[hider=Lore summaries prt.2] ASIA [img]http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/071/e/5/pow_map_asia_by_aaronmk-d79y5p0.png[/img] China From Europe, the earliest criticisms of China could come in the form of remarks over their lack of knowledge to the concept of liberty, or not nearly grasping it enough. Since the 17th century the mighty Qing had presided over the Chinese with an iron hand. The Manchu dragon wrapped all through Chinese society. Even determining the style of hair one grew as a sign of obedience to the Manchu ruling clan, the Qing. The Qing court met the coming of its winter on the autumn dawn of 1911. As Europe healed from the wounds left by the Great War the Chinese to the East were marching to war. A number of uprisings and revolutions lead into the Wuchang Uprising, which having overthrown the Qing dynasty in the south sought its own European styled Republic. Lead by Sun-yet Sen a Republican era was boldly born in Nanjing. It was an ambition with great dreams, and with blood destined for its saber. The Imperial court in Peking had grown considerably weak in the recent decades, and was only hurt more when it was cut off from its financial support in the west as an effect of post-war economic injuries. The value of its loans weakened. As well, the increasingly conservative politics of Emperess Dowager Cixi was hardly a comfort to China. As well, the young emperor Puyi was still incapable of wielding actual power except through his regency of eunuchs and Cixi. As well over the northern border, the recently repressed Octobirists and Bolsheviks of Russia's own failed revolution sought refuge abroad. Many seeing a weakened state with little or a crippled authority poured across the border from Siberia into the desolate cold deserts of Western China or into the cold backwoods of Manchuria. These westerners, bringing the ideas of Revolution and the writings of Marx, Lenin, and his followers to a foreign land helped to slowly spread the seeds of their failed march for freedom in Russia. In the east, factionalization in the court of Peking mounted, spurring the removal of the regent by Yuan Shikai on orders by Emperess Dowager Longyu. This move putting the northern Beiyang Army in total control of the imperial court. General Shikai, reasoning that war would be costly opted instead to reach agreements with the Chinese Republic in the south on the presumption of creating a constitutional monarchy and republic for all of China. To this end, Sun Yat-sen ceded the presidency to Shikai. To this end Longyu unwisely issued an Imperial eddict dissolving Imperial Authority and shattering northern stability, bringing to an end 2,000 years of imperial unity and an era of warlordism in and around Beijing, Chinese Central Plains region, and beyond. The increased factional differences between the disorganized and feudal warlords and growing questions on Chinese culture only sharpened the criticisms from Europe. To the westerners and everyone, the Chinese knew not the liberty Sun-yet Sen had sought to bring. And China was a rotting corpse of its former glory in 1912. In 1927 under the military leader Chiang Kai-shek the Republic of China sought to restore order to the Chinese provinces. Kai-shek mustered his army, and lead an expedition into the Chinese north to defeat the Chinese warlords and capture Beijing for the glory of Nanjing. His force swelled to 250,000 men from both the right and the left of the Republic of China. Chiang Kai-Shek's vast army managed to defeat and the Zhili Clique. And with his victory sealed the Kuomintang army kept its march. But in the winter of 1927, the general would make the split in the Chinese Republic that would haunt them until their demise. As the snows fell, he ordered a purge of his army and the Kumintang of all socialist and communist elements. This affront great upsetting and enraging the the leftist leadership. The Communist and socialist parties of the KMT fled west-ward into China's interior where there was large Communist loyalty seeded by the Russian refugees living there. In the KMT, the party lines split and even for a brief while the Republic appeared to break down, forcing Chiang Kai-Shek to withdraw his troops to deal with his opposition who had established a new capital in Wuhan as Chiang established is rule in Nanjing. The vacuum of power he left behind allowed the remnants of the Manchurian authority and the feuding Bieyang cliques to advance on the lands he had occupied and effectively invalidating the initial Northern Campaign. The political climate in China went is disarray as Chiang Kai-Shek consolidating his power and went on the path to declare himself the military dictator of the Republic of China. By 1930, the political state had deteriorated enough that the Japanese Empire took advantage and declared war on the fractured Chinese state. Operating through Korea which they had claimed late in the century prior, the Red Sun of Japan swept into Northern China, making short work of the warlords and making full