International Times – 31 January 2015 – Special Report –
Bolsheviks, Refuge, and the Underlying Story of the Conflict in PodagorskBy Senior Writer: Joseph Edge
THE DAY IS COOL AND DREARY. Low clouds and black smoke layer the sky, and one can't help but notice the constant rumble of shelling in the distance. Capitaine Martin Dumont peers through his optic on his weapon across the small channel separating the Bolshevik island from the rest of Podagorsk. He is accompanying a platoon from his company watching the bridge and opposite bank for any sign of Russian People's Liberation Army (RPLA) activity that seems to threaten the island that is currently home to thousands of Podagorskan civilian refugees and a contingent of French and Turkish peacekeepers. Dumont lifts his head, and turns away to his radio operator. After a quick discussion, Dumont again turns and stares for a moment across the water, then starts walking to check with his men down the line. The radio operator calls someone on the radio, but it fails. The headquarters is only a few hundred meters south so there should not be any reception issues. Eventually, he connects and reports everything to be “normal.”
But what is normal in this setting? To the western eye, war is not normal; it is not something one sees day in and day out, except maybe in passing on the news. To the Podagorskans, they have not seen a war in twenty-four years – since the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, only to fold altogether a few years later. No, normally, the road these French troops are protecting is filled with trucks going in and out of what was previously the largest and busiest airport in the region, even larger than the one in neighboring Chernarus. Today, there is no traffic, other than a few civilians hazily making their way to an already overflowing refugee camp. Every once in awhile, the troops see a RPLA armored personnel carrier or truck filled with troops traveling on the road opposite the island.
War is not the story of Podagorsk, at least since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, prior to that, war was a common threat in the peninsula. The area saw extensive fighting as far back as the Roman Empire. The region was devastated in 1941 by the German 11th Army on their march to Crimea and Sevastopol. It took years for the area to recover, and then the little-known Pogar rebellion in 1973 the area, again, was devastated by the might of the Red Army. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the small peninsula became an autonomous territory on the Black Sea. When the new Podagorskan Constitution was written, it disallowed a standing army in order to preserve the peace and sanctity of the region. However their neighbors were not quite so lucky.
* * *
AS CAPITAINE DUMONT and his men guarded the only way onto the island, thousands of refugees huddled together inside tents and aircraft hangars to get out of the cold, drizzling rain. Ira Nikolayevna and her four children stand in line at the U.N. Humanitarian Aid station waiting for their daily rations of food. The food is the same as it has been the past week: bread and some sort of chicken and rice soup. A group of civilian volunteers from a dozen NATO countries hand out the rations. As Ira approaches the counter, a man bellows in Russian that they are out of bread, but more should arrive within the week. Her children frown, but move along with their soup.
Ira is an ethnic Chernorussian. She moved to Podagorsk just before the first post-Soviet conflict in Chernarus with her Pogar husband. Her husband was executed as the rest of their family attempted to escape south from their home in Zirnitra She had seen the insignia on the RPLA uniforms before – from news broadcasts from Chernarus when they rampaged through the Black Mountains to Petrovka and Vybor. It was the RPLA Red Guard, a company of the most radical ideologues from the Russian National Bolshevik movement known for their unsung brutality.
Chernarus has been seemingly in the midst of constant conflict since the post-Soviet democratic government collapsed in 1996. Unlike the common misconception, there were thousands of Communist loyalists in the former Soviet-bloc. In the fall of 1996, the Chernarussian military split and one faction attempted a coup d'etat and the nation has been embroiled in political and military strife ever since. The new RPLA was almost forced out in 2003 when the Russians sent a brigade to the region to help calm the conflict that had been raging for seven years. Elections were held for only the third time ever and the government remained democratic.
After the Russians left, almost immediately there was a resurgence of the RPLA coming south from the Black Mountains. In the summer of 2004, the Red Guards made their name and reputation in advancing all the way to the coast of the Black Sea after killing hundreds in their wake. Most notable were the incidents in Petrovka and Vybor, where hundreds of civilians were killed in the streets and in their homes at the order of then Major Zhutov Olegovich. Proof of the incidents did not appear until 2008 after the Russian policing action into Chernarus and Podagorsk. The two towns had a high population of ethnic Tatars, who have long been the target of ethnic cleansing as far back as early 19th century. It could be surmised that Olegovich is bent on removing the ethnic non-Russians from what he and his followers consider part of the greater Russian Empire.
