How many Soviet civilians died in World War 2?

Answer 1

Answers to this cannot be stated with certainty or accuracy. Officially, at the end of the war, the Soviets claimed about 20,000,000 dead for the military and civilian. Of this about 8,000,000 were military. Of the remaining 12,000,000, these were deaths from all causes. I have never seen a proper accounting of this as it likely includes all sorts of causes such as starvation and disease. Of course, even a cursory review of Soviet history reveals that they systematically starved millions of their own civilians. Thus I am not convinced that this large number can be attributed to the German invasion directly. Otherwise, the Germans did kill many Russian Jews, probably about 2,000,000. (In this the Germans had plenty of help from Ukrainians and Lithuanians who also hated the Jews). They also fought the para-military partisans with ruthlessness, likely killing many innocent civilians in the process. Due to wartime deprivation, it is likely that many Soviet civilians suffered terribly from lack of food and shelter. The Soviets, on their side of the front, gave rations to civilians that were below starvation level in many cases. These persons, of whom there were millions, either perished or foraged to survive. Perhaps these numbers are included in the 20,000,000. Forward to the year 2000, over fifty years after the wars end. Soviet documents were just being released and they showed that Soviet casualties both military and civilian were much worse than Stalin had reported. It appears that some 25,000,000 Soviet civizens died during the war. Why would Stalin depress the statistic? I suspect that with 20,000,000 he could already claim moral superiority to the western powers that suffered paltry losses in comparison. With this as leverage he could then proceed to rape and loot half of Europe while the west just frowned and did nothing. Had he reported the full 25,000,000 losses, the west might have thought that the Soviets were almost totally bled out by the war and thus much weaker than they appeared in 1945. Perhaps knowing this, the western powers would have stopped the Soviet run carnage in Poland and Germany. Who knows? In any case, the Soviets clearly suffered more than any other nation during the war, including Poland or Germany. German suffering was trebled by their treatment after the war, when about 3,000,000 military and civilians were murdered, the country looted, and millions raped, but these statistics are often overlooked since they occurred mostly after May 1945.

Answer 2

Answer - Russian Death WW2How many Soviet Soldiers Died in World War Two is at best an estimate. At the time, the county's leader - Stalin - put manysoldiers and citizens to death and record keeping was poor. The last estimate combined from the Red Cross, United Nations, Census ETC. estimates that about fourteen million (yes that's 14 million)soldiers died and incidentally, Russian civilian deaths totaled 14 million as well. These numbers do not include natural causes or starvation. It is also interesting to note that from 1939 to 1945 about 75 million people died as a direct or indirect result of the war, but the the global population growth slowed, by only less than one percent more than normal. The natural human Death Rate is staggering.

Ron, Canada

Answer 3

25 Million Soviets were killed during World WSW 2, 10.7 Million being Military deaths and 14.3 Million being Civilian Deaths.

Answer 4

13,684,692

Answer 5

25,000,000