Researched and written by myself, and edited by two others. Photos taken by me using the video game DayZ by Bohemia.
This is a combination of the in-game history created by Bohemia for DayZ, and combined with actual history.
Chernarussian Soviet Socialist Republic
December 1922
While it was the most miniscule of countries in the area, Chernarus subsequently followed Russia in signing of the Treaty and Declaration of the Creation of the USSR on the 30th of December 1922. The USSR was recognized by the United Kingdom on the 1st of February 1924.
After Lennin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin took control of building a socialist economy.
While the Chernarussian Army was absorbed into the Red Army of the Soviet Union, a lot of changes took place.
The Armed Forces were controlled by the Soviet Minister of Defense, whom now was among one of the strongest political communist parties of the Soviet Union. The Red Army had originally disbanded its system of hierarchy via officers when the civil war ended. The term commander was used instead. Then titles were taken away and replaced with service categories, designating lowest to highest.
Multiple military schools opened across the USSR and many Chernarussian’s went to train in various tasks such as being officers to engineers. In 1935 personal ranks were re-introduced. A unification system put into place in 1943 stayed in place until the end of the USSR itself.
Soviet Ambitions
While originally a Russian project that had been passed the year before, Stalin forwarded the GOELRO plan; known as ‘State Commission for Electrification of Russia’ (Russian SFSR Electrification Plan), into the USSR, including Chernarus.
The plan would span five to fifteen years to restructure Soviet countries. By moving countries to electric power, Stalin though that it would push all peoples to work together under communism to organize industries and advanced technology. Other goals were to remove in all lands, ‘backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease, and barbarism.’
The USSR began work to create power plants, hydroelectric plants, and numerous electric-powered industrial operations. The first large power plant was made in Elektrozavodsk, while large electric grids and hydro-electric dams were built across the country to continue the spread of energy to all towns. There were even rumors that the government and military were dabbling in nuclear energy.
Not all the changes were positive or leading to a wonderful life as the people thought it would. Lands thought of as beautiful were cut down for their timber, and smaller quarries turned into large scale mining operations. Many people who had spent generations in the farmlands were forcefully removed from their homes and lands, being moved into the more modernized Soviet apartments in areas like Dubky and Chapaevsk and being forced to work industrial jobs.
Farmers known to produce high yield crops were allowed to remain on their lands with their family and farmhands, as long as they continued to produce large amounts of food to be confiscated by the government. While the harvests were good, nearly all of it was confiscated by the government. This resulted in mass famines across the USSR, causing millions to die. The government simply destroyed or hid the information.
Called one of many ‘bloodless wars’, Ukraine was hit the hardest. The majority of people across the USSR were drinking water more than eating, causing their bellies to become swollen and limbs to shrivel. Soviet forces would take any food they could find, even knowing they were condemning children to death. The few members of the Communist Party who spoke up and demanded that the starving people be given food, were met with execution.
Stories of cannibalism of the dead were heard across the area, people who had nothing else, who were skeletons, feeding on a mother or brother who died next to them. People went mad from hunger. Soldiers would beat children to death for taking rotted food left on fields. What the soldiers didn’t take, they burned.
“The Soviet regime’s programme of “death by hunger” and “torture by hunger” broke the Ukrainian nation psychologically. People who committed crimes against their own countrymen by taking bread from peasants also suffered mentally as did those who remained without bread or food and were powerless to oppose them.
“When people feel powerless, when they realize that their closest and dearest friends and relatives are dying before their very eyes and they can do nothing to help, it breaks their spirit, something cracks…. There is a sense of guilt, despair and anxiety; people lose control over their own lives and actually lose their own personality (individuality).” affirms the psychologist.”
The Great Purge
1937 – 1938
With the USSR communists pushing state atheism, many practitioners of traditional Eastern Orthodox Catholicism and other religions were outraged as religious property was confiscated, and they were harassed and mocked due to their beliefs. While it was never ‘illegal’ to worship any religion, the Soviets arrested 35,000 members of the orthodox clergy, put them on trial, and executed them, annihilating 85% of practitioners. This included 32 Russian Orthodox Bishops, over 1,500 Russian Orthodox priests, and thousands of burnt down churches and areas of worship.
