History Literature / TheDeathOfRussia

* BittersweetEnding: While the minorities of the Russian Caucasus are able to achieve their independence, [[spoiler:the Dagestani Islamists are on the run, and Kalmykia is finally freed from the shackles of Communist rule, many more ethnic separatists are not so lucky. The Altai Republic and Khakassia was put down before the civil war really began, Buryatia was partitioned between Siberia and the Far East with the natives kicked over the border to Mongolia, the Tuvans end up annexed by Mongolia, and the native Uralic and Komi peoples are nearly exterminated after the 4/10 exchange killed millions of their brethren and turned their homelands into an irradiated mess]].

* TheCavalry: [[spoiler: When the Chechen government's capital is nearly overrun by Islamists, Americans from the 101st Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Screaming Eagles", bail out the Chechen loyalists, forcing the Islamists under Basayev to retreat.]]

* MakeTheBearAngryAgain: What little the NSF is able to accomplish involves seizing territory from Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine which prevents them from joining NATO due to standing policy regarding members with disputed territory. The world is alarmed at this resurgent Russia up until the moment [[CurbStompBattle the Russian Army shits the bed]] [[UsefulNotes/TheChechnyaWars in Chechnya]].

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:The Zass Plan is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Zass Grigory Zass]], the main architect behind the Circassian genocide.]]

Unsurprising for an alliance between the far-left and the far-right only united in reversing Russia's decline they blame on both UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev and Yeltsin, the National Salvation Front eventually comes to an explosive end, and unleashes the unraveling of Russia to the world, thus creating a holocaust that is far worse than the first one during the Second World War.

* ApocalypseHow: By late 1994, Russia is at a Class 0. Famine runs rampant across the nation, the NSF has turned on each other and are tearing European Russia apart in a violent ground war, ethnic conflicts have spiraled out of control, and the loss of the Trans-Siberian railroad to Uralic partisans sees anarchy spread in Siberia and the Far East thanks to a lack of supplies come in. The world economy has taken a hit as well thanks to the sudden loss of Siberian resources.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Played with. Ukraine's nuclear arsenal in 1994 is a hell of a saving grace they won't be able to use immediately if it came down to it. The missiles they had were made in mind for America, meaning if they were turned east it'd be more likely to hit somewhere near Mongolia rather than Moscow, in addition to needing 12-18 months to take full operational control of the missiles, time they do not have in order to keep Russia from taking Crimea. They eventually do secure Western help in rewiring their nukes (a deal also reached with a democratic Belarus), but only after Crimea is taken.

** Various ethnic minorities break off thanks to the hardline rule of the NSF and by late 1994, Primorsky Krai, Tuva, Yakutia, Komi, Chechnya, a revitalized Circassia, the rest of the former Russian Caucasus, and a Gaidar-ruled Kaliningrad have all broken away while [[spoiler: Alexander Lebed sets up a "Provisional Siberian Government" at the start of 1995]].

** Viktor Anpilov, Vladimir Kryuchkov, and Arkan all die when [[spoiler:Al-Qaeda detonates a nuclear weapon in the middle of Stalingrad during the battle for the city]].

** Alexander Nevzorov is a journalist, director and member of the Duma who supported the State Committee that lead the 1991 coup, the First Chechen War and Putin's rise to power while opposing the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and predicting that the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war would end in disaster for Moscow at a time when stating such could get you a one way ticket to Siberia. In this timeline, Nevzorov is in too deep with the NSF's right wing to disengage, ending up as the face of the "Republic for the Russians" as it's "moderate nationalist" leader.

* LesserOfTwoEvils: How Kalmykia justifies remaining with Anpilov all the way to the end, even to the point of turning down American support. The Nationalists want to oppress if not exterminate ethnic minorities, the [[spoiler:Dagestani Islamists]] unambiguously want to exterminate the majority Buddhist Kalmyks, and they fear the Communists will desire the same should they express even a hint of disloyalty. The goal to survive is why the Kalmyks are among the most motivated troops in the Red Army, and after [[spoiler:4/10 they split from Russia at the first chance, having been mostly spared from the nuclear exchange]].

