The medical and sanitary consequences of an emergency is a complex characteristic of an emergency, which determines the content, volume and organization of medical and sanitary support. Includes: the magnitude and nature of the resulting sanitary losses; the need of the affected in various types of medical care; conditions for conducting medical and evacuation measures in the emergency zone; sanitary-hygienic and sanitary-epidemiological situation resulting from the emergency; failure or disruption of the activities of medical and preventive, sanitary and hygienic, anti-epidemic institutions and institutions for the supply of medical equipment, as well as a violation of the life support of the population in the emergency zone and adjacent areas, etc.
Damaging factors of emergency sources - these are factors of a mechanical, thermal, radiation, chemical, biological (bacteriological), psycho-emotional nature, which are the causes of emergencies and lead to the defeat of people, animals, the natural environment, as well as objects of the national economy.
The damaging factors of emergency sources can cause various injuries to people:
dynamic(mechanical) factors as a result of the direct action of overpressure in the front of the shock wave, throwing a person away by the velocity pressure and impacts on external objects, the action of secondary projectiles (structures of buildings and structures, stones, fragments, glass, etc.) lead to the occurrence of various injuries and closed injuries.
Thermal factors - as a result of exposure to high temperatures (light radiation, fires, high ambient temperature, etc.), thermal burns, general overheating of the body occur; at low temperatures, general hypothermia and frostbite are possible.
Radiation factors - in case of accidents at radiation hazardous facilities and the use of nuclear weapons as a result of exposure to ionizing radiation on the body, radiation sickness (acute and chronic) and radiation burns of the skin can develop, and if radioactive substances enter the body through the respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract - lesions internal organs.
Chemical Factors - AOXV, chemical warfare agents, industrial and other poisons, affecting people during chemical accidents, the use of chemical weapons, cause a variety of (by nature and severity) damage.
Biological (bacteriological) factors - toxins, bacteria and other biological (bacteriological) agents, the release and spread of which are possible in case of accidents at biologically hazardous facilities, and in military conditions, when used by the enemy, they can lead to mass infectious diseases (epidemics) or mass poisoning.
Psycho-emotional the impact of damaging factors on people in extreme conditions can be manifested by a decrease in working capacity, a violation of their mental activity, and in some cases more serious disorders.
Strickenin emergency situations (when assessing the consequences of an emergency, the concept of “victims” is also used) is a person who, as a result of direct or indirect exposure to the damaging factors of an emergency source, has health problems.
General human losses that occurred in emergency situations are divided into irretrievable and sanitary losses. Irretrievable losses - people who died at the time of the emergency, died before entering the first stage of medical evacuation (to a medical facility) and missing. Sanitary losses - affected (survivors) and sick in the event of an emergency or as a result of an emergency.
Structure of sanitary losses - this is the distribution of the affected (patients): according to the severity of lesions (diseases) - extremely severe, severe, moderate, light; by the nature and localization of lesions (types of diseases).
During a disaster, losses usually occur suddenly and their number, as a rule, exceeds the capabilities of local facilities, and sometimes even territorial forces and health facilities. The high severity of injury, a real threat to life during a disaster creates an average of 25-30% of those seriously injured. Among those affected, 20 to 30% are children.
In the structure of losses by localization, the first place in frequency, as a rule, is occupied by traumatic brain injury. Limb injuries and soft tissue wounds usually share the second and third places. On the fourth place of injury with the syndrome of prolonged compression ("crash syndrome"). 70% are affected with multiple and combined injuries. Among the causes of death in the first place is an injury incompatible with life, the second is traumatic shock, and the third is acute blood loss.
A significant part of those affected die from the untimely provision of medical care, although the injury is not fatal. After a severe injury, 30% die after 1 hour, and 60% die after 3 hours.
Specific pathologies affecting the population in extreme peacetime conditions are neuropsychiatric stress, shock, and stupor. Approximately 10-15% of those affected need inpatient treatment in neuropsychiatric LU and at least 50% in outpatient settings. During the earthquake in Armenia, psychotrauma affected all the wounded and up to 90% of those living in the disaster zone, as well as relatives living in the distance.
The nature of the losses from the impact of SDYAV among the population is very diverse. In the structure of losses, mild and moderate severity of the lesion prevails, and in the epicenter, a severe degree. The lethal degree does not exceed 5%. Of particular danger to children are chemicals that act on the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, which in children are highly tender and vascularized and prone to edema.
In aviation and railway accidents, mainly mechanical and burn injuries occur with a high proportion of the dead.
During a flood, population losses fluctuate over a wide range.
The main pathology is associated with drowning people and diseases of the pulmonary system. In the zone of catastrophic flooding, up to 30% of the population dies at night, and no more than 15% during the day.
During an earthquake, from 22.5% to 45% of injuries occur from falling structures of buildings and 55% from the wrong behavior of people (panic, inability to hide, etc.).
The structure of losses among the population during catastrophic floods and earthquakes is rather quickly supplemented by infectious diseases.
Elements of medical and tactical characteristics of emergency situations
The medical and tactical characteristics of the lesion focus include a description of the possible working conditions for the disaster medicine service in the emergency area. It consists of a description (assessment) of the medical situation (the magnitude and structure of sanitary losses, failure of healthcare forces and facilities, etc.) and the tactical situation (the size of the focus, the nature and zones of destruction, etc.).
Medico-tactical characteristics of the focus include:
1. Determination of the size of the source, destruction zones, zones of contamination with RV, OV (SDYAV), BS, depending on the type of disaster, type and power of the explosion, fires, weather conditions, etc.
2. The nature of sanitary losses:
Quantitative characteristics (by zones of destruction and by location);
Qualitative characteristic or structure (according to the type and severity of the lesion, according to the localization of injuries).
3. The degree of failure of forces and means of health care:
Medical institutions;
medical property;
medical personnel;
Buildings for the deployment of stages of medical evacuation;
Escape routes (roads, bridges, etc.).
4. Organization of medical and evacuation support:
a) tasks of the medical service:
Type, scope, timing of medical care;
The need for forces and means of health care;
Therapeutic and evacuation characteristics of the affected.
b) organization and implementation of sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic measures:
Assessment of the sanitary situation in the outbreak and beyond its borders;
Continuing action of ionizing radiation, OV (SDYAV);
Assessment of the epidemiological situation, etc.
5. Moral and psychological state of the population:
Assessment of the psycho-emotional state of the population;
Measures to prevent panic, psycho-neurological stress, etc.
Chapter 3
Methods for assessing the human losses of a country
Until the end of the Second World War, i.e. during ongoing combat operations, there were no conditions for estimates of total casualties. At this time, the losses of the armed forces were mainly taken into account, and the remaining mobilization potential was calculated. Moreover, the warring parties, as already mentioned, were inclined, like the time of past wars, to underestimate own losses and exaggerate the losses of the enemy side. Above was the disinformation that Stalin made when summing up the results of 4 months of the war. To this we can add that, for example, in May 1942, south of Kharkov, the Red Army lost about 230 thousand people. dead and captured, and the Soviet Information Bureau reported that the losses amounted to 5 thousand killed and 70 thousand missing (13). Nazi reports of losses and victories are no less false than those of the Soviet Information Bureau. So, according to a German source, in the battle for Kyiv, German troops captured 665 thousand people. person (30). However, according to Soviet data, by the beginning of the Kyiv operation, the front had 677 thousand people, some of whom escaped from the boiler, some died and about a third were captured (11). False information from Germany increased when she began to suffer defeats. Therefore, it is possible to objectively assess human losses only after the end of the war. But this also requires certain conditions.
