Byndeleneshyġe oþþe Dēaþ!
| File:SeaxAtlanticaBook.png The cover of the book. | |
| Author | Æþelfriþ |
|---|---|
| Country | Template:Country data Atlantica Template:Country data Sæxland |
| Language | Sæxish Atlantican |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Published | 1958 |
| Pages | 452 |
| Awards | Medal of Excellence in Atlantican Literature 1958 Atlantican Book of the Year |
Byndeleneshyġe oþþe Dēaþ! (Sæxish for Fascism or Death!, a play on part of Sæxland's national motto, the specific part played on being Frēodōm oþþe Dēaþ!, or Freedom or Death!) is a 1958 alternate history novel written by Sæxish-Atlantican (having left his country due to fear of being executed due to his communist beliefs) author and academic Æþelfriþ. The story is based upon the premise of a stalemate in the Sæxish Civil War, with Northern Sæxland controlled by the Sæxish People's State, and Southern Sæxland controlled by the Republic of Sæxland, with the Republic eventually becoming a Fascist state far eclipsing the horrors of even Kaskiria and Phazayazk and conquering the North, and covers both the alternate history of Sæxland and an eventual Communist resistance to the Fascist state that eventually results in a Second Sæxish Revolution, particularly focusing on a few major characters and their efforts in the Second Sæxish Revolution.
The book has come under heavy criticism from many (especially Sæxlanders) for allegedly being a highly biased book in favour of communism, with its depiction of the Second Sæxish People's State (the new state after the Second Sæxish Revolution) as a democratic, almost utopian, society, and its depiction of the Republic of Sæxland (even before it fell to Fascism in the early 1930s, like in South Vyvland) as a highly regressive, authoritarian society. Additional controversy has surfaced over its name, with many Sæxlanders disliking said name.
However, the book has received critical acclaim in many countries, particularly in Atlantica, where it was first published, and has received Atlantican awards giving it the Medal of Excellence in Atlantican Literature (the highest honour in Atlantican literature), and the 1958 Atlantican Book of the Year.
Plot
Byndeleneshyġe oþþe Dēaþ! is divided into two parts, the first detailing the alternate history of Sæxland from the alternate Sæxish Civil War to the Second Sæxish Revolution featured in the novel and the second feuating the Second Sæxish Revolution as detailed in the novel.
Part 1
The first part of the book, which is formatted as both an alternate textbook and a series of accounts and letters (thereby making it somewhat of an epistolary), begins during the Sæxish Civil War, just after the beginning of the Communist-Monarchist Alliance and the Communist Capture of the North. Unlike in our timeline, both Vordallia and Nevanmaa intervene, sending members of their armed forces to fight alongside the Sæxish People's State, successfully countering the influence of the Vestmarkic Volunteers that aided the Nationalists during the civil war. The troops soon became bogged in between Northern and Southern Sæxland, acting as a prelude to the trench warfare that plagued the Template:FGWE, and symbolically on 1 May the two sides sign a peace treaty, recognising each other (albeit highly reluctantly) and splitting Sæxland into the Communist North and the Nationalist South, with the capital city of Fiscawīċ divided between the two.
Soon after, both sides begin to organise their societies. The South in particular is ravaged by the war, and despite officially being more democratic than the North on paper (which is a single-party state), soon turns to become far more paranoid than even that of Sæxland at the height of the Sæxish Red Scare (which was when the book was written), as all even moderately socialist or social democratic parties are banned under charges of "Communism" and "Treason" (due to supposed and fabricated evidence of support of the North), and all prominent leftists are executed under these charges, and all who oppose this reign of terror are socially ostracised and imprisoned.