* LifesavingMisfortune: The only reason Eduard Limonov [[spoiler:is the SoleSurvivor of the Petrograd regime is because he resigned from the government months before 4/10 due to government disagreements, keeping him in the dark about the Zass Plan. He ends up captured by Swedish troops and still gets a life sentence at his trial for his involvement in the mass deportations of Karelians and Balts in addition to the formation of the Honorary Russian Battalions]].

* SuicideIsShameful: After he is captured by Serbian "Tiger" paramilitaries following the Battle of Moscow, Babchenko tries to suffocate himself in the mud after several members of his unit are executed in such a way and having long since lost the will to live. [[InterruptedSuicide One of the Tigers actually stops him from going through with it]]... only because Babchenko is (as far as they know) an ethnic Russian and the Tigers are fighting for a "purge Slavic country" for people like him.

Unsurprising for an alliance between the far-left and the far-right only united in reversing Russia's decline they blame on both UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev and Yeltsin, the National Salvation Front eventually comes to an explosive end, and unleashes the unraveling of Russia onto a horrified world that would be a dark mark on history forever.

* DeathSeeker: The One Soldier’s War in Russia extracts is essentially the story of how Arkady Babchenko is losing his will to live to the point of being envious of maggots because of the brutality of the conflict.

--> '''Tiger''': "You ungrateful shit! After what we’ve just done for you, you decide to throw your life away too?! Don't you know why we're fighting this conflict?! We’re giving you a country where you and your children alone will rule! Not to be shared with some Mongol goat farmer, Chechen bandit, Tatar whore, nor any of their larvae! A Russia where none but the Russians will make the decisions! A Russia for none but the Russians! God, I hate you! I hate you more than the Tatars. Fucking ungrateful Red Army race traitors. You’re going to stay alive, if only so you can suffer forever. You can’t remember or suffer when you die - you can only suffer if you’re alive."

* DeathOrGloryAttack: By April 1996, both the Communists and the Nationalists were running out of steam and supplies, forcing the hand of the Petrograd government to make a mad dash down the Volga to capture Stalingrad, hoping the Communists would collapse upon kicking down the door. Both sides pour everything they had left into the second Battle of Stalingrad, with the real risk of nuclear Armageddon on the line, but in the end,[[spoiler: the Al-Qaeda nuke that went off in the city makes it a moot point]].

** The Far East's alliance with both Japan would, among other things, result in a new anime character archetype in the form of the cute and pure blonde Orthodox foreign-exchange girl who ends up in Kabuchiko through "zany consequences". According to the author, the first series to use this archetype was ''Manga/LoveHina''.

** [[spoiler:Osama bin Laden is executed at Sing Sing.]]

** Arkady Babchenko's KGB commissar is [[spoiler:all but stated to be none other than Putin himself, far from any position of power in the renewed Russian Soviet Republic]].
** On a similar vein, Dmitry Medvedev is [[spoiler:mentioned as one of Boris Nemtsov's aides who was present during negotiations between Lebed, Nemtsov, and the FEK in New Delhi, witnessing Aksyuchits' reaction to the agreement between Lebed and the Neo-Pagans in Yakutia first-hand]].

** The reforms put into place by Gorbachev and thought to be solidified by Yeltsin died with the latter, as Russia goes through their own [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars Yugoslav Wars]] that shatters the nation. [[spoiler:Even worse is Gorbachev surviving his time in NSF (later Fascist) captivity and being bartered off to the West for food and medicine, living to see what failure had brought]].

* BadassNative: When the time comes for various ethnic minorities to rise up against the NSF, the natives fight ferociously against the Russians whether it be in the Caucasus, the Urals, or in Siberia all for a chance at freedom that may never come again.

** Subverted. Sergei Shoigu, who was a member of Yeltsin's cabinet, was also notoriously corrupt, even by Russian standards. While his corruption was least partially the reason he was fired by the NSF, his half-Tuvan ancestry was also a factor.