As churches in various regions were quickly being destroyed, some quick-thinking citizens and elite members of the Communist Party were able to petition the government, claiming the rich cultural history and intricate artwork in the churches as national treasures. This eventually persuaded the government to allow most churches remaining to be turned into historical museums.
While the USSR was attempting to dominate the region, it was having difficulty with a few countries. Slavic areas like Czechoslovakia and Chernarus were two of them, as the Chernarus military structure was based upon the Slavic model instead of the Russian Red Army.
The Chernarussian military had a deep sense of military professionalism and did not allow politics to be amongst their orders.
While normally the Chernarussian military and civilians were extremely close knit, the joining of the Soviet Union and transition to the Chernarussian Soviet Socialist Republic was a deep betrayal to the military. They felt that the people simply gave up the liberties they had always fought so hard to have. Even with this, the soldiers’ loyalty remained to their people and country, their discipline and beliefs avoiding all but a few mutinies that were quickly stopped.
When the USSR converged into the nation, the military did not hesitate to show its disdain. Thousands of officers and soldiers joined protest rallies, while most battalions refused to aid any USSR troops. As expected, the soviets were not pleased about this. The Soviets attempted to infiltrate the military and turn them from the inside, an attempted coup that catastrophically failed.
Due to the military not allowing politics to influence them and their education to guide them; tactics Communists used on quick to act militaries, were useless against an educated military who used their logic to decide a plan of action versus a sudden response. These attempts forced a large rift between the Soviet government and the Chernarussian military.
Due to these efforts, ‘social disorder’ or public anger, towards the forced collectivization of people from the rural areas, and a famine from 1932-33, Joseph Stalin began what was later called ‘The Great Purge.’
The Great Purge was used for Stalin to regain control of the Communist Party, ‘purifying the parties’ of government, law, and anyone who showed opposition to him. He used the official excuse that the purge was simply the clearing out of suspected Polish military who were sabotaging the country.
In truth, the purge was made up of people considered counter-revolutionaries, communists against Stalin, ‘enemies of the people’, peasants, kulaks, Polish citizens and immigrants, American immigrants fleeing the Great Depression, soldiers, military officers, White Army members, members of the clergy, ordinary criminals, and anyone Stalin considered a threat.
Nearly the entire military across the USSR was executed and replaced by people loyal to Stalin. He then rigged the military so that only communist party members could become officers. People were chosen and put in positions by the communist party to manipulate the military to Stalin’s wishes. After both the purge and these rules put into place, the army was made of over 90% of communist officers, and 20% of armed forces personnel being members of the communist party.
It was revealed years later in 1956, by Nikita Khrushchev in what was called the ‘Secret Speech’, the truth behind the actions. Individuals were arrested, and tortured. Confessions under torture were used as evidence and most did not get a trial.
Hundreds of thousands were either executed by shooting or sent to Gulag labor camps where they died due to horrendous conditions. The use of a gas van was also documented. It is believing some 400,000 people were expelled and estimated that deaths range from 950,000 to 1.2 million. Stalin himself authorized executions for around 40,000 people, most of them being shot.
The Great Patriotic War – World War II
When war broke out in 1936, the USSR supported Republican forces against Nationalists of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
During the war, Chernarus citizens showed great moral. Hundreds of thousands of people, consisting of Jews, Roma, and other people being hunted in mass by the German military and Einsatzgruppen, flooded into the Soviet Union for protection.
As refugees flooded the regions, Chernarus citizens did what they could to support them. After hearing horror stories of the ghetto’s and mass executions, they decided to do something about it.
As the Germans followed in 1941 with Operation Barbarossa; the invasion of the USSR, Chernarus citizens not in the Red Army put its large shipyards to work. People donated their time, fuel, and as many ships as possible to ferry Jews and other fleeing refugees from Chernagorsk’s Black Sea port, through Turkey, and to safety in Palestine regions. Shortly after, the USSR signed a peace treaty with Germany, giving up lands to avoid a full invasion as their armies were caught off guard by German troops.
