History Main / RegentForLife

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', [[Characters/TNOTaboritsky Sergey Taboritsky]] initially seems like an eccentric monarchist within the Russian anarchy, but if he manages to take over the Republic of Komi and reunite western Russia it soon becomes clear just how ''[[TheCaligula horrifically insane]]'' he really is. He assumes the role of regent to prepare the kingdom of Russia for the return of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia Alexei Romanov]], [[IRejectYourReality refusing to accept that]] the boy was tragicly shot dead fifty years ago and will never, ever assume his throne. [[NightmareFuel His mad rule]] results in a truly horrific outcome for Russia, [[CrapsackWorld even for this setting]].
** Taboritsky's administration is openly inspired by the "Burgundian System" that runs Ordensstaat Burgund, an unimaginably extreme version of totalitarianism instituted by Himmer's SS that is considered so extreme that ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards even the Nazis think it goes too far]]''. Combined with Tabby's general delusion, this is a highly combustible combination. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be allowed to tarnish Alexei's Russia. [[spoiler:Churches get burned down with the priests inside. Every town or village that shows nothing less than full compliance to the regime gets wiped off the earth by chemical weapons, and chemical weapons are also used on the vast landscape of Russia to root out dissidents - every forest, every cave, every nook and cranny. Anyone who remotely disagrees with the government is purged. Educated people are purged. [[KillThePoor Poor people are rounded up and purged]]. Minority non-Russians - [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain yep, purged]]. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Every crime becomes punishable by death]]. Purification squads roam the countryside and people live in constant fear for their lives, never knowing when the death squads come knocking. Then the metaphorical clock strikes midnight: Taboritsky has a vision of little Alexei's bloodied bones and can no longer deny the AwfulTruth, and he [[DespairEventHorizon dies from the sheer despair]]. That means the nightmare is over right? Not quite. Without the central figure of Taboritsky, the system collapses, and Russia enters a new warlord era -- but while this allows the re-emergence of saner, more benevolent regimes, there are also ones that ''aren't'', including multiple successors to Taboritsky's regime, some less states than gangs of death squads still carrying out 'purification' despite the orders having stopped coming in, and in all of this, significant swathes of Russia were rendered outright ''uninhabitable'' by Taboritsky's liberal use of chemical weaponry.]]

* The Byzantine Empress [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Eirene]] started out as regent for her son... then, when he got too old to be kept under control, had him blinded and killed and took power in her own right, disarming the army so it wouldn't replace her (which, incidentally, let the Abbasid Caliph conquer large parts of the empire) and trying (largely unsuccessfully) to negotiate alliances with western powers as a military substitute. She was the first ruling Empress of the Romans, depending on whether or not you believe Ulpia Severina ruled as Empress regnant after her husband, Aurelian, was assassinated.