** Seeing an opportunity to get his nation some nukes,[[spoiler: Kim Jong Il has his armies invade the newly founded Far Eastern Republic in Primorye in order to secure abandoned Russian nuclear weapons in the region, although it backfires on the DPRK following their defeat in The Battle of Vladivostok]].

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:The Zass Plan is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Zass Grigory Zass]], the main architect behind the Circassian genocide]].

* PuppetState: [[spoiler:North Korea ends up as a Chinese puppet state under the rule of Jang Song-Thaek after the failed invasion of Primorsk and the subsequent Chinese invasion of North Korea]].

* RightfulKingReturns: After everything that's happened to Russia,[[spoiler: the Romanovs are able to finally return to power for the first time since 1917, with the rump Russian Federation declaring Prince Nicholas Romanov as their choice for Tsar. This is openly mentioned to be a move of desperatation from Nemtsov, needing ''something'' for Russians to rally around and feel some optimism for the first time since 1993. The only reason his coronation wasn't a miserable affair was due to the Nationalists having the foresight to protect what Russian artifacts they had in a bunker, which included the Russian Crown Jewels]].

** [[spoiler: The efforts of Uralic nations[[note]]Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Udmurtia, and Mari El.[[/note]] and the Komi Republic are not only rendered all for naught by the 4/10 nuclear exchange through the destruction of their newborn states, but the native ethnic groups are ''nearly extirminated'' thanks to the Zass Plan, the Nationalist contingency of using nuclear weapons to extirminate non-Russians within Russia. Their homelands are considered irradiated zones and many are forced to settle in nations such as Finland]].

'''[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-death-of-russia-tl.533392/ The Death of Russia]]''' is an AlternateHistory timeline on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom written by Sorairo, the author of ''Literature/TheFootprintOfMussolini''.

!!Tropes include:

* RealityIsUnrealistic:
** The idea of a "National Salvation Front" consisting of an alliance of the far-left ''and'' the far-right almost sounds silly, as they'd be more likely to exchange gunfire in the streets rather than words in the legislature. Except that the National Salvation Front was a real force in post-Soviet Russia, the exact kind of alliance as its depicted who backed the 1993 coup against Yeltsin in our world only to be banned in the aftermath.
** "Dedovshchina" or Rule of the Grandfathers is the system within the Russian Army that sees the brutal hazing and abuse (physical and sexual) of younger conscripts by older troops. It sounds like something straight out of propaganda but it's actually [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedovshchina an all too real practice]].
** Anatoly Fomenko, the Education Minister for the Republic of the Russians, is able to make something he calls the "New Chronology" the official history of Russia and have it taught in schools for what good it's worth by 1995.[[labelnote:(Long story short)]]New chronology dictates stated that the entirety of global history had been an invention of the Vatican and Western governments to minimize Russia’s influence, including the histories of the Arabs and China. Accordingly, Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus and almost all important Medieval figures were actually Russians of the ‘Russian Horde Empire’. Christ was actually crucified in the Twelfth Century in Turkey, the Crusades and Trojan Wars were the same event, Jerusalem was actually Constantinople, Christians came first and Jews came second as a breakaway religion for merchants, the Hagia Sophia was the Temple of Solomon, and that there had actually been a thriving Russian empire in the Americas up until 1776 that had been more prosperous than even the 13 Colonies.[[/labelnote]]. If you read the note, it sounds like complete batshit made up to make the Fascists look even more insane, [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer but NOPE]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_chronology_(Fomenko) it's a real crackpot theory]] that Fomenko actually wrote ''seven volumes'' of in our world.

* ChildSoldiers: To meet the strict quotas imposed by the Stalingrad government (withing failing to meet them meaning death), the Red Army in particular have taken to recruiting entire villages of all able bodied males, young boys included. For many, this forced service at least nominally ensures a meal, even if the rest of their families would parish in the famine.

* DwindlingParty: By [[spoiler:April 10th, 1996]], the only two members left of Babchenko's Red Army unit are Arkday himself and commissar Vladimir.[[spoiler: After the 4/10 nuclear exchange, Babchenko is left as the SoleSurvivor as Vladimir shoots himself]].

