People's Republic of Pulezh

People's Republic of Pulezh Republik Poblel Pulezh
1964
Flag
Anthem: People's Song Aurivizht: Pobleloù Kanaouenn
The location of the People's Republic of Pulezh (in red) shown with the rest of Aurivizh (in gray).
Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	Pulezh
Common languages	Aurivizht
Demonym(s)	Pulezhian
Government	Socialist republic
• 12 September 1964 – 30 October 1964	Devan Kernivinen
• 31 October 1964 – 3 November 1964	Loudiern Ollivier
Legislature	People's Council of Pulezh
History
• Established	12 September 1964
• Disestablished	3 November 1964
Currency	People's Pod (Pȡ)
Preceded by Succeeded by Aurivizht State Aurivizht Republic Aurivizht State
Today part of	Aurivizh

The People's Republic of Pulezh (Aurivizht: Republik Poblel Pulezh) was a short-lived communist nation in Pulezh which existed between September 12th and November 3rd 1964. It existed as an attempt to separate the Regional State of Pulezh from Aurivizh, which had suffered from the nationalist Great Coup of 1964. The People's Republic was ruled by the General Secretary of the Aurivizhts People's Party Devan Kernivinen until his assassination in October, after it was ruled by Loudiern Ollivier. The People's Republic was dissolved on the 3rd of November 1964, after the Aurivizht State Militia invaded it and Ollivier signed a diktat of unconditional surrender. The People's Republic is remembered in Aurivizh as a catastrophe.

Background

The roots of the People's Republic of Pulezh lay in the chaos which had engulfed Aurivizh after Turien Rouault’s nationalist coup, which had overthrown the relatively unstable Aurivizht republic with the Aurivizht State, which still governs the nation to this day. On September 4th, after months of civil unrest, the Aurivizht National Unity Party staged a coup against the Aurivizht Republic, overthrowing the government and forcing Ruvon Kergoat, then Prime Minister, to abdicate all power to Turien Rouault, who was able to both abolish the constitution and the parliament during a single session. In the following week, regional law enforcement forces either pledged allegiance to the new government or were disbanded and replaced with ANUP Nationalist Militias.

On September 8th, the Rouault government announced a ban on all non-ANUP or ANUP-aligned political parties. Leader of the main Social-Communist party Devan Kernivinen, as well as many other high-ranking members of the Aurivizhts People’s Party, were at the time the new ban was announced in the city of Pulezh to organise a rally against the Rouault Government. Knowing that many of the high-ranking members would most likely be arrested, the party’s members went into hiding in Pulezh, usually staying with leftist sympathizers.

At the same time, the Commissioner of the Pulezh regional state, Yann Pennec, who himself was a member of ANUP, announced a general crackdown on all political opposition. Despite that, most of the Law Enforcement in Pulezh had not yet pledged allegiance to the new government, claiming that a debate with the commanders of various units would first be needed, delaying ANUP Militias from replacing them. In reality, many of the commanders of law enforcement units were staunch Anti-ANUP, and were seeking to revolt, or at least resist the ANUP government.

Establishment

On the night of September 9th to 10th, 1964, the first General Committee of the Pulezh Regional Council was held in a bar in the centre of Pulezh. A large part of the Aurivizhts People’s Party, including Devan Kernivinen and Loudiern Ollivier, who was Kernivinen’s second in command, were present. Furthermore, local law enforcement commanders, trade-union leaders and intellectuals were all also on the first Committee. During the underground meeting, it was decided to stage strikes on both rail and road services to prevent ANUP-aligned Militias from entering the Region. However, the largest decision agreed on during that night was the proclamation of the People’s Republic of Pulezh, a socialist republic. Devan Kernivinen was proclaimed as the Republic’s first General Secretary, and planning started on a coup against Yann Pennec’s regional government.

Rail and worker strikes started on the evening of the 10th, following the announcement that the roads into the Regional State had been blocked by Pulezhian law enforcement. A rough boundary was drawn, stretching from Charmort to Mount Gwierc’h on the Ebrarian border, as well as a small exclave near the town of C’halloud, whose mayor was a member of the APP. On September 11th, standoffs occurred between Pro-APP and Pro-ANUP militias on the boundary, but no fighting occurred. Meanwhile, Pennec declared martial law in the regional state, but, with most of the law enforcement being on the side of the APP, the attempt failed, as it could not be enforced. Furthermore, protests by the APP were instigated in the city of Pulezh, calling for the abdication of Pennec.

Hegareg Quiviger, APP-alligned mayor of Angauzon, announces the establishment of the People's Republic. He was later executed for treason, together with 15 other mayors in the region.

At exactly 01:05 on September 12th, the sentence “Na kriz e vo heol an argad, d'ar vourc'hizien ha d'an treitour.” (Aurivizht: How cruel the onslaught will be to the bourgeois and the traitors.) marked the beginning of the coup. Law enforcement, as well as APP militiamen, made their way to the Regional Council of Pulezh, as well as the residence of Yann Pennec. The guards at both buildings were disarmed and arrested, and by 01:48, the second codeword “Toc’had.” (Aurivizht: Harvest.’’) marked the success of part one of the operations. Yann Pennec was awakened and reportedly tortured for four hours before he agreed to abdicate all power to the APPs General Committee. By 7:50 in the morning, Devan Kernivinen and five other members of the General Committee declared Pulezh a “Free Socialist Republic”.

