[acephal]

I'd grant they're pretty big cultural differences between Slavic, Germanic, and Latino European (the latter two constituting Western Europe plus or minus Czech Republic, Slovakia which spent half of that time under German rule) cultures, but what differentiator for a "militaristic country"?

America is no less militaristic than Russia while being considerably younger, and if we're talking the last 1000 years, I wouldn't call Western Europe some kind of alternative to militaristic, it was Germanic nobility duking it out for about half of that, followed by violent imperialism for the majority of the other half.

[credit_guy]

I guess my remark with 1000 years, while valid, could end up sidetracking us. My point is, countries like the UK, France, Germany, the US, besides having a militaristic side during their history, also brought us the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, all sorts of advancements in science and culture. Their progress was closely protected by their military force, but was not a result of the military force only. Russia on the other hand was always expansionist and belligerent. Sometimes the fortunes acquired via military conquest were reinvested in science, mathematics, technology, culture, but all these things followed, didn't lead. The Soviet Union built satellites, rockets, great jet fighters and world class tanks. Peace-oriented technologies, not so much.