* Prince Luitpold became regent of Bavaria on June 10, 1886, after his nephew King UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria was declared unfit to rule. Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances three days later, leaving the Bavarian throne to his younger brother Otto who was already confined to a mental asylum. Luitpold thus continued to be Prince Regent (Prinzregent) of Bavaria until his own death in 1912. His son prince Ludwig succeeded him in that position, but was too impatient to wait for mad Otto to die (which he finally did in 1916, as it turned out), and so had himself proclaimed King Ludwig III in 1913. This alienated even part of Bavaria's monarchists, but in the end Ludwig III was forced to abdicate during the November Revolution of 1918.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', Sergey Taboritsky initially seems like an eccentric monarchist but if he manages to take over Ust-Sysolsk it soon becomes clear just how [[TheCaligula horrifically insane]] he really is. He assumes the role of regent to prepare the kingdom of Russia for the return of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia Alexei Romanov]], [[IRejectYourReality refusing to accept that]] the tragic boy was shot dead fifty years ago and will never, ever assume his throne. [[NightmareFuel His mad rule]] results in a truly horrific outcome for Russia, [[CrapsackWorld even for this setting]].
** Taboritsky's administration runs on the so-called "Burgundian System", an unimaginably extreme version of totalitarianism (so extreme that ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards even the Nazis think it goes too far]]''). Combined with Tabby's general delusion, this is a highly combustible combination. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be allowed to tarnish Alexei's Russia. [[spoiler:Churches get burned down with the priests inside. Every town or village that shows nothing less than full compliance to the regime gets wiped off the earth by chemical weapons, and chemical weapons are also used on the vast landscape of Russia to root out dissidents - every forest, every cave, every nook and cranny. Anyone who remotely disagrees with the government is purged. Educated people are purged. [[KillThePoor Poor people are rounded up and purged]]. Minority non-Russians - [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain yep, purged]]. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Every crime becomes punishable by death]]. Purification squads roam the countryside and people live in constant fear for their lives, never knowing when the death squads come knocking. Then the metaphorical clock strikes midnight: Taboritsky has a vision of little Alexei's bloodied bones and can no longer deny the AwfulTruth, and he [[DespairEventHorizon dies from the sheer despair]]. That means the nightmare is over right? Not quite. Without the central figure of Taboritsky, the system collapses, and Russia enters a new warlord era -- but while this allows the re-emergence of saner, more benevolent regimes, there are also ones that ''aren't'', including multiple successors to Taboritsky's regime, some less states than gangs of death squads still carrying out 'purification' despite the orders having stopped coming in, and in all of this, significant swathes of Russia were rendered outright ''uninhabitable'' by Taboritsky's liberal use of chemical weaponry.]]

** It become something of of a precedent in Japan. When the samurai rebelled against the court and reduced the entire court, emperor as well as the Fujiwara regent, into their figurehead, the shogunal Kamakura government itself was taken over by regents just 7 years after Minamoto Yoritomo had taken the title of shogun. The next 134 years, all shoguns were themselves figureheads, as was the whole imperial court still including the regent for the Emperor...

* Queen Arianna from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAsTheIslandPrincess'' plans to do this with her daughter Luciana once she's married Prince Antonio. A passing line from her while she's poisoning the wedding cake appears to hint that she intends to rule the kingdom through her daughter once she marries Antonio. With Peter and Danielle out of the picture, and with Antonio to follow soon after, Luciana would become queen by default as the wife to the heir.

** Lu Zhi, wife of Liu Bang of Han, is another Chinese example. She presided as the power behind the throne for three emperors up until her death.
** Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian was probably a semi-example. She ruled as regent for two of her sons, and seized power at the age of 66 to become the only woman to rule as Huangdi in her own right.

* Catherine de Medici of France acted as Regent while her two underage sons were King and heavily interfered in the reign of her third son, Henry III. It is doubtful they would have retained power without her. She is widely detested for her supposed role in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, where thousands of French Protestants were killed. Modern historians suspect that Catherine didn't actually have anything to do with the massacre, but became an easy scapegoat because she was Italian, and worse, a Medici, so she had to be an evil plotter who poisoned her enemies. As a matter of fact she did the best she could to reconcile the opposing Huguenot and Catholic factions.

* Viren attempts this in ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', but he gets [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome thrown in prison for lying that he's the regent]].

* Viren attempts this in ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', but he gets [[RealityEnsues thrown in prison for lying that he's the regent]].

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': It's AllThereInTheManual that [[EvilChancellor Long Feng]] came into power when the current Earth King was coronated at the age of four. Though an adult by the time of the series, the Earth King seems happy letting Long Feng rule over most practical matters, and Long Feng, for his part, is such a ManipulativeBastard that he's managed to keep the King from even knowing that the Earth Kingdom has been at war for the last ''century.''

