U ovom članku opisane su okolnosti u kojima se došlo do prvotnog broja od 1,7 milijuna žrtava rata na teritoriju prijeratne Jugoslavije u razdoblju od 1941. do 1945. godine, koji je i službeno vlada Federativne Narodne Republike Jugoslavije 1946. godine podnijela Međunarodnoj reparacionoj komisiji u Parizu. Iz tog opisa može se vidjeti kako se nastojala dokazati ispravnost te prve procjene, koja je dana prije nego što je obavijen prvi popis preživjelog stanovništva (popis je obavljen 15. 3. 1948., a rezultati popisa obrađeni su tek 1951. godine), te što se sve poduzimalo da se ne dođe do točnih podataka.The article describes the circumstances which led to the figure of 1.7 million war victims on the territory of former Yugoslavia during the years 1941-1945, which was submitted in 1946 by the government of the Federal People\u27s Republic of Yugoslavia to the International Reparation Commission in Paris. The author shows how this estimation, which was done before the first post war census conducted on March 15, 1948 and not analyzed until 1951, is not founded. Based on the available official documentation, the author establishes that the total number of war victims on the territory of farmer Yugoslavia could not have exceeded one million persons. Hence, the statements of some Serb authors and statesmen that just in the concentration camp of Jasenovac a million of Serbs were murdered is simply unfounded. The author blames certain stare offices, especially the Federal Office for the Statistics, for miscalculations of the war victims and for concealing the results of the census of 1946 and 1964. In fact, this concealment of truth about the number of war victims led to tensions between Serbs and Croats, which served as a pretext to Serbia to wage the war against Croatia with ultimate goal - the establishment of the Great Serbia