I’m sure that when Putin was a child he learned all about how the Soviets crushed the Germans in 1945. But I’ll bet his teacher skipped over how little Finland bogged down the Red Army in 1939-1940.
The Finn’s negotiated a separate peace in 1944 to avoid continued losses as Russia began to assault Finland. They drove the Germans out of Finland as part of that agreement.
Finland eventually lost that war and lost about a third of its territory.
Putin’s grandfather was a personal cook for Stalin. Putin has lived in the bubble of political patronage his whole life.
His generals and intelligence chief told him not to invade Ukraine. That it would be too costly. Basically “a failure” without saying so. He told them Russian soldiers would be met with flowers. Eerily similar to Hitler and his general staff prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Both hallucinating the illusion of restoring a fallen empire.
It is quite interesting how Russia is such a historically slow starter when reviewing the great wars.
Like you said, terrible trouble with little ole Finland early on in WWII (I am convinced this played a major role in Hitlers decision to invade Russia) but by 1945 they were an absolute steamroller. You did not want to be on the field vs Russian forces in 1945