A good example of how the soviet operated would be Stalingrad...........German and Soviet forces fought over the city reducing it to rubble. Soviet forces would issue a handfull of ammo to one soldier to carry and a rifle to a second. The first man would follow the second untill he fell then pick up the rifle, reload and carry on.
Alot of times they would be forced into fights they had no chance to win and would try to retreat.......their officers ( political officers ) standing in the rear area would kill them for this.
The Soviets used their numbers to slow down the german war machine while new factories were built, those factories produced newer weapons. The russian soldiers would burn everything they had to retreat behind so the germans had no shelter, Combine this with the winter and the turn out of new weapons the Soviets were able to turn the German assault into a rout ( it took about 27 million military and civilian lives to slow the germans down some estimate ).
the other Million or two fell in the push onto germany and berlin.
