Upcoming Lore: 1) Livonia (2024)

Republic of Livonia

Republika Inflant

Anthem: Moja Ojczyzna (“My Fatherland”)

Capital: Andrzejów
Official Language: Polish

Ethnic Groups (2023): 87% Poles
5% Lithuanians
3% Belarusians
3% Russians
2% Others

Religion: 82.2% Christianity
- 61.3% Catholicism
- 36.7% Eastern Orthodoxy
- 2% Other Christian
15.8% no religion
2% other

Demonym(s): Livonian - Liv

Government: Unitary parliamentary republic
President: Kazimierz Sikorski
Prime Minister: Karolina Baluch
Legislature: Senat (Upper house)
Parlament (Lower house)

Formation: Sokolski Mutiny and establishment of First Republic (5th October 1920)
Soviet annexation (15th June 1940)
Establishment of Livonian Soviet Socialist Republic within USSR (21st July 1940)
German occupation (18th July 1941)
Liberation and re-establishment of Livonian SSR within USSR (19th August 1944)
Proclamation of sovereignty, recognition of secession from USSR and establishment of Second Republic (28th August 1991)

Area: 12,029 km² (4644 sq mi)

Population: 455,856 (2023)

GDP: $17.552 billion total (2023)
$11,354 per capita (2023)

Currency: Livonian złoty (zł)

Time zone: UTC+1 (CET)

Date format: dd/mm/yyyy (CE)

Driving side: Right

Calling code: +50

Internet TLD: .ln

Livonia, officially the Republic of Livonia (Polish: Republika Inflant), is a landlocked country in central Europe. It borders Lithuania to the north, Belarus to the east, Poland to the south and Russia to the west. Livonia covers an area of 12,029 km² (4644 sq mi), with a population of 455,856. Its capital and largest city is Andrzejów; another major city is Stokowsko. Livonians mostly belong to the ethnolinguistic group of Poles and the most widely spoken language is Polish, though small communities also speak Lithuanian and Russian.

The region known today as Livonia is believed to have been inhabited since prehistoric times, with Megalithic sites dotted around the picturesque countryside, particularly in the Nadbór region of the country.

Throughout the Bronze and early Iron age Livonia was populated by various Baltic tribes. Over time these tribes would mix heavily with Germanic tribes – bringing with them Celtic and Roman influence. The ethnic make-up of Livonia would drastically change starting around 500 AD however with the arrival of the Slavs from central-Eastern Europe.

The land that is now Livonia would be fought over for centuries, being held at first by the Teutonic Order, though a local uprising would dislodge their grip. From the 1500s to the late 1700s Livonia would fall under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth before its demise. The following century would see control being swapped between the major regional powers of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and at one point Napoleon’s France.

At the outbreak of the First World War the area of the modern Livonian state was split between the warring Germans and Russians. Situated directly on the frontline, Livonia saw brutal fighting as the two empires clashed for supremacy. As the war went on Livonia fell to the complete control of the Germans as they inflicted catastrophic losses on the war-weary Russians. With the Russian Revolution and end of hostilities between the Germans and the now Bolshevik-led Russia peace finally returned to Livonia – but it was not to last.

Following the defeat of Germany, the subsequent Treaty of Versailles saw Poland and Lithuania resurrected as independent nations with the territory of modern Livonia split between them. It would not be long before the two newly reborn nations would be in conflict, with the Polish-Lithuanian war breaking out in May of 1919. The Poles made swift gains, taking the Suwałki and Vilnius regions. The war came to an end following a ceasefire brokered by the League of Nations in 1920.

Two days before the signing of the peace treaty an opportunistic Polish General by the name of Zbigniew Sokolski, who had become sympathetic to the swathes of refugees fleeing the fighting in the region, launched a mutiny against the Polish army. With his “army”, mostly comprised of volunteers, criminals and released prisoners of war, Sokolski seized the Suwałki region and declared the creation of a new independent state – the Republic of Livonia. With the Poles occupied by the ongoing Polish-Soviet War, Sokolski’s fledgling nation was left to its own devices.

Tensions in the region were raised in 1939 following the invasion of neighbouring Poland by Germany on the 1st of September and outbreak of the Second World War in full on the 3rd. Livonia would be put in a precarious position on the 17th as the Soviet Union launched its own invasion of the infant Polish state. Once again Livonia found itself caught between two of Europe’s great powers.

Unfortunately Livonia’s independence was to be short lived. On the 15th of June 1940, under the auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed by Germany and the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin ordered the occupation of the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Livonia. Powerless to resist the Red Army, the region would be proclaimed the Livonian Soviet Socialist Republic in July 1940, becoming a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. The Soviet’s would institute large scale collectivist land reforms and dismantled the institutions of the Livonian state, changing the fabric of Livonian society for decades to come.

