In 1924 an Austrian radical disappeared from the streets of Landsberg am Lech and the pages
of history altogether.
This was the work of Albert Einstein, who hoped that through the use of time travel,
the Second World War might be prevented.
The attempt failed.
Einstein’s manipulations had merely replaced one adversary with another, a powerful nation
that would fight its wars not merely on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, but across
history itself; a global superpower known as the Soviet Union.
Formed from the ruins of the Russian Empire, the nation embarked on an ambitious program
of industrialization and collectivisation based on Marxist-Leninist ideology.
By the 1940s, this effort had largely succeeded and leadership of the Soviet Union had been
consolidated under General Secretary Joseph Stalin.
Without any significant rivals on the world stage that might counter its expansion, the
Soviet Union was able to extend its influence across Eastern Europe.
Numerous states were annexed or integrated into the Union as Soviet Republics, while
others were forced to host Soviet advisors and bases.
Soviet sponsored international organizations, such as the World Democratic Society, Asian
Defense League, and Freedom Consortium, helped organize an underground network of communist
sympathisers and agents.
Governments across Africa and Asia were overthrown and replaced with regimes friendly to the
Soviet cause.
Even in isolationist North America, there arose many hidden Soviet strongholds, preparing
for the inevitable worldwide revolution.
In 1946 the Soviet Union had completed a preliminary campaign to pacify northern China and soon
embarked on a general offensive into Western Europe.
Initial successes included the conquest of much of Scandinavia, Central Europe, the Balkans
and the Middle East, but the newly formed Allied Forces soon began to effectively resist
the Soviet advance.
Strengthened by immense material aid delivered from the United States, the Allied Forces
launched a series of counter-attacks, blunting the Soviet offensive completely and soon liberating
occupied territories across the European and Middle-Eastern theaters.
The Soviet Union, now desperate to end the war, launched a nuclear strike against the
remaining free capitals of Europe.
The missiles were disarmed while on route by Allied commandos however, ending any remaining
hopes of a sudden Soviet victory.
Outmaneuvered and facing Allied counter-offensives deep into the Russian heartland, a final battle
in Moscow destroyed the seat of Soviet power and forced its complete capitulation.
Stalin himself was killed during the fighting, left to die beneath the rubble of his capital.
A deliberate act, if wartime reports can be believed, by Greek general Nikos Stavros.
A peace plan overseen by the United States left the Soviet Union stripped of its capacity
to wage war and reduced to a puppet state under the authority of the victorious allies.
At the insistence of the United States, Alexander Romanov was named Premier of the Soviet Union
and it was hoped that his ties to both the overthrown Tsarist Royal Family and Communist
Party would unite the fractured elements of Soviet society.
Pro-Western and an advocate of peace, Romanov worked towards positive relations with the
West and soon founded the World Socialist Alliance to aid developing nations across
the world.
Unbeknownst to the Allies, Romanov’s pacifism was a ruse and served to conceal an enormous
remilitarization effort.
One of the chief architects of this operation was a man known only as Yuri.
During the Second World War, Yuri took part in a secret project instigated by Stalin himself
intended to create an army of psychically gifted soldiers.
With the death of Stalin, Yuri continued his work and soon became chief advisor to Premier Romanov.
Thanks to Yuri’s immense psychic abilities, the Soviets were able to completely conceal
their mobilization efforts from outside observers and in 1972 the nation was ready to unleash
a third world war.
Their primary objective was the occupation of the United States of America.
While neutral in the previous conflict, it had become a pivotal member of the Allied
Forces during the inter-war years and recognized by the Soviets as their most powerful rival.
Soviet forces launched a massive coordinated attack on both coasts of the United States
while the World Socialist Alliance opened a third front across Texas.
Simultaneously, US strategic command was crippled by Yuri’s psychic influences, preventing
any nuclear response.
American defenses were quickly overrun and Psychic Beacons deployed to keep the local
population subservient to the Soviet occupation forces.
Even American President Dugan was briefly mind controlled before being rescued, and
together with political and military officials evacuated to an unknown location.
