#collapse: the fall of the Soviet Union

[lilyblisslys]

Preparing for a 10 hour road trip by picking up a cute little farming/life sim with Pokémon elements and also a book about the collapse of the Soviet Union

[psychotrenny]

There's a real unearned confidence to the way that Social Democrats talk about their ideology, like they've cracked the code and found the perfect way forward and the only reason people disagree is because they're misguided or evil. Like they'll correctly point out problems within Neoliberal Capitalism before spouting some absolute nonsense about how uniquely evil and dysfunctional Communism was (nearly always in the past tense too; they take it for granted that the end of the USSR was the end of all Communism) and then going "Don't worry though, there's a third way; a mixed regulated economy. We can have a free market in consumer goods while making sure that corporations pay their fair share in wages and taxes that can fund the welfare that looks after everyone". And like putting aside the fact that such a model relies on the super-profits of imperialist exploitation to actually function, and the inherent instability of an arrangement where the Bourgeoisie make concessions even while maintaining ultimate control of the economy, there's the simple fact that much of the Imperial Core did indeed had Social Democracy but does not anymore.

Like these Social Democrats never think about why that might be, why their ideology failed and what they can learn from it going forward. They just act as though some dumb individuals (i.e. Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman etc.) managed to slip into power and make bad decisions and like the best way to fix this is to vote good people in who'll change it back. Like hell a lot of these people take the previous existence of these policies as like a good point, the whole "We had them before so we aren't being radical by wanting them back. We don't want anything crazy we just wanna bring back The New Deal or Keynesian Economic policy or whatever". There's never any thought about why those policies failed (how often do you hear these people even talk about "stagflation" or "the oil crisis" let alone the impact of the fall of the soviet union) and what implications this might have on the viability of bringing it back. They also love talking about how Social Democratic institutions are still largely intact in the Scandinavian countries, but rather than even consider what specific factors in their political-economic situation led to this these people just go "Damn isn't Sweden great. Why aren't we doing exactly what they do?"

And sure some people might compare this to Marxism-Leninism, the whole "trying to bring back a defeated ideology", but for one it's stupid to treat the dissolution of the USSR as the end of Communism as a global political force. It may have been a major blow, but even if you write off like Cuba and Vietnam as too small and insignificant to matter you can't just fucking ignore that over 1/6 of the world's population continues live under a Marxist Leninist party. Whatever concessions these countries may have made to global Capitalism, it's just plain ignorant to act as though Communism suffered anywhere near the humiliating loss of global power and credibility that Social Democracy has. Sure the latter may be more politically acceptable to toy with in "The West", but "The Western World" ≠ The Entire World. Also, nearly every ML on the planet is painfully aware that Soviet Communism collapsed and that it collapsed for a reason. There might be plenty of contention about why exactly it died and what exactly we can learn from this, but nearly everyone agrees that we need to learn and ideologically grow. No serious Communist wants to "bring back the USSR" in the same way that many Social Democrats want to "bring back The Welfare State". Far from being a form of "best of both worlds" mixed economy, Social Democracy is nothing more than a flimsy tool to stabilise Imperialist Capitalism at its moments of greatest strain. And if people are still gonna promote it wholeheartedly as the best possible solution, I wish they'd be a little less arrogant about it. It's not as though they have history on their side

[charlesoberonn]

My Date: You've been silent for a while. Is everything okay?

Me: I'm thinking about the differences and similarities between the aftermath of the Fall of Rome and the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

My Date: . . . .

My Date: Tell me more.

[voidsentprinces]

I enjoy that the internet is being charitable saying we've been living through major historical events since 2016 but thats just kind of when it went full throttle. I've been living through major historical events since the Soviet Union's official collapse in law 10 months after I was born in 1991. LA Riots of 1992, then there was the Clinton Scandal of 1998, the Bush v. Gore Election shake up of 2000. 9/11 and the "War of Terror" 2001 - 2007. Obama election 2008. Occupy Wallstreet 2011. The McConnell Stall of 2012 - 2016. 2016 election, COVID of 2020, and now this shit. 33 years of Major Historical Events happening. I am tired. And there are people on here who have lived through more. Nixon. Reagan. The AIDs Epidemic. Fall of the Berlin Wall. Gulf Wars. Vietnam. Tinanmen Square. Waning Days of the Cold War. Shit a lot of Major Historical events seem to of happened between 1989 - 1992.

Shit don't let up.

[howieabel]

“When Communism fell in 1989, the temptation for Western commentators to gloat triumphantly proved irresistible. This, it was declared, marked the end of History. Henceforth, the world belonged to liberal capitalism – there was no alternative – and we would all march forward in unison towards a future shaped by peace, democracy and free markets. Twenty years on this assertion looks threadbare. There can be no question that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the domino-like collapse of Communism states from the suburbs of Vienna to the shores of the Pacific marked a very significant transition: one in which millions of men and women were liberated from a dismal and defunct ideology and its authoritarian institutions. But no one could credibly assert that what replaced Communism was an era of idyllic tranquility. There was no peace in post-Communist Yugoslavia, and precious little democracy in any of the successor states of the Soviet Union. As for free markets, they surely flourished, but it is not clear for whom. The West – Europe and the United States above all – missed a once-in-a-century opportunity to re-shape the world around agreed and improved international institutions and practices. Instead, we sat back and congratulated ourselves upon having won the Cold War: a sure way to lose the peace. The years from 1989 to 2009 were consumed by locusts.” ― Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land

[universal-casey]

Hello, I recently returned to this fandom, and I saw your ay, but to be honest, I didn’t quite understand what was going on in it. Could you please tell me in a nutshell?

