World World 2 Facts: Did You Know These 29 Interesting Details?

Russia Sustained 27 Times Higher Soldier Casualties Than US

The Soviet Union experienced a different kind of war than America and the majority of Europe. Hitler’s invasion of the USSR was strategically planned with the idea of extermination rather than to conquer. This was due to his disdain for what he called “Slavs”, or anyone east of Poland. He believed this area should be cleared out in any way possible to give the Aryan race more land to spread out. He gave his generals the order to kill all communists, educated people, and resistors, and to cut off the sources for food and power to its people in an effort to starve the rest. Livestock and crops were stolen from the Soviets by the German Army to feed themselves and their horses. In addition to the 11,000,000 soldiers the USSR would lose in the war, they would also lose around 20,000,000 civilians to starvation and malnutrition. Compare this to America’s loss of 400,000 soldiers and almost no civilian casualties. America and the USSR had roughly the same population at the beginning of the war.