Alternative History
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For the Galicia in Spain see the Republic of Galicia.
Galician Federation
Галицька Федерація
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday

OTL equivalent: Parts of the Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Ternopil, and Zakarpattia Oblasts of the Ukraine
Flag Seal
Flag Seal
Location of Galician Federation
In the light blue
Capital Perehinske
Largest city Chernivtsi
Other cities Berezhany, Drohobych, Halych, Khotyn, Khust, Slavske, Tovste, Yaremche
Language Ukrainian
Consul Duke Yuri I of Halych
First Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Area est. 52,600 km²
Population est. 2,025,000 
Currency Ukrainian Grivna
Organizations Ukraine Republican Coalition

The Galician Federation, otherwise known as Galicia, is a grouping of ten city-states in the region of Galicia of the former Ukraine.

History[]

Pre-Doomsday[]

In 981, Vladimir the Great of Kievan Rus' took over the Red Ruthenian cities in the region in his military campaign on the border with Poland. As one of many successors to Kievan Rus', the Principality of Halych existed here from 1087 to 1200, when Roman the Great finally managed to unite it with Volhynia in the state of Halych-Volhynia. In the 1340s, the dynasty died out, and the area passed to Poland. But the sister state of Volhynia fell under Lithuanian control. Galicia was many times subjected to incursions by Tartars and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th and 17th centuries, however they were driven out, devastated during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Russo-Polish War, and inconvenienced by Swedish invasions during The Deluge, and the Great Northern War.

In 1772, Galicia was the largest part of the area annexed by Austria in the First Partition of Poland. In 1815, as a result of decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Lublin area was ceded by Austria to the Congress Kingdom of Poland, leaving most of Galicia inside Austria. Many rebellions and crackdowns by authorities would follow in the rest of the century. From 1873, Galicia was de facto an autonomous province of Austria-Hungary, though still controlled by Polish nobles. In part, this helped lead to large amounts of Galicians immigrating to the Americas.

During the First World War, Galicia saw heavy fighting between the forces of Russia and the Central Powers. In 1918, Western Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, while the local Ukrainian population briefly declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Following the Polish-Soviet War in 1921, most of the region became part of the Polish Republic, and the Soviets got what was left. In 1939, the Soviets invaded the region, annexing it. After having been fought over in the Second World War, the population was subject to a series of forced population transfers with Poland in its aftermath. The area was also subject to a long resistance, to the Germans, Poles, and Soviets, by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Doomsday[]

The Galician region of the Ukraine suffered several strikes on Doomsday, though the pattern of the strikes did enable many to survive in the area with few ill effects. These cities were hit:

Brody, for its air base and important pipeline connections.

Ivano-Frankivsk, for its major military base.

Kolomyia, for the nuclear base and headquarters.

Lviv, for its size and military importance.

Mukachevo, for its air base.

Stryi, for its air base.

Ternopil, for its military base.

Uzhhorod, for its military base.

Post-Doomsday[]

In the Galician region of the Ukraine, order, as in the majority of the Ukraine, rapidly broke down, as government centers were destroyed and fallout began to cover much of the land. A few islands of stability, however, did remain. These islands would eventually evolve into the modern city-states of the Confederation.

Slowly, these islands of stability would begin to expand their authority, using a combination of police, militia and actual soldiers to defeat the bandits and armed bands that had popped up in the area after Doomsday. The most powerful of these city-states, based out of the surviving provincial capital of Chernivtsi, soon encountered exploration parties from the city-states of Tovste, Yaremche and Khotyn, at more or less the same time. After determining that they were not more bandits, an alliance was quickly agreed upon, to better enable them to survive the horrors of the new world.

Hearing rumors of other cities surviving farther northwest from refugees running from bandits, this alliance of city-states sent out teams of explorers in that direction. Eventually, three city-states, based out of the cities of Berezhany, Drohobych, Halych, Perehinske, and Slavske, were located amidst the chaos. The leaders of these states agreed to join their alliance in late 1988, following negotiations, as well.

In early 1989, forces investigating the northern side of passes through the Carpathians, around 20 miles southwest of Yaremche, encountered a party moving gingerly over the mountains from the west. After making contact, the party was discovered to be from a small state based in the city of Khust. They agreed to, provisionally, join the growing alliance, provided its forces secured a route between the two areas soon. This was accomplished later that summer.

Alliance and Confederation[]

Much of the next few years were spent consolidating the area, and marking off areas hit by strikes as being off-limits. Several large-scale bandit raids had to be fought off as well, largely happening southeast of Chernivtsi and west of Khust.

