HOME | DD

Description

Last year I started working on a Bioshock game concept set in a secret Soviet Arctic military base-turned-city. I made some art on the subject and a little bit of writing. I stopped when a little game called "Atomic Heart" was about to be released, which had a strikingly similiar concept. Here's the most finished art piece.

And also the premise of the game if you are interested:

Following the rising Cold War tensions in the late 1960s, the Soviet Government initiated the construction of a Grand Military Complex named Nazamki in Northeastern Siberia with the aim of giving the Soviet Navy and Air Force a strategic upper hand against the Americans in the Arctic and to prevent any possible incursions through the Alaskan Air Space.

However, as the Soviet High Command began to adopt a pessimistic view of a potential nuclear conflict in the early 1980s, the development of nuclear war capabilities accelerated, and the Nazamki Complex started to be enlarged beyond its original function, while also serving as a testing area for underground nuclear detonations. Nazamki became the de facto capital of the Soviet Far Eastern Command and housed hundreds of nuclear-capable bombers, submarines, and ICBMs. It also had its own self-sufficient industrial zones and a massive underground complex that was designed to be resistant to nuclear attacks and was to be a shelter for the Soviet Government in case of an all-out war. Within a few years, Nazamki grew to be one of the largest military installations in the USSR, if not the entire world.

By the late 1980s, as the Cold War started to recede, the Soviet government began to repurpose the Nazamki Complex, converting it into an experimental military technology research facility. Its original function as a frontier in the event of a nuclear conflict faded, despite maintaining a sizable military presence that was mostly unchanged.

The activity in Nazamki eventually diminished over the ensuing years, and nuclear detonations left their place to ostensibly calm scientific experiments that were not necessarily militaristic. Which mainly consisted of inoffensive initiatives like creating synthetic food, experimenting with alternative power sources, and working on various automation projects. As the military base turned into a hotbed for any research the Officials wanted to keep secret, the location remained favorable for state-funded research since its remote location rendered it immune to foreign espionage.

But as the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union itself start to crumble, Nazamki was neglected, and most of the military personnel there were redeployed to other parts of the Soviet Union to suppress the increasing dissidence within the country, leaving the Nazamki with minimal presence of personnel, mostly consisting of maintenance crews and researchers.

The status quo would change drastically on 19 August 1991, as hardliners within the Communist Party would launch a coup d’état attempt against President Gorbachev with the intent of preventing the Soviet Union from collapsing and abandoning its Communist agenda. It was an utter failure. The attempt lasted for a mere 3 days, as the Junta collapsed on 22 August with most of its members surrendering to Security Forces. This not only failed in preventing the collapse of the union but accelerated it, with most of the Republics declaring their independence following the coup attempt.

However, a small defiant group of putschists led by the leader of the putsch Vladimir Kryuchkov, the Chairman of KGB, and Boris Pugo, the Minister of Interior, departed from Moscow in the early hours of August 22 with their party confidants and loyal security personnel through planes still controlled by the Putschists.

In the early morning of August 24, news from Far Eastern Siberia reached the Anti-Putsch Intelligence Officials in Moscow, informing them that the undermanned Nazamki Military Complex had been taken over by the Putschists following a brief struggle, and now all the base’s items and weaponry, including the Nuclear ones, were now under the possession of putschists.

At the same time, Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov started sending messages to numerous officials within what was left of the Soviet Army, informing them that a new Transitional Government has been set up in Nazamki against the collapsing Gorbachev regime and Russian President Yeltsin, calling them to reorganize and take back Moscow by force. His call was dismissed by most of the Soviet Generals, who saw any attempt at restoring the Union to be a lost cause. And besides several thousand soldiers and officials stationed in the Far East who got the word and defected to the putschists, Nazamki’s attempt at starting an uprising garnered little to no support and was perceived by Russia and the rest of the World as a feeble revolution attempt against the new Government.

Despite the odds, Nazamki marched on the Siberian City of Irkutsk in the following month of September, hoping to launch a revolution there against the newly established Russian Government. After capturing Yakutsk on September 3, they reached Irkutsk in three days with no real encounter with the actual Soviet Army. After capturing the city, Nazamki Forces declared martial law, which met with resentment among the population, rioting erupted in the streets between the supporters of the coup and those who were against it. Nazamki struggled to hold on to the city even before the Soviet Army arrived at the scene.

