The Bear and the Eagle
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“War is what happens when language fails.” - Margaret Atwood
Summary
The area of Seversk has a long standing history of conflict. During the Second Atlasian Great War, after repelling the Roskian invasion from the east, the Stasnovan Red Army turned west, with one new objective: Elesar. The Empire of Elesar, was a long-standing ideological rival of the United Socialist Republics of Stasnov, having a right-wing government, in contrast to Stasnov, that had just recently emerged as a new-born Marxist-Leninist state from the fires of Revolution. The Stasnovan Red Army's advance into the Elesarian mainland was swift and brutal. As the crimson banner of the Revolution flew proudly on the building the housed the Elesarian State Duma, a new Socialist government was installed under Stasnovan supervision, and a Marxist-Leninist state was formed with the blessing of Vastava.
However, before the Communist Party was established as the rulling political power by the Stasnovans, there was a short occupation of Elesar by the Stasnovan military. Numerous times, the soldiers were followed their families, who sometimes settled down in Elesar, particularly, in the border area of Seversk, that already had a significant ethnic Stasnovan minority. Lage numbers of Stasnovans settled there, enlarging the number of ethnic Stasnovans in the region. The close bond between the Socialist governments of Stasnov and Elesar, and the promotion of friendship between the two largerly similar peoples proved to be significant to that.
After the war's end, the new Elesarian government undertook numerous reforms of the economy. The first years of the new Socialist government in office proved succesful, and with Stasnovan support, Elesar quickly recovered from its war wounds. However, as years passed, the Party's hardliners came into power, and things changed. Forced five-year plams and other more oppressive and strict policies were introduced by the government, that eventually turned Elesar into a police state, where the Party's agents spread its influence through terror.
In 1987, the people could take no more. A popular revolution arose, lead by heavily conservative and royalist factions who, upon the defeat of the leftists, formed the new government of the country and invited the Imperial Family to take the throne of the monarchy. However, the Stasnovans could not simply stand and watch, regardless of the fact that many Stasnovan officials critisized the Elesarian governemnt. Immedeately, an invasion force, composed primarily from airborne troops, of the Stasnovan military crossed into Elesar, to help the former government restore order. Regardless of the Stasnovan efforts, the rebels managed to overcome the Communist forces, and pushed them out of the country. The Stasnovan failure was largerly attributed to then ongoing Stasno-Roskian border war. During the war, the area of Seversk was heavily disputed. The Elesarian rebels tried to keep it under their control, however, a large portion now belonged to the Stasnovan military. When the monarchist government of Elesar was established properly, peace talks began with the Stasnovans. An agreement was reached, the the Seversk region was split into two parts: the Elesarian and Stasnovan ones. The region's capital, the city of TBA itself, is divided into two parts as well.
The Seversk area, despite the agreement being settled back in 1987, has still been in dispute, with the Elesarians claiming that it is rightfully part of their country, and the Stasnovans on the other side stating that they need to bring the large ethnically Stasnovan population under the protection of the Motherland. As the tensions are again on the rise on the Elesarian-Stasnovan border, the dark clouds of a great storm form above Seversk. Eventual war might be inevitable.
