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Or fair as in, two sides with similar volume and type of forces?
I'd dare to suggest it wouldn't be fully equal in that. The Soviets by the war's end had a lot of troops in eastern Europe, and their newest tanks were pretty decent. Plus, the Soviets had a single command structure with some fairly decent generals. On the other side, you have the Americans and the British with a certain uneasiness with each other, and both having their own ideas on how to proceed with military engagements. Toss into that any other Allied groups that decide to pitch in, and it could get confusing.
I think you probably want to look into the major players in the Soviet command structure at the end of war. I'm not an expert in who survived the war, and remained in good graces with Stalin at that point. You could probably pick some competent names, and some bad generals, and then make of that what you will for your plot.
I expect the Americans would be hesitant to use a nuke in Europe. Even with radioactive fallout not being fully understood, the scope of damage was pretty clear, and making occupied cities disappear is bad public relations. They might possibly give it a go within the borders of the Soviet Union, but then you have the problem of getting it there - possibly from Scandinavia, which very well might get occupied for just that reason.
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