Basic Trope: Soviet Union in the story having technology too advanced compared to Real Life in the same time period.
- Straight: Thanks to Professor Kravchenko's research into magnetism, USSR has coilguns, railguns, fusion power, and Maglev propulsion by 1970s.
- Exaggerated: Prof. Kravchenko's research enables the Soviets to breach and conquer an entire Alternate Universe while no-one is looking during World War II.
- Downplayed: Prof. Kravchenko invents advanced computing technologies that allow the USSR to manufacture desktop PCs and cell phones in the 1970s.
- Justified:
- Professor is just reverse-engineering alien technology from a crashed starship.
- The Party is ready to greenlight experiments that would be considered unethical and forbidden in other countries, as long as the results are solid.
- Inverted:
- The USSR is depicted as technologically backwards due to ideology and/or bureaucracy getting in the way of science.
- The US in the 70s has advanced technology, such as Artificial Limbs, Powered Armor, Uterine Replicators, genetically engineered humans, the oldest of who are now teenagers, and monstrous hybrid "attack dogs" capable of shrugging off rifle fire even before they put armor on.
- The USSR in the story has reached unfathomable heights... in utilizing Functional Magic and the supernatural, via Sufficiently Analyzed Magic. By 1970s, Soviet schools are teaching the basic laws of magic alongside physics and chemistry, the alchemical transmutation of metals has been industrialized, and Leonid Brezhnev has had tea with the Elder Gods on national TV.
- In a Weird Historical War setting in which all other sides are equipped up the wazoo with super-science and sorcery, the Soviets (who refuse the fantastic for a variety of reasons) fight with nothing but a human wave of conscripts armed with bolt-action rifles, PPSh-41 sub-machine guns, T-34 tanks and a whole lot of love for the Motherland in their hearts, and that is all they need.
- Subverted:
- Prof. Kravchenko speaks of bringing railguns and fusion power into reality, but the level of technology does not allow these plans to go beyond theories and failed experiments.
- The magnetism research "superscience program" produces no results, as it's actually a sham by corrupt officials for the purposes of embezzling state money.
- Double Subverted:
- However, once Soviet officials assemble groups of geniuses of Prof. Kravchenko's caliber and place them under his command as well as funding them generously they are able to produce more than even Prof. Kravchenko thought theoretically possible.
- However, the program being a sham is not the fault of Kravchenko and his research group, who are not told about the embezzlement scheme and duly create scientific miracles that they don't even get funding to produce or any acknowledgement for creating.
- Parodied: Prof. Kravchenko steals Lenin's preserved body from the Mausoleum to turn it into a nuclear-powered zombie cyborg armed with Eye Beams.
- Zig Zagged: Some disciplines of science are favored by the Soviet government and develop rapidly, while others are proclaimed "false sciences" and forbidden, resulting in Schizo Tech across the board.
- Averted: USSR in the story has the tech level appropriate for the time it's set in.
- Enforced:
- "Soviet industrial design is so much cooler than American! Why not give the Commies some awesome super-tech to show it off?"
- The work is a Soviet propaganda film designed to inspire faith in the achievements of socialism, and takes a few liberties with reality for this purpose.
- The base premise of the story: What if [Insert failed Soviet project here] was viable?
- Lampshaded: "Seriously? Soviets with railguns and hover tanks?! I thought that was just in bad war propaganda films!"
- Invoked: Scary Dogmatic Aliens favor the USSR and aid their technological development in secret.
- Exploited:
- The Soviet leadership uses Prof. Kravchenko's breakthroughs to start - and win - World War III.
- The US has sent spies to steal and/or copy the products of Soviet research to reverse engineer and created their own version.
- Defied: American spies kill or bribe super-geniuses like Kravchenko to prevent USSR from being able to win in potential World War III.
- Discussed: "Fusion power? But that's amazing!" "Amazing? Believe me, tovarisch - you haven't seen nothing yet."
- Conversed: "The idea that the USSR could have super-technologies doesn't hold any water. Why does it keep popping up in fiction?" "Because it's cool, duh."
- Implied: The story is told from the point of view of the Western defense contractors, and though spies constantly bring news about the products of Soviet Superscience that motivate the protagonists into action, the superscience itself isn't shown on screen.
- Deconstructed:
- The tech is massively impractical either through being too heavy to use or being so hilariously overpowered that there's no way to use it without friendly fire...
- The huge amounts of money and resources being poured into such projects means that much less for other aspects of the Soviet economy. The quality of life of the average Soviet citizen suffers as a results.
- In relation to "stereotypical Commie Land" bullet points below, the superscience exists and is perfectly viable, but restricted to use in the military (which will either never see combat, or might destroy the world if it does) and by top-level Party officials (whose numbers are vanishingly thin), while all the regular citizens have to do with period-accurate 1970s tech and living standards - modest at best, dismal at worst. And since most people will never get to benefit from the superscience, it might as well not exist at all.
- Reconstructed:
- ...But the Soviets don't mind that, they have reserves and happen to be the ones who built the biggest heavy-lift choppers, transport planes, and amphibious landing craft in the world, so they can compensate.
- However, the dip in the quality of life for the Soviet people is only temporary, and soon cheap energy and improvements in the production of various goods make the quality of life even better than it was before.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Soviet Superscience is the first sign that the story is set in an Alternate Universe.
- Played For Laughs:
- Soviets have advanced technology - that they massively misapply.
- The Soviet Union possesses incredible technology, but remains the same old stereotypical Commie Land full of Obstructive Bureaucrats, Skewed Priorities, and ridiculous accents.
- Professor Kravchenko's obsession with showcasing Soviet society is superior reflects in superscience projects that enhance Soviet stereotypes, such as a sonic Death Ray that only works if its user sings "Katyusha". Most users decide that the technology is too much of a hassle, sooner or later, regardless of how awesome its power is.
- Played For Drama:
- The advance of Soviet technology causes the Cold War to heat up abroad, and totalitarianism to get many new powers at home, and the story asks - can the cast of heroes, inside the USSR and out, successfuly push back?
- The Soviet scientists are tasked to create technology far beyond their time to Save the World (for example, by deflecting a massive asteroid or stopping an interdimensional Alien Invasion)... but no-one knows if they can succeed, not even the scientists themselves.
- The Soviet Government can only create such advanced technology by diverting large amounts of money and resources into such projects. Said budget is cannibalized from various civilian agencies, leaving the people without basic needs.
- The "stereotypical Commie Land" of the bullet point above is most definitely made worse, not better, by the advent of superscience. Most of its use is restricted to military or high-priority Party member use only, increasing the divide between the haves and the have-nots.
- The superscience gives unimaginable power to the Soviet Union, allowing it to swiftly Take Over the World... but all its historical contradictions, blunders, and evildoing swiftly catch up to it, and a global civil war erupts between the idealists, the fanatics, the opportunists, and the power-hungry egomaniacs over what the future should look like; with the fate of mankind very much up in the air.
- Played For Horror:
- The Soviet experimental research ends up causing a series of horrific calamities - because the ability of Soviet scientists to create hyper-advanced technologies does not equal the ability to control them.
- The Soviet superscience is Powered by a Forsaken Child, a fact that everybody involved in the project do not care about because they believe (or pretend to believe) it's worthy sacrifices to the Communist ideal - of course, most of said Human Resources come from people who were sentenced to Gulags.
- The Soviet superscience is utilized for a swift and total Communist conquest of the world and every horrible thing "Uncle Joe" and his inner circle did in Real Life is enhanced by KGB agents with Mind Rape machines and Spetsnaz with Death Ray weapons.
Back to Soviet Superscience with you, capitalist pig-dog!
