Theyra wrote:So just to be certain I did things right. A good military defense budget for an economy of 182.872 Billion would be 20 billion?
I’ll put it like this. 11% defence budget is rather excessive.
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by The Rio Grande River Basin » Fri Jun 02, 2023 1:20 am
Theyra wrote:So just to be certain I did things right. A good military defense budget for an economy of 182.872 Billion would be 20 billion?
by The National Dominion of Hungary » Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:36 am
APPLICATION
Name: The Kingdom of Rus
Flag: TBD
Capital: Moscow
Territory: Here - The Green one, possible other changes may come.
Population: 270 231 411 - (While not able to export population to Siberia and colonize it, the mass demographic disturbances of the Russian Civil War and Soviet Regime also did not occur while losses, especially civilian ones in WW2 were smaller as there was no War of Annihilation with Germany.)
Official Language(s): High Rus (Russian) is the official language of the state with Old Rus (Ukrainian), West Rus (Belarusian) and South Rus/Novorus (Mixed Russo-Ukrainian language spoken in Donbass/Rostov/Krasnodar regions) recognized as official regional dialects.
Ethnic Breakdown: 94% East Slavic / 6% Other, mostly Turkic, and Finno-Ugrian.
Religious Breakdown: 93% Orthodox Christian / 3% Muslim / 4% Other/Irreligious/Atheist
Type of Government: Devolved Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy / Elements of an Authoritarian Hybrid Regime
Head of State: HM Vsevolod VII Rurikovich-Moskovskyi
Head of Government: Premier Yevgenyi Stolyanov
Legislature (the name of your national legislature): The All-Crowns Duma.
Legislative Houses (if your legislature is bicameral): The House of Peers / The House of Electors
Party in Power: The National Block for Stability and Progress (NBSP)
National Issues:
Battling the Red Threat: A committed member of the (!Western Block), the Kingdom of Rus is deeply engaged in the Cold War on the side of the capitalist powers. This has included special operations and espionage as well as military deployments to far away countries in order to help suppress communist insurgencies. The issue is a polarizing one in Rus society, and a growing liberal centrist movement and some isolationist political thinkers advocate a more inward look, either to keep young Rus men from returning in coffins from distant lands in Africa and South America, or to shift focus to what they see are more pressing internal issues.
The Winds of Change: The Constitution of 1948 created by General Georgi Zhukov has been long-criticized for it's many flaws and loopholes. Ideally, the checks and balances between the branches of government would equalize their power, however, in practice, this is hardly the case. The Supreme Court actually wields considerable legislative power, allowing it to effectively bypass the Duma. Additionally, the both the King and the Premier have the right to an absolute veto over the Duma. Allowing them to completely reject a policy passed by the Duma without further question. Given that the Duma is the most democratic aspect of the government, the fact that it is stymied by the other branches has been a subject of increasingly fierce debate ever since Zhukov signed the Constitution into law.
A Shadow over House Rurikovich: The Rurikid Dynasty has long acted as one of the main pillars upholding the realm. Tracing their line all the way back to the foundation of Russian statehood, for many centuries it's many branches wielded great amounts of power and authority across the Rus Realms, both before and after their unification. Strict laws on succession have long made sure that there was a direct heir to the throne ready to take power and prevent dynastic infighting. However, that may soon change. The current King, Vsevolod VII is a long-time widower with no children of his own reaching his mid-sixties. Questions over who will take his place are popping up with increasing frequency. The King's younger brother Yaromir, Grand Prince of Kiev, and his first cousin Andrei, Prince of Saratov, keep watchful eyes on days to come while critics of the monarchy feel more emboldened.
Public Goals: Uphold National Values - Expand and Modernize Infrastructure - Cooperate closely with it's allies - Invest in Security and Defense - Economic growth and job creation - Democratization and Constitutional Reform (current administration).
Private Goals: Become the leading nation of the Black Sea and Baltic Sea regions - Weaken the global influence of the USR and Beijing Pact
GDP (nominal): 1.72 Trillion (Approx 6250 per capital (Similar to RL Spain in 1980))
Currency: Rus Grivna
Economic System: Mixed Market Capitalism with significant Dirigist elements.
Major Exports: Machinery / Precision Engineering Equipment / Motor Vehicles and parts / Manufactured Goods / Oil and byproducts / Natural Gas / Chemicals / Home Appliances / Pharmaceuticals / Coal / Steel / Raw and Processed Foodstuffs / Livestock
Major Imports: Machinery and Equipment / Chemicals / Metal Goods / Manufactured Goods / Medical Equipment / Exotic Foodstuffs / Lubricants and Related Materials / Consumer Electronics / Electronic Components
Defense Budget (USD): 68.8 Billion (4% of GDP)
Alliance(s): The !NotWestern Block/NATO of this TL
Military Branches: The Royal Army / The Royal Air Force / The Royal Navy / All-Realms National Guard Corps / Special Operations Executive
Active Duty: 1 250 000
Reserve Duty: 1 000 000
Total Manpower: 5 000 000
Land Force: 600 000 Active duty regulars / 350 000 National Guard forces / 80 000 VDV Airborne troops
5200 MBT's
20 800 IFV's/APC's
3620 ARV's
4680 SPG's
2400 MLRS
920 Towed Howitzers
1600 Towed AA-cannons
480 SPAAG's
1500 Short/Medium range SAM Systems,
160 Attack Helicopters
880 Transport Helicopters
84 Training Helicopters
Naval Force: 75 000 Active personnel.
