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1[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/AtomicHeart https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atomic_twins_tech_8.jpg]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Welcome to the future, comrade!]]
3
4->''"We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us."''
5-->-- '''UsefulNotes/JosefStalin''', 1931[[note]][[HarsherInHindsight Ten years later]], [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII invaded]].[[/note]]
6
7The tendency to give those DirtyCommies from the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] technologies far beyond their Western counterparts in UsefulNotes/ColdWar or futuristic settings (not that the U.S. is left out, as long as both sides are in a LensmanArmsRace). Expect lots of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla technology.
8
9Something of a DiscreditedTrope and usually only played for laughs. After the end of the Cold War, "abandoned Soviet experiments" was frequently used to HandWave the continued appearance of menacing communist super-weapons in a world that suddenly had fewer communists.
10
11It is worth noting that historically the most recognizable disciplines of any superscience -- genetics and cybernetics -- received a poor start in the U.S.S.R. 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 took power and U.S.S.R.'s first computer was finished in the mid-1950s.
12
13The Soviet record on science includes astounding triumphs -- they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin put the first human in space]] and contributed immensely to theoretical physics (there were several Soviet Nobel laureates in physics, including Andrei Sakharov and Lev Landau, and the Landau-Lifshitz textbooks on theoretical physics still remain among the best) -- and also laughable failures, such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism Lysenkoism]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union the abuse of psychiatry for "rehabilitation" purposes]]. The U.S.S.R. pioneered [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_keratotomy modern corrective eye surgery]], yet fell behind in steel manufacturing, despite experimenting with it the longest. The Soviets, however, loved nuclear power -- the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid went online in the U.S.S.R. (too bad the UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} accident [[NeverLiveItDown ruined that reputation]]). Thus, this trope certainly has ''some'' basis in fact. Of course, the inconsistencies can be [[HandWave handwaved]] by the means of an AlternateUniverse, as ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' testifies.
14
15Historically, 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 U.S.S.R. 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.
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17The common idea nowadays is that UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia won't be able to have anything vastly superior for awhile either due to economic problems and lack of funding, or the resulting lack of personnel. While there is some truth in this, Russia is still a huge industrially developed nation more-or-less tied with Germany as the largest economy in UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}, so it might be able to keep up though, which is largely what the Soviet Union did (the mass scale war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} since early 2022 has proven that Russia does have potent modern war technologies about as much as outdated ones as the war drags on). The fall of the Soviet Union is often used as a reason why long-abandoned Soviet Superscience is once again rearing its ugly head, it having been forgotten about, lost in the confusion or sold off by corrupt handlers in the post-Soviet restructuring of Russian society. Admittedly, the same story was used by many a charlatan in Russia as well.
18
19This trope is a form of HistoricalVillainUpgrade if the Soviets are portrayed as villains in the story.
20
21StupidJetpackHitler 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 {{Mad Scien|tist}}ce. 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.
22----
23!!Example subpages:
24[[index]]
25* SovietSuperscience/VideoGames
26* SovietSuperscience/RealLife
27[[/index]]
28
29!!Other examples:
30[[foldercontrol]]
31
32[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
33* ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' is set in an AlternateHistory where the Cold War never ended and both the United States and the Soviet Union have developed [[HumongousMecha Arm Slave]] technology.
34** Not only that, the 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 superscience 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]].
35* Apocryphal, but in a panel discussing ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'', author Hirohiko Araki clarified that the [[StupidJetpackHitler superpowered cyborg]] Colonel Stroheim fell in the Battle of Stalingrad at the hands of a Soviet Stand user.
36* ''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.
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Comic Books]]
40* The ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' has its share of Soviet experiments gone awry, particularly from the days of the Cold War.
41** The Red Room basically existed on this trope, being the Soviet answer to ComicBook/{{Hydra}} and, arguably, even more terrifying, considering that they gave the world both ComicBook/{{Black Widow}}s (Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova) and [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes the Winter Soldier]].
42** ''ComicBook/IronMan'':
43*** Soviet scientists trying to get a leg up on American engineering with bizarre creations like the Unicorn and the Titanium Man formed the glut of Iron Man's original RoguesGallery.
44*** The original Crimson Dynamo was a Soviet scientist who invents a PoweredArmor suit which also allows the wearer to [[ShockAndAwe control electricity]]. He subsequently defected and [[HeroicSacrifice died keeping the Soviets from stealing his armor]], though they later built newer models for other agents.
45** ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The very first opponent who the Hulk fought (other than the U.S. 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 (above) 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 ''ComicBook/ArmorWars'', leading to the Gremlin's accidental death.
