This happened a few years ago, before the pandemic, at a MUN. A model of the United Nations. You might be familiar with it, but for those who aren’t, it’s a university activity that simulates a United Nations debate. We basically choose a character in some commission and role play as important world leaders. This type of activity is very popular among law and political science students.

I participated my first year in law school. I did it well, I think, but it has hard ngl. Besides playing role-playing video games my whole life, I never did any IRL role-playing, like DND or anything like that, so I was not used to actually having to act, and instead I just took it as doing what a diplomat would do. But anyway… that was my first year.

In my second year I participated again, this time there was a Historical Commission. This one would follow different rules and standards. It would put us in the time of the Cold War, more specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis. This commission would have 2 antagonistic chambers. The Western one, with the US and its allies, and a Soviet one, with Russia, the other Soviet countries and their allies.

The idea was exciting, so I signed up for the Soviet Chamber, because why not? Being among the Soviets sounded so fun. There was a selection of historical figures to choose from, except for Nikita Jrushchov, who would be played by one of the experts who organized the whole event. Same for JFK in the Western Chamber. There was one name that I thought would be perfect for me: Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. I chose Gromyko as my character.

We did a lot of research to stay in character and know how the Soviets would act and make decisions. In a way, we had it easier than the Americans because we didn’t have that pesky democracy, but on the other hand, we could be sent to Siberia if we screwed up, whereas the Americans had the right to a fair trial.

The organizers of the Commission had certain scripted events, like the death of JFK and the discovery of nuclear missiles in Cuba, but otherwise we had the creative freedom to change history. I remember that at one point we planned to overthrow the government of Romulo Betancourt in Venezuela so that we could use it as a strategic territory because we were about to lose Cuba.

MUN is a big event at my university and so many people signed up and even people from other universities joined. At the end of the first day, we had a lunch break. Then I saw an old friend I hadn’t seen since my last year of high school. I greeted him and we talked a little while I ate. I told him a bit about what we had done in the morning, and then the lunch break ended.

After we resumed our discussions, an organizer came into the room and announced that there was a spy among the representatives of the Soviet Chamber, and they were conducting an investigation to discover the spy.

We had discussions, debates and changed the story (for the worse lol). Until the second half of the afternoon. The organizers came back and announced that they had found the spy. It was Andrei Gromyko who was seen talking to CIA Director Allen Dulles.

I was as shocked as everybody else. I was immediately taken out of the room, then a member of the chamber took a (plastic) gun and pointed it at my head, saying that I had betrayed the Soviet Union and deserved a public and instant execution. Then he pulled the trigger and I just felt backwards. After that they went back into the room and I talked to the organizers for a while.

Since my character had died, I could have a fictional character to replace him. This seemed like a golden opportunity to me. My new character would be called “Dimitri Rascalov”.

The rest of the MUN went by without much drama. Except for the very end, when the Western Chamber followed the advice of Henry fucking Kissinger and used every single nuclear weapon they had, and the world just went K-boom.