to conclude a truce on terms favorable to Japan.
On August 9, 1945, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and a number of members of the Japanese government asked the emperor to intervene in the situation in order to quickly accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. On the night of August 10, Emperor Hirohito, who shared the Japanese government's fear of the complete destruction of the Japanese nation, ordered the Supreme Military Council to accept unconditional surrender. On August 14, the emperor's speech was recorded in which he announced Japan's unconditional surrender and the end of the war.
On the night of August 15, a number of officers of the Ministry of the Army and employees of the Imperial Guard attempted to seize the imperial palace, place the emperor under house arrest and destroy the recording of his speech in order to prevent the surrender of Japan. The rebellion was suppressed.
At noon on August 15, Hirohito's speech was broadcast by radio. This was the first address of the Emperor of Japan to ordinary people.
The Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, on board the American battleship Missouri. This put an end to the bloodiest war of the 20th century.
LOSSES OF PARTIES
Allies
USSR
From June 22, 1941 to September 2, 1945, about 26.6 million people died. Total material losses - $2 trillion 569 billion (about 30% of all national wealth); military expenses - $192 billion in 1945 prices. 1,710 cities and towns, 70 thousand villages and villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed.
China
From September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945, from 3 million to 3.75 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians died in the war against Japan. In total, during the years of the war with Japan (from 1931 to 1945), China's losses amounted, according to official Chinese statistics, to more than 35 million military and civilians.
Poland
From September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945, about 240 thousand military personnel and about 6 million civilians died. The territory of the country was occupied by Germany, and resistance forces operated.
Yugoslavia
From April 6, 1941 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 446 thousand military personnel and from 581 thousand to 1.4 million civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany, and resistance units were active.
France
From September 3, 1939 to May 8, 1945, 201,568 military personnel and about 400 thousand civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany and there was a resistance movement. Material losses - 21 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
Great Britain
From September 3, 1939 to September 2, 1945, 382,600 military personnel and 67,100 civilians died. Material losses - about 120 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
USA
From December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945, 407,316 military personnel and about 6 thousand civilians died. The costs of military operations are about 341 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
Greece
From October 28, 1940 to May 8, 1945, about 35 thousand military personnel and from 300 to 600 thousand civilians died.
Czechoslovakia
From September 1, 1939 to May 11, 1945, according to various estimates, from 35 thousand to 46 thousand military personnel and from 294 thousand to 320 thousand civilians died. The country was occupied by Germany. Volunteer units fought as part of the Allied armed forces.
India
From September 3, 1939 to September 2, 1945, about 87 thousand military personnel died. The civilian population did not suffer direct losses, but a number of researchers consider the deaths of 1.5 to 2.5 million Indians during the famine of 1943 (caused by an increase in food supplies to the British army) to be a direct consequence of the war.
Canada
From September 10, 1939 to September 2, 1945, 42 thousand military personnel and about 1 thousand 600 merchant seamen died. Material losses amounted to about 45 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
I saw women, they were crying for the dead. They cried because we lied too much. You know how survivors return from war, how much space they take up, how loudly they boast of their exploits, how terrible they portray death. Still would! They might not come back either
Antoine de Saint-Exupery. "Citadel"
Hitler's coalition (Axis countries)
Germany
From September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 3.2 to 4.7 million military personnel died, civilian losses ranged from 1.4 million to 3.6 million people. The costs of military operations are about 272 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
Japan
From December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945, 1.27 million military personnel were killed, non-combat losses - 620 thousand, 140 thousand were wounded, 85 thousand people were missing; civilian casualties - 380 thousand people. Military expenses - 56 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
Italy
From June 10, 1940 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 150 thousand to 400 thousand military personnel died, 131 thousand were missing. Civilian losses ranged from 60 thousand to 152 thousand people. Military expenses - about 94 billion US dollars in 1945 prices.
Hungary
From June 27, 1941 to May 8, 1945, according to various sources, from 120 thousand to 200 thousand military personnel died. Civilian casualties are about 450 thousand people.
Romania
From June 22, 1941 to May 7, 1945, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 520 thousand military personnel and from 200 thousand to 460 thousand civilians died. Romania was initially on the side of the Axis countries; on August 25, 1944, it declared war on Germany.
Finland
From June 26, 1941 to May 7, 1945, about 83 thousand military personnel and about 2 thousand civilians died. On March 4, 1945, the country declared war on Germany.
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It is still not possible to reliably assess the material losses suffered by the countries on whose territory the war took place.
Over the course of six years, many large cities, including some state capitals, suffered total destruction. The scale of destruction was such that after the end of the war these cities were built almost anew. Many cultural values were irretrievably lost.
RESULTS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (from left to right) at the Yalta (Crimean) Conference (TASS Photo Chronicle)
The allies of the anti-Hitler coalition began to discuss the post-war structure of the world at the height of hostilities.
On August 14, 1941, on board a warship in the Atlantic Ocean near Fr. Newfoundland (Canada), US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the so-called. "Atlantic Charter"- a document declaring the goals of the two countries in the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as their vision of the post-war world order.