1 Aircraft Carrier
4 Cruisers
8 Destroyers
10 Frigates
20 Corvettes
25 Fast Attack Craft
15 Attack Submarines
5 Ballistic Missile Submarines
35 Minesweepers
18 Minelayer/Amphibious Assault Ships
6 Salvage & Rescue Ships
35 Auxiliary/Support Ships
4 Tankers
9 Training Ships
Air Force: 140 000 Active personnel.
820 Combat Jets
320 Transport Aircraft
80 Strategic Bombers
24 Maritime Patrol Aircraft
11 AEWC Aircraft
150 Attack Helicopters
260 Multirole/Utility Helicopters
320 Training/Light Attack Planes and Helicopters
860 Long Range SAM Systems.
Other Military Information: 5000 Special Operations Troops
The manpower of the Royal Armed Forces mainly relies on a system of conscription. All males who have reached the age of eighteen and are found physically/mentally fit can be called to serve the three months long Basic Military Education Course (BMEC). After finishing the BMEC the conscript can choose to either enlist as a professional soldier, go through another 3 to 6 months of training and join the active reserves, join a local National Guard unit or be discharged into civilian life with a ten-year reserve obligation. Conscientious objection is not legally acceptable under the Constitution. The government pays for any rental/utility bills the conscripts incur during their service. It is also illegal to fire or suspend an employee due to conscripted service, refresher training or wartime activation.
The All-Realms National Guard Corps is a large and varied force composed of different types of military and paramilitary units. The National Guard has the stated mission of securing the borders of Rus as well as combating terrorism and organized crime and protecting public order as well as guarding important state facilities. It contains the National Gendarmerie, the Border Protection Corps, OMON and OMSN forces. The National Gendarmerie is the largest of them, tasked with supporting the Rus police, deal with crowd control during riots and internal disturbances and guarded highly-important facilities. The Border Protection Corps is a paramilitary force trained to combine the tactics of the army, police forces and border guard. While OMON and OMSN are specialized riot police and SWAT-units. In wartime the National Guard Corps shall aid with conducting rear area security operations and help internal security forces conduct counter-intelligence.
The Kingdom of Rus is a recognized nuclear weapons state with somewhere between 320 and 340 warheads and maintains second-strike capability with airborne and submarine delivery platforms. Rus also has a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons to act as a deterrent, mainly Anthrax and anti-agricultural bioweapons such as Wheat Blast, Rice Blast and Rinderpest.
History: In 862 a Viking prince named Rurik was elected ruler of Novgorod. His successor Oleg later ventured south and conquered Kiev, which had previously payed tribute to the Khazar Khanate. Oleg's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate, and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia. In the 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. This time also saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantines in the south and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code. Constant in-fighting between members of the Rurikid Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus collectively weakened the realm and the city of Kiev's dominance waned to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.
Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrates under the fearsome force of the Mongol invasion between 1237 and 1241, which resulted in the sacking of Kiev and many other cities. Out of around 80 major towns and cities in the Rus lands, half were sacked, many of whom were later abandoned or declined into little more than villages. This devastation left a large swathe of land was depopulated as the Mongols massacred it's populations or the locals fled from the steppes and plains into the woodlands north of Voronezh and behind the Dniepr river, leading to the creation of a no-mans land called the "Wild Fields". The invaders, later known as "Tatars" to the Rus, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the small Rus principalities and ruled the southern and eastern parts of what used to be the Kievan realm for almost two centuries.
After the collapse of the central authority in Kiev, the Rus Principalities stood divided and often fought among themselves just as much as against Tartar and Nogai incursions, invasions and slave-raids. The Grand Principality of Kiev and Principalities of Perm and Voronezh bore the hardest burdens in the struggle against the Tartars as they were situated on the frontier against the Southern Khanates. In the early to mid 1300's, Muscovy began to grow significantly in power and authority under the rule of Prince Vladimir III. He renovated the Moscow Kremlin and opportunistically claimed surrounding lands. Under his rule Muscovy rose to eclipse and then annex the former major powers in Central Russia, namely Vladimir-Suzdal, Tver, and Yaroslavl as well as other surrounding principalities. The princes of Muscovy later taking the title of King after the Western Expedition of Prince Ivan III which resulted in the annexation of Polotsk in 1338. The Muscovites were central in building up the coalition of Rus states that inflicted the pivotal defeats at the Battles of Sarov and Arzamas on the Tartars in 1346 and 1349, but with the seeming reduction of the Tartar threat, especially as the Kazan Khanate collapsed into infighting soon afterward, the coalition of the Rus Realms soon collapsed.
With the collapse of the Coalition, the Rus states once again warred among themselves for hegemony. While Muscovy had played a central role in forming the coalition and forming it's joint army. Many of the smaller principalities such as Smolensk, Vitebsk, Odoyev and Voronezh along with the Grand Principality of Perm questioned the seeming Muscovite Hegemony and wished to pursue freedom and autonomy. Kiev, momentarily released from the vast pressure upon it from it's perennial Tartar enemies looked to reestablish it's own hegemony over the Rus Realms and reform the Kievan Rus. The Muscovites were defeated by the Novgorodians in the Battle of Borovichi in 1381, this in turn led to the brief resurgence of Kiev after it's conquest of Odoyev, Oryol and it's War of Faith in the south under Grand Prince Ihor II which resulted in the capture of Yedisan from the Crimean Khanate after which he proclaimed the Kingdom of Kiev. During the time of the "Kievan Hegemony", the Kingdom of Kiev often found itself engaged in conflict on at least three fronts, and winning. This was mostly due to the excellent generalship of Sergiy Borvasky and Vadym of Cherkassk. In the end however the Kievan Hegemony would last for for less than a decade. It began with the Battle of Bryansk in 1393 and ended at the Battle on the Don Bend in 1402 where the last of the generals instrumental in Kiev's military success was killed fighting the Tartars.
