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?
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.