WWII Killed So Many Russians You Can Still See It In Their Population Pyramid
A haunting picture of loss
World War II was the bloodiest conflict in world history, but it was especially cruel to the Soviet Union. Estimates vary, but most historians put the number of people killed in Russia during the war at 27,000,000 people. That number includes 8.5 million military deaths and 18.5 million civilian deaths. Other estimates put the number closer to 40 million dead, but those are more heavily scrutinized.
For comparison, the United States suffered roughly 300,000 combat deaths during World War II and 400,000 deaths in total. That means that the Soviet Union suffered 67 times as many deaths as the United States during the Second World War. That number of dead is enough to change the face of a population for generations to come.
In fact, when you look at the population pyramid of the Russian Federation today, you can still see the echo of World War II moving through their society. Every generation connected to the World War II generation has been considerably smaller than the ones flanking it.
