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Soviet Superscience (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:TeslaTrooper1900x1200_8544.png|link=Command and Conquer Red Alert Series (Video Game)|frame|[[A Worldwide Punomenon|Resistance]] [[Resistance Is Futile|is futile]], Capitalist Pig-Dog!]]
 
 
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** Crimson Dynamo is a Soviet scientist who invents an armored suit which also allows to control electricity.
** Soviet scientists trying to get a leg up on American engineering with bizarre creations like Mongu and the Titanium Man formed the glut of [[Iron Man]]'s original rogue's gallery.
** The very first opponent [[The Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|The Incredible Hulk]] fought (other than the US Army), was "The Gargoyle", a Soviet scientist warped into a deformed, large-headed, super-intelligent dwarf by exposure to radiation. His son, "The Gremlin", was almost identical in looks and abilities and, among other things, created the high-tech gear (including [[Powered Armor]]) used by the Soviet Super-Troopers (precursors to the Soviet Super-Soldiers).
** The [[Ultimate Universe]] series "Ultimate Nightmare" took place almost entirely in a complex dedicated to this.
* ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]'': In "SOS Meteors", it's revealed that the Soviet Bloc has developed weather control technology, which it uses to destabilize the climate of Western Europe in order to prepare for a military invasion. Why the Soviets didn't instead use it to improve their own weather is anyone's guess.
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* The obscure noir superhero series ''[[The Winter Men]]'' imagines a massive military-industrial operation throughout Soviet history to build mechanical and biological superbeings. It doesn't work, but not quite for the reason you'd expect.
* Though it's technically a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]], ''[[The Red Star]]'' is abound in this trope.
* ''[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Ghost Projekt]]''
* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Successors]] of the Soviet Union are the [[Mega City|megacities]] East-Meg One and Two, which are at par with [[Superweapon Surprise|and occasionally ahead of]] western technology.
 
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== Film ==
* In ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' the Soviets build a Doomsday Device after the U.S. had already considered a similar device ("Our source was the ''New York Times''"). [[Superweapon Surprise|They neglected to tell anyone about it]].
* ''[[Firefox (Film)|Firefox]]'' has the Soviets build a new superplane, the MiG-31 (not to be confused with the [[Real Life]] MiG-31). This plane is capable of Mach 6 and has thought-launched weapons, technologies that still don't fully exist today.
* ''[[Goldeneye (Film)|Goldeneye]]'' has a satellite-launched [[Wave Motion Gun|EMP weapon]] taken over by [[Renegade Russian|criminal elements in the Soviet space program command.]]
* ''[[Indiana Jones and Thethe Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Thethe Crystal Skull]]'' has Irina Spalko and her fellow Communists searching for the Crystal Skulls. It is mentioned that Stalin has a program investigating psychics, which isn't actually all that far-fetched; the US investigated possible paranormal things themselves.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and Thethe Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Thethe Crystal Skull]]'' has the Soviet search party in the jungle riding a huge truck that clears its path by mowing down trees like grass.
* ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'' is a pretty well-done thriller about, well, the hunt for the ''Red Oktober'', a highly-advanced Soviet ballistic missile submarine, the so-called "stealth-bomber" of submarines. Instead of the traditional propeller-driven sub, this one had one that sucked in water, compressed it, and shot it out, like a jet engine. The result is a sub with nearly zero-sound, meaning active Sonar will be almost the only thing able to detect it; making it virtually impossible to track, due to the danger of using active Sonar often. That doesn't stop Seaman Jones from inventing a way to track it though.
* The 2005 Russian [[Mockumentary]] ''Pervye Na Lune'' ([[wikipedia:First on the Moon|First on the Moon]]) shows "proof" that the Soviets actually sent a man to the Moon and back... in 1938...
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== Live-Action TV ==
* Recently, played straight in the ''[[Fringe]]'' episode "Earthling".
* A less antagonistic variety in ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'': the Russians are the only other nation on Earth that has a working Stargate program and even gets a couple of starships. Of course, that's because a Stargate just happened to fall into their laps, which they combined with a DHD they had taken from the Nazis. Technically, the United States is paying rent to Russia for the use of their Stargate when the one the US had at the time was lost, and the Russians asked if they could take some of that rent in the form of a cool starship.
* In the first episode of [[The Tick]] live action TV series, the Tick and Arthur must thwart the Red Scare, a robot made in the 1970s by the Soviet Union, programed to destroy the US President. Unaware of the present year however, the Red Scare seeks to destroy former President Carter.
 
