I'll start with something that might be interesting: Was watching the little one earlier so I peeked at this on my phone. I read the entire OP thinking kathianne had posted it. The WTF? meter was off the chart, to say the least

BUT ... it completely threw my perception therefore perspective off enough to actually read the OP seriously .... I didn't catch that it was some fly-by until I logged in on my PC.

We DO overplay our role in the History of the World since 1776. We overplay our role even in THAT. The Cold War just exacerbated the situation. That being said, while Ivan the Terrible up there was fighting NAZI Germany, the US was supplying Europe, the ME, fighting Germany, AND had a war "on the side" with Japan.

All I can say to THAT is "Russia WHO?" A country incapable of technology due to purges of anything intelligent, that can base all its technology on who they stole it from. Had a lot of bodies though. Probably saved us the trouble of killing more Germans.