Scarlet over the Kremlin: Post-Cold War Timeline.

[Stalingrad]

The nightmare is back.

(Soviet troops marching gallantly through Moscow during the celebrations of the Day of Victory, the usual festivities to commemorate the soviet victory over Nazism.) Picture taken in 2015.

Everything has changed; there are many different events going on in the modern world and all of them can be traced to a single nation and an unanimous decision, survival.
All of us thought that communism had died after the Soviet Union collapsed during 90's, we thought it was the end of those ideals, of that nation, everyone thought that their legacy would vanquish as the time passed but we were proven wrong.

In the West, everyone cheered, all the people celebrated the end of the Cold War but there was nothing to celebrate in Russia and other former republics that constituted the Soviet Union, the crisis was hard on those nations and West was happy with that unexpected end.
Yeltsin was seen as a reformist leader, all over the world, people saw Russia and thought that finally capitalism would prevail in the country but his economic reforms were hurting the nation slowly, people had problems.

And we must always remember, the fate of a nation isn't in the hands of the government, or the army, citizens are the one who will always choose their own destiny.
And this is what happened with Russia, this is how the Soviet Union came back; people's desire to have a better life.

Hi, this is my first attempt at a Timeline, I'll try to keep it plausible and well, I don't really know what to say.
First, as my english isn't good enough I'll apologize if you guys find some mistakes, I'll try my best so there are almost none on this.
I hope you enjoy it and that some of you guys can help me out with some updates, it's great to start finally one project in here!

EDIT#1:: Someone knows how can I insert an image? I'm having some issues with it.

 

[Deleted member 14881]

Good Start also, go with uploading a file instead of inserting it.

 

[Stalingrad]

Chapter 1: The electoral race, part 1.

Excerpt from the book “Yeltsin's failed career.” Author; Anthony Rogers.

Published in 2010.

Chapter: January crisis, 1996.

There is a wide range of reasons that explain why Boris Yeltsin was defeated at 1996 presidential elections, one of them was the crisis caused by chechen separatists ocurred in January 9, 1996.
We must remember that Russia was fighting against the chechens since 1994, everyone thought that peace should be a priority for Yeltin's administration, however, he didn't want peace he wanted to restore Chechnya as russian territory.

The Kizyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis started as a chechen-assault their objective was an air base, near the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan, Russian Federation's territory during the first war of Chechnya.
Their leader was Salman Raduyev, a brutal warlord who acted without thinking two times if it came to violent actions against russians, he didn't have any remorse about his actions.

(Salman Raduyev on the right side)

The chechen forces tried to assault and obliterate the base, however, when russian troops arrived to defend the base it was an attack already expected to fail. As the chechen were afraid of the possible repercussions their actions would have; they took hostages, the purpose of this was to eventually use them to negotiate a settled retreat with the russians so they could safely return into Chechnya.
At the start, people thought that the chechens would murder brutally the hostages or that they would be sacrificed without any fear, but there was someone with a personal agenda to follow, an agenda to save Chechnya.

Nowadays there's a conspiracy theory involving former agents of the soviet KGB, while the separatists were retreating they were fighting russian forces too. Russians were trying to stop them but they were able to occupy the town of Pervomayskoye, even if separatists took the town there was a problem in their own lines, their leader; Salman Raduyev was injured in combat and he was expected to die in matter of hours.
Without Raduyev, another person rose to his place, he was only known as Mokhmad and as we saw, he was a different kind of chechen leader.

He positioned his troops all over the town and he ordered them to stay in defensive position, that was the moment when a clear violation of human rights took place, Mokhmad offered to negotiate the freedom of the hostages in exchange for safe passage towards Chechnya, however, russian troops under orders of president Yeltsin started the siege of the town where the civilians were captive.

