History Main / TheGreatPoliticsMessUp

* ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'': Augustus Gloop is from Germany, and a reporter gives a brief specification that he's "the fame of Western Germany". Germany reunited 19 years after the movie's release.

Prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common to hear experts claiming that [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] was about to fall in a matter of years. During the first five months of the Soviet-German War, some in the U.S., Britain and Germany believed it would collapse within months. But from the winter of '41-2 onward, the Soviet Union acquired most of its fuel and war materiel from the U.S. via UK/USSR-occupied Iran, and by the war's end the opposite mood had set in. Many thought the Soviet Union would last forever, or long into the foreseeable future, and maybe even win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of Everything]] -- most likely as a result of [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]]. The (relatively) peaceful end which actually took place at the dawn of TheNineties was very much unexpected and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell was even mourned]].

Ergo, it is rather funny to hear references to the Soviet Union, the Cold War, divided Berlin and divided Germany in any genre of fiction set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture but written before 1989. Fortunately, the old habit of [[InsistentTerminology calling the USSR "Russia"]] - either [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname due to ignorance or convenience]], or laziness, [[{{Troll}} or to annoy them]], [[DivideAndConquer or to emphasize the differences between USSR's ethnic groups and delegitimise the regime]] -- allowed some accidental retroactive averting of this trope. Well, partial aversion at least - most of the countries called "Russia" are still communist, long after our history's 1991.

A lot of fiction written shortly before unexpected events and set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture without those vital events in place can seem [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece ridiculous in hindsight]] -- but usually it's not the author's fault, really.

Compare ScienceMarchesOn, SocietyMarchesOn and EndOfAnAge. See also IWantMyJetPack, DeweyDefeatsTruman and {{Zeerust}}. See also MakeTheBearAngryAgain if the mess-up is somehow reversed, and {{Jossed}} If this trope applies to canonical changes.

Prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common to hear experts claiming that [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] was about to fall in a matter of years. During the first five months of the Soviet-German War, German-Anglo-American experts claimed it would collapse within months, or even weeks! But from the winter of '41-2 onward, experts predicting the imminent demise of the USSR looked progressively sillier (Britain stopped making contingency plans for Soviet collapse in late 1942), and by the war's end the opposite mood had set in. Many claimed the Soviet Union would last forever, or long into the foreseeable future, and maybe even win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of Everything]] -- most likely as a result of [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]]. The (relatively) peaceful end which actually took place at the dawn of TheNineties was very much unexpected and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell was even mourned]].

'''Basil Exposition:''' Austin... We won.\\

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'' is a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. Not only is there still a "Sino-Soviet Union", it's racing ahead of the West in the development of electronics, computer technology and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} safe production of atomic energy]] (a riff on the FailedFutureForecast of Creator/MackReynolds that a centrally-controlled Soviet economy would be more efficient than a Western capitalist one). Other members of the crew come from countries that no longer exist in the year that it's set, including East Germany, South Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'' is a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. Not only is there still a "Sino-Soviet Union", it's racing ahead of the West in the development of electronics, computer technology and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} safe production of atomic energy]] (a riff on the FailedFutureForecast of Creator/MackReynolds that a centrally-controlled Soviet economy would be more efficient than a Western capitalist one).

* ''Rocketship Voyager'' is a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. Not only is there still a "Sino-Soviet Union", it's racing ahead of the West in the development of electronics, computer technology and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} safe production of atomic energy]] (a riff on the FailedFutureForecast of Creator/MackReynolds that a centrally-controlled Soviet economy would be more efficient than a Western capitalist one).

* ''Rocketship Voyager'' is a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. Not only is there still a "Sino-Soviet Union", it's racing ahead of the West in the development of electronics, computer technology and the [[UsefulNotes/Chernobyl safe production of atomic energy]] (a riff on the FailedFutureForecast of Creator/MackReynolds that a centrally-controlled Soviet economy would be more efficient than a Western capitalist one).

