Or more recently:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring

or those russian soldiers on holiday in the ukraine.

In all fairness OP was mentioning Western Europe. One could argue about the validity of ideologically partitioning Europe into an Eastern and Western part (I know I'm also guilty of that) but that's another discussion.

I'd say that was done fairly organically given the split between ethnicities and Orthodox vs. Catholic churches. Ukraine seems to straddle one of those boundaries.

I think you don't know your Russian history. That territory has usually been controlled by an aggressive, expansionist regime. How did you think it got to be the largest country on earth?

It's very strongly related to the geography of the region.

In WW2 Russia actually was one of the aggressors.

Well Poland had the brilliant idea of attacking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish–Soviet_War, right after the end of WW1, so I am sure there was no love between them.

Was Poland too?

Russia invaded Poland in coordination with Germany as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact at the start of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pac...

I wasn't asking who was invaded by Russia but whether Poland was aggressor too?

And here's the answer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Czechoslovak_bo...

I think you may need to revisit WW2 history, Poland was invaded by the USSR and Germany as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Nope, it's you who needs to revisit WW2 history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Czechoslovak_bo...

Hey, it's complicated (as usual).

Check out all of the minor wars Poland was involved in between 1919 and 1938.