| The actual number of
deaths -- civilian and military -- during the period from 1939
to August 1945 will never be known. Using different
statistical methods the reader can find a variety of numbers.
The following are interesting
numbers:
Civilians & World
War II:
Soviet Union: 7,420,379
(including: 1,800,000 in Russia, 3,256,000 in Ukraine,
1,547,000 in Belorussia)
Germany: 2,760,000 (including
200,000-2,000,000
World War II evacuation and expulsion)
Military Deaths & World
War II
Germany: 3,500,000
(includes Austrians and
Sudeten Germans in
German Army as well as other nationalities forced to
join the Wehrmacht)
Numbers for other countries
can be found at
Encyclopedia: List of World War II casualties by country
Soviet Purges of the
1930's
Between 1934
and 1938, a massive purge, conducted throughout Russia
in a seemingly indiscriminant and arbitrary way,
resulted in the the disappearance and death of about 3
million Russians, while millions more were taken to
concentration camps. (the Gulag.) It was the goal
to reshape Soviet society by eliminating anyone who
might be a threat to socialism. As a result the
middle class of Russian was eliminated.
American Civil War
The only time in American
history that can compare to the Soviet Union between
1934 and 1956 is the American Civil War [or the War of
Northern Aggression according to some people]
The
Union armies had from
2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best
estimates:
Battle deaths: 110,070
Disease, etc.: 250,152
Total 360,222
The
Confederate
strength, known less accurately because of missing
records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000.
Its estimated losses:
Battle deaths: 94,000
Disease, etc.: 164,000
Total 258,000
Total American Civil Deaths
616,000
Battle Deaths + Disease
How does the above
number compare to that of the Soviet Union?
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|
