Nefreedian Mars
| Region #26 of the Socialist Workers' Republic of New Freedomstan | ||||
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| Anthem: The Internationale | ||||
| Capital | People's Collective #01-26 | |||
| Largest | People's Collective #02-26 | |||
| Official languages | Nefreedian | |||
| Ethnic groups (2020) | Human(95.3%) Half-Human (4.7%) |
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| Demonym | Nefreedian #26ite Martian |
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| Government | Socialist One-Party Republic | |||
| - | Regional Secretary of the CP26 | 382-457 847-590 | ||
| - | Regional Premier | 753-582 992-482 | ||
| - | Chairman of the Regional Council | Valentina Croditier, 839-475 381-388 | ||
| - | President of the Regional Federation of Socialist Labour | Lars Mattiassen, 981-472 955-392 | ||
| Legislature | Regional Council | |||
| Establishment | ||||
| - | First manned expedition | 1st of May, 2001 | ||
| - | Inauguration of first permanently habitated collective | 1st of May, 2007 | ||
| Population | ||||
| - | 2020 census | 265,500 | ||
| Currency | None | |||
Region #26 of the Socialist Workers' Republic of New Freedomstan, colloquially dubbed Nefreedian Mars, is the last surviving fully functional Region of the SWRNF, established in the 2000s as a prestige project of the SWRNF to rapidly populate and terraform the red planet, with mixed success. Nefreedian Mars consists of a network of People's Collective, larger habitated areas, as well as smaller Work Collectives, to a large extent research bases and mining areas that rarely sustain a permanent population.
Nefreedian Mars officially maintains that it is a Region of the still-existing SWRNF, but maintains little to no contact with remnant elements of the old government in New Freedomstan proper. Due to circumstances, the Regional Council and the regional Communist Party has vested the Regional Premier with the authority to establish relations with foreign states until communications with the Socialist Workers' Republic can be restored, most prominently managing the relationship between Region #26 and the Great Civilization of the C'tan who assisted the Region's survival after cessation of communications with the central government.
Contents
History
Origins
Region #26 is the result of long-standing commitments of the SWRNF to explore, exploit and settle exoplanets. Concrete plans to send manned missions to Mars began already in the 1980s, but were postponed until the late 1990s due to a lack of resources. Already in 1998, General-Secretary C-1 made the intention of the SWRNF eventually settling the Red Planet clear during the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of New Freedomstan, and funding was provided to initiate rapid and drastic plans to explore, terraform and settle the red planet. The first successful manned mission to Mars occurred in 2001, lasting between the 2nd of April to the 5th of June, albeit officially is considered to have been undertaken on the 1st of May. Two failed attempts at colonization followed, in 2002 and 2005, before the settlement of People's Collective #01-26 in spring 2007, by slightly more than a thousand original colonists. The 2,911 who perished during the first two attempts are collective known as the "Great Martyrs of the Irrepressible Advance of Nefreedian Socialism into the Stars", or the "Martyrs of Mars" for short.
Initial Nefreedian attempts at terraformation of Mars began in 2003, shortly after the first failed attempt at colonization, and spelled the first of many such attempts, with mixed to no success. Nefreedian attempts at terraformation continued until 2011 when, due to the civil war, funding from central authorities were aborted. Nefreedian attempts at terraformation have included directed ice asteroid strikes, intensive emission of greenhouse gases as well as applied dialectical measures, whose greatest success has been the expansion and exploitation of sub-surface rivers and lakes.
Following the first successful establishment of a People's Collective on Mars, settlement drastically intensified, the population growing by 20,000-40,000 annually. The first natural-born Comrade-Citizen of Region #26 happened already in 2008, and in 2010 the formal establishment of Region #26 occurred once the population exceeded 100,000. Colonists for Region #26 were carefully vetted by the People's Civilian Commissariat, with ideological adherence being of prime importance, along with physical and mental fitness.
