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Republic of Partium
Partiumi Köztársaság
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday

OTL equivalent: Northern Vojvodina and Eastern Hungary
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of Partium
Location of Partium
Capital Debrecen
Largest city Debrecen
Other cities Hajdúböszörmény, Nyíregyháza, Somber, Subotica
Language
  official
 
Hungarian
  others Romanian, Serbian
President Ferenc Juhász
Prime Minister István Ujhelyi
Area approx. 38,750 km²
Population approx. 1.1 million 
Established de facto January 30 1991, de jure January 21 2000
Currency Transylvanian leu, Partium forint (pre-doomsday Hungarian forint)
Organizations Black Sea Accords

Partium is a survivor state based out of the city of Debrecen in eastern Hungary and much of the Vojvodina region of the former state of Serbia, which is a protectorate of the Romanian successor state of Transylvania.

Pre-Doomsday[]

Before Hungarians occupied present-day Hungary, a number of different tribes lived in the area. Eventually, the Magyars - forerunners of the modern Hungarians would occupy the region, eventually establishing the Kingdom of Hungary. During the 16th century, the area of modern Hungary became split between the Hapsburgs, Transylvania, and the Ottoman Empire.

During the Ottoman period, being close to the border and having no castle or city walls, Debrecen often found itself in difficult situations and the town was saved only by the diplomatic skills of its leaders. Sometimes the town was protected by the Ottoman empire, sometimes by the Catholic European rulers or by Transylvania. This led the town's citizens to be open-minded and Debrecen embraced the Protestant Reformation quite early. Eventually, the area came under the complete control of the Hapsburg monarchy in the early 18th century.

In 1849 Debrecen was the capital of Hungary for a short time when the Hungarian revolutionary government fled there from Budapest. Debrecen also witnessed the end of the war of independence - the battle in which the Russians, the allies of the Habsburgs, defeated the Hungarian army was close to the western part of the town. After World War I, Hungary lost a considerable portion of its eastern territory to Romania, and Debrecen once again became situated close to the border of the country. During World War II, Debrecen was almost completely destroyed. A major battle, the Battle of Debrecen, occurred near the city in October 1944. After 1944 the reconstruction began and Debrecen became the capital of Hungary for a short time once again. Significant changes to the makeup of the city would occur thereafter.

Doomsday[]

Hungary was hit by several strikes on Doomsday:

Budapest, the capital, for its industry, population, and army headquarters.

Kecskemét, for its air base.

Miskolc, for its heavy industry.

Pécs, for its industry and population.

Szeged, for its industry and oil production.

Szolnok, for its air base.

Veszprém, for its army base.

Post-Doomsday[]

While the city of Debrecen was spared the fires of Doomsday, it was not spared the flood of refugees that followed. Going from being in control over the entire county, they were quickly reduced by the flood of refugees to merely having control over the city and its immediate environs - and without the ability to reclaim the area. In fact, they even spent much of the summer of 1984 essentially besieged by refugees, though they were able to force them away in time to harvest the fields in the area.

Other cities in the region faced much the same fate - and those that were not able to remove the squatting refugees went the same way themselves, with the populations turning upon themselves in an orgy of death and fleeing into the countryside, joining the refugees.

The city of Debrecen would establish - by the end of 1985 - what they believed to be a temporary Hungarian government after the events of Doomsday. They would be proven wrong in this regard.

Transylvania[]

In 1989, the city guards saw what appeared to be an organized formation heading their way from the east - nothing at all like the bands of refugees that they still saw from time to time.

Making contact, the guards discovered that the formation was in fact a patrol from a similar government set up in the Transylvanian region of Romania. While the Transylvanians could do little to help them, they did assist in expanding the explored zone around the city somewhat.

Following the declaration of independence issued by the Transylvanian government in July of 1990, similar movements began to occur in Debrecen. While they did declare themselves the legitimate government of Hungary in January of 1991, no such declaration of independence was issued, at least in part because they controlled little territory outside of the city.

A small delegation from the city did head to the Transylvanian capital, in an attempt to gain their assistance in securing more territory around the city, but they were turned down, being told that Transylvanian efforts were better off being spent in the eastern parts of Romania, as well as claimed areas of nearby countries.

Aid[]

Much the same situation would exist through much of the 1990s, with diplomatic missions going to Transylvania on several occasions, continuing to attempt to get help from them, but being turned down each time for the same reason.

Yet, in 1999, the answer was finally different. The Transylvanian President agreed to have negotiations over how this aid would be dealt out, over the next year or so. While it seemed generous at the time, it has since been made clear that it was merely a move to placate the Hungarian minority of Transylvania and to try and help ease ethnic tensions between them and the Romanian majority.

