Difference between revisions of "Varangian confederacy"

Revision as of 12:23, 16 August 2006

Varangian confederacy

Flag of Varangian confederacy
Motto: Varangii Semper Liberi. (Varangians Shall Always Be Free)
Map of the Northeastern Quadrant of The Heartland
Region	The Heartland
Capital	Vostock
Official Language(s)	Varangian
Leader	Tsar Konrad Ilyusha Federov I
Population	8.5 billion (August estimate)
Currency	Krona
NS Sunset XML

The Confederated Varangian Nations of New Varangia, Lituva, and Greater Masuria is an association of culturally, historically, and linguistically similar nations bound togther by a loose confederate government based from the city of Vostock in Greater Masuria. Together these three nations form a geopolitically relevant and economically powerful block of nations in the northeastern quadrant of the Heartland region.

History

Colonies of an Empire

The first Varangians in the Heartland arrived as colonists of the Empire proper, based in the Nationstates region of Wysteria. Together with Texas, Wysteria and the Heartland belonged to a powerful troika of regions called the Triumverate.

Large, multi-nation states systems regularly established footholds in all three regions in the Triumverate, amongst them the Harberians and the Vassfforcians. The Varangians were no different choosing to locate the Colony of New Varangia on the continent of Prudentia in the Heartland.

New Varangia thrived, and through its aggressive economic policies soon grew to rank amongst the strongest economies in the Heartland, ranking amongst the top three in GDP per capita and continously ranking in the top ten in automobile production, wood exports, industrial capacity, information technology, and service sectors.

Rallying to the Cause

In mid-2006, the founder of the Heartland region succumbed to the Vanishing Nation Syndrome. Alerts were posted in the other regions of the triumverate seeking aid to shore up the UN endorsements for the Heartland's delegate to protect the region from invaders. The empire answered the call by placing on of its UN-endowed colonies, Greater Masuria in the region. Greater Masuria claimed a plot on Prudentia northeast of New Varangia. Soon, the empire placed a third colony, Lituva to the east of both New Varangia and Greater Masuria establishing its own troika in the region.

Confederacy and Sovereignty

With three nations in the Heartland and the increasing prospect of becoming a major stakeholder in the region, the leaders of New Varangia, Lituva, and Greater Masuria decided that decision making needed to be streamlined.

Ivan Andreyic, at the time the Colonial Foreign Minister of New Varangia, petitioned the Imperial Valorum in Muscovy, Wysteria for devolution of large amounts of competencies to a parallel government based in central government in Wysteria. Frederico Bossi, the Guarantor of the Valorum, and a strong proponent of devolution to principalities pushed the measure through the Valorum, thus giving the three Varangian colonies a large measure of independence from the empire. The decision was formalized when Imperial Regent Pyotr Orlov proclaimed that a Tsar chosen in the Heartland should be considered the equal to his Wysterian counterpart. From that moment on the colonies in the Heartland would henceforth be known as the Confederated Varangian Nations of New Varangia, Lituva, and Greater Masuria or simply, the Varangian Confederacy.

Politics and Elections

Law and governance in the Varangian Confederacy is based on a document called the Primera Carta, or First Charter. The Primera Carta is an organic document, revisable when a three-quarters vote of the legislative branch agrees that changes need to be made to the document.

The contents of the Primera Carta outline which competencies the three constituent states of the would retain or divest to the central government. Amongst those they must divest are the competencies for the printing of currencies, administration extra-confederate trade, foreign policy, intelligence, and war making. States retained the administration of eduction, health, labor, transportation, and energy.

There is universal suffrage in the Confederacy for all citizens aged sixteen and older. They vote once every two years for a fifth of all members of the central legislative body, the Confederate Duma. Members of the Duma are called Boyars and the leader they elect to represent their body is called the Chancellor. The Chancellor selects a group of advisors to head the various High Commissions that administer the day-to-day operations of the central government. These advisors are known as Commissars and together they form the Privy Council.

The Executive is known as the Tsar. Previous to the establishment of the Duma via the Primera Carta, the individual legislatures of the Principality of New Varangia and the Archduchy of Greater Masuria met in joint session in a body called the Amalgam. Amongst the last duties the Amalgam was tasked with before it dissolved was the identification of an executive who would rule as a dynastic monarch. After much deliberation, the body chose the Archduke of Thoreida, Florenzia in Wysteria, Lord Konrad Ilysha Federov. Tsar Konrad I as he would be called is an avid supporter of the arts, and has an advanced degree in Art History

The Judiciary is based first and foremost on laws explicitly spelled out in the Primera Carta. Established precedence then becomes the source for law, and when new law is needed interpretation of the intent of the Primera Carta comes into play.