Sorry to bother and thank you

No worries I get it! I disappear and come back randomly and I’ve never really solidified anything.

The basic thing of this AU is that instead of the USSR collapsing in December of 1991, I changed up a bit of history so the USSR had the chance to take over the USA. The Berlin Wall fell a few years earlier so Germany had the chance to reunite. China and the USSR never had a falling out.

Essentially this AU follows what would happen if the Soviet Union took over America. But in the context of Country Humans. So I’m definitely taking a lot of liberties so I can characterize them a bit more. This AU takes CH into the context that they actually exist among humans and are big political powers with ties to the existence of the land. Mostly so I can have fun and not be super worried about IRL context

[avelera]

So I was on a panel about cyberwarfare as it relates to the Russian invasion of Ukraine back in December 2022 and afterwards while talking to some people said that the boldest statement I was willing to put money on was that we were closer to the end of the war in Ukraine than to the start of it and that Russia would fail and collapse sooner than people thought, just like the Soviet Union where people were blindsided by the collapse.

I pointed out that there’s fractures everywhere in their front that entirely relied on plugging by throwing untrained bodies at the problem, which would inevitably be unpopular at home. That besides the size of their force, Russia was completely outclassed. That they’d expected an easy fight and got blindsided. That corruption had gutted their effectiveness to the tune of billions in money stolen by the oligarchs. We couldn’t say when it would all fall apart but the West was still buying into Russian propaganda to continue to see strength where there was nothing but floundering and weakness propped up by brutality.

I pointed out that just about every objective that Ukraine claimed it would achieve, they had, and nearly every objective Russia had claimed they would achieve they’d failed at, and eventually those would add up and to stop thinking there was some deeper clever play at work. That they were in a shit ton of trouble, the question was just when it would all come crashing down.

And it was a bold thing to say! Possibly naive! It might still be naive if Wagner really does achieve their goals and do as they promised and turn around and go back to the front. But that seems a long shot only from the sheer internal disarray caused by them abandoning it. I can’t imagine those soldiers are going to want to go back. The parallels to the Bolsheviks is jaw dropping that Russia would again put all their political dissidents in prison, then recruit from prisons for a war, thus giving all their political enemies military training and cohesion.

I also can’t help but think that the Wagner leader saw this was the best chance he’d ever have to seize power with the experienced army at his disposal and with threat of assassination looming over him he was basically given Caesar’s choice and had to cross to the Rubicon or die.

But anyway. There’s still no way of knowing how this plays out. This is a truly chaotic situation reminiscent of the days of Rome’s Soldier Emperors or Machiavelli’s warring Italian cities, when the man with the biggest, most effective army could take over empires if he moved cleverly enough, or combust spectacularly in the attempt. It’s truly mind boggling to behold in the modern era with such a major state.

My greatest hope is that this proves enough for Ukraine to achieve a decisive victory and regain all its territory while Russia is distracted.

And, I admit, I’m feeling a little vindicated right now after saying this to a room of people who had largely bought into Russia’s claims about its own power. These current events are not things that happen to a successful, stable world power.

[shuttershocky]

A funny thing about Cyberpunk the tabletop RPG is that it was first released in 1988 with the setting being in the year 2013, then got a 2nd edition in 1990 set in 2020. Back then, these dates were far enough ahead that its predictions could be totally fantastical.

As the years went by though and we actually approached and flew past the years 2013 and then 2020, the Cyberpunk lore got really... Funny. The setting also got pushed back even further to 2045 for the TTRPG, and 2077 for the video game.

Some stuff Cyberpunk predicted should have happened by now

The United States is destroyed in a war with the united countries of South and Central America, splitting the US into two warring factions. Night City, the main setting of Cyberpunk, remained neutral and declared its independence from both.

The Soviet Union never collapsed, but the 1990s saw the rise of Japan and the EU as world superpowers after the fall of the US.

Musicians have real political power and influence. There's a whole class called Rockerboy, a rockstar whose poetic abilities can move their communities towards radical action. Johnny Silverhand, a violently anti-corporation rock musician after seeing corporations kick out Night City's farmers, is able to start a riot on demand with his band Samurai's concerts, and actively attacks and sabotages his corporate nemesis Arasaka on the regular.

World Wars between nations are replaced by the Corporate Wars, as corporations have overtaken nations in power. In 2018, the 4th Corporate War is waged between Militech and Arasaka after two minor companies that both big companies were partnered with got into a dispute. The resulting conflict makes the entire ocean unusable for intercontinental travel because the whole thing got covered in mines.

