Prussia - A Kaliningrad Story (Post WWII USSR Timeline)
- Thread starter Remitonov
- Start date
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At least we can hope that the Yugoslav fest will do ok. It might be doable with generations of south slavs living in Prussia, because they might have been living with each other, but it could turn for the worse especially if nationalists from the respective Balkan countries start throwing a ruckus. Although I would doubt they would turn as ugly as the Areminan-Azeri riots, but it could put some more insight on the ethnic relations in Prussia.
"Tuturu~! Time to die~!"
Ethnic relations was going to be more of the purview of the late West Baltic, when we can see the results (or lack thereof) of Stolypin's social engineering. But we're going so slowly, so I'll probably push this information forward.
To summarise thou, Stolypin had many good intentions for the West Baltic, but the Soviet institution and bureaucracy built by Stalin was purpose built to divide the other ethnicities to prevent any one group from opposing the Russians (never mind that he himself was a self-hating Georgian). Definitions, even homelands, are handed arbitrarily, breaking up related groups like the Circassians and the Central Asians on the perception of uniqueness. And the issue for Nagorno-Karabakh was the trigger for the West Baltic riots, something Gram and (Viktor) Tonchev personally witnessed in their lifetimes and inadvertedly encouraged the spread of separatist sentiment in the West Baltic. The idea of Prussian independence was that as long as the West Baltic/Prussia is tied to Moscow's administration, they are directly subjected to Moscow's many problems. The trappings of German Prussia was just window dressing, but that too would come into play when the returnees arrive to reclaim 'their land'.
Bookmark1995
Banned
In other words, the reason for Prussia's succession was BECAUSE Prussia wasn't really a multiethnic utopia. The riots between the Armenians and Azeris pushed Gram and Tonchev toward independence, because they felt that Russia would not be able to solve the problem of inter-ethnic rivalry.
Prussia ITTL reminds me of South Africa OTL, only with less race-related problems.
Bookmark1995
Banned
Uh...
I don't find the comparison...apt.
South Africa is a racially stratified nation divided between impoverished natives and the descendants of colonizers.
Prussia ITTL is a trophy of war that became a dumping ground for various ethnicities.
I meant in terms of its cultural diversity, which both countries have loads of. South Africa isn't utopia but they handle things about as well as could be expected. Same thing with Prussia ITTL.
Very much. Discontent must brew in chaos, and while the West Baltic wasn't very alienated before (the vast majority were voluntary migrants), they would be once the riots and oligarchy spread. The Baltic peoples had decades of discontent over the Soviet occupation to work up anger. Those in the West Baltic, though, had to work with something more extreme to rally separatist sentiment. Gram was even pro-autonomist only before the riots, so something had to hammer home that it would not (or never) be in the interest of the West Baltic to remain in the Soviet Union, or any Russian-led federation.
In a single statement or two, IIRC, but not in detail. Prussian media was state-controlled for a long time, and still is, for the most part.
South Africa handled race relations far worse than the Soviets, in my opinion. For the Soviets, the goal was to assimilate minorities into the greater Russian narrative. South Africa's Afrikaner-led government did the exact opposite, and sought to emphasize how different the various people were from each other, mainly their perceived inferiority towards the white South Africans. The only people they want brought into the greater Afrikaner narrative was the Anglo-South Africans and other Europeans, as far as I can tell. @Marius or some other South African AH.commer could probably explain it much better than I can.
Bookmark1995
Banned
I'm guessing Yelstin's drunken capitalism, Transnistria, and the Chechen Wars would bury any remaining regret they would have over jumping ship.
Well, many whites feel alienated in the post-apartheid era. So the mending of race relations in South Africa has been far less tidy then ITTL Prussia, apparently.
Bookmark1995
Banned
@Remitonov
What is the Jewish history of Prussia post WWII? How many Jews are left in Prussia after 1991?
What is the Jewish history of Prussia post WWII? How many Jews are left in Prussia after 1991?
