Good update, however, Makhanya would've been a minor at the time of his installation as a puppet. I'd recommend Mario Masuku as a substitute if he's not appearing elsewhere.
For Want of A Sandwich - A Franz Ferdinand Lives Wikibox TL
- Thread starter MaskedPickle
- Start date
So, aside from Gorbachev and the Tsar, any prominent politicians or celebrities who got killed in the Vladivostok nuclear terrorist attack? Any foreign leaders unfortunate enough to get nuked in Vladivostok? Also, what distinguishes the Motherland Party from the Kadets and the All-Russian Union, I may ask?
Speaking of Russian ultranationalist politicians, what became of the following ITTL:
Igor Shafarevich
Mikhail Matkovsky
Ivan Serov
Vladimir Zhirinovsky (assuming he isn't butterflied away)
Konstantin Rodzaevsky
Viktor Baidalakov
Anastasy Vonsiatsky
Severin Dobrovolsky
Pavel Gorgulov
Boris Savinkov
And considering Solzhenitsyn became a far-right politician ITTL, how prominent was he ITTL? Duma deputy for whatever the main far-right party?
Abyssinian Civil War
The Abyssinian Civil War (also known as the Oromian War of Independence) was a military conflict between the Abyssinian Republic, led by Field Marshal Atnafu Abate and various rebel groups, such as the Abyssinia Democratic Coalition, the Oromo Liberation Front and the Army of Solomon. it lasted from 1987 to 2001.
As Abyssinia was facing certain defeat in the Abyssinian-Eritrean War (1986-1989), rogue elements from the Abate regime tried to overthrow the pyrist dictator on September, 10 1987 ; the coup failed, and surviving elements from the rebels founded the Abyssinia Liberation Front, waging war on the Abate regime. The coupsters were joined by elements of the Abyssinian nobility and members of the former democratic regime to form the Abyssinia Democratic Coalition on May, 15 1989 ; it failed to take the support of the Oromo Liberation Front, that declared the independence of Oromia, “after centuries of Amhara slavery”. The Falasha-led Army of Solomon also took arms but remained a second-tier combattant, as neither side allied with it.
Doubled with a famine and the Year Zero policies (better known internationally as the Abyssinian Genocids) implemented in 1991, the repression from the Abate regime was ruthless, as an estimated 6 million people died during the conflict, more civilians than combattants ; yet the regime didn’t enjoyed Russian support anymore after Vladivostok Attacks and suffered defeat after defeat. The fall of the capital of Addis-Abeba to the Oromos in June 2000, giving the former imperial capital the name of Finfinne, led Abate to open peace talks ending with the formation of a coalition government with the Abyssinia Democratic Front on December, 25 2000.
The end of the Civil War is considered to be the acknowledgement of the independence of the Federal Republic of Oromia in Addis-Abeba (now Finfinne), on October, 8 2001. A federal republic uniting the Oromo, Nuer, Anuak, Sidama and other peoples of southern Abyssinia was then established with Oromo Liberation Front leader Junedin Sado at its helm. As of Abate, he was ousted during the 2005 Abyssinian Revolution.
Due to its high civilian toll, with an estimated 6 million deaths (counting the victims of the Abyssinian Genocide), the Abyssinian Civil War is considered as one of the bloodiest recent wars, with human rights’ violations on both sides. Even now, civilians are victims of landmines scattered throughout Abyssinia and Oromia, remaining from the Civil War.
To this day, the Republic of Oromia maintains frank hostility towards the government of Abyssinia ; Amhara minorities in Oromia are persecuted and viewed as a fifth column for the Abyssianian nationalists, as evidenced by the 2015 anti-Amhara riots and the assassination of Oromian President Kuma Demeksa in 2019 by an Amhara nationalist. The prospect of a military conflict between both countries remains highly probable in the near future.
So, TTL's equivalent to the Khmer Rouge occurred in Ethiopia? Or was the regime more "the Derg but *fascist"?
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Sorry for the mistake, it shall be retconned.
The terrorist attack wiped out many Foreign Ministers, Olympic commiteemen and some parts of the Russian government ; fortunately, no leaders made the travel to Vladivostok, it will be covered.
The Motherland Party is far-right, monarchist and Integralist, while the Kadets are centrist liberal, with a strong center-left stream ; the All-Russian Union is a conservative big tent coalition.
I can see what you're doing there : TNO leaders will have their own update when I adress Russia (I'm currently focused on Lithuania and the year 1956). Most were irrelevant, but Solzhenitsyn belonged to an Integralist wing within the monarchist coalition.
