Sidera Longius Iter: A Long Road to the Stars

[Marsby2024orbust]

Some of you may remember that "European Confederation" graphic i posted in the map thread, well it happens to be a part of this timeline.

This timeline is more or less, a weird combination of Alt-History and Future History, as it has PoD in the 1960s, but the actual canon goes far beyond the present, into the near and far future.

The earlier version of this timeline was also way more wacky. I later decided i wanted a more realistic approach, and cut that wacky stuff out.

Anyway, i finally decided to post a thread for this timeline, enjoy!

-Introduction-
​

In the most basic terms, the Outer Space Treaty is never signed, prompting more space exploration, and also the USSR are the first ones to land on the moon, narrowly beating the Americans.

The bitter Americans, hating to see a Red Moon, decided that they wanted to aim further, to Venus. They eventually did a Venusian flyby in 1974, the Soviets decided to respond to this by landing on Mars, in 1978. The Cold War in Space, as it was called, was (officially) not actually settled until around 2010, where the USSR approached the United States about conducting formal peace talks to formally end the race for good, the US later agreed and it officially came to an end at that date. ( I swear to god i will make an official Spaceflight TL graphic later on.)

This timeline also sees space colonization on Luna, and later on Mars during the 1970s and 1990s respectively. With plans like the Zvezda moonbase being actually put into place.

Overall, one of the biggest geopolitical differences from OTL, is that the August Coup narrowly succeeds and the USSR avoids collapse, however during this time, the USSR loses all their influence on the world stage, as it decided to focus on itself, and the country essentially reverts back to what it was under Brezhnev, reversing all the reforms Gorbachev did and the Era of Stagnation returns to the USSR once more.

Nothing much really happens until the 2030s, when a new global refugee crisis begins to emerge due to climate change, it reaches it's peak during the 2060s, with catastrophic effects that can be felt everywhere. It leads to huge changes which make seemingly unrecognizable by the time the 22nd century rolls around.

For space during this time, migration to the established colonies explodes during the 2050s, 60s and 70s as people try to escape the deteriorating situation on Earth.

The climate refugee crisis finally dies down during the 2070s, as most have died or reached their intended destination. However, it leaves behind nasty marks that can be seen just about anywhere. Many regimes collapse during this time of unprecedented change, including the US.




Currently the timeline is ongoing, but has only reached 2100. I already have plans to extend way past that. Plus, i also have yet to flesh out some lore for certain countries, some time periods and the space part of this series, so keep an eye out for that.

-Media-
​

Here are all the maps and graphics so far.

The flag(s) that represent Luna, Earth's moon as of 2150. Adopted in 2146.

And that seems to be it for now.

Again, this series is ongoing, so keep an eye out for new stuff and lore.

 

[Analytical Engine]

The reddit posts that go along with those maps have all been removed by the reddit spambot filter. Is that a problem?

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

The reddit posts that go along with those maps have all been removed by the reddit spambot filter. Is that a problem?

Yeah, still trying to find a solution.

The spam filter hates me for some reason.

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

Here's a bit of a teaser for the next map in this series.

Here's the (new) coat of arms of the USSR from the year 2020 and onwards! It will be featured in said map.
Why did it change? Well something really big happened to the USSR in 2020.

I will reveal the full lore context later (eventually).

Anyway, i am going to deconstruct this coat of arms and reveal what many symbols represent:
The cotton and corn represent more or less the somewhat large agricultural industries of the USSR at this time. While the blue flower is a symbol of prosperity and peace between the different peoples of the Union.
The waving waters below the hammer and sickle is a representation of the large amount of rivers and lakes in the region.
The hammer and sickle and sunrays represent that the Union is beacon of freedom and idealism in the world, at least according to them that is.

 

[WotanArgead]

Maybe "пролетарии" and not "работники"? And in the original there was the word "соединяйтесь"

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

Maybe "пролетарии" and not "работники"? And in the original there was the word "соединяйтесь"

I think "работники" is better in my opinion.

Then again i was using google translate so it may have translated it wrong.

 

[WotanArgead]

I think "работники" is better in my opinion.

Nevertheless, in the original there were precisely "пролетарии"

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

So i decided to remake that fake screenshot of Youtube i made a while back.
This took way too long.

Here's some interesting trivia so you can understand this image better:
-Yazov was the leader of the USSR after the August Coup succeeded until his death in late 2019, after he died, that's when things really got started.
-Gorbachev of course was forced to resign after the successful coup, but he later got booted out of the country to decrease his influence.
-The "Rose Revolution" was, in an essence, a Soviet equivalent to the wave of demonstrations that happened to China in the late 1980s in OTL, and in this case, it really did turn the USSR into a democracy. The movement behind this is also an equivalent to this.

I will explain the Rose Revolution in detail later.

 

[Dragorun]

I think "работники" is better in my opinion.

Then again i was using google translate so it may have translated it wrong.

If you don't like the original "пролетарии", you can replace it with a "труженики" (workers, or those who like to work). In Russian this motto with a word "работники" sounds very silly. "пролетарии" more appropriate in meaning, but it really has an overly "marxist" connotation, for a democratic USSR. Graphics of the coat of arms also seem questionable to me: image of cotton and its flowers on it is superfluous, since it represents only a small part of the republics of the USSR, there where cotton is grown. Whereas wheat ears are versatile. Further, given the motto on coat of arms, instead of the image of sea under the hammer and sickle, there should be rather an image of solar system in one form or another, or a starry sky.

