Chyhyryn War

Chyhyryn War
Part of prelude to Great War
(clockwise from top left) Vinalian cavalry in 1925. Remains of the Velkarichka Library following Ardesian shelling. Vinalian soldiers around Casimirsk in 1926. Ardesian soldiers storming houses during the Battle of Catherinsk.
Date 19 July 1925 - 3 October 1926 (1 year, 2 months and 2 weeks) Location Vinalia Status Ardesian victory -Treaty of Velkarichka signed -Vinalian lands south of the Shryoniy river turned into the Shyroniy Administrative Council -Creation of the Vinalian Salvation Government north of the Shryoniy -Vinalian government-in-exile established in the AFR
Belligerents
Ardesia Supported by Entente Gaullica	File:FirstRepofVinFlag.png Vinalia Supported by Grand Alliance Soravia Aucurian Republic
Commanders and leaders
Dinis Montecara Alberte Goulart Martim Gouveia Dinis Luz	File:FirstRepofVinFlag.png Dymtro Antonov File:FirstRepofVinFlag.png Mykhaylo Baibuza
Strength
Ardesia 426,000-540,000 (Summer 1925)	File:FirstRepofVinFlag.png Vinalia 250,000 (1925)
Casualties and losses
Ardesia 105,000 dead (from battle or disease) 192,000 wounded 16,274 missing	File:FirstRepofVinFlag.png Vinalia 140,000-190,000 dead 273,000-353,000 casualties 140,000 dead. 273,000 casualties 1936 Official Report 130,826 dead. 293,000 casualties Melynk 193,390 dead. 353,000 casualties Ivanov
98,019 killed overall ≥900,000 internally displaced & ~1,740,000 refugees

The Chyhyryn War, known in Vinalia as the War of Humiliation (Soravian: Війна приниження; Viyna Prynyzhennya) took place between Ardesia and Vinalia from 19 July 1925 to 3 October 1926. It is seen as an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Entente powers and the ineffectiveness of the international order before the outbreak of the Great War.

Ardesian Irredentism regarding the Vinalian territories south of the Chyhyryn, was seen as a threat to the Vinalian republic. Growing tensions between both states culminated in a July concentration of troops by both sides. On the 19th of July 1925, over four hundred thousand soldiers of the Ardesian army under Alberte Goulart crossed the border and attacked Vinalian forces. Although the Vinalian was amassed in the south, it was not prepared for the Ardesian use of Armoured warfare, which quickly overran and overwhelmed Vinalian forces. Close to 30,000 Vinalian soldiers were captured as the Vinalian army retreated across the Chyhyryn river. Vinalia opted to fight the Ardesian forces in the river and the cities of Velkarichka and Catherinsk, at the time the largest and third largest cities in Vinalia, with the Vinalian government evacuating Velkarichka.

The Ardesian army was unable to mount a proper cross-river operation, and instead got bogged down in urban fighting in both Catherinsk and Velkarichka. Intense Ardesian Strategic bombing had destroyed much of both historic cities. Vinalian troops pulled out of Velkarichka on November 10th 1925. Ardesia launched the invasion of Kishark on November 15th 1925, occupying the entire island after two weeks. Ardesian forces would launch renewed attacks across the Chyhyryn utilizing their beachhead in Velkarichka on the 20th of December 1925. Completing an encirclement of Catherinsk on the 5th of January 1926. Vinalian troops would remain inside Catherinsk until the 30th of January 1926. Vinalian forces would fight back Ardesian attacks across the Shyroniy river until Ardesian troops crossed it on the 4th of April 1926. Ardesian troops had occupied most of the country up to the Bin river by August 1926. Tensions in the Asterias had prompted Ardesia to redeploy its forces. A failed September counter-offensive by Vinalian forces to overrun the Ardesian defenses, lead to the collapse of the Antonov government in September as Ardesian forces successfully crossed the Bin river on September 30th, with Hennadiy Merkushko being appointed as President to come to terms with the Ardesian state.

Vinalia agreed to an armistice that split the country in two on October 1926, creating the Shyroniy Administrative Council which was occupied by Ardesian forces until it was annexed in 1929. With the rest of the country remaining under the collaborationist, client-state of the Vinalian Salvation Government until 1935. A Vinalian-government-in-exile was established immediately following the armistice, which was based in Assunçã, AFR until 1935.

The war is seen as many as the impetus for the latter Asterian theatre of the Great War, as Ardesia cited the AFR housing the Vinalian government-in-exile as justification for hostilities. The war featured Armoured warfare, Amphibious warfare, Combined arms, Close air support, Trench warfare, and Urban Warfare prominently which became commonplace in the conflict a couple months later. The war also unleashed large-scale atrocities, including the purposeful targeting of civilians due to strategic bombing.

