[MarkSheppard]

Just how complete was the III Reich's victory in Continental Europe in the mid 1940s? Was the USSR forced to the negotiating table and severely reduced in power by the capture of Moscow and the death of Stalin in the turmoil following Moscow's fall?

Reason I ask is if the USSR is still an active serious going concern, it has a lot of influence on future post-war AFV design; through the IS series of heavy tanks and the T-44/54 AFV lineage.

If however, the USSR is a puppeted shell of itself, then a lot of the pressure for product improvement is lost globally in AFV design.