The Romanovs Jeverland: a Russian Warm-Water Port, in the stlye of u/Alagremm by u/notreallydavid
The Jever territory is a small Russian Enclave surrounded entirely by German territory on the Jade bay that is host to the Romanov monarchy in exile. It is from this small strip of land the current Empress Catherine III, even after over 120 years of absence and 2 world wars, claims to be the rightful ruler of the vast territories of the former Russian Empire that today encompass 17 internationally recognized nations and several states of varying recognition. The Russian democratic government based in Moscow in turn raises no claim to the Jeverland and recognizes it as part of Germany, a policy first established by the Soviet Union who's allied government in East Germany considered the Jever to be part of it's territory. This situation is further complicated by the fact that the reunified German government makes no claim official to the enclave.
The Lordship of Jever has been in personal union with the Russian monarchy since Catherine the Great inherited the title to the land from her younger brother Friedrich August, last Prince of the House Anhalt-Zerbst and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, who died without heir in 1793. Despite this new union with a great power, little of the eastern sovereign's presence was felt in the Jeverland, which continued to be administered by elected majors. This first period of Russian rule came to an abrupt end just 14 years later when Napoleon's armies swept through Europe and conquered the Lordship. It was first annexed to the newly established Dutch Kingdom and later the French Empire itself where it was incorporated into the Department of the Ems. Under French rule the coastal areas experienced a decade of relative prosperity as they were spared from direct fighting and the quiet beaches proved popular with smugglers attempting to circumvent the continental system imposed by Napoleon. The Corsican Emperor's rule was to be short lived too as in 1813, following the disastrous defeats in Russia and at Leipzig, the French garrison abandoned Jever without fight which was liberated soon after by column of Russian cossacks lead by Baron von Dorst. His image can still be seen today on the statue of Russian-German Friendship in Hohenkirchen.
During the Congress of Vienna Tsar Alexander, who had been greatly impressed by the enthusiasm the people of Jever showed towards him, upheld his claim to the territory. This second period of Russian rule proved to be much like the first, with the Jeverland ruling itself mostly autonomously and unaffected by Russian affairs for more than fifty years. This period of peace and quiet came to and end during the unification of Germany when the question of the status of Jever naturally arose and came to a violent head in 1872 when a pan-germanist revolt was suppressed by Russian soldiers. An international crisis could narrowly be averted when careful diplomacy by Bismark, who was intent on avoiding Russian-German hostilities at all costs, managed to preserve the status-quo. For the next thirty years this little changed in this arrangement, though any sentiment Jever accession to Germany was heavily censored and Russian military presence would become a constant of life in the Jever.
In 1905 disaster struck the Romanov Dynasty. Following a crushing defeat against the Japanese, decades of political repression and failure to reform the antiquated Russian state culminated in the January Revolution. Emperor Nicholas II and large parts of the Russian imperial family were forced to flee St. Petersburg after the assassination his brother, Grand Duke Sergei, in Moscow by revolutionaries and the defection of large parts of the military to the reformist congress. While initially dispersed among many cities in Europe and Asia, the Jever soon became a point of regrouping for imperial loyalists. With the financial support of their royal relatives in London and Berlin, intent of eventually restoring order to the Russian Revolutionary state, the Romanovs and their allies were able to establish colonial towns in the Jever. Surrounded by the large farmlands and swamps that had dominated the Jeverland for centuries before, these immigrant cities were a far shot from the glorious palaces of old St. Petersburg but did allow the Romanovs to retain an air of imperial legitimacy. While the Russian arrivals were initially seen with skepticism and hostility from the German locals the immense wealth and international status the Romanovs had managed to escape their homeland with proved to be quite persuasive.
The final collapse of the balance of power in Europe following the Russian Revolution came to a head in the First World War. While the Romanovs formally stayed neutral during the conflict, there existed several secret treaties with the German Empire regarding the reinstatement of the Emperor Nicholas II on the Russian throne as a loyal German ally, should the Russian Republic be defeated. With the Soviets taking power during the Second Russian Revolution in 1917 and the defeat of the Central Powers soon after in 1918 and these agreements never came to be implemented and the Romanovs remained as exiles in Jever. During the Interwar Period in the aftermath of the Soviet takeover a second large migration from the old Motherland to the Jever took place, this time not only restricted to nobility but peoples from all over the Russian state, including many Ukrainians and Tatars.
Following the Nazi takeover of Germany, the threat of annexation became very immediate and was eventually realized during the Second World War in 1940 when the German army crossed the border and occupied the territory in just three hours. While Emperor Alexei II managed to escape to London, many of the lordships Russian and Jewish inhabitants were interned or deported to concentration camps and killed. There were however also many anti-Soviet collaborators to be found in the Jever, among them even the Emperors Uncle, Grand Duke Michael. In the closing days of the Second World War the colonial cities were bombed several times by the Red Army, destroying much of the original imperial quarters built in 1910. The final demarcation lines left Jever outside of the Soviet sphere in Europe which once again allowed the Romanov Emperors to reestablish themselves in the enclave. While there was much debate about the fate of the Jeverland on the Allied side, its strategic position across the German war port of Bismarckhaven on the Jade Bay and the quickly deteriorating relations of the Western Allies with the Soviets eventually lead to its reestablishment. It remained as an officially unaligned nation, though undoubtedly on the Atlantic side of the Cold War.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has left the Jeverland in an interesting position. With the Romanovs and monarchism increasingly unpopular and its claims to the territories of the Russian Empire excluding the nation from international organizations. While democratization seems likely to happen in the near future the path this decision will lead Jever down to is uncertain, as there are camps calling for the establishment of an independent democratic nation, unification with Germany or even a reunification with the Russian Republic after more than a century of division.