HOI4 — Soviet Union Order Sheet: 44 Focuses, Research and Designs

🎯 The core idea

Two things carry a Soviet run, and neither of them is a navy. The first is hitting the focus and research order in the right sequence, because the Soviet tree hands you industry and research slots that compound if taken early and are nearly worthless if taken late. The second is arriving at June 1941 with an army that was already trained in Spain.

This page is the reusable half: the exact 44-focus order, the research order slot by slot, and every tank and plane design decoded to components. It is the part you want open on a second monitor. The play-by-play — how the front is actually held when Barbarossa lands — lives in the video, and every section below links to the second it starts.

How the video is laid out

Note the proportions. Setup and Spain take four minutes; the middle of the run takes twenty-eight. Barbarossa itself gets eight. That shape is the actual lesson: the war against Germany is decided long before it starts.

1. National focus order

All 44, in order. Numbering is automatic — tick them off as you play.

The tree at 1:03, before anything is picked.

1. Heavy Industry
2. The Path of Marxism–Leninism
3. The Centre
4. Stalin Constitution
5. The Zinovievite Terrorist Centre
6. Expand the Agitprop
7. Komsomol
8. The Comintern
9. Send Military Advisors to Spainthis is what makes the Spanish Civil War section possible
10. Trotskyite Centre
11. Workers' Dictatorship
12. Infrastructure Effort
13. Five Year Plan
14. Military Conspiracy

1. Tankograd
2. Merge Tank and Materiel Plants

1. Positive Heroism
2. People's Commissariat of Mortar Armament
3. Experts in Camouflage
4. Desperate Measures

The order above is transcribed from the author's own published order sheet. The middle of the list — the focuses between Military Conspiracy and Tankograd, and between Merge Tank and Materiel Plants and Positive Heroism — is in the same document; open it alongside this page and follow it line by line rather than reconstructing it from the video.

2. Research order

The Soviet opening is not "research good things" — it is a specific sequence of switching research slots, because you are exploiting the discount that builds up on a slot left alone.

1. Switch Engineering to Machine Tools
2. Add Engineering with the third research slot
3. Switch Construction to Electronics II
4. Switch the third research slot to Construction I
5. Concentrated Industry I

That pattern — start something, switch off it, come back for the discount — continues for roughly fifty entries. Follow the order rather than the slot numbers, exactly as with any other research order: how many slots you have open changes which slot each item lands in, but not the sequence.

3. Designs

Every tank design uses the OKMO design company. Every plane design uses the MiG design bureau. No exceptions across all seven.

Where those picks are made — the MIO screen at 2:27, here with Tula Arms Plant open.

Tanks

23:42 — LT-Convert A-1 on the improved light tank chassis.

22:39 — SPArty-Convert on the basic medium SP artillery chassis.

26:36 — the first flame tank, before the upgrade.

33:30 — the same chassis as FT-Full, with the later modules on it.

The naming tells you the plan: "Convert" designs are cheap variants meant to be built early and converted or upgraded later, while FT-Full is the version you actually want once radio III and armour skirts are available. The light tank is a support and screening chassis carrying a machine gun rather than a gun — it is not there to fight tanks.

Planes

The CAS design is named defensive for a reason — it exists to break attacks on your line, not to support offensives. That fits the shape of the run.

23:51 — LBSh on the basic close air support airframe.

27:27 — the Il-2T, the improved CAS airframe.

4. The Spanish Civil War

The focus Send Military Advisors to Spain sits ninth in the order, well before anything military matters at home, and the video gives Spain its own chapter starting at 6:02.

The reason is the same reason every major does it: Spain is a free training ground years before it counts. Volunteers earn army experience — which is what pays for the template edits above — and generals sent there grind traits and levels against a real opponent while the rest of the world is still at peace. You arrive at 1941 with commanders who already have their bonuses.

5. Barbarossa

What the order sheet builds toward: one army of 86 rifle divisions, February 1940.

June 1941 around Białystok. The air panel reads 1,500 of ours against 4,131 theirs — which is why the planes go to defensive CAS rather than contesting the sky.

Everything above is preparation for the chapter starting at 34:22, which is where the actual defence and counter-attack are played out.

The guide is stated to cover beating Germany in both singleplayer and multiplayer — which is why the research fork above exists, and why the templates are built around holding a line rather than racing east. Watch the chapter for the front-line handling; the order sheet on this page is what gets you there in a state to hold it.

Sources

• "The Ultimate HoI4 Soviet Union Guide | 2026" — VijoPlays, YouTube, 22 July 2026 (42:15).
• The focus order, research order and all seven designs come from the author's own published order sheet, linked from the video description — not from the narration. Design loadouts above are decoded from the export strings in that document, so component names match what the game will show you.
• Two further documents are linked from that sheet — a doctrines and construction-tech spreadsheet, and a separate designs document. Neither is reproduced here.
• An unedited full VOD of the run is also linked from the description for anyone who wants the unabridged version.

This page deliberately covers the order sheet rather than the play-by-play: the sequencing is what transfers between runs, while the front-line handling is easier to watch than to read. Chapter links above jump straight to the relevant part of the video.