Quite. The thing is that the West Baltic's capitalist system wasn't created in a vacuum as the rest of the Soviet Union was. Stolypin and the elder Tonchev took an unusually lax attitude towards private enterprise, and essentially created a special economic zone within the USSR, with Finnish enterprises taking the helm. Unlike most of the USSR, the West Baltic was mostly oriented towards consumer goods, and in the private sector. Those that were nationalised - the heavy industries - were the ones that fell under oligarch pillage upon privatization under Gorbachev, primarily the lucrative amber mining industry. It took a while to clear those messes after independence.
Tragic, no doubt. When I get to the African segment (which is quite far, I admit), we'll look into how the Afrikaners cope with migration to Prussia and the reasons behind their flight. Most are definitely not Turtledove-style fiends who masturbate to the screams of flayed Africans, but it's sad that there will always be at least a few that fit that caricature.
Jewish immigration to Prussia was never massive. If the Jewish Autonomous Oblast never worked out as a place for Jews, it's very unlikely Prussia would be any more welcoming. The population practically vanished overnight once migration to Israel was open. Today, most Jews are migrants from Israel or other countries, as opposed to those who had lived in Prussia before 1991.
Most would simply say he was a foreign king who ruled over the land once. The Prussian German Volksbund would call him the greatest stateman since Friedrick Barbarossa. Poles consider him the Anti-Christ alongside Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa.
Overall, official Prussian education policy favors the first impression.
The man, the ship or the waifu based on the ship? :3 jk
Same thing as King Frederick. The fact is that there just isn't much for most ordinary Prussians to relate to at any point of its history prior to 1945, not even for most modern Germans in Prussia - Germans from the former USSR still make up the majority as opposed to those from Germany. Education reforms promoted by the Volksbund had always been shot down as revisionist or disrespectful to most Prussians. PM Kukharchuk's appointment of a Volksbund MP to the position of Education Minister in the current cabinet has sparked fears that this would chang. But the same could have been said when Tonchev appointed a Volksbund MP as Defence Minister, and the reforms to the armed forces had never been gratuitously German-centric. To an extent. :|
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So, who're the most notable ITTL Prussian politicians/individual-of-interests most famous for?
I know Gram is the founder of Muslim convert background, who has led the independence of Prussia from Soviet Union. As for Tonchev, Ex-KGB officer turned dictator who helped transformed Prussia into a first-world country.
I must say I can sense a lot of Soviet legacies in Prussia. Same goes for Ex-Soviet countries.
I know Gram is the founder of Muslim convert background, who has led the independence of Prussia from Soviet Union. As for Tonchev, Ex-KGB officer turned dictator who helped transformed Prussia into a first-world country.
I must say I can sense a lot of Soviet legacies in Prussia. Same goes for Ex-Soviet countries.
Character Profile - Ilya Pavlyuk
Besides Gram and Tonchev, there's Ilya Pavlyuk.
A Russophone Ukrainian student leader of the then-small Prussian Renaissance Society in Kaliningrad University, Ilya Semyonovich Pavlyuk (CV: Waver Velvet/Lord El-Melloi II) was one of the first campaigners for independence before the West Baltic riots. Before Gram, the idea of independence from the USSR largely resembled OTL's notions of Prussian revival in Kaliningrad (i.e. practically everyone of you following my TL.
). Naturally, it was very unpopular with the general population at the time, for obvious reasons. However, he became of the key members of New Prussia after attending one of Gram's rallies at the university. He held it together after New Prussia's electoral defeat to Fatherland Front and Gram's resignation in 1996, and ultimately won the General Election after Tonchev's indictment in 2005. And while his own views did not align with much of the party (i.e. he disapproved of accession into NATO, and wanted to extract more concessions from the EU favourable to Prussia), he oversaw Prussia's admission into both organizations. One of the more unpopular things he did was retain the UB (Security Bureau), founded during Gram's time by then-Ministry of the Interior Tonchev. While he curtailed the powers of the UB, he did not disband the organization as hoped. In fact, there are a lot of things from the Tonchev era he retained despite popular opposition, including National Education. True to his scowling personality, he unexpectedly resigned in 2012, leaving his Deputy PM, Oleg Kukharchuk, the post. And Kukharchuk was his senior by a good 20+ years.
