NationStates Jolt Archive

The Dictatorship of Kargrazia

To say that Antoi Bexhi is keen on national self-reliance would be an understatement. The Kargrazian Premier, who has ruled since 1976, maintains a national seal against the world economy.

Bexhi replaced the nation's horribly mistitled 'communist' dictator, Rem Bahui, on what is suspected to have been his second attempt, nine years after an, 'incident' that remains little understood outside of the reclusive state. Disturbances in 1967 are thought to have been related to the Sino-Soviet Split, with Bahui reputedly facing accusations of revisionist perversion, and an abortive coup attempt being launched involving a young Bexhi, though Cetch [the Kargrazian capital] rejects this version of events and refuses to discuss the incident of almost forty years ago. Since coming to power in 1976, Antoi Bexhi has tightened government control further even than was the case in the early years of Bahui's initially Stalinist administration, and undertaken an epic chain of public projects that are often only as impressive as they are bizarre.

Kargrazia's economy appears backwards, and its capabilities are firmly limited by a low technological base and political aversion to new ideas coming from anywhere but the premiership. But it is extremely active and self-confident.

With a population of just three million recorded by the last census (and these are conducted with almost absurd frequency), Kargrazia, though reporting marginal growth this year, appears to have lost some two million citizens since Bexhi's rise three decades ago. This, say foreign-based opposition groups, is down to astronomical judicial execution rates, numerous disasters beyond the state's ability to manage, and frequent political purges, but, far more significantly, to the Premier's personal economic model...

Antoi Bexhi came to power believing that Kargrazia, despite its small size, could unlock productive forces stored in its population to massive result. Shut-off from the world market and, after 1976, from the Soviet bloc [which post-Bahui Cetch denounced as revisionist], the nation had only itself to depend upon, and Bexhi ordered a series of grand public works be undertaken, inspired by the fruits of manual labour in global antiquity.

[Saved for details to come after an on-going RP]

GOVERNMENT

Country Name: Dictatorship of Kargrazia (conventional long form), Kargrazia (conventional short form), Dictatika é Cirisie (local long form), Cirisra (local short form)
Government Type: Dictatorship
Capital: Cetch
Premier: Antoi Bexhi (the Premier is both chief of state and head of government)
Motto: Red Worker, Pure Leader, Green Homeland
Flag: Three equal horizontal bands of red, white, and green, respectively representative of the workers, the dictator, and the homeland

GEOGRAPHY

Area: 21,387 square kilometres
Area Comparative: Slightly larger than Israel or El Salvador; slightly smaller than Belize or Djibouti
Coastline:: 1.2km
Climate: Mild temperate; cool, wet winters; warm, dry summers moderated by altitude
Terrain: Mostly mountainous and hilly with several fertile valleys and some small plains
Natural Resources: Heavy crude oil, coal, iron ore, bauxite, chromite, copper, nickel, granite, limestone, clay, gypsum, timber, peat, arable land, hydropower potential.
Natural Hazards: Floods, landslides, some earthquakes
Current Environmental Issues: Deforestation; soil erosion; water and soil pollution from industrial and domestic effluents

PEOPLE

Population: 2,998,749 (official data from Mid-2006 Census)
Median Age: 22.4 years
Population Growth: 0.07%
Sex Ratio: 1.02 male/female
Life Expectancy: 71 years (official data for total population)
HIV/AIDS Cases: Nil

Nationality: Kargrazian, Kargrazi
Ethnic Groups: Kargrazian (100% according to official data, which has been criticised by exile groups)
Religions: Atheist (100% by government policy)
Languages: Kargrazian (official, 100% according to census data), Romance languages (unofficial)
Literacy: 100%

ECONOMY

Citizens of Kargrazia work incredibly hard, and there is certainly a lot of economic activity in the Dictatorship, but trade with the outside world is unknown, and it is impossible to put a dollar value on the nation's economy.
Most households conduct subsistence farming and semi-mechanised cottage industry, while citizens of working-age also take part in periodic public projects. Many of these are designed to enhance agricultural potential over a large area, to raise new housing, or to augment national defences.
A large minority of citizens are instead employed in the state sector, mostly in defence factories, power stations, and administration, and these are the only Kargrazians to receive a wage, which they spend at small markets where other citizens sell any extra crops and daily essentials from their workshops.
Still, by most standards, Kargrazia is a poor country, and faces serious challenges in getting the most out of its varied but somewhat limited natural resources.

