Premier of the Central Executive Committee (Governor): 
The Carusican Federation of Norrs
WA Delegate: None.
Last WA Update:
Embassies: Rhaea and Novum Aurora.
Tags: LGBT, Map, Medium, Multi-Species, Past Tech, and Role Player.
Circumference contains 17 nations, the 1,131st most in the world.
Activity • History • Administration
Today's World Census Report
The Most Eco-Friendly Governments in Circumference
The following governments spend the greatest amounts on environmental issues. This may not always be reflected in the quality of that nation's environment.
As a region, Circumference is ranked 8,262nd in the world for Most Eco-Friendly Governments.
 | Nation | WA Category | Motto | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  The United Socialist states of The solav union | Psychotic Dictatorship | “Be solav. Be smart.” | |
| 2. |  The Federal Democratic Republic of Kiberia | Inoffensive Centrist Democracy | “Милостью Божьей мы выстоим!” | |
| 3. |  The People's Republic of Polingo | Inoffensive Centrist Democracy | “We arent the best, but we try and that's what matters!” | |
| 4. | The Carusican Federation of Norrs | Corrupt Dictatorship | “Viribus Unitis” | |
| 5. |  The Republic of CRMF Carnolia | Democratic Socialists | “Gott mit uns” | |
| 6. |  The Colony of Circumference I | Father Knows Best State | “Veritas vincit” | |
| 7. |  The Commonwealth of Aberllyn2 | Authoritarian Democracy | “Strength Through Freedom” | |
| 8. |  The Kingdom of Verdezia | Democratic Socialists | “By the guidance of God” | |
| 9. |  The Republic of Shouling | Democratic Socialists | “We must have faith in the masses and the Party!” | |
| 10. |  The Commonwealth of CircumferenceGov | Liberal Democratic Socialists | “Unity, Discipline, Work” |
12»
Regional Happenings
- : Syrenian commonwealth ceased to exist.
- :
The Carusican Federation of Norrs changed the region's banner.
- :
The Colony of Circumference I arrived from Balder.
- : The Colony of Circumference I ceased to exist.
- :
The Federal Democratic Republic of Kiberia arrived from Osiris.
- :
The Empire of Orora arrived from Lazarus.
- :
The Commonwealth of De Norr arrived from The North Pacific.
- :
The Commonwealth of Aberllyn2 arrived from Carcassonne.
- :
The Commonwealth of Aberllyn arrived from The Frontier Sea.
- : The Carusican Federation of Norrs renamed the Governor's office from "Chairwoman of the Central Executive Committee" to Premier of the Central Executive Committee in Circumference.
Circumference Regional Message Board
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Republika Łukowii - 1437 AH
A Floor For The Worker
The proposal had not arrived in the room above Kovalevsky Bank as a surprise. The president had been careful about that, careful in the way that a man who has learned how that room operates is careful, which is to say he had ensured that the outline of what he intended reached the relevant ears before the formal conversation began, so that the formal conversation could be about terms rather than about whether. Springing a minimum wage proposal on Halski without warning was the kind of thing that ended arrangements, and the arrangement was still useful to both sides.
The meeting was shorter than the previous ones had been. The Shòulíng delegations were returning with early results that had justified the optimism of the initial projections, and the men in that room had enough goodwill in the account to conduct the conversation without the careful circling that had characterized their earlier encounters. Not warmth, not in this relationship.
The president laid it out plainly. A minimum wage floor, beginning with government employed workers and extending to all labor on publicly funded projects; the housing construction, the railway works, the military conversion program in Mitove. The state would demonstrate it could sustain the floor before asking anyone else to meet it. The principle, once established in the public sector, would then be extended by negotiation into private industry on a timeline and at a level that the relevant parties could accept.
Drahomirov asked about the figure. The president named it. There was a pause of the kind that follows numbers being mentally applied to existing cost structures, and then a discussion that was technical rather than ideological, which was the best outcome the president had prepared himself to hope for.
The government positions and publicly funded works were accepted without significant resistance. The principle of a wage floor in state adjacent labor was one that none of the men in the room felt strongly enough about to spend political capital opposing, particularly given what the Shòulíng access had returned to them in the months since the deal had been struck.
The extension to private industry was where the conversation slowed.
Manufacturing, after some discussion, was accepted with modifications; a phased implementation timeline that gave the southwestern factories room to adjust their cost structures without abrupt disruption. The transport and railway sector followed with less resistance than anticipated, partly because the MTK's recent expansion had put the industry in a sufficiently healthy position that the margin existed to absorb the change. Agricultural processing, after a longer conversation that touched on the northeastern produce volumes and the new railway capacity, was brought into the framework on terms that satisfied nobody completely and everybody sufficiently.
