One of the important issues that causes controversy between many researchers is how many people died in World War II... There will never be general identical data on the number of deaths from the German side and the side of the Soviet Union (the main opponents). Fatalities approximately - 60 million people, from all over the world.
This gives rise to many myths and unjustified rumors. Most of the dead are civilians who died during shelling of settlements, genocide, bombing, hostilities.
War is the greatest tragedy for humanity. Discussions about the consequences of this event continue to this day, although more than 75 years have passed. Indeed, more than 70% of the population took part in the war.
Why are there differences between the death toll? It's all about the difference in the calculations, which are carried out by different methods, and information is obtained from different sources, and after all, how much time has passed ...
The history of counting the dead
It is worth starting with the fact that the calculation of the amount of people killed began only during the period of publicity, that is, at the end of the 20th century. Until that time, no one had done this. The death toll could only be guessed at.
There were only the words of Stalin, who declared that 7 million people died in the Union during the war, and Khrushchev, who informed the Minister of Sweden about the losses of 20 million people in a letter.
For the first time, the total number of human losses was announced at a plenum dedicated to 45 years since the victory in the war (May 8, 1990). This figure was almost 27 million deaths.
Three years later, in a book called "The secrecy stamp has been removed. Losses of the armed forces ... "the results of the study were highlighted, during which 2 methods were used:
- accounting and statistical (analysis of documents of the Armed Forces);
- demographic balance (comparison of the population at the beginning and after the end of hostilities)
The death of people in the Second World War according to Krivosheev:
One of the scientists who worked in a team, investigating the issue of the number of those killed in the war, was G. Krivosheev. Based on the results of his research, the following data were published:
- The national losses of the USSR during the Second World War (together with the civilian population) amounted to 26.5 million dead.
- Germany's losses - 11.8 million.
This study also has critics, according to which Krivosheev did not take into account 200 thousand prisoners of war released by the German invaders after 1944 and some other facts.
There is no doubt that the war (which unfolded between the USSR and Germany and its companions) was one of the most bloody and terrifying in history. The whole horror consisted not only in the number of participating countries, but in the cruelty, ruthlessness, ruthlessness of peoples towards each other.
The soldiers had absolutely no compassion for the peaceful people. Therefore, the question of the number of people killed in the Second World War remains controversial even now.
