Allied or Soviet Victory in Europe?

Having given the western Allies their due, it should be recognized that the Soviet contribution to the war against Nazi Germany was absolutely necessary to an allied victory in Europe. Without it, the Third Reich would have been able to field comparatively huge forces against any Allied invasion of Europe and the Nazis could have switched production towards the air and naval assets required to fight the sea powers. This was in fact Hitler's intention for the period after the defeat of the USSR as laid out in Directive 32 "Preparations for the period after 'Barbarossa.'" The defeat of the Soviet Union in 1941 or 1942 would have sealed the fate of Europe.

There can be no doubt that the human and material losses to the USSR and the western Allies were grossly unequal when compared to the political and economic benefits derived from the ultimate victory over the Third Reich. While more than a bit ironic, this is a testament to the nature of international relations. The Soviet alliance with the West was a military and political pact built on a mutual interest in defeating Germany and the Axis. The Soviets did not fight for the sake of the western Allies and the Allies did not fight for the Soviets. Each state had its own agenda to carry out and they agreed on little more than the fact that the Soviets needed help to defeat Nazi Germany. They could barely agree on how much help or what kind of help, much less the postwar order. Towards the end of the war, the western Allies also took an interest in how great a victory the Soviets were to be allowed in Eastern Europe, but that too is international politics for you. Churchill, for example, wanted to take Berlin with an eye on postwar negotiations with the Soviets. Much of the postwar animosity between the former allies comes from this lack of appreciation in the west of the tremendous scale of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

It is a nasty brutish world and the results of WWII reflected the relative power of the western Allies and the USSR. By the time of the victory in Europe the western Allies were substantially more powerful than the Soviet Union and so they reaped the profits of World War II which many Soviets would say were paid for with Soviet blood.

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