The Whisperers

* Proportionately it is arguable that Poland suffered more, but in absolute numbers the Soviet loss of human life and property was much greater.

† The Soviet authorities took the view that a wounded veteran who had the capacity to work was not a war invalid. It encouraged wounded veterans to find employment – to toughen up and thus recuperate – and paid only a small invalidity pension to about 3 million veterans

(B. Fieseler, ‘The War Disabled in the Soviet Union 1945–64’, paper presented at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London, September 2006).