1933-45, since thats the time nazi germany was around and everything
although i guess you could really count it from 1939-53 if you want, its more or less living through either hitlers reign or stalins reign
10-20 million Russian civilians were killed in the Eastern front, partially due to the Soviet's willingness to sacrifice its own civilians, many Soviet civilians weren't allowed to evacuate cities during siege's and battles such as Stalingrad, and Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
The Siege of Stalingrad began on August 23rd, 1942. The German 6th army, supported by the 4th Panzer army, and Luftwaffe attacks surrounded the city. Within 4 months the German army had pushed Soviet forces to the Volga River, the fighting soon turned in to brutal hand-to-hand and house-to-house combat. WIth both sides dumping reinforcements into the city the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, with Soviet forces attacking the flanks of the German 6th army, soon routing them and boxing them into Stalingrad which is exactly what they did to the Soviets. With dwindling supplies, and no food left the German 6th army would surrender, little did they realize the majority wouldn't survive the Russian Gulag and POW camps. In total, the Russians lost a little over 1.2 million civilians and soldiers in the fighting, the German's lost nearly 300,000 men, (Axis) Italy lost 114,000, (Axis) Romania lost 109,000, and (Axis) Hungary lost 105,000, Axis casualties combined totals 627,000+ men who were killed or wounded in the fighting.
The Siege of Leningrad began on September 8th, 1941 as German forces blockaded the city trapping civilians and military personnel. No food and water were able to get into the city, as a result hundreds of thousands of people were to starve and freeze to death during the siege. The casualty numbers were staggering... Over 1 million civilians were to be killed, 400,000 of these civilians were killed during the evacuation, the Soviets suffered a total of 3.4 million casualties. Germany suffered nearly 1/6th of those numbers, losing 580,000 men during the siege.
After the Eastern front had collapsed the German army was in full retreat to defend the fatherland (Germany) from advancing Soviet soldiers. These men were combat-hardened veterans who were bloodthirsty and out for revenge.
During the Battle of Berlin Germany was on its knee's, with the American's pushing from the west and the Soviet's shelling the city it wasn't long before Adolf Hitler committed suicide. 844,000 Germans would be captured, killed, or wounded in the battle, 22,000 of those civilians. Russia lost over 360,000 soldiers, 2,108 artillery pieces, and 1,997 tanks.
During the Battle of Berlin, nearly 10,000 soldiers fought till the very end of the Western front of WW2. At the Battle of the center near the Reichstag, these men were eventually cut off, massacred, and forced to surrender; 1 day before Germany's official surrender. Shortly After Berlin had fallen millions of German refugee's tried to flee the Red Army. Rapes and murder were widespread, it is estimated nearly 600,000 to 3 million men, women, and children were abused, raped, and brutally murdered. Not to mention the 100,000 or so German civilians who were killed in air raids by Britain who intentionally targetted civilian center's.
World War II was a disgusting and violent war, no matter what side you were on almost every country had civilian losses, and the sad part about it is that nobody cared. Everyone was a target in World War II, non-combatant or soldier you were likely to be killed if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The disgusting war crimes committed by governments is not tolerable and all governments regardless of the side should pay money for what they did to civilians during the war. Another great example of war crimes was Japan who killed over 3 million civilians from multiple different countries in Asia, such as Indonesia and China. The Chinese government also flooded the Yellow River in 1939 to prevent the advancing of the Japanese army, killed hundreds of thousands of fleeing Chinese civilians. The United States also dropped 2 atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 120,000-180,000 civilians, 20,000 Japanese soldiers were also killed. No matter what side you were on, there were brutal executions and bombings that the militaries of the world performed on enemy combatants and civilians.
Living in both Russia and Germany during World War II was a sad, and violent time which would probably result in your death if you were anywhere's near the Eastern front or serving in the military, no side was better than the other.
