Pan-Slavic Commonwealth (PSC)

"In the Name of Peace." - Pan-Slavic National Motto

Description

Government Form	Limited Constitutional Monarchy
Head of State	Tsaritsa Yekaterina Kiselev
Capital	Nova Moskva
Demographics	Slavic Human Majority
Official Language	Inter-Slavic
Official Religion	Orthodox Christianity
Supranational Association	Coalition of Independent Nations (leader)

The Pan-Slavic Commonwealth (Interslavic: Žečpospolita Veseslovjanska; Interslavic Cyrillic: Жечпосполита Всесловјанска) is something of an enigmatic state to some, a nemesis to others, and above all, a presence to be reckoned with. Formed by the neglected peoples of Sol, and expanded well beyond its original purpose, intent, and even ideology, the PSC stands as a resolute bastion of the Pan-Slavic Identity in a galaxy that very much would like to wash it away. More than the other states of the Known Galaxy, the PSC’s main objective has been to take care of its own needs, on its own terms, and to shelter the ambitions of those who think similarly to them.

History

The Exodus

The PSC traces its roots back to the glory days of Sol’s pioneering, back when the United Terran Systems were the independent United Nations of Earth. In those times, the Solarian government had come to largely neglect the Slavic cultures, a result of the Western and East Asian thinking that dominated UNE. The Slavic peoples, bound together in a common cause, took as many colony ships as they could produce, buy, or otherwise get their hands on, and took to the stars. It was agreed upon by the Slavic settlers heading out that the government of Sol had no further stake in running their lives, and as such they decided to head out as far as their ships could take them at the time. The combined group of voyages which departed would coalesce primarily around the system that would become Novaya Moskva (Later Nova Moskva / Нова Москва), which would become the capital of the state formed from the associations of colonies in the region. Far from Sol, and any aliens that might otherwise sully their dream, the Slavic peoples made new lives for themselves.

The lack of foreign pressure, however, caused the disparate colonies to turn on themselves for a time. The resulting tumult left the survival-oriented colonists little time or desire to maintain records, and as such there is little to go on for quite some time.

Third Soviet Union

Eventually, as the turmoil faded, the Slavic people had truly come together, by force where necessary, into a singular political regime. The victor of those early colonial conflicts was a Communist regime, third of its name, and highly repressive as a result of the wars. The Third Soviet Union became the first true outward Pan-Slavic state, and its influence would spread in the form of new colonies, both further afield and, perhaps paradoxically, closer to Sol. Carefully planned expansionism became the policy of the day, perhaps in the hopes of one day exporting the Revolution back to Sol, but certainly to fuel the new industrial furnaces that were popping up. The establishment of these territories further from Novaya Moskva would bring the Third Soviet Union back into contact with the galaxy at large.

Over the course of about seventy years, under the surface, not everything was panning well with the regime. The arrival of the Union on the galactic stage was a mess, as the ideologically estranged state found more reasons to pursue raiding and covert action against its neighbors than straightforward diplomacy. This policy of underhanded dealing did little to actually enrich the Union, and set negative precedents both internally and externally. Although the leadership of the Union held an absolute degree of power, the raiding subculture being built led to divisive factionalism.

Soon enough, the administrative regions of the Union fell under control of local strongmen and power brokers. The slipping of central power also led to the rise of the so-called “space gopnik” movement, as people began to turn to criminality driven by poverty and a lack of faith in either God, or the regime. Surely enough, the progress made by the Third Soviet Union was broken down by its gradual over-reliance on the raiding subculture. The Union would soon once again essentially only exist in name as factionalism reached its peak, and many of the Slavic people began to turn away from hardline Communism as their solution to life’s problems. They turned toward more liberal strands of government in some cases, and straight-up banditry in others.

