Puupi Kakatsak

Siulersortaat Puupi Kakatsak
푸:피 카카ᄃ닥
Kakatsak in military uniform
Premier of Nunalik
In office 3 January 1960 – 5 October 1986
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	Rutu Qutsuluk
Guide of the People's Revolution
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	Pyopi Kakatsak (1905-09-30)September 30, 1905 Myo'hway, Tuthina
Died	October 5, 1986(1986-10-05) (aged 71) Illofarqik, Nunalik
Resting place	People's Victory Square, Illofarqik
Nationality	Nunalikan
Political party	Taanga Siumut
Spouse	Putyuk Tanarak
Children	Anik Kakatsak
Military service
Allegiance	Nunalik
Years of service	1960-1986
Rank	Marshal of the Nunalikan Red Army

Puupi Kakatsak (Aalaniaq: 푸:피 카카ᄃ닥), born Pyopi Kakatsak (September 30, 1905 - October 5, 1986) was a Aalaaniaq communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the leader of the Nunalik independence movement, the first Premier of an independent Nunalik and as the "Guide of the Nunalikan Revolution" from 1973 to 1983. Under his administration, Nunalik was transformed from a colony of Tuthina into a one party socialist state governed by the Taanga Siumut. Ideologically a Welzist, he developed political theories known as Kakatsakism.

Puupi Kakatsak was born into a relatively well-off family in Myo'hway, the capital of the Tuthinan Hyperborean Territories. He was introduced to left-wing politics at a young age whilst learning the history of pre-colonial Nunalik, but matured his political beliefs whilst completing a degree at the University of Huimont. Puupi began writing political treatises on what he saw as grave violations of the Aalaaniaq people's right to self-determination whilst in Ainin under the pseudonym "Nertornartok", (Aalaaniaq for glorious). Ironically, very few of these texts made their way back to the Hyperborean territories, but the ones that did attracted the ire of the imperial censorate and his books were banned. Puupi finished his degree in June 1927 and made his way back to the Hyperborean Territories, making sure to book the ship home under a fake name to avoid detection. He then began canvassing support for an independence movement. He planned strikes and other activities, cumulating in the independence of Nunalik in 1960 through an agreement with the colonial government who did not see the colony as worth the resources required to pacify it.

Under Puupi, Nunalik was quickly centralised into a single-party dictatorship. Puupi enacted reforms to almost every aspect of Nunalikan society, implementing central planning to the economy, state funding for education and a complete change in the educational system, and setting up unions to manage the daily running of the nation. Due to rapid industrialisation, the Nunalikan economy achieved quick growth but repressive political control and food shortages resulted in a number of deaths. Puupi invested the small amounts of capital possessed into building factories and canneries in order to maximise the output of Nunalik's one natural advantage, its potent fishing waters. Nunalikan fish exports, in particular whale, grew exponentially in this period. While, upon independence, Nunalik had looked to republican nations such as Ainin and Senria for support, it began to drift closer to leftist states such as Lecia, Kheratia and Namor for support and economic aid.

By 1973 Puupi was growing old and suffered from what many have considered to be Dementia. His behaviour became increasingly erratic and this was reflected in his policymaking. He declared himself the "Guide of the Nunalikan Revolution" and, in a manner believed to be an imitation of the Green Fever seen in Namor began to make reforms to make Nunalik closer to the communalism of traditional Aalaaniaq society. He instigated mass purges of the opposition voices and cracked down on the small opposition movement which had been incited by weak economic performance. The education system, in particular, was heavily overhauled in this time and children as young as 5 were known to report parents for crimes as making jokes about economic shortages. The cult of personality, which had already been present in Nunalikan society, was intensified tenfold. Puupi's face was plastered onto billboards everywhere, alongside slogans taken from his Red Dawn. In 1983, convinced that the need for greater revolutionary fervour was over, he resigned as Guide of the Revolution. His last years in power were marked by the beginings of some economic reform, as small changes were made on the advice of his beloved nephew Adlartok, who eventually would succeed him as Premier.