On January 1, 1942, Roosevelt, Churchill, as well as the USSR Ambassador to the USA Maxim Litvinov and the Chinese representative Song Tzu-wen signed a document that later became known as "Declaration of the United Nations". The next day, the declaration was signed by representatives of 22 other states. Commitments were made to make every effort to achieve victory and not to conclude a separate peace. It is from this date that the United Nations traces its history, although the final agreement on the creation of this organization was reached only in 1945 in Yalta during a meeting of the leaders of the three countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. It was agreed that the UN's activities would be based on the principle of unanimity of the great powers - permanent members of the Security Council with the right of veto.
In total, three summits took place during the war.
The first one took place in Tehran November 28 - December 1, 1943. The main issue was the opening of a second front in Western Europe. It was also decided to involve Turkey in the anti-Hitler coalition. Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan after the end of hostilities in Europe.
The myth of the military losses of the USSR in World War II
Official figures for the irretrievable losses of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War - 8,668,400 who died on the battlefield, died from wounds, diseases, in captivity, were shot according to verdicts of tribunals and died for other reasons - first published in 1993 in the collection “The classification of secrecy has been removed ”, are a myth very widespread in modern Russian and foreign historiography and underestimate the true value by about three times. The official estimate of the entire Soviet population of 26.6-27.0 million people, published at the same time, of which about 18 million were civilians, is also significantly underestimated.
In those cases where the data in the book “Classified as Classified” can be verified, they do not stand up to criticism. So, if you believe the data in this book, on July 5, 1943, at the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the troops of the Central Front numbered 738 thousand people and during the defensive battle until July 11 inclusive they were killed and missing, according to the collection “Classified as Classified” , 15,336 people and wounded and sick 18,561 people. By the time the Red Army launched an offensive on Oryol, on July 12, the composition of the troops of the Central Front had hardly changed: one tank brigade had arrived and two rifle brigades had left. The tank brigade then consisted of 1,300 people, and one rifle brigade had 4.2 thousand people. Taking this into account, by the beginning of the Oryol operation the Central Front should have had 697 thousand personnel. However, according to the authors of the book “The Classification of Secrecy Has Been Removed,” at that moment there were only 645,300 people in Rokossovsky’s troops. This means that the true losses of the Central Front in the defensive battle of Kursk were at least 51.7 thousand more than official statistics claim. And this is only provided that the troops of the Central Front did not receive marching reinforcements during the defensive operation. If such a replenishment arrived, then the real losses should have been even higher. It was impossible for such a number of people to desert at once or simply disappear to God knows where, especially in the conditions of fierce battles and in the treeless Kursk steppes!
It should be emphasized that the bulk of the undercounted Soviet losses should have fallen on irretrievable losses, primarily on the missing, since the wounded who were admitted to hospitals were counted much more accurately than the dead. If the entire undercount is attributed to irretrievable losses, then in the case of the Central Front they will turn out to be 4.4 times greater than the official ones.
The underestimation of irretrievable losses is equally large in the case of the two Polish armies in the Berlin operation. According to the collection “The Classification of Secrecy Has Been Removed,” they are identified as 2,825 killed and missing. However, official Polish data states that in this operation the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army lost 7.2 thousand killed and 3.8 thousand missing, and a total of 11.0 thousand people, which is 3. 9 times higher than Soviet (Russian) official data. It is absolutely incredible that the Poles were counted less accurately than the Soviet soldiers themselves, since the headquarters of the Polish armies were dominated by Soviet officers.
In the East Pomeranian operation, which lasted from February 10 to April 4, 1945, the 1st Polish Army lost, according to official Russian data, 2,575 killed and missing. However, according to Polish data, the losses of this army amounted to 5.4 thousand killed and 2.8 thousand missing. This gives 8.2 thousand permanent losses, which is 3.2 times more than the official Russian estimate of Polish losses in the East Pomeranian operation. Accordingly, the overall Russian estimate of all Soviet and Polish irretrievable losses in this operation should be increased by 3.2 times - from 55,315 to 176,149 people.
Let's try to calculate how many times Russian data on Polish losses in two other major operations - Belarusian and Vistula-Oder - are underestimated. In total, Polish losses on the Soviet-German front amounted to 17.5 thousand killed and 10 thousand missing. It is known that in the battle of Lenino in October 1943, the 1st Polish Kosciuszko Division lost 496 killed and 519 missing. In the battles for the Warsaw suburb of Prague in September 1944, the Polish 1st Army lost 355 killed, and in the battles for the bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula near Warsaw in the same month - 1,987 killed and missing. Let us subtract these losses from the total losses, as well as losses in the East Pomeranian (8.2 thousand) and Berlin operations (11 thousand). Then it turns out that during the Belarusian and Vistula-Oder operations, the losses of the 1st Polish Army amounted to about 4.9 thousand dead and missing, while, according to the collection “Classified as Classified”, in the Belarusian operation the Poles lost 1533 killed and missing, and in the Vistula-Oder operation - only 225 people. Thus, in these two operations, Polish irretrievable losses were also reduced by 2.8 times.
