Source: Student essay, English Composition II (Purdue University)
Tags: alternative history, speculative fiction, Soviet Union, Cold War, geopolitics, creative writing, worldbuilding, English Composition II, Purdue
Difficulty: Introductory | Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with 20th-century world history (Cold War, Soviet Union, NATO). No prior coursework in speculative fiction required.
This piece is a student-written alternative history essay for English Composition II at Purdue University. It reimagines global geopolitics after a single fantastical premise: the entire Soviet Union vanishes from the Earth overnight in 1980. The essay explores cascading consequences across geopolitics, military alliances, ecology and regional power dynamics.
For a composition course, the value here is in studying how speculative fiction uses a "what if" scenario to probe real-world structures. You do not need deep knowledge of international relations, but a rough sense of what the Cold War was and who the major players were will help you follow the argument.
The essay imagines that in 1980 the Soviet Union physically vanishes, leaving an ocean in its place. The Berlin Wall falls immediately, the Cold War ends in a Western victory, mysterious deep-sea creatures appear in the new Arctic waters, Mongolia gains a coastline, China re-engages with Mongolia, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein becomes the West's next adversary, culminating in a Gulf War and Hussein's execution.
Alternative history (counterfactual fiction)
A genre of speculative fiction that changes one or more historical events and traces the consequences. Think of it as "what if" storytelling applied to real-world history.
Worldbuilding
The process of constructing an imaginary setting with consistent internal rules, geography, politics and ecology. In simple terms, it is the author's job of making a fictional world feel believable and lived-in.
Cold War
The geopolitical rivalry (roughly 1947 to 1991 in real history) between the United States-led Western bloc and the Soviet-led Eastern bloc, characterised by proxy wars, nuclear tension and ideological competition rather than direct military conflict. In this essay, it ends abruptly in 1980.
Warsaw Pact
The military alliance of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states, formed in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO. In the essay it dissolves within a month of the Soviet disappearance.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)
The Western military alliance founded in 1949, led by the United States. In the essay's timeline, NATO becomes the sole dominant alliance after the Soviet disappearance.
Speculative premise
The single impossible or unproven idea an author asks the reader to accept so the rest of the story can explore its logical consequences. Here, the premise is: "What if the Soviet landmass vanished overnight?"
Geopolitical vacuum
The destabilisation that follows when a major power disappears from the international stage, leaving neighbouring states, alliances and trade routes without their usual counterweight. Think of it as the political equivalent of pulling a load-bearing wall out of a building.
In 1980, the entire Soviet Union vanishes overnight. The landmass is replaced by ocean, continuous with the Arctic.
The northern islands previously captured from Japan also disappear.
Near the North Pole, the former Soviet territory freezes, forming a "mini South Pole."
Deep-sea anomalies emerge: fishermen report monstrous creatures in the waters where Soviet territory once stood.
Large fishing vessels go missing, later found sunk with severe damage consistent with attack by enormous animals.
No explanation is given for the disappearance or the creatures.
Immediate political consequences:
The Berlin Wall begins collapsing the following week.
The Warsaw Pact dissolves within a month.
The Cold War ends in decisive victory for the West (NATO, the United States).
Seven years after the disappearance, the Western world finally sends expeditions to the new Arctic waters.
Military personnel, scouting vehicles and reconnaissance submarines are deployed.
The essay notes the delay is unusual and speculates the West was preoccupied celebrating its Cold War victory.
Discoveries:
New, previously unknown living organisms are found beneath the Arctic Ocean.
Most are enormous, bearing no resemblance to any known Earth species.
The public labels them "deep-sea monsters."
The creatures are left largely unexplained, serving as a mystery/horror element layered on top of the geopolitical narrative.
Mongolia's transformation:
With the Soviet landmass replaced by ocean, Mongolia is no longer landlocked.
It gains a coastline and begins developing shipbuilding, maritime trade and a modest navy.
Limited military budget and a strained relationship with China hamper progress.
China-Mongolia rapprochement:
China initially adopts a wait-and-see approach after the Soviet disappearance.
In 1983, China invites the Ulan Bator wrestling team to Hohhot for a "friendship wrestling competition."
This is framed as the first meaningful contact between the two nations in roughly 20 years of Cold War separation.
The essay uses Mongolia as a case study of how a small, previously satellite state navigates a world without its former patron.
With the Soviet Union gone, Iraq under Saddam Hussein fills the "antagonist" role in global affairs.
Hussein repeatedly challenges Western nations plus China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
The essay describes roughly ten years of provocation.
The Gulf War (as depicted in the essay):
A US-led NATO coalition invades Iraq.
China, described as an "opposition member" on the UN Security Council, does not block the invasion.
Iraq loses decisively.
Hussein is publicly executed by hanging approximately one year after the war.
The essay's tone here is notably informal and blunt, reflecting the student's voice rather than academic register. This is worth noting as a stylistic choice in a composition course.
The essay remixes recognisable real events into its alternative timeline, which is a standard technique in counterfactual fiction. Studying where the essay borrows from history and where it diverges is useful practice for understanding both the genre and the underlying real-world events.
The Berlin Wall fell in real history in November 1989. The essay accelerates this to 1980, tying it directly to the speculative premise.
The Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1991. Again accelerated here.
The Gulf War occurred in 1990 to 1991 in reality, triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The essay collapses and reimagines the timeline but keeps Saddam Hussein, a US-led coalition and a decisive Western victory.
Mongolia was indeed landlocked and closely aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The essay's conceit of giving Mongolia a coastline is a creative way to explore what happens when a dependent state suddenly gains new resources and loses its protector.
