Originally Posted by
Dr. Croccer
It largely depends on the era. For most of 1941 Soviet tactics were comparable to those used in the Russian Civil War, just plain suicidal human wave attacks. These were personally ordered by Stalin. These obviously weren't that effective, as far more Russians than Germans died. They were effective in the sense that the aggressive attacks, and the threat of such attacks slowed down the German advance. Hitler's orders for Army Group Middle to go south towards the Ukrainian were based largely on the (hardly irrational) fear that the large concentrations of Soviet troops there would hammer at the German flanks and rear if left alone for too long. After the winter Stalin became a bit calmer and let his generals take over more, which had great effects. The retreat during the summer of 1942 was far more organised than that of 1941. Suicidal charges were attempted to be kept at a minimum.
At Stalingrad, when Chuikov took over, Soviet tactics became far more effective. Chuikov's ''guide'' to urban warfare was extremely effective. His quite experienced troops made fortresses out of the rubble of Stalingrad, using submachineguns, throwable explosives and sniper rifles to hold off German attacks. Soviet strategy became far more organised and started to copy the Germans, as evident in the use of schwerpunkten and encirclement during the final stages of Stalingrad. And Kurks where they effectively utilized another ''bait'' which was in actuality a trap. That having been said, Soviet casualties were still extremely large. Whilst Soviet generals were in general extremely talented and evidently used cunning strategies which their enemies and allies would've used as well, actual, down-to-earth tactics were often primitive. Whilst the Soviets had grasped the use of large-unit tactics and strategy, they were still struggling with squad tactics and effective tank formation.
Alot of that had to do with the primitiveness of the country. Tank tactics weren't that advanced because most Soviet tanks lacked a proper form of communications for most of the war. Many Soviet tanks lacked radios, using a form of communications which involved the use of coloured flags. Whilst intricate and surprisingly effective, it was clearly inferior to radio communication. The tanks that had radios often couldn't communicate back, as these were primitive Soviet ones. The only ones that could both receive and send was the ones the leader tanks had. When the leader in a group was destroyed, which they often were, as they tended to lead the formation, the entire group was cut off from the rest of the Soviet army and from eachother. This often led to chaos, or/and extremely ineffective attempts at trying to continue the assault or defence. And of course the poor training of infantry. Whilst the bulk of troops from any army of the war were often of the worst quality that that respective army could allow, the Soviets' were the worst. Many troops were peasants, often illiterate. They often had zero motivation, apart from getting shot or sent to a penal battalion. Training was often primitive, especially during the first years of the war, with all the shortages of weapons. Squad based tactics were ergo impossible for a long time as they simply lacked a variety in weaponry. The overwhelming majority of Soviet soldiers were armed with Mosin rifles and PPSh submachineguns. Whilst the Soviet soldiers were effective in places like Stalingrad, this had more to do with their own experience than training. They learned to utilize the surroundings to their maximum benefit, but only after they had fought several times and thousands of others who failed to learn died or were wounded. Despite that, Soviet soldiers were often forced to move in large formations, which would be regarded suicidal by Western armies, and which were suicidal in the case of 1941 and various others, like Seelow. It's hardly surprising that many Soviet soldiers drank large amounts of vodka to cool their nerves. Whilst there was a limit to how much a soldier would get, the soldiers themselves often traded their rations for loot or whatnot, or received or grabbed the rations of their fallen comrades. Many of the soldiers that fought in major battles, were most likely drunk, or at the very least a little tipsy. And who can blame them. Many soldiers obeyed the suicidal orders of their leaders, even if they were experienced enought to know that they were suicidal, like the soldiers in WWI, because of the fear of getting punished. There really was a battering down through the chain of command. Stalin battered generals. Generals battered officers worse. And officers battered their men even roughly. So Stalin threatened Chuikov at Stalingrad when he made mistakes, whilst Chuikov beat his officers with a cane when they made mistakes, whilst those officers shot soldiers which didn't obey them.