occupation of Manchuria and Beijing. And the young emperor Puyi – who had by this point came of age – was appointed by Hirohito as the reigning monarch of the puppet state of Manchukoko. The territory being granted to the Emperor on the pretense of a marriage the former Qing Emperor's brother had with the Emperor's cousin. Though in public Puyi and Japan managed to have a cooperative existence, the two factions bickered behind closed doors. Though the Aisin-Gioro clan retained power in the north thanks to Japan, the Emperor insisted that he should still have all of China. Conflict over identity also kept the two sides at opposition as Japan waged war on the Republic. Initially, the KMT suffered heavy defeats at the hand of Japan loosing control of coastal China and forced to abandon their Nanjing as Chiang Kai-Shek fought both the Communists on one side, his critics in the middle, and the Japanese on side. Communism would make a resurgence in China in the 1940's as refugees fled westward. On the increasing man power the Communists found themselves with more ability to make bolder moves and to have more influence on the other regions of China. Although hardly capable of practicing it much and making only small gains they were none-the-less a powerful adversary against both the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. In the year 1956 the pressures of Chiang Kai-Shek were given a direct slap in the face in the liberated city of Hong Kong. Roughly ten-years recaptured the Macau and Hong Kong area switched hands again as a student-led uprising stole the vital ports from Chiang Kai-shek in a city-wide revolution ousting Republican control and raising the red flag. Led primarily by Wen Chu and Hou Sai Tang, the new Hong Kong commune – along with its partners in Macau – sought an independent state ruled by Communist law. However the response from Chiang Kai Shek was sharp and absolute: no. A prolonged siege of the cities forced a mass evacuation and abandonment of the cities to the Republican Army. Sneaking around the Republican front line, the communes and their faithful left their homes and made the long march west to meet with communist leaders in Chongqing. The vision of Wen Chu and Hou Sai Tang offered a resource stern enough to give the Communists a centralized morale to make a move on their enemies. Leaving for the north, Wen Chu went to conduct campaigns towards Beijing as Hou Sai Tang assisted the former Republican officer-made-general Lou Shai Dek in an offense against the weak and bickering Republican forces. On campaign though, Wen Chu came to an end on the wintered fields of the north, forcing Hou Sai Tang to march northward on Beijing to avenge his fallen friend. Smashing much of the Republican army at Luding Bridge, Hou went north where he engaged the Imperial forces. Suffering a number of guerrilla defeats at the hands of the Communists, as well as suffering the strain of prolonged conflict and the humiliation of loosing Unit 731 and the uncovering of its atrocities there, the Empire of Japan withdrew from China, moving its operations to Taiwan and Korea and abandoning Puyi to the Communists. Beijing fell in 1958 and in the next year Chiang Kai Shek was killed in the field bringing to an end the military capabilities of the Republican south. By the end of 1959 the Communists had near defacto control of China; minus Tibet and Mongolia. On the dawning of 1960 a congress was called by Hou who had assumed defacto control of the Communists forces. Inviting the remnants of the Republican Chinese politic they organized the surrender of Southern China to the Communist authority and drafted the constitution of the new China on the principles written by Hou Sai Tang and his colleagues since he began studying law in Hong Kong in 1946; this communist ideology becoming known simply and popularly by the term Houism, The People's Manifest of Independence being its book. This congress also served to organize the new Chinese government, and effectivly saw the merger of the less radical Republic elements into the CPC to create the New People's China party, or NPC; the official name of the state also being derived from the party: New People's China. Over the next several years, the new Chinese government sought to repair the damages wrought on it by nearly half a century of conflict, as well as the rooting out of remaining right-wing elements in China and lingering foreign right-wing militia units in China. Over the course of five-years the new government took to Mongolia as being the first battleground to test its influence, forcing a communist revolution within Mongolia and annexing it the year after. 1970 saw the Red Dragon of China making its full stir. Lead by what the west saw as an aging dictator China entered the global sphere lead by Hou Sai Tang, whose office had been maintained through the popular opinion of him in the national congress and beyond, informally invalidating the need for election and striking it out of the national interest. 