An interesting pattern is observed. The greater the losses, the more they were underestimated. The losses in the Berlin operation were the greatest, being four times greater per day than the losses in the East Pomeranian operation. And the underestimation turned out to be the largest - 3.9 times. But when in the Vistula-Oder operation the Polish losses turned out to be very small (the 1st Polish Army was advancing on Warsaw, which the Germans left without a fight), the underestimation of losses was the smallest. And the coefficient of this underestimation, by the way, could not be applied to all the troops that participated in the Vistula-Oder operation. But in the Belarusian operation, Polish losses were probably underestimated by a little more than 2.8 times. I think that the irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the war are underestimated by about three times on average. By the way, only by accepting that the Soviet irretrievable losses in the operations to liberate Poland were underestimated by the authors of the book “The Classification of Secrecy Has Been Removed” by at least half, one can obtain the traditional figure of more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers who died for the liberation of Poland.
To determine the true magnitude of irretrievable losses of the Red Army, another method can be proposed. Taking into account the fact that in smaller battles the under-accounting of losses could have been smaller, let us assume that the general under-accounting of irretrievable losses in the collection “Declassified” was at least threefold. Its authors determine the total volume of irretrievable losses, taking into account prisoners who returned home and missing persons, at 11,144 thousand people. From them it is necessary to exclude 1,658 thousand who died from wounds, illnesses and accidents and those who were shot by tribunals and who committed suicide. If the resulting number is multiplied by 3 and subtracted 2,776 thousand returned prisoners and missing in action and again add 1,658 thousand dead, it turns out that in total about 27,340 thousand Red Army soldiers died. From here we must subtract approximately 250 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who ended up in exile. The total death toll would drop to 27,090 thousand, which is almost identical to my estimate of 26.9 million Soviet military deaths.
Accounting for irretrievable losses in the Red Army was done extremely poorly. The order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Army Commissar 1st Rank Efim Shchadenko, dated April 12, 1942, stated: “The accounting of personnel, especially the accounting of losses, is carried out in the active army completely unsatisfactorily... The headquarters of the formations do not promptly send to the center named lists of the dead. As a result of untimely and incomplete submission of lists of losses by military units (as in the document. - B.S.) 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 personal records. The personal records of missing and captured people are even farther from the truth.” And on March 7, 1945, Stalin, in an order to the People’s Commissariat of Defense, emphasized that “military councils of fronts, armies and military districts do not pay due attention” to issues of personal accounting of irretrievable losses.
To assess the true size of the irretrievable losses of the Red Army, we can take as a basis the data published by the Russian military historian General Dmitry Volkogonov on the irretrievable losses of the Red Army for the months of 1942 and compare them with the monthly breakdown of the losses of the Red Army in the wounded (those killed in battles) for the period at our disposal. from July 1941 to April 1945, expressed as a percentage of the average monthly level for the war. It is given in the book of the former head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army, Efim Smirnov, “War and Military Medicine.” Contrary to popular belief, the monthly dynamics of casualties indicates that in the last year or two of the war, the losses of the Red Army did not decrease at all. Casualty losses peaked in July and August 1943, amounting to 143 and 172% of the monthly average. The next highest maximum occurs in July and August 1944, reaching 132 and 140%, respectively. Losses in March and April 1945 were only slightly less, amounting to 122 and 118%. This figure was higher only in August '42, in October '43 and in January and September '44 (130% each), as well as in September '43 (137%).
One can try to estimate the total number of deaths by taking the number of those killed in battle to be approximately directly proportional to the number of wounded. It remains to determine when the accounting of irretrievable losses was most complete and when almost all irretrievable losses were among the dead, and not among the prisoners. For a number of reasons, November should be chosen as such a month, when the Red Army suffered almost no losses in prisoners, and the front line was stable until the 19th. Then, according to Volkogonov, she lost 413 thousand killed and died from wounds. This number will account for 83% of those killed in battles, i.e., for 1% of the average monthly number of those killed in battles there are approximately 5 thousand killed and those who died from wounds and diseases. If we take January, February, March or April as the basic indicators, then the ratio there, after excluding the approximate number of prisoners, will be even greater - from 5.1 to 5.5 thousand dead per 1% of the average monthly number of those killed in battles.
The total number of those killed in battle, as well as those who died from wounds, can be estimated by multiplying 5 thousand people by 4656 (the amount, as a percentage of the average monthly, casualties during the war, taking into account the losses of June 1941 and May 1945), at 23.28 million people From here we must subtract 940 thousand of those around us who returned to their surroundings from the number of missing persons. There will be 22.34 million people left. It can be assumed that in the data provided by Volkogonov, non-combat losses are not considered irrevocable, i.e., soldiers who died from illnesses, accidents, suicides, who were shot by tribunal verdicts and who died for other reasons (except for those who died in captivity). According to the latest estimate by the authors of the book “The Classification of Secrecy Has Been Removed,” the non-combat losses of the Red Army amounted to 555.5 thousand people. Then the total irretrievable losses of the Soviet armed forces (without those who died in captivity) can be estimated at 22.9 million people. If non-combat losses are included in Volkogonov’s figures, then the irretrievable losses of the Red Army can be estimated at 22.34 million dead.
