Union of Socialist Republics of the European Soviet

[The European Soviet]

Complete with pictures!

Hello everyone, before I get started with this factbook, let me get a few things straight. First of all, I would like you not to post until I finish giving all the information (it will take me several posts).

Second of all, yes, this country may be unoriginal, but hey, I don't care.

Third, I will post a few maps throughout my factbook. Unfortunately, some have present-day borders on them. I could not remove them without ruining the maps. Sorry for any inconvenience.

I would also like to point out that I'm no robot, nor am I an expert in any political, economic or military subject, so obviously I might have made some mistakes, or made some unrealistic choices. I apologize in advance for that.

As for an ending, well, I hope you enjoy it, I worked quite a bit on this factbook. It's mostly a mixture of stuff taken from the internet, stuff taken from books, and stuff taken from the back of my head. With that said, let's get started

[The European Soviet]

The Union of Socialist Republics of the European Soviet (USRES) and commonly known as the European Soviet was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Europe between 1900 and 2000. A more informal name also used among its residents was the Union.

The European Soviet had a single-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1999. Although the USRES was nominally a union of Soviet republics (81 in all) with the capital in Bernotai, it was actually a highly centralized state with a planned economy.

[The European Soviet]

Constitutionally, the European Soviet was a union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), although the rule of the highly cenralized Communist Party made the union merely nominal. The Treaty on the Creation of the USRES was signed in January 1900 by eighty-one founding republics.

Republics of the European Soviet

The Republics of the European Soviet or the Union Republics of the European Soviet were ethnically or geographically based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the European Soviet. The European Soviet was historically a highly centralized state.

According to the Article 76 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, the sovereign Soviet socialist states united to become the United Socialist States of the European Soviet. Article 81 of the Constitution stated that "the sovereign rights of Union Republics shall be safeguarded by the USRES".

From the beginning of its' existence, up until the end, the European Soviet officially consisted of eighty-one Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR). All of them were considered to be Soviet socialist republics (SSR), and all of them had their own Communist parties, part of the Communist Party of the European Soviet.

Constitutionally, the European Soviet was a federation. In accordance with provisions present in the Constitution, each republic retained the right to secede from the USRES.

In practice, the USRES was a highly centralised entity from its creation. Under the constitution, the political foundation of the European Soviet was formed by the Soviets (Councils) of People's Deputies. These existed at all levels of the administrative hierarchy, with the European Soviet as a whole under the nominal control of the Supreme Soviet of the USRES, located in Bernotai.

The SSRs were named after a certain ethnic population living in them.

Some SSRs were further split into ASSRs (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics), which were, once again, named after the ethnic group. For example, the Austrian ASSR was part of the Germanic SSR.

[The European Soviet]

According to data from the 2000 European Soviet census, the largest ethnic groups of the European Soviet were the Russians.

Demographic statistics

Population: 727 million
Population growth rate: 2.20%
Crude birth Rate: 21 births/1,000 population
Crude death rate: 8 deaths/1,000 population
Net migration rate: 1 migrants/1,000 population
Infant mortality rate: 23 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth: 68 years male, 72 years female
Total fertility rate: 2.82 children born/woman
Nationality: noun - European Soviet(s); adjective - European Soviet
Literacy: 99%
Labor force: 51% industry and other nonagricultural fields, 49% agriculture (includes fishing)

Ethnic Groups

The European Soviet was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 100 distinct national ethnicities living within its borders.

[The European Soviet]

Young Pioneers at Gurzuf, Ukrainian SSR

Education in the European Soviet was organized in a highly centralized government-run system. Its advantages were total access for all citizens and post-education employment. The European Soviet recognized that the foundation of their system depended upon complete dedication of the people to the state through education in the broad fields of engineering, the natural sciences, the life sciences and social sciences, along with basic education. Education was free for all in the European Soviet. The accessibility for European Soviet Soviet citizens to primary, secondary and technical education were about the same as the United States. The accessibility to higher education, however, differed greatly; in the European Soviet about 20 percent of all applicants were accepted. Those who did not get accepted either started working or learned a skill at a vocational technical school or a technicum. While a Soviet citizen could not reapply after being rejected, just as in the US, US citizens can pay themselves into higher education

Classifications and Terms

The European Soviet educational system was organized into three levels. The names of these levels were used to rate the education standards of persons or particular schools, despite differences in the exact terminology used by each profession or school. Military, milita, ACSS and Party schools were also graded according to these levels. This distinguishes European Soviet system from the rest of the world, where educational levels of schools may differ, despite their similar names.

Elementary schools were called the "beginning" level, 3 or 4 classes, depending on the republic. Secondary schools were 7 or 8 classes, again, depending on the republic (required complete elementary school) and called "incomplete secondary education". The "complete secondary education" level (10 or, in some republics, 11 years) was compulsory.

