The report of Russian massed artillery in the battle for Orel presages what we called their “breakthrough” tactics. We were told in the 1970’s that if we were defending against a Soviet breakthrough attack in Germany we would face odds of 7-1 weapons systems against. They would mass artillery and tanks against us.
The Soviets specialized in massing their weaponry at the main point of attack. They also specialized in creating “breatkthough” units, specifically the artillery divisions, the penal battalions, and the heavy tank/assault gun regiments.
The tank and infantry units took heavy losses in these breakthrough attacks, even after intense artillery bombardment. The Germans were always quite adept at inflicting casualites, even up to May 1945. But from this point on they will rarely stop the Soviets cold.