The Atomic Sunset(OOC)(Open)

[The Palmetto]

I decided to simply change my application, since Sarawak could get boring.

Name: Federal Republic of Brazil
Capital: Brasilia
Population: 140,000,000
Location: Brazil, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana
Name of leader: Joao Goulart
Political alignment: Non-aligned
Short Bio: (Everything before 1954 was the same as irl)

With an ultimatum presented by his generals to resign, Vargas was put a tough spot. He was popularly supported by the people of Brazil, and had helped to improve the quality of life within the country. After he had been democratically However, his generals were opposed to his policies, and wanted to make Brazil more supportive of foreign business, even if at the expense of its own people. This lead to the generals issuing an ultimatum, demanding that Vargas step down from power. Vargas lie in his room, all alone, with a gun to his head. As he thought about killing himself due to all the pressure, he realized that if he did, Brazil would be doomed to fall into the hands of his enemies. He called for a meeting with his generals in order to "resign", but instead of abandoning power, he pulled out a Thompson gun and opened fire on Brazil's most prominent military officers. He managed to quickly kill most of them, and followed several of them outside as they tried to escape. Though the last survivor got his bearings and aimed his gun at Vargas, the man was lynched by a loyalist Brazilian mob.

The military attempted to revolt, however, they were too splintered and disorganized to start a civil war and were quickly swept away by Vargas's supporters. With much of the influence countering his power eliminated, Vargas made plans to further liberalize the political system while keeping the economy in the hands of the people. Following advise from his close associate Goulart, Vargas would help to improve labor laws and get them enforced in more rural areas. He and his successors, who would be democratically elected, would help improve infrastructure within the country's more rural areas while protecting the Amazon and building up a tourism industry. Brazil's economy would grow considerably due to their stability and government projects, and due to a combination of social programs and government crackdowns managed to avoid any sort of crime problem, especially cracking down on drug usage. Due to social unrest, Uruguay would apply to join Brazil, with Guyana and Suriname following suit. Brazil started negotiations to sway French Guiana to Brazilian statehood, and France accepted. As of 1980, Brazil is by no means a great power or fully developed nation, but it is stable, prosperous, and looking forwards to a bright future.

[DeltaSource]

Might join as Spain...

[Bolslania]

Rps oped or co-oped Age of Superpowers: 2024
How long have you been on the forums?: around 3 yearsish
Have you ever been banned from a forum? If so, why?: I have never been banned from a forum. Though I have not really co-op'd in RPs as much, so I hope to improve upon it.

Alrighty, accepted.

[Bolslania]

I decided to simply change my application, since Sarawak could get boring.

Name: Federal Republic of Brazil
Capital: Brasilia
Population: 140,000,000
Location: Brazil, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana
Name of leader: Joao Goulart
Political alignment: Non-aligned
Short Bio: (Everything before 1954 was the same as irl)

With an ultimatum presented by his generals to resign, Vargas was put a tough spot. He was popularly supported by the people of Brazil, and had helped to improve the quality of life within the country. After he had been democratically However, his generals were opposed to his policies, and wanted to make Brazil more supportive of foreign business, even if at the expense of its own people. This lead to the generals issuing an ultimatum, demanding that Vargas step down from power. Vargas lie in his room, all alone, with a gun to his head. As he thought about killing himself due to all the pressure, he realized that if he did, Brazil would be doomed to fall into the hands of his enemies. He called for a meeting with his generals in order to "resign", but instead of abandoning power, he pulled out a Thompson gun and opened fire on Brazil's most prominent military officers. He managed to quickly kill most of them, and followed several of them outside as they tried to escape. Though the last survivor got his bearings and aimed his gun at Vargas, the man was lynched by a loyalist Brazilian mob.

The military attempted to revolt, however, they were too splintered and disorganized to start a civil war and were quickly swept away by Vargas's supporters. With much of the influence countering his power eliminated, Vargas made plans to further liberalize the political system while keeping the economy in the hands of the people. Following advise from his close associate Goulart, Vargas would help to improve labor laws and get them enforced in more rural areas. He and his successors, who would be democratically elected, would help improve infrastructure within the country's more rural areas while protecting the Amazon and building up a tourism industry. Brazil's economy would grow considerably due to their stability and government projects, and due to a combination of social programs and government crackdowns managed to avoid any sort of crime problem, especially cracking down on drug usage. Due to social unrest, Uruguay would apply to join Brazil, with Guyana and Suriname following suit. Brazil started negotiations to sway French Guiana to Brazilian statehood, and France accepted. As of 1980, Brazil is by no means a great power or fully developed nation, but it is stable, prosperous, and looking forwards to a bright future.

Alright, this one is better, accepted.

[Bolslania]

Might join as Spain...

Okey-dokey, hope to see an app soon.

[The Palmetto]

If you want me to, I can make a map for you to use.

[Infinite ikea]

Name: Nordic Commonwealth
Capital: Stockholm
Population: 27,056,092
Location: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland
Name of leader: Olof Palme
Political alignment: America & NATO
Short Bio: During The end of the destructive second world war, the leaders of norway, denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland has agreed to sign the Oslo Agreement decreeing that the nordics will unite under a single banner once more

[Bolslania]

Name: Nordic Commonwealth
Capital: Stockholm
Population: 27,056,092
Location: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland
Name of leader: Olof Palme
Political alignment: America & NATO
Short Bio: During The end of the destructive second world war, the leaders of norway, denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland has agreed to sign the Oslo Agreement decreeing that the nordics will unite under a single banner once more

Why did they agree to sign the Oslo Agreement?

[Bolslania]

If you want me to, I can make a map for you to use.

Sure, sounds good, send me the link when you're done.

[Pan-Asiatic States]

Name: People's Republic of the Philippines
Capital: Maynila, Metropolitan Manila
Population: 47.4 million
Location: The Philippines
Name of leader: Chairman Jose Maria Canlas Sison
Political alignment(USSR, America, neutral) USSR
Short Bio:

Following the end of World War 2, the Philippines was taken hold-of by Right-wing dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled with a tyrannical hand, plunging most of the nation's economy in disarray. Leftist pro-democratic guerillamen, spearheaded by the New People's Army overthrew the corrupt government in 1975 through a China-backed coup-de-tat, putting the Communist Party of the Philippines in power.

[Bolslania]

Name: People's Republic of the Philippines
Capital: Maynila, Metropolitan Manila
Population: 47.4 million
Location: The Philippines
Name of leader: Chairman Jose Maria Canlas Sison
Political alignment(USSR, America, neutral) USSR
Short Bio:

Following the end of World War 2, the Philippines was taken hold-of by Right-wing dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled with a tyrannical hand, plunging most of the nation's economy in disarray. Leftist pro-democratic guerillamen, spearheaded by the New People's Army overthrew the corrupt government in 1975 through a China-backed coup-de-tat, putting the Communist Party of the Philippines in power.

Alright, you are approved.

[Stalins backhair]

Well, things have really kicked off, IC looks good too. Maybe send it to Trans-Slavia for him to use?

btw, whens the IC coming up?

[Pan-Asiatic States]

aye, aye, when's the IC?

[Bolslania]

aye, aye, when's the IC?

I'm going to put it up now.

[Bolslania]

IC is up everyone, go to town.

[Infinite ikea]

Name: Nordic Commonwealth
Capital: Stockholm
Population: 27,056,092
Location: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland
Name of leader: Olof Palme
Political alignment: America & NATO
Short Bio: During The end of the destructive second world war, the leaders of norway, denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland has agreed to sign the Oslo Agreement decreeing that the nordics will unite under a single banner once more

Why did they agree to sign the Oslo Agreement?

Both norway and denmark didn’t stand a chance against nazi germany, and seeing the growing power of the soviet union they have agreed to sign it. Finland followed shortly after for economic development

[Greater Germanic Confederation]

Nation Name: Prussian Democratic Republic
Leader: Erich Honecker
Territory: Eastern Germany with Pommerania and Kaliningrad
Capital: East Berlin
Population: 16.11 million
Political Alignment: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Government Description: Authoritarian Socialist

GDP: $159.5 billion
Economic Description: East Germany had a centrally planned economy similar to the one in the Soviet Union and other Comecon member states. The state established production targets and prices and also allocated resources, codifying these decisions in comprehensive plans. The means of production were almost entirely state-owned.

