Novistrana

Novjistrayan Respublika
Flag of Novjistranya
General
Name	Republic of Novistrana
Capital	Kazan
Largest City	Kazan
National Abstract
Map of Novistrana in 2152
Government
Government Type	Federal Republic
Head of State	President Mykhaylo Pysko
Legislature	Federal Assembly
Judiciary	Supreme Court
Demographics
Demonym	Novjistrayan
Population	~9.4 million
Official Language	Novjistrayan
Spoken Language(s)	Novjistrayan; Ukrainian; Russian; Tatar; Mari; Udmurt; Bashkir; Chuvash; Khazak; Mordvihn; other
Ethnic Groups	Novjistrayan; Russian; Tatar; Mari; Udmurt; Bashkir; Chuvash; Khazak; Mordvihn; other
Official Religion	No state religion
Major Religions	Marselism (~38%); Christian (~26%); Muslim (~24%); Nonreligious (~6%); Buddhist (3%); Zoroastrianism (~1%); Other (~2%)

Novistrana is a republic in the former Russian Federation, at the heart of the Inland Sea and straddling the Volga Inlet. It is a multireligious, multiethnic, and multilingual federal republic, composed of several constituent autonomous republics and the larger federal district. The Declaration of Sovereignty of 2046 is held to be its founding document, and September 3 is celebrated as Sovereignty Day. Novistrana does not share a land border with any developed state and has access to the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans through the Inland, Black and Mediterranean Seas. The capital is at Kazan, a large Russian city that once existed at the confluence of the Volga and Kamak rivers, and is now the largest port city in the region.  The nation's history begins during the tumultous period following the Great Flood, with massive refugee movements in the region settling in what was predominately the former regions of Tatarstan, Chuvashia and Mari El. The largest movement came from Russian, Kazakh, Bashkir, Urdmut, and Mordvin refugees, who mixed into ethnic and linguistic enclaves, kicking off a period of great violence as each group competed for a dwindling share of resources, especially food and fresh water. Peace was signed in 2046, and the region declared independence as Novistrana, or New Country. Today, while there remain a great variety of national ethnicities, faiths, and languages, some sociologists have begun to observe what can be called ethnogenesis as a syncretic ethnic identity "Novjistrayan" is becoming more popular among the young population. Novistrana is notable for having a plurality Marselist population, a further testement to its heterogeous roots. 

History

The early post-flood years saw a great deal of interethnic conflict in Russia, especially in regions like Volga with a high concentration of different ethnicities. The flood pushed a large population north, out of Central Asia, including a still signficant Khazak minority, further adding to the tensions, and a great deal of ethnic and religious violence defined the early post-flood period, even as the rest of the world burned in their own squabbles. A Russian naval officer from Samara, Aleksei Mikhalev, became a regional authority by the early 2040s, and established a firm base of control at the city of Kazan, a shadow of its preflood self. Solidfying control over Kazan proved to be valuable for establishing an early power base, and by 2047, Mikhalev had secured a small region around the city as his own personal fiefdom. The Declaration of Sovereignty formalized his rule over this region, which he named Novistrana, or New Country, as he declared formal independence from the former Russian Federation, though by this point, there was no one left to challenge such a declaration in Moscow. Early on, he focused more on securing his own power base in Kazan than expanding the state's borders elsewhere. He would peacefully pass on power to his chosen successor, Agustin Koralovich, on his eightieth birthday.