Muscovy, in the meantime had recovered from Borovichi, in the north was a Novgorod that had mired itself in internal strife between the boyars and the merchant families while in the south, Kiev had clearly fallen off and was declining, allowing Muscovy to grow into the leading power among the Rus states, finally allowing it to conquer Novgorod under the rule of King Oleg II in 1421 while his grandson Vasili I reformed it's armies by instituting the Landed Army or Pomestnoe voysko and putting an end to the old system based around the Druzhina. With this new army Vasili I managed to take Kiev in 1457 and destroy the Rurikid branches which had survived in other Rus realms as he brought them under his control. While a number of Rus states were still nominally independed from Muscovite rule, Vasili I announced the formation of the Kingdom of Rus in 1468 and embarked on a campaign to conquer first Vitebsk and then Perm in 1471, bringing the last of the independent Rus states under the banner of Muscovy and significantly increasing the land-holdings of the central monarchy as hostile Boyar houses were expropriated and the estates of rival rulers absorbed.
While the battles of Sarov and Arzamas had turned the tide in the wars between the Rus and the Tartars, the Tartar raids and incursions had not stopped after the battle. Vasili I'st´s successors thus embarked upon constructing the Great Abatis Border which was a chain of fortification lines created by the Kingdom to protect it from the Tartar-Nogai Raids that ravaged the southern provinces of the realm. It would serve as the border between the Rus State and the steppe nomads for decades to come. Peasants who lived nearby were forbidden to settle or cut wood in the area, but were obliged by authorities to spend part of their time supporting and renewing the fortifications. In the autumn, large areas of steppe grass beyond the line would be burnt to deny raiders fodder and large stone kremlins were constructed in the towns along the line. Rus would attempt to gain a port in the Baltic Sea under the rule of King Boris III but failed multiple times, being defeated by Sweden in several wars. Boris would then turn to internal matters, reorganizing the structures of the Orthodox Church in the lands of the Rus, uniting the Kiev and Moscow Patriarchates and putting them under increased state influence and control which also distanced the Orthodox church in Rus from that in Constantinople. While his military exploits went into history as failures, Boris III centralized the Kingdom, curbed the power of the boyars and started building an administrative bureaucracy staffed by clergymen and lower nobles. He also built many great buildings and surrounded many towns and cities with new walls. Boris III still went down in history as one of the greatest monarchs in Rus history and his reign between 1485 and 1522 is written of as a golden age, earning him to common moniker of Good King Boris.
His successor, King Ivan VI turned his focus once more to the Tartars. As this time tens of thousands of Rus soldiers were tied up garrisoning the Great Abatis Belt, a large burden for a state whose social and economic development was lagging and backward. Thus, Ivan VI the Conqueror would reform the Rus armies based on experience gained during the defeats against Sweden and earlier battles with the Tartars, founding the Strelsty, a professional infantry musketeer force to support the Pomestnoye Voysko and Cossack forces. He would then turn the new Rus army loose against first the Khanate of Kazan, resulting in a war that ended in the sacking of Kazan in 1529 and Samara in 1532 before turning south and marching against the Astrakhan Khanate, destroying it in 1540. These conquests would open Rus´ gates to Siberia and Central Asia. As the two Khanates were destroyed, the local Tartars were mostly given an immediate choice between the cross and the sword, thus, many of it's towns and villages put to the torch, and many tartars either fled to Central Asia, were driven out, or were put to the sword when refusing to renounce their faith. This left large swathes of the old Khanates depopulated after the conquest and opened the land to increasing numbers of Rus settlers. However violence would continue in the regions until the early 1600's with several revolts by the remnants of the Tartar population, which were followed by severe and brutal reprisals against the nomad tribes.
Rus expansion into Siberia encountered little resistance initially. Spearheaded by the Novgorodian Stroganov merchant family interested in expanding the fur trade, they hired a band of Cossacks to lead an expedition into western Siberia. There they defeated the Khanate of Sibir and claimed new territories for the realm. From such colonial frontier forts such as Tyumen, Tobolsk, Kurgan and Mangazeya, merchants, traders, and explorers pushed further eastward. In order to subjugate the natives and collect the yasak fur tributes, a series of fortified all-year trading posts and forts were built at the confluences of major rivers and streams and important portages. Beryozovo and Mangazeya were built to bring the Nenets tribes under tribute, while to the east Surgut and Tara were established to protect Tobolsk and subdue the Narym Ostiaks. From there the cossack hosts reached the outskirts of the Chinese Wei Empire on the Ob river where after a period of conflict with the Wei, further Rus attempts of expanding into Siberia were stopped. The lands of Siberia, already thinly populated were made even easier to conquer through the spread of diseases that weakened and demoralized the indigenous peoples of the land, the worst of these being smallpox. This fire was further fuelled by the brutality displayed by the Rus Cossacks, upon arrival in an area occupied by a tribe of natives, the Cossacks would initially come with a proposal to submit to the King and to pay the yasak, but these negotiations did not always lead to successful results. When their entreaties were rejected, the Cossacks often chose to respond with extreme force, not rarely decimating entire tribes. Still, in the end the Wei would push westward. Under the Yongzheng Emperor, a concerted effort was made to expand into Siberia by the Wei and Han colonies grew in number and size.
