Unfortunately they don't, and a great many "regular" countries today are in effect matured empires, rump versions of former empires, or local hegemonies / force

Unfortunately they don't, and a great many "regular" countries today are in effect matured empires, rump versions of former empires, or local hegemonies / forced unions of other sorts. In effect, they're the successful ones. The thing is, very few have quite as much of an obsession with their former status, and such a strong revanchist axe to grind (or to be as stuck in such an archaic form of "empire" mode generally) as Russia's current regime does/is. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolchstoßlegende https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolchstoßlegende