Infinite Conquest

Infinite Conquest is the central ideological doctrine of the Soviet Star Union and has been so since the end of the Red October War, more than four thousand years ago. It dictates that the only way to bring about an era of peace and prosperity, is through the unification of the universe under the banner of communism.

Core Principles
Infinite Conquest is based around the belief that war, poverty and oppression are caused by stratocratic, hereditary political systems, such as capitalism and monarchy, as well as religious beliefs and concepts of species superiority, and the belief that as long as such nations exist, there will always be war and suffering, due to these nations' greed and their rulers' desire to acquire other civilizations' resources. As such, it asserts that the only way to combat chaos and ensure the peace necessary for the development of a post-scarcity communist utopia, is through the military conquest of the entire universe, by any means necessary. This can be clearly seen in quotes from the original manifesto, the Mandate of Infinite Conquest, published shortly after the conclusion of the Red October War, which devastated Soviet space and almost led to the collapse of Soviet civilization. Some of the most famous quotes can be found in the third chapter of the manifesto, where author Voronkov Boleslaw Yanovich states the core elments of this doctrine: This doctrine sits at the center of Soviet civilization and the entirety of its economy, infrastructure and society is geared towards furthering its ideological goals. However, despite the fact that the ideology literally demands a state of perpetual war against the entire universe, such a thing is recognized as unfeasible, at least at the moment. Therefore, while the Soviet Star Union is almost constantly at war with one civilization or other, it does not wage a continuous campaign of subjugation. Territory is, instead acquired in stages: The Union launches a campaign to conquer a sector, it then signs a peace accord, consolidates its hold over the newly conquered worlds and launches another campaign to capture more territory at a later date, usually a few decades after the last one. Therefore, neighboring civilizations will find themselves periodically at war with the Union, in an almost cyclical manner.
 * "The great People's Revolution must be proliferated to all corners of the universe. It is the only way to create a peaceful, prosperous state under the ideals of communism, one where violence, corruption, poverty and the oppression of the many by a privileged elite, never threaten the equilibrium of the stateless communist nation."
 * "This manifesto asserts the necessity of accomplishing its objectives by means of military might. The lasting peace and prosperity sought by the communist ideal, can only be achieved through war, on a universal scale. It is by necessity that we, as a civilization, must seek to bring all other civilizations under the great Soviet fold, through force, if required."
 * "It is by necessity that we must do these things. Peace through war. Order through unification. Uniformity through assimilation. This is the path of Infinite Conquest, in the name of the greater good, for the benefit of the people. Until all that exists has been conquered, we, by necessity, can only exist in a state of perpetual war with the rest of the universe."

Impact on Diplomacy
Predictably, this doctrine has had a major negative impact on the diplomatic reputation of the Soviet Star Union, which is often labeled as evil, despite its belief that its actions serve a greater purpose. Peace treaties are signed by necessity, with the predictable expectation that the Union will attack again at a later date, but this compromise gives attacked nations the time to rebuild and consolidate their defenses against the next attack. Peace treaties with the Soviet Star Union could correctly be considered nothing more than decades-spanning ceasefires. In a sharp contrast, the Soviet Star Union seeks to establish favorable relations with other socialist civilizations, sometimes going as far as establishing alliances, with the expectation of peaceful assimilation within the Union, at a later date, when the Soviet border has finally reached that nation. In such cases, the Soviet Star Union embarks on centuries-spanning endeavors to slowly assimilate these nations, by means of cultural exchange and the infusion of superior Soviet technology, so that, by the time that their borders meet, the cultures and technology of these nations have become so similar to the Soviet's, that there ceases to be a functional difference.

The Red October War
Also see: Red October War

Infinite Conquest traces its origins to the dramatic events which followed the Soviets' first contact with a much larger, although technologically-inferior matriarchal Arkanian species, who's civilization was, at the time, organized into a monarchy. The Arkanians initially saw the resource-rich, sparsely-populated Soviet worlds as an easy target and sought to annex them into their empire, leading to a massive war which lasted almost a century and resulted in massive devastation and loss of life on both sides, due to the eventual widespread use of primitive weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear bombs and asteroids. The two generations of Soviets, which lived and died during this war, were transformed by its horrors into a militaristic, hostile people. Having known nothing but war, once the war finally ended with the annexation of the Arkanian empire into Soviet space, the Soviets entered a perpetual cycle of expansion. The term "Infinite Conquest" and its associated ideology were first coined a few decades after the Red October War and have since become so deeply rooted in Soviet society, that it has become nearly impossible for current civilizations to dissociate the two.