46** ''ComicBook/SecretWarps:'' Weapon Hex has to go up against the Mad Ghost, a Communist supervillain with an army of android apes, who plans to use his super-science to make Weapon Hex and her sister serve the state, one way or another.
47** ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'': Omega Red is the Soviet-era counterpart to Wolverine -- a mutant whose powers were augmented by government-sponsored super-science, which in Red's case also gave him [[{{Unobtainium}} carbonadium]] CombatTentacles.
48** The ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' series ''[[ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy Ultimate Nightmare]]'' takes 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.
49* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'': In "SOS Meteors", it's revealed that the Soviet Bloc has developed [[WeatherControlMachine 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.
50* 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".
51* The obscure noir superhero series ''The Winter Men'' imagines a massive military-industrial operation throughout Soviet history to build mechanical and biological super-beings. It doesn't work, but not quite for the reason you'd expect.
52* Though it's technically a FantasyCounterpartCulture, this trope abounds in ''ComicBook/TheRedStar''.
53%%* ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Ghost Projekt]]'' - ZCE
54* In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', the {{Spiritual Successor}}s of the Soviet Union are the [[MegaCity megacities]] East-Meg One and Two, which are at par with [[SuperweaponSurprise and occasionally ahead of]] western technology.
55* Another ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' strip, ''ComicBook/ABCWarriors'', has the Volgans, who are similar in the above respect.
56[[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Fan Works]]
59* ''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.]]
60* ''Fanfic/HalloweenUnspectacular'': The story "Cold War", from the seventh edition, is built around a secret Soviet facility in Siberia. Originally commissioned by Stalin to create a weapon capable of matching the American nuclear arsenal, the experiments at this facility instead created a permanent portal to AnotherDimension full of monsters. The base now exists solely to keep these monsters in check, fighting off their constant attacks, in order to keep them from overrunning Siberia (and, it's implied, the rest of the world).
61* In ''FanFic/TheReturn'', we have a group of nuclear-powered cyborg Soviet female mercenary assassins.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
65* In ''Film/DrStrangelove'' the Soviets build a DoomsdayDevice 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.
66* In ''Film/Leviathan1989'' the Russians conduct an experiment aimed at breeding a new species - the aquatic man. The "volunteers" are soldiers, [[ForScience never informed of the fact]], and the original experiment predictably turns out to have GoneHorriblyWrong, but when [[AmericaSavesTheDay several Americans accidentally discover its remnants and mess with them]], it eventually ends up GoneHorriblyRight.
67* ''Film/{{Firefox}}'' has the Soviets build a new superplane, the [=MiG-31=] (not to be confused with the RealLife [=MiG-31=]). This plane is capable of Mach 6 and has thought-launched weapons, technologies that still don't fully exist today.
68* ''Film/{{Goldeneye}}'' has a [[KillSat satellite-launched]] {{EMP}} weapon taken over by [[RenegadeRussian criminal elements in the Soviet space program command]].
69** In RealLife, electronic warfare, including EMP weapons, was and still is a very active area of Russian military research, and theatre ballistic missiles with EMP warheads are actually in the field testing right now.
70* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' has Irina Spalko and her fellow Communists searching for the {{Crystal Skull}}s. 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.
71* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' is a 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.
72* The 2005 Russian {{mockumentary}} ''Pervye Na Lune'' ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_on_the_Moon First on the Moon]]) shows "proof" that the Soviets actually sent a man to the Moon and back... in 1938...
73* In ''Film/WarGames'', the simulated war at one point includes twenty-two Typhoon-class submarines departing Petropavlovsk. In fact, the Soviets only ever built six Typhoon-class submarines, only one of which was in existence at the time the film was made. Also, none of them was ever based in Kamchatka. Given U.S. intelligence's tendency to overestimate Soviet military strength (see Real Life), it could be Joshua making the mistake in-universe.
74* ''Film/IronMan2'': Anton Vanko, a Soviet defector, co-developed the arc reactor technology with Tony's father in the 1960s. Otherwise generally averted in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, as projects that were examples of this in the comics are either Soviet ''or'' superscience, but not both: the Black Widow program was simply TrainingFromHell, while the Winter Soldier was a [[spoiler:HYDRA]] project as opposed to Russian.
75* In the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', the [[PsychicBlockDefense telepathy-blocking]] helmet that stymies Xavier in every movie is apparently of Russian make according to ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.
76* ''Film/HarbingerDown'' opens with a Soviet LK moon lander ComingInHot after [[spoiler:an experiment to make a cosmonaut immune to radiation has GoneHorriblyWrong]].