As far as we know, estimates of the total losses of the Soviet Union before the end of the war were published in the press only in Great Britain and the United States. It should be noted that the estimate of losses of 30 million people made at that time did not differ so much from those calculations that were made in Russia in the late 80s. As already noted, estimates of the human losses of the Soviet Union in the post-war years have changed several times in the direction of increase. German losses are also recalculated so far. Figures are known - 6.5 million total losses (30), 6.2 and 6.0 million (39), 5.95 million (83), 5.2 million, 5.7 million and 8.6 million (13). Note that accurate Germans believe that at present the data on total losses are unreliable, even the losses of the Wehrmacht are still being specified (13).
The presence of different estimates of human losses for those countries in whose territory hostilities took place is explained the fact that during the fighting it is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to calculate the number of dead civilians. It is not always possible to fix the irretrievable losses of servicemen. The dead and the living, prisoners and deserters, who returned to their homeland and remained in a foreign land - can equally end up in the capacious definition of “missing”. The reliability of estimates of human losses largely depends on the accounting of demographic phenomena that existed in the war and adjacent years, on the objectivity of information received from lower-level military authorities, on the safety of archives, etc. This applies not only to the USSR, but also to other countries, including Germany, about the conditionality and great complexity of estimates of human losses, which was convincingly stated back in the early 50s by G. Arnts (30).
It is obvious that the methods by which both military and civilian losses were calculated are also of great importance. From the demographic and military-historical works published in the last 20-25 years, it can be seen that three main methods are used to calculate losses in a war. Moreover, each of them is used to assess a certain type of loss. These methods include: 1. direct counting method, 2. comparative method and 3. demographic balance method. As a rule, each of these methods in its pure form is not used. They are used in various combinations.
With the direct method of estimating losses, the final result is obtained by adding up all the components - those killed at the front, those who died from wounds in hospitals, those who went missing, those who died in captivity, etc. The classification of possible losses not only among military personnel, but also among the civilian population is described in detail by A. Kvasha (32). Therefore, there is no need to talk about it, especially since it is almost impossible to identify all types of losses. The direct method is quite effective only for estimating the losses of the armed forces.
To date, a number of detailed works have been published -books and scientific articles, the authors of which are precisely those specialists who either were directly involved in calculating the losses of the armed forces, or led the teams that performed this work. The greatest confidence is inspired by identical information given in the works of M. Moiseev, G. Krivosheev, M. Gareev and their co-authors (39, 17, 43, 15). On the basis of taking into account the dead, those who died from wounds during the evacuation stages and in hospitals, non-combat losses, those who were completely missing, who were taken prisoner and did not return from there, as well as the losses not taken into account in the first months of the war, the number of losses of the Red Army, Navy, border and internal troops in 8668.4 thousand people (69). One can reproach the authors for bringing the estimate to the accuracy of hundreds of people, but it is hard not to agree with their scrupulous and documented calculations. In any case, the losses of the armed forces of 8.7 million, or rounded 9 million, are more real than such fantastic figures as Kalinov - a colonel - a defector from the Soviet military administration in Berlin - 13.6 million (30), uV. Kondratiev - 22 million (38) and, especially, the doctor (there is no mistake here) of philological sciences - B. Sokolov - 26.4 million (83) was 34.5 million, to exclude the irretrievable losses of military personnel, estimated by Mr. Sokolov at 26.4 million, then from where, by Victory Day in 1945, the Soviet Union had only armed forces of 12.8 million people, moreover, during the war years they were dismissed in connection with injuries and illnesses of 3.8 million people? (39). In addition, according to S.N. Mikhalev, 3.6 million servicemen were handed over to the national economy and about a million were convicted (42. p. 22). Employment has also been maintained in other power departments. Looking at figures like those given by B. Sokolov, V. Kandratiev, etc. regarding the irretrievable losses of the armed forces, one cannot help but recall Francis Bacon, who said that the less true the story, the more it gives pleasure. It's a pity that you don't have to pay for such dubious pleasure!
The method of direct counting has been repeatedly used, primarily by historians, to assess the human losses of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. Twice this method was used to calculate the losses of the civilian population by A. Shevyakov, although it gave different results. So, in a 1991 publication, he writes that when looking at the documents of the leaders of the state of those years and archival data, he calculated that the Nazis destroyed (shot, died in gas chambers, etc.) 11.3 million Soviet people. Of the number of Ostarbeiters and prisoners of war, approximately 3 million died. In addition, 6.5 million were killed under the occupation conditions created by the Nazis. Therefore, the total number of civilians who died (even without Ostarbeiters) amounted to 17.8 million people (90) In the publication of 1992, A. Shevyakov gave a more detailed picture of the death of the civilian population. He more carefully worked out the materials of the Emergency state commission, although it must be said right away that its calculations, based largely on the testimony of eyewitnesses, relatives and acquaintances of the victims, are far from accurate. Nevertheless, the estimate of the losses of the civilian population made by A. Shevyakov, if the dead prisoners of war are excluded from it, is quite close to the figure obtained by the VNK, who worked in early 1989.
Historian A. Sokolov distinguishes between military-operational and demographic approaches to the assessment of human losses. The first, in fact, is the method of direct counting. But the problem is not in the name, but in whether or not the author agrees with the estimates of the irretrievable losses of military personnel made in the military department. He is more impressed with the figure of 7.5 million. (39) We also like it. But, unfortunately, the figure of 8.7 million has been documented by military experts, who had no reason to overestimate it. In the demographic approach, unfortunately, A. Sokolov mixed the comparative method and the demographic balance method.
Over the past ten years, B. Sokolov (not to be confused with A. Sokolov) made several estimates of human losses using the direct calculation method. In 1988, he determined the total losses at 21.3 million people. By 1991, the amount of losses had grown to 29.6 million. Finally, in a book published in 1998, B. Sokolov gives separately careful calculations of the losses of the military and civilian population. Without commenting on the data he uses, many of which are doubtful and contradictory, we will only give the final values. According to his calculations, the total military losses of the population of the USSR amounted to 43.3 million dead. Since the irretrievable losses of the army are 26.4 million people, then the civilian population accounts for 16.9 million. (83) According to B. Sokolov, and his last book is called The Truth about the Great Patriotic War, the civilian population died 1.6 times less than military personnel. In connection with the above ratios, it should be recalled that part of the territory of the USSR was occupied for 3 or more years, that genocide was carried out everywhere, i.e. systematic destruction of civilians in accordance with the ideology of fascism regarding the Slavic peoples. Particularly brutally dealt with the population of those areas where partisans and underground fighters were active. Many cities withstood many months of sieges, settlements everywhere were wiped off the face of the earth. All this led to huge losses of the civilian population.
