Somewhat ASB.
Its a two-for-one special
There's even a prologue to boot, so some might say it's a THREE-for-one. Who knows for sure? Probably any omniscient entity, but let's move on shall we?
Prologue
With growing unrest within the Russian Empire and after the leader of the Bolsheviks rebellion movement, Vladimir Lenin declared the creation of a Communist state during the October Revolution, the Tsar was forced to abdicate and install a provisional government. However, their decision to continue the war with Germany was extremely unpopular with the general populace and pro-Bolshevik uprisings continued to plague the nation.
POD : The Provisional government agrees to a truce with the Central powers with both parties signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, carving up much of Russia into German puppet states in exchange for aid in defeating the Bolsheviks all revolutionaries allied to them. This leads to an armistice between the Entente and Central Powers as Germany was able to bring in its troops from the Eastern Front (and a more isolationist USA helped as well) by November 1917.
By February the following year, 250,000 Entente troops, 310,000 Central Powers troops as well as 55,000 American "volunteers" begin streaming into the Russian Far East to aid the White Army in their struggle against the Red Army and its allies. Western Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia were abandoned as the White Army began retreating East in hopes that they would be able to stop the Red Army there. These retreats were often slowed down by large rabbles of refugees, escaping to promises of a better life in the East. By the beginning of Spring, 2.5 million White Army troops as well as nearly 2 million refugees had safely made it to the Far East. Many of these refugees would later become farmers, laborers and other such jobs, assimilating rather well with the original population. Red assaults have been futile thus far as they grow under-supplied due to constant bombing of agricultural areas. Morale was sinking as many hoped the Bolsheviks would bring peace and not bog them down in yet another war. After several more failed attacks and an unusually harsh winter that kills thousands of men and many more civilians, many in the Red Army have had enough and begin mutinying and refusing to follow orders while riots began erupting in the major cities of Moscow and Petrograd. Fearing that the White Army could take advantage of their growing weakness, the Bolsheviks finally agree to peace and sign the Treaty of Khabarovsk, agreeing to recognize the Federal Republic of Russia. The Soviet Union later spiraled out of control after the death of Lenin in 1921 as many factions of the Bolsheviks desired to control the nation. With Stalin dead (Killed while leading one of the many failed assaults on Yakutsk), Leon Trotsky takes control and begins the first attempts at reconciling relations between the Soviets and the FRR.
Federal Republic of Russia
The FRR was relatively unscathed by the Russian Civil War with much of the conflict concentrated on its borderlands. Soon after, the Russian Nationalist Party (a far-right party) took over the country in a bloodless coup just weeks after the peace with the Soviet Union, beginning a 48 year long single-party dictatorship. Fearing that an invasion from the Soviet Union would cut off all trade with the outside world, the Russian Nationalist Party begin the самостоятельный (Self-sufficiency) program, turning inward and rejecting all trade with other nations. It is during this time that the military spending skyrocketed as the FRR attempted to project the image of a strong, confident nation to the world. However, by the end of the 1940s (Especially among the Great Powers) it was common knowledge that it was nothing more than a starving police state[1].
After a Marxist revolution in Vladivostok came close to toppling the government on May 7 1958, the Russian Nationalists finally gave in and began liberalizing the economy and allowing limited trade with Japan and the Soviet Union as well as accepting aid in the form of food and other essentials from the United States of America. Military spending was cut and its army was painfully[2] brought down to more manageable numbers. By 1962, the economy was already a de facto market economy, trading with nations all over Eurasia, though trade with the Americas was still limited to essentials and machinery. By this time, man were calling for democracy and free elections. Fearing a repeat of the May 7 uprising, the government folded to these demands and made it legal to create political parties, promising free elections by 1968.
When 1968 came, there were 6 major political parties vying for power with countless smaller parties[3] that merely wanted wanted a share of the pie that was the future Federal Assembly. It was no surprise that the center-left Liberal Democratic Party won with the Marxist Socialist Party at a distant second. The Nationalist Party of Russia retained only a sliver of its influence and gained only 15 seats in the newly created Federal Assembly. Today, it is regarded as a minor fringe party. By the year 1980, the Federal Republic of Russia fully embraced Liberal Democracy and the ideals of Capitalism. The Marxist Socialists are on a downward spiral as they have lost seats and votes at nearly every election and moderate elements have already begun asking for a possibility of union with the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democratic has won all elections thus far.
[1] When the Soviets found out, a great number of propaganda posters were made and dropped over major FRR cities, enticing people to "Join the USSR, we have plenty of food for all". Many people fled into the Soviet Union until the FRR govermnent made it illegal to travel out of the state and erected outposts along the Russo-Soviet border in attempts to stop all who tried to escape. Many still did.
[2] Painful because many pro-militarization people as well as ex-army personnel began a series of violent riots. They were successfully put down, at heavy cost.
[3] The Siberian Nationalist Party, Green Party of Russia, Social-Democrat Party among others.
Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) / Soviet Union
Following the end of the Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union[1] began slowly making the first steps at rehabilitating its shattered economy, drained after years of war. Lenin's sudden death due to stroke just 3 months after the signing of the Treaty of Creation of the Soviet Union. Lenin's Testament was discovered and read aloud to the Congress of Soviets. Many saw some the suggestions made by Lenin (Mostly those of removing Stalin from his post) as "unnecessary" as Stalin was killed while leading an ultimately futile attack on Yakutsk during the civil war. They still followed much of the Testament, including giving legislative powers to the State Planning Committee and increasing the number of members of the Congress of Soviets to 100. While many factions attempted to seize power (Especially Stalins protégés and wanna-bes). Leon Trotsky, seen as the most capable leader, is given made General-Secretary of the Communist Party as well as leader of the Soviet Union. He begins a policy of rapid industrialization as well as liberalizing the nation. A voluntary collectivization policy was enacted in 1930 ction of cereal crops. Many factories were dedicated to producing consumer goods in hopes that the quality of life of the average Soviet citizen would rise. By 1937, the Soviet Union was a much more liberal nation and had begun lessening the censorship of its media and allowing token "dissidents" to speak against the Soviet government. In 1940, Leon Trotsk agreed to step down and was replaced by Nikolay Shvernik.
After several disputes over the Dagestan-USSR and Georgia-USSR borders and several skirmishes that kill nearly 62 soldiers on both sides, the Soviet Union declared war on the Ottomans in 1943. After a short two year war, the Ottoman Empire was forced to accept the creation of Soviet-aligned Communist governments in Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. There are plans to unite these nations with the Soviet Union by 1990. Socialist uprisings continue on and off in Armenia. There have been near continuous uprisings from Communist and Socialist rebel groups since the end of the Soviet-Ottoman conflict. The Soviet Union is openly supporting the Socialist rebels (They have been since 1965).
By the time Mikhail Gorbachev took control of the nation in 1978, the New Economic Policy (That was embraced by the Soviet Union in TTL) was in dire need of improvement. There was already a wide gulf between the upper and lower classes and a growing number of industry were jointly controlled by the state and private entrepreneurs. In early 1980, a program of reforming the Soviet economy to a "Socialist market economy" had begun. This is proving to be a success as GDP increased while poverty levels decreased. This had also resolved the economic disparity to a certain degree, though it was only slowed down and not outright halted. While much of the "Old Order" have begun protesting this as "Anti-Communist" and "Counter-Revolutionary", most Soviets view it as a "long needed rebirth of Soviet economic policy".
[1] The Central Asian ASSRs (Kazakh ASSR, Kirghiz ASSR, Turkestan ASSR) became fully fledged SSRs at the signing of the Treaty of the Creation of the USSR in 1921.
