As a kid I always thought that the USSR was actually short for the United Socialist States of Russia, not the United Soviet Socialist Republics. With a POD of 1916, make this become true.
Well with some major reconstructing having living conditions in Russia Proper but still low in the other republics during the break up then Russia might stay communist but lose the rest of the SSRs. So they change their names. But thats as likely as the USSR stays together threads.
Well, make "federalists" (who advocated inclusion of all republics in RSFSR) win over "unionists" (who declared "union of equals" to be the ultimate goal) in 1922, but force "federalists" to change name of the future state from "Russian Federation" to "Union of Russia". Not too likely, but not ASB either.