Barbos
Are you familiar with Zaitsev? I first learned about him in a book on the Battle Of Stalingrad.
I read several books about the Russian front along with other books about the African, European, and Pacific fronts.
Do you know anything about the campaigns in North Africa, Europe, Guadalcanal, Midway, and Okinawa? Do you know anything about the naval war in the North Atlantic that kept supplies from Canada and America coming to Russia?
Russia did in n no way single handedly ‘defeat the Germans’.
I am sure in conversation some will say we(America) defeated the Germans, but in general it is usually attributed to the combined efforts of the Allies. ‘We’ did it.
Russia was never really part of the Allies, more like the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied supreme commander, strategically chose not to push Western Allied forces to capture Berlin first during the final stages of WWII. His decision was rooted in a few key factors, including pre-existing agreements about how Germany would be divided after the war, a belief that capturing Berlin would result in unnecessary casualties and friendly fire, and a desire to avoid a potentially complex and chaotic situation of both Allied and Soviet forces attempting to enter the city simultaneously.
My point is Russian post revolution hatred of the west emphasized by Putin is counterproductive and ignores history. It is a moot point as Putin has by his words backed himself into a corner with no possibility of a rapprochement with the west.
Putin is obsessed with an image of Russia as great dominating empire of past Russian history, and like Hitler will drag down his country trying.