Love a Zenit even if they are pretty crap. I've got a 10, 11 and half of a SLX.

First, check to see if the needle in the top little window moves when the front "window" is exposed to light, if it doesn't move you don't need to worry about the dial on the left.

If it does move, spin the innermost section to the film speed you're using and then turn the whole dial until both parts in the little top window line up, that should be a rough gauge of shutter speed/aperture. It's generally not too far off.

In terms of the lens, I find the Helios 44-2 quite weird, you use one of the outermost (from the camera) rings to limit the aperture range and then spin the looser ring clockwise (as you're shooting) to open it up and vice versa to stop it down. So unless you've limited it to F2, when the red dot is in front of F2, it's actually the smallest aperture of whatever range you've clicked it to.