If the church only gives one gold, I'll choose to sell it for 40--the game will end in 40 turns! So perhaps you should give German Mysticism to let players keep the church. Lowering the shield for church is another option.

1. I don't mass-pillage the roads because I need them to get back to Germany when the roles reverse. I just remove a few segments around Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad to protect the cities.

2. I build barracks in all cities that will produce units. Only veteran units are useful.

3. I withdraw everything of value from the Western region. Especially AA batteries, tanks and motorized infantry, if I can.

4. I build a massive number of veteran AA guns in Leningrad, Stalingrad, Moscow, Rostow, Tula, Voronezh, Serafimovitz, Sevastopol. I move all available NKVD units to those same cities + veteran motorized infantry + T-34s... When the Germans attack I want them to suffer massive losses and only wound my units so they can get repaired by the barracks before the next turn but this requires at least 20-30 tough units per city. It's better to have 30 units in one city and none in the next than 15 in each!
To get enough AA units to defend Moscow, Rostov and Leningrad I need to speed build them so I sell everything I can in the Western cities from the beginning of the game. I end each turn by going through EVERY Western city still in my hands and seeing what I can sell...Refineries, Railroad terminals, steelmills, powerplants, banks, hydroplants, universities...sell, sell, sell!

5. I add Katyusha launchers to the cities to kill the wounded attackers after each strike.

6. I move all refugees + labor brigades to the East and put them to work converting plain squares to industry ASAP. I may found a few new cities also where there are very good ressources. But priority number one, before growing the cities is building industry. Typical improvement order: granary, kollektiv farm, steel mill,(ammo-plant), barracks, units

7. In general I let them build industry until a city has 4-5 industry squares, then merge a few to the city to get it to size 7 or 8. The rest move on to build industry around another city etc... I usually build up 15-20 cities in the Urals to produce 50+ shields, with at least 6-10 in the 80-100 shield range.

8. In the winter of 1941-42 I counter-attack only to inflict maximum damage, not to conquer cities, except to keep the supply road open to Leningrad. I usually attack stacks of tanks, planes left out in the open (Infantry can kill those) and infantry outside cities. I always try to attack, kill and withdraw to a city within the same turn so as not to lose the attacking unit.

9. I continue to stack veteran AA batteries/NKVD/T-34s in the cities forming the main line of defense
Leningrad-Kalinin-Moscow-Tula-Voronezh-Serafimovitz-Stalingrad-Rostov.

10. In the summer of 1942 I try to hold the line and inflict damage with counter-attacks against units that stop next to my cities. I build mostly AA batteries, T-34 and Katyushas. When KV-1s become available they are the best defense units coupled with the AA batteries.

11. If I can hold Rostov through the summer of 1942 I start counterattacking in the winter of 1942-43 against the Southern German army in front of Stalingrad.

12. By the Summer of 1943 I usually have large numbers of T-34/85s and Katyushas. The key to win is to strike with mass force... I try to lose very few units, which means sometimes withdrawing a unit after one strike even if it has a full turn left so as not to leave it open to counter-attack. City are best attacked with Katyushas first(To take out the toughest units) then with planes, T-34s and Red Guards. Better attack 3 cities in a turn and take them than attack 6 cities and only weaken them (And have German wounded units be repaired by their barracks).

13.I build the electrification wonder first so I get a "free" powerplant in every city. (And I sell the ones I have)
Also build Civilian donations and Labor Front to help the economy get into the black, but building trade routes to Baku, Gorkyi and Maikop has more effect than the wonders.