DEFENCE

The Kargrazian People's Army (KPA or, in Kargrazian, CNA)

The KPA operates with what might be considered desperately limited resources and with equally little experience. The KPA banner extends over the air and naval forces in addition to ground forces. It is thought that defence concerns account for the largest budget share of any single issue in Kargrazia, and the military is amongst the largest employers in the powerful state sector.

From a population base of just about three million, the Dictatorship enlists 45,000 personnel in regular military service and 105,000 part-time personnel classified as reservists, though most are effectively on active duty for half of the year. Major earthworks, bunker complexes, tank traps, tunnels, minefields, and other prepared positions have long been in place, and expand on a fairly regular basis as the government seeks to keep the populace busy, the defences strong, and the economic energy of Kargrazia's revolutionary journey sustainable. More dramatically, large portions of the landscape have been -and continue to be- reshaped over the years, as thousands of labourers work to create killing zones through which to funnel attackers by creating thick forest, marshland, earthen redouts and ditches of epic scale, and both look-out and firing positions in cliff and hillsides.

Ground Forces

The ground forces (KPAGF) account for 35,000 personnel from the KPA's regular total, and, boosted by 102,500 reserves, amount to a full strength of 137,500.

Air Forces

The air forces (KPAAF) account for 7,000 personnel from the KPA's regular total, and, boosted by 500 reserves, amount to a full strength of 7,500.

Air Defence Forces

The air-defence forces (KPAADF) account for 1,800 personnel from the KPA's regular total, and, boosted by 700 reserves, amount to a full strength of 2,500.

Naval Forces

The naval forces (KPANF) account for 1,200 personnel from the KPA's regular total, and, boosted by 1,300 reserves, amount to a full strength of 2,500.

FORCE Regulars (Reserves) [Total]
KPAGF 35,000 (102,500) [137,500]
KPAAF 7,000 (500) [7,500]
KPAADF 1,800 (700) [2,500]
KPANF 1,200 (1,300) [2,500]
KPA 45,000 (105,000) [150,000]

Further information pending.

[Bump]

[Bexhi's Back!]

MAJOR SITES AND MARVELS OF KARGRAZIA

The Walls of Kargrazia

This is a cover-all term applied to the vast static defence network that has been building in Kargrazia since the end of the Second World War and at an accelerated pace since Bexhi's rise to the Premiership in 1976.

Comprised of massive earthworks, shallow and deep tunnels, bunkers and pillboxes, walls, wire, minefields, and assorted gunposts and mortar pits amongst other measures, the Walls are raised chiefly by human labour, and this may be partly responsible for the alleged population decrease -of up to two million citizens- experienced under Bexhi.

Iosef Aerodrome

Named in honour of the most infamous Soviet leader, Iosef Aerodrome is the site at which Kargrazia's only foreign guests since 1976 have been received. High in the mountains, the airbase is guarded by air force soldiers, ZPU guns, and stations a flight of PUK-6 attack planes. The PUK-6 is apparently a domestic version of the Su-6 developed by the USSR during WWII, and may be used by the Kargrazians for counter insurgency operations within the Dictatorship's own borders.

Resident-in-Command at Iosef Aerodrome is one Captain Jetmir Kastriiot, who has shown himself a revolutionary hero willing to poison himself in order to defeat foreign enemies of the Dictatorship.

Level 3 Encryption - Coded Response Only
Dictatorship of Kargrazia
Greetings,
It has recently come to our attention that your nation is in possession of a number of undesireable elements, malcontents and anti-citizen forces which you have no practical means to dispose of aside from crude executions.
We offer an alternative.
Currently Aperture Science is short of test subjects for scientific development purposes. We require live bodies, preferably in at least semi-healthy condition. Our surveilance indicates that you may be in possession of a number of suitable organic units.
In exchange for this, all data obtained from these studies will be shared with your nation. We would be pleased to invite a representative from your government to observe this research as it is in progress in the Aperture Science Enrichment and Testing Center.
We thank you for considering this offer.

DiploBot Mk XII, Aperture Science Department of Research and Development

When it was eventually realised that talking to Kargrazia means standing at the border and shouting, hopefully without attracting the unwanted attentions of a sniper, or fiddling about on old radio frequencies until somebody at the other end starts yammering frantically in the almost universally unspoken Cirisie language, communication between Aperture Science and Cetch would become possible.

The Dictatorship, it seems, is not overly keen to dispose of citizens at an increased rate, having allegedly succeeded in shedding two million head of population since 1976, while most nations have increased massively in the same period.

