USSR lost about 35 million people and 14.5 million soldiers, over a million second lieutenants.
***Served them right. They started WWII when they teamed up with Hitler to divide up Poland.
Before the German-Soviet alliance, the Soviets had tried to form an alliance with Britain and France, aimed at containing Germany.
The talks failed. Some historians blame that on Britain and France, who did not want to have to go to war to defend Russia.
If those talks had succeeded, perhaps there would have been no WW II, in Europe at least.
The high level politicians who started the war were not the ones who died by the millions in the trenches.
The various peoples of the USSR paid a high price for the decisions of their politicians, both before the war, and during the war.