Rise of the Monarchy

Not all in the Pan-Slavic territories were content to let the dream of a united realm crumble, however. Going underground on Novaya Moskva, a group of disaffected officers and staff decided to look further back in history to find the glue that would finally hold the Pan-Slavic dream together. They found that the longest-lasting form of government, distasteful as it might have been, was feudalistic, then absolutist, monarchy. However, with the dynasties of the past being long-dead, they would have to elevate one of their own leadership to take control of this New Russian Monarchist Union (Novaya Rossiyskaya Monarkhicheskly Soyuz), and ultimately forge a new crown. The council ultimately decided to offer its prospective crown to who they believed to be the most charismatic of their ranks, Alexei Kiselev. The man’s military experience likely also contributed to his candidacy, as the NRMU would have to face off against numerous other contemporaries to secure its place, first as the rulers of Novaya Moskva, and later the further oblasts (regions) of the realm-to-be.

With the sectors of the Pan-Slavic dominion in tatters, anarchy, or worse, under contention of foreign powers, the NRMU sprung into action when the people were desperate enough for change, and the last remnants of the Third Soviet Union had breathed their last gasps of power. Forces loyal to the new Monarchy launched an aggressive campaign, both of propaganda and steel, and the combination of the promise of the new Tsar’s true pan-slavic unity, alongside vicious reprisals against resistors, saw the capitulation of holdouts against the new regime within a matter of weeks. With the capital secured, and the Tsar crowned, the New Russian Imperium (Novaya Rossiyskaya Imperiya) was born.

The initial rise of the NRI played out much in a similar pattern to the Pan-Slavic people’s early colonization of the oblasts, except it was warships coming forth from Novaya Moskva rather than colony ships from Sol. The monarchy’s control of the area’s dominant industries ensured it the edge when it came to the finer points of negotiating unification treaties and suppressing Space Gopnik pirates – at least within the NRI’s own borders.

Dual Suns

Having risen like a phoenix to assert control of the Pan-Slavic diaspora, the NRI soon found itself at odds with the other powers of the Known Galaxy. The chaos of past decades, and the history the NRI’s people had with the other major powers did not lend it much trust. Given such circumstances, the NRI chose to stick with what its people had best learned to do, engaging in border skirmishes, raiding the Federation, and directly contesting the expansionist claims of Tiziran Empire with their own. In doing so, the NRI was able to use its outdated forces to maintain territorial integrity, enrich their coffers, and yet avoid full-on reprisal through the ages-old tactic of plausible deniability.

Change in course

Inevitably, the original decision of the NRI to attempt to continue the Third Soviet Union’s ineffective policy of raiding as means of enrichment, and inability to modernize in technology - or in thought, using the symbols seen by many ancient slavic peoples as oppressive, and calling unto traditions only really glorified by a single one of its cultures, resulted in a deja vu for the Tsarist authorities; one of discontent and resistance. An experience felt by the previous government and known by it all too well.

It culminated in a standoff in the contested Sector C7, where the crew of a ship that lost contact with the NRI, the NRI Morava was inevitably marked as deserters, and ended up chased by the NRI Thessaloniki. Said standoff almost escalated to a full-blown war with the Galactic Federation, and was merely a climax to the previously growing tensions and series of terror attacks within the NRI territories.

The situation, officially, ended with the speech given by the Tsartisa, choosing not to make the same mistakes of the Third SU, and declaring a monumental change in course for the state, rehabilitating the participants of the Morava incident, whilst putting an end to the NRI and giving way to the rise of the PSC - The Pan-Slavic Commonwealth, under a notably modified system of government, yet still under the same crown that has ruled it for the previous decades.

Culture

As one of the founding principles of the PSC has been the preservation and proliferation of the Slavic culture, it should come as no surprise that the PSC places substantial priority into ensuring that their way of life prevails. The PSC’s strongest internal meme is compliance – there is no other inherent bias towards menial trivialities such as species so long as all within the realm find their place, and keep to it.

Day-to-day life in PSC society is mostly built around the idea of being insignificant and just a cog in the machine of the greater state. The Tsar’s battlefleets control the skies, governing and enlightening the populace, and most are content to live and serve under the state. With the monarchy as a focal point, most of the produce of the PSC’s colonies flows steadily in the direction of the capital.

Religiously, outside of autonomies granted to the alien minorities of the PSC, a revitalized form of Orthodox Christianity serves as the state religion. If the Tsar is the ruler of the physical world, then Christ is the champion of the spiritual realm for the PSC’s people. The passage of time and the regime of the Third Soviet Union eroded many of the lavish traditions held by the church, but the core tenets of the faith remain, and have endured.