Early Novistrana

Flag of Novistrana

Young Novistrana quickly expanded its borders to include a more fertile agricultural and industrial base, and under Koralovich, grew into the preeminent power in former Tartarstan. Eager to restore control over as much of the old Russian territories as possible, Koralovich and Talenn began a policy of expansion that would continue until the turn of the century. Nonetheless, the diverse population proved difficult to govern, and to maintain its armed forces and at least nominal control over its territory, the early state was forced to cede a great deal of control to local authorities, control it would rarely be able to take back. President Yarok Stanislav, an ambitious if weak man, was brought to power under promises to establish a national legislature which he did, giving the local authorities control over the presidency and passing it outside of military control. He would drift in and out of office for the next several years, but the state would remain weak and the economy mismanaged, under control by mafia entities, hopelessly corrupt, and barely better for the average citizen than the anarchic land surrounding it. Criminal enterprises, government, and corporate ventures all melted together, indistinguishable, and the state's expansion faltered due to internal division and incoherence. Novistrana lost control of Samara, and several other southern territories, leading to purges within the armed forces in attempts to professionalize what had come to resemble more a local street gang than an army. Vasily Viktorovich quietly rose the ranks of the Novistrayan Army during these years, particularly for his role in suppressing a Kazakh rebellion along the Vatyka River. Stanislav promoted him to Commander of the Armed Forces in July of 2061, and Viktorovich took power in a coup shortly therafter.

Socialist Novistrana

Flag of Revolutionary Novistraya

Vasily Viktorovich quickly set about eliminating internal resistance to his rule, fighting hard to establish radio stations and other means of mass communication, and declaring the establishment of the Kazan Soviet. His movement was popular among workers and farmers, who began to strike and agitate against local authorities. Despite early attempts at counter revolution by mafia business owners, Viktorovich came out on top, and established a strong and centralized state more able to resist its own internal incoherence. Seeking to eliminate religious and ethnic divide, Viktorovich mandated Russian as the only language to be spoken or taught, and banned religious services as soon as no signficiant force remained which could resist the Novistrayan Army within the borders of the state. He also moved to annex portions of Mari El at this time, seeking to diminish Islamic sentiment among his people.

His regime would last more than 27 years, and leave a permanent influence over Novistrana. To help mitigate rising ethnic conflict, he created the autonomous soviets that would become the Novjistrayan republics, creating a local administration that was often much more homogeneous than than the nation as a whole. These republics, however, were rarely contiguous, creating an economic dependence on maintaining the federal superstructure that made internal trade and administration simple. He expanded the industrial economy, diversifying Novistrana beyond the agricultural, mining and timber industry it had depended on, and restarted oil production in Tatarstan, for the first time since the initial flood, creating a cheap source of energy for the fledgling nation to continue its economic development. He repaired the damaged rail network, making travel between the Mari and Tatar regions of the country simpler, and invested in creating new shipyards at Kazan and Yoshkar-Ola, to facilitate maritime trade along the large Volga inlet.

Culturally, his regime was more heavy handed, taking hardline stances against religious identity, and in particular, Christianity and Islam, leaving a void that would come to be filled by Marselist communities. He promoted Russian education in schools, a very controversial policy, but one that would influence the future pidgin language of Tatar and Uralic languages with Russian that would become the modern Novistrayan language. Nonetheless, despite good economic growth, the Novistrayan Soviet was heavy handed against its people, while failing to address their basic welfare as much as their economic development, and by the late years of his regime, unrest had grown considerably.

A coup attempt in 2089 by Gregor Strenk was briefly successful in ousting Viktorovich for 11 days, but the success was contained to the city of the Kazan, and after a brief siege, socialist rule was reestablished. Viktorovich would govern for one more year, before dying of a heart attack, and his successor Subrenyev was a considerably weaker personality, governing for a year and a day before resigning in the face of growing political pressure, and allowing free elections for the first time in 30 years.

Liberal Reformation

Rioting in Kazan

The final year of Gregor Strenk's regime was fraught with political protest, strike, and upheavel, and would come to be known as the Blue Revolution. The movement was highly decentralized, but one of the most recognizable leaders was Mikhael Koralov, a devoutly Orthodox Udmurt, who managed to gain support from a diverse group of religious communities in the hope of ending state atheism. The opposition of Strenk to this demand would prove to be a fatal mistake for his regime, with March and April before his resignation seeing the Orthodox, Islamist, and Marselist communities across the country engage in widespread protest, and often riots, against state police and institutions. A takeover of the Tatar oil fields by an Islamist group prompted a heavy handed response in early April that led to massive riots in Kazan which would last nearly two weeks, climaxing with the resignation of Strenk and the announcement of free public elections.