This allowed the Wei to roll back the Rus gains in Siberia, with Wei troops using fast nomad cavalry and superior numbers of Han infantry to attack and destroy Cossack ostrogs and war-parties, with the monarchy in Moscow still caring little for the goings on in such far away, easily conquered places. In 1585, the Wei seized Yalutorovsk and in 1590 Tobolsk fell, placing Tyumen in direct striking distance. Only after the Fall of Tyumen did the war in Siberia, mostly conducted locally by Cossacks and funded by merchants with interests in the region come to the proper attention of the government in Moscow. Two armies were dispatched into Siberia, the first in 1595 and then the second one in 1604, however, it became abundantly clear that the small trade-forts and homesteads established by the Rus in Siberia were in no way capable of supplying a war-effort and the undersupplied armies were easily routed and dispersed by well-supplied Wei forces. With the Fall of Chelyabinsk in 1616, the Russian path into Siberia seemed closed, though occasional and sporadic hostilities around border-forts like Miass, Beloretsk and Kartaly would continue almost up until the early 1800's.
During the reign of King Sviatoslav III, son of Rostislav II who lost Siberia, the armies of Rus marched south and destroyed the last vestiges of the Crimean Khanate, seizing the peninsula by 1631. Before being able to march further south of the Don and into the northern Caucasus however, Sviatoslav the Bold would die as a result of a wound sustained in a boar hunt, passing the throne to his younger brother Pavel I. His reign, lasting from 1633 to 1650 was largely a peaceful one, he amended and updated the legal codes of the Kingdom and helped to finance land clearance as well as greatly encouraging settlement in the sparsely populated lands of the former Southern Khanates and in the lands of old Novgorodian Rus, granting funds and estates to young Boyars who would then move to them with their serfs and develop them. As a result, agricultural production grew and several parts of Rus´vast wilderness territories began to see large waves of settlement and population growth. Pavel's son Yaromir I would embark on an ambitious set of reforms to the Orthodox church in Rus during his reign. The internal church authority was fundamentally transformed, instead of being governed by a patriarch or metropolitan, the government of the church came under the control of a committee known as the Holy Synod of Moscow, which was composed both of bishops and lay bureaucrats appointed by the King. Upon Yaromir I's death in 1667, the church had effectively become another department of the state. Yaromir I's son Sviatoslav IV would further centralize the government and the regional administration system, eliciting a number of violent Cossack rebellions in eastern Ukraine in the 1680's and 1690's as their local slobodas were effectively dismantled.
After a long war against Sweden between 1707 and 1720, the armies of Rus were found woefully obsolete and lacking while it's economy proved unable to sustain a war against modern Western powers. King Pavel III embarked upon an ambitious string of military reforms, modernizing the army and creating a westernized, new model military with the help of western officers invited to the Rus court in the 1720's. However, he also undertook several ambitious reforms in the fields of economics, trade, administration and education while embarking on large projects for land clearance and construction of canals to facilitate trade and agricultural irrigation as well as the construction of manufactories. Fighting the 1707 Baltic War turned out to need unprecedented economic resources, and Rus´ yawning budget deficit and aging infrastructure meant that the state could not effectively allocate resources and money against a modern enemy. Pavel III's government was in dire need of money and responded by monopolizing certain strategic industries, such as salt, vodka, oak, and tar as well as a a sweeping new poll tax, which replaced the older household tax which had been rewritten and amended for centuries resulting in many loopholes.
Thanks to these reforms, Rus managed to expand its treasury almost sixfold between 1725 and 1760. King Pavel would first take his new model army across the Don and into the northern Caucasus, defeating the local small realms and kingdoms as well as coming to blows with the Byzantines in Georgia and Persians in Azerbaijan. With the death of Pavel the Great in 1753 after reigning since 1716, Rus had experienced significant improvements in agriculture, industry, administration and military strength, enough to be counted among the major powers of Europe and be able to challenge Western nations on the battlefield. Four-field crop rotation and New World crops such as the potato were introduced in the 1730's. Art flourished and new innovations were introduced such as steam-pumps to pump water from mines and drain wetlands for farming. But that did not mean Rus had fully modernized and it still suffered from underdevelopment and backwardness when compared to nations like Britain, France, the Netherlands and other western powers. Still, Rus finally managed to seize a window to the Baltic after a victorious war against Sweden in 1762.
In 1771 King Alexandr I fully abolishes serfdom and replaces it with a system of tenancy. The peasant obschinas would now primarily produce cash crops, as the noble landlords expect the rent to be paid, so subsistence farming is a waste of time as it will not generate any income. Successful obschinas, who developed their land well did become rather wealthy villages populated by a new class of "gentlemen farmers" called gospodars. However, in an attempt to placate the staunchly conservative boyars who balked at the reform, the King also passed numerous Enclosure Laws throughout his reign. As a result vast swathes of common land were effectively stolen from the peasantry and incorporated into noble estates. While farming was effectivized as subsistence farming on the common land was replaced with cash-crops for trade. Most of the poorer peasants who depended on the common land were now forced to take wages working for their new landlords, or to move to the towns and cities swapping rural poverty for urban squalor. In 1780 the first stock exchange in Rus was opened in in Novgorod.
King Alexandr II rises to the throne after the death of his father Alexandr I in 1788, as prince and during the early years of his reign, Alexandr I often used western liberal rhetoric, but continued Rus´ absolutist policies in practice. In the first years of his reign he implemented major liberal educational reforms and started building more universities. Alexander II dies in 1825 and throughout his reign he became increasingly arbitrary, reactionary, and fearful of plots against him. He ended the educational reforms he made earlier at the behest of the conservative Boyars, purging schools of foreign teachers and put the rural schools back under full control of the Orthodox church as well as firing liberal-minded professors from the realm's universities. His son Radoslav I rises to the throne.