The ratio between the losses of the civilian and military population of the enslaved countries of Europe, where he acted significantly a softer occupation regime also speaks against B. Sokolov's figures. Thus, the losses of the civilian population exceed the losses of military personnel in France and Czechoslovakia by 1.4 times., in Yugoslavia - 4.7 times, in Belgium - 6.3 times, in Greece - 7 times, in Holland - 16.5 times and Poland - 42 times (30). Another thing is that in the USSR huge losses fall not only on civilians, but also on military personnel, especially at the first stage of the war, which accounts for 58% of all deaths.
An attempt to calculate directly the loss of military personnel and the civilian population, including those who took up arms (partisans, militia, etc.), was also made by S. Maksudov. First, he corrected the total loss figure of 26.6 million taken from the ADH work. He excluded from this figure 2 million Poles repatriated from the USSR in 1945. This resulted in a figure of 24.5–25 million (50). His mistake is that he did not take into account the oncoming flow of migrants, which halved the balance of migration exchange between Poland and the USSR (50). He also corrects the losses of the army, believing that they are overestimated and amount not to 8.7 million people, but to 7.9 million. But due to the death of militias, partisans, etc. he brings the loss to 9.5 million.
Finally, it must be said that by the beginning of the work of the VNK, the Department of Population Statistics of the Goskomstat of the USSR proposed a method for direct calculation of human losses for individual components. However, everything came down to the usual estimates proposed in the first draft of the State Statistics Committee. Here is how it was justified: based on the speeches of state leaders and senior officials of various levels in 1944–1946, it was established that in the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, the loss of the civilian population amounted to 8.3 million, or 14.7% of the pre-war population. According to this percentage, losses were found in the RSFSR and Moldova, which amounted to 4.8 million. Then the total loss of the civilian population is 13.1 million people. In addition, the population "decreased due to the excess of a sharp increase in mortality over a greatly reduced birth rate." According to German data, in 1942 in Kharkov this excess was 4%. Below we will show that these are not direct, but indirect losses. However, this percentage was extended to the entire population of the occupied territories, resulting in an excess of the number of deaths over the number of births by 3-3.5 million. Consequently, the total losses of the civilian population amounted to -16.1 and 16.6 million. The losses of military personnel were taken in two versions - 7 and 8.8 million people. From the figures proposed by the State Statistics Committee, options varying from 23.1 to 25.4 million are obtained. The named final figure was 25 million people. The figure is round, convenient, and for it the employees of the State Statistics Committee and its scientific division - the Research Institute of Statistics fought to the death. After disputes at the collegium of the USSR State Statistics Committee, no one died, but the figure had to be changed.
We conditionally call the second method of assessing human losses the comparative one. Its essence is to compare the predicted and real population. This method allows you to estimate the total human losses, structured only by demographic characteristics. Back in 1922, S.G. Strumilin made a forecast of changes in the population of the Soviet Union (he has Russia) from 1920 to 1941. Two options were provided: one without taking into account the influence of the civil war and blockade, the other, taking into account their influence. By the beginning of 1939, according to the second variant, the coincidence of the forecast and real population turned out to be almost absolute (169.8 and 170.6 million). The first option was missing. 8.5 million people (86). Actually, these were the losses that could be attributed to the war and the blockade, if there were no subsequent dramatic events. Note that sometimes, regarding these forecasts addressed to S.G. Strumilin released caustic remarks And in vain. He did not engage in fraud, especially in 1922. The predicted and actual population in 1939 simply coincided. This is probably the only case in the practice of forecasting.
The same method was used by B.Ts. Urlanis, calling it the method of missed opportunities (87). In a later work, he wrote that the effect of war on a population can be determined by comparing two quantities - hypothetical and actual numbers. The difference in values is the influence of the war (70). In Ukraine, this method was used by S.I. Pirozhkov, who determined the losses of this republic from 1929 to 1939 at 5.8 million, including indirect losses of 3.1 million people (61). AND I. Kvasha, calling this method the demographic balance, believes that it determines the “lost demographic benefit” (32). And he, referring to the data obtained by Yu.E. Vlasevich, accepts the following figures: in 1946 there should have been 213 million people, but it turned out to be 167 million. Consequently, 46 million were missing. This figure includes both direct and indirect losses. In a number of publications of incompetent authors, this figure of human losses just flashes.
The predicted, or hypothetical, population is obtained by shifting ages, for which life tables are used, timed to coincide with the dates of the population censuses. It is obvious that these shifts can be done both for the future and for the retrospective. Similarly, according to the 1938–39 and 1958–59 life tables. A.B. Sinelnikov made prospective and retrospective calculations in order to obtain the size and structure of a hypothetical population for the year the war ended. The lack of population for both options amounted to 28 and 32 million people. Given the imperfection of the method, the figures obtained (also the average of them is 30 million) could not claim to be an accurate estimate of human losses. However, in a monograph published in 1988, one wanted to show that the magnitude of human losses could be much more than 20 million people (54).
With regard to the calculations of the population of the former Soviet Union, the comparative method can be applied with great caution, because in the middle of the twentieth century. it was still far from the entry of even the European part of the country into the final stage of the demographic transition. And therefore, the stability of demographic trends has not yet been achieved. Obviously, in 20 years, separating the pre-war and the first post-war population censuses, quite serious changes in demographic parameters could occur.
The demographic balance method as a tool for assessing demographic dynamics and its sources has been used for many years by scientists and statistical workers. Usually, knowing the volumes of natural and migration growth, andthe population at the beginning of the period, it is elementary to find its final value. This method has long been used to estimate human losses in wars. In a book published in Hamburg in 1953 and translated in the Soviet Union in 1957 on the results of the Second World War, G. Arntz's article calculated the losses of European countries in the past war using the demographic balance. The balance includes, in addition to the population at the beginning and end of the period, the following components: natural increase for the period from 1938 to 1947, population decline due to natural death, the number of dead military personnel and civilians, as well as other losses - displaced persons, non-returning prisoners of war etc. (thirty).
The same approach was used by the authors of the collective work “The Second World War”, which states the following. Considering that at the end of the war there were no reliable data on losses based on the registration of individual fates, German scientists used the demographic balance method to estimate human losses. Its essence is to compare the initial and final population, taking into account migration, fertility and mortality (13). In a word, there are no differences with what is meant by the balance method in domestic science. At one time, the demographic balance method, which was used, however, for other purposes, was considered in sufficient detail in the book by B.D. Breev, published in 1977. The entire second chapter (7) is devoted to this method.
