Info on the USSR needed for my setting...

[mmu1]

b) At the end of the European theatre of World War Two, at the conference of Yalta, it was decided that every country should have freedom of choice over its political system, with the exception that the German voting should be presided over by the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR to prevent the rise of another Nazi party. In a surprising result, the countries of Germany and all those east of it, including Greece (but not Italy) voted almost unanimously to join the Soviet Union as republics under the rule of Moscow. This sudden influx of devoted workers allowed the USSR to rebuild its industry relatively quickly, and to tap much of the unused resources of Siberia.

Uh... No. No goddamn way, no how, not the slightest freakin' chance, not in your wildest dreams.

I can't speak authoritatively for any country besides Poland, but there'd have been a better chance of Poles voting to join Hitler's Germany than communist Russia. (not to suggest that the former was in any way likely, just making a point.) We're talking about a country which had spent, prior to WWII, 150 years under Russian occupation, fought a war with Russia shortly after the end of WWI, was invaded by Russia in 1939, had large amounts of undesirables shipped off to Siberia, others to work camps, others still simply murdered, and then experienced more atrocities when it was "liberated" by the Soviets. You simply have no concept of the hatred and animosity involved...

Edit: Which is what other posters already said, as I see now that my blood pressure has dropped

 

[med stud]

A way could be if the Normandie- occupation didnt work out, and the Allies had to wait a couple of months to attack again, in which time the Soviets gained time to by the end of the war occupy all of Germany and Austria.

Another way is to make Pearl Harbor never happen, so that Roosevelt couldnt get USA involved in the war in time to stop a Soviet occupation of most of Europe. With Europe out of the picture, I suppose, US economy would be weaker then now (I base this on how much American stuff that is sold in Europe that probably no other place could afford to buy in those quantities) , and Soviet would have more inhabitants.

 

[yangnome]

Looks like I got here at the end of an interesting discussion. Oh well, even though you have partially (or completely) made up your mind, let methrow my two cents in on the idea.


1. The paranoid conspiracy theorist route:

Towards the end of the cold war, the US realised it was winning the war. It also realised that as a single superpower, it would lose a major balancing factor in terms of stability. With the economy looking like it was going bad as well (decrease in production from Cold War times, recession in late 80's early 90s), or the military and intelligence agencies realizing impending budget cuts, the government, a small group in the government, a rogue spy organisation, CIA?, (pick your patsy) decided to actually fund/aided the communists in order to return them to power and keep things at status quo stability. This could be through covert funding, or an assassination of Gorby, Yeltsin, whatever, pick your mark. Hence the USSR alive and well in 2010.
Perhaps your group is actually trying to uncover the reason the USSR is stil around...they were tipped off by oliver stone or something...


2. Other things to consider whether you use the above or not

Gulf war, easily incorporated into the story. Ideally, commies had a big influence in Iraq and actually ordered or at least supported the invasion of Kuwaitin order to destabilize the US. You might want to make the war last a little longer. The ideas of throwing dirty or chem weapons in is interesting, but not necessary.

3. Korea

You could easily throw in a period (maybe even present day gametime) where the North attacks the south or vice versa depending on who you are fighting.

4.

Technology, especially military technology. What advances have been made? If the cold war had continued military tech would be far beyond what it is now. Are there armor suits for soldiers now? Perhaps thats where you get armor bonuses and such. (think Tribes.) What type of weaponry are the troops carrying and what advances have large weapons and aircraft reached?


5.

Spygames. This could be alot of fun. Whats going on, whos watching who and how paranoid are people at home. If it were me, I might base the whole game inside spygames, most likely infiltrating another country with mission (you choose that depending on how far you would like to see it go.) Are they delivering a package? Espionage? Preparing to assassinate the leader?

6.

Balance of power in the rest of the world. What's changed? Who's sided with who right now?

Sounds like a fun idea. I would like more info on the level you intend to play the game though and how you adapt it.

 

[Talvisota]

This is getting of topic and I apologize.

Moderators, I apologize ahead of time for this, but I must reply to green slime.

Serbian is not close to Russian. Yes, it is a slavic language, but they are not mutually complrehensible.

Yugoslavia was not interested in becomming a soviet satellite state. Yes, they were communist, but Tito kept them out of the Warsaw pact in order to try to curb Russia's hegemony. And for another example other than Poland, watch the Czech movie "Kolya."

