Well here I have to assume that you're playing the -36 scen, and Barbarossa won't be before April -40...
Your sliders: Hawk lobby full, then standing army. Invertionism can be gained by events and some GoI's, like GoI Albania, Poland, Denmark and so on, until you're full. Free market is totally useless, I have no idea why you even suggest it, because central planning gives you a +25% IC boost, you would lose without it.
Straight from Jan 1st -36, disband all your forces, EXCEPT your motorized, armored, HQ and mountaineer divs. Also save your ints and bombers. As for the Red Navy, you should only keep your capital ships, newest subs and the TP in Vladivostock. Also remember to put all your land divs under the command of log. wizards, and remember to keep the divs within the command limit of them, or the whole thing is useless.
Then put factory serials that will last around late -39. Try to build your factories in the best infra provs you have in Siberia, they will be constructed faster. Leave some IC for killing dissent, but DON'T use all of your IC on killing dissent, with the starting dissent, the purge dissent and minister changes ofc. Assuming you're going for historical MR pact, you get -5 dissent, when you get Eastern Poland, so you might save some dissent killing with that. The point is that slowly kill your dissent, but take your time with it, you will need factories too.
As for the ministers, the +25% MP and -5% infantry bonus guy as your Chief of Staff is the best option for the entire game. -15% supply guy as the Chief of Army is just as useful, even if you're invading bloody Berlin (if you ask me). The +5% IC, +10% industrial research guy is the best Armaments Minister, until around 41-42, when you're massive army consumes so much supplies, that it would be more beneficial to switch to the +20% supplies Minister. A +10% MP growth and +10% foreign MP guy is gained in -41. You gain +5% IC Minister of Security in -42, so remember to take him too. As for the Chief of Airforce, you should probably take the fighter guy, depending on the situation.
I don't know how your rules are, but during the peacetime years you can make Germany's life a bit harder. Cancel your trades with him, take all the rares you can of Germany's best trading partners. Also some BP stealing, minister assasination and smearing does damage, but beware of any retaliation by German espionage.
As for your techs, your 3 goals are to get infantry ass. line, -41 infantry and large formation doctrine soon as possible. -41 inf should be available in late -39, but the ass. line might take even till mid -40 and large formation doctrine mid-late -41. Other useful techs are machine tools, ass. lines, agriculture, computing/crypting, supply dumps, mot. inf, tanks, AC & SP-ART, ints, tac bombers, air doctrines and hospital techs.
(Sorry, but fighters are simply a waste compared to ints, unless you're fighting in the Pacific.)
Anyway, after your IC production ends, start building masses of -41 inf, in serials ofc. If you have to wait for them, produce supplies into your storage and get 2 HQ's in any case to raise it to 3! If you are sure, that Germany won't invade you too early, stick to the -41 inf. But if you have spare MP and the situation looks threatening, you could build about 100 militia divs to fill your armies. However if it comes to this, divide the militia evenly, like 2:1 inf-mil corps. Alone it is useless, combined it helps by taking the hits.
Thanks to your techteams, your airforce can't really do anything before -42. Don't under
any circumstances even bother to build planes, until your MP is low enough, or you actually have useful doctrines. If you focus on building an airforce that will get butchered in any case, your land forces will suffer too much and then I say, your defeat is 99% certain, if Germany knows what to do. Also avoid expanding all airfields, besides the places you will (or have to) hold, like Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. You would just be helping Germany there...
As for the events, accept the purge ofc. Invade Finland, you don't need extra any troops besides the ones you didn't disband in -36. Get them upgraded and reinforced. Divide them into small corps, 1-3 div. Get your best commanders there to gain all the xp they can. The easiest way to win with a small force like that, is to attack Kajaani, then Oulu with your bombers supporting. After that go south, like the Soviet plan was IRL, expect this one will work haha.
...Anyway, bringing socialism is the best option. But now comes the important part. Don't kill any of the Finnish divs. You might have to take most of the country, including Helsinki, so advance steadily and don't do pockets. Because once you have some 75-90% warscore, offer puppettation, and they will accept. There you have a nice army to guard the north. However the Finnish divs can't take care of much more, than guarding the Finnish beaches, Swedish/Norwegian border if required and maybe Murmask and Archangelinsk (you'll never know). But at least now you have a formitable force in the north.
After Finland, you might consider invading the Baltics during winter. If you wait to claim/invade them in May, Germany might invade you around then, and you might never get their benefits, or even worse... You might be at war with them AND Germany at the same time!
Before Barbarossa, keep a close eye on Germany and anticipate her plans. If Germany does smt like invade Sweden, or Turkey, then get troops to those borders immediately! Besides that, just be on the lookout when Germany might invade you, which is likely to be May-June.
Prepare your troops well. Have 2-3 mechanized armies, 1:2 tank-mot combo. Use your best panzer generals there, like Zhukov, Konev and later Rossovsky. Always combine HQ's with infantry, making 9-div formations, to avoid your HQ's getting killed. 9 div infantry armies are the base of your army and Generals are your servants. Lt. Generals should command 3 div corps, gain xp and then rise to Generals to command larger formations. Don't waste the skill of your best Generals by promoting them to FM. Take some useless promoted old guard and put him on 1 div, if you need a high command limit for an offensive. 3 HQ's is enough at first (North, Middle, South). From -42 onwards, start a serial expanding them to around 5-7.
Now for the most important thing, your strategy. Use literally
defence in depth. Your troops on the border will be owned, so no use in leaving extra divs there to get encircled. However focus on some chokepoints and important defensive positions behind your lines. By using defence in depth, you will have a strong line with organized troops, little fear of encirclements and breakthroughs, dug in troops taking cover from planes, and most importantly: Massive casualties on the Germans!
