Regarding famine. The hoax that was propagated over the last 20 years is that it was created specifically to target Ukraine. Famine covered large part of Russia and Ukraine, and the death toll was largest in Central Russia. My great-great-grandmother died of hunger in those years - and that branch of my family is from Southern Siberia. Famine was triggered by mismanagement of resources, by the need to industrialise and by USSR's dependence on imports - at that time Western countries refused to sell industrial items for Russian gold, but accepted grain.
Gulag. My great-grandmother, grandmother, her sister and her brother suffered through that system of forced-labour camps, put there on false accusations, and rehabilitated only after Stalin's death. Only my grandmother survived.
A few years ago, I did some simple calculations. The USSR lost some 80 million people, as a result of WW2, Gulags, famines and reduced birth rates from these catastrophes. Taking in to account the natural growth from 1930s to 1990, that 80 million would have grown to 200 million. In 1989, the White (Slav + Germanic.etc) population in USSR was around 220 million. Imagine what would have happened, had that been some 420 million!
At that time (1990), the parasites (Azeris, Uzbecs.etc) numbered around 50 million and the Union collapsed under their pressure. Had there been some 420 million whites, then the USSR would have been able to cope with the parasites, at least for another century.