Only a few hours later, the Turien Rouault government in Alivezh declared that the Socialist Republic in Pulezh was in no way or form legitimate and would only recognise the Regional State of Pulezh as a subdivision of the State of Aurivizh. However, due to the relative instability of the country at the moment, the ANUP government was unable to squash the People’s Republic, and instead kept the Republic isolated, cutting off all telephone connections and closing all road and rail connections into wider Aurivizh.

Troubles

For the People’s Republic, problems started only a few days after its establishment. By September 16th, Ebrarian border guards closed the borders to both Aurivizh and the People’s Republic. Reportedly, there were some exchanges of fire between PR border guards and Ebrarian guards, but no guards were injured. Tensions between the PR and Ebrary heated up later on the 20th, when all phone lines towards Ebrary were cut off in response to the arrival of representatives of the DPR Vehaheria a few days prior. Aurivizh too reacted to the arrival of these representatives, cutting the parts in control of the PR off from the Aurivizht energy grid temporarily, leaving the People’s Republic with frequent blackouts until early November, when it was added back to the grid during the invasion.

With shortages of most resources becoming more of a concern for the APP, it had to quickly push its collectivisation plans. All factories in urban areas, as well as most farms in rural regions, were seized and collectivised by the Government. The owners of the factories and the farms, who had previously supported the APP’s coup against Pennec, started to turn against the socialist government, as many of the owners believed that they would’ve been able to keep ownership over their properties. On September 23rd, eleven days after the establishment of the People’s Republic, rationing cards were introduced to the population, to be used in government-owned stores. Usually, most of the materials promised on the ration cards were not available due to shortages. Farmers, who had kept some of their stocks outside of the Socialist Government’s ownership, started selling them illegally, causing a large black market to be formed around items like grain, milk, meat and eggs, as well as many other fresh items which were not in stores. On September 25th, the government introduced the People’s Pod (Aurivizht:Pod Pobleloùed.), a currency meant to replace the Republic’s Pod. Rather than minting an entirely new currency, old Pod bills were stamped with the Socialist Government’s seal, and the old coins were still accepted. On October 4th, the government started minting new coins, but once again due to the lack of material and knowledge, the minting stopped after 3 days.

By October 1st, shortages became rampant, and many previous supporters of the APP’s coup started to turn against the Socialist Government. As a way to try to appease the people, Devan Kernivinen announced that general elections would be held for the Pulezh’s People’s Council and that all parties which had previously participated in the Aurivizht Republic’s elections, with the exception of the ANUP, could participate. Planned strikes were cancelled, and the Aurivizhts People’s Party started to prepare for the elections. The APP had never held a majority in Pulezh, with the highest percentage of votes they ever received from the Regional State being 34.7%. However, with the APP still being the ruling Government with no opposition, the APP changed the election system in their favour, changing the system to first-past-the-poll, and using extreme gerrymandering to create the most optimistic result for the APP.

A staged market scene in Pulezh in October, this picture was used by the APP as to show that food was not in shortage in a propaganda campaign.

During the month of October, the Turien Rouault government, which had been able to restore stability and gain limited foreign recognition, started working on the reintegration of Pulezh into the State of Aurivizh. Pro-ANUP members of the Aurivizht Security Service were sent across the boundary and started gathering intelligence in the People’s Republic. On October 3rd, the cut-off exclave of C’halloud announced that it would be reintegrating with Aurivizh proper, as the critical lack of resources caused the town to be on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The Mayor of C’halloud had committed assisted suicide on October 3rd after signing a degree surrendering the exclave, knowing that he would be executed regardless for treason. The town was fully re-connected to all services by October 5th.

Pro-ANUP operatives started flowing into the People’s Republic in increasingly larger numbers. Most of the operatives were now seeking out people who were anti-APP, mainly former owners of factories and farms, and started convincing them to start working against the Socialist Government in return for extra subsidies once the Rouault government took over. Many of the people approached by the ANUP agreed to the terms. A smaller amount of operatives continued gathering intelligence on the People’s Republic and started working on a plan to assassinate Devan Kernivinen. After a feasibility study, it was decided to do so by bombing his car while he was driving it. During the latter half of October, members of the operation started tracking his behaviour to plan where the bomb would be planted. It was decided to plant a bomb on Friday, October 30th under the Porzh ar Martolod street, which Kernivinen often used to go to the Party Headquarters in Pulezh on middays. During the next few days, ANUP members smuggled in high-grade explosives and were able to plant them approximately half a meter under the street, where they would be detonated using a remote.

The Assassination of Devan Kerniven was carried out by pro-ANUP members of the Aurivizht security service, his car was blown up on a side street by a large amount of explosives.

On October 30th at 14:33, Devan Kernivinen was driving his car towards the Party Headquarters over the Porzh ar Martolod, when the street under him exploded, the shockwave carrying him and his car 17 meters in the sky, after which the car flipped and landed in the courtyard of a building near the street. Kernivinen had died during the explosion, as the entire front of the car was blown off by the size of the explosion. Kernivinen is often still nicknamed the first astronaut of Aurivizh, and his car as the first spaceship. All of the security service members who were involved with the assassination crossed the boundary back into Aurivizh by November 1st.

The APP called an emergency meeting and announced that the elections would be delayed for two weeks, being pushed back to November 12th, on the two-month anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic. Furthermore, it assigned Loudiern Ollivier as its new leader. However, chaos had swept the city, and local law enforcement had a hard time re-establishing order.

Using the post-assassination chaos, the Rouault government started positioning new troops on the boundary with the People’s Republic, and on the early morning of November 2, invaded the People's Republic.

Invasion

A blockade put up near the APP Party Headquarters in Pulezh on October 5th.

Aftermath

The criminal trial against Loudiern Ollivier saw him being sentenced to death for high treason. Other APP leaders were also sentenced to death or life in prison. These trials were the start of the Aurivizht Purges.

Foreign Relations

Ebrary

The government of the Kingdom of Ebrary strongly condemned the establishment of the People's Republic of Pulezh, amassing increased military presence on the border with the breakaway state. The Ebrarian ministry of foreign affairs described the People's Republic of Pulezh as, "illegitimate" and "the tool of foreign, communistic governments being used to gain a foothold in the region." The government of Ebrary, at the time being heavily monarchist and pro-capitalist, was unwilling to recognize a socialist state on its borders. The Ebrarian government also feared the existence of this new state would encourage separatism among the Gallasian minority in Ebrary to form their own break-away state.

Fulgistan

On October 12th of 1964, a motion to recognize the PRP was filed in the Fulgistani People's Great Khural by Secretary for Foreign Diplomacy Faisal Ling, but was never voted on before the PRP had ceased to exist in November of that same year. Ling would later speak of his regrets regarding the event, citing his own lack of urgency around the motion as one of the greatest mistakes of his term in office. In 1972, a memorial to PRP martyrs and revolutionaries was erected in Liberty Park, in Bogd Gioro's Wuzhi neighborhood.

Velaheria

The Hamon-Lavor Hotel in Pulezh, where the Velaherian representatives were hosted.

Around a week after the establishment of the People's Republic of Pulezh, the Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria sent representatives to discuss establishing ties between the PR Pulezh and DPR Velaheria. Among the representatives sent were Heinlem von Aurenburg and Duzhdek Beriah. The Representatives stayed in the Hamon-Lavor Hotel in the centre of Pulezh. Von Aurenburg reportedly met Devan Kernivinen on multiple occasions, and in his personal notes he reported about the success of the revolution.

Despite the young age of the People's Republic, it seems like there is a relative stability. Socialist principles still need to be integrated, but, for the most part, Pulezh seems on the right way to succeed the Aurivizht Republic.

After the assassination of Kerniven, the Velaherian Supreme People's Assembly started evacuating its representatives from Pulezh. However, the invasion only a few days later caused the evacuations to be delayed, and eventually scrapped. Both von Aurenburg and Beriah were arrested, and charged with assisting in revolt, but were eventually extradited back to Velaheria. It took another twenty years until bilateral relations were again established between Velaheria and Aurivizh.

Rhodellia

The government of the Kingdom of Rhodellia, despite its parliament's ruling coalition at the time being primarily composed of socialist and communist parties, never officially recognised the People's Republic of Pulezh. This was because the Rhodellian government officially maintains that Rhodellia is a normal liberal democracy in an effort to avoid alienating itself from the world's capitalist countries; part of that effort was to keep its support for Marxist-style world revolution on a covert level.

However, individual Rhodellian political parties did send letters congratulating Devan Kernivinen and the Aurivizhts People's Party for managing to establish a communist republic in the first place, and wished them good luck in keeping the revolution alive in the inevitable years of political turmoil and counterrevolutionary struggle to come. Among these parties were the Rhodellian Socialist Party (the largest political party in the Reichstag by membership and number of representatives) and the Rhodellian Communist Party (another large left-wing party in the ruling coalition). These were token gestures of support, but were the most they could do at the time given the Rhodellian government's preoccupation with internal issues and the Wurld's political climate at the time.

Kerniven's assassination and the dissolution of the PRP in quick succession reportedly came as a shock to the Rhodellian political establishment. At time of Kerniven's assassination, Rhodellia's External Security Service (or ESS) was still in the process of securing covert funding and drafting plans to support the revolution through means that, to the present day, continue to be classified and undisclosed. Kerniven's death and Pulezh's increasingly untenable situation finally convinced the Rhodellian government that the people's republic was a lost cause, and so the ESS had to abandon whatever plans it had to start operating in Aurivizht. The Rhodellian government never officially acknowledged the PRP at any point in its short-lived existence, from its founding to its fall.