Constantinopolis

Constantinopolis

Flag of Constantinopolis
Motto: Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. (-- Albert Einstein)
Map of Constantinopolis
Region	The Christian Communist Union
Capital	Byzantium
Official Language(s)	Greek, Russian, English
Leader	Chairman Alexander Nikolaev
Population	3.7 billion +
Currency	socialist credit
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The Holy Socialist Republic of Constantinopolis is a massive, economically powerful nation, proud of its prosperous socialist system and strong democratic tradition. Constantinopolis also has a rich history, and, in modern times, it was one of the founding members of the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies.

History

The first archaeological evidence of human presence in the territory of present-day Constantinopolis dates from the 5th century B.C. It appears that hunter-gatherer nomads began practicing rudimentary agriculture around that time. However, since no written records have been found, very little is known about these early inhabitants.

The true history of Constantinopolis can be said to begin in the 8th century A.D., when East Slavic tribes settled the area. From that point onwards, the archaeological record provides a wealth of data. The East Slavic tribes brought new methods of agriculture with them, and a feudal political structure was soon formed. It is this structure that was encountered by Greek missionnaries in the 11th century, who provided us with the first written account of life in the lands of Constantinopolis. The missionnaries also brought Orthodox Christianity to the Slavic population, as well as written language - in the form of the cyrillic alphabet. While the majority of the population continued to speak a variant of proto-Russian, Greek became the lingua franca among the wealthy ruling elite.

Constantinopolis first achieved political unity in the 15th century, when the voevod Vladimir Ivanov defeated 8 rival warlords in quick succession and conquered what was then considered an immense territory. Despite a few minor rebellions by disgruntled local nobility in the early years of his rule, Vladimir Ivanov managed to preserve his grip over the lands he had conquered, and assumed the title of Basileus (in honour of the rulers of the Byzantine Empire, whom he greatly admired). Also in honour of the Byzantines, he named his new state Constantinopolis. It appears his knowledge of Greek was shallow at best, since there is no indication of him realizing that the suffix -polis normally defines a city. In any case, the name of Constantinopolis stuck, and that is how the nation was known from that point onwards.

Vladimir Ivanov set up a hereditary monarchy, which was to last for the next 500 years - although there were quite a few periods of strife and dynastic change.

Constantinopolis was surrounded by hostile but primitive enemies, which were more of a nuisance along the borders than a real threat. However, a persistent nuisance can cause severe problems, so the rulers of Constantinopolis launched more and more punitive campaigns outside the nation's borders in the 16th and 17th centuries. By the late 17th century, these had turned into an all-out campaign of conquest. In 1699, Constantinopolis officially declared itself a Holy Empire, and set out to conquer - and Christianize - the lands to its north and east.

Within 150 years (that is, by the mid-19th century), Constantinopolis had swollen to 3 times its original size, and contained many conquered populations which were being oppressed to various degrees. Some nationalist feeling began to stir up in the conquered provinces, but Constantinopolis was at the height of its imperial power, and any attempted dissent was quickly silenced.

At the same time, two new trends began to manifest themselves in Constantinopolis. The first was capitalism. The Industrial Revolution progressed in Constantinopolis at much the same pace as it did in the otherwise unrelated nation of France. The cities became increasingly crowded and blackened by soot and smoke. The power of the feudal aristocracy was eroded, and the capitalist bourgeoisie rose in its place. Business interests soon came to dominate the country entirely, and the Basileus was reduced to the role of figurehead.

More info coming soon.

Politics

The current Constitution of Constantinopolis (generally known as the Republican Constitution) was adopted in 1986, and it replaced the Imperial Constitution of 1925. Article 1 of the present Constitution declares Constantinopolis a Democratic Socialist Republic.

The government of Constantinopolis consists of three branches: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judiciary.

The Legislative is a bi-cameral parliament. The upper chamber of this parliament is the People's Assembly, with 370 members elected every 4 years by universal suffrage. The lower chamber is known as the Agora, and it consists of the entire adult population. Upon reaching 18 years of age, every person is issued with a MVD (Mobile Voting Device), which is a device similar to a mobile phone, used exclusively for voting. The MVD network is kept extremely secure, and each MVD unit can be used only by the person it was built for (the MVD identifies its owner through a retina scan, and it can only be activated by its owner's voice command). Using their MVD's, the people of Constantinopolis participate directly in the law-making process. Not every law passes through the Agora, however - since that would be impractical. The Constitution contains a list of issues which can only be legislated by the Agora; in addition, the Agora can be consulted on any other issue, if at least 1/4 of the Assembly wishes it. To be more exact, the law-making process goes as follows: a proposal for a new law is submitted to the Assembly. The members of the Assembly discuss the issue, and vote on the law. If at least 25% of them are dissatisfied with the result of the vote, they can demand a vote in the Agora. In that case, the proposed law is presented to the people on their MVD's, and they are asked to vote on it (For or Against). The decision taken by the majority of the people becomes final and binding (the law is either passed or rejected).

The Executive is known as the Council of People's Commissars. It consists of 15 Commissars and a Chairman, each of whom are elected individually for 4-year terms. The elections for the Council of People's Commissars take place in the same years as the elections for the People's Assembly, but they are entirely separate events. The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (usually referred to simply as the Chairman) is both the head of government and the head of state. Even though political parties play no role in the election process for the Council, the Chairman and most Commissars are usually the members of the most popular party at the time when they were elected. For example, the current Chairman, Alexander Nikolaev, is also the leader of the Communist Party (see below).

The Judiciary is based on civil and criminal law codes, very similar to the ones used in most of the modern nations of the world.

For over 60 years, the major political parties in Constantinopolis have been the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the Christian Socialist Party. The Communist and Socialist parties are the two main contenders in national elections, with the Christian Socialist Party being a third force that often enters coalition governments with either one of the two main parties.

Constantinopolis also has a significant number of minor parties. The largest of these are the Green Movement, the Anarchist League and the Social Democrat Party. The Anarchist League is widely seen as representing the "extreme left", while the Social Democrats are the "extreme right".

The results of the most recent national legislative elections (held in 2002) are as follows:

The remaining 1.4% was divided between many other smaller parties; in order to be represented in the People's Assembly, a political party must gather at least 1% of the vote.

Economy

Gross Domestic Product: $116 trillion
GDP Per Capita: $31,000

More info coming soon.

Religion

The Constitution of Constantinopolis recognizes the separation of church and state, and stipulates that the free exercise of religion (or the lack thereof) is a basic human right guaranteed to all persons living within the borders of Constantinopolis.

As a result, a great number of different religions have adherents in Constantinopolis, and relations between them have been peaceful and friendly for many decades. According to the most recent census (held in 2003), the religious composition of the population is the following:

Culture

More info coming soon.

Social issues

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. As a long-standing bastion of oppression in every shape and form, from its dictatorial government to its brutal ultra-capitalist economic system, Menelmacar has earned the undying hatred of the freedom-loving people of the world - and the people of Constantinopolis more than any others. While Constantinopolis and Menelmacar 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 1987, and, perhaps more importantly, 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 2004, 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, 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
• 1987 - First man on Mars
• 1988 - First Ion Cannon Sattelite enters operation
• 1990 - In collaboration with a number of other nations, including Freebodnik IV, the colony of Constantine Europa is established on Jupiter's moon Europa
• 1992 - First military space ship launched
• 1995 - First battleship commissioned
• 1999 - Unmanned probe successfully lands on Pluto
• 2001 - The UPSA joins the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies Space Agency.

As of 2004, 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.