He died on the fifth of October 1986, succumbing to dementia and heart problems that had plagued him over his life. After his death, he was buried in a grand mausoleum in the Square of the People in central Illofarqik. His funeral was a public event, with speeches from Taanga Siumut members and music. It was declared that a year of mourning would be put into effect, throughout which excessive public happiness would be penalised and the Nunalikan flag would be flown at half mast.

Puupi's cult of personality still dominates Nunalikan politics to this day. He still holds the ceremonial role of Eternal Hero of the Taanga Siumut, which was confered to him at the first Taanga Siumut plenum after his death. Posters featuring his face and slogans still are everpresent in Nunalikan life, while his statues are found in every town. Recognition of his crimes and repressive behaviour is illegal in Nunalik, as are any actions deemed to be offensive to him.

Early Life

Puupi was born in Illofarqik, then known as Myo'hway, in what was at the time known as the Tuthinan Hyperborean Territories. His father Aglikataa was an ethnic Aalaaniaq and worked in a nearby steel forge, while his mother Seitsen was a Tuthinan school teacher. This mixed-race background allowed Puupi access to schooling in the exclusive Myo'hway Boys Academy, a school established by the colonial government to ensure that Tuthinan citizens in the colonies did not become undereducated. Here, he studied the usual mathematics and science, but his main interest was history. He loved to read about the great events that shaped nations, in particular, the formation of nations. He graduated the school with a high grade, but his exposure to Tuthinan culture while at school had frightened his father that he would not grow up to be an Aalaaniaq. His father, without telling his mother, took him on a trip to meet his side of the family in order to immerse him in Aalaaniaq culture. Puupi became fascinated by the tales that the elders told him of his heritage, in particular about the great hunts that his people had undertaken before colonial times. The stories of how the Tuthinans had damaged Aalaaniaq culture horrified Puupi, who before this time had only seen the positive side of Tuthinan rule. In his ideological-treatise-cum-memoirs "The Red Dawn", Puupi states that this was the start of his transition into being a revolutionary. The discussions with the tribal elders also told him of the traditional communal way of life that the Aalaaniaq lived in, which Puupi describes in the Red Dawn as "the opening of an eye that had been sewn shut by foreign silks, which now saw what truth could be achieved and how a people ought to live". When Puupi returned from this trip he did not outwardly show any impression of being a threat.

Further Education and Revolutionary activities

Puupi's high scores at school allowed him much choice in where he wished to study, and after much deliberation and with notices of support from his mother and principal was allowed to leave the colony to study in Ainin. He studied history and economics, two areas that he had been interested in from a youg age

Political Thought

Welzism and the Two-Worlds Theory

The political beliefs of Puupi Kakatsak are known as "Kakatsakism", which is commonly held to be a school of Welzism that combines elements of traditional Welzist thought with elements of syndicalism and even corporatism. Puupi, for his part, referred to himself as a Welzist and spoke highly positively of Welzism, claiming that he had "adapted the scientific dictates of Welzism to the characteristics of the Aalaaniaq and Ostrovan peoples in a way that was able to deliver the truest and most just future for the Nunalikan worker". These views form the official ideology of the Taanga Siumut.

According to his perspective, the global proletariat was in a state of enslavement and could only be freed through revolution. Puupi, unlike Welz and other more traditional socialist ideologues, saw the world as being divided not just into nations and classes but also into worlds, in which the material conditions were vastly different. He split the population into two spheres; the developed "oppressor" world which enveloped the developed economies of Ainin and Nordania, wherein even the lowest of workers knew some degree of comfort and would therefore be resistant to a violent revolutionary change, and the developing "oppressed" world. This was composed of the developing economies of Nautasia and Borea, where the even the bourgeois elements of society were dominated by foreigners. He saw that the working classes in these areas were, for the most part, living in abject poverty and therefore were more receptive to revolutionary changes. He believed that it was futile for a socialist revolution to be attempted in the developed world as while there would be some support it would not be able to command a popular majority, advocating instead for socialist revolution in the developing world. He held that, having achieved a socialist society within the developing world, the developing world would overtake the developed world and then be able to spread socialism to areas which had previously been unreceptive to socialist ideals. He was to this extent an internationalist, advocating for strong links between leftist states and militant groups in order to present a "united front of the developing world" lest the developing world be divided and conquered.

