Russian history is quite fascinating, actually. I guess you could say they've had an ongoing struggle to gain the respect they deserve. They were invaded numerous times from all directions. The Mongols from the East, the Germans from the West, the Turks from the South, and the Swedes from the North. They've been isolated and boxed in, geographically, which is why one of their main objectives was to gain an ice-free seaport. Another dimension to their history relates to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and for the longest time, a major goal was to retake that city for Orthodoxy. They had a longstanding enmity with the Ottoman Empire and numerous wars where the Russians slowly chipped away at them, causing a gradual weakening and eventual collapse. It was similar in southeastern Europe where the Ottoman Empire had ruled for centuries.
But the Russians did gain respectability during the Napoleonic Wars, being one of the major powers to defeat Napoleon. Up until then, they had been quietly moving eastward into what is now Siberia and the Russian Far East.
One thing I could never understand was Britain's and France's reaction and involvement in the Crimean War. I could see the Russians' point of view, as they had an ongoing enmity with Turkey and wanted to retake Constantinople, but why would the British want to prevent that? What stake did they have in the Ottoman Empire? Why side with them?
There's a lot of European wars I never could understand or why different countries took different sides (or sometimes switched sides). America's Founders believed we'd be better off by staying out of those torrid affairs.
As Russia was isolated, the industrial revolution didn't really spread to that country until the late 19th century, so in that respect, they had appeared backward and agrarian compared to the burgeoning industrialized West. Their weaknesses were revealed in their poor performance against Japan in the Russo-Japanese War, and an even worse performance against the Germans in WW1. Nicholas II was considered weak and vacillating - a terrible monarch all the way around.
But by the same token, the Western Allies in WW1 never really seemed to appreciate or understand the difficulties their friend and ally in the East was going through. No doubt they were having plenty of difficulties on their own, but the Russians were starving and out of ammunition. They needed help, but the West just let them suffer and eventually hung them out to dry. After all the blood that they shed for the Allied cause; they were just tossed aside like they didn't count. The Bolsheviks gained power precisely because they said they would pull Russia out of the war, which is what the people wanted. They were sick of it.
Of course, in the aftermath, Stalin took power and pushed for rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. You can blame Stalin for many things, but if you look at the "before" and "after" picture of what Russia was like before and after Stalin, you would see stark differences and marked improvements. Making a country better is about all anyone can expect from a national leader. They're not expected to be saints.
In the post-Stalinist era, there was a general thaw and a softening of policies which turned the Cold War more into a Cool War, in which many in the West were favoring detente, cooperation, and friendship with the Soviet Union. This was especially true in the US during the post-Vietnam era, when many people had had their fill of the rabid anti-communists and red scaremongers we were having to deal with. But the Iranians took actions which directly led to a resurgence in US warmongering, war fever, and brought another red scaremonger, Ronald Reagan into power. He was out to show the rest of the world that "America means business."
Russians might blame Gorbachev for weakening the Soviet state. Some credit Reagan for bringing down the Soviet Union economically and winning the Cold War. Some say it was inevitable regardless of what Reagan or Gorbachev might have done. A few words of scorn might also be said about Boris Yeltsin and his corrupt, incompetent buffoonery.
Again, the West could have handled things better before Putin came to power and when there was still a window of opportunity for warm, cordial relations with that country. The West is not innocent at all, and our own governments must acknowledge their own responsibilities here.
