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Russia aims to put figure on Second War dead

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Published Date: 28 January 2009
DMITRY Medvedev, the Russian president, yesterday ordered officials to determine the precise Soviet death toll in the Second World War as the nation marked the 65th anniversary of the battle that broke the Nazi siege of Leningrad.
Russia, which suffered hugely in the conflict it calls the Great Patriotic War, places substantial importance on commemorating its sacrifices. An estimated 27 million Soviet civilians and soldiers died in the war. He said that more than 2.4 million people are still officially considered missing in action.

Of the 9.5 million buried in mass graves, 6 million are unidentified, he added. Remains are still being found.

Mr Medvedev used the occasion to condemn what he described as efforts to rehabilitate Nazis in some neighbouring nations.

Russia has harshly criticised authorities in the ex-Soviet Baltic nations of Estonia and Latvia for allowing gatherings of local veterans of Nazi SS units.

"We must toughen our stance on the issue," Mr Medvedev said. "There is no room here for delicate diplomatic wording. Our stance must be more combative."



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  • Last Updated: 27 January 2009 10:14 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Russia
 
1

Let's have the truth,

28/01/2009 11:31:36
The Jews won't like this as it eclipses the number that went missing during WWII and it may detract from the "sympathy" they are still receiving.
2

,

28/01/2009 12:40:12
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
3

john birkett,

St Andrews 28/01/2009 14:40:55
Will they also count and publicise the precise death toll perpetrated by the Soviets against their own citizens and those of their vassal states during the 72 years after 1917 : six times as long as the German nazis lasted? Not to mention those by Mao and his successors who would not have taken power without Stalin's help?
4

Heerlijk,

28/01/2009 18:55:26
#5 It is about WWII not communism time, pal. Learn to read first.
5

john birkett,

St A 28/01/2009 19:25:08
#6 As Heerlijk means lovely or delicious in Dutch, I'll have to assume you are (though clearly only prepared to express your insults from behind a nickname). My obvious point was that the Russians always want to direct attention to Germany/WW2 in order to avoid acknowledging their own equal atrocities over a far longer period. Many of these were also during WW2. As distinguished historians have said, Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin (and were allies until June 1941). If Stalin had not killed so many of the Soviet officers in the 1930s purges, the Soviet death toll might well have been less.
6

A Clamper,

Edinburgh 29/01/2009 16:17:15
The fact remains that the Soviet Union lost far more of its citizens defeating the Nazis than any other nation.
7

JCA REID,

Annan 20/02/2009 11:08:32
I agree with #8. However, the then USSR was an ALLY of Nazi Germany & actively supplied Germany with tons of material on a daily basis.
They invaded Poland, committed War Crimes, (e.g. Katyn, where 24,000 Polish Officers were murdered), & invaded the Baltic Republics.
If Hitler had listened to his ambassador in Moscow & treated the indigenous people fairly & ditched his racist policies, his army would have been in Moscow before the winter had even started!
During 1941-45 Stalin MURDERED 12MILLION of his own people.
In all Communism/Socialism has murdered something like 150million.
What happened on the Eastern Front certainly was the bulwark that defeated Nazism with the russians losing 20million lives, and Churchill paid tribute to that fact saying that...."they tore the guts out of the German Army."
8

Cabe,

17/07/2009 14:11:51
it's about time all the causalities were accounted for. So many died for nothing.

 

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