The Duma has yet to hold an election, but the major parties that are in contention to form a government are as follows:

Economy

The Varangian Confederacy has an economy based on capitalist principles. Its domestic policies have focused on aggressive growth and the states that comprise the Confederacy boasts some of the largest gross domestic products aggregates, highest gross domestic products per capita figures (Lituva and New Varangia tied for second, Greater Masuria, fifth), and strongest exchange rates per $NS (Lituva and New Varangia tied for second, Greater Masuria, twelfth).

Through diplomacy, the Varangian Confederacy has urged its neighbors and trading partners to decrease barriers to trade and has signed full free trade agreements with the Grand Federation of Liverpool England and the Community of PopularFreedom.

General economic statistics

Note: All economic statistics based on NSEconomy, accessed on AUG 16, 2006

Currency: Krona (currency code: K); 1 K = 100 kr (kronishka)

Exchange rate: 1 K = NS$1.91

Gross Domestic Product: NS$ 379.325 trillion

GDP - per capita: NS$ 38,062 (Greater Masuria), NS$ 43,986 (Lituva and New Varangia)

Distribution of wealth - Gini index: 8% (an index of 0% would represent perfect equality and one of 100% would represent perfect inequality)

Exports: NS$ 42.788 trillion

Unemployment Rate: 2.65% average across the Confederacy

Religion

The charter from which laws and rights protect and serve the citizens of Varangia guarantees freedom of religion. However, in practice, most inhabitants of the Confederacy are Eastern (Varangian) Orthodox. The Eastern Church is the legacy of the original settlers from the Varangian Empire in Wysteria. The church is governed through a heirarchical structure, atop which sit the "princes" of the Easter Church, the Patriarchs. Amongst them, the Patriarch of Muscovy is considred first amongst equals.

The following religions are practiced in the Varangian Confederacy:

Society, culture and related issues

Constantian society is very open and egalitarian. Inequalities of wealth and social status, while they do exist, are tiny. This, along with the fact that the bourgeoisie dissappeared a long time ago with the abolition of capitalism, gives Constantinopolis the qualities of an almost classless society. There is a strong sense of community and solidarity among people, fostered by Constantian culture and education. Education, in fact, accounts for a larger share of social spending than any other social program.

The Constantian education system is entirely free and public, including all the universities. Most Constantians consider the notion of charging money for education to be repugnant and immoral. Discrimination based on wealth (particularly the wealth of one's parents, not one's own wealth) is regarded with the same disgust as discrimination based on gender or skin colour.

Also thanks to the egalitarian nature of Constantian society, the crime rate is extremely low. Theft is unheard of, because the possible benefits of stealing too small to be worth the risk (in other words, why take the risk of stealing from your neighbor when he is not much richer than you are? You have very little to gain, and a lot to lose). The occasional murder does still happen, but it's almost always a crime of passion.

More info coming soon.

Foreign Policy

By all economic and military standards, Constantinopolis is a world-class superpower. Therefore, its foreign policy is of significant importance. This foreign policy is officially defined as revolutionary interventionism. In brief, it comes down to the following principle:

"Constantinopolis seeks alliances with all socialist, communist or anarchist political movements and nations. Constantinopolis will intervene militarily on the behalf of any socialist, communist or anarchist political movement or nation when that political movement or nation calls for assistance."

This policy was largely the result of a combination between the desire to foster World Revolution and the acceptance of the fact that global capitalism will have to be defeated one step at a time.

Constantinopolis is a member of the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies, and therefore it shares the CACE's mutual defense policy. However, the other CACE member states generally do not share Constantinopolis's interventionist foreign policy, a fact that has been a constant source of frustration for Constantinopolis. Many successive governments of Constantinopolis have tried persuading the CACE to create a unified military force and take a more aggressive stance against global capitalism, but to no avail. This major difference of opinion has resulted in occasional clashes between the Constantinopolis delegate and the delegates of other CACE nations. At one time, when the CACE refused to take decisive action to support a certain leftist revolution against an oppressive corporate police state, the Constantinopolis delegate stormed out of the conference room, calling the other CACE representatives "a bunch of naive, starry-eyed, cowardly hippie peaceniks". He officially apologised and resigned the next day, thus defusing the diplomatic crisis - but Constantinopolis went ahead and supported the revolution unilaterally.

In general, Constantinopolis does not maintain diplomatic relations with capitalist nations, but it does recognize their governments as long as they are democratic. Constantinopolis does not recognize the legitimacy of any undemocratic governments, and in many cases the official policy of Constantinopolis towards the members of those governments is to consider them equal to - or worse than - common criminals.

