True. But who destroyed the Nazis? It was the Soviets. The Soviets had to prevail at the Battle of Stalingrad before they could "conquer" Eastern Europe. Even though the territory was already destroyed and occupied by the Nazis, the Soviets still deserved the credit so they built that empire.
“But who destroyed the Nazis? It was the Soviets.”
Only in Russia and the east.
The Soviets were not involved at all in the allied invasions of North Africa or Sicily or the Italian peninsula or the Low Countries or France. They weren’t involved at all on the seas.
And they only jumped into the war against the Japanese after Japan had been nuked at Hiroshima, and on the same day that Nagasaki was nuked, and Japan was already defeated (but had not yet accepted the Allies’ terms of unconditional surrender). At that, it did not fight in the Pacific at all, but only moved into Manchuria and Mongolia against a weakened and broken down remnant force of Japanese conscripts and impressed Koreans, as the Japanese troops with combat experience had been sent to fight the US in the Pacific.
The Soviets deserve a great deal of credit for defeating the Germans in the east, but only after four years of fighting them. Kudos to them for their fight at Stalingrad.
But, the Soviets must share blame with Nazi Germany for beginning WWII in the first place, on September 1, 1939, as it was allied with the Nazis in the invasion of Poland and the Baltics.
“Even though the territory was already destroyed and occupied by the Nazis, the Soviets still deserved the credit so they built that empire.”
An empire of slave states and subjected peoples. Some portfolio.
Who allied with he Nazis to divide Eastern Europe and defeat the West if not Stalin.