In 1827 Oleg Rozdalov is appointed to Chief Minister by Radoslav I as the two shared deeply conservative views. A comitted slavophile, Rozdalov's policies were strongly against revolution and liberalism. In his opinion, liberalism was a form of "legalized revolution" and that absolute monarchy was the only proper system of government. Rozdalov organized a number of congresses aimed to maintain the political equilibrium among the European powers and prevent revolutionary efforts. These meetings also aimed to resolve foreign issues and disputes without resorting to violence. Strict censorship of education, press and speech to repress revolutionary and liberal concepts was enforced. Rozdalov also used a wide-ranging spy network to dampen down unrest while in 1830 the first railroads started being built and opened up once-remote areas. Many firms promote early capitalist ways of production. Still while most of the Boyars and Rus gentry were staunchly conservative, there was an increasing liberal movement in the Rus nobility. Notable liberal clubs of the time in Moscow, Pavlograd, Kiev and Novgorod criticized Rozdalov's government from the city's coffeehouses, salons, and even stages. They advocated relaxed censorship, freedom of religion, economic freedoms, and, above all, a more competent and less corrupt administration. They were however opposed to outright popular sovereignty and universal franchise. More to the left there was a radicalized, impoverished young intelligentsia, as educational opportunities in 1840's Rus had far outstripped employment opportunities for the educated.
By 1855, liberal opposition to the absolutist system had reached a boiling point and the Kiev Congress results in Rozdalov being forced to resign, he is replaced by a Baltic German noble, Alexander von Bach as Chief Minister. A constitution is hastily drafted and grudgingly accepted by the King only after significant concessions are made to preserve much of the monarch's powers. Despite being an absolutist himself, von Bach agrees to reforms such as abolition of the tax, customs and tariff exemptions of the nobility, abolition of separate laws for the common people and nobility and passes an amendment allowing common people to be elected as juries in legal courts. Reforms are passed allowing all people to become state officials even on the highest levels of the public administration and judicature, if they have the prescribed education, positions previously reserved for Boyars. This allowed a new class of educated technocrats to take up more and more positions in the state administration. A Central Bank is established in 1862 while industry grows steadily. In 1865 Rus Steam-Frigate HMS Avrora on its expedition to circumnavigate the globe decides to stop at the Nicobars along the way. The Avrora landed and commenced a scientific expedition which and included the search for a site to establish a possible colony but possible settlements attempts were shot down by the King, citing needless expenses. New railways lines, crops and technologies open up more areas in the northern parts of the country to sustainable settlement and increase agricultural yields significantly, much needed to feed the burgeoning population.
In 1873 King Pavel IV ascends to the throne. A committed constitutionalist and liberal influenced by western ideals. Many hoped that Pavel IV's reign would lead to a liberalization of Rus and an increase of the hamstrung Duma's influence on the political process. The dismissal of Kazimir Godunov, an arch-conservative Boyar from the post of interior minister signaled the end of von Bach's era of "neo-absolutism". Fear of the growing socialist movement lead to the adoption of the All-Rus Factory Act of 1890 to neutralize socialist grievances and promises alike. The act limited working hours for everyone, insured workers against industrial risks inherent in the workplace and provided maternity benefits to unmarried women. Further reforms followed with the institution of public Health Care in 1895 followed by invalidity and old-age insurance in 1899. King Pavel IV further won the support of both industry and skilled workers by issuing a royal decree with high tariff policies, which protected profits and wages from foreign competition, although he alienated liberal intellectuals who advocated free trade. After the death of King Pavel IV in 1906, his son Nikolai II came to power, a staunch conservative determined to uphold his ruling prerogatives at a time when other monarchs in Europe were increasingly being transformed into constitutional figureheads and a militarist determined to build a more assertive Rus on the world stage by embarking on a large and expensive program of rearmament. In 1914, Nikolai managed to rope Rus into the first Great War on the side of the Entente.
The Rus army, while impressive on the parade ground showed itself deeply lacking against the Germans and suffered terrible casualties in the attempted offensives into East Prussia and is quickly forced to adopt a defensive posture. By 1916 Riga had fallen and by 1917 Pskov and Tallin were in German hands, with Pavlograd in shelling distance of Germany's heaviest railway guns. Supply shortages, low morale, and the high casualty rate seriously affected the operational abilities of the Rus´ army. Casualties among officers educated before the war were especially damaging. Rus does manage to hold on until the German army collapses in 1918, and Rus attends Versailles as one of the victors. The Rus enter the peace deal hoping for concessions and to given lands from the defeated Central Powers, demanding Eastern Prussia and Galicia but these proposals are soon shot down by the French and Britons. Why, one might ask. Partially out of a fear of Rus becoming too powerful after gaining rich German lands, and partially a feeling of betrayal as the Rus never went on the offensive after 1914, and simply sat there, only tying up some German forces, many of whom could still leave and fight in the West. So inviting Rus to Versailles was mostly a diplomatic move, with Rus only recieving Memel and parts of Eastern Galicia, with Lvov still given to Poland.
