History Main / SovietSuperScience

* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse has its share of Soviet experiments gone awry, particularly from the days of the Cold War.
** The original Crimson Dynamo was a Soviet scientist who invents an armored suit which also allows the wearer to control electricity. He subsequently defected, and [[HeroicSacrifice died keeping the Soviets from stealing his armor]], though they later built newer models for other agents.
** Soviet scientists trying to get a leg up on American engineering with bizarre creations like Mongu and the Titanium Man formed the glut of ComicBook/IronMan's original RoguesGallery.
*** Boris Bullski's Titanium Man armor even had the ability to condense itself down to credit card-size, for easy carrying; even Tony Stark's armors couldn't do that (the best he could do at the time was fit it in a briefcase). However, after Bullski was injured and dependent on the armor's life-support systems, the transformation circuit was activated with him inside, and the card subsequently ripped to pieces. He was later reconstituted, but the shock had driven him insane.
** The very first opponent ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk fought (other than the US Army), was "The Gargoyle", a Soviet scientist warped into a deformed, large-headed, super-intelligent dwarf by exposure to radiation. His son, "The Gremlin", was almost identical in looks and abilities and, among other things, created the high-tech gear (including PoweredArmor) used by the Soviet Super-Troopers (precursors to the Soviet Super-Soldiers).
*** While Bullski was missing, the Gremlin built his own Titanium Man armor... and then made the mistake of incorporating Tony Stark's technology into it (although he was given said tech by the Soviet government, who'd presumably acquired it from Justin Hammer, who had it stolen from Stark). As a result, Tony targeted him in the ComicBook/ArmorWars, leading to the Gremlin's accidental death.

** Omega Red is the Soviet-era counterpart to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}: a mutant whose powers were augmented by government-sponsored super science, which in Red's case also gave him [[{{Unobtanium}} carbonadium]] tentacles.
** The ComicBook/UltimateMarvel series "Ultimate Nightmare" took place almost entirely in a complex dedicated to this. They worked by disassembling an alien robot found in TheTunguskaEvent, piece by piece, and grafting its parts to test subjects.

* The first comic in the ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'' series is about a soviet sleeper agent who loses control of a chip implanted in his brain. The chip was supposed to augment his natural ability to teleport objects. This would have allowed the agent to teleport a hidden nuclear weapon to his location -- with himself ground zero. Global Frequency was formed to deal with exactly these kinds of strange cold war "unexploded bombs".

* ''Anime/VampireInTheGarden'' takes place in a [[AfterTheEnd post apocalyptic setting]] modeled on the Soviet Union with mostly pre 1980's technology as well as mechas.

* * ''Anime/VampireInTheGarden'' takes place in a [[AfterTheEnd post apocalyptic setting]] modeled on the Soviet Union with mostly pre 1980's technology as well as mechas.

** Before [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober the Russian Revolution]] and his subsequent departure to the United States, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky Igor Sikorsky]] designed the first four-engine airliner "Russky Vityaz", and the first heavy bomber "Ilya Muromets". The latter resulted in one of Russia's current [[RealLife/CoolPlane Tu-160 "Blackjack"]] strategic bombers (all 35 of which are [[ICallItVera individually named]] after famous Russians) being named "Igor Sikorsky". This created some controversy, because Sikorsky is much more famous (even in Russia) for his development of American helicopters than for his Russian bomber.

* The Russian superhero film ''Film/{{Guardians}}'' has the titular four-person team be composed of representatives of four of the former Soviet republics, all of which were subjects to experimentation by Soviet scientists not long before the collapse of the USSR (a newspaper is shown with the headline "Genetics in service of the people"). The team includes a [[BearsAreBadNews werebear]], a KnifeNut [[SuperSpeed speedster]], an [[DishingOutDirt earth elemental]], and a woman who has {{invisibility}}, flexibility, temperature resistance, and doesn't need air. And the BigBad is a former Soviet superscientist, who has turned himself into a cyborg and can manipulate any technology he sees and has a clone army.

Something of a DiscreditedTrope and usually only played for laughs. After TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, "abandoned Soviet experiments" was frequently used to HandWave the continued appearance of menacing communist super-weapons in a world that suddenly had fewer communists.

-->-- '''UsefulNotes/JosefStalin''', 1931[[note]]ten years later, the Nazis invaded.[[/note]]

It is worth noting that historically the most recognizable disciplines of any super science--genetics and cybernetics--received a poor start in the USSR as the Party proclaimed those "false sciences" for being "bourgeois" (which makes as much sense as Nazis dismissing [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einsteinian relativity]] and the modern theory of the atom as "Jewish physics"). This stance wouldn't be lifted until [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]] took power and USSR's first computer was finished in the mid-50s.

Historically, this trope owes itself to the Soviet Union's relative international isolation, both self-imposed and [[DirtyCommies external]], secrecy (especially about anything military, and a lot of Soviet research was fully or partly military-related) and tendency of its enemies to assume the worst with the absence of information. In the broadest sense, historians of science [[note]]distinct from the history of arts and humanities, termed the ''history of scholarship''[[/note]] have concluded that even considering the destructive consequences of Lysenkoism and obstacles to publishing research, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism dialectical materialism]]--the philosophy that predates contemporary Marxism and serves as its scientific "foundation" -- had an overall positive influence on scientific community of the USSR and the world as a whole. ''Science'' is certainly a thing with acknowledge-able accomplishments attributed to the state, but it's a far cry from the entertaining medium of Soviet ''super''science.

