History Main / HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection

* [[PunnyName Thembrya]] from ''WesternAnimation/{Talespin}'' was never explicitly referred to as communist over a simple military dictatorship, but the similarities were definitely being shown off in an exaggerated manner. A perpetually snow covered and dismal country, ruled by a High Marshal, home to gulags where anyone who angers the rulership gets sent to (as well as one very disturbed professor), known for having a single, tasteless food as its main dietary staple.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' had a few episodes where Number Six or his former superiors at MI6 refer to 'The Other Side'. Of course, with how weird and vague ''The Prisoner'' could be, perhaps the other side ISN'T the Russians. And of course Number Six doesn't know ''which side'' actually runs the Village.

* There was something like that in the former USSR-it had some generic imperialists instead of the US. The enemies are greedy imperialists who oppress <insert country> and deny its people free university education and healthcare. The latter being illustrated by a dying old grandfather and his beautiful <insert a desperate relative> who is pleading for the authorities to help, but being turned down because she has no money. Oh, and she is probably black, because we all know that greedy imperialists are racists. All the fun times they had! This dates back at least to the 1930s with films showcasing American racism (which were deeply hypocritical, as the USSR treated ethnic minorities even ''worse'' in many cases). Even so, a number of African-Americans looked favorably on the USSR at the time, some becoming Communists or visiting them.

* A post UsefulNotes/ColdWar example (in-universe as well as in RealLife): In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' it is revealed that one of the participants of WorldWarIII (from 2026 to 2053), and apparently as an enemy to the United States, was something called the Eastern Coalition (which in early scripts was "China"-they decided this would be a bad idea, however).

* Creator/JulesVerne originally intended Captain Nemo to be a deposed Polish prince, fighting a guerrilla war against the Imperial Russians in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', but his publisher convinced him to change Nemo to an unnamed nationality and his enemy to one flying no flag on their ships. Verne's books sold very well in Russia and his publisher didn't want that to change.
** Canonically, Nemo later became Indian with a hate-on for the English, [[ValuesDissonance ensuring the French audience's sympathy.]]
* A non-Russian example: The vaguely-Asian invading power in ''Literature/TheTomorrowSeries'' is never identified, and indeed [[http://www.rsimpson.id.au/books/tomorrow/explore/enemy.html no nation]] could possibly fit all the criteria for the invaders (the closest match is Indonesia, which only lacks an aircraft carrier but could possibly build one). This was an intentional decision by the author, who wanted to focus on the story and characters and didn't want nationalists to use the books for their own ends.

** The first season featured a Serbian mafia/military family called the Drazens as the villains. Although they spoke Serbian on screen, they were often referred to being from the "Balkans" instead of Yugoslavia.
** Jack did at one point refer to Victor Drazen as having been Slobodan Milosevic's "shadow."

* There was something like that in the former USSR-we had some generic imperialists instead of the US. The enemies are greedy imperialists who oppress <insert country> and deny its people free university education and healthcare. The later being illustrated by a dying old grandfather and his beautiful <insert a desperate relative> who is pleading for the authorities to help, but being turned down because she has no money. Oh, and she is probably black, because we all know that greedy imperialists are racists. All the fun times we had!

* ''Series/GetSmart'' naturally had KAOS agents depicted as CommieNazis-they evoked this trope and expanded on it when a Chinese KAOS agent gunned down her Slavic compatriots, scornfully telling them that their brand of KAOS was watered-down and decadent, adding "only in ''our'' country is there true KAOS!"

* [[http://www.kom-posti.fi/skp_logo.gif The logo of the Finnish Communist Party]], hammer and sickle avoided for historical (Winter War) and political reasons (most Finnish Communists have traditionally held considerable antipathy towards the post-Lenin Soviet Union).
* The flag of UsefulNotes/{{Angola}}, which replaces the hammer and sickle with a machete and a gear. (A machete being a more common agricultural tool in Africa than a sickle, and a cog more representative of modern industry.)

* In UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, the flag of the ruling Korean Workers' Party is a modified version, with a paintbrush added to symbolize the artisans (the hammer and sickle, of course, represent the workers and the farmers respectively).
** North Korean propaganda itself averts this trope, as it explicitly identifies the United States as the enemy.

* ''Series/WhyWeFight'': The films overall, and ''The Battle of Russia'' egregiously so, don't mention Communism at all and only ever portray the Soviet Union as a strong and loyal ally. [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]], as telling the exact truth of the USSR's involvement in World War Two prior to June 1941 was a sure way to piss off a very necessary ally, as well as put the inconvenient question of why were were allied with them in the first place into our troops.

* In the 60s, the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise replaced SMERSH from [[Literature/JamesBond the novels]] (a real-life Soviet counterespionage agency) with SPECTRE (a made-up international criminal/terrorist organization) to avoid trouble.

-->--'''Website/SFDebris''', discussing this trope's presence in both [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original Star Trek]] and classic Series/DoctorWho.

** An episode, "Two", seems to follow this trope. Elizabeth Montgomery is very Soviet in uniform and appearance and her one line is "Precrassny", Russian for "pretty". Of course, it's clearly an AfterTheEnd AdamAndEvePlot with an explicitly ambiguous TranslationConvention, so perhaps not?

* The Americans were known for [[NotSoDifferent using a similar tactic]], with a generic [[WarsawPact WP]] invasion coming from a country known as [[BilingualBonus Krasnovia]]/[[RedsWithRockets Krasnova]]/[[IncrediblyLamePun Krasnoya]]

** And the fifth season featured villains who, despite clearly being Russian separatists and having the assassination of the Russian President among their objectives, were referred to being from "Central Asia".