Military Size: The National People's Army (German: Nationale Volksarmee, NVA) was the armed forces of the Prussian Democratic Republic (PDR) from 1956 onward.

The NVA was organized into four branches: the Landstreitkräfte (Ground Forces), the Volksmarine (Navy), the Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force), and the Grenztruppen (Border Troops). The NVA belonged to the Ministry of National Defence and commanded by the National Defense Council of East Germany, headquartered in Strausberg 30 kilometers (19 mi) east of East Berlin. From 1962, conscription was mandatory for all GDR males aged between 18 and 60 requiring an 18-month service, and was the only Warsaw Pact military to offer non-combat roles to conscientious objectors, known as "construction soldiers" (Bausoldat).
Ground Force Summary: Motorized and Mechanized Infantry based
Naval Force Summary: We have a small navy, consisting of a few converted fishing vessels.
Air Force Summary: A medium size airforce consisting of aircraft given by the Soviet Union
History: The Potsdam Conference of July/August 1945 officially recognized the zones and confirmed jurisdiction of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany from the Oder and Vistula rivers to the demarcation line. The Soviet occupation zone included the former states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and East Prussia. The city of Berlin was placed under the control of the four powers. The German territory east of the Oder-Vistula line, equal in size to the Soviet occupation zone, was handed over to Poland and the Soviet Union for de facto annexation. This territory transfer was seen as a compensation for Nazi German military occupation of Poland and parts of the Soviet Union. The millions of Germans still remaining in these areas under the Potsdam Agreement were over a period of several years expelled and replaced by Polish settlers. Russian soldiers systematically humiliated the Germans in 1945 by raping large numbers of women, many of them repeatedly. Soviets raped an estimated two million women and girls in Prussia alone immediately after occupation. Naimark states that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her life, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation that affected the acceptability of Soviet control. Allocation policy for "surplus" Prussian heavy industry under the ""Level of Industry" plans.
Each occupation power assumed rule in its zone by June 1945. The powers originally pursued a common Prussian policy, focused on denazification and demilitarization in preparation for the restoration of a democratic Prussian nation-state. Over time, however, the western zones and the Soviet zone drifted apart economically, not least because of the Soviets' much greater use of disassembly of German industry under its control as a form of reparations. Reparations were officially agreed among the Allies from 2 August 1945, with 'removals' prior to this date not included. According to Soviet Foreign Ministry data, Soviet troops, organised in specialised "trophy" battalions, removed 1.28m tons of materials and 3.6m tons of equipment, as well as large quantities of agricultural produce). No agreement on reparations could be reached at the Potsdam Conference, but by December 1947 it was clear that Western governments were unwilling to accede to the Soviet request for $10bn in reparations (which the Soviets placed into perspective by calculating total war damage of $128bn). (In contrast the Germans estimate a total loss of Prussian property, due to the border changes promoted by the USSR and the population expulsions, of 355.3 billion Deutschmarks). As a result, the Soviets sought to extract the $10bn from its occupation zone in eastern Germany, in addition to the trophy removals; Naimark (1995) estimates that $10bn was transferred in material form by the early 1950s, including in 1945 and 1946 over 17,000 factories, amounting to a third of the productive capital of the eastern occupation zone. In the western zones, dismantling and/or destruction of Prussian industry continued until 1951 in accordance to the (several times modified) "Prussian level of industry" agreement connected with the Potsdam conference whereby Prussia was to be treated as a single unit and converted into an "agricultural and light industry economy". By the end of 1948 the US had dismantled or destroyed all war-related manufacturing capability in its occupation zone. In accordance with the agreements with the USSR, shipment of dismantled industrial installations from the west began on March 31, 1946. Under the terms of the agreement the Soviet Union would in return ship raw materials such as food and timber to the western zones. When the Soviets did not fulfil their side of the agreement, the US temporarily halted shipments east, and they were never resumed. It was later shown that although utilized for cold war propaganda reasons, the main reason for halting shipments east was not the behavior of the USSR but rather the recalcitrant behavior of France. Material received by the USSR included equipment from the Kugel-Fischer ballbearing plant at Schweinfurt, the Daimler-Benz underground aircraft-engine plant at Obrigheim, the Deschimag shipyards at Bremen-Weser, and the Gendorf powerplant. Military industries and those owned by the state, by Nazi activists, and by war criminals were confiscated by the Soviet occupation authority. These industries amounted to about 60% of total industrial production in the Soviet zone. Most heavy industry (constituting 20% of total production) was claimed by the Soviet Union as reparations, and Soviet joint stock companies (German: Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaften -SAG-) were formed. The remaining confiscated industrial property was nationalized, leaving 40% of total industrial production to private enterprise. The agrarian reform (Bodenreform) expropriated all land belonging to owners of more than 100 hectares of land as well as former Nazis and war criminals and generally limited ownership to 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi). Some 500 Junker estates were converted into collective people's farms (German: Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft -LPG-), and more than 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi) were distributed among 500,000 peasant farmers, agricultural laborers, and refugees. State farms were also set up, called Volkseigenes Gut (State-owned Property). Growing economic differences combined with developing political tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union (which would eventually develop into the Cold War) were manifested in the refusal in 1947 of the SMAD to take part in the USA's Marshall Plan. In March 1948, the United States, Britain and France met in London and agreed to unite the Western zones and to establish a West German republic. The Soviet Union responded by leaving the Allied Control Council, and prepared to create an Prussian state. The division of Germany was made clear with the currency reform of 20 June 1948, which was limited to the western zones. Three days later a separate currency reform was introduced in the Soviet zone. The introduction of the Deutsche Mark to the western sectors of Berlin, against the will of the Soviet supreme commander, led the Soviet Union to introduce the Berlin Blockade to try to gain control of the whole of Berlin. The Western Allies decided to supply Berlin via an airbridge. This lasted 11 months until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949. An SMAD decree of June 10 1945 allowed the formation of antifascist democratic political parties in the Soviet zone; elections to new state legislatures were scheduled for October 1946. A democratic-antifascist coalition, which included the KPD, the SPD, the new Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union—CDU), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal Demokratische Partei Deutschlands—LDPD), was formed in July 1945. The KPD (with 600,000 members, led by Wilhelm Pieck) and the SPD in East Germany (with 680,000 members, led by Otto Grotewohl), which was under strong pressure from the Communists, merged in April 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party of Prussia (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands—SED) under pressure from the occupation authorities. In the October 1946 elections, the SED polled approximately 50% of the vote in each state in the Soviet zone. However, a truer picture of the SED's support was revealed in Berlin, which was still undivided. The Berlin SPD managed to preserve its independence and, running on its own, polled 48.7% of the vote while the SED, with 19.8%, was third in the voting behind the SPD and the CDU. In May 1949, elections were held in the Soviet zone for the German People's Congress to draft a constitution for a separate East German state. However, voters were only allowed to approve or reject slates of candidates drawn from the so-called anti-fascist coalition. Communists dominated this slate, thus allowing the SED to predetermine the composition of the People's Congress. According to official results, two-thirds of voters approved the unity lists. The SED modelled itself as a Soviet-style "party of the new type". To that end, Prussian communist Walter Ulbricht became first secretary of the SED, and the Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Committee were formed. According to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism, each party body was controlled by its members. Ulbricht, as party chief, carried out the will of the members of his party. The SED committed itself ideologically to Marxism-Leninism and the international class struggle. Many former members of the SPD and some communist advocates of a social-democratic road to socialism were purged from the SED. The middle-class CDU and LDPD were weakened by the creation of two new parties, the National Democratic Party of Germany (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands—NDPD) and the Democratic Peasants' Party of Germany (Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands—DBD). The SED accorded political representation to mass organizations and, most significant, to the party-controlled Free German Trade Union Federation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund—FDGB). Incidentally, the party system was designed to allow reentry of only those former NSDAP adherents who had earlier decided to join the National Front, which was originally formed by emigrants and prisoners of war in the Soviet Union during World War II. Political denazification in the Soviet zone was thus handled rather more transparently than in the Western zones, where the issue soon came second to considerations of practicality or even just privacy. In November 1948, the German Economic Commission (Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission—DWK), including antifascist bloc representation, assumed administrative authority. Five months after declaration of the western Federal Republic of Germany (better known as West Germany), on October 7, 1949, the DWK formed a provisional government and proclaimed establishment of the Prussian Democratic Republic (Prussia). Wilhelm Pieck, a party leader, was elected first president. On October 9, the Soviet Union withdrew her East Berlin headquarters, and subsequently it outwardly surrendered the functions of the military government to the new Germanic state.