The mining industry was different.
Wójcik, who had said relatively little through the earlier portions of the meeting, made his position clear. The southeastern mines were expanding. The labor demand was increasing faster than the available workforce, which meant wages in the sector were already rising through market pressure without any government floor being required. Imposing a minimum at this particular moment, he argued, added administrative cost and rigidity to a market that was already moving in the direction the president wanted, at a pace that the industry could sustain precisely because it was market driven rather than mandated.
The president listened to this without interrupting.
He engaged it, briefly. The floor was not about where wages were today, he said. It was about where they would be when the expansion slowed and the market pressure eased and the men underground had no leverage left. Wójcik knew this as well as anyone and the acknowledgment of it passed between them without needing to be elaborated.
The mining industry would implement the floor last. A longer phased timeline, a figure reviewed annually against the sector's economic conditions, an implementation date that gave the industry time to absorb the southeastern expansion's labor costs before adding the floor on top of them. It was not what the president had wanted to get and it was not what Wójcik had wanted to give, and both men left the specific outcome with the expression of people who had gotten approximately what they had realistically expected rather than what they had nominally asked for.
The formal announcement was made through the relevant ministry the following week, framed in the language of economic modernization and worker dignity that the president's office had drafted with care. It named the government and publicly funded sectors as immediate, listed the private industries and their implementation timelines, and made no specific mention of the mining sector's longer schedule in the headline text, though the detail was present for anyone reading carefully.
Republika Łukowii - 1437 AH
Wings and Tracks - The Summer Orders
The procurement decisions of summer 1437 did not arrive as a single announcement but one after another consecutively, each one a consequence of assessments made through the preceding months of training, evaluation, and the kind of institutional learning that only comes from actually using equipment rather than planning to use it.
The Ground
The Szybki Niszczyciel-1 had spent the months since the first unit's formation doing what the military had designed it to do in peacetime; training, exercising, and generating the accumulated experience that turns a collection of vehicles and crews into something that functions as a coherent fighting force. The doctrine that had been described as still being written when the unit formed had, by summer, been written sufficiently to be evaluated, and the evaluation had returned results that satisfied the relevant commands across the board.
The vehicle performed within its design parameters in the roles envisioned for it. The crews had developed the working patterns that made the three man arrangement function despite its compromises. The attachment exercises conducted alongside tank division elements had produced enough data to confirm that the independent unit with flexible attachment concept was viable in practice rather than just on paper. None of this was revolutionary. All of it was necessary, and the military's procurement office had drawn the logical conclusion.
An order for 120 additional Szybki Niszczyciel-1s was placed with Łonan Engineering Works, to be delivered by the end of the year to allow two new units to be formed and worked up on the same model as the first by the following summer. The identical complement was a deliberate choice; the first unit's structure had proven itself and there was no compelling reason to redesign what was functioning, particularly when the doctrine now existed to be handed to the new units rather than developed from scratch. Łonan's production facility, which had absorbed the lessons of the first sixty vehicle run, was in a better position to deliver the expanded order efficiently than it had been when the original contract was signed.
Three units of Szybki Niszczyciel-1s, once the new formations were fully worked up, would give the army a tank hunting capability that could be distributed across its operational formations with genuine flexibility. The doctrine was still young but it was growing each passing day.
The Air
KZL's production floor in the summer of 1437 looked different from what it had been eighteen months earlier, and the difference was not merely one of volume. The facility that had been proving the M.12 concept through evaluation trials was now a functioning multi-line production operation running two aircraft types simultaneously.
The M.12 line was now running at a capacity of twenty aircraft per month, a figure that had taken longer to reach than the optimistic early projections had suggested and that the production managers had consequently learned to trust more than those projections. The B.23 light bomber line ran alongside it with it being in service long enough that its production presented no surprises.
Into this established line came the summer's orders.
The Łukowian air force placed a request for 45 M.12s, expanding the frontline fighter fleet that had begun with the initial twenty delivered at year's end. Planned to enlarge the fleet, while also serving as an opportunity to delegate the older planes still in service to either training purposes or to be fully retired from active service.
Alongside the domestic order came confirmation of something that the export conversations begun after the M.12's acceptance had been working toward. 
Sveynland, which had purchased M.11s and operated them with sufficient satisfaction to return as a customer, placed an order for fifteen M.12s. The number was modest but it was still an opportunity to establish a foundation for future sales. To that reason the decision was made to fulfill the Sveynish needs first within a month then to turn towards making the domestic orders.
