[GSlob]

Maybe one should look in the past WAY further than 1917? Russia has repeatedly constructed (and reconstructed after major calamities, starting from 13th century Mongol invasion) its own civilization/way of life. In the course of history (of Russian expansion from Muscovy of old) many other peoples had to come in contact with that way of life - and most of them, when given a chance, are "voting with their feet" away from it; nowadays they even have a temerity to remove not only themselves but their lands as well. Thus one has to conclude that Russian civilizational model is suboptimal.
Maybe Russia should take a lesson from Confucian China - whenever the Middle Kingdom suffered a setback, the standard Confucian advice to the Emperor was: "you ought to be perfecting your rule" [to make it more attractive to 'external barbarians'].

[Destro]

To take you analysis to task, while all empires are harsh - I am sure the Judeans and Gauls did not see the benefits of Roman civilization as we now do - the Czarist Russians while expansionist - did not destroy indigenous natives, say the way Americans did to the Indians. While the Muslims the Russians conquered may not have had it so well and many Muslims may have voted with their feet many Christians found the Russians as liberators (From Armenians to Bulgarians to Greeks) from the Muslim yoke of tyranny. Many Christians also found the Russians to be liberators against the oppressive rule of the Lithuanian-Polish empires as well.