** Babchenko's commissar, all but outright stated to be Vladimir Putin, [[spoiler: shoots himself after seeing the nuclear devastation wrought on Russia]].

* DwindlingParty: By [[spoiler:April 10th, 1996]], the only two members left of Babchenko's Red Army unit are Arkday himself and commissar Vladimir.[[spoiler: After the 4/10 nuclear exchange, Babchenko is left as the SoleSurvivor]].

* EmptyQuiver: [[spoiler: The [[ApocalypseCult Aum Shinrikyo]] were stopped from getting their hands on a Russian nuke, but not UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden and Al-Qaeda, making off with at least four of them by paying a Red Army colonel with heroin. One went off in Stalingrad, kick starting 4/10, and the other goes off in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1997]].

* TheAlliance: With a far more belligerent post-Soviet Russia, NATO becomes even more important to Europe. While Latvia and Estonia are kept from joining thanks to Russia exploiting a rule regarding disputed territory, the NSF's rule is enough to get Finland and Sweden on board almost thirty years early.

* NoEndorHolocaust: [[spoiler:The nuking of so many Russian cities during the 4/10 exchange ''should'' have led to nuclear winter from the ejection of smoke and ash into Earth's atmosphere, which would have grave consequences for the entire population of Earth, but that's never acknowledged by the author.]]

* RevengeByProxy: In response to Russia being able to keep Estonia and Latvia out of NATO by exploiting one of their own rules, NATO goes much harder on Slobodan Milošević's pro-NSF regime in Serbia and bombing the Republika Srpska in Bosnia out of existence.

* TragicHero: While Yeltsin wasn't the best leader in the world, the narrative does state how his premature end of dying in the flames within the Russian White House was entirely tragic for a man who had introduce democracy to Russians for the first time in their lives. The only solace being that he didn't live to see what happened to Russia.

* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: While no doubt the horrific collapse of Russia would deeply impact the pop culture of the 90s and beyond, but what ''is'' known is:

* EndOfAnAge: [[spoiler:The final fate of Russia after all it's been through is regarded as such. Russia goes from a continent spanning nation at the forefront of history and culture for centuries, to a bombed out wreck that will never reach its old heights again. Russia's story as a united and influential power is over, though her people and culture live on.]]

* NotMeThisTime: Turns out it was neither the Communists or the Nationalists who [[spoiler:set off the nuke in Stalingrad on April 10th, 1996. That honor goes to Al-Qaeda, who set off a stolen nuke in Stalingrad in the hopes of starting a nuclear war between Russia and the West]].

** The timeline is essentially a worse case scenario for Gorbachev and Yeltsin's efforts to introduce reform and democracy being all for naught.

* SuddenlySignificantCity: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veliky_Novgorod Veliky Novgorod]], a city last relevant as the capital of the Novgorod Republic, is where [[spoiler:the first Russian Tsar in 80 years is coronated after the end of the civil war as a result of being the largest city in European Russia spared by nuclear flames]].

* ToppledStatue: By 2022, it's mentioned that the USSR's legacy has completely disappeared. The Hammer and Sickle is gone, the Lenin busts and statues are gone, even the term "Great Patriotic War" has fallen out of use. Only Georgia still retains a number of Stalin statue.

* VelvetRevolution: [[spoiler:Gaidar's emergency rule of Kaliningrad is ended after Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's leads a pro-democracy protests against his dictatorship and the squalor Russian refugees live in, with police refusing to arrest Solzhenitsyn after being ordered to]].

** [[spoiler:The Battle of Stalingrad was this by April 1996. Both factions were running on fumes with their supplies at a critical low, the Nationalists had nukes and Anpilov had centered so much power onto himself, that killing him would've toppled the entire Soviet Republic and end the war]]. It didn't really pan out well for anyone involved.
* LesserOfTwoEvils: How Kalmykia justifies remaining a part of the Russian Soviet Republic all the way to the end, even to the point of turning down American support. The Nationalists want to oppress if not exterminate ethnic minorities, the [[spoiler:Dagestani Islamists]] unambiguously want to exterminate them, and fear the Communists will begin to try the same should they express even a hint of disloyalty. The goal to survive is why the Kalmyks are among the most motived troops in the Red Army, and after [[spoiler: 4/10 they split from Russia at the first chance, having been mostly spared from the nuclear exchange]].

