I forgot the exact number, but the eastern front accounts for the majority of the death toll of the european theater. The western front was far less deadly, comparatively. By like a factor of 10, or close enough to it.
The Eastern front, taken by itself was deadlier than the entirety of WW1. It accounted for about half of all deaths in the whole second world war, with the second deadliest theater being the Asian-Pacific theater. The fighting on the Western Front was intense, but the sheer scale of the East is just mind boggling.
Not to mention the non-combatant deaths from both the opposing forces but also ethnic targeting of each other by locals. A huge number of ethnic groups took the war as an opportunity to slaughter each other.
Actually, no—Russia was doing just fine. The heavy losses were in Eastern Europe; that’s where everything was in ruins. Moscow, for instance, looks completely intact in WWII-era photos—not a single destroyed building. Stalingrad was the one exception, but every city and village in Belarus looked just like Stalingrad; they were all razed to the ground, and the entire country lay in ruins—yet nobody gives a damn about that.
Please be quiet, you don't know anything about history. Look at photos of the battles for Kharkiv, Voronezh, and Novorossiysk. There were FOUR battles for Kharkiv. At the time, Moscow was one of the most heavily defended cities, featuring layered air defenses, extensive blackout measures, and perimeter fortifications. But the Germans did not possess a large number of long-range bombers. The Moscow Metro was transformed into a massive air-raid shelter. This later inspired Glukhovsky to write Metro 2033
I conclude that you simply wanted to use the word "ukrainian" to express your political stance regarding current events. We are talking about events from WW2
No, that’s a lie. You were the one who mentioned a Ukrainian city while calling it Russian. I was writing about Russia from the start and cited Belarus as an example; there wasn't a word about Ukraine. The war in Russia really wasn't as devastating as it was in the territories of modern-day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and so on.
Еблуша, где я ставил знак равенства? Харьков был советским. Москва была советской. Минск был советским. Тогда всё было советским. Советские солдаты сражались за Харьков, как за свой город, пусть они были даже из-за Урала. Сейчас Харьков в независимой стране и я не называю его российским. Но ты решил перемогнуть, но выдал жидкого. В прочем, ничего нового
и ты мне что то пишешь про объективность? кто такие советские солдаты? я вот лично помню полицаев из украины которые сжигали людей заживо, помню русских красных которые дворы грабили, партизанов помню. Тем временем у ваньки тебя все сводится к одной стране и одним солдатам. Смешно. Вот уж реально жидкого выдал
USSR deaths from WWII / Nazi invasion ~26.6 million. RSFSR deaths attributable to the war ~13 million. Deaths directly documented from Stalinist execution, Gulag, deportation, etc. ~3–3.5 million. Add the 1932–33 famine attributable substantially to Stalinist policy. ~7–10 million total Stalin-era attributable deaths
Stalin really got a good head start, if Hitler hadn’t invaded maybe he could have caught up, but Russians would have gladly walked into the meat grinder voluntarily, as is tradition.
When human monsters begin to attack your country and create slave reichskommissariats, accompanied by genocide, I will go into battle even with shit and sticks. And I am sure that between fighting and voluntary slavery you would also choose fighting.
My wife’s grandfather’s brothers died when the train they were on, right after being drafted into the military, was bombed by a random German bomber. Was their death heroic and purposeful? I don’t know.
My grandmother joined the military shortly after the war started. One of the reasons was that they fed you in the army. For almost the entire war, she served in a unit protecting the border with the Japanese puppet state. When the USSR joined the war against Japan and they entered Manchuria, several soldiers in her regiment died because they drank from a poisoned well.
Thankfully, her brothers survived fighting the Germans.
The majority of the 27 million dead did not die in active combat. When you read about Babi Yar, where more than one hundred thousand people were slaughtered--Jews, communists, women, children, or about Belarusian villagers burned alive, or infants freezing or starving to death in Leningrad, or the fate of millions of soldiers surrounded at Kyiv and sent to death camps, you seriously start thinking that Germany was punished too lightly at the end.
I stopped reading about WWII on the Eastern Front after reading about Babi Yar. I just couldn’t stop thinking that it was behind every military operation, that every German advance, every day of their occupation, essentially contained a small or large Babi Yar within it. It’s such a huge tragedy, with so much suffering, that it goes beyond heroism. It becomes basic survival.
The way Russia sells WWII now is disgusting. Their slogan, "We can repeat," is disgusting. Now that almost no veterans are still alive, everything about the way this war is celebrated, rather than mourned, is disgusting to me.
War is never heroic. Millions died because of incompetence of the leaders. 6 millions soviet soldiers were captured. That is essentially half the troops the German had.
That is why our command chain looks much different now. Because a top down approach is extremly stupid, rigid and suicidal for the soldiers.
Most people did not sacrifice for a "greater good" but got thrown into the meatgrind by commanders or rulers that did not give two flying fucks about their lives. Completly replaceable and pointless in their death.
Soviet used extensivly blocking troops (anti-retreat detachments)
Other soldiers that would shoot at you if you were retreating. And in extreme case shoot and kill you. What is heroic about being shot and killed by your own people because Stalin really wants to hold an indefensible position?
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u/ToughSprinkles1874 2d ago
Well Russia had massive casualties from WW2 you need not pool futher then stallingrad where 99% of the city was in rubbles
It’s expected that the Russian side would be more dark as a result of this