During their retreat from the lines of Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet government worked to change measures to help aid the morale of the Red Army. Instead of a political war and class struggle, the propaganda moved to patriotism for the counties. Thus, why the region later called WWII ‘The Great Patriotic War’. During this period was the only time repression against the Russian Orthodox Church stopped and allowed priests to provide the tradition of blessing arms before battle.
The End of the War
September 2, 1945
Finally, after a near catastrophic death toll, the war ended on the 2nd of September 1945. Total lives lost to the Soviet Union was estimated at around 28 million people. To honor the fallen, monuments were placed around the country. The Soviet Union then allied with other nations to create the United Nations Security Council.
The United States and the Soviet Union continued on for four decades to both be the world’s two largest superpowers. The Soviet Union continued to display military and economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research.
De-Stalinization
1953 - 1964
After Stalin’s death on the 5th of March, 1953, the party was eventually taken over by Nikita Khrushchev. In 1956 he denounced Stalin’s use of repression and began what was later called ‘de-Stalinization’.
Khrushchev first revealed the truth of Stalin’s brutality to the masses during a closed congress, in a speech named ‘On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences’ later nicknamed the ‘Secret Speech’. Afterward, the speech was taken to various areas and read out loud to the public once. Eventually, newspapers in the US got ahold of the speech and published it.
Regarding the first reading in the closed congress, the speech was considered highly shocking. There were reports from laughter, applause, and of many getting sick and needing to be escorted from the hall, as well as people suffering heart attacks. Upon leaving, delegates were described as ‘disoriented’. The BBC even reported cases of people committing suicide after learning the truth of Stalin’s actions.
Khrushchev was careful to condemn Stalin’s actions, but not to criticize his industrializing policy or party ideology. This process moved the USSR into a period of liberalization. The people were seeing labor camps closed, raises in living conditions, loosened artistic censorship, and less repression.
China and the USSR broke ties, again producing another major famine. The communist party then removed Khrushchev from office in 1964.
Era of Stagnation
1964 - 1982
During the 1960s to 70s, the Communist Party gained wealth while millions of average citizens starved. In the early 1980s, the Soviet armed forces had more troops, weaponry, and military vehicles than any other in the world, even the United States.
While at first the industrialization of Chenarus had been a wonderful improvement for the people, the government was now pushing it forward by any cost. This resulted in people across the country being deprived of food and basic needed items such as shoes and clothes. Being the ever-resilient people, the Chernarussians made do with what they could, but it did not stop thousands of deaths from starvation and exposure, and millions of deaths across the USSR.
In the 1980’s, the United States via President Ronald Reagan, made reforms that worsened the economy in the USSR. The USSR was rapidly losing faith in its government.
Age of Realization
1985 - 1989
In 1985, president Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the public for the first time to have free access to information that for decades had been under heavy government censorship. He also made significant changes working with the economy and leadership. He eliminated the despised secret police, Stalinist repression, and banning of books. People could for the first time, participate in elections if they were not communist, and could openly criticize the government in newspapers without fear of retaliation.
With the influx of new information, the people began to go against the USSR. The newest generation refused to follow the communism beliefs of their parents and grandparents. Sparked by Poland in 1989, political revolution and mostly peaceful protests started across Europe.
At this point, multiple republics were leaning to declaring sovereignty over territories, citing Article 72 of the USSR constitution, which allowed secession. After a failed coup d’état by the KGB and government trying to reign in full control of the country again, countries began declaring their independence starting with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Rise of the Republic
In September of 1991, unwilling to allow its people to suffer further, Chernarus shook its longstanding relationship to Russia, by voting in a landslide to declare independence from the Soviet Union. Suddenly free of the USSRs influence, Chernarus restored itself as a Republic, elected new officials, and re-formed the Military.
