You don’t know much about the Soviet Union. The Bolshevik party was dominated at the leadership level by non ethnic Russians like Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin.
The early USSR practiced legal discrimination against ethnic Russians in hiring and university admissions, similar to “affirmative action” laws in the USA, but much harsher.
It was only during WWII that the anti-Russian ideology was dropped out of necessity.
In any sense other than the Nazi one, they were Russians. They spoke Russian and identified as Russian. Heck, Lenin's Tomb remains in the Kremlin, Lenin monuments are all over Russia and Russians have taken umbrage at the removal of Lenin statues in Ukraine. Besides, Napoleon was Corsican, Hitler was Austrian and Alexander was Macedonian.