Cast your mind back to the height of the Cold
War. The ever-accelerating nuclear arms race brought
us closer than ever before to making the nightmare of nuclear armageddon a terrifying reality. The two main parties in this conflict are
the United States and Soviet Union, each amassing huge amounts of nuclear warheads and jumping
on any available advantage they can over their enemies. What you may not know is that, in order to
detect an impending attack from the United States, the Soviets developed what would become
known to the West as the “Dead Hand.” But this experimental piece of technology
also has another name: SCP-1984. It is no secret that the Soviet Union feared
the threat of US nuclear strikes and invasion just as much as the US feared an attack from
them, so SCP-1984 was created to act as a deterrence mechanism, specifically against
secure second strikes. Secure second strikes were both a deterrent
and overwhelming concern during the Cold War, referring to a country’s ability, after
suffering an initial nuclear attack, to still retaliate, firing on their enemy and causing
untold damage with their own arsenal of nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union knew that any action they
made that could be perceived as an attack on United States soil would be threatened
with nuclear retaliation, and that if they fired first, America would return fire and
potentially annihilate them with a second strike. SCP-1984 was to be an automated system that
would activate in response to the destruction of the Soviet’s main command and control
structure. Given that the Dead Hand was created during
the eighties, you might be forgiven for expecting a nuclear detection system built at this point
in history to consist of various sensors connected to a computer network. But you have also probably already realized
that, if that was the case, then the Foundation wouldn’t be so interested in it. In actuality, SCP-1984 is a fully autonomous
entity rather than a network of sensors for detecting incoming nuclear attacks or a computer
capable of initiating a second strike. Perhaps what makes the Foundation more interested
in the Dead Hand is that it is both self-aware, and linked simultaneously to every single
one of Russia’s nuclear launch sites. Not only this, but SCP-1984 also has direct
access to every single one of the atomic weapons stockpiled by the Soviet Union during the
Cold War, and is capable of launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at a moment’s notice. In short, SCP-1984 could very easily and horrifyingly
quickly, trigger an all-out nuclear war, resulting in the extinction of all life on Earth. No wonder the Foundation considers the Dead
Hand such a massive threat. SCP-1984 itself actually consists of the preserved
remains of a Russian soldier by the name of Sergeant Marat Chernikov, who was killed during
the Soviet-Afghan War in 1982. Most of the official documentation of Chernikov’s
existence has been expunged by the Russian Federation, and he is only referenced in fragmented
documents recovered by the Foundation that refer to a ”Project December.” These remains serve as the location of a semi-sentient
consciousness that has been classified as SCP-1984-01. When it remains dormant and is not interfered
with, SCP-1984-01 has the ability to receive and process any signal broadcast to it, and
is able to decipher information contained in any signal it picks up. However, when global military tensions start
to climb, especially when those tensions affect the Russian Federation - or what were once
the satellite states of the former Soviet Union - the entity begins to manifest itself
in the physical world, and usually in various strange and differing ways. SCP-1984-01 has been known to appear in the
real world in forms such as a humanoid outline, or a bright-red specter, taking the shape
of a child with its legs cut off. Regardless of which shape it appears in, it
is when the Dead Hand manifests in a more physical form that the wider scope of its
abilities become clear. As mentioned previously, it can influence
and even launch nuclear weapons, overriding their command systems and bypassing launch
sequences. After appearing fully, SCP-1984-01 will travel
at speeds of up to 140 kilometers an hour, directly to the nearest military installation
capable of launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Once it reaches its destination, SCP-1984-01
will immediately attempt to override the necessary systems to initiate a launch. After firing missiles at their pre-determined
targets, SCP-1984-01 will hastily travel to another facility housing nuclear ordnance,
repeating the process until it has successfully launched all of Russia’s atomic weapons. When engaged, the physical manifestation of
SCP-1984 is highly aggressive, and will lethally defend itself against anyone that it observes
trying to interfere with it or stop it from causing a nuclear launch. The entity has displayed the ability to disrupt
the nervous system, causing excruciating pain and debilitating damage to human beings. Its only known weakness, if any, is a susceptibility
to microwave radiation. Although, exposure to this doesn’t seem
to cause any lasting damage to SCP-1984, instead only temporarily disorientating its physical
form. As for the origins of SCP-1984, the Soviet
Union’s official liaison with the SCP Foundation offered some clarity on this, ironically,
during early 1984. The liaison, a doctor named Sergei, described
information regarding the Dead Hand as being of “grave importance to the continued survival
of the human race”. Seeing as he was referring to an entity that
could single-handedly launch the Soviet Union’s entire nuclear arsenal, he certainly had a
point. A top-secret conference was held in Sarajevo
between the Foundation’s O5 Council and officials from both the USSR and United States,
using the 1984 Winter Olympics as cover, avoiding too many questions about several nations’
high-ranking state officials being in the same place at once. The O5 Council was then given full, in-depth
information about the Dead Hand, something they had previously assumed was a more conventional
form of nuclear deterrence. SCP-1984 was far more, and worse, far out
of the control of the Russian government. It was revealed that the entity had been designed
outside the original specifications given to those who developed it. Initially, the Soviets had intended for the
Dead Hand to be solely used as a secure second-strike response. If the leaders of the Soviet Union were killed,
SCP-1984 would react in-kind to Russia’s enemies, launching back all the USSR’s nuclear
missiles in retaliation. This is most likely where the “Dead Hand”