Civil War
During the Nefreedian Civil War, Region #26 saw very limited outright civil unrest, the sole incident of any importance being the short-lived Transport Workers' Wildcat Strike of August 2013, which lasted five days before they voluntarily lay down the strike and the instigators were allowed the opportunity to engage in educational seminars on the nature of Nefreedian Socialism. However, during the civil war the focus of Nefreedian efforts in Mars changed from terraformation and research, into intensifying efforts to render the Region self-sufficient. The population as a whole also expanded in this period, largely due to senior cadres of the Communist Party of New Freedomstan volunteering for the brave efforts at expanding the influence of Nefreedian Socialism beyond planetary boundaries.
After Loss of Communication
Ensuing the loss of communication with the central authorities of the SWRNF, Region #26 found itself without further support from the mainland, causing acute shortages of food, medicine and other essential products. After a month of failed attempts at communication with central authorities, the Communist Party of Region #26 authorized establishing relations with foreign nations independently from the SWRNF (which in and of itself was perfectly legal per the constitution of the SWRNF and of Region #26, but rarely employed). Region #26 thus established permanent relations with the Great Civilization of the C'tan, officially establishing trade agreements, and unofficially accepting foreign aid.
The decision to establish trade relations with the C'tan caused some internal dispute within Region #26, most prominently between the Communist Party of Region #26 and the People's Civilian Commissariat. 487-586 388-482, head of the regional branch of the PCC Inner Section and de facto leader of the regional PCC, opposed the measure and put into motion an attempted coup of Regional Secretary 382-457 847-590. In the ensuing chaos, the Regional Federation of Socialist Labour, the Armed Forces of Region #26 and the Regional Council supported the Communist Party, resulting in outright skirmished and street-fighting in People's Collective #01-26, which lasted for a period of three weeks between Party and Commissariat aligned militias, military units and volunteers. The Communist Party ended up victorious, and in the wake split up the PCC into its constituent Sections, abolishing the Inner Section entirely, and implementing a system of People's Commissars appointed by the Communist Party directly to oversee the responsibilities of the now-divided former sections of the PCC.
Politics
The Communist Party of Region #26, the regional cell of the Communist Party of New Freedomstan, is the sole legal political party in Region #26. The CP26 has an unusually high density of cadres in comparison to the CPNF at large, with a total of 46,000 party-cadres in a population of 265,500. This can largely be attributed to the nature of its population, the colonizers having been carefully vetted for ideological impurities. The CP26 wields, by far, the most power of any institution in Region #26, both in practice and by law, as it constitutionally is the guiding force of the people and the state. The CP26 directly appoints the People's Commissars collectively responsible for the administration of the now-divided People's Commissariats responsible for almost all affairs of state and social services, the sole exceptions of which is the Armed Forces.
Region #26 is nominally led by the Regional Premier, who performs the same functions as a head of state. The Regional Premier is, in theory, appointed by the Regional Council of the Workers and Labourers of Region #26, albeit in practice is appointed by the Regional Committee of the Communist Party.
Legislative functions are performed by the Regional Council of Workers and Labourers of Region #26, who nominally appoints Region #26's members in the Supreme Council of the Socialist Workers' Republic of New Freedomstan, albeit for practical purposes has not done so since the loss of communication with central authorities. The delegates of the Regional Council are appointed by members of the Local Councils of Region #26, each People's Collective having between five and sixty Local Councils, whose delegates are appointed by the workplaces in their area.
The Federation of Socialist Labour, the regional trade union federation, wields no official governing power in Region #26, but has attained a significant amount of de facto power in the wake of the failed PCC coup after the loss of communication. The FSL now functions more like an equal partner with the Civilian Commissariat of Economic Planning in terms of directing the economy, and wields significant influence in appointing the delegates of the Local Councils and Regional Council, only shy of the Communist Party itself.