The basic idea is to have 9-12 divs on the border and at least 3 divs in every inner prov, from South of the Dvina and West of the Dnieper. Then at least 1 div in the provs on the Eastern shore of the Dnieper. Here are the many expections to this general rule:
The Northern Front:
ALWAYS 3 divs in Moscow, be it because of paras, landings, aliens, magical dragons, AT ALL TIMES! (Learned it the hard way...)
Novgrod, Staraya Russa, Veliye Luki, Rzhev, Toropets, Vyazma, at least 3 divs there, can wait till July-August, but really good swamp provs to keep the North.
1-3 divs in Murmansk and Archangelinsk to guard the beaches.
(6-15 divs on every prov on the Swedish-Norwegian border IF NEEDED.)
1-3 divs on the Finnish beaches, focus mostly on Turku-Helsinki-Viipuri. Keep 1-3 divs in reserve in inner-Finland, like Tampere.
3 divs in Leningrad, and 3 on every beach in Estonia and Latvia.
6 divs behind the Dvina river in Latvia, in Riga, Dagaupulis and Polotsk.
6 divs in Kaunas, good IC, swamp and an important encirclement prov.
18-30 divs in Grodno including your Northern HQ, often used by the Germans for encirclements in the north.
The Middle Front:
9-12 divs per prov on the line Orsha-Minsk-Bobrainsk-Mozyr-Vinnitsa. A good line for Soviet counterattacks/defence and Vinnitsa is one of the most important provs in the South for German encirclement.
At least 3 divs in Smolensk, one of the best defensive positions before Moscow and on the river line.
9 divs in Pinsk, a good chokepoint, easy to escape from encirclements by using support defence.
1-3 divs in Brest Litovsk and Bliesk, no more! The provs that can be most easily encircled.
The Southern Front:
18-24 divs in Lvov, the most important prov on the 1st day of Barbarossa. Zhukov here, best tanks here, Middle HQ here. The Germans shouldn't be able to take it on the first few days.
12-18 divs in Kowel, put some of your tanks here.
Leave Stryj empty, Stukas will only kill your divs there.
9-12 divs in Stanistalow, important prov & river, should be held for long.
15-18 divs in Beltsy, put all your mountaineers and your Southern HQ here.
At least 9-12 divs in Ismail to keep the Romanians out.
As for the reserves, 9-12 divs in Rowne.
12-15 divs in Tarnopol, important prov.
6 divs Mogilevi Podolski, Chekassy & Balta, often used in the Southernmost encirclement.
9 divs in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and a strong defensive position before the river.
3 divs in Priluki & Zaporozhye, important provs for crossing the river.
Prepare a beach defence in Batum, Sevastopol, Meliotopol, Perekop and all the other beaches on the West side of the Dnieper.
Also be prepared if paras take ports around Crimea, so 1 div/beachless port prov.
1-3 divs of reserves in Kharkov, Staliano & Novossosbrisk, important strategical and defensive positions.
Also 1 div in Stalingrad, just to be cool.
(Mongolian and Tannu divs are the best reverve divs.)
Basically the idea is to slowly fight where you can and fall back where you can't (and mostly you
can't at first). Do massive counterattacks where you can, but don't exhaust your army. Your first hope of reversing Barbarossa comes when you get the GDE increase to 0,7 a few days after the German dow. Then your masses can disorganize the few German divs that arrive seperately and make recovery impossible for the German player. However it will surely be a bloodbath in Poland then...
However as falling back, ALWAYS keep a reserve behind your lines. And I don't mean the kind of reserve that comes to support the defence. There is always some kind of a division/corps/army behind the line to prevent breakthroughs. Behind your reserve should be another reserve and maybe then yet another layer would be nice!
The Dnieper and Dvina are good barriers for your defence, but usually the Soviet player has the honour to fight (like a man) and fall back (like a little girl). Only those cowards use the so called Dnieper turtle tactic by being pussies behind the river right from the start! That is not the Red Army spirit, I tell you!
...
Adjust your inf production that you get some every week to fill your holes. NOT some 50 divs every 2 months, coz after 2 months you will be dead without reinforcements. Put the new divs where you need them the most ofc. Strat deploy divs from quiet fronts to the desperate ones, if you're really sure of it. And nobody is stupid enough to keep troops on the Japanese border ofc.
Anyway, know when to reduce your div production to keep your MP pool above 0 for reinforcements. If high on IC and low on MP, focus on upgrades, tanks, planes and later mechs. If you get to 0 MP, disband your militia for MP, if you have any.
If you need to stop German transports at sea, subs might be the option. Being cheap and safe from Stukas, they are modest, but better than nothing.
Try to get mech -42 model by -42! Then once you're low on MP and with more advanced doctrines, switch to building them as your main land forces, brigaded with AC / SP ART. That combined arms bonus is invaluable on the defensive and they pack a punch even on the offense. So combine the new mechs with your old & experienced infantry armies, but add them mostly in the south, thanks to the easy terrain.
In -43, research air doctrines actively and see if you can achieve air superiority. Don't be suprised if you can't. Expanding airfields and the prov infra can help to achieve it. Also remember to get -43 inf and tanks as soon as you can. Then you have lots of upgrading, but that -43 inf is worth it.
From -44 onwards, steadily modernize your army and airforce. If Germany is now in the Urals, you have lost. Hopefully if the front is further west, continue towards Berlin. Unless Germany controls half of the world, they will gain less MP than you, so that kinda means you should eventually win...