The B.23 order of 20, processed alongside the fighter requests, was made to adress a branch that was long ignored, with only 42 planes the Lukowian bomber fleet was one of smallest forces among the armed forces. The B.23 had been in service for a long time however it had proved itself to be a reliable workhorse that would have to do until a newer version of light bomber was developed or the decision to purchase was made.
At full production across both lines, KZL was looking at a three month window to complete the combined orders; 60 M.12s between the domestic and Sveynland requests, 20 B.23s alongside them. The production managers had run the numbers and confirmed the timeline was achievable without compromising either line's quality standards, which was the answer the procurement office had needed before signing the contracts.
The M.13 remained on its testing bed at the edge of the facility, its development proceeding with the patience that Iosifich's radial engine program required and that KZL's main production lines could not afford. It would wait. The orders in front of it would not.
On top of the orders, the armed forces engineering department had requested the development and testing of larger aircraft with twin or even triple engine configurations with further ranges and possibly bigger payload capacities. What the departmant wanted was a bomber fleet and a heavy fighter escort that could follow it into the enemy's heartland to see their mission to completion.
But almost everyone knew that Lukowia did not possess the capabilities to produce such aircraft in numbers...
Sveynland, Verdezia, and CRMF Carnolia
Republika Łukowii - 1437 AH
The Hours of the Working Man
There were workers in the southwestern factories who remembered. Not all of them, the youngest had been children when the Depression had arrived and reshaped everything it touched, but enough of them, the men in their thirties and forties who had been on the floor when the protections had existed and on the floor when they had been taken away. The hours had been limited once. Then they had not been. The reasons given had been economic and accurate and had not made the longer shifts easier to work.
The framework that emerged set the working week at forty-five hours; eight hours on each weekday, five on Saturday. The numbers were made to ensure that neither productivity nor the workermen's wellbeing would be infringed upon, though there was expectations for these regualtions to be passed one or another but there were several rules put in place to stop that in its tracks.
One of the rules was how those hours could be arranged. Factories and industrial facilities were permitted to operate two eight-hour shifts, allowing continuous production across sixteen hours of the day while each individual worker remained within the weekly limit. The mining industry, whose operational rhythms underground did not divide cleanly into standard shifts, was permitted three eight-hour rotations, allowing the southeastern mines to run continuous production around the clock while still complying with the individual hour restrictions. The exception that Wójcik had argued for in every previous labor discussion had arrived, this time, in a form that served both sides of the negotiation. Continuous production for the industry. Regulated hours for the worker. The compromise had the rare quality of being genuinely useful to everyone rather than merely acceptable.
The child labor provisions were also expanded in the hazardous designation to cover underground mining work, certain chemical processing operations, and heavy machinery operation. It was not a prohibition on child labor broadly, that remained present in agriculture and light manufacturing in forms the law had never fully reached, but it moved the line further from the most dangerous categories, acknowledging without stating directly that the line's previous position had been drawn more by economic convenience than by any principled assessment. Which was beginning to slowly change.
The President's promises before the election were finally being implemented. His slogan was: "People need better conditions, and better conditions they shall get!"
With both the President and the oligarchs behind the proposal, the opposition to it in the parliament was almost non-existent, as even without the support opposing this new law was almost a guarantee of getting ousted in the next election.
In the factories and the mines; some eyes remembered something they had seen long ago while others saw something completely foreign to them. But both pairs of eyes were happy in a way. Finally somebody was finally working for them. It may not be perfect, but what was perfect anyways?
Carnolian Republic | 1437
Preparation
Since taking over Carnolia, it had been a busy few years for the Regierungsrat. Headed by former Imperial Carnolian Army officer, Laurin Radnitz, under a firm ultranationalist authoritarian dictatorship, with the help of the council and the state party, the FNR (Front zur nationalen Rettung; National Salvation Front), virtually transformed Carnolia over the past 4 years. The country has been battered and humiliated by the victors of the Boreal War, left to rot under mountains of rising debt, a traumatized society, diminished power on the continent as well as a government that couldn't function even if God intervened. With chaos spilling in every direction and the onslaught of the Great Depression, the country nearly tore itself apart.
The FNR was instrumental in shaping the political landscape of today. Under previous President Benjamin Vogelstein, Radnitz was made Chancellor and his second in command, former ICA officer Florentin Bain, made Minister of Internal Affairs, enacted a state of emergency in 1433 after the Crimson Night, a workers rebellion in the capital city of Poel. Throughout the year, using significant loopholes in the constitution, the pair slowly dissolved the need for the Nationalparlament as well as eliminated rival political leaders behind the scenes, one of which included the head of the SA (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei; Socialist Workers Party) (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE BROWNSHIRTS IRL!!) Florian Winkler in 1434. After Vogelstein's death in February 1434, Radnitz cemented himself as dictator of Carnolia, appointing Bain as chancellor. The new Regierungsrat (National Council) was established as the new supreme authority of the state and Radnitz instituted Operation Contrast, a mass purge of all left-leaning officials and military officers not completely subservient to the FNR and the leadership of Radnitz, culminating in over 200 people being killed in socialist persecutions over the course of the four days Operation Contrast was underway.
