Of course, with the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty, they were perfectly willing to let the rest of Europe suffer enormous losses at the hand of Nazi Germany, while they grabbed the near abroad for themselves.
I went to a Soviet bookstore at the Canadian National Exposition during the Cold War. The books were very inexpensive, so I grabbed a few. When I got home, I realized they were cheap because this was a way of distributing propaganda.
One of the books was The History of British Foreign Policy in World War II. They wouldn’t come out and outright lie as to the facts of the war but the spin they put on those facts would leave you dizzy. If they believed themselves the hooey they wanted us to believe, they were one deluded bunch.
That is a very important point. I think they really believed we were a threat. I think many still do. As for the rest of the propaganda you speak of, I suspect much of it they knew was a lie. They used it as a tool of war. How much of that is still happening I cannot even guess.
I do think this same sort of reality/belief/propaganda play happens in all politics. The stakes are not always as high, but the means are similar.