well,yes..kinda.You should be doing a little better by now though but first time thru,surviving the first summer is a major acheivement.
What you need to do early(first half turn and first full turn),which sets the tone for the rest of the way:
I cant remember which ones
,but there are some cities that have units to move and improvements to sell on turn 1(half turn).Find these and sell off what you don't need.1st sell sewers and aquaducts.There is only about 6iirc that can sell on the that half turn.One of the cities producing NKVD troopers can airlift.A couple others as well.You should airlift to Leningrad and Murmansk.On the next turn almost every city should sell an improvement.Pay special attention to cities that will fall.Factories and production should be sold first.Air force bases if any.If you have time sell barracks also.
At the start you must also hire scientists and perhaps taxmen.You need to generate 5000 beakers in the first 2 turns after the Katyusha tech.You desperately need KV-1s...Mobile Warfare 3 iirc.Turn EVERY citizen into a scientist(making sure there are no sheild deficits).Pay no mind to food deficits.You will not lose population until the turn after the food box empties.Return the workers before that turn.No problem.Then you want Schmurtoviks by next spring.After that you have all you need(as far as units) to win the scenario.You can return citizens to work and run a lower tax rate...if you like.
In those first turns you must incrementally rush buy as many units as you can.Barracks are a must.You won't do much without vets in this scenario.
Decide where you are going to hold.A straight line from Leningrad,thru Moscow and on.Kursk and Kharkov.Rostov.Kerch or Perekop.I like to hold at Smolensk in the middle.Pillage all other roads from other areas.Remember,you want to slow them down.Cut roads in forests and what not.Build air force bases and starting airlifting.You want at least 4 vet AA batteries and 3-4 vet KV-1s per front line city.A safe bet to double or even triple that.A good bet I'd say.
Partisans attack with 2x vs units with 0 moves(Hedgehogs)..save them if you can and get them to Leningrad for "The Seige" and Stalingrad for the "pontoon bridge" events.
The first few turns take a long time.There is much to do.
Tricks or cheats:taken in part from Xin Yu's Strategy for Red Front
Fortified positions...you can move these by building a city on them and using a transport to move from city to city.At the beginng there are not many labor brigades.There are 3 in the boonies..way east and 3 at Krasnovishersk iirc.Rush air force bases here and airlift into Lenigrad and Stalingrad.Rush transports near the fortified positions and plan how you will move them.Resupport them.Not too hard..really.At Sevastopol also.There are 2 there that can be moved and 1 that can be built on to block the way to Sevastopol.You need to move quickly if you want the ones on the riverway to Moscow,Several of them are supported from cities that will fall in the first 3 or 4 turns.Try to get fortified postions into Viipuri,Tallinn,Narva,Leningrad,Perekop,Sevastopol,Kerch,Rostov and Voronezh
Rush a 2nd bomber in Moscow and rotate a bomber stack just northwest of Moscow.There is a road on river iirc.Pillage that.The bomber stack will block them..ONLY in summer months.Course you won't be blocking in Winter.Attack.Red Guards....very good in first winter.Ignore tank defenses and move 4 all terrain.
Rush an airbase in UK and Grozny.Airlift freight.
Stack some ships on the mines near UK.Stukas will attack and die in fair numbers early.
Disband or retreat and resupport all red army units in front line cities.Germans get a unit for every one they kill.
These will make it easier but not a certain victory.The Germans have alot of tricks up their sleeves and some major units.Once you have grasp for the scenario,you won't need any of them.