* That's what Creator/BillyWilder's ''Film/OneTwoThree'' suffered from. Originally a light-hearted comedy with {{Dirty Comm|unists}}ies, it became a massive case of TooSoon when the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall was built (during filming!). Before August 1961, people could cross the border between West and East Berlin quite easily - which millions of East Germans used to move to the golden west. The movie was based on this premise and suffered when the wall was built.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': When studying Presidents with Max, Terry has trouble remembering who came after Clinton, which Max describes as "the boring one." Unless something even bigger than TheWarOnTerror occurred between the present day and the time of ''Beyond'', boring is not a word to describe Bush's tenure. This is certainly a reference to UsefulNotes/AlGore, Clinton's vice president who at the time the episode was made was believed by the writers as likely to succeed Clinton as president and who had a reputation for being perceived as boring. Then again, there ''was'' [[{{WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague}} that time]] ''ComicBook/LexLuthor'' [[{{ItMakesSenseInContext}} ran for]] [[{{OurPresidentsAreDifferent}} President]]...

* In the 1965 novel, ''Literature/TheStarFox'' by Creator/PoulAnderson, there's a reference to the Russian Republic, which is also noted as being 'amiably inept'. (Poul Anderson was a noted anti-communist).

* ''Film/RoboCop1987'', set at some unclear future date after 1987, implies that the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is still going on, with references to SDI and the MX missile. The latter, which became the Peacekeeper, has now been scrapped. References are also made to the South African apartheid government which is not only still in power, but actively threatening to deploy a NeutronBomb against insurgents, thus promoting them from racist assholes to cartoonish supervillains (although, in RealLife, they did have nukes).

** On a lesser scale, it also predicted the next Airbus airliner would be the A350 (which is only now being conceptualized), and that [=McDonnell=]-Douglas would produce the early concept "MD-12" (a stretched MD-11) and still be an independent manufacturer.

* ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'' is a CampaignComic covering the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. When they are playing ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', it turns out that Zangief still doesn't know the USSR fell, and no one's had the heart to tell him.

* Notably lampshaded in the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/GoldenEye''. The film starts out during the late UsefulNotes/ColdWar years, and {{TimeSkip}}s to a visibly [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia post-Soviet Russia]].
** Averted with the previous film, ''Film/LicenceToKill'', which came out just before the Soviet collapse. The film-makers weren't sure whether the USSR was still going to be around by the time the movie was finished, so they purposely crafted the plot around something completely unrelated to Communism.

Prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common to hear experts claiming that [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] was about to fall in a matter of years. During the first five months of the Soviet-German War, German-Anglo-American experts claimed it would collapse within months, or even weeks! But from the winter of '41-2 onward, experts predicting the imminent demise of the USSR looked progressively sillier (Britain stopped making contingency plans for Soviet collapse in late 1942), and by the war's end the opposite mood had set in. Many claimed the Soviet Union would last forever, or long into the foreseeable future, and maybe even win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of Everything]] -- most likely as a result of [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]]. The (relatively) peaceful end which actually took place at the dawn of TheNineties was very much unexpected and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell was even mourned]] (incidentally, in the mid-to-late 1980s, people were once again starting to expect that a Soviet collapse was inevitable-- it's just that nobody expected it to happen quite so soon).

Ergo, it is rather funny to hear references to the Soviet Union, the Cold War, divided Berlin and divided Germany in any genre of fiction set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture but written before 1989. Fortunately, the old habit of [[InsistentTerminology calling the USSR "Russia"]] - either [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname due to ignorance or convenience]], or laziness, [[{{Troll}} or to annoy them]], [[DivideAndConquer or to emphasize the differences between USSR's ethnic groups and delegitimise the regime]] -- allowed much accidental retroactive averting of this trope. Well, partial aversion at least - most of the countries called "Russia" are still communist, long after our history's 1991.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' assumes that the Soviet Union will still be around by the year 2048. In fact, the first stage is set in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a former Soviet state now known as Kazakhstan. In most of ''Strider'''s sequels, the political future of the world is not addressed, but in the 2014 remake the developers simply ran with the original idea and you're still chopping up Cossacks and proletariat dragons all while a a man over a PA system spews vaguely socialist-sounding idioms.

