Russia is much more of europe than Poland.
Not true.
Did you know that St. Petersburg named after Tsar Peter is called "the city built on bones" because over 100,000 serfs forced into labor died while building it and were buried on the spot?
It was Peter the Great's travels to Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, France, and the former Prussia which influenced his decision to try to transform Russian society which resulted in great wealth inequality directly leading to the cancer of communism.
None of the tsars could truly transform Russia and neither could the Soviets despite all the brutality, death, and destruction.
Russia requires authoritarians to rule it. Even their happy drunk joke of a president Yeltsin knew this and literally handed over the country to Putin who has ruled ever since.
It is not uncommon for those who grew up in Poland and other neighboring countries to say that when they visit countries like France or America they know they live in the East but when they visit Russia they realize they actually live in the West.
They actually had colonies
Look up the Polish-Lithuanian occupation of Moscow (including the Kremlin) between 1610 and 1612 during the Russian-Polish War.
Also look up Kresy and see which countries today used to be traditional Polish lands.
Behold Poland's extensive infrastructure deep into Kresy in the 1930s:

Behold Poland's ethnolinguistic population in 1900s:

What was happening to Imperial Russia in the 1900s?
First it lost a war with Japan with 120,000 casualties and 8 battleships sunk!
Then it was forever lost to the Bolsheviks and even they failed.
This headline says it all:
100 Years of Communism-and 100 Million Dead
The Bolshevik plague that began in Russia was the greatest catastrophe in human history.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810