 

[Dragorun]

P.S. instead of cotton and flowers, I would use laurel and oak leaves.

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

Some flags for today.

Oh and also i decided to change the USSR coat of arms again. Now it's just a modified version of the original, i tried my best to "modernize" it.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this.

Oh and also the context behind this is a pretty large lore dump, so be ready for some reading.

Excerpt from: What Could've Been: The Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics (1999)


The idea of reorganizing the USSR into a confederacy briefly existed and was very close to implementation during the 1990s, though the concept was intended to save the union, hardliners feared that it would encourage some of the smaller republics to press for full independence.

In August 18, the hardliners took control of the government after confining Gorbachev in his Crimean dacha in order to stop him from returning to Moscow to sign the treaty. The August Coup succeeded despite in the face of overwhelming opposition not only from the smaller republics but from larger ones, especially Russia.

Afterwards, Gorbachev was forced to resign and was later exiled to Sweden to "Not pose a threat to the way of the working class", in other words, Gorbachev was in the way of the hardliners, and without him, the hardliners can reform the Union in any way as they wish, and in this case for "the good of the working class".


----


Excerpt from: Inside the "Rose Movement" and Their Goals (2018)

Many pro-democracy activists fled the Soviet Union after the August Coup and Gorbachev's subsequent exile, but a certain few who stayed continue to support dissidents from abroad. This movement had come under the leadership of dissident leaders united under the umbrella of the “Rose Movement”. With Moscow intensifying its crackdown on civil society, this movement faces new challenges.
​

What does the movement want?​

The movement has since adopted the motto: "3 demands, not one less!" These demands are:​

• Introduction of a multi-party democracy and end of the CPSU's monopoly on the USSR's political system​
• Implementation of the "New Union" proposal and the formation of a confederation (disputed)​
• Introduction of a Scandinavian social-democratic mixed-market into the country (disputed)​

----



Excerpt from: End of Yazov's USSR and the "Rose Revolution" (2021)

On the morning of December 26, 2019, Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov has been declared dead. He is expected to be given a state funeral with four days of national mourning declared. Gennady Zyuganov is expected to succeed him.

Yazov's health has already known to be declining but only recently took a turn for the worst.

Shortly following Zyuganov's ascension to leadership, protests had sprung up ordering him to step down as the people were seriously sick of the stagnation that Yazov's policies have done to the country, and were not going to endure another 30 years of it under Zyuganov.

In January 24, 2020, 60,000 people entered Red Square to protest Zyuganov's ascension, only to be massacred on site by tanks on Zyuganov's orders, ~43,000 were injured and another ~9,000 killed, several were lucky enough to escape unharmed. This was done to maintain order, but only did the exact opposite, dozens of more protests spread all across the country, the government cracked down violently, whatever little foreign investment there was withdrew from the country.

By the time April arrived hundreds more were dead and the unrest showed no signs of slowing down. On May Day 2020, an incredible 200,000 people had entered Red Square unopposed even though the military were sent there, this is largely due to the fact that there were dissident elements in the Soviet Ground Army who broke rank in favor of the protesters, and as a result, they simply let them in.


Only by this time that the party recognizes that the right to choose one’s leader is an inevitable facet of the human spirit, and that the more they suppress democracy, the brighter it will burn.


By July, the CPSU finally abolished it's monopoly over the political system in favor for the introduction of the first multi-party election, in which they lost to a large majority.

By November, a new constitution was approved and by the time new years arrived, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was officially no more, the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics now reign in it's place.

Huge changes to the country occur following this time including, but not limited to:
​

• The central government would retain control of the country's armed forces and security services, but with a reduced size and subjected to oversight by the republican legislatives, along with issuing currency, Soviet Ruble, and control of it's gold reserves and Diamond resources, although the republics would have the right to share them.​
• The republics and the central government would jointly determine military and foreign policy and work out policies on the economy, fuel, and energy resources.​
• The Congress of People's Deputies would be disbanded.​
• The number of government ministries would be reduced, some ministries having their responsibilities transferred to the republics, some having to reduce staff or abolished, or turned into small co-ordinating bodies which would support republican ministries.​
• The republics would also be given ownership of almost all their natural resources, including mineral deposits on their territories, along with the right to establish direct diplomatic and trade relations with foreign states.​
• A new constitutional court would have also been established to resolve questions between republics and the center. Lastly, republican law would take precedence over All-Union law.​

What is the future of this new USSR?​

Nobody knows for sure, but it will take some time to reverse the damage the hardliners have caused to the Union, after that is completed, the forecast for them seems bright and clear, although it may still have downs and highs.



----

Excerpt from: Multiple New Flag Referendums held to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of the Creation of the Soviet Union (2023)

Multiple flag referendums has recently been announced at the 100th anniversary of declaration of the Soviet Union. It's true purpose is to "create new identities for each republics' and celebrate each republics' unique history and diversity through vexillological and other means".

The national flag would not be affected at all.

Shortly after the announcement of the referendums, party leaders reviewed draft legislation and selected candidates for a Flag Consideration Panel. The purpose of this group was to publicize the process, seek flag submissions and suggestions from the public, and decide on a final shortlist of options to be later adopted as new flags of the republics. Open consultation and design solicitation garnered 9,236 total design suggestions from the public, later reduced to a long list of 65 designs and then a shortlist of 4 designs to contend in each referendum in each republic.

