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Kiravian Remnant

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Kiravian Federacy

Kiravix Rektārka
Flag of Kiravix Dispan Kiravian Remnant
Flag
of Kiravix Dispan Kiravian Remnant
Coat of arms
Motto: Commie Warship Go Fuck Yourself
Anthem: Federal March
StatusIn exile (1935 – 1984)
CapitalKartika
Capital-in-exileVaśyansar
Common languagesÆonaran Coscivian, Kiravic Coscivian, Sarolastan languages
Demonym(s)Kiravian
GovernmentCrowned asymmetric federal republic (de jure)
Closed anocracy (de facto)
Emperor 
Prime Executive 
• 1935-1962
Séan Kæśek (first)
• 1962-19XX
Eridan Vrixur
• 19XX-19YY
Céiteach mac Cósairta
• 19ZZ-19QQ
Lamar ben-Yākov
LegislatureRump Stanora
Historical eraHigh Modernity
CurrencySaar
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Kiravian Federacy
Kiravian Federacy
  1. ...

The Kiravian Remnant refers to the continuation of the constitutional government of the Kiravian Federacy as a rump state following the 1935 Kirosocialist takeover of Great Kirav and Sydona and the establishment of the Kiravian Union. From its new seat on the island of Æonara, the Kiravian Remnant claimed to be the legitimate government of all Kiravian lands and retained the loyalty of most Kiravian overseas colonies and protectorates.

During the ensuing period known as the Sunderance, the Kiravian Remnant underwent a process of state-capitalist economic development and modernisation, as well as a series of political evolutions in response both internal and external changes. However, political life throughout the Remnant era was thoroughly dominated by the Renaissance Party under the leadership of Prime Executive Séan Kæśek and his successors.

In 1984, following a political and economic crisis on the mainland, the Federalist government returned to power and the nation was reunified, ending the Remnant era.

History

The history of the Kiravian Remnant begins with the defeat of the Farravonian Counterrevolution, resulting in the Federalists losing their last remaining territories on Great Kirav.

Martial Law (1935-1940)

The political situation of the Remnant territories in the five years immediately following the loss of the Mainland can be described, depending on one's political biases, as a transitional government or military dictatorship.

Loss of Koskenkorva

Following the eviction of anti-communist forces from the Mainland, the Federalists were forced to confront an untenable strategic reality in Koskenkorva. The large island was a loyalist stronghold and had previously been prized by Federalist planners as a base from which to press the Socialists and a staging area for a future reconquest of the populous eastern seaboard of Great Kirav.

Rump Republic (1940-1945)

The cancellation of martial law allowed for some resumption of power by the exiled Federal Stanora. The 'Rump Stanora', as it was called,[by whom?] had not undergone new elections and was composed mostly of Delegates representing provinces lost to the Kiravian Union. It was also short many Delegates who had died in the intervening years, sided with the Socialists, or not taken the passage to Æonara.

Front Era (1945-1976)

New temporary articles were appended to the Constitution in order to effect the "regularisation" of the political process by new elections, marking the ruling élite's formal acceptance that their exile would be for the long term. This move was promoted by the régime as a resumption of "normal free electoralism", but would fall well short of a fully free and fair democratic transition, as participation in federal and provincial elections would be open only to parties affiliated with the pro-government National Reunification Front.

Séan Kæśek died in 1962 at the Great Juniper Residency in Sanober, North Æonara. He was succeeded as Prime Executive by Eridan Vrixur.

Relaxation and Reunification (1976-1984)

In 1976 the National Reunification Front monopoly on political participation was lifted and other parties were allowed to nominate candidates for that year's legislative elections. However, the NRF retained its majorities at all levels of government, owing in part to the fact that the development of full political pluralism in civil society and the press lagged behind the legalisation of competitive elections.

Territorial Extent

Those territories that remained under Federalist control after the loss of Farravonia formed the Kiravian Remnant, officially designated as the Free Area of the Kiravian Federacy (Helvisarna Kiravix Rektārká). Areas held at the beginning of the Sunderance but lost before Reunification are marked in italics.

In addition, the Kiravian Remnant continued the Kiravian claim to the disputed island Wintergen, which has been administered by Burgundie since 1823 AD.

