A
almcneilcan
Guest
I'm not a history major but I have been reading up on WWII on the Internet lately. I was shocked to discover that the Soviets (Russians) suffered monumental casaulties in the war, many times more than any other nation involved. Soviets lost 24 million lives (military + civilian) while the next highest was Germany at 9 million. Now the Soviets only fought on 2 fronts while Germany fought on many more. So the numbers are truly shocking. In my limited research I found 3 reasons. First, the Soviet Red Army was poorly equipped compared the Germans at the start of the war. Next, Stalin had "purged" the Red Army of 75% of it's senior commanders in the few years leading up to the start of the war, thus, there was inexperienced leadership at all levels and the army was being defeated easily in the early part of the war. Finally, it was largely a ground war which has the highest casaulty rates of all types of combat. Still, the stark contract in casaulties between the Soviets and Germans is shocking. I was wondering if anyone can add more to the explanation for why the Soviets lost so many lives.
I found another reason (or expansion of one I aleady mentioned) Following the "Great Purge" of the Red Army, Stalin placed some of his own non-military people in the upper ranks to assert control. Stalin had no military background and it showed early in the war as his "all out offensive" strategy was backfiring. It wasn't until 2 years into the war he removed his cronies and let real military people run the army while he focused on getting the army real supplies like tanks. Then the tide turned in the war.
I found another reason (or expansion of one I aleady mentioned) Following the "Great Purge" of the Red Army, Stalin placed some of his own non-military people in the upper ranks to assert control. Stalin had no military background and it showed early in the war as his "all out offensive" strategy was backfiring. It wasn't until 2 years into the war he removed his cronies and let real military people run the army while he focused on getting the army real supplies like tanks. Then the tide turned in the war.