The first wave of referendums took place between 30 November 2022 and 11 January 2023, while the second referendum took place between 1 and 21 March 2023.

Reception of the process and the official options were highly in favor, with great enthusiasm shown among the public. From an aggregation of analyses, the consensus was that the referendum was "a rather unique process that seems to have satisfied many".

The next year would also see new emblems for each republic, also chosen by voting and submissions.

The image above is the final results from each referendum in each republic.​

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

MOAR FLAGS!

Here are the flags of the major parties of the European Confederation as of 2072.

Renew Europe: A primarily liberal and pro-Federalization party which seeks to not only reform the European Confederation into a proper federation but also seeks to uphold liberal ideas such as free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights, capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion in the Confederation as a response to an increase of more "radical" ideas from parties of the extremes. Nothing much else can be said about this party.

Ideology: Liberalism; Pro-federalization
Factions: Conservative liberalism; Social Liberalism


European People's Party: A center-right party which comprises politicians of Christian-democratic, conservative and liberal-conservative orientations, and it also seeks to reform the European Confederation into a federation. It is also technically the oldest party due to it being officially founded in 1976. However, the original European People's Party group in the European Parliament has existed in one form or another since June 1953, from the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community. It has been the largest political group in the European Parliament continuously since 1999 and onwards, and it seems it will stay that way.

Ideology: Christian democracy; Liberal conservatism; Conservatism; Pro-federalization
Factions: N/A


Progressive Alliance: Officially the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, it is primarily a center-left party. It was officially founded as a Socialist Group on 29 June 1953 which makes it the second oldest political group in the European Parliament. It adopted its present-day name on 23 June 2009, though today the name is often shortened as "Progressive Alliance" for simplicity sake. The group mostly comprises social-democratic parties and is affiliated with the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International. It uses the famous "three arrows" symbol in it's party flag and logo as way to symbolize that it upholds the ideals of social democracy against the forces of Authoritarian communism, Nazism/Fascism, and reactionary conservatism.

Ideology: Social democracy; Pro-federalization
Factions: Third way; Social liberalism; Democratic socialism


Identity and Democracy: Identity and Democracy, often just shortened as Identity, is a right-wing to far-right party. It was formed from various nationalist, right-wing populist and anti-Federalization national parties from several European nations. It has notably experienced a large spike in popularity particularly during the new refugee crisis happening right know as of 2072. The party broadly lists its core priorities as creating jobs and growth, increasing security, stopping illegal immigration, and opposing European federalization. The group emphasizes itself as sovereigntist.

Ideology: Nationalism; Anti-federalization; Anti-immigration; Right-wing populism
Factions: N/A


European Conservatives: Officially the European Conservatives and Reformists, is a center-right to right-wing political party withing the European Confederation. Ideologically speaking, the group is broadly anti-federalist and right-wing. Its main focus is to oppose unchecked European centralization and evolution of the European Confederation into a Federal European Superstate on the basis of Eurorealism, as well as advocate for free market policies and stricter controls on immigration. The ECR contains socially conservative, right-wing populist, liberal conservative, christian democrat, nationalist and national conservative factions who all subscribe to an anti-federalist stance.

Ideology: Conservatism; National conservatism; Anti-federalization
Factions: Liberal conservatism; Nationalism; Christian democracy; Economic liberalism; Social conservatism; Right-wing populism;


Deep Greens: Officially known as the European Deep Greens, it was formed as successor to the late Greens–European Free Alliance in the 2050s. They are often notable for following the Deep Green ideology, which was developed as a response to the vast destruction unleashed on the planet, particularly in Europe. Deep Greenism is, at it's very core, a revolutionary environmentalist political ideology that seeks to redefine the human relationship with the planet. The ideology is focused primarily on maintaining and redeveloping damaged and destroyed biomes across the world and engage in everything from radical de-industrialization, population control, supporting Geo-engineering projects such as large-scale carbon capture procedures and land reclamation to reclaim lost lands from rising sea levels. The party would steer Europe to be rather isolationist with it's neighbors.

Ideology: Deep Green; Green politics; Regionalism; Minority politics; Pro-federalization
Factions: Bioconservatism


Heredes Veteris: Latin for "Heirs of the Old", Heredes Veteris, or simply known as HV, is a party willing to create a "modern Roman empire" out of the European Confederation. The party's ideology more or less revolves around the revival of traditional ideals which are augmented to suit the current state of technology. They came to existence following "The Spring", a backlash against globalization, a return to romanticism and traditionalism, and later of renewed fascism across the world. The "Spring" was caused by the rise of China and much of the Global South. The party seeks to maintain a balance between global commitments and national identity, and argues that only through a centralized system of states working to preserve each others’ culture and respecting the state as the vanguard of culture, can tradition and identity be preserved, and as a result, they support European federalization. Other than that, they also see the European Confederation as the successor to the Romans. A European from the earlier years of the 21st Century would be absolutely baffled at the very fact this party exists, but to today's European, it's completely normal.