* Yzma in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', although her official title is Advisor (and in this case, "for life" ''really'' carries some weight). Emperor Kuzco fires her just before he turns 18, leading her to attempt to assassinate him and seize the throne herself, but her bumbling henchman Kronk gets the poison mixed up with a llama transformation potion.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is in theory running the city until the RightfulKingReturns (the last king having been executed for his crimes by an UsefuleNotes/OliverCromwell stand-in) and in a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' ShoutOut, the Patrician's chair is just next to the actual throne. Until Vetinari, the Patricians were all incompetent, self-indulgent, sleazy and power-grubbing types for whom assassination was considered a natural cause of death. When the true king does return, [[spoiler:it turns out he's perfectly happy leaving the city to Vetinari while he stays in the Watch]]. Also, [[spoiler:the throne is just gold foil over wood, which is itself so rotten it would probably collapse if anyone tried sitting on it.]]

* Dion Morgan, Regent of Nuin "for Our Very Present Emergency" in EdgarPangborn's {{DAVY}}. It is noted by one of the narrators that the "emergency" started as the accession of an insane hereditary President, but came to mean something like "period lasting from the year Your Excellency got away with it until Your Excellency can decently be kicked out" -- which duly happens.

* A slightly different version is found in Tappan Wright's {{ISLANDIA}}, where the King of Islandia is technically regent for Alwin XVII, who was never seen again after a battle centuries before, but who has never been declared dead. Islandia's version of constitutional monarchy came about by this historical accident.

* In Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, the land of Ceura (A fantasy psuedo-japan) is ruled by a regent who is meant to give up his power when a leader emerges bearing the mystical sword of legend. When Lantano Garuwashi (a hero and famed war commander) finds it, the regent plans brings an army to him on the pretext of "testing" the sword's authenticity, actually intending to kill Lantano whether the sword passes the test or not. Finding this out, the Regent's 14 year old son challenges his father to a duel and slays him, then takes the army and swears fealty to Lantano after confirming that yes, he really does bear the sword of legend (If Lantano's sword had failed the test, Lantano would have been executed on the spot).

* The Galactic government of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is running on a basis that's pretty close to this trope in spirit. When the last Galactic Emperor was on his deathbed, he was placed in some sort of StasisField that left him in what amounts to a permanent state of OnlyMostlyDead. (Much to his irritation, by all accounts.) This caused the line of succession to grind to a halt and left the elected parliament and the President they choose by electoral college as the undisputed rulers of a now ''de facto'' republican government. Whether this was an overall improvement is hard to say.

* The Stewards of Gondor in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' are a family of hereditary regents, generally good ones. They rule Gondor after the last king disappears. Unfortunately, the only one we actually ''meet'' in the books and films alike is Denethor, mentally unhinged by the loss of his favorite son, the hordes of Mordor at his doorstep, and finally by the EvilOverlord himself through the seeing-stone which Denethor foolishly thought he could control. In [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings the movies]], possibly due to {{Flanderization}}, he and Boromir both make it very clear that "Gondor has no king. Gondor ''needs'' no king." (though in Boromir's case it's because he feels Aragorn has been running away from his responsibility and leaving the people of Gondor to fight the armies of Mordor to play at being a Ranger). In the book, Denethor says, his rule "is mine and no other man's, unless the king should come again" (''[=LoTR=]'' V 1). Denethor might be perfectly willing, even overjoyed, to yield to a king, but we never learn whether Denethor would accept Aragorn as the king, considering Gandalf tries to conceal from Denethor the coming of Aragorn. Denethor would have a solid precedent for refusing to give Aragorn the throne: Aragorn's ancestor Arvedui tried to claim the throne of Gondor, and they turned him down. Aragorn isn't a direct male-line descendant of Anárion. He's descended from Anárion's older brother Isildur, who ''was'' King of Gondor even though his children weren't, and he also descends from Anárion through his ancestress Fíriel, a daughter of the last king of the senior line of Gondor and wife of Arvedui, so there are arguments to be made both ways.