To obtain the final figure for military losses, it is also necessary to estimate the number of Soviet prisoners of war who died in captivity. According to the final German documents, 5,754 thousand prisoners of war were taken on the Eastern Front, including 3,355 thousand in 1941, while the authors of the document presented to the Western allies in May 1945 stipulated that for 1944–1945, prisoners were counted incomplete. At the same time, the number of deaths in captivity was estimated at 3.3 million people. However, I am inclined to subscribe to the higher estimate of the total number of Soviet prisoners of war in 1941 of 3.9 million people contained in German documents from early 1942. Undoubtedly, this number also included approximately 200 thousand prisoners from the occupied territories released from the camps back in 1941. We must also take into account the prisoners taken by Germany's allies. Finland captured 68 thousand prisoners, of whom 19,276 died - about 30%. Romania captured up to 160 thousand Soviet prisoners and transferred several tens of thousands more to Germany. A total of 82,090 prisoners were registered in Romania. By the time of liberation in August 1944, 59,856 people remained in the camps. 5,221 people died in captivity. 3,331 prisoners escaped. In 1943, 13,682 natives of Transnistria, which was part of Romania, were released from the camps. In addition, at the beginning of the war, about 80 thousand natives of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were released from captivity. Subsequently, some of them were again drafted into the Red Army. Hungary and Italy handed over their Soviet prisoners to Germany. Taking into account all these factors, the total number of Soviet prisoners of war can be estimated at 6.3 million people. 1,836 thousand people returned to their homeland from German (as well as Finnish and Romanian) captivity, and approximately another 250 thousand, according to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1956, remained in the West after the war. The total number of people killed in captivity can be estimated at approximately 4 million people, and the total number of those who returned from captivity can be estimated at 2.3 million people, including those who managed to hide their captivity. The proportion of dead is 63.5% of the total number of prisoners. The total losses of the Soviet Armed Forces can be estimated at 26.9 million people. Soviet soldiers who fought in collaborationist formations also ended up here. According to some estimates, up to 1.5 million Soviet citizens served in the Wehrmacht, SS and police forces. Of these, up to 800 thousand were “hiwis” - “voluntary assistants” who served in the Wehrmacht and SS troops in non-combatant positions.
The particularly high mortality rate of prisoners in both German and Soviet captivity was explained by the fact that both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army were fighting at the limits of their capabilities and were experiencing acute food shortages. The strength of the German ground army on the Eastern Front in 1941 was 3.3 million people, and it captured 3.9 million Red Army soldiers. The Germans could not feed such a number of people for at least several months before transferring them to rear camps in Poland and Germany. There was an order from the High Command of the German Ground Forces that the commandants of transit camps could take up to 20% of food from passing German units for the needs of prisoners, but in conditions of a sharp food shortage in the Wehrmacht, this order remained on paper. The occupied Soviet territories also experienced an acute food shortage, which characterized many of them even in pre-war times and was aggravated by seizures carried out by the German occupation forces for the needs of the army and the Reich. The fact that the transport was used primarily for the needs of the front did not allow the prisoners to be quickly transferred to the rear. As a result, prisoners died in large numbers from hunger and epidemics, as well as during backbreaking walks, especially in winter conditions. As a result, of the 3.9 million Soviet prisoners by the spring of 1942, there were only 1.1 million survivors in the camps. Several hundred thousand were released from the camps and enlisted in the Wehrmacht or the occupation forces, a number of prisoners escaped, and more than 2 million died. Since the Soviet Union did not sign the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Germany refused to extend its coverage to Soviet prisoners. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet side announced that it would adhere to the rules for the treatment of prisoners, with the exception of clauses on the exchange of lists of prisoners and the receipt of parcels by prisoners through the Red Cross. Germany did not agree to such selective use of the convention and stated that it did not consider itself bound by the terms of the Geneva Convention in the treatment of Soviet prisoners, and, in particular, made extensive use of their forced labor, not observing the food supply standards established by the convention. Only by the summer of 1943, the calorie ration of a Soviet prisoner of war employed in the metallurgical or mining industry in Germany reached 2,100 kilocalories. And in August 1944, the supply standards for prisoners of war and foreign workers were equalized with the supply standards for the German population. But not many Soviet prisoners survived until this time.
The net conscription into the Red Army, minus those returned to the national economy, can be estimated at 42.9 million people. In Germany, including the peacetime army, the total conscription was 17.9 million people. Of these, approximately 2 million were recalled, primarily to work in industry, so that the net conscription was about 15.9 million, or 19.7% of the total Reich population of 80.6 million in 1939. In the USSR, the share of net conscription could reach 20.5% of the population in mid-1941, estimated at 209.3 million people. Official data on the number of those mobilized into the Red Army were significantly underestimated due to the fact that a significant part of the Red Army soldiers were mobilized directly into units and were not included in the data of the centralized registration of those mobilized. For example, the Southern Front alone in September 1943 conscripted 115 thousand people directly into the unit. This conscription continued until the last days of the war - at the expense of the released "ostarbeiters" and prisoners of war. Among such untrained conscripts, many of whom were drafted from the occupied territories and were considered as if they were “second-class” people, the irretrievable losses were especially great, and their accounting was the poorest.