War would return to Livonia in June of 1941 with the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. The fall of Livonia was swift, with the ill-equipped and poorly-led Soviet armies stationed there quickly surrounded and destroyed. Within a matter of weeks all of Livonia was firmly under German control.

Life under the German occupation was tough for Livonians. Food shortages, disease and mass-executions of those suspected of resisting the occupiers were widespread. It would not be until three years later, in August 1944, that the Germans would be expelled from the region during the Soviet counter-offensive known as Operation Bagration.

Following the German occupation and subsequent defeat Livonia would be returned to Soviet-possession as the Livonian SSR. Following the end of the Second World War until the mid-1960s Livonia became a hotbed of anti-Soviet resistance, with partisans roaming its vast woodlands, but they would ultimately be unsuccessful. Livonia was eventually fully integrated into the Soviet machine. During this time there was however improvement in the quality of life of the Livonian people but at the continued cost of liberty.

During the Cold War Livonia, being one of the closest constituent republics of the USSR on mainland Europe to NATO territory, was heavily militarized. Many Livonians remarked that the region had become nothing more than a barracks for Soviet soldiers. Soviet nuclear missile batteries were deployed to the area, and seeing Soviet soldiers on the streets became a daily occurrence.

When the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SSRs made declarations of sovereignty throughout 1988 and 1989, Livonia did not immediately follow suit. Grzegorz Brzeziński, the pragmatic Chairman of Livonia’s Supreme Soviet, sympathised with nationalist sentiments but exercised caution owing to the SSR’s heavy Soviet military presence. Yet as Livonia’s sister republics in the Baltics moved towards full independence, Brzeziński acted quickly to establish his own position in the post-Soviet world. On the 28th of August 1991, one week after Latvia and Estonia’s independence, Livonia declared its own full independence. Shortly afterwards the Soviet Union itself would collapse.

Life in post-Soviet Livonia was tough throughout the 1990s. A struggling economy and political corruption saw Livonia follow the path of many other former Soviet republics.

The swift transition from an ostensibly loyal SSR to an independent nation meant that the new Republic of Livonia had little time to dismantle the vestiges of Soviet governance, a situation which suited Brzeziński perfectly. Appointing himself as the head of a new provisional government, Brzeziński was positioned as a “steady hand” before democratic elections were held. Yet with his control over the apparatus of state, Brzeziński handily won the 1992 elections and became Livonia’s first president. The next 6 years saw some political and economic liberalisation in Livonia, but nothing on the scale of the Baltic republics to its north. Brzeziński would die in 1998, one year into his second term, and was succeeded by Franciszek Kowalski following an election in the Parlament.

The late-90s saw a shift in Livonian public opinion. Flanked by a revitalized Russia and its Belarusian client, and with its Polish neighbours accession to NATO in March 1999 alongside other countries in the region, a growing pro-Western movement began a push for European integration.

Livonia’s greatest threat to its sovereignty came in 1999 when Belarus asserted its claim over the “Sapockin Triangle”. A small patch of land in the southeast, Sapockin once belonged to the Byelorussian SSR before being transferred to Livonia after the Second World War. On the 18th of June, Belarussian troops crossed the Nemunas River and swiftly took control of most of the Sapockin Triangle. Yet when trying to advance in the dense woodlands of the north the Belarussian forces were routed, and by the end of the month Livonia had regained control of the territory.

This victory had cemented President Kowalski as something of a national hero, building on goodwill earned by his earlier reforms to improve civil liberties. It also hastened the desire to integrate with the rest of Europe, with both NATO and EU accession at the top of the agenda. Belarussian support from Russia meant that alignment with the West became a top priority. Further economic and political liberalisation was pursued, putting Livonia on a similar footing to many of its neighbours, in law if not in prosperity. This would culminate on the 29th of March 2004 with Livonia gaining NATO membership alongside its regional neighbours of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania among others. Accession to the European Union would follow soon after, with Livonia being one of 11 nations to join the economic union on the 1st of May 2004.

Being on the fringes of NATO territory, Livonia quickly became a staging ground for troops from all over the alliance. The Nadbór region in particular saw much of its vast open plains dedicated to training, causing much disruption and anger for the locals. The uniforms of decades past were quickly shed. American, British, French and German military technology was welcomed and adopted by the government, which, in their effort to upgrade their military, unfortunately neglected the civilian populace. This caused resentment among the Livonian people and led to a widely negative view of the trans-atlantic organization.