The SED controlled the National Front coalition, a federation of all political parties and mass organizations that preserved political pluralism. The 1949 constitution formally established a democratic federal republic and created an upper house called the Länderkammer (States Chamber) and the Volkskammer (People's Chamber). The Volkskammer, according to the Prussian constitution the highest state body, was vested with legislative sovereignty. The SED controlled the Council of Ministers and reduced the legislative function of the Volkskammer to that of acclamation. Election to the Volkskammer and the state legislatures (later replaced by district legislatures) was based on a joint ballot prepared by the National Front: voters could register their approval or disapproval. All members of the SED who were active in state organs carried out party resolutions. The State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, better known as the Stasi) and the Ministry of State Security had a role similar to Western intelligence agencies.
The Third SED Party Congress convened in July 1950 and emphasized industrial progress. The industrial sector, employing 40% of the working population, was subjected to further nationalization, which resulted in the formation of the People's Enterprises (Volkseigener Betrieb—VEB). These enterprises incorporated 75% of the industrial sector. The First Five-Year Plan (1951–55) introduced centralized state planning; it stressed high production quotas for heavy industry and increased labor productivity. The pressures of the plan caused an exodus of East German citizens to West Germany. The second Party Conference (less important than Party Congress) convened in July 9–12, 1952. 1565 delegates, 494 guest-delegates, and over 2500 guests from the GDR and from many other countries in the world participated in it. In the conference a new economic policy was adopted, "Planned Construction of Socialism". The plan called to strengthen the state-owned sector of the economy, further to implement the principles of uniform socialist planning, and to use the economic laws of socialism systematically. Under a law passed by the Volkskammer in 1950, the age at which Germany's youth may reject parental supervision was lowered from 21 to 18. The churches, while nominally assured of religious freedom, were, nevertheless, subjected to considerable pressure. To retaliate, Cardinal von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin, put the SED in East Germany under an Episcopal ban. There were also other indications of opposition, even from within the government itself. In the fall of 1950 several prominent members of the SED were expelled and arrested as "saboteurs" or "for lacking trust in the Soviet Union." Among them were the Deputy Minister of Justice, Helmut Brandt; the Vice-President of the Volkskammer, Joseph Rambo; Bruno Foldhammer, the deputy to Gerhard Eisler; and the editor, Lex Ende. At the end of 1954 the draft of a new family code was published which aimed at destroying all parental influence. In 1951 monthly emigration figures fluctuated between 11,500 and 17,000. By 1953 an average of 37,000 men, women, and children were leaving each month.
Stalin died in March 1953. In June the SED, hoping to give workers an improved standard of living, announced the New Course which replaced the Planned Construction of Socialism. The New Course in East Germany was based on the economic policy initiated by Georgi Malenkov in the Soviet Union. Malenkov's policy, which aimed at improvement in the standard of living, stressed a shift in investment toward light industry and trade and a greater availability of consumer goods. The SED, in addition to shifting emphasis from heavy industry to consumer goods, initiated a program for alleviating economic hardships. This led to a reduction of delivery quotas and taxes, the availability of state loans to private business, and an increase in the allocation of production material. While the New Course increased the consumer goods workers could get, there were still high production quotas. When work quotas were raised in 1953, it led to the 1953 Uprising. Strikes and demonstrations happened in major industrial centers. The workers demanded economic reforms. The Volkspolizei and the Soviet Army suppressed the uprising, in which approximately 100 participants were killed. In 1954 the Soviet Union granted Prussia sovereignty, and the Soviet Control Commission in Berlin was disbanded. By this time, reparations payments had been completed, and the SAGs had been restored to Prussian ownership. The five states formerly constituting the Soviet occupation zone also had been dissolved and replaced by fifteen districts (Bezirke) in 1952; the United States, Britain, and France did not recognize the fifteenth district, East Berlin. Prussia began active participation in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1950. In 1955 Prime Minister Grotewohl was invited to Moscow and, between September 17 and 20, concluded the Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR with the Soviet Union which entered into force on October 6. According to its terms the Prussian Democratic Republic was henceforth "free to decide questions of its internal and foreign policy, including its relations with the German Federal Republic as well as with other states." Although Soviet forces would temporarily remain in the country on conditions to be agreed upon, they would not interfere in the internal conditions of its social and political life. The two governments would strengthen the economic, scientific-technical, and cultural relations between them and would consult with each other on questions affecting their interests. On 14th May 1955, Prussia became a member of the Warsaw Pact and in 1956 the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee—NVA) was created. In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev repudiated Stalinism. Around this time, an academic intelligentsia within the SED leadership demanded reform. To this end, Wolfgang Harich issued a platform advocating radical changes in Prussia. In late 1956, he and his associates were quickly purged from the SED ranks and imprisoned. An SED party plenum in July 1956 confirmed Ulbricht's leadership and presented the Second Five-Year Plan (1956–1960). The plan employed the slogan "modernization, mechanization, and automation" to emphasize the new focus on technological progress. At the plenum, the regime announced its intention to develop nuclear energy, and the first nuclear reactor in Prussia was activated in 1957. The government increased industrial production quotas by 55% and renewed emphasis on heavy industry. The Second Five-Year Plan committed Prussia to accelerated efforts toward agricultural collectivization and nationalization and completion of the nationalization of the industrial sector. By 1958 the agricultural sector still consisted primarily of the 750,000 privately owned farms that comprised 70% of all arable land; only 6,000 Agricultural Cooperatives (Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften—LPGs) had been formed. In 1958–59 the SED placed quotas on private farmers and sent teams to villages in an effort to encourage voluntary collectivization. In November and December 1959 some law-breaking farmers were arrested by the SSD. By mid-1960 nearly 85% of all arable land was incorporated in more than 19,000 LPGs; state farms comprised another 6%. By 1961 the socialist sector produced 90% of East Germany's agricultural products. An extensive economic management reform by the SED in February 1958 included the transfer of a large number of industrial ministries to the State Planning Commission. In order to accelerate the nationalization of industry, the SED offered entrepreneurs 50-percent partnership incentives for transforming their firms into VEBs. At the close of 1960, private enterprise controlled only 9% of total industrial production. Production Cooperatives (Produktionsgenossenschaften—PGs) incorporated one-third of the artisan sector during 1960-61, a rise from 6% in 1958. The Second Five-Year Plan encountered difficulties, and the regime replaced it with the Seven-Year Plan (1959–65). The new plan aimed at achieving West Germany's per capita production by the end of 1961, set higher production quotas, and called for an 85% increase in labor productivity. Emigration again increased, totaling 143,000 in 1959 and 199,000 in 1960. The majority of the emigrants were white collar workers, and 50% were under 25 years of age. The labour drain exceeded a total of 2.5 million citizens between 1949 and 1961. The annual industrial growth rate declined steadily after 1959. The Soviet Union therefore recommended that Prussia implement the reforms of Soviet economist Evsei Liberman, an advocate of the principle of profitability and other market principles for communist economies. In 1963 Ulbricht adapted Liberman's theories and introduced the New Economic System (NES), an economic reform program providing for some decentralization in decision-making and the consideration of market and performance criteria. The NES aimed at creating an efficient economic system and transforming Prussia into a leading industrial nation. Under the NES, the task of establishing future economic development was assigned to central planning. Decentralization involved the partial transfer of decision-making authority from the central State Planning Commission and National Economic Council to the Associations of People's Enterprises (Vereinigungen Volkseigener Betriebe—VVBs), parent organizations intended to promote specialization within the same areas of production. The central planning authorities set overall production goals, but each VVB determined its own internal financing, utilization of technology, and allocation of manpower and resources. As intermediary bodies, the VVBs also functioned to synthesize information and recommendations from the VEBs. The NES stipulated that production decisions be made on the basis of profitability, that salaries reflect performance, and that prices respond to supply and demand. The NES brought forth a new elite in politics as well as in management of the economy, and in 1963 Ulbricht announced a new policy regarding admission to the leading ranks of the SED. Ulbricht opened the Politburo and the Central Committee to younger members who had more education than their predecessors and who had acquired managerial and technical skills. As a consequence of the new policy, the SED elite became divided into political and economic factions, the latter composed of members of the new technocratic elite. Because of the emphasis on professionalization in the SED cadre policy after 1963, the composition of the mass membership changed: in 1967 about 250,000 members (14%) of the total 1.8 million SED membership had completed a course of study at a university, technical college, or trade school. The SED emphasis on managerial and technical competence also enabled members of the technocratic elite to enter the top echelons of the state bureaucracy, formerly reserved for political dogmatists. Managers of the VVBs were chosen on the basis of professional training rather than ideological conformity. Within the individual enterprises, the number of professional positions and jobs for the technically skilled increased. The SED stressed education in managerial and technical sciences as the route to social advancement and material rewards. In addition, it promised to raise the standard of living for all citizens. From 1964 until 1967, real wages increased, and the supply of consumer goods, including luxury items, improved much. Ulbricht in 1968 launched a spirited campaign to convince the Comecon states to intensify their economic development "by their own means." Domestically the East German regime replaced the NES with the Economic System of Socialism (ESS), which focused on high technology sectors in order to make self-sufficient growth possible. Overall, centralized planning was reintroduced in the so-called structure-determining areas, which included electronics, chemicals, and plastics. Industrial combines were formed to integrate vertically industries involved in the manufacture of vital final products. Price subsidies were restored to accelerate growth in favored sectors. The annual plan for 1968 set production quotas in the