An excellent point when you add the word “border”. Border wars are very important and, as you point out, Russia has been on the losing side for the past 100+ years.
Russia won a very important battle against Japan in 1939 that changed the entire course of the war. From that point on, Japan wanted nothing to do with fighting the Soviet Union, and drove them into the arms of Hitler, as they could take advantage of the Nazis overrunning France and the Netherlands, which then opened up Indochina and the Dutch East Indies for the Japs.