While many areas were modernized, pushing away the USSR led to the large orders of exports that had been sustaining the country to cease. Russia, in retaliation, also pulled their trades. This included imports of food such as grains. Chernarus was left in a state of panic of genocide by starvation.
Militaries reinstated themselves with the same mindsets from before Communism, reestablishing a strong trust with the public. While most of the military had been originally executed, their beliefs and actions were remembered by the people, and continued in story and deed by those living. While having a large Army, a medium sized Air Force, and a small Navy, the groups worked together under what became The Chernarussian Defense Force.
Chernarus quickly applied to the United Nations, while doing everything they could to prepare food storages and figure out how to keep the resources from collapsing under them.
People were encouraged to grow anything edible they could, especially potatoes, wheat, rice, corn, and oats. Men and women who knew how to build greenhouses, would go around neighborhoods and try to help ensure each house had one.
Fisherman would send their children with buckets of fish guts and skins to distribute to people for their gardens. Store bought meat and grains were rationed. People hunted wildlife and could be spotted fishing or catching frogs nearly anywhere there was a water source that sustained life. Clams, oysters, and crabs were caught along the ocean beaches, kelp was pulled up, dried and eaten. Families relied on age old traditions of having been taught to forage wild mushrooms, dandelion roots, chestnuts, berries, tree bark, and grass. Animals were fed wood leaves so humans could eat the oats. Bones from animals were used to make broth and gelatin.
The UN was struggling with the fallout of countries from the USSR and trying to deal with nearly the entirety of Europe on the brink of collapse. They couldn’t send much help, but they were able to send some. They strategized what and who they send to help the country. Chernarus also managed to use the UN as a stepping board to getting work from other countries, utilizing the factories and docks that had been left behind.
The UN brought in officials to teach Chernarussians’ government how to function again as an independent country, as well as teaching women’s and human rights. Food and medical supplies were brought in and distributed to people. Labor departments and organizations worked to create labor rights, fair wages, and working standards. Banks would put out loans with extremely low interest rates to allow families to get business started again.
Anti-communist Russians, began working to smuggle livestock, meat, grains, and vegetables into the country.
UN workers aided the people in trying to find innovative ways to run the cities including ensuring training and maintaining of proper security forces, along with programs to aid the poor. Laborer’s helped in restructuring and reinforcing many of the crumbling buildings.
Slowly, Chernarus began to come alive again. The mines reopened, the metals they produced having a high demand by other countries. The once illegal breweries in Gorka and other areas, began to legally create alcohol again. The fishing industry began to take off, taking contracts from other post-soviet countries in need of food. Farmers were aided by the UN in obtaining better technology to store their crops, and seeds that would yield healthier and more nutritious harvests.
The Republic of Chernarus
As the Chernarussian Defense Force began reclaiming the military bases being relinquished by the Soviet Union, they worked to take an inventory of what they had to work with. The military opened contracts with other nations including the UK and America to slowly upgrade their equipment. Grants and contracts were also taken out for medical facilities to obtain newer technology.
As the military bases began to function again, so did the airports and communications. Newspapers and news stations were experiencing freedom most of their staff had never known in their lifetimes. Communications were being opened around the world, bringing in a plethora of learning, trade, and technology that had previously been denied to the country.
While the industrial community was beginning to pick up exported goods, fishing and farming began to stabilize as well. The government worked to try to come up with plans to open the country to further business opportunities.
Parts of those opportunities, they realized, was in the simplicity of the land itself. Historic areas such as castles had always been popular for tourists to visit. The beaches were popular as was the local food. The churches held artwork and structures that had been destroyed in most Soviet countries. The forests and lands were ideal hiking and camping grounds. The government noticed that many foreigners had a bizarre curiosity and fascination about the Soviet Union and saw it as a possible new source of revenue.
They shifted tactics from trying to survive mostly off of industrialization, and began to promote tourism. As airports were open, Chernarus proved to be a good spot for layovers, and word quickly spread about the area. Chernarus finally had a direction, and a hope for the future.
コメント