Vladimir Kryuchkov

Vladimir Kryuchkov was a prominent Soviet politician during the 1980s. He was considered a militant hardliner. Albert Marsden believed that his name made him sound like a James Bond villain.

In an alternative timeline created by the Elder Gods in the hope of destroying Earth, he became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko in 1985 rather than the considerably more moderate Mikhail Gorbachev.

Significant international tensions began in 1989 following the democratic uprisings in the Eastern Bloc countries. Kryuchkov instructed the protestors to disperse and, when they refused to do so, he sent in the tanks. The Red Army fired on the protesters, even the children, resulting in a massacre. Following the massacre, there were protests on the Berlin Wall in East Berlin, which resulted in the Soviet Union entering West Berlin on the pretext of restoring order. This meant that the American airbases fell into the possession of the Soviet Union. In response, the United States issued an ultimatum to the Soviets. The Western powers' satellites detected a Soviet army amassing on the border of West Germany, which was destroyed by an American tactical nuclear weapon on 6 November 1989.

Consequently, a nuclear war which came to be known as World War III broke out between the United States and its allies including the United Kingdom on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other hand on 9 November 1989. Given that nuclear weapons were used by both sides, hundreds of millions of people were killed in the conflict. This timeline was ultimately negated by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)