Ideology: Roman Revivalism; Conservatism; Pro-federalization
Factions: N/A


Ascension: Ascension is, at best, a center-left party due to it being socially left at social issues. The party, at it's core, advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies able to greatly modify or enhance human intellect and physiology. The party argues that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into different beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the current condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings. The party is a byproduct of the fact that Transhumanism was now entering mainstream politics and the average citizen becoming heavily reliant on brain-computer interfaces and other implantable devices in the 2060s. Some party factions have suggested the idea of an "AI-State". The AI-State is said to be a hypothetical state in which the Artificial Intelligence networks have simply opted to directly control the countries they oversee, in this case the European Confederation. AI-States are said to be very self-sufficient due to their degree of central planning, and as such tend not to directly engage with corporate politics or have many foreign corporations operate on their soil.

Ideology: Transhumanism; Techno-progressivism; Secularism
Factions: Technogaianism; Singularitarianism; Posthumanism; Various


United Left: Officially known as the European United Left–Nordic Green Left, EUL/NGL, or simply the "United Left" is a European political party originally established in 1995, and composed of left-wing to far-left factions. The group primarily comprises political parties of socialist and communist orientation. The party is opposed to the European Federation concept, and is committed to keeping the Confederation. The party is ambiguous between reformism and revolution, leaving it up to each internal faction to decide on the manner they deem best suited to achieve these aims. In the late-2060s a question arose within the party faction on whether or not Europe should provide help and support for leftist factions in the 2nd Civil War, most did not want to, but a certain few did want to, feeling betrayed due to the vast majority of factions not wanting to support their American comrades, they would initiate a flight from the party and created Solidarity, a party containing some of the more radical elements of the United Left.

Ideology: Left-wing populism; Anti-federalization
Factions: Democratic socialism


Solidarity: Officially known as Solidarity for European Workers, Solidarity is a far-left party founded by former members of EUL/NGL. At it's core, it's ultimate goal is the establishment of a communist society, namely a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money in Europe. They advocate for direct intervention in the ongoing 2nd American Civil War to help out their comrades over across the pond. The party is ambiguous on LGBT issues and mostly leaving it up to each internal faction to decide on the manner they deem best suited to achieve these aims.

Ideology: Communism
Factions: Marxism-Leninism; Stalinism; Leninism; Trotskyism; Various


United Europe: A centrist party bent on "defending Europe from extremism", a true party of the moderates. Formed as a response to an increasing number of "extremist parties", the party supports acceptance and support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society strongly to either the left or the right, as necessary to survival of Europe as a whole, especially during a time of unprecedented change throughout the entire world. They prefer to keep Europe free from extremism using any means, even if they are hawkish.

Ideology: Centrism
Factions: Social democracy; Liberal conservatism


Novum Europa: One of the most feared and hated parties of Europe, Novum Europa or NE, is far-right party composed of the most radical elements of Identity and Democracy, they are genuinely fascist and seek the re-implementation of Fascist ideas into European society as a whole. Their immigration policy includes the promoting of the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including the support of immigration-restriction measures. They prefer steering Europe to be isolationist with it's neighbors. They usually portray themselves as a natural, sane and alternative collective, with the redemptive mission of saving society from its supposed doom. If they were ranked in popularity with the 11 other major parties in a list, they would be at rock bottom. Their unpopularity fortunately diminishes any chance of them winning an election soon.

Ideology: Fascism; Nativism
Factions: National Socialism; Ultranationalism

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

Hey y'all, i'm actually alive and now finally focusing on this TL once more. So here's a update thingy for y'all. Why the long hiatus? well, it was a combination of IRL stuff and focusing on other projects that are not SLI and that's pretty much it.

Retons, yeah retcons, i will rewriting some stuff because i wasn't satisfied with them. I don't like retconning and rewriting stuff, but i had to.
So yeah, here's a complete list of all the now non-canon things, and along with what i will replace them with:

Indo-Pakistan Nuclear War
-I seriously underestimated what the effects of such an event would bring. Such effects would have complications on the already complicated lore. Instead of this, it will likely be a Sino-Indian conflict instead, Pakistan would definitely be involved, siding with China against India.

The Union of Arab Republics and the current Middle East lore
-I've decided that regional superstates like the UAR and the EC are a big no, and also there is pretty much no way i can think Pan-Arabism can rise once more, it has rose once, and it will never again. The Middle East in 2150[1] is still pretty divided, even more so than it was a century and half ago due to a essentially inhabitable desert in the interior of the peninsula. Whereas the deserts of North Africa and Central Asia receded by century's end under the weight of rising humidity and storm clouds[2], it wasn't the same here, in fact it got harsher.

The European Confederation and it's related lore
-Superstates are a big no. Other than that, Europe in 2150 is somewhat similar to what is was 150 years ago, almost. The European Union is dead and it will never live again, the closest thing to a EU in this era is the "Visegrad Union" in the Eastern Europe and being mostly a defense against Soviet aggression in the region. To the west you can sightsee France and Germany, both of whom have cannibalized the Benelux countries due to the rising sea levels not being nice to them. Scandinavian beaches are a normal thing in this Europe.

The Current 2ACW Lore
-Not satisfied with it at the moment. Reworking it and taking into account the weird new movements that might arise in America in the near future.

The West Africa and Levantine Conf. Maps
-Africa will be thoroughly reworked and of course, the Middle East is also being reworked.