The result of the negotiating, by the winter of 2000, was that in exchange for making themselves a protectorate of the Transylvanian government and declaring independence - to be called the Republic of Partium, after the area of Hungary they would control - Transylvania would aid them in reclaiming and rebuilding eastern Hungary, starting with their county and parts of nearby ones.

Reclaiming[]

Beginning in the spring of 2001, Transylvanian soldiers would be sent to Debrecen, where in concert with local forces, they would slowly take over the rest of the county, taking most of it by the end of the year, and the remainder by the next summer. Certain sections of neighboring counties would also be annexed to Partium at that time. Several surviving cities in the area that were found to be somewhat intact were also brought under the banner of Debrecen as well.

Once that goal had been reached, the military forces stopped and dug defensive positions, as given the current situation in Debrecen and Transylvania, they had taken all that the two nations could handle.

Reports out of Serbia on July 18th, 2011, following the coup against the elected government there and the ethnic fighting afterwards, indicated that the last of the uprisings had been crushed, with the survivors fleeing northwards. These survivors would arrive intermittently in Partium, having traveled the empty tracts between Serbia and Partium, starting on the 25th. No more were reported after the 30th.

Following Vidinite terrorist attacks in the Rhodopian capital of Smolyan, Transylvania joined the Rhodopians in declaring war - with the Partian government attached - on April 6th, 2012.

Partium would benefit overall from the war, which ended with a Serbian surrender on May 22nd, 2012, both getting rid of a hostile neighbor and gaining much of northern Vojvodina in the process - doubling its population, though adding a significant Serbian minority in the process. Serbs have been reported, however, heading southwards into Macedonian-annexed areas.

Government[]

The Partian government is headed by a President, chosen by the National Diet, who holds the office for a four-year term, with the possibility to be re-elected once. Powers held by the President are largely nominal. Aside from being the titular head of the Armed Forces, they also nominate a Prime Minister, to be confirmed by the Diet. They also have the power to dismiss the Prime Minister, subject to the will of the Diet. Currently, the president is Ferenc Juhász, elected in 2008, and re-elected in 2012, a socialist and former minister of defense. The next Presidential Vote in the diet is scheduled to be held on June 29th, 2016, in which Juhász will be unable to be a candidate.

Prime Ministers in Partium hold most of the political power, though subject to the will of the Diet and the right held by the President to potentially dismiss them. Elections are supposed to be held every three years or so, but in the event that no candidate for the position is successful at being approved by the Diet, a new election will occur. The most recent elections occurred in 2012, bringing the Liberal Party of former Prime Minister István Jakab back into power, replacing the Socialists of István Ujhelyi. The next election is currently scheduled to be held on May 24th, 2015.

However, all decisions must be approved by the Transylvanian representative in Debrecen before their implementation, as per the diplomatic arrangement.

There are three parties with representation in the National Diet - the Liberal Party, under István Jakab, the Socialist Party, led by István Ujhelyi, and the Hungarist Movement, led by Kulcsár Gergely. Small Communist and Green parties also exist, but hold insignificant portions of the vote.

Currently, Liberals control the Diet, with a half-dozen seats more than the Socialists. However, since the agreement with Transylvania, there has been a significant increase in the size of the Hungarian nationalist - and anti-Transylvanian - party, the Hungarist Movement, which associates itself somewhat the the fascist Arrow Cross Party that was banned in 1945.

The National Diet it´s located in the former Countyhall of Hajdú-Bihar (Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office), located in the Inner City of Debrecen.

Military[]

The Partium Armed Forces consists largely of infantry, armed and reinforced by the Transylvanians. They also employ modern artillery purchased from Alpine companies and floated down the Danube. The main part of the elite pre-doomsday infantry comes from the 5th Infantry Brigade "István Bocskai", located at Mezőtúr during Doomsday. Some members of the 9th Independent Chemical Warfare Squadron and the Chemical Warfare located at Budafok-Háros who survived Doomsday or were outside the capital joined the remnants of the army that joined the Debrecen militias, formed by the local forces of the Internal Security Troops (Belső Karahatalom); the State Security Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH)'s Security Police, the Frontier Guard or Border Guard (Határőrseg, HO), wearing army uniforms, and the Workers' Militia (Munkás Őrseg, MŐ).with the soviet airforce pilots located at the airport of the city. The 7th Motor Rifle Division at Kiskunfélegyháza and the 15th Motor Rifle Division at Nyíregyháza had been part of the Partium Armed Forces since the independence of the region.