One of the most notable is of these was Christmas Day, 1991: the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

Prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common to hear experts claiming that [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] was about to fall in a matter of years. During the first five months of the Soviet-German War, German-Anglo-American experts claimed it would collapse within months, or even weeks! But from the winter of '41-2 onward, experts predicting the imminent demise of the USSR looked progressively sillier (Britain stopped making contingency plans for Soviet collapse in late 1942), and by the war's end the opposite mood had set in. Many claimed the Soviet Union would last forever, or long into the foreseeable future, and maybe even win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of Everything]] -- most likely as a result of [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]]. The (relatively) peaceful end which actually took place at the dawn of TheNineties was very much unexpected and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell was even mourned]] (incidentally, in the mid-to-late 80's, people were once again starting to expect that a Soviet collapse was inevitable-- it's just that nobody expected it to happen that soon).

One of the most notable is the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

Prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common to hear experts claiming that [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] was about to fall in a matter of years. During the first five months of the Soviet-German War, German-Anglo-American experts claimed it would collapse within months, or even weeks! But from the winter of '41-2 onward, experts predicting the imminent demise of the USSR looked progressively sillier (Britain stopped making contingency plans for Soviet collapse in late 1942), and by the war's end the opposite mood had set in. Many claimed the Soviet Union would last forever, or long into the foreseeable future, and maybe even win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of Everything]] -- most likely as a result of [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]]. The (relatively) peaceful end which actually took place at the dawn of TheNineties was very much unexpected and [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell was even mourned]].

** ''Fantastic Voyage'': This {{novelization}} of ''Film/FantasticVoyage'' has two superpowers referred to simply as "Us" and "Them". InUniverse, characters mention that the political maps have changed over the years. The maps used to show "Us" (and allies) as a pure pristine white and "Them" (and their allies) as a deep, brooding, bloody red, but now both sides are depicted in pastel shades. It's also implied that the political ideologies have drifted closer together.
** ''Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain'': This story keeps the muted/thawed cold war aspect from ''Literature/FantasticVoyage'', but dispenses with the "Us" and "Them" in favour of openly referring to the USA and the Soviet Union because the protagonist is American (and not a double agent) who spends most of the novel in the Soviet Union working with Soviet citizens, so sticking to Us/Them would have been very awkward (''whose'' us and them?).

* Jerry Pournelle's ''Literature/CoDominium'' is a world government evolving out of cooperation between the US and USSR in the 1990s. When the real 1991 came around, Pournelle retconned the timeline so the [=CoDominium=] was founded in 2000. Not to mention also adding a Soviet coup to reestablish the USSR [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 20 minutes into the future]], which had collapsed in reality.

* The ''Eclipse trilogy'' by John Shirley happens in an early 21st century with a [[WorldWarIII Third World War]] between NATO and the Warsaw Pact bloc. It was retconned later to a revived Soviet Union.
* ''Literature/EndersGame'', which was first published in 1985, was released in a new edition in 1991 so that references to Russia would reflect the decline of the Soviet Union.

* ''The Third World War: August 1985'', a 1978 mock-history book on a WorldWarIII, has the USSR collapse in 1985... [[spoiler: In a highly violent manner after the nuclear destruction of Minsk, now Belarus, and Birmingham, UK.]]

* ''The Zone'' WorldWarIII novels by James Rouch (written in the 1980s, though an actual year is never mentioned) are now referred to as AlternateHistory for this reason.
* James Blish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' series involves the Western democratic government model becoming ever more intolerant, eventually resembling the Soviet model very closely, and then the Soviets winning the war (and absorbing the West) because they were better at being Soviets.
* Mack Maloney's ''Wingman'' series, first published in 1984, had World War III take place in the 80s, and in the 90s, some time after the real-life collapse, the Soviet Union (which somehow still exists despite being bombed into oblivion in the war) uses a traitorous Vice President to let them bomb and take over the United States.
* ''A Woman of the Iron People'' by Eleanor Arnason (copyright 1991) not only has the Soviet Union survive, it has communism as the dominant political system of Earth at the time of the First Interstellar Expedition (on which the main characters traveled).