1970 also saw a re-mustering of the Chinese military arm as the nation itself underwent continued large-scale infrastructural and agricultural reforms.  With the US territories in the Philippines being lost to nationalistic revolution the Congress saw a means to enforce continuing Chinese influence, and to stamp out the potential of growing conservatism. After Tibet in 1970 they approved for the deceleration of war on Japan for Taiwan and the Philippines for the restoration of order based on a large-scale plan by the Chinese military circles. Several million soldiers of the NPC Liberation Army and Navy – NPCLA and NPCLN respectively – landed on the shores of Taiwan and defeated the Imperial army in short order. Following soon after NPCLA and NPCLN forces engaged nationalist rebels shortly after their deposition of the US military on the island of Luzon. The conflict in Luzon spanned on into 1971 and involved one engagement with the US Navy as they sought to reconquer the Philippines. However, the US were forced to back off of the war to deal with the growing First North American War. Peace in the Philippines arrived later that year. Peace with Japan solidified Chinese rule over Taiwan when the war boiled in Japanese Korea, forcing the Japanese to recognize an independent government in northern Korea based in Pyongyang. Congress agreed to a long-term twenty-year plan to the formation of and backing of a native Philippino government in Luzon. However this decision cut short the campaign on Mindanao on the pretense that on a future date the Luzonian government would have the strength to conduct the campaign themselves. This decision dooming Mindanao into a state of anarchy as conservative elements bickered and fought each other in a feudal fashion, only loosely abiding to the rule of a man claiming to be the true Pope, criticizing Europe and Rome for its inability to confront the demons of Communism in Asia. 1970 and 1971 also saw the dissolution of French Indochina through covert funding and supplying of anti-colonial revolutionaries in Laos and Vietnam. Backdoor meetings with the Kingdom of Cambodia also talked them into the disposal of French rule over Cambodia and the end to European rule in Indochina. The move sparked the creation of the Asian Socialist Bloc, an alliance offering mutual trade, ideological, and material trade between its member states. The ASB would grow to involve Luzon on legal technicalities and the Chinese supported revolutionaries in Eastern Russia, the communes of Radek in the West, and to some degree much later: The United States and Mexico. With the growth of Ottoman power in the west, concern grew over the likelihood of a Turkish super-state. In response to the Ottoman invasions of the Caucus they deployed troops to Khazakhstan as part of a military access deal. Weapons supplies were shipped as well to the Khazaks as well. A faction within the air force of China became increasingly interested in the prospects of operations far beyond the operational limits of conventional aircraft. And with captured jet technology from their brush with the Americans and the occupation of the Philippines the Chinese were given their setting stone to achieve new heights. Though jet technology was sparse and widely unused by all but the wealthiest of states the Chinese decided to push the limits, beginning the foundations of a space program and an experimental high-altitude bombing project. As a result of the project, 1971 saw the launch of the first space balloon, and 1973 the launch of the first satellites: OARP 1 and 2. In 1975 the radio communication satellite Kaanshou was launched, its mission to intercept high-strength foreign radio transmissions and transmit them back to Beijing, where the central intelligence community – The Intelligence Bureau – retrieved and logged the communications data from radio services around the world; they believing that they may build a profile based on the public reception of international activity, and to keep their news profiles on the world better up to date. Through the year of 1975 the government of Eastern Siberia invaded west-ward into western Siberia and central Russia, intent on acquiring the next large swathe of the former Empire to make good on their claim. However the movement – supplied and backed by the Chinese – met to their surprise staunch resistance by the local Russian Republican army. The conflict ended in an uneasy settlement that only moved the borders west by a few miles. The treaty caused great agitation from Nikolov Nitski – the leader of the Eastern Siberia movement – who thought they could do better. Post-conflict as well saw a movement within Eastern Siberia to force the Eastern government to cede to the west. Breaking to the demands Nikolov went to the Republic to enter discussions. However before beginning official dialogs the leader sought to deny the Republic Vladivostok and any potential Pacific access by selling China the former Outer Manchu states. The dialogs dragged and officially got no where. Though as a result the Siberian state had broke down weakening Siberia for the next few years. China supported Nikolov as they could. 