Divergences among Slavic languages dealing with animate/"man" nouns and consonant change

Even though Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Russian work in very similar ways regarding declensions, there is a striking difference between them. In Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Russian in the singular, masculine animate nouns share an accusative and a genitive form: vidím Poláka/slona (CZ), widzę Polaka/słonia(PO), vidím Poliaka/slona (SK), Ya vizhu Polyaka/slona (RU) (I see a/the Pole/elephant). In nominative plural, Czech orders nouns according to animacy and Polish and Slovak according to manness. That's why in Czech you have Sloni/Poláci(both animate) jsou tu, in Polish Słonie (non man)/Polacy (male) są tu and in Slovak Slony (non man)/Poliaci (male) sú tu. (The elephants/Poles are here.) There's no such distinction in Russian in the nominative plural: Polyaki/Slony tut. In the accusative plural, you get Vidím slony/Poláky (CZ), Widzę słonie/Polaków (PO), and Vidím slony/Poliakov. Notice that Slovak and Russian lack a vocative case (except for a very restricted number of nouns). Russian, the only non-West Slavic language here, is simpler in this regard: animate nouns have accusative = genitive in both singular and plural, whether they are human or not.

Maybe some confronting tables will help visualize it better:

Czech - Polish - Slovak - Russian (transliterated)(In Russian, instead of locative, one normally talks about the prepositional. Russian locative coincides with prepositional, except for very few words.)

Singular

nominative: slon - słoń- slon- slon
accusative: slona - słonia - slona - slona
genitive: slona - słonia - slona - slona
dative: slonovi/slonu - słoniowi - slonovi - slonu
vocative: slone - słoniu - slon -slon
locative: slonovi/slonu - słoniu - slonovi - slone
instrumental: slonem - słoniem - slonom - slonom

Plural

nominative/vocative: sloni - słonie - slony - slony
accusative: slony - słonie - slony - slonov
genitive: slonů - słoni - slonov - slonov
dative: slonům - słoniom - slonom - slonam
locative: slonech - słoniach - slonoch - slonakh
instrumental: slony - słoniami - slonmi - slonami

Czech - Polish - Slovak - Russian

Singular

nominative: Polák - Polak - Poliak - Polyak
accusative: Poláka - Polaka - Poliaka - Polyaka
genitive: Poláka - Polaka - Poliaka - Polyaka
dative: Polákovi/Poláku - Polakowi - Poliakovi - Polyaku
vocative: Poláku - Polaku - Poliak - Polyak
locative: Polákovi/Poláku - Polaku - Poliakovi - Polyake
instrumental: Polákem - Polakiem - Poliakom - Polyakom

Plural

nominative/vocative: Poláci - Polacy - Poliaci - Polyaki
accusative: Poláky - Polaków - Poliakov - Polyakov
genitive: Poláků - Polaków - Poliakov - Polyakov
dative: Polákům - Polakom - Poliakom - Polyakam
locative: Polácích - Polakach - Poliakoch - Polyakakh
instrumental: Poláky - Polakami - Poliakmi - Polyakami