They Were Also Soldiers Once . . . .

One of the benefits of a 2500-mile road trip is you have some time to reflect.  It’s also a time you can reconnect with music you haven’t really thought much about in 30 years or more.  When that’s done with new knowledge and the insight of age and experience, well . . . you sometimes end up with a new perspective.

I did that over the last 2 days.  Fifteen hours on the road is long enough for some serious listening and thinking.

After reading this, some of you might say it’s also long enough for confusion or hallucination.  Perhaps you’re right.

. . .

We Americans are justifiably proud of our contributions to World War II.  Without the USA, it’s entirely possible World War II would have ended up quite differently, at least in Europe.

But we hardly “won the war” for the Allies without their help.  Indeed, we often forget the enormous contributions of one of our allies – an ally who suffered far worse than any other nation.

Russia – at the time, the Soviet Union.

The music above caused me to think about the war, and to wonder about the war from the Soviet perspective.  I’d always heard they suffered horribly.  So when I finally got  of the road, I looked a few things up.

The data – and the numbers it contained – stunned me.  And I’m not easily surprised by either data or numbers, much less stunned.

During its 3 1/2 years of World War II, the US suffered approximately 418,500 total (military plus civilian) killed, and another nearly 701,000 wounded and missing worldwide.  These casualties were predominantly in the European and Pacific theaters.

The US suffered, yes.  We were attacked at Pearl, and had to fight for our lives – something we’d only had to do once or twice previously during our history.

Yet during World War II, US war dead amounted to roughly 0.32% of the US prewar population, or about 1 in 300 people.  Total casualties (killed and wounded, military and civilian) were less than 1% (only 0.81%, to be precise) of the US pre-war population.  That’s well under 1 in 100.

In contrast, what the Soviets suffered during World War II is . . . virtually unbelievable.  I’m still not sure I fully comprehend what I’m about to relate.

Fighting primarily a single enemy (Nazi Germany), the most widely accepted figures indicate that during its nearly 4 years of World War II the Soviet Union suffered 8,668,400 killed or missing/not recovered and over 22,326,905 wounded and sick – in its military forces alone.  Best sources also indicate the occurrence of an additional 13,684,692 civilian deaths attributable to the war (by military action, famine, forced labor, atrocity, etc . . . . ). (Reliable figures on sick/wounded civilians attributable to the war alone are not readily available.)

The Soviet Union’s prewar population is estimated at 168,524,000.  This means that 13.26% of the prewar population of the Soviet Union was killed – more than a literal decimation – and another 13.24% was wounded or sickened (another reduction of greater than a literal decimation) as the direct result of the war.

Think about that.  Combined, that’s more than 1 out of every 4 people in the nation killed, wounded, or sickened.

I flatly don’t know how to describe my reaction to that. I’d known the Soviets suffered greatly during World War II.  But until I examined the details, I never realized the magnitude.  To call it “mind-boggling” seems utterly inadequate.  So does “catastrophe”, or any other term I can image.

These figures do not appear to be an example of Soviet propaganda.  Rather, they resulted from studies conducted after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993 (for military casualties) and 1995 (civilian deaths).  If anything, they’re criticized today as being an overly conservative estimate – one that if anything understates the magnitude of Soviet losses.

. . .

My point here?  It’s certainly not to glorify the former Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union was a truly monumental evil.  (For the record: the Nazi regime was IMO as evil, if not more so, than was Stalin’s Soviet Union.)  It was the primary enemy for much if not most of my professional life.  Its primary successor state, Russia, is still a major concern.  They well may again one day be an enemy.  They’re a foreign nation; there’s no guarantee our interests and theirs won’t again be at loggerheads in the future.

Further, my heritage includes Polish ancestors.  Let’s just say there’s no love lost there, either.

Yet for 30+ years I was a soldier.  I know full well who formed the bulk of those Soviets killed and wounded and sickened, at least as it comes to the over 30,000,000 military casualties.  And I understand the conditions under which they bled and died.

By and large, those casualties weren’t members of the Soviet Politburo.  Other than a few assigned as Political Commissars to the Red Army, they weren’t party apparatchiks.  Many if not most were not even Party members.

The vast majority were simply common people.  They were common Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazhaks, Tatars, Armenians, Uzbeks, Georgians, Armenians, and others from throughout the Soviet Union.  (Even Russia’s Jews – abused as at best second-class citizens in the Soviet Union – fought for their country; 125,000 Jewish personnel died while serving in the Red Army.)  They were the muzhiks and their elder brothers up to about age 40 who were conscripted into the Army to fight a desperate struggle for the very existence of their country.

These were the vast majority of the 8.68 million military war dead, and the 22.3+ million military wounded and sickened.  They were draftees, called by their nation in time of need.

Their country called them.  They answered.  And in doing so, they died – literally by the millions.

Yes, the US supplied much of what they used to fight – food, materials, the trucks that brought food and supplies to them, and much of their other equipment.  They probably couldn’t have carried on without that.

But without their effort – and without their blood – could the Western Allies have defeated the Axis?  Frankly, I doubt it.  Much like Grant, in spite of horrible casualties and losses the Red Army kept striking relentlessly at the Nazi forces on the Eastern Front.  They did so incessantly, and with increasing strength over time.  As our ally, they wore the Nazi military down to the point that the post-Normandy German collapse was virtually unavoidable.

As a soldier, I can understand that.  And I can damn well respect it – even while I detest the government under whose flag they fought.

A soldier doesn’t get to choose the wars in which he fights.

So if you or your loved ones have any ancestors who fought in Europe during World War II, when you raise a toast to the New Year tonight, perhaps consider a second, small toast afterwards – perhaps even with a bit of vodka.  And if you’re so inclined, thank those unknown millions of muzhiks who helped your relatives come home safely.

Yes, in later decades fate decreed they (or their descendants or relatives) would be our enemies.  But though their leaders might have been monsters perpetuating evil, they themselves were merely ordinary men. And they were once essential allies during one of the few truly existential struggles our nation has ever fought.

They were also soldiers once, and young.

 

Author’s note:  the 1973 tune that prompted me to write this – linked above – was reportedly based on the postwar treatment of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.   Solzhenitsyn served in World War II in the Red Army and ended up in a labor camp after returning.

But Solzhenitsyn was hardly alone.  Over 225,000 Soviet former-POWs were sent to the Gulag after being repatriated from Nazi POW camps.

 

Special thanks to blogger and frequent TAH commenter Nicki for her thoughts and insights regarding  a pre-publication draft of this article.

Category: Historical