Page 467 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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suffered much greater losses than her allies or enemies, in sum 1,397,800 dead. Of course,
4
each of the other European powers had much smaller demographic basis than Russia. The
impact of these great losses on French society and politics were widely discussed in political
and historical literature, and it is a matter of debate even today. On the other hand, French
society had a period of peace - 20 years - to recover from these losses. No so for Russia.
The First World War was followed by the Revolution, then civil war, combined with famine,
epidemics, and vast emigration.
For the whole length of WWI Russia mobilized the largest army of all warring coun-
tries - approximately 15,798,000 soldiers, compared with France - 7,891,000, Great Britain
- 5,704,000, and Germany - 13,200,000 mobilized soldiers. In September 1917, practically
the end of the war in Russia, the Russian Army [no more “Imperial”] reached its numeri-
cal peak, somewhat over 9,000,000 men. This, among other things, proves the fallacy of
Lenin’s famous saying that the Russian soldiers opposed the war and deserted in mass, by
‘voting with their feet’. In fact Russian soldiers [and officers] did not desert the army, they
were revolutionary and patriotic, they hated the Germans and they stayed on to fight. In
terms of casualties as part of the whole army, Russia’s losses were lower than some other
powers: Of every 1,000 mobilized Russian soldiers 115 died in the war, compared with 168
per 1,000 in the French army, 125 in Britain, 154 in Germany. Other countries suffered even
greater losses: The Ottoman Empire - 268, and Romania - 250 dead per 1,000. Because of
her large population the demographic impact of the military death was felt less in Russia
than in other countries: Of every 1,000 Russian males of 15 to 49 years of age 45 died in the
war, compared with 133 in France, 62 of the British army, 125 of the German army. Of the
entire population of the country, in Russia 11 died for every 1,000 persons, compared with
34 in France, 16 in Britain, 30 in Germany. The greatest losses occurred in Serbia: 371 dead
of ever 1,000 mobilized, 227 of every 1,000 males 15 to 49 years of age, 57 of every 1,000
of the total population [less than 5 millions].
Needless to say, these great human losses of the First World War, especially of males
in their productive years [both economically and biologically] have an enormous effect on
Russian society and politics. Yet this effect cannot be measured, because of two main rea-
sons: the poor state of vital records and statistics in Russia, then and later, and because the
war was immediately followed by revolution and another major war, famine and epidemics.
Therefore the demographic and social results of each of these major historical events cannot
be isolated and differentiated from the others. Society did not have time to recover from one
catastrophe before it was hit by the next.
In 1916 erupted a revolt of indigenous people in Central Asia, in the Guberniyas [prov-
inces] of Turkestan and Semirechi [mainly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan of today]. The over-
whelming numbers of casualties in this event, some hundreds of thousands, were ethnic na-
tives of the region as against only negligible Russian losses, civilian and military. However it
did have an effect on what became later Soviet population development. As it is an event of
civilian losses it is outside the terms of the present discussion.
The Russian revolution, for the sake of the present discussion, is defined here in very
narrow chronological terms, from February to October 1917. While the Russian Army was a

4 M. Huber, La population de la France pendant la guerre [Paris, 1931], p. 414.