What makes the FSU so interesting?

[mendeleyev]

(Notes and photos for the segment on the Chkalovskaya neighborhood and the use of "Stalinist Architecture" can be found in the Moscow section of the Mendeleyev Journal.)


Stalinist Architecture:

Moscow grew up during the Stalin years and continued to grow under Nikita Khrushchev but the two had dramatically different ideas about how buildings should be designed. Stalin, who played an active role in how buildings were designed, loved the classical styles of the day. Khrushchev on the other hand favoured minimalization and cost savings in order to speed up the process of construction.


Large apartment house on Moscow's Kutuzovskaya Avenue; Stalinist architecture.


To Khrushchev's thinking, Stalin had given in to excesses which were not part of the Communist ideal. Not only was Khrushchev faced with escalating Cold War budgets but the Soviet Union was far behind the West in adequate housing for its citizens and there was pressure on the government to increase housing stock at a rapid pace.

In 1950, Khrushchev began a large-scale housing program for Moscow. A large part of the housing was in the form of five- or six-story apartment buildings, many still in use throughout the former Soviet Union. To speed construction Khrushchev ordered the use of prefabricated reinforced concrete to speed up construction.These structures were built quickly, lacked elevators or balconies, and were called Khrushcheby by the public, a pun on trushcheby, the Russian word for slums.

In earlier years Stalin had relied on inexpensive slave labour, German prisoners never returned after the war, for the construction of new Soviet housing. Many of the prisoners were skilled at complex architectural ornaments and decorative arcades and Stalin took full advantage of his "guests" abilities.


Home of Soviet Air Force ace Chkalov, classical Stalin architecture. Photo by Алексей Борисов.


Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933 and 1955. Many examples remain in Moscow and other cities today.


Photo: RetroMoscow, LiveJournal.


Most of these structures were formed from brick masonry underneath the stucco facades or concrete block panel houses and larger skyscrapers. Many of the Stalin buildings were erected between 1939 and 1941 and then after the war with Germany.



Stalinist designed. Photo by Leha, LiveJournal.


Stalinist architecture relied on labor-intensive and time-consuming craftmanship, thus making it difficult to meet the needs of mass construction. This resulted in streamlining construction methods in the closing years while Stalin was still alive and then much more widespread after his death.

[mendeleyev]

With all those wires overhead, an electric троллейбус (t-r-o-l-l-e-y b-u-s) is quieter than a gas or diesel engine. However an electric engine does have sounds of its own. Come along for a ride and listen as each stop/street is announced along the way.

[mendeleyev]

From today's Mendeleyev Journal:

Betcha didn't know ole Mendeleyev sported a culinary streak now did ya? Today I am coming down with a chest cold and will do something that should have been started yesterday--prepare a natural cold medication using Водка (vodka) and fruit. It is called Водка Компот (Vodka Compote). Don't be confused as there is another popular fruit compote which uses sugar instead of vodka.

Of course any time is as good as another for a little language lesson so we'll teach the correct way to say 'vodka' like a real Russian. A bit of grammar is involved as there is a sound change because of the way the Cyrillic letters are grouped. You see, the D & K (дк) are together in Водка and this is called a "consonant cluster" which means that you must devoice the D and make it a T sound instead. Thus, when you say "vodka" the d becomes a T and it should be spoken as "vot-ka." Simple, really.

Back to the making of this Водка Компот (vodka compote) which sounds like "kahm POte." You may have noticed that the Cyrillic letters perfectly match the English: Компот is k-o-m-p-o-t-e. Pretty cool! The first o in the word is spoken like an A because in Russian only one 'O' can be sounded in a word no matter how many O letters it contains.

Easy to make, just put a bowl half full of various kinds of fruit and fill the other half with vodka. Seal the bowl and let it stand for days, weeks, even months in the refrigerator. Packed with vitamins and vodka this baby will sit there all winter in a closed jar. Mixed roughly half & half, add more fruit and vodka anytime it begins to run low.

This concoction will look bad, smell awful, and taste even worse! Force yourself to eat several spoonfuls anytime you have a cold, flu, head or chest congestion. It works the way God intended natural medicines to work.

Remember not to take on an empty stomach because this stuff is potent! Let it germinate, ferment, foment and a bunch of other adjectives. No matter how bad it tastes, just remind yourself that it works.