The Current Rose Revolution Lore
-This might sound rather unexpected, but the new Rose Revolution will instead take place in 1993 instead of 2019. The hardliner regime will face a lot of problems if they indeed succeed, and i mean A LOT. The rolling back of the previous reforms by Gorbachev and the crippling economic sanctions placed by a lot of countries, would have disastrous effects that i simply could not see them surviving until 2000, or hell, 1995. So that is that.
TL;DR the current Rose Revolution lore didn't have enough thought put into it.


One last thing: A new PoD for this TL is 1966, Korolev does not die during surgery and survives, allowing him and the Soviet space program to secure the necessary funding to better test the N1.


[1]Why this specific date? i decided that it would be SLI's "modern day" essentially. It was originally going to be 2100, but i decided to push it 50 more years.
[2]Turns out, the melting ice caps cause extra water to be present and more water evaporates which in turn causes more water vapor to be present in the water cycle. Not only that, the previous warmer eras of the Earth were more tropical and wet, whilst the opposite is true for ice ages, where the Earth is drier. One last thing on this is that: This does not mean all of the deserts shrink, like i said before on the Middle East, those areas don't benefit immediately from the rising humidity and others happened to be in large rain shadows and don't benefit immediately as well, they actually got worse than before, examples include: Arabia, Australia, The Southwestern US and Northern Mexico and finally, the Atacama in South America.​

That is all i can say for today. Though expect another update to be posted later.​

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

So, our Moon has a flag as of 2150. It looks neat i suppose.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

On that faithful day on June 26th, 1969, Alexei Leonov became the first human to walk on Luna narrowly beating Apollo 11 by a margin of a month. Leonov would ultimately plant the flag of Red October on the Moon. Such a sight would prove horrifying and shocking to the bitter Americans and ultimately would lead to the Cold War extending into space and the Space Boom of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, in the simplest of terms a new Industrial Revolution in Space as many nations would join the race into the cosmos. As of 2150, Leonov's flag, the LK lander, and even the footprints have been preserved and is now under the watchful eye of the Soviet settlement of Leonov. The preserved site is treated with deep secular reverence by the locals.


Until only the mid-22nd Century, there wasn't single flag that represented the entire celestial body and it's respective polities, nor was able to be easily identified by colonists of all backgrounds and from the dozens of different settlements peppered on Luna and in Lunar orbit, be it the the vast underground cities inside the massive Lunar lava tubes, or the crater cities nestled in craters on the surface, and finally the large spinning habitats that bloomed out of the old stations in Lunar orbit. Instead there were dozens of flags that only one represented one specific colony, it was a mess essentially. So inevitably proposals began to appear and those proposals were meant to represent all the collective settlements on the surface and in orbit. One of these proposals did finally get chosen and adopted as the official flag of the entire celestial body and millions of people. Now, there is a flag that all Selenites* can rally around.


Dubbed as the "White Crescent" flag. Adopted in 2146, meant to be universally recognizable and fully represented all Lunar settlements, it uses the "international blue" as a symbol of the coming together and cooperation of nations, it is homage to the United Nations flag which uses the very same "international blue" albeit lighter in shade, it also indirectly represents Earth. White is a symbol of peace, and also represents the Lunar surface. The logo in the middle is a white crescent, a symbol that represents the Lunar phases that appears in many cultures and is now more or less universally associated with Luna as of 2150. The crescent in the middle is split by multiple lines, the horizontal one splits the crescent in 2, and those 2 crescents are supposed to represent the Earth and Luna. While the 2 vertical ones represents the very close connections Luna has on Earth. The 4 white stars above the crescent represent the 4 oldest and still inhabited colonies on Luna**.


There is also it's "dark side" variant, meant for use by those living on Luna's "dark side", though Luna's "dark side" is much more frequently called the "far side" or "rimward side" instead***. This variant also has different symbolism: with black swapping the blue in the original as the blue is commonly associated with Earth, as Earth is basically invisible from this side of Luna, instead, the black represents space. The white still represents the Lunar surface. But the 4 white stars now represents the hundreds of stars that fill the airless black sky during the Lunar night, this change is largely because those 4 colonies symbolism doesn't really work due to those said colonies being on the other side of Luna.​

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

*Demonym for humans that are born on Luna, or on the habitats orbiting it. It is certainly much better than "Lunarian" and especially "Lunatic".
**Zvezda, Jamestown, Tsuki and Chang'e
***The "rim" in "rimward" refers to the Galactic rim.

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

It's been a long time, but finally here's a update.

It's a somewhat long read, which was something i tried to avoid, but oh well here we are.

The Wild Decade​

By the time the death of the terminally ill Konstantin Chernenko set in motion the election of Mikhail Gorbachev and later ascension to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, the Soviet Union was already in a state of stagnation. Years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, systemic problems in the command economy caused the economy to be at a near standstill; and accompanied with prolonged war in Afghanistan fueled mass dissatisfaction with the regime, alongside discontent that can be especially felt in regions like the Baltic SSRs and the union’s satellite states in Eastern Europe. The general feeling of dissatisfaction with the current regime allowed someone like the reform-minded Gorbachev to take up the reins of power.

Under his leadership, the country began to experience a set of radical reforms in the form of the slogans of Perestroika (Restructuring), Glasnost (Transparency), and Demokratizatsiya (Democratization). Perestroika began to restructure the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to end the stagnation that initially started in the Brezhnev era. Glasnost resulted in greater freedom of speech and the press becoming far less controlled and Demokratizatsiya called for the introduction of democratic elements into the Soviet political system.

