GI Joe and Nadya Riot sat slouched on the torn couch in the squat, the flickering light of CCCP1 Russian television filling the room. The anchor droned on in stiff, wooden tones, reciting statistics from the glory days of the Soviet Union. Grain harvests, industrial output, heroic cosmonauts.
Joe lit a cigarette and muttered, “They always skip over the weak link.”
Nadya smirked, eyes glued to the screen. “The Uzbeks. Everyone knew it. Central Asia was the soft underbelly. They wanted bazaars, family, gold teeth— not tractor factories and collective farms.”
The camera cut to archival footage of Uzbek kolkhoz workers waving red banners, their smiles wide but their eyes hollow.
Joe tapped the ashtray. “Whole socialist utopia built on the illusion of unity. But the moment Moscow loosened its grip—”
“—it fell apart like a bad circus tent,” Nadya finished, raising her glass. “To the weak link.”
They clinked glasses, and for a moment, the revolutionary fire in their eyes burned brighter than the TV glow.