To my understanding, Peter the Great enforced and modernized the Russian military and advanced quite well with his might, learning mostly from the West, particularly the French, even the French language being spoken at the time for the Russian officials. Economy grew and even credited to lead the cultural revolution rooted from the Enlightenment. As much as Russian's might, Peter the Great's brutality was, unfortunately, known as well.

Stalin on the other hand caused a great famine in the regions of Ukraine by enforcing 100% tax (as opposed to 50% tax by Lenin) and even blamed on the Kulaks. His performance and decision making on the war on the military's efficiency is criticized, often compared to Peter the Great like comparing a child to an adult.

So then, compared to Japan, China, US, Korea, Germany, Estonia, Finland, how are Russian standards holding up? How sour are Russian foreign relations compared to, say, a decade or two decades ago? How have all the three leaders dealt their cards?