Characters / TNO Western Siberia

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West Siberian Unifiers

Tyumen

^{Flag at the regional stage}

^{Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}

Official Name: West Siberian People's Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (national unification)

Ruling Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

A self-declared Soviet successor state that subscribes to Marxism-Leninism, an ultra-statist variant of Bolshevism conceived by the anti-Bukharin Center Opposition led by Joseph Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich. The state took over most of West Siberia after the Soviet collapse, but collapsed itself after Stalin's untimely death from a stroke, leaving Kaganovich with a rump state in Tyumen.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: The flag of the Republic at the regional stage is based on the logo of the obscure Russian neo-Stalinist party called Communists of Russia^note Not to be confused with the much larger Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which is far more flexible in base and platform than its rivals.
  • In a twist of irony, because Bukharin succeeded Lenin in that timeline, other warlords refer to the Republic's Stalinists as "revisionists", an epithet frequently used by Stalinists OTL against other Marxists.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: An in-universe case, where the Republic reevaluates the doctrines from Stalin after reunifying Western Siberia. There are conflicting interpretations to what Stalin would want and it's up to Kaganovich to decide who's right.
• Anti-Air: The Republic defends itself from Luftwaffe bombings with a few AA emplacements, which are outdated, but no less capable of ripping apart aircraft, as seen when they decimate a cocky German squadron of planes.
• Apocalyptic Logistics: Subverted.
  • The Republic has subsisted on caravans transporting supplies to Tyumen and the Luftwaffe have tried to finish them off by targeting these supply routes. If they are to survive, the Republic must redraw their caravan routes to go through rougher, but more concealing terrain.
  • After the bombings stop, the Republic has to undergo a difficult period of reconstruction, repairing their lost military and civilian infrastructure before they can reunify West Siberia.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Republic's strength lies in its Five Year Plans, which offer immense industrial benefits at the cost of agricultural strain. If they aren't careful, the agricultural strain may rise too high and cause a famine.
  • The 1st Tank Division is a military powerhouse, but the logistics of maintaining them is costly. Ivan Konev, their commander, has to fight hard to convince others of their usefulness and the need to keep them.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • The Republic rebuilds its army by studying the past reunification wars and World War II, standardizing successful strategies used by their officers and even studying German military doctrines to learn how to counter them.
  • Their gunsmiths are talented enough to examine the strengths of the AK-47 and provide expertise on how to improve them with a new rifle, after Zlatoust is conquered and the designs of their signature weapon are revealed.
• Baby Factory: To recover lost manpower from the Luftwaffe bombings, the Republic starts a countrywide repopulation program, such as giving an award to "Mother Heroines" who give birth to ten children, placing controls on abortion, and offering more rations to women who marry a Red Army soldier.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Assigned to defend a compound, a Red Army soldier loudly complains about the boredom of the task and wishes that there were a bandit raid to excite himself. He gets his wish when a German bombing suddenly occurs and destroys a truck in front of the soldier's eyes, traumatizing him with the sudden show of violence and quieting him for the rest of the ride.
• Beneath the Earth:
  • At the start of 1962 the West Siberian People's Republic had already developed an extensive series of underground factories and shelters to protect its population from the German bombers. Later on, they expand to become functional cities, with numerous underground corridors between them.
  • Kaganovich will fall back on this strategy in the superregional stage to counter the threat of nuclear war. Dubbed Metro-2, the plan will construct a large network of tunnels in Tyumen to house 10,000 individuals and allow them to survive the fallout by living down there, until resettlement on the surface is possible.
• Beneath the Mask: Lazar's brother, Mikhail, has his private doubts about the righteousness of their cause, looking at a painting of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin while assuring himself that all the human cost will justify their means.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The Republic doesn't have any fancy weapons to counter the Luftwaffe bombings. Instead, they rely on studying their bombing patterns and schedule so they can predict when and where they will strike. It's surprisingly effective in limiting the amount of damage that the Luftwaffe can inflict on them and gives rise to the Mikhail System, where protection is extended to important personnel so that they aren't killed in a bombing.
  • Instead of using their fighters to fight the German bombers, the Republic can adopt a more cautious strategy of building radio towers to monitor enemy aircraft and predict their next attack. It's less flashy, but more effective in the long-term.
  • Before invading their neighbors, the Republic can prepare by mass producing armored vehicles, which are cheap, but nonetheless effective for the job.
  • Instead of relying on tanks, the Republic can fix their military by focusing on the infantry. Though they lack complex weaponry or flashy strategies, they make up the backbone of the Red Army and require fewer resources to improve.
  • Rather than rely on an impressive defense industry to defend themselves, the Republic can strengthen themselves by simply mining the rich resources found in Western Siberia.
• Break Out the Museum Piece:
  • With most infrastructure destroyed in Luftwaffe bombings, the Republic has resorted to using outdated technology that isn't convenient to use, but much cheaper and easier to produce on a mass scale.
  • Most of their surplus weapons from World War II are obsolete in the 1960's, but they can be repurposed by the government into agricultural tools.
• Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: In order to boost the dwindling population of Russia, the Republic may potentially implement a "Wives for Soldiers" program, where single women and widows are encouraged to marry Red Army soldiers in exchange for extra food rations.
• Cassandra Truth: In a local village, one individual warns the others of an incoming Luftwaffe attack. His calls are ultimately ignored, which they end up paying for when the German bombers arrive and vindicate his prediction.
• Citadel City: One of Kaganovich's first actions is to build a complex system of bunkers and fortifications in each city, turning them into a fortress during Luftwaffe bombings and warlord invasions. He even expands these into underground bomb-proof houses so that the people can sleep easy at night, knowing that their residence won't be destroyed in an aerial attack.
• Crazy Enough to Work: While testing their armored vehicles, the commander gets cocky and tells his crew to pick up speed so they can try flying off a ramp. Many, including the outside overseers, are shocked by such a reckless course of action, but when they attempt it, the tank gets one second of air time before crashing back into the ground with relatively minimal damage.
• Dead Guy on Display: Just like in OTL, Lenin's corpse was rushed out of Moscow and eastwards to Tyumen to save it from destruction or theft by German forces. This decision turned out to be extremely prudent, as unlike OTL, the Germans indeed succeeded in taking Moscow. Lenin's corpse remains in Tyumen, preserved and guarded by the government of the Republic.
• Death from Above: Inspired by the Free Aviators, the Republic will develop their own Siberian Air Force during the regional stage, building new airfields and constructing warplanes with reactivated factories.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After defeating Rokossovsky's junta and the Black League, the Republic can integrate their civil servants and offer them a chance of forgiveness, if they serve Kaganovich's cause. It can also be Inverted if Kaganovich decides to purge them instead, deeming them "class traitors".
• Defector from Decadence: Many communists disillusioned with Bukharin fled to Tyumen, now inheriting the legacy and ideology of his rival, Josef Stalin.
• Defiant to the End: As one of Kaganovich's supporters is led to the firing range after Khrushchev's coup, he spends his last living moments praising his leader and denouncing his executioners as traitors who will bring Russia to ruin with their reforms.
• Developer's Foresight: It's possible for Khrushchev to coup Kaganvoich before completing the regional economic tree. The introduction event to an early focus will change depending on who's in charge, with Khrushchev's event mentioning that they can't deviate from Kaganovich's economic plans and thereby justifying why the tree doesn't change between leaders.
• Disaster Scavengers: The Republic has resorted to scavenging bombed-out regions to recover as much material as they can and bring it back home for their own population. At one point, they come to an ultimatum of whether to scavenge for a large store of fuel, military munitions, or civilian goods.
• Easy Logistics: Subverted. Kaganovich admits that an army alone is useless without logistics and forms the Commissariat of Civil Defense to handle this responsibility.
• Egopolis: Lazar Kaganovich renames the town of Ishim to Kaganovichgrad after himself.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As an NKVD officer brutally interrogates a Red Army general, the guards by the door are disturbed by the cruelty they witness, openly questioning the morality of the investigation before being told to shush.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The West Siberian People's Republic is a brutal Stalinist dictatorship with all such a statement implies and would be among the most villainous of factions in a normal setting. In TNO, it has to deal with the Black League of Omsk and their plans for nuclear apocalypse. More distantly, the other options for Russia could potentially be legit scumbags like the Aryan Brotherhood, a Passionariyy Komi, or Rodzaevsky's Amur, not to mention that Kaganovich is among the many reunifiers who wishes to take the fight to Nazi Germany once more, you could do worse than them.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Women are allowed to join the Red Army and one female private is recognized as a "Hero of the People's Republic" after rescuing a family from a bombed-out farm.
• The Famine: The Five-Year Plans are great programs of industrialization that put a strain on the Republic's agriculture, rendering it more vulnerable to famine. If a famine occurs, the agricultural strain will need to be reduced so that the land can recover.
• The Generation Gap: When public works glorifying the Soviet Union are built in Rykov, their reception greatly differs between a young man and his father, with the former praising it as a sign of a better future, while the latter spits on it as an insult to the Tsar's legacy.
• Got Volunteered: In the superregional stage, Kaganovich will forcibly conscript workers to the factories to realize the second Five Year Plan.
• The Gulag: Under Kaganovich, the gulags are still active and condemning political prisoners to harsh labor. Fortunately, Khrushchev can set things right by closing the gulags and freeing the prisoners.
• Hope Spot: A factory worker gets excited to get off work and eat at one of his favorite restaurants. As he arrives at the location, his hopes are dashed when he finds out that the restaurant has been closed down and repurposed to an air raid shelter.
• I Warned You: During Khrushchev's Secret Speech, some audience members smugly tell their shocked colleagues that they were right about Kaganovich's repressiveness and human rights abuses.
• Kangaroo Court: In the superregional stage, Kaganovich will organize flawed court trials of anyone who doesn't convert to his ideology, invariably deeming them guilty to be executed or sentenced to harsh labor.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While reviewing past military tactics to reform the Red Army, Ivan Konev, a high-ranking commander, wonders to himself how the Soviet Union could've won World War II and avert the horrors of an Axis victory before pushing these thoughts away and getting back to work.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Most of the Red Army is willing to fight for the Republic, but they don't buy into Stalinist doctrine and risk their lives for ideological reasons. Kaganovich can address this problem by reassigning excess NKVD officers to commissariats, where they can better advertise the cause of the Republic and why the Red Army fights.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Kaganovich's regime is pragmatically concerned with preserving as many lives as possible, uncaring for the individual and willing to sacrifice smaller populations for the greater whole. When Kaganovich sets up anti-aircraft guns to protect the largest populations, he's not as inclined to protect the smaller villages because he can't spare anything, rendering them vulnerable to more bombings as German pilots turn their attention to them.
• Mood Whiplash: As a Red Army private sleeps in his barracks, he has a sweet dream about reuniting with his childhood crush and kissing her. However, he's suddenly woken up from his pleasant fantasy by gunfire, signaling the beginning of the repressive Great Purge, as he witnesses his commanding officers being led away by NKVD agents for supposed treason.
• Nepotism: Lazar Kaganovich's brother Mikhail is the starting Economy Minister of the Republic.
• Never Learned to Read: Illiteracy rates spiked in Tyumen after the Soviet Union collapsed and formal education became rarer. The Republic will rectify this problem by building a school in each village and enact even greater reforms in the superregional stage, where factory schooling is mandated so that the workforce can learn to read and write.
• New Meat: Most new recruits in the Red Army are disliked and distrusted by their peers, especially when the NKVD is revived and begins integrating their spies into the military.
• Only in It for the Money: Initially, the Red Army soldiers aren't very committed to their cause, due to low morale. They only work for a pay check and will flee at the first sign of danger. A potential reform to the Red Army is building a more loyal military to rely on.
• Our Founder: After Kaganovich conquers Vyatka and renames it to Rykov, he orders the construction of a statue of Stalin, honoring him as the founder of their movement
• Paper Tiger: Even when they once controlled all of Western Siberia, the Republic's military was pathetic for their size and unable to effectively respond to Rokossovsky and Karbyshev's defections. During the reconstruction period before the reunification wars, the army must be reevaluated, focusing on either their armor or infantry.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: Kaganovich officially styles his Stalinist dictatorship the 'West Siberian People's Republic'.
• Propaganda Machine:
  • After the Luftwaffe bombings cease and the period of reconstruction begins, the government starts an extensive propaganda campaign, celebrating self-sufficiency and cooperation to encourage the people to contribute to the collective good.
  • In the regional stage, the Republic can run another extensive propaganda campaign to raise the people's morale and christen themselves as the legitimate rulers of Russia. When Kaganovich visits the Revolutionary Literature Production Facility, the largest propaganda office in Western Siberia, he's told by the manager that they produce between five hundred to a thousand prints per day. Kaganovich's only thought is that they must ramp up productivity.
  • The machine takes a darker turn under Kaganovich if he retains power from Khrushchev, as he amplifies his propaganda campaign to indoctrinate the population through mass media or schooling, while the NKVD is deployed to ensure that everyone is buying their material.
• Properly Paranoid: When an NKVD agent joins a Red Army company, he gets treated with suspicion and apprehension by his peers and captain, which isn't helped by his disturbingly polite and happy demeanor. Their paranoia is completely justified, since the recruit is spying on them for any hint of treachery.
• Putting the Band Back Together: If they reunify Western Siberia, the Republic will reopen stronger diplomatic ties with the remnant Soviet Socialist Republics in Central Asia, hoping that they can reunify and turn to their mutual enemies.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: As the Red Army is being trained for the coming reunification wars, a drill sergeant oversees a diverse group of conscripts from all over Tyumen and the surrounding areas, in which he's expected to turn them into a proper fighting force that the country can rely on.
• The Real Heroes: Upon reunifying Western Siberia, the Republic can recognize the ordinary peasants and soldiers as the true heroes who made their conquests possible, over the high politicians or generals.
• Realpolitik: The Republic can pursue a policy of mutual coexistence with the United States, despite their ideological opposition. For the moment, they need to focus on combating Germany and Japan, so they can't yet afford to stand against one more superpower.
• The Remnant: Aside from containing large portions of the defunct Communist Party, the Republic is the last remnant of the West Siberian People's Republic, which used to be far larger before it was reduced to Tyumen.
• Repressive, but Efficient: While the Republic's neo-Stalinist regime is repressive, it is also powerful and effective. For example, much like their historical counterparts, the Five Year Plans can produce rapid and effective industrialization, albeit at a horrific human cost.
• Secret Police: If the infantry is renovated before the reunification war of Western Siberia, the NKVD will be reformed to monitor the military for any dissent and prosecute those who express disloyalty for their country. Eventually, Kaganovich will expand the NKVD to monitor every citizen of the Soviet Union and punish any talk of dissent or criticism.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: When two Red Army members are assigned to review different tank models and determine what's best, they have an amusing, laidback conversation about the designs they see, drifting away from the original purpose of their job to providing random commentary. By the end, they don't even care about finding the best model and finish their conversation to get something to drink.
• Shutting Up Now: As a crew is ordered to construct a massive underground complex in Tyumen, a workman wonders aloud the purpose of their job, asking why a large facility needs to be built when their border with Germany is thousands of kilometers away. The person next to him and the State Security man shoot him a harsh glare, so the worker shuts himself up before he finds out its confidential purpose and gets in deeper trouble.
• State Sec:
  • The Red Guard is kept by the Republic to act as a paramilitary organization, but decadence has made them ineffective in combat and more of a political tool. Optionally, Kaganovich can rectify this problem before fighting the other West Siberian warlords.
  • In the regional stage, the NKVD units can be reorganized into a paramilitary group of shock troopers, committed to aiding the Red Army and enforcing Stalinist doctrine.
• Tank Goodness:
  • The Republic can focus on improving their tank brigades during the reconstruction phase, adopting the German strategy of Blitzkrieg, redesigning their armor, and conducting tests to determine how to improve their performance. One tank commander gets excited upon the thought of revitalizing their armor, feeling his spirits soar when he reactivates an old T-54.
  • After reunifying West Siberia, the Republic revisits their armored corps and designs a new, improved IFV, based on the designs of American lend-lease vehicles and prototypes in the archives.
  • One of the most significant Red Army advancements is the development of the IS-Tank or "Iosef Stalin tank", a new vehicle that has the mobility of a medium tank and packs the firepower of a heavy one.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's made clear in the beginning that Kaganovich and Khrushchev have conflicting visions for the Soviet Union. They initially remain allied to each other against their regional rivals, but will inevitably turn on each other over differing interpretations of Stalin's word.
• Training from Hell: Training in the military is extremely tough, with the drill sergeants pushing everyone through harsh exercises for most of the day and berating their laziness.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Insubordination is one of the worst offenses to commit in the Red Army, as most are still bitter about Rokossovsky and Karbyshev's betrayal that splintered the Republic.
• Tyke Bomb: The crèches responsible for child-rearing can be given to the military as a responsibility, allowing them to raise a generation of soldiers trained from birth to fight for the Soviet Union.
• Underground City: Reconstructed. The Republic has been building underground complexes so that the people can go about their lives without the fear of a Luftwaffe bombing. Even crazier ideas have been proposed to expand the concept, such as building military bases below the ground. However, an engineer points out the structural flaws with the plan, warning that these complexes are vulnerable to collapse and could endanger the whole population. If this warning is heeded, extra safety regulations can be put into place to make the plan more feasible.
• Unperson: As Kaganovich's dictatorial measures grow worse in the superregional stage, he arrests any critics in the Politburo and rivals from the Red Army on trumped up charges and erases any record of their existence. Their colleagues and the people who replace them never question their disappearance, knowing that they will meet the same fate if they do.
• Unwanted Assistance: After a village gets decimated by a Luftwaffe bombing, the government sends a relief force to repair the damage. However, one of the villagers rightfully points out the insincerity in their aid, namely in the government's previous negligence in protecting them from the bombers and only sending help afterwards, when outside assistance in the reconstruction is completely unnecessary and arguably dishonest.
• Vestigial Empire: Once, right after the Soviet collapse, the West Siberian People's Republic encompassed most of Western Siberia. By 1962, it controls only Tyumen and the surrounding territories after Rokossovsky and Karbyshev rose up against Kaganovich's rule, forming the Ural Military District and the Siberian Black League respectively.
• Viewers Are Morons: According to Kaganovich, diverse and complex art styles are used by the elite to convolute the themes of their artwork and thinks that the common worker are too dumb to understand their subtleties. As such, Kaganovich enforces the style of "Social Realism", producing simple, easy-to-understand art pieces that everyone can understand.
• With Us or Against Us: Under a belligerent foreign policy, the Republic takes a harsh stance against social democracy or "social fascism", as they call it. According to them, social democrats don't take a strong enough stance against capitalism's abuses and criticize their calls of reform as a tool for the bourgeoisie to manipulate the labor movement, hence why they are purported allies to the fascists.
• Yes-Man: ZigZagged. Kaganovich's word in the Republic is absolute and he expects his fellow partymen to act as a rubber stamp for his policies. However, he can downplay this trope by introducing more democratic centralist measures to encourage debate, aligning his country closer to the vision set by Lenin. Unfortunately, Kaganovich cracks down harder on the Politburo during the superregional stage and expects mindless obedience from his subordinates, lest they be purged.
• Young and in Charge: New, young officers who just graduated and proven their meddle in the unification wars can easily be promoted to high ranks in the Red Army, showing everyone that success is possible if they are courageous and intelligent enough.

