https://sthb.petrsu.ru/journal/article.php?id=3022One of the tasks of the Center is to find out data on causalities of the Soviet armed forces in the Soviet-Finnish war. For this end the initial electronic database containing 168 024 records was reduced to 138 533 records by removal of duplicating records of casualties. Additionally data on more than Soviet POWs who died in the Finnish captivity before the exchange of prisoners in May 1940 were added to the database. As of 29 December 2014 the database contain 138 509 records of Red Army personnel who where killed, died or went missing in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40.
I guess they are talking about the same database as indicating by close numbers (167 976 and 168 024).
Kilin's database is available online:
http://www.winterwar.karelia.ru/site/bd/
In essence it is based on mostly the same primary records as the data of the Soviet Ministry of Defense and the Main Staff from 1949-1951 (126 875 according to Krivosheev). Not that the difference (7-8%) is outstandingly large, and also the latter number didn't include nonbattle casualties.
Further on, there is a problem of duplicating records. Kilin says that he mostly cleared them. I'm a more skeptical man. A simple search by the database gives:
- Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, private of the 115 Rifle Regiment/75 Rifle Division, born in Drozdy village of the Ostrov district, killed in action in December 1939
- Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, private of the 115 Rifle Regiment/75 Rifle Division, born in Batalovo village of the Ostrov district, missing in action in December 1939
Obviously this is the same man corresponding to two different records. There are similar cases of duplication. Some are more subtle, and in some cases it is impossible to determine if they are duplicating or not.
That applies likewise to the 1941-1945 period. There is nor problem to count the total number of casualties records. Since they are digitized and uploaded online that would take a couple of minutes. The problem is to find the "physical" number of casualties, cleared of duplicates, repatriated POWs, recovered missing etc.