StupidJetpackHitler is a SisterTrope, giving ThoseWackyNazis things like PoweredArmor and {{Cool Airship}}s, while {{Ghostapo}} could be a "cousin trope", in that it's a more mystical version of Stupid Jetpack Hitler. May be part of a TeslaTechTimeline as Tesla tech has a sufficiently different aesthetic to the capitalist pigdogs' technology. All of these are culture-specific [[{{subtrope}} sub-disciplines]] of MadScience. See also UsefulNotes/ClosedCities, which is where Soviet Superscience is created; they range from ordinary cities declared off-limits to foreigners to full-fledged [[VideoGame/HalfLife Black Mesa]] style complexes hidden in the lost mountains of Siberia.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' is set in an alternate reality where the Cold War never ended and both the United States and the Soviet Union have developed [[HumongousMecha Arm Slave]] technology.
** Not only that, the [[HumongousMecha Arm Slave]] technology is canonically a product of Soviet Superscience [[spoiler: ... albeit accidentally. The Whispered, from which the technology to build Arm Slaves came from, were created from a certain Russian-funded lab-base involved in SovietSuperscience of all sorts. Specifically, the Whispered were people [[BizarreBabyBoom born around the world right around the few minutes one]] of the labs (of the Quantum "see into the future" variety) had an accident and went out of control]]

** The very first opponent Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk fought (other than the US Army), was "The Gargoyle", a Soviet scientist warped into a deformed, large-headed, super-intelligent dwarf by exposure to radiation. His son, "The Gremlin", was almost identical in looks and abilities and, among other things, created the high-tech gear (including PoweredArmor) used by the Soviet Super-Troopers (precursors to the Soviet Super-Soldiers).
*** While Bullski was missing, the Gremlin built his own Titanium Man armor... and then made the mistake of incorporating Tony Stark's technology into it (although he was given said tech by the Soviet government, who'd presumably acquired it from Justin Hammer, who had it stolen from Stark).
** The Red Room basically existed on this trope, being the Soviet answer to HYDRA and, arguably, even more terrifying, considering that they gave the world both Black Widows (Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova) and the Winter Soldier.

** The ComicBook/UltimateMarvel series "Ultimate Nightmare" took place almost entirely in a complex dedicated to this. They worked by disassembling [[ComicBook/TheVision an alien robot]] found in TheTunguskaEvent, piece by piece, and grafting its parts to test subjects.
* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'': In "SOS Meteors", it's revealed that the Soviet Bloc has developed weather control technology, which it uses to destabilize the climate of Western Europe in order to prepare for a military invasion. Why the Soviets didn't instead use it to improve their own weather is anyone's guess.
* The first comic in the ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'' series was about a soviet sleeper agent who lost control of a chip implanted in his brain. The chip was supposed to augment his natural ability to teleport objects. This would have allowed the agent to teleport a hidden nuclear weapon to his location -- with himself ground zero. Global Frequency was formed to deal with exactly these kinds of strange cold war "unexploded bombs".
* The obscure noir superhero series ''ComicBook/TheWinterMen'' imagines a massive military-industrial operation throughout Soviet history to build mechanical and biological superbeings. It doesn't work, but not quite for the reason you'd expect.
* Though it's technically a FantasyCounterpartCulture, ''ComicBook/TheRedStar'' is abound in this trope.
* ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Ghost Projekt]]''

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' repeatedly references the Red Room as something [[TheDreaded dark and terrifying enough to scare HYDRA]] that existed in the shadows with the sole objective of developing better soldiers. They gave the world the Winter Soldier (as per the MCU, his original enhancements were the work of HYDRA and Arnim Zola, but the Red Room took him, refined him and reprogrammed him), the Black Widow program and a number of genetically altered monstrosities, including the Winter Guard. Despite the fact they haven't been active for twenty years, whenever they're mentioned, the characters present tend to, at the very least, get a severe case of the creeps. As of the sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past'', they're back. [[OhCrap And they're interested in Harry]]. With [[spoiler: the help of Sinister]], they end up [[spoiler: successfully taking control of Harry's body]] and unleashing their intended SuperiorSuccessor to the Winter Soldier, the Red Son, a phenomenally powerful SuperSoldier capable of restoring the territorial control they had during the Cold War. [[spoiler: Between Harry eventually [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds snapping and going Dark Phoenix]], and Loki's later RoaringRampageOfRevenge for what was done to his nephew, most Red Room personnel are either dead or imprisoned.]]

* In ''Film/DrStrangelove'' the Soviets build a Doomsday Device after the U.S. had already considered a similar device ("Our source was the ''New York Times''"). [[SuperweaponSurprise They neglected to tell anyone about it]]. Strangelove subverts the trope when he explains that the Doomsday Machine is not a great feat because it's within the means of even the smallest nuclear power--very much TruthInTelevision, because setting off enough nukes ''anywhere'' on Earth would easily cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and both sides had dozens of times that amount.

* ''Film/{{Goldeneye}}'' has a satellite-launched [[WaveMotionGun EMP weapon]] taken over by [[RenegadeRussian criminal elements in the Soviet space program command.]]
** In RealLife, electronic warfare, including EMP weapons, was and still is a very active area of Russian military research, and theatre ballistic missiles with an EMP warheads are actually in the field testing right now.
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' has Irina Spalko and her fellow Communists searching for the Crystal Skulls. It is mentioned that Stalin has a program investigating psychics, which isn't actually all that far-fetched; the US investigated possible paranormal things themselves. Also, the Soviet search party in the jungle rides a huge sci-fi-ish truck that clears its path by mowing down trees like grass.
* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' is a pretty well-done thriller about, well, the hunt for the ''Red October'', a highly-advanced Soviet ballistic missile submarine, the so-called "stealth-bomber" of submarines. Instead of the traditional propeller-driven sub, this one had one that sucked in water, compressed it, and shot it out, like a jet engine. The result is a sub with nearly zero-sound, meaning active Sonar will be almost the only thing able to detect it; making it virtually impossible to track, due to the danger of using active Sonar often. That doesn't stop Seaman Jones from inventing a way to track it though.

* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', the telepathy-blocking helmet that stymies Xavier in every movie is apparently of Russian make.
* ''Film/HarbingerDown'' opens with a Soviet LK moon lander ComingInHot after [[spoiler:an experiment to make a cosmonaut immune to radiation has GoneHorriblyWrong.]]
* The Russian superhero film ''Film/{{Guardians}}'' has the titular four-person team be composed of representatives of four of the former Soviet republics, all of which were subjects to experimentation by Soviet scientists not long before the collapse of the USSR (a newspaper is shown with the headline "Genetics in service of the people"). The team includes a [[EverythingIsWorseWithBears werebear]], a KnifeNut [[SuperSpeed speedster]], an [[DishingOutDirt earth elemental]], and a woman, who has {{Invisibility}}, flexibility, temperature resistance, and doesn't need air. And the BigBad is a former Soviet superscientist, who has turned himself into a cyborg and can manipulate any technology he sees and has a clone army.

