In February 1946, the Bolshevik magazine first published the figure of 7 million direct losses suffered by the Soviet people in the war against fascism. This is not yet Stalin said. It is published in the party press.
In March 1946, Stalin, in an interview with the newspaper Pravda, confirmed these data: “As a result of the German invasion, the Soviet Union irretrievably lost about seven million people in the battles with the Germans, as well as due to the German occupation and the theft of Soviet people into German hard labor.”
Think about it - 7 million! This is a huge loss. Soviet-Afghan war of 1979-1989 lasted ten years. Over the course of ten years, 15,000 of our soldiers have died according to the highest estimates. There were, of course, several times more people with disabilities. Remember the 90s, how pretty tangible it was for the people.
Now imagine that in 4 years there were 500 times more deaths than in 10 years of the Afghan war. And the disabled, too. Multiply the sensation of the loss of the Afghan war by 500 times - how is it?
That's it. 7 million - a tragedy of enormous proportions. Plus - 20 million disabled people. According to statistics, for every person killed, 3-4 are disabled. The country was going through this tragedy hard.
And the Soviet people did not meet Stalin’s figure with disbelief. People were friends with their heads and felt these losses on themselves.
But after Stalin's death, a company began to discredit him. Including on discrediting him as the military leader, the Commander-in-chief. And Khrushchev needed new data on losses. Such that Stalin could be seen in them exactly as he was presented at the XX Congress.
Even such a document appeared:
"Declassified
Of particular importance
copy number 2
In the Central Committee of the CPSU
Comrade Shepilov asks to wire the figures to be published on the casualties of the Soviet army and Soviet people during the Second World War.
In this regard, I report:
a) in an interview with I.V. Stalin, published in print on March 14, 1946, it was said: “... As a result of the German invasion, the Soviet Union irretrievably lost in battles with the Germans, and also thanks to the German occupation and the theft of Soviet people to German hard labor - about seven million people. In other words, the Soviet Union lost several times more people than England and the United States of America combined. ”
b) according to the estimates of the Central Statistical Bureau, the population decline of the USSR during the war years as a result of losses of the Soviet army by the extermination of Soviet people by the invaders and the excess of mortality over fertility amounted to more than 20 million people;
c) from the numbers published in the compilation of the Central Statistical Bureau on the population of the USSR for 1940 (191.7 million) and in April 1956 (200.2 million), as well as data on population growth published in recent years, we can conclude that losses in the USSR during the war amounted not to 7 million, but much more.
In this regard, I would consider it necessary to give Comrade Shepilov’s instruction to either not give the loss figure at all, confining itself to the phrase “many millions,” or call the figure — more than 20 million people, giving it approximately as follows:
“The Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War lost in battle with the invaders, as a result of the extermination of the population by the invaders, as well as from a decrease in the birth rate and increased mortality, especially in the occupied regions,”
I ask for directions.
Head of the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR (V. STAROVSKY)
14 / XI-56 y.
RGAE. F. 1562. Op. 33 D.2990. L.75. "
Note that even in this document, which was drawn up specifically with the aim of multiplying the losses of the Soviet people by the dead, the head of the Central Statistical Bureau of the USSR did not dare to name the figure of 20 million as direct losses. He calls it demographic loss.
But Nikita Sergeevich is a famous magician. November 5, 1961 N.S. Khrushchev, in a letter to the Swedish Prime Minister T. Erlander, noted that the past war “took away two tens of millions of lives of Soviet people.”
It's all. Now 20 million dead have become official statistics. How do you like this trick?
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