** Taboritsky's administration runs on the so-called "Burgundian System", an unimaginably extreme version of totalitarianism (so extreme that ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards even the Nazis think it goes too far]]''). Combined with Tabby's general delusion, this is a highly combustible combination. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be allowed to tarnish Alexei's Russia. [[spoiler:Churches get burned down with the priests inside. Every town or village that shows nothing less than full compliance to the regime gets wiped off the earth by chemical weapons, and chemical weapons are also used on the vast landscape of Russia to root out dissidents - every forest, every cave, every nook and cranny. Anyone who remotely disagrees with the government is purged. Educated people are purged. [[KillThePoor Poor people are rounded up and purged]]. Minority non-Russians - [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain yep, purged]]. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Every crime becomes punishable by death]]. Purification squads roam the countryside and people live in constant fear for their lives, never knowing when the death squads come knocking. Then the metaphorical clock strikes midnight: Taboritsky has a vision of little Alexei's bloodied bones and can no longer deny the AwfulTruth, and he [[DespairEventHorizon dies from the sheer despair]]. That means the nightmare is over right? [[FromBadToWorse Wrong.]] Turns out he is so central to the system that none of his advisors or high command have any clue what to do in his absence, so they try to cover up the death ([[TruthInTelevision like what happened with Stalin]]) and keep the standing orders going even though there really is no point to any of it anymore. [[InherentInTheSystem So now the killing cannot be stopped. Perpetual status-quo.]] The Purification squads find orders stop coming in and are too scared to stop as it might mean being purged, so they continue their mindless butchery of "dissidents" until they gradually lose their minds from the near-constant killing, ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''-style. Soon, all of Russia is nothing more than a gigantic charnel house - a land of ghost towns, ruined villages, poisonoius swamps and dead forests full of corpses that do not rot because not even bacteria can survive in a wasteland saturated in all kinds of nasty chemical agents. The Russians who haven't fled west into Germany, a country that enslaves Slavs on racial principle just to escape this '''Hell''' on Earth are either the authorities, very loose small collections of bandits, or the wandering insane. The country falls into radio silence [[MadnessMantra apart from the repeating message below]], and it is made perfectly clear that Russia will ''never, ever'' re-emerge again.]]
-->'''[[spoiler:[-Remain calm.-]]]'''
-->'''[[spoiler:[-The Regent endures.-]]]'''
-->'''[[spoiler:[-Alexei lives.-]]]'''
-->'''[[spoiler:[-The Holy Russian Empire shall endure.-]]]'''
-->'''[[spoiler:[-There is much to be done.-]]]'''

* UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco was officially Regent of the Kingdom, among other jobs. While he was certainly a fascist, he was not radical enough for the ''actual'' fascists who despised him for it and his monarchism. Franco was ostensibly holding power until the rightful King stepped in... though he didn't actually say who that was until 6 years before his death. The man in question was the son of the Legitimist [[BigDamnHero Juan Carlos]] (conveniently, a descendant of ''both'' of the competing branches of the royal family), who upon Franco's death promptly declared a liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy (and foiled a coup attempt by fascist/neo-Francoist officers by going on national television to ''expressly authorize the elected government to order the rest of the Spanish Armed Forces to squash the coup'' if the offending officers didn't stand down).

* UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco was officially Regent of the Kingdom, among other jobs. Despite popular belief, he was not a Fascist but an Ultra-Conservative and a Monarchist (the Fascist party came to despise him for this, despite him having a lot in common with them on issues other than monarchism), and was ostensibly holding power until the rightful King stepped in... though he didn't actually say who that was until 6 years before his death. The man in question was the son of the Legitimist [[BigDamnHero Juan Carlos]] (conveniently, a descendant of ''both'' of the competing branches of the royal family), who upon Franco's death promptly declared a liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy (and foiled a coup attempt by fascist/neo-Francoist officers by going on national television to ''expressly authorize the elected government to order the rest of the Spanish Armed Forces to squash the coup'' if the offending officers didn't stand down).

