LEVROPIA

A Political Overview of the Cold Conflict


Following the end of the Second World War, the Levropian Continent found itself at odds with two blocs with opposing ideologies. The liberated countries soon found itself as a free-for-all zone for the victors who were trying to exert political influence over the landmass. Arconians were pushing eastwards to spread laissez-faire liberalism, while USPR and its Red Army pushed westwards to extend state socialism. With both powers growing on an equal pace, eventually, it reached an equilibrium, and the continent was locked in an unending geopolitical jeopardy between the Eastern Bloc with its military organisation, MESP, against the Western Bloc with its WSTO counterpart, whereas others became neutral, either because strategic or political reasons.

Kreisian Empire, which was defeated by the Allied forces in the spring of '45, became a contested region, with several Allied countries, especially Arconia, Brundia, Corvain, and USPR carved their own administration zones in the region. The West was keen on dividing the occupied state, but USPR had another idea, that was to create a free, neutral, unified Kreisia. Grigol Rukov, Premier of the USPR, sent a petition to both the Western provisional government and the Kreisian people urging for the reunification. Unsurprisingly, the West rejected the idea. However, the idea became popular among Kreisians and they protested the Kreisian Provisional Government, a body administrating the western half of the country, to accept the petition. USPR also halved its military presence in Kreisia to gain trust from West Kreisian people and politicians.

As months went by, the protests became stronger, and it heavily pressured the occupying forces. On the other hand, an unofficial meeting between members of the Provisional Landtag unanimously declared support for reunification and armed neutrality, effectively threatening the West's political influence. The West eventually agreed for the unification. Both USPR and the West oversaw the process, and on 1 January 1949, Kreisia became a unified neutral country.

However, the schism didn't just end there. Arconia was agitating a Containment plan—it was originally just a financial support, but they later resorted to fund and train ultra-violent anti-leftist militants of Western Levropian countries. This, of course, did not sit well with the Eastern Bloc, and clearly just pouring fuel into the bushfire. Initial public support of the Containment policy was high in Western Levropia, and they welcomed the creation of WSTO. However, the movement soon became too radical and exhausted the people's morale. Corvain was one of the most vocal, complaining Arconia's policy here and there.

Gen. Laurent Boudreau, the post-war President of Corvain, criticised Arconia's action of meddling too much in the Levropian politics. The final blow came on 1967, when Arconia and Hertand-Rosten invaded Hertand-Alm in response of them electing a socialist, female president. He immediately withdrew Corvain from WSTO, denounced Arconia with an inflammatory speech, and closed the Corvais-Hertander borders to prevent further movement of WSTO troops into the invaded country. However, the invasion continued and was successful. Despite the success, both Arconia and WSTO basically nuked their own image. Many believed that the 1967 Invasion of Hertand-Alm as a massive propaganda victory for the East. The invasion caused waves of protests globally and it got so worse that it grew into a missile crisis in 1968. The threat was averted, but it caused political upheaval in the West.

In Arconia itself, the political bonfire after 1967-1968 caused a second wave of Red Scare after it had been there in the early 1950s. Universities were raided down, employees were fired en masse, and many politicians and functionaries were purged from their office. Many engineers working for the Arconian Space Agency (ASA) were expelled, stalling Arconia's mission to land first on the Moon and ultimately paved the way for USPR, with its Pobeda XIV-LK vessel, to land the first man on Moon on 30 June 1969

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In 1969, Premier of USPR, V.A. Voloshinov launched a series of economic reforms, essentially introducing partial economic liberalization and market socialism, thus transforming the country into a mixed economy framework as a general goal. He believed that a highly powerful economy is a prerequisite for communism. This action was called "Voloshinovshchyna" (Voloshinovism) by critics. His reform also marked a switch from the prioritization of heavy industry to consumer industry in the economy. On the other hand, he opened up the economy for foreign investment and relaxed some trade restriction with the rest of the world. These measures alleviated most shortages of goods which sporadically affected the Union before the reforms.

Other Eastern Bloc countries soon followed the reforms. This reform caused a significant boom in the Bloc's economy, skyrocketing living standards of millions of people in Eastern Levropia. Eterhall is usually seen as the best example of the reform; in 1985, its GDP per capita reached ~$14,000, higher than Camennia and Hertand-Alm, both WSTO countries.

It didn't come with resistance, however. Both Jarevia and Niverdia rejected the reforms, calling it "revisionist". However, these governments shook in 1971 and 1973 respectively, allowing reformists and pragmatists to get in and implement Voloshinovism. Several anti-revisionist militias were formed. Most notable was the Jarevian Red Guards, which terrorised USPR throughout the 70s-80s.

With the avoidance of USPR from directly intervening in costly wars abroad, alongside with the rising economic trends through 1970s-1980s which increased public approval ratings, the Bloc successfully evaded disintegration in the early 1990s and continued to exist to this date, although with a lack of revolutionary idealism and a bigger focus on pragmatism. A series of détentes in the late 1980s allowed the Union to focus more on taking care of its domestic affairs. However, the Cold War is far from finished, and tensions, despite being comparatively latent than ever before, still exists.