- Pronouns
- he/him/his
- TNP Nation
- Zemnaya Svoboda
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- Eluvatar#8517
General musings, brainstorming, and talk about my RP as Zemnaya Svoboda or as I will be referring to it within RP, the Russian Republic.
I will try to convert this information into factbook and RP form over time.
Map
[img=550,550]https://i.imgur.com/eMfuDpr.png[/img]
The above map has tints for the various Zemstvos of the Russian Republic, separate regions with some significant local governance. These regions are partly designed by committee and partly historical in origin. The southernmost, Ingria, includes the capital, Petrograd.
History
The Russian Republic is the successor state to the Russian Empire.
Before the Empire
The Princes of Muscovy gradually gained suzeranity over most of the other Russian principalities in the 13th and 14th centuries, eventually proclaiming themselves Czars of all the Russias in the 15th century (1400s). This Muscovite Russia was vast but landlocked and behind its neighbors technologically and culturally. Many Russian lands were under the sway of other princes and kings.
Peter the Great
Peter I, the Great, was greatly enamored of foreign advances, and determined to "chop open a window onto The North Pacific." Bending the nobles and peoples of the Russias to his will, he conquered Ingria in 1710 and constructed a new capital there, St Petersburg. In this new capital, he proclaimed himself Emperor of a new Russian Empire.
The Russian Empire
Peter's successors built on his successes and expanded the Empire further. By 1807, the rest of Nierr (excepting Ghis Town) had fallen under their sway. However, in the 1850s a devastating military defeat showed that the Empire had fallen behind once again, and needed drastic political and economic reforms to compete.
It is suspected that Nicholas I committed suicide rather than accept defeat, but regardless of the case, his son Alexander II effectively lead the Empire's response. Making peace quickly, he proceeded to finally end Serfdom in the Empire, introduce civil rights such as the right to a fair trial, and generally reform the system in a multitude of ways. By the 1870s however, the pace of reform had slackened, and dissent grew. Ironically, the same day Alexander II, tired as he was, finally agreed to introduce a constitution, he was assassinated by "Narodnik" socialist revolutionaries.
Alexander II's son, Alexander III, cracked down hard. Sweeping back many civil liberties and expanding the power of the "Okhranka" (guard) he saw the nigh-elimination of many revolutionary parties, and the exile of the rest. Despite this, foreign investment into industrialization continued, including a massive transcontinental railway project and a prodigious assortment of factories.
Finally, the last Emperor and Czar, Nicholas II succeeded Alexander III. Nicholas II would have been an excellent constitutional monarch: he loved ceremony, and was extremely dutiful. Unfortunately for the Russians, he inherited the role of absolute monarch, one he was not psychologically prepared for.
The Russian Revolution
In 1904, he attempted another war of expansion, against a foreign land where he had nearly been killed in his youth by a maniac, a place whose inhabitants he had come to loathe and view as subhuman. It was a disaster. Spurred by defeats and difficulties at home, in 1905 a peaceful protest march led by a priest assembled in front of the palace... only to be slaughtered by the palace guard. This sparked revolt across the country, mainly in the now industrial cities. Socialists and Anarchists seized control of factories and neighborhoods, and the loyalties of the soldiers in the army were uncertain. Nicholas II was forced to proclaim a new elected Parliament, the Duma, with which he would share legislative power. Ceding much authority to a Prime Minister Stolypin who enjoyed the confidence of the Duma, over the next few years Nicholas enviously watched as land reform brought new prosperity in the countryside and further growth in the cities.
In 1914, the Empire went to war for the last time (renaming St Petersburg to Petrograd, to sound less foreign). While the economy had grown radically in the last ten years, it was not quite enough to catch up. The war was hard, and the enemy advanced deep into lands the Empire had held for over a century. Nicholas' eventual attempts to micromanage the war only made things worse. A blockade cut the country off from most international trade, and mobilization deeply hurt the economy. By 1917, the situation was dire. Bread riots in the capital soon sparked outright revolution. Central rail administration falling into revolutionary hands, the Czar found himself stranded on the way back from the front lines to the capital. Bowing to pressure from his generals, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, Michael. Michael was soon visited by representatives of the "Provisional Committee of the State Duma," and was easily persuaded to decline to take the throne unless an elected Constituent Assembly were to ask him to.