The first elections after the end of Revolutionary Novistrana were contentious, but power passed peacefully without incident to Koralov, one of the leaders of the movement. Koralov oversaw the establishment of a new constitution meant to introduce stability to the Novistrayan political process, maintaining the Presidency as a position appointed by the Federal Assembly, while reintroducing free elections every two years for the legislature. Nonetheless, early liberal Novistrana would be a politically unstable entity, as new Presidents quickly lost control over the Federal Assembly, were impeached, and replaced. Between 2091 and 2124 there would be 25 different Presidents, Koralov himself quickly losing the support of the multireligous front that had put him in power as he pursued overtly pro-Orthodox policies lasting only a single year in office.

Perhaps as a consequence of the weak executive office and divisive assembly, the various federal ministries and the autonomous republics grew more powerful and assumed more responsibility for day to day governance. Notably in 2106, the annexation of the Chuvash regions south of the Volga Inlet was not approved by the assembly or President until after the Department of State Security had already deployed soldiers into the region, with support of local republic militias which quickly annexed portions of the territory for themselves before the Federal Assembly could meet and hastily acknowledge the establishment of an autonomous Chuvash state.

One major movement that rose to prominence during this chaotic era was the 2046 Movement, which wanted to go back to the status quo prior to the creation of Novistrana, and secure independence for the autonomous republics. They grew influential enough in Tatarstan to have several Presidents, but they were often the targets of political assassination. A reaction to this movement was the Ethnofuturist Front, which remains a relevant political force today, advocating for the recognition of a unique Novistrayan identity and culture, a fusion of the existing diversity in the region. Tarak Mozhar was a particularly important leader in this movement, and became the first President to acknowledge himself only as Novistrayan, but his government did not last long and was more notable for his Vice President, Agustin Sonkin, who would soon become the most important and enduring leader of liberal Novistrana, creating the modern state as we know it.

The economy during this period continued to expand as state industries were privatized, but the industrial sector diminished somewhat as a result, with more businesses focusing on resource gathering industries and state support concentrated sole

Modern Novistrana

Modern Novistrana began with the election of Agustin Sonkin in 2124 by the Federal Assembly, with a broad base of support from agricultural and oil interests. The former CEO of NovjiPetrol, the largest oil producer in Tatarstan, Agustin Sonkin rose to political prominence as the Minister of Labor in the governments of Pasha Donskoy and Luka Stolin before his resignation under Ilya Stenislav. He became one of the founders of the Ethnofuturist Party, one of the most important political organizations in modern times alongside the Unity Party, and served as Vice President under the brief tenure of Tarak Mozhar. He would return two years later as President serving, for the longest period of time of any post-Viktorovich politician, 15 years. His tenure saw the entrenchment of the ministerial system in Novistrayan politics as an alternative to what he viewed as an incompetent political culture, centralizing state authority in executive institutions, but outside of the legislature. His main concern was economic and industrial development, as well as tackling what he felt was the largest source of Novistrayan instability - culture.

Autonomous Republics of Novistrana, 2052

The Ethnofuturist Party modified the census to include a new Novistrayan ethnicity, an identity intended to be a catch-all for the variety of ethnic groups in the region. It promoted a secular state, where religion was a private affair, and banned explicitly religious parties from participating in federal elections, though they remained powerful among local polities. A new Institute of Novistrayan Linguistics was funded and published the first grammatical dictionaries for the Novistrayan language, a Russian dialect with extensive Chuvash, Mari, and Tatar influences, developed directly from the pidgin vernacular spoken in day to day life. He transitioned the state into using only Novistrayan for official business, and ended the use of Russian as the official language of the state. This remains the case in Novistrana, just over ten years after the end of his regime.