1976 saw the officialization of a Space and Science ministry, which acted as canvas for civilian/university oriented space missions and a testing administration for military-oriented space-craft models. As a government and more public space organization they Chinese Space and Science Ministry was set to work with members of the ASB and China's allies to further their space-oriented goals. 1976 and 1977 was the years of administrative transition from the Asian-oriented ASB to a globally minded Third International, or the Comintern. Based on the idea that with the formal membership of the US and Mexico – coupled with the far-western membership of Northern Finland and Saint Petersburg-Novogorod – that the ASB was no longer a regional organization and was reaching global status. Promoted by Zhang Auyi – minister of People's Affairs and Agriculture – the concept of the Third International was fronted as an administratively flexible and internationally accessible organization for the promotion of socialist and communist ideology and for a multinational discussion on revolutionary ideology; as well as a fraternity to protect its members from aggressive opposition. The base of the Third International was built in Shanghai and named the Seven Nations Pond, in reference to the seven continents of the world, symbolizing international unity. Though its naming as often been criticized by geological organizations. As well as after six years of hiding, Chinese agents relocated the Tibetain Dalai Lama in Nepal. Though on an unrelated case at the time the Lama's location was reported in and he was re-invited back to China by Hou. His return at the promise of reconciliation and at the promise of Hou to see legislation base through Congress to safeguard the Tibetan population. Though the proposition was ignored for several years, the Lama finally returned in 1978 and the dialog for a proper autonomy bill started. With the dawning of 1980 debate still lingers in the Chinese Congress over the autonomy zones and how to define them. The Space and Science ministry continues its operations with a series of launches and experiments in space to continue the plan outlined by its minister Henjibou for the completion of the high-altitude bombing program he started in the air-force. In Manchuria, the Chinese army prepares for a second assault onto Russia to continue its commitment to Eastern Siberia. Meanwhile, a small detachment is settled on the Ethiopian island of Pemba as part of an alliance and military partnership deal to train future Ethiopian regiments. The 1980 election of a new president of the US has caused conflict in the Third International as the US makes protesting moves against what it perceives as still as Chinese hegemony on top of the b-lining of the potential influence in its borders from Brazil in the Hispanic population. Its consideration for xenophobic laws and the active elective order for the arrest or deportation of legal Hispanic immigrants has charged Mexico and attracted the attention of China, with threats or revoking Comintern membership. India Asia in general enjoyed a fair amount of stability and much of its conflicts were not nearly protracted. A sort of local Pax China existed after the territorial claims of China against Japan were enforced. Though the issue that struck through Asia and destabilized its feeling of peace came from India. Political instability and rivalry within its senate and federal offices – erected shoddily after the collapse of the British Empire – created an atmosphere of plots against itself to stamp out political rivals. In all, India never had the appropriate administration to function as a unified state and collapsed after roughly twenty-years of independence from Britain in 1971. India's collapsed mirrored that of Russia in the north with its provinces and states being broken from each other and falling into a situation much like that of a quarreling collection of psuedo-nations ruled by warlords or minor parliaments trying to exert control. India's bickering and boiling would roll over the better part of five years. By 1975 Beijing was putting a keen eye on India. By which point a man from Jaipur - simply calling himself Mahatma - had reached power in the Jaipur region of India. Preaching a communist and socialist revolution he sought to unite India in red and had secured his power over northern India in the five years of chaos, stretching as far as Bangladesh with support in bordering western Burma by the time of China's courting of him. Promising assistance in political and military affairs, with the boon of economic support from the ASB he was offered – and signed to join – the Asian Socialist Bloc, bringing to his banners a considerable sum of Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese aid. By this point though, the Shah in Persia took notice and cautious of growing Chinese influence made his own move to exert Persian influence