The disorganized Soviet Army was finally able to organize a fighting force to counter Nazamki’s Army and sent it in the Irkutsk direction and arrived in the city on 8 September. The fighting was short but bloody, with casualties mounting in the hundreds, including the civilians who got caught in the firefight. After barely holding on to the city for two days, and now being outmanned and outmatched, Nazamki Forces withdrew from the city later that day. It became evident that this ‘revolution’ was nowhere near becoming realized.

Nazamki’s forces were quickly driven back to the Military Complex in a matter of days. And after a brief clash around the base on 14 September, the Soviet High Command announced to the whole world that the operation was over and Nazamki was retaken, with its leadership declared to be killed during the fighting and the research projects located in the base were destroyed with it.

However, this was nowhere near the truth.

In reality, the base was never fully retaken by the Soviet Army, and the forces around it were withdrawn after the Communist Party officials in Nazamki sent a message to the Soviet High Command and the United States Government.

According to the message, the codes of Nuclear Weapons in Nazamki were already decrypted by the scientists stationed in the base and they were ready to fire the warheads at any moment. Their conditions were:

-Soviet Forces around Nazamki will withdraw unconditionally.

-Nazamki will stay sovereign outside of Russia.

-There will be no military presence within a 30 km (18 ml) radius of Nazamki

-The Sovereignty of the Soviet Government in Nazamki will be kept secret from the general public.

-The Governments of Moscow and Washington will help with the secrecy of Nazamki’s Sovereignty when needed.

It wasn’t clear what Kryuchkov and his comrades in Nazamki were trying to achieve here, since what ambition could be fulfilled from isolating themselves in a military complex in the north of Siberia? Moscow and Washington did not bother to find out and they certainly did not want to risk everything over it.

As the country began concentrating more on escalating domestic issues, the loss of Nazamki was not a significant loss for Russia given the amount of research housed in the site was deemed noncritical. The same was true for the American government, which continued to monitor the base alongside Russia although it was believed that it would be best for everyone if Nazamki remained an isolated rump state of the Soviet Union since it lacked the means of affecting other countries through conventional means.

For the next couple of decades, Nazamki was left to itself, with virtually zero interaction with the outside world.

-

It's December 2024.

Amidst the heightening Global Tensions, a mysterious murder incident occurred in Anchorage, Alaska.

A man of unknown origin was found dead near the city shortly after trying to contact US Intelligence authorities.

According to the half-burnt documents recovered by Federal Agents near the crime scene, the victim was a defector from Nazamki, with the papers alleging that the complex saw unforeseeable levels of development while in isolation, virtually becoming an entire country on its own, while reaching levels of technology not even the most advanced countries in the world had started experimenting with yet. It was unclear how, or even if, Nazamki managed to reach this stage of development on its own. Due to the fact that the papers were damaged, and the remaining text did not help with solving the issue, it was unclear what the defector was trying to warn the US about.

The Satellite footage did not reveal any unusual activities in Nazamki, the base did not see any major movements since 1991, and it seemed as if the content of the papers was completely made up.

When American intelligence attempted to get in touch with their Russian counterparts about the matter, they too were perplexed by the strange nature of the materials. Meanwhile, reports of numerous similar homicides in Russia and Alaska began to circulate at the same time, raising further suspicions about possible sudden developments in Nazamki.

Whatever was hidden in Nazamki was important and dangerous and might possibly pose a threat to the existence of entire nations. And both Americans and Russians came to the conclusion that they had to keep this technology out of the hands of anyone but themselves.

Soon, these two sides would find themselves in a race against time and each other.

In the days that followed, anonymous American intelligence officers engaged a Russian double agent with the pseudonym "Afanas" and tasked him with infiltrating Nazamki without letting the Russian side realize. They believe the Russians will be looking for the intelligence as well, and they want Afanas to stop them from getting it first regardless of the cost.

The race is on, and Afanas will soon find himself in a bizarre Arctic metropolis that wants to capture him either dead or alive. As this race for the intelligence becomes a battle for survival in a city where the foreign spies he was supposed to confront are the least of his concerns, while he also finds himself in the center of a conspiracy by the Nazamki Soviet to launch a war against the entire world.

