Several films depicting the Great Patriotic War show entire battalions of Soviet soldiers being ordered to get out of trenches/foxholes and charge the enemy as they did during WWI (Enemy at the Gates, Shtrafbat, etc.) Were these tactics actually employed? How often? Were they actually successful?
In the early stages of the German invasion of the USSR crude tactics like this would probably be more common. At this point the Soviet officer corps was for the most part ineffectual and prone to using outdated methods although I can't think of a specific example of the "wave" attack at the moment.
The idea, however, that for the duration of the war Soviet operations consisted of little more than throwing as many people as they could at the Germans simply isn't true. Certainly the Red Army would concentrate as many troops as they could for offensives, but they didn't count simply on numbers to win the day. By the end of the war Soviet strategy had grown to become very sophisticated with specialized reconnaissance battalions, assault units, well developed logistics, effective airpower, etc.
The book "When Titans Clashed" by David Glantz and Jonathan House does a good job at dispelling the misconceptions about the Red Army during WWII.