Lazar Kaganovich

Role: Head of State

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Many thought that, when Bukharin's Soviet Union collapsed, it would be almost impossible for one of his arch enemies to gain so much power as to become one of the most powerful leaders in Russia. However, Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich would prove them wrong. An ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin, he opposed Bukharin's policies and was sent to West Siberia, in what would normally be an irrelevant position. When he found himself far from the frontlines of the war, though, he would accumulate power, enough to form one of the largest nations in Russia before the West Russian War. With the loyalty of Field Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky and Lieutenant-General Dmitry Karbyshev, as well as the support of the 3rd and 10th Armies, Lazar Kaganovich would declare the formation of the Western Siberian People's Republic, which would stretch from the Urals to the city of Omsk. Unfortunately for him, the Republic was not meant to last long. A combination of the intense Luftwaffe bombings and his two former allies distancing themselves from him would eventually lead to its collapse. In the place of the short-lived nation born from the ashes of the USSR, Rokossovsky's army would gather in the west, and Karbyshev's Black League would gather in the east, and Kaganovich had no choice but to retreat to the city of Tyumen and exercise his control over the remnants of Western Siberia. Now, Kaganovich has to lead a rump state, a relic of the times of Russia in the Interbellum, through these turbulent times. He may be surrounded by enemies from both within and without his fiefdom, but his revolutionary will remains unbreakable. A hardline Old Bolshevik, Kaganovich will not stray from any means to eliminate the enemies of the state and embody the all-embracing proletarian state as the Great Teacher Lenin and his greatest disciple, Comrade Stalin, envisioned it since the glorious days of the Red October.

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• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Kaganovich's USSR is the closest thing in TNO to the real Soviet Union as it existed during Stalin's reign.
  • As part of his potential reforms to the infantry, Kaganovich can issue an order outlawing retreat and forcing the soldiers to fight to the last man, bearing resemblance to Stalin's Order No. 227. The focus for the order is even titled "Not One Step Back".
  • During the superregional stage, Kaganovich conducts a mass purge of thousands who have been deemed enemies to the state, which ends up being called the Great Purge, like in Stalin's OTL Soviet Union.
• Big Brother Bully: Inverted. Lazar is the younger brother to Mikhail, but he's the one who bosses his sibling around as a subordinate and never takes him seriously, much to the latter's frustration.
• Book Burning: Kaganovich bans and burns many texts (including Russian literature, history books and certain foreign novels), some of which aren't political in any way, for anti-party thought. Possession of them is punishable with a trip to the gulag.
• Cassandra Truth: Kaganovich warned everyone that ignoring Stalin would have disastrous consequences on the Soviet Union, which was proven right when the Axis invaded and fractured their country.
• Deadly Euphemism: Making the final preparations to reunify Russia in the superregional stage, Kaganovich mentions that "certain political elements" will need to be removed so they can no longer stand against his vision.
• Defiant to the End: If defeated by the Ural Military District, Kaganovich, after he is sentenced to death◊, declares in a tirade that he should have purged Rokossovsky when he had the chance and denounces the trial as one carried out by "fascists and capitalists". He also claims that the revolution will be carried out one way or another after the judge tells him to sit down.
• Didn't Think This Through: Kaganovich has a solid plan of studying the German bombing patterns and knowing how to minimize their damage, but he never considered the fatal flaw of the Germans adjusting their schedule. When this occurs, Kaganovich has to rely on alternative strategies to survive the bombings, either continuing his plan to construct of bunkers or following Mikhail's suggestion of adjusting the urban defenses to the revised Luftwaffe schedule.
• Double-Blind What-If: If the Republic unites Russia, Kaganovich commissions an Alternate History novel where Stalin succeeds Lenin instead of Bukharin and defeats Nazi Germany in World War II.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: As he and Khrushchev inspect a revitalized tractor plant in Chelyabinsk, the latter talks about how difficult industrializing their country will be and that sacrifices may be necessary. Kaganovich misinterprets Khrushchev's recommended moderation as an affirmation that sacrifices must be made and that human suffering is an inevitable cost to their plans, disappointing his confidant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed with his brother, Mikhail. Lazar frequently pushes his sibling around, but he does afford him some privilege to voice protests against his plans without repercussion.
• Evil Virtues:
  • Kaganovich is domineering and imposes harsh demands on his subordinates, but he's no hypocrite and works hard himself to keep the Republic running, often found at his office because of his time-consuming job.
  • Averse to corruption, Kaganovich believes in the power of meritocracy and can rebuild the Red Army by instituting harsher selection standards so that only the best can become an officer in the army.
• Family-Values Villain: Inverted. Kaganovich believes that the nuclear family unit is a hindrance to the country and delegates child rearing responsibilities to crèches, community civil organizations that can be controlled by either the local communes or the military, freeing the parents to work in both cases.
• For Science!: Seemingly inspired by the Metro-2 project, Kaganovich will authorize the construction of more underground complexes in other cities, ostensibly to shelter the civilians from nuclear holocaust. In reality, these bunkers are test labs for Kaganovich's scientists to conduct unethical experiments, which he considers a potential boon for the Stalinist cause.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Any successful play at power as Kaganovich requires taking decisions and focuses based on what Stalin himself would do, reflecting his unrepentant Stalinism. Be too reformist and Nikita Khrushchev usurps him.
• Hero-Worshipper:
  • Kaganovich is a great admirer of Joseph Stalin and zealously follows in his footsteps.
  • In terms of armor doctrine, Kaganovich admires the ideas of Mikhail Tukhachevsky and can borrow his doctrine of "deep battle" theory.
• Hidden Depths: In one particular village, a notoriously forgetful man turns out to be surprisingly good at writing littles notes to himself about every event happening in town. When encouraged by a friend, he uses his newfound skills to become a news reporter for the village, growing a successful newsletter business that becomes recognized by the local Party organ as "proof that the workers can self organize without the need of capital tyranny".
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Kaganovich was a high-ranking Soviet official and unrepentant Stalinist in real life, with the USSR itself outliving him by roughly five months following his death in July of 1991. In TNO, his personality and views are unchanged, but this time, he actually gets a chance to rule in Stalin's place.
• It's All About Me: By the superregional stage, Kaganovich's ego becomes bloated and he commissions a lot of propaganda to praise himself. In particular, when he commissions a statue of Stalin to be built in Rykov, he also mandates an equally large statue of himself to be built alongside it, gripping Stalin's hand as a sign of power and friendship. Even some socialist sympathizers find it rather grandstanding.
• Knight Templar: His devotion to Stalinism is unmatched, and he is truly certain that he is leading the world to a glorious future. Anyone who doesn't share his ideology is an "undesirable" and part of the "reactionary peasantry".
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While he is a fervent Stalinist, Kaganovich is still able to unite Russia against other warlords worse than he is, albeit at the cost of stamping out genuinely benevolent unifiers as well.
• Moral Guardians: Kaganovich is wary of bad morals being subtly communicated by artworks, even if unintentionally. If he ramps up censorship against art, Kaganovich will ban sophisticated works deemed to be encouraging ideals, like laziness.
• Necessarily Evil:
  • Kaganovich can cut production on civilian goods for the sake of strengthening the military, a necessity in the Russian anarchy.
  • Once the Luftwaffe bombings cease, Kaganovich can prioritize the reconstruction of factories over civilian infrastructure, since restoring their industrial capacity is deemed a greater importance than helping the people right away.
  • If he adopts a policy of enforced farming, Kaganovich will acknowledge the possibility of many peasants protesting against being overworked, but deems it necessary to feed the entire country before it goes to war against the other West Siberian warlords.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If Kaganovich takes too many reformist focuses in his tree, he ends up overthrown by Nikita Khrushchev, meaning that he has to emulate Stalin to the fullest if he wants to retain power.
• No True Scotsman: As his rivalry with Khruschev becomes uncontrollable, Kaganovich insults his rival as a traitor to Stalin's legacy because he has a conflicting interpretation of his political views.
• Non-Answer: When he announces the beginning of the second Five Year Plan, his brother and Khrushchev protest that they haven't yet completed the first plan and that rushing through a second one could have unintended side effects. Kaganovich brushes off the complaint and gives a generic response that the second plan would be beneficial to the nation and that it's too late to change his decision. As they leave, Mikhail and Nikita are still confused by the logic of Kaganovich.
• "Not So Different" Remark: If he propagates nationalism to raise the people's morale, a worker in the Department of Propaganda and Agitation will be alarmed by the new trend, concerned about his growing similarities to the ultranationalist Black League that they just fought and his loosening commitment to socialism.
• Obviously Not Fine: If the proletarians are honored for their efforts in the regional unification campaign, Kaganovich commissions a Workers' Memorial for them, but doesn't attend its opening. He claims that he had work to do, but given that he's been eating and sleeping less, nobody in his inner circle, least of all Khrushchev, believes him and takes it as a sign of his growing paranoia to potential rivals.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Though he despises Bukharin as a rival to Stalin, Kaganovich acknowledges that his free market and foreign investment policies were beneficial and can adopt them in his own Republic rather than rely on orthodox Stalinist policies.
• The Paranoiac: In the superregional stage, Kaganovich descends into paranoia over potential counter-revolutionaries, viewing everyone, even the NKVD, as a possible traitor. As a result, he empowers the bureaucracy and clamps down on information flow so that he and his inner circle can quash any perceived dissent.
• Patriotic Fervor: If he dispenses with Soviet Cosmopolitanism, Kaganovich will appeal to the people's nationalism, encouraging Russian patriotism to stand against capitalism.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Though warned that it is less important than scavenging the fuel or military equipment, Kaganovich can prioritize an expedition for civilian amenities like clothes and food, which would benefit the population most.
  • Unable to save most of the population with the bunkers, Kaganovich can avert the pragmatism of protecting the soldiers and prioritize the civilians' safety by guaranteeing them a space in the bomb shelters.
  • While constructing underground complexes, Kaganovich can keep the people's safety in mind and spend extra time building the proper safety measures so that they don't collapse.
  • When presented with the proposal of cutting civilian production to focus on heavy machinery, Kaganovich can reject it on the grounds that the people need to have "small victories".
  • Kaganovich sympathizes with the children who have been orphaned when their parents died before or after World War II, in which he can set up an extensive adoption system so they can be fostered by another family.
  • Rather than train the children in crèches to become soldiers, Kaganovich can hand control of them to the local communes, giving them limited autonomy to raise them on their own and instill their own values to them.
  • In the regional stage, Kaganovich will implement more democratic reforms, whether introducing democratic centralist systems in the Party or opening direct democracy by allowing the people to vote for their local soviets or submitting their own candidates in the polling booths.
  • When he and Mikhail have a debate over how to develop their infrastructure, Lazar is civil about his brother's suggestion to incorporate some aspects of the Siberian Plan and start some decentralized local projects. Given how often he berates him whenever contradicted, Mikhail is a little surprised by the reasonableness.
  • Free education and housing for students is guaranteed by Kaganovich to build a class of bureaucrats and skilled workers.
• Politically Correct Villain:
  • Kaganovich believes that ethnic minorities deserve the same rights as Russian citizens, unwilling to let linguistic, cultural, or racial differences divide the Soviet Union. He can even form a government committee to guarantee their liberties and combat discrimination.
  • He also allows women to work outside of the home and, even if he optionally encourages women to perform traditional duties, still strives for gender equality.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Kaganovich's industrialization plan after the Luftwaffe bombings is relatively gradual because his state is too small to undergo more rapid industrialization.
  • He can follow the Khrushchev Plan that gives each farm their own equipment and more independence from previous centralization policies because doing so would incentivize farmers to work harder and relieve the government of any more expenditures with giving services to the farms.
  • He can ease his aggressive enforcement of Stalinist doctrine in the regional stage because the increased population is putting a strain on the administration and adopting a moderate stance can make the recent transition of power more smooth. Once the situation has stabilized, Kaganovich will go back to his old ways.
  • Kaganovich doesn't appreciate the Free Aviators as a threat to his popularity, but doesn't purge them because they're too popular with the people. Instead, he wants to curb their influence by keeping them out of the Air Force, even if it means relying on less competent pilots.
• The Purge:
  • If he adopts a harsh stance against the Nomenklatura, Kaganovich will launch a purge against old supporters of Rokossovsky and Karbyshev's dismantled regimes, regardless of their involvement in them.
  • After unifying Western Russia, Kaganovich conducts a second purge to eliminate any troublesome politicians who oppose him, either taken to a gulag or executed. By the end, thousands are found guilty and replaced by loyal officials, with this period of repression called the Great Purge.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Despite reunifying Western Russia, Kaganovich doesn't feel any satisfaction from his victory, still thinking that there are enemies out to depose him, particularly in the Red Army, since he has minimal oversight of them.
• Reassignment Backfire: Kaganovich was sent to govern over the wastes of West Siberia by Bukharin's government, hoping that he couldn't influence Moscow from Siberia. The central government didn't expect, however, that the whole Soviet government would be driven east by the Nazis and that Kaganovich, being far away from the frontlines, would establish his own powerbase in his domain.
• Science Is Good: Kaganovich is an advocate for scientific socialism and develops the Republic's technological base so that a class of critical thinkers ot technical specialists can be built and guide the Soviet Union for the next generation.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: While not as potentially insane as Lysenko, Kaganovich agrees with his pseudoscientific belief in Lamarckism, due to his disdain for the "thinly-veiled capitalism" of Darwinian theory. This is a reference to the fact that Lynsenko's IRL influence was made possible due to Stalin's support of his theories.
• Taking Up the Mantle: Kaganovich sees himself as the rightful inheritor of Stalin's legacy and wants to become the next "Man of Steel", since he was his personal friend and mentee when he was alive.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: His levels of tyranny amplify during the superregional stage, ruling the Soviet Union as an iron-fisted dictator who silences all opposition through purges and secret surveillance to ensure everyone's loyalty.
• Unperson: If Tyumen is taken over by a Western Russia united under Mikhail Suslov, Kaganovich and his remaining supporters are summarily purged for being Stalinist revisionists, being all but brushed from the history books.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Even though Kaganovich's power centralization allows him to create a repressive autocratic state, it is also perfectly possible for the player to simply avoid the most fanatical and brutal focuses in the Lazar's tree, instead using state planning policies to create a powerful and industrialized USSR that can stand up to Germany and bring prosperity to its citizens.
• Villain Has a Point: If he adopts a hostile foreign policy against the OFN, he rightfully condemns the United States' global imperialism and hypocrisy in supporting anti-democratic regimes aligned with their interests.
• Villain in a White Suit: Kaganovich is the closest person to a Stalinist dictator in Russia and he wears a white uniform, evoking IRL Stalin's fashion.
• Villains Never Lie: He technically never lies through his propaganda, but he will stretch the truth and present alternative facts to indoctrinate the people and any opposing accounts are silenced by the NKVD.
• Villainous Breakdown: If defeated by the Ural Military District, Kaganovich will be found guilty and sentenced to death for betraying "Russia and her people". From there, Kaganovich loses all composure and angrily accuses the judge and Rokossovsky of being the true traitors for defecting from the Stalinist cause in the first place.
• Villainous Legacy: Kaganovich has fervently kept the ideas and memory of Stalin alive, and could potentially spread them all throughout Russia.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kaganovich strives to build a strong Soviet Union that will avert the fatal mistakes of Bukharin, but he has no problem sacrificing individual lives or risking famine if it means advancing one step closer to that dream.
• Workaholic: Whatever his faults, Kaganovich is dedicated to his work and will stay up into the late hours of the night to keep his Republic running. From his perspective, the Soviet Union needs a well-disciplined and hard-working leader.

Nikita Khrushchev

Role: Head of Government (Kaganovich cabinet), Head of State (Coup)

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev is a man that represents both what was, and what never came to be. Born in 1894 in abject poverty, his family struggled heavily to give him what bare higher education the Russian peasantry could afford, and perhaps it was this sheer determination of his parents and his own siblings to give him a better life that gave the man a sense of patience, muted intelligence and cautiousness that was lacking severely within many of the more idealistic members of the Communist Party under Bukharin, a detail that brought the attention of Lazar Kaganovich, a man that would become his mentor, and were once his friend.

Under Lazar Kaganovich's wing, and the late Stalin's tutelage, the humble serf grew into a diligent, yet wary statesman, a quiet critic of the system that Bukharin put into place, doubly so as the purges rolled and the many people he knew as friends ended up dead and missing, up and including Joseph Stalin himself, his death as an "industrial accident" being something that neither he nor Kaganovich ever believed.

When the USSR fell, however, a rift between the heirs of Stalinism, subtle at first, yet ever-widening, rose with time: Kaganovich gave himself more to his ideal vision of Stalinism, of what a perfect, state-driven Communism would be, a state of strength that wouldn't fall like Bukharin's failed experiment did, yet all Nikita looked was the starving children and women, and the empty grave of his own son.

The differences between both men became irreconcilable, and Nikita regretfully struck first against the man that was once his mentor and friend. Now he stands alone not as a diligent second man, or a disciple, but as the Chairman of a new Soviet Russia. He never quite desired the spotlights so heavily upon him, so close to his own retirement, but much like his own family sacrificed so much for him to be in this very same spot, so will he sacrifice to give Russia the future it deserves.

