Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
DBear said:Pshaw...Old Man Winter killed more Nazis than anything else. It is more accurate to say the Russians won in spite of Stalin's leadership.
Am not entirely sure about this. Winter undoubtably shot the Axis down in 1941, but they still recovered well enough to continue Barbarossa in '42. Winter in 42-43 'prolly helped Soviet Generals #cough Zuckov, Rokossovsky etc# with additionally aid, but I doubt they depended on random weather factors to aid in the salvation of Russia. (From what I know, this was a particularly harsh winter).
As for Stalin, I have to say his ability to grant more freedom to his generals over the years (as opposed to Hitler) undoubtedtly helped the war effort. The manpower was never a problem, most at the time accepted that you could fight the Soviets to the Urals and still face possible defeat - except of course, Hitler.
I'm hardly one to advocate what Stalin did to his people, but I will say that Russia with Stalin did win the war, Russia without Stalin only might have won it. Despite what respected historians might say (and of course, some may be right) we'll never know that second history.
P.S I hoped I covered my tracks well enough there. I'd hate to be known as an advocator of Stalins policies.