** {{Discussed}} and {{averted}} in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''. Unlike [[{{Ghostapo}} the Nazis]] and the West, the Soviets never really got into the occult intelligence business because of counterproductive state policies. State-sponsored atheism contradicts the requirement of believing in [[EldritchAbomination demonic intelligences beyond our spacetime]], and preventing development of computers makes "magic" (which is really applied higher mathematics, physics, and computer science) much more difficult. After the fall of communism, however, the Russians caught up fast.
** One of the {{MacGuffin}}s at the core of ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'' is a "Gravedust" rig on a sunken Russian submarine that British intelligence believe was used to seek guidance from recently-deceased Politburo members in case the West struck first. [[spoiler: It turns out to be built to dial up something much, ''much'' older...]]

* Largely averted in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober''. The titular submarine has an experimental drive system that is extremely stealthy by Soviet standards, but an American submarine still manages to detect it because their sonar is just that good. By the end, it almost qualifies as a DeconstructedTrope with more than one character remarking how overrated the new drive system turned out to be.
* In the ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' books the Soviets have an advanced Psychic intelligence service (almost as [[CreatorProvincialism advanced as the UK's one]], the US doesn't get a look in). Their attempt at a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' style DeflectorShield bubble to cover ''[[UpToEleven The Entire USSR]]'' and protect it from nuclear attack doesn't go well and in fact [[PhlebotinumOverload accidentally blows a hole in the fabric of Space-Time creating a gateway to a vampire ridden hellhole]]. Erm, [[EpicFail oopsie]].
* Creator/OlegDivov's ''Zombie Trail'' trilogy is all about Soviet "psychotronic" weapons and their GoneHorriblyWrong side effects. The original Project came to be after an American misinformation campaign led the Soviet leadership to believe that the US was experimenting with PsychicPowers. Unintentionally, the resulting Soviet psychic program bore fruit. A "psychotronic cannon" was built that could be used to MindControl people on a massive scale. However, it had to be operated by an extremely powerful psychic. In order to create one (or more), the Children's Program was set up that involved subjecting 1000 children to radiation, hoping the resulting mutation would be psychic in nature. It was a near-complete disaster, as all but 5 children died. Some of the survivors, though, did become the coveted super-psychics, although they refused to fire the cannon. Additional experiments were conducted on metropolitan scale by building powerful mind-control generators in major Soviet cities that would eliminate all dissent. They worked for a while, until interdimensional holes started opening, letting in EnergyBeings that took over humans and became so-called "zombies" (of the fast variety). You'd think the experiments would stop in a WhatHaveIDone fashion. No such luck. The third novel reveals that the modern-day Russian version of the Project succeeded in subliminally influencing the world population into thinking that everything Russian is cool.

* The Russian multi-writer series called ''Death Zone'' is about the aftermath of a strange event involving a NegativeSpaceWedgie that wipes out several major Russian cities and creates five anomalous areas roughly 50 kilometers in diameter separated from the rest of the world by gravity bubbles. One of the novels eventually reveals that the so-called Catastrophe was, in fact, caused by the second activation of a device that was originally developed by a Soviet scientist to allow instantaneous hyperdimentional transportation. The first activation of the device on April 26, 1986, caused the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to meltdown.

* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'', according to Marian the Russian Government of 2033 wants to use Advanced Psychology, along with a reborn and self-aware neuroscience and [[ManchurianAgent Anti-Manchurians Agents]], to destroy the cultural independence of the Balkans and create a giant [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia Invincible Super Russian State]].

* Partly justified in ''Literature/AxisOfTime'', as, just like the Allies, Imperial Japan, and Nazi Germany, the Soviets get their hands on some 21st century tech. While they're still far behind the Allies due to the fact that the Allies have "uptimers" helping them and freely sharing tech, and the Soviets tortured their "uptimer" captives to death, by the third book (taking place ten years after the end of this version of UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo), the Soviets are in the lead in the field of consumer appliances (e.g. toasters, microwaves), having obtained a treasure trove of designs for them, exporting them all over the world. In addition, the title of the book (''Stalin's Hammer'') refers to a KillSat developed by Soviet scientists in the early 50s that drops tungsten rods from space. The Allies have nothing of the sort.

* Played straight in the ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' episode "Earthling".

* In the first episode of ''Series/TheTick2001'' live action TV series, the Tick and Arthur must thwart the Red Scare, a robot made in the 1970s by the Soviet Union, programmed to destroy the US President. Unaware of the present year however, the Red Scare seeks to destroy ''former'' President Carter.
* The ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episode "Iron Coffin" features the supercavitating Russian torpedo VA-111 Shkval (see real life below), which for an uninformed viewer might come across as pure fiction. However, [[spoiler:the Shkval in the episode has a serious design flaw as it re-targets the submarine which launched it. The Americans have observed it before, but the Russians thinks the Americans are interfering.]]

* Subverted in ''Series/TheAmericans'', where the Soviet scientists are clearly struggling to catch up to their American counterparts, to the point that they're resorting to industrial espionage, theft, kidnapping, and an extremely ill-advised venture into developing biological weapons (because they've realized that they'll never close the gap with the US when it comes to nuclear weapons.)
* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E20GoFish "Go Fish"]] involves the coach of Sunnydale High's swim team feeding his athletes an experimental Soviet steroid that they developed for their Olympic swim team, which got leaked to the West at the end of the Cold War. Unfortunately, it has the nasty side-effect of turning its recipients into FishPeople.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', where mining crew chief Glukhov makes a joke about the backward state of Soviet technology. Also played with in the design of the RBMK reactors. It's not that they couldn't make them safer, it's that it was cheaper to design them this way.
--> '''Andrei Glukhov:''' Comrades, what's as big as a house, takes 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shitload of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple in three pieces? (''beat'') A Soviet machine made to cut apples into '''FOUR PIECES!'''