Using a combination of small modern planes, and the few that managed to survive the events of 1983 which made it to the city with help of the Soviet air force troops that didn´t left to the Ukrainian sucessor states, there is a small air arm included in the Armed Forces, based at the Debrecen International Airport. However, the planes, while maintained well, are only flown a couple times a year due to the shortage of fuel.

A small fleet of river monitors, to be used to police the rivers and guard commerce from the raiders and bandits which are still found in much of Hungary, as well as the small amount of Vidinite guerrillas still active in that region, are currently under construction in the Alpine city of Linz.

While that fleet is being created, some crews of the pre-Doomsday Danube flotilla managed to left Szolnok, and took shelter in the Tisza basin. The main fleet boats are AN 2 patrol boats. Those former Hungarian river fleet boats had been used in Partium as police boats and transport ships. They played an important role in the Operation Napfeny, when Partium adquired much of southeastern and eastern Hungary, defeating warlords, raiders, and Serbian militias, so no soviet or serb troops were in the eastern side of former Hungary.

Armored vehicles of one sort or another are currently being sought after, though without Transylvanian permission.

Economy[]

With aid from the Transylvanians, factories in Debrecen are slowly being brought back towards being in a functional state, beginning with the textile and farm machinery plants.

The loss of most of its industry and electricity following Doomsday has led to an increase in gardens and animal husbandry being established in the capital. In the former Hortobágy National Park, a grassy plain with Hungarian Grey cattle, racka, water buffalo, and horses tended by mounted herdsmen called Csikós, are raised as the main meat source of the region, and is the grain breadbasket of the country. Hortobágy is also a center for the breeding of Taurus cattle, one of several ongoing attempts to breed back the aurochs and other food sources to the region

Old mines and farms around Debrecen are being restored and excavated, with the eventual goal of putting them back into use. The pre-doomsday Tisza Dam (also known as the Kisköre Dam) got reopened in 1995, and it supports a 28 MW hydroelectric power station, in an effort to establish the needed power to fully restore the industry back in Debrecen and other main cities of the Republic, as the gas and oil that was relied on before 1983 is no longer a viable option in the region.

Due to a government initiative passed in 1994, there has been a proliferation of beehives within Debrecen and other cities, which is sold to a company owned by the state, Akác Méhkas, known in English as "Acacia Beehives." Most production is exported to Transylvania, the Alpine Confederation, and the former Yugoslavia, where it is considered to be a high-end product.

A bustling trade has started with the Alpine Confederation along the Danube and Tisza Rivers via the DDSG (Danube Steamboat Shipping Company, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft), with the hope of expanding to Transylvania now that the eyesore of Vidin has largely been removed from the picture.

Efforts are also being made to repair and restore the rail network from the old MÁV train tracks in the region, using the Tiszavidéki Railway and the Szolnok–Debrecen–Nyíregyháza–Záhony line as the main gauge line. With the main station at the Debrecen Railway Station (Nagyállomás) being restored thanks to Transylvanian engineers, as well as dredging canals and the navigable course of the Tisza basin that didn´t became irradiated near the ruins of Szolnok, the country transportation has been increased. With Transylvanian aid, the Debrecen tram got electrified, instead of using the old 1911 and non-electrified tram cars that were changed to steam-powered trams.

International Relations[]

Partium, while nominally independent, functions in much the same manner as Venice. Most of the security and military is run by Transylvania, which also has what amounts to a veto on their foreign affairs.

Reclamation of the region is ongoing, and with the fall of the radically insane communist regime in Vidin, Transylvania is now able to move more troops into the area, which will allow the secure zone occupied by Partium to expand somewhat, especially when combined with Greek aid. Recent troubles in Serbia, and the flow of refugees, have made this much more of a concern. The new Transylvanian President, Remus Cernea, is a major proponent of this, and has committed troops to the operation, slated to begin in the very near future.

Besides Transylvania, the foreign office of Partium also has embassies in Croatia, Slovenia, the Alpine Confederation, Rhodope, and Greece. It is believed that they would like one in Serbia as well, but disputes between the Serbs and The Transylvanians currently prevent this.

An application to join the League of Nations has been sent, though since its formation a diplomatic representative has accompanied the Transylvanians there.

By a combination of their own diplomats, and their relationship with Transylvania, Partium was a signatory of the Black Sea Accords on August 31st, 2011. As part of the results, they are to receive aid for reclaiming the region, as well as for the construction and repair of dams for electricity.

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