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== Videogames ==
* The ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert Series (Video Game)|Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]'' series gives those [[Dirty Communists]] mind-controlled squids, cloning vats, Weaponized Tesla Coils, six-legged amphibious boats with double Tesla coils, armored [[Everything Is Worse With Bears|war bears]], huge zeppelins with megaton bombs, nuclear [[Negative Space Wedgie|vacuum]] ICBMs, weapon-stealing tanks, magnetic satellites [[Serial Escalation|AND MORE]].
** Don't forget the mancannon-equipped amphibious transports, which also function as AA support. They are quite capable of shooting the aforementioned armoured war bears. Talk about abnormal ammo...
** A mention should also be made of the mind-control radio towers that drive the plot of ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 (Video Game)|Red Alert 2]]''.
** This is far less noticeable in the first Red Alert, without expansions, partially because it has ''far'' less superscience overall, and partly because the Allies aren't far behind in superscience, their teleporter balancing out a Soviet invincibility generator, leaving only the weaponized Tesla coil to shift the balance in the Soviets' favour (and even then, the Allied GPS system is arguably far enough into the future of the period for it to count as a sort of super-tech). The expansions added a lot more super-science, but on both sides, setting the trend for the future games: the Soviets have Superscience, but only ''slightly'' more than the Allies<ref>Yes, that does mean Red Alert technically fails the "far beyond their Western counterparts" part of this trope's description.</ref>.
*** One could argue that the Soviets are actually ''lagging behind'' technologically - a large amount of the "super-science" is more or less a redux of the prior game's technology - compared to the Allies, who between Red Alert 1 and 2, developed lasers, cloaking devices, and weather control. Red Alert 1 might play it straight, but essentially every game from 2 onwards might just count as a subversion.
* ''[[Singularity]]'' <s> has quite a bit of this</s> Just check the game's page. It'd be faster.
* The rather obscure [[RTS]] ''[[War Front Turning Point]]'' has the Soviet Union using "canned Siberian weather" [[Freeze Ray|Freeze Rays]] and Freeze Bombs, as well as house-sized tanks with [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|''five'' turrets]] and building-sized artillery guns. They even steal a [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|German]] [[Mini-Mecha|Exoskeleton]] at one point and jury-rig it with a freeze ray.
* ''[[Freedom Force]]'' features [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Nuclear Winter]] who is a Soviet spy dunked in his own chemicals, ''Freedom Force Vs The Third Reich'' features Red October, who for some unexplained reason is a witch.
* In ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'', the Soviets have a secret moon base and an alliance with aliens.
** "Alliance" perhaps isn't the right way to put it; it's more like {{spoiler|all of the Soviet Union's leaders since the Russian Revolution [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|were actually aliens]] manipulating them for their own aims}}.
* One of the levels in ''[[Tomb Raider]]: Legend'' was Telsa's secret laboratory in Kazakhstan.
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', Soviet Sandviches are [[Health Food|powerful analgesics]].
** Not to mention the Soviet [[Power-Up Food|chocolate and steak]].
* ''[[Snatcher]]'' had the Soviets develop biological weapons, cryogenic sleep, and androids so advanced that the West didn't have an equal even decades later.
* ''[[Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare]] 2'' has the Russians {{spoiler|reverse engineer an American satellite component, which allows them to launch a massive trans-oceanic invasion of the US Mainland with complete surprise.}}
* In the [[R Emake]] of ''[[Battlezone (1998 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Battlezone 1998]]'', the [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Space Race between the USA and the Soviet Union]] was really about the [[Applied Phlebotinum]], featured hovertanks and was fought over most of the solar system.
* Parodied in the Wii version of ''[[Punch Out]]'', where Soda Popinski's Title Defense intro shows Soviet scientists working with all their might to produce... grape soda.
** Grape soda that makes Soda Popinski strong enough to ''drag a truck with his teeth''.
* Just to compliment the caption joke above: averted in ''[[Resistance]]'', where the Russians were never Communists ([[Alternate History|the 1917 revolution was crushed]]) and were wiped out by aliens, who did have superscience.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'', the presence of the IR Goggles and the NVGs in 1964 is explained as being due to the Russians being more advanced technologically. Your tech support even asks you to return the items to America for reverse engineering.
* [[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]] recycles this in space by bringing in a University of Planet faction, ostensibly just following a [[For Science!]] ideology, but actually being thoroughly Russian in terms of flavour.
* ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' has the Red Star's forces. You fight regular troops like missile helicopters, tanks, bomber planes, SCUD missiles and ICBM missiles. Then you fight mini satellites with [[Death Ray|death rays]], [[Humongous Mecha]], and even a [[Cool Airship]] that ''SUMMONS METEORS'' via [[Tractor Beam|tractor beams]]
* In ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops (Video Game)|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'' this is played straight both in the main storyline and partially in the Nazi Zombies mini-game. In the story-line the Russians are able to weaponize a highly lethal toxin that has been shown to kill men in mere minutes and is not easily dispersed by wind making it an effective area denial weapon and weapon of mass destruction. Furthermore they have access to anachronistic weapons that won't be introduced until the 70s or 80s, (the Americans showcase this too though) have mastered drug-induced brainwashing so advanced that you can program a man to do anything that you desire {{spoiler|even make Mason and/or Oswald kill John F. Kennedy,}} and have somehow found a way to create a base on the ocean floor without it being crushed from the sheer pressure it would faced with at such depths. Somewhat averted in the Nazi Zombies storyline as most of the technological achievements are actually achieved by Group 935 which is an international organization and have more or less equally introduced the same level of technological advancement to the Americans as they have to the Russians. However the Zombie map "Ascension" still showcases some pretty advanced technology on the Russians' part, they have created flying platforms, genetically enhanced monkeys, the Thunder Gun (a hand-held cannon that fires high-powered waves of compressed air) which contrary to Richtofen's beliefs was not made by Dr. Maxis but Dr. Gersh a Russian scientist, and Dr. Gersh as mentioned already created a small device which generates a miniature '''black hole'''.
 
