The Soviets outsourced much of their war production to the Allies: the United States furnished the Soviets with raw materials including food and refined steel as well as finished products (locomotives, trucks, explosives, etc.), and this allowed the Soviets to redirect manpower to the front.

The Soviets had a much leaner logistical chain; unlike the British (who were fighting across the English Channel) and the Americans (who were fighting across two oceans), they could move troops and supplies along interior lines of communications, and those troops were provided with less food, ammunition, and other supplies.

Most importantly, the Soviets, in desperate straits, were much less choosy than the Allied powers. Women served in frontline combat, as did the wounded, the old, and the young.