* NotMeThisTime: Turns out it was neither the Communists or the Nationalists who [[spoiler:set off the nuke in Stalingrad on April 10th, 1996. That honor goes to Al-Qaeda, who set off a Russian nuke in Stalingrad in the hopes of starting a nuclear war between Russia and the West]].

** Internal dissent is largely averted within the council that makes up the Petrograd government, as the right-wing/far-right/Neo-Nazi coalition is united in its shared anti-communism.[[spoiler: Barkashov and his ilk don't get to outmaneuver Nevzorov until the very end]].

* KeystoneArmy: With the NSF having both far-left and far-right elements within it, Makashov is able to use the fame he got from leading the storming of the Ostankino, in addition to being considered Anti-Semitic and Stalinist enough to unite both factions, to become the face of the NSF. Once he, [[spoiler: along with President Rutskoy and Administrative Chief Konstantinov]], dies [[spoiler: in a mysterious plane crash]], the NSF's unity goes with him.

** Militant Islamists are able to use the collapse of Russia and their war in the Caucasus to spread their ideology, setting up shop in Dagestan alongside moderates as part of the Dagestani Restoration Council, [[spoiler:lating taking over the region wholesale]].

* PressGanged: How the reformed Red Army bulks up its numbers during the civil war. Young boys and pensioners who haven't held a rifle since the Axis came to town are not spared from being "drafted" and this method is used to further punish remaining ethnic and religious minorities.

* RiddleForTheAges: While historians point the finger at Barkashov for [[spoiler:causing the explosion of Makashov’s plane]], it's never proven concisely and after the events of the civil war, it probably doesn't even matter anymore.

** [[spoiler: The efforts of the Free Nations Alliance[[note]]An alliance of the ethnic republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Udmurtia, and Mari El.[[/note]] and the Komi Republic are not only rendered all for naught by the 4/10 nuclear exchange through the destruction of their newborn states, but the native ethnic groups are ''nearly extirminated'' thanks to the Zass Plan, the Nationalist contingency of using nuclear weapons to extirminate non-Russians within Russia. Their homelands are considered irradiated zones and many are forced to settle in nations such as Finland]].

* Because of the way he died and dying before his economic policies and alcoholism would ruin his reputation further, Boris Yeltsin enjoys a lot of sympathy in the West, painted as a democratic martyr backstabbed by ex-Soviets and Fascists. Subverted in later years when it becomes clear to the public at large just how bad Russia had gotten by 1993 just because of him.

* RightfulKingReturns: After everything that's happened to Russia,[[spoiler: the Romanovs are able to finally return to power for the first time since 1917, with the rump Russian Federation declaring Prince Nicholas Romanov as their choice for Tsar. This is openly mentioned to be a move of desperatation from Nemtsov, needing ''something'' to help Russians feel some optimism for the first time since 1993. The only reason his coronation wasn't a miserable affair was due to the Nationalists having the foresight to protect what Russian artifacts they had in a bunker, which included the Russian Crown Jewels]].

** The Far East's alliance with both Japan and South Korea would, among other things, result in a new anime charcher archtype in the form of the cute and pure blonde Orthodox foreign-exchange girl who ends up in Kabuchiko through "zany consequences". According to the author, the first series to use this archtype was ''Manga/LoveHina''.

* DownerEnding: The timeline lives up to its name as [[spoiler:sees 38 million people are left dead by the end of the civil war, the nuclear exchange between the Nationalists and Communists that extended to the rest of the world saw Russia take the brunt of the damage, which was further aggravated by the Fascists within the Nationalist government having usurped power near the end to implement a genocidal plan against minorities that involved using nukes on civilian centers. Over 25 million Russians fled the country and many refused to return to either Siberia or the Far Eastern Kingdom. Russia as a culture lives on in some shape or form, but is gone forever as a nation, with many of its landmarks and artifacts burning in nuclear fire]].

