The Soviet Union was an Axis power that only desperately sided with the Allies after they were betrayed by the Nazis. The Soviets were directly complicit in the criminal origins of WW2 in Europe, i.e. the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. They violated the national sovereignty of Poland and the other eastern bloc states. They ruthlessly ruled the nations they took from Germany with no regard for human rights or freedom. Without raw materials from the United States, the Soviet Union would not have been able to mobilize against the Germans and take Eastern Europe. The Soviets’ key asset was their leadership’s callous disregard for the lives of their soldiers and civilians. This callous disregard for human life became the defining characteristic of the Soviet Union.