Beyond the demands that the PSC’s society places upon its populace, there remains an amount of diversity, though nowhere near the level of diversity that can be claimed by the Federation. Among the Human majority, the many Slavic cultures and subcultures thrive under the watchful gaze of Pan Slavism, be they Russian, Serbian, Belarussian, Polish or otherwise closely related. The state also seems to have absorbed many of the old colonies from people which were, on Earth, potentially closely aligned either by geography, culture or religion that might have departed for similar reason to many of the first colonists that later made up the Third S.U., such as the Greeks, Georgians, Armenians, Uzbeks, and others. The alien minorities that have adopted Panslavic traditions among their own ethos offer their own, unique flavors to this cultural pie.

Diplomacy

Coalition of Independent Nations (CIN)

Not content to leave the independent buffers between itself, and especially the Federation, unchecked, the PSC’s most recent political move has been the establishment of its own localized power bloc. CIN is, on paper, a co-equal military alliance between the PSC and its clients, but in practice the Tsaritsa’s influence is a bit more hegemonic than they would like to admit. Ultimately, however, the CIN is a justification for a “defensive war” that will likely never materialize, so long as the galactic balance of power holds out. It is therefore unsurprising to many logisticians that the CIN lends its label to a lot of the PSC’s military surplus, and therefore, at least in name, and at first glance, the organization resembles a trade commission more than a military alliance. But perhaps this in and of itself is part of the political maneuvering, and the CIN is a guise to hide a portion of the PSC’s true military strength. Only the Tsaritsa could say for certain.

Galactic Federation

The grudge between the Pan-Slavic people and UTS goes back generations, and it continues to define the general climate even now that the Pan-Slavic people have found a new state in the PSC, and Solarians joined with the greater Galactic Federation. Despite the introduction of aliens to both sides, Terran historians would note that the relationship the Federation and the PSC have come to share is not unlike that of the Cold War, and similar periods. There is some trade, even an interchange of curious people, but a lot of political posturing, and cautious military action to go with it.

A tactic employed by the Imperium has been a constant stream of small naval strikes at supply, stations, and under-armored ships, very akin to piracy, against Federation vessels in Federation space. The main theory behind this if you are constantly putting the enemy on the back-heel, then they can never take a step forwards. And when it comes to the PSC, keeping the Galactic Federation on its back-heel may be the difference between "Нова Москва" and "New Moscow".

Tiziran Empire

Early diplomatic history with the PSC and the Tiziran Empire was punctuated by minor border skirmishes and noncontact by their respective diplomats, largely out of not considering the other an entity worth being in contact with.

This changed following the Tiziran Empire’s defeat in the Unification War against the Galactic Federation. For a short time, the PSC considered the Tiziran Empire a target for conquest and subjugation but a mutual diplomatic effort by enterprising members of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and Tiziran Empress resulted in the two directed their energy to considering the GalFed a mutual enemy.

Soon after, the Tiziran Empire joined the PSC via the CIN. The PSC has since provided extensive military and industrial assistance to the Tizirans, something the PSC does not plan to let the Tizirans forget.

Due to Soatii raids along the frontier of the Commonwealth, the Tiziran Empire has volunteered (with nudging from the Collegium of Foreign Affairs) to dispatch warships through the CIN to assist its new ally. This has been greatly appreciated by the PSC and has been used in internal and external propaganda as evidence of the CIN’s ability to protect its members.

Soato Holy Dominions

In recent time, a new player has entered into the Known Galaxy, one who doesn't wanna play nice. Unluckily for the PSC, they have been made a prime target for incursions, and is currently the closest the PSC has gotten to a real war in its modern history. Small Soatii fleets are constantly making movies against Pan-Slavic colonies and causing a lot of havoc for the nation, which has actually brought the PSC and many of her rivals closer together, as all major powers view the Soatii as a threat to all of their existences, and rightfully so.

