FALSIFICATIONS AND MYTHS OVER HUMAN LOSSES OF THE RED ARMY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR BATTLES

The authors analyze the sources on the number of casualties during the Second World War and reveal the trend according to which during the initial period of the post-Soviet time there was the idea of the ''excessive cost of the Victory''. Then there appeared the idea that the Red Army losses greatly exceeded those of the German troops and their allies. Besides, in recent years there has been the statement of the considerable numerical superiority of the Red Army before and during the war. These are Boris Sokolov, Mark Solonin, Gavriil Popov, Vladimir Beshanov and Andrei Zubov who make up the group of authors comingto such conclusions. As the cause of heavy losses in the initial operations of the war,they consider the low morale of the Red Army, the lack of the ability to fight, the Red Army "incompetent commanders". In contrast to these conclusionsthe authors adducethose of foreign ones - American and British historians David Glantz and Robert Kershaw - as well as Russian military researcher V. Litvinenko. The latter has highlighted three important qualities of the Red Army. Firstly, the soldiers and officers of the Red Army more firmly and courageously defended the Soviet Union in 1941, than the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht of Germany in 1945. Secondly, in the decisive battles of the war the command of the Red Army was more far-sighted and realistic compared with the command of the Wehrmacht in the assessment of the situation at the front and reacted more promptly and adequately in the current combat situation. Thirdly, the Red Army not only surpassed the Wehrmacht with its combat power and military prowess, but also demonstrated the immensely higher morality in dealing with the defeated enemy and the civilians. The combination of outstanding military and moral qualities puts the Red Army in the first row of the greatest armies in the world history. V. Litvinenko has counted the 'irretrievable loss of human life in the battles of the war' and his estimation has refuted the existing opinion of the 'multiple excess of casualty losses of the Red Army over the Wehrmacht' in the Great Patriotic War operations.

the Great Patriotic War, falsification, loss of life, patriotic education, historiographical review