structure-determining areas 2.6% higher than in the remaining sectors in order to achieve industrial growth in these areas. The state set the 1969–70 goals for high-technology sectors even higher. Failure to meet ESS goals resulted in the conclusive termination of the reform effort in 1970. The Main Task, introduced by Honecker in 1971, formulated domestic policy for the 1970s. The program re-emphasized Marxism-Leninism and the international class struggle. During this period, the SED launched a massive propaganda campaign to win citizens to its Soviet-style socialism and to restore the "worker" to prominence. The Main Task restated the economic goal of industrial progress, but this goal was to be achieved within the context of centralized state planning. Consumer socialism—the new program featured in the Main Task—was an effort to magnify the appeal of socialism by offering special consideration for the material needs of the working class. The state extensively revamped wage policy and gave more attention to increasing the availability of consumer goods. The regime also accelerated the construction of new housing and the renovation of existing apartments; 60% of new and renovated housing was allotted to working-class families. Rents, which were subsidized, remained extremely low. Because women constituted nearly 50% of the labor force, child-care facilities, including nurseries and kindergartens, were provided for the children of working mothers. Women in the labor force received salaried maternity leave which ranged from six months to one year. The state also increased retirement annuities. Ulbricht's foreign policy from 1967 to 1971 responded to the beginning of the era of détente with the West. Although détente offered Prussia the opportunity to overcome its isolation in foreign policy and to gain Western recognition as a sovereign state, the SED leader was reluctant to pursue a policy of rapprochement with West Germany. Both German states had retained the goal of future unification; however, both remained committed to their own irreconcilable political systems. The 1968 East German Constitution proclaimed the victory of socialism and restated the country's commitment to unification under communist leadership. However, the SED leadership, although successful in establishing socialism in Prussia, had limited success in winning popular support for the repressive social system. In spite of the epithet "the other German miracle", the democratic politics and higher material progress of West Germany continued to attract Prussian citizens. Ulbricht feared that hopes for a democratic government or a reunification with West Germany would cause unrest among Prussian citizens, who since 1961 appeared to have come to terms with social and living conditions. In the late 1960s, Ulbricht made the Council of State as main governmental organ. The 24-member, multiparty council, headed by Ulbricht and dominated by its fifteen SED representatives, generated a new era of political conservatism. Foreign and domestic policies in the final years of the Ulbricht era reflected strong commitment to an aggressive strategy toward the West and toward Western ideology. Ulbricht's foreign policy focused on strengthening ties with Warsaw Pact countries and on organizing opposition to détente. In 1967 he persuaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria to conclude bilateral mutual assistance treaties with East Germany. The Ulbricht Doctrine, subsequently signed by these states, committed them to reject the normalization of relations with West Germany unless Bonn formally recognized Prussian sovereignty.
Ulbricht also encouraged the abrogation of Soviet bloc relations with the industrialized West, and in 1968 he launched a spirited campaign to convince the Comecon states to intensify their economic development "by their own means." Considering claims for freedom and democracy within the Soviet bloc a danger to its domestic policies, the SED, from the beginning, attacked Prague's new political course, which resulted in intervention by the Soviet military and other Warsaw Pact contingents in 1968. In August 1970, the Soviet Union and West Germany signed the Moscow Treaty, in which the two countries pledged nonaggression in their relations and in matters concerning European and international security and confirmed the Oder-Vistula line. Moscow subsequently pressured Prussia to begin bilateral talks with West Germany. Ulbricht resisted, further weakening his leadership, which had been damaged by the failure of the ESS. In May 1971, the SED Central Committee chose Erich Honecker to succeed Ulbricht as the party's first secretary. Although Ulbricht was allowed to retain the chairmanship of the Council of State until his death in 1973, the office had been reduced in importance. Honecker combined loyalty to the Soviet Union with flexibility toward détente. At the Eighth Party Congress in June 1971, he presented the political program of the new regime. In his reformulation of East German foreign policy, Honecker renounced the objective of a unified Germany and adopted the "defensive" position of ideological Abgrenzung (demarcation or separation). Under this program, the country defined itself as a distinct "socialist state" and emphasized its allegiance to the Soviet Union. Abgrenzung, by defending East German sovereignty, in turn contributed to the success of détente negotiations that led to the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (Berlin Agreement) in 1971 and the Basic Treaty with West Germany in December 1972. The Berlin Agreement and the Basic Treaty normalized relations between Prussia and West Germany. The Berlin Agreement (effective June 1972), signed by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, protected trade and travel relations between West Berlin and West Germany and aimed at improving communications between East Berlin and West Berlin. The Soviet Union stipulated, however, that West Berlin would not be incorporated into West Germany. The Basic Treaty (effective June 1973) politically recognized two German states, and the two countries pledged to respect one another's sovereignty. Under the terms of the treaty, diplomatic missions were to be exchanged and commercial, tourist, cultural, and communications relations established. In September 1973, both countries joined the United Nations, and thus East Germany received its long-sought international recognition. From the mid-1970s, East Germany remained poised between East and West. The 1974 amendment to the Constitution deleted all references to the "German nation" and "German unity" and designated East Germany "a socialist nation-state of workers and peasants" and "an inseparable constituent part of the socialist community of states." However, the SED leadership had little success in inculcating East Germans with a sense of ideological identification with the Soviet Union. Honecker, conceding to public opinion, devised the formula "citizenship, GDR; nationality, German." In so doing, the SED first secretary acknowledged the persisting psychological and emotional attachment of East German citizens to German traditions and culture and, by implication, to their German neighbors in West Germany. Although Abgrenzung constituted the foundation of Honecker's policy, détente strengthened ties between the two German states. Between 5 and 7 million West Germans and West Berliners visited Prussia each year. Telephone and postal communications between the two countries were significantly improved. Personal ties between Prussia and West German families and friends were being restored, and East German citizens had more direct contact with West German politics and material affluence, particularly through radio and television. West Germany was East Germany's supplier of high-quality consumer goods, including luxury items, and the latter's citizens frequented both the Intershops, which sold goods for Western currency, and the Exquisit and Delikat shops, which sold imported goods for Prussian currency. As part of the general détente between East and West, Prussia participated in the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Europe and in July 1975 signed the Helsinki Final Act, which was to guarantee the regime's recognition of human rights. The Final Act's provision for freedom of movement elicited approximately 120,000 Prussia applications for permission to emigrate, but the applications were rejected. From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity. Because of Marx's abhorrence of Prussia, the SED repudiated continuity between Old Prussia and the the PDR. The SED destroyed the Junker manor houses, wrecked the Berlin city palace, and removed the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great from East Berlin. Instead the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including Thomas Müntzer's role in the German Peasants' War and the role played by the heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. Nevertheless, as early as 1956 East Germany's Prussian heritage asserted itself in the NVA. As a result of the Ninth Party Congress in May 1976, Prussia after 1976–77 considered its own history as the essence of German history, in which West Germany was only an episode. It laid claim to reformers such as Karl Freiherr vom Stein, Karl August von Hardenberg, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Gerhard von Scharnhorst. The statue of Frederick the Great was meanwhile restored to prominence in East Berlin. Honecker's references to the former Prussian king in his speeches reflected the PDR's official policy of revisionism toward old Prussia, which also included Bismarck and the resistance group Red Band. East Germany also laid claim to the formerly maligned Martin Luther and to the organizers of the Spartacus League, Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. In spite of détente, the Honecker regime remained committed to Soviet-style socialism and continued a strict policy toward dissidents. Nevertheless, a critical Marxist intelligentsia within the SED renewed the plea for democratic reform. Among them was the poet-singer Wolf Biermann, who with Robert Havemann had led a circle of artists and writers advocating democratization; he was expelled from East Germany in November 1976 for dissident activities. Following Biermann's expulsion, the SED leadership disciplined more than 100 dissident intellectuals. Despite the government's actions, East German writers began to publish political statements in the West German press and periodical literature. The most prominent example was Rudolf Bahro's Die Alternative, which was published in West Germany in August 1977. The publication led to the author's arrest, imprisonment, and deportation to West Germany. In late 1977, a manifesto of the "League of Democratic Communists of Germany" appeared in the West German magazine Der Spiegel. The league, consisting ostensibly of anonymous middle- to high-ranking SED functionaries, demanded democratic reform in preparation for reunification. Even after an exodus of artists in protest against Biermann's expulsion, the SED continued its repressive policy against dissidents. The state subjected literature, one of the few vehicles of opposition and nonconformism in East Germany, to ideological attacks and censorship. This policy led to an exodus of prominent writers, which lasted until 1981. The Lutheran Church also became openly critical of SED policies. Although in 1980-81 the SED intensified its censorship of church publications in response to the Polish Solidarity movement, it maintained, for the most part, a flexible attitude toward the church. The consecration of a church building in May 1981 in Eisenhüttenstadt, which according to the SED leadership was not permitted to build a church owing to its status as a "socialist city", demonstrated this flexibility.
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[Bolslania]