Currently on the front, the PSC has been very able to hold their line, and in recent years there has been a significant decrease in Soatii attacks on all fronts, which has lead to a more concrete establishing of borders and boundaries between the rest of the Known Galaxy and the Soatii, which has lead to some minor negotiations and trade between some nations and the new Superpower, however the PSC has resorted to their usual ways of interacting with her rivals.

Contemporary Government

With the disestablishment of the PSC's old, significantly ineffective system of government hostile to its own multicultural existence, and a lot of the completely absolutist mechanisms that were previously in place, the PSC seems to have entered a new age. Whilst the nature of the PSC’s system is still influenced by the Communist regime that immediately preceded it, and continues to cultivate the odd pseudo-collectivist ideals with Pan-Slavic traditionalism, it no longer has the dysfunctionalism so widely seen within the old NRI's management.

The Head of Government, the Chairman of the Collegia (a title borrowed from tradition of many of old Terran slavic countries like Poland, Czechia or Russia) known more colloquially as Premier-ministr - or Premier for short, is chosen by and directly responds to the Tsar with the approval of the Parlament, and is considered the Tsar or Tsaritsa's Chief Advisor. The Government, much like its head, respond directly to the Tsar/Tsaritsa (The Head of State of the Commonwealth) whose words, alongside the constitution written by Tsaritsa Yekaterina herself, are considered officially the highest binding source of law within the PSC.

The old rule of the Tsar having to belong to the NRMU has been abolished, and the Tsar/Tsaritsa is now considered, as the highest power of the state, to be above the political disagreements and squabbles of organizations that, in words of Tsaritsa Yekaterina, have failed both the peoples of the former NRI and the universe at large. It also means that some of the systems aiming to keep the power of the Tsar in check by means of political alignment are no longer in place, and thus have been replaced by a very limited right of veto with rules so strict that the attempt to use it could very well cause a crisis in of itself.

The old trend of Patrimonalism has been replaced with the ever-growing bureaucracy of the PSC, however that which does not belong to other private individuals, still officially belongs to the Tsar, who as the head of state, may dispense with such loose property as they see fit with the support of the government serving them. In practice, it usually meant that the Tsar or Tsaritsa delegates such property to the management of the respective Collegium depending on the type of property. Furthermore, in a rather significant change to the previous Private Property laws, it can now also be handled and revoked by their respective collegia if it is seen as potentially of "better use" within the hands of the Government and its leadership, with a large amounts of rights enshrined to those working within any semi-privately owned businesses, and a large crackdown on the property and business rights of non-royal landowners, nobles, and, the most sidelined group of them all: capitalists seeking to expand their businesses without regard to the local laws and customs.

Economically, the PSC differs from its rivals by adopting a strict stance of abolishing the free market wherever possible.  Large scale industries within the PSC are state-owned enterprises, currency and resources are highly regulated, and everyone is given a fair chance within reason to contribute to the betterment of the state. Public services are comprehensive, the state offers public healthcare, housing, education, basic needs and mostly anything of necessity to citizens, so long as they can stomach the bureaucracy.

Government Collegia

Operating by the Tsar’s order and under the Premier's oversight is an extensive state bureaucracy, organized into a number of “ collegia '', legal entities akin to ministries found in the structures of other governments. The Collegia are organized hierarchically, and all actions committed by a collegium are subject to internal vote. Collegia are not wide-reaching bodies like foreign ministries tend to be – they focus on specific issues, and for a given scope there may be multiple collegia dealing with a particular aspect of that scope.

Collegium of Internal Affairs: concerned with the policing and health of the State.

Collegium of Defense: concerned with war manufacturing and defensive readiness.

Collegium of Foreign Affairs: concerned with embassy and diplomatic functions.

Collegium of Justice: concerned with all matters of civilian and criminal justice in the PSC.

Collegium of War: concerned with all military affairs not bound to other collegia, such as recruitment, management of units and judicial proceedings against military personnel.

Collegium of Admiralty( or the Admiralty Board): concerned with starship construction, port administration, naval armament, and preparation of naval officers. Not concerned with the actual admirals of the PSC’s naval forces.

Collegium of State Income: concerned with state fees and agriculture.

