Let's remember one thing - it was after the Russians got their mitts on guns that they in time conquered most of Asia right until the border of China. Firearms were more or less what broke the military advantage of the steppe peoples for good - those guys were really good at what they did, and supremely adapted to their environment, but in some rather important ways their culture was a technological dead-end. Once their neighbors got past a certain point they simply had nothing to mobilize in reply...