PS...I recommend "Russian Standard" vodka, from Saint Petersburg, not necessarily because of taste or quality (both are premium) but because of the genuine product and the pretty Cyrillic lettering on the bottle unlike those cheap (and some not so cheap) knock offs with Russian names but in English lettering and made in the USA.

[Chicagoguy]

How about Smirnoff vodka? What could be more Russian than this 
Just joking of course. Actually, I just looked at my liquor cabinet and I have a gift box of Russian Standard with glasses. Since I never drink vodka in the U.S. all my souvenir bottles last a long time. About 15 years ago I did have a bottle labeled/named CCCP but my Russian friends got excited and drank it.
But I still have one bottle with the foil top. Where once you open it you are commited to finnish !

[mendeleyev]

As featured in today's Mendeleyev Journal, there are times when I cringe at certain words and phrases. The Russian language is becoming polluted, even bastardized, with the use of English converted into Russian. Okay, I get the idea of cognates, borrowed words which every language has to some extent. But at some point the beautiful Russian language may find itself lost if the popularity of English cognates continues at the current pace.


Take фуд шоу for example. Those of you who read Russian will quickly understand "food show." That isn't a real Russian expression, however. It is a borrowed phrase from English. Granted, фуд шоу (food show/festival) is a lot shorter than say, something like продовольственные выставки or продовольственная выставка, but it is a robbery of the beautiful Russian language. At least in my view.






All that being said, we do invite you to the Moscow "Food Show" beginning tomorrow (Sunday) and running through Tuesday. Russians love exhibitions and this will be well attended, especially given the well placed advertising campaign over the past month.


Chocolate lovers should attend for certain and the show highlights an  interactive cooking school, food exhibits and performances, competitions, quizzes, advice from well-known nutritionists and the sale of books from international and Russian culinary stars. In addition, there will be plenty of gift ideas for New Year's gift giving (or for Christmas gifts for those readers in the Western world) with everything from gourmet food products, glassware, and cooking utensils.





This promises to be an international event with foods from great culinary traditions such as Англия (UK/England), Франция (France) and Италия (Italy). From the looks of the printed advertisements the quality will be very high and with a holiday theme.
 

Where will you be this Sunday through Tuesday?

[SANDRO43]

This promises to be an international event with foods from great culinary traditions such as Англия (UK/England)...

Such as Spam ?

[mendeleyev]

Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror

It was several years ago that I experienced a turkey in Russia for the first time. Thanksgiving is not a Russian holiday but I had scoured many a supermarket across Moscow in search of just one big bird. No luck.

Several weeks later our cousin Natasha called and announced that she had found a turkey and would include it as part of our New Year's Eve dinner. Great, I was excited and could hardly wait!

Then on the telephone she asked how to cook the turkey. Russians are slowly coming around to like turkey but back then it was a rare treat to eat turkey in a large Russian city. After asking the size of the bird at which she answered "very big," I gave careful instructions on setting the oven to 350 and baking the bird for 3.5 to 4.5 hours.

I should have known better. Cooking a moist turkey is a gift learned from my mother so I clued in Natasha about adding a stick of butter in the turkey cavity along with 2 cans of broth. Thankfully she didn't even know anything about "turkey dressing" and so there was no breading to dry the turkey from inside out.

Perhaps we should talk about that word, size. Maybe if I'd bothered to ask about the turkey's weight then disaster could have been averted. Alas, I didn't, assuming that "big" meant 14-18 pounds as in a big American turkey. Russians don't use growth hormones or artificial fillers so the bird turned out more like a big chicken.

I knew that we were in trouble the minute we entered Natasha's flat the evening of New Year's Eve. The aroma of something that had cooked far too long wafted to the front door. But there, sitting on a platter, proudly I might add, in the middle of a large table was a small, overdone to the point of almost blackened, turkey.

Everyone was smiling and waiting for my reaction at seeing the turkey. I wanted to cry but smiled instead and voiced my thanks for finding and preparing something so "American" that holiday. Everyone tried to take a piece of turkey to sample the exotic American taste for turkey. However my instructions of 350 degrees at 4 hours for a bird about the size of a big chicken had cooked that turkey into a mass of something resembling a concrete block.

They tried. I tried, too, but it was too far gone.

Later that night as we counted down the final 60 seconds of the old year cousin Gera and I each grabbed a heavy turkey leg and gave new meaning to the term "drum" sticks as we beat to the time against the tabletop.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers from the Mendeleyev Journal!

[Ranetka]

From the Mendeleyev Journal section on the Great Patriotic War:


Russians sometimes seem offended at any American expression of pride over victory in WWII. Despite all those Red Army rations, medical supplies and equipment stamped "made in the USA" it is as if Russia fought Germany all by herself.



Several American contributions listed at Moscow's Victory Park museum.




American Jeep displayed at Moscow's Victory Park museum.


.

Russians are not ignorant of American share. It is a cultural difference. Russians find somewhat offensive Americans comparing Jeeps sent by US to lives lost by USSR.
 
I think it is East-West perspective. Eastern mentaility by definition takes contribution in the way of money inferior to contribution by personal effort, ultimately life . Money is NOT a universal measure for most Russians although it is changing.

[Ranetka]

I am not sure why I am trying to explain it though. This is where cultural differeces are huge. For any American I can only recommend try and not to enlighten people about the subject, you lady will of course agree with you but you will offend people. Monies spent are not equal to lives lost and even attempt to discuss might offend. You will just look ignorant, that's all.

[Chicagoguy]

Russians are not ignorant of American share. It is a cultural difference. Russians find somewhat offensive Americans comparing Jeeps sent by US to lives lost by USSR.
 
I think it is East-West perspective. Eastern mentaility by definition takes contribution in the way of money inferior to contribution by personal effort, ultimately life . Money is NOT a universal measure for most Russians although it is changing.

I have learned. Now I undersrtand.    Russian deaths - 27,000,000
                                                           American deaths -    400,000
Now I explain this to my friends. It is contrary to what we believed from Hollywood movies.
The numbers speak for themselves.

[mendeleyev]

Russians are not ignorant of American share. It is a cultural difference. Russians find somewhat offensive Americans comparing Jeeps sent by US to lives lost by USSR.

In some respects one can agree and especially agree were it really a comparison of jeeps to lives lost.

However in Soviet schools it was standard practice to downplay any Allied assistance and promote the idea of Father Stalin who guided the country thru the war. In post Soviet years I've spoken in Russian schools in places like Shakhty to Kaluga and kids, until more recently, were surprised at the idea that American soldiers had participated in many of the major battles that they thought had been solely Red Army versus Germany.

In the late 1990s I did a series of interviews with former Red Army soldiers and over and over again they spoke of eating daily canned rations, 2 meals daily of around 1,000 calories, and those rations made in America. They were also ordered that upon returning home that in no way were they to speak of the rations or medical kits they carried as coming from America.

For many years it was not a cultural difference but one of Cold War politics.

By the same token, as you and Chicago Guy have mentioned, many Americans have no clue at the devastation and death suffered by FSU citizens.

I wish that every Westerner could visit one of my favourite places in Moscow, Victory Park, and watch the over 1400 individual fountains run red at night, one fountain for every day of that horrible war, the red water at night symbolizing rivers of blood from the 27-28 million men, women and children who died during that period.

My wife is currently working on a government commissioned project to paint the portraits of the surviving Russian generals from that conflict. Just in assisting her, I've had the opportunity to meet several of them and what a treasure of talent, bravery and intelligence!

Many of these old men however will privately tell of mind-boggling numbers of senseless deaths because of idiotic decisions made from Moscow which tied the hands of commanders in the field (a fact written about by both Khrushchev and Zhukov years after the war).

[Ranetka]

In some respects one can agree and especially agree were it really a comparison of jeeps to lives lost.

However in Soviet schools it was standard practice to downplay any Allied assistance and promote the idea of Father Stalin who guided the country thru the war.

My school years were 1978-1988. They have not mentioned the name of Stalin while teaching us about the war. Teachers at school would always say about heroism of soviet people. In fact Stalin's name was hardly ever mentioned in Soviet schools before perestroika. So please try to get your facts right.
 
It was you who while saying Rusian people do not know about American contribution mentioned Jeeps and food rations and I replied to this part of your post saying similar arguments would sound offensive to Russian people and tried to explain why.
 
 
 
 

[mendeleyev]

My school years were 1978-1988. They have not mentioned the name of Stalin while teaching us about the war. Teachers at school would always say about heroism of soviet people. In fact Stalin's name was hardly ever mentioned in Soviet schools before perestroika. So please try to get your facts right.
 
