The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), is a country located in Eastern Europe and northwestern Asia. The Soviet Union consisted of fifteen constituent republic states, the largest and most significant of which being Russia; in the Western world, the terms 'Soviet Union' and 'Russia' were often used interchangeably.
The Soviet Union was geopolitically opposed to the United States of America throughout the twentieth century following World War II, with the tension between the two nations being widely referred to as the 'Cold War'.
Cold War[]
During the Cold War, it was the United States' principal adversary and rival. Doctor Manhattan played a crucial role in maintaining deterrence so that a deadly conflict would not break out between the countries. When Dr. Manhattan left for Mars in October 1985, deterrence breaks down, and the Soviet Union, emboldened, invades Afghanistan. A global nuclear war looms which is only averted when the contending powers come to believe that the Earth is threatened by aliens, thanks to Ozymandias' ambitious hoax. An accord between the United States and the Soviet Union has considerably reduced tensions and created hopes for a wave of lasting peace. If the real truth behind what really happened were to get out, it would threaten the accord and perhaps lead to renewed hostilities.
President Richard Nixon managed to broker a peace with the Soviet government for the sake of creating a common defense against a future alien attack.
Alternate Timelines[]
Nuclear War[]
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev refused U.S. president Robert Redford's nuclear disarmament proposal, which led to a coup-d'état attempt against him 1989.
After the suppression of the coup, Gorbachev soon resigned and the USSR quickly collapsed into independent republics, with Russia taking its place as the global power alongside the United States. The Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to Redford's disarmament plan, and Ozymandias encouraged all nuclear powers to exchange information on their infrastructure and nuclear weapons. The publishing of the contents of Rorschach's journal by New Frontiersman however exposed Ozymandias' ruse, though it went mostly unnoticed by the public. The White House however did take notice and mounted a secret enquiry in 1991, overseen by Redford himself, and found out that it was the truth.
Redford, after revealing to the world how Ozymandias had lied, pulled out of the nuclear disarmament accords, which led to an unprecedented rise in global tensions. This also led to his victory in the 1992 presidential elections, in which he had been previously trailing. The politicians soon turned violent against each other over their political positions and the country went into chaos, though Redford was still busy in his favorite pastime of golf. Following the collapse of the European Union, Russia invaded Poland and Redford ordered nuclear strikes in retaliation, though Russia knew exactly where to hit them in response, due to the earlier information-exchange program.
Possible Second Arms Race[]
Despite the peace accord between the two countries, the USSR might not be quite as committed to being America’s ally as it once seemed. The Soviet Union would instantly regain its footing as a superpower if it successfully creates its own superpowered being similar to Doctor Manhattan. As of 2019 the country is currently in the process of creating their own intrinsic field subtractor.
Trivia[]
- In the HBO series Watchmen, the Russian city of Saint Petersburg is still referred to as "Leningrad", Red Scare identifies as a communist, and a Soviet flag is seen on Scare's desk, suggesting that the fall of communism in Russia never happened and the Soviet Union still exists.
History[]
- In actual history, during a lengthy war aimed at annexing the Asian country of Afghanistan (mostly during the 1980s) and following a nuclear reactor explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986, both being very costly events, the Soviet Union fell into a period of economic and social decline. With the election of a new Soviet Premiere, Mikhail Gorbachev, the country entered a period where the communist governance system migrated toward democracy and the country opened itself to increased trade and diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.