role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazism has almost been written out of popular "Western" history

Of course.  It had to be.  Because the strategy on the Atlantic side of the Alliance was precisely to let the Soviet Union to do as much of the fighting as possible, and only come in swinging at the end.  

That is not the sort of thing you can include in patriotic history texts.  

very real and justifiable Russian fear of invasion by the West after WW2

Really?  The very real, but always-overruled proposal in policy circles was to fake a provocation and follow with nuclear attack, while the US enjoyed its nuclear monopoly.  This policy proposal lost ground as monopoly was reduced to mere superiority.  

Or is that what you were refering to?  

The Fates are kind.