1: Most of those deaths were in fact not ethnic russians but Ukrainians (not that that diminishes the atrocities or anything)
2: Most of the Soviet Leaders were NOT russian. The Soviet Union =/ Russia, and the leaders themselves were very conscious about them taking over since they were the majority population. To balance it out Russia actually had the least power and independence of the soviet republics.
3: But youre actually more right than you know. The reason why Americans don't focus too much on the USSR during the second world war is because it would take away all of America's thunder. The Soviet Union was the undisputed victor of world war 2, not only were they the ones that were able to defeat the Nazi's but they actually beat Japan first before the US got a chance to as well. Part of the reason why they dropped the atomic bomb in the first place was to have a decisive end to the war in the pacific before Russia could invade Japan and commit wholesale slaughter/rebuild the country in its communist image.
Thats why the US was so aggressive with its reconstruction of Japan and offered so much financial support to a former enemy
