No, the makeup of the Soviet military in WW2 was pretty proportional in terms of Ukrainians (and other minorities) to Russians. However, much of Ukraine was denied to the Soviet Union as a recruiting ground due to early Nazi successes, so one could argue that Ukrainians were overrepresented in comparison to the overall manpower that the USSR had at its disposal.
This seems unlikely given the population disparity between the Russians and Ukrainians (which was similar then as it is today) and the casualty figures. I can’t find actual estimates of the ethnic breakdown of the army, but there are breakdowns of casualties by SSR. Obviously SSR is not a perfect analogue of ethnicity, but the numbers are far enough apart that I think it does the job here. Roughly 65% of military casualties were from Russia, 15% from Ukraine. Ukrainians were one of only two groups to be overrepresented as a proportion of casualty figures relative to their population though, the other being Belarusians.
There actually have been recent disputes over this, as the WW2 Soviet army and the Soviet army crushing the 1956 Hungarian revolution with tanks (the origin of the word “tankie” BTW) were largely the same armies. Hungarian propaganda was blaming the Ukranians, but the army based on the deaths was proportional to the demographics of the Union, 30% UA, 60% RU, 10% mixed other IIRC.
Wasn’t the majority of those Russian soldiers in WW2 made of Ukrainians?
No, the makeup of the Soviet military in WW2 was pretty proportional in terms of Ukrainians (and other minorities) to Russians. However, much of Ukraine was denied to the Soviet Union as a recruiting ground due to early Nazi successes, so one could argue that Ukrainians were overrepresented in comparison to the overall manpower that the USSR had at its disposal.
This seems unlikely given the population disparity between the Russians and Ukrainians (which was similar then as it is today) and the casualty figures. I can’t find actual estimates of the ethnic breakdown of the army, but there are breakdowns of casualties by SSR. Obviously SSR is not a perfect analogue of ethnicity, but the numbers are far enough apart that I think it does the job here. Roughly 65% of military casualties were from Russia, 15% from Ukraine. Ukrainians were one of only two groups to be overrepresented as a proportion of casualty figures relative to their population though, the other being Belarusians.
There actually have been recent disputes over this, as the WW2 Soviet army and the Soviet army crushing the 1956 Hungarian revolution with tanks (the origin of the word “tankie” BTW) were largely the same armies. Hungarian propaganda was blaming the Ukranians, but the army based on the deaths was proportional to the demographics of the Union, 30% UA, 60% RU, 10% mixed other IIRC.