Such a detailed description of the demographic balance method was needed because in the works published in the nineties of the twentieth century, devoted to human losses in the war, the authors with the abbreviation ADH tried to convince readers that they, firstly, developed this method and, secondly, proposed it to the Supreme People's Commissariat for calculating military losses, and, most importantly, their assessment was accepted. (28). Nevertheless, let us briefly present the calculations performed by the ADC using the demographic balance method. They take the population for the middle of 1941 and the end of 1945 to be 196.7 and 170.5 million, respectively. To end 159.5 million of those born before mid-1941 survived the war . Then, respectively, the decline (died, left the country, etc.) equals 37.2 million. Assuming that the normal (natural) mortality for 4.5 years was 11.9 million, the authors determine the amount of losses without taking into account the number of those born during the war years. Its magnitude is 25.3 million people. To the resulting figure, having made an appropriate assessment, they added an increased infant mortality rate equal to 1.3 million. Then the total total human losses amounted to 26.6 million. man (39). The ADH believe they overestimated the loss of life. Their opinion is based on the fact that during the war the death rate among the repressed increased. It should be noted that these authors, when calculating losses using the demographic balance method, also used a retrospective shift in ages, i.e. carried out the assessment of losses methodically very correctly, underestimating, in our opinion, the total human losses.USSR and Russia in the slaughter. Human losses in the wars of the XX century Sokolov Boris Vadimovich
Estimation of the total size of Soviet losses and losses of the civilian population of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War
The total irretrievable losses of the population of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, including excess mortality from natural causes, can be calculated by estimating the population at the beginning and end of the war, as well as the natural movement of the population and the balance of external migrations during the war. The calculations made on the basis of Soviet population censuses also make it possible to approximately estimate the total military losses of the population of the USSR, both military and civilians. The total population at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War can be estimated based on the estimate of V.S. Kozhurin, the population of the USSR by the beginning of 1941 was 198.7 million people. According to the assessment of the population of the USSR, conducted in June 1941, the difference between the preliminary and re-assessment of the population of the Khabarovsk Territory at the beginning of 1940 was 72.6 thousand people (1538.0 and 1610.6), or 4.7%. This figure turns out to be even larger than the rate of probable undercount in the 1939 census. However, according to the 1959 census data, there was a significant drop in the birth rate in 1941, probably due to a significant increase in the army in 1940 and early 1941. By the beginning of 1959, the number of people aged 20, i.e., those born in 1940, amounted to 48,390.0 thousand people, and the number of people aged 19, i.e., those born in 1941, was only 43,165 .0 thousand people. If we assume that the birth rate has declined in approximately the same proportion as these cohorts relate to each other, then for 1941 it can be estimated at 2.78%. If we assume that the death rate in 1940 and the first half of 1941 was approximately the same, then the rate of natural increase for 1941 in the absence of war can be estimated at 1%, and the actual volume of natural increase in the first half of 1941 is about 1 million people. Then the population of the USSR by June 22, 1941, without adjusting for the underestimation of the 1939 census, can be estimated at 199.7 million people, and adjusted for such an underestimation, at 205.9-206.7 million people. If we subtract from this the losses in the battles in Finland and Khalkhin Gol, probably not taken into account in the statistics of 1939-1941, the population at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War can be estimated at 205.7-206.5 million people.
The population of the USSR by the beginning of 1946, based on the population estimate of 1950, taking into account the natural increase in that year, can be estimated at 167 million people. Due to the annexation of Tuva and Transcarpathia, the population of the USSR by the beginning of 1946 should have increased by at least 0.9 million people, and due to the return of the Bialystok region and some other territories to Poland, it should have decreased, taking into account losses in the war, also by about 0, 9 million people. In addition, due to external migrations, by the beginning of 1946, the population should have decreased by 0.9 million people. In 1940, the birth rate was 3.12%, the death rate was 1.80%, and the natural increase was 1.32%. The average annual level of natural mortality in 1941-1945, excluding military losses at the level of 1940, can be estimated at 3.4 million people, with an average population for the war of 187 million people. Of the 6.1 million people born in 1940, 4.8 million survived by the beginning of 1959. The average survival index up to 1959 for people of this year of birth can be estimated at 78.7%. Then the total number of those born in 1942-1945 can be estimated at 15.4 million people, given that in 1959 there were 12.155 million people of these ages, and the approximate number of people who died of natural causes over these years is 13.6 million people. Then the conditional natural increase over these years, covered by military losses, can be estimated in 1942-1945 at 1.8 million people. To this must be added another approximately 0.5 million conventional natural increase in the second half of 1941. Then the total population losses in the war can be estimated by subtracting 167.9 million people from 205.7-206.5 million people and adding 2.3 million people. The total losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War will amount to 40.1-40.9 million people. Losses of the civilian population, including excess mortality, can be estimated by subtracting the losses of military personnel from the total losses at 13.2-14.0 million people. These losses are, of course, the largest among all the states participating in the Second World War and account for at least half of all losses in this war.
In the occupied territories and in the frontline, a particularly strong decline in the birth rate was observed in large cities. So, in besieged Leningrad in 1943, the birth rate dropped to zero. In Moscow, from 1941 to 1943, the birth rate decreased by 2.6 times. In occupied Dnepropetrovsk in 1942, the birth rate reached only 34% of the pre-war level. At the same time, in the occupied countryside, where a significant part of the townspeople moved in search of food, the drop in the birth rate was probably not so significant. The effect of reducing mortality from natural causes could also be observed here, due to a decrease in the birth rate and a fall in the infant mortality rate for this reason. In addition, many residents of the occupied territories and the front line died from causes related to the war - during hostilities or as a result of repression by the occupying authorities, which reduced their likelihood of dying of natural causes.
We also note that in the losses of the civilian population of military age, a significant predominance of women is inevitable, since in connection with the conscription of the vast majority of men of the corresponding ages into the army, the probability of death of women among civilians of these ages has increased. Such a phenomenon was observed in Germany, where, according to the results of the bombing of allied aircraft, "in all age groups, losses among women exceed those among men by approximately 40%". Therefore, it is not possible to use data on the female preponderance in the post-war years at military age to determine the losses of the armed forces, since the female preponderance has been significantly reduced due to the losses of the civilian population. The significant number of women who died in the armed forces also contributed to the reduction of the post-war female preponderance. In addition, many of the women who remained widowed or single could have died prematurely before the 1959 census, which should also have significantly reduced the female preponderance in military age.
It is practically impossible to establish in what proportion the victims among the civilian population were distributed between the occupied and non-occupied territory of the USSR. In the occupied territory of the USSR, about 1.5 million Soviet Jews were exterminated by the Nazis as part of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Jews were exterminated both directly by executions carried out by the Einsatzgruppen of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, Security Service), and through starvation and epidemics in ghettos and concentration camps. There, the food supply of the Jews was limited in such a way that the daily ration did not ensure the physical survival of even a non-working person. And the Jews were also forced to do hard physical labor. In addition, about 0.5 million more Jews from Western Europe were destroyed on the territory of the USSR, but they are not included in the demographic losses of the Soviet Union.
In the occupied Soviet territory, the population also died as a result of executions of hostages and during punitive operations against partisans, as well as German repressions against underground workers associated with partisans and Soviet intelligence. Civilians also died of starvation and disease. In addition, they died in the course of hostilities both between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, and between partisans and punishers. The losses of the civilian Soviet population also include those who died who did not serve in the Red Army, but ended up in the ranks of partisans or collaborationist formations. There is no reliable data on the number of victims in each of these categories.
On the unoccupied Soviet territory, civilians also became victims of hostilities - shelling and bombing. The victims of the siege of Leningrad should be included in this category, although most of them died of starvation and disease. According to the calculations of the Leningrad City Commission, 16,747 Leningraders died from shelling and bombing, and another 632,253 people became victims of hunger and disease. This number did not include those residents who were evacuated from Leningrad, but died before the end of the war from the consequences of starvation experienced during the blockade. Among them was the Leningrad girl Tanya Savicheva, whose diary shocked the world. She died in 1944. There are also higher estimates that increase the number of victims of the Leningrad blockade to 1 million people.