Nation Name: Prussian Democratic Republic
Leader: Erich Honecker
Territory: Eastern Germany with Pommerania and Kaliningrad
Capital: East Berlin
Population: 16.11 million
Political Alignment: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Government Description: Authoritarian Socialist

GDP: $159.5 billion
Economic Description: East Germany had a centrally planned economy similar to the one in the Soviet Union and other Comecon member states. The state established production targets and prices and also allocated resources, codifying these decisions in comprehensive plans. The means of production were almost entirely state-owned.

Military Size: The National People's Army (German: Nationale Volksarmee, NVA) was the armed forces of the Prussian Democratic Republic (PDR) from 1956 onward.

The NVA was organized into four branches: the Landstreitkräfte (Ground Forces), the Volksmarine (Navy), the Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force), and the Grenztruppen (Border Troops). The NVA belonged to the Ministry of National Defence and commanded by the National Defense Council of East Germany, headquartered in Strausberg 30 kilometers (19 mi) east of East Berlin. From 1962, conscription was mandatory for all GDR males aged between 18 and 60 requiring an 18-month service, and was the only Warsaw Pact military to offer non-combat roles to conscientious objectors, known as "construction soldiers" (Bausoldat).
Ground Force Summary: Motorized and Mechanized Infantry based
Naval Force Summary: We have a small navy, consisting of a few converted fishing vessels.
Air Force Summary: A medium size airforce consisting of aircraft given by the Soviet Union
History: The Potsdam Conference of July/August 1945 officially recognized the zones and confirmed jurisdiction of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany from the Oder and Vistula rivers to the demarcation line. The Soviet occupation zone included the former states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and East Prussia. The city of Berlin was placed under the control of the four powers. The German territory east of the Oder-Vistula line, equal in size to the Soviet occupation zone, was handed over to Poland and the Soviet Union for de facto annexation. This territory transfer was seen as a compensation for Nazi German military occupation of Poland and parts of the Soviet Union. The millions of Germans still remaining in these areas under the Potsdam Agreement were over a period of several years expelled and replaced by Polish settlers. Russian soldiers systematically humiliated the Germans in 1945 by raping large numbers of women, many of them repeatedly. Soviets raped an estimated two million women and girls in Prussia alone immediately after occupation. Naimark states that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her life, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation that affected the acceptability of Soviet control. Allocation policy for "surplus" Prussian heavy industry under the ""Level of Industry" plans.
Each occupation power assumed rule in its zone by June 1945. The powers originally pursued a common Prussian policy, focused on denazification and demilitarization in preparation for the restoration of a democratic Prussian nation-state. Over time, however, the western zones and the Soviet zone drifted apart economically, not least because of the Soviets' much greater use of disassembly of German industry under its control as a form of reparations. Reparations were officially agreed among the Allies from 2 August 1945, with 'removals' prior to this date not included. According to Soviet Foreign Ministry data, Soviet troops, organised in specialised "trophy" battalions, removed 1.28m tons of materials and 3.6m tons of equipment, as well as large quantities of agricultural produce). No agreement on reparations could be reached at the Potsdam Conference, but by December 1947 it was clear that Western governments were unwilling to accede to the Soviet request for $10bn in reparations (which the Soviets placed into perspective by calculating total war damage of $128bn). (In contrast the Germans estimate a total loss of Prussian property, due to the border changes promoted by the USSR and the population expulsions, of 355.3 billion Deutschmarks). As a result, the Soviets sought to extract the $10bn from its occupation zone in eastern Germany, in addition to the trophy removals; Naimark (1995) estimates that $10bn was transferred in material form by the early 1950s, including in 1945 and 1946 over 17,000 factories, amounting to a third of the productive capital of the eastern occupation zone. In the western zones, dismantling and/or destruction of Prussian industry continued until 1951 in accordance to the (several times modified) "Prussian level of industry" agreement connected with the Potsdam conference whereby Prussia was to be treated as a single unit and converted into an "agricultural and light industry economy". By the end of 1948 the US had dismantled or destroyed all war-related manufacturing capability in its occupation zone. In accordance with the agreements with the USSR, shipment of dismantled industrial installations from the west began on March 31, 1946. Under the terms of the agreement the Soviet Union would in return ship raw materials such as food and timber to the western zones. When the Soviets did not fulfil their side of the agreement, the US temporarily halted shipments east, and they were never resumed. It was later shown that although utilized for cold war propaganda reasons, the main reason for halting shipments east was not the behavior of the USSR but rather the recalcitrant behavior of France. Material received by the USSR included equipment from the Kugel-Fischer ballbearing plant at Schweinfurt, the Daimler-Benz underground aircraft-engine plant at Obrigheim, the Deschimag shipyards at Bremen-Weser, and the Gendorf powerplant. Military industries and those owned by the state, by Nazi activists, and by war criminals were confiscated by the Soviet occupation authority. These industries amounted to about 60% of total industrial production in the Soviet zone. Most heavy industry (constituting 20% of total production) was claimed by the Soviet Union as reparations, and Soviet joint stock companies (German: Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaften -SAG-) were formed. The remaining confiscated industrial property was nationalized, leaving 40% of total industrial production to private enterprise. The agrarian reform (Bodenreform) expropriated all land belonging to owners of more than 100 hectares of land as well as former Nazis and war criminals and generally limited ownership to 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi). Some 500 Junker estates were converted into collective people's farms (German: Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft -LPG-), and more than 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi) were distributed among 500,000 peasant farmers, agricultural laborers, and refugees. State farms were also set up, called Volkseigenes Gut (State-owned Property). Growing economic differences combined with developing political tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union (which would eventually develop into the Cold War) were manifested in the refusal in 1947 of the SMAD to take part in the USA's Marshall Plan. In March 1948, the United States, Britain and France met in London and agreed to unite the Western zones and to establish a West German republic. The Soviet Union responded by leaving the Allied Control Council, and prepared to create an Prussian state. The division of Germany was made clear with the currency reform of 20 June 1948, which was limited to the western zones. Three days later a separate currency reform was introduced in the Soviet zone. The introduction of the Deutsche Mark to the western sectors of Berlin, against the will of the Soviet supreme commander, led the Soviet Union to introduce the Berlin Blockade to try to gain control of the whole of Berlin. The Western Allies decided to supply Berlin via an airbridge. This lasted 11 months until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949. An SMAD decree of June 10 1945 allowed the formation of antifascist democratic political parties in the Soviet zone; elections to new state legislatures were scheduled for October 1946. A democratic-antifascist coalition, which included the KPD, the SPD, the new Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union—CDU), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal Demokratische Partei Deutschlands—LDPD), was formed in July 1945. The KPD (with 600,000 members, led by Wilhelm Pieck) and the SPD in East Germany (with 680,000 members, led by Otto Grotewohl), which was under strong pressure from the Communists, merged in April 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party of Prussia (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands—SED) under pressure from the occupation authorities. In the October 1946 elections, the SED polled approximately 50% of the vote in each state in the Soviet zone. However, a truer picture of the SED's support was revealed in Berlin, which was still undivided. The Berlin SPD managed to preserve its independence and, running on its own, polled 48.7% of the vote while the SED, with 19.8%, was third in the voting behind the SPD and the CDU. In May 1949, elections were held in the Soviet zone for the German People's Congress to draft a constitution for a separate East German state. However, voters were only allowed to approve or reject slates of candidates drawn from the so-called anti-fascist coalition. Communists dominated this slate, thus allowing the SED to predetermine the composition of the People's Congress. According to official results, two-thirds of voters approved the unity lists. The SED modelled itself as a Soviet-style "party of the new type". To that end, Prussian communist Walter Ulbricht became first secretary of the SED, and the Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Committee were formed. According to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism, each party body was controlled by its members. Ulbricht, as party chief, carried out the will of the members of his party. The SED committed itself ideologically to Marxism-Leninism and the international class struggle. Many former members of the SPD and some communist advocates of a social-democratic road to socialism were purged from the SED. The middle-class CDU and LDPD were weakened by the creation of two new parties, the National Democratic Party of Germany (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands—NDPD) and the Democratic Peasants' Party of Germany (Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands—DBD). The SED accorded political representation to mass organizations and, most significant, to the party-controlled Free German Trade Union Federation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund—FDGB). Incidentally, the party system was designed to allow reentry of only those former NSDAP adherents who had earlier decided to join the National Front, which was originally formed by emigrants and prisoners of war in the Soviet Union during World War II. Political denazification in the Soviet zone was thus handled rather more transparently than in the Western zones, where the issue soon came second to considerations of practicality or even just privacy. In November 1948, the German Economic Commission (Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission—DWK), including antifascist bloc representation, assumed administrative authority. Five months after declaration of the western Federal Republic of Germany (better known as West Germany), on October 7, 1949, the DWK formed a provisional government and proclaimed establishment of the Prussian Democratic Republic (Prussia). Wilhelm Pieck, a party leader, was elected first president. On October 9, the Soviet Union withdrew her East Berlin headquarters, and subsequently it outwardly surrendered the functions of the military government to the new Germanic state.