Politics and Governance

The Kiravian Remnant claimed authority from the Constitution of the Kiravian Federacy as it stood written on [Phase] [Month], 211XX, remaining a crowned, asymmetric federal republic ruling in the name of the Basswood Emperor, just as it had been on the mainland. However, in order to address the challenges of exile, the government took various liberties in its interpretation and application of constitutional law, and made extensive use of emergency measures and transitional provisions to circumvent constitutional impediments.

The exact configuration of the government varied over time as it adapted to new and changing conditions on Æonara. Moreover, how the government functioned in practice was often quite different to what was claimed on paper, with some political scientists describing the Remnant as a military dictatorship or a closed anocracy for certain periods during the exile. More charitable analyses have characterised the Remnant as a managed democracy.

The Renaissance Party dominated political life in the Remnant for its duration, with minority parties subordinated to the RP as part of the National Reunification Front. Parties outside of the National Reunification Front were barred from entering politics in 1945 by a temporary constitutional amendment ratified ahead of the first Stanora election in exile. These restrictions were lifted in 1976. Other parties in the NRF included the Christian Democratic Party, the United Agrarian Party, the Jade Resistance Movement, and the Social Democrats of the Kiravian Federacy, represented by Soran Akēvarin. Even during the period of single-party rule, contentious politics persisted, and factional struggles within the Renaissance Party had a major role in charting the course of public policy. The main divisions within the ruling party were between the “movement Renaissance Men” who stayed close to the path laid out by V.R. Sarosten and Séan Kæśek, the traditionalist-conservative “Old Right” composed mainly of local Æonarans (especially United Empire Loyalists), and the Restarkist-influenced United Allegiance Society.


The federal nature of the Kiravian state was retained in exile. However, the central government assumed a much larger and more active role in domestic policy than it had prior to the Sunderance. Much of this change took place without any modification of the constitution's federal structure, and was instead a function of the concentration of power in the ruling party, which was able to ensure the compliance of provincial governors and legislatures with national initiatives. This "strong federalist" approach to governance was felt most strongly in Æonara, whereas many of the more peripheral colonies actually increased their degree of self-governance and local initiative in many respects during the same period. The Melian Isles was granted near-total autonomy during this time; the East Kilikas Federacy, on account of its isolation, would remain formally subject to the sovereignty of the Remnant but operate as a de facto independent state until the early 1940s. Loyalist subnational governments-in-exile were formed to represent many (though not all) of the Mainland states lost to the Socialists; the Remnant supported and recognised these, and accommodated them in constitutional procedures to the extent practicable. One important role of the "phantom state" legislatures was keeping their statute laws up to date with new technological, political, and economic developments in anticipation of reunification. Governments-in-exile of those lost provinces which did not enjoy statehood (the internal territories and federal districts) were suspended and placed under notional direct rule by the Lieutenant Executive for Mainland Affairs under the Reunification Executive.

One of the liberties taken with constitutional interpretation during the exile was the creation of “federal subjects” that were non-territorial in nature or had only a very limited and patently contrived territory, in order to afford presidential appointees and minority coalition factions representation in the rump Stanora and Federal Council.

Domestic Policy

Social Policy

Coming to terms with the reality that a foreign-backed reconquest of Great Kirav was not to be in the near future and that its exile was to be long-term, the Remnant government under Kæśek proceeded to implement what have been retrospectively referred to as "defencive reforms" (adèktivix ōrtiorthir) or "preëmptive reforms" (ápidutrax ōrtiorthir) intended to shore up the social and territorial stability of the Kiravian Remnant by preëmpting social questions and popular grievances that might provide fuel for socialist or secessionist revolutions if left unaddressed. Policies later described as preëmptively reformist in nature include:

  • Social insurance - Tax-funded social insurance programmes were enacted in order to give workers a sense of security to increase productivity and blunt the appeal of socialism.
  • Healthcare -
  • Native Relief - The Sarolasta Reform Act created a formal process for mestiço and Coscivised Polynesian communities in Sarolasta to be legally and ritually recognised as part of the Coscivian meta-ethnicity, and also removed legal disabilities for the unassimilated Polynesian population. The 1949 Cronite Civil Status Act (Atrassica) promoted taxpaying Massapíkva and Minnéola from Subjects of the Land to metics (vôvodin) eligible to apply for full citizenship (and subject to conscription), and extended Kiravian nationality to non-taxpaying aboriginals domiciled on the reserves. The patois people of Seváronsa were declared Coscivians by a Collegial decree invoking Imperial authority in 1947.
  • Women's Suffrage - The federal ballot was opened to women in [YEAR] and the Kiravian Women's Party was admitted to the National Reunification Front. States were bullied into giving women the vote within the next year or so.

