Novaya Rodina Native History
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We are pleased to provide a partial account of Meadow's history, thanks to a recent submission by an anonymous party. No sources were given, therefore the accuracy or veracity of the following account cannot be guaranteed..--Cortex Content Maintenance Staff.
1. Terraforming and Colonization
During the Exodus from Earth That Was, the Russians represented the third largest geopolitical entity, after the Sino and Anglo governments and though the Russians were smaller than either of the other two they were still significant, owning their own Ark ships and organizations. Friction between the Russians and the Sino-Anglo factions existed throughout the Exodus and finally boiled over upon migration’s end. The Chinese and the Anglos immediately took the two inhabitable planets of Sihnon and Londinium for their own. Shut out from their perceived rightful place at the table, the Russians struck out for the Rim, settling on the next-most habitable planet there and naming it Novaya Rodina.
At Landing, the combined Sino and Anglo governments decreed there would be no unauthorized colonization. The government would be the sole colonizing entity. The justification for this heavy-handed decree was to thwart unregulated growth and industry as led to the destruction of Earth That Was. Limited technical resources also added to the necessity of such draconian measures. Much was left behind on Earth That Was and what materials and resources were transported must be ruthlessly husbanded. Terraforming was rigidly controlled, and the method by which it was carried out was strictly dictated and overseen. Atmosphere plants and artificial gravity generators were uniformly utilized across the terraformed worlds, creating a regulated environment that could be produced consistently and on schedule.
The Russians had their own terraforming methods that did not require atmo plants or artificial gravity, methods that were organic and self-sustaining but very slow. As the Russians say with perverse pride: “Good? No. Durable? Yes.” and “If all humans disappeared off the face of our world, ten thousand years from now things would still be just as miserable as they are now.”
The gravity of Novaya Rodina is near Earth-normal, but the methane/CO2 levels in the atmosphere rendered it unbreathable. Most importantly, solar radiation is not quite as intense as Earth-normal, making the climate markedly colder. As a consequence, the Russians first lived in hard shells and underground cities, pressurized and protected from the elements. As the years progressed, the Russians removed successive layers of protection as the atmo improved, until living in the open became possible. The environment is still cold and windy, but it is habitable. The terraforming process, though slow, is naturally self-sustaining and no reliance upon artificial means is necessary.
In the Core, terraforming and colonization proceeded at a rapid and rigidly controlled pace. The Sino-Anglo government declared the entire Verse as their territory and by so doing claimed the sole right to open up sections of it to development and colonization as it saw fit, using its own timetable. Only those worlds and sections of space on the approved list could be legally colonized and industrialized. All other areas of space were declared off-limits. The interdiction was strictly enforced by the Sino-Anglo military—both Navy and Army. The Russians left the Core early enough that they were neglected and ignored by the Sino-Anglo government but though the Russians never received aid in their effort to terraform Novaya Rodina, the Sino-Anglo government placed the Georgia system under its interdiction and when the time was right, it opened sections of Georgia to industry and colonization.
From 2220 until approximately 2420, the Russians had been terraforming and living independently of the Core. When Novaya Rodina was sufficiently terraformed to allow focus of resources elsewhere, the Russians intended to develop the rest of the Georgia system, making it theirs. It was an ambitious plan befitting a culture and government that had held a full third of Earth-That-Was under its flag prior to the Exodus. It was, however, beyond their means. By the dawn of the 25th century, the Russians found that they had been outstripped in resource development, industry, and colonization by the Sino-Anglo government. By the time the Sino-Anglo government established a “shake-and-bake” mining colony on Shadow, following their controlled process of interdiction and colonization, the Russians were in no position to compete.
It was a rude awakening and it threw the Russians into a panic. For nearly two hundred years, the Russians had lived with the surety Georgia was their system exclusively. A foreign invasion force had established a foothold in sovereign Russian space on Shadow, only three worlds away from Novaya Rodina. Given the straitened circumstances of the Russians at the time, Novaya Rodina had little with which to repel the invaders. The Russians had no real navy, no real army capable of turning back the Sino-Anglos. The Russians had no real industrial base with which to build what they needed. And to make matters worse, illegal enterprises started cropping up, attracted by the fact the Georgia system was rich in heavy metals and elements and perfect for all sorts of industries needed back in the Core.
