Oh dear, hopefully the festival won't turned into another riot like the last one. It's the last thing everyone wants. However, with the next generation, there's a hope for folks to get along.
Question-time, since we've already covered past historical figures of old Prussia, what're your ITTL Prussians views on the Romanovs and Joseph Stalin? I imagined not-so-flattering, considering past history.
Another question, on different topic, what're the Prussians' views on the Hapsburgs and Austro-Hungary? What doe your Yugoslav charas have to say about the Hapsburgs, considering they used to rule the portions of the Balkans?
Oh dear, hopefully the festival won't turned into another riot like the last one. It's the last thing everyone wants. However, with the next generation, there's a hope for folks to get along.
Question-time, since we've already covered past historical figures of old Prussia, what're your ITTL Prussians views on the Romanovs and Joseph Stalin? I imagined not-so-flattering, considering past history.
Another question, on different topic, what're the Prussians' views on the Hapsburgs and Austro-Hungary? What doe your Yugoslav charas have to say about the Hapsburgs, considering they used to rule the portions of the Balkans?
The general view of the Romanovs aren't too different from most. They're mostly tragic figures murdered at the hands of the Bolsheviks. Views on Stalin is even more split, from wild adulation to absolute disgust. Stalin himself is a controversial figure in real life, so this isn't much of a surprise.
For the Hapsburgs, it's not really something most Prussians would know too well outside history buffs, so I'll put it at neutral. Views by the Yugoslavs are pretty split, with the Serbs having the least favourable view of them, and the Croats and Slovenes having the most favourable.
Bratstvo, the Brotherhood Village. Nestled between the booming metropoli of Kaliningrad and Guryevsk, Bratstvo is the home away from home - our Yugoslav home. One of the two designated 'fortress towns' beside its sister, Heihutye, Bratstvo represents our everlasting socialist fraternity with the Soviet Union, as well as the hopes and dreams of those who seek to build a better life for families in Yugoslavia. Here, we see the old Prussian fortress, Barnekow, now refurbished as the Unity Bazaar that hearkens back to the narrow market alleys of Dubrovnik and Pula. A specially granted mandate by the government of the West Baltic Soviet Socialist Republic, the fortress was to be refurbished as a town center for the communities to be settled there. Here, the bazaar is rife with shoppers, as shopkeepers peddled their daily produce from the nearby collectives. For the nearly four hundred residents to call this place home, this is Yugoslavia.
The home away from home; the home of brotherhood and fraternity.
-Josip Milišić, Consul for the SFR Yugoslavia in the Soviet Union, West Baltic SSR in a promotional video for Bratstvo, 1979 C.E.
Josip Milišić, the first consul in Kaliningrad, was the brainchild behind both Bratstvo and the first Yugoslav Festival, in 1975. A self-proclaimed Yugoslav, one which transcended the ethnic divisions within the federation, Milišić's foundation of Bratstvo, in collaboration with Chairman Valeriy Tonchev, was in itself a dream of its own. A mini-Yugoslavia within a mini-USSR, he envisioned the town to be his idealized 'home away from home', not unlike the goals of Stolypin's Resettlement Committee prior. But all dreams, inevitable, came to an end, and as Gram's pro-independence movement swept the West Baltic, the Yugoslav 'fortress town' - the second only to Heihutye in terms of age - had to grapple with its own changing realities.
"What happened to it," Iveta queried to Milla, watching the film reel with keen interest amidst a very silent, grimfaced audience.
Frowning, Milla answered in a tense voice, "what do you think?"
Nowhere in Prussia had the catastrophic effects of the Yugoslav Wars more acutely felt than the town Milišić created. Already Serb-majority since its founding, its Serbian population ballooned with refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Non-Serb Yugoslavs, under intense pressure, soon moved out, forming separate communities away from the town with their own refugees. And to put the final nail in Milišić's pan-Yugoslav dreams, the Serbian elders of Bratstvo exploited the de-communization laws meant to wipe away Prussia's Soviet-imposed place names.
Bratstvo became Shturm (German: Sturm), a seemingly innocuous German name, conveniently provided by one of Serbia's war heroes.