over India, primarily making is steak over southern India via the Punarjanam movement. The two sides clashed over the coarse of 1975 and 1976 until both came to the table and elected on peace. Agreeing to recognize the bodies of India as a federation with a shared parliament between semi-autonomous regions. As a part of the treaty, India was sworn to not involve itself in the affairs of China or Persia and swear perpetual political neutrality to both. Philippines With the US territories in the Philippines being lost to nationalistic revolution the Congress saw a means to enforce continuing Chinese influence, and to stamp out the potential of growing conservatism. After Tibet in 1970 they approved for the deceleration of war on Japan for Taiwan and the Philippines for the restoration of order based on a large-scale plan by the Chinese military circles. Several million soldiers of the NPC Liberation Army and Navy – NPCLA and NPCLN respectively – landed on the shores of Taiwan and defeated the Imperial army in short order. Following soon after NPCLA and NPCLN forces engaged nationalist rebels shortly after their deposition of the US military on the island of Luzon. The conflict in Luzon spanned on into 1971 and involved one engagement with the US Navy as they sought to reconquer the Philippines. However, the US were forced to back off of the war to deal with the growing First North American War. Peace in the Philippines arrived later that year. Peace with Japan solidified Chinese rule over Taiwan when the war boiled in Japanese Korea, forcing the Japanese to recognize an independent government in northern Korea based in Pyongyang. Through 1975-1976 they had begun assisting Luzon in the acquisition of Mindanao. The year-and-a-half war was a grueling guerillas conflict against religious fanatics and ultra-nationalists. Though economic isolation combined with the poor nature of the economic disposition of the island had largely destroyed any attempt at a centralized authority. The only formal power they warlords of the island had was in that of the Pope of Mindanao, who fancied himself the true Pope as opposed to the one in Rome. As well as being Anti-Chinese the Mindanese were anti-Europe through the Pope and critical of the Europeans for their lack of rescue from China. The Pope of Mindanao was eventually cornered and assassinated by Chinese agents on the French colonial island of Niku Hiva. The war in Mindanao ended shortly after as Luzonian and Chinese troops swarmed Davao. Several million soldiers of the NPC Liberation Army and Navy – NPCLA and NPCLN respectively – landed on the shores of Taiwan and defeated the Imperial army in short order. Following soon after NPCLA and NPCLN forces engaged nationalist rebels shortly after their deposition of the US military on the island of Luzon. The conflict in Luzon spanned on into 1971 and involved one engagement with the US Navy as they sought to reconquer the Philippines. However, the US were forced to back off of the war to deal with the growing First North American War. Peace in the Philippines arrived later that year. Peace with Japan solidified Chinese rule over Taiwan when the war boiled in Japanese Korea, forcing the Japanese to recognize an independent government in northern Korea based in Pyongyang. Tibet In the summer of 1970 the Chinese Congress approved war with Tibet sparking a large-scale march against the Himalayan nation of Tibet. Disorganized, severely outdated, and without backing the Tibetan nation was seized in two weeks by the Chinese military who established military rule over the plateau. Originally, considerations were being made to maintain the Dalai Lama's presence, if stripping him of all authority over Tibet and making him a mere figure head. But the Lamite supporters organized for the means to evacuate the Lama from Lhasa. Successfully smuggling Tenzin Gyatso across the border into Nepal a small groups of monks had effectively slapped Beijing in the face. The Dalai Lama was rediscovered in hiding in 1976 by Chinese intelligence agents on an unrelated mission against South-East Asian opium cartels, and a process of diplomacy and legalism convinced the Lama to return if the Congress considered and debated further laws to loosen restriction on religion and minority rights in China. North Korea/Korea The Northern half of Korea was recognized as independent after the war in Taiwan expanded northward onto the Korean peninsula. Recruiting and making good on earlier promises with Korean revolutionaries who had fled into northern China early in the last decade the army and their guerillas support sought to carve out a renewed and independent Korean state. However in the peace process they had to drop the lower half of the peninsula and leave it to Japanese hands. Indochina The Indochinese region was liberated from French and European influence after the Chinese government funded and supplied revolutionary forces in the 1970's. These fledgling states would become early members of the Asian Socialist Bloc, a Chinese-led