77* The Russian superhero film ''Film/Guardians2017'' 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 [[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.
78* The TrainingMontage in ''Film/RockyIV'' contrasts Rocky's ImprovisedTraining with [[HuskyRusskie Ivan]] [[TheBrute Drago]] using advanced technology, supervised by a group of scientists and doctors, and at one point gets injected with steroids.
79* The "Kolossus" (a [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Colossal Titan]] {{Expy}} as a self-aware HumongousMecha) from ''[[Film/MegaSharkVsGiantOctopus Mega Shark vs Kolossus]]'' are said to be a forgotten Soviet superweapon.
80* ''Film/{{Firebase}}''. The [[RealityWarper River God]] has cybernetic modifications from NVA surgeons. It's implied this technology (and that of the American characters) was developed by stealing it from more advanced realities, as an American soldier witnesses an alternate reality of Soviet forces invading the United States with advanced VTOL aircraft and massive land crawlers.
81[[/folder]]
82
83[[folder:Literature]]
84* In Creator/DaleBrown's books, while the former-Soviets-now-Russians needed to reverse-engineer American tech for most of their new toys, they did come up with powerful anti-satellite lasers on their own.
85* Pops up in some of Creator/CharlesStross' stories.
86** {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{averted|Trope}} 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.
87** 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...]]
88** In the novelette ''Literature/AColderWar'', set in an AlternateHistory where the Cold War was fought with the powers of the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Great Old Ones]], the Soviets not only weaponize shoggoths and deploy them in Afghanistan, but they have an ultimate doomsday weapon called 'K-Thulu' in a giant concrete bunker in the Ukraine.
89** The short story "Missile Gap", set in a world where Earth of 1962 was duplicated and laid on a gigantic disc, has the Soviet Union exploring the new world in a giant nuclear-powered [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle ekranoplan]].
90* Largely {{averted|Trope}} 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.
91* 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 ''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]].
92* 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 mind-control 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.
93* ''Red Plenty'' by Francis Spufford is an partly nonfictional, partly novelistic work, exploring how the Soviet Union tried to harness computers and cybernetics which, coupled with central planning, seemed to offer a way for the country to catch up with and even surpass America in providing its citizens with a good standard of living. [[note]]Preliminary experiments in economy automation had shown nearly miraculous results in improving efficiency and fighting graft and corruption among management, but it turned out that in the informal favors-based economy of the late Soviet Union the ''real'' economic agents had little interest in that. In fact, when the computerized accounting showed that the enterprise directors has amassed enormous stocks of highly sought-after resources (for the informal trade) that ostensibly had to be fairly distributed, and that fact alone blocked several important projects, the Soviet police moved in, and, few convictions later, the influential figures in the Government put political pressure to have the program scaled back and eventually cancelled.[[/note]] The story ends when the idea died out in Brezhnev's day, when cynical realism triumphed over communist idealism; the USSR limped on through the Brezhnev era, coasting on petrodollars instead of actually putting its massive industrial potential to good use.
94* 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 hyperdimensional transportation. The first activation of the device on April 26, 1986, caused the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to meltdown.
95* In ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', the narrator/protagonist advances the theory that the eponymous killer plants were created by Soviet bioengineers, but whether he is correct or not is never revealed.
96* The Scrambler (a radio-wave weapon that destroys voluntary muscle control) in Ralph Peters' ''The War in 2020''.
97* 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 anti-{{Manchurian Agent}}s, to destroy the cultural independence of the Balkans and create a giant [[PostSovietReunion invincible super-Russian state]].
98* In the novel sci-fi novel ''Who?'' by Creator/AlgisBudrys, the Soviets kidnap an American scientist after he was horribly injured in an accident. To help him recover, they perform extensive surgery on him. When he returns to the west he has a robotic face, head and arm, which makes him difficult to identify and extremely suspicious.
99* Partly {{justified|Trope}} 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/WorldWarII), 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.
100* Creator/CliveCussler's ''Literature/DeepSix1984'' presents some neat and almost miraculous Soviet psycho-tech, although it then subverts it by showing that this is actually the ''worst'' psycho-tech around.
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
104* Played straight in the ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' episode "[[Recap/FringeS02E06Earthling Earthling]]".
105** Well, not exactly. Walter does mentions the Russians were up to their own Fringe Science during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, but the MonsterOfTheWeek in the episode was NOT their creation, but rather something that infected and bonded with one of their cosmonauts.
106* In the first episode of ''Series/TheTick2001'', 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.
