Grigoriy Fedotovich Krivosheyev (, 15 September 1929 – 29 April 2019) was a Russian military historian and a

Colonel General Colonel general is a military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically General officer#Old European system, general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, ...

of the

Russian military The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent comba ...

. He is mostly known in the West, via an alternative transliteration of his name, ''Krivosheev'', as the editor of a book on

Soviet military The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

casualties in the 20th century, which was translated and published in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Biography

Grigoriy Krivosheyev was born in the village of Kinterep, Legostayevsky (now

Maslyaninsky District Maslyaninsky District () is an administrative and municipalLaw #200-OZ district (raion), one of the thirty in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the east of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center An adminis ...

) of the

Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative center, administrative and economic center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of N ...

(

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

) in western

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. He was a graduate of the

Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...

. A

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

(

Candidate of Sciences A Candidate of Sciences is a Doctor of Philosophy, PhD-equivalent academic research degree in all the post-Soviet countries with the exception of Ukraine, and until the 1990s it was also awarded in Central and Eastern European countries. It is ...

) in

military science Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mi ...

, from 1995 Krivosheyev is a professor in the

Russian Academy of Military Sciences Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Published works

General Krivosheyev became widely known after the 1993 publication of the book titled ''Гриф секретности снят: Потери Вооруженных Сил СССР в войнах, боевых действиях и военных конфликтах'' (

Transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

: ''Grif sekretnosti snyat: poteri vooruzhyonnyh sil SSSR v voynah, boevyh deystviyah i voennyh konfliktah''), originally in Russian, and about Soviet military casualties in various conflicts of the twentieth century, particularly in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. With Krivosheyev being the general editor of the book, this analysis prepared by historians based on declassified Soviet archival data represents the first comprehensive attempt to scientifically address the losses of the armed forces of the former Soviet Union during World War II. Previously, the number of human casualties was mostly a matter of political speculations, and widely fluctuated with changes in political expediencies. In 1997 Krivosheyev's book was translated and published in English under the title of ''Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century''. A follow-up book also under editorship of Krivosheyev addressed Russian and Soviet combat losses in the wars of the 20th century, titled ''Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the Twentieth Century: Losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study'', was published in Moscow in 2001.

Commentary on Krivosheev

Krivosheev's analysis has generally been accepted by historians, however his study has been disputed by some independent researchers in Russia. His critics maintain that he underestimated the number of missing in action and POW deaths (In Russian) and deaths of service personnel in rear area hospitals.

Makhmut Gareev Makhmut Akhmetovich Gareyev (, ; 23 June 1923 – 25 December 2019) was a Russian general and author of several books on the history of the Second World War. He served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces. Until his ...

former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR maintains that the published information on Soviet casualties is the work of the individual authors and not based on official data. According to Gareev the Russian government has not disclosed the actual losses in the war. In 2000 S. N. Mikhalev published a study of Soviet casualties. From 1989 to 1996 he was an associate of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defence. Mikhalev disputed Krivosheev's figure of 8.7 million military war dead, he put the losses of the at more than 10.9 million persons based on his analysis of those conscripted. He maintained that the official figures cannot be reconciled to the total men drafted and that POW deaths were understated. Mikhalev put total irreplaceable losses at 13.7 million, he believed at the official figures understated POW and missing losses, the deaths of service personnel convicted of offenses were not included with overall losses and the number that died of wounds was understated. German historian Roman Töppel, in his 2017 book on the battle of Kursk (written after consulting all available armies and units archives), noted that Krivosheev's figures for the Battle of Kursk are underestimated, probably by 40% Krivosheev did maintain POW and MIA losses of the combat forces were actually 1.783 million, according to Krivosheev the higher figures of dead includes reservists not on active strength, civilians and military personnel who were captured in the war.

Death

Krivosheev died on 29 April 2019 and was buried in the

Federal Military Memorial Cemetery The Federal Military Memorial Cemetery (Russian: Федеральное военное мемориальное кладбище) is a national cemetery of Russia, located in Mytishchinsky District, Moscow Oblast, on the north-eastern outskirts ...

on 2 May 2019.

References

Works cited