Several reasons. The Soviet dictator, Stalin, was a paranoid maniac, and in the years just before the war, 1937 in particular, had "purged" (murdered or imprisoned) over half of his army officers of the rank of colonel or general, out of fear they might get the idea that they would be better off without Stalin. When war did come, the experience and ability of these officers was sorely missed. A year before Hitler attacked Russia, Russia had attacked Finland. This was called the "Winter War', and tiny Finland, with its teenie weenie little army, gave the Russians two black eyes and a broken nose.
At that time, Stalin and Hitler were partners, and had been since just before dividing up Poland between them. After Poland Stalin invaded five countries, and Hitler invaded eight, much more successfully that Stalin. The only person on the planet the paranoid Stalin trusted was Adolph Hitler. So, when the Germans were getting ready to invade Russia, Stalin did not want to hear it. You really cant hide edging two million invading troops right up to anybody's border, and Russian soldiers defending the border kept trying to tell Stalin what the Germans were doing, until Stalin got so sick of hearing it that he started threatening to arrest anybody else who said anything bad about his buddy Adolph. Then when the Germans did attack, Stalin refused to believe it. When his staff was finally able to get him to believe it, he felt so bad over this betrayal (I doubt he was embarrassed) he went to his house and would not come out, for weeks. Nobody could talk to him, or get a phone call through. He gave no orders. He expected to be arrested for what even he knew was his gross stupidity and incompetence. Finally a delegation of army officers went and insisted on seeing Stalin, as the war just about to be irretrievably lost. Stalin thought they were there to arrest and depose him, but they were finally able to get him back to work. In that first month of the German invasion the Russians lost between two and three million troops, killed or captured.
The Germans treated captured Russians almost as bad as the Jews in the Concentration Camps. They starved them and worked them to death, routinely. Very, very few Russians who were taken prisoner by the Germans lived to get home. And, if they did, Stalin immediately sent them to his own concentration camps in Siberia ("the Gulag") because their experience of "luxury" in the capitalist west had undoubtedly corrupted them, and as punishment for not dying, and letting the enemy capture them.
Most Russian officers had their jobs because they were sufficiently politically correct. Military ability was a distant second in consideration of whom to entrust with a command. Every commander had a "political commissar" right by his side, to keep an eye on him, as a sort of co-commander (this is what Kruschev was doing during the war). This situation ensured incompetent command and is guaranteed to get the maximum of your own soldiers killed.
The Russian commanders were profligate of manpower. It was thought the Russian population was an inexhaustible source of men. They finally did have to start being a little bit careful for the last few months, to try to preserve men, because even the vast Russian population had finally been bled white by the stupidity and brutality of its own commanders. But up to that time the Russian generals could not possibly have cared less how many of their own men they got killed. They would march troops straight through enemy minefields, for instance, on the grounds that they would have lost just as many men if the enemy was there in person defending the area with machine guns.
The Russian soldiers were not stupid and realized they were mere cannon fodder, almost certainly doomed to die an unnecessary death as a direct result of the imbecility of their own leaders. This made it necessary for the Russians to routinely employ "blocking units". These were Russian units deployed right behind the troops on the front line, with orders to kill any Russians trying to retreat or run away.
The Russians had "penal units" These were punishment units, to which a man could be sent for real offenses, or just because his sergeant or officer got it in for him. These penal units got all the suicide missions. Men were usually sent to them for three months; few lived to get to return to their old unit. There were even air force penal units.
But the main reason for the heavy Russian losses was that the Russians were bearing the brunt of fighting the Germans. While the US and Great Britain were fooling around in North Africa and Sicily and Italy they were occupying about ten per cent of Germany's military. Other Germans were occupying various countries, but about 70% of them were in Russia. Even after D-Day, when the US had all the troops, every single division the US had, sent to France and in action, the Russians were still absorbing better than 60% of the German war effort. And, the Germans had maybe the best army, probably had the best weapons, and definitely had the best generals.
no
No, many more people died in World War 2 than world war 1. It is estimated that 16 million people died in World War 1, and around 60 million in World War 2.World War II was no where near as violent as World War I, but yes, more people died in World War II.
"Survivors" are all the people who did not die. No records are kept of survivors of war. Records are kept of those who died.
500,890
it helps more people die
Did you mean: What is the Chinese word for Die?死 (si)Four has the same pronounciation as this character so people think that four is an unlucky number in Chinese. Not many people believe this though, but many people mention it at the school I teach in. I learnt it from my wife who went to China reccently.
31,000 people die from prostate cancer in the world
how many people die from upper respiratory infection
How many people sie a day
Too many.
over 3,000 because people die every second
40,458 people
yes , of course people will die in 2012 , people die every minute all around the world, EVERY DAY. This cant be stopped , there are to many problems in the world , and they are causing this to happen. People will die in 2012.
151,650 people die every day in this world. if it was a year -55,503,922 die every year.
56
According to the Internet, roughly 1.8 die people die each second.
they die and sacrafice