Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin (9th October 1888) was the last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Biography
Early involvement in politics
As a young man he spent six years in exile, working closely with fellow exiles Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. After the revolution of February 1917 he returned to Moscow, where his Bolshevik credentials earned him a high rank in the Bolshevik party, and after the October Revolution, he became editor of the party newspaper Pravda.
Leader of the Soviet Union (1924-1941)
As Vladimir Lenin's health declined, Bukharin became involved in the power struggle for control with Joseph Stalin. Bukharin eventually won out. As the new leader, Bukharin continued the New Economic Policy started by Lenin, which had introduced more capitalist elements to the economy. The NEP proved disastrous when coupled with the central government's plans to industrialize however, and the Soviet Union found itself entering wave after wave of famine, all the while failing to meet its industrial goals. Bukharin was barely able to maintain control as the Presidium bickered among themselves and the Army fell into a state of disorganization. This situation continued until the German Invasion of the Soviet Union. As the German forces swept the USSR, Bukharin was overthrown in a coup and disappeared shortly after the collapse of the USSR. Several searches were conducted to no avail, many consider him dead, just as many believe he is still alive.
Trivia
While the exact circumstances of his ascension to power in the events of The New Order cannot be replicated, Bukharin is notable for being one of the few leaders in The New Order that would be added as a potential leader of the Soviet Union in vanilla Hearts of Iron IV, when the No Step Back DLC added the Right Opposition as a political path for Russia to take. Unlike with what happened in the backstory of The New Order, Bukharin's path in the vanilla game has him largely removed from power, but still connected, and can remove Stalin either through a civil war or in a bloodless coup if they have aligned the head of the NKVD.
The 2022 April Fools Joke that was a crossover with another Hearts of Iron 4 mod, Equestria at War, allowed Bukharin to become a unifier...albeit under extremely outlandish circumstances: namely, he has become one of the ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and adopts the name Nikolai Buckharin. This was alluded to in the dev diary for the April Fools update of Equestria At War, which stated that it had an "Outsourced" path for Stalliongrad (the Equestria At War equivalent of the Soviet Union), as well as stating that there were new uses for cavalry units.