Question by Justin: Who were the target of conscription to the Red Army during the Soviet-German War?
More than 10 million Red Army soldiers were killed in the Soviet-German War.
I want to know about the target of conscription to the Red Army.
Most of the battle fields and German-occupied land were non-Russian territories – the Baltic States, Belarus or Ukraine, with a notable exception of Leningrad or Stalingrad.
But I’ve heard that most of the Red Army troops were composed of Russians.
Then, did the Soviet government draft men living to the east of the Urals or even those living in the Far East cities like Vladivostok to the war?
I guess that Belarussians and Ukranians were surely drafted to the battles, because their territorries were the very war fields.
But I’ve heard that the Baltic men volunteered for the German Waffen-SS instead of the Red Army.
I wonder whether Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Uzbeks , Tajiks and other Central Asians were the target of conscription.
What about the ethnic minorities in Russia like Cossacks, Jews, Volga Germans, Tartars, Koreans, Greeks, Turks etc? – Were they possibly exempted from conscription?
Answers and Views:
Answer by quinton c
the main target was…well, anyone who could fire a weapon. there are recoreded incidents of women who manned anti-air batteries around moscow being forced to stay at their guns to fire on german tanks. There are also the recored incidents of any male from 15-65 being forced into stalingrad to fight, and if they resisted they were shot. The russians just generally didnt care about losses, they had the highest population in the world and they knew it.
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infested by mindworms says
even Mongols were in the Russian troops.
Russians valued the Siberian [russian] hunters for their ability to live and fight in the cold enviroment. they were excellent Ski infantry and were one of the key elements in gaining the initiative after the german stalemate at moscow.
Cossacks living in Ukraine actually were sympathising with Germans.
Seán O says
No body were exempted from soviet conscription – not even women