By 2013 journalists have big cameras they wear like monocles.

In 2013, people call their significant others their "outputs"

[warsofasoiaf]

What do you think Russia's chances of success in their offensive around Avdiivka?

If they keep throwing men into the grinder, it can be another Bakhmut where it falls at great cost. Russians are dying like flies in that sector, but the political leadership doesn't care, and the brainwashed populace back home have been eating a steady diet of how the evil West betrayed them after the fall of the Soviet Union and how they need to reassert the old Russian political sphere.

While I can't necessarily fault Bush 41 for his actions - he was dealing with the unprecedented situation of the collapse of a nuclear power - I'm much more critical of people following after seeing what Russia did in Chechnya, in Georgia, and so on. Eventually you have to realize, Russia's a bad actor, there's no point in making nice when they have no interest in cooperation.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[mariacallous]

The Russian Federation is the product of the Soviet empire’s collapse, just as the Soviet Union was the product of imperial Russia’s collapse. Looking at the long history of empires, it’s not at all surprising that today’s Russia has embarked on a project of re-imperialization—the attempt to recreate as much of its former empire as it can. Equally unsurprisingly, Russia’s effort will fail.

The vast majority of seemingly stable empires decay over time until all that is left is the imperial center. The Byzantine and Ottoman empires are perfect examples of this dynamic: Each lost more and more territory until all that remained of the former was greater Constantinople and of the latter the lands that became Turkey. Neither rump state attempted to re-imperialize. The same was true of the European overseas colonial empires: The British withdrew from most of their possessions more or less voluntarily and without firing too many shots, whereas the Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish tried harder to hang on but lost to national liberation movements. All subsequently refrained from re-imperialization.

Russia falls into a different, more volatile category of imperial decline. At the height of their power, some empires fall apart suddenly and comprehensively, usually as the result of cataclysms that rip apart the formal ties between core and periphery. Imperial Russia, Wilhelmine Germany, and the Soviet Union all met this fate. Up to the moment of sudden collapse, the structural and institutional ties between the core and periphery were still vibrant. More importantly, the imperial ideology remained alive and well after the collapse, leading to attempts by the imperial center’s elites to recreate all or parts of their former empires.

Thus, the Bolsheviks—who never concealed their desire (and supposed right) to reconquer all of the Russian Empire’s territories, which even Vladimir Lenin rejected as Russian imperial chauvinism—recreated the empire in the form of the Soviet Union, brutally snuffing out more than a dozen newly independent states who’d seized the chaos as an opportunity to escape Russia’s colonial grip. The Nazis, on the other hand, tried but failed to regain Germany’s lost lands and build an even bigger Reich.

Success or failure of re-imperialization generally depends on the balance of power among the core, periphery, and any intervening states. The Bolsheviks were militarily and economically stronger than most of their neighbors and could revive the Russian Empire. The Nazis took on too many opponents and failed. Here, post-Soviet Russia’s trajectory is highly similar to interwar Germany’s: The German collapse in 1918 and Soviet collapse in 1991 were followed in each case by economic chaos, the delegitimization of a new democracy, and the mobilization of radical forces, which in turn gave rise to a strong leader who revitalized the imperial ideology, promised to restore the empire, and proceeded to annex bits and pieces of the former empire before launching a full-scale war.

Two other empires are illustrative, even though they fit the pattern of sudden collapse and re-imperialization only imperfectly. Although Poles lacked an autonomous state after the last of three partitions in 1795, the imperial ideology of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth thrived, motivating Polish elites to attempt to reestablish the commonwealth in several unsuccessful rebellions in the 1800s. As soon as Polish independence was restored after World War I, the new state set off to reconquer some of the formerly imperial Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian territories. Enjoying the support of the Entente powers, and especially France, the Poles succeeded. Only a cataclysmic defeat by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union finally ended Polish imperial dreams.

Austria-Hungary was torn to pieces in a catastrophic defeat but did not attempt to re-imperialize like the other cases in this category. The empire had been irreversibly decaying for half a century. The Hungarians—and later, the Czechs and Poles, assisted by the national movements of other restive nationalities—succeeded in getting Vienna to devolve authority to them to such a degree that leading Austro-Hungarian policymakers even discussed transforming the empire into a federation of semi-autonomous states. Defeat in World War I severed Vienna’s ties with its periphery, much of which immediately sought independence. Austria made no attempt to re-imperialize, as it lacked a virulent imperial ideology, powerful army, and strong economy. Its government was also in disarray. Likewise, Hungarian elites had no imperial plans, confining their ambitions to revanchism over Hungarian territories given by the Western Allies to Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

Russia’s career as an empire—in the forms of imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation—began in the 14th century with the relentless expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, reached its totalitarian apex in the 20th century with the subjugation of Central and Eastern Europe, and went into steep decline around 1990, when the Eastern European satellite states broke free and the non-Russian Soviet republics became independent. Even in its diminished form, the Russian Federation—first quasi-democratic, then authoritarian, today fascist—is the heir to a vast internal empire, with dozens of conquered and colonized non-Russian peoples still imprisoned inside its borders.