Background

Colonial origins

The territorial dispute stemmed from disagreements between Ardesia and Vinalia as to the nature of the border, with Ardesia claiming Colonial Povelian claims which established the border at the Chyhyryn, while Vinalia supported the status quo established at the Congress of Cislania which gave the Colony of Vinalia lands up to the Meka River. Paretia which had annexed Ardesia, never claimed the former borders as did any Ardesian entities until the Ardesian State in 1914.

The Chyhyryn in 1889

Povelian explorers and settlers had arrived to the Tzapotlan Empire in 1523, easily defeating it and claiming the land. Povelia made wide claims to territorial control as was common at the time. Vinalia, discovered in 1568 by Soravian explorer Afanasij Orlev, quickly made similar large claims. When Grigori Kosh arrived at the mouth of the Chyhyryn in 1570, he too made a claim to the entire region and founded the city of Catherinsk. At the time the area between the Meka and Chyhyryn rivers was still considered to be the frontier of Povelian settlement and was inhabited mostly by indigenous rump states. The conflict began to arise as to the overlapping claims by both states as settlers began competing for land and alliances in the Chyhyryn River, but the number of settlers of either Euclean power was limited. Povelia clarified the claim in 1573 by stating that Novo Povelia reached all the way to the Chyhyryn River, while Soravia never clarified their claims. The rapid expansion of the sugar industry in both countries brought renewed interest to the region. Povelian settlers founded the town of Granoso Sud on the southern bank of the river, opposite to Catherinsk. In 1620 Soravian interests in the region grew, and the Soravian crown paid for the settlement of 2,000 people on the river basin.

The dispute between the Povelian and Soravian colonial settlers would be finally settled at the Congress of Cislania. As Soravia saw victory over the Estermo-Povelian league at the battle of Kisharsk, they had been able to reinforce its respective claims over the Chyhyryn now with supplemented troops. Incursions to expand their claimed territory beyond the river had seen failure. Incidents such as the Battle of Atlapulco had shown any further attempt at expanding their reach into Novo Povelia would be futile due to the vast Ardesian heat and jungle northeast. With the rest of Novo Povelia now belonging to the losing side of the war, it had been annexed by Paretia as they had been promised the prized Ardese lands for their participation. A portion of the Vespasians in Ardesia had been expelled by the Paretians, including those in the so-called ‘Granoso’ region, being the lands below the Shyroniy River. Those remaining in the coastal colonial settlements of Porto Belo and Sotiri were allowed their land if they had followed an oath of allegiance to the Paretians.

Tensions now with the departed Povelians and Soravians were seemingly settled with the assistance of the Paretians. However, the collective of a growing independence movement within the colony had sought a reprisal of their former territory being taken away by their perceived colonial overseers. This rapidly grew over the course of a century as the policy of reprising desired lands post-independence was widespread, particularly among the settlers fitting to expand acres of land into the Granoso. These expansionist policies were not only limited to the administered crown colony of Vinalia but to a lesser extent the far-east regions of Eldmark concurrently held as a disputed territory between them and Ardesia due to the uncontrolled plethora of Ardesian settlers seeking newfound resources and reaffirming the national borders.

These culminated in the brief 1st Eldmarsk-Ardesian War, seeing results favoring neither side and only more cases of Ardesian irredentism. Ardesian irredentism had also grown to a component of challenging Euclean hegemony over the Asterias, particularly the Îles de Claude in the Arucian Strait. This was the cause of the War of the Arucian which had only been a failure for the Aucuro-Ardesian alliance of the Aquinas Treaty. The focus of anti-Gaullican sentiment shifted away to a more convenient target of reprising their held territorial claims, being the Granoso region of a now independent Vinalia in 1885, however enacting this wouldn’t be a priority due to Ardesia’s reduced military capacity and its capitals occupied by the Gaullicans well into the early 1890s.

Gaullican officers in Rémont, Gaullica was key to Ardesia's learning of the Euclean modeling of the military and instructed multiple military exercises prior.

