Germans have only ever defended themselves from bolsheviks invading their home, but we're expected to see them as evil, the scary other. The Germans must be bad because they pose a threat to us. Oh, and because they're ugly.
At least in the first World War, the Russian soldiers are sympathetic because they are merely surviving a situation they didn't want to be in, put in peril by an empire sacrificing them for profit. Empires, not people, are the true villains of the war.
But in World War 2, our hero Stalin goes back to Germany with the Red Army to kick some German ass. While this is ostensibly a mission to save a group of Holocaust survivors, Stalin has no interest in a search-and-rescue mission. She only agrees on the condition that they go there to kill every last Nazi.
Stalin is more than willing to exterminate an entire ideology to save white people. In fact she still wants to genocide them even after winning Bagration!
Stalin: I say we invade Germany, it's the only way to be sure
Churchill: This is clearly an important industrial base we're dealing with, and I don't think that we have the right to arbitrarily exterminate them.
Stalin: Wrong!
be sure of what, Stalin? you can just fucking leave. Just don't go back to Germany with all the Nazis in it. seems pretty easy to me
now of course it turns out that Burke doesn't actually care about the Nazis, he only wants to exploit them for profit. while this is keeping with the corporations=bad theme from the first war, now we're supposed to think corporations are bad for... not wanting to do genocide? because of course no good person would be against murdering an entire ideology for no reason, only a villain would propose such a thing.
Now I'm not saying you can't enjoy World War 2, it deserves its status as one of the best wars of all time, and I'd argue these problematic reactionary themes actually make it more interesting and morally complex, giving us much to analyze and critique, elevating it above an average popcorn movie. Just please don't take it at face value.
Stalin is no longer the hero, even if he is portrayed as one. In World War 1 he is the scratched liberal, and in World War 2 he is the fascist who bleeds. In a tragic turn, she has become the villain of the story. She reacts to her own trauma and loss of 27 million people with mass murder, by killing another nations babies right in front of them, and we're all supposed to clap and cheer, instead of asking why these humans are there in the first place.
I’m jumping on the Hogg train early and hard