* {{Subverted| trope}} in Wrestling/KaijuBigBattel. Mota Naru was part of a Soviet experiment to send fire ants to Mercury, which failed. It was then picked up by Team ''Space Bug''.[[/folder]]

* Contested Ground Studios' ''TabletopGame/HotWar'' is a [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual successor]] to their earlier game ''TabletopGame/ColdCity'' in which all the powers were trying to get their hands on "[[StupidJetpackHitler Twisted Technology]]" created by the Germans during UsefulNotes/WW2; in ''Hot War'', the Soviets seem to have gained the upper hand in this, and decide to use it to send the Cold War hot in 1963. After a nuclear strike, the Soviets send all manner of nightmares, from armies landed by ships that simply carry portals into arsenals in the Soviet Union (and some say much weirder locations...) through the simplest enemies, the Bayonet Troopers, up to Servitors (well, ok, Shoggoths) wandering around through the London tube tunnels (though London was spared a direct hit, the Tube, understandably, doesn't work and is largely no-mans-land). North of London, there is a zone where reality is starting to dissemble iself, and the parts are falling together in new ways. This was clearly marked, but is getting slowly larger. Welcome to the Special Situations Group; this stuff is now your job.

** Within the game, there's the [[MagneticWeapons Gauss Rifle]] [[SchizoTech (albeit with Western-style furniture)]], the game's InfinityPlusOneSword. Made by Soviet/Russian/Ukrainian scientists, it'll kill just about anything with one or two shots, but it's hellishly heavy, only available very late in the game, and getting ammo for it is difficult (in Shadow of Chernobyl, finding ammo means looting it off dead bodies, in Clear Sky it doesn't appear, and in Call of Pripyat you can buy substandard ammunition from one of the technicians).
** There are also various psychic devices (most of which serve to either [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwash you]] or just [[MindRape burn out your higher cognitive functions]]) in the games, the most famous of which is known as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Brain]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Scorcher.]] They're developed by the same scientists behind the C-Consciousness project and used as defense devices to prevent anyone finding out the truth behind the project and the Zone.

** Don't forget the mancannon-equipped amphibious transports, which also function as AA support. They are quite capable of shooting the aforementioned armoured war bears. Talk about abnormal ammo...

** This is far less noticeable in the first Red Alert, without expansions, partially because it has ''far'' less superscience overall, and partly because the Allies aren't far behind in superscience, their teleporter balancing out a Soviet invincibility generator, leaving only the weaponized Tesla coil to shift the balance in the Soviets' favour (and even then, the Allied GPS system is arguably far enough into the future of the period for it to count as a sort of super-tech). The expansions added a lot more super-science, but on both sides, setting the trend for the future games: the Soviets have Superscience, but only ''slightly'' more than the Allies[[note]]Yes, that does mean Red Alert technically fails the "far beyond their Western counterparts" part of this trope's description.[[/note]].
*** One could argue that the Soviets are actually ''lagging behind'' technologically - a large amount of the "super-science" is more or less a redux of the prior game's technology - compared to the Allies, who between Red Alert 1 and 2, developed lasers, cloaking devices, and weather control. Red Alert 1 might play it straight, but essentially every game from 2 onwards might just count as a subversion. The Soviet super-tech is just crazier and more memorable than the Allies one.

** It should be noted that the Soviets were the first to have advanced cybernetics. They had Volkov and Chitzkoi, a pair of [[HollywoodCyborg cyborgs]] who are devastating when micromanaged properly. Unfortunately, the Allies capturing and sabotaging them caused the Soviets to discontinue their cyborg program. Then in Red Alert 2, they got back into cybernetics with the Terror Drone, a small robot which is pure scary for ground forces. The Allies still didn't have any form of cybernetics. Its only until Yuri's Revenge do they finally get the Robot Tank and even then its primitive, as evident by the tank's need of a control centre to keep it functional as opposed to the independent Terror Drone (which can eat the Robot Tank inside out easily).
** ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'' removes the ILoveNuclearPower aspect (in a game involving Imperial Japan...). Now their huge reactors function with chemical power, and their superweapon is now the Vacuum Imploder, which sucks up units and deals large amounts of damage.

*** Subverted in ''Uprising'', which gives the Soviets another PoweredArmor that squirts toxic waste from the Super Reactors that can eat infantry or vehicles, a motorcycle with a mortar sidecar, and a clunky SpiderTank that spits rockets and grenades. Meanwhile, the Allies get floating artillery, freeze-gun equipped PowerArmor, and a gunship firing a miniature version of their superweapon.

** While leaning more towards realism than the Red Alert series, it still features this trope with the Chinese faction, with its nuclear reactors, MoreDakka and KillItWithFire policies applied to tanks and aircraft, towers broadcasting propaganda that heals troops, nuclear-powered tanks, nuclear ''artillery'', and twin-barreled tanks so big they can run over lesser tanks, mount gatling guns, the aforementioned propaganda towers, and entire ''bunkers''.
** The totally-not-Al-Qaida GLA faction uses old Soviet weapons like SCUD missiles modified to carry anthrax, both from trucks (as artillery) and launch sites that fire a dozen at a time (as their superweapon). The more exotic weaponry involves dune buggies with rocket launcher racks, tractors that spray anthrax, and vehicles that scavenge enemy weaponry to improve their guns.
* ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' has quite a bit of this. The game's setting is a 1950s Soviet {{Area 51}}-like area with quite a bit of super science, including a weapon that can progress/rewind space-time.
* ''VideoGame/WarFrontTurningPoint'' has the Soviet Union using "canned Siberian weather" {{Freeze Ray}}s and Freeze Bombs, as well as house-sized tanks with [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ''five'' turrets]] and building-sized artillery guns. They even steal a [[StupidJetpackHitler German]] [[MiniMecha Exoskeleton]] at one point and jury-rig it with a freeze ray.
* ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' features Nuclear Winter who is a Soviet spy dunked in his own chemicals, ''Freedom Force Vs The Third Reich'' features Red October, who for some unexplained reason is a witch.