nickname comes from, hearkening to the idea of a “dead man’s switch.” Picture that you had been mortally wounded
by your worst enemy - shot in the stomach and laying on the ground, rapidly bleeding
out. You know that there is no chance you will
survive, but you cannot afford to let your enemy get away. What they don’t know is that you rigged
the entire building around you both with explosives. With your dying breath, you activate the detonator,
assuring your own and your enemy’s mutual destruction. Kaboom, then curtain for both of you. The pressing issue, and reason this secret
summit between the USSR, USA and SCP Foundation was held, was that SCP-1984 was no longer
interested in just waiting for Russia to be attacked and only reacting after the fact. Instead, the entity’s physical form was
trying to preemptively strike at the enemies of the Motherland, attempting to activate
nuclear launches and send atomic weapons to destroy the United States, France, West Germany,
and the People’s Republic of China. In other words, the Dead Hand was eager to
get a head start at causing total nuclear annihilation, not to mention potentially killing
millions and reducing target countries to little more than irradiated craters awash
with deadly nuclear fallout. Both the Soviet Union and United States begged
the SCP Foundation to intervene and contain SCP-1984, and under the direction of the O5
Council, they stepped in to take direct control of the situation, establishing new containment
procedures in the hopes of keeping SCP-1984 from hitting as many launch buttons as it
could find. The embalmed remains that seemed to create
the manifestations of the Dead Hand entity were held securely in an Armed Containment
Complex, near Verkhoyansk, part of the Sakha Republic within the Russian Federation. SCP-1984 was placed within a standard humanoid
containment cell, which was itself held within a Faraday cage - a type of enclosure constructed
with or covered in conductive material, designed to block electromagnetic fields. This was done to block any external broadcast
signals from reaching SCP-1984, and thus causing it to manifest its other form if it learned
of an impending attack on Russia - even a fictional one, perhaps as part of a television
broadcast. As part of the Dead Hand’s containment,
all signals broadcast near its cage are to be monitored, and only broadcasts featuring
doctored information would reach the entity. Thanks to the work of the SCP Foundation’s
Information Control Team, SCP-1984 is drip-fed a stream of carefully-fabricated information. Using on-site equipment and facilities, a
team of military historians, economists, actors, and Soviet media specialists, the Information
Control Team have created an ongoing narrative wherein the Cold War never ended. Through falsified radio and television broadcasts
made to look like era-appropriate news organizations, they manage to keep SCP-1984 convinced that
the nuclear stalemate between the Soviet Union and United States is still ongoing. Unfortunately, sometimes information from
the real world is able to bleed through. An incident involving SCP-1984 occurred on
August 8th, 1984, and almost brought forth a full-scale nuclear war. While preparing for a campaign speech, the
fortieth President of the United States Ronald Reagan uttered the following joke: “I'm
pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever,
we begin bombing in five minutes.” Naturally, thousands of media outlets reported
on this, but signals of those broadcasts, including recordings of the President’s
remark, made their way to SCP-1984. Foundation researchers were both unsure of
how these transmissions breached the Faraday cage surrounding the Dead Hand, and were unable
to prevent what happened next. Hearing what it could only assume was a genuine
declaration of war, the manifestation of the SCP-1984-01 entity happened immediately after
Reagan’s words reached its containment cell. This time, the entity appeared as a semi-transparent
woman, withered and blue, wearing traditional Pashtun dress. Armed personnel guarding SCP-1984’s cage
engaged the entity, causing it to retaliate, lashing out and attacking any that stood in
its way. One captain and two privates that suffered
the brunt of SCP-1984’s offensive capabilities began bleeding heavily from their ears, seizing
violently. Most gruesomely of all, a liquid leaked from
their eyes and nose, believed to have been cerebrospinal fluid. While armed personnel attempted to utilize
microwave emitting weaponry to slow the entity down, the Information Control Team was frantically
trying to record a new falsified broadcast in the hopes that SCP-1984 would cease its
hostilities and the entity would dissipate before it was able to travel at high speed
to any nearby Soviet nuclear facilities and begin bombarding the United States. Their first attempt to record a new broadcast
that would result in a cessation of SCP-1984’s slaughter of its guards was interrupted when
a nearby wall collapsed. Desperate to re-contain the creature, Information
Control Team tried to film the broadcast a second time, and succeeded, although one of
the actors portraying a newsreader suffered a stroke and had to be edited out, to convince
the Dead Hand of its supposed authenticity. What followed was a short news clip, clarifying
that Russia’s Politburo was in on President Reagan’s joke, including old footage of
the USSR’s General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko confirming that the Soviet Union’s
nuclear forces were not on high alert. Miraculously, after fifteen more minutes of
sustained fighting with guards, SCP-1984’s physical manifestation began to disappear,
gradually dematerializing while it seemed to attack with far-less intensity. Eventually, containment was re-established,
at the cost of the deaths of seventeen members of Foundation staff, both guards and researchers. A further eight, however, suffered traumatic
brain injuries that left them all permanently disabled. The one upside is that this incident remains
the only time SCP-1984 has ever breached its containment and caused harm to others, and
considering that it could very well have launched Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the casualties
could easily have been much higher. So remember, folks, don’t joke about nuclear
weapons, especially if you’re the president. You never know what anomalies lurking in the
bodies of dead Russian soldiers might be listening, and if they are, you better hope they have
a sense of humor. Now check out “SCP-001 - The Scarlet King”
and “SCP-2935 - O, Death” for more anomalies that could destroy the world!