Much of the Rus population was now outraged, they had fought for four horrible years, suffered nearly 4 million losses and now had next to nothing to show for it. Using the monarch's right to appoint members of the House of Peers, King Nikolai effectively deadlocked the Duma after the liberal Democratic Constitutionalist Party of Rus won the 1920 elections. Rus proceeded to very quickly destabilize after that, with the King dissolving the Duma in 1921 and then again in 1923 because he did not approve of them, prominent politicians on both the royalist and reformist side received negative publicity in a number of high-profile scandals and a coup attempt by young, liberal officers from the Novgorod Military Academy in 1925 led to the situation further deteriorating. By 1927, members of the radical right and radical left engaged in street brawls in major cities on a regular basis and the country seemed on the verge of a major political collapse. Emboldened by the success of Beijing Revolution and Geng Hanying, the Rus communist movement attempted to ferment it's own revolution after a major crop failure led to famine and severe economic downturn across Rus which was still a greatly agricultural economy. The 1929 Revolution, or 100 Days of Blood turned Moscow into a battleground as communist revolutionaries bolstered by military mutineers led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky seized the Palace of the Duma and proclaimed the Moscow Soviet, the Royal family was forced to flee the city and loyalist troops attempted to crack down on the uprising, resulting in a 109 day long battle in the city. However, in the end the unrest was largely confined to Moscow, failing to spread across the country and wide segments of the army, allowing the loyalists to crush the uprising, most of it's instigators and leaders were either executed or fled to the USR.
In the aftermath of the 100 Days of Blood, a council of hardliner military officers led by General Lavrenty Makarchuk practically had full control over the government in Moscow, pushing King Nikolai to abdicate and be replaced by his young son Vladimir II. Makarchuk then resigned from the military in 1931 and founded the National Revitalization Party of Rus and won a supermajority in a deeply flawed election process in 1932. The NRPR advocated the need to change the constitution and place more power in the hands of the Premier and limiting the powers of the Duma and monarch alike, as well as ruthless elimination of corruption, upholding traditional Rus values, recognition of the state-building role of the Orthodox Church in Rus along radically slavophile lines along with a strong focus on national unity and opposition to Marxism. The NRPR quickly established what was often described as a "fascistized authoritarian regime" with the signing of the 1934 Constitution. The regime realized that Rus was hopelessly unready for another big war, it had half the per-capita GDP of Western European nation and it's military industrial base was found deeply lacking during the Great War. This lead to the NRPR regime to engage in a long-term program of expansion of Rus´military industry and the heavy industrial and resource extraction bases needed to support it while investing significantly in the development of new weaponry, attempting to reform the and modernize the military with a greater focus on motorization and superior firepower. With steady progress being made, General Makarchuk died of aggressive liver cancer in 1936, being replaced in the position of premier by general Vladislav Tarkov.
Under Tarkov the NRPR regime entrenched itself further, Marxists, Baltic nationalists and other oppositionists were heavily persecuted, and tens of thousands of "enemies of the All-Rus nation" were locked up in prisons. Tarkov pursued a rabid, hardline all-russian ultra-nationalism while drawing on apocalyptic Christian imagery which became mainstays in the ever more pervasive propaganda machine all while Rus approached closer and closer to Nazi Germany, signing the Ruso-German Trade and Credit Agreement in 1938, proceeding to sell large amounts of food, fertilizers and raw materials to Germany in exchange for modern industrial machinery, blueprints and technical assistance from German experts and engineers helping Rus with it's industrialization program. Shortly before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Rus and Germany concluded a pact involving Rus participation in the invasion, with Rus forces crossing Poland's eastern border two weeks into the invasion, taking control of Lvov and Grodno. In the wake of the invasion of Poland, Tarkov instituted the Laws on the Protection of the Greater Rus Nation, in large parts based on the German racial laws which resulted in severe repression of Rus´ Baltic and Turkic minorities as well as sending approximately 60 000 Rus troops to fight alongside the Germans during the invasions of Yugoslavia and Byzantium. With Germany seeming to be on the winning side in 1941 with much of the continent under Axis control, the NRPR regime decided to finally join the war on the side of the Axis, with Rus troops contributing significantly to the Fall Rot offensive in the Balkans which drove the Allies out of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Northern Greece.
Rus forces provided much of the Axis forces detailed to the capture of Constantinople, but also suffered a significant defeat in the turning-point battle and subsequent encirclement of over 400 000 Axis troops in the Tzirallon Pocket after the massive Allied counteroffensive that relieved western Constantinople and pushed the Axis back. The Rus kept fighting on the side of the Axis, but as it seemed ever more certain the Allies would win the war after the Normany Landings and the almost simultaneous great Axis defeat in the Battle of Bucharest and the fall of Iron Guard Romania, an increasing segment of the NRPR regime began looking for a way out of the war for Rus as certain defeat loomed over the Axis. In the summer of 1944, in the wake of the Russian Campaign of the Allies, the Rus Black Sea fleet was destroyed by Briton and Byzantine naval and air forces, opening Rus´ "soft underbelly" for an attack, one which came soon thereafter, both in the Caucasus, leading to a collapse of the Rus front with the Allies reaching the outskirts of Stavropol and Krasnodar in three months while the path to an amphibious assault against the Crimean Peninsula laid wide open. At this point a clique of officers, mostly colonels and majors had begun plotting against Tarkov and when they secured the support of a number of high-profile Generals, including Georgi Zhukov, they launched the September Coup in Moscow. Troops loyal to the plotters took control of the Kremlin, General Staff HQ and several ministry buildings and fierce fights erupted between forces loyal to the plotters led by generals Zhukov, Govorov and Rokossovsky and fascist loyalists led by Marshall Andrei Vlasov and supported by the Rus SS divisions Rurik and Hyperborea. The plotters attempted to capture the central figures of the pro-German regime, succeeding in capturing several, others went over to their side and other still, such as Propaganda Minister Stepan Bandera died fighting against plotter troops.