* One of the levels in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend'' was Tesla's secret laboratory in Kazakhstan.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'' had the Soviets develop biological weapons, cryogenic sleep, and androids so advanced that the West didn't have an equal even decades later.
* A rare non-Soviet example in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: VideoGame/{{Modern Warfare}} 2''; the Russians [[spoiler:reverse engineer an American satellite component, which allows them to launch a massive trans-oceanic invasion of the US Mainland with complete surprise.]] Subverted in that they don't have tech beyond the Americans, they just cracked the American encryption codes.
* In the 1998 [[VideogameRemake remake]] of ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'', the [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Space Race between the USA and the Soviet Union]] was really about the AppliedPhlebotinum, featured [[HoverTank hovertanks]] and was fought over most of the solar system... in TheSixties. In keeping with this trope, the Soviets are the first to make the major technological advances, including one that shifts the entire tone of the plot.
* Parodied in the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PunchOut'', where Soda Popinski's Title Defense intro shows Soviet scientists working with all their might to produce... grape soda.
** Grape soda that makes Soda Popinski strong enough to ''drag a truck with his teeth''.
* Just to compliment the caption joke above: averted in ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'', where the Russians were never Communists ([[AlternateHistory the 1917 revolution was crushed]]) and were wiped out by aliens, who did have superscience.

** Not to mention the [[HumongousMecha Shagohod]] in this game. The titular Metal Gears that came later in the timeline were all developed based off the theories of a Soviet scientist - in particular, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Hu]][[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain ey's]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Otacon's]] Metal Gears were directly derived from Granin's design concepts, while the Metal Gears from the first two MSX games were designed from the ground up by another Russian scientist.
* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' recycles this in space by bringing in a University of Planet faction, ostensibly just following a ForScience ideology, but actually being thoroughly Russian in terms of flavor. The faction is led by [[JustTheFirstCitizen Academician]] Prokhor Zakharov, "Academician" being a Soviet (and now Russian) title referring to a member of the Academy of Sciences, establishing that the person possessing it is recognized by all state institutions, not just academia, as an authority in their field, similar to the British "Fellow of the Royal Society". The Academy of Science of the USSR set the general framework for dozens of other national academies worldwide, particularly in those Eurasian countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc, leading to the adoption of the title all over the world. The University of Planet is likely an {{homage}} to unified academic institutions that have fallen by the wayside since the 1990s when many of them were defunded or dismantled.
* ''VideoGame/YouAreEmpty'' is a weird Soviet-style AtomPunk story about psi-emitter designed to create a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Soviet_man "New Soviet Man"]], but it has GoneHorriblyWrong, creating insane zombies and killer Pavlov's Dogs.
* ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'' has the Red Star's forces. You fight regular troops like missile helicopters, tanks, bomber planes, SCUD missiles and ICBM missiles. Then you fight mini satellites with {{death ray}}s, HumongousMecha, and even a CoolAirship that ''SUMMONS METEORS'' via {{tractor beam}}s
* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' this is played straight both in the main storyline and partially in the Nazi Zombies mini-game. In the story-line the Russians are able to weaponize a highly lethal toxin that has been shown to kill men in mere minutes and is not easily dispersed by wind making it an effective area denial weapon and weapon of mass destruction. Furthermore they have access to anachronistic weapons that won't be introduced until the 70s or 80s, (the Americans showcase this too though) have mastered drug-induced brainwashing so advanced that you can program a man to do anything that you desire [[spoiler: even make Mason and/or Oswald kill John F. Kennedy,]] and have somehow found a way to create a base on the ocean floor without it being crushed from the sheer pressure it would faced with at such depths. Somewhat averted in the Nazi Zombies storyline as most of the technological achievements are actually achieved by Group 935 which is an international organization and have more or less equally introduced the same level of technological advancement to the Americans as they have to the Russians. However the Zombie map "Ascension" still showcases some pretty advanced technology on the Russians' part, they have created flying platforms, genetically enhanced monkeys, the Thunder Gun (a hand-held cannon that fires high-powered waves of compressed air) which contrary to Richtofen's beliefs was not made by Dr. Maxis but Dr. Gersh a Russian scientist, and Dr. Gersh as mentioned already created a small device which generates a miniature '''black hole'''.

* ''VideoGame/{{NAM 1975}}'', where the Viet Cong use super tanks, [[HumongousMecha Humongous Mechas]], hi-tech weaponry such as [[EnergyWeapon lasers]], etc.
* ''VideoGame/{{Awesomenauts}}'' has Yuri, a 1960's space race monkey shot into orbit with a jetpack. Disappearing into a warp field and turning into a radioactive genius, he gets lasers, builds a computer all while playing his Russian musical anthem and chatting with a deep accented voice. The American character? He's a cowboy!

* ''VideoGame/AtomRPG'' is a ''Fallout''-like game that takes place in an alternative Soviet Union devastated by a nuclear war that happened in 1986. In this setting, the advanced Soviet technology of the pre-nuclear war world is more advanced than in our history, but it is hidden or dispersed in many abandoned Soviet military bases, abandoned underground bunkers, secret bases and scientific and technological research centers. It is sought after by both the ATOM and the Mycelium, which aim to control and dominate these advanced technologies.
* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' horror mod ''Paranoia'' eventually reveals that there was an attempt at creating a SuperSoldier using viruses, only for the project to [[GoneHorriblyWrong go to hell]] and the first lab ([=KROT-1=]) was sealed off; however, the Russian Government continued in the [=KROT-2=] and the current lab, [=KROT-3=]), which led to the events of the game after the protagonist stumbles upon the lab when a terrorist attack opens them, only for a signal in the [=KROT-1=] lab to cause the more advanced super soldiers to turn hostile. The sequel continues this, ending with a blatant reference to ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater''.

* In ''FanFic/TheReturn'' we have a group of nuclear powered, female, cyborg, Soviet, mercenary assassins.
* The CreepyPasta, ''[[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Russian_Sleep_Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment]]'' involves the testing of a drug straight out of this realm. The squeamish should probably avoid it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', the KGB captured Barry when he was grievously injured (thanks to Archer), and they rebuilt him as a cyborg hellbent on getting revenge on Archer.
* Played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' in which Bill learns that he was unwittingly part of an experiment to create super-soldiers who could fight in the Arctic, and this might be the cause of his weight gain. While the experiment sounds idiotic, Hank insists that it probably made sense at the time, because the US government seriously thought the Soviet Union had secret weapons up their sleeves.

