I've said this a few times before, but I'll throw it out again: Soviet Mobilized Reserves only needs to lose the 7th man while keeping everything else to be balanced.
This has several positive effects:
1) No more one-shot volley. 7*12=84 damage. IIRC one-shot volleys were being removed from the game wherever possible. Why should Soviets be special snowflakes?
2) 14.3% less damage and 14.3% less survivability. This tones down the raw power significantly without sacrificing any of the amazing utility benefits conscripts need.
3) The removal of the sergeant model. This model is not only historically innacurate (shoulder boards are far, FAR past 1945), but also has no winter model, and is really deform-happy with team weapons.
4) Bolster on top of a 6-man squad plays even more into the stupid "sOvIeTs hAVe iNfiNte mEn" stereotype. Stereotypes should be avoided whenever possible to be fair to all parties.
If this strikes you as an over-nerf, feel free to tone the actual buff modifiers to hit the sweet spot if necessary. I, for one, would welcome the lowering of the benefits (alongside removal of the 7th man) in exchange for global upgrade + freed up weapon slot as an example.
Cons lacked scaling for their utility outside the vet buffs for at nade and molly.
Soviets are the faction with the least healing and reinforcing options. 7th man fixes this via merge imo. Giving staying power wich they other wise lack comparetivly. Now cons will be as intended. Able to outlast the enemy and keep other inf squads on the field even in late game with less risk of loosing the squad via merge.
Soviets only also lack a nade and ai upgrade non doc. And cons wont be killing a model in 1 volley at range save for some extreme rng. This will be in close range mostly by far. So hardly any snowflaking here.since they lack nades and upgrrades nondoc 6 and 7th man sqauds balance it out.
I think the change for cons is solid. Maybe make it slightly cheaper per squad.