Hello Historians,
I love answering questions as a passionate historian but today I'm looking for some answers!
I've read a lot into Soviet history and am always fascinated by the 'Great Patriotic War' and the sacrifices made by the brave people of Russia along with those in Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine amongst a host of other nations. I've always been peturbed by the notion that America saved Europe in WW2. I understand that they made huge economic contributions to the Soviets however in terms of boots on the ground and men killing nazis it has to be accepted that the Soviets did more than any other nation surely!
Firstly - am I overstating the role of the Soviet Union - I know they made some pretty ghastly errors in the first few years of war, however my understanding is that their economic output and tank/armaments building was immense and greatly contributed to their victory.
Secondly, why is this myth of American heroism so pervasive? Is it simply because of the film industry and the self-centred nature of Americans who rarely can see beyond their borders.
I don't think you're overstating the role of the Soviets. The Eastern Front was a titanic struggle where the Nazis lost most of their men, armaments, resources, etc.
However, you might be understating the impact of lend-lease. Over the course of the war the US shipped out about $50 billion in supplies, equivalent to about $760 billion today. The US spent nearly $12 billion on supplies to the soviets in the form of food, munitions, equipment, raw materials, etc. Would Britain have been able to make it without American aid, would the Soviets have to been able to win in the East without American aid?
Another reason that the Americans might be considered the "saviors" of Europe is the conduct of each side towards the end of the war. As they drove across Eastern Europe and Germany they were incredibly cruel to many of the peoples they came across, especially the Germans and the mass rapes carried out by the Red Army. Another example is how the Red Army stopped outside of Warsaw and let the Germans defeat the Warsaw Uprising, rather than helping the uprising.
After the end of the war, the Soviets assumed de facto control over Eastern Europe, whether it was welcomed or not. This, coupled with the tensions of the Cold War, led to the tarnishing of the Soviet image
I'm not sure there is a firm answer to this, but I'll offer my best assessment.
Firstly, and I think most obviously, the sentiment that America 'saved' Europe is mostly a western European opinion that is prominent because of their prevalence in world media in the time since; film, music, art, etc. I'm sure many people in eastern Europe have a different view of the war.
As a compliment to my first point, the American lead Allies liberated France, Italy, Beligum, and the Netherlands. As well as lending an enormous amount of aid to the UK, who stood a very real chance of being occupied had the US not. These five nation have historically been very major players in Europe and the symbolic significance of their liberation can't be understated, neither can the liberation of a large amount of concentration camps, Dachau and Buchenwald among them.
Lastly, I would assume that America 'saving' Europe must be more prominent in Europe than here. As an American, I'm not sure I've ever heard another American say that we 'saved' Europe. For the most part, we see WWII in Europe as a mutual effort between all Allies. We, in fact, romanticize fighters from many different countries during the war; the French Resistance, British fighter pilots, Dutch and German and Polish citizens who helped smuggle Jews out of Europe. And yes, we are even thankful for the Russians and their winters that helped rid the world of Hitler and the Nazis.
The united states gave a fantastic amount of money and supplies to the USSR during the war as well as acted as kind of an "arm" of the soviet union in certain cases, when it came to exerting soviet policy within the empire.