One thing I read very often is the claim that Soviet doctrine for when engaging NATO forces revolved around using numbers and mass to overwhelm. But isn't it universal military strategy to have have numerical superiority during an offensive operation, like the 3:1 Rule of Combat?
Is there any specific source that suggests that Soviet doctrine emphasized quantity over quality?
Yes, the sources can be hard to come by because most of them are old military/govt cables and hearings documents, but here is a good one from the Department of Defense Congressional Hearings in 1980 where the US govt was discussing how they were worried that the Soviet Union could use a saturation attack to destroy our defenses and move in. A saturation attack is one where the military uses as much force as possible to overwhelm their enemy on a massive scale; launch missiles nonstop, launch ground assaults nonstop, launch naval and air assaults nonstop, all on massive fronts. The 2001 US Invasion of Iraq is a good example of this tactic.
Looking at the first 3 initial points from the manual, it can be stated that perhaps the Soviets' idea of overwhelming the enemy is no different than any other nations' military tactics. However, the 4th point elucidates that the Soviets are referring to a massive geographical scope when they state they believed in using nuclear and fire strikes across vast areas to dominate their enemies by overwhelming them.