Slava Ukraini! (April 12, 2025)

[Bandit LOAF]

The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War is one of the darkest current events in a time that offers no shortage of such things. Escaping into fiction, however, we will find that Wing Commander's lore offers us some good news: the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv still exists in the 27th Century… at least until 2668! Today we're taking a quick look at the surprising numbers of times Wing Commander references the city. Kyiv was founded over 1,500 years ago and today is one of the largest cities in Europe. Since 1991 it has been the capital of an independent Ukraine. Note that the modern spelling of the city name, Kyiv, has only become standard in English in the past five years. When Wing Commander was being developed, the Soviet-era "Kiev" was still the common spelling. Our editorial standard is to use the current spelling for anything newly written and to retain the old one only for quotations.





Kyiv was first mentioned in Wing Commander II by way of a well-worn science fiction trope: human place names that are intended to mirror specific, familiar cultures on Earth. In this case, it's the "Novaya Kiev" star system which was intended to imply that the area had been settled by space-faring Soviets (Wing Commander II shipped three months before the dissolution of the Soviet Union!). The correct name today would be Noviy Kyiv, although our language advisor also notes that it should've been male-gendered "Novvy Kiev" in 1991. The series occurs directly after the final Ghorah Khar missions where you and Hobbes defend Olympus Station. If you win that battle, the Kilrathi retreat and you chase them; if you lose it, they withdraw after destroying the station and the Concordia follows. You fly four missions with Doomsday in Broadswords in either scenario; the winning version has more strikes (including a rare attack on a listening post/supply depot) while the losing one sticks you with escort and patrol missions. Both takes end with a jump to the Talbot System to rendezvous with a courier. Additionally, in the 'reassigned' losing endgame, a damaged TCS Agincourt returns to Gwynedd and informs Blair that the Concordia was lost as the Kilrathi invaded the system. Note that the winning version must be the canon take as Olympus appears intact in Special Operations 1.

The 1991 Wing Commander licensing bible includes a system description which has some fascinating information that never made it into the canon: the system is uninhabited and is intended to become a warhead test site. Note that it doesn't totally square with what we see in the game as at one point it's mentioned that the Concordia's escort, the William Tell, has broken off to defend the system. (The "3 million klicks" is also wrong prima facie; that would be much, much closer to the sun than Earth! This error appears throughout the bible systems for Wing Commander II which were likely sourced from some WC2 development doc.)

NOVAYA KIEV

3 million klicks from Sol. Planet count: 32 (none inhabitable)

Major uses: Former Kilrathi territory that is expected to become a military warhead test station.

The original Kyiv shows up in the novel Wing Commander Fleet Action where we learn that it's one of the primary control centers for Earth's European space defenses in 2668. Unfortunately, that makes it the target of a Kilrathi antimatter strike that devastates cities across North America, Europe and North Africa.

Down in the Earth's atmosphere Doomsday could see pinpoint winks of light as point defense systems fought to knock down the incoming wave of more than a hundred missiles. And then there was a flash of light over the center of the North American continent. It looked like Chicago going up, followed seconds later by a dozen more: Pittsburg, Boston, Miami, Quebec, then across in Northern Europe: Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Constantinople and Paris. Other flashes detonated over the primary control centers for Earth's American and European space defenses at Omaha, Rio, Tripoli, and Kiev.

But there's one more reference! In the conclusion of the Wing Commander IV novel, Maniac learns that he is to be assigned as wing commander to a light carrier named the TCS Kyiv:

Maniac scanned the sheets. "Command school . . . The Kiev . . ." He looked up. "I'm getting a carrier?"

"A light carrier, actually," Taggart replied. "You'll have the task of policing the border."
Blair grinned knowingly at Maniac's beatific smile. Marshall had finally gotten his coveted independent command.

--
Original update published on April 12, 2025

 

[kingmakeress]

Very interesting! I was also wondering when I first saw this jump screen why "Novaya" was chosen

 

[bulch]

"Slava Ukraini" - nazi slogan, local variation of "Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!".
Are You sure You want to associate yourself & WC Universe with this slogan?

