What led to Russia, as well as the former Soviet Union, on such a different path from rest of Europe and the west? After all, they had all the possibilities in terms of natural resources, population size etc. as the rest of Europe, and were located within Europe itself.
The rest of Europe developed (more or less) into friendly, highly schooled and very democratic countries.
So why did Russia alone develop into an undemocratic, oppressive and by economic and academic measures, uninnovative country?
I know a lot of the eastern bloc were like that, too, but for reasons of simplicity I'm putting that down to Russian influence.
This is only really true post-1918. Before that Russia was very much integrated into the system of European politics. It was distinct in several ways, for one it had been politically unified since early on, as Moscow basically annexed or invaded the rest of Russia starting in the 1400s. Two, it had its holdings in Asia and Siberia, which it acquired starting in the 1500s. And finally it retained feudalism comparatively late. However none of these really preclude it from being European, most countries east of Germany maintained similar forms of feudalism, and there were varying amounts of political unification throughout Europe.
For all subjective opinions are worth, I don't think the idea that Russia is "not western" is particularly useful or descriptive. The word is very often vaguely defined, and used more for modern political purposes than to indicate deep seated historical or cultural difference.
If the Soviets hadn't come to power in 1918 I think Russia could have taken a very different path than it did, becoming more like Imperial Germany.
hi! you may be interested in a few earlier posts