The Sino-Anglo government, looking out for its interests, established military patrols to discourage or arrest these illegal elements as encountered and the Russians had to swallow the bitter reality that they were indebted to the Sino-Anglo Navy for the most basic of their Naval security needs. The best the Russians could manage on their own after the initial outpost on Shadow was a rushed establishment of two similar colonies on Novaya Rodina’s two moons, Mir and Solyut.
2. Social and Political History
After the Russians realized that there was no territory open to them in the Core, most didn’t even Land but flew their Arks for the Georgia system. However, not all the Russians left the Core. Some bowed to practicality and stayed behind rather than risk misfortune on the Rim. The Sino-Anglo government, realizing that in a mere generation or two the Russians would become assimilated into the Sino-Anglo culture at the cost of their own, devised a solution: Mandated Diversity Enclaves.
The Enclaves are settlements with strict rules of language, lifestyle, occupation and exposure to outside influences. The Russians were amongst the first to inhabit these Enclaves, but they were not the only culture thus preserved. Other cultures soon found themselves Enclaved and for the most part, the inhabitants were either too grateful or too cowed to protest. Or, unlike the Russians, without the space-going resources to pick up and leave.
Life in the Core as an Enclave Russian (or tchotchke as the Russians of Novaya Rodina call them) is a study of mandated controls and regulations. Russian is the mother tongue, not English or Mandarin. Learning English and Mandarin is actively discouraged, given both languages’ gateway capacity to forbidden information and cultures. The language barrier thus established restricted the Enclave Russian to life inside the Enclave, instead of venturing into the greater Sino-Anglo society. All media input is regulated, censored, and sanitized to reflect only Russian news and topics and arts. Once Novaya Rodina established its own media networks, its news and cultural broadcasts were captured and piped in to the Russian Enclaves, producing inhabitants well-versed in current events and culture on a planet half the Verse away, yet shockingly ignorant of the same elements on the very planet they actually lived. Education is also regulated and designed to emphasize Russian language, history, culture, arts and sciences. Occupations are likewise rigidly tailored. Travel, work and marriage outside the Enclave are discouraged, and regulations make it difficult to travel, marry or work outside the Enclave. In short, an Enclave inhabitant would find it very hard to leave and be self-supporting.
Andrei Mikhailovich Strelnikov, an Enclave Russian from the Core, grew up with an idealized view of Novaya Rodina’s greatness and potential and as soon as was possible, signed up for the Sino-Anglo Navy to see the Motherland and add his efforts to protect and guide her toward her future. As an officer in charge of a patrol ship assigned to the Georgia system, he saw firsthand the circumstances the Russians endured and became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned. After nearly 300 years, why had the Motherland not progressed further? Why had the Russians nothing to show for their hard work but two insignificant colonies on her two moons, while elsewhere other Core-backed colonies thrived? Strelnikov became known for his vigilance of his patrols against illegal miners and entrepreneurs and it was his final encounter with an illegal mining vessel that led to his downfall. He exercised extreme sanction at initial contact and shot the vessel down, killing all hands. He was court-martialled for use of excessive force and dishonorably discharged from service at the age of 25.
Undeterred, Strelnikov made his way to Novaya Rodina and applied for citizenship. Already a hero to the Russians for his actions against the illegal miners, he formed his own political party, Защита Родины группа (Motherland Protection Party, lit. tr.: Homeland Security Group), and ran for public office, winning on a platform that emphasized Russian independence and greatness and the promise to restore both to greater heights. All of Georgia belonged to the Russians and it was only due to their lack of industrial base and developed resources that they were losing their heritage a world at a time.
Strelnikov worked his way up the political system, gaining much sympathy and support from the Russian populace. Strelnikov’s party emphasized ruthless and rapid development of the industry and resources needed to become a space-faring force capable of interdicting Georgian space independent of the Sino-Anglo government, and likewise colonizing the remaining worlds in the system to maintain a cultural and legislative majority against outsiders.
