@Save the Loli You probably know more about Poland than me. I knew it to be an elective constitutional monarchy where a huge chunk (like, 15% or so) of the population was nobility that could vote and religious tolerance. Your post makes Poland sound quite a bit like the Confederacy. A place where it's really swanky if you're in the Good Caste and a shitheap if you're in the Bad Caste.
I will say, Russia was not always bad and didn't have to become the way it did. Kievan Rus was, from what I've read, very nice. Elements of constitutional monarchy and federalism (basically a loose confederacy of city-states with powerful assemblies), a large middle class, no big serf population, etc. Outside of similar places like Renaissance Italy, it was probably the best place to live in its day. The Tatars trashed that, ruined the dream.
Next up, you've got Novgorod, same republican spirit. Isn't it odd, or even downright perverse, how many far right guys these days jerk off Rome, or the Roman Empire, while slamming republicanism? It was the republic that had a reputation for great civic virtue, and while it got worn out, so did the empire. No society goes ticking by fine forever. Yet, Novgorod ends up getting ground down under Muscovy's boot.
Peter takes over, Westernizes Russia... but only in superficial ways. He fucking loves science and culture and all that crap, but tightens the noose around their own people. Turns the serf into something much more comparable to a chattel slave. A whole nation of chattel slaves.
Then there were the Cossacks. The great free wild people of the steppe, White nomads, White runaways and radicals. When Pugachev rose against Catherine, he didn't do it to create a republic, but he did claim he would free the serfs. But it doesn't succeed. Massive rebellion raging as the American Revolution does, but one fails and the other succeeds.
And, of course, the subversion of the constitutional monarchy by the Tsar, the subversion of the republican government by the Bolsheviks, Putin taking over the post-Soviet state. Always some thugs taking control again. Always with direct help from Westerners.
Russia is full of these missed connections. It's tragic because you can see the potential in it, but it never works out.