Description

Last year I started working on a Bioshock game concept set in a secret Soviet Arctic military base-turned-city. I made some art on the subject and a little bit of writing. I stopped when a little game called "Atomic Heart" was about to be released, which had a strikingly similiar concept. Here's the most finished art piece.

And also the premise of the game if you are interested:

Following the rising Cold War tensions in the late 1960s, the Soviet Government initiated the construction of a Grand Military Complex named Nazamki in Northeastern Siberia with the aim of giving the Soviet Navy and Air Force a strategic upper hand against the Americans in the Arctic and to prevent any possible incursions through the Alaskan Air Space.

However, as the Soviet High Command began to adopt a pessimistic view of a potential nuclear conflict in the early 1980s, the development of nuclear war capabilities accelerated, and the Nazamki Complex started to be enlarged beyond its original function, while also serving as a testing area for underground nuclear detonations. Nazamki became the de facto capital of the Soviet Far Eastern Command and housed hundreds of nuclear-capable bombers, submarines, and ICBMs. It also had its own self-sufficient industrial zones and a massive underground complex that was designed to be resistant to nuclear attacks and was to be a shelter for the Soviet Government in case of an all-out war. Within a few years, Nazamki grew to be one of the largest military installations in the USSR, if not the entire world.

By the late 1980s, as the Cold War started to recede, the Soviet government began to repurpose the Nazamki Complex, converting it into an experimental military technology research facility. Its original function as a frontier in the event of a nuclear conflict faded, despite maintaining a sizable military presence that was mostly unchanged.

The activity in Nazamki eventually diminished over the ensuing years, and nuclear detonations left their place to ostensibly calm scientific experiments that were not necessarily militaristic. Which mainly consisted of inoffensive initiatives like creating synthetic food, experimenting with alternative power sources, and working on various automation projects. As the military base turned into a hotbed for any research the Officials wanted to keep secret, the location remained favorable for state-funded research since its remote location rendered it immune to foreign espionage.

But as the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union itself start to crumble, Nazamki was neglected, and most of the military personnel there were redeployed to other parts of the Soviet Union to suppress the increasing dissidence within the country, leaving the Nazamki with minimal presence of personnel, mostly consisting of maintenance crews and researchers.

The status quo would change drastically on 19 August 1991, as hardliners within the Communist Party would launch a coup d’état attempt against President Gorbachev with the intent of preventing the Soviet Union from collapsing and abandoning its Communist agenda. It was an utter failure. The attempt lasted for a mere 3 days, as the Junta collapsed on 22 August with most of its members surrendering to Security Forces. This not only failed in preventing the collapse of the union but accelerated it, with most of the Republics declaring their independence following the coup attempt.

However, a small defiant group of putschists led by the leader of the putsch Vladimir Kryuchkov, the Chairman of KGB, and Boris Pugo, the Minister of Interior, departed from Moscow in the early hours of August 22 with their party confidants and loyal security personnel through planes still controlled by the Putschists.

In the early morning of August 24, news from Far Eastern Siberia reached the Anti-Putsch Intelligence Officials in Moscow, informing them that the undermanned Nazamki Military Complex had been taken over by the Putschists following a brief struggle, and now all the base’s items and weaponry, including the Nuclear ones, were now under the possession of putschists.

At the same time, Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov started sending messages to numerous officials within what was left of the Soviet Army, informing them that a new Transitional Government has been set up in Nazamki against the collapsing Gorbachev regime and Russian President Yeltsin, calling them to reorganize and take back Moscow by force. His call was dismissed by most of the Soviet Generals, who saw any attempt at restoring the Union to be a lost cause. And besides several thousand soldiers and officials stationed in the Far East who got the word and defected to the putschists, Nazamki’s attempt at starting an uprising garnered little to no support and was perceived by Russia and the rest of the World as a feeble revolution attempt against the new Government.

Despite the odds, Nazamki marched on the Siberian City of Irkutsk in the following month of September, hoping to launch a revolution there against the newly established Russian Government. After capturing Yakutsk on September 3, they reached Irkutsk in three days with no real encounter with the actual Soviet Army. After capturing the city, Nazamki Forces declared martial law, which met with resentment among the population, rioting erupted in the streets between the supporters of the coup and those who were against it. Nazamki struggled to hold on to the city even before the Soviet Army arrived at the scene.

