Main Character Index Superpowers: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | United States of America | United Kingdom | French Republic Major Powers: Republic of China Other Countries By Region: North America | South America | Europe | Asia | Africa Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous Countries
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Legacy Characters
Adolf Hitler
The ruler of Nazi Germany and the architect of World War II, Adolf Hitler saw great luck and progress in the early stages of his war. But his campaign to destroy the Soviet Union eventually turned around on him, as his armies intial success turned into a long, slow bloody retreat from the Eastern front, with the Red Army in pursuit, snapping at their heels all the way. After an ignorable escape from Berlin in February 1946, as the advancing Soviets were about overrun it, Hitler attempted to set up a provisional government in Weimar to continue to the war he had already decisively lost, only to be alive captured by the Red Army. A short trial with a Foregone Conclusion occured: Hitler was setenced to death for crimes against humanity. On the 21st of April, 1946 — the day after his 57th birthday — the most infamous dictator of the 20th century was executed by hanging.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Subverted. TTL's version of Hitler choose to flee from Berlin when the Red Army threatened to overrun it, and tried to keep the war going from Weimar, where he was finally captured alive by the Soviet forces. He was eventually put on trial for crimes against humanity, found guilty, and then executed.
- A Fool for a Client: Hitler chose to represent himself at his trial for crimes against humanity. The outcome of the trial might already have been a Foregone Conclusion, but Hitler's speech in his defense didn't amount to anything but yet another naked attempt to win over the public to his cause and his vision, and it only managed to convince the judge that he deserved the death penalty.
Leon Trotsky
Second premier of Soviet Union following Lenin's death. He served one term in coalition with Bukharin, but was deemed as incompetent due to a failure of his economical policies and eventually was removed from power.
- Life Will Kill You: Trotsky's death is remarkably very undramatic in TTL. He eventually passed away in his exile in 1958, at the age of 78, from a bout of lung disease.
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was the figurehead of Chinese communism and one of the leaders of the People's Liberation Army during the bloody Second Sino-Japanese War, where the Chinese communists and nationalists decided to bury the hatchet and ally in an attempt to keep the Japanese invasion at bay. Almost immediately following the Japanese defeat, however, the hostilities between the two fractions resumed, and Mao ended up getting killed in battle.
- Inspirational Martyr: With his death in battle, Mao has become a symbol of heroism to the cause of Chinese Communism and the resistance against the nationalist government.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: Downplayed. Despite dying much earlier than in OTL, Mao's theories are still clinging to life on with the remains of his old movement in Dongbei People's Government. But meanwhile, the rest of the Communist world view his theories a stray strain of the ideology that has been more or less discredited with the Chinese communists' failure to achieve any substantial results in their struggle against the Republic of China. Whether Maoism will manage to survive the 20th century is very much up in the air.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32rd US President. Both notorious and beloved for his support for radical progressive politics, Roosevelt took everyone by surprise by choosing businessman Joseph P. Kennedy as his running mate, and proceeded to win the 1932 election in a landslide against the incumbent Herbert Hoover. In office, his politics proved controversial, especially his promises of a "new deal" program, which were set to vastly expand social services in the US, which some praised as the only way to solve the on-going Great Depression, but many in the political establishment, including the right-wing of the Democratic Party and his own Vice-President, criticized as being far too radical and even a first step towards Communism. Alas, Roosevelt would never get to implement his project, as he was violently gunned down by a lone assassin on December 7th, 1935 during a public speech in Miami, Florida, leading Vice-President Kennedy to be sworn in as the 33rd and first Catholic President of the United States. Many Americans still wonder what could have been if Roosevelt hadn't died that day and had succeed in his Presidential ambitions...
- Allohistorical Allusion: Roosevelt was shot and killed in Miami in 1935 by a man who believed his Court Packing bill was the gateway to Communism. This mirrors an Assassination Attempt that was made against Roosevelt in OTL in Miami in 1933, while he was still President-elect, also by a lone assassin who similarly accused him of being a Communist. The main difference being that Roosevelt emerged unharmed from the OTL attempt, while his TTL counterpart weren't so lucky.
- Inspirational Martyr: Roosevelt's time as President was controversial and wrought with constant political skirmishes with a large chunk of the US Congress over his New Deal agenda. His shocking assassination lead him to be widely seen as a champion of the common man who was taken out of the world too soon across the USA, and gave Joseph P. Kennedy no choice but to pass a New Deal package (albeit a somewhat watered-down version) to honor Roosevelt's legacy. The resulting sympathy for the Democratic party in the wake of the assassination is also credited by many political analysts as one of the main factors that allowed Kennedy to win his re-election in a massive landslide in 1936. As a lingering effect of Roosevelt's death, social-democracy inspired politics have become much more accepted and mainstream in TTL's version of the post-war US than they ever were in OTL.
Nikolai Bukharin
Fourth Premier of Soviet Union. He got into power in 1934 and shaped the whole country in his image, replacing NEP with Right Communist economics and defeating Third Reich in 1946. He resigned in 1958 after serving four six-year terms.