It shall be !
As you can read in the Ryukyus' country profile, he became Prime Minister in 2019 before being elected of his own right in 2020.
Considering how Apartheid ended ITTL, what became of Desmund Tutu and Nelson Mandela? Let me guess the Apartheid Regime killed both of them here.
Vytautas II
Vytautas II (born Franz Maria Luitpold von Bayern, Schloss Leutstetten, Stamberg Bavaria 10 October 1875 - 25 January 1957, Kaunas, Lithuania) was King of Lithuania from 17 February 1923 until his death, the first hailing from the House of Wittelsbach, succeeding Mindaugas II (Wilhelm, Duke of Urach, future Prince Florestan II of Monaco). He was succeeded by his son Gediminas II.
The third son of King Ludwig III of Bavaria and Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, he followed suit of the German aristocracy and his eldest brother, the future King Rupprecht, by entering the Bavarian Army, serving on the Western Front as a general officer during the Great European War, receiving various medals for his command during the Battle of Aisne.
Franz of Bavaria could have remained an average German prince, developing his keen interest in fossils, when a new opportunity arose : the throne of Lithuania. In the last days of the Great European War, the former Russian province had unilaterally proclaimed the restoration of its independence, without any oversight from German authorities, choosing the Duke of Urach as its monarch. As German troops entered war-torn Lithuania to push for their own order, it appeared that Lithuania still desired their own monarch : in order to replace another Catholic prince, father of many war hero and in a gesture towards Bavaria, Prince Franz received a Lithuanian delegation at his headquarters in Wallonia, headed by German-supported Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras. Franz accepted the new crown on 17 February 1923, taking the regnal name of Vytautas II : if his namesake was one of the national heroes of Lithuania, he only held the title of Grand Duke at the difference of Mindaugas, stressing its subordination to Germany.
Taking his quarters in the former governor’s palace in Vilnius, Vytautas II made efforts to learn the Lithuanian language and to promote the identity of the restored nation, ruling as a constitutional figurehead and leaving day-to-day affairs to the German Army and his Prime Ministers, Augustinas Voldemaras (1923-1929) and Antanas Smetona (1934-1945), ironically the same one that had been deposed along with Mindaugas II in 1923. Quite popular, Vytautas II also made efforts to develop culture and museums in Lithuania.
The World War came with a blow : after the fall of Germany and the Russian takeover of Vilnius, surrounded by Syndicalism and Russian irredentism, the Lithuanian government decided to join the Polonia Restituta, the new Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that would merge the destinities of Poland and Lithuania in the new European order ; given the new developments, Prince Franz chose exile to Greece, fleeing overnight in 1945, expecting never to return nor to see his motherland again. Vytautas II returned triumphantly in 1950, when Lithuania regained its independence as a member of the Reichspakt : the same King that had been derided as “a German puppet” was still tantamount to Lithuania’s integrity.
Vytautas II was already 75 when he returned to his throne for the final time : he lived enough to see the Vilnius Incident and the military coup by General Plechavicius, to whom he gave his assent. He finally died, aged 81, in the Royal Palace in Kaunas. Married since 1912 to Princess Isabelle Antoine of Croÿ, he left six children, including his son and heir, Gediminas II. His daughter Maria Elisabeth also reigned as Empress Consort of Brazil from 1940 to 1968.
Gediminas II
Gediminas II (born Ludwig Karl Maria Anton Joseph Prinz von Bayern, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Bavaria 22 June 1913 - Kaunas, Lithuania 17 October 2008) was the King of Lithuania, succeeding his father Vytautas II on 25 January 1957, until his own death, when he was succeeded by his son Vytautas III. He hailed from the House of Wittelsbach.
Born Ludwig von Wittelsbach in Munich when his father was still known as Prince Franz of Bavaria, Gediminas was only 9 when he became overnight the Crown Prince of Lithuania, following his father’s suite in taking a Lithuanian name, Gediminas, from one of the greatest Grand Dukes of Lithuania. In the contrary of his father, Gediminas was able to learn Lithuanian from a young age and to speak it without an accent, serving in the Lithuanian Army while separating himself from his German ancestry. During the World War, the Crown Prince served in the failed defense of Vilnius : after Lithuania merged with Poland, he would serve in the Legions of Christ and later in the Bavarian Army during the Invasion of Poland. He presided over the restoration of independence of Lithuania : due to his father’s advances age, Gediminas would hold most monarchic powers from 1950 to 1957, heavily supporting Jonas Zemaitis’ conduct during the Vilnius Incident and later General Plechavicius’ coup in 1953 ; his friend was still ruling as Prime Minister and military dictator when Gediminas II acceded to the throne, in 1957, already aged 43.