 

[bulch]

FYI, Kiev was a capital of Russia in 882-1243 (previous capital was Novgorod, Vladimir become capital after Kiev, than Moscow).

 

[Bandit LOAF]

(paints another troll silhouette on his fighter)

 

[MadMac_5]

Based on the way it's currently been adopted as a rallying cry for promoting Ukrainian independence against a violent Russian aggressor, I'm going to view bulch's claims with a fair bit of skepticism. Also, holy crap, Kiev was a Russian capital nearly... eight hundred years ago? Wow, that's not terribly relevant to today's situation at all, aside from a pretty flimsy excuse for an invasion. If Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia they would probably have done so in 1991, but... they didn't, bro.

 

[kingmakeress]

If Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia they would probably have done so in 1991, but... they didn't, bro.

In fact it was the first of the Soviet republics to break off.

Also, Ukrainian people could have sided with Russia in the Yushchenko vs Yanukovych era, but they didn't.

 

[Star Rider]

FYI, Kiev was a capital of Russia in 882-1243 (previous capital was Novgorod, Vladimir become capital after Kiev, than Moscow).

There was no Russia at that time. It would have been the Kyivan Rus, which both states claim as their ancestor. Muscovy wasn't founded until 1263, 20 years after the Mongol Invasion. Muscovy would not become the Tsardom of Russia until 1547.

History of Everything has a five-part series on the History of Ukraine that's worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryofEverythingChannel

 

[AllTinker]

Based on the way it's currently been adopted as a rallying cry for promoting Ukrainian independence

It seems like that's the way it's always been used, and dates back to at least the mid-1800s. Every country occupied by the Nazis (and pretty much all besides) had collaborators/sympathisers - co-opting nationalist imagery/slogans was one of their go-to things... Neo-nazis across the world (including Russian ones) still use that approach.

 

[Bob McDob]

Note that the modern spelling of the city name, Kyiv, has only become standard in English in the past five years.

After 20+ years - Wikipedia tried to push the spelling in 2001, along with "Moskva" (also a Wing Commander carrier!), gave up and then retried again a few years ago.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Yeah, this is some dork hopped up on propaganda that thinks reality is whatever their elderly dictator spouts. Which I guess means they could be an American or a Russian at this point. But I didn't check as to which; they don't matter enough to bother. There's no point arguing with these people (I use the term loosely) once they get to 'no you see technically, up IS down!' You just have to ban them so that cancer won't spread.

But you know, we could (and I'm sure someday will) do a similar article about Russia in the 27th century. Wing Commander is a pretty fascinating IP just by virtue of when it was made: the major world building started when the Soviet Union was a superpower and ended in a very different world. An undeniable part of Wing Commander's DNA is imagining exactly the same world Putin wants, one where the glorious Soviet Union lived on and has spread its influence and culture into the distant future.

And there's a lot there! We've got ships named after great Russian cities: the Leningrad in Freedom Flight, the Moskva (which dies heroically defending Earth!) in Fleet Action. We've got whole swaths of star systems named (with great respect of the designers responsible!) after Soviet space heroes! And remember that moment in Secret Ops when the Tereshkova, Leonov and Kuznetsova arrive to save the day and absolutely wipe the floor with the bugs? That's brilliant! We have BEAR who is one of the most interesting characters in the series (though I'd argue the original concept of a Soviet teenager who lies to get to the fight is even better than Dr. Forstchen's perfect hero…).

And on and on! You can have all of that… but you don't get Ukraine, too. And that's a hard lesson Russia is learning on the battlefield and now on the Wing Commander message board.

 

[kingmakeress]

It seems like that's the way it's always been used, and dates back to at least the mid-1800s. Every country occupied by the Nazis (and pretty much all besides) had collaborators/sympathisers - co-opting nationalist imagery/slogans was one of their go-to things... Neo-nazis across the world (including Russian ones) still use that approach.