For many, Gorbachev’s reforms, the tools that would rejuvenate the aging union, seemingly offered promise and a bright future ahead. However, their hopes would be dashed away as the reforms instead proved to be uncontrollable and resulted in a series of cataclysmic events that instead almost brought the country to the brink of collapse. As some of the reforms reverberated throughout the country, it was met with unexpected upheaval. Glasnost had accidentally reawakened ethnic tensions in various Soviet republics, and it wasn’t long until the media eventually began to expose severe social and economic problems that the Soviet government had long denied and actively swept under the rug as the CPSU lost its tight grip on the media.


By the time 1991 had arrived, the situation in the USSR became critical. Demokratizatsiya had weakened the CPSU’s central role in the country, and Moscow’s ability to impose its control on the republics had been largely paralyzed, several republics took advantage of the situation and started to simply stop obeying Moscow altogether and began to break away from the union, it became clear that the union was in a state of disintegration.

And who was going to save it?
​

In these odds a cabal group of 8 hardliners, now called collectively as the 'Gang of Eight’ though officially known as the SCSE, would conduct a coup against the government, with their reasoning being primarily a call to “restore order” over the country. As the independent radio stations were cut off the air to make way for the Gang of Eight’s own broadcasts and as units of the 2nd Guards M. I. Kalinin Taman Motor Rifle Division, 4th Guards Tank Division and the 106th Tula Airborne Division punched into the center of Moscow; a new era had dawned on the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev’s reforms have ultimately failed, instead of bringing prosperity to the Soviet Union it instead brought it to its knees, and the hardliners seek to bring the troubled nation from the brink. The SCSE promised a tough establishment of order in the country and a solution to the main economic problems, however remaining very vague about specific measures.


It was during this time that the President of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin learns about the formation of the SCSE and decides to arrive in Moscow at the White House, however when he arrived, he is arrested by the Alpha Group and later deported back to his dacha in Arkhangelsk where he remained under house arrest until the beginning of the Soviet Autumn where he would resurface.

The new hardliner leadership immediately set out to declare a six-month state of emergency and a collective emergency governance period starting from 4:00 Moscow time and from August 19, 1991, along with ordering the arrests of thousands including members of the heads of the authorities of the RSFSR, Moscow, the People's Deputies of the USSR, the RSFSR and the Moscow City Council and large public figures primarily for their democratic views. The following days saw units of the Soviet Army and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs storm the building of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR which was followed by the subsequent imprisonment of the individuals housed in it, including the leadership of the RSFSR.

The SCSE immediately turned their eyes towards the Baltics. The Baltics were the stage of massive peaceful demonstrations in the form of the Baltic Way and the Singing Revolution that helped bolster independence movements elsewhere in the region. The Baltic Way, which was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989, became the biggest manifestation of opposition to the Soviet rule. On 11 March 1990 the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet declared Lithuania's independence, which was followed by the Estonian and Latvian Supreme Soviet. By June 1990 the Soviet government started negotiations with the Baltic republics, but instead those ended in failure. The Soviet government then attempted to break the deadlock by deploying military troops into the region, which killed twenty and injured hundreds of civilians in the form of the Vilnius massacre and The Barricades.

The SCSE would respond to the situation in the Baltic states by immediately calling for negotiations as Moscow still did not recognize the independence of all 3 states. The negotiations would begin on September 2 1991, these negotiations were done as part of a new greater policy of a renewed detente with the west. Any military troops that were located in all 3 nations were ordered to withdraw. International observers were shocked at first, but their worries were quickly replaced by a massive sigh of relief as for a moment, it could have been a tragedy on a national scale, but instead was averted. A similar agreement was achieved with Georgia, as they declared their formal independence from the Soviet Union on April 9, 1991 or prior to SCSE’s putsch; negotiations began and ended in the Soviet government recognizing Georgia’s independence, and any tanks nor soldiers that roamed the streets of Tbilisi were recalled to another place after the negotiation table was brought up.

“Peace in our time, surely.”
​

February 1992 saw the end of the six-month state of emergency and SCSE governance, as the SCSE collective leadership would step down and allowed Gennady Yanayev to cement his position as President of the Soviet Union. Although Yanayev was the most visible and powerful member of the SCSE, in truth it was Vladimir Kryuchkov, 7th Chairman of the KGB, that was the SCSE’s true mastermind.

The SCSE had begun to implement some economic reforms, their solution to the stagnating economy, however instead of bringing an end to it, instead made it worse. But there was another problem elsewhere, Chechnya. Chechnya was the stage of the Chechen revolution that occurred in the days following the SCSE’s seizure of power on 19 August 1991. On 27 October 1991, Dzhokhar Dudayev was elected president of the Chechen Republic and immediately made a unilateral declaration of independence from the Soviet Union on 1 November 1991. After being informed that the Soviet government did not recognize Chechnya's independence, Dudayev declared that he would not recognize the new Soviet government. In December 1991, Soviet troops were deployed into the country and attempted to storm the city of Grozny, the country’s armed forces were mobilized and Dudayev declared his intention to turn Chechnya into an Islamic state, along with threatening a jihad against the Soviet Union. The Chechen War would begin in earnest, and end in September 1992 with Grozny falling after months after months of siege. However, it was the near failure to deal with the lingering insurgency following the end of the war that seriously damaged the credibility of the new regime, as roving insurgent units began to harass the occupation force. The continued insurgency would only end in March 1999 following the fall of the regime after the Soviet Autumn and renewed counter-terrorist operations in the region.

