Irkutsk

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Президиум Верховного Совета - Prezidium Verkhovnogo Soveta
Flag of Irkutsk TAG = IRK
Politics
Capital	Irkutsk
Ruling Party	All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Head of State	Genrikh Yagoda
Head of Government	Yakov Agranov
Diplomacy
Sphere	N/A
Foreign Alignment	N/A
Economy
Credit Rating	Mediocre
Market Type	Planned Economy

Irkutsk, offically the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, is a Russian warlord state located in the Far East. It borders the Unorganized Siberian Territories to the north, Buryatia to the west, Mengjiang to the south and the People's Revolutionary Council and the Siberian Black Army to the west.

The statelet itself is composed of the remants of the pre-war Soviet government, which were evacuated east by NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda as Moscow fell. Irkutsk starts 1962 facing a revolt by Valery Sablin's Buryatia that threatens to end the old Union for good, so this will be an Irkutsk player's first pressing issue.

In-Game Description

The Bukharin regime fractured and collapsed when it faced the Nazi onslaught. When Bukharin himself disappeared amidst the chaos, NKVD Director Genrikh Yagoda mobilized his surviving NKVD divisions to evacuate the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet as Eastward as he could. From there, the remains of the Bukharin government attempted to retain control over the Far East, but their grip slowly began to crumble as warlords and bandits rose up to take the land for themselves. Yagoda quickly lost confidence in the Party leadership; he and his NKVD began to take over various State functions, much to the chagrin of the Presidium.

The legitimate heirs to the Soviet Union are now in a precarious position. The balance of power in the Union is teetering between Yagoda loyalists in the State and the apparatchiks of the Party bureaucracy. As if that isn't enough, a former Soviet commander, Valery Sablin, has risen up against the Irkutsk government across Lake Baikal. Yagoda will have to quash this uprising swiftly if he hopes to one day reclaim the Union.

History

Provisional Leader

The Humiliated Treaty

On December 30th, 1922, the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR established the Soviet Union. It was initially composed of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian Republics. As of January 1st, 1962, due to technical difficulties, the Soviet Union only governs the Irkutsk Oblast. When Moscow fell to the Nazi invasion, General-Secretary Nikolai Bukharin disappeared.

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet quickly elected NKVD Director Genrikh Yagoda as their provisional leader. The wise Yagoda wasted no time in saving the Presidium. In a daring escape, his NKVD motorized divisions managed to spirit the Soviet government away to the East across old Siberian Plan infrastructure to the city of Irkutsk.

Arrival

Upon arrival, the Presidium tried to reassert control over the old Union, but few believed the old Bukharin government was relevant in the new Russia.

The government began to lose their grip on the Far-East as military strongmen, native Siberian reactionaries, and fascist collaborator "Heirs of Harbin" carved out their own slice of the Far-East for themselves. The latest blow to the Soviet state is the insurrection of Valery Sablin in Buryatia. Formerly a loyal soldier, Sablin has shown his true colors as a utopian left-deviationist ultra seeking to remake the Soviet Union in his naive and puerile image.

Obstacles of Security

Presidium vs. the Party

This decline is, in the eyes of General-Secretary Yagoda, directly attributable to the incompetence of the Presidium. Their beloved Bukharin failed the Soviet Union and his toadies are repeating all of his mistakes. Yagoda has thus begun empowering his loyal NKVD ever since the evacuation. While previously a secret police service, the NKVD has assumed more and more functions of the Soviet State over time.

Yagoda's detractors in the Party, often referred to as the Party faction and led by Sergey Bessonov, allege that Yagoda is dismantling the Soviet proletarian bureaucracy to replace it with an NKVD securocracy. If that is true, then it is only because the NKVD are the last, loyal force that can save the Revolution from its enemies within and without.

Mutiny

The Irkutsk government is the legitimate government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, even if no one else seems to care.

If Yagoda and the Presidium can overcome the Sablinite mutiny and restore order across the Far-East and beyond, then perhaps Soviet Russia will one day return to the way it was.

Gameplay

Irkutsk starts with the following national spirits:

Name	In-Game Description	Effects
Bitter Remnant	Defeat after defeat - this is what has characterized our remnant statelet since its inception after the Great Patriotic War. Defeated by the Germans, defeated by the Japanese, defeated by our own kin, incited by the Sablinite traitors. But General Secretary Yagoda and the Presidium still preside over us; and under their leadership our defeats will be avenged..	Political Power Gain: +5% Division Recovery Rate: +20.0% Stability: +15.00%
NKVD Securocracy	The Union lives on with us, the last remnant of continuity of governance. Our institutions are strong, weathering the Second World War, the coup that split our Union, the long retreat, and the Siberian War. What has kept us strong and stable for these decades is nothing other than the political acumen of Comrade Yagoda, the will of the people, and the strength of the NKVD, the shield and sword of the Revolution. With our trained NKVD officers and unmatched security apparatus, we are to be finally safe from threats internal and external - free to put down the traitors and reclaim the proletarian state.	War Support: -15.00% Decryption: +0.75 Decryption: +25.00% Daily Compliance Gain: +0.25%
Irkutsk Hydroelectric Station	(NOTE: This spirit will be granted to any warlord that owns the Irkutsk state) The largest hydroelectric power station in Siberia, the dam straddling the Angara River provides vast, and unending, amounts of electricity. Control of the power station promises significant industrial reward, and the engineering expertise involved in its construction can be further studied, accelerating other constructive pursuits of the state.	Construction Speed: +15.00% Needed Consumer Goods: -5.00% infrastructure Construction Speed: +10.00%
State Repopulation Program	A program by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in Irkutsk to bring about the repopulation of the Far East.	Montly Population: +5.0%
The Flight East	Though the West Russian War ended almost a decade ago, Western Russia has never known peace with the Germans. Instead, life has been punctuated by regular bombings from the Luftwaffe, an unending campaign of terror meant to permanently hobble a one-time adversary. Though many Russians have found ways to live amid this violence, others have tried to escape it by fleeing east. This steady stream of refugees has permanently altered the distribution of Russia's population, with many migrating to the far reaches of the country the remain untouched by the Nazi war machine.	Monthly Population: +10.0%

Irkutsk starts the game at war with Buryatia.

Quotes

Capitulation quote

"In the face of pain there are no heroes."

Origins: This quote is taken from George Orwell's famous dytopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.