#my qualifications for this series are uhhh. history degree and autism

[lagomorphique]

TF2 in Historical Context: Heavy's Background

Obligatory disclaimer here that this is either speculation based off of things we canonically learn about Heavy or extrapolation from those things.

We are told that his father was a counter-revolutionary, who was executed in 1941. He, his mother, and sisters were sent to a gulag in Siberia, but they escaped in December 1941 after it burned down. It is implied that Heavy tortured the guards to allow them to escape.

It is often assumed that Heavy's father was a victim of Stalin's Great Purge. However, this took place from 1936-1939. The campaign of repression which targeted Heavy's family is thus more likely to in fact be the Red Army Purge, which took place from Oct 1940 to Feb 1942.

Interestingly, this implies that Heavy's father was not a member of the White Army (the loose coalition of forces which opposed the Bolsheviks during the Civil War). Instead, he was most likely a moderately-ranked member of the Soviet Union's army, and was scapegoated or arrested on fabricated charges.

Heavy's family being of a modestly decent income prior to the execution of his father also checks out if we consider how well-educated Heavy is, they must have been able to afford to support their only son's studies