From 1434 to the present day, Radnitz transformed Carnolian society. Enacting policies to strengthen the cult of personality around his reign, he instituted discriminatory policies that prioritized the wellbeing of the "common Carnolian", establishing restrictive policies against state religious establishments as well as foreign nationals within the state, particularly the Otherlings, which were heavily discriminated against, many being restricted from working in certain high-level fields, attending government or educational establishments and even voting. Thousands of Otherlings began fleeing Carnolia in underground escape routes called the "Franchised Railway", where many sympathetic to Otherling causes helped relocated a significant portion of the Otherling population within Carnolia. Many others found their homes forcefully taken away from them and relocated to less well-off areas of cities, in designated zones where undesireable people were sent to live, against the agenda of the FRN.
Starting in 1436, Carnolia also began to further engage in international politics, with both good and bad intentions. With principles like "Wohnen", Radnitz's Carnolia sought to expand its realm to accommodate for future peoples of the nation. For that, it looked East, particularly towards 
Nourita. Catching wind of both not!fascist and not!communist struggles against the ruling government there, Radnitz had the head of the Rechtschaffene Wache (Righteous Guard), the Carnolian military police and underground intelligence agency, Viktor Kehrer, tasked with creating contacts with the leading not!fascist coalition in Nourita, dispatching agents to make contacts with the leadership of the coalition and establish ties, potentially promising backing in funding and weaponry to increase not!fascist activity within the nation. Radnitz's plan was to create a pro-Carnolian government in Nourita, hoping to create a chess piece heavily in favor of Carnolia on the continent, making it a critical building block in building future hegemony of Carnolians on the central continent. Additionally, Carnolia also began showing good faith to its other neighbours, 
Lukowia, by signing a beneficial economic agreement that would see the Nationale Eisenbahngesellschaft AG sell strong cargo and passenger locomotives for the Lukowian Railway. Additionally, ties were also strengthened with 
Shouling, a behemoth from Estria, where Carnolian businesses began establishing strong bases of economic activity within the large Shouling market, engaging in many high-profile and high-skill industries such as shipbuilding, high quality steelworks and shipbuilding.
One chess piece to move was also Carnolia's ties to Aberllyn. They were the key figures in ensuring nearly a decade and a half of economic turmoil and social chaos within Carnolia. And no doubt both nations had strained relations following Radnitz's rise to power. However, in a surprising twist of events, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under Minister Joachim Wegmann, proposed talks that would cool off tensions between the two countries, establish stable trade relations as well as start building diplomatic ties that could be acted upon on the world stage. Additionally, Carnolia began offering several manufactured goods such as appliances, engineering and electrical equipment and refined resources to other smaller parties in Euralia, particularly nations such as Sveynland, 
Polingo, Lukowia and 
Verdezia in exchange for importation of raw resources. In mid-1437, both Carnolia and Verdezia made a major step together, meeting in the city of Amersmond to sign what was locally known as the Amersmond Memorandum, but internationally known as the Pact of Friendship, signed by Carnolian foreign minister Joachim Wegmann and Verdezian foreign minister Salvador García, it solidified a military, economic and political alliance between Carnolia and Verdezia.
Federal Republic of Nourita - 1438
Few Among Many
"Look at the state of our beloved land my brothers and sisters! Look at the abbisimal conditions they have put you under! We have fought tooth and nail for centuries for our nation to prosper, and now look at the state it is in! Our enemies, both within and out have pushed our blessed state into despair, they have leashed us so we cannot fight them, so we cannot grow stronger and take what's ours! But they have forgotten one thing, that the Nouritans will not roll over and give up! We have seen worse, we have endured worse, and this we shall endure just as well and come out stronger than ever! We shall take our promised place as the rulers, not the ruled. We shall take our place at the top, for we are the chosen people! Vote for for your nation, vote for your family. VOTE FOR PURITY!"
Following his speech the people at the venue starting chanting his name, "Wolfgang Schwarz to victory!", it was one of the biggest rallies he had held so far with the number of people gathered maybe even reaching tens of thousands. He saluted them before leaving the stage and going to the back area where his people were waiting for him.
"That speech was incredible Wolfgang, it is almost a guarantee that the next election will be in our favour."
