General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am watching Oliver Stone's "Untold History" and, wow, I have to say ... [View all]OldDem2012
(3,526 posts)...10,700,000 combatants, in addition to 12,700,000 to 14,600,000 civilian deaths out of a total population of less than 170,000,000 prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Those are very conservative numbers, with some historians believing that the Soviet Union may have lost upwards of 30-35,000,000 people during WWII. Additionally, that part of the soviet Union occupied by the Germans was almost totally devastated. Meanwhile, Stalin's government continued to send people into the Gulag prison system at a clip of about 1,000,000 people per year.
The US lost a little less than 417,000 total military deaths during WWII along with about 1700 civilians. That was out of a total US population of about 131,000,000. Additionally, Americans never had to face the nightmare of invasion, bombing, or foreign occupation.
So, it's not very difficult to see who did the major bulk of the ground fighting against Germany during WWII. I have the utmost respect for the Russian people...they've endured a lot throughout their history.