Silent Revolutions

Silent Revolutions
Dazhdin secret service opening fire into demonstrators
Date	5 September 1989 – 7 January 1990 (4 months and 2 days)
Location	Communist nations of Argis
Caused by	Political repression Authoritarianism Economic stagnation
Goals	Resignation of the Communist government Democracy and free elections Civil rights Economic reform
Methods	Civil disobedience Civil resistance Demonstrations Strike actions (intended) Armed insurrection (later)
Resulted in	Violent suppression of protests Martial law declared Over 250,000 people arrested Over 15,000 people executed Political radicalisation of protesters Second revolution in Dazhdinia Sanarijan Civil War
Parties to the civil conflict
Communist nations Velaheria Dazhdinia Yalivia S.R. Miessinia S.R. Rosenia S.R. Posavia S.R. Sirania S.R. Nitirania S.R. Sanarija Socialist Federation of Transbaltia S.R. Udizia S.R. Ostland S.R. Couritania S.R. West Pikolan S.R. Latovia S.R. Estemeria Opposition Federalists Democratic movement Colorful Union Transbaltian Monarchist and Democratic Alliance
Lead figures
Communist leaders: Aléxandar von Starinburg Jurij Libenskyjъ Eisjel Estralić Andro Kainev Emanuel Kailo Dissident leaders: Ivo Sıbilin Joachim von Bertricht

The Silent Revolutions (Dazhdin: Tihyje Revolucje; Dolch: Stille Revolutionen; Sanarijan: Tićije Révoluzai) were a series of unsuccessful peaceful revolutions, that swept through the at the time socialist nations in southern Argis of Dazhdinia, Sanarija , Transbaltia and Velaheria. The revolutions themselves began with escalating protests, which later gained popular traction, gaining over a million protesters on the largest gatherings.

The turning point of the revolutions is considered to be the evening of 24th November 1989, one day before the planned international general strike, when the army figures were given orders to open fire into the demonstrators against the demonstrators and martial law was declared, with tens of thousands of suspects being arrested in the night from 24th to 25th November and being jailed without trial in makeshift detention centers. Eventually, the martial laws were lifted between mid 1990 and early 1992.

History

Early protests

Protests across the socialist bloc started brewing in the early 1988 with a series of protest in Velaheria, with them spreading into multiple peaceful demonstrations in Dazhdinia in January 1989 as a protest action against the 50th anniversary of the Communist takeover of Dazhdinia (15th January 1949 was the day Communist coup d'etat took place). Multiple more protests occured in the spring and in summer, gaining only minor attention from the autorities, as they had hundreds of participants and could be easily dispersed.

Escalating movement

On 15th of September in the morning, a peaceful student demonstration in Gromųva, Dazhdinia, was met by force by the units of the Ministry of State security, which resulted into multiple heavy injuries and 4 people were killed in the action. With people fleeding the scene, multiple of them contacted an underground network that operated a dissident radio from Walneria. At 5:30 PM, first news of the brutal attack on unarmed demonstrators was broadcast by the dissident radio into Dazhdinia and was quickly spread by other dissident forces into other communist nations, which themselves experienced similar protest crackdowns.

On 17th of September, multiple worker-run factories, public theatres and student-run organizations declared a protest strike until the issues are investigated by independent authorities and resolved to their liking. Within the movement, dubbed the "Colorful Union of Dazhdinia", a long time dissident Ivo Sıbilin was chosen to be the speaker. Multiple more protests occured as the movement was gaining traction and more protesters demanded worker's protections.

Political goals

Ivo Sıbilin and the Colorful Union got into contact through a series of underground dissident networks with opposition movements in other socialist nations and started to organize internationally, coordinating protests and sharing their intentions and goals. With universities and high schools closed in most of the cities in many nations, students organized political free speech meetings and spread the news of the brutal police attacks on top protesters and demonstrators.

Originally, the student and worker movement demanded lower work quotas, which were hyped to comply with unrealistic demands from the five year plans, but later more ambitious demands were proposed, including free, fair and secred elections, amnesty to political prisoners and removal of the one-party system. In early November, with protests spreading and gaining popular support, the general consensus was clear and the populace in the streets demanded end of the Communist regime.

Plans for general strike

Multiple pro-democracy and pro-change movements agreed to organize a multinational general strike, scheduled for November 25th, 1989 (It being the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, being a reference to the 25th September action, in which 3 women were killed). To this protest, up to 85% of all factories and companies unofficial agreed within all nations that coordinated in the strike.

Plans on military action

A decision to crack down on all protests with a military force was probably made sometimes in late October, with multiple operations running in preparation of the action. Most notable of those actions are "Akcja Pačiňje" and "Aktion Herbert", which were Dazhdin and Velaherian secret service operations, which coordinated the secret service agents to gather identities of the most vocal supporters of the protests and those actively participating within the protest actions.

Other operations with a secret character are "Akcja Vųǯ", "Akcja Runa" and "Aktion Körper", which coordinated engineer forces and gathered resources necessary for the activation of the Operation Upset ("Akcja Ʒvrat" in Dazhdin, "Aktion Wende" in Dolch), which was a codename for the arrest and detainment of the people from the lists gathered from the intelligence gathering operations and their temporary internment while a quick transformation of chosen houses of culture, boarding schools and hostels into prisons and jails is in process.

Military crackdown

Jurij Libenskyjъ, general secretary of the UDKP, shortly after declaring a martial law

On November 24th, 1989, a planned action was launched with the decision of the leaders of the socialist bloc, and under the codename "Synergy" secret order vaults were open at around 18:30. At 20:00, first tank platoons and armoured units left their barracks and drove to their targetted destinations. On 20:20, TV stations and Radio services went silent in a coordinated action perpetrated by the secret services. At around midnight, the TV and Radio went back on air under the supervision of the army and started to broadcast the announcement, that a martial law had been declared, citizens are prohibited to leave their homes for the next three days and follow the orders of the People's Army.

First series of arrests were done in the afternoon, but with the declaration of the martial law, hundreds of patrols with lists of arrest targets were sent to their locations and followed alphabetic lists of people to be arrested. Up to 150,000 people were arrested in all countries, with almost ²/₃ of them facing serious sentences (prison sentence, forced labor, death sentence). In this chaos, multiple larger cities took more time to be quickly taken over and with people realizing what is happening, they started organizing a sporradic defence. It is estimated, that more than 2,500 people were killed during the night, mostly due to gunshot wounds while in confrontation with the armies or due to them being executed under quick martial law tribunal for resisting the advancing armies.

Changes in garniture

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Violent protests

Tanks of the central government in Gromųva, Dazhdinia, set on fire by protestors

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Arrests and detentions

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Detention centers

High school in Erfur, Velaheria, served as one of the many provisional detention centres

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Punishments

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Later incidents

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Political stabilisation

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Aftermath

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In popular culture

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See also

• Crimson Revolution
• Sanarijan Civil War
• Politics in Velaheria