# Alternate Universe Works where the Soviet Union takes over the world?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 13, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546 "2018-08-13T20:42:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/1 "2018-08-13T20:42:11Z")
There’s a ton of AU works where Nazi Germany wins WW2 and basically takes over the world, hell there’s a bunch of AU works where a fascist/military dictatorship lead version of the United States takes over the world.
But are there any works where the Soviet Union take over the entire world? Curious since that’s the last of the big 3 countries with the potential of taking over the world. Note I want works where the Soviet Union’s take-over is complete, since there’s a ton of works where the Soviet Union is in the process of taking over the United States but fails due to the actions of the American protagonists. Works set in the resistance after a total Soviet take-over count but the world has to be solidly pro-Soviet Union at the time. Thus no Red Dawn (since it takes place entirely during the resistance where the US government is still intact and fighting back) and nothing like Command and Conquer Red Alert (where you can actually play as the Soviets taking over the US but after you finally win the story ends, nothing about the ramifications immediately after the game)
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/2 "2018-08-13T20:51:39Z")
Well, there’s _Red Son_, the 2003 miniseries that describes the infant Kal-El landing in the USSR instead of Kansas. With his help, the Soviets have taken over everything _but_ the U.S.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/3 "2018-08-13T20:55:58Z")
The pilot episode of Sliders had the heroes spending the second half of the episode in a universe where the Soviets had won. They work with a resistance cell (taking advantage of the fact that the local version of Professor Arturo was a government official\*), but at the beginning, the Soviets were in complete and fairly secure control of everything.
- They really enjoyed having Arturo working for the oppressors when they fell into universes like that. Actually, I think the one who slid with them originally is basically the only good Arturo in the multiverse…
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/4 "2018-08-13T21:30:29Z")
_Amerika_, a 1987 TV mini-series about a USSR-ruled USA, with Sam Neill as a Soviet officer, Robert Urich as a collaborator, and Kris Kristopherson as a rebel.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/5 "2018-08-13T21:37:00Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#):
>
> The pilot episode of Sliders had the heroes spending the second half of the episode in a universe where the Soviets had won. They work with a resistance cell (taking advantage of the fact that the local version of Professor Arturo was a government official\*), but at the beginning, the Soviets were in complete and fairly secure control of everything.
>
> - They really enjoyed having Arturo working for the oppressors when they fell into universes like that. Actually, I think the one who slid with them originally is basically the only good Arturo in the multiverse…
The best part was that the heroes were arrested for anti-Soviet activities and sent to “The People’s Court,” which was indeed hosted by Doug Llewellen and presided over by Judge Wapner.
On topic - in Michael Kube-McDowell’s book “Alternaties” at least one alternate universe features the world being dominated by the USSR (though the USA still exists), while in Allen Drury’s “Come Nineveh, Come Tyre” the feckless President of the United States is thoroughly cowed by the head of the USSR, leading to a puppet government being set up in the US. John Barnes has the Soviets ruling America in a short story called “Stochasm”
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/6 "2018-08-13T22:23:53Z")
There’s an episode of American Dad where Stan goes back in time and prevents Martin Scorsese from making _Taxi Driver_, so Hinckley never shoots Reagan, leading to Mondale’s election in 1984, and Mondale surrendering to the Soviets 47 days into his presidency.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/7 "2018-08-13T22:40:43Z")
Norman Spinrad wrote a near-future novel in 1991, _Russian Spring_, which postulated that Gorbachav’s reforms would turn Russia into a superpower, with influence over all Europe and much of Asia, while the US became a backwater. It didn’t conquer the world, but it did dominate it.
But the Soviet Union fell apart shortly after it was published, turning it from a near-future novel to an alternate history.
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### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/8 "2018-08-13T23:08:38Z")
_Russian Hide and Seek_ by Kingsley Amis, published in 1980 and set in the UK it depicts a world dominated by the USSR.
Although the summary on my version describes it as a comedy they must have been using that word in the classic sense because its one of the most chilling and disturbing books I’ve ever read.
If I recall correctly the USA isn’t physically conquered, it has just been sidelined into complete irrelevance.
Anyway it’s a good book, I recommend it.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/9 "2018-08-14T00:44:39Z")
“We”, the 1924 novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin, is a totalitarian dystopia set 1000 years after what is essentially Soviet communism conquers the world.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/10 "2018-08-14T00:53:15Z")
[Free Flight,](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1559738.Free_Flight) by Douglas Terman, describes the aftermath of a Soviet takeover of the US following nuclear war. I don’t know if they took over the whole planet, but, to paraphrase Fast Eddie Costigan, if they took over the US, I don’t much care what they do to the rest of world, Paulie.
