Crossword Genius

Star soldiers under Stalin? (3,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

red giant

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'star' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'soldiers under stalin?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'soldiers' could be 're' (Royal Engineers) and 're' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for red giant that I've seen before include "Huge Communist" , "Large low-temperature star" , "Large, cool bright star" , "big star" , "Cool, immense star of high luminosity" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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