Reds! Official Fanfiction Thread (Part Two)
- Thread starter Miss Teri
- Start date
That's the theme of OTL's Pretty Cure series. I was thinking that the Go! Princess PreCure equivalent would be working-class themed and the main villains (Dys Dark) would be royalty themed to contrast with the proletariat-themed Cures.
MASALA MOVIE (1994)
Masala Movie/मसाला मूवी (1994)
Directed by Durga Pallavi, Sukhbir Bao
Written by Sukhbir Bao, Rajani D'cruz, Mohini
Produced by Sukhbir Bao
Sukhwinder Chaudhari (Sukhbir Bao), a once-great film director, is now recovering from a drinking problem and down on his luck. He and his sidekicks Vikram Singh (Jitender Chaudhary) and Uttar Singh (Inderjeet Patel) pitch to Big Pictures Studio's Chief (Rajani D'cruz) the idea to make an historical epic film. The Chief rejects the idea at first, but Sukhwinder convinces him that if he can get investment, it could save the studio from a take-over by the Anglo-Indian conglomerate Mhasalkar & Myles (Brijesh Anupam and Arlen Smythe). The Chief assignes a young accountant by the name of Ravi Kiran Vemulakonda (Jeetendra Damodar) as Sukwinder's 'chaperone'.
Sukwinder, Vikram, and Uttar proceed to obtain funding from various banks and financial institutions, however Sukwinder's reputation along with the dismal prospects for Big Pictures of paying back the loan leads to them being thrown out each time. Also shown is each bank receiving calls from Mhasalkar & Myles advising them to turn down Chaudhari. Vikram and Uttar suggest they visit their Aunt to obtain a loan, which leads them to the slums of Bombay and the mansion of Kasi Joshi (Aditi Niya), a local madam. Seeing a way to launder her profits and become legitimate, Kasi agrees to fund the film in return for her daughter Nithya (Kashi Rina) being cast as the heroine. Sukwinder agrees to the terms and returns to Big Pictures to begin filming.
Mhasalkar & Myles learn of the project, and try to sabotage it by sending voluptuous nightclub sensation Malini Rina D'Cruz (Mohini) to seduce Sukhwinder. He falls for her, but returns to drinking when he learns that she was part of the scheme. He buys a huge bottle of liquor and drinks himself into a stupor, surrounded by fellow "winos". But Malini has genuinely fallen for Sukhwinder and refused Mhasalkar & Myles money, and helps Vikram and Uttar find him and restore him to sobriety. During the filming Nithya, despite being beautiful and an excellent dancer is cruel and snobbish to the cast and crew and even her own mother. When a fire is delibertly started on the set by a saboteur she is saved by Ravi. When she begins to abuse him for touching her he finally loses his temper and begins to berate her saying that because she is a beautiful woman, rich and talented does not mean she gets to be cruel to anyone, especially to her mother. Nithya slaps Ravi who does not respond and walks away.
Sukwinder finds out that Mhasalkar & Myles has completed a similar historical film to positive reviews, which has lead to the Chief calling Sukwinder and cancelling the filming. They also discover that while Nithya can dance her singing in off key and is too aggressive to be a 'damsel in distress'. However her comedic timing and mimicry is excellent, leading Sukhwinder to suggest changing the film to a historic comedy and satire of the typical masala film. Facing the loss of the studio and few options, the Chief agrees.
Despite some other attempts at sabotage the film is completed, but the only copy is stolen by Mhasalkar & Myles just before its theatrical premiere. Malini stalls the audience with her nightclub act while Sukhwinder, Ravi, Vikram and Uttar successfully steal the film back and discover the financial records of the company. They are cornered by Mhasalkar & Myles thuggish executives and get involved in a chase using Tuk-Tuks. The head to Kasi's house where they discover Kasi visiting with a local police inspector. Ravi reveals to the Inspector that Mhasalkar & Myles are receiving large amounts of investment from questionable sources in the Middle East and are hiding assets to avoid taxes. The executives are arrested by the police and the local goons. Nithya attempts to talk to Ravi but he ignores her. After everyone leaves Nithya breaks down and apologizes to her mother and her staff for her behavior and that she loves Ravi. In the course of hurrying to the theater, Vikram gets wrapped up in the film, and has to be rushed to the projection booth to show it.
The film is a huge success with the audience, which erupts with over-the-top applause. The studio is saved and the Chief takes everyone out to celebrate at a local restaurant. While eating there, Kasi and Nithya arrive and ask to speak to Ravi. Ravi reluctantly goes to speak with them. Kasi thanks Ravi for standing up for her as many people do not respect their mother, she also thanks him for saving Nithya from physical danger and her dangerous attitude and that she blesses them. Ravi states that he grew up without a mother or any parents so he feels anyone with parents are blessed and he was doing his duty. Nithya also apologizes and says that she apologized to her mother and the people she was cruel to and wants to marry Ravi since she cant stop thinking about him. Ravi admits he cannot stop thinking about her also but she must walk away from her mother's business. They embrace.
Vikram narrates the epilogue as Ravi and Nithya perform the wedding ceremony. Sukhwinder has now become the new Chief of Big Pictures after the retirement of the previous Chief with Uttar and Vikram as his assistants. Malini and Sukhwinder are also now a married couple. Ravi has been promoted to a Senior Accountant and Nithya has become a comedy film star. Kasi has left her old business and has become a producer of films, especially musicals and crime dramas. Due to her help arresting the Mhasalkar & Myles executives and having some 'personal' information about several important people she receives a pardon for previous crimes. Both Mhasalkar & Myles are arrested while trying to flee the country by the CBI and reveal that they wanted to purchase Big Pictures in order to flood India with counterfeit money. The film ends with Ravi and Nithya married as an on-screen caption identifies the film as a "mostly true story".
While not a huge success compared to other comedy films the film would receive good reviews and become a fan favorite on many television channels. While the film industry would officially deny some of the implications of the story like favoritism towards particular actors/actresses and connections to organized crime later articles and books would highlight many of the secrets of the film industry.
OOC: Based on Mel Brooks's Silent Movie
Directed by Durga Pallavi, Sukhbir Bao
Written by Sukhbir Bao, Rajani D'cruz, Mohini
Produced by Sukhbir Bao
Sukhwinder Chaudhari (Sukhbir Bao), a once-great film director, is now recovering from a drinking problem and down on his luck. He and his sidekicks Vikram Singh (Jitender Chaudhary) and Uttar Singh (Inderjeet Patel) pitch to Big Pictures Studio's Chief (Rajani D'cruz) the idea to make an historical epic film. The Chief rejects the idea at first, but Sukhwinder convinces him that if he can get investment, it could save the studio from a take-over by the Anglo-Indian conglomerate Mhasalkar & Myles (Brijesh Anupam and Arlen Smythe). The Chief assignes a young accountant by the name of Ravi Kiran Vemulakonda (Jeetendra Damodar) as Sukwinder's 'chaperone'.
Sukwinder, Vikram, and Uttar proceed to obtain funding from various banks and financial institutions, however Sukwinder's reputation along with the dismal prospects for Big Pictures of paying back the loan leads to them being thrown out each time. Also shown is each bank receiving calls from Mhasalkar & Myles advising them to turn down Chaudhari. Vikram and Uttar suggest they visit their Aunt to obtain a loan, which leads them to the slums of Bombay and the mansion of Kasi Joshi (Aditi Niya), a local madam. Seeing a way to launder her profits and become legitimate, Kasi agrees to fund the film in return for her daughter Nithya (Kashi Rina) being cast as the heroine. Sukwinder agrees to the terms and returns to Big Pictures to begin filming.
Mhasalkar & Myles learn of the project, and try to sabotage it by sending voluptuous nightclub sensation Malini Rina D'Cruz (Mohini) to seduce Sukhwinder. He falls for her, but returns to drinking when he learns that she was part of the scheme. He buys a huge bottle of liquor and drinks himself into a stupor, surrounded by fellow "winos". But Malini has genuinely fallen for Sukhwinder and refused Mhasalkar & Myles money, and helps Vikram and Uttar find him and restore him to sobriety. During the filming Nithya, despite being beautiful and an excellent dancer is cruel and snobbish to the cast and crew and even her own mother. When a fire is delibertly started on the set by a saboteur she is saved by Ravi. When she begins to abuse him for touching her he finally loses his temper and begins to berate her saying that because she is a beautiful woman, rich and talented does not mean she gets to be cruel to anyone, especially to her mother. Nithya slaps Ravi who does not respond and walks away.
Sukwinder finds out that Mhasalkar & Myles has completed a similar historical film to positive reviews, which has lead to the Chief calling Sukwinder and cancelling the filming. They also discover that while Nithya can dance her singing in off key and is too aggressive to be a 'damsel in distress'. However her comedic timing and mimicry is excellent, leading Sukhwinder to suggest changing the film to a historic comedy and satire of the typical masala film. Facing the loss of the studio and few options, the Chief agrees.
Despite some other attempts at sabotage the film is completed, but the only copy is stolen by Mhasalkar & Myles just before its theatrical premiere. Malini stalls the audience with her nightclub act while Sukhwinder, Ravi, Vikram and Uttar successfully steal the film back and discover the financial records of the company. They are cornered by Mhasalkar & Myles thuggish executives and get involved in a chase using Tuk-Tuks. The head to Kasi's house where they discover Kasi visiting with a local police inspector. Ravi reveals to the Inspector that Mhasalkar & Myles are receiving large amounts of investment from questionable sources in the Middle East and are hiding assets to avoid taxes. The executives are arrested by the police and the local goons. Nithya attempts to talk to Ravi but he ignores her. After everyone leaves Nithya breaks down and apologizes to her mother and her staff for her behavior and that she loves Ravi. In the course of hurrying to the theater, Vikram gets wrapped up in the film, and has to be rushed to the projection booth to show it.
The film is a huge success with the audience, which erupts with over-the-top applause. The studio is saved and the Chief takes everyone out to celebrate at a local restaurant. While eating there, Kasi and Nithya arrive and ask to speak to Ravi. Ravi reluctantly goes to speak with them. Kasi thanks Ravi for standing up for her as many people do not respect their mother, she also thanks him for saving Nithya from physical danger and her dangerous attitude and that she blesses them. Ravi states that he grew up without a mother or any parents so he feels anyone with parents are blessed and he was doing his duty. Nithya also apologizes and says that she apologized to her mother and the people she was cruel to and wants to marry Ravi since she cant stop thinking about him. Ravi admits he cannot stop thinking about her also but she must walk away from her mother's business. They embrace.
Vikram narrates the epilogue as Ravi and Nithya perform the wedding ceremony. Sukhwinder has now become the new Chief of Big Pictures after the retirement of the previous Chief with Uttar and Vikram as his assistants. Malini and Sukhwinder are also now a married couple. Ravi has been promoted to a Senior Accountant and Nithya has become a comedy film star. Kasi has left her old business and has become a producer of films, especially musicals and crime dramas. Due to her help arresting the Mhasalkar & Myles executives and having some 'personal' information about several important people she receives a pardon for previous crimes. Both Mhasalkar & Myles are arrested while trying to flee the country by the CBI and reveal that they wanted to purchase Big Pictures in order to flood India with counterfeit money. The film ends with Ravi and Nithya married as an on-screen caption identifies the film as a "mostly true story".
While not a huge success compared to other comedy films the film would receive good reviews and become a fan favorite on many television channels. While the film industry would officially deny some of the implications of the story like favoritism towards particular actors/actresses and connections to organized crime later articles and books would highlight many of the secrets of the film industry.
OOC: Based on Mel Brooks's Silent Movie
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The New Spirit (1941) (The Jovian)
The New Spirit (1941) [1]
Directed by: Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen
Produced by: Walt Disney
Story by: Joe Grant and Dick Huemer
Story:
The short film begins with Donald Duck marching to a revolutionary anthem on the radio ("The Proletarian Spirit") [2] before the radio program begins to talk about the ongoing war effort and the Comintern's full mobilization against the fascist menace. Donald, a veteran of the May Day Revolution is more than keen to fight again for the revolution only for the radio to insist that he doesn't need to actually participate in fighting. Instead he could help the war effort with praxis, the concept of putting communist theory into practice. The radio then goes on to explain that a war effort doesn't just need fighting men, it needs equipment, provisions, guns, bullets, all these things and more. Donald's job can be to figure out what he can do to aid in the production of these vital supplies to ensure victory on the front lines. Donald is unconvinced but the radio manages to get him to come around with the phrase "Praxis will beat the Axis" The radio then lists examples of what Donald can do to aid the war effort set to an animated montage of how said actions can help and ends with the radio quoting a line from William Z. Foster's Red Dawn speech over an animated footage of Comintern troops marching to the Internationale.
