I remember after the wall fell reading that the Poles, Czechs and East Germans were ready to shoot the Russians in the back and switch sides had a major conflict actually kicked off.I’m pretty sure that even in its hey day the old Soviet Union was at best a paper tiger. Had they ever actually tried to advance on the west they would have been chewed to bits by the wests advance equipment and tactics. I think that was something that many of the Soviet leaders realized as well and why we had peace for so long.
I have a feeling that after the walk fell and the ussr broke up a lot of that knowledge left. So we end up with leader after leader getting worse info about their effectiveness and readiness to pocket money. So you get what we have now, a leader that believed they were truly a super power in conventional arms but the reality is they have outdated equipment and horrible tactics that just get chewed up by western equipment and training.