re: French poll: What nation contributed most to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945?

Soviet propaganda was pretty powerful back then, and the French had a strong socialist/communist leaning during/immediately after the war. However, the passage of time and the Cold War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact chipped away at Soviet popularity almost immediately - I mean, the Soviet blockade of Berlin and their ultimate building of an almost literal iron (wire, concrete, mines) curtain shattered many of the naive westerners' ideas of the Socialist Utopia.

But, really, the Nazis wouldn't have been beaten without any of the 3 major Allied powers, certainly not dislodged from much of their European holdings. By themselves, the Soviets might have been able to hold much of Russia proper and may even have gotten back some of the Ukraine. And the U.K. and Soviet Union likely wouldn't have made it to 1942 or 1943 without U.S. logistical assistance, Lend/lease, etc.

And we wouldn't have had bases from which to operate or the Red Army anvil to hammer the Germans into submission in early 1945.

Soviet contributed the most manpower (and losses of that manpower), we contributed the most material equipment, and the U.K. contributed the most intelligence resources and things like that.