** Boris Yeltsin dies within the smoldering Russian White House during the 1993 Coup, after the building being set alight after pro-Parliament forces under General Pavel Grachev shelled the building in order to merely force him out.

** [[spoiler: The Zass Plan involves raining nuclear bombs on those considered non-white by the Petrograd government]].

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The NSF are able to usurp Yeltsin and his government, smothering the hope of democracy in mainland Russia in the crib, all in the name of reversing the damage done since the fall of the Soviet Union. All they do is seize minor amounts of territory from three different countries, do nothing about their deteriorating food situation, and kick start the civil war through brutality against minorities and eventually turning on one another.

* MonumentalDamage: When the NSF finally turn on one another and fight to control Moscow, both St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin were destroyed by communist forces in order to keep the Fascists from getting a propaganda victory by capturing them. [[spoiler:Its later mentioned that the entire city of Moscow including all remaining landmarks were destroyed in the fighting, existing only in memory after the Communists unleash Sarin gas]].

* ThePurge: In order to seize control of the communists forces when the civil war does kick off, Anpilov gets to work purging all opposition so that only he can rule the newly reconstituted Russian Soviet Republic, starting with his rivals within the Communist faction with [[spoiler:Gennady Zyuganov]] being amongst the first victims of said purge. Just wouldn't be the Stalin Years: Remastered without them and it's later revealed that Anpilov's empowered KGB got so busy, some estimates conclude that almost half of politicians in Stalingrad had been executed and replaced by sycophants either truly loyal to the cause or scared for their lives. Ordinary Russians living under Anpilov's rule are not spared the ravages of the purge either with how life under the Russian Soviet Republic is notorious for its unending terror. At one point, [[spoiler:someone could be appointed as Foreign Minister one morning and be purged the same night]].

'''[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-death-of-russia-tl.533392/ The Death of Russia]]''' is an ongoing AlternateHistory timeline on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom written by Sorairo, the author of ''Literature/TheFootprintOfMussolini''.

** On a similar vein, Dmitry Medvedev is [[spoiler:mentioned as one of Boris Nemtsov's aides who was present during negotiations between Lebed, Nemtsov, and the FEK in New Delhi]].

** Alexander Barkashov, in our world a relatively obscure figure outside of Russia, is in this timeline a major figure in the Nationalist side of the Second Russian Civil War and [[spoiler:ends up being a figure that has been stated to be a figure "put on the same level as Hitler" owing to his genocidal brutality]].

** After the end of the civil war,[[spoiler: the Russian Federation retains its name despite having become a monarchy once again]].

* SuddenlySignificantCity: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veliky_Novgorod Veliky Novgorod]], a city last relevant as the capital of the Novgorod Republic, is where [[spoiler:the first Russian Tsar in 80 years is coronated after the end of the civil war]].

* BittersweetEnding: While the minorities of the Russian Caucasus are able to achieve their independence, [[spoiler:, the Dagestani Islamists are on the run, and Kalmykia is finally freed from the shackles of Communist rule, many more ethnic seperatists are not so lucky. Khakassia was put down before the civil war really began, Buryatia was partitioned between Siberia and the Far East with the natives kicked over the border to Mongolia, the Tuvans barely avoided the same fate by being annexed Mongolia, and the native Uralic and Komi peoples are nearly exterminated after the 4/10 exchange killed millions of their brethren and left turned their homelands into an irradiated mess]].

** On a similar vein, Dmitry Medvedev is [[spoiler:mentioned as one of Boris Nemtsov's aides who was present during negiotiations between Lebed, Nemtsov, and the FEK in New Delhi]].

* NotMeThisTime: Turns out it was neither the Communists or the Nationalists who [[spoiler:set off the nuke in Stalingrad on April 10th, 1996. That honor goes to UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden and Al-Qaeda, who were able to snag nukes from the wreckage of Russia and use one in the hopes of starting a nuclear war between Russia and the West]].

