The key to soviets is using the abilities in concert with well-micro'd combined arms. A LMG gren will kill a conscript squad 1:1 everytime, but if you start stacking advantages like HTD, molotovs, PPSH, mines, trip wires, whatever then the ostheer player will have trouble staying on the field.
It takes more work and thusly seems like the soviet faction is weaker, but I say its stronger once you master all the moving parts needed to dominate. Actively using unit abilities is key for the soviets as most of their units will lose in even matchups if you rely on simply shooting each other. I am assuming thats partly why abilities like molotovs and oorah are so cheap.
I find kind of unfair that the Soviets HAVE to use all available abilities to win an engagement. While the german player has to put his squad in semi decent cover to win clearly,the soviet player has to use all abilities available to him. He has to put a lot more effort to win the game because his units are generally weaker but cheaper. He has to execute his strategies perfectly with atleast decent micro to even stand a chance against the german player with the same skill level. I find the german faction to be far more forgiving than the soviet one. Its just not fair to give Grens,which are already superior to Scripts,LMG's while the soviet player has to pick a doctrine to get his PPSH's just to see that his upgraded Scripts are still slightly weaker in an 1v1 unit engagement.