Not to mention the Nazis managed to raise SS divisions in some of the occupied countries.

 

[Bob McDob]

Regarding the Leningrad, I always imagined the name came from the battle, rather than the place name, which would track with the other names we see (Agincourt, Bastille, Gettysburg). The name change happened in mid-1991 which would have given Freedom Flight more than enough time to make the change, if the authors so chose. (Then again, I connected Tereshkova to the captain in False Colors even though looking at it now the publication timeline doesn't match. Wasn't there a piece of Secret Ops fiction that made the connection?)

We have BEAR who is one of the most interesting characters in the series (though I'd argue the original concept of a Soviet teenager who lies to get to the fight is even better than Dr. Forstchen's perfect hero…).

This is something worth reposting here if only because I can never remember what he was called:

1st. Lt. Yevgeny Zaborovsky is a burly, boisterous and barbaric Georgian peasant. He is VERY young---only sixteen---and lied about his age in order to join the service. When he retires, he wants to purchase a share in a wheat commune back on Terra.

Also I think there's a bit at the start of False Colors where Bear mentions that he bought or was considering buying a house in Ukraine, though he's not even from Earth so it doesn't have much to do with his character.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Regarding the Leningrad, I always imagined the name came from the battle, rather than the place name, which would track with the other names we see (Agincourt, Bastille, Gettysburg). The name change happened in mid-1991 which would have given Freedom Flight more than enough time to make the change, if the authors so chose. (Then again, I connected Tereshkova to the captain in False Colors even though looking at it now the publication timeline doesn't match. Wasn't there a piece of Secret Ops fiction that made the connection?)

For sure, the publishing bible calls this out explicitly: Waterloo-class ships are "named for land battles. Includes Gettysburg, Stalingrad." (Bastille was the Clydesdale, though, the Waterloo was Alcatraz. In both of those cases they're being named to tell you they're prison ships.)

I don't think there's any connection between the Tereshkovae other than that both writers were probably intending to honor the cosmonaut.

This is something worth reposting here if only because I can never remember what he was called:

You can see how his joining at sixteen was carried through to the publishing bible and then the novels. In the original Wing Commander II outline he was a bomber crewman instead of a pilot which would've worked better for that story. So the updated version of that entry that Forstchen would've been working from was below... and you can see how these rough details get referenced again and again in the novels.

Bear is a fiery young pilot completely devoted to the ideals of the Confederation. So devoted, in
fact, that he faked his credentials and joined the military even though he was underage! Even when Bear
finds himself taking part in a mutiny against a ruthless, lawbreaking commander, he never strays from
the laws which make the Confederation what it is. Passionate, yet cool under fire, Bear is a good man to
have on your wing anytime!

Also I think there's a bit at the start of False Colors where Bear mentions that he bought or was considering buying a house in Ukraine, though he's not even from Earth so it doesn't have much to do with his character.

That's right, he was living in Odessa with Sparks before the book starts. Bear's home is another perfect case of Forstchen relying on the series bible but forgetting his own details. In End Run he's from Alpha Centauri, in Fleet Action he's from a distant colony "500 light years away" and in False Colors he's from Razin. Any two of them can be true but all three can't!

(The initial Wing Commander II outline also specifies that he's from "Russian Georgia" which I assume the guy we spaced would've liked.)

 

[MadMac_5]

That's right, he was living in Odessa with Sparks before the book starts. Bear's home is another perfect case of Forstchen relying on the series bible but forgetting his own details. In End Run he's from Alpha Centauri, in Fleet Action he's from a distant colony "500 light years away" and in False Colors he's from Razin. Any two of them can be true but all three can't!

I'm having flashbacks to Halo: The Flood by Willem Dietz, which has a tone DRAMATICALLY different (and contradictory) to the game and the rest of the Halo books. And then he wrote a truly dire Mass Effect book that most everyone just ignores.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Haha it's similar except he's totally consistent with the games as far as that matters.... but he absolutely can't keep track of his own additions. So he's frequently doing things like renaming characters between books!