What Country Was Most Responsible for Winning WW2?
When the Second World War ended in May 1945 and Nazi Regime tumbled down, it was the rise of two winner fronts – the USSR and the United States. But which side gave more and became the most responsible for that victory?
Different sources, both American and Soviet and now Russian gave us almost opposite information. American sources mostly consider Western Allies as the main players on that chess board. While the three-quarters believe that Soviet could have defeated Nazis without Western help. These contrary opinions definitely caused by the Cold War.
Because both the Soviet Union and the U.S. wanted to determine the positions. However, Valentin Falin, Russian historian, emphasize that “USSR estimates the help of its allies and that this victory is the result of joint operations against the common enemy” (Whitcomb, 1998).
In the beginning of 1990’s, several declassified documents were published. And those documents have shown that Nazi Regime was defeated by the Soviet Union with an extremely high cost. According to the Russian government statistics, “the USSR losses after the war were around 26.6 million” (Ellman & Maksudov, 1994). It is the highest amount of death of one country in a history. British historian and journalist Max Hastings in his book also mentioned that “Western Allies were very smart to use the Soviet Union for defeating the Nazi’s Germany as far as USSR paid almost whole butcher’s bill in that war, taking more than 90 percent of casualties” (Hastings, 2011). These facts show that the contribution of the most powerful members of Grand Alliance is not equal.
Therefore, despite the importance of all the countries for the winning, we can consider the Soviet Union as the most responsible.
Works Cited
Ellman, M. & Maksudov, S. (1994). “Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War.”
Europe-Asia Studies. 46(4), pp. 671-80.
Hastings, M. (2011). All hell let loose. London: HarperPress.
Whitcomb, R. (1998). The Cold War in retrospect. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
