If the 1917 revolution had failed, yes, history might have been very different and we can speculate on that however I can't endorse your claim: "... The conservatives were seen crying wolf, in seeing communists behind any protest, and they may have felt that the antipathy to Stalin was just the same sort of thing. "
Stalin was the Comintern until he disbanded it as an irritant to his relationship with GB and USA. From the signing of the M-R Pact in August, 1939, until Barbarossa in June, 1941, the mandate the Comintern issued to French, British, US unions and 'activists' was to hamper by strike and demonstration the allied efforts to rearm in preparation for war.
General Motors President/Lt General William Knutsen, an industrial genius reported to FDR that the major roadblock to industrial militarization and productivity was industrial strike action and protest. He knew his stuff better than anyone and was not a man to cry wolf.
All changed of course after June 22, 1941. Communists are masters of bending logic to ideology ... not unlike unhelpful voices like Al Gore, Jane Fonda and others of their colour. After the German attack it was the ceaseless bleating of "Second Front NOW!!!!" regardless of the realities of supply, strategy and geography. This was communism.
As for Russian territorial ambitions ... the Baltic Democracies, Ukraine and much else were seized by Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and subsequent Russian leaders. Putin is simply trying to roll back history to a previous status and this needs to be understood clearly. Cyber hacking in Russia is completely in character with Soviet KGB practices.
The secret police of Tsarist Russia was the largest such service in Europe .... all in character with an oligarchy/kleptocracy.