History Main / HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection

** The classic serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep 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.

* ''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 the US was allied with them to start into the troops.

* {{Defied}} in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''; since it started in 1977 and featured Stalinist successor states to the USSR using the hammer and sickle in the early 22nd century, modern stories involving the Russian [[MegaCity Mega Cities]] [[ZeerustCanon still show them using the hammer and sickle]], and occasionally reference being Communist.

** In-universe, the trope is inverted by Bordurian agents in ''The Calculus Affair'', when they demonstrate sound-weapon technology on a model of an unnamed "overseas" enemy city, which is clearly meant to be an {{Expy}} of New York.

* {{Inverted}} in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''; since it started in 1977 and featured Stalinist successor states to the USSR using the hammer and sickle in the early 22nd century, modern stories involving the Russian [[MegaCity Mega Cities]] [[ZeerustCanon still show them using the hammer and sickle]], and occasionally reference being Communist.

* 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.]]

* In the OSS training film "Undercover", the enemy nation that the RightWayWrongWayPair of OSS spies is trying to infiltrate is definitely supposed to be Nazi Germany, but aside from a couple of German and Spanish-sounding names, all references are instead about "Enemy Area".

* In ''{{Tintin}}'', the country of Borduria, with its mustachioed dictator Kûrvi-Tasch ([[IncrediblyLamePun Pleksy-Gladz]] in the original French), is a fictional Russian satellite state.

* The 2022 Swedish war movie ''Film/BlackCrab'' is during a civil war in an unnamed Nordic country NextSundayAD. The 'enemy' is unnamed, with no insignia on their uniforms or helicopters, and there's no discussion of the war aims or motivations of either side.

* There was something like this 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 a little hypocritical, as the USSR treated some ethnic minorities very poorly). Even so, a number of African-Americans looked favorably on the USSR at the time, some becoming Communists or visiting them.

This trope has been used in films made in other eras as well, showing other world conflicts with other opponents, but it seems more frequently used, and almost comically noticeable when the setting and the years in which the film was made is the Cold War. We imagine this comes about because the film makers hope to sell their work in those very nations they would rather not name. Perhaps it was hoped that not giving a specific enemy would keep the film from [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece dating itself]], which if true is remarkable foresight of an otherwise [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp completely unanticipated series of events]]. But in any case, be prepared for a lot of Mooks and TheDragon who seem topical and familiar (and speak with Slavic accents).

The use of this trope diminished in the 70s and 80s, partly because during detente it became customary to occasionally show Americans and Soviets working together against a common enemy, often [[WesternTerrorists Neo]]-[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]], [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Middle Eastern Terrorists]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Greedy Industrialists]], [[TheMafia Organized]] [[TheMafiya Crime]] or [[AlienInvasion Alien Invaders]]. It finally entered ForgottenTrope territory with [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the dissolution of the Soviet Union]], with subsequent works openly invoking the hammer and sickle in Cold War period pieces. It still has some traction in certain former Soviet nations, such as Hungary and the Baltic states, which ban the display of "totalitarian symbols" of which the hammer & sickle is considered one (other symbols falling under the ban are usually the swastika and the arrow cross).

* Played with in the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho drama ''Thin Ice''. The Doctor makes no secret to the listener that he and Ace have traveled to Moscow in 1968 just prior to the parade for the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution [[note]](the parade itself figures in a set-piece chase in one of the episodes)[[/note]], but oddly enough, '''nobody''' anywhere in the drama utters the name Soviet Union, or mentions the Communist Party of same, always using circumlocutions. [[FridgeLogic of course, since this script was originally developed at a time when the USSR was still around, the trope may have been deliberately used to give an '80s feel.]]

** Averted in the 1980s revival, which even had a shot of the hammer and sickle in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7olqdc09EBM its opening sequence]].

* ''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!" This reflects the real rivalry between the People's Republic of China and Soviet Union at the time, which had split following the reforms by Khrushchev.

* 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. There is ''one'' joke about "everything being Red", but that's it.

* A non-Soviet variant: Adria Carmichael's ''Juche'' novels are set in a totalitarian country called Choson, led by a dictator called The Great General. Enough hints are dropped that you can figure out that Choson is clearly supposed to be North Korea, but it's never explicitly named.

--->'''R.E.C.R.''': I must destroy all enemies! Because all enemies are '''my''' enemies!

->''[]...where they just refer to the Russians as "the other one". Did they think that the KGB was like Film/{{Candyman}} or something, where if you mention the Soviet Union five times they would appear?''

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

* In the ''[[Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury Buck Rogers]]'' episode "The Trial of Buck Rogers", is was revealed that just before Buck left Earth, there was a conspiracy of high-ranking American officers to launch a first strike against The Other Side.

This trope has been used in films made in other eras as well, showing other world conflicts with other opponents, but it seems more frequently used, and almost comically noticeable when the setting and the years in which the film was made is the Cold War. We imagine this comes about because the film makers hope to sell their work in those very nations they would rather not name. Perhaps it was hoped that not giving a specific enemy would keep the film from dating itself, which if true is remarkable foresight of an otherwise [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp completely unanticipated series of events]]. But in any case, be prepared for a lot of Mooks and TheDragon who seem topical and familiar (and speak with Slavic accents).

* ''Series/TheAvengers'' went this route, often referring to "the other side" instead of "Russians".

** The classic 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.
** Also happened in the tenth anniversary serial "The Three Doctors," where the Doctor is told that a set of mysterious photographs were shown to the Americans "and the other ones."

* ''The WesternAnimation/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).

* 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 little hypocritical, as the USSR treated some ethnic minorities not good in some cases). Even so, a number of African-Americans looked favorably on the USSR at the time, some becoming Communists or visiting them.
* The Americans were known for [[NotSoDifferent using a similar tactic]], with a generic [[UsefulNotes/WarsawPact Warsaw Pact]] invasion coming from a country known as [[BilingualBonus Krasnovia]]/[[RedsWithRockets Krasnova]]/[[IncrediblyLamePun Krasnoya]]

The use of this trope diminished in the 70s and 80s, partly because during detente it became customary to occasionally show Americans and Soviets working together against a common enemy, often [[WesternTerrorists Neo]]-[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]], [[WarOnTerror Middle Eastern Terrorists]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Greedy Industrialists]], [[TheMafia Organized]] [[TheMafiya Crime]] or [[AlienInvasion Alien Invaders]]. It finally entered ForgottenTrope territory with [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the dissolution of the Soviet Union]], with subsequent works openly invoking the hammer and sickle in Cold War period pieces. It still has some traction in certain former Soviet nations, such as Hungary and the Baltic states, which ban the display of "totalitarian symbols" of which the hammer & sickle is considered one (other symbols falling under the ban are usually the swastika and the arrow cross).