Collegium of State Expenses: concerned with taxation, economic data and monetary business.

Collegium of Accounting: concerned with financial auditing.

Collegium of Commerce: concerned with regulating the PSC’s foreign trade.

Collegium of Mining and Manufacturing: concerned with the extraction and non-agricultural production industries.

Collegium of Estates (Collegium of the Imperial Court): concerned with the Tsar’s personal holdings, and prepares personnel to serve those holdings accordingly.

Collegium of the Holy Synod: concerned with the lay administration of the Orthodox Church.

Politics

After the public fiasco that was the Spartacist Uprisings and the Morava Incident, the PSC worked on implementing reforms that show the guise of being liberal in nature. The reforms were the final nail in the coffin for dominance of the NRMU within the new Commonwealth’s politics, making way for a much more diverse political landscape, with banners of many colours of the peoples belonging to the larger Commonwealths now proudly flying within the newly reformed Parlament of the Commonwealth, known under different names within different sub-sectors; From “Sejm” to “Duma” and even the “Vouli”, all recognized as equal, yet not the official terms for it. The NRMU itself , and many of its former members, stand today ostracized by society, and in a way, get most of the blame for the burden of causing the Spartacist Rebellion and the Morava Incident, making a rather convenient scapegoat for the Crown to avoid touching ever again as a bad memory, though some lower profile members managed to find themselves now at the top of the political chain with respectable positions in the new groupings that formed.

The shock of the initial political diversity of such an oppressive security state has been now replaced by the shock of how, despite the initial diversity boding well for the liberalization of the state, many of the political groupings still have to abide by the power of the crown that rules them, and stay within its good graces if they wish to have any real power within the Parlament Žečpospolitej Vseslovjanskoj.

Lawful Political Factions

United People’s Labour Group

Sjedinjena Narodna Grupa Raboča

After the Spartacist Rebellions and the Morava incident, one group from the NRMU ended up actually benefitting from the whole ordeal, being the one promoting dialogue, liberalization, and co-operation with the oppositionist Society for Unity. That group was the Trudovik faction, which ended up absorbed into the aforementioned Society, forming the new United People’s Labour Group - The next dominant force within the PSC’s politics.

This merger, and reformation of the group into a more cohesive entity, did mean that some elements like the more radical sections of the People’s Union began splintering off, however the core remained, only bolstered by moderates from the Spartacist People’s Liberation Front. True to its founding ideals, and ideals of the merger, the UPLG focuses on rights of the people of the state, curtailing the powers of the aristocracy in favour of the Parliament, underlining of a new definition to the term “Slavic” which would encompass all those within the Commonwealth while respecting their individual cultures and identities, as well as ensuring that the PSC remains a state built upon laws and rights. The economic aspect of the group’s ideology seems to be a merger of the more radical solutions proposed by veterans of the People’s Union and the ideals of the moderate reformers. Today, the UPLG stands as an uneasy - but solid co-ruling coalition of the Commonwealth’s progressives that were willing to reach a compromise with the crown while refusing to stand down and bow before the NRMU.

The main thing that, at the end of the day, allows the UPLG to be an active political force, and what allowed it to rise from the ashes is its continued recognition of the crown - Something notably lacking within all of the unlawful opposition organizations.

Union of 17th of October

Sojuz Sedmnadsetogo Oktobra

After the events that have officially marked the end to the NRMU's monopoly on power within the pan-Slavic state, the ashes of the NRMU’s Octobrist faction, Nobles’ alliances, and pre-constitutional conservative movements a new grouping was formed, called the Union of 17th of October. Calling back on the traditions of the original Octobrist faction within Russian politics, and being seen as (now) the stronger of the former NRMU’s factions, the Union of 17th of October is effectively the big, umbrella Social Conservative faction within the Parlament Žečpospolitej, underlining the necessity of reform, while still advocating for the Parliament to be directly under the oversight of the crown, and opposing any attempts at further stripping the powers of the Monarch.

Socio-politically, much like their direct predecessors, the Octobrists share some similarities to policies of the Galactic Federation; they advocate for a much more open (yet still heavily regulated) economy, and are willing to be more loose with regards to the state religion of the PSC - Orthodoxy.