* ScrapbookStory: The timeline is told mainly through passages from historical texts and Babchenko's memoirs, with the occasional interview (namely Creator/KentaroMiura, Creator/EiichiroOda and Creator/HideakiAnno discussing how the Second Russian Civil War affected their respective works), a phone call between UsefulNotes/BillClinton and Slobodan Milošević, and Clinton's speech after [[spoiler:4/10]] spliced in.

* BittersweetEnding: While the minorities of the Russian Caucasus are able to achieve their independence, [[spoiler:, the Dagestani Islamists are on the run, and Kalmykia is finally freed from the shackles of Communist rule, many more ethnic seperatists are not so lucky. Khakassia was put down before the civil war really began, the Buryats were partitioned between Siberia and the Far East with the natives kicked over the border to Mongolia, the Tuvans barely avoided the same and became a part of Mongolia, and the native Uralic and Komi peoples are nearly exterminated following 4/10 and their homelands are left an irradiated mess]].

** Aleksandr Dugin, in our world, is seen by many in the West view him as "Putin's brain" and the man behind Putin's ideology and foreign policy, even if, in reality, he has relatively little influence over Putin's decisions or beliefs. In this TL he is amongst Nevzorov's top advisors and one of three architects of [[spoiler:the Zass plan]].

** Once again, Russia is torn apart in a civil war between communists and a right-wing government. Only difference this time is that it likely doesn't end in reunification.

* BackFromTheBrink: As Russian control over the North Caucasus collapses following their catastrophic loss in Chechnya,[[spoiler: Circassian partisans inspired by Dudayev seize control of Kabardino-Balkaria and declare the reconstitution of a Circassian nation, the first of its kind since the [[FinalSolution 19th century Circassian genocide]]]], the proclamation being met with jubilation and TearsOfJoy from the native peoples. An unnamed Israeli reporter present at the scene of their freedom relates this emergence with the birth of his own nation.
--> “I saw visions of my own country, crawling out from the dirt and the rock amidst fire and carnage to defy the world, defy the odds, and to pull a nation from its grave. I was witnessing a resurrection before my eyes, of a people long thought vanquished, returned to defeat their captors. [[spoiler:Circassia had risen again]].”

* DownerEnding: The Second Russian Civil War [[spoiler:sees 38 million people dead by the end of it all, with a nuclear exchange between the Nationalists and Communists that extended to the rest of the world with Russia taking the brunt of the damage, further aggrivated by the Fascists within the Nationalist government having usurped power near the end to impliment a genocidal plan against minorities that involved using nukes on civilian centers. Over 25 million Russians fled the country and many refused to return to either Siberia or the Far Eastern Kingdom. Russia as a culture lives on in some shape or form, but is gone forever as a nation, with many of its landmarks and artifacts burning in nuclear fire]].

** Alexander Nevzorov is a journalist, director and member of the Duma that has flip flopped on several issues, from supporting the State Committee that lead the 1991 coup, the First Chechen War and Putin's rise to power while opposing the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and predicting that the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war would end in disaster for Moscow at a time when stating such could get you a one way ticket to Siberia. In this timeline, Nevzorov is in too deep with the far-right to disengage, ending up as the face of the Fascist "Republic for the Russians" and is now openly being advised by Aleksandr Dugin.
** Speaking of Dugin, in our world, many in the West view him as "Putin's brain" and the man behind Putin's ideology and foreign policy, even if, in reality, he has relatively little influence over Putin's decisions or beliefs. In this TL, far from being someone who has far less influence than many believe he has, he is amongst Nevzorov's top advisors.

* TheMafiya: Members of the Russian Mob [[spoiler:are stated to have taken over the cities of Norilsk, Urengoy, and Dudinka and executed the local NSF officials there with the harsh Arctic conditions making it hard for Lebed's forces to flush them out of the cities they had taken]].
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The NSF are able to usurp Yeltsin and his government, smothering the hope of democracy in mainland Russia in the crib, all in the name of reversing the damage done since the fall of the Soviet Union. All they do is seize minor amounts of territory from three different countries, do nothing about their deteriorating food situation, and kick start the civil war through brutality against minorities and eventually turning on one another.