Following the dissolution of the People's Civilian Commissariat, three primary agencies have largely overtaken their duties and responsibilities. These are the People's Commissariat of State Security, the People's Commissariat of Popular Security, the People's Commissariat of Research and Development and the People's Commissariat of Industrial Development. The People's Commissariat of State Security has overtaken the PCC's former responsibilities of border control, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism and internal intelligence gathering. The People's Commissariat of Popular Security has overtaken the PCC's former responsibilities of policing, operating labour camps and have an overseeing role of the Militia. The People's Commissariat of Research and Development has overtaken the PCC's former role in research, development and education, and is the largest Commissariat in terms of number of workers. The People's Commissariat of Industrial Development has overtaken the PCC's former role in administration and carrying out the economic plans of the state.
Less prominent People's Commissariats are the People's Commissariat of Bodily Security (responsible for healthcare and medical provisioning, independent), the People's Commissariat of Agitation (responsible for cultural works/propaganda, subservient to the PCRD), the People's Commissariat of Pioneers (responsible for childcare, youth organizations, subservient to the PCRD), the People's Commissariat of Labour Security (responsible for enforcing labour quotas and rationing, subservient to the PCID), the People's Commissariat of Militiary Security (responsible for political officers in the as-of-yet hypothetical R26 armed forces, virtually non-existent and subservient to the PCPS) and the People's Commissariat of Cosmos Exploration (space exploration, maintaining satellites, subservient to the PCRD).
The numerous People's Commissariats wield substantially less independent power than the PCC wielded, but still maintains some influence in R26, but secondary to that of the Communist Party, the Federation of Socialist Labour and the Regional Council.
State Ideology
The state ideology of Nefreedian Mars remains NefSoc, or Nefreedian Socialism, whose long-form is "Marxism-Leninism-C1ism with Nefreedian Characteristics", which in the R26 constitution is explicitly laid out as the guiding ideology of the state, party and people. However, the exact nature of NefSoc is not legally applied, and the Communist Party of Region #26 have applied a pragmatic interpretation of the ideology, especially as it relates to acceptance of foreign aid from non-humans. NefSoc outlines the creation of a one-party totalitarian state to carry out the Nefreedian Revolution after the establishment of socialism. Key elements of the ideology include collectivism, human supremacy, new freedom and communism.
Collectivism
Even with CP26's more pragmatic approach, collectivism remains almost untouched. Nefreedian collectivist thought holds that the concept of the individual is itself counter-revolutionary, and for communism to be built the population needs to fully accept their role as parts of the greater proletarian state, rather than as individuals under it. In practical terms, this means Nefreedian Mars encourages its population to abstain from carrying personal names (using their rationing numbers as their identifiers being encouraged, although not yet mandatory). In addition, the abolition of the family, children being raised communally by the People's Commissariat of Pioneers, the focus on collective glory over individual accomplishment, the martyrdom cult and a strict rejection of cults of personality (with few exceptions, exclusively of individuals who are already dead and are pushed forth as paragons of their class, such as former General-Secretary Anders Ivansen, founder of NefSoc Comrade #1, and others).
Dissent against R26's collectivist policies is significantly less than it was in the mainland SWRNF, in large parts because of the vetting process on colonists. Still, some dissent persists, in both accepted forms (such as retaining a given name, which even some high-ranking political officials persist in doing) and unacceptable forms (such as by maintaining unprofessionally close relationships with blood-relatives, particularly between parents and children).
Human Supremacy
NefSoc holds that only humans can truly be proletarians and lead the galaxy into communism, with non-humans grouped into Humans, Half-Humans and Subhumans. Unofficially, individuals who are humans by species is sometimes referred to as 'Pure Humans', but the official line is that this is biologist reactionarism and is punishable by forced labour. The exact requirements for any category are nebulous, and it is one where the pragmatic bent of the R26 leadership is most evidently visible, going further than even the Ivansenites in mainland SWRNF, individuals of species who would typically be labelled subhuman being categorized as half-human, and half-humans categorized as human depending on their record of service to the state. Officially, only 5% of R26 are half-human, while more puritan NefSoc standards would have put 15-20% of the population in that category, such as the half-elves and dwarfs. Those categorized as Subhuman, through reactionary standards, counterrevolutionary activity, wrecking, murder, rape are summarily executed.
