You have no clue as to how to interpret history in this case. In 1942, the USSR was the one being INVADED. This gives incredible strength of morale as one is defending one's own homeland, family, etc.... In 2022, Ukraine is the INVADED, and as the commentator on Russia's own state TV admitted to all of his nation a few days ago, this gives the Ukrainians tremendous advantage in terms of morale and willingness to fight to the death on an individual basis. Meanwhile, the Russian conscripts, poorly trained and who were told this was a mere training exercise, are falling apart at the seams as they surrender, die or drunkenly walk away from the battlefield with the fruits of their looting and raping, much as the German 6th Army and all of it's Romanian, Hungarian and Italian allies did in '42. or Napolean's army in 1812. Basically they are saying "F*** THIS! I am not going home in a body bag like Igor or Ilya!".
As far as your "imaginary" Rokossovsky...Putin can't even come up with a Timoshenko or Konev, much less a Zhukov or Roko. He is losing a general a week thanks to Ukrainian targeting of command posts (due largely to Russian incompetence of communications and logistics). His piss poor command structure is biting him hard in the a$$. Not to mention the ridiculous economic situation.
While Stalin learned to trust his top guys and lean back a bit, Hitler doubled down on intervention and micromanaging until the Wagnerian-apocalyptic "Downfall". Every evidence is that Putin is doing the latter, including his disastrous affair at the Severskydonetsk river crossing last weekend. He is showing every sign of a man dwelling under the shadow of death and losing his nerve. "Putler" indeed.
In this case, Putin's forces are the euivalent to the Axis invaders, and Ukraine are the home defenders, even supported by Western lend-lease, just like the Soviets in WWII, but without the authoritarian thug at the helm. And the Ukes have the advantage of fighting for a cause that no Soviet ever had: freedom and independence.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