
Flag of the Russian Empire.
Russia, also known as Imperial Russia or the Russian Empire is an empire that exists across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War. By the 20th century, Russia was still ruled by an autocratic government after the Russian Revolution was crushed by Imperial forces led by Tsar Michael. However, Russia was the epicenter of the Chimera's invasion and became the first human nation to fall to the alien invaders during the prelude of the Chimeran War.
History
Pre-Chimeran War
By the turn of the 20th century, an unknown celestial object crash landed in Russia's Tunguska region on June 30, 1908, in what became known as the Tunguska Event.[1] It is believed that the object was responsible for bringing the Chimera to Earth. Although the impact was widely noticed by the world, there has not been any serious attempts to study the crash site and humanity was left ignorant of the alien presence for several decades.
In 1914, Russia entered the Great War on the side of the Allies. Despite possessing the largest military force in the world at the time, Russia was unable to overcome the Central Powers. Constant mismanagement of resources and manpower caused Russian citizens to revolt and abdicate Tsar Nicholas II.[2] Before being exiled to Siberia, the Tsar appointed his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, to become the new Tsar of Russia. Under Tsar Michael, several uprisings were quelled, and the populist Bolshevik party was shut down and their prominent leader Vladimir Lenin was sent to a gulag in western Siberia.[1]
By 1918, Russia was summarily defeated by Germany. Determined to preserve his legacy, Tsar Michael signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and relinquished all claims to several territories in Eastern Europe. As a result of Russia losing its territory and breaking up its empire, a civil war erupted. The Russian government quelled the uprising, but only to sow further unrest for the next several years.[2]
After the end of the Great War, the Russian government did not enter membership to the European Trade Organization. By 1921, several civil wars erupted across Russia in reaction to the oppressive rule of Tsar Michael. In response Russian shock troopers were dispatched to put down the uprisings.[2] Soon after, the Russian government discovered and arrested twelve French spies for allegedly encouraging the insurrections. The spies were executed without trial.[1] The execution consequently exacerbated Russia's tenuous relationship with Western Europe, in which the Russian government became weary of outside influence on the Russian population while the democratic European nations condemned Russia's oppression and brutality; in which they subsequently formed a military alliance, the United European Defense, to oppose Russia.[2]
In September 1921, Russia began to completely isolate itself from the outside world first by cutting off all international communication and constructing a fortified barrier across the entire length of the Russian-European border dubbed as the Red Curtain.[1]
Chimeran War

Map of the Chimeran invasion in Russia (circa 1949).
In 1926, reports of unusual activity in Siberia sparked the concern and curiosity of the Russian government. An investigation team was dispatched to Siberia, where they first witnessed the existence of the Chimera during their attack on several villages.[2] In awe of the advanced technology of the Chimera, the Russian government saw the potential in obtaining the Chimeran technology for their selfish hopes of dominating scientific progress over the West and the Russian population.[2] By 1927, the Russian military was mobilized against the Chimera, leaving a majority of the country undefended. Despite the Chimera being vastly outnumbered by the Russians at that time, the Russian military severely underestimated their alien enemy.[2]
Thousands of Russian soldiers were overwhelmed by swarms of the Chimeran Crawler strain and converted by the Chimeran virus, turning them into Chimera. Desperate to turn the tide of the war, the Russian government sought in finding a cure to counteract the virus. The Russian's scientific endeavor was pushed forward by Dr. Fyodor Malikov, who led promising results in creating an experimental vaccine that indicated to resist the Chimeran virus. The Russian government ordered a mandatory vaccination of all surviving soldiers, despite the unknown long-term effects. In a very short time, thousands of soldiers had received the injections. Initially, the vaccine was proved to be a success as the soldiers were immune to infection from the Crawlers and also demonstrating incredible superhuman abilities in fighting the Chimera.[2]
However, some soldiers began exhibiting signs of extremely violent behavior and soon abandoning their posts. Within a few months, the soldiers began to mutate, taking on some of the physical characteristics of the Chimera and attacking their fellow soldiers. These changed soldiers banded together, leaving bloody handprints on their victims and referring to themselves as the Cloven. Seemingly possessing their motives, the Cloven were hostile to both Chimera and human alike. By September 1930, the vaccinated soldiers went AWOL and banded in small groups to terrorize the countryside. Caught between the Cloven and the Chimera, the Russian military was devastated.[2]
By the 1930s Russia fell to the Chimera. The outside world remained ignorant of what had transpired in Russia and the UED was concerned of their eastern neighbor's sudden silence. European intelligence agencies were dispatched to investigate the Russian border and startlingly discovered a large number of abandoned towns and cities, abnormal winter weathers, and other strange phenomena.[1] The only trace of life coming from inside Russia was a looping radio transmission, broadcasting propaganda to 12,000 radio stations with the words: "Brotherhood, strength, and fortitude...in the face of the angry night."[1] By December 1949, enforced from millions of converted humans, the Chimera broke through the Red Curtain and quickly overrun Europe.[1]
Following the events of Operation Overstrike in mid-1951, Allied forces had been fighting closer to the remnants of the Red Curtain, and by 1953 they were preparing to enter into Russia.[3] However, the fall of the United States later in 1953 led to a collapse in these efforts, and by 1957 the front line was pushed by the Chimera back to Glamorgan, Wales. Following the closing of the wormhole, there was a resistance group operating from Podolsk reporting their success against the Chimera.[4]
Government
The Russian government was ruled by an oppressive Tsarist autocracy led by Tsar Michael. Russia was plagued by violent unrest following the government's suppression of the 1917 revolution in which the government responded by dispatching the military to brutally crush the revolts. Driven by perceived foreign "anti-imperialist" influences, the government established a stringent isolationist policy that completely shunned out the outside world. Because of this, the world remained ignorant of the Chimera that first warred Russia in 1927.
The Russian government had collapsed to the Chimera and leaving only a very few surviving factions of the military who waged a guerrilla-style war from hidden military outposts.
Trivia
- Resistance's version of a post-revolution Tsarist Russia shares some similarities to another Imperial Russia led by Grand Duke Michael depicted in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191.
- On the official website of Resistance: Fall of Man, on Day Three when it is mentioning Russia, a communist flag can be seen. This was probably a mistake since Russia was never a communist country in the Resistance universe.