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Interlude 7-3
Amber Sea Paradise
Rauschen, Rauschensky Raion, Prussia
17th December 2016 C.E., Present
Bosniak side
It had hardly been a few moments in, and Amir could already see the dreaded images of his imagination playing out as he feared. Prodding the ever-unfazed Liya for answers, the Bosniak elders were disgruntled, discomforted, and above all, outraged. In the distance, the band of Serbian folk, some of whom sport Chetnik or partisan-looking uniforms, look equally dismayed, though unlike the noisy passengers coming to confront them, they barely made their anger heard.
"So this was her idea," one of his students remarked, spying through the window at the angry mob waiting for them, "I know Ms Bartyshina was strange, but I don't take her for a crazy person."
"Ahmed, I live with her," Amir grumbled, squeezing his way through the crowded aisle for the exit, "I think I know her better than you do. Stay in the bus. This could get messy."
Stepping on to the asphalt as the winter chill breezed onto his face, Amir carefully nudged his way through the elders. As he emerged from the crowd to face Liya, he hollered, "I told you they would get upset, why won't you listen? These grandpas and grannies are here to spend time with their families, not dig up the past. Hurry up and get them back on the bus."
"Silly Gudy," Liya retorted, wagging her finger like a disapproving mom, "we're already here! I said we're going to make friends and bury the hatchet, so why would we leave now?"
"Do they look like they are in the mood" the nervous teacher begged her with gritted teeth, trying to avoid the scowling gazes of his seniors, "Liya, there are plenty of ways to reconcile. This is not one of them! Just leave already!"
"What's the matter with you, woman," barked one of the old men, "you want us to shake hands and sing songs with those killers!?"
"I just want to spend some quality time with my children and grandkids," an old lady begged, "can we not bring up the war here?"
"Well, if we're not going to move on, they probably will," a snappy, dark-haired woman with messy hair pointed out, "those folks are probably as ticked off as we are."
True to the woman's words, the Serbs on top of the steps had already begun to leave, their own guide lacking Liya's steel will to stop them. And from the looks of them, who could blame her? A fair number look pretty scary, from the imposing eye-patched elder in the trenchcoat and the smoking, scarred photographer. For a moment, Amir resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief, worried the other side might have considered a more violent choice of action. But Liya, as always, was undeterred, putting a petty pout as she marched over at the departing Serbs.
"Liya," Amir blurted, just missing her arm before she opened up the distance to catch up to the Serbs. Pressing his palm on his forehead, he could already sense a grim outcome.
Amber Sea Paradise
Rauschen, Rauschensky Raion, Prussia
10th December 2016 C.E.
Serbian side
Watching the altercation unfold, Iveta could not begin to understand what was going on. For her, the Yugoslav Wars had long been common knowledge, even for those too young to remember the bloody conflicts that torn the country in seven. It seemed like such a distant conflict, something even Milla - a Prussian-born girl who had never set foot in the Balkans - could not completely explain to her. And yet, there was no mistaking the brooding hostility around them, a fact the elders probably knew far better about than her.
"Milla, you stay with your friends," Milla's grandfather whispered to her, almost like a warning, "you're not who they're after."
"Are you worried they might attack us," Milla queried, nervous about the angry mob at the road.
Peering around their flock, however, the one-eyed 'shopkeeper' corrected, "I'm more worried we might attack them."
"Many of us are former Yugoslav or Serbian veterans," Gavrilo's father explained, "I wouldn't be shocked if any of them recognized us. Gavrilo, Nina, you stay here too. Kids shouldn't get involved in such business."
"Where're you going, Dad," the scarred lad questioned, rubbing his knuckles anxiously, anticipating a fight.
"As far away from them as possible," he answered, "before more factions start showing up and Scepter Four starts mounting on our heads."
