Verbiza

People's Communal Republic of Verbiza Narodna komunalna republika verbiza (Verbizan)
Flag Emblem
Motto: Otselyavaneto e nedostatŭchno Survival is insufficient
Anthem: Internatsionalŭt The Internationale
Capital and largest city	Bunevgrad
Official languages	Verbizan
Recognised national languages	Nizinian
Ethnic groups (2020)	73% Verbizan 21% Nizinian 1% other
Demonym(s)	Verbizan
Government	Single-party socialist state under a federal system
• President	Dimitar Tanev
• First Overseer	Kamena Bunev
Legislature	National Council
Established
• Verbizan Revolution	5 April 1926
Area
• Total	49,632 km2 (19,163 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.4
Population
• 2015 estimate	4.2 million
• 2010 census	4.105 million
• Density	84.6/km2 (219.1/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate
• Total	31.5 billion
• Per capita	7,500
Gini	26.8 low
HDI	0.700 high
Currency	Verbizan Rubla (VRA)
Date format	01 Jan 1900
Driving side	right

Verbiza, officially the People's Communal Republic of Verbiza (Verbizan: Narodna komunalna republika na verbiza) is a sovereign, landlocked nation.

The People's Communal Republic of Verbiza formed after the Verbizan Revolution (1922 - 1926), which was sparked by left-wing trade unions dissatisfied with the disparity between the working class and the ruling class. Petar Krasimirov Bunev, a prominient community organizer, led a collective of trade unions, left-wing political parties, and workers in a nationwide general strike in an effort to improve working conditions. The escalation of tensions between the protestors and the government eventually lead to a break out of violence, sparking the revolution. The Verbizan Revolution ended with the formal establishment and recognition of Verbiza as an independent state. Verbiza adopted a socialist, single-party, communal federation as a system of government.

The mountainous terrain, lack of sophisticated infrastructure, and inefficiencies of the command economy hampered economic progress, and even caused brief periods of famine. Since the 1990's, however, Verbiza has distributed economic and political power among the provinces and communes, which has led to a growing, albeit slowly, economy. Kamena Todorova Bunev, First Overseer of Verbiza since 2006 and granddaughter of national founder Petar Bunev, has been implementing economic reforms to open the country to the modern world while retaining the prima facie aspects of the communal system her grandfather designed.

Today, Verbiza is slowly developing its national infrastructure, education system, and economy. Despite improvements, the country is regularly criticized by international monitors for human rights abuses, unfair election policies, and general lack of political and individual freedom.

Government and politics

Verbiza is a one-party Communist state. The ruling Communist Party of Verbiza wields total and exclusive political power.

Administrative divisions

Verbiza is divided first by province (provintsiya), second by commune (komuna), and third by "working unit" (rabotno zveno). The administrative divisions of Verbiza are organized as such to more efficiently delegate management of the command economy.

In Verbiza, there are no officially recognized "cities" or "towns". Instead, there are "communes", which are administratively and conceptually the same as cities or towns in other countries. Communes are comprised of working units, which are organizations of citizens assigned to a certain career path..

Province	Capital	Province flag
Gŭstagora	Gorskapolyanagrad
Zemyanaprakh	Bunevgrad
Nizini	Pritok

Executive

The head of state of Verbiza is the President of the People's Communal Republic of Verbiza (Prezident na narodnata komunalna republika), currently Dimitar Tanev. The president has very few powers. The president can sign legislation, veto legislation, and act as the national representative in foreign affair matters. The president is directly appointed by the Communist Party of Verbiza every 5 years at the Party Congress. The president is typically, but not always, the same person as the General Secretary of the Communist Party.

The First Overseer (Pŭrvi nadzornik) is the head of government. The First Overseer is typically, but not always, also the person who is Chairperson of the Communist Party. The First Overseer is considered to be the most powerful person in Verbiza. The current First Overseer (since 2006) is Kamena Bunev,

Judiciary

The Verbizan People's Court in Bunevgrad

Verbizan law is based on preserving the social good rather than protecting the rights of individuals.

The Verbizan People's Court (Verbizanski naroden sŭd) hears all criminal, civil, and constitutional cases. It is the nation's highest court. Most citizens, however, do not appear physically at the Verbizan People's Court complex in Bunevgrad. Instead, the court appoints marshals to wander the countryside, hear grievances, and levy justice.

While the law does place protections on individuals from petty and serious crimes, crimes against the state generally carry harsher penalties. For example, in the case of theft against a citizen, the penalty is typically 5 years of hard labor. In the case of theft against a government store house, the penalty is typically 10 - 15 years of hard labor, depending on the severity of the theft.

The legal standard of Nullum crimen sine lege (no crime without law), that an individual cannot face prosecution except when there is a determined law before the criminal act took place, does not exist in Verbiza. Instead, there is a legal principle of analogy where the state can demonstrate the harm of an act against the social good though the act itself may not be defined in the criminal code.

Legal authority is derived from the dictatorship of the proletariat, so all legal principle is based on the ideology of protecting the common good over the good of the individual.

The most common punishment for any crime is time in a labor camp. Sentences in a labor camp typically range from 6 months to twenty years. Labor camps are rated by level of severity, S1 - S4, with S1 being the least severe (for minor crimes) and S4 being the most severe (for major crimes). The locations of labor camps with severity ratings of S1 - S3 are published, but the locations of S4 labor camps are kept secret by the state. International human rights observers and governments have published satellite imaging that claims to depict S4 labor camps in the mountains of Gŭstagora, likely built into the mountains, but the Verbizan government has refused to comment on their locations, only that they exist "for the most violent and dangerous offenders."

The death sentence is outlawed in Verbiza except for acts of treason during times of war. International human rights monitors claim, however, that individuals routinely disappear in Verbiza, likely at the hands of government security forces.