He owes Stalin and Leonid that much.

---

• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Khrushchev's drive to undo Kaganovich's work and change the Party is very similar to how he handled Stalin's legacy in OTL.
  • After taking over, Khrushchev still conducts the Secret Speech, but not intended to distance the party from Kaganovich's legacy by exposing his human rights abuses.
  • Khrushchev's cultural reforms are dubbed "Khrushchevschina", named after the Zhdanovschina in OTL.
• Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: Although Khrushchev is very authoritarian, taking total control of the government after deposing Kaganovich, he is far less repressive than Kaganovich is, ending all forms of discrimination, granting ethnic minorities autonomy and lifting all restrictions on artistic expressions. Under his USSR, the average citizen has a lot of cultural freedoms, if no political ones.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike Kaganovich, Khrushchev doesn't want to rule by fear, but by genuine respect and mutual care with his subordinates, especially in the Red Army.
• Chummy Commies: Khrushchev cares for the people's well-being and is one of the better communist leaders for Russia, as he guarantees cultural freedoms and upholds progressive values as Kaganovich's worst crimes are undone.
• Cincinnatus: Unable to control who's joining the Communist Party and check if they are trustworthy enough, Khrushchev temporarily suspends party elections so that he holds absolute power in the Politburo. However, Khrushchev only intends this to be a temporary measure, letting go of his emergency powers when it is safe to do so.
• The Coup: Khrushchev can come to power by having NKVD officers arrest Lazar Kaganovich, accusing him of incompetence and treason against the Party.
• Crazy Enough to Work: In private, Khrushchev never could've imagined deposing Kaganovich and reunifying all of Russia, expressing surprise during the celebration of making Russia whole.
• Feeling Their Age: At the end of his campaign, Khrushchev's advanced age makes him incredibly fatigued and he begins considering who to pick as his successor.
• Graceful Loser: If Kaganovich didn't pick enough moderate options, he and Khrushchev will debate over whose interpretation of Stalinism is correct. Kaganovich wins the argument, but Khrushchev doesn't hold it against him and returns to his side peacefully.
  Na Zdarovje
• Hero-Worshipper: Like Kaganovich, Khrushchev idolizes Stalin as the true hero of the Soviet Union. However, he has a different interpretation on what Stalin would've wanted, which puts him in conflict with his superior.
• Heroic Fatigue: After a long battle of overthrowing Kaganovich, reforming the Soviet Union, and reunifying Russia, Khrushchev's fatigue catches up with him and he goes to sleep after the celebration, dreaming for the first time in years.
• Internal Reformist: Khrushchev is a reformist who seeks to tone down the Kaganovich regime's worst excesses and advance progressive values, like minority autonomy through ASSRs or democratic participation through party elections.
• Irony: Chairman Khrushchev, the man who famously denounced Stalin and his Cult of Personality in real life, rehabilitates Stalin as an egalitarian, honest revolutionary whose legacy was perverted by Kaganovich.
• Moral Guardians: Inverted after deposing Kaganovich. Unlike his predecessor, Khrushchev doesn't believe in banning artistic works that could send potentially anti-socialist messages and reverses Kaganovich's repressive censorship measures.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son was killed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, not even able to recover his remains to bury.
• Pragmatic Hero: Despite having his different economic views, Khrushchev will reluctantly continue Kaganovich's economic policies in the regional stage because changing course could have unintended consequences for the country.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Khrushchev tries to make this appeal to Kaganovich when dealing with political prisoners, advising that they be put through conscription or hard labor rather than torment so that they can resolve the manpower shortage. Unfortunately, Kaganovich dismisses his suggestion, stating that it is not aligned with Marxist-Leninist thought.
• The Purge: Khrushchev purges Kaganovich's loyalists from the Party after seizing power from him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike Kaganovich, Khrushchev wants to avert unnecessary violence and promotes more humane policies than his boss.
• Redeeming Replacement: Khrushchev is a more even-handed leader than Kaganovich, implementing greater egalitarian reforms, while averting his more brutal actions, like the use of gulags and NKVD spies.
• Walking Spoiler: There is no indication that Khrushchev can overthrow Kaganovich and take the Republic down a more moderate path until the regional phase.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: If Tyumen is taken over by a Western Russia united under Mikhail Suslov, the latter can potentially welcome back Khrushchev and his supporters as prominent members of the Party. This is due to him considering them as Stalinists tolerable and reformist enough to be framed as staying true to Marxist-Leninist principles.

Vyacheslav Molotov

Role: Foreign Minister (Kaganovich cabinet)

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

---

Mikhail Kaganovich

Role: Economy Minister (Kaganovich cabinet)

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

---

• Nepotism: Mikhail is the elder brother of Lazar, who appointed him to be the People's Commissar for Economic Affairs.

Ivan Konev

Role: Security Minister (Kaganovich/Khrushchev cabinet)

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

---

• The Coup: Konev may work with Khrushchev and his faction in the party to remove Kaganovich from office after Khrushchev told him that Kaganovich would sooner or later want to kill Konev in a purge.

Sverdlovsk

^{Flag of the Russian People's Union}

^{Flag of the West Siberian Republic}

^{Flag of the Russian Federative Republic}

Official Name: Ural Military District, West Siberian Republic (Yeltsin regional unification), Russian People's Union (Batov superregional unification), Russian Federative Republic (Yeltsin superregional unification), Russian National Reconstruction Committee (Black League collapse)

Ruling Party: Uralskiy Komitet Gosudarstvennogo Spaseniya^note Ural Committee of State Salvation

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

A provisional Red Army military government led by Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, broken off from the West Siberian People's Republic. Despite their use of old Soviet symbolism, the Ural Military District no longer adheres to Soviet socialist principles, but they still believe in protecting the Russian people.

---

• Allohistorical Allusion: The Ural Military District's use of sanitised Soviet symbolism even after abandoning socialism is similar to real-life Russian Armed Forces, which generally retain more Soviet traditions (from red flags to the term "comrade") than the rest of the Russian Federation. Its visuals probably wouldn't look out of place on a modern Victory Day parade.
• Anti-Mutiny: The transformation of the Ural Military District into a traditional military junta has caused a great deal of dissent within the Third Army's ranks. Thousands of deserters, viewing Konstantin Rokossovsky as a traitor to socialist ideals, have defected to the Republic to fight for the revolution once more. Lazar Kaganovich can take further advantage of this with a propaganda campaign aimed at encouraging further dissent amongst the Ural Military District's socialists.
• Badass Crew: Similar to Kemerovo in Central Siberia, the Ural Military District can unite with various other warlords that differ from them ideologically:
  • A West Siberia united by the Military District can peacefully unite with the WRRF, a non-Passionariyy Komi, or Zykov's Samara should they reunite Western Russia, adding a number of potential WRRF, ex-Soviet, or German trained generals to the roster in their bid to reunite all of Russia.
  • This can be taken further at the superregional stage, where the Military District can peacefully with all but one of Central Siberia's potential unifiers (Siuda's Siberian Black Army being the sole exception) while in the Far East, only Buryatia and a non-Matkovsky Magadan can unite with the Military District (while Boris Yeltsin could reunify with Mikhail II's Chita even if he cannot reunify with Buryatia). But should peaceful reunification occur with any of the aformentioned warlords, it adds even more experienced generals to the roster that can be used to eventually take the fight to Germany to take back RK Moskowien.
• Bilingual Bonus: There are four Russian calls written on their pre-unification flag, reading "Workers' and Peasants' Read Army", "Unite!", "Proletarians of the World", and "For our Soviet Motherland". Even though Sverdlovsk is no longer communist by ideology, their flag's symbolic language is still a clear reminder of their origins and past ties to the Soviet Union.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: While a Red Army junta, the Ural Military District definitely has the moral high ground over the Stalin-idolizing totalitarian communists in the West Siberian People's Republic, let alone the psychotic Ultranationalist regime in the Siberian Black League. A victorious District, run either by Batov or Yeltsin, executes both Kaganovich and Yazov after they unify West Siberia for their crimes as well.
• Citywide Evacuation: In the face of upcoming Luftwaffe strikes, the city populations are evacuated to underground bomb structures so that they can wait out the attack and rebuild as soon as the planes are gone.
• Defector from Decadence: The Ural Military District used to be part of Kaganovich's West Siberian People's Republic, before the latter's decline and collapse forced them to create a new government.
• Elite Army: The 3rd Army is amongst the best military forces in Russia and has lots of experience from years of war.
• Fire-Forged Friends: At least one squadron in the army is taught camaraderie when they're dumped in the middle of the woods and tasked with navigating back to base, where the harshness of the environment forces them to work together.
• Foil: Serves as one to Krasnoyarsk in Central Siberia. While both are juntas that were once part of the Red Army, Sverdlovsk's cliques are genuine about fighting for liberty and the people, be it under Pavel Batov's brand of military-led democracy or Boris Yeltsin's "shock therapy". This is in sharp contrast to Nikolay Andreev's regime, which is a democratic republic In Name Only.
• Good Is Not Soft: Discipline is very strict in the military and any suspected traitors are targeted and rooted out with extreme prejudice. However, those who prove themselves to be loyal are rewarded graciously and treated well by the high command.
• Hypocrite:
  • They proclaim to uphold the ideals of freedom and liberty, but they occasionally engage in dictatorial practices to shut down democratic sentiments in the pre-regional stage, deeming it treason. In the 46 Prospekt Lenina Incident, the police are sent to break up a pro-democratic rally, firing gunshots and smoke grenades to the crowd when they refuse to leave. The military junta can double down on it in the regional stage by rigging the upcoming election in their favor.
  • The high command is forced to betray their ideals again when they conquer the cities of Tyumen and Omsk, where they suspend civil law and habeas corpus to crack down on any renegade terrorists. They themselves acknowledge that it's a violation of the people's liberty, but justifies it as a necessary move.
• The Infiltration: Since the population was forced to go along with Rokossovsky's defection, some are still sympathetic to the Stalinist cause and Kaganovich-aligned spies are a problem in the country. Additionally, conscripting civilians to the military poses the threat of incidentally recruiting Black League spies. Both sources of infiltration must be cracked down, lest they destabilize the Military District from within.
• Jerkass Has a Point: After defeating the Republic and the Black League, the military initiates martial law in their newly conquered territories so they can clear it of any bandits and terrorists who would still antagonize the countryside. While hypocritical and harsh, it's hard to dispute the argument that they need to dispel the remnant Stalinists and Black League members left over in their territories.
• Last Bastion: The very first focus as the Ural Military District boasts that they are the last bastion of freedom from the tyrannical governments and Luftwaffe strikes that ravage the rest of Russia. Being one of the few places of safety in Western Russia, they largely lives up to that name.
• The Remnant: If the Black League defeats the Ural Military District, many of their members (including Pavel Batov, Ivan Bagramyan and Hamazasp Babadzhanian) will go underground and continue to resist the Black League as part of the National Salvation Commission.
• The Republic: Under Yeltsin, the Military District can transition into a democratic republic with a brand new constitution and greater liberties to the people than ever.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Desertion is a rampant problem in the military, due to low morale from Russia's current situation. To address the issue, the military can enforce harsher restrictions for desertion or give more incentives for the soldiers to stay.
• Signed Up for the Dental: In the regional stage, Batov increases employment in the army by guaranteeing numerous benefits for them, including a large pension.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: The Military District continues to extensively use Soviet heraldry and iconography (including the name Red Army and the hammer-and-sickle), claiming to be a new Soviet Union and the successor state to the old one, even though in practice it is a regular military junta that has cast aside most communist policies (its in-game ideology is Paternalism instead of Communism).
• Shown Their Work:
  • The Ural Military District's flag is loosely based on the banner of the Russian Armed Forces, only Sovietized.
  • The Russian People Union's flag contains a depiction of the Ribbon of Saint George, a Russian patriotic and pro-military symbol.
• Tank Goodness: The Ural Military District has one of the largest functioning tank factories in Russia. In the regional stage, they put it to good use by producing a sizable fleet to increase the firepower of the Red Army.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Downplayed, but it's shown that Batov and Yeltsin don't exactly see eye-to-eye on many things, the former doubting whether the latter has what it'd take to bring Russia back from chaos. That said, Batov doesn't hate Yeltsin outright, and puts duty to the people over any personal grievances.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Under Batov, the District's legal system is overhauled so that prisoners can appeal for a lighter sentence in exchange for service in the military.
• Treasure Room: A couple of events are dedicated to people looting abandoned buildings or rooms to uncover heaps of munitions and other equipment that can aid the Military District's military ventures.
• Western Terrorists: After reunifying Western Siberia, the Ural Military District needs to contend with Stalinist and Black League terrorists who plague the region and must be hunted down.

Konstantin Rokossovsky

Role: Military Commander, Head of State

Party: Uralskiy Komitet Gosudarstvennogo Spaseniya^note Ural Committee of State Salvation

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Unlike many other men, Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky stayed faithful to the Soviet Motherland no matter what, even to this very day. Being born in the days of the Tsar to a family of Polish gentry, he had to suffer a very poor life as a child. It was only logical that he turned to the Bolshevik Party, and soon became one of the most distinguished and well-known commanders of the Soviet Union, a distinguished gentleman and officer whose military record was nothing short of brilliant. After two decades of serving in the Red Army, the house of cards would crumble, the USSR would collapse, and Rokossovsky would have to adapt to a completely new environment. As his 3rd Army fled from the invading Germans and reached the Urals, he was welcomed with open arms by Lazar Kaganovich, and so he joined the West Siberian People's Republic. However, the alliance of Kaganovich and his generals, full of distrust and bitter competition, was a fragile one, and would inevitably fall apart. Western Siberia would battle for its survival, against all odds, as the Germans continued their relentless bombing raids and rifts between its top leaders and generals only grew and grew, to a point when they could not be mended. Seeing the People's Republic was a sinking ship as Karbyshev seized the city of Omsk and Kaganovich showing its disdain by his inaction, Rokossovsky would quickly gather his 3rd Army in the city of Sverdlovsk to form a provisional military government led by himself and backed by a formidable force. While disillusioned with his former party superiors in Tyumen, Rokossovsky has not abandoned his cause of the Soviet Union reunification, even if it will be driven by its loyal and impartial military, born and taught in the best traditions of the Russian and Soviet art of war and serving the working people above the bureaucrats. The harsh service and old age took a considerable toll on Marshal Rokossovsky's health, but his resolve remains persistent in the desperate times. Even if he won't live to see the Red Army marching in the Red Square once again, he can rely on the old friends and comrades to continue his mission with dignity.

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• Cool Old Guy: Rokossovsky is on his last few years of life, but still remains a capable marshal and leader for his people.
• Face Death with Dignity: After reunifying Western Siberia, Rokossovsky's failing health finally reaches a critical point, but he fully accepts his fate on his deathbed, contently stating "I've done all I can for now. Go on, let me rest".
• Four-Star Badass: Rokossovsky is one of the most distinguished and well-known commanders of the former Soviet Union, his military record nothing short of brilliant.
• Hope Bringer: The firm, but honorable character of Rokossovsky is what makes him so admired and a reason to stay hopeful that matters will eventually improve.
• Passing the Torch: His prostate cancer, combined with his extensive years of service and the harsh climate, means that he doesn't have much time left before he passes, so he designates his close friend Batov to succeed him and carry on his ideals.
• Rags to Riches: In the days of the Tsar, Rokossovsky lived under a poor household, which naturally made him enamored with the rhetoric of the Bolshevik party and rise to become one of their most brilliant generals.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Deeply aware of the struggles that his people face, Rokossovsky addresses their complaints with fair responses. For example, when the workers complain about the dangers of factory work, Rokossovsky gives them benefits to address the matter, like extra rations.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Rokossovsky is an important figure in Sverlovsk's history, having been the one to form the clique in the first place. In-game, however, Rokossovsky has grown old and will die in a few years so that others will succeed him.
• Start My Own: Witnessing the stagnation and collapse of Kaganovich's West Siberian People's Republic, Rokossovsky gathered his forces and started his own government to reunite Russia with.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Rokossovsky is beloved by his people for being a famed Red Army general and a well-intentioned ruler who protected them from the other despots in West Siberia. Even after his death, he gets a military academy named in his honor.

Pavel Batov

^{70s Batov portrait}

^{Post Black League collapse Batov portrait}

Role: Military Commander, Head of Government (Rokossovsky cabinet), Head of State (Rokossovsky succession), Security Minister (Yeltsin cabinet)

Party: Uralskiy Komitet Gosudarstvennogo Spaseniya^note Ural Committee of State Salvation

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

60's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The soldiers under the command of Pavel Ivanovich Batov often affectionately call him "our Suvorov", both for his appearance and his manners, referring to the legendary Russian general who was known for his military genius, his humble nature, and his fondness for the ordinary Russian soldiers. It is unlikely that the general himself acknowledges or evokes the comparison, but one could not be blamed for seeing such parallels between the leader of the Ural militarist government and the famed Russian hero of the past.In the darkest days of the Nazi push into Russia, Batov became acquainted with Konstantin Rokossovsky, with whom he formed a professional and personal bond that lasted until the latter's death. The camaraderie of the two generals became a subject of thrilling legends and tales narrated across the entirety of Siberia, intertwining truth and fiction. The events they went through together, the wars where they fought back to back, as one - all of it became ingrained in modern Russian cultural memory.At the funeral of his old friend, Batov vowed to carry the banner of the departed general's cause and preserve the legacy of the Lion of Siberia. Reorganizing the forces of the Ural Military District under his command and establishing his emergency power within the boundaries of war-ridden Russia, Batov seeks to rethink the role of the Red Army in society - to serve not merely as a protector of the Russian people, but their guide in times of anarchy and devastation."