alliance for the defense of revolutionary ideology in the Asian sphere. Empire of Japan Japan involved itself in the early stages of China's national unrest, provoking it behind the scenes before invading in the 1930's. They had many victories and little defeats. Though the war dragged draining their resources until finally being driven out of the country by Chinese Communists in the mid-late 50's. Secessionist movements in their colonial territories on the Asian mainland further separated the Empire from the mainland, cutting them down to their island territories. Japan would be further hit by the Chinese in the 70's and lost Taiwan and half of their only Asian mainland territory – Korea – to war. Japan is ruled by the sickly, old Emperor Hirohito – or Emperor Showa. Akihito stands to be the next in line for the Imperial throne but faces the daunting task of either restoring Japanese honor or holding onto its southern islands. Kazakhstan/Turkistan This central Asian nation is otherwise untouched. Though they trade with China for weapons and have Chinese military bases on their soil in expectation of growing Ottoman influence. Or more recently the growing influence of the Russian Mafiya. Nepal Untouched Bhutan Untouched RUSSIA [img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/071/f/4/pow_russia_by_aaronmk-d79yb71.png[/img] (*Cartographer's note: Latvia and not Livonia.) Russia left the Great War late in the year 1916. Based on popular protest to the war and threats from the Imperial military Czar Nicolas II was successfully convinced to turn the armies around and to return home. This fateful act gave him the time to ensure his longevity. Or the delaying of the inevitable. The returning Russian Army managed to quell the outspoken discontent from the officer corp, as well as provided the muscle to locate, confront, and eliminate political opposition to the crown. Particularly those forces related to the October Revolutions and the rising Bolshevik presence within Russia. With the army returning home the revolutions were stomped early and the Communists forced into hiding: their leaders captured and executed. Men we'd know as Lenin, Stalin, or Trotsky being put to death before their modern manifestos could be fully realized. What remained of their lieutenants and followers fled deep into hiding in Siberia, or into China. With the Russian Army abandoning the Great War Tzar Nicolas realized the longevity of the Romanov line, at least to Peter IV. Post-war the Russian Empire wasn't as imperial as it was or could be. Georgia and Armenia both declared independence from Russia in the twenties, winning a grueling war in the mountains that forced Saint Petersburg to recognize either state as independent. Through the forties and fifties Kazakhstan fought the Russian authority, eventually achieving independence for itself. Even Finland sought to question its own status in the Empire and came to challenge it in the late 60's. Throughout the years of Nicolas' late-years and post-years a number of imperial territories would find themselves slipping from the Imperial grip. It was as if the Empire that had declared itself the Guardian of Christendom was fading out. On the ascension of Peter IV from Nicolas of Russia the ghosts of Bolsheviks passed would work their way out and the aristocratic and working class murmured again of revolution. Often pointing out and using the Czar's faults as a means against him. Despite the criticism Czar Peter IV had an almost single-minded plan: to restore Russian unity. Unlike his predecessor who simply wished to maintain what he could hold, Peter wanted to expand it and reunify it. He's use his faculties to continue clamping down on the unrest and reactivated the Russian war-machine, invading Ukraine in the 70's in a bid to restore it. At around this time, nationalists in Finland confronted the Empire, demanding an independent sovereign state. The war was a grueling conflict that lasted and dragged through the winters seemingly without hope. Though the nationalist Vallankumous Finns had great heart for their cause they lacked the organization or numbers to fully stand toe-to-toe in Russia and by 1970 the rebellion was falling apart. A final attack was staged, intent on killing all remaining members of the revolution. But in the chaos its two leaders managed to break away. Viktor Laine and Juhani Mikheal being the lone survivors and the hammer to end the czar. The two men took to Russia and using their skills assassinated a number of magistrates and members of the Romanov family and direct relations to Czar Peter. Eventually climaxing in the Czar himself. On this fated meeting, the czar was giving a speech in Moscow, proclaiming Russian greatness and their victories in Finland to the Russian people in the winter afternoon. The two Finns however had other plans to let him speak. And from a parking garage and in the crowds lashed out on the Czar. With a shot and an explosion, the two slew the Czar. Their sole act of patriotic terrorism did more harm