Soviet Superscience: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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Not that the US is left out, as long as both sides are in a [[Lensman Arms Race]].
It is worth noting that historically the most recognizable disciplines of any super
All in all, the Soviets had a mixed record as far as science goes - remember, this is the country that [[wikipedia:Yuri Gagarin|put the first man in space]], but also brought the world [[wikipedia:Lysenkoism|Lysenkoism]], [[wikipedia:Punitive psychiatry in the Soviet Union|the abuse of psychiatry for "rehabilitation" purposes]] and [[wikipedia:Chernobyl disaster|Chernobyl]].
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[[The New Russia]], sadly, won't be able to have anything vastly superior due to economic problems and lack of funding, so no, "Russian Superscience" is not a likely prospect and wouldn't be anytime soon. Contemporary Russian electronics, however, don't lag behind their Western counterparts much, though the opinions on this tend to [[Internet Backdraft|differ]].
The fall of the Soviet Union is often used as a reason why long-abandoned
[[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]] is a [[Sister Trope]], giving [[Those Wacky Nazis]] things like [[Powered Armor]] and [[Cool Airship
{{examples}}
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* Though it's technically a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]], ''[[The Red Star]]'' is abound in this trope.
* ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Ghost Projekt]]''
* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor
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* In [[Dale Brown]]'s books, while the former-Soviets-now-Russians needed to reverse-engineer American tech for most of their new toys, they did come up with powerful anti-satellite lasers on their own.
* Pops up in some of Charles Stross' stories. In the novelette ''A Colder War'', set in an [[Alternate History]] where the Cold War was fought with the powers of the [[Cthulhu Mythos|Great Old Ones]], the Soviets not only weaponize shoggoths and deployed them in Afghanistan, but they have an ultimate doomsday weapon called 'K-Thulu' in a giant concrete bunker in the Ukraine. ''Missile Gap,'' set in a world where Earth of 1962 was duplicated and laid on a gigantic disc, has the Soviet Union exploring the new world in a giant nuclear-powered ekranoplan.
** Similarly, one of the [[MacGuffin
* In the ''[[Necroscope]]'' books the Soviets have an advanced Psychic intelligence service (almost as [[Creator Provincialism|advanced as the UK's one]], the US doesn't get a look in). Their attempt at a ''[[Star Trek]]'' style [[Deflector Shield]] bubble to cover ''[[Up to Eleven|The Entire USSR]]'' and protect it from nuclear attack doesn't go well and in fact [[Phlebotinum Overload|accidentally blows a hole in the fabric of Space-Time creating a gateway to a vampire ridden hellhole]]. Erm, [[Epic Fail|oopsie]].
* [[Oleg Divov]]'s ''Zombie Trail'' trilogy is all about Soviet "psychotronic" weapons and their [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] side effects. The original Project came to be after an American misinformation campagin led the Soviet leadership to believe that the US was experimenting with [[Psychic Powers]]. Unintentionally, the resulting Soviet psychic program bore fruit. A "psychotronic cannon" was built that could be used to [[Mind Control]] people on a massive scale. However, it had to be operated by an extremely powerful psychic. In order to create one (or more), the Children's Program was set up that involved subjecting 1000 children to radiation, hoping the resulting mutation would be psychic in nature. It was a near-complete disaster, as all but 5 children died. Some of the survivors, though, did become the coveted super-psychics, although they refused to fire the cannon. Additional experiments were conducted on metropolitan scale by building powerful mind-control generators in major Soviet cities that would eliminate all dissent. They worked for a while, until interdimensional holes started opening, letting in [[Energy Beings]] that took over humans and became so-called "zombies" (of the fast variety). You'd think the experiments would stop in a [[What Have I Done]] fashion. No such luck. The third novel reveals that the modern-day Russian version of the Project succeeded in subliminaly influencing the world population into thinking that everything Russian is cool.
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** 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 & Conquer: Red Alert 2|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
* ''[[Freedom Force]]'' features [[Exactly What It Says on 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.
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== Real Life ==
* There was an Soviet attempt to create [[Half-Human Hybrid|man-chimpanzee hybrids]] for use as workers. Didn't work, but explains the weird science aspect they get in fiction. The precise details of that infamous experiment, which is usually considered (understandably) little more than an [[Urban Legend]], is that the Soviet scientist who did it worked more or less alone, only got a grant from Stalin due to red tape (and probably would have been shot if Stalin had discovered what he was actually doing), the experiment consisted of trying to use human sperm to artificially inseminate orangutans (because they didn't know about the close genetic relationship between humans and chimps), and his actual goal was to "prove" evolution and use that to stymie the political power of the Russian Orthodox Church, not to make [[Super Soldier
* There are rumors about Soviet low-frequency Sonic Weapon devices at their borders, threatening to instill depression and anxiety in the whole population. Some even argued that this was already taking place...
** 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.
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** 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.
* The world's only extant modern balanced ternary computer, a design that allows for more efficient handling of many computational algorithms (including basic addition and multiplication), is a Soviet design from the late 50s (Setun). Designs and theories have appeared in the West as well as one of the world's first computing devices, a 19th century wooden calculating machine, but no ternary computers have been actually built outside of the Soviet Union due to general lack of interest and the ubiquity of binary hardware.
* Possibly worthy of mention is the use of supercavitation for torpedoes. Water creates quite a lot of drag and severely limits the top speed that a projectile travelling through it may achieve. With supercavitation, a bubble of water vapour forms around the projectile, greatly reducing drag. The Soviets started experimenting with the phenomenon in the 60s, and by 1972 a supercavitating torpedo, the VA-111 Shkval, was put into service. Its top speed is in excess of
* In the field of space, there's Polyus (the world's only space battle station, which fortunately for the West failed on launch) and a ground-mounted laser that the Soviets used on the shuttle Challenger as part of brinksmanship over SDI (and worked a bit too well; Challenger was damaged to the extent that it was almost unable to reenter the atmosphere).
** The Russians were quite keen on experimenting with space stations in general. Once they lost the Moon race, they aimed for and pretty much achieved many records for longest stays in orbit. Russian space habitation technology is possibly still the best in the world.
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