I'm no fan this truly evil SOB. Stalin was actually FOR Hitler before he was AGAINST him.
But it is foolish to discount the massive effort that Russia put up against the Nazis (once they were no longer allies).
Luckily for the Russians, they had winter on their side.
The Stalin-Hitler Pact was the only treaty in 70+ years that the Soviet Union didn't break, and that's only because Hitler beat them to it.
The Russkies fought bravely, but Stalin did as little as possible and got the biggest rewards becauyse FDR and the Commies who surrounded him kissed "Uncle Joe"'s posterior.
It wasn't Stalin that won the war; it was th e combined effort of the Allies. The ordinary Russians did much more to win that war than Stalin did.
BTW, has anyone ever noticed the resemblance between Stalin and Saddam?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Prior to Hitler's arrival on the German political scene, the Soviets allowed the Wehrmacht to train German pilots & tankers on Russian soil. The Treaty of Versailles outlawed a German Air Force and prohibited the German Army from possessing certain classes of weaponry. Hitler ended the arrangement because he no longer needed it after he abbrogated the Treaty of Versailles.
I wonder how similar German & Russian tactics might have been if Stalin hadn't purged the Soviet General Staff prior to the outbreak of WW2.
Stalin was for nobody but himself. The Soviet Union aligned with Germany in the Nazi-Soviet pact in order to bring about war within the capitalist west. They thought that it would sap the strength of both sides and leave the Soviets to pick up the pieces. No doubt he was shocked when the Germans overran France in 6 weeks - leaving him all alone with Hitler on the continent.
By signing the Non Agression Pact with Germany, Stalin, helped to instigate World War II.