During the months preceding to the battle, as the Red Army began its offensives into Germany proper, the STAVKA recognised the potential for lapses in discipline among vengeful troops as the Red Army began offensives in Germany proper in the months preceding the battle, and were able to check such behaviour to a certain extent. In a 27 January order near the conclusion of the Vistula-Oder Offensive, Marshal Konev supplied a long list of commanders to be reassigned to penal battalions for looting, drunkenness, and excesses against civilians (Duffy 1991, p. 275).

Although all sources agree that rapes occurred, the numbers put forward are estimates. A frequently quoted number is that 100,000 women in Berlin were raped by soldiers of the Red Army (Helke Sander & Barbara Johr: BeFreier und Befreite, Fischer, Frankfurt 2005). Russian historians, while not denying that Soviet forces committed rape, question whether the crimes were widespread (Lavrenov & Popov 2000, halaman 374–375; Rzheshevsky 2002; Gareev 2005).