 
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== Web Originals ==
* In ''[[The Return (Fanficfanfic)|The Return]]'' we have a group of nuclear powered, female, cyborg, Soviet, mercenary assassins.
 
 
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** This is probably based on the phenomenon of the "[[wikipedia:Russian Woodpecker|Russian Woodpecker]]", an odd low-frequency shortwave signal caused by the over-the-horizon radar system in the Ukraine that irritated European ham radio operaters during the '70s and '80s.
* Some conspiracy theorists believe that the Soviets developed "[http://mindjustice.org/golgotha.htm psychotronic]" weapons that could do tremendous damage (and other effects) at a great distance using technology that [[You Fail Physics Forever|violates the known laws of science]].
** [[Dragon Magazine(magazine)]] #204 had an article on Soviet psychotronic weapons.
* The Soviet Union, apart from creating apemen, was actively working on [[wikipedia:Flying tank|flying tanks]] and [http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/03/12/ekranoplan/ flying] [[wikipedia:Ground effect vehicle|ships]] built to skim over the surface of the ocean as fast heavy transports that would work below radar.
** US worked on flying submarines too. But the Soviets took it [[Up to Eleven]] when they actually started cutting steel for a nuclear submarine aircraft carrier/amphibious warfare ship. Sadly, it was canceled immediately afterwards.
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