The political scientist Rein Taagepera graphed the territorial gains and losses of past empires. Not surprisingly, the graphs resemble parabolas: Empires rise, persist, and then fall. Equally unsurprisingly, empires that manage to survive into the persistence phase generally last for centuries. Those that fall quickly usually do so after their founders enjoyed rapid military success and then die, which throws the nascent empire into crisis. Alexander the Great’s sprawling, unconsolidated realm is the classic example of this dynamic.

Some wide, some narrow, the parabolas are never smooth—not even in the seemingly stable persistence phase. Instead, they resemble the movement of the stock market: constant ups and downs that, when viewed over time, do in fact mark upward or downward trends. At times, empires can end temporarily before being revived, as was the case with Byzantium after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It took several decades for the Byzantine emperors to regain what was left of their terrain. Imperial Russia collapsed near the end of World War I, only to be quickly revived by the Bolsheviks. In turn, the Soviet Union met its end in 1991 and has yet to be resurrected—though not for want of trying. Russian troops occupy parts of Moldova, Georgia, and, of course, Ukraine. Belarus, meanwhile, has been progressively sucked into Russia to the point that it nominally still exists but is largely bereft of sovereignty, having been reduced to a cross between a vassal state and colony.

The question facing Russians, their neighbors, and the world is whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s realm can succeed in holding on to, and possibly expanding, the territories that it has effectively seized. Or will the Russo-Soviet empire’s remains continue on their downward trajectory until the Russian Federation itself cracks? A look at the factors that have accounted for the rise and fall of other empires will help answer this question.

Necessary conditions for re-imperialization are a powerful military, a strong economy, and an effective government. Facilitating conditions include preexisting institutional ties between the imperial core and the periphery, outside powers that are either indifferent or receptive to imperial expansion, and authoritarian rule at the core. The final push to action is an imperial ideology that spurs the desire for empire.

But consider what happens to a would-be reborn empire if the three necessary conditions are not met—even if the facilitating factors and an imperial ideology are present. If expansion is attempted without a sufficiently strong military and an economy capable of sustaining it, the result will be overreach and failure. Without an effective government, the sustained effort needed for expansion cannot be maintained. Overextension and defeat—and quite possibly regime change or state collapse—become probable.

A few examples from history will illustrate Russia’s inevitable failure to re-imperialize. Western Rome didn’t meet the three conditions, decaying and finally collapsing in the face of declining military effectiveness, an economy incapable of producing a sustainable surplus while under incessant barbarian attacks, and increasingly ineffective governance. The empire’s eastern half was distant from the main barbarian invasion routes, but there were other reasons it survived for another 1,000 years. Except for Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s reconquest of significant territories in the 6th century—territories quickly lost again after his death—the eastern empire refrained from trying to reach its old boundaries. That would have required taking on militarily stronger adversaries, including the Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Bulgars, and Rus’. No less importantly, Byzantium was continually wracked by internal power struggles and lacked an aggressive imperial ideology, preferring to see itself as the bearer of Orthodox Christianity. Byzantium therefore managed its remaining possessions and mostly refrained from overreach. As a result, its decline took many centuries.

Post-Ottoman Turkey refrained from re-imperialization because its ideology had shifted from allegiance to the empire to allegiance to the nation-state. Kemal Ataturk ethnically cleansed Asia Minor of the Greek population, but he avoided expanding Turkey’s boundaries to include Greece, focusing instead on relocating Turks from the former empire into the new country. Strong outside powers also hemmed in the new state.

The European overseas colonial powers all shared an imperial ideology as they expanded, but they abandoned it as they faced their own military and economic weaknesses following two world wars, national liberation struggles, and the international community’s growing condemnation. They didn’t all abandon their empires without a fight, but neither did they attempt to revive them.

Post-World War I Germany retained the aggressively imperial Weltmacht ideology that had motivated Emperor Wilhelm II’s expansionist policies. Despite the post-war economic collapse, the economy quickly revived after the Nazis took power in 1933. Adolf Hitler also revived the military and established a powerful government. With the necessary conditions and ideology in place, Nazi Germany unsurprisingly embarked on re-imperialization. It might have succeeded had Hitler confined his ambitions to the large swaths of Europe he controlled by 1941. After invading the Soviet Union and declaring war on the United States, however, he created a power imbalance that made defeat inevitable.

Like Nazi Germany, the Russian Federation will fail to re-imperialize. Its military is demonstrably mediocre, its economy is about as big as that of Italy or Texas, and its governance has become increasingly ineffective and unstable as elites begin to jockey for power in what they view as the rapidly approaching post-Putin era. The immediate future could be even worse, especially if the regime remains guided by the whims of a single autocrat and continues to discourage technological innovation and economic growth.