And there were few, very very few, areas of science, where the USSR was ahead. The USSR's greatest strength was it's boondoggle. We thought it could do far more than it really could. That's why the Russia House is such an interesting book/movie in hindsight.

TO get back to topic, there;s a lot of great advice here and plenty to make a great, fun game. Good luck!!!!

 

[green slime]

Serbian is not close to Russian. Yes, it is a slavic language, but they are not mutually complrehensible.

Yugoslavia was not interested in becomming a soviet satellite state. Yes, they were communist, but Tito kept them out of the Warsaw pact in order to try to curb Russia's hegemony. And for another example other than Poland, watch the Czech movie "Kolya."

This is getting of topic and I apologize.

Strange then that my Serbian friend, and my Croat friend can understand some basic Russian, without ever having studied the language. How close do want them to be to be called close? Dialects? I never suggested it was like American "English" and the Queens English.

Yugoslavia distanced itself from the Warsaw pact very early in the peace... But they did maintain ties with the Russians. Had Yugoslavia been "liberated" by the Russians it would have been a different story. Instead they managed to kick the Germans out of their country themselves, with a little help from events elsewhere.

Also remember that in 1914 the Russians declared war on Austria-Hungary to defend Serbia. And that many Russians today regard Serbia as Russia's "little brother", a reason why Russia was so interested in the Balkan wars of the 90's.

I was moderating your statement that appeared to claim that the entire of Eastern Europe would rather have been Nazi than under the control of Soviet Russia. Some countries suffered more than others under the yoke of Soviet Russia. Poland was one of the worst. But ask the Poles today how many Jews live there, compared to in 1939... And ask those Polish Jews who they would rather have in charge: Russians or Nazi's...

Remember it all comes down to people. There are those people in Eastern Europe today, who still believe that they and their countries were better off during the cold war. Even in Poland.

 

[Melan]

What mmu said. There is no way Poland or Hungary would have joined with the SU willingly. Communists in Hungary were almost nonexistant - the party had roughly 100 members in the 20s.
After 1945, until they started to rig elections and liquidate rival politicians, they were still pretty insignificant - the Smallholder's Party won all elections with the Social Democrats as a close second (they had 800.000 members, IIRC).
It was only brutal opression and an extremely huge army that could accomplish their victory - and, as evident from 1953 (DDR), 1956 (Poland and Hungary), 1968 (Czechoslovakia) and 1980 (Poland), even that wasn't enough all of the time. The belief that the Russians* or Communism were/are well liked is bunk. Lazy journalism ("Hey, we should do a report on the Romanians! Don't forget the bread lines and the old guy who goes to the dictator's grave with the flower." "But I couldn't find any guy like that." "Well, give someone 50 DM and be done with it!"**).

And sorry, this topic may not be political for some, but for those who live in CE, it is. If I went out of line, feel free to moderate me.

*Soldiers.
**Actual conversation, as told by Zsolt Bayer, journalist

 

[Zorkion]

Just wanted to give a thanks for all the help! And its awesome we were able to keep such a possibly risky thread civil

 

[Mr. Draco]

Oops, left the comp logged in with my brother's account. That last post was actually me.

 

[Dragongirl]

I was moderating your statement that appeared to claim that the entire of Eastern Europe would rather have been Nazi than under the control of Soviet Russia. Some countries suffered more than others under the yoke of Soviet Russia. Poland was one of the worst. But ask the Poles today how many Jews live there, compared to in 1939... And ask those Polish Jews who they would rather have in charge: Russians or Nazi's...

I don't think asking modern day Poles this would come up with much. There were many Poles that helped or were glad to get rid of their Jewish neighbors. It's unfortunate that Europe has never been able to get along with anyone that is "different" than themselves even to modern times (Switzerland was taking children away from "gypsy" families as late as the 1980s, and of course the Balkan people still can't get along).

To get back on topic, I don't think extending Soviet domination into Greece, Yugoslavia and all of Austria would have neccessarily extended that regime's lifespan. None of those areas would have added much to Soviet strength (no offense to anyone from those areas).

One thing you could do is have the Soviets crush Afghan resistance and while the US was involved in the Gulf War have them invade Iran for it's oil reserves. I would suggest having the US take over all of Iraq and have the Iraq/Iran border turn into another area like that dividing East and West Europe.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

Check out GURPS: Russia for lots of general info that can be used in any real world based campaign. You can probably find it cheap on ebay (around $7.00). I think I have one for sale as well (but not positive, I'll have to dig thru a box or two).

ThomasBJJ@Hotmail.com