The Red Line, like many factions in the Metro, has a vague history and how it was founded is largely unknown, but at some point one of the stations of the Red Line endorsed a Communist ideology based off of the Soviet Union. The optimistic influence of this station spread Communist revolution through-out the Red Line (the Metro line from which the faction is named) and these stations came under di
rect Red Line control. The spread of the Communists and their antagonistic demeanor quickly lead to fighting with other factions, starting the Hansa-Red Line War, the first major conflict in the post-war Metro. Despite ending in a truce, the war demonstrated that the Red Line was a major player in the politics of Metro.Primarily making up Red Village (Krasnoselskaya), Red Gates (Krasnye Vorota), Komsomolskaya, Lenin Library (Biblioteka im. Lenina). The Red Line directly controls 13 stations, and exerts influence over several more, making them the largest faction in the Metro in terms of territory. The abundance of stations means that the Red Line holds borders with many different factions, including Polis, Hansa, and their enemy the Fourth Reich. The tunnels between these stations feature some of the worst human-on-human violence in the whole Metro. Following many conflicts over territory, the Red Line actively began trading consumer goods with Hansa. It has begun the electrification of tunnels, but there are famine issues from time to time in Communist stations. Although their territorial possessions allow Red Line to produce a large amount of food and weaponry, its conflicts with the Reich have drained these resources massively.The Red Line's state ideology is Communism, which promotes class equality, common ownership, and anti-capitialism. On paper, the Communists believe that everything that comes out of the Red Line is to be shared equally with everyone, meaning all are entitled to food, water, and housing, and if one person has four bullets and the other has none, they must divide it between themselves. Their society, as noted by Pavel Morozov, follows a very strict mindset: One leader, one Party, and one ideology. Pavel mentions order and control being considered more important than individual freedoms, to make sure their beliefs withstand. In reality life the Red Line is tough for most residents, with a brutal police-state system of government, and frequent shortages of food and other necessities - citizens are often over-worked, underpaid, and generally terrorized by the government. Well-armed soldiers patrol each station under communist control to maintain law and order as well as prevent rebellion, while conscripted recruits are used for war fighting at the front. According to Khan, individuals commonly sell out their own neighbors to the police, supposedly for rewards of food. Those who do so much as disrespect a soldier, or are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, are arrested and sent to Lubyanka station located underneath the old KGB (Soviet Union's secret police) headquarters, which is used as a political prison by the Communists for citizens who break the law or do not obey the government. A common phrase used in regards to Lubyanka station is that "the ticket to Lubyanka is always one-way", hinting that all who go there are worked/tortured to death or outright executed. These rules and policies cause large numbers of refugees to flee the Red Line, creating a refugee crisis for the other factions, although most don't make it that far.Officially the Red Line is neutral to most other factions, the exceptions being the Fourth Reich and Bandits. The Communists are neutral towards the Artyom during his brief stay at the Armory, but upon entrance to the Armory and outside the station, they are entirely hostile. In the novel, the Red Line also has an alliance with the Revolutionaries, another Far-Left group who attack the Reich sporadically to reduce their numbers and force them to take troops away from the front-line. In game, the Red Line has no solid allies, except before the events in Metro: Last Light, where they had a fragile alliance with Hansa and Rangers. Ironically, despite officially being an anti-imperialist and neutral state, the Red Line is possibly the most imperialistic state in the Metro. They often attempt to gain control of nearby stations by gradually exerting their influence upon the current government, or backing the overthrow of it in favor of a pro-Communist government - either way they will eventually take over and integrate the station into the Red Line and regard them as a "free" station.The Red Army, the official military of the Red Line, and is believed to be the largest army in the Metro. When comparing it to the military of the Fourth Reich, the Red Army is much larger in size due to the Red Line having a much higher population to conscript from, and because of this they also have lower standards towards the combat capability of their troops. Internal politics of Communist controlled stations is focused upon conscription, aimed at enticing as many recruits to join up as possible. They therefore have the manpower to launch costly human wave attacks against the Nazi defences without so much as a second thought. Red Army soldiers are mostly untrained, poorly equipped, and sent into battle shortly after recruitment. The methods of how soldiers are recruited and criteria to be considered suitable for combat are never explained, however it can be assumed that while they are not forced to be soldiers, all able-bodied males are pressured into signing up due to the apparent poor quality of life in Communist-held stations. Soldiers are promised pay of one full clip of bullets for fighting, but are pressured into spending their pay to fight the enemy.
