re: #226 VioletTiger

I don’t think they ever stopped being the Soviets. They never really embraced capitalism.

Many, many years ago, after the wall fell, I had an awful thought, buttresses by this knowledge: The Russians/Soviets always, always, always took the long view. We? 4 maybe 8 years “vision” at a time.

Bad vibe I got: What if the who “Soviet Union Collapse” was but a facade? It sure would do, what it did end up doing (after I thought this in the early 90s) - downsizing the military tremendously.
The Russians, even before the Soviets, have had an ingrained paranoia and hoped for superiority complex. All brought on by centuries of being invaded and getting their butts kicked.

“The Russians” by Alexander is an excellent book discussing all of this in detail. Written in the mid-80s.