The victims of starvation were also great, especially among the evacuees. For example, in Arkhangelsk alone, during the first war winter, 20,000 people died from hunger and disease - every tenth inhabitant. And at the very end of the war, mass famine raged in the unoccupied territory, provoking even cannibalism, and not only in besieged Leningrad. Here are the facts, for example, cited by D.A. Volkogonov: “The People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Tajik SSR Kharchenko reported:
“In the Leninabad region ... 20 people were identified who died of exhaustion, and 500 people were swollen from malnutrition. In the Stalinabad region - Ramit, Pakhtaabad, Obi-Garm and other districts - more than 70 people died of exhaustion. There are also emaciated and swollen. Such facts take place in the Kurgan-Tube, Kulyab, Garm regions. The assistance provided to these areas on the spot is insignificant…”
In the Chita region there are facts of "the use of dead animals, trees, bark." A terrible fact was reported when one peasant woman with her sons killed their little daughter and used her for food ... Here is another similar case ... ".
According to the Vologda historian V.B. Konasov, out of 340,000 inhabitants of the Vologda Oblast drafted into the Red Army, 178,000 people died, while civilian casualties amounted to about 220,000 people. Thus, the proportion of deaths among those drafted into the Red Army was about 52.4%, and among civilians - 17.7%. The fact that the proportion of those killed in the Vologda Oblast among those drafted into the Red Army turned out to be slightly lower than the proportion of those killed among all those mobilized can be explained by the fact that there were no hostilities on the territory of the Vologda Oblast. In the areas on the territory of which hostilities took place, the proportion of those mobilized directly into units was large, among which the irretrievable losses were especially large. The proportion of those who died among civilians in the Vologda Oblast turns out to be twice as high as the proportion of civilians who died throughout the entire territory of the USSR (8.3%). This may be partly due to the inclusion of part of the military losses in the composition of the losses of the civilian population. Indirectly, this fact may testify in favor of the assertion that the death rate among the civilian population in the non-occupied territory was significantly higher than in the occupied one.
It should be noted that in the occupied territory, facts of cannibalism and corpse-eating were found only in prisoner-of-war camps, as well as in blockaded partisan detachments, in particular, in the Crimea and in the Odessa catacombs. This suggests that in terms of food, the situation of the population of the occupied territories was more favorable than the situation of the inhabitants of the non-occupied territories. This was affected, in particular, by the fact that the population of the territories occupied by the Germans and their allies decreased both due to evacuation to Soviet territory and due to the deportation of the population for forced labor in the Reich. The German administration only minimally used the industrial potential of the occupied cities and encouraged the departure of the townspeople to the countryside, where they had a chance to feed themselves through subsistence farming. In addition, the Germans did not control most of the countryside, and the peasants and the townspeople who fled there usually had enough food left to feed themselves. Sometimes the greatest threat to the peasants was not the German occupiers, but all sorts of partisans.
On the contrary, in the territory that remained under Soviet control, the population of the cities was actively used for the needs of the front, was under the strict control of the NKVD and did not have the opportunity to leave for the countryside. In addition, the entire countryside remained under the effective control of the NKVD, and everywhere surplus food was confiscated from the collective farms and state farms, as well as the few remaining individual farmers, which often brought the peasants to the brink of starvation.
From the book I fought in a fighter [Those who took the first blow, 1941-1942] author Drabkin Artem VladimirovichVyacheslav Kondratiev. Comparative analysis of the designs and performance data of Soviet and German fighters that took part in the Great Patriotic War On the eve of the war, the I-16 aircraft, worn by pilots
From the GRU book yesterday and today author Prelovsky Konstantin Valerievich1. GRU in the Great Patriotic War 1.1 The beginning of the war As you know, the war began for the Red Army quite unexpectedly on June 22, 1941, which in fact was the reason for the defeat of the personnel Red Army in the initial period of the war. It is quite clear that if the Red Army
From the book of the USSR and Russia in the slaughter. Human losses in the wars of the XX century author Sokolov Boris VadimovichCriticism of the official figure of irretrievable losses of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War The Soviet Union and Germany suffered the greatest losses among all participants in the Second World War. Establishing the magnitude of irretrievable losses of both the armed forces and
From the book Washed with Blood? Lies and truth about losses in the Great Patriotic War author Zemskov Viktor NikolaevichEstimation of the true value of irretrievable losses of the Red Army The official figures of Soviet irretrievable losses turn out to be several times less than the actual value, because the calculation of irretrievable losses in the Red Army was very poorly set. Commanders of all
From the book Sniper War author Ardashev Alexey NikolaevichChecking the estimate of the irretrievable losses of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War according to the Memorial OBD To do this, you need to try to make a sample and evaluate,
From the book Border Troops of Russia in Wars and Armed Conflicts of the 20th Century. author History Team of authors --Estimation of the irretrievable losses of the German armed forces in the Second World War The irretrievable losses of the Wehrmacht up to November 1944 are quite fully taken into account according to the personal (personal) records by the German military registration institutions. Between September 1, 1939
From the author's bookLosses of the civilian population and the general losses of the population of Germany in World War II It is very difficult to determine the losses of the civilian German population. For example, the number of deaths as a result of the bombing of Dresden by Allied aircraft in February 1945
From the author's bookThe ratio of irretrievable losses of the Soviet Union and Germany in World War II The true size of the losses of the Soviet Armed Forces in the dead, including those who died in captivity, according to our estimate, can be 26.9 million people. This is approximately 10.3 times higher than the losses
From the author's book3. The results of the calculation of the losses of the Soviet troops by the authors of the work "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century"
From the author's bookThe general ratio of irretrievable losses of the parties in the Great Patriotic War It is time to finally sum up our reasoning about the irretrievable losses of the opposing sides on the Soviet-German front and determine the ratio for them. But first, let us recall that to
From the author's bookV.N. Zemskov, Doctor of Historical Sciences On the issue of the scale of human losses in the USSR in the Great Patriotic War (In Search of Truth) There is a lot of literature on this problem, and, perhaps, someone gets the impression that it has been sufficiently studied. Yes indeed,
From the author's book5. Illustration of the unreliability of the official point of view Estimation of possible losses of the North-Western Front in the summer of 1941
From the author's book8. Features of accounting for personnel and their losses in the USSR Armed Forces The cost of repelling the first enemy strikes in the summer of 1941 Why did N. Vatutin and V. Kashirsky draw up a loss report in this way? Until February 4, 1944, the "Manual on Accounting and Reporting in the Red Army" was in force,
From the author's book13. Analysis of the movement and losses of members of the CPSU (b) and Komsomol in 1941-1945 Determining the total number of losses of military personnel of the USSR Armed Forces Let's turn to the data of party and Komsomol records. It is known that the registration of soldiers - members of the CPSU (b) and the Komsomol was an order of magnitude stricter than the army
From the author's bookCombat account of the best Soviet snipers of the period of the Great Patriotic War The best sniper of the Second World War is Mikhail Ilyich Surkov, who accounted for 702 killed enemies. This is one of the most mysterious figures - with such a combat score, he is not even a Hero
From the author's bookCHAPTER V BORDER TROOPS OF THE USSR IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
“We, Soviet citizens, are witnesses and creators of an unprecedented and great event - for more than a third of a century our Motherland has enjoyed the benefits of peace. At the same time, we are witnesses and creators of an unprecedented and pernicious phenomenon - internecine struggle, in which wives and husbands, parents and children, brothers and sisters, bosses and subordinates act as opponents ... moreover, a person fights with himself, he cripples and slowly mortifies itself. The means of conducting this wild, deadly and ruinous civil strife are alcoholic drinks. The “alcohol war”, unlike the usual one, is ongoing, the invisible conveyor of death works non-stop, and every year it takes a fantastic number of victims into oblivion. We also lose a lot of fellow citizens because of smoking ”(G.A. Shichko, 1981).
