A lot of people were targeted specifically for their ethnicity. Germans, Tatars, Chechens, Jews to name few examples (Jews not so officially, but there were unspoken bans for Jews in universities, for example). Family of my grandmother was deported from Ukraine to Kazakhstan, because they were Germans. These repressions were caused by World War II and are the reason why Germany now has a repatriation program for Jews and Germans from ex-USSR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Germans_in_Russia,_...