Deep-sea creatures have no real-world analogue. This element blends science fiction and horror into what is otherwise a geopolitical thought experiment.
Students sometimes treat alternative history as pure fantasy. It is not. The genre works by changing one variable and then tracing plausible consequences using real historical logic. The "what if" is imaginary; the chain of effects should be grounded.
It is easy to confuse the essay's alternative timeline with actual history. The Berlin Wall did not fall in 1980, the Gulf War did not happen in the sequence described here, and the Soviet Union did not physically vanish. Keep the two timelines separate when discussing the text.
Some readers assume the deep-sea creatures are metaphorical. The essay presents them as literal, physical organisms. Whether the author intended a deeper symbolic reading is a fair question for class discussion, but the surface-level text treats them as real.
The informal, sometimes vulgar tone does not mean the essay lacks structure. It follows a clear chronological arc with cause-and-effect reasoning, even if the register is casual.
⚠️ Be prepared to identify the speculative premise and explain how the author uses it to drive the narrative. This is the central analytical question for any counterfactual fiction assignment.
⚠️ Know the difference between the essay's alternative timeline and real-world history. An exam question may ask you to compare the two.
⚠️ The essay's use of multiple genres (geopolitical alternative history, science fiction, horror) in a single short piece is worth commenting on. Be ready to discuss how genre-blending affects tone and reader expectations.
⚠️ Pay attention to the essay's chronological structure. Despite its informal voice, it moves methodically from the inciting event (1980) through cascading regional consequences to a closing conflict (the Gulf War). This is a model of cause-and-effect organisation.
True or False: In the essay, the Soviet Union collapses politically but its territory remains intact.
False. The territory physically vanishes and is replaced by ocean.
Fill in the blank: The Warsaw Pact dissolves within ______ of the Soviet disappearance.
A month.
True or False: The deep-sea creatures discovered in the new Arctic waters closely resemble known Earth species.
False. The essay states they are "almost nothing like the type of animals that originally existed on Earth."
Fill in the blank: Mongolia benefits from the Soviet disappearance because it gains a ______.
Coastline (access to the ocean).
True or False: China immediately forges a close alliance with Mongolia after 1980.
False. China waits until 1983 before making diplomatic overtures, starting with a wrestling competition.
Q: What is the speculative premise of this essay, and how does it function as the engine of the narrative?
A: The premise is that the Soviet Union physically vanishes from the Earth in 1980, its territory replaced by ocean. This single impossible event drives every subsequent development in the essay: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Mongolia's transformation, the appearance of deep-sea creatures, and the rise of Iraq as a new antagonist. The author uses the premise to explore how interconnected geopolitical systems respond to the sudden removal of a major node.
Q: How does the essay blend genres, and what effect does this have on the reader?
A: The essay combines alternative history (geopolitical consequences of the Soviet disappearance), science fiction (unknown deep-sea organisms) and horror (mysterious attacks on fishing vessels). This blending creates tonal shifts that keep the reader off-balance, moving from plausible political analysis to the uncanny. It also raises questions about whether the creatures are meant as a literal plot element or a metaphor for the unknown consequences of sudden geopolitical change.
Q: Identify one real historical event the essay borrows and explain how it is altered in the alternative timeline.
A: The fall of the Berlin Wall. In reality, the Wall fell in November 1989 following sustained political pressure and reform movements in Eastern Europe. In the essay, it collapses within a week of the Soviet disappearance in 1980, treated as an immediate domino effect rather than a gradual political process. The alteration compresses years of complex history into a single cause-and-effect chain.
Q: What role does Mongolia play in the essay's argument about power vacuums?
A: Mongolia illustrates how a small, previously dependent state responds when its patron superpower disappears. The essay gives Mongolia a coastline and new economic possibilities (shipbuilding, maritime trade, naval capacity) but also shows that these opportunities are constrained by limited resources and a difficult relationship with China. Mongolia functions as a microcosm of the broader theme: removing a superpower creates opportunities but also instability and new dependencies.
Q: How would you characterise the essay's tone and register? Is it effective for a composition course assignment?
A: The tone is informal, sometimes blunt and occasionally vulgar (the closing line quotes a colloquial phrase). This is a deliberate stylistic choice that gives the essay a conversational, opinionated voice. Whether it is effective depends on the assignment criteria. It demonstrates a strong authorial presence and keeps the reader engaged, but it risks undermining credibility in passages where a more measured register might strengthen the argument. This tension between voice and authority is itself a worthwhile discussion point for a composition course.
This material connects to rhetorical analysis because the essay demonstrates how a writer builds an argument through chronological structure and cause-and-effect reasoning, even within a fictional framework. If your course covers persuasive or analytical essay structures, the same principles apply here.
It also links to genre studies and creative writing. Understanding how alternative history works as a genre, and how it borrows from and distorts real events, is directly relevant to any unit on speculative or genre fiction.
Finally, the essay's informal register and tonal shifts connect to discussions of voice, audience and register in composition courses. Analysing where the casual tone strengthens or weakens the argument is a transferable skill for peer review and self-editing.
alternative history, counterfactual fiction, speculative fiction, worldbuilding, Soviet Union disappearance, Cold War, Berlin Wall, Warsaw Pact, NATO, geopolitical vacuum, power vacuum, deep-sea creatures, Arctic Ocean, Mongolia coastline, China-Mongolia relations, Saddam Hussein, Gulf War, Iraq War, English Composition II, Purdue University, ENG 102, creative writing, genre blending, rhetorical analysis, cause and effect essay, chronological structure, informal register, authorial voice, peer review