I.N. Pyatnitskaya and A.M. Stochik reported that, according to WHO, alcoholism is the cause of every third death, if we take into account the frequency among those who abuse alcohol of cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the liver, stomach, kidneys, venereal diseases, injury while intoxicated, suicide. Also, according to WHO, 20% of dying people in industrialized countries are victims of smoking. Based on these data, as well as on the population and mortality taken from Sat. "The national economy of the USSR in 1980" (p. 7 and 31), I have calculated the number of deaths in our country in 1975-1980. Table 4.4 shows that we have suffered astronomical losses, and completely unjustified.
Table 4.4
The number of deaths in the USSR due to alcoholism and smoking in 1975-1980.*
| years | Population in millions | The number of deaths per 1000 people. | Residents died due to | |||
| Total | alcoholics | smokers | alcoholism | smoking | ||
| 253,3 | 9,3 | 3,10 | 1,86 | 785 230 | 471 138 | |
| 255,6 | 9,5 | 3,17 | 1,90 | 810 252 | 485 640 | |
| 257,9 | 9,6 | 3,20 | 1,92 | 825 280 | 495 168 | |
| 260,1 | 9,7 | 3,23 | 1,94 | 840 123 | 504 594 | |
| 262,4 | 10,1 | 3,37 | 2,02 | 884 288 | 530 048 | |
| 264,5 | 10,3 | 3,43 | 2,06 | 907 235 | 544 870 |
(* The quotation and the table are taken from my manuscript "The Alcohol Problem and the Possibilities of its Successful Solution", sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU in connection with the preparations for the 26th Party Congress. The table is supplemented with data for 1980).
In 1980, approximately one and a half million people died due to alcoholism and smoking, which is more than twice the losses of our Motherland on the fronts of the imperialist war (626,400 killed + 38,600 gassed + 17,200 died of wounds = 682,200 people. Sat "We and the Planet", M., Politizdat, 1967, p. 52). Mortality is so high that each of us can name more than one case of death due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. P.D. - the former director of the school and the mother of alcoholics Vasily D. and Ivan D., who went through my de-alcoholism, gave me two of her own handwritten stories: “You can’t put up with this” and “The tragedy of one family”. In them, she writes about the following sad facts: I) in a village with a population of 2,500 people from 8 am to 8 pm, alcohol is sold in 9 points; 2) moonshine is flourishing, the perpetrators were fined 5 rubles. everyone; 3) in a short time, four communists and 7 non-party people died because of alcohol; 4) among women there are 9 obvious alcoholics and many drunkards; 5) 6 teenagers were sentenced to different terms for serious crimes; 6) due to alcohol drinking, a large collective farm family, which consisted of parents, four boys and one girl, almost died out, leaving a mother - an alcoholic degradant, standing at the edge of the grave, and a drunken son.
P.D. listed only a part of the cases - tragedies, but they are enough to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe grief that grows magnificently on alcoholic soil.
Over a fifteen year period, three men who lived on the 4th and 5th floors of our stairs fell to their deaths from balconies; two of them participated in a drinking bout before their death.
We, the healthcare workers, owe a great debt to the people: our country has a third of the world's doctors and a quarter of the world's scientists, but the pernicious process of increasing mortality has not yet been stopped. For 1960-1980 it increased from 7.1 to 10.3 per thousand population, while the natural increase fell from 17.8 to 8.0; these indicators are especially unfavorable in the Slavic and Baltic republics (“The National Economy of the USSR in 1980”, pp. 31-33). Some console themselves with the assumption that things are no better in other countries. Many are better! Let's pay attention to the three largest powers of the world: China, the USA and Japan. Mortality was equal in 1950 and 1980. respectively: in the PRC - 17.0 and 6.2 (1979); in the USA - 9.6 and 8.7; in Japan - 10.9 and 5.9; in the USSR, 9.7 and 10.3 (ibid., p. 90).
Alcohol is a direct or indirect cause of many diseases. According to WHO, alcoholism is the cause of ¼ of cardiovascular diseases. VV Volkov came to the conclusion that 90% of syphilis infections and 95% of gonorrhea infections occur while intoxicated. E.I. Arkhangelskaya notes not only the dependence of the prevalence of venereal diseases on the prevalence of alcohol consumption, but also the dependence of the results of treatment on this factor. She recognized the treatment of patients who use alcohol as ineffective, because under its influence microbes are reborn, they acquire a shell that protects them from drugs. This is confirmed by her convincing illustrative material.
The treatment of drinking tuberculosis patients is considered ineffective. This has been repeatedly reported in the press, I will give my own facts. In 1973, I held a four-day seminar at the Belarusian Republican Psychiatric Hospital on the topic: "On the fuller use of available opportunities to strengthen the fight against alcoholism." I was surprised by the participation of phthisiatricians, during the break I asked for clarification. I was told that they wanted to master the method of sobering up so that they could use it to prepare their alcoholic patients for a specific treatment. On March 27, 1981, I gave a lecture on hypnosis and its possibilities (with an anti-alcohol bias) at the Svetsk sanatorium (Grodno region), which happened to be attended by an inspector from Minsk. We returned to Grodno together, my fellow traveler persuaded me to come to Minsk and read a cycle of anti-alcohol lectures at the Tuberculosis Institute, or at least one. He spoke bitterly about the plight of phthisiatricians in connection with the drunkenness of their patients.
It is well known that many mental illnesses are the result of alcohol consumption (about ¼ of the places in psychiatric hospitals are occupied by alcoholics), that cirrhosis of the liver affects mainly drinkers, that alcoholic beverages, especially in combination with tobacco, promote the development of cancer ... Alcohol causes many genetic deformities, it, like ionizing radiation, is a mutagenic factor, does not have a maximum allowable dose, any intake of it, accordingly, affects the genetic substrate. The consequences of drinking alcohol may affect not the first, but subsequent generations.
The refusal of our people from the use of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products will transform the life of the country: mortality will decrease by about half, morbidity will drop sharply, Soviet health care will be able to significantly expand the list of completely defeated diseases in a short time, the period of youth will increase, life expectancy will rise, divorces will occur much less frequently. the younger generations will become smarter, healthier and more cheerful; by the year 2000, we will be able to report to humanity: "Soviet people have gained the maximum possible health in our time."
Observer - Observer 2001 № 4
ON THE SOVIET-GERMAN FRONT
(1941-1945)
(According to the records of the General Staff)
G. Krivosheev,
colonel general, candidate of military sciences,
professor AVN
End of the 20th century with all its great achievements and formidable cataclysms. It became another milestone in world history. The history of our Fatherland - Russia and the Soviet Union - entered into it as an inseparable component.