Economically, he continued to focus on developing the nation's resource industries, focusing on oil, timber, and a nascent metal mining industry. He also expanded the borders of the state south, to include Zelengorsk and Tolyatti, moving the borders closer to the Inland Sea. He attempted to consolidate the autonomous republics, reducing a great number of enclaves, exclaves, and other strange border issues, vestiges of the Viktorovich regime, but failed to make any significant progress due to a lack of support outside the federal level. Nonetheless, he was one of the more popular figures to lead Novistrana in recent memory, and is regarded as one of the best Presidents of recent history.

He failed to make any lasting changes to the political culture, however, beyond expanding the power of the government bureaucratic machine, and after his retirement in 2139, the state returned to tradition, with eight different individuals serving as President during the twelve years between 2139 and 2152, but remains an important and well respected figure.

His main political rivals during this era was the Unity Party, the first explicitly Marselist party before its forced secularization under Sonkin, a decision it quickly reversed when it took power for itself under President Ekk. Despite this conflict regarding religion, and an economic policy that favors agriculture and industrialization over oil and timber exploitation, the two parties remain united on the issue of Novistrayan ethnic identity, centralization, and reducing local autonomy. With only a few interruptions, either the Unity Party or an Ethnofuturist Party has controlled the government for the last quarter century, and the most notable effect of this is that in the 2050 census, Novistrayan identity was the largest one citizens self-identified with. Youth, especially in urban areas, are abandoning the preflood ethnic definitions, in favor of a more unitary one, as the country begins seeing itself less as a Frankenstein monster composed of various groups mashed together, but a cohesive whole.

Historical List of Heads of State

This is a list of the heads of state of Novistrana since the Declaration of Sovereignty. 