Land Reform

Land reform in the Kiravian Remnant was ideologically justified by the incorporation of Georgist economic theories into the platform of the ruling Renaissance Party and was further conditioned by the distributist ideals of its junior partner, the Christian Democrats. Politically, it faced opposition from elements of the Kiravian Old Right and the United Empire Loyalists on Æonara, but the laws were forced through by Séan Kæśek during the period of martial law and were eventually accepted as fait accompli after the end of martial law once permanent compensation funds were established.

Cultural policy

The twin deculturalising forces of Marxism and economism threaten to divide us. The international culture of the Menquoi is strong while we are weak ... Ideological and cultural fields are our main targets.

— S.D. Díraśakuvin, Address to the 1944 plenary congress of the Renaissance Party

Historians of a constructivist persuasion posit that the Kiravian Remnant understood itself as the last bastion of pure, authentic Coscivian civilisation and behaved accordingly, adopting policies to preserve the heritage and distinctive mores of Coscivian culture, adapt Coscivian culture to survive and thrive in diaspora and modernity, and reïnforce it against both Marxism and hegemonic Occidentalisation. These policies were tempered by the reality of the Remnant's situation: Strict cultural conservation took a backseat to the state-driven bureaucratic modernisation and engagement with Occidental allies that the Remnant needed to undertake in order to survive, resulting in a mild-to-moderate degree of convergence with Occidental-international society. Still, the Remnant's leaders saw maintaining cultural and identitary continuity as key pillar of their mission and are regarded as having successfully balanced respect for Coscivian traditional culture with their own brand of Coscivian modernism.

In partnership with the exiled Imperial Academy of Scholars, Prime Executive Kæśek founded the Coscivian Culture University to conserve the ancient Coscivian academic tradition, and foster research in the Coscivian humanities outside of the Marxist theoretical paradigm enforced on the Mainland.

Reactionary modernism.

Coscivian complementarism

For the sake of practicality, the Remnant authorities adopted Kiravic Coscivian as the working language of the government, and ensured that provincial governments made study of Kiravic mandatory in state secondary schools. Otherwise, however, the Remnant was tolerant of the multilingual nature of its territories, in contrast to the Kiravian Union, which had a general policy of promoting linguistic uniformity among its Coscivian population and suppressed the ethno-regional vernaculars and Gaelic. Æonaran Coscivian remained (and remains still) the majority language of the Æonaran states (except Umcara, where Umcaran Coscivian remains the majority language) despite the massive influx of speakers of other Kiravian languages during the Sunderance - Many of the 'Mainlanders' and their descendants on the island are now bilingual in Æonaran. Provincial and local governments were allowed ample latitude to promote and accommodate the languages preferred by their constituents in public administration, education, broadcasting, signage, and other contexts. The Remnant also conserved the use of High Coscivian in law, academia, state symbolism and ceremony, and publishing, whereas the Kiravian Union had abolished it.

Administration

It was during the Sunderance that household registration (thramdastraterion) became effectively universal and compulsory in Kiravia, both the Remnant and the Union. The Remnant government would come to rely on household registries to make its populace legible for all manner of administrative purposes, including the judiciary (jury selection), military conscription, and economic planning. Émigrés and their descendants were encouraged to retain their original registered domicile in provinces lost to the Remnant, and exiled provincial governments continued to act as registrars. The Lieutenant Executive for Mainland Affairs under the Reunification Executive maintained registries on behalf of provinces with no functioning government-in-exile.

National Service

From the outset, the Kiravian Remnant practised comprehensive military conscription of able-bodied male citizens and metics[1] in order to maximise its military manpower for the purposes of deterring aggression against its remaining territorial holdings and maintaining a credible capability of retaking the Mainland. Upon the completion of their service term, conscripts were automatically transferred to reserve units, either their provincial militia (predecessors of the Territorial Defence Forces) or the Federal Reserve. In the earlier decades of the Sunderance, reservists could expect to be called up for periodic drills or put on alert in moments of heightened defencive readiness, but this became less and less frequent as time went on and the Remnant's security position stabilised.