However, Premier Antoi Bexhi is not without interest in the radical sciences, and Cetch invites a delegation from Aperture Science to meet a motor launch in waters just off Kargrazia, where a code book of sorts shall be handed over. This will reveal a channel sequence that the Dictatorship will use over a frequency-hopping radio to enable short-term communication between the two states in a relatively secure manner.

Cetch wishes to know a little more about the nature of the research being conducted before deciding whether it is worth the Dictatorship's while to release perfectly good indentured labourers to the project.

The response, which greatly pleased the Aperture Science Central Processing Committe, if only for the fact that it appeared, on first inspection, to be utter gibberish. It was eventually determined that the messages were NOT, in fact, a code, but, rather, a language. Further research into the subject determined that the language in question was Cirisie and that no accurate translation software existed.
Fourtunatly, Citizen 1 had seen fit to dedicate a large portion of its resources to the formation of a rapid translation section for such situations. Further communications, via the medium of a fourty year old radio dug up from a dump and repaired to a state of semi-operability, rapidly granted GLaDOS an extensive knowledge of Cirisiean epithets. Gradually, a useable vocabulary and grammatical database was established and, within a few days, a reliable Cirisiean translation program was scraped together.
After dislodging a number of excess mothballs from its ancient transmitter, a transmission was, once again, sent across the border. This time in Cirisie.

Dictatorship of Kargrazia
Fraternal Salutations,
We foreign devils interested in meeting. Consider acceptation of offer of committe formation at engine dock. Will seek prompt notification of meeting success. Present person be will sexual deviant leadership.
Encodation party documentation fairly not required, perhaps acceptation of increased contact persistant scrotum itch.
Your wife is a big hippo!

DiploBot Mk XII, Aperture Science Committe of Strange Ideas and Bill Notification

Generally unaware of the somewhat distorted message, a sleek ship departed from City 12, making good time towards the meeting place suggested in the communication with Kargrazia. In an attempt to at least appear trusting, the model selected for this mission carried its weapons concealed beneath its hull plates, but could, should the situation require, annihilate anything foolish enough to come within missile range. Of course, along with the shining newness of its hull, the general inexperience of the onboard AI, and, indeed, GLaDOS itself in naval warfare would most likely result in the ship being blasted into a million flaming bits if it ever got into a fight with a semi-capable opponent.
Being totaly unaware of this fact, the ship sped onwards until, within sight of the coastline of Kargrazia, it began broadcasting its identity as a diplomatic vessel of Aperture Science, indicating that it was awaiting docking instructions and that it sympathised with the recievers recent wisdom tooth operation.

The Adriatic

Only when the Aperture vessel drew very close to the defiant little Stalinist hold-out in the Balkans, actually well within the nation's claimed but obviously poorly monitered territorial waters, did any sign of life emerge from the Dictatorship. The humming of radial piston engines foretold the approach of two PUK-6 attack aircraft in Kargrazi colours, arriving from the east.

The planes were unlikely to cause too much alarm, being obviously derived from the Sukhoi Su-6, built in prototype form by the USSR during the Great Patriotic War (or Second World War to some). Their initial approach was not immediately aggressive, and the two spent some minutes circling above the ship, racks of unguided rockets visible under the wings of both aircraft.

Ashore, a Kargrazian naval base picked up the Aperture transmission, and directed the vessel to relatively calm waters just over two kilometres off shore. A launch would be sent out to collect diplomats and escort them ashore.

The Dictatorship had just 1,200 metres -three quarters of a mile- of coastline, and so almost all of it was given over to a military-controlled port facility that had seen precious little trade since the 1976 rise of Antoi Bexhi to the Premiership. Cetch didn't want foreign vessels coming in and poking about there, especially it was not keen to have anybody get a really good look at the dated nature of infrastructure and defences.

A flat-bottomed motorised vessel of little more than a hundred tonnes displacement presently drew into view, a dual-mounted 14.5mm machinegun post its most serious armament. Aboard were a few essential hands, four Naval Infantry armed with Hungarian AMD-65 AK-derived carbines, probably the best all-around infantry weapon in Kargrazian service, and an olive-skinned, thick moustache-wearing officer in sad grey-green dress uniform topped with a ludicrously over-sized peaked cap and finished off with the ribons of at least forty medals won in a nation that hasn't been to war since the 1940s.

