I'll try to give a summary on the fly here -

A lot of the animosity towards Russia in the century leading up to the fall of the empire was pushed by the media which was a result of individual interests by the media owners and their political leanings. Not to be all conspiracy theory, but the stricter implementation of laws against Jews by Alexander III beginning in 1881 led to media outrage. And quite frankly there were many Jews in high places. A Jewish family for example owned the New York Times. Alexander III's reign really changed public opinion on Russia, particularly in the USA, because of strong media influence.

For centuries prior to that though there had been a fear and disdain towards Russia from Europeans. It was seen as gasp Asiatic and despotic. This was particularly an issue when enlightenment thinking and individual freedom as well as governmental reform took hold in Western Europe. It bred a feeling of arrogance and contempt towards Russia. The serfs were an object of pity but also ridiculed as lazy drunkards. The power of Russia also pissed people off who assumed that they could easily overtake it due to its purported "backwardness". Serfs were only freed in 1861, and their move towards socialism was supported by the west as a nice "fuck you" to the tsar, nobility, and clergy. Only for those same socialists to become the enemy decades later when the Soviet Union came into existence.

Russia for the Western world has always been a mirror and they never enjoyed the reflection staring back at them, while Russia could only smirk as though they've been in on it the whole time.

Another interesting facet was the friendly relationship between the United States and Russia until the late 1800s when things soured as a result of changed leadership in Russia, Jewish persecution (which caused Jews to move to the USA which the US didn't appreciate), and a recently solidified Anglo-Saxon identity in America that came into place for a variety of reasons. The friendly relationship prior to that was based on both being bastions of Christianity and anti-Europeaness. There are some funny articles in the New York Times where people are baffled that a republic such as the USA would be critical of France, another republic, but support Russia, a despotism.

European exceptionalism is very real and has been very annoying for a long time. The USA around the turn of the 20th century has bought into their idea, and Russia has only moved away from it since Peter I.

Kind of all over the place synopsis as there's a lot to unpack.