Gediminas first envisioned himself as a Wilhelmian monarch, using his powers as an active monarch to influence his country’s destiny : however, the king felt his position was unstable when his friend, General Povilas Plechavicius, was assassinated in 1961 ; even as he appointed another friend, General Jonas Zemaitis, as Prime Minister, he could only given his assent when his very own man welcomed Jewish refugees from Poland and later welcomed the return to democracy.
Since the restoration of democracy in 1973, Gediminas II withdrew to a role as a constitutional monarch and a strong defender of both the Reichspakt and Lithuanian identity, repeatedly petitioning the European Community and the World Council for Russian disengagement from Vilnius : when Vilnius was recovered by Lithuania in 1995, the King, even being 82 at the time, insisted in riding on horseback into the old city, being greeted by tremendous applause. Gediminas II, who was said to have been taken aback by the welcoming of Jewish refugees, also changed his mind about the Jews, when he gave his royal assent to the granting of Lithuanian nationality to Jewish stateless inhabitants or appointed Ehud Brog as Prime Minister.
Gediminas II died in 2008, aged 95, after 51 years on the throne, one of the longest reigns in modern Europe, even if he was resentful that the Lithuanian government hadn’t yet relocated to Vilnius, where he was interred along with his father. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Vytautas III, born from his union with his cousin, Princess Irmingard of Bavaria. In 2000, he also saw his grandson, Henrikas, become King of Scotland under the name of Robert IV.
Vytautas III
Vytautas III (born in Königsberg, Prussia, Germany on 14 April 1951) is the reigning King of Lithuania, having succeeded his father Gediminas II on 17 October 2008. He hails from the House of Wittelsbach.
The only surviving son of King Gedinimas II and Princess Irmingard of Bavaria, Vytautas was the first prince to be born since the Wittelsbachs came to rule in Lithuania : nevertheless, he was born in Prussia, when Lithuania had just separated from Poland : he would be brought by his father home a year after his birth, becoming Crown Prince at 5. The first heir to the throne to be a native speaker of Lithuanian, Vytautas nevertheless withdrew from the military affairs his grandfather and father had favored, graduating in business from Berlin and Harvard and becoming a keen investor along with a strong patriot. Serving with the Ministry of Trade of Lithuania, Vytautas was almost retired from official civil service when he rose to the throne, aged 57. Ever since, he has ruled as a constitutional monarch, refusing to take a stand on official matters, yet endorsing Lithuanian identity and traditions, refraining from any interference even as the Lithuanian Constitution guarantees some executive powers to the monarch.
From his marriage to Princess Marie of Orléans, daughter to Dauphin Henri of France, he had five children, including the current Crown Prince, the Duke of Kaunas Mindaugas (born in 1979) and King Robert IV of Scotland. In a strange turn of events, Vytautas III had the surprise to see his second son rise before him to a throne, as Christian IX and Frederik VIII of Denmark before him. When Scotland became independent in 1999, the government looked forward for a monarch to keep the new country in line with continental traditions : owing to the Jacobite line of succession, the monarch of Scotland would hail from the House of Wittelsbach by that time. Owing to the scarce line of succession of Bavaria, the Scottish delegates turned towards Lithuania, asking Prince Henrikas, barely 18, to assume the throne of Scotland. King Gediminas II, along with Crown Prince Vytautas, gave their assent, and a Lithuanian became King of Scotland in 2000.
Desmond Tutu lived in England, where he led a peaceful opposition within the Black South African diaspora, while Nelson Mandela died in prison.
Nikolaus von Hohenberg
Nikolaus, Herzog von Hohenberg, is the current chairman of the board of Hohenberg AG, one of the leading telecommunication companies in the world, and the fourth Duke of Hohenberg, the great-grandson of Emperor-King Ferdinand II & VI (1863-1926). He succeeded his father, Georg, in 1999 as chairman and in 2019 as Duke. As the main stakeholder to the Hohenberg Conglomerate, he is the seventh wealthiest man in the world as of 2019.