The North, meanwhile, begins to prosper, with the Communist Party creating a society quite free (with high levels of inter-party democracy) and an economy quite democratic, with each workplace having their managers becoming democratically-elected and the Sæxish Planning Committee (which became the Sæxish People's State's economic planning committee) being democratically-elected by the workers, whilst a system of voluntary farm collectivisation does not meet the failures of forced collectivisation programs elsewhere. Throughout the book, these successes are attributed to Northern Sæxlanders demanding inter-party democracy and above all the constant threat of a revolution to implement "True" Socialism if the Government failed to do so. However, the North does receive economic troubles after the Red Rebellion as Nevanmaa stops their hitherto friendly relationship with the North, but these economic troubles are partially solved as the North seizes the riches of the Monarchy (abolishing it in the process), whilst revolutions elsewhere lead to increased trade with Atlantica, whilst Atlantica begins trading with the North in 1925 (after the election of Gunnar Ólafursson) and Geadland in 1930 (after the election of Erik Erskine).
During this time, however, the South is ravaged by the Great Depression, and fascist ideas become incredibly popular in the South as Sæxish politician Eoforgāst Hāmċeorling is elected Forseta in 1933. The South, already highly authoritarian and racist, becomes even more so, as all political opposition is met with either death or being sent to the labour camps (described as far worse than even those of Kaskiria and Phazayazk), whilst a Genocide begins in the South of all non-Sæxlanders. Above all, however, is the the South's anticommunism, and in 1938 (shortly after the Fascist coup in Kaskiria, with a noted Fascist leader stating that "the model they [the Kaskirians] are making right now is a model we need for our country, but of course one founded on that of Sæxlanders, not Kaskirians.") the South declares war on the North. Despite the strong support of West Luziyca and to a significantly lesser extent Atlantica and Geadland in the war, and Vordallian and Phazayazki troops on the ground, fighting alongside the Northerners (further noted to lack the racism the Southerners have) in the war, the more populous and urban South easily defeats the North as groups that would normally be pro-North were generally too busy fighting in the Template:SGWE (which both areas in Sæxland, North and South, remained completely uninvolved in), and the South had the support of troops backed by Nevanmaa and Kaskiria, as those two countries, then under the leaderships of Veijo Vuori and the new fascist dictatorship in Kaskiria respectively, whilst the slaves in the Labour Camps are heavily used by the South in its complete disregard for human life.
Following the South gaining control over the whole of Sæxland, a new state, the Fascist Sæxish State, was declared, as the Government forces tens of thousands of mattesacceras to move to the North, where hundreds of thousands of Northerners, strongly supportive of communism after seeing that ideology work (although it is noted in the book that the North was only socialist, but was moving towards communism) for the past twenty-five years, are forced into the Labour Camps as nearly 20% of Sæxland's population, and nearly half of Sæxlanders in the North, live in the Camps. Meanwhile, during the 1940s and 1950s, a massive cult of personality emerges around Eoforgāst Hāmċeorling and the whole fascist movement. It soon seems that the island of Sæxland shall remain under Fascism for a period lasting nearly an eternity.
Part 2
The second part of the book, which is formatted as a traditional novel, begins just after the end of the first part of the book, in an alternate 1954 (one that is not that altered outside of Sæxland, however) where Sæxland looks as if it will be ruled by Eoforgāst Hāmċeorling's brutal (far more brutal than the infamously brutal Kaskirian and Phazayzki regimes) fascist regime for nearly an eternity. However, unknown to all but a few, resistance against the Hāmċeorling Regime is brewing as the peoples of the North, having lived in the considerably kinder Sæxish People's State before the current Fascist State, do not accept Fascism and continue to secretly support Communism and resist the Regime, even after half of the North's population is sent to the Labour Camps, where they are beaten, tortured and raped on a daily basis, and tens of thousands of mattesacceras are forced to move to the North as a form of a secret police to prevent any resistance or Revolution from coming to the North.
