I am almost certain that the Soviet Union made a very big issue out of promoting the idea that it was a union of quite different states.

And to say that the USSR was fascist like is just crazy talk - nobody hated fascism more.

I think the USSr actually tried to make a point out of recognizing the local countries.
I remember it from watching some kids stuff from there in my childhood and I found it very fascinating to have a massive country that was made up of different peoples. My country was not like that - everyone was the same back then. Remember watching programs with Soviet kids in national costumes etc -- I had a big fascination for such costumes as a child so I still remember it to this day. Something about a puppet that visited children across the USSR. And there was talk about "we are a big family" and lots of idealistic concepts like that.

Perhaps it was the Russians that had the last word, and Russian language used as the main language, but it definitely seemed like the tried to value all the different cultures and teach kids about it. At any rate, lots of other countries have done a much worse job of it.

It would be interesting with a thread about minority people in Russia, for example. I still find the idea of one country-many nationalities very fascinating.