That doesn’t match my understanding of history which is that both hitler and Stalin knew that conflict was inevitable and that Hitler was delayed in invading th

That doesn’t match my understanding of history which is that both hitler and Stalin knew that conflict was inevitable and that Hitler was delayed in invading the soviets only due to Mussolini needing to get bailed out in the south. Their peace agreements were obviously fragile. The German invasion of the Soviets was incredibly brutal and hardly a sweep for either side, e.g. Stalingrad. Your account of history feels way off to me. You don’t endure Stalingrad and come out of it thinking that you played them.