Background and Development:
Secretary of Labor Emma Goldman contracted Hyperion Studios to produce a series of educational animated shorts about what ordinary citizens can do to aid the UASR's war effort against the Anti-Comintern Axis in lieu of signing up for service in the WFRA, WFRMC and WFRN. The short was co-written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer and directed by Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen with Disney himself producing. Initially Emma Goldman wanted the short to feature a character called "the Comrade" to represent the average American, but Disney was able to persuade her to use Donald Duck instead [3] due to his various appearances in animated shorts set during the May Day Revolution and centering on his humorous exploits during the conflict. It would be released in theaters in February 12th, 1941 and would be shown before feature films some times in place of newsreels.
Reception:
The short would prove to be very popular and well regarded by both contemporary viewers and retrospective reviews of Hyperion's wartime productions and would be credited with popularizing the phrase "Praxis will beat the Axis." in worker's circles during the war. It would also prove successful in its goal of encouraging people to volunteer for various programs to recycle scrap metal, grow crops in backyards and pots on apartments' windowsills and various factory work to produce war materiel among other actions to further the war effort and would be the first in a series of educational shorts that focus on one specific activity that anyone can do to aid the war effort.
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[1]: Based on OTL's The New Spirit:
[2]: Based on OTL's "Yankee Doodle Spirit":
[3]: Much like how OTL's Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. wanted the short to feature "Mr. Average Taxpayer" instead of Donald Duck.
Directed by: Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen
Produced by: Walt Disney
Story by: Joe Grant and Dick Huemer
Story:
The short film begins with Donald Duck marching to a revolutionary anthem on the radio ("The Proletarian Spirit") [2] before the radio program begins to talk about the ongoing war effort and the Comintern's full mobilization against the fascist menace. Donald, a veteran of the May Day Revolution is more than keen to fight again for the revolution only for the radio to insist that he doesn't need to actually participate in fighting. Instead he could help the war effort with praxis, the concept of putting communist theory into practice. The radio then goes on to explain that a war effort doesn't just need fighting men, it needs equipment, provisions, guns, bullets, all these things and more. Donald's job can be to figure out what he can do to aid in the production of these vital supplies to ensure victory on the front lines. Donald is unconvinced but the radio manages to get him to come around with the phrase "Praxis will beat the Axis" The radio then lists examples of what Donald can do to aid the war effort set to an animated montage of how said actions can help and ends with the radio quoting a line from William Z. Foster's Red Dawn speech over an animated footage of Comintern troops marching to the Internationale.
Background and Development:
Secretary of Labor Emma Goldman contracted Hyperion Studios to produce a series of educational animated shorts about what ordinary citizens can do to aid the UASR's war effort against the Anti-Comintern Axis in lieu of signing up for service in the WFRA, WFRMC and WFRN. The short was co-written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer and directed by Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen with Disney himself producing. Initially Emma Goldman wanted the short to feature a character called "the Comrade" to represent the average American, but Disney was able to persuade her to use Donald Duck instead [3] due to his various appearances in animated shorts set during the May Day Revolution and centering on his humorous exploits during the conflict. It would be released in theaters in February 12th, 1941 and would be shown before feature films some times in place of newsreels.
Reception:
The short would prove to be very popular and well regarded by both contemporary viewers and retrospective reviews of Hyperion's wartime productions and would be credited with popularizing the phrase "Praxis will beat the Axis." in worker's circles during the war. It would also prove successful in its goal of encouraging people to volunteer for various programs to recycle scrap metal, grow crops in backyards and pots on apartments' windowsills and various factory work to produce war materiel among other actions to further the war effort and would be the first in a series of educational shorts that focus on one specific activity that anyone can do to aid the war effort.
-----
[1]: Based on OTL's The New Spirit:
I am thinking of a series of Dr. Kildare movies working with a Secretariat of Health. Does the UASR have that?
The Lost Revolution (1999) (The Jovian)
The Lost Revolution (1999)
By S. M. Stirling and Sergei Lukyanenko
Plot:
The novel takes place in an alternate timeline where Norman Thomas is killed during the events of Biennio Rosso, an event witnessed by a young radical by the name of Dylan Halsey who subsequently fights during Biennio Rosso in New York on the side of the SLP and becomes a committed member of the party's ultra-left faction. The novel then shifts forward in time to the 1930s Soviet Union. Rayna Petrova, the young teenage daughter of a prominent Soviet politician sees him caught in Stalin's purges and sentenced to death for treason and counterrevolutionary activity. Rayna's belief in the revolution is shaken by this act but she remains loyal to the Soviet Regime, largely out of fear.
In America, the Great Depression is in full swing and the Worker's Communist Party wins a landslide victory in the 1932 election with the electoral support of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. President-Elect Upton Sinclair is subsequently assassinated by US military personnel under the orders of General Douglas MacArthur and much like the timeline we know, arrests the leadership and congressional members of the WCPA, leaving Vice President-Elect Earl Browder and Provisional First Secretary William Z. Foster as the undisputed leaders of the Popular Front. Without Sinclair's moderating influence over the provisional government the Popular Front collapses as Browder and Foster's attempts to force the DFLP and the loyalist Democrats and Republicans into towing their ideological line cause them to splinter off and pursue their own constitutional restoration agenda resulting in a protracted three-way civil war that ends with the Whites still in control over the Deep South and all political factions in the nascent UASR save the "Vanguardist" faction of Browder and Foster-dominated WCPA purged and many anarchist, democratic socialist and left-communist figures like Floyd Olson and Emma Goldman end up arrested on counterrevolutionary charges for trying to create something resembling a political opposition to the increasingly authoritarian Browder administration. Even Foster eventually finds himself sentenced to hard labor. In the middle of it all Dylan experiences the harshness of Browder's policies. His union is forbidden to strike, his worker's soviet delegates are dismissed and new ones approved by the party apparatus installed in their place and working conditions deteriorate as Browder imposes the same hierarchical management bureaucracy as the USSR and he and the rest of his fellow workers are completely cut off from any decision making in favor of rigid five-year plans. Any hope of a worker's democracy dies when the so-called "insurrection of the cadres" in Detroit ends with hundreds of dissenting party cadres nationwide being executed as the Browder faction cements their control over the party.
Eventually World War II begins with Nazi Germany invading the USSR, leading Browder to declare war on the Anti-Comminist Axis. Dylan, now a man in his early 40s is recalled to active duty as a Sergeant in the WFRA and sees fighting on the Soviet front alongside a now adult Rayna. Over the course of the war the two bond together over their common dissatisfaction with the way the revolution has gone under Stalin and Browder lamenting the limitations of political freedoms and the workers' being increasingly isolated from control over the economy or the party that's ostensibly supposed to represent them, one of their conversation is overheard by a commissar and Rayna has no choice but to kill him to prevent them from getting into trouble for their beliefs. After the war is over Dylan convinces Rayna to move with him to America, which she accepts out of hope that America will be more tolerant of her homosexuality than Russia. A hope that's short lived as Browder's attempts to placate the rural proletariat see him re-criminalizing homosexual acts and adopting a very cultural conservative stance that sees UASR lagging behind many AFS nations on the issue of civil rights. Dylan and Rayna have an impromptu wedding to cover for her sexual orientation and as the 50s come and go, the revolution becomes more and more stagnant, every socialist nation has become a single-party vanguardist republic where the people are subordinated to the whims of the ruling party's leadership. After Stalin's death from a heart attack in 1956, Lavrentiy Beria becomes general secretary of the VKP(b) and relations between UASR and USSR begin to deteriorate with both leaders accusing each other of "betraying the revolution" with Beria eventually being ousted by Nikita Khrushchev who implements market reforms and integration into the AFS economy to combat the USSR's economic stagnation. While ostensibly remaining a communist nation, the USSR becomes de facto a capitalist economy as the Soviet proletariat becomes cheep factory labor for AFS companies. With the Comintern torn apart, the world experiences more and more stillborn socialist movements and revolutions as they receive little to no support from actually existing socialist governments, leaving them open to FBU-backed military intervention or coups which in turn isolates the socialist states from any potential economic allies and further stagnates living conditions in the communist bloc.
Dylan and Rayna adopt and raise two children together but as they grow up in the increasingly rigid and conformist UASR society as both cultural revolutions are stamped out by Browder for reasons of "securing the revolution", and the Quarrymen become and underground hit in the UASR, Their son Jack gets into trouble for listening to them and begins expressing pro-capitalist sympathies, believing that capitalism is genuinely better than the stagnating, perpetually rationed American society. Their daughter Anya meanwhile begins to exhibit tomboy behavior and mannerisms and is likewise struggling against the conformist Browder's America.
After Browder dies in 1969 from a stroke, an inter-party power struggle sees Richard Nixon appointed Premier, the resulting the "Nixon Reforms" see UASR liberalizing and allowing for foreign trade and imported culture from AFS nations. An adult Jack is now a middle-manager in a factory collective, his dreams of becoming a musician unrealized, and Anya is now a party member trying to climb the ranks of the party in an attempt to institute real change. However she discovers to her horror that most party higher-ups are now no longer interested in furthering the revolutionary cause but rather in opportunistically providing themselves with as much personal comfort and privileges as possible. Her attempts to get reforms implemented from within as a member of the Congress of Soviets almost see her arrested for going against democratic centralism by casting dissenting votes. Nixon is assassinated in 1973 and his successor Sean Cinnéide implements further liberalization reforms and re-introduction of market-based economies and limited private property. At first Jack supports the reforms, believing that they would improve people's lives, however eventually it leads to an increase in income inequality and many party politicians become business owners and proceed to support further market liberalizations.
Horrified by what the party has become and how utterly corrupt and disconnected from the proletariat it is in practice, Anya attempts to organize a popular movement against the party to attempt to force the system to reform into a multi-party democracy like FBU's only to be arrested for her efforts but Jack, determined to bring the system down, picks up from where she left off and leads the movement in forcing the government to step down. New free elections are called in a multi-party system and the re-branded Democratic Socialist Party of America narrowly wins the 1976 election against opposition from newly formed pro-capitalist parties backed by the FBU but capitalism is restored to the UASR eventually as the corrupt DSPA works with them to gradually privatize the economy largely against the will of the majority who still support communism and wanted it reformed, not replaced.
Anya is freed from prison in 1980 and discovers a world completely alien to the one she grew up in. Poverty is everywhere, capitalist advertising covers every surface of every building, what used to be thriving communities are now squalid ghettos. She manages to find Jack who brings her up to speed and explains to her what happened as far as he understands it. The new generation came out in droves to vote but unaware and uneducated of alternative communist ideologies to Browder's Bolshevik-Leninism, simply assumed that communism can't be done in practice and voted for capitalist parties out of the misguided belief that the plenitude and cultural freedoms that they thought existed in the FBU would also come here. That if maybe the UASR was democratic from the start people would've been far more willing to defend the revolution rather than watch this happen with at best apathy and at worst expectation of a better life under capitalism. The two then watch as the old American star-spangled banner is once again flown at masts across the country with the new President Joseph Biden announcing that the "true US government has been restored across the land". Jack remarks that he's grateful that their parents never lived to see this nightmare come to pass and that all their struggles amounted to nothing.
Background:
The novel was written by renowned alternate history writer S. M. Stirling and Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko as a scathing critique of what they saw as a resurgence of vanguardist thought in the USSR and some corners of the UASR and a restoration of Joseph Stalin's cult of personality most notably from Soviet politician Vladimir Putin of the VKP(b) in reaction to the upsurge in support for more culturally libertine, libertarian communist parties like the SEU and RFPSU. So the novel was written to showcase an alternate timeline in which vanguardist one-party states and Stalin's nationalistic "socialism in one country" policy became the norm throughout the Comintern, depicting a world where the revolution stagnates while capitalism continues to grow and where the ruling party becomes increasingly disconnected from the proletariat and begins to act to further the interests of the party elites rather than the workers.
Stirling and Lukyanenko would form a unique writing partnership with Stirling writing the chapters focusing on Dylan and Jack while Lukyanenko would write the chapters focusing on Rayna and Anya and the two would then revise each other's chapters to ensure consistency in the writing style. The resulting novel would be 700 pages long and tell an epic century-spanning story.
Reception:
The novel would become quite popular especially among the more culturally libertine members of society for its critiques of authoritarianism even for a revolutionary cause but would receive mixed reviews from professional journalistic outlets, with many critics criticizing the alternate history as "implausible" while others would take issue with the novel's pacing and long time jumps. However critics would mostly respond positively to the dystopian final chapters and the depiction of an America where the capitalist order is restored with all the horrors it would entail but found Jack's final speech too preachy.
Both CLP and VKP(b) condemned the novel as counterrevolutionary for its highly negative depictions of Stalin, Foster and Browder and the elderly Sean Cinnéide also took umbrage with his portrayal in the novel as a corrupt bureaucrat but despite calls to ban it in both the UASR and USSR, the novel has remained in circulation and contemporary reviews remain divided on its overall quality to date.