* In the end, we cannot forget the example of Soviet Superscience that quite possibly defined the latter half of the 20th century: The plutonium-implosion bomb that detonated at 7:00 am on the 29th of August, 1949, at Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The bomb, developed five years quicker than the Anglo-US intelligence services believed possible, turned out to be 50% more destructive than the Soviet scientists had believed possible, as it destroyed one of the most elaborate nuclear test sites (a small mockup city, complete with metro system and a "garrison" of heavy military equipment and animals, was annihilated). Notably, the Soviet science teams made little use of the data they received from the Manhattan Project; their "Prince of Science", Igor Kurchatov, restricted the team to using the US designs only to check their work. The Soviet detonation had many names: RDS-1. Article 501. Joe-1. But it was the name the science teams gave to the test that will live in history: ''Первая молния, Pervaya molniya'' - "First Lightning".

** While gigantic nuclear explosions may be [[IncrediblyLamePun flashy]], the actual benefit from running a totalitarian society with [[AtomicHate no anti-nuclear press]] allowed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_National_Economy the use of smaller controlled nuclear explosions]] [[MundaneUtility for excavation, oil drilling and sealing of gas well fires]]. This is a field where the Western powers did not venture after [[TheSixties the 1960s]].
* It's not only ''military'' nuclear power. When the Soviets announced in 1969 that they maintained 10 million kelvin plasma in their T-3 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak tokamak]] for 10 milliseconds, the western scientists [[http://www.iter.org/newsline/102/1401 were so skeptical (it was about ten times what anyone else managed) that they demanded their own team be allowed to check]].
* The date is October 4, 1957. Sitting on the pad is a modified R-7 rocket, the world's first operational ICBM. But on this day, it doesn't carry a warhead- it carries a small metal sphere, about the size of a beach ball, with four whip like antennae and a radio transmitter. It is known as PS-1- "Elementary Satellite 1"- by the Russians, and soon, to the rest of the world, it would be known as "Sputnik 1". On that day, the Russians blew the United States out of the water with the massive triumph of the world's first functioning artificial satellite. Anybody who doubted the existence of the Sputnik could simply tune to a certain frequency (a bit higher than 20 MHZ, according to the Russian press) and hear its transmitter's steady beeping signal. Before this, the overwhelming idea of Russia to most Americans was a backwards country that could not compete with the US's might- after this, it suddenly became superior in most Americans' minds, a juggernaut nation that had to be contained at all costs. American politicians gazed up at the small, visible polished sphere passing over their heads and wondered what else the Soviets could carry into space- perhaps nuclear warheads, military spacecraft, or something worse. While it did not return much data itself, being a simple battery transmitter in space, its legacy kickstarted the Space Race, and led to a certain American taking the first steps on the Moon in 1969.
* There was a Soviet attempt to create [[HalfHumanHybrid man-chimpanzee hybrids]] for use as workers. Didn't work, but explains the weird science aspect they get in fiction. The precise details of that infamous experiment, which is usually considered (understandably) little more than an UrbanLegend, is that the Soviet scientist who did it worked more or less alone, only got a grant from Stalin due to red tape [[note]]and probably would have been shot if Stalin had discovered what he was actually doing. [[/note]], the experiment consisted of trying to use human sperm to artificially inseminate orangutans [[note]]They didn't know about the close genetic relationship between humans and chimps [[/note]], and his actual goal was to "prove" evolution and use that to stymie the political power of the Russian Orthodox Church, not to make {{Super Soldier}}s.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole A twelve-kilometre-deep hole in the ground]]. Y'know, [[ForScience for science]]. Or something.
* Real life averted: late-70s tinfoil hatter "Dr." [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Beter Peter Beter]] (believe it or not, his real name) entertained many fantasies about Soviet technology, including the existence of "cosmospheres", which were apparently large, blimp-like spacecraft. His, er, theories were carried into the 1990s by noted Usenet kook Robert [=McElwaine=].
* Subversion. A lot of Russia's best technology has never been super-science, but BoringButPractical. The T-34 tank is considered by some to have been the best of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII despite inconsistent quality control (some were superb, others were lemons) and maniacal saving on every non-essential part. Also Soviet small arms have long been quite good - they were usually disregarded by non-shooters due to their ugliness, but when it came to reliability, quality of steels and alloys used, rate of fire for automatic weapons and accuracy of rifles, it was a different kettle of fish.
** On the less bellicose side, Russia makes some pretty good bush planes and similar heavy weather equipment, ''very'' [[BigBadassRig strong offroad heavy trucks]] (inasmuch as one can say there are heavy trucks, very heavy trucks and Russian trucks) and pretty good and reliable if less fanciful watches (they capitalize on simplicity, sturdiness and reliability for medium-priced watches, using dated 21,600 vibration-per-hour calibers, as opposed to modern Swiss 28,800 and 36,000 vph).

* Speaking of Soviet small arms, the AK-47 and its many, many descendants. The Kalashnikovs may not be the most accurate and their ergonomics aren't the best, but it is ''unfailingly'' reliable- as one expert put it, a weapon that you could take to hell and back. Whether in the jungles of Vietnam or arid Afghanistan or the Siberian Tundra, whether you run it over with a truck or bury it in a corpse-filled bog for a year until it is covered over with rust, the gun will fire as though it were brand new.

* The Soviet space program managed to build the longest-lasting probes ever to touch the surface of Venus. While most the US had one probe launch the ground through dumb luck, Venera 13 survived on the ground transmitting data for a record-setting 127 minutes before being crushed, melted, and dissolved by the harsh Venusian atmosphere. Sure, Venus is a DeathWorld, [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong but at least it's not Siberia.]]

** The Russian manned space program is still very much active, while its US counterpart is essentially defunct. So, at least in some sectors, (ex-)Soviets did get to bury Americans (in the original sense meant by Khrushchev--i.e. "we will outlast you so that we'll be at your funeral.")

