To the question about the total number of Soviet prisoners of war and the extent of their scope mortality (1941-1945)

The article attempts to establish the total quantity of soviet Prisoners of War (PsW), the ratio of the died and the survived prisoners during the period of Great Patriotic War 1941 – 1945 on the basis of maximum approach to the data (often dubious and controversial) from the documentary sources known to the modern historical science. Special attention is paid to reasoned criticism of the versions existing in the domestic and German literature, regarding the a.m. statistics; the author reveals the causes of their inauthenticity.