This century, in terms of the number of large and small wars and the scale of military casualties, far exceeded all previous centuries. Throughout its entire length, there was almost not a single year, and even more so a decade, when military operations were not conducted in some part of the world and soldiers did not die on the battlefield. The peoples of our Motherland in the XX century. more than once they had to take up arms in order to defend their freedom and independence in the fight against foreign invaders. But the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, imposed by German fascism, occupies a special place in the history of the Fatherland.
In the centuries-old history of mankind, one cannot find such achievements that, in terms of the scope of events, the scale of heroic deeds, could be compared with the feat of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. 1418 days and nights of extreme tension of all the material and spiritual forces of the country, the broadest masses of the people. About four years of our actual single combat with the colossal military machine of Nazi Germany and its satellites, which has crushed almost all of Western Europe. These are thousands and thousands of kilometers of fiery front roads, where every step is watered with blood, day after day of almost permanent selfless labor in factories and factories, on collective farm fields, in scientific laboratories and design bureaus, in the field of culture and art.
The further the tragic events of this war go down in history, the more closely we peer into them, analyze and study them. Evidence of this - a lot of works of art about the war, thousands of memoirs, research papers, collections, films, memoirs.
Table 1
COMPARATIVE BALANCE TABLE
__________________
1 Including 805,264 persons liable for military service who were in the army at the "Great training camp" by the beginning of the war.
2 The calculation is taken: USSR - from 06/22/1941, Germany - from 09/01/1939. Some data of the USSR (unnecessary for comparison) are omitted.
3 This includes the losses of Germany and its allies.
Any war has been and remains the main disaster of mankind, and is a threat to its very existence.
According to scientists, over the past 5.5 thousand years there have been about 14,500 wars. They claimed at least 3 billion 540 million human lives. In all the past centuries, people diligently exterminated each other. More than 4 trillion rubles were spent on the wars of the past century alone. dollars. With these funds, it would be possible to feed the entire population of the Earth for 50 years. But the main costs of war are human losses.
During the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the Victory over fascist Germany, television and the press often arbitrarily named the losses of the parties in the Second World War, which do not correspond to documentary data. The results of studies on military casualties carried out at the General Staff were first published in the press in the early 1990s.
A team of historians in the statistical study "Secrecy Removed", published in 1993 in Moscow, and in 1997 in London, based on archival documents, gave a comprehensive analysis of various types of losses for 1941-1945. This research is still ongoing. Evidence-based, documented answers are emerging that were previously unfinished. On the same issue, the work "Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century. Losses of the Armed Forces" was published.
Tab. 1 of the balance sheet gives an idea of the use of human resources during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Considering the Second World War, it should be noted that the Soviet Union fought not only with Germany. In June 1941, war was declared on him in addition to Germany (06/22/1941) and Italy (06/22/1941), as well as Romania (06/22/1941), Hungary (06/27/1941), Finland (06/26/1941 .1941) and Norway (08/16/1943). They were joined by the puppet government of Slovakia created by the Nazis (06/23/1941). Without declaring war on the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Croatia declared war on the United States and England (December 13 and December 14, 1941, respectively). Japan and Spain, formally maintaining neutrality, cooperated most closely with Germany. Germany's ally was also the government of Vichy France.
Formations, units and subunits manned by citizens of Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Sweden also participated in the war against the Soviet Union.
Suffice it to say that among the prisoners of war captured by the Red Army, there were persons of almost all nationalities of Europe who fought against the USSR (Table 2).
table 2
Immediately after the attack on the Soviet Union, partly spontaneously, partly under the influence of German propaganda, the "Movement of European Volunteers" arose with the aim of waging a "Crusade of Europe against Bolshevism." Volunteers were sent to replenish the 26 SS volunteer divisions and replenish the reserve. However, only a small number of individuals in these divisions were volunteers. And in total, at the end of the war, there were almost 500 thousand foreigners in the Wehrmacht, mainly Volksdeutsche (Germans living outside Germany).
The White Guard Cossack Corps (commander B.A. Shteifon), Cossack units (later the 15th Cossack Corps, corps commander von Panwitz) and some other units formed from citizens of the Soviet Union also took part in the war on the side of Germany.
During the entire war, the Germans attracted 1,800 thousand people from the occupied countries to the Wehrmacht. Of these, 59 divisions and 23 brigades were formed.
The degree of combat use of the armed forces of different states was not the same. The main burden of the armed struggle fell on the Soviet-German front.
Our country was the main force blocking the path of German fascism to world domination. She played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, and then Japan.
The most severe consequences of the Second World War for the Soviet Union were total casualties both civilians and military personnel.
According to the results of studies conducted by the Department of Population Statistics of the USSR State Statistics Committee and the Center for the Study of Population Problems at Moscow State University, the total direct human losses of the country for all the years of the Great Patriotic War are estimated at 26.6 million people.
The number is huge. Never before has our country faced such military casualties.
Thus, in the First World War we lost 4,467.8 thousand people; during the civil war (1918-1922) with its deadly epidemics (typhoid, cholera, malaria, etc.), 8 million people were killed, died from wounds and diseases, that is, during the eight years of the war (1914-1922. ) lost 12,467.8 thousand people. military personnel and civilians, but this is 2 times less than in the Second World War.
During the war, only Germany and the USSR attracted about 56 million people into their armed forces. And all the warring countries, together with regular personnel, mobilized and called up reservists, totaled about 120 million people.
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, there were 4,826.9 thousand servicemen in the Red Army and the Navy.
During the war years, 29,574.9 thousand people were called up. conscripts and conscripts.
In total, during the years of the war, 34,476.7 thousand people were recruited into the Armed Forces.
This figure is equal to the entire population of Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland combined.
In addition, 490.235 thousand women and 219.645 thousand men over 50 years of age who were not liable for military service were called up for military positions.
Of this number, 8,668.4 thousand were killed, died and did not return from captivity - these are demographic irretrievable losses of military personnel.
Of the variety of questions about the human losses of the armed forces in the Second World War, the most important are irretrievable losses of military personnel, demographic losses and missing persons. What is irretrievable loss?
This definition of the category of losses appeared in the First World War and, with some clarifications in content, is still used today. So, the disabled, dismissed from the army during the war, were irretrievable losses. In the Great Patriotic War - to sanitary losses.
In the order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 023 dated February 4, 1944, this category of losses included "those who died in battle, went missing at the front, died from wounds on the battlefield and in medical institutions, died from diseases received at the front, or those who died at the front from other causes and were captured by the enemy.
During the war years, the total irretrievable losses of the Soviet Armed Forces with border and internal troops, according to reports from the troops, amounted to 11,444.1 thousand people. In the First World War, similar losses of the Russian army were determined by 4,430.9 thousand people. (1,087 thousand killed and dead and 3,343.9 thousand missing and captured).
How were losses taken into account at the front?
During the war, every five days, i.e. 6 times a month, all military units, and formations 3 times a month reported on irretrievable losses. Consequently, 11,444.1 thousand people. - this is the result of daily operational accounting of the loss of personnel during the war, that is, this is the personnel that was not in service at the time of the report, not counting the wounded. But that doesn't mean they all died. Some of them were captured, some, especially during the retreat, remained in the occupied territory, some went to the partisans, and some returned to the regiment or went to the location of other formations, but the accounting was often not clarified.