PTUs, technicums, and some military facilities formed a system of so-called “secondary specialized education”. PTU's were vocational schools and trained students in a wide variety of skills ranging from mechanic to hairdresser. Completion of a PTU after primary school did not provide a full secondary diploma or a route to such a diploma. However, entry to a technicum or other specialized secondary school could be started after either 8 or 10 classes of combined education in elementary and secondary school. Graduation from this level was required for the positions of qualified workers, technicians and lower bureaucrats.


Young pioneers at Bucharest, Romanian SSR

“Higher” educational institutions included degree-level facilities: universities, “institutes” and military academies. "Institute" in the sense of a school refers to a specialized "microuniversity" (mostly technical), usually subordinate to the ministry associated with their field of study. The largest network "institutes" were medical, pedagogic (for the training of schoolteachers), construction and various transport (automotive and road, railroad, civil aviation) institutes. Some of those institutes were present in every province capital while others were unique and situated in big cities (like the Literature Institute and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology ). Colloquially these universities and institutes were all referred to by the acronym "HES" ("higher educational institution").

Students who wanted admission to a HES had to have graduated from either a general secondary school (10 or 11 years) or a specialized secondary school or a technicum. Those who completed only vocational school (PTU) or "incomplete secondary school" were not deemed to have been certified as having completed secondary education (they lacked a maturity certificate – or equivalent diploma from a specialized secondary school) and were thus were not eligible to attend a HES.

Numerous military and militia (police) schools were on the same higher level. Note that European Soviet military and militia facilities named "Academy" were not a degree-level school (like Western military academies such as West Point), but a post-graduate school for experienced officers. Such schools were compulsory for officers applying for the rank of colonel.

ACSS's higher education institutions were called either "schools" (like "Higher School of ACSS") or "institutes" (like "Red Banner Institute of ACSS" - training specifically intelligence officers).

CPES's higher education institutions were called "Higher Party Schools".

Young Pioneers

The Young Pioneers were the European Soviet version of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, for kids the ages 6-18. Much like their fellow scouts in the West, the Young Pioneers wore uniforms and neckerchiefs, earned merit badges, went on campouts, and learned timeless values such as loyalty, honesty, and being prepared. But the Young Pioneers were also designed to inculcate communist values and loyalty to the state. Young Pioneers were famously encouraged to spy on their parents and report any unloyal behavior to their troop leaders.


Young Pioneers at Munich, German SSR

[The European Soviet]

The USRES had many ethnic groups, although all of them were Caucasian in regards of skin color

The European Soviet was a very ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 727 million in 2000. As a 2000 estimate, the majority of the population were Russians.

All citizens of the USRES had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen. The ethnicity of a child were chosen by the child's parents, if the parents did not agree on what ethnicity the child was, the child automatically become the same ethnicity as his or her mother. Partly due to European Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered as part of larger ethnic groups

Ethnic make-up, by number of people belonging to it:

- Slavic
- Latin
- Germanic
- Turkic
- Indo-Iranian
- Finno-Ugric
- Celtic
- Greek
- Albanian
- Caucasian
- Kartvelian
- Armenian
- Baltic
- Semitic
- Basque
- Mongolic

A list of ethnic groups, with smaller minority ethnic groups considered part of them in paranthesis, ordered by number of people belonging to the ethnic group:

- Russians (Pomors, Cossacks)
- Germanics (Germans, Austrians, Alemannic Swiss, Luxembourgers, Alsatians, Lorrainers, South Tyroleans, German-speaking Belgians, North Schleswigers)
- Francophones (French, Walloons, Romands, Provencalls, Occitans, Aranese)
- Italians (Sardinians, Furlans, Lombards, Venetians, Sicilians, Neapolitans, Corsicans)
- English
- Ukrainians (Rusyns, Boyoks, Hutsuls, Lemkos, Poleszuks)
- Spaniards (Castilians, Andalusians, Asturians, Aragonese, Galicians, Catalans)
- Poles
- Romanians (Daco-Romanians, Moldovans, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians, Aromanians)
- Dutch people (Netherlandic, Flemish people)
- Scandinavians (Nowegians, Swedes, Finland Swedes, Gotlanders, Danes, Faroese, Icelanders)
- Kurds
- Turks
- Portugese
- Hungarians
- Bulgarians (Pomaks)
- Czechs
- Belarussians
- Greeks
- Serbs
- Albanians
- Georgians
- Volga Tatars
- Irish (Gaeltacht)
- Scots (Gàidhealtachd)
- Finns (Karelians, Sweden Finns, Ingrian Finns, Kven people)
- Welsh
- Croats
- Slovaks
- Armenians
- Romani people
- Lithuanians (Samogitians)
- Bosniaks
- Crimeans (Tat Tatars, Yaliboyu Tatars, Nogay Tatars)
- Basques
- Slovenes
- Chuvash
- Silesians
- Macedonians (Torbeš)
- Karachays
- Latvians (Latgalians, Kursenieki)
- Bashkirs
- Jews
- Mordvins (Erzya/Shoksha, Moksha, Teryukhan, Qaratay)
- Chechens
- Estonians (Setos, Võros)
- Udmurts
- Montenegrins
- Rhaeto-Romanics (Romansh, Friulians, Ladins)
- Mari
- Kashubs
- Frisians
- Komi (Komi-Izhemtsy, Komi-Permyaks)
- Avars
- Adygeans
- Ossetians
- Dargin
- Kabards
- Maltese
- Bretons
- Kumyks
- Lezgins
- Cornish
- Gagauz
- Ingush
- Cherkes
- Kalmyks
- Sami
- Lak
- Tabasarans
- Balkars
- Nogais
- Sorbs
- Manx
- Gibraltarians
- Tats
- Rutuls
- Veps
- Tsakhur people
- Izhorians
- Livonians