* The short story "Fire Watch" by Creator/ConnieWillis derives substantial drama from time traveller John Bartholomew's difficulty in resolving the cognitive dissonance caused by observing a 20th century British communist serving on the St. Paul's Cathedral fire watch during WWII while knowing that St. Paul's will be destroyed by the USSR during the 21st century. This point is [[RetCon retconned]] in later stories, leaving the plot of "Fire Watch" somewhat confusing.

* In the novel ''Literature/PresidentsVampire'' by Christopher Farnsworth, Cade, the eponymous vampire, assassinated Osama bin Laden as he was fleeing Tora Bora. This could not be revealed to the public without breaking the {{Masquerade}}, especially after bin Laden [[WeDidntStartTheFuhrer revealed his true form]] as a [[Literature/CthulhuMythos Deep One]]. After bin Laden's real life death, a later book in the series has an offhand mention of the government staging said death for the sake of political capital.
* In ''Voyage from Yesteryear'' by James P. Hogan, the Soviet Union is stated to have collapsed in 2021.
* In Simon Hawke's ''The Wizard of Camelot'', a resurrected Merlin is nearly assassinated by a Provisional IRA terrorist in 2182. Even if the Good Friday Accords fail in the future, those splinter groups which still agitate against peace in Northern Ireland now spurn the "Provo" name.
* Creator/NormanSpinrad's 1991 novel ''Russian Spring'' was overtaken by events within months of its publication. The novel was an extrapolation of the events that actually led to the fall of the Soviet Union, but predicted a more gradual, on-going evolution and opening-up. As the old guard of Soviet leaders continued to age and die, a new generation of young Russians became adept at working around the restraints of what was left of Communism, and started a cultural and artistic renaissance that soon became the envy of the rest of Europe, while America became increasingly insular and stagnant.

* [[Creator/CliveCussler Clive Cussler's]] ''[[Literature/TheOregonFiles Corsair]]'' is centered in Libya where Muammar Gaddafi announces an increased co-operation with NATO in anti-terrorism efforts. The book was written just two years before the Libyan Civil War.
* Jerry Ahern's epic pulp/men's adventure series ''The Survivalist'' begins with the Soviets invading Pakistan to try to stabilize Afghanistan during their occupation of it, which starts a nuclear war. The series continues with post-Apocalyptic schemes between the US and the USSR continuing to dominate the main plotline, including a ''fleet'' of Space Shuttles and some serious Soviet Superscience.

* ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem The Dark Forest]]'' by Cixin Liu, originally published in 2008, has a meeting TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture between a former American secretary of defense and an aged Islamic fundamentalist hiding out in Afghanistan who is clearly intended to be — but not named as — Osama bin Laden. The English translation of the book didn't appear until 2015, meaning that the mess-up was baked into it from the start.

* In the 1965 novel "The Star Fox" by Poul Anderson, there's a reference to the Russian Republic, which is also noted as being 'amiably inept'. (Poul Anderson was a noted anti-communist).

** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E12TheHighGround The High Ground]]", Data casually mentions that a series of terrorist attacks led to the reunification of Ireland into a single state in 2024. At the point the episode was released (1990), a peace treaty was seen as utterly ''inconceivable'', and many believe the only way for that to happen would be for the United Kingdom to collapse. Of course, reunification in full has still not happened, but time will tell whether this prediction will come true depending on how Brexit goes. Incidentally, the reference to Ireland being reunited due to terrorism led to this episode being banned on British television for years afterward. It was finally shown on the BBC in 2007. It has never been shown on Irish television.

** Similarly, the building in the former East Berlin, that housed the nearest thing [[{{UsefulNotes/EastGermany}} the German Democratic Republic]] had to a parliament, remained empty and mouldering, utterly redundant, for a long time after 1990. The new administration simply didn't know what the hell to do with a redundant white elephant of a building complex. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Republic,_Berlin Palace of the Republic]] was finally knocked down in 2008, to make way for a reconstruction of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Palace the building]] which had been demolished to make way for the Peoples' Palace[[note]]The Berlin Palace, the former royal seat of the kings of Prussia, which the Russians wanted rid of, as a symbolic gesture that Prussian militarism was dead[[/note]]...

'''Basil Exposition:''' Austin? We won.\\