to the Russian state than any of them could have dreamed of, if anyone could know. Following the Czar's death the voices of discontent spoke up with a scream and went to battle. Pretenders and successors to the Imperial Throne proclaimed their legitimacy and feuded. Generals seeking power beyond their rank mobilized their men. The year of 1971 had been the Empire's nightfall, and it remains in darkness to today. COMMUNES OF NOVOGOROD-SANKTPETERSBURG The communes are a loose arrangement of autonomous communities based on the Communist ideology of the Neo-Bolshevik leader Dymtro Radek. A former priest for the Russian Orthodox Church, Radek had become angry at clerical abuses and state corruption. He turned to Communism and was thus arrested when he partook in a armed capture of an Imperial Magistrate's office in 1961. He was imprisoned south of the Urals were he remained for ten years before escaping during the collapse of the Empire. Rallying fellow political inmates and followers he conducted a violent revolution that nearly possessed all of Western Russia before he and his followers were beaten back into Sankt-Petersburg, Novogord, and Estonia. There he mustered his forces and retained power on the region, eventually moving to capturing the shore of the White Sea to the north in 1975. But his position and lack of trade opportunity has let him and his men become under equipped, and indeed a large part of his force that would be vehicles have been converted to units of revived cavalry. After consolidating his power Radek was approached by the Chinese and offered protection and economic support where it was possible in the ASB. He accepted the deal and is now still a nation recognized independent by the Third International, of which the communes are a member of. RUSSIA REPUBLIC The Russian Republic started as a consolidation of power by Russian general Dimitriov who fancied himself president. Acquiring command of more otherwise non-aligned units or assassinating his rivals he acquired power over the western reaches of Siberia. His power was centered over the city of Yekaterinburg south of the Urals. He built his power on the intimidation of other officers or leaders in the hot anarchy-ridden state of Russia, and there was hardly anything that could be pointed out as being Republican in his reign. Never the less, he was styled with the title of President and came to run the expanding Republic. In 1976 the forces of Eastern Siberia pushed westward, invading the Republican territory where they met with and fought the armies of Dimitriov. The Eastern Siberians had not appropriately calculated Dimitriov's power potential and their campaign faltered. It was made worse by the rumored acquisition of the chemical weapon known as VX. The rumors – and his active threats to use it, which only confirmed it – lead to increased interest of China; who had already been largely propping up the Siberian army. The allegations had also caught on with the Polish who became interested in the affairs and critical of the president. Demanding a conference, the sides met in Moscow – which had been recently acquired by the Republic by “purchase” - to discuss the incident and war. Though the Siberians were forced to stop with only small gains main on advancing the border the president was forced to admit to having purchased VX. Though he claimed to have disposed of it. Never the less he was forced to allow Chinese investigators through his nation to search for the potent chemical weapon. Dimitriov was as well taken in as prisoner of the Chinese. With Dimitriov gone the Republic faced troubling times, even with the election of a new president. The issue was not made better when Dimitriov was murdered in prison by another prison over a fight concerning an apple. Now, the Republic is stricken with intense crime and a security force stretched thin. Polish involvement has lead to the formation of a Polish paramilitary group in Moscow which has assumed direct control of the city, kicking the Republic out of their proposed future capital and sending it back to Yakenterinburg. To top it off, the Republican governments funds are dry and they have little actual economy to speak of, much of it run openly illegal as criminal organizations manifested over the country, often with more power than the actual government itself. These organizations are as well united under the Mafiya umbrella. EASTERN SIBERIA Eastern Siberia is the Chinese-backed region of Russia. Since the break down of the earlier communist revolution it had become a home for traditional Bolsheviks living in country. Where the west saw revisionism in the philosophy to form the Neo Boleshevik movement, the east had largely gone unchanged. Though Chinese influence in the 70's had introduced Houist ideology that created a significant movement towards the Chinese path. The movement attracted the interest of a man by the name of Nikolov Nitski, who openly fought the Russian Government through the late 60's. In the 70's he approached the Chinese requesting assistance