[The European Soviet]

Map of religious preference throughout the USRES and the surrounding countries

Christianity, Judaism and Islam had the greatest number of adherents among the European Soviet state's religious citizens. Christianity was the largest religion,, with Islam being the second largest. Judaism was also somewhat large.

In European Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally guaranteed in the European Soviet, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religious views as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism. In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact utilized a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activity of religious groups. Churches, Mosques and Syangogues were permitted to exist as long as they and their adherents accepted European Soviet authority. If that didn't happen, then the locations would get closed down for "anti-revolutionary behaviour", and their practitioners sent for special "re-education camps" in order to get rid of any religious behaviour.

[The European Soviet]

The "soviet" language was created shortly after the formation of the USRES. Top expert linguists from across the country were gathered to create a new language, worthy of communism. The soviet language is what came out. The language has a rather large alphabet, making it very hard for a non-native speaker to learn. The language itself sounds odd when heard by the outsider, as if someone was saying one sentence using words from different languages.

The soviet language is the current lingua franca of the USRES. Because of its' ethnically diverse nature, people speak various languages depending on the area they're from, but everyone knows the soviet language. It was also one of the other reasons it was created. When the USRES was formed, it had millions of people that couldn't understand each other. It NEEDED a new language if it was to survive.

TИε SѮχiЕφt ЛαnЗφaЗε iР φeЧψ hАρd Сο mАτtЕσς.

The Soviet Language is very hard to master.

[The European Soviet]

A worker in a factory from the Russian SSR

The economy of the USRES was based on a system of state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, industrial manufacturing and centralized administrative planning. The economy was characterised by state control of investment and public ownership of industrial assets. By USRES law, every individual was forced to have a profession. If said person couldn't find a profession to his liking, then the state would help him by choosing the one that fits his education and experience best.

Throughout its' entire history, the entire course of the economy was guided by a series of Five-Year Plans. Because of this, the nation became one of the world's top manufacturers of a large number of light industrial products, consumer durables, capital goods, heavy industrial products and weaponry.

Agriculture

Agriculture was organized into a system of collective farms and state farms. Organized on a large scale and highly mechanized, the European Soviet was one of the world's leading producers of agricultural goods.

Manufacturing

The European Soviet had a thriving manufacturing sector, with a large part of the world's industrial production taking place in the USRES. The main products in the European Soviet industry were chemical and pharmaceutical goods, oil products, food, clothing, and military ordinance.

Foreign trade

Largely self-sufficient, the European Soviet traded little in comparison to its economic strength. It should be noted, however, that the USRES rarely engaged in trading with noncommunist countries.

[The European Soviet]

A typical European Soviet computer

The European Soviet placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy. By 2000, European Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of chemistry, medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies.

[The European Soviet]

A USRES railway, Romanian SSR

Transport was a key component of the nation's economy. The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. European Soviet rail transport was the largest and the most intensively used in the world; it was also better developed than most of its Capitalist counterparts. The road network of the European Soviet remained underdeveloped, and dirt roads were common outside cities.

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure. The demand for transport infrastructure and services was rising, the European Soviet authorities proved to be unable to meet the growing demand of the people. The underdeveloped European Soviet road network, in a chain reaction, led to a growing demand for public transport.

[The European Soviet]

The People's Palace - the headquarters of the Central Executive Committee

There were three power hierarchies in the European Soviet: the legislative branch represented by the Central Executive Comittee, the government represented by the Council of Ministers of the USRES and the Communist Party of the European Soviet (CPES), the only legal party and the ultimate policymaker in the country.