It was you who while saying Rusian people do not know about American contribution mentioned Jeeps and food rations and I replied to this part of your post saying similar arguments would sound offensive to Russian people and tried to explain why.

I have great respect and admiration for the Russian people and all they suffered thru not only the war, but during the entire Soviet period.

Not only from my wife's schooling (she is in her mid/late 40s), I also have a daughter who will this Spring graduate from MGU and am very familiar with the education she received prior to University. During her middle school years it was a teacher who first invited me in to dialogue with students and that led to several other such wonderful dialogues with some very fine schools across Russia.

Again I have no desire to disparage Russians or their education, and if I had to bet money on an American primary to high school education versus Russian one, I'd choose a Russian education every time without even the slightest hesitation. Neither however are perfect.

Even if we may disagree from time to time, I do appreciate the dialogue with you and hope that you will contribute often!

[mendeleyev]

Russian "Pine Cones" Salad:

From today's Mendeleyev Journal with thanks for this recipe to LiveJournal member Jenya2010 who promises that this salad is "just the bomb for the New Year!"

Usually in the 40 day Nativity fast before Christmas (no meat, no oil, no dairy, no eggs) most Russians take a break and celebrate with one heck of a meal on New Year's Eve. Afterwards the fast resumes until Christmas on 7 January.

Russians speak of a "table" when describing a special meal and the "New Year's table" is one of great tradition filled with varied and rich treats. When Russians (and Ukrainians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Belorussians, etc) you're assured that the meal will be beautiful and festive.

So with acknowledgment and thanks to Jenya, today we have a tasty recipe for the Russian New Year's salad "Pine Cones" - Салат Сосновые шишки in Russian.





To make this wonderful salad you will need:
- 3-4 potatoes
- 200 grams of smoked chicken
- 1 onion and 1 cucumber
- 200 grams of canned corn (can substitute peas)
- 3 eggs
- 150-200 grams of melted cheese
- Nuts

Of course to make the dish festival you'll do more than simply prepare the dish. This dish should be decorated with pine/spruce sprigs and perhaps some whole almonds or Rosemary.

The preparation of this salad is very simple:
- Cook the potatoes and boil the eggs, then grate.
- Chope the chicken into cubes.
- Saute the onions lightly and then chop.
- Add some fresh cucumbers - if so then cut them into thin strips.
- Grate cheese, chop the nuts (walnuts or almonds will also work if pine nuts are not available). Mix the nuts and grated cheese.
- Prepare the ingredients in layers as listed below, each having mayonnaise (I swear Mayo is a "food group" in Russia!) or you can also use sour cream.


Make the layers:
1 layer - potatoes
2 layer - smoked chicken
3 layer - onions
4 layer - corn (peas, cucumbers)
5 layer - eggs
6 layer - cheese with walnuts


Now take the layer and roll into the form of a pine cone or with the ingredient amounts listed you can make two cones.

Decorate the cones with pine nuts, almonds or walnuts, and then garnish with natural rosemary sprig or pine/spruce.




(Russian "Pine Cones" salad photo: Epoch Times.)


Enjoy the taste...and the compliments of your guests!

[mendeleyev]

Were you to live in the FSU, your first Christmas seasons would be periods of adjustment to life around the holidays. First, no Thanksgiving for us Americans and Canadians, although as Canada celebrates earlier it might not feel so disconnected to the Christmas season.

Then there is the getting used to placing the New Year before Christmas. If you've lived for decades with a great deal of excitement on 25 December then you can imagine how empty that day feels were you to be in the FSU.

Then there is the idea of a "New Year tree" which is decorated fairly close to New Years Eve. In our family the "Christmas tree" was decorated right after Thanksgiving so seeing an undecorated home in early December is unsettling at first.

Someone might point out that gifts are not given at Christmas either. Instead of a Christmas gift, one becomes used to a New Year gift and instead of piles of gifts under the tree, many Russians give one gift (usually not in multiples) and gifts may have never have spent a day under the tree depending on that family tradition.

But the music, tell us about the Russian Christmas music!

What Christmas music?

Christmas carols don't have the same history as we enjoy in the West. Not that there aren't any in the FSU, but the disparity is significant. Most Christmas music were for generations a part of the liturgical history of the Orthodox church and usually long and complex, absent the familiar courses we've come to love.

So when we find some modern Christmas (or New Years) music, we latch onto it!



