Russians consider the USA, Great Britain and France to be the main allies of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, while Germany, Japan and Italy are called the main opponents. The absolute majority of Russians — unlike the population of Western countries — believe that it was the Soviet Union that made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany. Three quarters of the respondents say that the Soviet Union could have won the war without the help of the Allies

Among the key allies of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, Russians name the United States (47%), Great Britain (46%), France (22%). However, in recent years, the proportion of respondents who consider these countries to be allies has decreased.

Russians consider Germany (88%), Japan (33%), and Italy (28%) to be the main opponents of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. The share of respondents who consider Japan and Italy to be opponents has decreased over the past 19 years. At the same time, more and more Russians perceive Poland and France as opponents of the Great Patriotic War.

On the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, sociologists from YouGov asked the British, Americans, French and Germans which country contributed the most to the victory over Germany. We asked a similar question in Russia.

Thus, the vast majority of Russians believe that the USSR made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War – 95%. On the contrary, the majority of Americans (59%) believe that the United States made the greatest contribution to the victory, and only 13% speak about the USSR in this regard.

In France, about half of the respondents think that it was the United States that made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany, another 17% think that it was the USSR. The opinion of German residents is divided: a third of respondents believe that the United States made the greatest contribution to the victory and another third of respondents believe that the USSR.

In the UK, most of the respondents (39%) say that their own country played the dominant role in the confrontation with Germany, one in five believes that the United States, and only 15% – the USSR.

In recent years, the share of Russians who believe that the Soviet Union could have won the Great Patriotic War without the help of the Allies has increased to 72%. 22% of respondents say the opposite today. A similar distribution of responses was observed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Most often, respondents aged 55 and over (80%), Muscovites (81%), respondents with higher education (75%), those who believe that things in the country are going in the right direction (76%) believe that the USSR could have won the Great Patriotic War without the help of the allies), those who approve of the activities of V. Putin as president (75%), those who trust information on television (77%).

More often than others, they think that the Soviet Union could not have won the Great Patriotic War without the help of the allies, respondents aged 18-24 (54%), residents of cities of more than 500 thousand people (25%), respondents with lower-secondary education (28%), those who believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction ways (29%), those who disapprove of the activities of the current president (31%), those who trust information from telegram channels (33%).