Lend-lease was a factor in the Red Army’s success, arguably, but the far greater cost was to the Red Army and the Soviet Citizens who paid with their lives to defeat fascism. The Nazis engaged in a war of eradication, directly targeting Ukraine, the USSR’s breadbasket, to induce famine, and directly targeted housing and infrastructure in their initial onslaught to eradicate as many people as possible. Their goal, of course, was Settler-Colonialism.

This massive difference in cost of lives was deliberate, the bulk of the Allies hated the Communists, but feared the Nazis as Nazism had turned their colonialism with which the West pillaged the Global South towards themselves, as Nazi Germany sought to colonize Western Europe and the world. Harry Truman gave the game away:

If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.

Essentially, they provided arms because they wanted the Soviets to pay with their lives and be as weakened as possible. The Soviets accepted the help they could get, but fought an existential war. This is also where the myth of “killing deserters” comes from, the “Blocking Units” would funnel soldiers back to their units. It was not the UK that took the brunt, but the most politicized brunt, as Stalingrad was the most drawn out and bloody battle of the entire war. The Soviet tactics weren’t poor either, the “human wave” myth is further propaganda used to erase the fact that the Nazis fought a war of extermination.

The Red Army did not defeat the Nazis alone, no. They were, however, forced by the Western Powers to pay the greatest price and take the most involved role, while the US and other Western Countries deliberately avoided bombing factories Nazis were taking shelter in if they were owned by US companies like Ford.

Either way, we should all be working towards Communism. Production for the purpose of use, and not profit, via collective ownership and intentional planning is the way forward. It is more efficient to produce cooperatively than it is to work against each other.