This one is a favourite of my friend Vika from www.funrussian.com:





Here is another:
 

[mendeleyev]

All the way to Christmas on 7 January, hoping you have plenty of white snow for Christmas!

[JR]

12 roses is bad.
 
12 eggs bad?
.
So maybe it's all about superstition ))

[mendeleyev]

Russian expressions are priceless!

To start, Russian's are typically pessimistic, and I will take flack for saying that, while others see the Russian view on life as simply realistic. Many of the expressions so dear to Russians and Ukrainians however may bear out what I've said.

So, well start with these:

"To an optimist bedbugs smell like cognac. To a pessimist cognac smells like bedbugs."


"The goats are guarding the cabbage."


"He who takes no risks never gets to taste champagne."


"If one trouble comes, wait for the other."


"To hang noodles on somebody's ears." (to tell a lie)


"Spreads a soft bed but is hard to sleep on." (talks sweetly but deceptive)


"Better to be the first boy in the village than the last boy in the city."


"You don't travel to Tula with a samovar." (realistic)


"If mushrooms grew in your mouth, it wouldn't be a mouth but a kitchen garden."


"You can't pick a mushroom without bowing."


“In taste and color there are no comrades.”


"Goodness has no smell."


“Everyone goes out of his mind in his own way.”


"We hoped for the best but it turned out as it usually does."


"Speak to the devil and he will appear."


"A wolf hires himself out cheaply as a shepherd."


"Any fish is good if it is on the hook."


"If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs."


"Do not call a wolf to help you fight off the dogs."


"God sends a cursed cow short horns."


"A Moustache is respected and beard is worn even by goats."


"Do not enter another's monastery with your own rules."


"Hypocrites kick with their hind feet while licking with their tongues."


"The future is assured. It's just the past that keeps changing."


"An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue."


"Misfortune never arrives alone."


"If you don't grease you won't travel."


"Gossip needs no carriage."


"A poor man's happiness does not last forever."


"A woman's path is from the stove to the door."


"What was written by a pen, cannot be taken out with an axe."


“Every road has two directions.”


"Like the priest, like the people."


"Little thieves are hanged, but great ones escape."


"One does not drink water with his face."


"All cats are grey at night."


"Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad."


"Fear Greeks bearing gifts."


"All are not cooks that walk with long knives."


"The peasant will not cross himself before it begins to thunder."


"Eggs cannot teach a hen."


"Every road has two directions."


"Good neither for a village nor a city."


"Pray to God but continue to row to the shore."


"It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats."


"A wooden bed is better than a golden coffin."


"Don't divide the pelt of a bear you've yet to kill."


"Chickens are counted in autumn."

[SANDRO43]

Russian expressions are priceless! To start, Russians are typically pessimistic, and I will take flak for saying that, while others see the Russian view on life as simply realistic. Many of the expressions so dear to Russians and Ukrainians however may bear out what I've said.So, well start with these:

Interesting and amusing list . A few are international, and this:

"Fear Greeks bearing gifts."

has a classical origin, being a translation of the words:

"Equo ne credite, Teucri
  Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"

uttered by Laocoön on seeing the huge horse left on Troy's beach as a gift by the apparently departed Greeks (the Danaans) in Virgil's epic poem Aeneid from 2000+ years ago. Laocoön and his sons were duly smothered by sea serpents as the gods' punishment for trying to spill the beans, and his warning went unheeded .

The poem reports Aeneas's supposed voyages after fleeing fallen Troy, eventuallly leading to the foundation of Rome:


It is meant to celebrate the divine origin of Octavian Augustus's Julio-Claudian dynasty, since Aeneas was Aphrodite's (Venus's) son.

[Ranetka]

Russian expressions are priceless!

To start, Russian's are typically pessimistic, and I will take flack for saying that, while others see the Russian view on life as simply realistic. Many of the expressions so dear to Russians and Ukrainians however may bear out what I've said.

So, well start with these:

 
MONEY does not smell.  (correct saying).
 
Goes back to ancient Romans, something imperor Vespassian (Sandro will correct spelling lol) said when imposing tax on toilets.

[SANDRO43]

Goes back to ancient Romans, something imperor Vespassian (Sandro will correct spelling lol) said when imposing tax on toilets.