With the economy at a near standstill, accompanied with the lingering insurgency in the Caucasus and the serious threat of a terrorist attack fueled public dissatisfaction with the regime. In response, large protests sprang up across the country, though their calls mostly fell on deaf ears, and some were dispersed at the end. An aggressive response to a demonstration resulted in tensions exploding and bloodshed in the autumn of 1993. In a twist of fate, the atmosphere of uncertainty and instability that came before was dispersed as a radio broadcast was picked up by the residents of Moscow, declaring that the SCSE and Yanayev had failed to deliver in their goal to rejuvenate the aging Soviet state and that collapse was imminent. The broadcast stated the necessity for a transfer of power to a new entity before any real progress was made.

And what was its name?
​

The Committee for the Preservation of the State (Комитет по сохранению государства, Komitet po sokhraneniyu gosudarstva) or CPS (КСГ, KSG).

The Committee itself is a clique of military officials that had become disillusioned by the SCSE’s response to the deteriorating state of the union and operates out of sheer pragmatism. Prior to the SCSE’s seizure of power on 19 August 1991, the size of the army was reduced by Gorbachev to reduce the burden the military placed on the economy. The military’s image as an invincible force seemingly came down with the defeat in the Soviet-Afghan War. The military was involved in trying to suppress conflicts and unrest in Central Asia and the Caucasus but it often achieved little in restoring peace and order. The reduced military was rendered feeble and ineffective and could no longer prop up the ailing Soviet government by the time the SCSE’s coup arrived. In the coup itself, the military did not actually play a significant role, and by the time the SCSE succeeded, most of the military simply changed their loyalties and jumped ship. During the SCSE’s reign, the military once more began to gain large amounts of influence, and especially during the Caucasian insurgency, where they replaced normal police units as a part of a counter-terrorist measure.

The Committee was quick to move against the former members of the SCSE and their supporters, starting with all 8 members of SCSE, who were successfully located and detained. The Committee acted quickly against the KGB, which had begun a “information war” against the new regime, which was discovered and ended in the Lubyanka building itself being stormed and replaced the head of the KGB with someone that swore allegiance to the new regime. The Committee was quick to replace SCSE members that held positions in the government with military ones. The Committee would also institute some economic reforms to help mediate the economy. When the dust settled, a new movement that was gaining traction made calls for something that was seemingly a distant fantasy, but now that the country was at a fragile peace, was rapidly approaching as a close reality:

Democracy.
​

The Committee has argued against such premature measures while the reformists argue otherwise, but in the end, as to resolve the matter, a referendum was held in mid-1998 to determine the future of the union, although initially some were worried that the Committee would use their power to turn the referendum to their favor, but its results were that the military regime was well on its way out, falsifying that claim. The transition into a democracy began when military officials that held government positions were replaced with civilian ones and as the military government began handing their power to a new civilian government. Though at this stage, the military still held large amounts of influence, but nonetheless, the progress to a true democracy continued, alongside agreements between the reformists and the Committee to avert any potential bloodshed as a result of disagreements between the two.

The last pieces of the military regime came down following the first elections in late-1999. With its results being a narrow victory of Alexander Yakovlev’s social democrats against the liberals of Boris Yeltsin. Yakovlev wasted no time in rehabilitating the Soviet economy from the machinations of Communism through his sweeping reforms into something reminiscent of the Scandinavian nations. Although his reforms showed several malfunctions and inconsistencies early on, Yakovlev’s gambles paid off in the end with its effects outlasting his death. The early and mid-2000s saw the Soviet Union make great progress into recovering, although it was greatly hurt by the 2008 financial crisis, the process was merely delayed, not stopped dead in its tracks. Today the Soviet Union has since been transformed into a confederation of states, one reminiscent of the long fabled “Union of Soviet Sovereign States” concept once envisioned by Gorbachev and was something that the SCSE had delayed with the coup, but not prevented entirely.


Today, Russian students can be seen lighting up the monitors of their computers which normally would have been rare decades ago, in the Far East some turn on their televisions to watch the latest episode of the Russian dub of Sailor Moon, while in a bookstore in Omsk, the translated comic books have all but been sold out, and in a restaurant in a certain corner in Red Square, a family discusses if Gorbachev had done any good deed for the Soviet Union, the discussion ends with them, pizza slices in hand, saluting his contributions. They’ve certainly been to the edge.

For a time the Soviet Union was once deep in stagnation, when the hardliners arrived, they only brought with them false promises, but with the beginning of Yakovlev’s presidency and along with it his sweeping reforms, the Soviet Union rose like a phoenix, rising from the ruins, soaring high above the power hungry hardliners and now radicals who wanted to undermine it’s democracy, and flying towards a bright future.

Hopefully.​

 

[Marsby2024orbust]

That Lunar Flag and it's associated lore is now non-canon. Again, i will try my best to limit the amount of retcons, but honestly the design of the flag and lore feels out of place and very forced, so i will be try my best to replace those with something that i think fits better in this TL, and also one that i think is more plausible (hint hint: it will involve a bit of cyberpunk and cyclopses).