* The Stewards of Gondor in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' are a family of hereditary regents, generally good ones. They rule Gondor after the last king disappears. Unfortunately, the only one we actually ''meet'' in the books and films alike is Denethor, mentally unhinged by the loss of his favorite son, the hordes of Mordor at his doorstep, and finally by the EvilOverlord himself through the seeing-stone which Denethor foolishly thought he could control. In [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings the movies]], possibly due to {{Flanderization}}, he and Boromir both make it very clear that "Gondor has no king. Gondor ''needs'' no king." In the book, Denethor says, his rule "is mine and no other man's, unless the king should come again" (''[=LoTR=]'' V 1). Denethor might be perfectly willing, even overjoyed, to yield to a king, but we never learn whether Denethor would accept Aragorn as the king, considering Gandalf tries to conceal from Denethor the coming of Aragorn. Denethor would have a solid precedent for refusing to give Aragorn the throne: Aragorn's ancestor Arvedui tried to claim the throne of Gondor, and they turned him down. Aragorn isn't a direct male-line descendant of Anárion. He's descended from Anárion's older brother Isildur, who ''was'' King of Gondor even though his children weren't, and he also descends from Anárion through his ancestress Fíriel, a daughter of the last king of the senior line of Gondor and wife of Arvedui, so there are arguments to be made both ways.

* Yzma in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', although her official title is Advisor (and in this case, "for life" ''really'' carries some weight).

* [[GodSaveusFromTheQueen Nakia]] of ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'' is a rather interesting variant. She starts off as Tawananna, which makes her the second-most powerful person in the kingdom. After her husband dies of illness, she becomes the dowager queen and the throne passes to her stepsons. She continues to wield power and remain untouchable for her various crimes thanks to a combination of magic, [[BattleButler Uhri]], and her status as a princess of Babylon (any time Kail or Yuri get close to exposing her, she threatens to see it as an insult worthy of having Babylon go to war with Hattusa). She also [[spoiler:feeds her own son Black Water to brainwash him into complying with her various schemes to put him on the throne, when he makes it clear he won't cooperate.]] Later in the series, [[spoiler:it's revealed that Nefertiti basically kept power after her own husband's death by taking advantage of how weak-willed the next pharaoh was. At one point, Yuri and her friends have to lead a full-scale riot to the Egyptian capital to get the pharaoh to overrule Nefertiti and have her release Ramses (who Nefertiti was ''really'' enjoying torturing.]]

* ''Jagged Alliance 2'' has it's intro sequence show billboards near Omerta with the caption 'Queen Deidranna- your Queen for life!' Which doesn't actually sound all that dystopian and BananaRepublic-like unless you know from [[AllThereInTheManual in-game briefings]] that the country was an ElectiveMonarchy with a parliament and considerably less tyranny going on until she poisoned the King and framed her husband the Crown Prince for it.

* In the game ''Dragonslayer'', Baron Drax, the regent, attempts to murder Prince Logan a few months before his regency officially ends (An hour or less into the game) so that he can invoke this.

* In ''{{Videogame/Dishonored}}'', Hiram Burrows (Former Royal Spymaster) takes control of the city of Dunwall after the former empress died at the hands of an unnamed assassin and kidnapped her daughter. [[spoiler:He was the one who engineered the assassination in the first place and later framed [[PlayerCharacter Corvo]] to escape suspicion]]. Completing a PacifistRun reveals that, [[spoiler:he also was the one who infected Dunwall with the rat plague to eliminate the poor [[GoneHorriblyRight but couldn´t keep it in check]]]].
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* All the leaders of the CAS in Webcomic/{{SSDD}} are called ''Acting'' First Advisor to honor Norman Gates. [[spoiler: And also because Gates isn't actually dead.]]

If King Bob had the foresight (or the time) to choose a regent before his death, he might have appointed a close relative or a senior churchman, hoping their family ties or religious obligations would stop them from intriguing against the true heir. But this seldom works. Nor does appointing a regency council instead of a single person: that just adds [[DeadlyDecadentCourt vicious internal politics]] to the mix.