Even the military bases and cities in the area proved to be pretty well devoid of equipment - apparently, what had remained usable after the atomic blasts were over had already been looted and picked fairly clean by bandits, though several stores of modern weapons were eventually recovered by convict excavators at the ruins of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Through all the hardship, the alliance remained intact, and even prospered. Eventually, it was decided by its members to formalize the relationship between them. To that end, negotiations were undertaken in the central city of Perehinske into making the organization more unified during 1992.

By the end of the year, an agreement had been reached between the city-states - they would join together in a Confederation, merging together both their militaries and diplomatic sections, which would both be based in Perehinske. It was decided that the Confederation would be named after the area of the Ukraine that most of the city-states were in, Galicia.

Outside Contact[]

In 1995, while exploring the ruins of Lviv, a government exploration and recovery team had a major shock: they encountered another group, much like their own, that had come from the north.

Based in what had once been the northwestern Ukraine, these soldiers turned out to be from another surviving area, called the Volhynian Commonwealth. This confirmed rumors of some sort of organized territory there which had been frequently heard from bandits.

Through the Volhynians, the Confederation was told what the Commonwealth knew about the outside world, telling of areas that they knew held survivors, in eastern Poland and Belarus - as well as the small nation of Polesia to the east, located west of the ruins of Kyiv.

At around the same time, explorers hunting south of Galician territory for survivors enter the former nation of Romania, in an area known to have held many Ukrainians prior to Doomsday. While they were pleased to discover organized survivors, they also found them living as part of the successor nation to Romania, Transylvania. A group of diplomats were quickly sent southward from Perehinske, where they negotiated with the government there for aid. While none could be offered, the government there did make a different offer - in exchange for Romanians and Hungarians who wanted to move to Transylvania in Galician territory being escorted there, and recognition of the Budjak and Moldovia regions of the USSR, they would recognize them as controlling the Ukraine north of the Romania border and allow and Ukrainians who wanted to leave for Galicia leave, with an escort.

This deal would be accepted quite readily - many of these Hungarians would move to areas of eastern Hungary being aided by the Transylvanians.

In 1998, advance scouts from Polesia discovered a fourth survivor state in the western Ukraine, to their south, and to the east of Galicia, which called itself Podolia. Upon receiving this news, an embassy was quickly sent eastward to establish themselves there.

The Coalition[]

By the end of 2000, the various nations in the Western Ukraine had established contact with each other, and independently determined that outside of small villages, no more large concentrations of survivors were likely to be found in the area.

However, armed disputes between explorers had begun to occur over what territory belonged to which nation. After a particularly bloody and alarming encounter between Volhynian and Podolian scouts, it became painfully obvious to the governments of the four powers that some sort of solution was needed - with the knowledge that the Soviet Union still existed in some form in Siberia, they knew that they needed to be strong enough to resist when it eventually worked its way back to them. The presence of the Russian confederacy between the two did little to help matters, either.

As such, representatives from the four nations agreed to meet over the winter of 2000-2001 in the city of Halych, an old capital city inside Galician territory, since all could agree it was the strongest of the four nations. At this conference, they would decide how to divide up the region fairly, in order to prevent outbursts of violence from occurring between them.

After much debate, it was decided to generally follow the old boundaries between oblasts, with a few small adjustments - Galicia joined with Volhynia in giving up some of one oblast in a particular instance so that Podolia could eventually possess the historic capital of the region of Podolia.

Given how successful the Halych Conference went, it was agreed to meet there again over the next winter, to discuss some sort of military alliance. At this conference, a agreement was made to establish an alliance - which they called the Ukraine Republican Coalition, despite the protests of the Duke of Halych - with the primary goal of rebuilding the Western Ukraine and policing the uninhabited regions between them, though with the message that the Siberians were not welcome there being incredibly obvious. The headquarters of the Coalition was established in Halych, as a concession to the Duke.

In 2008, with the realization that they were by far each others biggest trading partners, another conference was held, this time in the Polesian capital of Fastiv. The goal was to further the trading, and to make it easier. The eventual end result was the addition to the military alliance of an economic alliance, with a common currency - the Ukrainian Grivna - to be established by the fall of 2009. It was launched on October 12, 2009, to much fanfare.

Otherwise, Galicia has been fairly quiet, with the vast majority of efforts being put into reclaiming their region of the Ukraine. Each city-state is expanding its territory, and in some areas they are becoming large enough for talk to begin of establishing new ones, though not seriously as of yet.

