During World War II, the Soviet Union paid a terrible price in the war against German aggression, and according to statistics, about 26 million Soviets lost their lives in the war, including as many as 11 million military personnel. Someone once made a special calculation that if the United States lost a soldier in the battle with the Germans, then about 80 soldiers died in the same battle in the Soviet Union, that is to say, the death rate of Soviet soldiers was about 80 times that of American soldiers.
Of course, such a high death rate actually had a lot to do with the improper command strategy of the Soviet leaders at that time, at least in the early stages of the war, the careless deployment of the Soviet high-level leadership gave the German army a considerable opportunity to become a living force in the formation to eliminate the Soviet army, and finally "like entering no man's land" on Soviet soil. The early "experience" lost too much, and the later stage was naturally suppressed!
By the time the German soldiers approached the city of Moscow, the Soviet Union had no way out, and only by fighting to the death could it avoid the danger of "destroying the country and destroying the species", and in such a situation, the Soviet people basically had no worries, in the words of our common people, "Horizontal and vertical are all dead, then fight a fish dead net."
Civilians and ordinary soldiers were still like this, so how did the children of those who came from the families of high-ranking Soviet officials perform in this tragic war? Are they "pampered" in the rear? Or did he go to the front line "without hesitation"?
What is certain is that in this war of anti-aggression, no Soviet citizen has "privileges", not even the children of high-ranking officials who were born rich and grew up in the shade of blessings. Most of them were sent to the front, facing German soldiers on the battlefield, and many died in battle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Yakov Zhugashvili</h1>
Yakov is probably the most famous descendant of high-ranking officials during World War II, as his father was Joseph Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union at the time.
On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany officially broke out, and the young Yakov Zhugashvili was an artillery company commander in the 14th Howitzer Regiment of the Soviet 20th Army. Although he participated with his troops in a series of counterattacks against Germany, Yakov was captured by the Germans in less than a month, in a battle at the Battle of Smolensk on July 16, 1941.
The Germans quickly figured out his identity after capturing him, because of his father's relationship, the Germans very much hoped that the "general tiger" could cooperate with him. Because if Yakov complied, the reputation of the supreme leader of the Soviet Union would be severely damaged, and the entire top level might also cause a series of major changes, so that the invasion of Germany would be greatly beneficial.
But the artillery company commander was still quite backbone, and he was unmoved by the Germans' abduction, and even said bluntly: If I had not been killed, my father would have felt ashamed of me!
In order to rescue Stalin's eldest son, the Soviets also planned several rescue operations, but the results were unsuccessful. After the unsuccessful persuasion, the Germans decided to use their special status to demand a high amount of "chips" from the Soviet Union! When the German general Friedrich von Paulus was captured, the Germans, through the Swedish Red Cross, proposed to Stalin that his son be exchanged for Paulus, but Stalin refused. The father then dropped a harsh sentence: I will not exchange a general for a soldier, because this is war!
Yakov, who was neither persuaded nor surrendered and was useless, was finally killed by a German guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on April 14, 1943, and the German explanation was that he wanted to escape through the barbed wire, and the guards had no choice but to shoot him.
This famous man did not have much brilliant performance in the battlefield, and he spent most of the war as a prisoner, and it is said that after Yakov was shot, the Soviet side posthumously recognized him with a first-class patriotic medal, which is also a comfort to his towering father!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > Vasily Stalin</h1>
Compared with the big brother who was more "nested", Stalin's younger son Vasily Stalin was much luckier, and his performance on the battlefield was remarkable!
After the outbreak of war, Vasily entered the service of the Soviet Air Force, and at first his position belonged to the rear, but Vasily had a lot of character! He didn't want people to think that he had been given a relaxed position because of a father like Stalin, so in 1942 he applied to go to the front to fight.
In 1943 Vasily was appointed commander of the 32nd Aviation Regiment, during which time he took to the skies 26 times and shot down two enemy aircraft.
It is worth noting that Vasily knew the peculiarities of his own identity, so he did not wear a parachute on every mission, which was explained in his own words: Stalin's son was not qualified to fall into the hands of the enemy alive!
By the end of the war Vasily had been promoted from regimental commander to commander of the 286th Aviation Division, which was also involved in the Soviet offensive against Berlin. Vasily received more than a dozen medals during the war, including three of the Red Banner Medal, the highest honor of the Soviet Union, and after the war he became commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, but was swept away by Stalin in 1952 for a flight accident.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > Timur Frunze</h1>
Timur Frunze's father was the famous commander of the Red Army, Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze, a veritable "shogun tiger"!
In 1940 Timur graduated from the Soviet Kachin Flight School, which at first wanted to stay with Timur because of his excellent academic performance, but he himself strongly demanded to go to the front to show his ambitions, so in 1942 Timur became a fighter pilot in the 191st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 57th Aviation Division of the Northwest Front.
Timur showed amazing talent here, and in time he would have become an ace pilot of the Soviet Air Force, but war is brutal, no matter what your identity!
On 19 January 1942 Timur and his wingman Ivan Shutov took off to meet a formation of 30 bombers escorted by eight fighters, and although the battle began Tamerlane shooting down two bombers, they were eventually shot down by the German Me-109 in the face of a disparity in power between the two sides. Afterwards, the Soviet army found the pilot's body near the village of Otvino in the Staroros district.
In March of the same year, Timur Frunze was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Soviet government!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > Leonid Khrushchev</h1>
Leonid Khrushchev was the son of Nikita Khrushchev (later the supreme leader of the Soviet Union), a member of the Politburo of the Soviet Central Committee at the time, and was also the son of a high-ranking official.
However, Leonid's combat resume is much richer than Stalin's son, who had made many achievements in the Soviet-Finnish War long before World War II and was an experienced bomber pilot.
After the outbreak of war, Leonid served in the 134th High-Speed Bomber Aviation Regiment, where he flew at least three or four sorties a day to carry out bombing missions, and in emergency he even carried out several missions alone without fighter escort.
On 26 July 1941, Leonid was surrounded by German fighters on his return from a bombing mission, and after a brawl he piloted the bomber he managed to survive, but was badly injured, crashing on landing, killing the navigator, and fractured Leonid's own leg.
In the winter of 1942, the recovered Leonid returned to the front and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, but this time he did not want to fly bombers anymore, but instead flew fighters, and then flew several times to meet the enemy.
On 11 March 1943, Leonid was shot down by a German plane during an air battle in which he crashed near the town of Zyzidra, 300 kilometers from Moscow, but his body was not found for a long time, and the official information was that he was missing.
In that special era, the performance of these famous people with a "halo" on their heads was really good, although there was not much achievement, but the attitude was still worth affirming!