New Freedom
New Freedom is a concept of Nefreedian Socialism which gives the ideology its name and short-form, and is closely tied to their collectivist and communist ethos. New Freedom contrasts itself against Old Freedom, or Counter-Revolutionary Liberty. Old Freedom is typically defined as freedom or liberties that enhances individual thought or egoism, such as private property rights, personal property rights, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. New Freedom in contrast is defined as liberties which either enhances, or is neutral, towards the collective spirit, such liberties including freedom of association (in party-approved forms), sexual liberty, legalization of most mind-altering substances. More fundamentally however, New Freedom refers to the liberty of the people and class, ahead of the freedom of the individual, and thus also involves the freedom of the state to punish counter-revolutionary elements, subhumans, the freedom to curtail destructive tendencies, the freedom to direct the economy and the freedom to ration goods in shortage.
Communism
The ultimate goal of NefSoc is communism, albeit their definition of communism is different from that of Marxism-Leninism. The future utopia of communism according to the NefSoc is the perpetual victory of the proletariat against capitalism, fascism, degeneracy, individualism and subhumans, describing a society where individuals no longer considers themselves as such, but as mere parts of the greater collective in a free, stateless and classless society, where the revolutionary will of the communist collective directs the entirety of a society without want, need, greed or fear.
Socialist Patriotism
Socialist Patriotism is a key element of NefSoc, seeking to replace all previously existing affiliations towards a Socialist Patriotism of the human race and the NefSoc state. NefSoc Patriotism entails the eradication of traditional cultures, be they religious, racial, ethnic, national, tribal or other alternate means of identification in favour of a full and total love and commitment to the socialist fatherland. Martyrdom for the fatherland is exalted as the ultimate act of love, be it military, industrial or scientific martyrdom. This also extends into language, the teaching of pre-revolutionary languages being explicitly illegal, as is the dissemination of information on pre-revolutionary Nefreedian nations or ethnicities. These are not stated to never have existed, but are all considered to be inherently reactionary and counter-revolutionary.
Culture
The culture of Region #26 is more informed by ideology than tradition, the colonists having been selected from throughout the former SWRNF with ideological purity as a key determiner for acceptance into the program, albeit in the 2009-2011 period this was relaxed to merely entail a lack of hostile ideological deviancy due to a lack of sufficient volunteers. Like the SWRNF at large, #26 has no census or official tracking of ethnicity or religion of its population, but was considered to be the ethnically most diverse Region of the SWRNF before the end of the central authorities. Due to the vetting process, personal ethnic affiliation is a small minority, and religious affiliation is virtually unknown.
Region #26 had an opportunity to implement Nefreedian Socialism in full, far beyond what any mainland Region was able to do with the possible exception of Region #20, due to the widespread support of Nefreedian Socialism among the colonists. As a result, the family unit does not exist in Region #26, children born being taken care of by the collective rather than those biologically related to the child, largely under the care of the People's Commissariat of Pioneers. In the same vein, Region #26 does not recognize personal romantic relationships in any official way, the closest being the possibility of two such individuals applying for shared domicile.
Another element of #26ite culture is the large proportion who chooses to abstain from having a given name, with an estimated 73.5% of the population being only known by their citizen number. 17.8% of the population utilize a full name, including a family name, patronymic/matronymic or both, while the remaining 8.7% retain a given name or nickname only in addition to their citizen number. While the SWRNF still existed, this put Region #26 third in adoption of using citizen number as a name, behind Region #20 (100.0%) and Region #5 (100.0%), on virtue of those two making the renouncing of given names mandatory.