By S. M. Stirling and Sergei Lukyanenko
Plot:
The novel takes place in an alternate timeline where Norman Thomas is killed during the events of Biennio Rosso, an event witnessed by a young radical by the name of Dylan Halsey who subsequently fights during Biennio Rosso in New York on the side of the SLP and becomes a committed member of the party's ultra-left faction. The novel then shifts forward in time to the 1930s Soviet Union. Rayna Petrova, the young teenage daughter of a prominent Soviet politician sees him caught in Stalin's purges and sentenced to death for treason and counterrevolutionary activity. Rayna's belief in the revolution is shaken by this act but she remains loyal to the Soviet Regime, largely out of fear.
In America, the Great Depression is in full swing and the Worker's Communist Party wins a landslide victory in the 1932 election with the electoral support of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. President-Elect Upton Sinclair is subsequently assassinated by US military personnel under the orders of General Douglas MacArthur and much like the timeline we know, arrests the leadership and congressional members of the WCPA, leaving Vice President-Elect Earl Browder and Provisional First Secretary William Z. Foster as the undisputed leaders of the Popular Front. Without Sinclair's moderating influence over the provisional government the Popular Front collapses as Browder and Foster's attempts to force the DFLP and the loyalist Democrats and Republicans into towing their ideological line cause them to splinter off and pursue their own constitutional restoration agenda resulting in a protracted three-way civil war that ends with the Whites still in control over the Deep South and all political factions in the nascent UASR save the "Vanguardist" faction of Browder and Foster-dominated WCPA purged and many anarchist, democratic socialist and left-communist figures like Floyd Olson and Emma Goldman end up arrested on counterrevolutionary charges for trying to create something resembling a political opposition to the increasingly authoritarian Browder administration. Even Foster eventually finds himself sentenced to hard labor. In the middle of it all Dylan experiences the harshness of Browder's policies. His union is forbidden to strike, his worker's soviet delegates are dismissed and new ones approved by the party apparatus installed in their place and working conditions deteriorate as Browder imposes the same hierarchical management bureaucracy as the USSR and he and the rest of his fellow workers are completely cut off from any decision making in favor of rigid five-year plans. Any hope of a worker's democracy dies when the so-called "insurrection of the cadres" in Detroit ends with hundreds of dissenting party cadres nationwide being executed as the Browder faction cements their control over the party.
Eventually World War II begins with Nazi Germany invading the USSR, leading Browder to declare war on the Anti-Comminist Axis. Dylan, now a man in his early 40s is recalled to active duty as a Sergeant in the WFRA and sees fighting on the Soviet front alongside a now adult Rayna. Over the course of the war the two bond together over their common dissatisfaction with the way the revolution has gone under Stalin and Browder lamenting the limitations of political freedoms and the workers' being increasingly isolated from control over the economy or the party that's ostensibly supposed to represent them, one of their conversation is overheard by a commissar and Rayna has no choice but to kill him to prevent them from getting into trouble for their beliefs. After the war is over Dylan convinces Rayna to move with him to America, which she accepts out of hope that America will be more tolerant of her homosexuality than Russia. A hope that's short lived as Browder's attempts to placate the rural proletariat see him re-criminalizing homosexual acts and adopting a very cultural conservative stance that sees UASR lagging behind many AFS nations on the issue of civil rights. Dylan and Rayna have an impromptu wedding to cover for her sexual orientation and as the 50s come and go, the revolution becomes more and more stagnant, every socialist nation has become a single-party vanguardist republic where the people are subordinated to the whims of the ruling party's leadership. After Stalin's death from a heart attack in 1956, Lavrentiy Beria becomes general secretary of the VKP(b) and relations between UASR and USSR begin to deteriorate with both leaders accusing each other of "betraying the revolution" with Beria eventually being ousted by Nikita Khrushchev who implements market reforms and integration into the AFS economy to combat the USSR's economic stagnation. While ostensibly remaining a communist nation, the USSR becomes de facto a capitalist economy as the Soviet proletariat becomes cheep factory labor for AFS companies. With the Comintern torn apart, the world experiences more and more stillborn socialist movements and revolutions as they receive little to no support from actually existing socialist governments, leaving them open to FBU-backed military intervention or coups which in turn isolates the socialist states from any potential economic allies and further stagnates living conditions in the communist bloc.
Dylan and Rayna adopt and raise two children together but as they grow up in the increasingly rigid and conformist UASR society as both cultural revolutions are stamped out by Browder for reasons of "securing the revolution", and the Quarrymen become and underground hit in the UASR, Their son Jack gets into trouble for listening to them and begins expressing pro-capitalist sympathies, believing that capitalism is genuinely better than the stagnating, perpetually rationed American society. Their daughter Anya meanwhile begins to exhibit tomboy behavior and mannerisms and is likewise struggling against the conformist Browder's America.
After Browder dies in 1969 from a stroke, an inter-party power struggle sees Richard Nixon appointed Premier, the resulting the "Nixon Reforms" see UASR liberalizing and allowing for foreign trade and imported culture from AFS nations. An adult Jack is now a middle-manager in a factory collective, his dreams of becoming a musician unrealized, and Anya is now a party member trying to climb the ranks of the party in an attempt to institute real change. However she discovers to her horror that most party higher-ups are now no longer interested in furthering the revolutionary cause but rather in opportunistically providing themselves with as much personal comfort and privileges as possible. Her attempts to get reforms implemented from within as a member of the Congress of Soviets almost see her arrested for going against democratic centralism by casting dissenting votes. Nixon is assassinated in 1973 and his successor Sean Cinnéide implements further liberalization reforms and re-introduction of market-based economies and limited private property. At first Jack supports the reforms, believing that they would improve people's lives, however eventually it leads to an increase in income inequality and many party politicians become business owners and proceed to support further market liberalizations.
Horrified by what the party has become and how utterly corrupt and disconnected from the proletariat it is in practice, Anya attempts to organize a popular movement against the party to attempt to force the system to reform into a multi-party democracy like FBU's only to be arrested for her efforts but Jack, determined to bring the system down, picks up from where she left off and leads the movement in forcing the government to step down. New free elections are called in a multi-party system and the re-branded Democratic Socialist Party of America narrowly wins the 1976 election against opposition from newly formed pro-capitalist parties backed by the FBU but capitalism is restored to the UASR eventually as the corrupt DSPA works with them to gradually privatize the economy largely against the will of the majority who still support communism and wanted it reformed, not replaced.
Anya is freed from prison in 1980 and discovers a world completely alien to the one she grew up in. Poverty is everywhere, capitalist advertising covers every surface of every building, what used to be thriving communities are now squalid ghettos. She manages to find Jack who brings her up to speed and explains to her what happened as far as he understands it. The new generation came out in droves to vote but unaware and uneducated of alternative communist ideologies to Browder's Bolshevik-Leninism, simply assumed that communism can't be done in practice and voted for capitalist parties out of the misguided belief that the plenitude and cultural freedoms that they thought existed in the FBU would also come here. That if maybe the UASR was democratic from the start people would've been far more willing to defend the revolution rather than watch this happen with at best apathy and at worst expectation of a better life under capitalism. The two then watch as the old American star-spangled banner is once again flown at masts across the country with the new President Joseph Biden announcing that the "true US government has been restored across the land". Jack remarks that he's grateful that their parents never lived to see this nightmare come to pass and that all their struggles amounted to nothing.
Background:
The novel was written by renowned alternate history writer S. M. Stirling and Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko as a scathing critique of what they saw as a resurgence of vanguardist thought in the USSR and some corners of the UASR and a restoration of Joseph Stalin's cult of personality most notably from Soviet politician Vladimir Putin of the VKP(b) in reaction to the upsurge in support for more culturally libertine, libertarian communist parties like the SEU and RFPSU. So the novel was written to showcase an alternate timeline in which vanguardist one-party states and Stalin's nationalistic "socialism in one country" policy became the norm throughout the Comintern, depicting a world where the revolution stagnates while capitalism continues to grow and where the ruling party becomes increasingly disconnected from the proletariat and begins to act to further the interests of the party elites rather than the workers.
Stirling and Lukyanenko would form a unique writing partnership with Stirling writing the chapters focusing on Dylan and Jack while Lukyanenko would write the chapters focusing on Rayna and Anya and the two would then revise each other's chapters to ensure consistency in the writing style. The resulting novel would be 700 pages long and tell an epic century-spanning story.
Reception:
The novel would become quite popular especially among the more culturally libertine members of society for its critiques of authoritarianism even for a revolutionary cause but would receive mixed reviews from professional journalistic outlets, with many critics criticizing the alternate history as "implausible" while others would take issue with the novel's pacing and long time jumps. However critics would mostly respond positively to the dystopian final chapters and the depiction of an America where the capitalist order is restored with all the horrors it would entail but found Jack's final speech too preachy.
Both CLP and VKP(b) condemned the novel as counterrevolutionary for its highly negative depictions of Stalin, Foster and Browder and the elderly Sean Cinnéide also took umbrage with his portrayal in the novel as a corrupt bureaucrat but despite calls to ban it in both the UASR and USSR, the novel has remained in circulation and contemporary reviews remain divided on its overall quality to date.
Bookmark1995
Banned
Nixon as Deng Xiaoping is a pretty plausible scenario actually.
You made a powerfully depressing TTL for the Red American Revolution.
Now we're having alternate history within this timeline, nice.
What are the SEU, RFPSU and CLP, though?
What are the SEU, RFPSU and CLP, though?
I'd rather say that Khrushchev comes as Deng, and Cinnéide is Gorbachev - trying to reform the system, but ending dismantling it.
SEU: Social Ecology Union, an American ultra-left libertarian marxist / green anarchist party, completely opposed to vanguardism.
RFPSU: Revolutionary Futurist Party of the Soviet Union: Left-Transhumanists.
CLP: Communist Labor Party: American "Organic Centralist" Marxist-Deleonist party. Less authoritarian than OTL's CPSU but still a proponent of a centralized state and economy.
'79 in '97
‘79 in ‘97: A Cinematic Exploration of the Crisis of 1979 through the films The Last Night and Never Tell Me the Odds
crossculture.co.syn, c. 2013
Crossculture is a film site that features analysis of international cinema and their connection to pop culture and history.
The Crisis of 1979 would have lingering effects on media on both sides of the Atlantic coming up to the present day. The graphic, controversial EBC film Threads was a direct response to the threat of nuclear war. Films like The Last War, The Day After Tomorrow and Wargames brought the threat of nuclear war to the forefront of their plot, whether directly or indirectly. Even films like The Last Starfighter alluded to the idea of distant wars becoming deadly to civilizations.
Of course, some of the events of ‘79 itself were eventually covered in film. A mere 3 years later, in 1982, PBS-5 aired The Crisis of 1979, which was a general view of the crisis from the perspective of the world leaders. In 1989, Command saw the Crisis through the perspective of HMS Duke of York, stationed in the Falklands. 1991’s Sneakers dealt with a JSB agent and a Section 1 agent in a war of wits as they work to get the upper hand.
Finally, the Crisis was viewed from the perspective of those who were outside the power structures or the militaries. 1986’s Quebec City told the story of 8 individuals during the Crisis and their reactions to the impending bombing of the city. 1994’s The Storm focused on several Metropolis U students (including a French transfer student) as they deal with the Crisis. Recently in 2009, the PBS-4 television drama Synergy about the rise of the internet, featured the 1979 Crisis prominently, and the characters reaction to the “end of the world” and the role of computers in it.
Of course, this article focuses on the most prominent examples of the latter films, both released in 1997, making them films set in 1979 released in 1997. One was Franco-British, the other American, marking a contrast in how the Crisis was viewed on both sides
The Last Night, the British film, is a distinctly social realist look into British working class life in the mold of Ken Loach. It focuses on Raj Navaneethan in his small English town in the 1978-1979 school year. While he deals with racism from his peers and cultural tension with his traditional Indian parents (including his Indochina veteran father), he escapes into the local music and counterculture scenes. He visits the discotheque at first, and shows off his dance moves. Eventually, he moves on to the local punk scene through his girlfriend and eventually becomes an amateur Toaster.
While the film focuses on this journey through the scenes of the late 70’s and their implied racism (based on director Sivakaami*’s experiences as an Asian Brit and music journalist), the latter half has the background element of impending nuclear war, which sees the tensions in the community increase and the increasing depression of Raj. EBC coverage of the Falkland War is juxtaposed to Raj getting ready for a punk concert. The titular Last Night is the event meant to celebrate possibly the last major concert before civilization ends in nuclear hellfire. One of the characters has a brother serving on a warship in the Falkland as the fighting escalates
The steady decline of the community in the lead-up to the Crisis, and its final collapse with the downturn following the crisis provides the final impetus for the main character to leave his small town, especially as the Punk establishment closes. The characters experience a heavy depression as they realize the government are indifferent to the slow death of the community, and their brutal repression of a communist backed strike makes for a haunting scene.