** The enormous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/n1_(rocket) N-1)]] super-heavy launch vehicle and moon rocket that was the Soviet counterpart to the US's Saturn V both averts this trope, in that all four test flights ended in [[MadeOfExplodium explosive failures]], as well as plays this straight in some of the things that carried on from the N-1. The Soviet moon rocket was an enormously complicated rocket with 30 engines in its first stage alone, and there was never enough money and time (the Soviets having accomplished their feats of spaceflight on a significantly smaller budget than the American space program) to iron out the faults, with none of the test flights having went beyond the first stage. But while the N-1 never had a single success, the engines developed for it, the NK-33 and NK-43, are marvels, that after sitting in a warehouse for decades when the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_manned_lunar_programs Soviet lunar program]] was cancelled, astounded the West with their phenomenal performance characteristics. It and its derivatives are now going on to be used in rockets of Russian and American designs.

* Some people in the West believed it well enough to attempt to use it for their own goals - such as the aborted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi-Gulfstream_S-21 attempt to develop a supersonic business jet in 1991]] between Sukhoi [=OKB=] and Gulfstream.

* There have also been several real-life inversions of the trope wherein Soviet technology is vastly underestimated only to turn out surprisingly ''better'' in ways Western intelligence hadn't even considered. For example, for much of the latter half of the Cold War the R-73 was assumed to have been inferior to the AIM-9 Sidewinder[[note]]Probably because Russian heat-seeking missiles got their start with a crude clone of a 1st-generation Sidewinder; it was simply assumed the Russian designers couldn't have possibly outdone the vastly improved third-generation Sidewinders without having another example to copy from.[[/note]]--until NATO got their hands on their first copies of the non-export-version R-73. They were stunned at how good it was. It was far more agile than the AIM-9, with a much wider seeker arc, and the helmet sight (which the Soviets also fielded before NATO) offered a huge advantage in a dogfight. The one advantage NATO had was in seeker computer tech, since the R-73's was rather crude--but this was little comfort, since when they tested their own far more advanced Sidewinders on Soviet decoys they found that for all its high tech seeker, the AIM-9 was still really easy to decoy with the dirty-burning Russian flares. It should have been better, but in a serious technological oversight the Sidewinder's developers had optimized the missile seeker to [[GoneHorriblyRight discriminate NATO flares]], [[RockBeatsLaser not cruder Russian ones]]. It led to a huge crisis of confidence--ironically, a reaction more in line with the trope played straight--and a significant push by NATO air forces to catch up in this area (with the American AIM-9X and British ASRAAM basically having the design requirement of being able to do everything the R-73 could), the fruits of which we are seeing today.
* There exists '''one''' field where Russia is agreed, by experts on '''both''' sides of the Iron Curtain, to have maintained industrial supremacy since the fall of the Tsar, and that is the manufacture of precision optical instruments. Other nations may best Russia in their design, but when it comes to making high-end optics that have already been designed, Russia has 95% market-share. There are only 3 manufacturers in the entire world that produce the large mirrors and lenses used in the telescopes of astronomical observatories; one in Russia (Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory, abbreviated [=LZOS=] in Russian), one in Germany (Schott AG), and one in France (known until 2005 as [=SAGEM=] for "''Société d’Applications Générales de l’Électricité et de la Mécanique''". In '05 they merged with French aerospace company [=SNECMA=] to form Safran, and the new name for the division that makes optical components is [=RÉOSC=] for "''Recherche et Étude en Optique et Sciences Connexes''"). But the German firm only manufactures the rough blanks, and doesn't have the required personnel or materiel for precision-grinding needed to machine the glass to the extremely tight tolerances needed for telescope mirrors. The French firm can't make the rough blanks, they can only do the precision grinding with already-casted roughs. The Russian factory is the only facility in the world that does '''both''' processes in a single factory. Moreover, St. Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad and prior to that as Petrograd) has an optical-instruments manufacturer known as [=LOMO=], which is, to this day, widely regarded as one of the finest builders of telescopes, cameras, and medical optical instruments in the world. There is a '''very''' good reason why so many gun owners insist on fitting their firearms with Russian optics.
** Recently, Russia consolidated much of its optical industry, including LOMO, LZOS and UOMZ (Ural Optical-Mechanical Plant) into one umbrella company and rebranded it as a "Schwabe holding", named after a Swiss optician Theodor Schwabe who opened a first optical lab producing first domestic Russian glasses and telescopes in Moscow in 1837, which, through a number of reacquisitions, mergers and bureaucratic reshuffles became a predecessor to the current UOMZ plant, an anchor part of the company. Since then Schwabe group developed a rather aggressive market policy, trying to expand into new markets and acquire new subsidiaries in such disparate fields as medical tech and automotive and airplane engines. For example, it currently holds a large part of European market for the baby incubators, due to the long-established expertize UOMZ has in producing them.[[note]]It started producing incubators back in TheSixties, when someone noticed a similarity between the needs of a prematurely delivered baby and the high-quality optical glass crucible — UOMZ by then produced its own controlled-atmosphere chambers.[[/note]]
* One of the key technologies of the Lockheed-Martin's F-35B STOVL fighter, the afterburning vectoring nozzle of its PW F135-400 engine, was actually developed in the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] at the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar for the Soviet Yak-141 VTOL fighter. Lockheed and Yakovlev briefly collaborated in the [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia early Nineties]], and Yakovlev sold them much of its know-how, including the full set of documentation on the cancelled Yak-141. And it doesn't just extends to the nozzle — if you compare the two jets, the similarity is pretty uncanny.
* [[OlderThanTheyThink This actually extends back to the Imperial era.]]

* The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlertSeries'' gives those DirtyCommunists mind-controlled squids, cloning vats, Weaponized Tesla Coils, six-legged amphibious boats with double Tesla coils, armored [[BearsAreBadNews war bears]], huge zeppelins with megaton bombs, nuclear [[NegativeSpaceWedgie vacuum]] [=ICBMs=], weapon-stealing tanks, magnetic satellites [[SerialEscalation AND MORE]].

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals''
** While leaning more towards realism than the Red Alert series, it still features this trope with the Chinese faction, with its nuclear reactors, MoreDakka and KillItWithFire policies applied to tanks and aircraft, towers broadcasting propanganda that heals troops, nuclear-powered tanks, nuclear ''artillery'', and tanks so big they can run over lesser tanks, mount gatling guns, the aforementioned propaganda towers, and entire ''bunkers''.
** The totally-not-Al-Qaida GLA faction uses old Soviet weapons like SCUD missiles modified to carry anthrax, both from trucks (as artillery) and launch sites that fire a dozen at a time (as their superweapon).

