Universe ZZ02ZSQ

**Universe ZZ02ZSQ (Obama)** is a parallel universe which shares a history with Universe ZZ04ZSX. It is the home universe of Alex Carter and Angie Norris.

## History and Inflection Points

In April of 1981, George H. W. Bush was sworn in as the 41st President of the United States after President Ronald Reagan died from wounds sustained two days before. Two years later, in September of 1983, Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov dies; he is succeeded as leader of the Soviet Union by his protégé, Grigory Romanov.

### Able Archer Scare

Just as he was taking office, Romanov was confronted with Operation Able Archer, a pre-planned NATO training exercise which is mistaken for preparations for nuclear war. In the chaos of the response, Romanov actually ordered a limited first strike, but fortunately for history, the acting Minister of Defense, Sergey Sokolov, forestalled the order while a desperate KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov contacted the United States government. Chebrikov spoke to a surprised President Bush, himself former head of the CIA, who assured Chebrikov that this was a training exercise. Bush ordered an immediate termination of Able Archer, and Chebrikov and Sokolov reported as much to Romanov.

Romanov was initially furious, believing that he had been betrayed. But as nuclear missiles from the west failed to materialize, he realized that he had been saved from making a horrifying mistake.

Two days later, on November 11, Romanov requested a summit with the United States, and in the coming months announced a new foreign policy centered on what he called *Doveryat*, or “trust.”

### Doveryat Era and Reorganization of Soviet Union

The Vienna Summit of 1984 was seen as a watershed moment for East and West; the two sides agreed to draw down nuclear missiles. Bush scrapped plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the Soviets agreed to stop interfering with Poland’s budding *Solidarność* movement.

The Soviets participated in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and both sides agreed to a period of *détente*. That period lasted until the late 1980s, when Romanov, faced with a spiraling economy, was ousted in favor of his former rival Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev was initially viewed with distrust by Bush and by his successor, Democrat Joe Biden. But Gorbachev recognized that the Soviet economy could not sustain a significant military build-up. Gorbachev signaled to the West that the Soviets would welcome investment in developing their oil reserves, and that in exchange, they would be willing to loosen the reins on Eastern Europe.

The Eastern Bloc began allowing free travel in 1991, and while there was an initial outflow of people, the Warsaw Pact countries were better able to manage the fallout. While East Germany and West Germany would reunite in 1993, and a few other countries – notably Czechoslovakia and Poland – would become officially neutral, the Soviet Union did not collapse. Boris Fydorov, the Minister of Finance and later president of Gosbank, was credited with good currency management, which was buoyed by foreign investment.

The Soviet Union itself became somewhat freer under Gorbachev’s *Glasnost* policy, which allowed for more freedom of expression, and opened up free elections. The nation even allows for parties other than the Communist Party to stand in elections, though the Presidium had the ability to approve or disapprove those parties. The position of President of the Soviet Union was created in 1996, an election that Gorbachev won easily. He would retire from office in 2001, succeeded by Eduard Shevardnaze, who served through 2006. Shevardnaze was defeated in 2006 by Aleksandr Rutskoy of the Russian Socialist Party, the first non-communist to serve as leader of Russia since Kerensky.

The Middle East remained reasonably stable during this time; while the US and Soviets were on good terms, *realpolitik* required both west and east to prioritize fealty over all. The US tacitly allowed Iraq to invade and take over Kuwait in 1992, with the Soviets agreeing to look the other way, as the US had done by quietly withdrawing support for the *Mujahadeen* during the Bush administration. The US and Soviets did manage to push their respective sides back to the table, and Palestine was granted limited autonomy in 1998, though it and Israel continued to squabble back and forth after that.

There were downsides, however. The Eastern European Bloc, while more free than before, still faced restrictions. Yugoslavia devolved into a bitter civil war that saw ethnic cleansing, and the brief Serbo-Hungarian Republic fell apart almost as soon as it was founded.

In the United States, Biden was re-elected in a landslide in 1992, but in 1996 his vice president, Al Gore, was defeated narrowly by Elizabeth Dole, the wife of former Vice President Bob Dole, who had won his senate seat after his 1985 victory. Looking to spur a stagnating economy, and with no real support for a military build-up, she pushed a bold plan to invest in space, backed enthusiastically by House Majority Leader Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The US and Russia had already agreed to construct the International Space Station during the Biden administration, and Liddy Dole took that one step further, putting together plans with the ESA, JAXA, and Sovcosmos for a joint return mission to the Moon.

The period from 1984 to 2011 was seen as a very positive time for US-Soviet relations, but they began to sour in 2011 with the election of Vladimir Putin, the Chair of the Council of Ministers, former Minister of Defence, and former head of the KGB. Putin led a brutal crackdown in the Baltics, which had seen increased autonomy during the preceding decades. He also pushed for greater controls on Eastern Europe, a move that backfired when Poland withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets threatened to invade Poland, but were soon confronted with chaos at home, as protesters in Ukraine forced the resignation of Putin’s ally from leadership. Putin responded by implementing martial law, drawing sharp condemnation from US President John McCain, who ordered US forces onto alert, creating the first real crisis since 1983. Though the Soviet Union barely avoided outright collapse, the union neared civil war.

In 2015, with the Baltics and Ukraine in full revolt and with central Asia edging toward the exit, a group of officials led by Deputy President Vüsal Elçin ousted Putin. Recognizing that Elçin, an ethnic Azerbaijani and Putin’s constitutional successor, would have difficulty holding onto Russia, Elçin appointed jailed dissident Gary Kasparov, a national hero and chess champion, as his Deputy President, and resigned.

Kasparov gained support of the Supreme Soviet, and immediately promised that he would not seek election in 2016. He then began the process of further federalizing the Soviet Union, and began the process of negotiating a new constitution.

Kasparov was succeeded by Alexey Andreev, a member of the Supreme Soviet who ran on a return to the nation’s Communist roots. Though a hard-liner, Andreev pledged to continue democratic reforms proposed under Kasparov, including autonomy for the socialist republics. This has been viewed warily by the west, both by the McCain administration and his successor, former Gov. Barack Obama of Illinois.

## Known Inter-Universe Connections

Two portals are known to exist in the universe. One is an inbound portal in the apartment of Alex Carter. It is connected to Universe ZZ04ZSX via a portal located in the apartment of Kyle Roberts. The other is an intermittent portal located in the dorm of Angie Norris. It is connected to Universe ZZ09ZSA via the apartment of Jack Dunckel. One additional portal connected to Universe ZZ02ZSC, but it is no longer extant.

## Branched Universe

One branched universe, Universe ZZ02ZSC, is known to exist.

## Reference List of Presidents

* 1977-1981 James E. Carter, Dem
* 1981-1981 Ronald Reagan, Rep
* 1981-1989 George H.W. Bush, Rep
* 1989-1997 Joe Biden, Dem
* 1997-2001 Elizabeth Dole, Rep
* 2001-2009 John Kerry, Dem
* 2009-2017 John McCain, Rep
* 2017-present Barack Obama, Dem