70's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Russia's turbulent history has, by nature, given rise to a number of extraordinary military men, who used their considerable talents to snatch victory from the jaws of certain destruction. Now, arguably the darkest period of Russia's existence has come to a close, and history has found yet another such figure to give its eternal gratitude to: Pavel Ivanovich Batov.Grand Marshal Batov is a man who defied the circumstances he and his comrades found themselves trapped in. When his enemies were reckless and aggressive, Batov had a knack for putting his thoughts before his actions. While some warlords considered no price to be high enough if the reunification of Russia was concerned, Batov took great care to not put his men in unnecessary danger. His refusal to stoop to the level of his foes did not impede his progress, and now the so-called "Modern Suvorov" finds himself at the helm of a renewed Russian state.Batov, however, takes little comfort now that the guns have fallen silent. His greatest test yet, the reclamation of Russia's heartland from the Nazi scourge, lies ahead, and the Grand Marshal lies awake at night thinking of the brutality such a titanic conflict is likely to bring about. Worse still, Batov holds lingering doubts that his subordinates share the same vision for Russia as he does.For now, however, Pavel Batov will continue on as he always has: with an unwavering loyalty to Russia and her people."

In-Game Biography (Black League Collapse) ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)}Since the vile armies of the Black League descended on Sverdlovsk, Pavel Ivanovich Batov has been trapped in a great darkness, his mentor slain, his homeland lost. His life has been defined by endless struggle for his own life and the life of his nation. Yet somehow, he stands - broken, bitter, but unflinchingly alive.

Below his feet, the Glavkoverkh. The death of Dmitri Yazov was the pinnacle of Batov's insurgency, the one act that could finally unravel the Black League. In the days after, the believers in Batov were vindicated, as the Black League command collapsed. Sverdlovsk, easily liberated, seemed like the first step towards saving the region from utter tyranny.

But in the weeks that followed, it was clear that much more was needed. Soon, the resources of the insurgency stretched thin, while warlords and remnants blocked Batov at every turn. What began as a plan to liberate all of Western Siberia was gradually cut down to an insecure hold on the Sverdlovsk region. All else was lost.

Some might call it a tragedy. Batov is certainly frustrated - even now, he plots to finally retake what few lands the Black League still holds. Yet when he looks at his new citizens, he cannot help but disagree. Even in the chaos of the collapse, the people of Sverdlovsk shine with hope. The world may be burning, but at long last, there is light.

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• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Black League-specific. Zlatoust is not a particularly difficult final enemy for Western Siberia, but after the Black League crushes them and unites the region, they will suddenly have to deal with Pavel Batov's National Salvation Commission rising up to stop their dark ambitions. This will almost certainly catch a new player coming in blind completely off-guard and end their run, and almost always succeeds in assassinating Yazov and collapsing the League's control over the region when the AI has to deal with it.
• Cincinnatus: After unifying Western Siberia, Batov voluntarily agrees to hold democratic elections. Despite his power, if he refuses to rig the elections to favor himself, resulting in Boris Yeltsin's victory, Batov will transfer power to him, and continue working to protect the freedom and democracy of the new state. Even if he rigs things and wins, Batov still has no desire of keeping power indefinitely, and intends to step down for good when Russia is whole again.
• Consolation Prize: To placate the civilians who are unhappy with military rule, Batov offers them token lower tier bureaucracy jobs to have some participation in the government.
• Enemy Mine: After reunifying Western Siberia, Batov opens negotiations with the United States so that they can cooperate against the mutual German and Japanese threat.
• A Father to His Men: Batov is a humble commander with a great fondness for the soldiers under his command, who in turn call him 'our Suvorov'.
• Foil: To Dmitry Yazov, obvious differences in ideology aside. Both are aides to their respective faction leaders early on before taking over, and have a strong sense of humility stemming from the weight of responsibility their position imposes. However, while Yazov is utterly reverent of Karbyshev, Batov is not afraid to argue with Rokossovsky in very blunt form, and where Yazov is primarily motivated by hatred of Germany, Batov is primarily motivated by his goal to protect the men under his command.
• Hidden Depths: Beneath his image of a disciplined and confident commander, Batov is secretly insecure about his junta's military capabilities in the upcoming war with Germany. In the last event of his campaign, he gets a nightmare that he may fail and render all of his hard work naught.
• Humble Hero: Batov never lets his position, or even his army's successes, get to his head. At the superregional stage, he is moved to a new office which he does not think he deserves, and he keenly feels the loss of his men even in victory. Notably, his West Siberian Republic is famously the least-choosy regional unifier in the game, once able to peacefully reintegrate with almost every West Russian unifier who isn't an out-and-proud fascist, even though if uncontrolled by the player this almost always leads to him being annexed rather than the other way around. Even after a later patch prevented him from peacefully unifying with Vyatka or a despotic KONR, that still leaves a huge swathe of potential partners.
• Internal Reformist: Though proud of the Third Army he commands, Batov acknowledges that reforms must be made to its outdated tactics and mangled command structure, which will be addressed in the regional stage.
• Kryptonite Ring: Fearful of becoming a cruel dictator himself, Batov sets up a high council of generals to check his power and remove him as head of the government if he proves too dangerous or incompetent for the job.
• The Lancer: Batov is Rokossovsky's close friend and professional aide.
• Pet the Dog: Though strict, Batov isn't heartless when it comes to helping his people and makes sure to offer benefits to the common worker, such as lower working hours and raised safety standards.
• Propaganda Machine: To increase recruitment to the military, Batov and the Council of Generals organize a nationwide propaganda campaign to praise their military strength, hiring the best artists they can possibly find for the job.
• Properly Paranoid: In the superregional stage where Yeltsin takes over, Batov questions why he's been talking to his Prime Minister a lot recently, what the ISB is doing, and why packages of cash are being handed out. He doesn't realize that he's just uncovered a scandal about Yeltsin hiding his Prime Minister's past involvement with the Black League, but Batov doesn't connect the dots just yet.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Batov knows that reunifying Western Siberia is just the first half of the battle and that more work will need to be done to rebuild the region.
• Realpolitik: Batov's governance is a harsh military junta that limits civilian participation in the government, but he sincerely thinks it's all for the greater good by preventing the rise of ideologies he considers dangerous, like Marxism and fascism.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While Batov resorts to authoritarian practices when ruling the District, he does try to avert violence when necessary and eases some of the junta's harsher laws to calm the people down.
• La Résistance: If the Black League defeats unites West Siberia, Batov forms the National Salvation Commission to resist against the insane Black League, which then has to deal with him as yet another enemy. He actually stands a good chance of assassinating Yazov, causing the Black League to collapse; it is one of the most common deunification events in the game.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even if Batov assassinates Yazov after he reunifies Western Siberia, he fails to retake all of the Black League's territory because his insurgency's resources are stretched too thin and his fellow rebel leaders are not content to remain under his command. As a result, Western Siberia divides itself into warlords again after the Black League's collapse, reducing Batov's control to Sverdlovsk and Tyumen while the Black League itself falls into Collapsed Authority.
• Take Up My Sword: Batov vows to carry on Rokossovsky's cause after Rokossovsky dies after uniting West Siberia.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: If Yeltsin gets elected, Batov will accept the outcome, but voice his dismay about reducing the army's influence and warns Yeltsin that they will act against him if he becomes too tyrannical.
• Un-person: If the National Salvation Commission is defeated, the Black League will kill Batov and erase all evidence of his existence.
• Unwitting Pawn: If Speer comes to power in Germany and the Black League unifies Western Siberia, Speer can discreetly have funds sent to Batov's insurgency so that they can take out the Black League◊. Subverted once the operation is carried out; Batov is none too pleased◊ to be working with Germany, but considers the Black League to be a more pertinent foe.
• We Used to Be Friends: At the regional stage, Batov visits Omsk and comes across Dmitry Karbyshev's grave. He solemnly recalls the friendship they used to share during World War II, and how their relationship became strained and eventually fell apart when Karbyshev started conceiving the Black League, feeling that he could have stopped him and steered him back on the right path. The most he can do now is place one of Karbyshev's old medals on his headstone and wish him peace in the afterlife.
  If only it hadn't come to this.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Batov can resort to some underhanded tactics to get elected over Yeltsin and fires locally voted officials to replace with loyal military officers, but only because he believes that reducing the military's influence would leave Russia vulnerable to Germany again.

Boris Yeltsin

Role: Head of State (Election)

Party: Liga Preobrazovania Rossii^note Russian Transformation League

Ideology: Paternalistic Conservatism^note Conservatism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Sometimes, there are good uses for a tiger. An apex predator, able to pursue its prey with a perseverance only rivaled by its bloodlust. The Fascists unleashed theirs in the Urals, accidentally setting loose a depraved man who left nothing but violence in his wake. Sverdlovsk's tiger however, hails from a different breed, and unlike the Germans, his leash shall be short and stiff. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin is an ideological man in a notoriously non ideological state. Advocating an aggressive economic policy of privatization, the rapid expansion of democracy, and a swift reunion of Russia. It is his zeal and dedication that led him from relative obscurity to leadership of the democratic faction in Sverdlovsk. However, while he may be eager to implement his new vision, and useful in our quest to end this Russian anarchy, like any tiger, he must be kept in check. Pavel Batov remains keenly aware of the eagerness of Yeltsin's policy, as well as the less savory methods he uses to achieve it. Thus, he has vowed to ensure the military holds equal sway in the new republic. Yeltsin must walk a tightrope, balancing the conservative militarists against his own aggressively republican tendencies. The war for Russia is not yet won, and it remains to be seen if such a task is feasible after all. Yet were he to succeed, Russia will surely be stronger for it. Perhaps no less cruel in its policy, but a free, aggressively capitalist republic nonetheless.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: Yeltsin was President of Russia in the 1990s, and can reunite Russia under his banner in this timeline, though in a very different way. When he does so, his version of the Russian unification superevent has a snippet of the Patriotic Song playing, which was the Russian's Federation's anthem during his term as president in OTL. In addition, his Head of Government, Yevgeny Primakov, was also Prime Minister of Russia historically under his Presidency.
• Betrayal Insurance: Yeltsin replaces military officials in the government with civilian authorities, ensuring that they won't try to forcefully take over and install another military junta.
• Can't Take Criticism: Averted. In contrast to the many despotic governments that have taken over Russia, an event explicitly shows that the common citizen is now free to criticize Yeltsin's new administration without punishment, which just makes him even more well-liked.
• Consolation Prize: To appease the overbearing military, Yeltsin can give them extra funding to develop new military technology and training techniques.
• Corrupt Politician: Downplayed. While not the most corrupt politician in this setting, Yeltsin dishonestly covers up a scandal involving his Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, specifically regarding his past association with the Black League.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Though he isn't greedy or self-centered, Yeltsin does want to be respected as President and feels that he isn't getting it from his critics, like Batov. His quest to reunify Russia is partly motivated by a desire to prove his doubters wrong.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: In real life, Boris Yeltsin was President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999, and was utterly incompetent at the job with his presidency a disaster. Here, he can reunify Russia and lead it to a new era of democracy and prosperity.
• Historical In-Joke: Boris Yeltsin, despite being far more competent than he was historically, still loves vodka and believes that "shock therapy" is what Russia needs in order to have prosperity. He also even in this timeline forms a friendly relationship with a young Bill Clinton.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even when taking power at an earlier point in life, Yeltsin still works with the Gazprom Energy Company as he did in OTL, now using them to extract West Siberia's oil reserves.
• Internal Reformist: Yeltsin works to reduce the military's influence over the government and introduce a proper democracy for the benefit of all Russians.
• Irony: Yeltsin's Economy Minister is Aleksandr Tizyakov, who historically was one of the leaders of the August Coup, which Boris Yeltsin helped thwart.
• Meaningful Rename: Under Yeltsin, Sverdlodsk reverts back to its original pre-Soviet name, Yekaterinburg. Which reflects his efforts to both foster continuity with the past and move on from the perceived failures of socialism.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though he disagrees with Batov's complaints that the military must remain a powerful organ in the government, Yeltsin organizes a compromise with him to allow some army representation that could prevent civilian officials from becoming too power-hungry.
• State Visit: As part of improving relations with the United States, Yeltsin organizes a personal visit to Washington D.C.
• Suffrage and Political Liberation: After his election, Yeltsin writes a new constitution to guarantee more liberties for the people and permit the rise of political parties to represent them in the government.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Yeltsin's republican tendencies brings him into conflict with the conservative officers in the Ural Military District, forcing him to compromise with them so that his republic will survive.
• Vodka Drunkenski: Despite having a Historical Badass Upgrade from his OTL self, Yeltsin is still an alcoholic, with one event having him sneak off to the bathroom to get some "contingency vodka" during a boring trade meeting. Hilarity Ensues when the bathroom also had an aide to the Americans washing his hands when he came in◊, and Boris, initially failing to come up with an excuse, simply decides to produce a second shot glass to bribe the aide with drinks. When he leaves to rejoin the meeting, the American ambassadors aren't fooled (due to the aide in question being utterly sloshed - and only after two, not even full-to-the brim, shots), and it's revealed that the aide in question is a young Bill Clinton. As if to finish driving it home, his superevent's music has the sounds of someone pouring a drink, ice and all, and having a swig after toasting; presumably Yeltsin himself celebrating the best way he knows.

Omsk

Official Name: Siberian Black League, West Siberian Provisional Authority (regional unification), Russian National Reclamation Government (superregional unification)

Ruling Party: Chernaya Liga - Oficerskaya Klika^note Black League - Officers Clique

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

An extremist military organization made up of former Soviet officers based in Omsk. Convinced of the inevitability of German hostility, the All-Russian Black League aims to reunify Russia under a totalitarian military government to prepare it for the Great Trial, a prophesied final conflict between Russia and Germany that will decide Russia's ultimate fate.

