Trivia / The Red Order: First Days of Eurasia

• What Could Have Been:
  • The mod's original premise was a Double-Blind What-If of The New Order Last Days Of Europe, depicting how an Allied victory in World War II could be perceived in TNO. However, as the developers increasingly moved away from TNO, they made the conscious decision to portray historical figures according to real life, independently of TNO's perspective. The official premise is now a three-way Cold War between the USA, the USSR and a Franco-British bloc.
  • The two farthest-left ideologies used to be standard Communism and Ultrabolshevism, which was cut for being little more than a mirror of TNO's Burgundian System (something which makes no sense whatsoever). They were then reworked into Left and Right Communism, which were distinguished based on their views regarding capitalism and the development of a state, before once again being changed to the current divide between Orthodox Communists (who follow Moscow's leadership with minor variations) and Heterodox Communists (a broad umbrella for those who do not).
  • Very early in development, all three of the main Axis powers were supposed to be balkanized into multiple states, similar to TNO's Russia. However, this was deemed unrealistic and scrapped. Japan and Italy are now unified, while Germany went through two revisions. Initially, it was divided into three statelets (the pro-ECO Rhenish Republic in the west, neutral (formerly pro-ICA) Young Danubian States in Austria and Bavaria, and the pro-WP Zentraleuropa in the east), which were forbidden from claiming the mantle of Germany's successor state, before settling on the current West Germany, East Germany and East Austria division. Older lore also had SS-Werwolf cells, unleashed by Heinrich Himmler before the Nazis' defeat, continuing to operate an insurgency that continued to plague Germany.
  • In early teasers, Xinjiang is controlled by the pro-USSR People's Republic of East Turkestan, hostile to the Kuomintang government. It has since been cut, and Xinjiang is now directly under the Republic of China's control.
  • The Communist rump state in Northeast China, in the earliest teaser, is called Manchurian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was renamed Dongbei Soviet Republic because it makes no sense for the USSR to turn the region into an SSR or for the CPC to acknowledge the name Manchuria. Its leader changed at least three times during development: from Hu Yaobang, Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen to (currently) Zhang Wentian.
  • Harold Wilson was planned to be the Labour Left's candidate in the 1963 British general election, before the developers decided to move away from people who served as Prime Minister in real life (Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan are still present, but do not have proper paths). Now he serves under Tony Greenwood (who fulfils his old role), initially as Chancellor of the Exchequer, then Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
  • The Labour Right's 1963 candidate changed hands twice during development, initially George Brown (who was replaced for being an alcoholic), then Anthony Crosland (whose political personality wasn't considered by the developers to be interesting enough), and currently Hugh Gaitskell. Related to this, Gaitskell was originally planned to always die in January 1963 (like his real life counterpart), forcing Labour to choose a new leader just months before the election; his death is now avoidable, and whether he dies or not will determine whether he or Tony Greenwood becomes Labour's 1963 candidate.
  • The Prime Minister candidate of the Monday Club Tories was meant to be Quintin Hogg. To avoid unnecessary Historical Villain Upgrade, he was replaced by Paul Williams (who, unlike Hogg, was an actual far-right hardline imperialist in real life), who was later replaced by Patrick Wall—as described by the Monday Club head developer, Williams had the charisma of a dilapidated fish, the leadership skills of a headless chicken, and the capacity for popular appeal of a fat pigeon and thus was only suitable for a ministerial role at best. Another major change was that while Williams was planned as a brute who knows little more than just pretending that nothing's wrong and shooting anyone that disagrees, Wall's approach is much more intelligent, dynamic and can actually succeed.
  • Old lore portrayed the French Communist Party and its leader Robert-Jean Longuet as having already embraced Eurocommunism and rejected their former comrades in Eastern Europe (this serves as a justification for France having a communist path, despite the whole story being written around France being co-leader of the ECO, a rival superpower to the USSR). In current lore, this only happens if the PCF loses the 1963 Presidential election, causing the younger cadres to gain traction; Longuet himself remains broadly supportive of the USSR, though material conditions make it impossible for him to outright align France with Moscow.
