National Invigoration Organization

Diagonal version of the Flag of Razaria used by the NIO.

The National Invigoration Organization (Razarian: Narodne pozamahanje udruženje, abbreviated NIO or NPU) was a paramilitary organization in Razaria, established in 1960 during the Rectification and Lustration Campaigns, and dissolved in 1979 following the Winter Solstice Crisis. Its membership primarily comprised radicalized youth and students adhering to right-wing nationalist ideology of the Razarian state after the Razarian Civil War. At its peak in 1976, it had around 900,000 members, outnumbering the contemporary Razarian military and all other armed organizations and institutions combined.

Amidst the Lustrations, initiated in 1959 after the end of the Gozar War, power vacuums were created by increasingly large purges of officials at local and national levels. Dušan Sretenić, a senior official of the Fatherland Party, called for 'nationwide mobilization of youth' in late 1959 to respond enthusiastically and coordinate with the Lustrations, which would transform it into a fever. Radicals from the Fatherland Party's youth wing organized the NIO on 15 February 1960. Shortly after, the NIO began engaging in populist pro-Jastrebovian violence and persecuted officials and intellectuals. As local authority broke down further, the NIO seized control of many areas becoming de facto governors through their local committees. Svetoslav Jastrebović endorsed the NIO, speaking in support of its efforts on numerous occasions, and permitted its seizure of military equipment as well as broader expansion of influence.

NIO cadres on patrol in 1972.

Upon the Jastrebovian restoration, the NIO clinged on to their positions and refused to fully resign from power in favour of the military and the clergy, which had just been recently empowered. Jastrebović, not wanting to be distrusted, allowed the NIO to retain its power. Even as the Restoration consolidated, the NIO continued initiating waves after waves of political violence and even began to clash with with the new theo-stratocracy's authority. The leadership by this point formed a secure clique and major player in Razarian politics, although outside observers continued to perceive it as an obedient state instrument of political persecution.

After Jastrebović died in 1975 and Radodan Karadsević became Vrhovnik the NIO became even more rampant in its activites, actively challenging the authority of Restoration institutions. The ownership and operation of social services and businesses, control of and support among many parts of the country (particularly the southeast), and increasing supposed authority of the NIO convinced Karadsević the organization was a threat to his rule and the Restoration's order. He began reforms in 1977 to steadily reduce the power of NIO after gaining support by military and clerical hardliners. NIO commercial operations were confiscated (often 'militarized', directly transferring ownership to military), and local committees were deposed on guise of corruption investigations. The NIO sensed its position being threatened. Its leaders, the most important of which was Djuro Jezdić, plotted to overthrow the Karadsević government through a coup d'etat.

In December 1979, mutineering military units and armed Invigorators numbering 21,000 attacked and occupied Čiragrad, initiating the Winter Solstice Crisis where Karadsević was killed. Vukašin Branislavić, leader of the military anti-NIO hardliners, captured Čiragrad and massacred the NIO rebels, and appointed himself Vrhovnik. Attempts by the NIO to instigate a nationwide uprising failed and were suppressed. The NIO was outlawed and dissolved just as Branislavić was inaugurated as supreme leader. Its leaders were arrested and executed, often without trial, subject to forced disappearance, or imprisoned and sent to penal labour; it is estimated 1,300 were executed, 9,400 disappeared, and 40,000 were imprisoned as part of the NIO's suppression.