In 1937 the Remnant rolled out a National Service system modelled on that of its neighbour, the Cape. The National Service Act an subsequent amendments thereto up to 1943 would widen the burden of national service beyond able-bodied men, and widen the range of roles beyond military service to include emergency services and civil defence, public works, education, and healthcare. In addition to helping ensure adequate staffing for labour-intensive public services, it was hoped that National Service would enhance social cohesion by fostering a sense of national unity and shared purpose. Civilian NS roles were assigned mainly to unmarried women, widowed fathers and only sons, and men medically unfit for military service. A small number of conscientious objectors, mainly Mountain Quakers and Abrigalasts, were also diverted to civilian service. Persons convicted of evading National Service or deserting from civilian service roles faced prison terms of up to three lunar years. Penalties for desertion from military service were much more severe. The 1937 Act made eligibility for many public benefits contingent upon successful completion or valid exemption/honourable early discharge from National Service; in addition to the applicable penalties and reduced access to benefits, those without such certification often faced discrimination in housing, employment, and other areas.

External Relations

Relations with the Kiravian Union

See: Kiravian Sunderance

Both the Kiravian Remnant and Kiravian Union claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all Kiravian lands, and as such neither government recognised the other. After an initial period of rejecting all contact with one another, the two governments quietly established lines of regular informal communication beginning in 19XX, mostly through intermediary countries such as The Cape?.

Foreign Relations

The foreign policy of the Kiravian Remnant was directed toward the régime’s core goals of ensuring its own independent survival and maintaining widespread recognition as the legitimate Kiravian government.

Relations were particularly strong between the Remnant and its South Cronan neighbours, such as the Cape and Paulastra (with which it shared a common Coscivian heritage) and the strongly anti-communist Arcerion and Alstin. Great care was also taken to maintain good relations with preëminent world powers Urcea and Caphiria.

The Remnant made anti-communism a core plank of its political rhetoric and foreign policy, and as such took a hostile stance towards revolutionary socialist governments in Carna, Kloistan, and elsewhere.

[League of Nations?]

Society and Culture

After the stabilisation of its boundaries in Sydona by the 1968 Marmasse Protocol, the population living under the Remnant numbered approximately XX million, with a strong plurality of this number concentrated in Æonara and the largest shares of the remainder in Kiravian Cusinaut and Catenias.

The population of Æonara and the other remaining island colonies (except for Sarolasta) was overwhelmingly Coscivian, with small preëxisting minorities of indigenous Cronans and Lusonic people. Scapa was predominantly Celtic, and there was a strong Celtic element in Èusa as well, and along with the Republic of Ardmore these areas absorbed most Celtic anti-communist émigrés, though some settled in Cusinaut, Atrassica, or Æonara, particularly the upland regions of West and North Æonara. Small émigré communities of Kópistonians, Érhuans, Skithanawites, Exoésans, and Wastani settled in Æonara, Atrassica, or Suderavia, and a small number of Urom, mostly military or members of Catholic anti-communist militia evacuated from Farravonia, arrived as well.

The population of Sarolasta was mainly of mixed native Polynesian and Coscivian settler ancestry to varying degrees (see Demography of Sarolasta). To ensure political stability on those islands, the Sarolasta Reform Act was passed to allow mixed and assimilated Polynesian communities to be formally recognised as Coscivians and improve the legal status of the unassimilated native population.

The preëxisting Coscivian population of the Free Area was mainly Æonaran and Umcaran (in Æonara), Kir (throughout the island colonies and Cusinaut), Èusan (in Èusa), Suderavian (in Sudaravia), and Austral Coscivians (in loyalist strongholds of Sydona). A large number of Austral Coscivians fled the Sydonan Civil War and the Sydonan People's Republic for the southern Krasoa Islands. The emigré population was much more diverse: Although Kir people accounted for a plurality, a great many Farravonian Coscivians, Ensciryan Coscivians, Eshavian Coscivians, and a smattering of smaller groups fled to the Remnant as well. South Coscivians and Kalvertan Coscivians fleeing the Kiravian Union mostly relocated to Caphiria and Cartadania. In Æonara the "Mainlanders" came to form a distinct social group, settling mainly in the Sirana metropolitan area or the lúaśad uplands and using Kiravic or West Coast Marine Coscivian as their main languages for social interaction.