In a word, Russia’s imperial aspirations are dead, even if the Kremlin thinks otherwise. And the man who presided over their destruction is Putin. Could things have worked out differently for Russia? Could Russia have resisted the re-imperialization temptation? Given the vitality of its imperial ideology and the strength of its institutional and economic ties with the former Soviet republics and, at least until recently, the former Eastern Bloc states, the answer is probably no.

What should the West do? Since the Russian Federation’s re-imperialization project is doomed, all that anyone can realistically do is prolong or hasten the process, not stop it. Prolonging it means prolonging the misery incurred by the non-Russians targeted for re-annexation and by the Russians tasked with bringing misery to these targets. Anything that hastens re-imperialization’s inevitable end would reduce death and destruction.

Specifically, because the history of empires leads us to expect Russian imperialism’s demise, it makes sense for the West to take a page from the philosopher Karl Marx and “hasten the birth pangs of history.” Fortunately for the West, whose attention is currently taken up by the crisis in the Middle East, the United States and its allies only need to do a bit more than what they are already doing: supporting Ukraine in liberating its territories from Russian occupation by providing it with the weapons it needs—rather sooner than later. Should the West continue to slow-roll military deliveries—or even decrease them—it will only prolong an inevitable process and increase the suffering. Either way, Russian re-imperialization is destined to fail.

Since Putin has thrown all his resources and political capital at the war against Ukraine, stopping him there means stopping him and his re-imperialization project everywhere. As much as defeat will induce some in the Russian elite and general population to reconsider questions of empire, there is, alas, no reason to believe that Russia’s imperial ideology will meet a quick end. Rather, it will be long-term decay that guarantees that outcome. Russia will become a more or less normal, non-imperial nation-state only if it continues to lose territory it has occupied, and not just in Ukraine—a prospect that seems perfectly possible if Russia loses in Ukraine, the Putin regime collapses, and Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, and even some of the non-Russian peoples in the Russian Federation decide to escape the resulting chaos by retaking their occupied territories or otherwise cutting ties with Moscow. In the absence of defeat, a militarily and economically weak and misgoverned Russia will remain in thrall to the ideology and attempt, yet again, to re-imperialize—all but certainly with the same results: failure, death, and destruction.

[evexec]

“Today we reshape the world. Our motherland is lead by cowards and weaklings. In time, the Americans and their NATO puppets will bring the Soviet Union to its knees. We will break the stalemate, then burn them both to the ground. They sleep soundly at night, knowing they put on a good parade - but they lack the will to do what must be done. The superpowers will fall, victims of their own greed and corruption. We will rebuild Greater Russia from the ashes.”

“We will watch Europe burn. We will watch the empire of the United States collapse under its own weight. A world with two superpowers will become a world with one. The Soviet Union. And if the leaders of this new world order squander the opportunity we have provided them... then they too will be replaced.”

So real of you, Perseus. Thank you for being in the least bad Call of Duty game.

[ghostpalmtechnique]

Imagine, through whatever time travel scenario, that you are talking to some from fifty years ago, and you are trying to tell them things about the world of 2023 that would genuinely surprise them.

I don't think that most technological advances would work, because people imagined and hoped for those things. So, e.g. "Everyone walks around with a comprehensive digital encyclopedia/communications device in their pocket" would fail. I also think most social pathologies of the Internet age are more or less what one would expect based on preexisting human behavior and the capabilities of the Internet.

Similarly, I don't think that either progress or backlash along familiar social cleavages would be that surprising. Both "homosexuals can legally get married" and "It took them 50 years of chipping away, but they managed to undo Roe v. Wade" would both outrage a significant chunk of Americans from 1973, but I don't think it would genuinely surprise them.

Geopolitics is a more complicated situation. I think "the Soviet Union collapsed" would fail because people were predicting that incorrectly many times before it happened, but "China is the world's other superpower" might do it -- "There are children starving in China" was still used as an admonition against kids who didn't finish their plate when I was a kid in the 1980s. Still, I wouldn't want to bet on this working.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a very weird time, and Donald Trump being elected was highly improbable, but "plague seriously disrupts society" and "fascist clown gets elected" both have plenty of historical precedent, so I don't think they would work (although coming off of Watergate, someone in 1973 might be shocked at how much Trump could get away with out in the open without other Republicans caring at all).

Really surprising statements have to fall outside of either trend lines or battle lines that existed at that time. So examples of things that I think would be genuinely surprising to someone from 1973:

-- Crabs has been basically eradicated, not through some medical breakthrough, but because society has such a widespread preference for shaved or trimmed pubic hair.

-- There are people who get angry about whites moving into poor black neighborhoods... and these people are on the political left.

-- Designer babies are (sort of) a reality, but cancer has not yet been cured.

Interested in other ideas for what would be truly surprising.

[avian-misdemeanors]

airplanes but as people

707: classy, elegant, cultured, very big presence, Audrey Hepburn vibes

717: smart, unassuming, a feminist before it was socially acceptable

727: autistic, will tell you everything about its special interest, weird and lovable, may use it/its pronouns

737: she likes her pumpkin spice lattes and her leggings. gets called basic, but she's reliable and easy to get along with

747: 6'6" woman with broad shoulders and long, wavy, dark hair. she looks amazing in an elegant dress and has a commanding presence. powerful dark voice, very charismatic. when she speaks, you listen.

