• This article appeared in Pravda soon after British politician Winston Churchill made his famous Iron Curtain speech. You can read that speech in section 2 (this source also comes up there as well).
• Churchill's speech accused Communists of taking over Eastern Europe against the wishes of the people there. Stalin's response is justifying his actions.
• When the Germans invaded the USSR in 1941 their forces were supported by troops from Hungary, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria and Finland. However, many of these troops were unwilling conscripts forced into the army once the Germans took over their country.
• Soviet losses in WW2 are estimated at around 20 million - by far the highest death toll of the war.
• Another important point is that although the USSR was invaded through Poland, the USSR had actually invaded the Eastern half of Poland in 1939 in an agreement with Hitler.