People celebrating the unveiling of the Zakhaev statue
Ultranationalist Russia was a brief period of Russian history from 2015 to 2017 during which the Russian Federation was ruled by the Russian Ultranationalist Party in the aftermath of the Second Russian Civil War and before World War III.
In 2015, the four-year-long Second Russian Civil War was brought to an end by a peace agreement between the United Russia government and the Ultranationalist rebels under Boris Vorshevsky. Russian ultranationalism had been on the rise since the Dissolution of the Soviet Union; a November 2016 Levada Center poll showed that 53% of Russians missed the Soviet Union's joint economic system, 43% missed the feeling of belonging to a great power, 31% felt that mutual distrust and cruelty had increased since the USSR's fall, 30% missed the feeling of home in any Soviet republic, and 28% missed the USSR due to their loss of connection with friends and relatives. This ultranationalism was not solely based in Marxist-Leninist communism, however, as many national conservatives, neo-fascists, and even monarchists also missed the USSR' superpower status and sought to return Russia to its Soviet-era glory. Worsening living standards and economic conditions during the 2000s - caused partly due to Russia's adoption of Western neoliberalism - led to a surge in support for statist nationalism, embodied by the RUP. As part of the 2015 peace deal, the RUP would be allowed to contest that year's presidential election. Vorshevsky ultimately won the election, and his tenure saw a rapprochement between the RUP and most former government loyalists, the popular acceptance of RUP founder Imran Zakhaev as a national hero, and the restoration of Soviet imagery (such as the "hammer-and-sickle" logo for the armed forces and government) and military power.
Unfortunately for Russia, this newfound stability and national unity would not last, as the Ultranationalist movement underwent a violent leadership struggle as Zakhaev's former chauffeur and neo-fascist faction leader Vladimir Makarov rebelled against Vorshevsky and carried out a series of terrorist acts against the West and Vorshevsky's government. In 2016, he secretly concluded a deal with the American general Herschel Shepherd, by which Shepherd would arrange for an American CIA agent, Joseph Allen, to go undercover with Makarov's "Inner Circle" terrorist group and help them carry out the Zakhaev International Airport massacre, supposedly to maintain his cover. However, Makarov shot Allen dead before escaping the site of the massacre, and the Russian government's discovery that Allen was a CIA agent led to Vorshevsky accusing America of backing Makarov. Utilizing a downed ACS module purposefully left behind by Shepherd, Vorshevsky was able to launch a surprise invasion of the United States East Coast in August 2016, leading to the outbreak of World War III. Shepherd and Makarov - while still arch-enemies - still achieved what they wanted: Shepherd wanted a chance to avenge America's humiliaton at the hands of the Ultranationalist-backed Iraqi insurgents in 2011 and to overthrow the Ultranationalist regime, while Makarov wanted an excuse to reinvigorate anti-Western sentiment in Russia and use it to mask his own rise to power. In October 2016, Makarov captured Vorshevsky following a plane hijacking and assumed the leadership of Ultranationalist Russia, launching a series of chemical attacks across Europe before ordering a Russian Army ground offensive; despite being tortured, Vorshevsky refused to turn over the nuclear launch codes to Makarov. Ultimately, Task Force 141 rescued Vorshevsky from the Mir diamond mine and reinstated him as leader of Russia, enabling Russia to make peace with the West. Makarov went into hiding, only to be tracked down and murdered in the United Arab Emirates by rogue SAS officer John Price in 2017. While Vorshevsky returned to power, the vast majority of Russians had become disillusioned with the RUP's quest to restore the military and political might of the USSR, and Vorshevsky and his government resigned as a result of the backlash against the war. Vladimir Putin subsequently returned to power, and most of the former Ultranationalists rejoined United Russia due to Putin's less militant form of Russian nationalism, while some of the persistent extremists joined the CPRF, LDPR, The Other Russia, or other smaller nationalist parties.