President Kowalski’s second term ended in 2007, and the first presidential election post-accession meant that NATO was a heavily debated topic. The incumbent Social-Democratic Party of Livonia was seen as being too defensive over the alliance whereas the opposition candidate, conservative Józef Buzek, was perceived as making reasonable criticisms over the frequency and scale of NATO exercises. Buzek and his Homeland Union party would narrowly win the election, though Livonia’s commitment to the alliance remained.

The resentment towards NATO soon dissipated, particularly as the Livonian people came to rely on the patronage of foreign troops in their stores and businesses. NATO exercises and permanent military bases began to give the economy a noticeable boost. As part of the European Union and thus also the Schengen Agreement, the people of Livonia also enjoyed the ability to freely travel to fellow member states, which encouraged the maturing youth to seek higher education in Poland and business opportunities in Lithuania.

One major boost to the Livonian economy was tourism. Capitalising on the natural beauty of Livonia itself, the Livonian Bureau of Tourism appealed to those with a sense of adventure. It organised tours, hiking trips, cultural exhibitions and fishing and hunting competitions that brought visitors from around the globe. The Bureau also looked to the blossoming tourist industry in neighbouring Poland and attempted to replicate it by targeting younger visitors and Andrzejów was advertised as having a bustling nightlife. At the insistence of the Bureau, tax on alcohol was slashed opening the floodgates for European youths to enjoy a cheap getaway. The Bureau helped to organise an annual music festival held in Topolin and collaborated with local businesses promote the nation. Although never quite matching the success of its western neighbour, going into the 2020s the tourist industry in Livonia was one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.

Yet the overall political climate of the country remained divided and corrupt entities tried to profit off of the country’s rapid change on every level, only continuing to cripple the development of civilian infrastructure. Russian parts of the population continued to vocally oppose the NATO cooperation but remained peaceful overall. The economic growth of Livonia in this period was particularly driven by Lithuania and Poland who vastly preferred directing land trade through Livonia instead of the Russian-controlled Kaliningrad or Belarus, the latter of which initially attempted to sanction Livonia for hosting NATO exercises in such a significant part of it’s territory, though this had little effect.

In 2013 Kazimierz Sikorski, a heavily pro-western, anti-Russian politician and chairman of the Social-Democratic Party, defeated Józef Buzek in the presidential election. This victory came amidst rising anti-Russian sentiment, following the issuance of several economic sanctions against Livonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland to strengthen the economic position of Belarus. Having managed to win the two elections after - 2018 and 2023 - President Sikorski remains in office to this day. His program, which he summarised with the words "Wzrost i dojrzałość", or “Growth and Maturity”, intended a rapid industrialisation of the nation's still mostly agricultural economy, which resulted in plenty of employment opportunities and migration of experienced workers from other countries.

In the early hours of the 19th of July 2023 the calm night sky over Livonia was interrupted by a blinding white light soaring across it. As the light grew brighter the serene winter quiet was broken by a deafening crack as the shining object broke the sound barrier, smashing windows and triggering car alarms all over the region. As it hurtled towards the ground smaller flashes were seen breaking off and scattering near and far. The ground shook as the largest object struck the earth near Nadbór with immense force, destroying everything nearby. Many Livonians awoken from their slumber, rushed outside to catch a glimpse at what was unfolding.

Emergency services were quickly dispatched to the scene and casualties began to swamp the many small clinics and hospitals in the surrounding area. The area was closed off as news agencies arrived to report on the extraterrestrial event.

In the days following the impact life in most of Livonia returned to normal. The area was closed off and largely treated as a sideshow by the local populace. A few scientific organizations took an interest in the site and the meteor itself was found to be emitting small (but manageable) levels of Alpha and Beta radiation, but overall it was largely put to the back of peoples minds.

In August 2023 it was reported that some staff around the site of the meteor, named LV-1108 by scientists but more commonly known as the Nadbór meteor, had began to fall unwell with a mysterious illness. A push was made to discover the source of the sickness and it wasn't long before a shocking discovery was made. The meteor was harbouring a visitor - a parasite from the cosmos.

The parasite spread quickly, infecting and killing without mercy. In September 2023 a containment was placed on the Nadbór region by the Livonian government, and enforced by the Livonian Defense Force and National Police, with access in and out strictly forbidden. However this was not enough to stop the spread of the parasite.

By October 2023 Livonia was in disarray. The government declared the country lost and the nation wasquarantined by the international community. Walls were erected in Kaliningrad, the borders with Poland and Lithuania were fortified with NATO soldiers and Belarusian troops entered the Sapockin Triangle unopposed under the guise of containment. Those left inside were left to fend for themselves.