11,000,000 Russian Soldiers were killed in combat in WWII

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

That's 3 times the second largest number - Germany with 3,500,000

European Military and Civilian Casualties

http://www.486th.org/Photos/Misc/stats.htm

[Aristus]

1. Well, when a fascist imperialistic army invades your land

ostensibly to "liberate" it, you'll do anything to drive out the interlopers. Pay any price, suffer any hardship...

There's a lesson there for us somewhere...

[atreides1]

4. You'll Do Anything

Suffer any hardship, send in untrained troops, badly equipped, with untrained officers leading them, and political commissars promising to execute them if they don't fight.

At least initially.

And the lesson for us, is that in order to keep your freedom, blood must be shed, lives must be lost, and no mercy must be shown to anyone who would take away your right to choose the form of government that you want. It's a lesson our founders learned, but then again they had courage!!!!!

[Cleita]

2. More than that, many of those were taken prisoner of war

and worked to death in Nazi concentration camps and factories. The Soviets suffered tremendously at the hands of the Nazis, as did the Poles, Slavs and Jews.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Yeah - they seemed like conservative figures indeed /nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. If the Nazis didn't kill them

Stalin did. (They had been contaminated)

[maveric]

5. And possibly another 20,000,000 civilians to add.

Fascism hard at work.

[politicaholic]

6. Yes, I heard...

that if Stalin didn't imprison you and kill you himself after world war 2 it was a pretty sweet deal because there weren't a whole lot of men in their 20's and 30's left in the country if you get what I'm saying.

[Must_B_Free]

7. Interesting that Holocaust is associated only with 6,000,000 jews

and not 11,000,000 russians or gypsies, etc.

[global1]

8. Then * Has A Long Way To Go To Top That Number - So I Guess He Feels .....

vindicated that only 1,418 of our military have been killed so far.

What Bush Says ---- "Our condolences - but they didn't die in vain."
What Bush Thinks ---- "See - this war ain't so bad - only 1,418 dead."

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. There were more Russians killed

in the Battle of Kursk, alone, than all the rest of the Allied fatalities throughout the whole war. It was an unprecendented, epic battle, generally known as a tank battle but, in fact, it involved artillery, infantry and air support, also.

[Stella_Artois]

11. Eastern front numbers are staggering

Numbers of people involved, numbers of people killed. I've been looking at it for years and still can't get my head around it.

Add in the numbers of people Hitler and Stalin killed outside of battle and it really puts the numbers of dead in the war on terror in perspective. I'm sorry if thats disrespectful, but its the truth.

[DeaconBlues]

12. Russia would have probably had a lot easier go of it

if Stalin hadn't purged all the military minds in the country, ignored all the warnings that Germany was about to invade, etc. The large number of Russian dead demonstrates the ineffectiveness and natural inhumanity of any totalitarian state, whether that state is fascist or communist.

[Wisc Badger]

13. You want a number that will really make you retch

my Soviet history professor here in Wisc (Oliver Hayward) told me that although no one is completely sure of the death toll (lousy record keeping) that historians commonly accept the figure of 65 million deaths due to war, purges, or starvation (forced) in Russia/Soviet Union from the years 1914 - 1945.

That equates to around 1/4 of the population. And we used to wonder why the Russians would be a tad touchy.

[Stella_Artois]

14. I'd not heard that...

I have read somewhere that if Stalin and WWII never happend to Russia its present population would be double what it is now.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. I had read that

you ain't kiddin!

[B0S0X87]

15. Who killed more Russians?

Stalin or Hitler?

I'd be interested to know. Over 20,000 Russians (civillians and soldiers) died in WWII, but old Joe had many millions executed or sent off to Siberia.

[Rex]

17. The Rus never dies.

That's why shes a fucking BEAR.