With that out of the way, here's Venus, more specifically a mission to the planet. Also the very first space update in this TL.

Following The Morning Star​

For as long as records have existed, Venus, the morning and evening star, has always been an object of fascination for human cultures of antiquity. Due to its dominating appearance in the sky, being the second brightest object in the night sky, it has become the subject of various recorded observations, and being the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky


Preceding the arrival of Mariner 2 in 1962, many scientists have brought out their interpretations to what lies behind the veil of it’s mighty atmosphere; this has resulted in 3 prevailing views of Venus, which has since been disproved by the later discovery of the celestial body’s lack of an magnetosphere and discovery of the temperature of the planet's atmosphere to be approximately 500 °C (932 °F). The first view of Venus was that it was completely covered by water, a panthalassa. There might be a few small islands, but a large land mass could not exist.


The second view did admit the presence of land masses, but not dry land masses. Land masses would be swampy, covered with shallow lakes. In a few elevated areas there might be stretches of dripping jungle. In the interval between the two world wars, the third and final view of Venus was conceived. This view conceived of an unbroken cloud layer, which was the main fact known about Venus, without endless oceans. In this view, the clouds of Venus were the same even though Venus was completely dry, with all the water in its atmosphere in the form of vapor, while on the ground, at a temperature above the boiling point of water, endless dust storms were raging.


Following the arrival of Mariner 2, taking into account the new information that had surfaced with the recent discoveries, these views died out, with the archaic view of Venus being a desert world most resembling the Venus of reality. Though, interest in exploring the celestial body never died with it, instead only increasing as the hostility of the world would instead attract further curiosity rather than deter it. Its proximity to Earth only made Venus a prime target for early interplanetary exploration. In 1966, Venera 3, a Soviet space probe crash-landed on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. Its sister craft Venera 2 had failed due to overheating shortly before completing its flyby mission. In 1973, Apollo-Venus would swing past the planet, and in the process, single handedly laid the foundation for later missions to Venus.


The story of Apollo-Venus first began when it was simply a proposal, a time when it was confined to the drawing board, along with many others. As the mid-1960s came around, NASA were well aware that if they successfully completed the Apollo lunar landings they would probably face a severe drawback in budget for their manned space program. In the face of this potential obstacle to spaceflight, in order to prove their ongoing worth, they developed a handful of different post-Apollo proposals utilizing improved versions of the Apollo hardware, including plans for a manned lunar base, space stations, and planetary exploration. The latter two of these plans were initially grouped under the name Apollo X, which then became the Apollo Applications Program or AAP. One of the proposals that caught the eyes of many in it’s sheer ambitiousness was a manned flyby of the planet Venus. This proposal would be folded into Apollo-Venus.


Launching on November 6, 1973 from Kennedy Space Center carrying the crew of 3 aboard the Apollo command module Phosphorus, which today is the only component of Apollo-Venus that returned to Earth. It’s crew consisted of Henry Hartsfield, Robert Overmyer and Donald Peterson, all members of the NASA Astronaut Group 7. Compared to previous Apollo missions, the uppermost stage, the Saturn IVB, which typically would have been jettisoned in previous Apollo missions, was instead kept and then drained of any remaining propellant. Using gear stored where the Lunar Landing Module would have been placed in previous missions, the crew onboard instead converted it to a habitation module, a wet workshop, which later gained the name of Hesperus. The mission left Earth orbit on October 31, 1973 for a 123 day journey to Venus.


The scientific objectives of the mission were the measurement of:

• Atmospheric density, temperature and pressure as functions of altitude, latitude and time.
• Definition of the planetary surface and its properties.
• Chemical composition of the low atmosphere and the planetary surface.
• Ionospheric data such as radio reflectivity and electron density and properties of cloud layers.
• UV and IR measurements above the Earth's atmosphere to aid in the determination of the spatial distribution of hydrogen.
• UV, X-ray and possible infrared measurements of the solar spectrum and space monitoring of solar events.
• The brightness of the radio sky and to investigate solar, stellar and planetary radio emissions; radar measurements of the surface of Venus and Mercury
• New X-ray sources in the galactic system and to obtain additional information on sources previously identified.
• Data on the Earth-Venus interplanetary environment, including particulate radiation, magnetic fields and meteoroids.
• Data on Mercury, which would have been in mutual planetary alignment with Venus approximately two weeks after the Venus flyby

The flyby occurred on March 3, 1974. The craft, at it’s periapsis to Venus, was as close as 6200 kilometers above the surface and moving very quickly, at a velocity of 16,500 km/h flying by the day side of the planet. The onboard side scan radar began to map out the portion of the planet they could see as they flew by, while the crew would perform spectroscopic and photographic studies. Following periapsis, the mission took another 273 days more to distance out to 1.24 AU from the Sun on a hyperbolic trajectory and eventually swing back to Earth. While enroute to Earth, on July 5, 1974, the mission was hit by a large coronal mass ejection or CME that also affected Earth at around the same time period. Had CMEs not been discovered in 1971 and the mission later reconfigured to give the mission the necessary protection, Apollo-Venus could very well likely have ended in a tragedy. The astronauts aerobraked and landed on Earth on December 1, 1974, the astronauts were then recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the northern Pacific Ocean, with the mission time totalling out at 396 days.


-Excerpt from “Following the Morning Star”, December 8, 2024