Figure 1.--Stalin ordered a scorched earth policy within days of the NAZI invasion. When the Red Army began driving the Germans back, Hitler ordered a devastating orgy of destruction designed to leave the liberated areas uninhabited. Here we see a town after the Germans departed.

Substantial areas of the Soviet Union, especially the western Soviet Union was devastated by the War. Much of the destruction was in the non-Russian areas of the western Soviet Union. This included the areas annexed in 1939-40 (Poland, the Baltics, and Romania as well as Belorussian and the Ukraine. There were three major reasons for the destruction: war damage and then the Soviet Scorched earth policy as the Red Army was driven back early in the War (1941-42) and the NAZI scorched earth policy (1943-45) as the Wehrmacht retreated back to Germany. The result was not only immense loss of like but a virtually unfathomable destruction of homes, farms, factories, and public buildings. The occupied areas of the Soviet Union were devastated to a greater extent than even Germany.

Areas

Substantial areas of the Soviet Union, especially the western Soviet Union was devastated by the War. Much of the destruction was in the non-Russian areas of the western Soviet Union. This included the areas annexed in 1939-40 (the Baltics, Poland, and ??? as well as Belorussian and the Ukraine. The were the areas occupied by the NAZIs as a result of Operation Barbarossa (1941) and the subsequent Summer Offensive (1942). The Germans without a strategic bombing force employed the Luftwaffe primarily in a tactical role. Thus the devastation of the Soviet Union was concentrated primarily in the occupied area. The major exception was Leningrad which was not only bombed, but heavily shelled by the Germans. The city never fell, but large areas were destroyed. The occupation of the western areas is important to consider for two reasons. First, A substantial part of the occupied area was not part of the pre-War Soviet Union, it was the Baltic Republics and eastern Poland. Second, the occupied areas were the most heavily industrialized and some of the richest farm land of the Soviet Union. This devastation here had a disproportionate impact on the Soviet Union.

Extent

The western Soviet Union occupied by the NAZIs was devastated. There was a first only limited destruction. Brbzrossa unfolded much like the successful Blitzkrieg offenses in the West. Quick nsuccesssa raid dvances with only limited resistance. This only chnanged as Red Army resisabce hadened. And the Sovies began a scorcged earh camopaign. Atactic thast the Germans copie when the ride of war shifted. Stalin was to say after the War that it was comparable to a nuclear attack. Not only was the industrial and agricultural infrastructure devastated, but there was massive loss of life. The destruction and loss of life was so massive that it is difficult to estimate with any precision.

Material losses

Soviet authorities report, "Beginning in September, and right to the end of 1941, a decline in industrial output occurred. At the end of 1941, industrial production amounted to only one-half of the prewar level. The output of nonferrous rolled metal, cable products, and ball bearings, had almost completely ceased. Average daily railway shipments at the beginning of 1942 had fallen to 36-37 thousand truckloads, i.e. one-third of prewar shipments." 【Soviet Government】 Historians estimate that much if not most of the industrial expansion achieved from Stalin Five Year Plans (1928-32), (1933-37), and (1938-41*) was destroyed. The economy is believed to have declined 20-25 percent (1941-45). The Soviet economy did not fully recover and reach pre-War levels until the 1960s. One assessment suggests that the war damages amounted to 25 years of the Soviet Gross National Product. 【Pauwels】 Industrial output declined 30 percent. Agricultural harvests declined 70 percent in 1942. 【Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya】 Some 40 percent of the the Soviet housing stock was damaged or destroyed. 【Wright】 Here we are mostly taking about the massive city apartment blocks. One report indicates that out of 2.5 million dwellings in the German occupied areas, more than a million were destroyed. The result was an estimated 25 million Soviet citizens homeless. 【Varga-Harris, 2015, p. 4.】

Human losses

Soviet estimates of human losses range above and below 30 million people. Most estimates fall between 27-35 million people. The great majority of these individuals were civilians. This would be about 15 percent of the pre-War Soviet population. Of course it would be a much higher percentage of the population of the occupied areas. No one knows precisely how many Soviets died in the War. Faulty records as well as political issues cloud this grisly calculation. For example do you count the population of the countries and areas seized by the Soviets (1939-40) as Soviet citizens. Another complicating factor is the very substantial number of Soviet citizens killed by Soviet authorities themselves.

Causes

No country experienced the level of destruction experienced by the Soviet Union. World War II lasted 6 years (1939-45). The Soviet Uniin invaded neighboing countries. Except for the Finns, there was no resistance. No country threatened or struck at the Soviet Union (1939-41). The Germans also achieved great victories, but they were quick victories with only limited actual damage. The Ostkrieg was very different. There was no quick victory, rather there was a long drawn-out struggle between two massive, well-equipped armies. But the damage was not all due to the fighting. There were three major reasons for the destruction: war damage and then the Soviet scorched earth policy as the Red Army was driven back early in the War (1941-42) and the NAZI scorched earth policy (1943-45) as the Wehrmacht retreated back to Germany. The result was not only imenses loss of life but a virtually unfathomable destruction of homes, farms, factories, and public buildings. Relivly little of the damage was due to aerial bombardment. Most of the damage was due the ground fighting and scorched earth destruction. The scorched earh destruction seems more important than the actual war damage.

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* Cut short by the NAZI Barbarossa invasion (June 1941).

Sources

Bezymenski

Bazhan, M.P. ed. Soviet Ukraine (Kiev: Editorial Office of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1969). 569 p.

Kondufor, Yu. ed. History Teaches a Lesson (Kiev: 1986). Document no. 119.

Pauwels, Jacques. The Myth of the Good War: America in the Second World War (second ed.) (James Lorimer & Company: 2015).

Soviet Government. Rossiiskii Tsentr Khraneniia i Izucheniia Dokumentov Noveishei Istorii (Russian Center for the Storage and Study of Documents of Modern History), f, 71, op. 25, d. 9250, l. 28.

Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya. "Great Soviet Encyclopedia." Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. English translation TheFreeDictionary.com.

Varga-Harris, Christine. Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life During the Khrushchev Years (Cornell University Press: 2015).

Wright, James R. ed. U.S. Delegation to the U.S.S.R. "Industrialized Building in the Soviet Union," Vol.13 (GPO: 1971)

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