I didn't start reading until the mid-50's.

I'm not as old as you think.
Yes, we had books by Russian authors available in the 60's.
Do you have the internet now? Good! You might want to research things like Katyn and the treaties between Poland and the USSR in 1939....... before Stalin stabbed the Poles in the back.
Then we can move on to the "choice" the Soviet army gave to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The Hungarian revolution...... Prague Spring...... The Purges and the Gulag Archipelago......
I've got nothing against Russians or anyone else for that matter.
However, the willing blindness to proven historical fact is another thing altogether.
It took half this thread to get you to admit to the Finns that yes, that was an AGGRESSIVE war.
Stalin was an oppressive aggressive butcher of his own people and of his neighbors.