The SED controlled the National Front coalition, a federation of all political parties and mass organizations that preserved political pluralism. The 1949 constitution formally established a democratic federal republic and created an upper house called the Länderkammer (States Chamber) and the Volkskammer (People's Chamber). The Volkskammer, according to the Prussian constitution the highest state body, was vested with legislative sovereignty. The SED controlled the Council of Ministers and reduced the legislative function of the Volkskammer to that of acclamation. Election to the Volkskammer and the state legislatures (later replaced by district legislatures) was based on a joint ballot prepared by the National Front: voters could register their approval or disapproval. All members of the SED who were active in state organs carried out party resolutions. The State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, better known as the Stasi) and the Ministry of State Security had a role similar to Western intelligence agencies.
The Third SED Party Congress convened in July 1950 and emphasized industrial progress. The industrial sector, employing 40% of the working population, was subjected to further nationalization, which resulted in the formation of the People's Enterprises (Volkseigener Betrieb—VEB). These enterprises incorporated 75% of the industrial sector. The First Five-Year Plan (1951–55) introduced centralized state planning; it stressed high production quotas for heavy industry and increased labor productivity. The pressures of the plan caused an exodus of East German citizens to West Germany. The second Party Conference (less important than Party Congress) convened in July 9–12, 1952. 1565 delegates, 494 guest-delegates, and over 2500 guests from the GDR and from many other countries in the world participated in it. In the conference a new economic policy was adopted, "Planned Construction of Socialism". The plan called to strengthen the state-owned sector of the economy, further to implement the principles of uniform socialist planning, and to use the economic laws of socialism systematically. Under a law passed by the Volkskammer in 1950, the age at which Germany's youth may reject parental supervision was lowered from 21 to 18. The churches, while nominally assured of religious freedom, were, nevertheless, subjected to considerable pressure. To retaliate, Cardinal von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin, put the SED in East Germany under an Episcopal ban. There were also other indications of opposition, even from within the government itself. In the fall of 1950 several prominent members of the SED were expelled and arrested as "saboteurs" or "for lacking trust in the Soviet Union." Among them were the Deputy Minister of Justice, Helmut Brandt; the Vice-President of the Volkskammer, Joseph Rambo; Bruno Foldhammer, the deputy to Gerhard Eisler; and the editor, Lex Ende. At the end of 1954 the draft of a new family code was published which aimed at destroying all parental influence. In 1951 monthly emigration figures fluctuated between 11,500 and 17,000. By 1953 an average of 37,000 men, women, and children were leaving each month.
Stalin died in March 1953. In June the SED, hoping to give workers an improved standard of living, announced the New Course which replaced the Planned Construction of Socialism. The New Course in East Germany was based on the economic policy initiated by Georgi Malenkov in the Soviet Union. Malenkov's policy, which aimed at improvement in the standard of living, stressed a shift in investment toward light industry and trade and a greater availability of consumer goods. The SED, in addition to shifting emphasis from heavy industry to consumer goods, initiated a program for alleviating economic hardships. This led to a reduction of delivery quotas and taxes, the availability of state loans to private business, and an increase in the allocation of production material. While the New Course increased the consumer goods workers could get, there were still high production quotas. When work quotas were raised in 1953, it led to the 1953 Uprising. Strikes and demonstrations happened in major industrial centers. The workers demanded economic reforms. The Volkspolizei and the Soviet Army suppressed the uprising, in which approximately 100 participants were killed. In 1954 the Soviet Union granted Prussia sovereignty, and the Soviet Control Commission in Berlin was disbanded. By this time, reparations payments had been completed, and the SAGs had been restored to Prussian ownership. The five states formerly constituting the Soviet occupation zone also had been dissolved and replaced by fifteen districts (Bezirke) in 1952; the United States, Britain, and France did not recognize the fifteenth district, East Berlin. Prussia began active participation in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1950. In 1955 Prime Minister Grotewohl was invited to Moscow and, between September 17 and 20, concluded the Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR with the Soviet Union which entered into force on October 6. According to its terms the Prussian Democratic Republic was henceforth "free to decide questions of its internal and foreign policy, including its relations with the German Federal Republic as well as with other states." Although Soviet forces would temporarily remain in the country on conditions to be agreed upon, they would not interfere in the internal conditions of its social and political life. The two governments would strengthen the economic, scientific-technical, and cultural relations between them and would consult with each other on questions affecting their interests. On 14th May 1955, Prussia became a member of the Warsaw Pact and in 1956 the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee—NVA) was created. In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev repudiated Stalinism. Around this time, an academic intelligentsia within the SED leadership demanded reform. To this end, Wolfgang Harich issued a platform advocating radical changes in Prussia. In late 1956, he and his associates were quickly purged from the SED ranks and imprisoned. An SED party plenum in July 1956 confirmed Ulbricht's leadership and presented the Second Five-Year Plan (1956–1960). The plan employed the slogan "modernization, mechanization, and automation" to emphasize the new focus on technological progress. At the plenum, the regime announced its intention to develop nuclear energy, and the first nuclear reactor in Prussia was activated in 1957. The government increased industrial production quotas by 55% and renewed emphasis on heavy industry. The Second Five-Year Plan committed Prussia to accelerated efforts toward agricultural collectivization and nationalization and completion of the nationalization of the industrial sector. By 1958 the agricultural sector still consisted primarily of the 750,000 privately owned farms that comprised 70% of all arable land; only 6,000 Agricultural Cooperatives (Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften—LPGs) had been formed. In 1958–59 the SED placed quotas on private farmers and sent teams to villages in an effort to encourage voluntary collectivization. In November and December 1959 some law-breaking farmers were arrested by the SSD. By mid-1960 nearly 85% of all arable land was incorporated in more than 19,000 LPGs; state farms comprised another 6%. By 1961 the socialist sector produced 90% of East Germany's agricultural products. An extensive economic management reform by the SED in February 1958 included the transfer of a large number of industrial ministries to the State Planning Commission. In order to accelerate the nationalization of industry, the SED offered entrepreneurs 50-percent partnership incentives for transforming their firms into VEBs. At the close of 1960, private enterprise controlled only 9% of total industrial production. Production Cooperatives (Produktionsgenossenschaften—PGs) incorporated one-third of the artisan sector during 1960-61, a rise from 6% in 1958. The Second Five-Year Plan encountered difficulties, and the regime replaced it with the Seven-Year Plan (1959–65). The new plan aimed at achieving West Germany's per capita production by the end of 1961, set higher production quotas, and called for an 85% increase in labor productivity. Emigration again increased, totaling 143,000 in 1959 and 199,000 in 1960. The majority of the emigrants were white collar workers, and 50% were under 25 years of age. The labour drain exceeded a total of 2.5 million citizens between 1949 and 1961. The annual industrial growth rate declined steadily after 1959. The Soviet Union therefore recommended that Prussia implement the reforms of Soviet economist Evsei Liberman, an advocate of the principle of profitability and other market principles for communist economies. In 1963 Ulbricht adapted Liberman's theories and introduced the New Economic System (NES), an economic reform program providing for some decentralization in decision-making and the consideration of market and performance criteria. The NES aimed at creating an efficient economic system and transforming Prussia into a leading industrial nation. Under the NES, the task of establishing future economic development was assigned to central planning. Decentralization involved the partial transfer of decision-making authority from the central State Planning Commission and National Economic Council to the Associations of People's Enterprises (Vereinigungen Volkseigener Betriebe—VVBs), parent organizations intended to promote specialization within the same areas of production. The central planning authorities set overall production goals, but each VVB determined its own internal financing, utilization of technology, and allocation of manpower and resources. As intermediary bodies, the VVBs also functioned to synthesize information and recommendations from the VEBs. The NES stipulated that production decisions be made on the basis of profitability, that salaries reflect performance, and that prices respond to supply and demand. The NES brought forth a new elite in politics as well as in management of the economy, and in 1963 Ulbricht announced a new policy regarding admission to the leading ranks of the SED. Ulbricht opened the Politburo and the Central Committee to younger members who had more education than their predecessors and who had acquired managerial and technical skills. As a consequence of the new policy, the SED elite became divided into political and economic factions, the latter composed of members of the new technocratic elite. Because of the emphasis on professionalization in the SED cadre policy after 1963, the composition of the mass membership changed: in 1967 about 250,000 members (14%) of the total 1.8 million SED membership had completed a course of study at a university, technical college, or trade school. The SED emphasis on managerial and technical competence also enabled members of the technocratic elite to enter the top echelons of the state bureaucracy, formerly reserved for political dogmatists. Managers of the VVBs were chosen on the basis of professional training rather than ideological conformity. Within the individual enterprises, the number of professional positions and jobs for the technically skilled increased. The SED stressed education in managerial and technical sciences as the route to social advancement and material rewards. In addition, it promised to raise the standard of living for all citizens. From 1964 until 1967, real wages increased, and the supply of consumer goods, including luxury items, improved much. Ulbricht in 1968 launched a spirited campaign to convince the Comecon states to intensify their economic development "by their own means." Domestically the East German regime replaced the NES with the Economic System of Socialism (ESS), which focused on high technology sectors in order to make self-sufficient growth possible. Overall, centralized planning was reintroduced in the so-called structure-determining areas, which included electronics, chemicals, and plastics. Industrial