Soviet Union

Full name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)*Original name:* Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)*Capital:* Moscow*Political system:* Single-party socialist state*Leaders:* Joseph Stalin, Alexis Romanov, Anatoli Cherdenko*Armed forces:* Red Army, Soviet Navy, Soviet Air Force*Speciality:* Heavy armour, firepower, Tesla electricity and experimental weapons*Colour:* Red*Historical adversary:* Allied Forces

The Soviet Union is one of the major powers in the Red Alert universe and the historic adversary of the Allied Forces. Founded in 1922, in this timeline it becomes an expansionist military power whose ambitions trigger several world wars.

Its history diverges from our own when Albert Einstein travels back in time and eliminates Adolf Hitler before he comes to power. With Nazi Germany no longer threatening Europe, Joseph Stalin has far greater freedom of action.

Stalin then transforms the USSR into a formidable military power and launches his armies to conquer Europe and Asia, triggering the Second World War in this new timeline.

Initially superior, the Red Army conquers vast territories, but the European nations unite within the Allied Forces and gradually manage to turn the tide of the conflict.

The Allies eventually drive the Soviets back to Moscow, where the USSR is defeated and Stalin is killed.

After the war, the victors sought to transform the Soviet Union into a peaceful state and placed Alexis Romanov at its helm, regarding him as a leader docile enough to prevent any further expansion.

Romanov, however, harbours a deep desire for revenge. With the help of his mysterious adviser Yuri, he secretly rebuilds the Red Army and, in particular, develops a programme dedicated to psychic technologies.

In 1972, the USSR launched a surprise invasion of the United States, triggering the Third World War of Red Alert 2. Soviet forces landed on the American coast and advanced deep into the country.

The Red Army of that era was based on a doctrine of brute force: large numbers of conscripts, Rhino and Apocalypse Tanks, Kirov Airships, Tesla weapons and Nuclear Missile Silos enabled the Soviets to compensate for their lack of sophistication with a considerable capacity for destruction.

Yuri, however, eventually betrays Romanov and attempts to impose his own global domination through his Psychic Dominators, forcing the Soviets and the Allies to confront this new threat.

A further temporal alteration then completely upends this history. Whilst the Allies are threatening Moscow, Colonel Anatoli Cherdenko, General Krukov and Dr Gregor Zelinsky use a time machine to eliminate Einstein in 1927.

With Einstein gone, the technologies he had developed no longer exist and the USSR regains its dominant position. But this change also prevents the development of the nuclear weapon and allows a new superpower to emerge: the Empire of the Rising Sun.

In this third timeline, Cherdenko becomes Premier of the Soviet Union and launches a new offensive against Europe. The Soviets soon find themselves fighting the Allies in the west and the Empire in the east simultaneously.

Faced with Japanese might, Moscow and the Allies temporarily form an alliance, but their cooperation quickly collapses and war resumes between the former rivals.

The Soviet arsenal thus retains its traditional philosophy:Conscripts, Hammer and Apocalypse tanks, Bullfrogs, Dreadnoughts, MiGs and Kirov Airships, supplemented by Tesla technologies and the iconic Iron Curtain.

In the Allied outcome of this war, the USSR is ultimately defeated. Cherdenko and Krukov are captured and sentenced to cryoprison, whilst Soviet territory comes under Allied occupation.

In Uprising, a Soviet resistance led by Dasha Fedorovich nevertheless continues the fight. It uncovers FutureTech’s true ambitions, ultimately leading the Allies to withdraw their occupying forces. The Soviet Union is left weakened and in the process of reconstruction.

Despite the differing timelines, Soviet doctrine remains remarkably consistent:prioritising firepower, heavy armour, robustness and Desolators, whereas the Allies rely more on mobility and technology.

The Soviet Union thus forms one of the pillars of the Red Alert saga: a superpower that repeatedly attempts to impose its order on the world, but whose every defeat, betrayal or temporal manipulation gives rise to a new incarnation of the Red Army.