Pan-Slavic Monarchists' Union

Vseslovjansky Sojuz Monarchističny

The most radical of the major political groupings within the parliament, and admittedly the smallest of the three, the PSMU is the NRMU’s official successor, despite the fact that the old leadership is all, but gone from the public eye.

A grouping of reactionary nobles and politicians, the PSMU advocates for the rewriting of the new constitution to revert most of the changes pertaining to the power of the monarch and the formalization of the new Pan-Slavic Parlament. Despite having now fallen out of favour, and being seen even by official authorities as root of the issue that started the Spartacist Rebellion, they have shown to be still extremely fanatical in their devotion to the crown, and are, in ideological alignment, the most comparable to the old Legitimist faction of the NRMU, including their views on religion, putting them in direct opposition of the UPLG, and at partial odds with the, comparatively moderate new U17O. Its membership also seems rather limited to those that used to belong to the political elite, or the nobility, with a notable exclusion of minority faith believers due to their fanatical devotion to old values and religion.

Minor Groupings

The Parliament, with its new rules, is also host to many smaller groupings. Most of these groupings seem to come from the simple fact that a lot of the people that were previously unable to enter politics under the watchful gaze of the NRMU finally have the chance to do so. These groupings are heavily diverse in their views, and as such one could spend a long time trying to analyze each one of them.

Only time can really tell what will come of these groupings, and if any of them will be able to decrown any of the current major factions, but the fact stands that the issue of representation is no longer one taken too seriously as a priority within discussions between the Collegia and within the Parliament, considering themselves as guardians of the peoples within, and their cultures; a shield from what they consider to be Galactic Federation’s assimilation policies.

Unlawful Political Organizations within the PSC

Spartacist Union of 13th of January

Spartakističny Sojuz Trinadsetogo Januara

Having lost its original leader, and lost some of the original fervor that had taken the people during the Spartacist Rebellions, the People’s Liberation Front had officially disbanded a month after the Morava incident, leading to a lot of its members becoming legal participants within the political system or choosing to simply put down arms and lead quiet lives in a new Commonwealth which they themselves believed they managed to fight for the creation of.

The dissolution however was not permanent, as some of the more radical members of the former People’s Union, veterans of the PLF, and people disillusioned with the extent of the changes or wishing to see the crown fall once more took to the negotiating table to reform into a more organized force under the assumptions of the old January Agreement signed under the leadership of Spartakus themselves.

It is much weaker, and no longer has the same ground that the old PLF had, however it is still noted as an extremist opposition group that remains one of the primary targets of the Collegium of Internal Affairs, declaring it to be a cancer to the well-being and unity of the Commonwealth shortly after its founding.

Space Gopniks and Pirate Factions

Kosmogopniki i Pirati

Space Gopniks, or as they are more locally known in the PSC, Cosmo Gopniks, are often-disjointed and rowdy gangs of individuals who take the worst excesses of Pan-Slavic culture to the extreme. While some are politically motivated, most Cosmo Gopniks are simply vodka-consuming, joy-seeking madmen who live life on a day-to-day basis rather than trying to make sense of the universe. They subsist on their will and grit like many independent spacers, but with an emphasis on the raiding subculture of the Pan-Slavic world. Cosmo Gopniks are not afraid to take what they need, when they need it, and rarely consider the needs of the other side when they move in.

The PSC is also home to a smattering of other, miscellaneous pirate factions, given that almost any sufficiently developed, individually-minded society will have detractors who look to crime as a source of entertainment, profit or survival, or are the thin remnants of dissent the Colonial Police has yet to stamp out. Like in other societies, the PSC’s pirates are runaways from the mainstream, people who see themselves as challengers to the rule of law, or the Tsar, or whoever they are hating on a given day, and are people powered by an insatiable addiction to the desirable concepts of freedom and glory.

Credits

Credits to the PSC lore goes to:

• Halas (Description, History, Original Governing Structure, Political Faction Oversight, PSC update)
• Louskil (Original Writeup)
• Elly (Political Factions, New Governing Structure, PSC update)
• Mef (Minor Additions and fixes)