Raj gradually becomes ingrained in the Toast scene of London, who are reacting against the increasing foreign involvement of the newly Lion dominated government and the subsequent persecution of immigrants and leftists in its aftermath. Toasters express hatred for the police, the government, and especially the white establishment that enables both. Raj becomes involved in anti-government activism and is even arrested. The film ends with Raj giving a Toast detailing the futility of the capitalist experiment and trying to succeed in it.
The Last Night is a brutal film, exploring the true failure of capitalism and how the Crisis of 1979 and its aftermath exposed and exacerbated these problems, hurting many who don’t have the fortune of living in luxury or those who opposed it.
Ironically, no such major political theme is prominent in the American feature Never Tell Me the Odds. An ode to Star Wars and the fantastik culture of the late 1970’s, the film sees a small band of teenaged filmmakers in Phoenix trying to make a fan sequel to the blockbuster smash Star Wars, before the official sequel comes out a year later, but with characters from other series, including old fantastik magazines, Marvel comics, Tarkovsky films, and Star Trek. The film, with a prominent theme of atomic energy, soon becomes entangled with the respective filmmakers’ personal lives and especially the ongoing fear of nuclear war with the outbreak of hostilities in the Falklands.
The director Ernie Fosselius, drawing on experiences writing his own parody Hardware Wars, sees the ‘79 Crisis as a prominent backdrop as the film is being made. The main character, Eric, sees the Crisis as the perfect climate to launch his fan sequel, as a “commentary on current events.” Indeed, the plot is changed to reflect the Crisis, as the threat of a “intergalactic war” threatens to wipe out all sentient life. The other lead, Cary, however, fears the Crisis on a personal level (her father is in the WFRAAF), and nervously follows the Crisis as it unfolds.
The climate of fear is shown in one scene, where the main Housing commune goes through a nuclear drill, heading to an underground chamber. The chaos of the scene provides a lot of comedic moments, as does the infusion of dated 70’s culture and music.
The film culminates at the premiere, where news emerges that a plane is carrying a bomb towards Quebec City, right at the climax of the fan film involving a fight for a nuclear station. Local Red Guards try to warn off the patrons, and events begin to blur between the film and the chaos.
Ultimately, Don’t Tell Me The Odds is more optimistic in its outlook. The film becomes a resounding success after they screen the rest of the film out of the nuclear bunker, and news emerges that the bomber has been withdrawn. The film ends on a note of hope as the filmmakers look forward to the recently announced sequel to Star Wars, and the relief that nuclear war was averted.
crossculture.co.syn, c. 2013
Crossculture is a film site that features analysis of international cinema and their connection to pop culture and history.
The Crisis of 1979 would have lingering effects on media on both sides of the Atlantic coming up to the present day. The graphic, controversial EBC film Threads was a direct response to the threat of nuclear war. Films like The Last War, The Day After Tomorrow and Wargames brought the threat of nuclear war to the forefront of their plot, whether directly or indirectly. Even films like The Last Starfighter alluded to the idea of distant wars becoming deadly to civilizations.
Of course, some of the events of ‘79 itself were eventually covered in film. A mere 3 years later, in 1982, PBS-5 aired The Crisis of 1979, which was a general view of the crisis from the perspective of the world leaders. In 1989, Command saw the Crisis through the perspective of HMS Duke of York, stationed in the Falklands. 1991’s Sneakers dealt with a JSB agent and a Section 1 agent in a war of wits as they work to get the upper hand.
Finally, the Crisis was viewed from the perspective of those who were outside the power structures or the militaries. 1986’s Quebec City told the story of 8 individuals during the Crisis and their reactions to the impending bombing of the city. 1994’s The Storm focused on several Metropolis U students (including a French transfer student) as they deal with the Crisis. Recently in 2009, the PBS-4 television drama Synergy about the rise of the internet, featured the 1979 Crisis prominently, and the characters reaction to the “end of the world” and the role of computers in it.
Of course, this article focuses on the most prominent examples of the latter films, both released in 1997, making them films set in 1979 released in 1997. One was Franco-British, the other American, marking a contrast in how the Crisis was viewed on both sides
The Last Night, the British film, is a distinctly social realist look into British working class life in the mold of Ken Loach. It focuses on Raj Navaneethan in his small English town in the 1978-1979 school year. While he deals with racism from his peers and cultural tension with his traditional Indian parents (including his Indochina veteran father), he escapes into the local music and counterculture scenes. He visits the discotheque at first, and shows off his dance moves. Eventually, he moves on to the local punk scene through his girlfriend and eventually becomes an amateur Toaster.
While the film focuses on this journey through the scenes of the late 70’s and their implied racism (based on director Sivakaami*’s experiences as an Asian Brit and music journalist), the latter half has the background element of impending nuclear war, which sees the tensions in the community increase and the increasing depression of Raj. EBC coverage of the Falkland War is juxtaposed to Raj getting ready for a punk concert. The titular Last Night is the event meant to celebrate possibly the last major concert before civilization ends in nuclear hellfire. One of the characters has a brother serving on a warship in the Falkland as the fighting escalates
The steady decline of the community in the lead-up to the Crisis, and its final collapse with the downturn following the crisis provides the final impetus for the main character to leave his small town, especially as the Punk establishment closes. The characters experience a heavy depression as they realize the government are indifferent to the slow death of the community, and their brutal repression of a communist backed strike makes for a haunting scene.
Raj gradually becomes ingrained in the Toast scene of London, who are reacting against the increasing foreign involvement of the newly Lion dominated government and the subsequent persecution of immigrants and leftists in its aftermath. Toasters express hatred for the police, the government, and especially the white establishment that enables both. Raj becomes involved in anti-government activism and is even arrested. The film ends with Raj giving a Toast detailing the futility of the capitalist experiment and trying to succeed in it.
The Last Night is a brutal film, exploring the true failure of capitalism and how the Crisis of 1979 and its aftermath exposed and exacerbated these problems, hurting many who don’t have the fortune of living in luxury or those who opposed it.
Ironically, no such major political theme is prominent in the American feature Never Tell Me the Odds. An ode to Star Wars and the fantastik culture of the late 1970’s, the film sees a small band of teenaged filmmakers in Phoenix trying to make a fan sequel to the blockbuster smash Star Wars, before the official sequel comes out a year later, but with characters from other series, including old fantastik magazines, Marvel comics, Tarkovsky films, and Star Trek. The film, with a prominent theme of atomic energy, soon becomes entangled with the respective filmmakers’ personal lives and especially the ongoing fear of nuclear war with the outbreak of hostilities in the Falklands.
The director Ernie Fosselius, drawing on experiences writing his own parody Hardware Wars, sees the ‘79 Crisis as a prominent backdrop as the film is being made. The main character, Eric, sees the Crisis as the perfect climate to launch his fan sequel, as a “commentary on current events.” Indeed, the plot is changed to reflect the Crisis, as the threat of a “intergalactic war” threatens to wipe out all sentient life. The other lead, Cary, however, fears the Crisis on a personal level (her father is in the WFRAAF), and nervously follows the Crisis as it unfolds.
The climate of fear is shown in one scene, where the main Housing commune goes through a nuclear drill, heading to an underground chamber. The chaos of the scene provides a lot of comedic moments, as does the infusion of dated 70’s culture and music.
The film culminates at the premiere, where news emerges that a plane is carrying a bomb towards Quebec City, right at the climax of the fan film involving a fight for a nuclear station. Local Red Guards try to warn off the patrons, and events begin to blur between the film and the chaos.
Ultimately, Don’t Tell Me The Odds is more optimistic in its outlook. The film becomes a resounding success after they screen the rest of the film out of the nuclear bunker, and news emerges that the bomber has been withdrawn. The film ends on a note of hope as the filmmakers look forward to the recently announced sequel to Star Wars, and the relief that nuclear war was averted.
Hilarious reactions everywhere if there ever opened a portal between our and the Reds! universes on February 2021.
Bookmark1995
Banned
This is how the Red Americans would react to Trump becoming President.
Breathe a sigh of relief at the bullet they dodged, and say "this man makes propaganda irrelevant."
Kaguya (By Libertad)
KAGUYA WANTS TO BE CONFESSED TO: A WAR OF LOVE AND BRAINS
Since its debut in March 2015, the series popularly known as Kaguya: Love is War became one of the decade’s most critically-acclaimed Nipponese animation series, the series becoming a reflection of people’s general anxieties behind the coming end of the Long Détente and the possible escalation of the Cold War into another set of conflicts reminiscent of the Long 80s that may certainly conclude the conflict within the century, if not ending civilization in the process.
As of writing, the first episode of the animation’s third season Kaguya: Love is War 3 has been released. A few manga volumes connecting the first and second seasons have been also released that expanded its international audience. The main series soon developed into a loosely-organized shared universe reminiscent of many TCI-originated artistic works, generating official spin-offs, one was made by Akasaka himself adapting the television episodes, and adapted alternate universes from fan-originated doujins.
The Main Characters
Kaguya Shinomiya – The titular character and the main female protagonist of the series. Youngest of three siblings, she is the daughter of a wealthy Australasian magnate of Japanese descent and was brought to Nippon by her divorced and now deceased young mother in a highly publicized political asylum three years before the start of the series. The Shinomiya family in-universe is considered one of the old pre-revolutionary zaibatsu families that fled the country after the Global Revolutionary War and the family continued to be wealthy in their new home in Australasia generations later; investing in finance, mining and electronics.
Her strict and sheltered aristocratic upbringing during childhood and attitudes to sexuality that she acquired from liberal Australasian society, among other things, stood in stark contrast with prevailing proletarian norms and general attitudes to sex and romantic relationships of Nipponese society in combination with the more egalitarian gender norms. The story detailed many of the character’s “culture shock” moments and her continued struggles to adjust to a more proletarian lifestyle in a comical but also sympathetic manner, reflecting real life struggles of repatriated Nipponese diaspora from Alliance countries, particularly Australasia.
Her class background being from a zaibatsu clan should normally be a hindrance for political advancement in socialist Nippon but she was able to endear herself to the student body, along with receiving the open support of other characters of the story.
She is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Youth Deputy Chair.
Miyuki Shirogane – The male protagonist of the series and Kaguya’s love interest. Oldest of two siblings, he is of unremarkable proletarian social background. He is a son of a Cybersyn-based entertainer that also works in a local office space and is a political apparatchik, allowing Miyuki to maneuver himself to a position of political leadership within the polytechnic.
His father is a widow while his work ethic and dedication to studies and to public service is through the inspiration of his deceased mother.
Shirogane’s work in making Kaguya more acclimated to Nipponese society along with his own defense of her character in front of more suspicious students when he was running in the polytechnic soviet elections endeared him to the titular character.
His proletarian background and upbringing and his ideals on sexuality and romance that has been defined by the socialist society surrounding him stood in stark contrast to that of Kaguya’s, which provides the conflict in the story.
He is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Youth Chair.
Chika Fujiwara – One of the main heroines of the series. Her own class background closely resembles that of Kaguya, except that her family did not flee the country during the revolution but rather chose to endure their proletarianization and “purification”. Second among three siblings, she is the daughter of a long-standing right-wing member of Nipponese Congress of Soviets. Kaguya’s election to the Central Committee was partly made possible by a coalition-sharing agreement between Miyuki and Chika, with Kaguya being their mutual friend.
She is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Youth Community Relations Secretary.
She is also a well-known classically trained pianist and polygot; speaking her native Nihongo and Sin Esperanto plus English, Russian, Standard Chinese, Italian and Spanish.
She has political ambitions of becoming Nippon’s Premier one day and she pragmatically moved her politics to the mainstream communist left, estranging herself from her more reactionary father in the process.
Ai Hayasaka – One of the main heroines of the series. She is Kaguya’s closest friend and is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Youth Public Safety Secretary.
Kaguya and Hayasaka live in the same house, with the Hayasaka family handling Kaguya’s adjustment to proletarian life from their residence and surrounding neighborhood.
An only daughter, her widowed mother is currently dating Miyuki Shirogane’s widowed father, complicating her relationship with Miyuki and Kaguya as well as with Chika. Hayasaka is also aligned with Chika’s political faction in the student body despite her friendship with Kaguya, who belongs to Miyuki’s political faction.
The Hayasaka family has also been secretly reporting on Kaguya’s activities to the Nipponese political police, and of Chika’s activities to a lesser extent, which Chika and Shirogane have long suspected but cannot fully confirm as to why and to what purpose.
Yuu Ishigami- The story’s deuteragonist. He is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Financial Secretary on Youth-Specific Activities.
Youngest of two siblings, he is a son of a florist and a trade unionist leader affiliated with the country’s toy manufacturing workers’ union.