The disorganized Soviet Army was finally able to organize a fighting force to counter Nazamki’s Army and sent it in the Irkutsk direction and arrived in the city on 8 September. The fighting was short but bloody, with casualties mounting in the hundreds, including the civilians who got caught in the firefight. After barely holding on to the city for two days, and now being outmanned and outmatched, Nazamki Forces withdrew from the city later that day. It became evident that this ‘revolution’ was nowhere near becoming realized.

Nazamki’s forces were quickly driven back to the Military Complex in a matter of days. And after a brief clash around the base on 14 September, the Soviet High Command announced to the whole world that the operation was over and Nazamki was retaken, with its leadership declared to be killed during the fighting and the research projects located in the base were destroyed with it.

However, this was nowhere near the truth.

In reality, the base was never fully retaken by the Soviet Army, and the forces around it were withdrawn after the Communist Party officials in Nazamki sent a message to the Soviet High Command and the United States Government.

According to the message, the codes of Nuclear Weapons in Nazamki were already decrypted by the scientists stationed in the base and they were ready to fire the warheads at any moment. Their conditions were:

-Soviet Forces around Nazamki will withdraw unconditionally.

-Nazamki will stay sovereign outside of Russia.

-There will be no military presence within a 30 km (18 ml) radius of Nazamki

-The Sovereignty of the Soviet Government in Nazamki will be kept secret from the general public.

-The Governments of Moscow and Washington will help with the secrecy of Nazamki’s Sovereignty when needed.

It wasn’t clear what Kryuchkov and his comrades in Nazamki were trying to achieve here, since what ambition could be fulfilled from isolating themselves in a military complex in the north of Siberia? Moscow and Washington did not bother to find out and they certainly did not want to risk everything over it.

As the country began concentrating more on escalating domestic issues, the loss of Nazamki was not a significant loss for Russia given the amount of research housed in the site was deemed noncritical. The same was true for the American government, which continued to monitor the base alongside Russia although it was believed that it would be best for everyone if Nazamki remained an isolated rump state of the Soviet Union since it lacked the means of affecting other countries through conventional means.

For the next couple of decades, Nazamki was left to itself, with virtually zero interaction with the outside world.

-

It's December 2024.

Amidst the heightening Global Tensions, a mysterious murder incident occurred in Anchorage, Alaska.

A man of unknown origin was found dead near the city shortly after trying to contact US Intelligence authorities.

According to the half-burnt documents recovered by Federal Agents near the crime scene, the victim was a defector from Nazamki, with the papers alleging that the complex saw unforeseeable levels of development while in isolation, virtually becoming an entire country on its own, while reaching levels of technology not even the most advanced countries in the world had started experimenting with yet. It was unclear how, or even if, Nazamki managed to reach this stage of development on its own. Due to the fact that the papers were damaged, and the remaining text did not help with solving the issue, it was unclear what the defector was trying to warn the US about.

The Satellite footage did not reveal any unusual activities in Nazamki, the base did not see any major movements since 1991, and it seemed as if the content of the papers was completely made up.

When American intelligence attempted to get in touch with their Russian counterparts about the matter, they too were perplexed by the strange nature of the materials. Meanwhile, reports of numerous similar homicides in Russia and Alaska began to circulate at the same time, raising further suspicions about possible sudden developments in Nazamki.

Whatever was hidden in Nazamki was important and dangerous and might possibly pose a threat to the existence of entire nations. And both Americans and Russians came to the conclusion that they had to keep this technology out of the hands of anyone but themselves.

Soon, these two sides would find themselves in a race against time and each other.

In the days that followed, anonymous American intelligence officers engaged a Russian double agent with the pseudonym "Afanas" and tasked him with infiltrating Nazamki without letting the Russian side realize. They believe the Russians will be looking for the intelligence as well, and they want Afanas to stop them from getting it first regardless of the cost.

The race is on, and Afanas will soon find himself in a bizarre Arctic metropolis that wants to capture him either dead or alive. As this race for the intelligence becomes a battle for survival in a city where the foreign spies he was supposed to confront are the least of his concerns, while he also finds himself in the center of a conspiracy by the Nazamki Soviet to launch a war against the entire world.