"I am not just aiming for the election, Lukas. What I am aiming is much higher in importance. The election is just a stepping stone. After the election we will have many, many more things to do and accomplish, and many vermin to clean our nation off of."
"Well of course. I will be doubling our election efforts to ensure that, you can count on me!"
"I know I can, you wouldn't be my right hand man and our party's acting leader otherwise."
"And I am honoured for that, also there was a man claiming he came from 
CRMF Carnolia and wanted to speak with you.
"Well who am I deny a brother an audiance, organize a meeting at our headquarters and we shall meet there."
--------
In The Presidential Office
"The election is almost hear, Philip. How are your party fearing? Can you get the chancellory for another term, what do you think?"
"It doesn't seem that good this time, I am gonna be honest, Joseph. The Reperations and the great depressions has put my government in a really tight spot and with my coalition allies all disagreeing on the methods we should implement and the things we should focus on, it just seems harder and harder to accomplish. Also the hooligans that call themselves the "purifiers" are getting more popular by the day. People are mesmerized by their promises for glory and sticking it up to the winners of the last war with cancelling all reparations and the treaty that limits our army and military industry. Which I have to agree is a good promise to get votes, I don't know wheter they can achieve it or pull it off however."
"That seems troublesome. Although I would love to rip those papers off as well, our nation would be put under even more pressure from the winners of the war. It would be a disaster..."
"I know, but the people seem to love the idea and not think about the consequences, so you might be stuck with Wolfgang as your next chancellor, or they might even kick you off of your chair as well."
"We shall see, how about a cup of whisky to wash down this bothersome topic? Then you can go back to your election campaigning, there is still some time before the election itself is held.
1438 AH
The Votes, the Ships and the Money
Well the time has arrived. The elections will soon start, The Social Democratic party of Oren has been the unconquered party for years, with a few close calls in previous years, however this year is diffrent, after the raids on both communist and facist bases and weapon stockpiles, both the Orenian Nationalist Party and the Communist party of Oren have lost a signifcant amount of support, being the most unlikely to win the elections. The Social Democratic party main rival is the Conservatist party, which got 33% of the votes last election. The biggest second party in Oren last year was the Socialist party of Oren, however due to the incident with the communist and facist their support may have dropped. Meanwhile the Social Democracy party has been making visits to quite a few cities to gain support from them, will it be succesful who knows.
Meanwhile for the navy there is a plan to expand the current fleet with 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers currently on the lookout for any nation to sell or build them for Orenian navy, this move is made due to the Weak Orenian Navy consisting of not much ships.
The Economy has been doing very well, the companies in Shouling have been bringing in profit and the tax cuts for the Orenian Companies have allowed them to expand as well as produce more and sell more. All has been going well essentially. In Shouling the companies have been slightly helping poorer families by allowing the children to work. However taking inspiration from Lukowia the nation is considering to introduce a minimium wage as well due to seeing the positives for the workers.
This is truly great for the country at this time... but how long that will last... is unkown.
1438 AH | Shòulíng Republic
New Guard
- The allied government between SLMZ and RJD was not working. Nothing was. While many in government hoped the outcome of the elections would help the two parties to compromise between eachother to hopefully bring some stability to the Republic, it in fact did the opposite. While the previous SLMZ dominated government struggled to pass many bills due to coalition backlash, and the RJD-led coalition failed to achieve reforms due to significant lobbying by pro-SLMZ industrialists and politicians, it now meant no laws managed to pass due to near-consistent gridlock in the government. Regardless of which side presented a bill for debate, it would find itself outvoted by the other party, leaving no work complete and a government in disarray. A major crop failure before the 1437 winter season in the eastern plains led to scarce food security among the working class and peasantry, which the government could not act upon. The RJD heavily championed food relief, but the SLMZ immediately shot it down, refusing for the government to get involved into the food market, letting the local businesses foot the bill to provide food for the local populace. Prime Minister Hao Guanyu attempted to call a last minute vote on the proposition after managing to gain critical votes from several SLMZ politicians, but President Xiong Chen immediately shot it down once it was proposed. The act caused an even deeper rift between the SLMZ and the RJD and nearly led to Prime Minister Guanyu's resigning.