His personality, back story, character development, romantic interludes and hilarious interactions with the other characters in the Student Central Committee also included an explicit deconstruction of themes surrounding the Australasian and Indian “harem” animation genre, giving him a sizable fanbase. A popular character within the fanbase, he is featured more in season two of the series and the last two episodes that detailed his back story of being involved in a scandal amidst public criticism and his rise from that debacle catapulted him even further to popularity.
In relation to the harem genre deconstruction, Akasaka and Aniplex has teased the fanbase with two or more characters with romantic interests for Ishigami during the season 2 of the anime and in Aka’s manga spin-off, triggering a shipping war within the fandom.
Miko Iino - One of the main heroines of the series. She is the Polytechnic Central Committee’s Youth Liaison to the Faculty.
Her backstory is tied to Ishigami’s pre-story scandal.
She is the only daughter of a civil servant couple working in the TCI headquarters in Pyongyang.
Background/Themes
The project started out as a brainchild of little-known illustrator Aka Akasaka, who has been working on a few lesser-known projects with East Asian animation collectives early in the decade. He was able to successfully pitch the project with Nipponese animation collective Aniplex, whose main administrators got intrigued with one of the main character’s fascination with astronomy and space exploration, in hopes of attracting government grants from across the Third Communist International that are currently funding the Mars mission. The administration was also intrigued with the project’s storyline being a modernized and proletarianized deconstruction of one of the country’s earliest fictional prose narratives, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
While the series is defined by Aka Akasaka’s general vision of a romantic comedy detailing the main characters’ exploration of their feelings for each other; the series also explored other themes beyond its main subject matter that allowed it to gather a wider audience like free love, polyamory, inter-bloc migration, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, espionage, class privilege, gender roles, cosmology and a frank (if not controversial) discussion of embarrassing topics within Nipponese society and the rise of postwar Nippon, in relation to the class background of one of its main characters. This exploration was partly made possible by Aniplex’s plethora of other writers and illustrators that made minor contributions to the project during its first two seasons, following the democratic centralist model. The series also did not resist in making direct jabs against commonly recycled (but arguably poorly executed) themes found in many animated and illustrated romantic comedies originating from the Alliance bloc, particularly within Australasian and Indian animation scenes, allowing it to form a cross-bloc fanbase. It also gave occasional jabs to the more overtly sexual romantic comedies originating from other parts of the TCI, in particular from UASR and Pan-America, giving a unique East Asian perspective to the Comintern bloc’s sexual revolution.
Setting and Impact
The story is set in one Shuchiin Polytechnic within Tokyo, Nippon Socialist Republic. In the current school year of the story, the student body is being led by Miyuki Shirogane as its elected Youth Chair. Working along with him in the Central Committee is Kaguya Shinomiya as the elected Youth Deputy Chair. The two are often regarded by the student body as a “perfect couple” despite the two of them not being romantically involved with each other, to their own consternation.
Nevertheless, as time went on, their public service work is what allowed the two to develop deeper romantic feelings with each other. Unfortunately, both of them are unwilling to acknowledge their feelings and confess about it. Thus, the two have embarked on a quest to do whatever is necessary to extract a love confession out of the other, often with very hilarious results.
While fan-works and even a few adapted official spin-offs already featured the two as a romantic couple, including Aka Akasaka’s own spin-off; the main story is yet to see the two officially confess, leading to a lot of hype surrounding the release of the third season, which hinted it as confirmed by Aniplex.
After the first episode’s release, various polls conducted within Cybersyn consistently put Kaguya: Love is War 3 among top 5 animation releases of the current season.
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Vertov Collective (By Miss Teri/Mr.E)
The Vertov Collective (VC) is a film collective founded by a group of communist filmmakers in the Franco-British Union in 1969. Originally meant as a Franco-British version of the Workers’ Photo and Film League from the pre-Revolution period, focusing on documentaries it rose to more prominence after getting the main rights to many American films. By the mid-70’s, with commercial success, they began to branch out into making their own films, notably the 1976 film Stern, based on the works of Maxine Kaplan. While the early 80’s saw them suppressed and blacklisted, they bounced back thanks to several adaptations of Marvel Comics and distributing major American films through VCD.
History
The Dziga Vertov Group was originally founded by a group of French communist filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, and Jean-Pierre Gorin in 1967, with the explicit focus on making films with Marxist themes, focusing on the socialist style pioneered by their namesake, Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Their first feature Loin du Indochine was a documentary condemning the war in Indochina.
Within a few years, the collective began to expand, incorporating Chris Marker’s SLON and with Godard’s exile to the UASR, the collective was placed under the lead of English filmmaker Ken Loach. Under Loach, the Group was reorganized into the Vertov Collective and was given more of a dual power act reminiscent of the pre-Revolution American Workers’ Photo and Film League.
Under Loach and fellow central committee members Chris Marker, Alain Resnair and Agnes Vardas, the Vertov Collective largely focused on social realism, focusing on contemporary issues surrounding the Franco-British Union and the lives of average everyday workers. Loach’s film Kes was heavily influenced by local Yorkshire culture and contained a heavy use of the local dialect. À bientôt, j'espère focused on a strike at a textiles factory. Family Life explored issues like abortion and sexual repression. In 1973, the collectively directed film Stark Night (Nuit Sombre), which followed a platoon of Franco-British soldiers as they suffered massive losses and see the full horrors of war, garnered both praise and controversy with its brutal depiction of warfare and destruction.
To keep these projects funded, Vertov also took to distributing American and Comintern features . Prior to this, most American or Comintern features were heavily censored and reedited to tone down the fact they originated in communist countries. Starting with Free Love and Solidarity Forever in 1969, the American Culture Secretariat and Vertov cut a deal where Vertov would keep the films intact (with occasional concessions to ratings considerations) and release them. The idea of a collective distributing the films was palatable to American propaganda efforts.
Most of the American films distributed by Vertov were either historical epics detailing the proletarian struggle prior to, during, and after the revolution, or contemporary pieces of social realism from the growing “American New Wave” of filmmaking, both relevant to the sorts of films that Vertov was making. In 1975, however, the Culture Secretariat insisted that a movie about a “great white shark terrorizing a seaside town” be distributed by them, noting that it was the biggest film hitherto released in Comintern. While the Central Committee didn’t care for the movie (and felt a plotline about corrupt nomenklatura covering up the shark attacks for political gain was counterintuitive), CulSec insisted on the potential success and propaganda value a blockbuster like it could bring. Sure enough, Vertov was caught off-guard when the film would become one of the biggest hits released that year in Europe.
. With massive success of Jaws and sudden attention brought to them because of their distribution of it, the Collective sought to adapt a similar mass appeal piece of American literature, whilst still keeping with their mission. Luckily, Godard, still in his American exile, managed to get involved with a favorite property of his, the Rachel Stern series by Maxine Kaplan. He was to direct a new adaptation on behalf of Melrose. He promptly enlisted Vertov as co-producers. Stern would be the first Franco-British adaptation of the Kaplan novels (Howard Hawks and Edward Dmytryk directed American and Soviet versions in 1951 and 1963 respectively), and Kaplan’s personal favorite film version of her character. Starring Katherine Ross as Stern and Jean-Paul Belmondo as archenemy Nikolai Balabos, the film was a reimagined version of the first Stern story The Hunt, updating the novel’s setting of World War II era Tibet to Thailand during the Indochina Wars, seeing the character foiling Balabos’ plot to send gold and weapons to nationalist militias in Communist Indochina (instead of the Azad Hind in the original novel). While many purists were shocked by the contemporary setting, it paved the way for later “updated” versions of the Stern series such as the TV series Agent Stern. Among general cinephiles, it’s most infamous for its opening scene, where Stern kills a misogynistic JSB agent implied to be James Bond. This symbolized the general tone of the film, which directly repudiated Bond style adventurism and glamorous jet setting in favor of scenes depicting the Bangkok slums and the intense poverty that enabled Balabos’ scheme and the horrific warfare in Cambodia.[1]
Stern would get the attention of executives at Eastman-Kodak International (impressed by the success of Jaws), who struck a deal with Vertov and Melrose for distribution and additional funding for location shooting. With Kodak’s help, the film would become a massive hit in the FBU, both financially and especially critically, with the Mirror stating it was “more [David] Lean than James Bond” and praised by the Franco-British Daily Worker as “the first European communist blockbuster.”
By 1979, there was an increased focus on distributing American blockbusters as part of American propaganda efforts (Vertov distributed films like Watch the Skies (from Jaws director Steven Spielberg)[2], Star Wars and The Star Beast[3], which would all become big hits). This gave the Collective enough money to continue doing social realist films and documentaries.
Vertov would return to this realm after the Crisis of 1979, which ended American imports for a time, and Loach and the returned Godard (shortly before his ascendance as Chairman of ESCI) would direct several acclaimed films which explore anti-nuclear activism and the military ramp-up, which were meant to help the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. However, these would not be widely distributed because of the renewed Blacklist, and many were shown in underground venues. Vertov would also occasionally host “Anti-Reaction Nights” to mock overly propagandistic films.
One major avenue for film that opened up was the relatively new technology of Video Compact Disks (VCD), which were used to smuggle both native socialist productions and American films into households away from the attention of authorities. The result was a massive bootlegging operation where films were traded in secret. Mary Whitehouse would cite this as one of the main ways "video nasties" spread. It would also create a generation of fans who adored the more explicit, more political movies that were a forbidden pleasure, as decreed by the government itself.
By 1987, most of the hysteria died down. However, the Collective was running low on cash, resulting in another bid for a big socialist project based on a mass-appeal American work. Alain Resnias used his friendship with Stan Lee to promptly bring Spider-Man to the big screen in 1987, with Vertov and Olive Street producing. Filmed in Metropolis, the film focuses on the webhead’s origin and his battle with the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. The film was a hit in the detente era, causing Vertov to commission a few more comic properties (including Tales from the Crypt and The New Gods ), and put their films back on the map.
In 1997, Ken Loach used the leverage of their co-productions to get work on a dream project. The Land and Freedom cycle told the story of a British socialist, who volunteers in the American and Spanish Civil Wars (first film Land and Freedom), later becomes part of the IVA during World War II (The Good War), but is persecuted as a “premature anti-fasicst” in the Smithers era. (Premature) [4]. Despite the blatant socialist slant, the films would garner acclaim in both spheres, becoming a favorite at the Oscars and BAFTAs.
In the 2000’s, as mainline studios began picking up American films and releasing them uncut, Vertov returned more towards its original goal of providing good socialist media for a Franco-British audience. In 2010, they released DVDs of both their most iconic films and some of the American productions and co-productions distributed, including Jaws and Stern.
[1] Again, Stern and Kaplan created by @Mr. C . Special thanks to them for writing parts of the description
[2] Science fiction film dealing with strange occurances across the world tied with UFO sightings.
[3] Directed by John Carpenter, starring Sigourney Weaver and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon as part of a spaceship crew terrorized by an alien and existential dread. Think Alien, but with Dark Star’s themes.
[4] a reference to MP Waldron Smithers, notorious for claims that communists had infiltrated the state organs of the Franco-British Union.
History
The Dziga Vertov Group was originally founded by a group of French communist filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, and Jean-Pierre Gorin in 1967, with the explicit focus on making films with Marxist themes, focusing on the socialist style pioneered by their namesake, Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Their first feature Loin du Indochine was a documentary condemning the war in Indochina.
Within a few years, the collective began to expand, incorporating Chris Marker’s SLON and with Godard’s exile to the UASR, the collective was placed under the lead of English filmmaker Ken Loach. Under Loach, the Group was reorganized into the Vertov Collective and was given more of a dual power act reminiscent of the pre-Revolution American Workers’ Photo and Film League.
Under Loach and fellow central committee members Chris Marker, Alain Resnair and Agnes Vardas, the Vertov Collective largely focused on social realism, focusing on contemporary issues surrounding the Franco-British Union and the lives of average everyday workers. Loach’s film Kes was heavily influenced by local Yorkshire culture and contained a heavy use of the local dialect. À bientôt, j'espère focused on a strike at a textiles factory. Family Life explored issues like abortion and sexual repression. In 1973, the collectively directed film Stark Night (Nuit Sombre), which followed a platoon of Franco-British soldiers as they suffered massive losses and see the full horrors of war, garnered both praise and controversy with its brutal depiction of warfare and destruction.
To keep these projects funded, Vertov also took to distributing American and Comintern features . Prior to this, most American or Comintern features were heavily censored and reedited to tone down the fact they originated in communist countries. Starting with Free Love and Solidarity Forever in 1969, the American Culture Secretariat and Vertov cut a deal where Vertov would keep the films intact (with occasional concessions to ratings considerations) and release them. The idea of a collective distributing the films was palatable to American propaganda efforts.