The Communist Party

At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. The Central Committee in turn voted for a Politburo, Secretariat and the General Secretary, literally the highest ranking office in the USRES. Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country. They weren't controlled by the mass of the party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to the higher bodies, and the elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state largely through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Central Executive Comittee were members of the CPES, the more important they were the higher their position in the party hierarchy. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.

In practice, however, the control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, was far from total, with the state bureaucracy pursuing different interests, at times in conflict with the party. Neither was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.

The Government

The Central Executive Committee, nearly unanimously voted for by the population in uncontested and less than secret elections, nominally the highest state body for most of the European Soviet Soviet history, while at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions imposed on it by the party, the powers and functions of the Supreme Soviet were extended later on. New powers including creating new state commissions and committees, it gained additional powers when it came to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the European Soviet state budget. The Central Executive Committee elected a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court, the Procurator General and the Council of People's Commissars, headed by the Premier and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.

The state security police (the CSS) played important role in European Soviet politics. The CSS had the task of engaging in the suppression of political dissent and maintaining an extensive network of informers. The means by which it did that (extensive phone tapping network, severe interrogation, etcetera) were commonly seen as "infrigning on the the personal liberties of the people" by capitalist countries.

Judicial system

The judiciary was not independent from the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the CEC. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The European Soviet utilized the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where judge, Procurator, and defense attorney work collaboratively to establish the truth.


The police force in the USRES is called militia

[The European Soviet]

European Soviet radio and TV programming was highly diverse and somewhat similar to that of American PBS. It included news programs, various educational programs, documentaries, and children's programs. Major sports events such as football and ice hockey matches were often broadcast live. Programming was entirely domestic. Some TV miniseries were locally produced for TV, but rarely exceeded 5-10 episodes in length.

Like all other forms of public media in the European Soviet, European Soviet TV was remarkable for having high levels of self-censorship. In addition to obvious state-mandated restrictions such as prohibition of any form of criticism of European Soviet government, the list of taboo topics included all aspects of sex, public nudity, graphic portrayal of violence, and coarse language. (Unlike on many Western TV channels, where these topics are usually regulated during daytime, in the European Soviet they were completely banned regardless of time of the day or target audience.) The subject of drug abuse was avoided. Religion was either portrayed critically or avoided.

The European Soviet radio and TV programming did not carry any advertisments.

[The European Soviet]

- A regular school health inspection

The European Soviet principle of health care were conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health. Health care was to be controlled by the state, which in turn would provide health care for its citizens free of charge. Article 42 of the European Soviet Constitution wrote that all citizens had the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USRES. European Soviet socialised medicine was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists.

After the communist takeover of power the life expectancy for all age groups went up. The improvements in the European Soviet life expectancy was used by authorities to "prove" that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s, when the life expectancy in the European Soviet went beyond the life expectancy in most capitalist countries.

[The European Soviet]

Warning, lots of pictures coming up ahead!

- Armored Crewman, Summer off-duty uniform


- Armoured Force, summer field dress


- Armoured Force, summer field dress, underwater escape kit


- Armoured Force, winter field dress


- Border Guard


- Border Guard, snow camouflage


- C/BW soldier


- C/BW soldier


- C/BW soldier


- Officer, Naval Infantry, summer field dress


- Coast Guard, service uniform


- Combat Engineer, winter field dress


- Commitee for State Security - Special Purpose ForceS (CSS-SPF)


- Engineer, summer field dress


- Flight suit - summer


- Flight suit - winter


- Ground crewman, working dress


- Military Police


- Motorcyclist


- Motor Rifles, honour guard


- Motor Rifles, BMP battalion


- Motor Rifles, camouflage


- Motor Rifles, camouflage


- Motor Rifles, CO, summer field dress


- Motor Rifles, CO, winter field dress


- Motor Rifles, CO, winter field dress


- Motor Rifles, off-duty dress


- Motor Rifles, summer field dress


- Motor Rifles, summer field dress


- Motor Rifles, winter field dress


- Mountain Infatry, summer field dress


- Naval Infantry, combat dress


- Naval Infantry, tank crew member


- Naval infantry, winter field dress


- NCO, respectively CO, artillery parade/off-duty dress


- Paratrooper, off-duty uniform


- Officer, Armoured unit


- Paratrooper, summer combat dress


- Paratrooper, summer jump uniform


- Paratrooper, winter jump uniform


- Seaman, summer field service uniform


- Traffic regulator troops


- Work suit


- Medical Officer, summer field dress

[The European Soviet]

Ah, there we go. Comments and questions, both IC and OOC, are highly appreciated.

[Brigandes]

Brigandes applauds its friend the USRES for it's long history and glorious culture.

[The European Soviet]

Brigandes applauds its friend the USRES for it's long history and glorious culture.

The people of the USRES would like to extend their "thank you" to the people of Brigandes, and wish them the best of luck in the future.