"Wait," pleaded the frightened guide, as the grumpy elders start making their way from the scene, "you can't just leave. The other guests only just arrived. What if-"
"Do you have any idea what you jokers are doing," Janko growled in an ill temper, before a blonde nun with cat ear-like fringes cut in to calm him down. Separating him from the hapless guide, she apologized, "I'm sorry. I know you have this massive party planned, but you saw what is going on. We'll need to call it off before violence erupts. We apologize for wasting your time."
Grimacing at the sight of the dejected host, it was hard for the girls not to feel sorry for her. For Milla, especially, it was hard not to see why anyone might think this would be a good idea. The Yugoslav Wars had been over for two decades. Surely, it was high time to put the past behind. But the past, it appeared, still haunts their very psyche. Perhaps it was better not to try, in case an altercation broke out again.
But barely a step into their retreat, the Serbs' path was blocked by a single, small-statured girl in a baby blue dress and a pink shawl, her arms outstretched as if determined to halt the tide of resignation. And as desperate as it came, any attempt by the old man to side step her was met with a hasty shuffling of feet, an almost childish act of defiance.
"What the hell are you doing," Janko growled at the dark-haired, doe-eyed girl, "get out of our way."
"Are you giving up already," the girl pleaded to the elder, "you barely even spoke to them. How do you know you can't get along if you don't try? What about Bratstvo?"
"Miss," Mihajlo admitted, "it's not that we don't want to try. We just don't want to see how it ends. You heard what they said. The first thing that comes to their mind when they hear 'Serb' is 'murderer'. It's the same for every one of us here. And in case you haven't heard, that town is called Shturm (German: Sturm) now."
"But..." the girl blurted, still insistent on halting them. Massaging his fingers, the photographer looked set to haul her aside, stopped only by a panicking Bosniak man in black doing the same.
"Just step aside, you idiot," the dishevelled lad pleaded with the guide, "do you want to piss them off!?"
"Don't stop me, Amir," the girl retorted firmly, "I'm doing this for Bratstvo."
"Don't give me that lip," Amir growled, "don't tell me you want to see old folks breaking each other's bones! Now just let them leave already!"
However, the coach horns sounding in the distance finally put the matter at rest. As several more coaches began to park, a hushed silence fell over the aquarium entrance. Stepping out in a cheery din, a plathora of flags, all in pan-Slavic colours, soon fluttered in the autumn chill. But it was the familiar chequered shield flag of the Croats had been brought out in droves. The other contingents, Slovenes, Montenegrins and Macedonians, paled in numbers by comparison, barely enough to pack a single coach.
"UB," the Serbian nun uttered, spotting a cheeky, short-haired Croat boy in a UB cadet uniform waving at her from a distance, "of course they'll be UB."[2]
It was already too late for them to run. Liya may have her party yet.
OOC Notes:
Rauschen, Rauschensky Raion, Prussia
17th December 2016 C.E., Present
Bosniak side
It had hardly been a few moments in, and Amir could already see the dreaded images of his imagination playing out as he feared. Prodding the ever-unfazed Liya for answers, the Bosniak elders were disgruntled, discomforted, and above all, outraged. In the distance, the band of Serbian folk, some of whom sport Chetnik or partisan-looking uniforms, look equally dismayed, though unlike the noisy passengers coming to confront them, they barely made their anger heard.
"So this was her idea," one of his students remarked, spying through the window at the angry mob waiting for them, "I know Ms Bartyshina was strange, but I don't take her for a crazy person."
"Ahmed, I live with her," Amir grumbled, squeezing his way through the crowded aisle for the exit, "I think I know her better than you do. Stay in the bus. This could get messy."
Stepping on to the asphalt as the winter chill breezed onto his face, Amir carefully nudged his way through the elders. As he emerged from the crowd to face Liya, he hollered, "I told you they would get upset, why won't you listen? These grandpas and grannies are here to spend time with their families, not dig up the past. Hurry up and get them back on the bus."
"Silly Gudy," Liya retorted, wagging her finger like a disapproving mom, "we're already here! I said we're going to make friends and bury the hatchet, so why would we leave now?"