However, as the second half of 1437 was flowing by, the military was getting unsettled now. The persistent economic difficulties in the nation steadily reduced the military's budget from 1436 to 1437 and the officers as well as the soldiers ended up being paid less and less. Despite such difficulties, the military were able to gain into possession new equipment, especially since tensions between Shouling and Orora were becoming more and more prevalent. Many of the higher up officers within the SFA were actually heavily aligned with the RJD, one of which being Field Marshall Xuan Gengxin, who had actually managed to get popular support for Prime Minister Guanyu within the army. But the persistent inability of the government prompted many in the military leadership to start vying for political influence in the republic. By September, many older officers began getting involved in local elections, but that instantly began to clash with candidates from the SLMZ, who attempted to gain political clouts by singling out former military officers as "potential warlords" that would use their influence to break the country apart into autonomous regions. That did little in their efforts to curb the military's influence in politics and, being egged on by the RJD's push for reform, they began using pro-SLMZ officers in the army to begin establishing control in the country through military force, with President Chen and General Lang Xieren using military force to station their presence in both Samhung and the neighbouring city of Gangwei.
That sparked a panic within both the SLMZ and the RJD as this looked like an attempted coup for the SLMZ to take full control of the nation and forced Prime Minister Guanyu to call a government conference and hopefully establish a compromise. But while President Chen attended the conference along with the majority of the SLMZ representatives, he left General Xieren stationed in Samhung and outright refused to recall troops from the city. With the conference soon turning into an openly heated debate along party lines, the hope for compromise collapsed and Prime Minister Guanyu resigned the next day, which became the final straw for the RJD and they effectively walked out of the Federal Assembly. The withdrawal of the RJD also affected the military, and under Field Marshall Xuan Gengxin, it showed that the only way to establish order was through military force. By the end of September, under orders of Field Marshall Gengxin, General Meng Xuefeng marched the 6th "Xia" Infantry Division into Samhung to displace General Xieren, only for a firefight to break out as both generals and several units from both sides met in the Golden Square in southern Samhung. During the fight, General Xuefeng ordered a full assault on General Xieren's forces. After nearly four hours of fighting, the battle took 59 lives and managed to wound over 100, one of them being General Xieren himself, who took two bullets to his left thigh. Samhung came under complete RJD control and while the SLMZ tried gathering supporters from the military, many became alienated due to SLMZ fierce hands off approach to the economic issues within the country that began affecting the functionality of the economy. Fighting continued throughout October as Field Marshall Gengxin's forces occupied Gangwei as well as establishing firm control over Xieren, Hanying as well as the major northern cities of Jianhong and Xia, effectively establishing his presence as a "warlord", with a significant portion of the Shouling Federal Army behind him. For his efforts, he was awarded as the General Chief of Staff of the SFA, with overall command of the entire army (minus the navy and the air force).
President Xiong Chen was immediately removed from his position, replaced by Prime Minister Guanyu as interim president. But behind the scenes, the actions of the military have left the RJD in an unstable position. As November ticked over into December, the trigger was pulled, and Interim President Guanyu was pushed out of his position. The new military faction within the RJD ended up splitting from the main party and, with support from Field Marshall Gengxin as well as a big portion of the general staff, they established the Fùbì Zhènxiàn (FZ; Restoration Front), which was led by General Xuefeng, General Zhong Li and former RJD political officer Wan Su. With the 6th "Xia" Infantry Division already holding Samhung, Field Marshall Gengxin and General Xuefeng marched with the additional 9th "Kaenan" Infantry Division into Samhung and proclaimed the resignation of the Interim President, announcing the Gengxin-Sun Declaration and proclaiming a brand new government headed by the Fùbì Zhènxiàn, effectively taking control of the governance in Samhung and the leadership of the Shòulíng Republic by mid-December, with nearly four months of near total political chaos.
From mid-December to today (as of writing, the end of January 1438), the now dubbed Jingguān government launched themselves into a massive and ambitious reform program. Democratic elections were suspended after the Occupation of Samhung in October 1437 and, after the FZ came into power, Wan Su was named as Interim Chief Governor, with Field Marshall Xuan Gengxin as the Deputy Governor. Remnance of the political faction aligned with the RJD soon became absorbed into the FZ, many having joined the new government. The reform planned called for several areas to be completely restructured:
• Amendment of the 1407 Constitution concerning the powers of the head of state and head of government
• Breaking government restrictions in their involvement in the economy
• Passage of new economic and trade reforms, aiming to strengthen domestic competition against foreign competitors
• Discarding tax and land privileges for foreign businesses (which will affect Kiberia (Okruzzhensyia), Polingo, CRMF Carnolia and Orora businesses in the Republic), conforming them to universal standardized tax rates as domestic companies
• Drafting new taxation laws, that would help establish a standardized, consistent rate of tax for different goods, land sizes and income rates
• Establishing new workplace laws and safety regulations, strengthening child labour laws and establishing pension programs for retired workers
• Restructuring of the Shouling military branches
• Restructuring of government ministries and eliminating inter-ministry co-operation on national projects and future reforms
The series of reforms aimed to untangle the mess of the federal system that was created by the 1407 Constitution, permitting multiple ministries to co-operate on government projects and divide workloads based on given specialties, seek to strengthen domestic companies that were quickly being driven out of the market by much stronger foreign companies, enabling the government to directly intervene in the national economy through any means necessary as well as establishing labour laws that would enhance the safety and work conditions of workers in major manufacturing firms (upon the completion of said reforms, both domestic and foreign companies will be, by law, required to follow these regulations).
