I'm imagining up a world where, through incredible science, the soviets successfully develop genetic engineering, the west develop psychic powers, and such things. Lots of inspiration from the metal gear solid series. I want to include some cool interesting real life people, like Ted Kaczynski, and make them even more interesting, like him becoming president or something. Then I also need cool locations, like an east german state run gay disco club. Any suggestions?
Ok so here's a question: can the tech extend life? Or bring back the dead? So that you can have Lenin or Tsiolkovsky or Rasputin in the 1980s?
If they can bring people back from the dead they would bring people back to the dead according to the priorities of the soviet union.
So Rasputin is unlikely and Lenin while obvious would probably get pushback (which would likely make a good plot element) as Lenin being brought back to life would mean the people in charge of the soviet union would have their authority massively undermined. And that's not even considering the fact that the cold war was a delicate balance with each side afraid to provoke the other too far.
Also due to all the espionage once one side finds something that big both sides would have it eventually so now there's the question of who the Americans would bring back
Lenin's body is preserved, making it much easier to some kinds of resurrection tech
yeah but bringing Lenin back would have basically meant that the people in charge would no longer be in charge so a plotline about leadership working to prevent the ressurection of Lenin would make a lot of sense as well as have potential for a lot of conflict for example with both genuine socialists and opportunists not knowing who or what to be loyal to
as well as genuine concerns about a ressurected Lenin in a world of nuclear stalemate as even a commited socialist might worry about introducing an element that has potential to upset that delicate balance and someone concerned about holding on to power might lie to other people or even themselves about their true motive there
a story about ressurecting people long dead raises questions about whether the dead belong in the past
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I was going to suggest bringing back people from the dead as well, look into Russian cosmism. It’s origins are well before the 80s but I think it could add an interesting dimension to the setting, and it has a historical and cultural basis
https://theconversation.com/amp/russian-cosmism-a-national-mythology-against-transhumanism-152780
https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/akwx3k/the-proto-communist-plan-to-resurrect-everyone-who-ever-lived
The SRB podcast is also a good resource for Russian and Soviet history in general from a leftist perspective. A bit academic in style, but this episode covers some of it: https://srbpodcast.org/2020/03/27/immortalism-and-transhumanism-in-russia/
It looks like for the 80s there was a real military unit in the USSR that was inspired partly by cosmist ideas and paranormal/psychic stuff as well. Savin Alexei Yurievich and the 10003 unit, see https://valenteshop.ru/en/voennaya-ekstrasensorika-fabrika-voennyh-ekstrasensov-v-sssr/
This is amazing. I never knew about this.