"Do they look like they are in the mood" the nervous teacher begged her with gritted teeth, trying to avoid the scowling gazes of his seniors, "Liya, there are plenty of ways to reconcile. This is not one of them! Just leave already!"
"What's the matter with you, woman," barked one of the old men, "you want us to shake hands and sing songs with those killers!?"
"I just want to spend some quality time with my children and grandkids," an old lady begged, "can we not bring up the war here?"
"Well, if we're not going to move on, they probably will," a snappy, dark-haired woman with messy hair pointed out, "those folks are probably as ticked off as we are."
True to the woman's words, the Serbs on top of the steps had already begun to leave, their own guide lacking Liya's steel will to stop them. And from the looks of them, who could blame her? A fair number look pretty scary, from the imposing eye-patched elder in the trenchcoat and the smoking, scarred photographer. For a moment, Amir resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief, worried the other side might have considered a more violent choice of action. But Liya, as always, was undeterred, putting a petty pout as she marched over at the departing Serbs.
"Liya," Amir blurted, just missing her arm before she opened up the distance to catch up to the Serbs. Pressing his palm on his forehead, he could already sense a grim outcome.
Amber Sea Paradise
Rauschen, Rauschensky Raion, Prussia
10th December 2016 C.E.
Serbian side
"Milla, you stay with your friends," Milla's grandfather whispered to her, almost like a warning, "you're not who they're after."
"Are you worried they might attack us," Milla queried, nervous about the angry mob at the road.
Peering around their flock, however, the one-eyed 'shopkeeper' corrected, "I'm more worried we might attack them."
"Many of us are former Yugoslav or Serbian veterans," Gavrilo's father explained, "I wouldn't be shocked if any of them recognized us. Gavrilo, Nina, you stay here too. Kids shouldn't get involved in such business."
"Where're you going, Dad," the scarred lad questioned, rubbing his knuckles anxiously, anticipating a fight.
"As far away from them as possible," he answered, "before more factions start showing up and Scepter Four starts mounting on our heads."
"Wait," pleaded the frightened guide, as the grumpy elders start making their way from the scene, "you can't just leave. The other guests only just arrived. What if-"
"Do you have any idea what you jokers are doing," Janko growled in an ill temper, before a blonde nun with cat ear-like fringes cut in to calm him down. Separating him from the hapless guide, she apologized, "I'm sorry. I know you have this massive party planned, but you saw what is going on. We'll need to call it off before violence erupts. We apologize for wasting your time."
Grimacing at the sight of the dejected host, it was hard for the girls not to feel sorry for her. For Milla, especially, it was hard not to see why anyone might think this would be a good idea. The Yugoslav Wars had been over for two decades. Surely, it was high time to put the past behind. But the past, it appeared, still haunts their very psyche. Perhaps it was better not to try, in case an altercation broke out again.
But barely a step into their retreat, the Serbs' path was blocked by a single, small-statured girl in a baby blue dress and a pink shawl, her arms outstretched as if determined to halt the tide of resignation. And as desperate as it came, any attempt by the old man to side step her was met with a hasty shuffling of feet, an almost childish act of defiance.
"What the hell are you doing," Janko growled at the dark-haired, doe-eyed girl, "get out of our way."
"Are you giving up already," the girl pleaded to the elder, "you barely even spoke to them. How do you know you can't get along if you don't try? What about Bratstvo?"
"Miss," Mihajlo admitted, "it's not that we don't want to try. We just don't want to see how it ends. You heard what they said. The first thing that comes to their mind when they hear 'Serb' is 'murderer'. It's the same for every one of us here. And in case you haven't heard, that town is called Shturm (German: Sturm) now."
"But..." the girl blurted, still insistent on halting them. Massaging his fingers, the photographer looked set to haul her aside, stopped only by a panicking Bosniak man in black doing the same.
"Just step aside, you idiot," the dishevelled lad pleaded with the guide, "do you want to piss them off!?"
"Don't stop me, Amir," the girl retorted firmly, "I'm doing this for Bratstvo."
"Don't give me that lip," Amir growled, "don't tell me you want to see old folks breaking each other's bones! Now just let them leave already!"