757: 74's little sister, much less imposing, very leggy, plays volleyball, total tomboy, very very likeable and cute but also very pretty and athletic, short dyed hair

767: pantsuit businesswoman, smart, a little conventional but that's not always a bad thing

777: she's a professional athlete, a competitive powerlifter. she looks intimidating, but once you get to know her she's a pretty open book.

787: trans girl programmer, drawer full of thigh high socks, RGB everything

797: 787's fursona

Spitfire: short British girl who owns and carries a pistol. she's a skilled martial artist but she much prefers spending time on her other hobbies: makeup and ballroom dancing

AN-225: rural Ukrainian grandma in her 70's. still milks the cows every morning, and still chops her own firewood. her grandson is off fighting the Russians and she's very proud of him

B-1: used to wear a black cape and Naruto-run around the playground at school as a kid. was and still is obsessed with Batman, joined the army and has had a long career

B-21: like the 787; trans furry gamer girl obsessed with programming. wears thigh highs, RGB everything, but also joined the military and has guns at home

U-2: shy and introverted, lean and kind of lanky, she spends all her spare time hiking in the middle of nowhere. the kind of person who you stop being surprised by when she tells you she did a "light" 30 mile hike over the weekend. you're convinced she could just get up and walk the whole Appalachian Trail if she felt like it. has an account on FurAffinity and she will make it your problem. she also has the absolute best weed

L-1011: beefy working class woman with broad shoulders and a heavily worn-in denim jacket. she quit smoking in the '90s but she still knows a bunch of lighter tricks and does them when she's bored using her old beat-up Zippo. will come into your life for one week and ruin every other person for you, forever.

Tu-144: former Soviet professional athlete who had huge potential but got super addicted to amphetamines and burnt out REALLY hard, did not live up to her potential, and gave up fast. she's now a retired but functioning alcoholic watching the collapse of the modern Russian state going "here we go again"

Concorde: slightly stuck up but not mean at all, had her day in the sun, won a lot of gold medals in the Olympics, now gracefully retired and coaching the next generation of athletes. keeps in touch with Boeing 2707, Tu-144, and Lockheed L-2000

SR-71: older legendary retired Olympic sprinter, kind of a loner but she sometimes hangs out with Tu-144, L-2000, B2707, and Concorde

Space Shuttle: hotshot test pilot who wears aviators everywhere, loves to reminisce about her glory days

MiG-15: retired soldier, left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and now lives in a cabin in northern Canada. used to believe in the USSR but now basically doesn't believe in governments at all and just keeps to herself. drinking problem.

F-86: retired Olympic fencer, focuses on her grandkids now, visits MiG-15 to play chess and drink

F-111: furry trans girl techie who likes to watch mecha anime. taller than she'd like but she still loves herself and finds ways to see her own beauty.

F-117: Goth girl who was best friends with the B-1 in school, they'd both watch anime together as kids. F-117 kinda vanished after high school then reappeared on instagram years later as an owner of a crossfit gym

F-22: expert martial artist, small in stature but tough as nails, buzz cut, tank top, combat boots. she will be your friend but she is also a little...unhinged

XF-85 Goblin: tried to join the military but was rejected due to ADHD. no longer believes in the military and is glad she got rejected. when asked about it she says "the military is dumb and war is for straight people". silly little shit who makes bad puns and likes rolling around on the floor with cats. drinks soda in the shower.

P-51: played quarterback in high school, then drafted into WWII

P-38: played tight end on P-51's team.

P-51 and P-38 got drafted together, went to boot-camp together, but they got deployed to different theaters of war.

They write each other. The letters don't always go through. When they get a letter, they head back to their bunk, shirtless with dog-tags dangling, they read with a big smile on their face and a cigarette in their mouth

They rehash heroic football plays that sent the bleachers into uproarious cheers, sounding like a crowd ten times larger than the entire population of Littletown, Arkansas that they were.

Their letters also contain very very vague but pointed allusions to the times they spent together after the games were over and the other teammates went out with their girlfriends. Locker Rooms. Cornfields. And the Ice House. Oh, the Ice House…

P-51 bitches about the cold in western europe. P-38 bitches about the tropical humidity and mosquitos, and how he always forgets the name of the island he's on this week.

It'll be over soon, right?

P-38 says he overheard B-29 saying that the war is going to end one way or another very soon in a very confident manner. B-29's tone kind of spooked P-38, and he's not sure why. He prays that B-29 is right, but something feels off around here.

The censors blacked out most of that letter. P-51 is glad P-38 is alive…but what is going on over there?

P-51 wanders the aerodrome, and he spots B-17 and C-47 making eyes at each other. His hands ball up in fists in his pockets. Those two get to go home and get married, ring bearer, flower girls. Tuxedo, Wedding Dress.