Ardesian functionalism's rise and the Bloody Decade

Dinis Montecara in 1926

Notably, the origins of Ardesia’s irredentist cases have remained in the mind of fringe embittered Ardesian statesmen, politicians, clergy, and the military. It didn’t prevent the decisions of citizens to frequent and even immigrate to these countries, building notable communities and diasporas such as the Ardesians resident of Catherinsk. Beyond this, the idea of a ‘Grande Ardesia’ popularly phrased by many functionalists grew to be quickly popular among the general population as it acknowledged the rise of their own functionalist party, the Sotirian Functionalist Action. A reason for this was one applicable to every country seeing its fringe parties rise, being out of the economic and social catastrophe of the Great Collapse. The SFA head and former seaman, Dinis Montecara, had already adopted the mold of Ardesian irredentist claims to the Granoso as complimentary of Ardesian functionalism. Dinis Montecara’s failure to be elected as President quickly led to him spearheading a coup popular among the military and bicoastal elite, cementing himself as the Caudilho in 1914. Utilizing their territorial claims as one of their popular aggressive policies became popular in the public conscience. Montecara certainly wasn’t the first dissident to hold the belief of realizing the ideology of ‘Grande Ardesia’, but was the first to properly forge a doctrine among his general chief of staff to begin plans of invasions, the first target being Vinalia.

Vinalia was the first to become a target of Ardesian demands for a plurality of reasons, the first being the perceived notion to assert over Vinalia’s internal instability as it entered its ‘Bloody Decade’, lasting from 1909 to 1922. An example of the instability reaching Ardesia was the cases of violence against Ardesians in Catherinsk from the actions of Vinalia’s own functionalist group, the Vinalian League of Nationalists. Montecara had made numerous choices of publicly and privately vowing to “liberate Ardesians from the Vinalian plight of terror.” Numerous other callouts were made against various Vinalian presidents for their ineffectiveness against the rampant political violence and economic downturn, such as Avhust Martynova of the Federal Democrats and Davyd Dragomanov of the Episemialist Democrats. What had also made Vinalia the first target of invasion was the fact that the Granoso remained a vital grain-producing of the country, and to ensure the success of the rest of their invasions, it had been a top priority to secure this region. On 3 September 1924, feigned attempts at diplomacy were made by Foreign Minister Pedro Venâncio with Vinalia’s respective delegates to buffer lands below the Chyhyryn and establish a ‘staging point’ at Ivanovo on the island of Kisharsk with the benefit of a share of the ports at Porto Belo through the East Arucian. The offer had been lambasted by the various elements of the Vinalian Parliament and Foreign Ministry.

Vinalian troops moving through Catherinsk, 1925

Sotirian Functionalist Action rally in Porto Belo, 1922

Reactions from Vinalia toward Ardesia’s continuously aggressive decisions for the past decade led to the prioritization of their own military, doubling it by 1924. Overconfidence in Ardesian prospects of overrunning Vinalian forces had come a decade prior with the entrance into the Entente, becoming a notable member alongside the functionalist-ruled Gaullica and Shangea, with Gaullica also overseeing plans of invading through their various neighboring Euclean countries. The backbone of the Entente would be securing threats from each ally's own territorial ambitions, Ardesia would be granted the benefits of co-belligerent and principal nations' industrial output, mainly the materiels and primarily Gaullica’s military doctrine to launch the invasion in the first place. Even outside the Ardesian military, the Federal Police would see themselves heavily militarized to assist in the invasion as the role of military police.

As the response among Vinalia to counter Ardesia’s maneuvers was to expand their own military, exercising it was also a focus to optimize their success in the ensuing invasion. Ardesian intelligence had caught on to the maneuvers of the Vinalian navy moving ships to Novyy Samistopol and the army moving troops for exercises to Catherinsk. The census among the Ardesian ministries such as the Ministry of War and Ministry of Social and Political Vigilance was to greenlight both the armed forces and the population of commencing the invasion of Vinalia. The MSPV had made the effort of relentless propaganda of a Vinalina ‘incursion’ due to this build-up, and that the ‘neuter’ of the Shyroniy and possible government change was a necessity. These served as a pretext for invasion among the population later on, thus beginning the crossing of Ardesian units across their border on the night of 18 July 1925. It was only by 19 July an official declaration of invasion of Vinalia was announced on Radio Television of Ardesia by Dinis Montecara.

Ardesian Invasion (1925-1926)

Ardesian offensive

Vinalian troops around New Samistopol

Treaty of Velkarichka

-Vinalian surrender of all territories south of the Chyhyryn River

-Velkarichka and Catherinsk to remain unmilitarized

-Vinalian war reparations

-Vinalia to cease all support for the Entente, and fighting with the Grand Entente

-Vinalia to recognize all territorial acquisitions of the Grand Alliance

-Vinalia to restrict trade with Grand Alliance powers

-Vinalia to reoccupy lost territory at a pace of 10 days behind Ardesian troops

-Ardesia to abandon all territory north of the Shryoniy river