The number of Red Army soldiers killed can also be estimated based on the data bank at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill. In the mid-1990s, it contained personal data on 19 million military personnel killed or missing in action during the war. Not all the dead were included here, as evidenced by the failure of dozens of citizens who in the early days of the museum's existence made inquiries about the fate of their missing relatives and friends, and at the same time, many people were mentioned in the bank two or more times. It is almost impossible to identify by name all those who died in the war, half a century after its end. Of the approximately 5 thousand dead Soviet servicemen whose remains were found by Russian search engines in the mid-90s and whose identities were established, about 30% were not listed in the archives of the Ministry of Defense and therefore were not included in the computer data bank. If we assume that the 19 million included in this bank account for approximately 70% of all dead and missing, their total number should reach 27.1 million people. From this number we must subtract approximately 2 million surviving prisoners and approximately 900 thousand who returned to their encirclement. Then the total number of dead soldiers and officers can be calculated at 24.2 million. However, this calculation is inaccurate, since it is impossible to determine with any accuracy both the share of irretrievable losses that were not included in the data bank and the number of doublet records. Therefore, the figure of 26.9 million who died in the ranks of the Soviet armed forces should be considered closer to the truth. It should be said that this is only a probabilistic estimate and its accuracy is plus or minus 5 million people. However, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to calculate the losses of the Red Army more accurately.
This figure is obtained if we take the official figure of all irretrievable losses, including surviving prisoners and encirclements, at 11,144 thousand people and assume that this is the third of the real irretrievable losses that were personally registered. From them it is necessary to exclude 1,658 thousand who died from wounds, illnesses and accidents and those who were shot by tribunals and who committed suicide. If the resulting number is multiplied by 3 and subtracted 2,776 thousand returned prisoners and missing in action and again add 1,658 thousand dead, it turns out that in total about 27,340 thousand Red Army soldiers died. From here we must subtract approximately 250 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who ended up in exile. The total death toll would drop to 27,090 thousand, which is almost identical to our estimate of 26.9 million Soviet military deaths.
The total losses - both military and civilian population of the USSR - can be estimated at 42.7 million people, based on the assessment of the Central Statistical Office made in the early 50s, the population of the USSR at the end of 1945 at 167 million people, from natural and mechanical population growth in 1945–1946, including due to the increase in Soviet territory, due to which the population should be reduced to 166.6 million people, and from the CSB estimate made in June 1941, the population of the USSR at the beginning of 1941 in 198.7 million people. Taking into account the recount, which was only done for Moldova and the Khabarovsk Territory, this last number should be increased by 4.6%. Consequently, the size of the Soviet population at the beginning of the war can be considered 209.3 million people. Civilian losses can be estimated at 15.8 million people, subtracting military losses of 26.9 million people from 42.7 million people. These people became victims of repression by the German authorities (only during the “final solution to the Jewish question” about 1.5 million Soviet citizens were killed), died during the fighting, as well as from hunger and disease in both occupied and unoccupied territory, in particular in besieged Leningrad.
Also, some civilians became victims of repression by the Soviet authorities. The number of victims during the deportation of the “punished peoples” and the mortality rate in the Gulag can be estimated at no less than 1 million people. It should be pointed out that we determined the figure for the losses of the Red Army with a greater degree of accuracy than the total amount of Soviet losses and, accordingly, the amount of civilian losses. If someday the population of the USSR in mid-1941 is determined to be less than 209.7 million people, the number of civilian casualties will also decrease by a corresponding amount.
It should also be emphasized that in the Red Army the number of killed and the number of wounded were close to each other. It is quite difficult to establish the exact number of wounded in the Soviet armed forces, since different sources give different figures, and it is not always clear which category of wounded this or that figure belongs to. It is possible that the closest figure to the truth is 19.7 million wounded. It turns out if we take the data that 16% of the wounded were discharged from the army as a result of injuries. These data are contained in a 1946 report on the work of the rear during the war. If we take data on the number of Red Army soldiers dismissed due to injury from the “Classified Classification Removed” of 3,050.7 thousand, we get the total number of wounded at 19,066.9 thousand. True, if we take the “Grif’s” data on the number of deaths from wounds - 1,104 ,1 thousand people and assume that those who died from wounds make up 6.5% of the total number of wounded, as shown in the 1946 report, then the total number of wounded will be only 16,986.2 thousand. But we assume that the number of those fired disabled people is more reliable, since if they underestimated, then first of all - the number of deaths from wounds. In this case, we are actually talking about the number of wounds, and not the wounded, since many fighters were wounded more than once. The number of patients shown in the “Classified Classification Removed” at 7,641.3 thousand people, of which 86.7% returned to duty, seems to me close to the truth (according to the 1946 report, more than 85% of patients returned to duty). In this case, the total number of wounded and sick can be estimated at 26,708.2 thousand people. Moreover, the number of wounded is even less than the number killed on the battlefield, which, according to our estimate, was 22.34 million people. The ratio is not 3:1, as is traditionally believed, but 0.85:1. This paradox is easy to explain. The wounded had little chance of being carried from the battlefield, and most of them died without receiving help. As noted in a 1946 report, “the losses of orderly porters in some formations reached 80–85% killed and wounded from enemy fire.” It is clear that with such losses among the orderlies, there were no less losses among the attackers, so that most of the wounded could not be removed from the battlefield. In addition, unlike the Wehrmacht, in the Red Army a significant part of the orderlies and porters were women, who found it very difficult to pull out a wounded soldier. Women were assigned to serve as nurses in order to free up men as active bayonets to take part in attacks.