  • Originally, in 1962, France still controlled Indochina and was led by Charles de Gaulle. Currently, France already had to abandon Indochina before game start, and de Gaulle was assassinated by a German communist alongside Konrad Adenauer. In older lore, this also prompted the ECO to dissolve West Germany's elected government and replace it with a provisional one led by Franz Halder; in current lore, the CDU simply stayed in power with Adenauer being succeeded by Heinrich von Brentano as Chancellor.
  • The starting Caudillo of Spain was originally Francisco Franco, like in real life. In current lore, José Sanjurjo's and Emilio Mola's OTL plane crashes never happened; Sanjurjo led the Nationalists to victory in the Civil War, ruled until his retirement in 1950 and was succeeded by Mola. He was readded however as a leader of moderate nationalist-monarchist coalition which is supported by US.
  • In the first Second Spanish Civil War teaser, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia would have rebelled after Mola's death with the help of the ECO, and can only rejoin Spain if the (also ECO-backed) Republicans win the war; otherwise, they will be formally admitted to ECO as independent states. Currently, they are too weak (as a result of Mola's genocidal policies) to declare independence.
  • An old teaser depicted Emilio Mola dying when a builder working on Mola's Tower drops an anvil on his head. This was later deemed too comical for such a murderous dictator like him and replaced by a simple heart attack.
  • Original Mola's successor was Agustín Muñoz Grandes, who was supposed to abandon his predecessor's principles and introduce major reforms that would've made his version of Spain less genocidal and more aligned to US. Currently, Ramón Serrano Suñer is the leader of hardline Nationalists in Civil War, who only makes minor reforms to keep people quiet and who is not supported by US at all (with America instead favoring much more moderate Franco).
  • In old World War II lore, Adolf Hitler was assassinated on December 20th, 1936 by a Strasserist agent and succeeded by Heinrich Himmler (this served as a justification from TNO's perspective for how Germany lost the war), who had Philippe Pétain assassinated for not being loyal enough, causing Vichy France to join forces with Free France and the Allies.
  • In old Greece and Norway lore, both countries were divided between a communist North and a capitalist South, but since that would have changed the balance of power in Europe (such as forcing Sweden to join ECO), it was scrapped; now the Kingdom of Greece and Kingdom of Norway are unified and part of ECO.
  • The USSR used to control Moldova and Bessarabia as in OTL, before it was eventually returned to Romania.
  • Originally, the USSR's starting Premier was Nikolai Bukharin, who has stayed in power since he succeeded Vladimir Lenin. Currently, he is the fourth Premier after Lenin, Trotsky (who was Bukharin's partner in coalition before being kicked out) and Rykov, and served four terms before retiring in 1958. Martemyan Ryutin is the current starting Premier.
  • Original successors to Bukharin were Andrei Zhdanov (faux-reformist candidate and Speer's counterpart), Mikhail Suslov, Genrikh Yagoda and Mikhail Tukhachevsky. Zhdanov (who died in 1948 in real life) was cut completely because of Artistic License – History (his presence was little more than a remnant of when TRO was still a TNO Double-Blind What-If); the latter two can only come to power now if Ryutin fails to control Romania.
  • In older lore, Stalin was one of Bukharin's rivals who died in the 1930s (the same way he did in old TNO lore), but still had massive political influence and a lot of supporters who attempted a coup against Bukharin in 1956, leading to a purge in which thousands were executed. In current lore, Stalin died at Tsaritsyn in the Civil War.
  • The Silesian War (a war fought by East Germany and Poland, both member states of the WP, over the disputed region of Upper Silesia) was cut for making no real sense.
  • Poland was originally an autonomous republic of the USSR before they became a free member of the Weimar Pact.
  • Czechoslovakia was originally portrayed as a depressing hellhole, with the German occupation being much more brutal than OTL.
  • Albania was originally a neutral monarchy before it eventually became part of Yugoslavia.
  • The champion of the Neoprogressive movement, who runs for the Democratic Party against Richard Nixon in the 1968 Presidential election, was originally Henry M. Jackson, who was later replaced by Robert F. Kennedy.

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