The siege lasted from January 12 until the 15, during this, hundreds of reporters were expelled from the area and forced to hand-over their cameras, russian troops were constantly checking the recordings. But, despite the strong measures taken to censor the situation, there was a brave german reporter; Hans Berger.
He passed the perimeter and even if it costed him his journalist career, he managed to reveal to the world the brutal destruction of the city and civilian's death, despite the good care that chechens were providing them.
The town was razed by russian rockets and artillery, almost erasing totally the little town of Pervomayskoye form the maps.

Everyone wonders where did Mokhmad came from, or why he was so different, but people tends to believe that not everyone was a monster. And he proved it, his orders were to protect the hostages and even take care of them, he knew something that his fellow comrades in arms didn't know.
The media was an important tool, if he could win some of the western hearts, Chechnya would be seen in a different way.
Although people in russian government tried to hide and isolate the subject of the russian media, inevitably the russian people ended becoming aware of the truth, a reason that would cost the elections to Yeltsin.

 

[An Oklahoman]

Interesting start. I wonder how the Communists will re-establish their dicatorship and how far will they go to reincorporate the former Soviet states.

 

[Raunchel]

This looks very interesting. I will eagerly follow this. Will Saint Petersburg become Leningrad again?

 

[Israel]

This looks interesting

 

[Miss Teri]

Interesting start. I wonder how the Communists will re-establish their dicatorship and how far will they go to reincorporate the former Soviet states.

Perhaps the opening was referring not to the reformation of the USSR, but the establishment of a dominant Communist Party in Russian politics.

 

[Stalingrad]

Thanks for your support, I hope you enjoy the Timeline.

Interesting start. I wonder how the Communists will re-establish their dicatorship and how far will they go to reincorporate the former Soviet states.

It will be quite interesting the reforming of the Soviet system, you can expect many things from the former republics. Keep watching.

This looks very interesting. I will eagerly follow this. Will Saint Petersburg become Leningrad again?

While I never liked the name "Leningrad", you can expect that. After all, we're returning (ITL) to Soviet times. Of course, Russians got a lesson ITL so we can expect some different things in this new Russia.

This looks interesting

And stuff is only starting.

 

[Stalingrad]

Perhaps the opening was referring not to the reformation of the USSR, but the establishment of a dominant Communist Party in Russian politics.

There are many surprises planned for this timeline, stay and enjoy.

 

[Stalingrad]

Chapter 1: The electoral race, part 2.

Interview realized in 2005. Alexander Litvinenko, russian defector.
Courtesy of BBC.

Interview about the events in Pervomayskoye.

Mike Wilkins: Many have speculated that you were involved in the hostage crisis of January 1996, do you have any idea of why is that?

Litvinenko: Mainly because of my strong opposition to the actions being carried out against chechen separatists and specially the little consideration the government was having with the inhabitants of the city along the hostages.

Mike Wilkins: Witnesses claim that you facilitated access to the german journaist, Hans Berger, what can you say about it? Were you related in some way to him?

Litvinenko: With all due respect, I think those accusations are stupid. The witnesses were only two russian lieutenants, their record says they were investigated over corruption charges, those are your "witnesses"?
There's no one who will believe the word of those men, even if I helped Hans Berger we all know that was the right thing to do, you westerners are such hypocrites.

Wilkins: We are all aware that Yeltsin's government severely condemned you for allowing that journalist into a forbidden zone, however, the communist party retired the charges when they won the elections.

Litvinenko: That's right, why are you mentioning this?


Wilkins: It's obvious, you were quite involved with the communist party and your actions were nothing more than a mission assigned by them, in my opinion, spies never change.


Litvinenko: Let me recapitulate, you think that I gave access to Berger in spite of my orders and also that I was a loyal servant of the communist party, but I have one question about your..."theory".


Wilkins: It seems that I'm the one interviewed now, go ahead, ask your question.


Litvinenko: If I was so loyal to the party, why did I defect?, why they tried to kill me?


Wilkins: It was an honor to have you here Mr. Litvinenko, but I'm afraid that the air time has ended, I thank you for coming along your time and honesty during the interview.


Litvinenko: That's what I thought...


