Explanation
The losses of Germany on the eastern front are widely believed to be the most significant factor in defeating Nazi Germany and the USSR won the battle of Berlin, the final battle before the German capitulation. Thus Europe widely believed (for a good reason) that the USSR was the main contributor in defeating Germany. With the cold war the perception of the USSR became a lot worse in western countries like France and with increasing anti-USSR sentiment the view flipped to viewing the USA as the deciding factor. The USSR (and the Russian Federation today, even if its government is very anti USSR) viewed itself as the most important force in defeating Germany, especially because the USSR had the biggest amount of deaths. It is worth noting that the USSR was at least commercially allied with Nazi Germany until June 22, 1941 and there was an agreement between the nations on which parts of Europe each could invade and which where reserved for the other.
Both Hungary and Prague were huge PR disasters in Europe for the USSR though.
Yes, because of Yank propaganda. I don't see how they're anything remotely as bad as Vietnam or Korea, look at the figures of deaths. It's just that Europeans are racist as fuck and don't care about deaths of Asians, and American propaganda was much more pervasive.
I don't disagree. But that's the main thing that wasn't gladio, etc that helped fuck the parties in Western Europe.
If 10% the standards applied to western communist parties had been applied to the rest of parties, communists would have ruled Europe. My point is it's mainly gladio + propaganda that did this