Beth Gellert
23-03-2005, 15:07
Russia
For several months, the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth had been engaged in a controversial effort to aid the recovery of Russia's military industrial complex, receiving in exchange near total control of the Russian space programme, which had pushed Beth Gellert's People's Kosmonautical Co-operative ahead by years. Beth Gellert's engineers, technicians, and other advisers had sped Moscow's efforts to re-organise its military production, initially hoping to make Russia more able and inclined to stem the regressive royalist tide in Europe. It had certainly been hoped that such co-operation would also further understanding between the Igovians and the Russian people who in many cases felt so let down by what they recognised in their miss-named Soviet past.
The Beddgelen help had made sure that probably all of Russia's active arms production plants were prepared to turn-out cutting-edge Russian products where perhaps only a minority of them were previously able and the rest crumbled or rolled-out decades-old designs.
As they worked, the Beddgelens had tried to encourage comradeship amongst all working men and women as opposed to identification by nationalism or company loyalty. Certainly over the months of their stay -especially given a propensity for partaking of Russian vodka when off duty- the Igovians had from time to time run into conflict with their Russian colleagues, but their usually light-hearted attitude generally made it hard to bear a grudge without singling oneself out as a bit of a bore. There'd been a few heated exchanges as a Beddgelen communard reacted angrily to being called Stalinist or Leninist by someone who appeared to mean it, or simply cut too imposing a figure in someone else's home when bellowing about the difference between the Bolsheviks both parties resent and the Soviets that the Bolsheviks destroyed only for Igovians to embrace. Of course, these arguments were common place in the Commonwealth as a minority [so they couldn't really call themselves Bolsheviks any longer] of Leninists clung to obviously out-dated ideas, so it was just a matter of getting used to them in Russia, and it wasn't as if the Russians were usually thin-skinned.
But despite having over-come the most serious friction caused by such troubles, the Russians and Beddgelens were beginning to realise that their agreement couldn't continue to work this way forever.
Putin was in some respects becoming increasingly distant from the Igovians as he looked to the more traditional allies of a hierarchical regime such as his, and Beddgelens slowly began to give vent to long-surpressed distaste for his divorce of political power from the Russian people and his support of the archaic and divisive machinery of capitalism.
Some individual Beddgelens didn't wish to leave, desiring to stay and, "invoke the spirit of Kronstadt!"
As it became gradually more clear that the Kremlin wanted the Green Tower to be the one to pull the plug, individuals posted to Russia began to let their hair down, using time-off to deliver ever more vitriolic soap-box tirades against the false democracy of representation and the disrespect for the capacities of commen men it implied on behalf of the leadership and the bosses.
Kazakhstan
In exchange for their initial efforts in re-arming Russia, the Beddgelens had been allowed into Russia's remaining space-age facilities in Kazakhstan. The Commonwealth had recieved Russia's Buran orbiters and Antanov-225 Mriya aircraft, some of each provided incomplete and since finished by the Igovians. They'd shared data and research, and learned from Russian experience when up-sizing space-launch facilities in southern Victoria and Salvador [Sri Lanka]. The future of the programme was set to be in the Commonwealth, Russian authorities being confidently told that the expense of an operational space programme would be much reduced by operation from purpose-built facilities near the equator.
Even with slow-moving plans to relocate much of the effort, it was perhaps still a surprise when Russians and Kazakhstanis woke one morning to see the second Antanov (of the only pair ever built- the other having previously taken a Buran to Victoria and Salvador) being mounted by the second Buran, which had been completed only days earlier after existing only as dismantled parts for over a decade. As the morning progressed and the second complete shuttle was flown out of the country, the first Mriya arrived back from Beth Gellert along with a Marathon medium transport aircraft with perhaps a hundred GSIC commandos on board (to provide security given increased hostilities in China), and Igovians set to loading aboard the unfinished components of the third and final Buran, as well as other, lighter equipment and documents.
For several months, the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth had been engaged in a controversial effort to aid the recovery of Russia's military industrial complex, receiving in exchange near total control of the Russian space programme, which had pushed Beth Gellert's People's Kosmonautical Co-operative ahead by years. Beth Gellert's engineers, technicians, and other advisers had sped Moscow's efforts to re-organise its military production, initially hoping to make Russia more able and inclined to stem the regressive royalist tide in Europe. It had certainly been hoped that such co-operation would also further understanding between the Igovians and the Russian people who in many cases felt so let down by what they recognised in their miss-named Soviet past.
The Beddgelen help had made sure that probably all of Russia's active arms production plants were prepared to turn-out cutting-edge Russian products where perhaps only a minority of them were previously able and the rest crumbled or rolled-out decades-old designs.
As they worked, the Beddgelens had tried to encourage comradeship amongst all working men and women as opposed to identification by nationalism or company loyalty. Certainly over the months of their stay -especially given a propensity for partaking of Russian vodka when off duty- the Igovians had from time to time run into conflict with their Russian colleagues, but their usually light-hearted attitude generally made it hard to bear a grudge without singling oneself out as a bit of a bore. There'd been a few heated exchanges as a Beddgelen communard reacted angrily to being called Stalinist or Leninist by someone who appeared to mean it, or simply cut too imposing a figure in someone else's home when bellowing about the difference between the Bolsheviks both parties resent and the Soviets that the Bolsheviks destroyed only for Igovians to embrace. Of course, these arguments were common place in the Commonwealth as a minority [so they couldn't really call themselves Bolsheviks any longer] of Leninists clung to obviously out-dated ideas, so it was just a matter of getting used to them in Russia, and it wasn't as if the Russians were usually thin-skinned.
But despite having over-come the most serious friction caused by such troubles, the Russians and Beddgelens were beginning to realise that their agreement couldn't continue to work this way forever.
Putin was in some respects becoming increasingly distant from the Igovians as he looked to the more traditional allies of a hierarchical regime such as his, and Beddgelens slowly began to give vent to long-surpressed distaste for his divorce of political power from the Russian people and his support of the archaic and divisive machinery of capitalism.
Some individual Beddgelens didn't wish to leave, desiring to stay and, "invoke the spirit of Kronstadt!"
As it became gradually more clear that the Kremlin wanted the Green Tower to be the one to pull the plug, individuals posted to Russia began to let their hair down, using time-off to deliver ever more vitriolic soap-box tirades against the false democracy of representation and the disrespect for the capacities of commen men it implied on behalf of the leadership and the bosses.
Kazakhstan
In exchange for their initial efforts in re-arming Russia, the Beddgelens had been allowed into Russia's remaining space-age facilities in Kazakhstan. The Commonwealth had recieved Russia's Buran orbiters and Antanov-225 Mriya aircraft, some of each provided incomplete and since finished by the Igovians. They'd shared data and research, and learned from Russian experience when up-sizing space-launch facilities in southern Victoria and Salvador [Sri Lanka]. The future of the programme was set to be in the Commonwealth, Russian authorities being confidently told that the expense of an operational space programme would be much reduced by operation from purpose-built facilities near the equator.
Even with slow-moving plans to relocate much of the effort, it was perhaps still a surprise when Russians and Kazakhstanis woke one morning to see the second Antanov (of the only pair ever built- the other having previously taken a Buran to Victoria and Salvador) being mounted by the second Buran, which had been completed only days earlier after existing only as dismantled parts for over a decade. As the morning progressed and the second complete shuttle was flown out of the country, the first Mriya arrived back from Beth Gellert along with a Marathon medium transport aircraft with perhaps a hundred GSIC commandos on board (to provide security given increased hostilities in China), and Igovians set to loading aboard the unfinished components of the third and final Buran, as well as other, lighter equipment and documents.