Captain Sali Hajdaraga of the Statini (Kargrazia's notorious secret police and counter intelligence organisation) signalled -with a lamp- his intention to heave-to and welcome aboard the appointed delegation for transport to shore.

The ship took notice of the two fighters, variety of sensors probing the fighters, quickly determining that they posed virtually no threat to the craft or its passengers. Still, it kept a small portion of itself dedicated to the task of tracking the aircraft and a steady, passive, lock with its image-finding missiles, still concealed within its hull.
The arrival of the Kargrazian boat was met with a small procession, emerging onto the deck of the Aperture Science vessel. Two white ovoids, which scuttled out on a set of tripod legs, each bearing a single red eye situated in the center of their main 'body'. Following these was a, apparently, man, moving somewhat stiffly, wearing a cheap, grey business suit and carrying a briefcase. Close inspection would reveal that his skin was somewhat waxy, although perfectly sculpted to match a standard humans. And he didnt seem to blink quite often enough.
Lastly, a small flying device, vaugly similar to the first two robots to emerge from the hull, whirled about the boat once or twice, then stationed itself firmly above the mans head.
The AS ship returned the signal, stating that the party would be glad to accept a ride to shore and that their ship would remain anchored in this position until such time as the party returned.

Despite his strangeness, the 'man' received no funny looks from his hosts as the Kargraz motor launch drew up beside the Aperture vessel. The Kargrazians were close to mesmerisation as they watched the animated eggs. Guards clutched their assault carbines a little more tightly as a distracted Hajdaraga welcomed the delegation aboard and the launch made for shore.

Ordinarily something so 'alien' would expect to be quarantined and likely stripped apart by the authorities -the last foreigners to visit Kargrazia were Kahanistanis, and none of them have been heard from since they arrived at Iosef Aerodrome, the base from which those Puk-6s were operating- but the reclusive Communists were simply too amazed by the orbs to even consider interfering with them at this stage.

The crew forgot in their bewilderment to raise the screens meant to obscure the outsiders' view of the naval base as the launch came in to dock. It was a small facility in a cove on Kargrazia's mere three-quarter mile of jagged Adriatic coastline, grey, glum, and little changed since the 1940s, even less so since current Premier Antoi Bexhi came to power in 1976.

A solitary Kargrazian flag, akin to Hungary's and representative of workers' blood, leader's purity, and motherland's fertility, rustled in the sea breeze and its ropes tapped methodically against the pole. A small diesel-electric submarine sat rusting at its moorings, and a strange rushing, roaring sound could be heard in the distance, rising from behind the drab waterfront buildings.

The Captain gestured for the 'man' to join him ashore, and dockers lashed the boat in place. Out to sea, one Puk remains on station, loitering over the foreign ship, while the other has apparently returned to base. A small military taxi visibly derived from a duce-and-a-half truck idled near by, and the visitors were invited to join Hajdaraga, two of the guards, and a driver. Six forward-facing seats were fixed in the open rear of the archaic vehicle, and steps folded out to allow access. The guards would ride on a footboard at the taxi's rear.

The Kargrazians spoke little. They were headed for Cetch, and the ride was not going to be comfortable on Kargrazi roads in a vehicle about which was told a lame joke: what do you call the shock absorbers on a Kargrazi taxi? Passengers!

As the vehicle pulled away, eyes peered through a dusty windowpane in one of the waterfront shacks. A young communications officer was still wondering how the foreigners knew about his ordeal with Statini interrogators, who had left him with fewer teeth than before. In Kargrazia, sometimes bizarre mistranslations hit close to the bone, or root canal!

The little hovering spheroid seemed content to flick around, apparently curious about everything around it. Its little helicopter blades produced an almost satisfied sounding hum wherever it went, although more than one sharp glance from the suit restrained it from getting too far away, or too close to the Kargrazians.
Once off the boat, the man, who moved a bit stiffly, ratcheted the corners of his mouth into a smile.
"A moost pleasaant trip, caaptain. I will..commend you to yoour superioor...s."
Once on the truck, none of the party seemed particularly uncomfortable. The little hovering robot had made itself comfortable on the mans briefcase, while the others were, variously, sitting or had latched onto various grips in the floor or seats, moving with the truck.
Occasionally, one of them would buzz at the man, a high-pitched, wavering tone, to which the man would respond in kind.
After some time, the man stuck his head outside, looked at the guard, and spoke in somewhat better Cirisie than the diplomatic communication.
"Paardon me, might I..ask where we aare going?"