There was a considerable Muslim contingent within the military evacuee and emigrant communities, as most Muslim communities in Great Kirav were strong opponents of Kirosocialism and many were members of/fighters for the Renaissance Party or its Islamic auxiliary. Many of these émigrés settled in Prevarda and wider County Voneın. Krasoa and Sarolasta had significant preëxisting Muslim communities.

Economy

The Kiravian Remnant had a capitalist economy, albeit with a high degree of state involvement in economic planning and considerable state-corporate collusion. Most heavy-industrial and high-tech industrial growth was concentrated in Æonara and Rovaīon, and to a lesser extent in Porfíria Colony, Atrassica, Thendara, and the southern Krasoan provinces. The development outlooks for Sarolasta and the remainder of Krasoa would focus on agrarian "rural modernisation", light manufacturing, and services. Most other regions would retain primarily extractive economies until at least the 1970s.

The economic development of the Remnant territories was made possible by massive capital flight from the Kiravian Mainland to banks in Caphiria, Pribraltar, and the Remnant itself. The Federalist government approached economic development in its remaining lands as a greenfield project into which fugitive capital could be put directly towards the development of new and profitable industries. Captains of Kiravian industry, finance, and government planning closely studied the state-led industrialisation and development of the neighbouring Cape as a model, and emulated it in many respects, especially as regards the manufacturing sector, but also retained the more open-market institutional legacy of the prewar Kiravian Fedaracy which it had inherited.

This environment of industrial policy, national-corporatist collaborationism, and reliance on capital held by the bourgeois émigré community and their diaspora connexions led to the rise of a unique form of business group, the látuxarin (lit. "capital clan"). The látuxarin were (and are) conglomerates of corporate units bound together by arrangements of share ownership (including cross-ownership) and other business relationships, all under the ultimate control of a specially constituted trust entity. Interest in the trust and membership of its board (kirstuv) were held by wealthy families, usually émigrés but sometimes colonial magnates, who had contributed capital to the original venture from which the larger conglomerate had grown, whether out of their own assets spirited away from the Mainland or funds secured from overseas backers through personal relationships and family ties. Although there was much goodwill and sympathy for the Remnant and the Kiravian anti-communist cause among the international business class, institutional investors were justifiably pessimistic about the small, overextended rump state's long-term survival and viewed it as a high-risk market. As such, without the efforts of the látuxarin founders in leveraging their contacts overseas, mobilising the Coscivian diaspora community in countries like Caphiria and Tierrador, and building partnerships with less risk-averse foreign investment banks, most of the capital that made the Remnant's development push possible would never have materialised. Most látuxarin began their lives as vertically-integrated heavy-industrial enterprises (e.g. motor vehicle manufacturing, shipbuilding, defence contracting, chemicals) and gained their footing with the help of state aid before expanding into adjacent product lines and ultimately into completely new sectors such as finance, retail, information technology, and real estate. Many of the látuxarin formed in the 1940s and 1950s would survive long enough to see Reunification, becoming major players in the Mainland economy and acquiring former Kiravian Union state-owned assets as part of the privatisation process, making them forces of cardinal importance in the Kiravian economy up to the present day.

Another class of companies important to the development process were "national champions" (ğudrabiśotur) that were privately or at most semi-privately owned but organised by the public authorities to serve the national interest in strategically-important sectors and enjoyed overt state patronage. National champions included the industrial-engineering group Exgen, Kiravian Overseas Airways and Kirav Atrassic Airways, and Federal Atomics (now Vertex Atomcraft).

A notable smaller-scale business model that appeared early in the Remnant's industrialisation process was the sxivakrésora or "wife workshop", a type of light manufacturing enterprise that employed women - most often the wives and daughters of military evacuees and other less wealthy émigrés - to produce cheap consumer goods such as textile products and household durables for export to Sarpedon and Levantia. Most sxivakrésorî were located in Æonara, but there were known examples in Eusa and Krasoa as well.

Recycling

See Also

Notes

  1. Kiravian nationals without household registration were not subject to conscription. Nationals with household registration were exempt if they held active Capetian or Caphirian citizenship (even if residing in the Free Area). Visiting expatriates with household registration were not to be conscripted unless they had previously resided in the Free Area for five lunar years or more. These limitations were in place to maintain good relations with the Kiravian diaspora, crucial to the Remnant's economic and diplomatic strategies.