** Taboritsky's administration runs on the so-called "Burgundian System", an unimaginably extreme version of totalitarianism (so extreme that ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards even the Nazis think it goes too far]]''). Combined with Tabby's general delusion, this is a highly combustible combination. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be allowed to tarnish Alexei's Russia. [[spoiler:Churches get burned down with the priests inside. Every town or village that shows nothing less than full compliance to the regime gets wiped off the earth by chemical weapons, and chemical weapons are also used on the vast landscape of Russia to root out dissidents - every forest, every cave, every nook and cranny. Anyone who remotely disagrees with the government is purged. Educated people are purged. [[KillThePoor Poor people are rounded up and purged]]. Minority non-Russians - [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain yep, purged]]. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Every crime becomes punishable by death]]. Purification squads roam the countryside and people live in constant fear for their lives, never knowing when the death squads come knocking. Then the metaphorical clock strikes midnight: Taboritsky has a vision of little Alexei's bloodied bones and can no longer deny the AwfulTruth, and he [[DespairEventHorizon dies from the sheer despair]]. That means the nightmare is over right? [[FromBadToWorse Wrong.]] Turns out he is so central to the system that none of his advisors or high command have any clue what to do in his absence, so they try to cover up the death ([[TruthInTelevision like what happened with Stalin]]) and keep the standing orders going even though there really is no point to any of it anymore. [[InherentInTheSystem So now the killing cannot be stopped. Perpetual status-quo.]] The Purification squads find orders stop coming in and are too scared to stop as it might mean being purged, so they continue their mindless butchery of "dissidents" until they gradually lose their minds from the near-constant killing, ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''-style. Soon, all of Russia is nothing more than a gigantic charnel house - a land of ghost towns, ruined villages, poisonoius swamps and dead forests full of corpses that do not rot because not even bacteria can survive in a wasteland saturated in all kinds of nasty chemical agents. The Russians who haven't fled west into Germany, a country that enslaves Slavs on racial principle just to escape this '''Hell''' on Earth are either the authorities, very loose small collections of bandits, or the wandering insane. The country falls into radio silence [[MadnessMantra apart from the repeating message below]], and it is made perfectly clear that Russia will ''never, ever'' be re-emerge again.]]

** Taboritsky's administration runs on the so-called "Burgundian System", an unimaginably extreme version of totalitarianism (so extreme that ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards even the Nazis think it goes too far]]''). Combined with Tabby's general delusion, this is a highly combustible combination. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be allowed to tarnish Alexei's Russia. [[spoiler:Churches get burned down with the priests inside. Every town or village that shows nothing less than full compliance to the regime gets wiped off the earth by chemical weapons, and c chemical weapons are also used on the vast landscape of Russia to root out dissidents - every forest, every cave, every nook and cranny. Anyone who remotely disagrees with the government is purged. Educated people are purged. [[KillThePoor Poor people are rounded up and purged]]. Minority non-Russians - yep, purged. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Every crime becomes punishable by death]]. Purification squads roam the countryside. Then the metaphorical clock strikes midnight, Taboritsky [[AwfulTruth has a vision of little Alexei's bloodied bones]] and [[DespairEventHorizon dies from the sheer despair]]. That means the nightmare is over right? [[FromBadToWorse Wrong.]] Turns out he is so central to the system that none of his advisors or high command have any clue what to do, so they try to cover up the death and keep things going even though there really is no point to any of it anymore. Perpetual status-quo. The killing and destruction now cannot be stopped. The Purification squads find orders stop coming in and too scared to stop as it might mean being purged, continue their butchery until they gradually lose their minds from the near-constant killing, ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''-style. Soon, all of Russia is nothing but a gigantic charnel house - a land of ruined villages, poisonoius swamps and dead forests full of corpses that do not rot because not even bacteria can survive in a wasteland saturated in all kinds of nasty chemical agents. The Russians who haven't fled west into Germany, a country that enslaves Russians on racial principle, just to escape this '''Hell''' on Earth are either bandits or wandering insane. The country falls into radio silence [[MadnessMantra apart from the repeating message below]], and it is made perfectly clear that Russia will ''never, ever'' be rebuilt again.]]