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Unfortunately, many Russians don't seem to feel that way. They are not alone with that however: all former empires occasionally inspire the idea that their demise is an ongoing historical injustice that needs to be rectified. And in the echo chamber of a former-empire nation this train of thought rarely gets questioned.

I agree, but that measure compares Russia in 1917, before the Soviet Union, with Russia in 1991, which was 25% smaller.

The Soviet Union was indeed considerably larger than Russia had been since the 17th century.

Russians largely saw the Soviet Union as an extension of Russian power. Hence all the russification that occured in non-Russian majority republics