Most resistance forces belong to the now-underground Communist Party of Sæxland, which was generally referred to in resistance groups, however, as the Native Northerners' Hāmċeorling Support Committee, a code word for its steadfastly anti-Fascist and anti-Hāmċeorling activities. The Communist Party is additionally now organised as a decentralised group of autonomous cells. One particular cell is joined by a 22-year old named Osberht. Born in 1932 in the North, he was only six years old when the South invaded the North and thus barely remembers Socialism, but had learned through many what Socialism really was, not a foreign ideology bent on the destruction of Sæxland, as told by the Fascist regime (and Fascism itself was merely a tool for the complete control of the lives of Sæxlanders), but rather an ideology based on sharing, equality, democracy and democratic ownership and control of the means of production. Osberht then joins the cell along with his best friend Cynwweard, and the to, along with the other members of the cell, engage in minor acts of sabotage, freeing workers in the Labour Camps, and smuggling in arms (which they then give to workers in the Labour Camps, in order to start a new revolution), and works such as The Communist Manifesto and Lydwig Welz's famous works This Divisive System, and On Wealth, with Osberht concluding that the only way to instigate a Revolution and thus implement Socialism and eventually Communism is to have the lowest classes rise up, believing that most members of the middle class, although they (like everyone except the wealthiest) stand to gain from a Revolution, are less likely than the poor classes to achieve class consciousness, due to their already-comfortable living situations, and additionally the only way to keep a Revolution going and to maintain the constant threat of a Revolution by the citizenry to ensure that revolutionary leaders implement "True" Socialism is to keep the Citizenry aware and educated about the Revolution and what Socialism truly is.
After the cell (and many others in the underground Communist Party) have been smuggling arms to the Labour Camps and socialist books and pamphlets since the early 1940s, finally in 1956, despite the brutal suppression of the Regime, as the informal "leaders" of the Communist Party agree, following through analysis, that all the arms ready for the Revolution have come, a Revolution, the Second Sæxish Revolution, begins as a new Sæxish People's State is proclaimed. The Slaves from all of the Labour Camps, still committed to their Revolutionary values despite nearly two decades of daily beatings, torture and rape as nothing can break their true belief in the Revolution; this is additionally noted as the true test of belief in the Revolution, Socialism and Communism; if one willing to resist the temptations of Power (in exchange for becoming a collaborator with the Fascists by abandoning beliefs in the Revolution, Socialism and Communism) and prevent Torture from breaking their belief in the Revolution, Socialism and Communism, then they have proven themselves to be a good Revolutionary and Communist, dramatically rise up, exiting the Labour Camps as many of them are provided Arms by the Communist Party. This causes a major shortage of cheap labour, causing, due to the fact that the Fascist State had a a capitalist economy, it had to have a major percentage of its population in slave labour in order to keep profits high enough to finance the massive luxuries the elite enjoy, even as others are starving to death; this is noted as inherent to capitalism. However, the arms the Communist Party provides is not enough for a Revolution, it is noted that a Revolution in the alternate Sæxland could happen no later than when it did start (1956), as the Fascists' attempts at indoctrination of the Northerners would begin to finally bear fruit. However, as the extreme shortage of cheap labour heavily weakens the Fascist State's capitalist economy, it thus weakens the State itself, as a core group of escaped Slaves and dedicated revolutionaries---among them Osberht and Cynwweard, who become leading revolutionaries (although they are never described as leaders of the Second Sæxish Revolution; it is stated in the book that as Socialism and more so Communism support equality, there can be no leaders of a true revolution), wage a campaign of guerrilla warfare as most Northern Sæxland comes under the control of the Communists.
Finally, in 1957, seeing that a true civil war is emerging, foreign powers get involved in what many are now calling the Second Sæxish Civil War. Geadland steps in first, as their new Prime Minister, Pir Muinten, is highly sympathetic to the causes the Revolutionaries and Communist Party champions (although he stops short of support Communism, as he is merely a democratic socialist), sending heavy military and monetary aid to the Communists, providing them needed arms, shortly followed by Atlantica and North Vyvland, who additionally give them (highly reduced, even with North Vyvland with its population and economy not much smaller than Geadland's, with the book explaining that this was due to the powers of the North Vyvlander King as well as the rightist administration of Payl Klosders being unable to truly combat Fascism and being highly reluctant with support a Communist power, in fact only giving the same amount of aid as the considerably smaller Atlantica and even this only due to the reactionary nation of South Vyvland just across the border). Then the Liberationist states of Namor, Katranjiev, although they never go the "full way" by becoming supports of Communism, join in, with Namor sending in troops in addition to aid, whilst Katranjiev gives aid. West Luziyca, Phazayazk, Soled and Koyro step in next, again sending in troops is support of the People's State. Soon, however, reactionary nations begin to give aid and troops to the Fascist State, with the Fascist State's close ally Kaskiria sending in troops, while East Luziyca sends in covert CIA operatives (as well as generous amounts of aid) to sabotage the Revolution from within, whilst Nevanmaa gives significantly less amounts of aid, but aid nonetheless.
