The Former Soviet Union

While Eastern Europe lacked the technological and magical tradition to create heroes before WWII, they nevertheless had their share of masked adventurers fighting the good fight during WWII. The Czech Pérák and Polish Last Knight fought their own battles until they joined forces to stand against the Nazi aggression.
Unlike Western heroes, they did not get to live the dream. Most of them never saw freedom. After Nazi occupation, there came decades of Soviet oppression. Ignoring the political differences between the heroes and the new governments, Communism was against super-powered people on principle. In a system that promised equality, superheroes were seen as aberrations. Most powered individuals were drafted into the service of the state (or the entire Soviet Bloc) and resistance automatically qualified you as a traitor and supervillain, or worse, a guinea pig in inhuman experiments.
On the other hand, superpowers were useful. With time, the policy toward super-beings changed (especially outside the Soviet Union proper), but it still boiled down to: join the nearest stat-sponsored superhero team or spend the rest of your life in jail. Within the Soviet Union, prison time was often spent in hard labor—this way the state could still make use of the superhuman’s powers until he or she died of exhaustion. It’s said that some superzek still toil away in hidden camps in Siberia or Mongolia, powering long forgotten machinery, near-insane from exhaustion and lack of human contact.
Of course, many superhumans joined up simply because they wanted to—it gave them an opportunity to rise above the masses (and earned them privileges), or to serve their nation. Some honestly believed in the Communist cause. Such heroes of the People were serving multiple duties as propaganda and special ops agents, and sometimes they assisted the troops in very difficult operations abroad—where they often clashed with American heroes.
For super-beings who had no interest in getting into any sort of trouble there was another exit—to abstain from using their powers altogether. This option was chosen by many, but because they never entered the public arena, it’s difficult to estimate how many that may have been; however, there were a number of these “sleepers.”
SLEEPERS Sleepers were superpowered people who decided to never use their powers. This was difficult for people whose powers were “always on,” or disfiguring in some way, but most such folks coped as best they could. Sleepers were almost unknown in the Americas and very rare in Western Europe, but were more common in Eastern Europe and Asia.
For many Westerners it might seem strange to avoid using such wondrous powers, but no power means no responsibility, no supervillains targeting you, and no alienation from the rest of society. In Eastern Europe, standing out was simply a way of becoming an easy target. Eventually, though, many sleepers were tempted at least once in their lifetime to abandon their oath. Many researchers claim that abstaining from using powers isn’t good for you—causing unusual side effects and powers triggering at the least convenient moment.
The number of sleepers dropped in the nineties. The reason for this was twofold. First, the collapse of Communism brought cultural changes literally overnight; if you wanted to be a hero, you could do it freely. However, the number of powered people dropped overall, thanks to the Terminus Invasion. A lot of people who’d bottled up their amazing powers for their entire lives gave their all fighting the Omegadrones for the first and last time. This in turn inspired many remaining sleepers to come into the open. Still, many people preferred to hide their powers and live in peace.
Gamemasters may wish to start a series in which the PCs are sleepers, but familiar with one another. In such a series, most PCs have complications related to civilian life and operating out of the public eye.
THE OLD GUARD When the end of Communism was imminent, a group of KGB, Securitate, Stasi, and other secret police agents as well as “unconventional” (mad) scientists and People’s Guard superheroes got together. Not one of them actually believed in the system; they all knew that it was just a way to keep the little people under control. Together, they created a criminal organization to maintain their power and social position. It continues to this day.
The founders of the Old Guard are now respected business people and politicians. They run a massive conspiracy, cooperating with mafiyas, governments, and OVERTHROW. One of their goals is to lay hands on Soviet research sites and projects whenever possible. Unfortunately, the old Soviet Science Cities are either “officially closed” or state run and beyond the Old Guard’s reach. Though rumors persist that the Old Guard has people in the highest echelons of Russian government, they still struggle to regain as much power as they used to hold.
Some members of the Old Guard used to actually create superhumans and still have useful bits of knowledge that occasionally results in a new superhuman. Gregor Malakov, also known as Koschei the Deathless (see Emerald City), actively opposes the Old Guard. He’s one of their most fervent adversaries, and has worked with both the Chamber and Western heroes to prevent the Old Guard from moving into American territory. The Old Guard doesn’t know who or what Koschei is, but they want to expand westward and would like to remove him—preferably using intermediaries.