Hohenberg AG was created in 1935 by Ferdinand II’s eldest son, Maximilian von Hohenberg in Vienna, then capital to the Danubian Federation. Having inherited a very large fortune from both his parents, his father assassinated in Prague and his mother killed during the Danubian War, and unable to succeed to the Danubian throne due to his father’s morganatic marriage, he sued the Danubian government for compensation and obtained it quickly, decided to invest his wealth into Hohenberg AG, specialized in infrastructure and telecommunications. Benefitting from the reconstruction of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, he participated to the war effort during the World War (1943-1949) and gradually spread his operation to Europe, then the whole world. Specialized in telephone and Interlink services, Hohenberg in present on all continents, mostly drawing his revenues from Europe and the former German colonial empire.
A major philanthropist and a devout Catholic, Nikolaus von Hohenberg nevertheless sparked controversy when he married American-born German model Sandra Bullock in 1992, as he decided not to marry into aristocracy and with a Roman Catholic bride, he nevertheless obtained the support of the German Kronprinz and the Pope.
What would have happened to Lebed had the coup succeeded? Would he still have stayed in exile or allowed to quietly return home?
Demography of Greece (Turkish Question)
The Great European War and the Continuation War against the Ottoman Empire was of far-reaching consquences for Greece : even if the country had been formally defeated and had failed to conquer Constantinople. The balance was shifted from continental Greece, that would become underveloped and underpopulated in the continuing years (one example being the former capital of Athens, that would lose up to 40 % of his 1950 population by 2020), to the Aegean Sea, focusing, before the annexation of Constantinople and the proclaimation of the Hellenic Empire, on Smyrna (formerly Izmir).
The Metaxas Dictatorship, pursuing the irrendentist creed of the Megali Idea, conducted a large settlement program in Anatolia : as mosques were converted to Orthodox churches and the formerly Turkish cities returned to their Greek and Byzantine names (Izmir to Smyrna, Antalya to Attaleia, Izmit to Nicomedia), Greek emigrants were granted large lands for agricultural purposes and Greek companies had guaranteed loans from the government, in order to foster settlement ; in 1928, Metaxas pushed as far as proclaiming a Law of Return, that would guarantee immigrants from Greece ownership in Anatolia if they agreed to settle there ; an example as such being Efthemios Tsongas, a former immigrant to the United States who left to Smyrna, and the father of future Prime Minister Pavlos Tsongas. Alexandros Papagos, Metaxas’ successor, would only continue the policy, including after the proclaimation of the Hellenic Empire.
Nowadays, Greek Anatolia is one of the most populated and prosperous areas of Europe, but also one of the most diverse : along with Greek natives and immigrants, it has large Sephardic Jewish, Armenian, Levantine, Lebanese populations, along with Turkish inhabitants : along with the descendants of the people who didn’t wish to leave their lands after Greek Conquest, numerous immigration waves followed from Ottoman Turkey, Armenia, Kurdistan and Hashemite Arabia, coinciding with the conflicts and oppressions experienced there.
Nevertheless, even as Turkish and Islam are respectively the second most prominent language and religion of modern Greece, the Turkish-speaking population has been the poorest population in the country, with the large majority serving as labor in Greek-owned farms and factories, forming large slums in the vicinity of Constantinople, Smyrna or Nicomedia, being outranked in terms of per capita revenue by the inhabitants of proper continental Greece.
Political parties, since the democratization of 1978, have emerged to help foster a true representation for the Greek Turks, being splintered between progressive, republican Greco-Turkish Social Movement and conservative, islamist Great Union Party. The Tsongas Administration saw a progress in favor of Turkish rights led by both parties, but the Greek Rally domination from 1998 to 2008 saw a major setback, due to islamist terrorist attacks throughout the country, helping to a breakthrough of the Great Union Party. The election of the populist Greek Solution in 2008 proved even worse, with Turks being branded as a scapegoat for terrorism, insecurity and unemployment by the Stanissopoulou Administration, with the voting of the so-called Anti-Muslim Laws in 2012, that forbid observant Muslims from pursuing work in civil service and universities (needing state-issued “certificates of laicity”), along with inscribing Greek Orthodoxy as the official religion of Greece, thus stopping any chance for a state recogition of Islam. The passing of the laws led to international outcry and massive demonstrations in 2015 and 2016, along with an assassination attempt in 2012 against the Prime Minister. In 2013, 2018 and 2019, left-wing, venizilist and Turkish parties petitioned for a repeal of the laws ; the formation of a Grand Coalition in 2018 ended any debate on the Laws by members of the government, and the Turkish Question remains steady in Greece.
Would've remained in exile. Lebed failed to incarnate the Great Man the Russian far right longed for.