This foreign intervention, however, benefits the People's State more than it does the Fascist State, and as such the People's States gradually gets the upper hand, eventually surrounding and besieging the capital city of Fiscawīċ in early 1958. Just before that, however, the leaders of the People's State make a bold decision, to decline all new aid and expel all foreign troops from the Army. It is explained that this was the only way to ensure that the People's State would not become a degenerated or more likely deformed workers' state as foreign forces would cause the People's State to collapse, fighting between visions of social democracy, Liberationism and Marxism-Leninism (however, it is stated in the book that Marxism-Leninism is not "True" Socialism or Communism as instead of implementing democratic control of the means of production, it implements state control of the means of production), and this was the only way to ensure that the Revolution would establish Socialism and put Sæxland on the path to Communism. However, because the revolutionaries already have the clear upper hand, Fiscawīċ is captured, primarily thanks to workers (primarily in the Northern part of the city that was SPS-controlled from 1914-1938) rising up within the city, allowing the revolutionaries to take the city. Thus, the Revolution has been accomplished.
Soon after the SPS is victorious in the Revolution, however, the revolutionaries become very divided on what society to create. It seems in the Constitutional Convention (held symbolically on International Workers' Day) that will define the future path for Sæxland that the new state with align itself with the other Marxist-Leninist states and become Marxist-Leninist itself, but Osberht and Cynwweard (by then, only at the age of 26, celebrated military heroes) storm the Convention by surprise, reminding them that the only true way for the Revolution to achieve its goal of Socialism and eventually Communism is to implement democratic control of the means of production, and that the only way to keep this is to keep the constant threat of a Third Revolution to keep Socialism (thereby requiring allowing, at least non-Capitalist freedom of speech, the press and assembly), and making the Communist Party not a neo-Blanquist institution by allowing all Citizens the ability to join the Communist Party, and keeping the Communist Party a fully democratic institution (elected via a system of council democracy, while still keeping it as the sole legal political party, but one with full democracy in both the workplace (via a system of trade union organisation) and the political realm, whilst additionally structuring all local government as a system of direct democracy to allow for models for the eventual withering away of the state. The calls of Osberht and Cynwweard are listened to at the Convention, and the new Constitution is one of the most democratic in the world and ensures both political and economic democracy, as well as True Socialism and a clear road to Communism, and new elections for the Party Congress of the Communist Party (the same as that of the legislature of the People's State), which will elect the Central Committee of the Communist Party (which will serve as the joint head of state of Sæxland). Both Osberht and Cynwweard are encouraged by many to run for Party Congress, but both decline, choosing instead to become ordinary citizens, "As any true Revolutionary, following the building of Socialism, would do".
The book ends without stating which political faction of won the most seats in the Party Congress (Council communists, DeLeonists, or Leninists) and ends with hope that Sæxland will become a socialist state on the road to Communism.
Reception
Template:Country data Atlantica
Byndeleneshyġe oþþe Dēaþ! was highly successful and critically acclaimed within Atlantica, being the best-selling book in Atlantica in both 1958, 1959 and 1960, receiving an average review score of 95%. The book continues to be highly popular over 50 years after its publication, and is available in almost all Atlantican bookstores and is required reading in most Artisian History (this covering Sæxish History), Sociology and Political Science classes.
Template:Country data Phazayazk
Byndeleneshyġe oþþe Dēaþ! is one of the few foreign books available and legal in Phazayazk, and was heavily critically acclaimed and was deemed mandatory reading in schools from 1958-1971 and mandatory reading for all adults from 1958-1962. However, the only legal version in Phazayazk is one which omits references calling on citizens to always be a threat to Governments and cause a Revolution in purported Socialist if they do not adopt "True" Socialism and omits references to the cult of personality and references stating that the South Sæxish labour camps are far worse than even those in Phazayazk.