Russia did not WIN the war. It succeeded in driving the Germans out of their country, then proceeded to enslave other countries under the guise of “Red Army liberation” from Yugoslavia to the Baltic States, Germany, Austria (they did withdraw from there), Hungary, No. Korea and Manchuria, Kurile Islands (still got them and want the Ryukus), Poland (where the Red Army let the Germans kill hundreds of thousands of Polish freedom/resistance fighters and civilians during and after the Warsaw Uprising - a late friend of mine, Stefan Korbonski, was one of the leaders of the Polish Free Army, and was declared a “Righteous Gentile” by Israel for his help in arming the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto and getting others, esp. children, out before the final assaults), etc.
If it weren’t for US military and economic aid during the war, the Russian part of the Soviet Union might have largely been conquered by the Germans. We gave Stalin over 8-10,000 railroad engines and freight cars, hundreds, if not thousands of aircraft (The Black Widows flew the P 39 Aircobra), finished metals, chemicals, food, etc. including some nuclear materials (I believe this Harry Hopkins run-around-regulations scheme was written up in Col. Jordan’s “Diaries” or by a U.S. Major who was the official liaison to the Soviets in this matter. He was overwritten on security concerns and violations by Hopkins, who later information (VENONA, etc) shows to have been a devoted Soviet sympathizer if not an actual agent/operative or asset).
Remember, the Soviets/KGB killed over 12-17,000 Polish Army Reserve Officers (about half of whom were Jewish), in the infamous Katyn Forest Massacre - there were a few survivors who testified before the US Congress about this) while blaming it on the Germans (who were not in that Forest’s area in winter when the killings took place (it had been occupied by the Red Army until the Germans drove them out of it and revealed the massacre to the world).
Millions of Russian soldiers and civilians died bravely fighting the Germans/Nazis, yet Stalin killed hundreds of thousands of them, as well as a million or more civilians, through his ruthless and incompetence. And after the war, many more were killed by Stalin for falsely supporting the German invaders (though many were killed in Ukraine for fighting the occupying Red Army).
History is very complicated, not simple. We gave freedom to the parts of Europe that we liberated. The Soviets made their conquered lands into prisons and slave labor camps.
Yes, just don’t say that today in Putin’s Russia. The Russian govt is VERY ANGRY about Poland and Ukraine removing their Lenin and Soviet-era monuments.
Small correction. The USSR invaded Finland, the Baltic states, Poland and Romania when the USSR and the Nazis were still allied. They even held a joint victory parade in Poland together with the Nazi forces.