Pavel Antonovich Dobachev

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Pavel Antonovich Dobachev was the sixth Premier of Zedoljev since the Socialist Revolution, however, he also holds the un-envious title of the only one (thus far) to be forced out of office. In 2016, rumours were rife of corruption at the highest level in the Zedoljan government. Various wild accusations were investigated by the Nastavnik - Zedoljev's independent "Watchdog". To be fair to Dobachev, many of these accusations turned out to be completely false, however there was enough evidence to severely undermine his position and he had to resign, along with various other members of the Politburo.

Sadly, this is likely what Dobachev will forever be remembered for, despite the fact that during his 25 year tenure, he was there to lead Zedoljev through various significant events in the country's recent history.

Born in central Maryavostok to workers at the mighty naval works in the city, Dobachev progressed through school then entered the Zedoljan Naval Academy. Dobachev would serve in the People's Navy of Zedoljev NFZ for seven years until a horrific accident cost him his left leg. What happened next was that he found that disabled former servicemen and women, like himself, were being undersold by the Government, and over the next few years, he'd become a vocal centrepiece for what he called "The act of ungratefulness" and was almost personally credited with the successful campaign of awareness and system change. Following on from that, many of his friends encouraged him to take a role in the country's Parliament and he stood to be Representative of his local constituency, which, being largely populated by service personnel, voted him in. As is seemingly common with Zedoljan Premiers, Dobachev quickly progressed through the Duma and into the Politburo, and "that man with the wooden leg" as he became known, quickly became widely popular and renowned for powerful speeches. He would often make a bit of a joke of having to walk everywhere with a walking stick and wooden leg, and would sometimes act it up - favourite tricks of his would involve either walking onto the podium like a clock-work soldier, or often interrupt people with his stick, poking them or brushing them aside like a grumpy old man.

Pavel became Deputy Premier to the ailing, and some could say increasing unpopular Premier Malchet in 1985, after a long time in the Politburo as Chief Minister of Welfare, a position future Premier Aleksei Zvyevonyev would also take. People seemed to be eager (for Malchet to die) to see Dobachev as leader of the country, and the consensus was that the country would find him an overwhelmingly popular leader. In 1991 Malchet died of a heart attack after a period of illness, during which Dobachev effectively ruled the country - Dobachev comfortably won the subsequent elections and public approval.

Legacy

Dobachev's time in office was marked by a string of disasters that highlighted critical inadequacies in how Zedoljev ran itself - both faults in construction, and faults in how to handle them when they went wrong. Perhaps it was just back luck that Dobachev was in office when these things, set in motion before his time, finally came undone, but it was his leadership that was tested when they did. To his credit, he, on a personal level, courageously and valiantly led the country through such disasters as the Trubochit Odin catastrophe and the sinking of the ferry Laniz' - both failures in design and procedure that both lead to the deaths of hundreds of people. But these tragedies shook the population's confidence in the Government, and Dobachev had to devote huge resources to the upgrade of many of the country's services, procedures and systems to stop future disasters. It is true, Zedoljev is much safer today, and perhaps, this can be to the credit of the work of Dobachev, though critics have long claimed he only did what he did because it was blatantly required.

However, Dobachev did instigate other factors that would prove to be a huge bonus to Zedoljev - Dobachev stressed physical exercise but as fun and entertainment as much as a necessity - during his time, he created the Zedoljan Premier Football League and poured many resources into the upgrade and construction of sports facilities across the country. His pride and joy perhaps is the Zedoljan International Racetrack Facility built not far outside Fochnya, which allowed for the first time, the PEEL Motorsport Cup to hold a Zedoljan Grand Prix. He also strengthened ties with San Fredlando (though Chief Foreign Minister Khillianov has more deserved credit for this) and towards the end of his time in office, arranged to have a Grand Prix on the streets of Zendivostok itself - and have the "San Fredlandian" Grand Prix held at Fochnya - thus two Grand Prix on Zedoljan soil. However, while they still race around downtown Zendivostok, the first race was badly marred by a fatal accident. This elevated a Zedoljan female driver onto the podium, but there were no celebrations, and by this time, it seemed to symbolise Dobachev's leadership.

Unfortunately by now, many saw Dobachev as ineffective. While it is true that he did set in motion many good things, and corrected many bad, he did also attempt many fairly unsuccessful and meaningless schemes, which just seemed a complete waste afterwards. This included an attempt to get a Zedoljan-made rocket into space - this wasn't exactly vital, but they attempted it with the Premier's personal approval all the same and it flopped - having cost Zedoljev's economy very dear.

Some say that Dobachev's mistakes caused the corruption to take hold of the Government, and he became so incompetent that he ended up involved in it personally. But no charges were ever brought against him, so his exact involvement was never clarified. He was left devastated by what had happened, and retired back to Maryavostok with his wife, Alina, and stayed mostly out of the public eye for the rest of his life, suffering a deliberating illness in his last few years, before finally succumbing to a stroke in 2035, aged 96.