notbobsmith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2026 11:43 pm
Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2026 8:49 am
Aye, I am in Codename: Iceman.
(I never played it, but it was made in the 80s, and features submarine warfare and a what feels like a very Cold War-ish atmosphere, from what I understand).
The plot does revolve around Soviet-backed terrorists. They probably assumed that the Cold War would still be going on. It begs the question if we are in Cold War II with Russia. It doesn't feel quite the same, but then again “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.”
Sigh. Since I studied Russian history and culture for a very long time, I had a long, long answer here about this. But before I could press "Submit", the forum logged me out.
To start with, there are many people in Russia who are nostalgic for the Soviet Union - not because it was so wonderful, but because people miss the old guaranteed jobs, low prices, and safety net. Many feel sad that Russia lost its place as a top world superpower, and they remember a stronger sense of community and connection between neighbor countries. But only a tiny group of people like of hard-liners and ultra-nationalists want to bring back the exact old communist system, and no-one sane supports a literal resurrection of the old USSR. (Thank god for that).
Putin and his puppets in countries like Belarus use Soviet pride and power symbols for support, but they run capitalist states, not Soviet ones.
Some ultra-nationalists and hardline political figures, as well as a small fraction of the pro-war public in Russia are actively advocating for a "hot war" with the West. But both independent and Russian state data show this is a distinct minority. No-one in their right mind would start a "hot war" when both sides are so heavily armed with nukes.
Putin is (relatively) a realist, and doesn't want to resurrect the old Soviet Union either. he wants to replace Zelenskyy with a Kremlin-friendly puppet of his own, like he did in Belarus and Chechnya, and like he's trying to do in Georgia and Armenia (in the Caucus region).
Having said that, I can see to a degree why Russians are so suspicious of outsiders. Russia is a relatively flat country with few mountains protecting it, so it's been invaded many times in its history (e.g. by the Mongols, the Lithuanians (several times), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Swedes, the French, the Germans etc). As a result, Russia wants a "buffer state" or two (or several) between itself and "the enemy" (whoever it may be - in this case, NATO).
On the other hand, again ... only a madman would invade a country with so much manpower and so many nuclear bombs. It's just not credible.
So the fear of a physical invasion has been replaced by a fear of a cultural invasion, and this is what we saw during the Cold War and afterwards. Because of the lack of an external "enemy", the Soviet Party had to "manufacture" internal enemies, in order to repress any kind of dissent and maintain its rule. It became infamously corrupt, paranoid and suspicious, to the extent that any minorities that demanded more independence, or were even suspected of collaboration with outsiders (even without proof), were viewed as traitors and punished as such. Kangaroo trials were common. Even cultural displays were heavily controlled - any literature, music, art etc. that was not viewed as "Soviet enough" could result in the artist being arrested, expelled to Siberia, or even shot. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is just the most famous of them (in the West, anyway), but hundreds of authors, poets, and musicians were censored or murdered because of Stalin's paranoia. Doctors, too.
After Stalin, mass executions of dissidents (or simply anyone the Soviets didn't like) became rarer, and was replaced by expulsion to remote regions like Siberia, expulsion to work camps, or simply labelling independent creators as "mentally ill" and locking them up in "psychiatric hospitals" for enforced "treatment". It's a wonder anyone survived.
Russia's suspicion of foreigners and an a "cultural invasion" meant that it treated its own minorities - Kipchaks, Cumans, Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Jews etc. - with extreme harshness and racism. The Russian government (both Soviet and today) uses this racism to crush any non-conformists by labelling them as "dissidents" or "terrorists", and force non-Russians to obey Moscow's will. It's also easier for the Kremlin to neglect infrastructure and job creation in non-ethnically-Russian areas like Siberia and the Caucus countries, thus creating unemployment there, and then recruit more soldiers from those areas by offering them financial incentives. Thus, they avoid having to recruit from the big cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, which prevents domestic unrest, middle-class discontent, or direct challenges to the regime. (So, the Kremlin viewpoint runs: who cares if Siberians or Chechnyans are killed in Ukraine? After all, they're not "real" Russians).
Anyway, sorry for the long post. I hope it wasn't boring.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2026 11:43 pm
Are you found during the submarine sequence? Either inside or outside of the sub.
Sorry, I'm not!
I haven't heard that one before, but I like it. Black humour is prevalent in Russia, for obvious reasons. 
Here's another Russian joke: