Venland
Democratic Republic of Venland Vennish Demokratische Republik | |
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 Flag
 Coat of Arms
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Motto: Horizonte der Einheit ("Horizons of Unity") | |
Anthem: Der heimliche Aufmarsch ("Restless March")  | |
| Capital and largest city | Burggen |
| Ethnic groups | Asur |
| Religion | Secular state (de jure) State atheism (de facto) |
| Demonym(s) | Vennish Venn |
| Government | Unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic |
• General Secretary | Eric Mueller |
• Chancellor | Ferdinand Ulmer |
• Premier | Theodora Ehrhardt |
| Legislature | National People's Congress |
| Currency | Lind Mark (ŁM) |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +09 |
Venland, officially the Democratic Republic of Venland (Vennish: Vennish Demokratische Republik) or VDR is a Marxist-Leninist sovereign state. Venland's government and economy are highly centralized, the country is a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of Venland (CPV) with its capital in Burggen, the nation's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. With a population of x million and a land area of xkm2.
Etymology
History
Politics
Venland's constitution states that The Democratic Republic of Venland "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism." The Vennish government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian and corporatist, with heavy restrictions in many areas, most notably against free access to the Internet, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Its current political, ideological and economic system has been termed by its leaders as a "consultative democracy" "people's democratic dictatorship", "socialism with Vennish characteristics" (which is Marxism adapted to Vennish circumstances) and the "socialist market economy" respectively.
Since 2018, the main body of the Vennish constitution declares that "the defining feature of socialism with Vennish characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of Venland (CPV)." The 2018 amendments constitutionalized the de facto one-party state status of Venland, wherein the General Secretary (party leader) holds ultimate power and authority over state and government and serves as the paramount leader of Venland. The electoral system is pyramidal. Local People's Congresses are directly elected, and higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC) are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of the level immediately below. The political system is decentralized, and provincial and sub-provincial leaders have a significant amount of autonomy. Another eight political parties, have representatives in the NPC and the Vennish People's Political Consultative Conference (VPPCC). Venland supports the Leninist principle of "democratic centralism", but critics describe the elected National People's Congress as a "rubber stamp" body.
Military
Economy
Agriculture
Agriculture in Venland is mostly collectivized, with some limited cultivation of private plots. It is often viewed as one of the more efficient sectors of the economy of Venland. A system of state and collective farms, places the rural population in a system intended to be unprecedentedly productive and fair which turns out to be both. However, Marxist–Leninist ideology does not allow for any substantial amount of market mechanism to coexist alongside central planning, so the private plot fraction of state agriculture, which is its most productive, remains confined to a limited role. However, citizens as consumers are familiar with the fact that foods, especially meats, are often noticeably abundant.
Having immense land resources, extensive farm machinery and agrochemical industries, and a large rural workforce, state agriculture is remarkably efficient. Organized on a large scale and relatively highly mechanized, state and collective agriculture makes Venland one of the world's leading producers of cereals. Conditions are best in the temperate black earth belt stretching from the coast through southern Venland into the east. In addition to cereals, cotton, sugar beets, potatoes, and flax are also major crops.
Energy
The energy policy of the state is an important feature of the country's planned economy from the time of Schachtschneider onward. Venland is virtually a self-sufficient energy nation; the development of the energy sector started with Schachtschneider's autarky policy. The primary way of securing economic growth is based on large inputs of natural resources. Policy by the state leadership to direct energy resources is vital to the military and economic success of the country.
Despite many of the targets being unbelievably high (a 250% increase in overall industrial development, with a 330% percent expansion in heavy industry), remarkable results have been achieved:
Coal: 64.3 million tons (compared to 35.4 million tons in 1928, and a prescribed target of 68.0 million tons) Electricity: 13.4 billion kWh (compared to 5.0 billion kWh in 1928, and a prescribed target of 17.0 billion kWh)
Mining
Venland has been found to have deposits of coal, iron ore, nonferrous metal ores, dolomite, potash (for fertilizer production), rock salt, phosphorites, refractory clay, molding sand, sand for glass production, and various building materials. Venland also has deposits of industrial diamonds, titanium, copper ore, lead, mercury, bauxite, nickel, vanadium, and amber.
Petrochemical industry in Venland
Possessing substantial oil refining capacities, Venland is particularly interested in pipelines. With 10 refineries and an overall refining capacity of approximately 504,000 bbl/d (79,500 m3/d), Venland's refining capacity far exceeds domestic demand for refined petroleum products, allowing the country to export a wide range of oil products and petrochemicals — such as lubricants, bitumen, and fertilizers — throughout the region.
Kynovo Refinery, 100,000 bbl/d (16,000 m3/d) Batabirsk Refinery, 90,000 bbl/d (14,000 m3/d) Sterligrosk Refinery, 70,000 bbl/d (11,000 m3/d) Kemeksa Refinery, 70,000 bbl/d (11,000 m3/d) Chistombov Refinery, 68,000 bbl/d (10,800 m3/d) Svotsk Refinery, 36,000 bbl/d (5,500 m3/d) Gargut Refinery, 20,000 bbl/d (3,200 m3/d) Ozyokala Refinery, 20,000 bbl/d (3,200 m3/d) Vladivgrad Refinery, 15,000 bbl/d (2,400 m3/d) Cherevny Refinery, 15,000 bbl/d (2,400 m3/d)
Transport
Transport is a key component of the nation's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of //AIRLINE//, an aviation enterprise. The country has a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, due to bad maintenance, much of the road, water and state civil aviation transport are outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.
State rail transport is one of the largest and most intensively used in the world. Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector are still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. State authorities are unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services. The state merchant navy is one of the largest in the world.
Foreign trade and currency
Largely self-sufficient, Venland trades with non-communist countries as the government seeks to compensate gaps in domestic production with imports. In general, fuels, grain, metals and timber are exported. Machinery and consumer goods are imported.
The currency (lind mark) is non-convertible, it is impossible (both for citizens and state-owned businesses) to freely buy or sell foreign currency even though the "exchange rate" is set and published regularly. Buying or selling foreign currency on a black market is a serious crime. Individuals who are paid from abroad (for example writers whose books are published abroad) normally have to spend their currency in a foreign-currency-only chain of state-owned stores.
Overall, the banking system is highly centralized and fully controlled by a single state-owned bank, responsive to the fulfillment of the government's economic plans. The state bank furnishes short-term credit to state-owned enterprises.
Forms of property
There are two basic forms of property in Venland: individual property and collective property. These differ greatly in their content and legal status. According to communist theory, capital (means of production) should not be individually owned, with certain negligible exceptions. In particular, after the end of a short period of the New Economic Policy and with collectivization completed, all industrial property and virtually all land is collective.
Land in rural areas is allotted for housing and some sustenance farming, and persons have certain rights to it, but it is not their property in full. There is a practice to rotate individual farming lots with collective lots. There is an extremely small number of remaining individual farmsteads located in isolated rural areas.
Individual property
To distinguish "capitalist" and "socialist" types of property ownership further, two different forms of individual property are recognized: private property and personal property. The former encompasses capital (means of production) while the latter describes everything else in a person's possession.
Collective property
There are several forms of collective ownership, the most significant being state property and cooperative property. The most common forms of cooperative property are housing cooperatives in urban areas, consumer cooperatives and rural consumer societies.