Nakon rata počeo je hladni rat. Mnoge zemlje su pale pod komunistički režim. Mnoge zemlje su se odupirale komunističkom režimu, no Sovjetski Savez je pomoću vojske ugušila ustanak. Tek nakon pada komunizma u Europi (1990.) ljudi su mogli slobodno iskazivati svoje mišljenje.
↑According to G. I. Krivosheev. (Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997 ISBN1-85367-280-7), in the Eastern Front, Axis countries and German co-belligerents sustained 1,468,145 irrecoverable losses (668,163 KIA/MIA), Germany herself – 7,181,100 (3,604,800 KIA/MIA), and 579,900 PoWs died in Soviet captivity. So the Axis KIA/MIA amounted to 4.8 million in the East during the period of 1941–1945. This is more than a half of all Axis losses (including Asia/Pacific theatre). The USSR sustained 10.5 million military losses (including PoWs died in German captivity, according to Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN5-93165-107-1), so the number of military deaths (the USSR and the Axis) amounted to 15 million, far greater than in all other WWII theatres. According to the same source, total Soviet civilian deaths within post-war borders amounted to 15.7 million. The numbers for other Central European country and German civilian casualties are not included here
↑Vadim Erlikman, Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke: spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN5-93165-107-1; Mark Axworthy, Third Axis Fourth Ally. Arms and Armour 1995, p. 216. ISBN1-85409-267-7
↑Rűdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Oldenbourg 2000. ISBN3-486-56531-1, Richard Overy The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004), ISBN0-7139-9309-X