	Name	Ethnicity	Religion	Took Office	Left Office	Political Party	Notes
1	Aleksei Mikhalev	Russian	Orthodox	September 3, 2047	December 9, 2051	Sovereignty Faction
2	Agustin Koralovich	Russian	Orthodox	December 10, 2051	February 6, 2053	Liberal Faction
3	Casimir Talenn	Russian	Orthodox	February 7, 2053	October 12, 2056	Christian Democrats
4	Yarok Stanislav	Russian	Orthodox	October 13, 2056	December 3, 2056	Sovereignty Party	Ineffective governor; often chosen as compromise candidate; would serve 3 seperate terms
5	Tarik Skliarenko	Kazakh	Sunni	December 4, 2056	February 4, 2057	RM-OUAF Front
6	Yarok Stanislav	Russian	Orthodox	February 5, 2057	June 11, 2057	Sovereignty Party
7	Masnal Gasprinsky	Tatar	Sunni	June 12, 2057	November 24, 2059	RM-OUAF Front
8	Arslan Petrev	Bashkir	Sunni	November 25, 2059	December 31, 2059	Islamic Brotherhood
9	Yarok Stanislav	Russian	Orthodox	January 1, 2060	August 3, 2061	Sovereignty Party	Killed during coup by Vasily Viktorovich
10	Vasily Viktorovich	Russian	nonreligious	August 4, 2061	March 18, 2089	Communist Party	Chairman of the Novjistrayan Communist Party, took power in a military coup
11	Grigor Strenk	Mari	Orthodox	March 19, 2089	March 30, 2089	Justice Party	Coup attempt; failed to establish control outside the city of Kazan, see: Battle of Kazan
12	Vasily Viktorovich	Russian	nonreligious	April 1, 2089	April 16, 2090	Communist Party	Counter coup; would govern until his assassination
13	Kamil Subrenyev	Kazakh	nonreligious	April 17, 2090	April 18, 2091	Communist Party	Second and last Chairman of Revolutionary Novistrana
14	Mikhael Koralov	Udmurt	Orthodox	April 19, 2091	April 20, 2092	Justice Party	Brought to power peacefully by popular demand in the Blue Revolution
15	Leonid Chadra	Mari	Orthodox	April 21, 2092	September 14, 2093	Yellow Front
16	Rudolf Mareyev	Bashkir	Sunni	September 15, 2094	March 2, 2096	Justice Party
17	Sami Orchkin	Russian	Orthodox	March 3, 2096	November 2, 2097	Patriot Party
18	Vladimir Siva	Mari	Orthodox	November 3, 2097	January 7, 2098	Liberal Front	Assassinated
19	Aleksnader Ishvek	Mari	Orthodox	January 8, 2098	May 1, 2098	Patriot Party	Assassinated
20	Francis Sehmet	Bashkir	Orthodox	May 2, 2098	September 11, 2100	Strength!
21	Samir Fyodorov	Chuvash	Orthodox	September 12, 2100	July 5, 2102	United Novistrana
22	Yuri Caspirovich	Russian	Orthodox	July 6, 2102	December 21, 2102	Popular Front
23	Tamir Corchin	Tatar	Neo-Tengrist	December 22, 2102	February 8, 2103	Turkic Future	An eccentric neo-pagan; assassinated after attempting to create a Tatar government in perpetuity
24	Sasha Weinstein	Russian	Jewish	February 9, 2103	March 2, 2104	Kazan Section
25	Ilya Beria	Udmurt	Sunni	March 3, 2104	June 28, 2104	Popular Front
26	Luka Faustin	Mordvin	Orthodox	June 29, 2104	January 2, 2105	Yellow Front
27	Vasily Mirrin	Bashkir	Orthodox	January 3, 2105	November 29, 2105	Farmer's Party
28	Josef Rozhdestvensky	Mari	Orthodox	November 30, 2105	November 30, 2106	ASCF-ART
29	Igor Ignatyev	Chuvash	Marselist	December 1, 2106	December 6, 2106	Ethnofuturist Front	First Marselist President
30	Petyr Onopko	Udmurt	Marselist	December 7, 2106	January 4, 2112	Onopko Faction
31	Ruslan Tsilovech	Tatar	Sunni	January 5, 2112	August 3, 2112	2046 Movement	Assassinated
32	Vladimir ibn al-Bashkir	Tatar	Sunni	August 4, 2112	May 27, 2114	2046 Movement
33	Pasha Donskoy	Russian	Orthodox	May 28, 2114	September 3, 2116	Coalition Left
34	Luka Stolin	Tatar	Orthodox	September 4, 2116	December 8, 2120	Traditional Party
35	Ilya Stenislav	Bashkir	Sunni	December 8, 2120	July 21, 2122	2046 Movement	Assassinated
36	Tarak Mozhar	Novistrayan	Orthodox	July 22, 2122	February 7, 2123	Ethnofuturist Front	Agustin Sonkin was Vice President during this six month term
37	Mayer Rackham	Kazakh	Jewish	February 8, 2123	February 11, 2123	Sunshine Reform
38	Bol Muhammad Petrovich	Russian	Sunni	February 11, 2123	July 16, 2124	TP-2046-SR Front
39	Agustin Sonkin	Novistrayan	Orthodox	July 17, 2124	October 8, 2139	Ethnofuturist Front	Longest serving post-Viktorovich President; helped cement the idea of a Novistrayan ethnic identity
40	Fermin Sazhin	Udmurt	Marselist	October 9, 2139	October 31, 2139	Revilatism!
41	Ivan Gusev	Bishkar	Marselist	November 1, 2139	June 2, 2142	New Farmer's Party
42	Igor Ekk	Chuvash	Orthodox	June 3, 2142	October 26, 2145	Unity Party
43	Ruslan Byko	Tatar	Sunni	October 27, 2145	September 3, 2146	2046 Movement	Assassinated
44	Saparmyrat Chokayev	Morvin	Marselist	September 4, 2146	August 11, 2148	Unity Party
45	Osman Igorovich	Russian	Orthodox	August 12, 2148	September 16, 2149	Social Justice for All
46	Anastasia Zagorinskaya	Novistrayan	Marselist	September 17, 2149	December 4, 2150	New Ethnofuturist Front	Only female President
47	Josef Stevanyovich	Chuvash	Marselist	December 5, 2150	December 3, 2151	Unity Party
48	Igor Tenyslav	Novistrayan	Orthodox	December 4, 2151	August 22, 2159	New Ethnofuturist Front	Retired peacefully
49	Mykhaylo Pysko	Ukranian	Marselist	August 23, 2159	January 6, 2162	New Ethnofuturist Front
50	Kamila Gusev	Novjistrayan	Nonreligious	January 7, 2162		Social Justicialist Party