On certain rare occasions, Constantinopolis may form alliances with some capitalist nations, if they are democratic and highly progressive welfare states. For the moment, there is only one such ally of Constantinopolis: The Republic of Syskeyia

A specific note should be made of the relationship between Constantinopolis and The Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar. According to a poll taken in June 2004, the people of Constantinopolis - as well as those of a number of allied nations - overwhelmingly see Menelmacar as "a long-standing bastion of oppression in every shape and form, from its dictatorial government to its ultra-capitalist economic system". This has caused immense tensions between Constantinopolis and Menelmacar. While the two nations have never been formally at war, they have had numerous skirmishes over the years. Justinian Tiberius famously described the government of Menelmacar as "a band of arrogant, greedy and murderous oligarchs who have grown so accustomed to their priviledged positions of wealth and power that they've started to believe their own elitist delusions of grandeur". According to a recently-passed law, any member of the Menelmacari government who sets foot on the territory of Constantinopolis is to be shot on sight. Diplomatic relations between the two countries are quite naturally out of the question.

Space Program

Constantinopolis first began considering the possibility of beginning its own space program in the late 1960's. During the 1970 election campaign, the Socialist Party made the establishment of a space agency a key point of its electoral platform - partly in order to show that they were not any less progressive than the Communists. After winning the elections, the Socialists delivered on their promise and established the United People's Space Agency (UPSA) in 1971.

The UPSA spent the 1970's taking the same first steps that had previously been completed by other nations' space programs. Sattelites were launched, then manned spaceflights began to be made, and a space station was built. Later, in 1983, the UPSA put a man on the Moon. But much greater leaps in technology were soon to be made.

The Communists had won the elections of 1982, and a communist Basileus (the now-famous Justinian Tiberius) had also been elected the same year. Constantinopolis began working more closely with other socialist countries, as well as the rare few who had established communist societies already. One of these was the high-tech space-faring nation of Freebodnik IV. Technological exchanges with Freebodnik IV greatly boosted the space program of Constantinopolis. The UPSA put a man on Mars in 1993 - only a decade after its first Moon landing - but, before that, it had already launched its first Ion Cannon Sattelite in 1988.

A space view of the first ion cannon test.

Constantinopolis never had a nuclear program, and it never sought one. Thus, it never constructed any nuclear weapons. Many of its enemies did have nuclear weapons, however, and top military officials in Constantinopolis had been trying to find an adequate response for over a decade. In the late 1980's, a solution was finally found: orbiting ion cannons. An ion cannon strike from low Earth orbit has almost the same destructive power as a nuclear detonation, with two distinct advantages: First, there are no side effects (like the radioactive fallout from a nuclear weapon). An ion cannon can pulverize an army with no damage to the nearby civilian population. Second, unlike missiles, ion cannon blasts cannot be intercepted or destroyed in mid-air.

As of 2005, Constantinopolis has put a classified number of Ion Cannon Sattelites in low Earth orbit. It is known, however, that their number is above 16.

The UPSA continued to advance by leaps and bounds in the 1990's, even establishing a human colony (Constantine Europa) on Jupiter's moon Europa. Also, military space ships were built and launched for the first time in the late 1990's and early 2000's, giving Constantinopolis a sizable space-faring war fleet.

Milestones of space exploration by the UPSA:

• 1972 - First artificial sattelite launched
• 1975 - First manned spaceflight
• 1980 - First space station completed in Earth orbit
• 1983 - First man on the Moon
• 1988 - First Ion Cannon Sattelite enters operation
• 1993 - First man on Mars
• 1997 - In collaboration with a number of other nations, including Freebodnik IV, the colony of Constantine Europa is established on Jupiter's moon Europa
• 1998 - First military space ship launched
• 2000 - First battleship commissioned
• 2001 - The UPSA joins the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies Space Agency.
• 2003 - Unmanned probe successfully lands on Pluto

As of 2005, the main objective of the UPSA is to complete the exploration of the Solar System and establish more human colonies. The idea of sending a probe to Alpha Centauri has also been discussed, but so far no efforts have been made in that direction.

National Anthem

The national anthem of Constantinopolis, since 1925, is 'The Red Flag' (written by Jim Connell in 1889). Its lyrics are as follows:

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.

Within its shade we'll live and die,

Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,

We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

See also

• List of famous Constantians
• Basileus
• Byzantium
• Council of People's Commissars
• Communist Party of Constantinopolis
• Socialist Party of Constantinopolis
• Christian Socialist Party of Constantinopolis
• Social Democrat Party of Constantinopolis