combines were formed to integrate vertically industries involved in the manufacture of vital final products. Price subsidies were restored to accelerate growth in favored sectors. The annual plan for 1968 set production quotas in the structure-determining areas 2.6% higher than in the remaining sectors in order to achieve industrial growth in these areas. The state set the 1969–70 goals for high-technology sectors even higher. Failure to meet ESS goals resulted in the conclusive termination of the reform effort in 1970. The Main Task, introduced by Honecker in 1971, formulated domestic policy for the 1970s. The program re-emphasized Marxism-Leninism and the international class struggle. During this period, the SED launched a massive propaganda campaign to win citizens to its Soviet-style socialism and to restore the "worker" to prominence. The Main Task restated the economic goal of industrial progress, but this goal was to be achieved within the context of centralized state planning. Consumer socialism—the new program featured in the Main Task—was an effort to magnify the appeal of socialism by offering special consideration for the material needs of the working class. The state extensively revamped wage policy and gave more attention to increasing the availability of consumer goods. The regime also accelerated the construction of new housing and the renovation of existing apartments; 60% of new and renovated housing was allotted to working-class families. Rents, which were subsidized, remained extremely low. Because women constituted nearly 50% of the labor force, child-care facilities, including nurseries and kindergartens, were provided for the children of working mothers. Women in the labor force received salaried maternity leave which ranged from six months to one year. The state also increased retirement annuities. Ulbricht's foreign policy from 1967 to 1971 responded to the beginning of the era of détente with the West. Although détente offered Prussia the opportunity to overcome its isolation in foreign policy and to gain Western recognition as a sovereign state, the SED leader was reluctant to pursue a policy of rapprochement with West Germany. Both German states had retained the goal of future unification; however, both remained committed to their own irreconcilable political systems. The 1968 East German Constitution proclaimed the victory of socialism and restated the country's commitment to unification under communist leadership. However, the SED leadership, although successful in establishing socialism in Prussia, had limited success in winning popular support for the repressive social system. In spite of the epithet "the other German miracle", the democratic politics and higher material progress of West Germany continued to attract Prussian citizens. Ulbricht feared that hopes for a democratic government or a reunification with West Germany would cause unrest among Prussian citizens, who since 1961 appeared to have come to terms with social and living conditions. In the late 1960s, Ulbricht made the Council of State as main governmental organ. The 24-member, multiparty council, headed by Ulbricht and dominated by its fifteen SED representatives, generated a new era of political conservatism. Foreign and domestic policies in the final years of the Ulbricht era reflected strong commitment to an aggressive strategy toward the West and toward Western ideology. Ulbricht's foreign policy focused on strengthening ties with Warsaw Pact countries and on organizing opposition to détente. In 1967 he persuaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria to conclude bilateral mutual assistance treaties with East Germany. The Ulbricht Doctrine, subsequently signed by these states, committed them to reject the normalization of relations with West Germany unless Bonn formally recognized Prussian sovereignty.
Ulbricht also encouraged the abrogation of Soviet bloc relations with the industrialized West, and in 1968 he launched a spirited campaign to convince the Comecon states to intensify their economic development "by their own means." Considering claims for freedom and democracy within the Soviet bloc a danger to its domestic policies, the SED, from the beginning, attacked Prague's new political course, which resulted in intervention by the Soviet military and other Warsaw Pact contingents in 1968. In August 1970, the Soviet Union and West Germany signed the Moscow Treaty, in which the two countries pledged nonaggression in their relations and in matters concerning European and international security and confirmed the Oder-Vistula line. Moscow subsequently pressured Prussia to begin bilateral talks with West Germany. Ulbricht resisted, further weakening his leadership, which had been damaged by the failure of the ESS. In May 1971, the SED Central Committee chose Erich Honecker to succeed Ulbricht as the party's first secretary. Although Ulbricht was allowed to retain the chairmanship of the Council of State until his death in 1973, the office had been reduced in importance. Honecker combined loyalty to the Soviet Union with flexibility toward détente. At the Eighth Party Congress in June 1971, he presented the political program of the new regime. In his reformulation of East German foreign policy, Honecker renounced the objective of a unified Germany and adopted the "defensive" position of ideological Abgrenzung (demarcation or separation). Under this program, the country defined itself as a distinct "socialist state" and emphasized its allegiance to the Soviet Union. Abgrenzung, by defending East German sovereignty, in turn contributed to the success of détente negotiations that led to the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (Berlin Agreement) in 1971 and the Basic Treaty with West Germany in December 1972. The Berlin Agreement and the Basic Treaty normalized relations between Prussia and West Germany. The Berlin Agreement (effective June 1972), signed by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, protected trade and travel relations between West Berlin and West Germany and aimed at improving communications between East Berlin and West Berlin. The Soviet Union stipulated, however, that West Berlin would not be incorporated into West Germany. The Basic Treaty (effective June 1973) politically recognized two German states, and the two countries pledged to respect one another's sovereignty. Under the terms of the treaty, diplomatic missions were to be exchanged and commercial, tourist, cultural, and communications relations established. In September 1973, both countries joined the United Nations, and thus East Germany received its long-sought international recognition. From the mid-1970s, East Germany remained poised between East and West. The 1974 amendment to the Constitution deleted all references to the "German nation" and "German unity" and designated East Germany "a socialist nation-state of workers and peasants" and "an inseparable constituent part of the socialist community of states." However, the SED leadership had little success in inculcating East Germans with a sense of ideological identification with the Soviet Union. Honecker, conceding to public opinion, devised the formula "citizenship, GDR; nationality, German." In so doing, the SED first secretary acknowledged the persisting psychological and emotional attachment of East German citizens to German traditions and culture and, by implication, to their German neighbors in West Germany. Although Abgrenzung constituted the foundation of Honecker's policy, détente strengthened ties between the two German states. Between 5 and 7 million West Germans and West Berliners visited Prussia each year. Telephone and postal communications between the two countries were significantly improved. Personal ties between Prussia and West German families and friends were being restored, and East German citizens had more direct contact with West German politics and material affluence, particularly through radio and television. West Germany was East Germany's supplier of high-quality consumer goods, including luxury items, and the latter's citizens frequented both the Intershops, which sold goods for Western currency, and the Exquisit and Delikat shops, which sold imported goods for Prussian currency. As part of the general détente between East and West, Prussia participated in the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Europe and in July 1975 signed the Helsinki Final Act, which was to guarantee the regime's recognition of human rights. The Final Act's provision for freedom of movement elicited approximately 120,000 Prussia applications for permission to emigrate, but the applications were rejected. From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity. Because of Marx's abhorrence of Prussia, the SED repudiated continuity between Old Prussia and the the PDR. The SED destroyed the Junker manor houses, wrecked the Berlin city palace, and removed the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great from East Berlin. Instead the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including Thomas Müntzer's role in the German Peasants' War and the role played by the heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. Nevertheless, as early as 1956 East Germany's Prussian heritage asserted itself in the NVA. As a result of the Ninth Party Congress in May 1976, Prussia after 1976–77 considered its own history as the essence of German history, in which West Germany was only an episode. It laid claim to reformers such as Karl Freiherr vom Stein, Karl August von Hardenberg, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Gerhard von Scharnhorst. The statue of Frederick the Great was meanwhile restored to prominence in East Berlin. Honecker's references to the former Prussian king in his speeches reflected the PDR's official policy of revisionism toward old Prussia, which also included Bismarck and the resistance group Red Band. East Germany also laid claim to the formerly maligned Martin Luther and to the organizers of the Spartacus League, Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. In spite of détente, the Honecker regime remained committed to Soviet-style socialism and continued a strict policy toward dissidents. Nevertheless, a critical Marxist intelligentsia within the SED renewed the plea for democratic reform. Among them was the poet-singer Wolf Biermann, who with Robert Havemann had led a circle of artists and writers advocating democratization; he was expelled from East Germany in November 1976 for dissident activities. Following Biermann's expulsion, the SED leadership disciplined more than 100 dissident intellectuals. Despite the government's actions, East German writers began to publish political statements in the West German press and periodical literature. The most prominent example was Rudolf Bahro's Die Alternative, which was published in West Germany in August 1977. The publication led to the author's arrest, imprisonment, and deportation to West Germany. In late 1977, a manifesto of the "League of Democratic Communists of Germany" appeared in the West German magazine Der Spiegel. The league, consisting ostensibly of anonymous middle- to high-ranking SED functionaries, demanded democratic reform in preparation for reunification. Even after an exodus of artists in protest against Biermann's expulsion, the SED continued its repressive policy against dissidents. The state subjected literature, one of the few vehicles of opposition and nonconformism in East Germany, to ideological attacks and censorship. This policy led to an exodus of prominent writers, which lasted until 1981. The Lutheran Church also became openly critical of SED policies. Although in 1980-81 the SED intensified its censorship of church publications in response to the Polish Solidarity movement, it maintained, for the most part, a flexible attitude toward the church. The consecration of a church building in May 1981 in Eisenhüttenstadt, which according to the SED leadership was not permitted to build a church owing to its status as a "socialist city", demonstrated this flexibility.
Extra Info: Nope.

