Could the soviet method of war have been successful ?

[thelmia]

See Max Boot's "War Made New." The Soviets were masters of Second Industrial Age warfare. Then the Information Age came along and they fell behind.

If you want to see how the Russian military fights a war, see Chechnya. Afghanistan and Chechnya are just as much wars as a war against NATO would have been. Remember that the Soviets successfully fought a number of insurgencies, including the Russian Civil War that founded the USSR in the first place! Their defeat in Afghanistan was a result of decisions made by their political leadership- not enough troops, poor doctrine, poor training, and a failure to adapt to Afghan conditions. Trying to terrorize the population backfired.

For one guy's take on what would have happened in Central Europe, see Ralph Peter's "Red Army."

In the real world, conditions changed and the Soviet Union did not change to meet them. For a while, say until about 1980 when the US Army started recovering after Vietnam, they had a chance. After, probably not.