<<Have you EVER taken a history course or read any books? Amazing.>>
Interesting statement, please don't critique about that.
<<Sure, the Russians race to take Berlin and as much of Germany as they can in the wake of the fall of the Nazi regime then proceed to subjugate the conquered citizenry of Eastern Europe and install puppet governments to mold those countries into the Warsaw Pact. Then, when several countries attempt popular uprisings (Hungary, Czechoslovakia), they are brutally repressed with Soviet troops. Tell the Hungarian people that the deaths of thousands were the result of American aggression, you fscking nitwit. You can still see the bullet holes from Soviet machineguns on the walls of the palace in Budapest, or have you never bothered to go to Europe to find out these things? Ask the Poles whether they would rather be in NATO or in the Warsaw Pact.>>
I have to agree with you that the Soviets didn't treat their citizens well, but you don't seem to understand it completely. Towards the end of the WWII, Russia was determined to get even with Germany. Once the Soviets entered Germany, they literally stole it. They dissassembled every factory, hotel, or commecial building and sent it back to the USSR. At the end of the war, Russia mildly began rebuilding Germany, but most broken buildings never got repaired.
As for the puppet Governments, those Governments were ran by Facist nuts that would stop at nothing to destroy communism, so Russia had to change the government to something that's a little more friendly to it.
<<Add to that the myriad Communist revolutionaries who sprung up around the world, in large part funded by the good ol' Red Army government. They were such nice people (the government, the people are fine) that they stole the hydrogen bomb from the U.S. and built their arsenal. Sure, such civilized people such as Stalin would never slaughter millions of their own people to force collectivization, nor would they create the Gulag and send their political foes to die in the freezing wastes of Siberia.>>
The first country other than russia to turn commi was china, and can you blaim them? Jen Jieng ran around china fighting communist Mao. Which would you side with? A power hungry leader that ran sacked his citizens or a man devoted to the teachings of Marx that would pay the peasants for his army's food? It's no doubt why communist Mao got the support of 90% of china's population (which were peasants) and revolted against the land lords and Jan Jieng (whom the United States personally sent weapons and funded to fight Mao).
And the Russians never stole Nuclear technology from USA. Nuclear technology began sometime after the first world war by Eistein. The technology spread to USA and Russia. Heck, the closest thing the Russians did to stealing nuclear technology was taking the planes that nuked Hiroshima and Nakaski and study how the Americans were able to fit a nuke in a plane.
And everyone has heard of Stalen's purges. Stalin was a paranoid freak. After he was out of power the purges nearly halted.
<<At their height, the Soviets controlled millions of soldiers poised on the borders of NATO nations. Though their technological prowess was never the equal of NATO, sheer numbers can overcome such a difference -- ask the Marines about Korea with the Chinese (who of course were such good little people that they didn't launch a million troops into North Korea), and the Soviets proved that they could hold their own against a formidable foe in WWII. Napoleon and Hitler both underestimated the Russians, and both were defeated badly as a result. NATO may have overestimated them, but that may have proved to be enough to adequately defend Western Europe had an attack ever been launched.>>
I really don't know where you get that the Soviets didn't have good technology. They had better tanks, better rifles, and eventually better planes. Anything the USA had, the Soviets had. They even beat USA to sending an object into orbit (although all it was was a mettle ball that blinked and beeped). North Korea attacked South Korea on its own, this shocked both the Soviets and United States. And the Russians aren't that good at fighting wars. Both Nepolean and Hitler made the exact same stupid mistake. Both of them split their army and attack when winter was near by. The Russian winter was what saved Russia.
The Russian army was powerful, it could have probably taken on the rest of Europe. Western Europe + USA probably would have massed an army of 13 million vs. Russia's 15 million army. But they would never attack, b/c USA had Nuclear Missiles in 15 or so different countries pointing at it. Also USA's policy of containment never let a Soviet fly leave the USSR without USA knowing.
Really, Russia was doing the best it could to defend itself against a country ran by Right-wing nuts.