There are other data on Soviet losses in the wounded and sick. The archives of the Military Medical Museum in St. Petersburg have preserved more than 32 million registration cards of military personnel who were admitted to military medical institutions during the Great Patriotic War. We are talking here about those who were evacuated to field and rear medical institutions, since there are no personal registration cards for those who died or recovered in medical battalions and regimental medical centers. If we assume that the undercount applied equally to both the wounded and the sick, then the total number of wounded can be estimated at 9.2 million sick and 22.8 million wounded. Then the number of wounded and killed will be almost equal to each other - 1.02:1.
It must be emphasized that Soviet irretrievable losses are almost impossible to estimate by the number of burials. Firstly, most of the burials were mass graves, and it is impossible to determine exactly how many fighters were buried in one grave. Secondly, many burials, including those at the end of the war, were not marked at all. For example, in the order to the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on shortcomings in the burial of military personnel dated February 5, 1945, it was especially noted: “The corpses of military personnel are buried untimely, special graves are not opened, but are used for graves: trenches, trenches, crevices and bomb craters. The graves are not filled up or covered with turf. There are no grave markers indicating the names of the victims, and there are no diagrams of the geographical location of mass and individual graves.”
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Introduction: The situation of the Soviet Union on the eve of the Great Patriotic War
1. The initial period of the war (June 1941 - November 1942). The main task of the army and the people is to survive!
2. 2nd period of the war (November 1942 - end of 1943). The initiative passes to the side of the Red Army. German troops suffer major defeats on the territory of the Soviet Union.
3. The final period of the war (January 1944 - May 1945). Liberation of the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazi yoke.
Conclusion: A great feat of the Red Army soldiers and home front workers.
On the eve of the war, a radical restructuring of our armed forces was carried out. Ground forces included rifle (infantry), armored and mechanized troops, artillery and cavalry. They also included special troops: communications, engineering, air defense, chemical defense and others. Organizationally, they united into ZoZ rifle, tank, motorized and cavalry divisions, 170 of which were located in the western military districts. In the ground forces, over 80% of the personnel of the Armed Forces underwent smriba. The Air Force and Navy were significantly strengthened.
The limited time that our country had did not allow us to resolve all the issues on which the ground-based security of the state depended. The Soviet government tried in every possible way to gain time, at least for another one or two years, when the next five-year plan would be completed, the main task of which was to rearm the army and fleet. Since 1939, the troops began to receive samples of new modern weapons and equipment: T-34 and KV tanks, BM-13 (Katyusha) multiple launch rocket weapons, F. Tokarev’s self-loading rifle (SVT-40), a heavy machine gun (12 .7 mm) on a tripod. Many activities were unfinished at the beginning of the war.
The peaceful efforts of the Soviet Union to curb fascist aggression were not supported by England, France and the USA. France was soon conquered by Germany and capitulated, and the British government, fearing the landing of German troops on the islands, did everything to push German fascism to the East, to war against the USSR. And they achieved it. On June 22, 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. Germany’s European allies – Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland – also entered the war against the USSR.
German generals warned Hitler about the danger of a war against Russia, emphasizing that the war should end with a German victory a maximum of 3 months after the start, since Germany did not have the economic resources to wage a long war in the vast expanses of Russia. To implement the plan of lightning war ("blitzkrieg") called "Barbarossa" - a plan for the destruction of Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk and the seizure of the North Caucasus, and most importantly Baku with its oil, the Nazis created exceptional military power, the main striking force of which were tank armies, capable of moving forward quickly.
To deliver a surprise strike, Hitler pulled 157 German and 37 divisions of Germany's European allies to the borders of the USSR. This armada was armed with about 4.3 thousand tanks and assault guns, up to 5 thousand aircraft, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars and 5.5 million soldiers and officers. The Red Army faced such a monstrous military machine in June 1941.
The Soviet Army in June 1941 in the border military districts had 2.9 million people, 1.8 thousand tanks, 1.5 thousand aircraft of a new design.
But the “blitzkrieg” did not work out for the Nazis, they had to fight for almost 4 years (or rather 1418 days and nights), and as a result they lost everything and shamefully capitulated in Berlin.
The war can be divided into three periods: the first period – June 1941 – November 1942; second period – November 1942 – end of 1943; third period – January 1944 – May 1945
1.First period.