Economy

Kazan, April 2149

The Novistrayan economy is dominated by primary sector industries, in particular the oil, timber, and agricultural industries, supported by relatively minor commercial and industrial interests. Resource exports have been slow since the collapse, but the relative political stability within Novistrana compared to the rest of the surrounding region has made it a center for export. Despite efforts to develop native industry over the past thirty years, the local economy remains dominated by the production and consumption of these raw goods. Since the Presidency of Sonkin, Novistrana has registered strong economic growth according to the Ministry of Economics, and Kazan has developed a healthy, though small, financial sector that the government hopes to leverage into continued diversification and growth. However, despite such localized progress, in general the Novistrayan economy continues to suffer from the instability of global markets and a lack of political unity.

Construction has emerged as a growing industry in Kazan, the largest city in the country, home to 119,000, but the skyline remains modest by preflood standards. The city remains the economic heart of the nation, however, as it has since before the flood for Tatarstan, with most diversification occurring within the city. Key industries for the province include petroleum refining, shipbuilding, and manufacturing, and the average income of Kazan's inhabitants remains three times higher than the rest of the country. Yoshkar-Ola to the north, the second fastest growing city in the Republic, has also emerged within the Republic as a center of industry and the second financial capital, serving as headquarters for Novjistrayan Agricultural Credit, the country's largest bank.

The agricultural sector is at the heart of the Novistrayan economy - in the early post-flood years, food was the only industry of any importance, and this hasn't changed much. Grains and vegetables are grown, with the most important crops being wheat, potatoes, as well as pig and chicken rearing. Fishing has replaced cattle as the largest source of protein, however, as the Inland Sea has crept up into the region for the first time in history. The most valuable agricultural product produced, however, is Chuvashian beer and vodka, with Ulyanovsk emerging as a center for the country's alcoholic industry.

Tolyatti was one of Russia's centers of automotive manufacturing prior to the flood, and while the city has seen better times, the last thirty years have seen the emergence of NOS and a limited selection of vehicles revitalize, at least in part, that old profit center. NOS remains the largest auto-manufacturer by far, specializing in practical equipment such as buses, trucks and tractors, but two subsidiary companies, NMI and Svoboda specialize in military orders and private transportation, respectively. Critics, however, suggest that the only reason NOS has done so well is a lack of competition, and that the reemergence of global trade may bring the poor quality of production to light.

Politics

Seat distribution on the Federal Assembly:

  New Ethnofuturist Front: 114 seats

  Social Justice Party: 39 seats

  Farmer's Party: 11 seats

  Unity Party: 37 seats

  2046-Hizb al Islam Coalition: 4 seats

  Reformed 2046: 3 seats

  2046 Movement: 2 seats

  UFF - Family Front: 1 seat

  Lotus Section: 1 seat

  Andrei Goncharov: 1 seat

  Novaya Russiya: 1 seat

Main Article: Politics in Novistrana

Novistrana is composed of three constituent and autonomous republics with a devolved assembly, executive head of state, and powers relating to day-to-day administration and governance. They are Mari-El, Chuvashia, and Tatarstan. The republics are in a strong economic union, but determine their own tax rates, social policies, and policing, having surrendered control of foreign policy, defense, and trade regulation to the Federal Government which governs the relatively small Federal District of Novistrana. The Federal Government has three branches, the executive Presidency, the unicameral Federal Assembly, and the Supreme Constitutional Court, which serves as the final court of appeals for federal cases. The Federal Government is famously unstable, and has shrunk in size over time, with most day-to-day governance having been slowly transferred over away from the Federal Assembly to several large ministries, known as the Executive Departments.