Most of the American films distributed by Vertov were either historical epics detailing the proletarian struggle prior to, during, and after the revolution, or contemporary pieces of social realism from the growing “American New Wave” of filmmaking, both relevant to the sorts of films that Vertov was making. In 1975, however, the Culture Secretariat insisted that a movie about a “great white shark terrorizing a seaside town” be distributed by them, noting that it was the biggest film hitherto released in Comintern. While the Central Committee didn’t care for the movie (and felt a plotline about corrupt nomenklatura covering up the shark attacks for political gain was counterintuitive), CulSec insisted on the potential success and propaganda value a blockbuster like it could bring. Sure enough, Vertov was caught off-guard when the film would become one of the biggest hits released that year in Europe.
. With massive success of Jaws and sudden attention brought to them because of their distribution of it, the Collective sought to adapt a similar mass appeal piece of American literature, whilst still keeping with their mission. Luckily, Godard, still in his American exile, managed to get involved with a favorite property of his, the Rachel Stern series by Maxine Kaplan. He was to direct a new adaptation on behalf of Melrose. He promptly enlisted Vertov as co-producers. Stern would be the first Franco-British adaptation of the Kaplan novels (Howard Hawks and Edward Dmytryk directed American and Soviet versions in 1951 and 1963 respectively), and Kaplan’s personal favorite film version of her character. Starring Katherine Ross as Stern and Jean-Paul Belmondo as archenemy Nikolai Balabos, the film was a reimagined version of the first Stern story The Hunt, updating the novel’s setting of World War II era Tibet to Thailand during the Indochina Wars, seeing the character foiling Balabos’ plot to send gold and weapons to nationalist militias in Communist Indochina (instead of the Azad Hind in the original novel). While many purists were shocked by the contemporary setting, it paved the way for later “updated” versions of the Stern series such as the TV series Agent Stern. Among general cinephiles, it’s most infamous for its opening scene, where Stern kills a misogynistic JSB agent implied to be James Bond. This symbolized the general tone of the film, which directly repudiated Bond style adventurism and glamorous jet setting in favor of scenes depicting the Bangkok slums and the intense poverty that enabled Balabos’ scheme and the horrific warfare in Cambodia.[1]
Stern would get the attention of executives at Eastman-Kodak International (impressed by the success of Jaws), who struck a deal with Vertov and Melrose for distribution and additional funding for location shooting. With Kodak’s help, the film would become a massive hit in the FBU, both financially and especially critically, with the Mirror stating it was “more [David] Lean than James Bond” and praised by the Franco-British Daily Worker as “the first European communist blockbuster.”
By 1979, there was an increased focus on distributing American blockbusters as part of American propaganda efforts (Vertov distributed films like Watch the Skies (from Jaws director Steven Spielberg)[2], Star Wars and The Star Beast[3], which would all become big hits). This gave the Collective enough money to continue doing social realist films and documentaries.
Vertov would return to this realm after the Crisis of 1979, which ended American imports for a time, and Loach and the returned Godard (shortly before his ascendance as Chairman of ESCI) would direct several acclaimed films which explore anti-nuclear activism and the military ramp-up, which were meant to help the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. However, these would not be widely distributed because of the renewed Blacklist, and many were shown in underground venues. Vertov would also occasionally host “Anti-Reaction Nights” to mock overly propagandistic films.
One major avenue for film that opened up was the relatively new technology of Video Compact Disks (VCD), which were used to smuggle both native socialist productions and American films into households away from the attention of authorities. The result was a massive bootlegging operation where films were traded in secret. Mary Whitehouse would cite this as one of the main ways "video nasties" spread. It would also create a generation of fans who adored the more explicit, more political movies that were a forbidden pleasure, as decreed by the government itself.
By 1987, most of the hysteria died down. However, the Collective was running low on cash, resulting in another bid for a big socialist project based on a mass-appeal American work. Alain Resnias used his friendship with Stan Lee to promptly bring Spider-Man to the big screen in 1987, with Vertov and Olive Street producing. Filmed in Metropolis, the film focuses on the webhead’s origin and his battle with the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. The film was a hit in the detente era, causing Vertov to commission a few more comic properties (including Tales from the Crypt and The New Gods ), and put their films back on the map.
In 1997, Ken Loach used the leverage of their co-productions to get work on a dream project. The Land and Freedom cycle told the story of a British socialist, who volunteers in the American and Spanish Civil Wars (first film Land and Freedom), later becomes part of the IVA during World War II (The Good War), but is persecuted as a “premature anti-fasicst” in the Smithers era. (Premature) [4]. Despite the blatant socialist slant, the films would garner acclaim in both spheres, becoming a favorite at the Oscars and BAFTAs.
In the 2000’s, as mainline studios began picking up American films and releasing them uncut, Vertov returned more towards its original goal of providing good socialist media for a Franco-British audience. In 2010, they released DVDs of both their most iconic films and some of the American productions and co-productions distributed, including Jaws and Stern.
[1] Again, Stern and Kaplan created by @Mr. C . Special thanks to them for writing parts of the description
[2] Science fiction film dealing with strange occurances across the world tied with UFO sightings.
[3] Directed by John Carpenter, starring Sigourney Weaver and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon as part of a spaceship crew terrorized by an alien and existential dread. Think Alien, but with Dark Star’s themes.
[4] a reference to MP Waldron Smithers, notorious for claims that communists had infiltrated the state organs of the Franco-British Union.
Cautious Canuck (Bookmark1995)
Bookmark1995
Banned
Time for another contribution: namely, for our old friend, Tvtropes.
Tvtropes.UASR
Cautious Canuck
Laconic: Canadians are portrayed as the most normal, down-to-earth, and/or bland.
Media often portrays Canadians as the boring Straight Man in whatever movies they are in. Whether as the reluctant, but snarky, allies of Americubans and Rhodesians (Pre-Red Turn), or the baffled and frustrated allies of Red Americans and Russians. They exist to comment on whatever strange thing occurs, are often the most competent, and exist to provide commentary on society itself.
There is an element of Truth In Television. In the immediate aftermath of the Second American Revolution and the early Cold War, Canada remained a bastion of moderate bourgeois politics. Prime Minister Louis S. St. Laurent promoted what he called "Proudly Stable," and famously declared Canada "The Last Bastion of Sanity in the Americas", and was known to be cool toward General MacArthur. Canada at the time had a large community of American exiles who equally despised the MacArthurites as much as they did the Reds.
Canada, up until the late 1960s, was imagined to be a stable nation where the proletariat had been placated by welfare capitalist policies.
In the immediate aftermath of the Red Turn, many Canadians suddenly found themselves aligned with the UASR, a nation with vastly different social and economic mores. The struggle for Canadians to adopt the vastly different social mores is also Truth In Television, and has lasted well into the 21st century, though this is more prominent among older generations than new ones with no memories of Blue Canada.
Tvtropes.UASR
Cautious Canuck
Laconic: Canadians are portrayed as the most normal, down-to-earth, and/or bland.
Media often portrays Canadians as the boring Straight Man in whatever movies they are in. Whether as the reluctant, but snarky, allies of Americubans and Rhodesians (Pre-Red Turn), or the baffled and frustrated allies of Red Americans and Russians. They exist to comment on whatever strange thing occurs, are often the most competent, and exist to provide commentary on society itself.
There is an element of Truth In Television. In the immediate aftermath of the Second American Revolution and the early Cold War, Canada remained a bastion of moderate bourgeois politics. Prime Minister Louis S. St. Laurent promoted what he called "Proudly Stable," and famously declared Canada "The Last Bastion of Sanity in the Americas", and was known to be cool toward General MacArthur. Canada at the time had a large community of American exiles who equally despised the MacArthurites as much as they did the Reds.
Canada, up until the late 1960s, was imagined to be a stable nation where the proletariat had been placated by welfare capitalist policies.
In the immediate aftermath of the Red Turn, many Canadians suddenly found themselves aligned with the UASR, a nation with vastly different social and economic mores. The struggle for Canadians to adopt the vastly different social mores is also Truth In Television, and has lasted well into the 21st century, though this is more prominent among older generations than new ones with no memories of Blue Canada.
The New Order: Last Days of Europe(Redux) (DanielXie)
Note: This is a rewrite of this post, it contains major TNO spoilers from the OTL game so I decided to cover it in a spoiler tag.
The New Order: Last Days of Europe(Redux)
The New Order: Last Days of Europe is a Hearts of Iron IV mod dealing with the ramifications of an Axis Victory in the Second World War/Great Revolutionary War. The mod was created as an anti-fascist and anti-nazi response to the far right apologia and outright neo-nazism present in FBU politics, as well as the growth of Trump's America Forever movement in Americuban politics. This is evident in how the mod portrays the utter depravity of the Nazi system, as well as it's inherent economic inefficiencies that would guarantee collapse.
The Point of Divergence is Stalin being more resistant to the UASR's growing strength and influence in the Comintern, as well as pro-Axis Fascist Unionists and the pro-Axis elements of the Tories gaining an edge in British politics. This eventually leads to a Anglo-German alliance against the Comitern. The Great anticommunist crusade is launched against a disjointed Comitern and lead to the fall of Moscow during Operation Teutonic, the Nazi seizure of everything to the west of the Urals, and the collapse of what remains of the Soviet Union into warlord states. France is then invaded, with the British taking Normandy, Brittany declaring Independence, and Alase-Lorriane being reintergrated back into Germany. The UASR manages to defeat Canada, and was planning to liberate Europe on it's own, only to be nuked and forced to sue for peace. In Asia, Japan, under the mad rule of the Kodoha, establishes their co-prosperity Sphere. In the South American theatre, the war ends in stalemate; the Intergralists defeat Argentina and Columbia, but could not defeat the rest of the USAR's allies. The Intergralist regime would collapse later on due to internal strife and infighting in the 1950s.
The anti-Communist alliance quickly dissolves in the wake of the Second World War, with Nazi efforts to exert complete control over their allies and satellite states meeting with resistance and their economic mismanagement leading to a crash in the early 1950s that leads to the dissolution of the Axis alliance. Britain and it's bloc break free and form the Imperial Commonwealth, while Italy, Spain and Turkey form the Trivirumvirate to contain Axis ambitions in Europe. Nazi political instability leads to a temporary halt in their extermination policies, with slave labor being used to keep the Reich afloat until economic stability is fully achieved, at which point extermination policies will resume. Seeing this as a betrayal of Nazi racial ideology, Himmler and the SS attempt to mount a coup; said coup being preempted thanks to the timely intervention of Hans Spediel and the creation of the Order State of Burgundy in what was French land to appease the SS. Himmler survived the coup, and created a nightmare world of occult madness, destroying French culture and entire generations of French and Belgians. At the same time, he developed an even more extreme form of Nazism--Ultranational Socialism, also known as the Burgundian System. The ideology calls for extreme totalitarian rule combined with extreme racial purity, with Himmler planning for a "Final War" that will clense mankind of it's degenerate races.
Japan itself, being relatively isolated from European affairs has managed to maintain a degree of internal stability. Such stability however, is not to last. The UASR has been working against the Japanese government in revenge for the lost treaty ports. They've been funneling leftist revolts against Chiang's unpopular collaborationist government and in Japan's allies. The Kodoha led ultranationalist government is planning for a final struggle with the UASR, along with the Commonwealth members of New Zealand and Australia to "remove the taint of the white men from Asia" in the 1960s.
As the 1960s being, in Germany, while the economy has struggled forward, the nation has fallen behind. The military is in shambles, the slaves increasingly restless, and a generation of Germans has grown up relying entirely on this caste, never having had to work or serve in the military. Influenced by a black market of British, Italian and even Comitern media, as well as large amounts of imported literature banned by the state, they have taken to the streets to vent their frustration against the regime. By 1962, the nation has been locked in almost 6 months of constant protests and riots.
As 1962 begins, Germany soon announced the first good news for the nation seemingly in decades. Its space race with America and Japan, at least according to German authorities, has come to an end. German Raumsonauts have landed on the moon. As the celebrations at this victory began in Germania, however, a Burgundian-backed assassin struck at Hitler. While the Führer has survived, it seems that the Reich may be facing its greatest challenge yet.....for few months after the assassination, Hitler dies and the Reich dissolves into civil war.......
The German Civil War:
The main contenders for Hitler's throne(which a German player can choose to be the successor before Hitler's death) include:
The Black Spot of Europe
The New Order: Last Days of Europe is a Hearts of Iron IV mod dealing with the ramifications of an Axis Victory in the Second World War/Great Revolutionary War. The mod was created as an anti-fascist and anti-nazi response to the far right apologia and outright neo-nazism present in FBU politics, as well as the growth of Trump's America Forever movement in Americuban politics. This is evident in how the mod portrays the utter depravity of the Nazi system, as well as it's inherent economic inefficiencies that would guarantee collapse.
