People of the Revolution and the USSR

1912–2001 ○ Natural causes

The demographer who recalculated Yugoslavia’s wartime losses

Comparing censuses with expected population growth, he recalculated Yugoslavia's wartime toll at about 1,027,000, shaking the official figure of 1.7 million that had underpinned the 1946 reparations claim.

Vladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and demographer who became known for studying Yugoslavia’s population and wartime losses after a career in economic-development consulting. Comparing censuses with expected population trends, he sought to distinguish actual deaths from broader demographic loss and estimated about 1.027 million wartime deaths in Yugoslavia in 1989. His figures prompted renewed scrutiny of established narratives about victims of the Yugoslav Partisans and other forces, as well as postwar reprisals, while critics disputed aspects of his data and method.

1920–2013 ○ Natural causes

An independent statistician who recalculated Yugoslavia’s wartime losses

In 1985, he presented Yugoslavia’s wartime losses as separate figures for actual and demographic losses.

Bogoljub Kočović was a Serb jurist and statistician from Sarajevo who studied Yugoslavia’s population and wartime losses. In his 1985 book, he compared the 1921, 1931, and 1948 censuses and estimated about 1.014 million actual losses and 1.985 million demographic losses in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. His work offered an independent estimate distinct from the state figure of 1.706 million and became a central source in the historiographical dispute over the war’s victims.