BELOV S.I. The Theme of the Nuclear Threat in Western Video Games of the 1980s and 1990s
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2026.2.18
Sergey I. Belov,
Doctor of Sciences (Politics), Leading Research Fellow, Visual History Laboratory, Saint Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities, HSE University – Saint Petersburg, Soyuza Pechatnikov St, 16, 190121 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation;
Associate Professor, Department of Russian Politics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1464-040X
Abstract. Introduction. The presented study explores how the theme of nuclear threat was represented in Western video games during the 1980s and 1990s. The research problem is the lack of a conceptualization of the impact of the narrative component and procedural rhetoric of video games of the relevant period on the perception of the threat of nuclear war and the events of the Cold War. Materials and methods. The empirical basis of the study was formed by involving the content of eight video games: Missile Command, Raid over Moscow, Rush’n Attack, Spy vs Spy III: Arctic Antics, Wasteland, Crisis in the Kremlin, Big Red Adventure, and Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game. The methodology of the work combines elements of comparative and structural analysis. Analysis. The narrative component of these video games and the specific features of their procedural rhetoric were examined. Results. It was established that the image of the nuclear threat in Western video games of the 1980s and 1990s was initially shaped within the framework of stereotypes of perception of American society, rooted in popular culture from both the Cold War and earlier periods. This image did not reflect the point of view of a specific political force. It was distinguished by high variability, which made it possible to orient the audience towards supporting both aggressive and moderate foreign policy. The influence of popular culture, on the one hand, actualized the content and structure of the image; on the other hand, it displaced it into the realm of fantastic escapism. As a result, it was only occasionally perceived as an existential threat to the USA, which determined a wide range of possibilities in terms of influencing the political thinking and behavior of the target audience.
Funding. The study was funded by RSF, Grant No. 22-18-00305-P, “The images of the enemy in Cold War popular culture: their content, contemporary reception, and usage in Russian and USA symbolic politics”, https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00305/.
Key words: image of nuclear threat, video games, Cold War, USSR, USA.
Citation. Belov S.I. The Theme of the Nuclear Threat in Western Video Games of the 1980s and 1990s. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2026, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 212-221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2026.2.18
The Theme of the Nuclear Threat in Western Video Games of the 1980s and 1990s © 2026 by Belov S.I. is licensed under CC BY 4.0 
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