The Point of Divergence is Stalin being more resistant to the UASR's growing strength and influence in the Comintern, as well as pro-Axis Fascist Unionists and the pro-Axis elements of the Tories gaining an edge in British politics. This eventually leads to a Anglo-German alliance against the Comitern. The Great anticommunist crusade is launched against a disjointed Comitern and lead to the fall of Moscow during Operation Teutonic, the Nazi seizure of everything to the west of the Urals, and the collapse of what remains of the Soviet Union into warlord states. France is then invaded, with the British taking Normandy, Brittany declaring Independence, and Alase-Lorriane being reintergrated back into Germany. The UASR manages to defeat Canada, and was planning to liberate Europe on it's own, only to be nuked and forced to sue for peace. In Asia, Japan, under the mad rule of the Kodoha, establishes their co-prosperity Sphere. In the South American theatre, the war ends in stalemate; the Intergralists defeat Argentina and Columbia, but could not defeat the rest of the USAR's allies. The Intergralist regime would collapse later on due to internal strife and infighting in the 1950s.
The anti-Communist alliance quickly dissolves in the wake of the Second World War, with Nazi efforts to exert complete control over their allies and satellite states meeting with resistance and their economic mismanagement leading to a crash in the early 1950s that leads to the dissolution of the Axis alliance. Britain and it's bloc break free and form the Imperial Commonwealth, while Italy, Spain and Turkey form the Trivirumvirate to contain Axis ambitions in Europe. Nazi political instability leads to a temporary halt in their extermination policies, with slave labor being used to keep the Reich afloat until economic stability is fully achieved, at which point extermination policies will resume. Seeing this as a betrayal of Nazi racial ideology, Himmler and the SS attempt to mount a coup; said coup being preempted thanks to the timely intervention of Hans Spediel and the creation of the Order State of Burgundy in what was French land to appease the SS. Himmler survived the coup, and created a nightmare world of occult madness, destroying French culture and entire generations of French and Belgians. At the same time, he developed an even more extreme form of Nazism--Ultranational Socialism, also known as the Burgundian System. The ideology calls for extreme totalitarian rule combined with extreme racial purity, with Himmler planning for a "Final War" that will clense mankind of it's degenerate races.
Japan itself, being relatively isolated from European affairs has managed to maintain a degree of internal stability. Such stability however, is not to last. The UASR has been working against the Japanese government in revenge for the lost treaty ports. They've been funneling leftist revolts against Chiang's unpopular collaborationist government and in Japan's allies. The Kodoha led ultranationalist government is planning for a final struggle with the UASR, along with the Commonwealth members of New Zealand and Australia to "remove the taint of the white men from Asia" in the 1960s.
As the 1960s being, in Germany, while the economy has struggled forward, the nation has fallen behind. The military is in shambles, the slaves increasingly restless, and a generation of Germans has grown up relying entirely on this caste, never having had to work or serve in the military. Influenced by a black market of British, Italian and even Comitern media, as well as large amounts of imported literature banned by the state, they have taken to the streets to vent their frustration against the regime. By 1962, the nation has been locked in almost 6 months of constant protests and riots.
As 1962 begins, Germany soon announced the first good news for the nation seemingly in decades. Its space race with America and Japan, at least according to German authorities, has come to an end. German Raumsonauts have landed on the moon. As the celebrations at this victory began in Germania, however, a Burgundian-backed assassin struck at Hitler. While the Führer has survived, it seems that the Reich may be facing its greatest challenge yet.....for few months after the assassination, Hitler dies and the Reich dissolves into civil war.......
The German Civil War:
The main contenders for Hitler's throne(which a German player can choose to be the successor before Hitler's death) include:
- Hermann Goering, the leader of the reformists(Speer dosen't have much notoriority TTL I feel with Ford ururping his role), whom seemed to argue for economic liberalization and a degree of political freedoms, due to influence by a cabal of anti-Nazi politicians called the Gang of Four(Henning von Treskow, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Helmut Schmidt). Through it seems that perhaps Goering and this gang dosen't see eye to eye. If Goering wins the civil war, he will try to implement political reforms liberalizing the economy and even dismantling slavery; after restoring German hold over Europe, he and the Gang of Four focus their attention on dismantling the corporations profiting off the slave system, amoung them Ford Motors' German Branch. This sets off a slave revolt, and, it is revealed that Goering never agreed with the reforms in the first place aside from piggybacking on the gang to gain power and preserve Fascism in his own interpretation of Nazism; the conservative and militarist base he wanted that was taken by Bormann and Goebbels.
- The slave revolt can lead to the Gang of Four containing the revolt on their terms, destroying Goering's political power and making him a powerless figurehead. The Gang of Four will try to liberalize further and mend ties with Britain, through far-left parties are prohibited from entering the Reichstag. They will prepare for the "Eurasian War" against a reunified Russia by forming a European Defense pact, and working with Britain to form a "Organization of Free Nations" to counterbalance the UASR and the Japanese. They also have to make tough decisions about how to deal with the Nazi bureaucracy, with the actions that show more leinancy causing more stability. While the gang started out as anti-Nazi, this, along with their anti-communism, can potentially lead them to become the monster they sought to destroy. However, if they stick true to their values, they can lay the foundations for a German democracy
- Alternatively Goering can succeed if the negotiations are supervised by him, making Kiesinger his deputy Fuhrer, sidelining the rest of the gang with the intention of picking them off one-by-one starting with Schmidt, and remake Nazism in his own image. He will cast off the most blatantly murderous parts of the regime or make them more subdued, but maintain the totalitarianism and the rampant racism. He will use the goodwill generated by the Gang of Four's previous reforms to lure radicals in Eastern Europe out and neutralize them in a dirty war resulting in thousands of deaths written off as disappearances. He will still try to form a "Organization of Free Nations" to counterbalance the UASR and the Japanese with the British....but use it as an excuse to spread fascism and Nazism worldwide to those willing to take that message. People have noticed how unsettling this route is, not only because it provides Nazism with a path to win the Cold War, but also with it's commentary on West German militarism and apologia of the past
- Both Goering and the gang destroy each other, Germania rises in revolt. This, along with the Slave Revolt, leads to a successful socialist revolution in Germania.
- Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, who calls for "Total War", a "Aryan Grand Crusade", against the entire world. He will militarize the entire German society and instigate war plans that could lead to Germany's collapse into a four way civil war between Goebbels, ultra-militarists led by Ferdinand Schörner that believe he isn't going far enough, Wehrmacht moderates led by Hans Spediel, and a Communist revolution by surviving elements of the KPD backed by the UASR. If he manages to suceed in his conquests, then it will cause the destruction of the world in nuclear war when he implements "Plan Endsieg" and attacks Britain, America, Japan or Burgundy(This is War Plan C OTL).
- Martin Bormann, the canon victor for the Civil War. He can ally with Militarists or the remnants of the Goeringites to secure his power, eventually purging both factions once they've outlived their usefulness. He will then escalate Hitlerite policies during the "opulence" period: enacting polygamy and launching a kulturkampf against the church. This only escalates the Reich's collapse as revolts and bombing happen all around. A collapse that he does not see due to his lung cancer killing him not long before the Eurasian war, but his sucessors are left with the burden of his mistakes it guarantees the Reich's collapse regardless of if they win the Eurasian War or even prove to be the last man standing
- Reinhard Heydrich, the canon choice for sucessor but not the victor of the Civil War. He has no chance of winning the Civil War under AI control due to the unpopularity of the SS(if he makes any progress, the other factions will temporarily join forces to turn against him, and Spediel will declare war on him as he approaches Germania) but if he does, he will be made aware of Himmler's plans and turn against him, seeking to get the rest of the SS to his side. If he succeeds he will try to consolidate power: only for him to be killed by either another ambitious SS leader or Speidel and Germany to descend into a bloodier warlord era.
- Anarchy Descends on the Reich: If none of the potential Fuhrers win the civil war in time, the German Anarchy occurs with all of the candiates popping out their nuclear arsenal, plunging Germany into further devastation. Heydrich is killed by Himmler for "failure" and Burgundy annexes the Rhineland. A massive slave uprising emerges in Germany seeking revenge on their masters. If this slave uprising succeeds, they can seek to create a egalitarian society, or go off the deep end in their pursuit of revenge, particularly against a population that has been indoctrinated for so long; this route is noted for being particuarly depressing along with a similar route in the Ostland War, with the main theme being the concept of "revenge just brings more innocent bloodshed". If the war enters this stage, Germany's time as a world power is over and any Fuhrer that takes over will have a hard time and a extremely uphill battle to regain international power.
- With Germany embroiled in Civil War, the Unity-Pakt falls into chaos. The "Model Colony" of Ostland(the Baltics+Belarus) also falls into a civil war divided into many factions:
- The Ostland government under Franz Walter Stahlecker, whom represent the continuation of mainstream Nazi policies in the region
- The Byelorussian Central Council led by Michal Vituska, fighting ostensibly to free Ostland from Nazi rule but in reality, a means for Vituska to rule over what was Ostland
- Otto-Heinrich Drechsler, a militarist that has aligned himself with Goebbels and Schörner, but is more loyal to Schörner and may cause problems for Goebbels' rule
- Reformists led by Andreas Meyer-Landrut seeking to restore native rule to Ostland, the Gang of Four is sympathetic to his aims, but Goering wants total compliance and a playthrough as him usually ends in invasion or puppetting by a Goeringite Germany.
- The Free American Republic, which has grown to encompass all of Belorussia, a Burgundian System nightmare led by SS commander Joseph P. Kennedy Jr(replacing Jeckeln), whom has succeeded Pelley as the leader of the Free American Republic. Believing that the UASR and Americuba have both been contaminated by Jews, Kennedy seeks to build a new America through the purification of all of Ostland and on the corpses of millions of "undesirables"
- The Baltic Partisan Organization, a Slave Republic that could emerge from the ashes of Meyer-Landrut's faction if the Ostland war enters the anarchy phase
- The General Government falls to an uprising by the Polish Underground, while this uprising usually succeeds, they have to deal with a vengeful Germany. The best Poland can hope for is status as a puppet under Bormann or Goering's rule, with a second invasion possibly casting Poland into the dustbin of history once again....
- Sweden faces a Norwegian uprising by the Milorg(which can embrace socialism or liberal democracy) that sends the Lindholm government into chaos. This chaos can see the end of Nazism in Sweden as a result of Norwegian victory in the "Scandinavian Brother Wars" or the consolidation of Swedish rule over the region. If Nazism survives in Sweden, Lindholm may maintain power, be overthrown by other fascists such as Göran Assar Oredsson or Per Engdahl, or even fall to a Burgundian coup under Hans-Gösta Pehrsson.
- With a weakened Germany, the Triumvirate starts to drift apart and succumb to pent up disputes over land. Their collapse is inevitable, and ushers in a power struggle between the liberalizing leader, Ciano, and hardline Fascists led by Carlo Scorza. There are plenty of paths for Italy to take during a game. If Ciano suceeds in liberalizing Italy, they include becoming a pro-British government, going socialist and either keeping the monarchy or removing it if they've been able to successfully link up with the UASR and gain their support discreetly, avoiding a coup(This is impossible OTL). If Scorza suceeds, they can also ally with Britain or form a independent Italian bloc replacing the Triumvirate. Scorza's rule however will be maintained with violence, with the more peaceful options leading to collapse if not handled well, this will cause the "Years of Lead" in the 1970s starting with the Venetian uprising, and it can lead to Italian collapse, a Communist revolution, or Scorza being overthrown by worse, ultra-hardline Fascists(they would be ultranationalist ideology wise), or even worse, Burgundian System adherents centered around Julius Evola.
- Italy's main crisis is the Oil Crisis in the 1970s as it loses it's colonies, which both the Germans and the Americans, as well as the British are taking advantage of by funneling arms into the region to their allies(through it is eventually revealed that the Burgundians kickstarted this crisis), this would trigger the Years of Lead under Scorza's government or the rise of the socialists as an electoral force under a democratic government
- The Iberian Union, formed through a Spanish invasion of Portugal, is facing problems that are to rear their heads once Sanjuro dies, could see the restoration of the monarchy, stabilization under Sanjuro's sucessor or total collapse....which Britain, the UASR and the Nazis(regardless of Bormann, Goebbels and Goering) are willing to exploit. The sucessor states of the Iberian Union range from a restored Portugal, a restored Red Catalonia, to fascist, democratic and pro-Nazi breakaways, with the worst being an ultra-Intergralist breakaway led by Carlos Arias Navarro: the ultra-theocratic National Redemption Front, arguably the worst contender in the Second Spanish Civil War(through a Blue Division that has embraced the Burgundian system under Spanish SS member Miguel Ezquerra Sanchez can match them in awfulness).
