The Soviets were absolutely instrumental in helping end WW2 as fast and conclusive as it did. They didn’t win it, but they sure contributed. If the troops fighting on the Eastern Front had been allocated to the West, we may have wound up with something less than unconditional surrender, or perhaps the use of Nukes. And, without the Soviets, perhaps the Nazis would have bought enough time and resources to acquire their own nukes??
Replaying WW2 is such fun, it’s like sooo many people’s favorite discussion.
No one is denying the Soviet Union’s decisive military efforts, but if you examine the language of Mr. Lavrov, he uses words like ‘liberate.’ - The real battle is over who gets the credit for the MORAL victory of liberating a continent.
To begin with: it’s irritating that the massive acts of rape and pillage which accompanied Soviet military ‘victories’ particularly west of Russia hardly gets mention. Some people have vague ideas about the ‘Rape of Berlin’ but too many German women found their memories far too difficult to rehash and keep in the spotlight of history. The estimated numbers of women affected are in the hundreds of thousands.
Secondly, the Soviet Union’s moral role can only be properly examined in light of the context of the continent *preceding* the war. If properly understood, the Soviet Union was equally responsible for inviting carnage as they were in defeating their fellow carnage-makers. Whether it was Bolshevism or National Socialism, both societies were in their own collective state of delusional, murderous psychosis. Both societies threatened to swallow up the globe with their detestable ideologies.
Finally, and most egregious of all, is the trend among disenchanted American conservatives to not only downplay our country’s role in the War, but to BLAME IT for our current state of lefty globalism. Coinciding with this is a downplaying of the Holocaust and anti-Semitic sentiments in general. When really, it’s precisely the lingering influence of Soviet (socialist) values and elements which continue to weaken the West.