It was not always possible to determine the number of dead and dead from the number of irretrievable losses during the hostilities, and all military personnel whose fate was unknown at that time were referred to as missing in reports.
Sometimes, for reasons caused by front-line conditions, reports from units and formations were not received. Then the losses were determined according to previous reports on the list number of formations and units.
So, in September - November 1941, 63 divisions were surrounded and could not submit reports. According to the latest report, their number was 433,999 thousand people. This payroll was classified as missing. All of them were attributed to the unaccounted losses of the war, which amounted to 1,162.6 thousand people during the war. Thus, the figure is 11,444.1 thousand people. includes these losses.
But this total, obtained from the reports of formations and units to the General Staff during the war, cannot be taken as the number of those killed and dead, because after the war some of them returned from captivity, and many hundreds of thousands were called up again in the liberated territory.
Demographic losses of the Armed Forces- these are human losses associated only with death (the dead, the deceased, those who were shot and did not return from captivity). Their number is determined after the war, when the results are summed up, and it is possible to clarify which of the missing actually died, died in captivity, and who turned out to be alive.
When determining the demographic losses of military personnel, the number of irretrievable losses of the payroll (11,444.1 thousand people) was reduced by the number of those who found themselves alive after the war - 1,836 thousand people. returned from captivity and 939.7 thousand people. called up for the second time in the liberated territory, previously listed as missing.
Thus, the demographic losses of the listed personnel of the army and navy were determined at 8,668.4 thousand people. This figure is the loss of the army and navy during the war (killed, died, did not return from captivity). This includes combat and non-combat losses.
Some reproach the fact that the General Staff does not show all the losses. And they are trying to name numbers that are many times higher than this. Called and 40 million, and 80 million, and more. (At that time, the entire male population of the country was about 94 million, and the employed - 63 million). 8,668.4 thousand is documentary data, and there could not have been more losses.
But here is how the American scientist Maksudov (Babenyshev) says about it. He argues that this figure is somewhat overestimated:
First, are all the missing, who turned out to be alive, taken into account? Probably not.
Secondly, are all those who returned from captivity accounted for? Also, probably not.
Thirdly, all those who emigrated to other countries after captivity are not taken into account.
Fourthly, the entire number of units that were surrounded was classified as missing. But many of them left the encirclement and were not taken into account.
Most of the irretrievable losses are missing.
According to the documents, out of all the irretrievable losses of servicemen, 5,059 thousand were missing and taken prisoner. But it must be assumed that not all of them were captured.
The results of the study of materials, including archival documents of the German military command, confirm that about 450-500 thousand military personnel of this number died, remained in the occupied territory, went to the partisans, and 4,559 thousand were captured by the Germans.
These figures are confirmed by the chief command of the German ground forces. They are published in the combat journal (volume I), which indicates that by December 20, 1942, 3,350,639 thousand people were captured by Soviet military personnel. This is precisely the period of the war when the Red Army suffered the greatest losses in the missing and captured.
These figures are close to the data of our General Staff, according to which by December 30, 1942, 3,850,703 thousand people were missing and taken prisoner. If we subtract 450-500 thousand of those who remained in the occupied territory or died, then the figure of 3,350,639 thousand is close to reality. In subsequent years, the number of missing people dropped sharply.
Cruelty and inhuman treatment of prisoners of war in German captivity caused a high mortality rate among prisoners of war. Of the 4,559,000 Soviet servicemen who were in German captivity, only 1,836,000 returned from captivity after the war.
Unfortunately, servicemen also died in our prisoner of war camps. According to the reports of the fronts and individual armies, our troops captured 4,377.3 thousand people. German military personnel, of which about 600 thousand people, after an appropriate check, were released directly by the fronts. In the bulk, these were persons of non-German nationality (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Slovenes, Bulgarians, Moldavians, Volksdeutsche, etc.), as well as partially non-transportable disabled people.
The bulk of the enemy prisoners of war (3,777.3 thousand people) from the front-line collection points were sent to the rear camps of the NKVD of the USSR, including about 752.5 thousand military personnel of Germany's allied countries.
However, 3,486.2 thousand people were registered in the NKVD camps. The difference between the number of sent and recorded prisoners of war amounted to 291.1 thousand people. due to the fact that prisoners of war from among the citizens of the Soviet Union who served in the Wehrmacht or took part in the war on the side of Nazi Germany (more than 220 thousand people), as well as war criminals (14.1 thousand people) were sent to special camps NKVD, and the other part (about 57 thousand people) died on the way from illness and frostbite, before reaching the camps.
Of all the 4,126,964 thousand prisoners of war recorded in the camps, which included Japanese prisoners of war (640,100 people), 580,548 thousand people died in all the years, that is, one in seven. Among the German prisoners of war out of 2,389.56 thousand people. 356.7 thousand died and 93.9 thousand at transit points and on the way (especially after the Battle of Stalingrad) - a total of 450.6 thousand people. This in no way compares with the number of our soldiers who died in German captivity.
Recently, on the basis of archival documents and works published in Germany, it was possible to compile a balance sheet of the number of personnel of the German armed forces during the Second World War.
As of September 1, 1939, there were 3,214 thousand people in the German armed forces. From June 1, 1939 to April 30, 1945, 17,893 thousand people were drafted into the German army. Consequently, 21,107 thousand people passed through the armed forces of Germany during the war years.
By the beginning of the surrender, 4,100 thousand people remained in the ranks. There were 700 thousand people in hospitals in Germany. During the war, 16,307 thousand people lost their lives. Of these, irretrievable losses amounted to 11,844 thousand people, including those who died and died from wounds and diseases, missing - 4,457 thousand people, captured - 7,387 thousand people.
Other loss (in total) - 4,463 thousand people, of which they were dismissed due to injury and illness for a long time as unfit for military service (disabled), deserted - 2,463 thousand people, demobilized and sent to work in industry - 2 000 thousand people
Sanitary losses- these are wounded, shell-shocked, burned, ill and frostbite servicemen who were evacuated from combat areas to army, front-line and rear hospitals.
According to the reports of the fronts, fleets of individual armies and flotillas, the sanitary losses of our troops amounted to 18,344,148 thousand people, including 15,205,592 thousand wounded, shell-shocked and burned, 3,047,675 thousand sick and 90,881 thousand frostbitten.
According to the reports of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate, 22,326,905 thousand people passed through all military medical institutions during the war years. The excess (by 4,593.6 thousand people) is explained by the fact that all personnel, including those not participating in hostilities, are taken into account here.
In total, 1,371.504 thousand people died in medical institutions. (of which 1,102.8 thousand people died from wounds).
In the course of work, especially recently, we managed to find a number of new documents about the dead (missing) hospitals. Of the 6,000 hospitals during the war, 227 hospitals were missing, captured by the enemy and killed. Of these, 10 died during the formation, 17 were surrounded and left with heavy losses, and 200 went missing and died. Particularly heavy losses were suffered in the south and the North Caucasus, where 97 hospitals were killed.
Great are our losses on the Soviet-German front during the Second World War. But they were not in vain - the aggressor was defeated, a historic victory over fascism was won.