to fight the Empire. Seeing a opening to cut down their northern rival, the Chinese government agreed to assist him and his “Russian-Mongolian Socialist Movement”. Through the 70's and on to the day the Czar died, the RMSM made significant bounds in the underpopulated and guarded Russian Far-East. It laid claim to a massive corridor of countryside and Russian towns and braced itself as an early leading player in the Russian breakdown that came. For this, the Republic of Eastern Siberia staged itself as being the premier, organized power in the post-Imperial Russian world. Though lacking in manpower of influence – being no where near Moscow or Saint Petersburg – greatly weakened its position and ensured a slow growth. Never the less, Nitski was energetic and he doubled his territorial claim through 1971 and 1972. His mission slowed through 1973 and 1975 as he turned internally to address matters in his territory. China recognized the Siberians as their own nation and they joined the Asian Socialist Bloc, later the Third International. The Siberian invasion of the Russian Republic in 1975 and 1976 ended unsuccessfully. Though making territorial gains it was hardly enough as he saw fit, and it introduced to the communist state a growing popular movement called the Russian Ressurection, which believed that Russia should be united under a single, mysterious person known as the Ressurector. The protests and armed uprisings dotted the Siberian geography until Nikolov decided to move to humor the protestors. Looking to the Republic as a way to end the rioting he sucked in his pride and went west to meet them. Though before leaving he sold Primorsky Krai and Sakhailan to the Chinese to deny any unification the Pacific ocean, as well as a backup plan should he need to stage a second revolution. The talks however didn't go anywhere and merely wasted Nikolov's time. He remained in the west for several months before returning east. However. On return, he realized to his dismay Siberia had fallen apart. Ressurectionists and other groups had overwhelmed the state and broken it down into a number of small petty-nations, like the rest of Russia or India. The most notable nation was the Yakut-Turkic state of Sakha. Nikolov spent the next four years regaining power among the fractured communes. Either through diplomatic of military pursuits. Chinese interests helped see to the elimination of the Sakha nation in 1979. With Eastern Russia reformed, Nikolov looks west to finish his dream. And behind him Chinese tanks thunder. MAFIYA Though not a nation, the loose coalition of criminal organizations known as the Mafiya stands as one of the strongest, anarchistic representative of the current state of Russia. Combining grotesque imagery with mysticism and a twisted sense of Russian Orthodox spirituality, the Mafiya does not seek a formal reorganization of the Russian state like the nations that are left to linger. They instead seek to see their power advanced outward, and profit increased. The Mafiya is a loose coalition of large or small criminal gangs throughout Russia, Russian speaking areas, or former Russian territories. The Mafiya specializes in a long list of enterprises, from extortion, murder, human trafficking, and drugs. But the most prominent has been the scale of their distribution network for heroine, opium, and meth. Capitalizing on the market left behind by the former Chinese Opium empire the Red Guard Gang (which was born out of corruption that had been burned out of China in the 70's and persisted until 1976 when Chinese agents found and assassinated Red Guard Gang leaders) the Mafiya has pressed itself as the largest criminal enterprise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It has as well come to produce and distribute a cut and deadlier version of Heroine, going by the name of Alkonost on the streets of Russia. The effects of which is best exemplified in the real-life effects of Krokodile. The Mafiya is layered on an almost feudal system. There are many leaders styling themselves as king with a number of lords, distributors, and enforcers under them. Each Mafiya boss approaching his trade with a sadistic style of action and dress, with one particular group going so far as to wear the heads of horses as masks. What unites the gangs are a mutual respect for each other through the trade or territorial understanding. Though this would still bring them to blows at times, the figure that looms above all else is the commonly invoked figure by the name of “Bog”. Loaning his name and title for the Russian word for God, Bog controls the conduct of the Mafiya bosses to prevent complete self destruction from within. His will his never made known directly, but through men who enforce it for him: the Warriors of Heaven. Both the Mafiya bosses and Warriors of Heaven though conduct their murders and aggression in a theatrical and highly visible manner. Neither shying away from displaying kills in public places, arranged in the shape of crosses or other portraits of death.[/hider]