The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian initials CCCP) or Soviet Union, was a nation between 1917 and 1991, with which Indiana Jones was involved several times in his life. With a strong Communist government, it was made up of 15 Soviet republics, made out of much of the same territory as the Russian Empire that it had replaced, covering much of eastern Europe and northern and central Asia.
History[]
Indiana Jones witnessed the birth of the new nation while working for the French Secret Service in Petrograd during the Russian Revolution;[1] this conflict ended the rule of the Romanov dynasty over Russia, and replaced it with a communist government led by Vladimir Lenin, who was eventually replaced by Joseph Stalin.
From its birth onwards, the communist (Bolshevik) revolution was unwelcome to the western powers, who regarded the existence of a socialist state as a threat to the social order within their own territory. Great Britain, and France in particular perpetrated a number of military aggressions against the new socialist state throughout the civil war which opposed the newly formed government and other factions from 1917 to 1921. When the Red faction had won the civil war, western powers remained diplomatically aggressive to the new Soviet state. The Soviet Union remained a somewhat insular power during its early years, more concerned with consolidating the new system of government at home than with events abroad.
In 1936, Jones and Marcus Brody traveled to northern Siberia, racing against Nazi agent Friedrich von Hassell to find the Tomb of the Gods. It is not known whether Soviet authorities were aware of either the American or German archaeological teams present on the cold coastal areas along the Arctic Ocean.[2]
The rise of Nazi Germany and their threat of invasion led the Soviet government to take diplomatic action to ensure peace. However, no European power agreed to sign any treaty of mutual support in the event of a new World War led by Adolf Hitler breaking out. In May 1939, Nazi agents beat Indiana Jones in obtaining one of the last copies of the Hermocrates from a Leningrad museum, and the Soviet police didn't react as Stalin had a policy to ignore Nazi actions.[3] Eventually Stalin signed a treaty of non-aggression with Hitler in 24 August 1939.
After the start of World War II, Hitler later broke that treaty in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union allied with United Kingdom and United States to put an end to the Axis aggression. After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union was repulsed, Soviet forces on the eastern European front, combined with Allied forces coming from France, managed to take over Germany and force its surrender. With American atomic bombs and the threat of a Soviet invasion, Japan surrendered in September 1945.
Immediately after the war, the Soviet Artifacts Evaluation Commission, hired Jones to help recover artifacts found in Soviet-occupied Berlin. Jones ended up arrested by Nadia Kirov, but the two later worked together to stop a plan by Matthias Jäger to resurrect Nazi soldiers with the Philosopher's Stone.[4]
The end of the war left the Nazis defeated, and the world became divided by alliances to the two superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States. The clash of ideologies became known as the Cold War, where the two powers tried to gain an advantage through technological and military development and seeking new states to add to its set of allies. The Soviet bloc included many countries in eastern Europe, and later on, Cuba. During the Cold War, Indiana Jones and George McHale, while members of the OSS and MI6, were sent on several missions to spy on them before retiring from the intelligence business.[5]
In 1947, Soviet physicist Gennadi Volodnikov attempted to rebuild the the Babylonians' Infernal Machine, but was thwarted by Jones and CIA agent Sophia Hapgood, and her boss, Simon Turner.[6]
Meanwhile, Stalin, always looking for new ways to increase Soviet power, put his protege Irina Spalko in charge of KGB psychic research programs, in the hopes of developing a new form of weapon to use against the West. It was as part of this program that Spalko enlisted Dr. Jones and Dr. Harold Oxley's help in locating the lost Crystal Skull of Akator in 1957, which she believed was the key to the new Soviet weapon. However, she was killed by the skull and the weapon was never developed.[5]
The Soviet Union finally dissolved in 1991, following the liberal reforms of Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and was replaced by a number of smaller nations, the most powerful of which was the Russian Federation.[7]
Locations[]
Groups and organizations[]
Notable Soviets[]
- Antonin Dovchenko
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Nadia Kirov
- Vladimir Lenin
- Vladimir Radichenko
- Irina Spalko
- Joseph Stalin
- Gennadi Volodnikov
Appearances[]
- Young Indiana Jones and the Princess of Peril (Historical Note)
- Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs (Mentioned only) (as "Russia")
- Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods
- Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient (On map)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic
- Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece
- Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix
- Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix game (Cancelled)
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Mentioned only) (FBI file)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones: The Search For Buried Treasure (Mentioned only)
Sources[]
- The Adventures of Indiana Jones
- Grail Diary
- The World of Indiana Jones
- Indiana Jones and the Lands of Adventure
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine adventure guide/instruction booklet
- Unquiet Voices - Russian Writers and the State (Non-fiction source)
- The Russian Revolution - All Power to the Soviets! (Non-fiction source)
- War and Revolution (Non-fiction source)
- New Gods for Old (Non-fiction source)
- Paul Robeson - Scandalize My Name (Non-fiction source)
- Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
- The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Annual 2009
Notes and references[]
- ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Petrograd, July 1917" → Adventures in the Secret Service
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- ↑ Unquiet Voices - Russian Writers and the State