How did Russians of the 18th-19th century think of themselves and the West?

I know that by the 20th century the Russian identity had already developed into a much more coherent one, with Russia eventually positioning itself as the "big-brother Slav", but I know next to nothing about the attitudes of the preceding two centuries.

I haven't read War and Peace, but I know that one of the central themes of the book is of how the Russian aristocracy was trying to figure out what being Russian meant, and the implications on how they saw the West. They were forced to think hard about this because of the awkward fact that the aristocracy had adopted French language and customs, but Napoleon's France was now their enemy.

I read somewhere that Tolstoy originally wanted to set War and Peace during the time of Peter the Great. Were conceptions about Russian identity different then? When did Russian aristocrats start adopting continental languages and customs, and why?

Also, how strong and prevalent were ideas about regional identity? Did, say, Novgorodians and Kievans think of themselves as citizens of those cities first, or was there a stronger Russian sentiment by this time?. Were there differences in these attitudes according to social class, occupation? Where did the attitudes come from and why did they persist?