In Chicago, the Soviet Union began constructing a Psychic Amplifier which, when activated,
would pacify the whole of North America and bring about an end to the war.
An American counter-attack neutralized this Amplifier before it could be activated, but
Chicago was quickly destroyed in retaliation further crippling the remaining Allied forces
on the continent.
The United States teetered on the brink of defeat but a daring Allied raid in Poland
destroyed the Soviet Union’s nuclear missile silos and allowed the re mainder of the Allies
to finally enter the war.
This new European front eased the pressure on the United States and the tide slowly began
to turn against the Soviet Union.
Despite the failure of their invasion of the United States, the Soviets, together with
the World Socialist Alliance, continued to hold the strategic initiative across much
of the world.
Over the course of the war however, the Soviet technological advantage began to shrink, and
it was eventually realized that Albert Einstein was responsible for much of the devastating
weaponry now utilized by the Allied Forces.
One such device was the Chronosphere, which even as Soviet armies mounted a final attack
into Europe, successfully teleported an Allied Army directly into Moscow.
The surprise attack succeeded in capturing Premier Romanov and the Soviet Union was compelled
to stand down.
Yuri meanwhile was never found and assumed to have escaped Moscow during the fighting.
Once again, Soviet plans for world domination lay in ruins.
It is likely no coincidence that the fate of the Soviet Union was so closely linked
to that of its Premiers.
As a military dictatorship, the individuals who achieved that position ruled over the
nation with absolute authority.
During wartime, individual Soviet military commanders often leveraged victories on the
battlefield for political influence leading to systemic internal unrest and infighting.
Despite its political shortcomings, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union were quite sophisticated.
The Red Army was built on doctrines emphasising overwhelming firepower and numerical superiority.
Heavy armoured divisions represented the pinnacle of Soviet power, followed by waves of support infantry.
The Soviet Navy, relegated to an auxiliary role for much of its history, achieved a place
of parity with the Red Army during the Third World War, and its submarines and dreadnoughts
were eventually capable of meeting Allied task forces in open battle.
During both the Second and Third World Wars, Soviet scientists and technicians created
a series of unconventional weapons in the hopes of securing a quick victory.
These were often crude by Allied standards but undeniably effective and this approach
was epitomized in the development of the Tesla Coil.
These weapons could reduce men to ash and vehicles to molten slag in a matter of seconds
and quickly became a feared symbol of Soviet power on the battlefield.
In both conflicts, as the balance of the war shifted against them, Soviet leaders began
employing increasingly fantastic technologies including advanced robotics, drones, weaponized
sea life and walls of energy that could render men and material impervious to harm.
As devastating as these were, one device among all would change the course of the Soviet
Union and the world as they knew it.
For even as the Allied armies teleported into Moscow and Premier Romanov attempted to flee,
a cadre of Soviet officers made plans to replicate what only Einstein before had achieved.
In a hidden laboratory deep beneath the Kremlin, another time machine had been perfected and
the men who entered it would return to a world drastically changed.
The Soviet Union now stands victorious over the Western Allies but confronted by a great
new power to the east.
An Empire of the Rising Sun devoted to its divine destiny.
Or perhaps the Soviet Union achieved victory far earlier and now spreads the ideals of
Lenin across the solar system.
It might once again lay in ruins or have been integrated into a global defense initiative.
With time itself a new theater of war, there may be no answer.
But a clue can be found in the words of a Soviet advisor, a man close to Joseph Stalin
who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, disappeared without a trace only to re-emerge
years later in a time and place that should have been impossible.
“He who controls the past commands the future, He who commands the future, conquers the past.”
Join us on July 21st 2018 on our Twitch channel for Operation: Esperanza, a 12 hour live-stream
raising money for the San Jorge Children’s Foundation in Puerto Rico.
I will be playing Red Alert 3 for the first time, and you can face off against Marc and
I as we play community games of Wargame: Red Dragon and Friday the 13th, as well as watch
more Stellaris Invicta and enter to win some giveaways.