For background see this thread:

http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?p=120980#post120980

Subject: Harry Potter, raised in the Soviet Union, comes to Hogwarts

Hahukum Konn´s Challenge #2

Challenge #2 :

Summary: The Soviet Ministry of Magic has had people training and tutoring Harry Potter since the age of one year old. In 1991, he goes to Hogwarts. Culture shock ensues.

Detail:

* The Soviets have had Snape and/or Pettigrew on the payroll since the late 1970s in order to keep tabs on the war between the Ministry and Voldemort, since they, like their Muggle counterparts, are naturally suspicious of anything going on outside their nation's borders and want to be prepared.
* When the Soviets realize that a baby has defeated a powerful Dark Lord (either Pettigrew remembers who's been paying him, or Snape divulged his knowledge of the partial prophecy to both Dumbledore and his Soviet Ministry of Magic 'handler'), they decide they must at all costs get their mitts on Harry Potter for reasons of their own - i.e. a magical Cold War with the USA returns after the short detente of the 1970s, a desire to one-up the decadent British Ministry of Magic... something plausible.
* Harry has been tutored and trained in as many forms of magic that the Soviet Ministry of Magic deems 'acceptable' to teach him. Along the way, of course, the usual ideological stuff follows. It helps that he has a saving people thing to begin with; this is cleverly intertwined with the 'socialist' society-ahead-of-the-individual motif that, as we know, went to unhealthy extremes in the USSR.
* Either of two things happen: 1. The USSR, as in our timeline, splits apart and is effectively bankrupt in 1991. The magical government is just as badly affected. The Soviets decide that as bitter a pill as it is to swallow, Harry will have to be sent back to Great Britain, as he was registered for Hogwarts to begin with. They scrape up as much hard currency reserves as they can, and send the money with him, urging him to maintain contact with his 'handlers'. They let him know that Snape was one of their triple agents in the last war, but unlike Dumbledore, the Soviets do not realize the extent of Snape's conflicted feelings over Harry, and this personal conflict gets in the way of a smooth working relationship.
..... Or 2. The Soviet Union continues, does not break up, but an international incident nearly explodes into the public eye when Dumbledore realizes Harry's Hogwarts letter went to Moscow. A deal is brokered where Dumbledore will take Harry back with him to Hogwarts, in exchange for no reprisals by the International Confederation of Wizards (we must remember that DD is Supreme Mugwump, so must have considerable power). Perhaps Dumbledore realizes that Snape must have been a triple agent?
* Harry goes to Hogwarts!
* Socialist-educated Harry witnesses magical Britain, wide-eyed at the way it seems a virtual caricature of all the things he was told existed in decadent capitalist wizarding societies - the extremely polarized distribution of wealth, the obvious bias of the government in favor of pure-bloods, et cetera and so on. Of course, he has a blind spot because the Soviet Union's own warts were carefully hidden from him in his magical training. You think Boris the trainer is going to tell Harry about the Siberian magical gulag?
* Because of the extremely insular nature of wizarding Britain, nobody can contradict Harry effectively when he excoriates the very real problems wizarding Britain has, even as he struggles to deal with the culture shock and that some aspects of wizarding Britain are not as bad as he was told. Hermione, being the resident expert as soon as she inhales a textbook, is the one to begin raising counterpoints to some of Harry's less well-founded assertions.
* Which way would Harry get sorted? Hufflepuff!Harry is an excellent candidate here, or perhaps Ravenclaw?

Whew!

Anyway, as I see the evolution of the storyline, Harry probably speaks English and Russian with equal fluency owing to the possibility that Harry might be 'infiltrated' into magical USA on a magical KGB mission. His training almost certainly includes Occlumency and Legilimency, magical means of spying and counterspying (extremely good with Disillusionment charms, for examlple), possible Muggle fighting techniques, battle spells (incidentally, "Make a Wish" has Harry learning Russian battle spells which are short, single-word spells designed to do maximum damage in the shortest possible time), and possible nonverbal casting as well.

Harry will eventually make up his own mind and realize that while the USSR's ideology is fundamentally flawed, he decides that the insistence on equality of beings and some degree of 'wage-levelling' is not, in itself, a bad thing, while he also decides that the ability of wizards and witches to (mostly) do as they please in wizarding Britain is a fresh change from the stifling bureaucratic conformity of magical USSR. (A rather humorous effect could be worked in here where Harry compares the way the Weasley twins just up and set up their Wheezes store to the interminable wait for GUM - that's the old Soviet government department store - to get permission from half a dozen different departments just to stock the Gregorovitch wands)

In the end I think a fic like this would be notable not so much for the fact that Harry will be far better prepared to defeat Voldemort, but for the fresh look at the cliche transfer-student fic, as well as an in-depth exploration of a magical society outside Britain and the culture shock as Harry goes to Hogwarts.

 

The only problem here is that Harry you're describing is too young and impressionable. He's a fucking 11 year old. I don't see him discussing politics. Dumbledore or any other orator would twist his little brain around in no time.

My suggestion is to move this to 4th year, and have Harry be a part of Durmstrang delegation.

 

I agree with IP82 that you should make Harry older.
You can go two completely different ways with the character. You can make him the typical russian agent from the american movies, that's what most of your proposal shows.

Or, you can make him the embodiment of the eastern european way of dealing with an opressing authority:
He won't accept any statement for the truth unless he has proven for himself that the information he received is true.
He will always know that there are always hidden motives behind every simple action of every person.
The less suspicious a person appears, the more suspicious he will get towards them.
And most importantly: He will never outright oppose or even argue with any authority figure or anyone who would report to one. He will just do and deal with the carefully calculated concequences. Asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission, after all. He will be very eloquent and be able to talk himself out of almost any situation, not with some puppy dog looks, but with logic and guile.

Harry would have grown up like the children in eastern europe, he would have bought smuggled chocolate frog cards for horrendous prices, he would have secretly listened to the western radio etc.

 

I'm not sure if that would be so true. It's the government that got their hands on him, not some random family. The Soviets would teach him the exact ideals that their whole form of Government is based around and he would grow up with the idea of 'equal everything' smashed into his head. He wouldn't be the normal Eastern European child because he wouldn't be living the normal Eastern European lifestyle. He would be living the life style that the Goverment wanted him to believe everyone else lived in.

 

That's actually a good point. Does the government decide, for propaganda/other reasons, to place Harry with an allegedly 'typical' Soviet family?

He wouldn't be able to start any kind of training until about the age of five, but his education could begin at an early age to make him fluent in multiple languages including the wizarding ones. A lot of back story would have to be compiled before the fic even starts