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### Author:  [@Panther\_Modern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panther_Modern)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/11 "2018-08-14T01:06:27Z")
Not the Soviets, but _The Man in the High Castle_ is set in an alternative universe where the Axis Powers won World War II. Fascinating show.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/12 "2018-08-14T02:29:21Z")
Jack Chalker’s _Well of Souls_ books featured a human society where Communism was triumphant, but I will note I can’t say if it was the USSR which reigned supreme as it has been quite a while since I read them.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/13 "2018-08-14T12:55:27Z")
Not quite what the OP is looking for, but “Back in the USSA” is an alternate history by Kim Newman where the US has a Communist revolution, and Russia becomes a constitutional monarchy. Humorously altered versions of real and fictional characters mingle in a can you spot all the references manner. It’s pretty good.
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### Author:  [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/14 "2018-08-14T16:45:41Z")
Harry Turtledove’s _The Gladiator_ – one of his assortment of “Crosstime Traffic” YA novels, involving the possibility of travel between “our time-line”, and a seemingly infinite number of alternative time-lines. Set IIRC in the late 21st century, in a time-line in which the USSR has triumphed (without use of nukes) in the “Cold War”, and essentially, imposed Soviet-style Communism in all nations of any significance, worldwide.
The action of the novel takes place in a Sovietised Italy (a country and people often perceived as a decidedly poor “fit” for Communism). Turtledove doesn’t really do “dark” – or not very well, if he tries to – and the novel’s general atmosphere is relatively upbeat, even light-hearted: life in his Communist Italy comes across as irksome rather than nightmarish. I enjoyed the book; but I like much of Turtledove’s stuff, though with reservations.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/15 "2018-08-14T17:14:22Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> The best part was that the heroes were arrested for anti-Soviet activities and sent to “The People’s Court,” which was indeed hosted by Doug Llewellen and presided over by Judge Wapner.
It was actually only Rembrandt, but yeah, that part was fun.
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### Author:  [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/16 "2018-08-15T03:40:47Z")
The novel “Red Army” by Ralph Peters is a hypothetical WWIII (non-nuclear) where the entire story is told from the Russian perspective and the Russians end up winning the war.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/17 "2018-08-15T05:12:22Z")
Isnt there at least one 50’s MST3K movie where the Soviets have taken over? Or maybe its just communists.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/18 "2018-08-15T10:05:40Z")
The Orson Scott Card short story “A Thousand Deaths” is set in a world where Russia has conquered at least the USA (and therefore, probably, a significant chunk of the rest of the world)
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-universe-works-where-the-soviet-union-takes-over-the-world/819546/19 "2018-08-15T15:12:15Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> Isnt there at least one 50’s MST3K movie where the Soviets have taken over? Or maybe its just communists.
_Invasion, U.S.A._ (1952)
> **[Invasion, U.S.A. (1952) ⭐ 3.5 | Drama, Sci-Fi, War](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044750/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3)**
>
> 1h 13m | Approved
There is also _Strange Holiday_ (1945) - “A man returns from a trip to find fascists have taken over the U.S. government.”
> **[Strange Holiday (1945) ⭐ 5.4 | Drama, Thriller](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038125/?ref_=tt_urv)**
>
> 1h 1m | Approved
Even more tangentially related is _Gabriel Over the White House_ (1933) in which corrupt politician Walter Huston becomes president, has a near-death experience, then saves Depression-era America through imposition of fascism.
> **[Gabriel Over the White House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Over_the_White_House)**
>
> Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 American pre-Code political fantasy film starring Walter Huston as a genial but politically corrupt U.S. President who has a near-fatal automobile accident and comes under divine influence—specifically the Archangel Gabriel and the spirit of Abraham Lincoln. Eventually he takes control of the government, solves the problems of the nation, from unemployment to racketeering, and arranges for worldwide peace, before dying of a heart attack.
> The film received...
Almost forgot the short, _Red Nightmare_ (1962) - “A man who has taken his freedom for granted wakes up one morning to find out that the Communists have taken over America.”
> **[Red Nightmare (Short 1962) ⭐ 5.6 | Drama, Short](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050261/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)**
>
> 29m | Not Rated