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• Anachronism Stew: The Black League's iconography is a strange mishmash from every period in Russian history for the last 100 years or so. Their flag has the black, gold, and white colors of the 19th century Russian Empire, but also features a prominent Soviet-style five-pointed star, and a republican double-headed eagle without the crown, scepter, and orb. Yazov refers to himself as Glavkoverkh, a WW1-era Tsarist title, but his communiqués feature slogans taken straight from Stalin's WW2 speeches^note given that Stalin did not become the leader of the Soviet Union in the mod's timeline, it's either an Allohistorical Allusion, or Bukharin just so happened to use similar language.. Their uniforms are stark black, evocative of the similarily fanatical Kornilov battalions of the Imperial and later White Army, but their actual design is based on that of the Red Army instead. Overall, the Black League seems to style itself less after any particular previous Russian regime and more after the idea of Russian resistance and militarism in general. This, ironically, makes the Black League similar to Nazi Germany itself, which also combined monarchist and socialist symbols and rhetoric in order to broaden their social appeal.
• Anti-Mutiny: After the Black League unifies Western Siberia, many members of its Old Guard will defect from the Black League to join Pavel Batov's insurgency, believing that Dmitry Yazov has betrayed Karbyshev's ideals.
• Badass Creed: The Black League's oath of allegiance.◊
  I believe, before all else, in Russia, one, indivisible, and invincible.
  I believe in my own strength and the strength of my comrades.
  I reject the lies of the First Trial, and embrace the Black League as Russia's one and only salvation in the coming Trial.
  When the day of the Great Trial comes, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with my comrades.
  I will face the enemy without fear, and I will put my nation before my own life.
  I will be the sword and shield of Russia, by which justice will be done for the fallen.
  I swear this oath by my sacred Motherland.
• Balkanize Me: If the Black League unifies Western Siberia but fails to deal with Pavel Batov's uprising, it will break into eight pieces, among which only the territory held by Spetsgruppa V and Task Force Bogatyr being under the Black League's (nominal) control while the Black League itself is being torn apart by the League's remaining generals and doesn't even have any leadership left.
• Beneath the Earth: Envisioning a future nuclear exchange with Germany, the Black League will construct complex subterranean bunker and metro systems beneath Omsk Oblast that can withstand nuclear blasts. When the Great Trial comes, and Russia and Germany finish exchanging their nukes, the Black League's soldiers would emerge from these bunkers, charge their way into what remains of Germany, and wipe out those remnants to utterly destroy the concept of Germany.
• Blatant Lies: The All-Russian Black League tell the wider world that they are practicing "developmental authoritarianism" and that they plan to institute a democracy after reuniting Russia. Needless to say, this is a lie as the Black League, as shown in the event where Yazov is tried and executed by a victorious Ural Military District, believes that democracy weakens Russia in its struggle against Germany.
• Citadel City: The city of Omsk is likened to a fortress, within which the Black League militarizes and makes preparations for its war with Germany.
• Dark Is Evil: Omsk is ruled by the Black League, has a lot of black symbolism, including in their flag, and is also one of the most violent states in Siberia.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Many members resist joining the cause of others when annexed and defeated, showing dedication only to the Great Trial that they intend on unleashing.
  • If the Aryan Brotherhood defeats the Black League, an event occurs where remaining forces of the Black League try to lure in as many AB members to their building before setting off explosives to bring the complex down on top of them.
• Democracy Is Bad: The ultranationalists of the All-Russian Black League show outright disgust towards democracy, believing that any state with a semblance of it is weakening itself in "inevitable" future conflict. If the Ural Military District is victorious against the Black League, Yazov will simply declare in his trial that a democratic state will never be able to stand united against Germany.
• Determinator: Nothing, not even the threat of nuclear apocalypse, will stop the resolve of the Black League to bring revenge upon Germany.
• Devil in Plain Sight: When the Black League reunifies Western Siberia and begins to become visible on the global stage, they conceal their Ultranationalist ideology and goal of launching the Great Trial underneath an appearance of defensive militarism. They publicly recharacterize themselves as a Military Junta, and give themselves a rather nondescript regional unifier name called "West Siberian Provisional Authority". Nothing has changed, but an unwary player might not understand that they're the same old maniacs plotting genocide.
• Downer Ending: The Black League is the worst possible Russian unification path for the whole world, tied with the similarly-Ultranationalist Hyperborea. Whereas other bad paths will result in rampant internal oppression but relatively few external conflicts, the Black League intends to prepare the Russian people for the Great Trial, which is an inevitable genocidal war with nuclear-equipped Germany, while also developing a nuclear arsenal (along with other biological and chemical "revenge weapons") of their own, with the showdown ultimately resulting in a nuclear apocalypse. They are fully aware that their schemes will result in the end of the world, indeed their vision of the final Great Trial hinges on it.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Although Dmitry Karbyshev is still the nominal leader of the Black League by 1962, he has lost control over the monster he created to the power-hungry officer clique who have twisted his message.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: A Russia united under the Black League is easily one of the worst scenarios for the whole world and undoubtedly a "bad ending" for themselves and the world, but to actually do so takes a lot of effort since the Black League has to fight an uphill battle against other unifiers, cannot engage in diplomacy with them, and can potentially collapse along the way besides.
• Enemy Civil War: After Yazov succeeds Karbyshev as Glavkoverkh, he moves against the Old Guard who had profited from Karbyshev's powerlessness, prompting revolts in Tara and Isilkul. This internal conflict is referred to as the Gauntlet, and if Yazov does not deal with it promptly, he will be assassinated before the German Civil War even starts, leaving the Black League powerless against its enemies.
• Even Evil Has Standards: If they come into conflict with Taboritsky when he has unified his region, an event shows the Black League's reaction, which is utter disgust at the Mad Regent's crushing oppression of his subjects in the name of a royal figure that has long since died.
• Evil Versus Oblivion:
  • Of Western Siberia's three unifiers, only the Black League has unique reactions to the particularly nightmarish nations that can possibly come from Western Russia's unification. The Black League's reactions to Taboritsky's Western Russian Regency and Vagner's Purified Aryan Brotherhood make it clear that the Black League rightfully see themselves as Russia's first line of defense standing against Taboritsky or Vagner's respective wicked regimes. Ominously, in both cases, all three of them can be the Oblivion but the Black League still manages to come off as more sympathetic despite their endgoal involving global nuclear war.
  • Played With should the Black League face off against a Western Russia unified by Samara. Still viewing the ROA as traitors that obey Berlin's every command, this trope can only apply if Oktan is in charge of the ROA rather than the comparatively less bad Zykov or Bunyachenko.
• Evil Wears Black: All of the Black League's officers wear black military suits with gold highlights, just like their flag.
• Four Is Death: Karbyshev developed three theses as the foundations of the Black League's ideology. One is that the Great Trial is inevitable. Two is that Russia will be destroyed by the Great Trial if it is not prepared. Three is that the Black League is the only organization capable of preparing Russia for the Great Trial. Yazov, amidst his relentless self-doubts after learning that Karbyshev actually committed suicide, developed a Fourth Thesis: Russia should not simply wait for the Great Trial, but start it when she is ready. The Fourth Thesis cements the Great Trial as an offensive war rather than a defensive war, one fought to completely wipe the very concept of Germany from the face of the Earth through weapons of mass destruction.
• Final Solution: The Black League believes that completely destroying Germany with nuclear weapons is the only way to avenge Germany's destruction of Russia and ensure that they will never again become a threat to Russia.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: While their ideas are certainly scary, the Black League almost never stands a chance against its more powerful rivals in the region and almost always quickly disappears from the map. However, if they unite Russia thanks to the player's efforts, there is little the world can do to spare itself from the wrath of the Black League.
• Future Imperfect: Should the Great Trial succeed, it's heavily hinted that Yazov's exploits and background blend with Karbyshev's over time, until he and his predecessor are one and the same.
• General Ripper: The officers of the Black League view no cost, not even global thermonuclear war and the end of the world, as too great to wipe out the hated German people from the face of the earth.
• Gone Horribly Right: Should the Black League push through with the Great Trial, not only does the Black League survive the nuclear apocalypse, but proves stable enough to actually go through with it, only for Yazov to have a change of heart upon seeing the devastation he helped cause.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: The endgame of the Black League is exterminating the Reich and the German people in a war of vengeance for the atrocities they committed on Russia. The Black League will stop at nothing to see their revenge through.
• Hard-Coded Hostility: There's no way for the Black League to diplomatically unify Russia. They have to conquer nearly every other warlord by force; everyone else is an enemy or a future enemy (with the exception of the Free Aviators).
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Black League is sincerely anti-fascist. To defeat fascism, it wants to rigidly organize society, have the state and its goals permeate every facet of life, amplify nationalism to downright rabid levels, combat communism and liberal democracy under the belief that they are degenerate ideas that are holding the nation back, and exterminate an entire ethnic group. They see no contradictions in this, because there are none.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: While their generals (except Dmitry Yazov and Viktor Grigoriev) were part of the KGB and many of them were quite ruthless in real life, their real-world equivalents certainly did not advocate the destruction of Germany and killing every German in the world (which they do in this world).
• Immigrant Patriotism: While the All-Russian Black League also counts non-Russians among its leadership (Yuri Drozdov and Borys Steklyar are from Belarus and Ukraine, respectively), they are no less dedicated to the destruction of Germany for what they did to Russia. That being said, for much of their life Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were part of the same country, so it's unlikely that they see actually see themselves as foreigners.
• Ironic Echo: When the Black League reunites Russia, the resulting superevent is accompanied by a quote of Pavel Batov, a man that the Black League had to kill and erase from all records when stabilising Western Siberia for leading the resistance to their rule.
• Irony: The Black League are vehemently anti-Nazi, and yet are in appearance and practice just Russian Nazis. Should the Black League ever rise to power in Russia, then the xenophobic, scaremongering rhetoric that Hitler and the Nazi Party espoused during the Second World War about a horde of barbaric and murderous Russians from the east hellbent on destroying the German nation will be posthumously realized, with disastrous consequences not just for Germany but for the entire world.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While the Black League is belligerent to all other unifiers and determined to exterminate the German people even if it means the end of the world, its members are loyal to Russia and truly believe that they have the best in mind for their version of a reunited Russia. If Dmitry Yazov unifies Western Siberia and Sergey Taboritsky unifies Western Russia, the former will express his disgust and declare◊ that the Black League will defeat Taboritsky not only due to his past as a German collaborator, but for "the sake of human dignity" and all of Russia.
• Living Weapon: After uniting to the superregional stage, the Black League develops new strains of anthrax and smallpox, under the supervision of Major Yuri Ovchinnikov, as Weapons of National Vengeance against the hated Germans, and, darkly, against the Russians of RK Moskowien they see as collaborators or, at least, as insufficiently resistant towards the Germans.
• Mirroring Factions:
  • The Black League is, much like Nazi Germany, a genocidal death cult headed by a right-wing dictator who used to be a simple soldier, driven mad by thoughts of revenge against the world for what happened to his beloved country, rebuilding a broken nation from the ashes of a humiliating defeat in a global conflict by garnering support among the populace and legitimacy from other nations by cynically aping authoritarian-socialist rhetoric while stockpiling arms for another gigantic war. And don't forget the scary black uniforms too.
  • To Burgundy. Both are Omnicidal Maniac factions who wish to end the world for the goal of exterminating people of a certain ethnicity, while themselves surviving in bunkers. Both try to build a barracks society with forced poverty and exhausting hard labor. Both wear uniforms of the same color and have the same map color. The only differences is that the Black League has a narrower hated group and a proper excuse to hate them: they are not genociding the Teutons because of some racial theory, they are answering genocide with genocide!
• My God, What Have I Done?: If the Black League initiates a nuclear war, an event can play where a woman tells her child a warped version of events decades after the bombs fall, of how Yazov led the Black League to victory... and then realized exactly how much devastation he brought to the world. He spent the rest of his life after the Great Trial rebuilding the world, and instilled in his family line a sense of duty spurred by massive guilt over what their lineage had done.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • The name "All-Russian Black League" immediately suggests radical Russian nationalism and embrace of Dark Is Evil, immediately telling you that the warlords of Omsk are not nice people. Notably, it isn't that different from the National Socialist "All-Russian Government of Amur."
  • Their regional unifier name, "West Siberian Provisional Authority", is a justified aversion of this trope, since the Black League wants to maintain a positive image and doesn't go too deep into their evil ambitions.
  • Their superregional unification name, "Russian National Reclamation Government", goes back to being an example, though in a far more subdued manner. The unusual phrase National Reclamation is fairly mundane but has ominous implications, and seemingly signals a future conflict (i.e. the Great Trial that is being kept secret to the public) in the name of "Reclamation".
• Nonstandard Game Over: If Dmitry Yazov is assassinated (either by the Old Guard shortly after he succeeds Karbyshev, or by Pavel Batov's insurgency after unifying Western Siberia), the Black League's leader changes to Collapsed Authority and it loses its focus tree, signifying a failed game. While the player can still continue playing at this time, there'll be absolutely nothing to do until Omsk inevitably gets conquered by another unifier.
• Obviously Evil: The black military uniforms with gold highlights, along with their national flag, very clearly indicate that the Black League is up to no good.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: This is the manner in which they deal with the Free Aviators, the one warlord they have the option to not invade and conquer with no other option available. The Black League demands they surrender unconditionally, lest they be invaded like the others.
• Ominous Mundanity: A Russia reunited under the banner of the Black League is called the "Russian National Reclamation Government" and signifies the goals of the Black League in how they announce their goals in the name of "reclamation."
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • When a Luftwaffe terror-bomber crashes over their territory, the Black League's forces waste no time surrounding him and crushing his head underfoot. It's also implied that the man who did this was merciful, because the Black League engages in outright torture whenever they catch other bombers.
  • The Black League completely purges other Russian warlords who are (or used to be) German collaborators or are committed Fascists, with the Aryan Brotherhood, Samara, Taboritsky's Western Russian Regency, and Amur all having their territories razed to the ground along with being purged upon the Black League's victory. Especially in the case of the Aryan Brotherhood, where◊ a commander of Vagner's begs for his life, and the Black League's command verbally tears the madman apart for fetishizing and worshiping their enemy before executing him and his remaining forces. This also applies to Vyatka, whose tsar is a much-reformed character, and whose worst ending still sees his government establishing a kind of constitutional monarchy. Not that the Black League cares much for democracy.
  • The Black League intends to do this to all of Germany and its allies. Ultimately, it's a Deconstruction, as their efforts to do so have driven them into becoming an oppressive totalitarian state and will make them bring thermonuclear ruin upon the world for the sake of their revenge.
• Persecution Flip: Just as the Germans believed in crushing Russia for the sake of their "master race," the Black League wish to see everything German torn down and razed.
• Penal Colony: After conquering Yugra, Yazov converts the city of Yugorsk into a massive open-air prison city for criminals that are not accepted into the Redemptionary Brigades.
• The Political Officer: The Black League views commissars as one of the old Union's few good ideas, and will form their own commissar unit, tasked with enforcing discipline without compromise.
• The Power of Hate:
  • The Black League has a national spirit called "Fueled by Hate", which increases both recruitable population and Division Attack.
  • The Black League also deconstructs this trope. One of the themes of the mod is how this trope can only bring suffering and destruction upon those who practice it, which they clearly reflect. The Russian people have suffered immensely at the hands of the Nazis whose hatred for them drove them to genocidal extremes, with many Russians in turn being unable to feel anything but a seething desire for revenge. The Black League is that desire turned into a nation, as its entire mission and purpose is to see every German slaughtered no matter what it takes, even if it means oppressing and sacrificing Russia itself for eternity, giving into the same worldview as the Nazis. Omsk is thus not only a horrible place to live as its people have no purpose but to hate and destroy Germany, but will effectively punish the world as well with a nuclear holocaust for the sake of wiping Germany off the map to sate its desire.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • The Black League makes genuine efforts at reconstruction and even half-hearted attempts at diplomacy to the USA and Japan so they can build a large and powerful army that can launch the Great Trial successfully. This involves pretending to "merely" be a Military Junta rather than an Ultranationalist death cult.
  • The radical officers of the Black League initially treated the Redemptionary Brigades as nothing more than cannon fodder and meat shields, and as a result they fought extremely poorly despite the genuine desire to serve Russia that many Redemptionary Brigadiers had. Yazov will reform the Redemptionary Brigades into an effective and formal auxiliary force by providing them with better equipment, training, and a genuine chance at redemption.
  • The Black League will implement poverty relief programs during the superregional stage. Well-fed, clothed, and reasonably cared for soldiers and workers perform better then ones who are starving and without shelter.
• Public Execution: If the Black League defeats Samara or Amur◊, the leaders of the ROA or the RFP are hanged in the central squares of their former capital cities.
• Rainbow Speak: Every mention of the Great Trial is highlighted red in the Black League's in-game text.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The state that is now Omsk used to be a part of the West Siberian People's Republic before Karbyshev's Black League launched a mutiny against the government in Tyumen.
• Revenge Before Reason: The spectre of nuclear war is not something the Black League fears in their revenge plot against Germany for not even the fact Germany has nuclear weapons (and will launch them) stops the Black League from invading Germany.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: A remarkable amount of the Black League's generals were members of the KGB or the KGB Spetsnaz in real life.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Black League's path is one big quest for revenge against Germany and the world for all the suffering and humiliation Russia endured for more than 20 years.
• Secret Police: The Black Hand is an internal security directorate integrated with the League and answering directly to Dmitry Yazov, with the purpose of ensuring the security and stability of the League, rooting out dissidents and those not fit to serve.
• Tested on Humans: The Black League tests their biological weapons on their own people, something which horrifies even Yazov himself.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Karbyshev has created a system of Redemptionary Brigades, where traitors to Russia, major criminals, and other enemies of the Black League are offered a chance for redemption if they provide their military service to the motherland.
• Tragic Villain: The Black League represents what happens when hatred and anger consume people. Having witnessed firsthand the failure of Russia to beat the hated German butchers and the suffering and humiliation it subsequently endured, the officers of the Black League came to believe that only the most extreme measures could save the Motherland from her enemies, although this certainly doesn't excuse for their own genocidal intentions toward the German people.
• Training from Hell: After defeating Vorkuta, the Black League turns the old gulags into training facilities for the cadres, where they could experience the worst punishments that the Motherland is capable of inflicting upon her unruly children, and emerge as iron-hearted killers with ice in their veins.
• War Hawk:
  • They are mainly motivated by having one last conflict with Germany and preparing their militaries for it. Democratic institutions and anything that doesn't have to do with waging war take less priority if they are not outright rejected and mocked.
  • The only diplomacy the Black League can engage in is a formal request of unconditional surrender for The Free Aviators, whom they intend to incorporate into their forces. They deal with any other region by crushing and forcibly annexing them.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The leaders of the All-Russian Black League have seen their homeland destroyed by German invaders and the brutalities the Germans had inflicted on the Russian people. However, it does not justify the insanity of the Great Trial or how the Black League advocates destroying Germany and killing all Germans in the world with not even nuclear war standing in the way of revenge.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Despite their opposing ideologies, the Black League respects the West Russian Revolutionary Front for having fought against the Germans for decades, after most had given up or turned traitor, and is willing to give amnesty to and recruit the WRRF's officers and generals after 'retraining' them.
  • They also respect the Free Aviators, who still defend Russia from Luftwaffe bombers and because the Aviators likely have a large body count of Germans. In fact, the Free Aviators are the only warlord state to get extended an offer of unification rather than being invaded and subsequently annexed.

Dmitry Karbyshev

Role: Military Commander, Head of State

Party: Chernaya Liga - Oficerskaya Klika^note Black League - Officers Clique

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Dmitry Mikhaylovich Karbyshev's story is a tragic one, full of betrayal, loss, and fury. He first fought for the Tsar in the Great War, joined the Red Guards in the Civil War, and returned to duty when the Motherland was invaded once more. Captured by the Germans and sent to a string of concentration camps, Karbyshev was beaten, tortured, and left to die, but he never lost hope in his people. Eventually, he and a few others escaped the death camps and fled east, past the Union's weakening grip and into the arms of Lazar Kaganovich's West Siberian People's Republic. Embittered by years of suffering, Karbyshev resolved to never let Russia see such torment again. He began planning for what he called the Great Trial, the coming final conflict with Germany that would seal Russia's fate. Gathering many like-minded comrades to his cause, he soon rebelled against Kaganovich and seized Omsk, turning the city into a fortress where he could prepare in peace. Karbyshev proclaimed the rule of the All-Russian Black League, the only organization he saw fit to guide Russia through what lay ahead. But time wore on, and distrust grew among his once-loyal officers. Now he can do naught but watch the vultures circling above, and weep at how those he hoped to save fight each other instead of the enemy. The Great Trial looms ever closer, and unless someone worthy takes up his mantle, Dmitry Karbyshev fears Russia will be doomed when it arrives.

The founder of the Black League, a Soviet officer and concentration camp survivor. He founded the Black League for the sake of Russia's survival, but his radical officers transformed it into a harbinger of Russia's vengeance. Now little more than a figurehead leader, Karbyshev can do nothing but lament and pray.

---

• Alas, Poor Villain: Just before his death, Karbyshev realizes that he is ultimately a dying, powerless old man, and he has deluded himself into thinking that he can guide Russia into a new era. So he decides to take a stroll outside in the cold night, find peace in his last moments, and let a cold little creek take him.
• Driven to Suicide: As Karbyshev realises that he has lost control over the monster he created and that there is nothing that he could do about it, he takes a walk outside at night, and takes his own life by stepping into a cold creek.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Since a country and its leader always share the same ideology in Hearts of Iron IV, Karbyshev is classified in-game as an Ultranationalist, even though the developers have stated that his actual ideology is Paternalism, as the officer clique under Dmitry Yazov has turned him into a puppet, and Stratocracy is actually Yazov's ideology, not Karbyshev's. Likewise, his supporters (Chernaya Liga - Loyalisty Karbysheva) are shown to be a different party from the officer clique.
• Left for Dead: Like in real life, Karbyshev was doused with cold water and was left to die outside of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In TNO, he survived and escaped back to Russia.
• The Mentor: To Yazov, who views him as a father figure. Although early events hint at Yazov developing ideas to take the Black League in a darker direction than he might intend, Karbyshev still trusts him alone among his generals.
• No One Could Survive That!: Karbyshev was brutally beaten, tortured and exhausted by inhumane labor in German concentration camps for five years and eventually was doused with cold water in the winter. Nobody expected him to survive after what he had endured, yet he not only survived, but also made his way from Austria to his hometown Omsk.
• Our Founder: After Karbyshev's death, Dmitry Yazov has a memorial to him built at the centre of Omsk.
• Puppet King: By 1962, despite being its founder and de jure leader, Karbyshev has lost control over the Black League, becoming no more than a puppet for the officer clique who hold the true power.
• Token Good Teammate: Karbyshev originally founded the Black League with the ideology that conflict with the Germans was inevitable and that Russia needed to be prepared under a strong military; the Great Trial as envisioned by Karbyshev is a defensive war. However, in preaching this rhetoric, he only managed to recruit extremists who twisted his original vision into a need to exterminate the German people for what they did to Russia. Karbyshev himself actually opposes these radical measures, but can't do anything about it, having lost control over the monster he created.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Old and enfeebled by his past life, Karbyshev dies at the end of the Black League's first tree.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Karbyshev founded the militant Black League with survivalist and not genocidal intentions, beliving that the unyielding ideology of the Black League is the only hope for Russia to survive the German re-invasion. Unfortunately, his well intentioned goals were twisted by the radical officers into a genocidal one.