With the Czar out of the way, a "Provisional Committee of the State Duma" made up mostly of liberals took over the ministries as a Provisional Government, while popular will gave control of the streets to elected councils or "Soviets" composed mainly of socialists. The Petrograd Soviet in particular took an outsized role, making occasional demands of the Provisional Government. With the support of the people, the Provisional Government bowed to the demands to remove the expansionist-minded and more conservative Ministers and eventually select Alexander Kerenskij, a Socialist Revolutionary, as President Minister.
Under Kerenskij's leadership, the Provisional Government gained the confidence of the people. Carefully managing the war effort, despite occasional setbacks the front lines held. Eventually, the Constituent Assembly was elected, with two thirds of its membership Socialist Revolutionary, and most of the remainder one kind of Social Democrat or another (bolsheviks and mensheviks being the two factions, with mensheviks far outnumbering bolsheviks). The SRs quickly drafted and adopted a constitution for a federal republic, focused on serving the needs and desires of the peasants still constituting the vast majority of the population.
The Russian Republic
Having achieved their unifying goal, rifts within the Socialist Revolutionary party soon became obvious. The Left SRs and Right SRs agreed with the necessity of continuing the war in self-defense, but were uncertain as to what to do about the many privately owned industries in the cities. The Right SRs were in agreement with the Menshevik Social-Democrats that Russia needed to finish Industrializing before it could contemplate building a true socialist utopia, while the Left SRs were unwilling to leave the means of production in the hands of exploitative classes.
With the arrival of peace, the advantage went to the faction supported by the now popular leader, Kerenskij, who was a pragmatist and sided with the Right SRs. Russian capitalism would continue.
Today, the Republic is a prosperous social democracy, with plenty of unnationalized private industries but a healthy social safety net and a federalized government.
I will try to convert this information into factbook and RP form over time.
Map
[img=550,550]https://i.imgur.com/eMfuDpr.png[/img]
The above map has tints for the various Zemstvos of the Russian Republic, separate regions with some significant local governance. These regions are partly designed by committee and partly historical in origin. The southernmost, Ingria, includes the capital, Petrograd.
History
The Russian Republic is the successor state to the Russian Empire.
Before the Empire
The Princes of Muscovy gradually gained suzeranity over most of the other Russian principalities in the 13th and 14th centuries, eventually proclaiming themselves Czars of all the Russias in the 15th century (1400s). This Muscovite Russia was vast but landlocked and behind its neighbors technologically and culturally. Many Russian lands were under the sway of other princes and kings.
Peter the Great
Peter I, the Great, was greatly enamored of foreign advances, and determined to "chop open a window onto The North Pacific." Bending the nobles and peoples of the Russias to his will, he conquered Ingria in 1710 and constructed a new capital there, St Petersburg. In this new capital, he proclaimed himself Emperor of a new Russian Empire.
The Russian Empire
Peter's successors built on his successes and expanded the Empire further. By 1807, the rest of Nierr (excepting Ghis Town) had fallen under their sway. However, in the 1850s a devastating military defeat showed that the Empire had fallen behind once again, and needed drastic political and economic reforms to compete.
It is suspected that Nicholas I committed suicide rather than accept defeat, but regardless of the case, his son Alexander II effectively lead the Empire's response. Making peace quickly, he proceeded to finally end Serfdom in the Empire, introduce civil rights such as the right to a fair trial, and generally reform the system in a multitude of ways. By the 1870s however, the pace of reform had slackened, and dissent grew. Ironically, the same day Alexander II, tired as he was, finally agreed to introduce a constitution, he was assassinated by "Narodnik" socialist revolutionaries.