* In 1940, as Nazi troops marched across Europe and the U.S. remained (officially) neutral, MGM released ''Film/TheMortalStorm''. The movie had an explicitly anti-Nazi message, but MGM tried to mitigate the damage a bit by only once identifying Germany as the setting and referring to the presumably Jewish characters only as "non-Aryans". The Nazi regime was offended anyway and responded by banning all MGM films in Germany.

* In 1940, as Nazi troops marched across Europe and the U.S. remained (officially) neutral, MGM released ''The Mortal Storm''. The movie had an explicitly anti-Nazi message, but MGM tried to mitigate the damage a bit by only once identifying Germany as the setting and referring to the presumably Jewish characters only as "non-Aryans". The Nazi regime was offended anyway and responded by banning all MGM films in Germany.

* Swedish propaganda movies during WW2 are a special case. Since Sweden was neutral, ''all'' the countries involved in the actual war were potential enemies. It doesn't help warning people against the godless communists or beastly Huns if the spy or saboteur they actually have a chance of detecting works for the Western allies. Hence, spies, saboteurs etc. are just nefariously ''foreign'', their allegiance is never spelled out, and they are given vaguely Mitteleuropean names (since people from any of the forces involved could be named such).

* ''The RockyAndBullwinkle Show'' had the villains Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale come from the fictional country of Pottsylvania, a parody of a UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era eastern European country (possibly based on East Germany).

* MarvelComics played with this trope. The USSR/Soviet Union were not always mentioned by name but terms like: Reds, Commies, Moscow and Kremlin were common. This let to odd situations. In the first issue of the Fantastic Four, they steal a space shuttle to beat the communists into space, given that no other nation had a space program at the time, it's a clear reference to the Soviet space program. However the Soviets are just mentioned as Communists. In some cases they averted it, ComicBook/IronMan for example was injured in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and it's stated to be as such. However a lot of these references were removed as time went on.

** The [[Theatre/Anastasia stage adaptation]] averts this--in it, Rasputin is gone and the Soviet government have become the antagonists.

** The [[Theater/Anastasia stage adaptation]] averts this--in it, Rasputin is gone and the Soviet government have become the antagonists.

* Not made during the Cold War, and set much earlier but mentionable: the Creator/DonBluth animated film ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' ignores the politics of the Bolshevik Uprising (merging the February and October Revolutions into one event as well) and gives Rasputin a HistoricalVillainUpgrade to turn him into an {{evil sorcerer}} who sold his soul to the devil for magic so he could kill the Romanovs. Exactly ''one'' fleeting mention is given to "Reds" in an off-hand comment.

* A non-Russian example: The vaguely-Asian invading power in ''Literature/TheTomorrowSeries'' is never identified, and indeed [[http://www.rsimpson.id.au/books/tomorrow/explore/enemy.html no nation]] could possibly fit all the criteria for the invaders. This was an intentional decision by the author, who wanted to focus on the story and characters and didn't want nationalists to use the books for their own ends.

* A non-Russian example: The vaguely-Asian invading power in ''TheTomorrowSeries'' is never identified, and indeed [[http://www.rsimpson.id.au/books/tomorrow/explore/enemy.html no nation]] could possibly fit all the criteria for the invaders. This was an intentional decision by the author, who wanted to focus on the story and characters and didn't want nationalists to use the books for their own ends.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/ThePrisoner'' had a few episodes where Number Six or his former superiors at MI6 refer to 'The Other Side'. Of course, with how weird and vague ''The Prisoner'' could be, perhaps the other side ISN'T the Russians.
** And of course Number Six doesn't know ''which side'' actually runs the Village.

* The classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''Warriors of the Deep'' was in a nightmare future where two "massive power blocs" were locked in... well, it was the cold war. But we only ever heard whoever the others were referred to as 'the opposing bloc'. Which was odd, considering two of the characters were undercover agents from their side and went on to refer to themselves as such after the reveal.

* The first season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' featured a Serbian mafia/military family called the Drazens as the villains. Although they spoke Serbian on screen, they were often referred to being from the "Balkans" instead of Yugoslavia.

** Wow, it is '''[[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp really weird]]''' to think of Smith as some kind of Soviet agent.
*** For that matter it's pretty strange to think of [[DirtyCoward Doctor]] [[ReliableTraitor Smith]] as [[TheLoad an agent of]] [[VillainDecay any kind at all]]
** The series [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture was set in 1997]] so the people behind it assumed [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the Cold War would be over]]. At least, that's what they say ''now''...

* An original ''Series/TwilightZone'' episode, "Two", seems to follow this trope. Elizabeth Montgomery is very Soviet in uniform and appearance and her one line is "Precrassny", Russian for "pretty". Of course, it's clearly an AfterTheEnd AdamAndEvePlot with an explicitly ambiguous TranslationConvention, so perhaps not?
** Possible subversions: Two other original ''Series/TwilightZone'' episodes, "Probe 7, Over And Out" and "Third from the Sun", use this trope, but it turns out at the end that the characters are NOT from or on Earth, respectively. In this case, it's to setup a world we THINK we know, and then hit us with the TwistEnding.

* There was something like that in the former USSR-we had some generic imperialists instead of the US.
** To be more specific, the enemies are greedy imperialists who oppress and deny its people free university education and healthcare. The later being illustrated by a dying old grandfather and his beautiful who is pleading for the authorities to help, but being turned down because she has no money. Oh, and she is probably black, because we all know that greedy imperialists are racists. All the fun times we had!
** The Americans were known for [[NotSoDifferent using a similar tactic]], with a generic [[WarsawPact WP]] invasion coming from a country known as [[BilingualBonus Krasnovia]]/[[RedsWithRockets Krasnova]]/[[IncrediblyLamePun Krasnoya]]