So, how did military operations take place during the first period? The main directions of military operations: northwestern (Leningrad), western (Moscow), southwestern (Ukraine). Main events: border battles in the summer of 1941, defense of the Brest Fortress; the capture of the Baltic states and Belarus by Nazi troops, the beginning of the siege of Leningrad; Smolensk battles 1941; Kiev defense, Odessa defense 1941 - 1942; Nazi occupation of Ukraine and Crimea; The Battle of Moscow in September-December 1941. In November 1941, the Germans realized that the “blitzkrieg” had not worked out, so they had to go on the defensive so as not to lose their main forces in the winter of 1941-1942.
On December 5, 1941, the Red Army went on the offensive near Moscow. This was the first major defeat of German troops in the Second World War, starting in the autumn of 1939. This was the collapse of the idea of “blitzkrieg” - a lightning war and the beginning of a turning point in its course. The front in the east for Germany and its allies stopped near Moscow.
However, Hitler could not agree that further military operations against Russia would not lead Germany to victory. In June 1942, Hitler changed the plan - the main thing was to capture the Volga region and the Caucasus in order to provide the troops with fuel and food. The Nazi offensive began in the southeast of our country. A bright page in the history of the Great Patriotic War was the heroic defense of Stalingrad (July 17 - November 18, 1942). The battle for the Caucasus lasted from July 1942 to October 1943.
2. Second period of the war
The second period of the war begins with the counter-offensive of our troops near Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943). By this time, our country was experiencing an increase in military production and an increase in the USSR's combat reserves. The defeat of the 330,000-strong German fascist group over Stalingrad meant a radical turning point in the course of the war.
Offensive operations in the North Caucasus, the Middle Don, as well as breaking the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 - all this dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist army. In the summer of 1943, Hitler was forced to carry out total mobilization in Germany and in the satellite states. He urgently needed to take revenge for the defeats at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. German generals no longer believed in a final victory over Russia, but made another attempt to take the initiative in the war on the Kursk Bulge. Here the Germans were preparing enormous tank equipment with the goal of going on the offensive again. The Battle of Kursk lasted for a month (from July 5 to August 5, 1943). The Soviet command launched a powerful artillery warning strike, but despite this, the Germans launched an offensive that lasted from July 5 to July 11, 1943.
And from July 12 to July 15, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. On August 5, Orel and Belgrade were liberated, in honor of which the first salute during the war years thundered in Moscow to our generals and soldiers who won a major victory. The victory in the Battle of Kursk is regarded as an event of the war, during which the Soviet army “broke the back” of the German troops. From now on, no one in the world doubted the victory of the USSR.
From that moment on, the Soviet army took full strategic initiative, which was retained until the end of the war. In August-December 1943, all our fronts went on the offensive, German troops retreated everywhere beyond the Dnieper. On September 16, Novorossiysk was liberated, and on November 6, Kyiv.
In 1943, Russia achieved complete economic and military superiority over Germany. The restoration of the national economy began in the liberated regions and regions. Western countries (England and the USA) understood that next year the Soviet army would begin the liberation of European countries. Fearing being late and eager to share the victory over Nazi Germany, the rulers of the United States and Great Britain agreed to open a second front. To do this, they met with the Soviet delegation, headed by Stalin, at the Tehran Conference in 1943.
But even after the agreement on joint actions, the USA and Great Britain were in no hurry to open a second front, guided by their far-reaching plans to bleed the USSR, and after the war to impose their will on Russia.
Military operations are transferred to the territory of Germany's allies and the countries it occupied. The Soviet government officially stated that the entry of the Red Army into the territory of other countries was caused by the need to completely defeat the armed forces of Germany and did not pursue the goal of changing the political structure of these states or violating territorial integrity. The political course of the USSR was based on a program for organizing and recreating the state, economic and cultural life of European peoples, which was put forward back in November 1943, which provided for the provision of liberated peoples with full right and freedom to choose their state structure. The heads of the country did not agree with this statement some world powers. W. Churchill and many Western historians spoke about the establishment of “Soviet despotism” in the liberated territory.
Under the blows of the Red Army, the fascist bloc was falling apart. Finland left the war. In Romania, the Antonescu regime was overthrown and the new government declared war on Germany. During the summer-autumn of 1944, Romania (2nd Ukrainian Front), Bulgaria (2nd Ukrainian Front), Yugoslavia (3rd Ukrainian Front), Hungary and Slovakia were liberated. In October 1944, Soviet troops entered German territory. Together with the Soviet troops, the Czechoslovak corps, the Bulgarian army, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army, and several Romanian units and formations took part in the liberation of their countries.
Chronologically it happened like this. On August 20, troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts went on the offensive on the southern flank and after three days of fighting surrounded the main forces of the German-Romanian troops. On August 23, a military coup took place in Bucharest. The German protege, Marshal I. Antonescu, and a number of his ministers were arrested. Attempts by German troops to capture Bucharest encountered resistance from the city's rebellious population. On August 31, Soviet troops entered the capital of Romania.
