The 1941–45 period of World War II is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet Union together with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered as the Big Four of Allied powers in World War II, and later became the Four Policemen which was the foundation of the United Nations Security Council. During this war, which included many of the most lethal battle operations in human history, Soviet civilian and military death were about 26-27 million, accounting for about a third of all World War II casualties. The full demographic loss of Soviet citizens was even greater. The Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation, which caused the Soviet famine of 1946–47. Nonetheless, the Soviet Union emerged as a global superpower in the aftermath.