The September Coup collapsed the command and control structures of the Rus army and allowed the Allies to make rapid gains in the Caucasus, Balkans and conduct a successful landing in Crimea capturing Sevastopol. With the plotters having taken control of the country by mid-October, Zhukov, now head of the so-called Government of National Salvation reached out to the Allies to negotiate a separate peace. Finally an agreement was reached, the Kingdom of Rus would have to pay war reparations to the Allies, particularly the Byzantines, Polish and Yugoslavs, it would have to release the Baltic states as independent nations, return East Galicia to Poland as well as join the Allies in the fight against Germany and hold democratic elections after the War. Zhukov signed the agreement, and Rus had switched sides from the Axis to the Allies, now fighting against the remnants of German and Iron Guard forces in Romania while conducting a large general offensive into German-occupied Poland where Rus troops found themselves standing in Poznan, Gdansk and Breslau when the war finally ended in 1945. Rus was forced to cede territory to Poland and release the Baltic states and accept the expelled Rus population of the newly independent states. It was made to pay war reparations and hold an election, however Zhukov kept delaying the election process again and again until signing the controversial 1948 Constitution into law before stepping down as "Emergency Premier".
The stepping-down of Zhukov and the subsequent 1948 Election are seen as the starting-point of the Post-War Era in Rus. The election saw the rise to power of a new political party, the National Block for Stability and Progress led by a high-ranking ex-member of the NRPR regime, Lazar Kaganovich, the former NRPR Minister of Infrastructure and before that, Mayor of Kiev during the rule of the National Revitalization Party of Rus. The first few years of his administration saw major infrastructure, healthcare, and policing investments as well as rapid economic development which allowed Rus to pay off it's war reparations by 1959. Kaganovich championed a policy of dirigism under which the government intervened heavily in the economy, using this combination of free-market and state-directed economics with indicative five-year industrialization plans as the main tool, supported by a wide-ranging agricultural policy of with the goal of agricultural modernization by means of the creation of irrigated lands, improvements in agrarian technology and training and the installment of settlers. High-profile infrastructure projects, mostly but not always financially successful, were launched, leading to the Rus Economic Miracle of the 1960's.
Kaganovich would go on to win a 2'nd, 3'rd, 4'th, 5'th, 6'th and 7'th term as Premier of Rus, ruling the country until 1976. Over the years, Kaganovich further developed Rus´ economy, and pushed for increasingly authoritarian measures while the media was nationalized and placed under total state control. As his seemingly endless four-year terms stretched on into decades, Rus citizens began to both note and criticize portions of the 1948 Constitution which seemed effectively designed by Zhukov to facilitate a permanent dictatorship, now with Lazar Kaganovich at its head. These revelations became the deathblow to Kaganovich's already waning popularity, whose government by this point had become heavily autocratic while the economy had stagnated, ending the so-called Rus economic miracle and inspiring negative sentiments from many people across Rus. By 1973, popular sentiment had largely turned away from Kaganovich, and he lost the internal NBSP party leadership elections to a reformist businessman from Yedisan named Kyrylo Alyoshkov. After conceding NBSP leadership to Alyoshkov, Kaganovich continued to serve his 7'th term until it ended in 1976.
Alyoshkov's term saw many market reforms implemented quickly in his first year. He privatized several industries, brought tax cuts and changed several of Kaganovich ’s authoritarian laws to bring foreign investment to Rus. However, he was faced with the economic recession of 1978 which led to him being replaced by Yevgenyi Stolyanov, the former Minister of Justice, however, Alyoshkov's term has been hailed as a watershed moment in Rus politics, the first step on a real path toward more wide-ranging democratization and liberalization. It has emboldened the liberal Constitutionalist Democratic Party and NBSP reformist wing as well as galvanized the conservative NBSP old guard while a moderate-conservative wing sits stuck in the middle. It remains to be seen where Stolyanov, with his promises to rewrite the by now despised Zhukov Constitution with take the Kingdom and the seemingly fracturing party.
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by Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States » Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:42 am
Dragos Bee wrote:The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:It is. But destabilising it further will lead to full blown warlordism/civil war. ie. You gave a pile of deluded hawks nukes. And by destabilised I mean a cacophony of terrorist groups, Guerrillas, independence movements, etc.
Byzantium has a vested interest in a stable Iran for this reason, btw. That and Byzatnium + Seljuks + Greater Georgia have a huge amount of Oil.
by The Rio Grande River Basin » Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:03 am
Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:Dragos Bee wrote:
Byzantium has a vested interest in a stable Iran for this reason, btw. That and Byzatnium + Seljuks + Greater Georgia have a huge amount of Oil.
Why would you want a strong neighbour? Being able to influence a lot of smaller states would be more benificial than a strong neighbouring power with control over your oil supply, no?
by Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States » Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:30 am
The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:Why would you want a strong neighbour? Being able to influence a lot of smaller states would be more benificial than a strong neighbouring power with control over your oil supply, no?
Not when the many smaller states all have nukes, and the strong neighbouring power is your ally. And definitely not when the many smaller states all think that you don’t have a right to exist. There’s radical islamists, there’s communist guerillas, there’s fanatic Christian groups, there’s fascist revivalists, there’s a bazillion nationalist groups and so on.
by The Rio Grande River Basin » Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:32 am
Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:Not when the many smaller states all have nukes, and the strong neighbouring power is your ally. And definitely not when the many smaller states all think that you don’t have a right to exist. There’s radical islamists, there’s communist guerillas, there’s fanatic Christian groups, there’s fascist revivalists, there’s a bazillion nationalist groups and so on.