All he gets is the Ice House. But oh…Oh, the Ice House…

A300: Old fashioned diesel dyke. She's in her 60's but still does powerlifting as a hobby. She lives with her cute femme wife, who is absolutely the domme in the relationship. They're both retired and raise goats together at their cottage in the country to sell goat dairy at the local farmer's market. She wears denim vests covered in patches, many of which are old and faded, she's tattooed and still has a buzz cut. She was on the front lines helping her fellow queers during the AIDS crisis.

A320: When you find out your friend from high school who said she was going to major in finance actually did major in finance, got a finance job, and has been working for 10 years and somehow hasn't burned out, has savings, bought a car, a normal but attractive fiance, and watches an appropriate amount of Netflix in the evening

A320neo: Same woman but she just discovered aromatherapy

A350: Same woman but she got a masters from an online college while still working full time and has multiple CFO job offers

Honda Jet: The only posts on her instagram are her college graduation in 2016 with her white american mom and japanese dad, and she's taller than both of them, and a STOP ASIAN HATE post from 2020

Stipa Caproni: down for literally anything and will absolutely blow your mind but not for long.

Wright Military Flyer: an 85 year old lady who still beautiful and dainty but also keeps a fucking Colt 1899 on a thigh holster. under her dress, of course. she's still a lady.

Tu-154: a track star and will go all night long, you won't be sure if you're boinking or in a cardio race

F-14: a retired Subaru lesbian who lives with her wife and 3 dogs. was the popular girl in school and kind of everyone's friend in college.

Bristol F2b: knows how to use flintlock weapons and always smells a little bit like leather and campfire, but she's really sweet and comforting to be around.

T-38: 5'2" and a little fucking firecracker. doesn't actually know how to fight you but she will certainly try and one or both of you will end up with teeth missing.

Kfir: the kind of girl who you suspect might actually be an assassin.

F-4 Phantom: a butch martial artist in her 40s who is suspiciously muscular and shows off by crushing watermelons with her thighs, arms, hands, etc. She wears combat boots and a leather jacket and rides a motorcycle

7J7: refers to the D&D Monster Manual as the "Girlfriend Guide"

F4U Corsair: collects swords but in a hot way

TBM Avenger: a classic softball lesbian

P-47: a bodybuilder, she can lift you over her head. big and imposing, but a kind person who will happily use her large stature to help her smaller friends feel safe.

CRJ-900: collects swords but in a pretentious way

DC-3: keeps pigeons on her roof, but it's cute bc she talks to all of them. they are her friends. get her talking and she will tell you stories from her youth that will haunt you

Convair 990: does illegal street racing

DC-9: has a piss kink. sells landing gear pics online.

UH-1 Huey: smokes cigars and drinks whiskey, and goes hunting often. She's trans and beautiful but still calls herself a "good ol' boy"

Bell JetRanger: in her late 40s and just figured out she's gay, she's doing her best.

V-22 Osprey: a genderfluid gun enthusiast, not in a toxic way but sometimes you worry about their stability. not the best mental health.

MD500C: an aging ballerina who is still way more strong and agile than you.

MD530F: her daughter who took after her mom but is a better dancer and has an undercut she dyes silver.

EC-135: she is a no-nonsense doctor with a femme wife and a 3-year old.

CH-53: is a 'roided out butch whose father was in the Navy, she served in the Navy, and now won't stop talking about the Navy. She's now a volunteer firefighter who has strapped every subby femme in the region but will always remain single.

Mi-26: a heavyset Russian grandmother who only makes one facial expression. She has subsisted off of nothing more than potatoes for at least the past half century. She is old, but she is not frail.

R22: is a lanky truck-stop hooker. Everyone can come inside for a low price, no experience required.

AW-109: works as a first mate on a megayacht. She knows all the secrets of a particular billionaire but won't say who.

MiG-29: she will shove you the fuck up against a wall and you will like it.

Lockheed Constellation: goes by Connie, she will give you the classiest evening of your life.

Ekranoplan: she was going to be an Olympic swimmer for the Soviet Union, but when the USSR collapsed, so did she. she's a sad story, but she's happy in her retirement to see the younger generations taking an interest in her career, and trying to carry it on in some way.

Sopwith Camel: completely unhinged but in a hot way

made with help from @bananabreadloveman

[docterdenseif]

In this alternative timeline, does the Cold War still happen, and major conflicts like the Korean War, Algerian War of independence, Vietnam War, and the Soviet-Afghan War?

Plus, the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the rest of the Eastern Bloc.

Right before the War of Reformation, the Soviet Union was wiped out by the U.S. in 1960 during Operation "Falling Star," which was run by the CIA. The Korean War still happened, but Vietnam did not. The eastern bloc unraveled as soon as the Soviet Union was gone. The Algerian War of independence also happened with similar results to real history.

Bellow is a classified document detailing the operation.

Intelligence Report - Falling Star

Mr. President.

