Thread: Lenin: Good or bad?

Had the USSR lost to the Nazi Germany, I don't think the quality of life in the territories which made up the USSR would change for better.

Well - USSR and Nazi Germany themselves started this war as allies (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).

Originally Posted by nulle

Well - USSR and Nazi Germany themselves started this war as allies (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).

And what difference does it make in our discussion? Alright, so in a wider sense both were the aggressors. The Nazi Germany started the war having the goals of expansion as much as the USSR. By the end of the war the Nazi Germany shrunk and the USSR expanded. As an aggressor, the USSR achieved more of its goals than the Nazi Germany. But whenever the victory over the Nazi Germany is praised as a achievement of the USSR, the Nazi Germany was clearly an aggressor and the USSR was a defender, thus making the part of the WWII between the summer of 1941 to the spring of the 1945 a patriotic war for the USSR. Of course, later the same year 1945 the USSR became aggressor assaulting Japan, but that's another story, which is usually not stated as one of the greatest achievements of the USSR. Even though it was a great victory. The entire Japanses army which was the major force on the continent had been destroyed in four weeks.