Maybe because he killed tens of millions of people? For some reason, historians tend to frown on that sort of behaviour.
Zeus posted...
And, while they helped to keep the Nazis occupied, ultimately it was the US-led Allied forces which won the day.
This is a gross misrepresentation of the war. No, the Soviets did not "keep the Nazis occupied" while America saved the day, the Soviets did the majority of the work in actually defeating the Nazis while America showed up late and decided to take all the credit. Consider that the Eastern front - where the USSR fought almost unsupported against Germany and Japan - was larger than all other fronts of the war (Western, Pacific, and African) combined. The Soviets had more casualties in the war than America had troops. Moreover, even after having suffered one of the highest body counts of any nation in the war, the Soviets still had enough gas in the tank afterwards to grow into a global superpower to rival the US in strength. It is not an exaggeration to say that Hitler lost the war as soon as he decided to invade the Soviet Union.
By contrast, the US showed up two years late to the actual conflict (and even then, only after being attacked) and by the time they actually joined the fighting in earnest, battles like Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain had already stalled the Nazi advance to the West, while the ongoing invasion of the USSR was quickly turning into a disaster for Germany in the East. America certainly played a significant role in bringing the war to a close when it did, but by the time they actually entered the war the Axis defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
American history books like to lionize the American contribution, downplay the role of the other Allies, and almost completely excise the significant contributions.of the USSR (due to many of them having been written during the Cold War), but the reality is that while no single Ally is responsible for the victory over the Axis powers, the USSR almost unarguably was the one who was the greatest contributor to the cause.
With two quick notes that Britain wouldn't have been able to halt the nazi advance on the western and African fronts w/o the weapons being sent from the U.S. (but supplying arms is several tiers below actually doing the fighting, of course) and that Russia's "heroics" weren't intentional but a "hoist by his own petard" moment where Stalin had allied w/ hitler out of convenience and was betrayed and caught by surprise. But yeah, U.S. involvement helped end the war sooner, but Russia was already on a course to eventually defeat them and by far took the brunt of the fighting and casualties (pretty sure they were the country w/ the most losses, and by a staggering amount over the others...though again partly their own fault for the purge Stalin did on his military before the war and simply not even having as many weapons as soldiers).
I'm glad the U.S. did enter the war and help end it sooner. But Russia sacrificed and contributed more than any other country, albeit not by choice.