* The TrainingMontage in ''Film/RockyIV'' shows how [[HuskyRuskie Ivan]] [[TheBrute Drago]] trains with advanced technology, supervised by a group of scientists and doctors, and at one point gets injected with an unspecified drug.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', Zhdanov's "Ultravisionaries" is a faction of the Communist Party of Komi that desires to create a technologically advanced Soviet Union that will allow them to defeat their fascist and capitalist enemies, unite the Earth, and go on liberate the aliens across the stars and create a Universal Soviet Federation. The Ultravisionaries will dedicate significant effort and resources on science, no matter how outlandish they are; laser tanks, human cybernetics, shared consciousness, even telepathy are just some of the projects they can pursue, and they're trying to develop these things in the ''60s''.

** Before [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober the Russian Revolution]] and his subsequent departure to the United States, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky Igor Sikorsky]] designed the first four-engine airliner "Russky Vityaz", and the first heavy bomber "Ilya Muromets". The latter resulted in one of Russia's current [[RealLife/CoolPlane Tu-160 "Blackjack"]] strategic bombers (all 35 of which are [[NamedWeapon individually named]] after famous Russians) being named "Igor Sikorsky". This created some controversy, because Sikorsky is much more famous (even in Russia) for his development of American helicopters than for his Russian bomber.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', Zhdanov's "Ultravisionaries" attempt to develop scientific discoveries with mixed results as some of them prove to be quite successful, even if others prove to be utter failures.

* ''VideoGame/{{NAM 1975}}'', where the Viet Cong use super tanks, [[HumongousMecha Humongous Mechas]], hi-tech weaponry such as [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]], etc.

* Pops up in some of Charles Stross' stories.

** Similarly, one of the {{MacGuffin}}s at the core of ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'' is a "Gravedust" rig on a sunken Russian submarine that British intelligence believe was used to seek guidance from recently-deceased Politburo members in case the West struck first. [[spoiler: It turns out to be built to dial up something much, ''much'' older...]]

* {{Discussed}} and {{averted}} in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' by Creator/CharlesStross. Unlike [[{{Ghostapo}} the Nazis]] and the West, the Soviets never really got into the occult intelligence business because of counterproductive state policies. State-sponsored atheism contradicts the requirement of believing in [[EldritchAbomination demonic intelligences beyond our spacetime]], and preventing development of computers makes "magic" (which is really applied higher mathematics, physics, and computer science) much more difficult. After the fall of communism however, the Russians caught up fast.

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' recycles this in space by bringing in a University of Planet faction, ostensibly just following a ForScience ideology, but actually being thoroughly Russian in terms of flavor.
** The faction is led by [[JustTheFirstCitizen Academician]] Prokhor Zakharov. "Academician" is a Soviet (and now Russian) equivalent to a Western "Doctor" or "Professor".
*** Not exactly: it means "a member of the Academy of Sciences", and as such, as a specific title--it establishes that he or she possessing it is recognized by all state institutions, not just academia, as an authority in their field, similar to the British "Fellow of the Royal Society". The Academy of Science of the USSR set the general framework for dozens of other national academies worldwide, particularly in Eurasia, leading to the adoption of the title all over the world. The University of Planet is likely an {{Homage}} to unified academic institutions that have fallen by the wayside since the 1990s when many of them were defunded or dismantled.

* The upcoming Russian superhero film ''Film/{{Guardians}}'' has the titular four-person team be composed of representatives of four of the former Soviet republics, all of which were subjects to experimentation by Soviet scientists not long before the collapse of the USSR (a newspaper is shown with the headline "Genetics in service of the people"). The team includes a [[EverythingIsWorseWithBears werebear]], a KnifeNut [[SuperSpeed speedster]], an [[DishingOutDirt earth elemental]], and a woman, who has {{Invisibility}}, flexibility, temperature resistance, and doesn't need air. And the BigBad is their creator, who has turned himself into a cyborg and can manipulate any technology he sees and has a clone army.

* ''VideoGame/AtomRPG'' is a ''Fallout''-like game, that takes place in an alternative soviet Union devastated by a nuclear war happened in 1986, setting in a Post-Apocalyptic post-nuclear War Soviet Union, in this setting, the advanced soviet technology is more advanced than in our history,but it is hidden or dispersed in a many abandonend Soviet Military Bases, abandonend underground Bunkers, secret base and scientific and technological research centers...the advanced Soviet technologies of the pre-nuclear war world, which, however, ended up dispersed after the nuclear war, locked up or confined to Abandoned or Hidden research laboratories or "Naukograd" or military bunkers or underground bunkers or military bases, all sought after by both the ATOM and the Mycelium, which aims to control and dominate the Soviet "Superscience", to control and dominate advanced Soviet technologies ...

** Well, not exactly. Walter does mentions the Russians were up to their own Fringe Science during TheColdWar, but the MonsterOfTheWeek in the episode was NOT their creation, but rather something that infected and bonded with one of their cosmonauts.

** Not to mention the [[HumongousMecha Shagohod]] in this game. The titular Metal Gears that came later in the timeline were all developed based off the theories of a Soviet scientist - in particular, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Huey's]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Otacon's]] Metal Gears were directly derived from Granin's design concepts, while the Metal Gears from the first two MSX games were designed from the ground up by another Russian scientist.

** This is probably based on the phenomenon of the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Woodpecker Russian Woodpecker]]", an odd low-frequency shortwave signal caused by the over-the-horizon radar system in the Ukraine that irritated European ham radio operators during the '70s and '80s.

** However, mud and dirt torture tests have proven this to be mostly a myth. The large gaps inherent to the AK design allow dirt and mud right into the inner workings, clogging and jamming them into inoperability. Meanwhile, the tighter tolerances of the AR platform kept the mechanisms clean and running smoothly. The AR/M-16's reliability issues during Vietnam were caused by changes to the ammunition, not a problem with the weapon itself, though that reputation continues to plague it.