It is not customary to talk much about the assistance of the USSR allies during the Second World War. However, it was there, and it was considerable. And not only within the framework of Lend-Lease. Soviet troops were supplied with food, medicine, and military equipment.
As you know, from love to hate there is only one step. Especially in politics, where it is quite permissible to smile at those whom yesterday you reviled as fiends of hell. Here we are, if we open the Pravda newspaper for 1941 (before June 22), we will immediately find out how bad the Americans and British were. They starved their own population and started a war in Europe, while the Chancellor of the German people, Adolf Hitler, was just defending himself...
Well, even earlier in Pravda one could even find the words that “fascism helps the growth of class consciousness of the working class”...
And then they became suddenly good...
But then came June 22, 1941, and literally the next day Pravda came out with reports that Winston Churchill promised military aid to the USSR, and the US President unfrozen Soviet deposits in American banks, frozen after the war with Finland. That's all! Articles about hunger among British workers disappeared in an instant, and Hitler turned from “Chancellor of the German People” into a cannibal.
Convoy "Dervish" and others
Of course, we don't know about all the behind-the-scenes negotiations that took place at that time; Even the declassified correspondence between Stalin and Churchill does not reveal all the nuances of this difficult period of our common history. But there are facts showing that the Anglo-American allies of the USSR began to provide assistance, if not immediately, then in a sufficiently timely manner. Already on August 12, 1941, the Dervish convoy of ships left Loch Ewe Bay (Great Britain).
On the first transports of the Dervish convoy on August 31, 1941, ten thousand tons of rubber, about four thousand depth charges and magnetic mines, fifteen Hurricane fighters, as well as 524 military pilots from the 151st Air Wing of two Royal Military Squadrons were delivered to Arkhangelsk. British Air Force.
Later, pilots even from Australia arrived on the territory of the USSR. There were a total of 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945 (although there were no convoys between July and September 1942 and March and November 1943). In total, about 1,400 merchant ships delivered important military materials to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program.
85 merchant ships and 16 warships of the Royal Navy (2 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 8 other escort vessels) were lost. And this is only the northern route, because the cargo flow also went through Iran, through Vladivostok, and planes from the USA were directly transported to Siberia from Alaska. Well, then the same “Pravda” reported that in honor of the victories of the Red Army and the conclusion of agreements between the USSR and Great Britain, the British were organizing folk festivals.
Not only and not so much convoys!
The Soviet Union received assistance from its allies not only through Lend-Lease. In the USA, the “Russia War Relief Committee” was organized.
“Using the money collected, the committee purchased and sent medicines, medical supplies and equipment, food, and clothing to the Red Army and the Soviet people. In total, during the war, the Soviet Union received assistance worth more than one and a half billion dollars.” A similar committee led by Churchill’s wife operated in England, and it also purchased medicines and food to help the USSR.
When Pravda wrote the truth!
On June 11, 1944, the Pravda newspaper published significant material on the entire page: “On the supply of weapons, strategic raw materials, industrial equipment and food to the Soviet Union by the United States of America, Great Britain and Canada,” and it was immediately reprinted by all Soviet newspapers, including local and even newspapers of individual tank armies.
It reported in detail how much had been sent to us and how many tons of cargo were floating by sea at the time the newspaper was published! Not only tanks, guns and planes were listed, but also rubber, copper, zinc, rails, flour, electric motors and presses, portal cranes and technical diamonds!
Military shoes - 15 million pairs, 6491 metal-cutting machines and much more. It is interesting that the message made an exact division of how much was purchased in cash, that is, before the adoption of the Lend-Lease program, and how much was sent after. By the way, it was precisely the fact that at the beginning of the war a lot of things were purchased for money that gave rise to the opinion that still exists today that all Lend-Lease came to us for money, and for gold. No, a lot was paid for with “reverse Lend-Lease” - raw materials, but the payment was postponed until the end of the war, since everything that was destroyed during hostilities was not subject to payment!
Well, why such information was needed at this particular time is understandable. Good PR is always a useful thing! On the one hand, the citizens of the USSR learned how much they supply us with, on the other hand, the Germans learned the same thing, and they simply could not help but be overcome by despondency.
How much can you trust these numbers? Obviously it is possible. After all, if they contained incorrect data, then only German intelligence would have figured it out, although according to some indicators, how could they declare everything else propaganda and, of course, Stalin, giving permission for the publication of this information, could not help but understand this!
Both quantity and quality!
In Soviet times, equipment supplied under Lend-Lease was usually criticized. But... it’s worth reading the same “Pravda” and in particular the articles of the famous pilot Gromov about American and British aircraft, articles about the same English Matilda tanks, to be convinced that during the war all this was assessed completely differently than after its end!
How can one appreciate the powerful presses that were used to stamp turrets for T-34 tanks, American drills with corundum tips, or industrial diamonds, which Soviet industry did not produce at all?! So the quantity and quality of supplies, as well as the participation of foreign technical specialists, sailors and pilots, was very noticeable. Well, then politics and the post-war situation intervened in this matter, and everything that was good during the war years immediately became bad with just the stroke of a leading pen!