The USSR was more pivotal to winning WW2 in Europe than the USA and Britain were

I thank rodmaster for instigating this debate. Before I begin, I would like to remind the readers of the nature of the resolution. It states that "The USSR was more pivotal...than the USA and Britain were". In order for me to refute this, I must either show that the USA and Britain were more pivotal, or that they were all equally pivotal. I will present my case, and refute my opponent's case in the next round. There must be an understanding throughout the readers that the USSR did help win the war, but to say they were vitally important in winning the war is a complete overstatement. Every country involved did what they could, except maybe France. Britain and the US both contributed equally to the amount of bodies thrown into the meat grinder, and established a successful campaign in western Europe. The USSR helped Hitler establish himself In 1939, Hitler was becoming very successful in Europe. His dream of a German world was starting to become a reality, and he needed to be stopped right then and there if millions of lives were to be saved. What exactly did Russia do? Did they instantly invade and disrupt Hitler's operations? Sadly, no. Instead, they signed a pact with Germany, called the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which was a non-aggression treaty [1]. Hitler and Stalin even worked together to take Poland out, splitting it right down the middle. The reader should, at this point, be able to realize that Stalin wasn't trying to win a war, but trying to further himself and his country. Stalin was simply waiting for WW2 to come along, so that he could seize the opportunity to take control of all of Europe. He just needed a spark to start it, and Hitler was that spark. According to Viktor Suvorov, "based on new documents and research, Mr. Suvorov argues that Stalin had a grand design to conquer all of Europe. Furthermore, far from being duped by Hitler, Stalin supported Nazi Germany as part of his offensive strategy ". Once Hitler entered the scene in Europe, Stalin and the USSR jumped at the chance to help them. They trained German soldiers in Russia and allowed them to practice using their poison gas and train soldiers to drive tanks and fly planes. [2- covers both the quote and the following fact] Hitler's cruel and ruthless war machine was started only with the help of he USSR, so this puts them at a major disadvantage for winning the "Most pivotal to winning WW2" award. Stalin is even How can they be considered pivotal in winning when they were pivotal in starting World War Two! We are comparing USSR to Britain and USA. It doesn't make sense to say that two countries which did more to actually end the war wasn't as critical as one country which did more to start the war. So already the United States and Britain are ahead in this debate. The Eastern Front Fell due to Hitler, not the USSR Widely misconceived is the notion that Stalin was brave and courageous in defending the interests of Europe and his homeland. It's actually opposite, of course. Stalin wanted to work with Hitler, at least a much longer time than Hitler had in mind (Hitler attack two years after the non-aggression pact that ensured 10 years of peace). "Stalin seems to have been caught off-guard by Hitler's betrayal...Suvorov explains that it was...profound disappointment that characterized Stalin's reaction" [2]. It was when Hitler attacked the Soviets in an attack known as Operation Barbarossa that Stalin actually attempted to fight back. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to attack Russia in May, to avoid fighting in the winter, but assisting Italy in conflicts in Greece and North Africa pushed the invasion date to June, a costly mistake by Hitler [3]. He now had less time to defeat the Russians, a task that every army before him had failed to do due to Russia's climate. The initial attack was extremely successful, and the Nazis pushed all the way to Moscow. They controlled the Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Belarus. Defeating the poorly equipped and trained Russian army was easy [3]. However, Hitler had taken too long to take down Russia, and the winter set in. Temperatures reached 40 degrees below zero, freezing men in their sleep. The German's weren't prepared to face winter, and were stuck with spring uniforms. The Russians, however, were warm and toasty with their preparedness. Plenty of German soldiers froze to death, most likely more than were killed by the Russians, and eventually they stretched their supply lines so thin that they couldn't fight anymore, for they had no more bullets [3]. This is what caused the devastation to the bulk of Hitler's army. The Russian cold did more than the Russian army. US/UK breached western front and eliminated Italian forces, splitting German focus and ending the war D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans. The capability of the Allied forces was really shown through this victory. Against all odds, German entrenchments and bunkers were taken over in a beach assault. Prior to this, the Allies, mainly comprised of British, swept Africa and eliminated Italian forces, making it that much harder for the Axis to win [4]. With Italy rendered basically harmless due to the fighting power of the British, the American's were able to perform D-Day with great success. Germany was now in a position that lost it it's first world war. She was surrounded by hostiles. While the bulk of the German army was being driven back to Germany from Moscow and Russian forces, Western allies were recapturing France and liberating prisoners of war, all the while advancing on German ground and putting a massive dent in the Nazi Empire. Russia did nothing but repel an attack that the Nazi's issued and storm Berlin, which the other allies allowed them to do. They stormed Berlin along with the US and England, showing them to be equal. |Conclusion| To summarize, the Russians helped establish the Germans and prepared them for WW2, then signed a non-aggression pact with them, which they were stunned was broken by the Germans in a fierce assault. The assault had many major victories at first, eliminating a large part of the Russian army, and even resulted in the capture of many USSR provinces. Then the winter set in and ruined the German army, allowing an easy pushback by the Red Army. We can see Britain was also under siege, worse so than the Russians, and they still were capable of fighting, as seen in the major success of the African Campaign by the British. Then, the United States comes from the west, shatters German defensive positions, and starts liberating the west. This draws focus away from the East for Germany, and towards the West, thus splitting the Nazi effort and weakening them. Then Berlin was stormed and the war in Europe over. Through all this, I find it very much adequate and fair to state that the USSR, Britain, and America were all equally critical in ending the war in Europe. That, or you could even see that the British and Americans were more critical in ending the war. Sources 1. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk... 2. http://www.academia.org... 3. http://barry-vale.suite101.com... 4. http://worldwar2-wwii.com...