Dmitry Yazov

^{70s Yazov portrait}

^{70s Yazov portrait with shades}

Role: Military Commander, Director of State Administration^note Head of Government (Karbyshev cabinet), Head of State (Karbyshev succession)

Party: Chernaya Liga - Oficerskaya Klika^note Black League - Officers Clique

Ideology:Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism, "Military Junta"^note Despotism (deception for foreign support)

60's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov is part of a new generation of post-Soviet leaders: those born after the rise of Lenin, with no memories of the Tsar or the Great War. They knew hardship as children, but were told that this hardship was a necessary sacrifice for the Motherland's survival. When the Nazis came swarming from the west, they fought on the front lines under the Red Army, witnessing hell on earth and suffering bitter defeat again and again. When the Great Patriotic War was over, what little happiness they had in their former lives was taken from them by the victorious Germans. The West Russian Revolutionary Front's military failures and subsequent collapse in the 1950s only made men like Yazov more set in their ways: the old Soviet commanders had fervor, but the leadership desperately needed some fresh blood. Younger men, harder men, those who were taught from birth about the value of sacrifice and have witnessed it firsthand. With Comrade Karbyshev having passed before his vision was complete, the burden now falls to his protégé Dmitry Yazov to carry it out. Unlike his former mentor, Yazov has both the will and the stamina to implement it, and is already transforming the entire nation to be ready for a form of total war more destructive than any the world has ever seen. He expects his people to sacrifice everything they have, including their lives, to help achieve revenge against the German menace, and many of them will gladly do so. Nothing, not even the threat of atomic fire, will be enough to deter him from his course, and he frequently boasts that if all Germans and all but one Russian perish in the coming war, it will still be a victory. Omsk is stirring from its slumber, and the world trembles at the thought.

70's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Dmitry Yazov looks upon his handiwork, a strong and hard Russia preparing eagerly for revenge, and smiles pridefully.

Yazov and his comrades had known hardship as children; they were told that the hardship was a necessary sacrifice for the Motherland's survival. But failures of the Great Patriotic War and the West Russian War first broke the minds of Yazov and his ilk, as they realized how futile it had all been. Then it led them to conclude that the leadership of the Russian people needed to be in the hands of young, hard men who had been taught well about sacrifice and knew it firsthand.

Comrade General Karbyshev, founder of the Black League, suffered death and was buried before his vision was complete; it fell, therefore, to his protégé Dmitry Yazov to carry that vision out. After subjugating West Siberia, defeating the liberal and old guard insurgency to secure his rule, and unifying the whole of Russia, Yazov was freed to begin his master work: that of transitioning all Russia into a state of readiness for a form of total war more destructive than any seen before.

Yazov now expects his people to sacrifice everything they have - even their lives - to achieve total revenge against the German menace, and more and more of them are willing to do so. Nothing, not even the threat of thermonuclear hellfire destroying civilization itself, will be enough to deter him from his course. Indeed, Yazov frequently boasts that if no Germans and only one Russian survive the coming Great Trial, it will still be a total victory.

The Great Trial approaches, and Yazov smirks as the opportunity for his revenge upon those that raped his homeland comes ever closer.

And "the lamps are going out all over Eurasia; we shall never see them lit again in our life-time."

In-Game Biography (Karbyshev cabinet) ^{Click to Show}What can be said of Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov, the protégé to the Black League's founder? Born in a backwater town near Omsk to a peasant family, Dmitry joined the Red Army at the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War at just seventeen. When the Germans caused the complete and utter rout of the Red Army, Dmitry was forced to make his way back to West Siberia and drawn to the new strength of Kaganovich's West Siberian People's Republic.

However, like many military men in West Siberia, a black coal of hate formed in Yazov's heart for the Germans for what they had done to his Motherland. His dedication to the defence of Russia drew the eye of Dmitry Karbyshev, the general who would go on to break with Kaganovich and form the Black League. Dmitry, liking Yazov's intelligence and fanaticism to the cause of saving the motherland, took him in as his personal protégé. This caused Yazov to go with his mentor to Omsk when they finally declared independence from Kaganovich, and he became the right hand man to the older man.

However, Yazov holds nothing but contempt for what he sees now. The people all around Karbyshev only pretend to believe in the cause of the Black League, using their mantle to do whatever the hell they please with Karbyshev too powerless to stop it. He swears to himself that he will make the old man proud, that Karbyshev's dream of a final Great Trial with the Germans defeated once and for all. After all, he is Dmitry Yazov, and he will make sure his mentor's work was not in vain.

Karbyshev's devoted protégé and the de facto leader of the Black League. Experiencing deep sorrow and hate after witnessing Russia's destruction, Yazov and his fellow officers resonated with Karbyshev's pleas, but twisted them into a call for vengenace. The Great Trial will no longer just be Russia's judgment day; it will be Germany's judgment day too.

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• Cool Shades: Yazov has a 5% chance to obtain a pair of shades for his 70's portrait. Double as Sinister Shades considering the Black League's agenda.
• Dark Messiah: A secular example. Yazov is convinced that only he can bring about the Great Trial, and rallies his Black League to prepare for a genocidal rampage. He and his fanatical followers are convinced their deeds are just, and that Yazov is the only one who can save Russia.
• Decapitated Army: If Yazov is assassinated (either by the Old Guard after Karbyshev's death, or by Pavel Batov's insurgency after unifying Western Siberia), the Black League breaks down and becomes a collection of feuding generals, each seeking to grab their part of Karbyshev's heritage. In the game, when this happens, the Black League starts to suffer massive penalties all-around, and either becomes but another expansion target for the Ural Military District and the West Siberian People's Republic (in the former case) or shatters into four warlord states that cannot reunify Russia again (in the latter case).
• Defiant to the End: After being captured, put on trial and sentenced to death by a victorious Military District, Yazov declares that they've destroyed Russia's chances of survival, claiming he is the only person who could lead Russia through the Great Trial and denouncing them as "weak" for its political system.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Yazov adores his mentor and father figure, Dmitry Karbyshev. When he finds that his daughter, Yelena Karbysheva, has joined Batov's insurgency, he is disappointed, but still buries her in secret beneath Karbyshev's monument once he puts the insurgency down. When he finds out that Karbyshev commited suicide, he is nearly(?) driven mad with doubt, culminating in his formulation of the Fourth Thesis: as Karbyshev retook control over his life by meeting death head-on instead of waiting for it to come, so would Russia strike first instead of waiting for Germany to come to them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Yazov is a ruthless and brutal ruler, but even he is stunned and horrified◊ at the experiments performed by the League in order to create and weaponize a drug-resistant strain of hemorrhagic smallpox.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: If defeated and captured by the Ural Military District◊, Yazov claims that a democratic system of government only weakens Russia in its struggle against Germany, the Great Trial that the All-Russian Black League believes will see Russia totally destroy Germany or be utterly destroyed themselves.
• Evil Virtues: Humility. Yazov keenly feels the burden of responsibility Karbyshev placed on his shoulders, and more than once expresses astonishment that he and the Black League managed to get so far.
• The Generalissimo: Yazov is formally the Glavkoverkh (short for verkhovny glavnokomanduyuschiy, or Supreme Commander-in-Chief) of the Black League.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The defeat of his beloved Russia in a world war has turned Yazov into a genocidal right-wing dictator and militarist. Sound familiar?
• Heel Realization: Should the Black League be the one to instigate a nuclear apocalypse, one event◊ heavily implies that Yazov finally realized the heavy destruction that his misguided quest for vengeance brought on the world, working to try to repair it and warning the future generations of the folly of what he'd done.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: In real life, Yazov was regarded as a mediocre senior officer by some in the Soviet government, his promotion to Marshal due to Gorbachev's political needs more than Yazov's abilities, and his most notable deployment was being in charge of the Soviet ground forces in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In TNO, Yazov is the very capable and loyal second-in-command of Dmitry Karbyshev, and can rise to reunify Russia.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Yazov in real life was a Soviet hardliner who had a hand in the violent crackdowns in the last years of the Soviet Union, was credibly accused of war crimes by the Latvians, and, as Minister of Defense, took part in a failed three-day coup by Communist Party hardliners when the Union was on death's door in 1991. In TNO however, the emergence of the Black League in his home city resulted in his life trajectory going in a completely different direction, and he became a committed Black League Ultranationalist who advocates for the destruction of Germany and the death of all Germans in the world (something the real Yazov certainly did not advocate for).
• My God, What Have I Done?: If the Black League successfully carries out the Great Trial, ending the world in the process, it is implied that the Black League still survives, but Yazov is soon horrified by the destruction he helped cause. This prompts him, once enough Germans are killed, to instill a sense of collective guilt onto his surviving compatriots, which is passed on to their descendants.
• Overzealous Underling: A rare example of an Obliviously Evil Man Behind the Man, Yazov is completely loyal to Karbyshev and is 100% devoted to Great Trial Theory, but is so ruthless an enforcer, so powerful in the Black League, and so deep in his own misinterpretations of what would otherwise merely be an ideology rooted around constructing a national defense state that even Karbyshev can do nothing to sway him. He genuinely does not understand why the orthodox Old Guard would want to rebel against him.
• Token Good Teammate: Subverted. Yazov is the only member of Karbyshev's cabinet who is non-corrupt, legitimately believes in carrying out his legacy, and clears out his government of any sycophantic opportunists when he takes over. However, his interpretation of Karbyshev's ideology is itself a corruption of its word and his ultimate goal in the Great Trial is a great danger to the rest of the world.
• Villain with Good Publicity: After the Black League unites West Siberia, Yazov makes statements about returning Russia to a pre-war quality of life, and is described as having a good amount of popularity and support for doing so. He eventually reaches out to America and Japan, painting himself as a developmental authoritarian. These are all explicitly lies; he's the same old genocidal maniac but he's concealing his true motivations and desires for reasons of publicity.

Evgeny Savintsev

Role: Military Commander, Director of State Administration^note Head of Government (Yazov cabinet), Head of State (Black League collapse)

Party: Chernaya Liga - Oficerskaya Klika^note Black League - Officers Clique, Spetsgruppa V^note Special Group V (Black League collapse)

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Evgeny Aleksandrovich Savintsev is a curious byproduct of the Black League, a man of an unassuming expression and even more quiet presence, preferring to speak what is necessary, apparently no particular hobbies or interests, and uninterested in the inner politics and day to day by the Black League. Evgeny could be passed by your typical lieutenant and commander of a squadron, fated to either an ignoble death or the preparations of the trials ahead as another faceless soldier. This couldn't be further from the proof, albeit by his interest, this general idea helps his and Yazov's interest tremendously.

For Evgeny is not a simple cog of the machine, but the engineer and maintainer of the Black League's finest weapons against the warlords, the Black Army's Special Units.

Born in Tomsk, he barely finished school by the time the Soviet Union rose against its youth for what was once to be the Great Patriotic War, but simply became the deathbed of the Russian dream; there, amongst the ruins, despair, seeing soldier after soldier run over by the seemingly unbeatable German March, his mind was not beset by despair, but by cold logic, taking every piece of what happened in the war, and how the German army operated, what could have countered it, crushed it into a pulp and brought any amount of salve for the thousands that lost their lives for a nation that utterly failed them all. His quiet demeanor speaks of a deep, frozen rage beset in his soul, and a determination to create the perfect weapon to destroy Germany's pride, piece by piece until nothing else is left but the hollow husk they've made him be. Such fury and dedication to the League's ideals made him a perfect pick by Yazov as his right-hand man, and the second opinion to pick what will be the vanguard of soldiers that, one day, will lead the push to the Teutons themselves.

In-Game Biography (Black League collapse) ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)}Perhaps it is hunger. Perhaps it is the cold. But for just a moment, Evgeny Aleksandrovich Savintsev broke the greatest dictum of the Black League. He considered surrender.

Once the second-in-command to the Glavkoverkh himself, Savintsev was infamous for his special forces brigade Spetsgruppa V, the Black League's final line of defense. Their last assignment, to hold the Fang against an uprising in the Redemptionary Brigades, was supposed to be simple. But with supply lines cut and a nation in chaos, Vorkuta was... lost. For Savintsev, it was a failure greater than any other.

Now, the general and his troops have been stranded in the Northern Urals, cut off from any major cities or supplies. The situation is dire. Food has begun to run thin. Bullets require rationing. Riflemen's trigger fingers are locked by frostbite. Yet when his officers demand he spit out an order, Savintsev can only shout "Attack." No matter how many resources he loses. No matter how many of his men die.

For all their harm, these final orders are not an act of cruelty. They are the instinctual response at the very heart of the Black League. For an entire decade, the commander of Spetsgruppa V was told to never surrender. As his forces rot away, Savintsev can finally see the price.

---

• Attack! Attack! Attack!: In spite of the dire situation he's facing after the Black League collapses, Savintsev only gives the order to "attack", regardless of how many resources or men he loses in the battle.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Savintsev seems to be a quiet and uninteresting man, but he's actually one of Yazov's most proficient lieutenants, running a lot of the logistical work needed to complete the Great Trial. He's also got a lot of pent up, genocidal rage towards Germany for massacring his fellow soldiers during the Second World War.
• Break the Haughty: Savintsev absolutely despises the possibility of surrender, which only wounds his pride when he loses Vorkuta to a prison riot and is forced to retreat after Yazov's death and subsequent collapse of the Black League.
• The Dragon: Savintsev is noted to be Yazov's closest lieutenant, helping him plot the Great Trial and even rumored to be personal friends with him.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When training new recruits to the Spetsgruppa V, Savintsev openly tells them that he will break them over the next 3 weeks to mold them into elite soldiers for the Black League's cause.
• General Ripper: The potential death of Yazov only cements Savintsev's unwillingness to surrender and his only orders are to keep attacking until the Black League retakes the Northern Urals, regardless of how many pointless casualties ensue.
• Obliviously Evil: His suicidal attack orders after Yazov's demise are not done out of sadism or spite. Savintsev genuinely believes that the instinctual response for Black League soldiers is to never surrender and that he's only following the greatest dictum of his faction.
• The Spock: Witnessing the horrors and atrocities conducted by the Germans, Savintsev has been degraded into a stoic, empty husk of a man, now only driven by pure logic to destroy Germany and avenge the comrades he lost.
• The Strategist: As the German war machine rampaged during World War II, Savintsev carefully analyzed their every strategy to one day take his vengeance on them.

Non-Unifiers

Zlatoust

^{Flag of the Ural Republic}

Official Name: Zlatoust Republic, Ural Republic (regional 'unification')

Ruling Party: Zlatoustskaya Partiya Protsvetaniya^note Zlatoust Prosperity Party

Ideology: Market Liberalism^note Liberal Conservatism

A merchant state led by firearm-designer-turned-mayor Yevgeny Dragunov, who is focused on profiting from arms manufacturing and keeping Zlatoust prosperous and stable.

---

• Arms Dealer: Zlatoust supplies weapons to many Russian warlords, allowing them to gain massive profits and prosper among the warlord states.
• Citadel City: The city of Zlatoust is surrounded by mines, bunkers, pillboxes and anti-tank guns, which serve to keep its citizens safe.
• Dark Horse Victory: Zlatoust has no expansionist focuses and no desire to unify Russia, but if it manages to defeat all the other unifiers in defensive wars, the devs have created a special "unification" scenario for Zlatoust◊, where it annexes most of the Urals, renames itself the Ural Republic, and creates several puppet states (Omsk Reconstruction Authority, Protectorate of Tyumen, Khanty-Mansi United Front, and Republic of Nenetsia), all of which are members of the Siberian Mutual Assistance Compact alongside the Ural Republic itself.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Even though the merchants of Zlatoust are driven by nothing but profit and actively don't want Russia to be reunified, Western Siberia is still better off divided by them than unified by Omsk or Kaganovich's Tyumen.
• Merchant City: Zlatoust is ruled by weapon manufacturing magnates and lives through the arms trade.
• Private Military Contractors: Zlatoust hires mercenaries from Yugra as an expendable force to police its borders and fight bandits.
• Puppet State: If the Zlatoust Republic pacifies Western Siberia, it does not unite the region but instead sets up puppet states in Tyumen, Omsk, Nenetsia and Yugra.
• Realpolitik: In order to ensure Zlatoust's peace and prosperity, its rulers made deals with ruthless warlords, providing them with weapons of war. However, as a result of these morally dubious acts, the Zlatoust Republic is legitimately peaceful and prosperous.
• Shown Their Work: The logo on Zlatoust's flag is the logo of Izhmash (full name Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, currently Kalashnikov Concern), the company (formerly Soviet gun plant) that manufactures AK firearms in Russia. The logo came from the factory rollmarks of Izhmash.
• Team Switzerland: To expand their operations as much as possible, Zlatoust remains largely neutral in the hostile Russian environment, selling weapons to anyone who is willing to pay for them.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Believing that their prosperity is too good to be true, some suspect that Zlatoust regularly launches raids and slaughters bands of bandits who would dare try to attack them, allowing them build their paradise "atop a mountain of corpses."
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The leaders of Zlatoust are willing to fund armed conflicts across the Russian wasteland, but primarily to ensure that the warlords won't attack them and slaughter their own citizens.
• Wild Card: Zlatoust has no true ideological loyalties and will happily sell arms to any warlord state willing to pay up.

