Russian War Dead

According to the researches conducted by Col.-Gen. G. Krivosheyev – the Wehrmacht's losses were about 7 million troops killed in action, while the Red Army's losses were about 8.7 million troops who were also killed in action. The Soviet civil losses by one count were about 13,000,000 people, while the German civil losses (caused mainly by the Anglo-American massive bombing raids) were about 1,223,000 people. John Keegan in 1989 estimated civilian deaths at 7,000,000. The Cambridge History of Russia by Dominic C. B. Lieven, Maureen Perrie, Ronald Grigor Suny, p.226, counted premature deaths under German occupation at 13.7M, including "killed in hot or cold blood": 7.4M, "taken to Germany and worked to death": 2.2M, and "died of overwork, hunger and disease": 4.1M. By another count, 6,000,000 died in Nazi occupied zones; 4,000,000 died in Nazi labor camps; and 3,000,000 died in unoccupied zonea of war-related injuries.

The military dead of 8.7 million calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defense are accepted by most historians outside of Russia. But the figure has been disputed by some historians in Russia because it conflicts with the official database of the Central Defense Ministry Archive (CDMA) which lists the names of roughly 14 million dead and missing servicemen. In 1993 a study by the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated total Soviet population losses due the war at 26.6 million, including military dead of 8.7 million calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The consensus figure for those that Joseph Stalin murdered when he ruled the Soviet Union prior to 1941 is 20,000,000.