(Alexander Litvinenko, the russian defector, allegedly involved in the Pervomayskoye crisis of January 1996.)

 

[Israel]

Well... so much for courtesy

 

[Beata Beatrix]

Well, this is dark.

 

[Stalingrad]

Chapter 2: The electoral race, part 3.

Boris Berezovsky was in his hotel room, it was fancy and one of his favorites in Switzerland, he was in the country for the meeting at Davos.

It was obvious to him that the meeting was an important one; after all, the most prominent oligarchs from Russia were going too. He received a message upon his arrival to Switzerland; they needed to plan the course of action that would be taken for Yeltsin’s reelection campaign.

He was laid on his comfortable bed, tired from the dinner he assisted the last night, he didn’t drink but he was feeling something similar to a hangover; the headache was unbearable and he felt a bit dizzy.

The room was filled with a horrible stench; the smoke from several cigars and spilled whisky on the ground, creating a stinky atmosphere right there. There were some red spots in the rug, making him think the worst.

He walked slowly towards the bathroom, trying to help himself with an umbrella as he was having such a hard time in his attempt to walk. His legs were not answering properly to him, as if they had no bones inside.

“I feel like a jelly, barely walking but going from one side to the other.” – He thought.

When he arrived to the bathroom, he placed his hand in the cold and metallic handle; turning it towards the left and opening the door. He was surprised to find a corpse in the bathtub; there were bloodstains all over the walls and the floor, blood was dripping from the ceiling.

He was horrified by the scene his eyes were contemplating, there were many questions in his mind. Was he the murderer?, who was the man on the bathtub?, was it a dream? Nothing had sense, he spent his night in a luxurious dinner, after that, he went with an attractive woman to her room.

Her room. When he thought that, he felt a sudden shiver through his spine, when he was going to leave the room, he found a piece of paper above the sink’s faucets. Walking in a slow and careful fashion Berezovsky tried to reach the note.

Once he took it, he started to read it.
“Stop supporting Yeltsin if you want to keep Artem alive.”
His face showed an expression of total fear, he was quite frightened and he would sweat cold when he found who the bathtub corpse was.

Spoiler: Bloody pic ahead, beware!

 

[An Oklahoman]

I almost vomited at that picture. Sorry I don't react well to blood.

 

[Beata Beatrix]

This is a very dark TL, and I think I'll leave it at that. It's very good for a first effort.

Maybe you should put the sink in spoiler tags.

 

[Stalingrad]

I almost vomited at that picture. Sorry I don't react well to blood.

Oh sorry! I didn't thought about that.
I don't react well too but, well, maybe it was too graphic.

This is a very dark TL, and I think I'll leave it at that. Maybe you should put the sink in spoiler tags.

Well, I don't want it to be dark *sigh*.
While I learn how to place it on spoiler I'll take it out.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Beata Beatrix]

You put the word spoiler into brackets, and then do it after the image, but with a / before the word.

Spoiler

Like so.

 

[Raunchel]

That has to be a very nasty sight.

And about the picture: they say that girls can't deal with the sight of blood...

But yes, it might be better in the spoiler for those who aren't used totthe sight of blood.

I really like the interview, but noticed that the interviewer's name starts as Wilkins, before becoming Williams. You might want to change that.

 

[Stalingrad]

That has to be a very nasty sight.

And about the picture: they say that girls can't deal with the sight of blood...

But yes, it might be better in the spoiler for those who aren't used totthe sight of blood.

I really like the interview, but noticed that the interviewer's name starts as Wilkins, before becoming Williams. You might want to change that.

Indeed! Such a fancy room ruined by someone's psycho-plans.
Thanks! I didn't noticed the name-change, I hope you are enjoying the TL by now.

 

[Raunchel]

Indeed! Such a fancy room ruined by someone's psycho-plans.
Thanks! I didn't noticed the name-change, I hope you are enjoying the TL by now.

I certainly am enjoying it. And it's a shame for the room. But then again, it also is a shame to be slept in by an oligarch.