Yevgeny Dragunov

Role: Head of State, Foreign Minister (Batov cabinet)

Party: Zlatoustskaya Partiya Protsvetaniya^note Zlatoust Prosperity Party

Ideology: Market Liberalism^note Liberal Conservatism, Classical Liberalism^note Liberalism (Batov cabinet)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The scion of a long line of Russian gunsmiths, lead practically flows through Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov's veins. He took up the family profession in his youth, and soon applied those skills to the service of the Motherland as a senior armorer in the Red Army. He was fortunate enough to be stationed in the Siberian city of Zlatoust, far away from the carnage of the front lines; however, Dragunov's fortunes would not end there, as the dreadful wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union left Dragunov as the de facto mayor over the city. Dragunov led Zlatoust in upscaling the arms manufacturing industry into becoming its main export, allowing the city to claim immense profits in the bloodbaths the Russians would wage against one another in the years to come. Dragunov's fortunes only improved further when the esteemed engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov arrived in his city, where the two secured a close friendship and a profitable fusion of their technical skills to design the greatest weapons the Russian people had ever seen.Unlike many of the other warlords in post-Soviet Russia, Dragunov has no delusions of grandeur about reuniting the Union or sacking Germania. He certainly wouldn't mind those, but he's more preoccupied with profit than anything else. Zlatoust has become an island of prosperity and stability in a sea of chaos thanks to its arms trade, and he intends to keep it that way. There are few people he would refuse to sell to, and he's always eager to find more customers. And in the coming years, he expects business to be positively booming...

Former firearm designer turned de facto mayor of Zlatoust. He has kept his territory stable and prosperous thanks to firearm manufacturing and trade, and he has little desire to reunite the Union.

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• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Dragunov's first and only concern is profit, and any actions he takes to ensure the safety of the territory under his control stem from his goal of expanding his industry and increasing his share in the post-Soviet arms market.
• Merchant Prince: Dragunov and Kalashnikov are the diarchs of Zlatoust who assured their indisputable dominance in the city's politics solely through the wealth acquired from arms dealing.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Yevgeny Dragunov is a firearm designer in real life, and famously designed the SVD Dragunov sniper rifle. Here, he has also become a politician, and rules the Zlatoust Republic. Should the Ural Military District unify Western Siberia, he can also find a place for himself in its government as the Foreign Minister, taking advantage of his connections across Russia.
• Villainous Breakdown: If Zlatoust fails to meet a deal set up by another warlord, Dragunov will panic and try to appeal for an extension of the deal. Invariably, the representative will refuse and hang up the phone, leaving Dragunov to throw his chair back in frustration.

Mikhail Kalashnikov

Role: Military Commander, Head of Government (Dragunov cabinet)

Party: Zlatoustskaya Partiya Protsvetaniya^note Zlatoust Prosperity Party

Ideology: Liberalism

Creator of the AK-47, and Dragunov's closest aide.

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• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Unlike Dragunov, Kaganovich and his supporters don't kill Kalashnikov, as they need him to design new rifles for the Red Army.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He may be an unscrupulous arms dealer, but he is very affectionate to his wife and children.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the collapse of the Holy Russian Empire, Mikhail Kalashnikov gives up his status as a greedy merchant and willingly produces arms for the Trans-Ural Confederation for free.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Kalashnikov has a mixed opinion about the AK-47. He is proud of his creation, but the knowledge that it is being used to further death and destruction in Russia gives him sleepless nights.

Vorkuta

Official Name: Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camps

Ruling Party: Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovikh lagerey i koloniy Narodnogo komissariata vnutrennikh del Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik^note Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Colonies of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Ideology: Communism

The Vorkutlag was one of the most infamous Gulags within the former Soviet Union. Following the Soviet collapse, the Vorkutlag, led by the cold-blooded chief executioner of the NKVD, Vasily Blokhin, initially pledged their loyalty to the West Russian Revolutionary Front. When the Front collapsed, Blokhin decided to reorganize the region and gain control over the city of Vorkuta itself, creating his own little fiefdom. Vorkuta now is a totalitarian and isolationist hellhole where Blokhin wields absolute power, as he executes and disappears anyone that dares to challenge him.

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• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Downplayed. While they're obviously not a match to any unifier that they come across, the NKVD staffing Vorkuta largely consists of volunteers and "rehabilitated" prisoners, all of whom excel in combat, security, and intelligence-gathering. For such a small warlord, this makes them a fairly elite force.
• Grim Up North: Vorkuta is the northernmost warlord state in Russia, as well as a frozen, totalitarian hellhole of gulags where the NKVD under Vasily Blokhin hold absolute power.
• The Gulag: Vorkuta is notable for containing the Vorkutlag, one of the largest Gulags in the former Soviet Union, which Vasily Blokhin rules over with an iron fist.
• Police State: Vorkuta is run by former NKVD agents, prisoners and prison guards, who continue to maintain Vorkuta's prison camps.
• Renegade Russian: Vorkuta is made up of former NKVD agents no longer loyal to any of the Soviet successor states or any other warlord state for that matter.
• Red and Black Totalitarianism: The flag of this prison state is entirely red, black and white.
• Shown Their Work: The symbols on the left side of Vorkuta's flag represent deer antlers, a pattern used by and representative of the Nenets people, which features on the flags of the modern-day Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, both of which are located near Vorkuta.

Vasily Blokhin

Role: Head of State, Head of Government (Blokhin cabinet)

Party: Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovikh lagerey i koloniy Narodnogo komissariata vnutrennikh del Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik^note Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Colonies of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Ideology: Communism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Some men have strict moral codes. Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin abandoned them long ago, when he became the chief executioner of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the NKVD. His effectiveness in "wetwork" as a Cheka member would not go unnoticed, and so he would quickly gain a higher position. Blokhin's brutality was unmatched: he personally oversaw mass executions of "enemies of the state", from the most insignificant ones to those of the most prominent Bolsheviks in the history of the Soviet Union. Thousands would perish under his watch, yet he himself would manage to avoid being affected by any purges carried out. Following the end of the Second World War and the humiliating defeat of the USSR, Blokhin would not let his power go that easily. As chief of the Vorkutlag, a large gulag complex, he would exercise his power, initially as the face of the West Russian Revolutionary Front's authority. In reality, he did whatever he wanted to, and there was no one that could stop him, for they would be executed or mysteriously disappear. However, things would change with the rebellion of the gulag inmates against the guards: the formation of the dissident group of the Ural League put him in danger, but soon he would reign supreme once again as they fled southwards. Vasily Blokhin was left to govern the gulags of Vorkuta, and now the city itself, on his own, especially as the WRRF crumbled with the famous West Russian War. With the help of what few guards remained, he would reorganize the area, and effectively set up his warlord state. However, Blokhin is not an ambitious man; all he wants is for his fiefdom to be left alone and survive, no matter what the cost for that may be."

The former chief executioner of the NKVD and later the chief of the Vorkutlag under the WRRF, who now rules the Vorkutlag alone without oversight. Despite his harsh despotism, Blokhin is unambitious and only seeks to be left alone.

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• The Executioner: Blokhin formerly served as the chief executioner of the NKVD under the USSR and later the WRRF.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Blokhin is depicted wearing glasses in his portrait, and he's most certainly a villain.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: In real life, Blokhin was the chief executioner of Stalin's NKVD and never headed the Vorkutlag.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Blokhin and his NKVD compatriots were sent to guard the Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camps, a prison camp in the Arctic Circle.
• The Starscream: He's nominally loyal to the West Russian Revolutionary Front, but he's actually split off from them to establish his own fiefdom in Vorkuta, ruling the place like a dictator and executing any would-be enemies to the state.
• Wardens Are Evil: Blokhin rules the gulags with an iron fist, doing whatever he wants to, and anyone who opposes him would be executed or mysteriously disappear.

Free Aviators

Official Name: Free Aviators

Ruling Party: Volnyye Aviatory^note Free Aviators

Ideology: Revolutionary Front^note Socialism

A group of female Soviet pilots based in Surgut, formed from the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, a.k.a. the Night Witches. They have dedicated themselves to protecting the Russian airspace from any German raids.

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• Amazon Brigade: The Night Witches are an all-woman regiment. After the defeat of the Soviet Union, they now patrol the Russian airspace and shoot down German terror bombers.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: When first teased, the Free Aviators were known as "Besplatnyye Aviatory", which means "free of charge aviators". This led to relentless mocking from the community, and the devs have since changed it to the English "Free Aviators".
• Chummy Commies: In addition to protecting Russia from Luftwaffe terror bombers, the Free Aviators are one of the few Russian warlord states that continue to adhere to socialism.
• The Remnant: The Free Aviators consist of remnants of the Soviet Air Force who continue to fight German bombers terrorising Russia.
• Loved by All: The Free Aviators are loved by almost every warlord in Russia, from the Communist WRRF to the Ultranationalist Black League.

Yevdokiya Bershanskaya

Role: Head of State

Party: Volnyye Aviatory^note Free Aviators

Ideology: Revolutionary Front^note Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Yevdokia Davidovna Bershanskaya sought to follow in the footsteps of her parents, who were killed supporting the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. As soon as she turned eighteen, she enrolled in aviation school, becoming a pilot and instructor. When the Germans invaded, three all-female bomber regiments were formed: the 586th and 587th Aviation Regiments, and the 588th Night Bombers' Regiment. Bershanskaya, already an experienced aviatrix with a decade's worth of experience under her belt, was selected to lead the 588th. The Regiment's operating conditions were far from ideal: they were forced to use outdated biplanes, and the only way to stay concealed was to turn off their engines and glide to their targets. But despite these limitations, the Regiment was immensely successful on its raids, and the Germans nicknamed them the "Night Witches." The Soviet Air Forces' chain of command was shattered following the chaotic evacuation of Moscow, but the 588th and several other regiments rallied around Bershanskaya to stay organized. She was able to maintain a steady and organized retreat, with her ramshackle air force finally relocating to a makeshift airstrip outside the Siberian city of Surgut. In the following years, the self-proclaimed "Free Aviators" built up their forces using the remnants of the Soviet industry in Arkhangelsk, scavenged wrecks, and home workshops, while their core of veteran pilots trained a new wave of recruits. They were a valuable boon during the West Russian War, and they were able to maintain much of their strength after the war's end. Even today, Bershanskaya still organizes fighter sorties to fend off Luftwaffe bombing raids.

The leader of the Free Aviators.

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• Old Soldier: Bershanskaya has continuously been fighting the Germans for 21 years, since she was assigned to the Night Witches in 1941.

Yugra

Official Name: Thief Territory of Yugra

Ruling Party: Vory v Zakone^note Thieves in the Law

Ideology: Warlordism^note Despotism

A criminal kingdom ruled by Georgian mafioso Jaba Ioseliani. They are a client state of Zlatoust, having made a deal with Zlatoust offering protection in exchange for weapons.

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• Army of Thieves and Whores: Their ranks consist of former Gulag prisoners who have escaped their imprisonment and rallied behind Ioseliani, now working as bandits.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As Zlatoust inspects Yugra, they realize that the bandits are much more well-equipped than they initially seemed, owning numerous weapon caches and military bunkers in case of war.
• Enemy Mine: Yugra establishes close ties with Zlatoust, churning out deals with them and forming defensive pacts.
• The Mafiya: Yugra is a land ruled by criminals, originating from the vory v zakone gangsters in the Vorkuta gulags.
• Scoundrel Code: When the USSR collapsed, a group of criminals in the Vorkuta gulag refused to break the thieves' code to work with the prison guards to survive. After some brief but bloody skirmishes, they fled to Yugra, far away from their jailers. When Jaba Ioseliani started working with the arms dealers of Zlatoust, many within the prison hierarchy view this as a betrayal of the Vory code.
• Self-Made Man: Many of their government officials are former Soviet entrepeneurs who struggled and succeeded to become powerful leaders in their own right. Such backgrounds can be useful when Yugra needs to negotiate or deal in trade with other warlords.
• Shown Their Work: Yugra's flag consists of a star and a cat, both of which are prominent symbols for thieves in Russian criminal tattoo designs.
• Totalitarian Gangsterism: The Thief Territory of Yugra is a lawless place where criminal syndicates hold total power.

Jaba Ioseliani

Role: Military Commander, Head of State

Party: Vory v Zakone^note Thieves in the Law

Ideology: Warlordism^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Under Bukharin's reign, the Komi Autonomous SSR was dotted with the Gulag system's prison camps, where political dissidents, criminals, and the Soviet Union's other "undesirables" were pressed into harsh labor programs for the state's benefit. Even after the Union fell, the West Russian Revolutionary Front continued the practice, sending trainloads of convicts and prisoners of war to the camps and keeping a close eye on them through the Red Navy base in Vorkuta. It was into this system that Jaba Konstantinovich Ioseliani was sent. A Georgian university dropout who found bank robbery to be a far more lucrative career than academia, Ioseliani was arrested for trying to hold up a train that was evacuating the assets of a Moscow bank. A swift military tribunal found him guilty and threw him in the hold of the first ship headed to Vorkuta. He fell in the with Vory v zakone, the "thieves who make the law" that ran many gulags' criminal networks, and settled into a routine of backbreaking labor that would likely last for decades.But as luck would have it, the Soviet Union collapsed several weeks later, and Vorkuta lost its lifeline. The prisoners divided into two groups: those who wanted to work with the guards to survive, and those who refused to break the thieves' code and be "suki." After some brief but bloody skirmishes, the collaborators fled into the Urals and Ioseliani helped organize a grand criminal exodus further inland, far away from the restless jailers of Vorkuta, which greatly improved his standing and got him a seat in the circle of Vory leaders representing their camps. As the West Russian Revolutionary front rose and fell far to the west, Ioseliani grew in influence until he was elected chairman of the circle. He also made several rather lucrative agreements with Dragunov and the arms dealers of Zlatoust, serving as a buffer against the remnants of the West Russians in exchange for arms and weapons. But there are those within the prison hierarchy view Ioseliani's agreement as betrayal of the Vory code, and his lack of ambition for conquest has some whispering about complacence and laziness...

The leader among leaders of the criminal networks ruling over Yugra. Formerly a petty criminal imprisoned in the Vorkutlag, he has successfully climbed the criminal ladder and helped to establish the Siberian criminal territory.

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• Category Traitor: Many in the prison hierarchy perceive Ioseliani to be a traitor for cutting a deal with Zlatoust that they would become a buffer state for Zlatoust from West Russia in exchange for weapons, which violates Vory code.
• King of Thieves: He is the chairman of the thieves who run many of the gulags' criminal networks.

Zlatoust Deunification (Spoilers)

Protectorate of Tyumen

Official Name: Protectorate of Tyumen

Ruling Party: Uralskiy Komitet Gosudarstvennogo Spaseniya^note Ural Committee of State Salvation

Ideology: Controlled Democracy^note Paternalism

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• The Remnant: After Zlatoust "reunifies" West Siberia, the remnants of Kaganovich's clique will congregate around Tyumen and cooperate with Zlatoust to ensure their long-term survival.

Boris Shcherbina

Role: Head of State

Party: Uralskiy Komitet Gosudarstvennogo Spaseniya^note Ural Committee of State Salvation

Ideology: Controlled Democracy^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}It is no wonder Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina was selected as the administrator of Tyumen when one looks at his record. After arriving in West Siberia as a young yet ambitious party official, he soon found himself stranded as the government in Moscow fell. He was shielded from the chaos by Lazar Kaganovich, who saw his skills, and by the time of the Zlatoust invasion had long made him his chief economic advisor. However, his lack of loyalty to the authoritarian system Kaganovich admired so much was made clear as soon as the well-armed forces of Dragunov marched eastwards. Abandoning his former beliefs and lusting for power, Shcherbina came to a secret agreement with the merchants of death. The Ural Republic could use like him in governing the lawless lands, and for that he would be appointed governor of Tyumen. His talent soon became clear as day, and now Shcherbina wishes to make his territory a model province, even under the watchful eye of Zlatoust.

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• Defector from Decadence: As a weaker follower of Kaganovich's vision for Russia, Shcherebina can betray him to Dragunov if Zlatoust manages to "unify" West Siberia. In turn, Dragunov appoints him as governor of Tyumen.
• Puppet King: He's content to remain as a satellite state to Zlatoust after they "unify" the region, seeking to turn Tyumen into a model province under their watchful eye.

Omsk Reconstruction Authority

Official Name: Omsk Reconstruction Authority

Ruling Party: Omskoye Pravitelstvo Vosstanovleniya^note Omsk Government of Restoration

Ideology: Provisional Government^note Paternalism

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• Historical In-Joke: The flag of the Omsk Reconstruction Authority is the real-life flag of the city of Omsk.
• The Remnant: The Reconstruction Authority includes the few surviving Black League members who didn't fully commit themselves to the Great Trial and thus were happy to jump ship when that movement became unviable.

Viktor Grigoriev

Role: Head of State

Party: Omskoye Pravitelstvo Vosstanovleniya^note Omsk Government of Restoration

Ideology: Provisional Government^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Viktor Antonovich Grigoriev is many things: brave, courageous, and certainly an opportunist. When he was called to leave his hometown of Omsk and serve in the Red Army, he fought tooth-and-nail, staying in battle with frostbite and later ramming an enemy tank with his own. It was only logical for him to later join the Black League's army after this pointless struggle, but he was never particularly dedicated to the League's cause. Grigoriev cleverly survived the intrigues between the three West Siberian cliques as a low-ranking officer until the war with the merchants of death, when he was one of the first to jump off the sinking ship and side with the enemy. He might have been humiliated back home, but that did not concern him once he was appointed mayor and warlord of Omsk. Grigoriev may be a mere puppet of the government in the Urals he answers to, but as long as he keeps control, all is fine.

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• Beneath Notice: He survived the deadly intrigue between the three West Siberian unifiers because he was too low of a rank to be considered a threat and thus was largely ignored.
• Defector from Decadence: Never particularly dedicated to the Black League's cause, Grigoriev is one of the first to jump off the sinking ship and side with the enemy when war erupts between Zlatoust and the Black League.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only prominent member of the Black League that doesn't truly dedicate himself to their apocalyptic plans.
• Puppet King: Despite becoming mayor and warlord of Omsk after Zlatoust defeats the Black League, Grigoriev is but a puppet of the Ural Republic. Despite this, Grigoriev is satisfied with his comfortable position, so long as he maintains control over Omsk.

Khanty-Mansi United Front

Official Name: Khanty-Mansi United Front

Ruling Party: Liga Preobrazovania Rossii^note Russian Transformation League

Ideology: Liberal Conservatism

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• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: With few available leaders to maintain order in Khanty-Mansi after Zlatoust divides Western Siberia, Antonov-Ovseyenko's cabinet consists of former Soviet dissidents like himself, priests and even common criminals.

Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko

Role: Head of State

Party: Liga Preobrazovania Rossii^note Russian Transformation League

Ideology: Liberal Conservatism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}His relation to his father, a prominent Bolshevik military commander, was not enough to stop Anton Vladimirovich Antonov-Ovseyenko from being sent to the infamous gulags of Siberia. For years, he had a first-hand experience of the USSR's terror, at least until the camps were liberated by bandits and thieves. Despite all that he went through, he kept pushing, and found the perfect opportunity to flee with fellow dissidents and former prisoners when the arms dealers of Zlatoust achieved their victory. With few other available leaders to maintain order in Khanty-Mansi, Antonov and his caravan were selected to control the freezing plains in the name of the Ural Republic. His friendships slowly forged over the years have paid off, as a united front of political dissidents, priests like his close associate Sergey Izvekov, or even simple bandits have managed to keep the banks of Irtysh in order and, above all, make sure its inhabitants don't have to go through what Anton did.

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• Nepotism: Subverted. His father was a prominent Bolshevik and esteemed military commander, which was still not enough to keep Antonov-Ovseyenko from being imprisoned in the Siberian gulags.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He took power in Khanty-Mansi to stabilize the region after Zlatoust shattered West Siberia, but also to ensure that its inhabitants wouldn't face the same oppression he was once subjected to by the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Republic of Nenetsia

Official Name: Republic of Nenetsia

Ruling Party: Partiya Neneskogo Vozrozhdeniya^note Party of the Nenesian Renaissance

Ideology: Liberal Conservatism

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• Disaster Democracy: In place of Ioseliani's criminal state, Istomin establishes a liberal democracy in the newly formed Nenets nation after Zlatoust balkanizes Western Siberia.

Ivan Istomin

Role: Head of State

Party: Partiya Neneskogo Vozrozhdeniya^note Party of the Nenesian Renaissance

Ideology: Liberal Conservatism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Ivan Grigoryevich Istomin, a native of Siberia, became the leader of a warlord state in a chaotic nation by mere chance. Being a Nenets with Komi roots, he was a prime example of a true indigenous man, and battled to keep his mother tongue alive. He taught it in schools, later even becoming a writer and spreading his words and ideas to a population ravaged by war, without ever involving himself in actual politics. Later, with the advent of the Ural Republic as a regional power, a power vacuum formed in certain territories of West Siberia, which the gun merchants of Zlatoust took advantage of by establishing loyal satellites. In the far north, a place inhabited by natives, Istomin was found as a relatively popular intellectual, who agreed to take the position of leader of Nenetsia. That way, he may be able to keep the dream of a native, and above all democratic, state alive.

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• The Determinator: Long before he even came into power, Istomin dedicated himself to preserve his native Nenets language, teaching it at a school and even becoming a writer to share his words to others.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: In real life, Istomin was a Nenets writer. In TNO, if Zlatoust divides Western Siberia, he'll become a politician and leader of the newly-independent Nenetsia, due to his status as a popular intellectual.

Black League Collapse (Spoilers)

Vorkuta Liberation Committee

Official Name: Vorkuta Liberation Committee

Ruling Party: Komitet Osvobozhdenia Vorkuty^note Vorkuta Liberation Committee

Ideology: Provisional Government^note Paternalism

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• Bilingual Bonus: As one of the northmost prisons in all of Russia, the Vokura Liberation Committee's flag has "North" written in Russian.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Upon the Black League's collapse, the prisoners of Vorkuta brutally kill their former wardens and guards as retribution for their abusive treatment, in which their shared hatred for the Black League is the only thing uniting them together.

Viktor Kolesnikov

Role: Head of State

Party: Komitet Osvobozhdenia Vorkuty^note Vorkuta Liberation Committee

Ideology: Provisional Government^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Some may have expected Viktor Demyanovich Kolesnikov would break. But the yearning for freedom is a drive that never yields - it shall be felt within him till his final days.

When Sverdlovsk was lost to the Black League, Victor Kolesnikov lost everything. While he was spared the fate of many of his commanders, he was thrown to the Vorkutlag, to be molded into the perfect officer or to die at his post. Soon, his jailors thought, this man could become a proper member of the Russian National Army - violent, emotionless, and servile.

Instead, Kolesnikov mocked his so-called commanders with open insolence. As many times as he was sent to solitary confinement or beaten until he could not see, he would come back more sure in his convictions, more ready to resist. As weeks went past, other inmates watched this dissident stand firm in the face of oppression. Soon, his fellow prisoners came to resist at his side.

Now, with Omsk cut off, a vengeful army of prisoners at last refuses to yield. United behind their leader, they have hunted down their cruel captors or forced them into the Urals to the South. It is vengeance. It is justice. It is loyalty to old causes and dead leaders. And at its head, there is Viktor Kolesnikov, calling his men to action, finally standing free.

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• The Determinator: If the Black League reunifies Western Siberia, they'll have Viktor Kolesnikov, a member of Rokossovsky's clique, thrown into Vorkuta, thinking that they can mold him into a perfect soldier for the Black League. Instead, Kolesnikov has never yielded to his new masters, expressing open insolence to them and eventually rebelling if Batov's insurgency succeeds.
• Hope Bringer: His open defiance to the Black League, despite earning him solitary confinement or beatings, inspired many of the other prisoners in Vorkuta to join his rebellion if Yazov gets assassinated by Batov.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: After taking Vorkuta from the divided Black League after Yazov's death, Kolesnikov either executes his former oppressors or has them exiled to the Southern Urals.

Spetsgruppa V

Official Name: Spetsgruppa V^Tr.Special Group V

Ruling Party: Spetsgruppa V^note Special Group V

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

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• Historical In-Joke: In real life, Spetsgruppa "V" Vympel is a special forces unit of the KGB, fitting with the Black League's uses of OTL KGB officers for its military leadership.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The feared Spetsgruppa V was a special forces brigade for the dreaded Black League. However, if Batov assassinates Yazov and causes the Black League to collapse, the Spetsgruppa V are only able to hold a small strip of territory next to Vorkuta, where they are snowbound, starving, and cut off from any major cities.
• The Remnant: In the aftermath of Yazov's death, the prisoners of Vorkuta rise up against their wardens, forcing them to evacuate to the Fang, the Black League's last line of defense.

Evgeny Savintsev

Role: Military Commander, Director of State Administration^note Head of Government (Yazov cabinet), Head of State (Black League collapse)

Party: Chernaya Liga - Oficerskaya Klika^note Black League - Officers Clique, Spetsgruppa V^note Special Group V (Black League collapse)

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Evgeny Aleksandrovich Savintsev is a curious byproduct of the Black League, a man of an unassuming expression and even more quiet presence, preferring to speak what is necessary, apparently no particular hobbies or interests, and uninterested in the inner politics and day to day by the Black League. Evgeny could be passed by your typical lieutenant and commander of a squadron, fated to either an ignoble death or the preparations of the trials ahead as another faceless soldier. This couldn't be further from the proof, albeit by his interest, this general idea helps his and Yazov's interest tremendously.

For Evgeny is not a simple cog of the machine, but the engineer and maintainer of the Black League's finest weapons against the warlords, the Black Army's Special Units.

Born in Tomsk, he barely finished school by the time the Soviet Union rose against its youth for what was once to be the Great Patriotic War, but simply became the deathbed of the Russian dream; there, amongst the ruins, despair, seeing soldier after soldier run over by the seemingly unbeatable German March, his mind was not beset by despair, but by cold logic, taking every piece of what happened in the war, and how the German army operated, what could have countered it, crushed it into a pulp and brought any amount of salve for the thousands that lost their lives for a nation that utterly failed them all. His quiet demeanor speaks of a deep, frozen rage beset in his soul, and a determination to create the perfect weapon to destroy Germany's pride, piece by piece until nothing else is left but the hollow husk they've made him be. Such fury and dedication to the League's ideals made him a perfect pick by Yazov as his right-hand man, and the second opinion to pick what will be the vanguard of soldiers that, one day, will lead the push to the Teutons themselves.

In-Game Biography (Black League collapse) ^{Click to Show}Perhaps it is hunger. Perhaps it is the cold. But for just a moment, Evgeny Aleksandrovich Savintsev broke the greatest dictum of the Black League. He considered surrender.

Once the second-in-command to the Glavkoverkh himself, Savintsev was infamous for his special forces brigade Spetsgruppa V, the Black League's final line of defense. Their last assignment, to hold the Fang against an uprising in the Redemptionary Brigades, was supposed to be simple. But with supply lines cut and a nation in chaos, Vorkuta was... lost. For Savintsev, it was a failure greater than any other.

Now, the general and his troops have been stranded in the Northern Urals, cut off from any major cities or supplies. The situation is dire. Food has begun to run thin. Bullets require rationing. Riflemen's trigger fingers are locked by frostbite. Yet when his officers demand he spit out an order, Savintsev can only shout "Attack." No matter how many resources he loses. No matter how many of his men die.

For all their harm, these final orders are not an act of cruelty. They are the instinctual response at the very heart of the Black League. For an entire decade, the commander of Spetsgruppa V was told to never surrender. As his forces rot away, Savintsev can finally see the price.

See his entry in the Black League folder.

Provisional People's Committee of Surgut

Official Name: Provisional People's Committee of Surgut

Ruling Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Bolshevism^note Communism

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• The Remnant: After the Black League reunifies West Siberia and then collapses, the surviving members of the Free Aviators return back to Surgut, ready to help the common people of Russia again.

Valentin Shashin

Role: Head of State

Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov)^note All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Ideology: Bolshevism^note Communism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}For most men, the black gold of Surgut is a supreme temptation, a blank check that could let them fulfill their every impulse. Perhaps Valentin Dmitrievich Shashin is no different.

A middle-manager in the lean government of the Free Aviators, Shashin's career had always been as a supporter, managing the intensive fuel needs of such an air force. But the Free Aviators are long lost now. Without their ever-present reign in the skies, the government of Surgut was left to its civilian components. By luck, by diligence, Valentin Shashin had managed to become the most well-known of these bureaucrats - and, in time, their leader.

Now in power, Shashin focuses less on the survival of Russia and more on the refugees who take shelter in his borders. They are clothed, fed, and sheltered, treated with the dignity that Lenin always dreamed of - provided they spend a few years in the refineries. For the cost of this working-class utopia is an endless stream of fuel, sucked from the ground and sold to whichever warlord might need it.

Undoubtedly, Surgut has the highest standard of living in Western Siberia. Yet a doubt lingers in the chairman, even as the people of Surgut cheer his name. Bocharova used whatever resources she had to save Russians across the nation, no matter their ideology or creed. Shashin shakes the hands of despots and fuels their reigns of terror. Yes, he has saved a city - but what has become of the nation?

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• Necessarily Evil: To ensure Surgut's survival after the Black League's dissolution, Shashin has extracted the oil in Surgut and sold them to despots in Western Siberia, engaging in war profiteering so that Surgut alone can prosper. Shashin himself dislikes that he has to engage in such trade, but he believes that it's a necessary move.
• Non-Action Guy: While not a pilot himself, Shashin is one of the most well-known bureaucrats aiding the Free Aviators by providing fuel for their planes.
• Universally Beloved Leader: After the Black League collapses, Shashin is hailed by the people of Surgut as a liberator for providing aid to refugees and recruiting them as workers, creating one of the most prosperous and comfortable states left in Western Siberia.

Free City of Yugorsk

Official Name: Free City of Yugorsk

Ruling Party: Vory v Zakone^note Thieves in the Law

Ideology: Warlordism^note Despotism

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• The Remnant: If the Black League unifies Western Siberia, Ioseliani and the other gangs will be executed, but some thieves-in-law hid and survived their brutal rule before they retake Yugorsk after the Black League's dissolution.

Soslanbek Apayev

Role: Head of State

Party: Vory v Zakone^note Thieves in the Law

Ideology: Warlordism^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}To hear Soslanbek Nikolayevich Apayev tell it, the failure of Yugra was its disorder. In its final years, the old regime could only measure a feeble resistance against the Black League. In a matter of weeks, Ioseliani was gunned down for treason, his empire stolen away. The Vory v Zakone were scattered to prison camps to be re-educated, or more likely, to rot.

But a cat has nine lives, and Vory v Zakone many more.

Though Yazov attempted to transform the soul of Yugorsk, its criminal ways lingered. In Yugorsk's prisons, gangs formed, following the ways of old. With the Black League watching, most were quickly crushed or forgotten. Only one man - Apayev - thrived, dominated, monopolized. When Yazov was shot for his crimes, Apayev seized upon the opportunity. And as the prisoners hung their masters, they looked to one man, a blood-soaked Moses, for guidance.

Now, the city of Yugorsk belongs to the thieves - but mostly, it belongs to Apayev. While the Free City follows some elements of the Vory v Zakone code, Yugorsk has one leader and one authority. He demands payment. He demands loyalty. He demands blood. He demands everything from his people - and in turn, he promises, he will give them everything they desire. The failure of Yugra was disorder. It will never see disorder again.

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• King of Thieves: With Ioseliani gone when the Black League reunifies Western Siberia, Apayev will succeed him as the Thieves in Law's leader if Yazov gets assassinated. After taking over, Apayev will ruthlessly bully his people into making payments to him, demanding their complete loyalty and ensuring that Yugra doesn't fall again due to disorder.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: If Batov successfully assassinates Yazov, Apayev and the remaining criminals in Yugorsk will hang the Black League remnants still in their territory.
• Young and in Charge: Apayev is only 24 when the Black League collapses and takes power in Yugra.

People's Republic of Nizhny Tagil

Official Name: People's Republic of Nizhny Tagil

Ruling Party: Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del^note People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

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• The Remnant: After the Black League collapses after Yazov's assassination, the remaining Stalinists from Kaganovich's old faction rally around Meshik and form their own warlord state.

Pavel Meshik

Role: Head of State

Party: Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del^note People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs

Ideology: Marxism-Leninism^note Communism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}To hear the people of Nizhny Tagil tell it, Pavel Yakovlevich Meshik is a hero of the working class, liberating them from the vile Black League. But look closely. Someone is listening in.

In truth, Meshik began as a chief of the secret police, cruelly devoted to Kaganovich at every turn. When Tyumen fell, most expected Meshik would be executed. But where most would denounce the brutality of the secret police, the Glavkoverkh saw loyalty he could to twist into service. And so Meshik served - from town to town, from house to house, on an endless hunt for those who denied the necessity of the Great Trial.

Yet they never managed to catch the man who shot Glavkoverkh Yazov in the chest.

Now as always, Meshik hides away from justice. His citadel, Nizhny Tagil, provides him and clique a comforting story that none deserve. Here, the chekists have returned to every corner, listening for those who talk of Chairman Meshik's past openly. Those who dissent disappear into the night, or are hung in the streets. It seems Meshik hopes to cover his past in a coating of blood.

But red cannot stain that which is already black. The town of Nizhny Tagil may have its eyes stapled shut, but the rest of the nation knows more than Meshik could ever hide. The chairman is one with the Black League, and with them he will die.

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• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: If the Black League reunifies Western Siberia, Meshik first defects from Kaganovich's Stalinist remnants to join them, serving in their secret police to hunt down those who don't commit themselves to the Great Trial. However, if Yazov gets killed by Batov and the Black League quickly falls apart, Meshik will then quietly defect from them too.
• Dirty Coward: Meshik really doesn't care who he has to align with so long as he gets to live and have a posh position in their government.
• Hated by All: Even though Meshik is no longer a part of the Black League after their collapse, he's still often associated with them anyway and becomes one of the most hated men in Western Siberia. Meanwhile, his defection from Yazov has won him no friends in the Black League, earning him disdain from the other side of the conflict.
• The Starscream: If the Black League conquers the Republic, he'll be among the first to defect to the Black League's side before he ends up betraying them too if Yazov dies and the Black League loses control of Western Siberia. In charge of his own fiefdom after the Black League collapses, Meshik erases all evidence of his past defection from the Stalinist cause, arresting and executing anyone who says otherwise.

Task Force Bogatyr

Official Name: Task Force Bogatyr

Ruling Party: Operativnaya Grupa Bogatyr^note Task Force Bogatyr

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

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• The Remnant: If the Black League collapses after Batov's insurgency succeeds, Pastanogov takes charge of the remaining Black League forces and fortifies the city of Zlatoust, still determined to keep the Black League's edicts alive.

Konstantin Pastanogov

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (Black League collapse)

Party: Operativnaya Grupa Bogatyr^note Task Force Bogatyr

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Behold the bogatyr in his final hour. Its king is dead, its armies scattered; its death must be moments away. Yet in the city of Zlatoust, Konstantin Konstantinovich Pastanogov holds his last stand.

Once, Dmitry Yazov found himself in need of a mighty army to strike fear into his enemies. He requested his finest man to lead - Pastanogov, who pledged slavish devotion to his leader. The Glavkoverkh called its army "Task Force 'Bogatyr'". For years, it rode across the countryside, trampling all who failed to serve under hooves of shells and bullets.

Then, the Black League was broken apart by traitors, and the bogatyr found itself trapped in the fortress of Zlatoust. But the knight had been trained well, and returned to its endless slaughter. Armed with Dragunov's endless arsenal, Pastanogov forced any who could hold a rifle to die for a dead master. In whispers, the bogatyr endlessly repeated: "PLAN HYDRA WILL NOT FAIL."

But do not believe these cursed words; Russia shall behold not this pale horse. In due time, the walls of Zlatoust shall fall, and Yazov's chosen murderers will join their Glavkoverkh. The bogatyr, loyal and dutiful, has killed countless men in the service of its master. Now, at least, it may follow its duty to perish.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: It's hard to notice unless you know it, but the eagle badge on Pastanogov's cap matches the emblem of the infamous Russian National Guard or Rosgvardiya from OTL Russian Federation. Considering the ruthlessness of both organisations, it's more than fitting.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Pastanogov wears a pair of glasses and is just as committed to the Great Trial as Yazov.
• General Ripper: With Yazov's demise and the Black League's dissolution in Western Siberia, Pastanogov takes advantage of Zlatoust's arsenal to conscript every single person to his army, intent on reunifying the region under the Black League's flag.
• Last Stand: His own biography makes it clear that his position after Yazov's death is dire and that his base in Zlatoust will eventually fall, but Pastanogov doesn't care, so long as he and his men will at spend their last moments fighting for the Black League's cause.

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