"So your elders renamed the town after a Serbian, using his Prussian-born name as cover," Emma remarked, "sounds a lot like Schiel.[1]"
"Quite," Nina admitted, "and since we're the only ones left in the town, the Yugoslav Festival had to be renamed to the Serbian Cultural Festival. This, though..."
This was not the first time someone had attempted to revive the Yugoslav Festival. The last time this was attempted, the organizers were every bit as enthusiastic as the Tatar woman, if far more prepared. But the demographics had drastically changed since the turn of the century, having welcomed thousands of Yugoslav refugees of all creeds. The hardest hit communities, the Croats, Bosniaks, and Serbs, formed the largest of the Yugoslav diaspora, and most, if not all, had someone close die in the hands of another. The ensuing scuffle - allegedly over the infamously combative sports competition played between the nationalities - brought the wrath of the UB upon them. Now, it did not appear a call would even be necessary, if the cadre of UB cadets accompanying their Croat mates had anything to say.
"Tough crowd," an oddly-pinked haired girl with eyeliner quipped, eyeing the tense atmosphere around her as the recorded folk music played in the background, "you really didn't know they brought the 'family' together."
"Ms Inna said it was a surprise," the short-haired, snark Croat boy stated, leaning back in his chair, "I just wasn't expecting... this."
"Oh, you think," a girl in twin-tails whined sarcastically, throwing up jazz hands in annoyance "and how about coming in our uniforms?[2] I suppose that was 'unexpected' too. Maybe we should wear armbands with the big U and grenade too. We don't want those nice old people in old commie fatigues to miss us."
"It could be worse," a black-haired girl with a lopsided hair bang and bob cut clarified, "we could be we could be wearing the officer uniforms. The UB academy uses a separate design outside of military parades to separate the cadets from commissioned officers. We'd look the part more with those."
"Yea, but still," a tall young blonde lad with spectacles admitted, surveying the gazes around him, "I don't want to be the guy who has to break out the batons and beat up old folks. Thankfully, that's the Gendamerie's job now."
Overall, the party felt more dead than a cemetery, its occupants eyeing each other with suspicion and dread. The three largest, the Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, all have reason to think lowly of their peers, and the remaining groups, the Slovenes, and Macedonians, barely number more than a couple of families. The Kosovo Albanians and the Montenegrin were nowhere to be found, or at least, hidden among their Bosniak and Serb counterparts. In fact, it was hard to tell who was Yugoslav at all, its contingents inflated by friends and family of non-Yugoslav descent.
"Strange," Liya remarked, "I expected the party to be more... lively."
"Gee, I wonder why," grumbled the exasperated Amir, "look around you, Liya. You call this a party? You can hear a pin drop in here. They're even using their kids as privacy screens so they can avoid them further."
True to nature, the Tatar girl suddenly blurted with a spark of ideas, declaring, "of course," as she quickly got off her seat. It appeared that nothing was going to disappoint her, not even with the mounting evidence flying in her face. Bowing his head in resignation, the Bosniak educator could only brace for the worst to come. And from the looks of it, she had something else planned.
"Get your girlfriend in line, will you," cursed Meyrem in a whisper, yanking at Amir's arm, "I can feel the air trying to cut through my skin! The Croats even brought in the UB."
"Look, she's not my girlfriend, and they're just students," Amir grumbled, "some of whom, I assume, just happen to be Croats."
"What about that band of militiamen in berets and folk instruments," the woman pointed out at the Serbs.
"Wha-!? They're just senior citizens," the man tried to explain again, "they're not even armed!"
"What about those weirdos," Meyrem complained again, this time aiming for the pair of isolated families in the corner.
"Those are just Slovenes and Macedonians in folk costumes," Amir grunted in exasperation, "what the hell are you talking about?"
"Hey, aren't they from that place with the black leather and the-mhmhmphmhmph," a slow-looking girl with dark hair remarked, her words quickly stifled by the wary Meyrem as she hastily shushed her.
"I thought I told you never to speak of it again," hissed the desperate teacher, muffling the girl as she angrily rotated her head, "that was an accident... We just wanted some fun..."