The US had no problem supporting islamists, guerillas or fascists all over the world. It's not a point of ideology, it's a point of pragmatism. Even better if all those small states have nukes, because they can then keep the peace. And of course, in like, fifteen years, all those nukes will have rotted away, with the nuclear programs being too expensive to run. And no matter how chaotic the region will become, it will be better than a single state controlling a lot of Europe's oil supply. I don't understand why Byzantium would he happy to be controlled economically by an outside power.
by New Elyria » Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:02 pm
by Dragos Bee » Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:27 pm
Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:Not when the many smaller states all have nukes, and the strong neighbouring power is your ally. And definitely not when the many smaller states all think that you don’t have a right to exist. There’s radical islamists, there’s communist guerillas, there’s fanatic Christian groups, there’s fascist revivalists, there’s a bazillion nationalist groups and so on.
The US had no problem supporting islamists, guerillas or fascists all over the world. It's not a point of ideology, it's a point of pragmatism. Even better if all those small states have nukes, because they can then keep the peace. And of course, in like, fifteen years, all those nukes will have rotted away, with the nuclear programs being too expensive to run. And no matter how chaotic the region will become, it will be better than a single state controlling a lot of Europe's oil supply. I don't understand why Byzantium would he happy to be controlled economically by an outside power.
by Theyra » Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:32 pm
The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The US had no problem supporting islamists, guerillas or fascists all over the world. It's not a point of ideology, it's a point of pragmatism. Even better if all those small states have nukes, because they can then keep the peace. And of course, in like, fifteen years, all those nukes will have rotted away, with the nuclear programs being too expensive to run. And no matter how chaotic the region will become, it will be better than a single state controlling a lot of Europe's oil supply. I don't understand why Byzantium would he happy to be controlled economically by an outside power.
They probably aren’t, but the fact that Iran also has the throat of everyone else, and is their ally, doesn’t hurt. And ISIS with nukes isn’t going to end well. Half of them aren’t going to keep the peace, they’re going to nuke the world.
by Dragos Bee » Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:40 pm
Theyra wrote:The Rio Grande River Basin wrote:They probably aren’t, but the fact that Iran also has the throat of everyone else, and is their ally, doesn’t hurt. And ISIS with nukes isn’t going to end well. Half of them aren’t going to keep the peace, they’re going to nuke the world.
Okay, I have to say something question that Iran has this much power over everyone else in terms of oil. Like I know Iran does have alot of oil. But so do other nations and regions, like my nation and they do not need Iranian oil or even foreign oil to survive. Like what is stopping a nation from turning to other oil nations like the Rus or even my nation or any other oil rich nation?
by Dragos Bee » Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:16 pm
Tehrangeles wrote:So is this RP just going to be an OOC wanking contest?
by Benuty » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:00 pm
Arvenia wrote:Which countries are available right now?
by Theyra » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:45 pm
Dragos Bee wrote:Tehrangeles wrote:So is this RP just going to be an OOC wanking contest?
Ah, sorry about that - That was not the intention. Please forgive me.
Right now, though, it's mainly about how the Morgenthau Plan's successful implementation in this timeline caused the Allied Powers to split and Byzantium to ally with the Seljuks and Georgia out of disgust with 'American Arrogance'.
by Tehrangeles » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:48 pm
Theyra wrote:Dragos Bee wrote:
Ah, sorry about that - That was not the intention. Please forgive me.
Right now, though, it's mainly about how the Morgenthau Plan's successful implementation in this timeline caused the Allied Powers to split and Byzantium to ally with the Seljuks and Georgia out of disgust with 'American Arrogance'.
You know, I have never said anything about being allies with Byzantium or the Seljuks. A royal marriage with Byzantium, yes, but not an alliance so far. Or at least I am waiting to see who the accepted players are before I decide on that.
by Dragos Bee » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:52 pm
Tehrangeles wrote:Theyra wrote:
You know, I have never said anything about being allies with Byzantium or the Seljuks. A royal marriage with Byzantium, yes, but not an alliance so far. Or at least I am waiting to see who the accepted players are before I decide on that.
I wonder if the Ottomans would be more apt to align with Byzantium or the Rus.
by Tehrangeles » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:54 pm
Dragos Bee wrote:Tehrangeles wrote:I wonder if the Ottomans would be more apt to align with Byzantium or the Rus.
Theyra, ah, understood. Nevertheless, the offer of alliance is open; Byzantium is ready to offer what terms are necessary and reasonable to get Georgia on board.
Terhangeles, what could your nation need from Byzantium? As we have Southern Italy in this timeline, we can technically offer preferential access to Adriatic and Mediterrenean shipping...
by Tehrangeles » Fri Jun 02, 2023 7:56 pm
by Dragos Bee » Fri Jun 02, 2023 8:49 pm
Theyra wrote:So after thinking about it, I will be withdrawing from the rp, and good luck with the rp, Sao Nova Europa.
by The National Dominion of Hungary » Sat Jun 03, 2023 1:20 am
by The Rio Grande River Basin » Sat Jun 03, 2023 1:51 am
The National Dominion of Hungary wrote:So Dragos what relations do you think Byzantium would have with the Rus? Pretty close historically at least, both allies in WW2 but possibly drifting apart since?
Also, if Georgia rescinded the reservation, may I update my claim Sao? Thought I'd include the Russian Caucasus except for Dagestan if Iran wants it maybe...
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