Yes, Roman Emperor Vespasian (9–79 AD) imposed the vectigal urinae on the buyers (tanners, fullers, launderers, etc.) of the pee collected from latrinae (public urinals).

The Roman historian Suetonius reports that when Vespasian's son Titus complained about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and asked, whether he felt offended by smell (sciscitans num odore offenderetur). When Titus said "No," he replied, "Yet it comes from urine" ("Atqui ex lotio est“).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecunia_non_olet

According to other sources, his reply was: "Pecunia non olet" .

Phylologically, it is interesting to note that the Latin term for money (pecunia) derives from pecuus (sheep), harking back to barter in pre-currency times, same as salarium (the "salary" of early legionnaires, who received a salt ration).

In Italian, vespasiano was the term designating the public, open-air toilets that once dotted our cities:

[mendeleyev]

For those of us observing the Nativity fast, here is a recipe that is quite tasty:
(Source: http://orthodoxfastingkitchen.blogspot.com)

 White Bean Soup
The ground cloves add an unusual flavor.
2 cups or 1 lb. small white beans, uncooked
8 cups water
1/2 tsp. lite salt or less
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1 can 8 oz. unsalted tomato sauce
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Dash of ground cloves
 
-Soak beans at least 3 hours or overnight in cold water 
-Drain 
-Add 8 cups water, lite salt, pepper and bay leaf
-Bring to boil
-Simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender
-Add celery, carrots, onions, tomato sauce parsley, cloves
-Mash some of the beans to thicken the soup.
-Simmer 2 hours.
 Makes 16 cups

[JR]

I have learned. Now I undersrtand.    Russian deaths - 27,000,000
                                                           American deaths -    400,000
Now I explain this to my friends. It is contrary to what we believed from Hollywood movies.
The numbers speak for themselves.

It is not just the numbers. All the horrors of war were visited upon the Russian people during the war. America on the other hand was virtually untouched by it. The two nations had completely different experiences during that time and the Russian experience is one that very few American's will ever understand.

[ML]

I have learned. Now I undersrtand.    Russian deaths - 27,000,000
                                                           American deaths -    400,000
Now I explain this to my friends. It is contrary to what we believed from Hollywood movies.
The numbers speak for themselves.

Are the 27,000,000 Soviet deaths rather than Russian deaths.

I had understood the Ukrainians actually suffered a higher percentage of deaths (relative to population sizes) than Russians due to Stalin sending Ukrainians to worst situations.

Perhaps someone has more detailed facts on this.

[mendeleyev]

The accounting of the war dead has generated great controversy over the years. Soviet scientists and historians have been imprisoned for revealing numbers other than the official version at the time. Only in recent years have true numbers come to light as for years the Soviet government wished to suppress the real losses, especially given so many deaths came as the result of mismanagement of the war by Stalin.

Stalin's "official" numbers were between 7-8 million of both military and civilian. Citizens knew better as too many had lost entire families but a prison sentence awaited anyone who challenged the official totals.


A good place to find information for Russian speakers is the online War Memorial registry. One can even search for missing family members (during that period) there: http://www.obd-memorial.ru

Stalin didn't trust non-Russian units so in terms of percentages a much larger percentage of Russian soldiers died.

These numbers are strictly military deaths:


 

Russians           5,756,000        66.402%

Ukrainians        1,377,400        15.890%

Belarusians      252,900            2.917%

Tatars               187,700           2.165%

Jews                 142,500           1.644%

Kazakhs           125,500           1.448%

Uzbeks             117,900           1.360%

Armenians        83,700             0.966%

Georgians         79,500             0.917%

Other groups      545,300          6.291%

(Russian Academy of Science:  Andreev, EM, et al., Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922–1991. Moscow, Nauka, 1993.)


In 1993, during Gorbachev's Glasnost, the Russian Academy of Science released new figures totalling 26,600,000 military and civilian deaths. However with the advent of directories such as the one above and the Russian Military Archives data base has swelled the numbers closer to 28-30 million. One should remember that battlefield record-keeping in the Soviet Union at that time was spotty at best given archaic Soviet technology for such tasks, and the added fear of commanders to report true losses back to Moscow.

A staggering 12 million deaths were between the ages of 18 and 49, given the fact that both men and women served in the Soviet forces.

It is estimated by some that perhaps a quarter of the civilian losses were directly due to the regime itself and that the war was a cover to sweep those repressions under the rug, so to speak.