On May 16th, 1960, operatives No.1(███████ ███████) and No. 3 (███████ ███████) were transported to Moscow via internal channels. As the Soviet Party met in their headquarters on 4 Staraya Square, No. 1 used their ███████ to breach the building. No.1 proceeded to dispatch every high-ranking official that was present. This part of the operation was a great success, crippling the Soviet's ranks. At the same time, No. 3 traveled around the city and took key points of interest. These targets ranged from military installments to family members of the high-ranking politicians that were not present in the city. They were successful, much of the Soviet's military was crippled, and much leverage was gained. Unfortunately, No.3 never returned from their mission. It is still unknown whether they fled after the missions completion or were killed. Given their peculiar constitution, the CIA currently believes it to be the former. We are keeping are eyes open for them. No.1 returned from the mission and is under a strict gag order. The operation was a major success. We expect to see the Soviets crumble now that half of their inner circle is no longer with them. A great victory for democracy has been won, and the potency of the new breed of humans has been proven. Further programs utilizing them are ready to be developed as soon as you give your approval.

Godspeed Mr. President,

Allen W. Dulles

[tomorrowusa]

Helping Ukraine ward off an imperialistic totalitarian neighbor is not just a good errand. It's a matter of US national security which has implications for the entire democratic West.

Allowing Russia to win its war in Ukraine would be a self-imposed strategic defeat for the United States.The United States would face the risk of a larger and costlier war in Europe. The United States would face the worst threat from Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a victorious Russia would likely emerge reconstituted and more determined to undermine the United States — and confident that it can. A Russian victory would diminish America’s deterrence around the world, emboldening others with an explicit or latent intent to harm the United States. A Russian victory would create an ugly world in which the atrocities associated with Russia’s way of war and way of ruling the populations under its control are normalized. Most dangerous of all, however, US adversaries would learn that they can break America’s will to act in support of their strategic interests. The ground truths of this war have not changed: Russia still explicitly intends to erase Ukraine as a concept, people, and state; Ukraine’s will to fight remains strong; Russia has made no operationally significant advances this year; and Ukraine’s will combined with the West’s collective capability (which dwarfs Russia’s) can defeat Russia on the battlefield. US interests still include preventing future Russian attacks on Ukraine and helping Ukraine liberate its people and territory. Supporting Ukraine is still the best path for the United States to avoid higher costs, larger escalation risks, and a greater Russian threat.

Putin is a madman who has already sacrificed hundreds of thousands of Russians for his goal of essentially reconstituting the shabby Soviet Union. Don't expect him to negotiate in good faith or to keep his word.

Donald Trump is a compromised tool of Putin. And most of the GOP has displayed unswerving allegiance to Trump.

 If Russia wins in Ukraine because of the collapse of Western aid, it will be because Russia has managed to shape Americans’ understanding of reality such that the United States willingly chooses to act against its interests and values without realizing that it is doing so. Russia will have manipulated America into abandoning its own interests in a fight it could and should have won. That’s a dangerous lesson for China, Iran, and other US adversaries to learn. America’s security now and in the future, in Asia and the Middle East as well as in Europe, depends on remaining solidly connected with our strategic interests and values and demonstrating that we will not fall prey to efforts to manipulate our perceptions of those interests.

Over the remainder of the winter holiday season, contact your House members and demand that they not cave to Putin.

US House members have an office (often more than one) in their home districts. Visit or call your rep. If you just send an email you'll just get some sort of AI response.

Look up your rep here with your ZIP+4...

Find Your Representative

...then click the name of the search result which will take you to the rep's congressional site. The office locations and phone numbers can be found there. It's important to let the rep know that you're not a bot. Be courteous but firm.

[qqueenofhades]

So I'm confused. I thought Republicans hated communism, so why do they like Russia?

For one thing, Russia hasn't been communist since the fall of the USSR in 1991. It has now been reorganized politically and socially in many ways that resemble the USSR (not coincidentally, as Putin is former KGB, has filled his administration with former KGB, and is on record openly mourning the collapse of the Soviet Union). But it is technically capitalist-oligarchic-kleptocratic, where one autocrat and his small (and growing ever smaller, given the shocking-even-by-Russian-standards death rate of oligarchs this year) inner circle boundlessly enrich themselves on stolen public/state and private/ capitalist wealth while telling the poor people to go fuck themselves. Which is kind of what the Republicans want to do anyway, so you're already seeing some correlation here.

In the 1980s, the Republicans hated communism/the Russians because that was the biggest threat to their particular idea of America. In the post-9/11 era, they hated Muslims for the same reason. Now it's come around to "the Democrats/liberal/Woke Society is our biggest enemy," and since Putin openly opposes all that as well, they see him as a comrade-in-arms, literally. They admire his brand of religiously inspired fascist autocracy, they see him (as he claims to be) as the defender of "traditional Christian values," and as we've discussed before, the cruelty is the point. They admire Putin because they want to see his system imported into America (with themselves in charge of it) and they agree with his idea of "strength," which is to cause endless pain and suffering to everyone who disagrees with him, often through the infliction of blunt military force and in the service of revanchist imperial goals. So honestly, the ultra-MAGA admiration for Putin is not surprising at all. He's everything they want to be, and not in a good way.