Russians are peculiarly vulnerable to getting taken over by brutal and corrupt rulers. Its ground in to Russian society and culture, by a tragic history.
These rulers are highly likely to turn to external adventures, by the dynamics of such regimes. Thus the nature of the USSR was only in part the result of its ideology, the rest was Russia as it always was.
Ref “Russia Under the Old Regime”, Richard Pipes, 1974
Which I read in the 80’s.
And that WAS one of the “bibles” of the Cold War, cited by everyone. Here are your Cold War principles.
Really... and which of these pre-Soviet Tsars had aggressive global ambitions in Western Europe? Catherine participating in the partition of Poland is all I can recall.. and she had Prussia and Austria along. I seem to remember Alexander I had his boots literally up on Napoleon’s desk in Paris and yet marched his army all the way back to Russia without taking an acre of land. You seem to refer to a mythology about Russia over any actual historical facts.