Moscow, 16 October 1941: the capital on the brink

On 16 October 1941, Moscow plunged into terror. Since the launch of Operation Typhoon in early October, von Bock's panzers have torn open the front, encircled entire armies at Vyazma and Bryansk, and the road to the capital seems wide open. In the city, it is the "great panic": crowds besieging the railway stations, trains taken by storm, files burned in the courtyards of the ministries, looting, the flight of officials and functionaries to the east. The evacuation of the government, the diplomatic corps and the archives to Kuibyshev has already begun. The question is no longer merely to hold, but to contemplate the unthinkable: what if the capital fell?

At the Lubyanka, you receive instructions without precedent. The task is to decide, coldly, the material fate of Moscow should the Wehrmacht enter the city. The great armament factories, the power stations, the bridges over the Moskva, the railway junctions, the communication networks, the brand-new metro, down to the symbolic edifices of Soviet power: all of it can be prepared for destruction, set aside for evacuation, or left intact. Each option bears upon future resistance, the morale of a population already on the verge of breaking, and the image of the regime.

You weigh the secrecy of the preparations, the speed of the enemy advance, and the utter uncertainty as to whether the city will hold. The decision falls to you.