However, the coach horns sounding in the distance finally put the matter at rest. As several more coaches began to park, a hushed silence fell over the aquarium entrance. Stepping out in a cheery din, a plathora of flags, all in pan-Slavic colours, soon fluttered in the autumn chill. But it was the familiar chequered shield flag of the Croats had been brought out in droves. The other contingents, Slovenes, Montenegrins and Macedonians, paled in numbers by comparison, barely enough to pack a single coach.
"UB," the Serbian nun uttered, spotting a cheeky, short-haired Croat boy in a UB cadet uniform waving at her from a distance, "of course they'll be UB."[2]
It was already too late for them to run. Liya may have her party yet.
OOC Notes:
- Colloquially known as Scepter 4, the Gendarmerie Special Operations, Department 4 was formerly known as Section 4 of the Security Bureau (Russian: Управление Безопасности (УБ), Upravleniye Bezopasnosti, or UB), Prussia's infamous intelligence agency. Codenamed 'Scepter', a team from the unit responded to the 2003 scuffle between the Yugoslav communities. Removed from UB command under reforms by PM Illya Pavlyuk (New Prussia) in 2006, it was put under the Prussian Gendarmerie (Prussia's national police force) ever since. And yes, I did name it after the same organization in K Project.
- The Security Bureau (UB) is the successor organization to the West Baltic branch of the KGB, and the intelligence service of Prussia. Heavily influenced and trained by ex-Stasi officers recruited from the former East Germany, the UB had been infamously described by the New York Times (ITTL) as 'an unholy cocktail of old Prussian militarism, Soviet brutality and East German Thinkpol'. In its heyday under PM Viktor Tonchev (Fatherland Front), the UB was responsible for many of his administration's worst excesses and erosion of civil liberties. Under Pavlyuk, the organization's vast-reaching power were greatly curtailed, with several departments transferred to the Gendamerie and the armed forces. Nonetheless, the UB was not disbanded, and retained its role in domestic and foreign espionage, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.
- All-Yugoslav Festival Organizers
- Marisa Monte (CV: アルレット・アルマージュ)
- Liya Rushanova Batyrshina (CV: 椎名 まゆり)
- Yugoslavs
- Bosniaks
- Amir Gudelj (CV: 岡部 倫太郎)
- Ahmed Hadžihalilović (CV: 時縞 ハルト)
- Serbs
- Gavrilo Đurić (CV: 東城 刃更)
- Nina Popadić (CV: 野中 柚希)
- Milla Aračić (CV: 松浦 果南)
- Janko Aračić (CV: ビッグ・ボス/ネイキッド・スネーク) - Milla's grandfather
- Mihajlo Đurić (CV: 東城 迅) - Gavrilo's father
- Ljubjana Karađorđević (CV: テレサ＝ベリア) - Serbian Orthodox nun
- Croats
- Damir Škorić (CV: ゾロメ)
- Bosniaks
- Raushen Girls High School (clockwise from top left)
- Astlik Margaryan (CV: 国木田 花丸)
- Milla Aračić (CV: 松浦 果南)
- Henna Kärkkäinen (CV: 黒澤 ダイヤ)
- Emma van Hoek (CV: 小原 鞠莉)
- Selena Davidovna Yo/Yeo Su-mi (CV: 津島 善子)
- Kirke Harma (CV: 桜内 梨子)
- Iveta Kovalenoka (CV: 高海 千歌)
- Avelina Yurievna Grebennikova (CV: 渡辺 曜)
- Terhikki Kärkkäinen (CV: 黒澤 ルビィ)
- Noykhausen Girls School No.8
- Meyrem Veli (CV: 谷崎 ゆかり)
- Hinckeldey Security Bureau Officer Academy (from left to right)
- Bogdan Artemyev (CV: コード:214/フトシ)
- Damir Škorić (CV: コード:666/ゾロメ)
- Oksana Grebenshchikova (CV: コード:196/イクノ)
- Blühenderwald High School
- Ahmed Hadžihalilović (CV: 時縞 ハルト)
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- Status