Being that so the only option is to make maxims like all other support weapons, give it bigger arc and longer set up time. Otherwise people will spam maxims 100% of the soviet games which we can already see in the current patch happening.
No. This is even more unacceptable since that would just make it a copy paste of vickers, even on the same side of conflict.
What can be done is something completely the other way round than your idea - nerf its damage. And by nerf I mean really nerf it. What do we get that way? We get into situation where you can supress incoming enemy squads just like right now, but out of the two players, you are going to be the one to suffer manpower bleed, meaning you will just end up with significantly smaller army. This can be elevated even more by removing standard discount on crew reinforcement from maxim. That way, going only maxims is going to be almost impossible and player is going to be forced to buy some damage dealing squads. At the same time soviets won't suffer that much of a nerf to a healthy T2 build.