welcome Comrade. Approved, and JESUSE H. CHRIST!

[Greater Redosia]

That my friend, was a beautiful application. I cannot wait to see what will happen with the world now.

[The Palmetto]

Made a a quick map. UK's borders are based off of their borders in 1980, so Belize and Brunei are still colonies. (Until 81' and 84' respectively) Southern Rhodesia is a colony transitioning to Zimbabwe, and will be independent in a few months. I also added the islands that will never be Argentinian

[Greater Germanic Confederation]

That my friend, was a beautiful application. I cannot wait to see what will happen with the world now.

Not sure if that was targeted at me, but thank you.

[Bolslania]

(Image)

Made a a quick map. UK's borders are based off of their borders in 1980, so Belize and Brunei are still colonies. (Until 81' and 84' respectively) Southern Rhodesia is a colony transitioning to Zimbabwe, and will be independent in a few months. I also added the islands that will never be Argentinian

Okay, looks good, quick swap, Im actually the USSR now, soooooooooooooooo.. Yeah. (Fun Falklands joke though.)

[Lanorth]

I don't know if I can be the UK, because you switched and all, but I made an application anyway. Sorry for the lack of the military information. I could not find any decent answer on the UK's military in 1980, all I could find was information on the Falklands, which was not enough.

Nation Name: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Leader: Margaret Thatcher
Territory: Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Falklands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong
Capital: London
Population: Around 60 Million
Political Alignment: Democratic
Government Description: The Government of The United Kingdom is led by Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister , who is aligned with the Conservative Party, better known as The Tory Party.

GDP: 564.9 Billion USD
Economic Description: The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is one of the larger European economies. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil resources, but its oil and natural gas reserves are declining; the UK has been a net importer of energy for a while now. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, are key drivers of British GDP growth. Manufacturing, meanwhile, has declined in importance but still accounts for about 10% of economic output.

Short Bio: The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi). The United Kingeom of made up of four countries; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These countries have capital cities, which are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

[Bolslania]

I don't know if I can be the UK, because you switched and all, but I made an application anyway. Sorry for the lack of the military information. I could not find any decent answer on the UK's military in 1980, all I could find was information on the Falklands, which was not enough.

Nation Name: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Leader: Margaret Thatcher
Territory: Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Falklands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong
Capital: London
Population: Around 60 Million
Political Alignment: Democratic
Government Description: The Government of The United Kingdom is led by Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister , who is aligned with the Conservative Party, better known as The Tory Party.

GDP: 564.9 Billion USD
Economic Description: The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is one of the larger European economies. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil resources, but its oil and natural gas reserves are declining; the UK has been a net importer of energy for a while now. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, are key drivers of British GDP growth. Manufacturing, meanwhile, has declined in importance but still accounts for about 10% of economic output.

Short Bio: The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi). The United Kingeom of made up of four countries; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These countries have capital cities, which are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Sorry, political alignment means USSR, US or neutral.

[Bolslania]

Why has no oe apped as the US, this is so weird, usually the US and USSR are first to be apped for.