Russia has historically been an enigma. Born from the Kievan Rus that would later become Yurizlansia, their story is melancholic. Living in extremely rough conditions and later conquered by the Mongols; yet they pushed back their invaders and unified the Russian princes to form a new empire. This Russian Empire dominated all of eastern Europe for hundreds of years. However, the horrors of the Weltkrieg finally broke down the Tsar's power as Bolshevik revolutionaries executed the royal family and took control. Almost a decade of gruesome fighting followed, but in the end Vladimir Lenin's Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was born as the first communist state on Earth. While Lenin died of a stroke, his successor Leon Trotsky continued to fight for the ideals of a world free from misery. With his political enemy Joseph Stalin executed after a terrible power struggle, Trotsky began a ruthless industrialisation program in order to gain the tools to create a world revolution. His plan was cut short by the second Weltkrieg, as the Germans crossed the border to the White Russia and the Baltics. The world's most miserable war in history has its reputation for a reason, and the Soviet Union suffered greatly with Trotsky dying midway through. In the end a nuclear exchange with Germany ended the bloodshed by armistice. Even from a state of near death, as Russia had done several times throughout history, the Soviet Union pulled itself back up into a position of world superpower. The war, however, had greatly reduced its territory and debilitated its capabilities, so the axis of communism moved eastwards, between it and the rapidly industrialising People's Republic of China.
By the mid-1960s the Soviet Union is led by Nikita Khrushchev, once an idealist and now a hardened politician. Khrushchev is hard and holds dear to the ideals of Trotsky to free the world, but does not rule with an iron fist. Quite the contrary, he has liberalised the Soviet Union to a great degree. Still, the oppressive spirit of the Soviet bureaucracy and intelligence apparataus will never be quelled completely.