Legislature

The National Council in Bunevgrad

The Communist Party of Verbiza is the ruling, and sole legal, party

The national legislature is called the National Council (Natsionalen sŭvet). It is comprised of 300 representatives.

Administrative units (from local to national) are working units, communes, provinces, and the nation as a whole. The democratically elected head of a working unit is called an Overseer (Nadziratel). All of the overseers of a commune's working units meet regularly in a Commune Council (Obshtinski sŭvet) to decide local matters.

Each Commune Council in a province can elect a proportional number of representatives to serve in the Province Council (Provintsialen sŭvet). Each Province Council can likewise elect a proportional number of representatives to serve in the National Council (Natsionalen sŭvet).

The National Council elects the First Overseer (Pŭrvi nadzornik), who forms the cabinet. The First Overseer is typically, but not always, also the person who is Chairperson of the Communist Party. The First Overseer is considered to be the most powerful person in Verbiza. The current First Overseer (since 2006) is Kamena Bunev,

Military

The Revolutionary Armed Forces (Revolyutsionni vŭorŭzheni sili, RVS) are the armed forces of Verbiza. They're comprised of the Ground Force (Nazemna sila), Air Force (Vŭzdushni sili), and Gendarmerie (Zhandarmeriya). Due to Verbiza being landlocked, there is no navy, but there is a small unit of vessels used for patrols of rivers and lakes.

There are about 40 thousand active duty service members and 20 thousand reservists in the RVS. Additionally, most civilians receive basic firearms experience through practical experience or through basic education courses during secondary education.

Verbizan military defense strategy focuses almost entirely on self-defense. Verbizan defense doctrine relies heavily on asymmetrical, guerrilla, and partisan tactics. Much of the existing national military infrastructure is designed to create difficulties for invading and occupying military forces. Since most of the country is mountainous, the military trains extensively in mountain warfare under the assumption that the mountains would act as the national redoubt.

Demographics

The population of Verbiza is 4,105,000 million people according to the 2010 census, although more recent estimates place that number closer to 4,200,000 million people. Nearly half of the population, 45.5%, reside in urban areas. The most populated urban centers are (descending): Bunevgrad, Gorskapolyanagrad, Pritok, Cherganski-Strashilov, and Avramovagrad. The rest of the country lives in markedly rural areas that are oftentimes difficult to access.

Verbizans are the main ethnic group in Verbiza, comprising 73% of the total population. Nizinians, most of which reside in the province of Nizini, are the second-largest ethnic group, comprising 17% of the population. Population density is 84.6 people per square kilometer.

Education

Primary and secondary education

Education policy in Verbiza is managed by the Ministry of Education. Education is broadly managed under two frameworks: the System for Public Education (Sistema za obshtestveno obrazovanie), which oversees all primary and secondary schools in the country, and the System for Rural Education (Sistema na selskoto obrazovanie), which trains, funds, and deploys educational professionals to rural regions of Verbiza where the presence of a permanent physical school would be disadvantageous or unrealistic.

Members of each service must receive identical education training, but members of the System for Rural Education must also pass wilderness survival and self-defense standards. Teachers with the System for Rural Education often include practical skills and lessons along with the standard curriculum that is often left out by the System for Public Education.

This, coupled with the fact that Verbizan ex-military service members often transition to teaching in the System for Rural Education due to the skill crossover, has resulted in divides in educational outcomes for students in Verbiza. Rural-educated students are more likely to pursue career opportunities in ideologically-lauded sectors like the mining, timber, energy, or the military. Urban-educated students are more likely to pursue higher education opportunities. Approximately 20% of Verbizan students seek opportunities in higher education.

Literacy rates are high; 99% of all Verbizans are at least functionally literate in Verbizan language, mathematics, and science.

Post-secondary education

There are two public universities in Verbiza:

• Petar Krasimirov Bunev University (Bunevgrad)
• Gorskapolyanagrad Technical Institute (Gorskapolyanagrad)

Gender equality

Gender equality is relatively high in Verbiza. Since the Verbizan Revolution, the Communist Party of Verbiza has ideologically placed the genders in equal footing in its literature, communications, and propaganda, as well as in its policy. Universal suffrage was included in the Verbizan Constitution. Men and women have equal rights, equal access to opportunity, and equal pay in all industries and sectors.

Language

The Verbizan language is the only official national language, and it is spoken by roughly 75% of the population as a first language and 95% of the country as either a first language or a second language.

Although not an official national language, the Nizinian language, spoken in the province of Nizini, is a recognized minority language. The designation as a recognized minority language comes with very few protections or benefits under the law. Although there is no legal obligation to provide services or protection to minority languages like Nizinian, the government usually provides resources for speakers of those languages.

While there is no activity to blatantly suggest the marginalization of minority languages, comparative funding to the Verbizan language versus the Nizinian language has caused a gradual decline in the number of Nizinian speakers since 1926; the number of Verbizans who reported to speak Nizinian has dropped from 30% in 1926 to 17% in 2010. Taking deaths into consideration, the drastic drop in speakers seems to suggest that the language is slowly losing popularity and demographic backing, whether due to a chilling effect or an undetermined cause.

Religion

Verbiza is officially an atheistic state, and the practice of religion is outlawed and heavily discouraged. Because of this, there are no verifiable figures as to the religiosity of the Verbizan public. Travelers to Verbiza have reported meeting individuals who practice traditional folk religion, but little is known about folk religions or customs in Verbiza.

Culture

Sport

Motorsport is one of the most popular sports in Verbiza. The highest level of motorsport in Verbiza is People's Formula, a open-wheel, single-seater racing series funded in-part by the Communist Party.