I recently read all of Ian Flemming’s James Bond novels.
The identification of race as correlated with strong personality and motive characteristics is pervasive, especially for the enemy in any narrative.
Often negative, but often positive - the enemy is always “different”, but must always be respected, never underestimated.
And foreign characters often team up with Bond, adding their valuable foreign angles. Bond is a cosmopolitan creature.
The pervasive racial and cultural contrast enhancement was clearly entertaining for a less globally aware audience.
Even US vs UK characteristic differences are magnified.
And the subtext is always “live and let live” for general populations.
But I would certainly talk to any young, but ambitious reading, progeny of mine about that aspect of the books
I think we should read such historical texts precisely so we can gain an appreciation for how those ideas happen — and can examine ourselves doing the same thing.
Not the general repressed public.
That is worth remembering in the heat of war.
Also, the books recognize that the motives of those powerful government (and government sponsored) organizations are implacable.
They continuously worked in every way possible to undermine the power of other countries, vassal or competitive.
(With the purely pragmatic partial exception of other likeminded or strategically helpful countries.)
Putin seems to have retained those motives, and we ignored that.
Regardless of how the war continues or ends, as long as Putin is in charge, or someone like him, there will be a very active (on their side) clandestine Cold War against everyone external.
And repression of everyone internally.
They really are Bond-worthy villains.
We should not forget that again.
EDIT: Until something fundamentally changes in the leaderships very competitive view of the world.
There exists a "tzarism" component, there exist others. And an umbrella is theoretically possible where those components are solved - but I have not seen such umbrella developed.