Behind the Shadow Curtain (W20, Russian setting)
August, 1961
Construction begins on a wall in the city of Berlin; advertised as a means to keep the communist Eastern Bloc free of fascist corruption, the wall's real purpose is widely known to be the prevention of mass defection from East to West.
Summer, 1968
A Czechoslovakian liberalization movement is brutally crushed by Soviet forces. Martial law is declared. Protesters are arrested as anti-Soviet subversives. Many disappear.
Winter, 1979
Russian troops invade Afghanistan, setting off a decade-long conflict that ultimately takes nearly 2 million civilian lives and scatters significant numbers of Afghans into surrounding countries.
April, 1986
The world watches in horror as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffers a catastrophic meltdown. Ukraine and Belarus will arguably never fully recover.
November, 1989
The Berlin Wall is demolished. East and West are united for the first time in decades. Soviet forces are pulled out of Afghanistan. People dare to hope.
August, 1991
The Russian Communist Party is dissolved. Several formerly-Soviet nations declare independence.
Autumn, 1993
The fall of communism has left Russia in third-world tatters. The legislature is dissolved, the president is impeached, constitutions are thrown out as fast as they can be written. War looms with various Balkan neighbors.
Through it all, the Garou of the Motherland have fought, tooth and nail, to keep their land pure. It has been a losing battle. And in a land where the sun hides for months at a time, "darkest before the dawn" isn't a very optimistic promise.