In a manner similar to Stalin’s on Pre-Exodus Earth, Strelnikov engineered the rapid industrialization and development of Novaya Rodina, bringing the planet into the current modern age within a shockingly short span of time. And as Old Russia in the Pre-Exodus days experienced, so the Russians of Novaya Rodina found their civil and spiritual liberties curtailed or outright abolished. Personal property and assets were subverted to the Great Jump Forward, religion became a mouthpiece of the state, people were nothing more than cogs in the vast military-industrial complex geared to protect the Motherland and drive Russian expansion into the Georgian system. Many environmental concerns were hand-waved in favor of expediency and growth continued as quickly as the government could arrange it. Toward that goal, the economy became a command economy, and private businesses and property were collectivized.
Such was the public outcry against the Sino-Anglo presence in Georgian space, together with the fear of invasion after the initial enterprise on Shadow, that Strelnikov was able to push forth his party’s agenda in relatively short order despite such consequences to personal rights and liberties. Furthermore, headlong development without regard of the environmental and economic consequences eventually backfired and the military-industrial machine broke down.
3. Dissolution
A string of industrial/ecological disasters struck, destabilizing the Russian society and government. The situation was initially downplayed as the government tried to reverse the damage and make repairs. It snowballed out of the government’s ability to handle and in the end, Novaya Rodina—on the brink of ecological and economic collapse and extinction—had no choice but to appeal to the Sino-Anglo government for extreme aid.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. The Russians were on the brink of achieving their goals when everything fell disastrously to pieces. They had very little left after the Sino-Anglo government stepped in and stabilized the area. Reconstruction and recovery would take decades. And it would take place under the Sino-Anglo terms, not the Russians’.
Part of the terms of the agreement required acquiescence to punishing concessions in return for the Sino-Anglo government’s support. Novaya Rodina was forced to join the Sino-Anglo Alliance as a member planet and its native government abolished to be replaced by a new government based on the Sino-Anglo model of planetary-based Parliament with representation in the Core. English and Mandarin became compulsory in schools and English and Mandarin became the official dual languages of government. Sino-Anglo jurisprudence took precedence over the native Russian. The Sino-Anglo state religion of Buddhism was established over the native Russian Orthodox faith, though the Alliance official religious tolerance policies ensured the Russian Orthodox faith was not eradicated. Even the name of the planet was officially changed to Meadow, to reflect the nomenclature as found on the Sino-Anglo Alliance maps.
In return, the Sino-Anglo Alliance moved in with their engineers and scientists to mend the damage done to the planet. Since the initial disaster was caused by one of the Russian-tailored bioengineered bacterio-phages used in their terraforming, utilizing Alliance terraforming methods would not work toward Novaya Rodina’s recovery. The Allinace was able to provide the ability to move a certain percentage of the population through decontamination procedures and relocation to other areas, including removal off-world to Mandated Diversity Enclaves in the Core. They were also able to provide certain levels of technological assistance in repairing the damage done.
The fate of Strelnikov is uncertain. After the disasters, Strelnikov was removed from power. He was not imprisoned or executed but faded from public life.
4. Recent History
In the decades since the Sino-Anglo Alliance took control of Meadow, the Russians have been slowly making progress toward self-sufficiency. As the Unification War commenced, Russian sentiment turned in favor of the Independent cause. The Russians had been utterly humiliated by the terms of their agreement with the Alliance and popular support for the Independents grew. The Georgia system had resources and manufacturing capacity valuable to the Independents in their war against the Alliance and joining their cause would be a terrific boost toward the Independents’ victory. Any movement toward this outcome was decisively squashed, however, with the Alliance’s destruction of Shadow. The Russians realized they hadn’t the means to resist any similar Alliance reprisals should they join the Independents and officially declared themselves a neutral party in the conflict. They sat out the rest of the War, galling though it was, and faced further disappointment when the Alliance emerged victorious.
A decade after the War, Meadow’s recovery, being incomplete, is still in progress.
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