Against all odds, due to the nature they secured power over the governemnt, the Jingguān government was met with waves of popular support, particularly due to the SLMZ-RJD splinter in early 1437 as well as their immediate action to appeal to the needs of the population as opposed to appeasing their target supporters. Many pro-RJD supporters applauded the new leadership for showing intent in helping the national economy back on track and prioritizing domestic companies over favouring foreign competitors. The pro-SLMZ supporters, on the other hand, still held reservations. While many showed some support due to government promises on establishing a functioning bureaucracy, many feared that the military would take total control of the government and that the nation would steer towards an authoritarian dictatorship (*cough cough*... foreshadowing) while major pro-SLMZ industrialists turned their backs against the Jingguān government due to their aims to reform the taxation and worker safety policies, being more concerned with their bottom line and profits over worker conditions. Many also hoped foreigners would be forced to pay more in taxation as opposed to both sides having to pay an equal amount of taxation based on land area and size of labour.
Despite these factors, the Jingguān government position was shaky. With an internal election coming up for the future leader of the nation, many in the country still weren't entirely sold on the new administration and many in the government feared a possible future insurrection. Many in the lower class in more remote, rural areas were mostly unaware of the political situation in Samhung, so the base of support many opponents of the government could get would mainly be focused on urban centers, many of which were in support of the government. But how the new administration will handle the administration of the nation remains to be seen. But, according to the plan announced, there is new hope that the Republic could establish itself as a formidable nation in the world.
Republika Łukowii - 1437 AH
One Falls, Another Rises
The news from Shouling had arrived at the Foreign Ministry without warning and at an inconvenient hour, carried in dispatches that required two readings before their implications fully registered. A coup. The government that had opened Shouling's doors to foreign investment, that had received Łukowian delegations and signed commercial frameworks, was gone. Replaced overnight by a military council whose first significant economic act had been to strip foreign companies of the preferential arrangements that had made the market attractive in the first place.
The president had not known. This was important and he made sure it was understood clearly in the conversations that followed, not as a defense but as a fact, the Foreign Ministry's intelligence on Shouling's internal political stability had not flagged what was coming, which was its own problem to be addressed separately, but the Shouling opportunity had been presented in good faith because it had been a good faith opportunity at the time it was presented. Coups did not announce themselves in advance to foreign trade attachés.
The oligarchs' displeasure communicated itself through Kovalevsky. The room above the bank had noted the development, had formed its views, and had made those views known in terms that were measured enough to remain within the boundaries of the working arrangement and pointed enough to ensure the president understood that the Shouling account was now considerably overdrawn. Halski's specific observation, that the market which had been offered as a favour in return for a favour had lasted less than a year before this event had rendered it unrecognizable, arrived on the president's desk in Kovalevsky's careful prose and landed with the precision its author had intended.
The president read it, noted it, and had already moved.
The council that had seized power in Shouling had done what normally followed such events, it had nationalized the advantage while keeping the relationship. Foreign companies would now operate under the same legal framework as domestic ones, which removed the preferential margins that had made the investment attractive and left behind a market that was larger and hungrier than most but no longer structured to favor outside capital. The Łukowian companies that had established their initial positions would need to reassess what those positions were worth under the new terms, and the assessments would not be comfortable reading.
However, another thing done with the new government in charge, surprisingly, was a military hardware deal between Łukowia and Shouling.
Shortly afterwards to the events, the Foreign Office had established its normal operations back again in Shouling and had started probing the new government for opportunities. Which came in the shape of a deal for 18 fighter aircraft, The M.13. The project being completed but not seeing any orders, the production line was halted, with only the engines developed by Novaski seeing steady production. So, the only real production challenge currently was to start the construction of the fuselages. Sharing almost every component other than its engine with the M.12 model, it was deemed easy to diverge machines and start the production.
However there was still the problem with the economic priviliges being stripped off. The oligarchs' investment losses in Shouling were real and would need to be absorbed. The president had not caused them and could not reverse them. However, with the aircraft deal opening a new page in the relationship, it was hoped that some compromises and better economic ties could be formed but for the moment, the oligarchs were not happy in the slightest. Which was complicating another matter at home. The upcoming presidental elections expected for early 1439.
