1/1 Cold War Vignette
anonymous
June 5 2013, 01:39:30 UTC
(Anon here with a strange fill for a vague prompt--hope it satisfies in some way or another.)
America hadn’t believed it, not really. Because they were friends, right? Maybe things were tense now, but they’d get over it…right? He hadn’t seen Russia since the disaster with his support of the White Army, but even though he was communist now, he didn’t think her boss’ worry was really necessary. He was overreacting! After all, he had only joined with the White Army to protect Russia from the pitfalls of communism…he knew that, surely!
But he had changed, he had changed beyond anything Alfred could have imagined. When he greeted him, his voice was cold and detached, a tone he had never used with America. Everything was formal, everything was business. He shrugged off Alfred’s jokes and Alfred pushed harder, desperate to touch that part of this new communist regime that was still Ivan, but the harder he pushed the more Russia put up his walls and rejected him.
It took only one meeting for America to realize that Russia wasn’t Russia anymore, he was the USSR.
He returned to her boss with a sort of shocked, confused look. He gave him that patronizing look of sympathy that made Alfred’s stomach squirm unpleasantly.
“I warned you, America,” he said seriously. “He is not your friend anymore. He cannot be. He is communist and you are capitalist. That is the end of it.”
“But…” America protested hesitantly. “But before…he can’t have forgotten all that! This is crazy! It’s not Ivan doing this stuff, it’s his bosses!”
“It doesn’t matter, America,” her boss told him firmly. “They are inextricably tied; you must see that. Russia is our enemy now.” America refused to believe it then, but it took him a very short amount of time to be convinced. The invasions of the other Eastern European countries, the antagonistic policies and the arms race building up told her all he needed to know. Whatever connection he had with Russia was severed through. There was no more Alfred and Ivan, there was only the United States and The Soviet Union. And they hated each other more than anything else.
***
America’s betrayal had shocked Russia to the core. He had always been Ivan’s friend, his dearest friend. He had given Russia Most Favored Nation status, even! They had almost formed an alliance! Yet when he needed America most, when he turned to him to support the Red Army in order to oust the tsar, he turned against him, siding with the White Army.
And ever since the Red Army had won, his bosses and politicians had been whispering in his ears about America, working to turn him away from the troublesome nation they knew he was too close to. The distrust between the two simmered during WWII, temporarily put on hold by the formation of the Allies, but exploded when America refused to give Russia the promised recipe for nuclear weapons after the end of the war. It fed into everything Russia had been told about America since the revolution and he realized with a sinking feeling that the bright, sunny boy who had once been his favored friend was gone; he was the United States of America now, and bent only on combating communism because he disagreed with it, giving no thought to how it might help Russia. Words could not express how it felt to be stabbed in the back by America of all people, on top of everything else. To lose the support of the one constant he had thought he possessed. And he hated Alfred for being so shallow, for taking that away.
If he was going to hate Russia over an ideal, than he would hate America too. He knew how strong Russia was; if America wanted to go toe to toe, let him. He’d run that callow nation into the dust in no time.
America hadn’t believed it, not really. Because they were friends, right? Maybe things were tense now, but they’d get over it…right? He hadn’t seen Russia since the disaster with his support of the White Army, but even though he was communist now, he didn’t think her boss’ worry was really necessary. He was overreacting! After all, he had only joined with the White Army to protect Russia from the pitfalls of communism…he knew that, surely!
But he had changed, he had changed beyond anything Alfred could have imagined. When he greeted him, his voice was cold and detached, a tone he had never used with America. Everything was formal, everything was business. He shrugged off Alfred’s jokes and Alfred pushed harder, desperate to touch that part of this new communist regime that was still Ivan, but the harder he pushed the more Russia put up his walls and rejected him.
It took only one meeting for America to realize that Russia wasn’t Russia anymore, he was the USSR.
He returned to her boss with a sort of shocked, confused look. He gave him that patronizing look of sympathy that made Alfred’s stomach squirm unpleasantly.
“I warned you, America,” he said seriously. “He is not your friend anymore. He cannot be. He is communist and you are capitalist. That is the end of it.”
“But…” America protested hesitantly. “But before…he can’t have forgotten all that! This is crazy! It’s not Ivan doing this stuff, it’s his bosses!”
“It doesn’t matter, America,” her boss told him firmly. “They are inextricably tied; you must see that. Russia is our enemy now.”
America refused to believe it then, but it took him a very short amount of time to be convinced. The invasions of the other Eastern European countries, the antagonistic policies and the arms race building up told her all he needed to know. Whatever connection he had with Russia was severed through. There was no more Alfred and Ivan, there was only the United States and The Soviet Union. And they hated each other more than anything else.
***
America’s betrayal had shocked Russia to the core. He had always been Ivan’s friend, his dearest friend. He had given Russia Most Favored Nation status, even! They had almost formed an alliance! Yet when he needed America most, when he turned to him to support the Red Army in order to oust the tsar, he turned against him, siding with the White Army.
And ever since the Red Army had won, his bosses and politicians had been whispering in his ears about America, working to turn him away from the troublesome nation they knew he was too close to. The distrust between the two simmered during WWII, temporarily put on hold by the formation of the Allies, but exploded when America refused to give Russia the promised recipe for nuclear weapons after the end of the war.
It fed into everything Russia had been told about America since the revolution and he realized with a sinking feeling that the bright, sunny boy who had once been his favored friend was gone; he was the United States of America now, and bent only on combating communism because he disagreed with it, giving no thought to how it might help Russia. Words could not express how it felt to be stabbed in the back by America of all people, on top of everything else. To lose the support of the one constant he had thought he possessed. And he hated Alfred for being so shallow, for taking that away.
If he was going to hate Russia over an ideal, than he would hate America too. He knew how strong Russia was; if America wanted to go toe to toe, let him. He’d run that callow nation into the dust in no time.
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