107* The ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episode "[[Recap/JAGS06E15IronCoffin 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 think the Americans are interfering]].
108** This example also counts on a ''meta'' level, as the real-life stock ''Shkval'' [[spoiler:is unguided and is physically unable to re-target itself, being in effect an underwater rocket]], but [[RuleOfDrama was given imaginary capabilities for the sake of drama]].
109* {{Subverted|Trope}} 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).
110* 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.
111* ''Series/{{Taken}}'': In "Jacob and Jesse", Owen Crawford believes that the successful launch of Sputnik 1 is due to the Soviets capturing an alien ship and managing to determine how it works.
112* {{Subverted|Trope}} 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.
113-->'''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!'''
114* A major plot point in season three of ''Series/StrangerThings'' concerns the Soviet Union's efforts to study and enter [[EldritchLocation the Upside Down]], presumably for the same reasons the Americans were doing so: to spy on their enemies. In a subversion, the American program wound up far ahead of theirs (at least, before things [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]]) owing to the town of Hawkins, Indiana having very favorable conditions for accessing the Upside Down, causing the Soviets to send spies to Hawkins to piggy-back off the Americans' research. [[spoiler:Through a front company and with the assistance of [[CorruptPolitician the corrupt mayor of Hawkins]], they built the Starcourt Mall as a cover for an ElaborateUndergroundBase on US soil, where they attempt to open their own portal to the Upside Down. While exploring their base, Erica, a young girl filled with Reagan-era PatrioticFervor and love of capitalism, mocks the base's design (particularly there being only one way in or out, via elevator) as a safety hazard, suggesting that they [[CuttingCorners cut corners]]. TheStinger at the end of the season, showing that the Soviets have captured a live Demogorgon, implies that they have managed to open their own gate at a facility in Kamchatka, since creatures from the Upside Down [[KeystoneArmy cannot survive in our world without a direct link to their home dimension]] via an open portal.]]
115[[/folder]]
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117[[folder:Music]]
118* The video for Music/{{Metallica}}'s "All Nightmare Long" gives Soviet scientists AppliedPhlebotinum that is used as regenerative medicine... and to cause a ZombieApocalypse on the North American continent.
119[[/folder]]
120
121[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
122* {{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''.
123[[/folder]]
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125[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
126* Contested Ground Studios' ''Hot War'' is a sequel to their earlier game ''Cold City'' in which all the powers were trying to get their hands on "[[StupidJetpackHitler Twisted Technology]]" created by the Germans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; 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 itself, 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.
127* ''TabletopGame/ConspiracyX'': Project Rasputin was the Soviet answer to American research projects on national and global paranormal threats, with the real historical early 1950s Soviet research into extrasensory perception being fully incorporated into canon.
128* In ''[[TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse Sentinel Comics: The RPG]]'', Soviet Super Science is responsible for the villain team Perestroika. To wit:
129** Proletariet got his powers from Soviet experimentation with an OblivAeon shard.
130** Same thing with a soviet villain named Iron Curtain, minus the OblivAeon shard thing. His daughter proceeded to inherit his powers.
131** Marxman (cue rimshot) has been alive for years, also due to Soviet Superscience.
132** And finally there's, of all things, Mecha Stalin. Whether or not he's the actual Stalin is ambiguous but the main point is that he is a Cyborg made by Soviet Superscience.
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135[[folder:Web Originals]]
136* The {{Creepypasta}} ''[[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Russian_Sleep_Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment]]'' involves five Soviet political prisoners during World War II being [[SleepDeprivationPunishment kept awake for fifteen days]] via an experimental gas, both as torture and as an experiment, the result of which is quite scary even to the scientists.
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139[[folder:Western Animation]]
140* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' had the Russians working on a sentient beard, so the US developed a mustache.
141** Another episode [[WeaponizedLandmark had the Kremlin domes doubling as ''missiles'']].
142*** Presumably, it's supposed to be St. Basil's Cathedral, which westerners often mistake for the Kremlin.
143* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', the KGB captures Barry when he is grievously injured (thanks to Archer) and [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilds him into a cyborg]] hellbent on getting revenge on Archer.
144* [[PlayingWithATrope 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.
145* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' has a supporting character, the Russian superhero Red Star, who's the product of a Cold War-Era Soviet project to develop the perfect SuperSoldier only to turn him into a living, walking nuclear reactor, besides rapidly [[OlderThanTheyLook decelerating his aging]] (hence, why someone born during the Cold War could be part of the "Teen" Titans). His debut have him ''nearly'' destroying a village in order to stop a rampaging monster, and he returns in subsequent episodes as allies to the Titans.
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