Federating[]

On May 7th, 2012, the long-awaited conference about further integrating the Confederation began in Perehinske. It was expected to occur on and off over the next few months.

On September 15th, 2012, following slightly over four months of discussions and negotiations, representatives from the city-states agreed to number of additions to the established alliance and confederation documents, changing the makeup - and name - of the confederation, into a federation.

Discussions over territory also occurred - and were why an agreement took so long. Eventually, it was agreed that in addition to previously established boundaries, borders would also be drawn through some of the territory allotted them under at the First Halych Conference in 2001, giving parts of it to the city-states. The remainder of the territory, toward Volhynia, would be formed into another two members once it was resettled.

Government[]

The Galician Federation is a political union of several small city-states that arose in the region after the events of Doomsday.

All but one of these city-states are republican in nature, with the exception being the Duchy of Halych, a semi-constitutional monarchy north of the ruins of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Representatives from each of these city-states meet in the city of Perehinske, chosen for its central location in the old Confederation, and remaining there after the change to a Federation, to discuss matters through much of the year.

The government itself is headed up by a council of ministers, one of which are from each of the city-states, and headed by a "First Minister." The First Minister is chosen by secret ballot among the members of this council.

Each member of the council, in addition to being responsible for matters pertaining to their own city-state, is appointed to a ministerial portfolio for the entire Federation, such as defense or culture.

Currently, the position of First Minister is held by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of Chernivtsi, who also is in charge of the Economic Ministry.

Prior to the change to a Federation, each citizen of the Confederation also voted on candidates for the position of "Consul." This role, largely ceremonial, was meant to have a unifying factor on the region. Each resident held one vote, and the candidate with the most votes overall, no matter how small the plurality, was the winner. The last one of these Consuls was Vasyl Protyvsikh, a former mayor of Yaremche.

1983ddgaliciamap1

With the changes made by moving into a Federation, the position of Consul, while retaining the same name formally, was given to the Duke of Halych and his heirs. The Duke would also be given the title "King of Galicia," and crowned. That would, however, add no powers beyond the ceremonial ones already associated with the role of Consul, and not be a title recognized - formally - in most of the members of the Federation.

Divisions[]

The Federation is divided into ten separate city-states, of varying size and population, and what is referred to as "Federal Territory," beyond the northern city-states, though not settled.

City-State Infomation
Berezhany Main base for recovery operations
Chernivtsi Largest City in both Galicia, and the former Ukraine
Drohobych Both this city-state and Slavske have annexed small areas of former Poland
Halych Ruled by Duke Yuri I of Halych, also known more informally as Yuri III of Galicia, formerly an archaeologist in the area
Khotyn Most trade with Podolia goes through this area
Khust The main border crossings to Transylvania are in this area
Perehinske Capital
Slavske Both this city-state and Drohobych have annexed small areas of former Poland
Tovste Most future expansion into claimed territory is likely to go through this area
Yaremche The most settled city-state

Military[]

The military of the Federation is today composed of some 125,000 or so soldiers. Most of these soldiers are used to offer some sort of security to both the edges of controlled territory, and to escort traders across the distance between Galicia and its neighbors.

Most are still equipped with fairly old-fashioned weaponry, though the central government is investing much of its budget into fixing the situation.

Elements of the military were recently used to aid the Transylvanian Army in trapping bands of raiders fleeing their forces in eastern Hungary - Galician troops were at the border waiting for them, and blocked their passage, allowing troops from Transylvania pursuing them to catch up and destroy them.

Economy[]

As is the case in much of the Ukraine, the primary export of Galicia is potatoes, grain and other cereal crops, largely to Polesia and points southward. Minerals, coal, and lumber are also fairly common, however.

Galicia is also well-known in the region for the high-quality products of its woodworking industry.

International Relations[]

The Galician Federation is a member of the Ukraine Republican Coalition, a military and economic alliance of Ukrainian survivor states in the Western Ukraine formed to try to pacify the region and keep it safe from both the chaos of much of the region, and to begin preparations to keep the Socialist Union in Siberia away from them. The headquarters is in the city of Halych inside Galicia.

Besides the other members of the URC, Galicia also hosts embassies from Transylvania, Crimea, East Poland and Belarus. They hold embassies in all of these nations, as well as a consulate in the Transylvanian Protectorate of Partium.

Otherwise, most of their international relations go through the WCRB Bureau in Crimea and the Transylvanian government. They are also cooperating with the WCRB missions into the central Ukrainian wastes as best as possible.

They have declined to participate in the upcoming Europa Games, citing distance and a need to use funds that would be spent on that endeavor elsewhere.

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