The Bukharin regime fractured and collapsed when it faced the Nazi onslaught. When Bukharin himself disappeared amidst the chaos, NKVD Director Genrikh Yagoda mobilized his surviving NKVD divisions to evacuate the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet as Eastward as he could. From there, the remains of the Bukharin government attempted to retain control over the Far East, but their grip slowly began to crumble as warlords and bandits rose up to take the land for themselves. Yagoda quickly lost confidence in the Party leadership; he and his NKVD began to take over various State functions, much to the chagrin of the Presidium.The legitimate heirs to the Soviet Union are now in a precarious position. The balance of power in the Union is teetering between Yagoda loyalists in the State and the apparatchiks of the Party bureaucracy. As if that isn't enough, a former Soviet commander, Valery Sablin, has risen up against the Irkutsk government across Lake Baikal. Yagoda will have to quash this uprising swiftly if he hopes to one day reclaim the Union.