"Come now," declared another energetic, short-haired girl, "we're not kink-shaming you and Ms. Aila-AUUUUGGGGHHHH!"
Ignoring the girls as the irate teacher started yanking on her student's face for the slip, Amir could not help but wipe his face with his hand. Liya had always had poor luck in organizing parties, and this one was already headed for disaster. For now, though, it did not appear it was going to be anything more than a bore. Fortunate, too, he assumed, because if there was anything that could heighten tensions, it was-
"Ta-da~," Liya proclaimed, presenting what seemed to be clue cards to the otherwise frosty reception, "ice-breaker time~! This party is getting too silent, so I'll just go ahead with the race~! The old festival used to have sporting events for the nationalities, so I'll go with an Amazing Race, instead!"
OOC Notes
Named after the Prussian-born Boer foreign volunteer, Adolf Schiel, Schiel is the fortress town of the Afrikaner diaspora in Prussia.
From /r/anime, the original designs for Darling in the Franxx. I have to be frank, I much prefer these uniforms over the final product (not to mention, they're realistic enough to fit in a modern setting), but as pretty as proto-02 is, her personality would probably be radically different from the devious sprite we have in the anime.
I just found this interesting video about Yugoslavia.
Even tho' it's a tourist commercial but this gives a glimpse of what Yugoslavia is like before it's dissolution. Honestly, hard to believe the vids showing the country is Yugoslavia.
I just found this interesting video about Yugoslavia.
Even tho' it's a tourist commercial but this gives a glimpse of what Yugoslavia is like before it's dissolution. Honestly, hard to believe the vids showing the country is Yugoslavia.
Thanks! I should really get to the fun part of the story (i.e. revolution), but I've yet to cover the Balts, who're definitely going to be relevant later on. And it's already 21 months since I've started. :v
Going to ask a fun (but mundane) question in regards to Soviet leaders ITTL. Of all the leaders of Soviet Union, who is Prussians' most favourite (at least the one they remembered the most) in history?
Going to ask a fun (but mundane) question in regards to Soviet leaders ITTL. Of all the leaders of Soviet Union, who is Prussians' most favourite (at least the one they remembered the most) in history?
Going to ask a fun (but mundane) question in regards to Soviet leaders ITTL. Of all the leaders of Soviet Union, who is Prussians' most favourite (at least the one they remembered the most) in history?
Considering ITTL, Prussia is a part of prosperous, integrated Europe, there isn't basis for Soviet nostalgia. In fact, they might have as much love for communism as Polish people do.
I just found this interesting video about Yugoslavia.
Even tho' it's a tourist commercial but this gives a glimpse of what Yugoslavia is like before it's dissolution. Honestly, hard to believe the vids showing the country is Yugoslavia.
While I'm slowly grinding out a post, have a bit more knowledge on OTL's Yugoslavia and nationalism.
I find this speaks a lot about the Prussia I'm writing of, and just how monumentally difficult it would be ITTL for them to define a national identity outside the commonly used and often dangerous narratives of ethnicity, language and religion. The USSR failed utterly in their task (thanks in no small part to Stalin) and so did Yugoslavia. While Prussia's minuscule size may be an advantage in that, it's hardly an improvement. And reusing a term that, for a long time, is the textbook definition of German nationalism, only adds to the dangers. I'll go through with more history on late West Baltic and modern Prussia in later chapters, and how it's shaped by earlier events in Stolypin's time. I just need to push through this chapter first.
That's subject to a lot of interpretation by the ATL artists, to be honest, but my take is that is that Prussia would pepper his Russian speech in random German words, doing loads of cultural misappropriation from Germany, and giving Russia a huge stomachache or a chest burst like Alien. It'd also be set apart from the old picklehaube Prussia, because it's a different entity.
A Hetalia-style version of him or her (though I'd say her) would look more like Frankenstein's monster, a representation of the complex demographics that make up TTL's Prussia. Otherwise, the funnier aspects of Polandball Prussia would be toned down in favour of more honourable attributes, like defending the Baltic brothers from Russia's abuse. The nature of her birth and existence would likely give her a brooding, solemn personality. I don't have a pic for her, but her body should look more or less like patchwork.
