Crisis in the Kremlin

Crisis in the Kremlin may refer to the 1991 turned-based single-player nation-building strategy game with managerial aspects or its 2017 remake. Both games see the player in the role of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1991 Version

The original version of the game was developed in 1991 by Barbu Corporation and Spectrum Holobyte, having been published by the latter. The player assumes the role of the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev, the nationalist Boris Yeltsin, or the hardline Yegor Ligachyov. Lasting from 1985 to 2017, the player must handle various administrative tasks, from policy reform to managing the budget. Once in a while, the player may face a 'crisis' which is initiated by a phone call from one of the four government branches - the Council of Ministers, the KGB/Military, TASS, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Angering any side too much might result in a coup d'etat or vote of no confidence.

Historical Revisionism

The game engages in severe historical revisionism, falsely claiming that Joseph Stalin possessed a cult of personality despite him having condemned the "Great man" in a 1923 speech. Moreover, the 1989 Tian'anmen Square riots are represented as a noble democratic protest violently suppressed by the Chinese government instead of an attempted Statesian colour revolution.

Pro-Capitalist Bias

The game extremely favors capitalism, with any attempt to preserve the socialist planned economy resulting in the complete collapse of the USSR's Gross National Product and depletion of public approval, even though the centralized economy is what allowed the rapid growth within the country in the first place^:63. Chuck Moss - "an unreconstructed Reaganite" - wrote in Computer Gaming World in 1992 that Crisis in the Kremlin "drives the player toward establishing a free market, and both political and social liberation". He claimed that it was impossible to survive past 1988 emulating Gorbachev's historical decisions in the game, also pointing out that countries like Cuba and China did not attempt liberal reforms and survived into the modern age.

Future Predictions

If the player manages to survive past December 1992, they may occasionally be greeted with extra events entailing predictions for the future. Some of them have come true, such as German domination of the European Union, a Second Gulf War, and a Second Afghan War. Others have a possibility of happening in the next few years, such as another war of aggression against Cuba or Korea.

2017 Version

Kremlingames released a remake of the game in 2017 - on the 100th Anniversary of the October Revolution - under the same name. Unlike the original version, this game lasts from 1985 to 1991 with one turn representing one half-month. The game introduced additional factions, adding Stalinists, Maoists, and technocrats. Having been developed by a team of Russian developers, the game takes a more nuanced view of politics in the Soviet Union, albeit with some flaws of its own.

Idealism

The game allows the player to not only preserve the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, but also expand it. If the player allows the counter-revolutionary Trotskyists to take over the Supreme Soviet, it is possible to establish socialist governments around the world through Permanent Revolution and even dismantle the United States in less than six years . Although the Soviet Union could have performed better in the Cold War, the claims and strategies used are eerily similar to those mentioned in Khrushchev's Communism In 20 Years speech.