- As a result of Britain coming out of the war weaken: Having lost Canada and it's Caribbean colonies, it feels it has lost out of their alliance with the Germans. Their politics are now polarized with various anti-establishiment political parties emerging and odd electoral alliances being made against the governing National coalition(Tories+right wing of Labour+Far-right Unionists that have defanged themselves a bit following the German-British split) that has governed for years(NPP analogues). If British politics spirals out of control, these groups can take over, with most extreme of these on the far right, the "Jordanites"(Yockeys expy) named after their leader Colin Jordan, seek revenge against the UASR, militarization against Japan and a second alliance with Germany. On the left, you have the Labour party, whose more radical elements seek to unban the socialist parties and even seek detente with the UASR, while preparing for a war against Japan
- South African Union, made up of Rhodesia and the Dominon falls apart not long before Hitler's death, into a deadly war war between the British dominionists, the Fascist Boer Republic and Rhodesians, as well as the UASR backed ANC if it does not support racial equality in the lead up to the war. Nazi occupied Africa will invade in the form of the Afrika-Schild and this invasion can provoke a major UASR or Commonwealth intervention if the most extreme of the Nazi leaders, Hans Huttig, uses chemical weapons, leading to the occupation of all of Africa. The UASR will install socialist regimes, while the British will enact client states on Africa first governed by British officers, with the latter potentially leading to collapse if handled poorly. If the Afrika-Schild wins, Huttig kills his allies, embraces the Burgundian system, and merges all the African Nazi colonies into one, which guarantees the collapse of Nazi Africa. The collapse of Nazi Africa is unavoidable regardless.
- Not only is South Africa on the verge of collapse, so is India. The collapse of India sees a three way war between Bose's pro-UASR socialist India vs Savakar's pro-Japanese Azad Hind(which can embrace Burgundian System under Devi) vs. the Dominion government, which may go Ultranat in an attempt to reestablish control
- Australia and New Zealand have to not only defend Dominion rule against Japanese incursion, but also against local pro-Unity Pakt fascists and pro-UASR socialists seeking to leave the British Sphere and align with Debs DC.
- Japan's troubles start with the death of longtime leader Araki Sadao, plunging the nation into a major power struggle. The nation could remain ultranationalist, liberalize to a degree under Takagi Sōkichi and form a anti-Communist bulwark with the Commonwealth against the UASR in preparation for the Second Great Asian Liberation War, or remain totalitarian but modernize under Kaya Okinori, who leads the Nazi-esque reform bureaucrats. A major plot point is the "Zhou Enlai Conspiracy", which is a plan put into motion by the late Chinese socialist Zhou Enlai to destroy the co-Prosperity Sphere. If this plan gets out of hand under Takagi's governance, it is possible for them to be removed in a violent coup, leading to Japan embracing it's worst possible path, the Burgundian System under the "purist" wing of the Kodoha, led by Kishi Nobunuske.
- Vietnam is facing a UASR backed Communist insurgency. They can remain a monarchy, either liberalize under Nguyen Ton Hoan, become a far-right Italian-style dictatorship under Ngo Dinh Diem (not as bad as he is in the original diary, more of a vanilla fascist rather than a drug Nazi) or fall to a socialist revolution under the Ho Chi Minh led Vietcong.
- Not long after Sadao's death, Fascist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek is assassinated by a Communist. He is suceeded by Gao Zongwu. Zongwu secretly opposes the Japanese, and wants to build up Chinese industry and military in secret to fight them. He will also have to deal with pro-Japan hardliners under Dai Li, remnants of the socialist wing of the KMT and the Communists, as well as ultranationalists under the National Protection Army, and eventually unify China after completing the Five Modernizations
- Russia itself fragmented into many warring nations, which could reunify Russia under not only a communist banner, but also a democratic, neo-tsarist, fascist, or even nazi and ultranationalist banner.
- The main socialist force backed by the UASR is the West Russian Revolutionary Front, led by Mikhail Frunze. After his death, Marshal Zhukov, the more militant Tukhachevsky, as well as the more USAR-governance aligned Valery Sablin can take over. Each route will have it's own challenges(Buyatia dosen't exist TTL) as they seek to unify Russia
- The tsarists include the Romanovs in Vtyaka seeking a return to power, but a hardline faction led by hardline elements of the White Russians exist far in the East in Chita, using Mikhail Romanov as their puppet..regardless of whether he likes it or not(the ultra-evil "Tsarist" route dosen't exist here since I think the royal family escaped excecution and they would be understandably VERY irked by Tabby's genocidal ravings and actions). A third monarchist faction exists, that of Rurik II in Kemerovo, who can be suceeded by his more liberal son or his more autocratic daughter.
- Apart from Chita, the other factions in the far east include the Christian Anarchist Alexander Men, Nazi Fantatics under Rodzhevsky in Amur(who will respond very well to continued ultranationalist rule in Japan, Kaya or Kishi, through reformists may cut off support for Amur), as well as pro-British fascists led by Mikhail Matkovsky in Magadan.
- While most of the Communists have rallied around the WRRF, there is one Communist breakaway, Tyumen, that has not, and operates on an ultra-Stalinist regime decrying the USAR and the WRRF to be revisionist traitors
- The collaborationist Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia have holed up in Samara, they can liberalize to a degree under Miletiy Zykov and renounce the Nazis, renounce the Nazis but maintain their junta under Sergey Bunyachenko, or become a corrupt pro-German state under Mikhail Oktan.
- The most unstable Russian breakaway is Komi, a young but nightmarishly chaotic democratic Republic formed in the aftermath of the West Russian War. Based around the city of Syktyvkar, Komi boasts a democratic constitution and a multi-party democracy. However, despite its multi-party democracy, the political situation in Komi is more comparable to a city-scale civil war; former Soviet officicals, sidelined Russian democrats, far-right radicals, and all other sorts of political exiles have found a footing in the Komi Republic and started gathering forces, aiming to use the Republic's weak democracy to their advantage. Depending on the gameplay, Komi can go socialist of varying stripes and take over leadership of the WRRF, become a far right Eurasianist dictatorship, embrace a weird hybrid ideology of Nazism and Stalinism under Serov, or worst of all for all of Russia, embrace a variant of the Burgundian System under either Andrey Diky or Valery Yemelyanov, the former seeks to fully emulate the SS, while the latter views Russians as the true Aryans and the descendants of Hyperborea(AB dosen't exist TTL), and Germany and Burgundy as rivals to Russian racial supramacy.
- The most violent of the Russian breakaways is Omsk, a fortified city broken off from the Western Siberian People's Republic. It is led by the ultranationalist All-Russian Black League, a militant organization aiming to reunite Russia and prepare it for the Great Trial, a final conflict between Russia and Germany that will decide Russia's ultimate fate.
- A subplot tied to Russia is the Ural war, which involves the efforts of the Ural League in protecting the Orenburg Commune and themselves from the SS Black Legion, which was forced out of the Free American State and into the Russian wastes during the West Russian War, led by Richard Heinz(Effinger being long since dead), along with Trofim Lysenko, a mad scientist seeking to create an army of Super Soldiers conducting inhuman experiments in Magnitogorsk. Heinz has the most death events out of any character showcased in the mod.
- The UASR, as the home of the Communist Internationale, has to find ways to spread socialism and defeat the Nazis and the Japanese without triggering Nuclear War. Various elements of it's government seek to militarize the state and act aggressively to stop Fascism everywhere, even if it means risking nuclear war. A key feature of UASR gameplay is funding dissidents and revolutionaries in the Unity-Pakt, Commonwealth and the Sphere, this could lead to a socialist coup in Germany, Japan and even Britain in the even of war, perhaps allowing the UASR to establish world Communism without a nuclear war.
- Americuba, following the Second World War has become a political battleground between various superpowers. In order to consolidate power and fight the UASR-backed socialist rebels, some Americubans are gravitating towards the Reich, and there is more effort by elements of the National Salvation Government to push for the continuation of Fascism. After MacArthur's death, Americuba can reform under RFK as it did in Reds, but there is more difficulty in doing so. Alternatively, in most games, it falls to a socialist revolution or can maintain Fascism under Charles Coughlin, whom has more influence due to the even further right tilt of the far right in Americuba in Reds!TNO. Perhaps more cursed, it can also embrace a more outright Nazi movement influenced by the ideas of William Dudley Pelley and Virgil Effinger that is led by Francis Parker Yockey, with a even radical wing of said movement led by William Luther Pierce that has embraced Burgundianism that could take power. Both wings seeks to create a purely white and Americanized Cuba and possibly retake the united states.....regardless of the consequences, and Pierce has far darker goals than what Yockey has. A far right government friendly with the Unity-Pakt can request the Reich place nuclear missiles on Cuban soil, potentially triggering a diplomatic crisis that can escalate into nuclear war.
- Brazil is now divided between various warlords waging a massive civil war against each other. These warlords include regional secessionist groups, various socialist groups, Christian Fascists led by Gustavo Barroso, the monarchists, various republicans and military juntas, the remnants of the Brazilian Intergralist government under Miguel Reale, and the most extreme far-right faction: the remnants of the Guarde Verde
- Argentina and Columbia are led by unstable far-right governments installed by the now collapsed Intergralists about to collapse into civil war, with leftist insurgence and terrorism occuring daily in these countries
The Black Spot of Europe
- Himmler's Burgundy is a hellscape seeking to destroy the culture of the French and the Walloons while having ambitions for global genocide. It instigates wars and conflicts around the world, trying to bring the various powers into the conflict to enact nuclear war. It builds bunkers and the means it will achieve it's goals through "skilled workers": slaves to be worked to death
- Even without Heydrich giving Burgundy the knockout punch to the world, every nation that embraces Burgundian System: SS controlled Sweden, Evolian Italy, SS controlled Brittney, Pierce led Americuba, Devi-led India, Ultranazi Blue Division led Iberia can help Burgundy in it's efforts for world destruction. Through these nations, Burgundy can acquire expertise and a large number of slaves, and eventually work to get a nuclear arsenal of their own that can be deployed against the other powers.
- While Kishi and especially the Germanphobic Yemelyanov are not aligned with them despite adhering to the Burgundian System, Himmler can try to provoke them into taking the harshest actions possible against Germany and the UASR respectively during the Eurasian war and the Great Asian War, potentially leading to a nuclear war.
- Burgundy itself could be destroyed. It either collapses on it's own with the 1982 death of Himmler or could be invaded via focuses and event chains, through there is a danger of starting a nuclear war with the latter. Upon collapse, France will try to retake the lands Burgundy has taken from them in WW2 and later on in the German civil war, and Germany will try to reintegrate the rest of Burgundy if still alive. If a player is playing as Burgundy, there is the chance for the SS-Langemarck and the SS-Wallonien to revolt if Himmler botches their suppression, along with ultranationalist French SS divisions, as well as the UASR-backed Red Poppy Movement.
- In the worst case , Himmler succeeds in his plans and brings about a nuclear war that causes the total devastation of human civilization. Through many of the endings paint a bittersweet tone, as humanity survives, overcomes racial hatreds and rebuilds to a spacefaring civilization that has no idea the Nazis ever existed or destroyed the old world, with some postapocalyptic societies even establishing socialism.
- World communism is achieved, with all corners of the Earth becoming socialist in the wake of the collapse of the Nazis, Japan and the Commonwealth
- The canon ending, Heydrich is chosen as sucessor but Bormann wins the civil war, the WRRF reunifies Russia and defeats the Nazis, which falls to a socialist revolution, the National government maintains power in Britain, and the UASR and China winning the Great Asian War. The Red Poppy movement takes over North France and establishes a Socialist Republic, while South France aligns with the Commonwealth. This is followed by a UASR-Commonwealth Cold War which the mod team hopes to explore in a future mod, where they hope to deconstruct myths and apologia pertaining to the FBU
- Various other endings including at the worst case, reformist Nazis under Goering-led OFN winning the Cold War, all of the blocs collapsing(due to most likely Bormann knocking them out before his Germany collapses), Europe falling into a "post-Goebbelsian metahorror Dark Age" due to the Second German Civil War, a more democratic Organization of Free Nations winning the Cold War led by the Commonwealth and a Gang of Four Germany that hasn't given in to the temptations of Fascism, Japanese victory along with a Commonwealth dominance, the possibilities are rather endless
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Are Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, and Krasnoyarsk still a thing in this scenario?
Yes I think they could be. through Tomsk might be a bit more cursed being not communist. The major differences with TNO Russia is
- No Aryan Brotherhood, Buyatia(Sablin is in the WRRF) or Irkutsk, essentially the only rival communist to the WRRF are ones in are Tyumen and some paths for Komi. SBA still exists through
- No Tabby, the Hyperboreans are relocated to Komi with no AB and fill his niche for the Burgundians in Russia, but have a really anti-Germanic interpretation of Burgundian System, as such, some of the people that were with Tabby such as Andrey Diky are ministers for Amur, Moskowien, Muscovy, or for Oktan Samara. The metahorror neo-warlordism ending dosen't exist for Russia, but does exist for Germany if Goebbels collapses and the 2GCW happens(so more of "Post-Goebbelsian Metahorror European Dark Age)
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