The current President had done his best, achieved his promises, but it may be enough if the oligarchs came together and worked against him with a candidate of their own. He needed them to either support him or nobody at all. He had to give them something or find a new market that they could make up the difference at. Just recently the CRMF Carnolia had offered a trade deal, which was ignored, until now. The Carnolian market could be used as a subtitute for the moment, although nobody would like it, but without trying nobody would know what it could make.
He sent a message to both the oligarchs and to the Foreign Affairs, to prepare a plan and start talks with the Carnolians.
There was a sliver of hope in him, that said maybe the Carnolians had changed, and their new nation was more cooperative and well-intentioned than they were during the Empire, but it was only a hope...
Okruzhennsiya - Military Expansion & Economic Recovery - The Path to Okruzhenn-led Globalization
The last few years had been quiet for Okruzhennsiya in regards to global affairs for the most part. Economic recovery had taken top priority, and still there was room for repair. Developments in rapid manufacturing and increased steel production were still early on, as were dockyard and railway expansions across the long eastern coast. Immense political and economic capital had been invested into this rapid "re-industrialization" as some were calling it. What success there already was had almost entirely been from job creation. A combination of a small, yet steady increase of employed citizens, alongside a slumped economy meant that normal consumption was slowly beginning to revive. It is critical however, to understand that the economic slump from nine years ago is not fully over. Consumption and GDP growth still hover under pre-depression levels, and there is a general sense of discontent across the nation. For the ruling class of Okruzhennsiya however, this was both a threat and opportunity. All that was necessary was to take the poor feelings of the nation, and turn them toward an external enemy. Someone to blame, someone to triumph over. A sense of unity that could drive nationalism into the hearts of the people, and money into the economy again. And it was for this reason Okruzhennsiya began to look outward again.
It was true that Okruzhenn capitalists were already making money hand-over-fist. Private industry had expanded into Polingo, Sveynland, and of course Shouling. Steel, oil, and timber extraction had been successful here. Much of which flooded back into Okruzhennsiya to be sold to Okruzhenns. And yet, there were two very real problems. One was Shouling's new government. A military coup. While it was true that Okruzhennsiya was not concerned about the "violation of democracy" in Shouling. It was concerned with a much more real problem. That of its foreign assets. While nothing had been nationalized, its privileged spot in the growing Shouling economy had been snubbed by these economic nationalists. Okruzhenn industrialists had been foaming at the mouth to send a fleet to Shouling shores and "convince" them to agree to the old government's agreements. And yet, how could the Kravchuk administration convice its people that this was a just war? There was simply no stake in it for the average person. Besides, the navy was still in a long-term project. It was not ready to overwhelmingly overrun the Shouling Navy.
A much more convincing problem was Lukowia. They had developed an economic and military agreement with many of Okruzhennsiya's neighbors. While true Okruzhennsiya had deals with these nations of its own, such actions by an openly hostile state could not be ignored. The conditions were perfect. The average person had a threat much closer to home, and the ruling class could even be seen "sacrificing" their investments there. Thus it was settled. A letter was sent to Lukowia, asserting Okruzhennsiya's claim of the northern regions, the regions that had a large Okruzhenn population. This was not about treating people right, but strictly a border issue. The Kravchuk administration therefore made it quite clear it was willing to come to the negotiation table, but remarked rather plainly that it was willing to escalate.
The military developments had indeed borne some fruit in the meantime. The navy expansion plan had already produced three Gnevny class destroyers, three Podvoisky class destroyers, two Kotovsky class cruisers, and two Mikoyan class heavy cruisers, adding the first several ships to the new naval plan. This was in part thanks to the adoption and standardization of electric arc welding for ships, replacing rivets. This enabled a rapid reduction in production time. However, ships could not yet be ran right off the docks and into the ocean. Jobs that were created by this major program were still being filled, factories were still adapting to the new production methods, and some hulls even suffered from brittle steel, causing cracks and production delays, often times holding up entire assembly lines. Yet the adaptation was well underway, and teams were being retrained.
Two aircraft had also been introduced. The I-16 and I-17. Both were similar fighters in terms of weight, armament, and speed. However the range on the I-17 was 100km longer, and its service ceiling was roughly 2,000ft higher than the I-16. A seemingly strange choice to establish production of two similar fighters was made to create strong aviation engineering experience. The Okruzhenn government had given guaranteed contracts to aviation companies, and the state was beginning to debt spend to revive its consumer and military industries.
[covert]
Another letter was sent to CRMF Carnolia. It detailed a congratulatory letter to the newly installed dictator. In it were hopes of economic and industrial cooperation, with Okruzhenn companies willing to open in Carnolia and build war material.
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