The State and its nature

He was also a strong advocate of a dictatorship of the proletariat, ruled over by a vanguard party as a method of safeguarding the revolution from both external and internal threats. In his "Red Dawn", a set of memoirs which laid out his ideological visions, he states that:

The workers and peasants of the world cannot naively step into this new era. Just as the baby does not leave the tent without the helping hand of his mother and the warm protective furs, the new revolutionary society requires the helping hand of a guide and the protection of a state. The guide must be, of course, the vanguard party, the group versed in revolutionary theory who are wholly dedicated to the final goal. Leaving the guidance of this revolution to the masses, who are still new to the ideals and lack the neccesary knowledge of the revolution, is to give the child mentioned before control of the kayak. It will not know how to steer itself, and will founder. Without the protection of a state, where is the revolution? It is a hunter without its arms, savaged at by the capitalist wolves. It must be able to defend itself from both the external threats and the internal ones, the traitors and foreign agents in its midst.

Despite his radical socialist views, Puupi was also a traditionalist who advocated for a return to traditional values, religion and ways of life. This was, primarily, due to his exposure to the communal nature of traditional Aalaaniaq society, but also came during his exposure to other religions while studying in Ainin. He believed that all religions, in their search for a greater purpose, held a core value of communalism and social unity which he believed was essential to a strong revolution. He was important in much of the reforms to Upperisaat post-independence and was a devout follower of the faith himself. This extended itself to an opinion that every society was different, and that one broad ideology could not be applicable to every nation. He believed that nations had to find a national path to socialism, one that encompassed their historical values and societal structures. This did not mean he endorsed traditional class stratification, which he condemned virulently. He also advocated for nationalism in a socialist context and did not call for the eventual dissolution of the nation state as an entity, despite his internationalist tendencies.

His economic views strayed furthest from traditional Welzist thought. During the Nunalikan revolutionary period before independence, it was the trade unions which gave Puupi his strongest supporters. Puupi believed that these unions, in which the workplace was run in a democratic manner by those who best knew the equipment they worked with and gave every worker the same value, were the ideal method of running factories and other economic assets on the small scale. However, on the larger scale, he believed that the economy was better run by the joint control of technocrats who could give accurate information and knew their fields and members of the vanguard party who could control the ideological direction of the state. He spoke in favour of a planned economy, seeing it as the most efficient way to solve problems and create longterm goals for national development, under these two groups. He further strayed into corporatism, supporting the establishment of large corporations under the control of the central economic planning committee. These corporations would be efficient in controlling large sectors of the economy, could have specialised technocrats to provide more specialised information, and would be responsible for setting their own internal plans for productivity. These corporations would work together with local trade unions in order to establish the perfect localised solutions to problems, all the while under the control of the vanguard party.

Quotes

• "The imperialist is like the lazy hunter, grown fat off the work of others. He must be thrown from the kayak before he tips it and casts us all to our deaths."
  • Speech, 1957.

• "Read theory, fake revolutionary scum."
  • Response to critiscism by Aglapoq, 1961.

• "For the liberation fo our homeland, all things become secondary objectives."
  • Thesis of the coming day, 1941.

• "The vanguard party is the seabird that guides the lost kayak back to land. Its role is indivisible from the people. Neither can exist without each other. Just as an igloo is not built without the hands of men, the wisdom of women and the guidance of the elders, the Worker's Republic cannot grow without the participation of the revolutionary masses and the guidance of the vanguard party."
  • Speech to the second plenum of the Taanga Siumut, 1964.

• "Within our nation, there are those who seek to gain at the expense of others. There are those who serve imperial powers, who wish not for the oppressed world to rise. These enemies are easy to find, and while a threat can be easily stopped. But then there are those who maintain all the appearances of a good revolutionary. They hide in the vanguard party itself, and should the time come they will destroy our nation. This happened in Katranjiev, and lest we maintain our revolutionary vigilance it could happen here as well. The enemy are a shapeshifting spirit, and we can only defeat them with iron wills and didication the the revolutionary cause."
  • Address to the eighth Plenum of the Taanga Siumut, 1977.