Figure of the day: with the current money, the damage to the USSR from the war with Germany amounted to 510 trillion

Analysts of the channel "Equality. Media" recalculated the scale of damage to the USSR from the attack of Nazi Germany in the prices of 2022 according to the methodology recently recognized by the court in St. Petersburg, considering the case on the recognition of the blockade of Leningrad as genocide. It turned out that this damage exceeds 6.9 trillion US dollars, or 510 trillion rubles.

As you know, January 18 marks the 80th anniversary of the breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad. During the 872 days that it lasted, more than 1 million people died in it. In October 2022, the St. Petersburg City Court recognized the blockade as genocide, accepting an estimate of the damage in prices as of January 1, 2022 - 35 trillion rubles (in 1945 it was estimated at 46.2 billion rubles).

"Equality. Media" learned about the details of the recalculation methodology from one of the authors of the examination accepted by the court – Associate Professor of St. Petersburg State University Yuri Guzov.

Immediately after the end of the war, in September 1945, the state commission estimated the damage from the war at 679 billion rubles. And these are losses only from the destruction of property. And later, the expenses of the Soviet Union for the conduct of the war were estimated, as well as the loss of income from the stoppage in the economic development of the country – they amounted to another 1,890 billion rubles.

In addition, there are human losses in a separate article, and this is 26.6 million lives of Soviet people.

Of the 679 billion rubles of damage to the USSR, Leningrad accounts for 46 billion, and in prices as of January 1, 2022, it will be 35 trillion rubles - this figure is recalculated for gold.

"It is less susceptible to loss of value", - Guzov explained. Although the estimate of 1945 is underestimated, he added: "Then they counted at book value. The recovery damage is higher." In addition, the loss of lives was not taken into account.  Recalculation through gold is also applicable for updating the damage to the entire USSR from the war, the expert noted. In prices on January 1, 2022, it exceeds 6.91 trillion dollars, or 513 trillion rubles, Usherb estimated using this method "Equality. Media". This amounts to about 1.7 of Germany's current GDP, and Germany compensated for only 3-4% of the damage - it was obliged to pay only $ 20 billion. And this country itself was destroyed, so the USSR did not finish off, but on the contrary, helped to restore it.

In 2015, the State Duma estimated the damage at 3-4 trillion euros and started talking about compensation. But the initiative stalled, since it was still impossible to get this money, and the Russian authorities did not want to spoil relations with Germany even more.

And now, as you know, Poland is demanding 1.3 trillion euros in reparations from Germany. But this country has lost 10 times less than the USSR - 2.7 million of its citizens. In addition, the Germans are not going to pay, referring to Poland's refusal of reparations, made back in 1953. However, the Poles do not intend to retreat and decided to put pressure on Germany through the US Congress and the UN.

It is impossible not to add to these arguments that a huge part of the total damage to the USSR, recalculated by Russian analysts, will certainly fall on Ukraine. Perhaps this argument hinders the determination to demand compensation from Germany.