* * *
IRA FINALLY FOUND A PLACE for her and her children to sit. This is when I approached her and asked for an interview. She politely accepted. I asked how she ended up here and she responded with her story about their courageous escape from Zirnitra. “It was absolute hell on earth. Even when I lived in Berezino, Chernarus and the RPLA occupied the city, it was nothing like this.”
The conditions in the camp were poor. Thousands of people, not enough food and fresh water for everyone and the medical tents and hangars are filled with the wounded and dying. “There are huge planes that come and go all day long,” she explained, “and even then it is nowhere near enough. We can't all huddle on this island. A single bomb to hit the island would really hurt a lot of people, but we have nowhere else to go.”
It's true. There is a city of tents and overflowing porta-johns against a backdrop of huge hangars that are also filled with people. Only a few hangars are designated as aircraft repair and storage facilities. Most are cavernous pads of concrete covered with cots, sleeping bags, and blankets. One is designated as a food distribution center and is filled from dawn until the late hours of the night with people trying to get – maybe – one meal of soup and bread per day.
Now more Turkish and French troops are starting to show up. There has even been a few American cargo planes dropping off supplies, including two huge water treatment stations. Every once in awhile one can spot a pair of fighter jets flying off-shore covering the landings of large cargo planes. It seems the island keeps getting more cramped and congested with no more room to put people or machines. Meanwhile, a French engineer team blew down a portion of forest and have started putting down metal mats for what could be more space for aircraft – or refugees.
* * *
THE QUESTION ON EVERYONE'S MIND – other then when will the international community come to break out from the island – is why are the RPLA invading and removing the Pogars?
The Russian People's Liberation Army was originally based around the restoration of a Communist Chernarus, but has evolved into a radical action group advocating for Aleksandr Dugin's National Bolshevik movement. This movement is built upon the ideas of fascism, the restoration of the greater Russian Empire, and “hastening the end of times” through war. They believe that all Russian-speakers and ethnic Russians should be a part of Russia. Dugin himself represents the “war party”, the group within the Kremlin that lobbied for the Russian invasion of Crimea last year, and has close ties with the Russian president. You can read more about Dugin at (link.)
The RPLA, however, are not known to have any connection with Dugin or Moscow other, than name or ideologies. However, it is understood that their objective is to return “Russian territory to Russia.” They see the Pogars and Tatars as invaders, threatening to bring down the Russian Empire. The two peoples originated from the Mongols and the Turks during the middle ages, and are generally practice Islam, whereas most Russians are Orthodox Christian or claim no religion. Religion plays a role in that the National Bolsheviks consider Russia to be a “Third Rome” after the seat of the Orthodox Christian faith moved to Kiev after the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Turkish Ottomans in 1453. They see the removal of Tatar and Pogar invaders as a requirement to fulfill their dream of a united, fascist, Third Rome in Eurasia.
How dangerous is this philosophy to the rest of the world, though? It depends on if it takes off in a huge nationalist movement in the Russian populace and government. If the Kremlin buys into the philosophy as a whole, it could be dangerous to the stability of Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. However, it seems to be little more than a small, radical faction in the Black Sea region of historical Russia.
* * *
AROUND DUSK, Capitaine Dumont and his men walked back to their barracks on the opposite end of the island. I caught up with him to ask him his opinion on the situation. He responded with, “Fluid. I really cannot say much else about it.” As he was speaking, I noticed an American cargo plane coming in to land. That was a sight that happened more and more frequently in my three days here. When I turned back I asked him if he knew how the Americans were getting more involved. He just smiled and said, “I cannot speak on that right now. Give it a few days and I may be able to.” I just nodded, thanked him, and started walking back in the direction of the media tent.
That is when I saw dozens of American soldiers in full battle gear and full packs walking off the ramp of a cargo plane. I saw the bald eagle below the words “AIRBORNE” on the their shoulders and immediately knew it was the 101st Airborne. Then I turned and approached the media tent and started asking if anyone knew about the troops arriving on the base. They just pointed me to a television screen with a fuzzy image of the President of the United States making a speech about the approval of the use of military force here in Podagorsk.
The airfield was about to get much busier, and in a hurry, in support of Operation “Red Anvil.” However, my time here was complete and I boarded a plane later that night without having the opportunity to interview any of the soldiers that had just been brought into a world of chaos and suffering.
*This is a fictional news report to supprt the 506th IR RU gamplay - by WO1 Dennis
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