Alexander II's son, Alexander III, cracked down hard. Sweeping back many civil liberties and expanding the power of the "Okhranka" (guard) he saw the nigh-elimination of many revolutionary parties, and the exile of the rest. Despite this, foreign investment into industrialization continued, including a massive transcontinental railway project and a prodigious assortment of factories.
Finally, the last Emperor and Czar, Nicholas II succeeded Alexander III. Nicholas II would have been an excellent constitutional monarch: he loved ceremony, and was extremely dutiful. Unfortunately for the Russians, he inherited the role of absolute monarch, one he was not psychologically prepared for.
The Russian Revolution
In 1904, he attempted another war of expansion, against a foreign land where he had nearly been killed in his youth by a maniac, a place whose inhabitants he had come to loathe and view as subhuman. It was a disaster. Spurred by defeats and difficulties at home, in 1905 a peaceful protest march led by a priest assembled in front of the palace... only to be slaughtered by the palace guard. This sparked revolt across the country, mainly in the now industrial cities. Socialists and Anarchists seized control of factories and neighborhoods, and the loyalties of the soldiers in the army were uncertain. Nicholas II was forced to proclaim a new elected Parliament, the Duma, with which he would share legislative power. Ceding much authority to a Prime Minister Stolypin who enjoyed the confidence of the Duma, over the next few years Nicholas enviously watched as land reform brought new prosperity in the countryside and further growth in the cities.
In 1914, the Empire went to war for the last time (renaming St Petersburg to Petrograd, to sound less foreign). While the economy had grown radically in the last ten years, it was not quite enough to catch up. The war was hard, and the enemy advanced deep into lands the Empire had held for over a century. Nicholas' eventual attempts to micromanage the war only made things worse. A blockade cut the country off from most international trade, and mobilization deeply hurt the economy. By 1917, the situation was dire. Bread riots in the capital soon sparked outright revolution. Central rail administration falling into revolutionary hands, the Czar found himself stranded on the way back from the front lines to the capital. Bowing to pressure from his generals, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, Michael. Michael was soon visited by representatives of the "Provisional Committee of the State Duma," and was easily persuaded to decline to take the throne unless an elected Constituent Assembly were to ask him to.
With the Czar out of the way, a "Provisional Committee of the State Duma" made up mostly of liberals took over the ministries as a Provisional Government, while popular will gave control of the streets to elected councils or "Soviets" composed mainly of socialists. The Petrograd Soviet in particular took an outsized role, making occasional demands of the Provisional Government. With the support of the people, the Provisional Government bowed to the demands to remove the expansionist-minded and more conservative Ministers and eventually select Alexander Kerenskij, a Socialist Revolutionary, as President Minister.
Under Kerenskij's leadership, the Provisional Government gained the confidence of the people. Carefully managing the war effort, despite occasional setbacks the front lines held. Eventually, the Constituent Assembly was elected, with two thirds of its membership Socialist Revolutionary, and most of the remainder one kind of Social Democrat or another (bolsheviks and mensheviks being the two factions, with mensheviks far outnumbering bolsheviks). The SRs quickly drafted and adopted a constitution for a federal republic, focused on serving the needs and desires of the peasants still constituting the vast majority of the population.
The Russian Republic
Having achieved their unifying goal, rifts within the Socialist Revolutionary party soon became obvious. The Left SRs and Right SRs agreed with the necessity of continuing the war in self-defense, but were uncertain as to what to do about the many privately owned industries in the cities. The Right SRs were in agreement with the Menshevik Social-Democrats that Russia needed to finish Industrializing before it could contemplate building a true socialist utopia, while the Left SRs were unwilling to leave the means of production in the hands of exploitative classes.
With the arrival of peace, the advantage went to the faction supported by the now popular leader, Kerenskij, who was a pragmatist and sided with the Right SRs. Russian capitalism would continue.
Today, the Republic is a prosperous social democracy, with plenty of unnationalized private industries but a healthy social safety net and a federalized government.
