Ausrenai

== About ==
Ausrenai, also known as Аусренаи in the Crimsonian language, is a village located in West Bistonia, with around 38 inhabitants before the beginning of the Crimsonian-Bistonian War in 1987 and before the Battle of Ausrenai in 1989. Although the entire village was not known to most people in Bistonia and was completely isolated, Ausrenai would become infamous for the Battle of Ausrenai, where Bistonian units and Crimsonian units clash together for control over the now completely destroyed, and deserted village, around a week before Crimsonia announced the withdrawal of all remaining Crimsonian troops from mainland Bistonia. In the end, the Battle of Ausrenai ended with a Bistonian victory, with Bistonian forces eventually gaining control over the town. Eventually, after the events of the Crimsonian-Bistonian War, the village was completely left abandoned, with its inhabitants not returning to the village forever. After the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Ausrenai in 2019, most of its veterans, including Crimsonians and tourists, visited to reconciliate and reminiscence the war, and a memorial was constructed in the town despite its abandonment. Some veterans of the Crimsonian-Bistonian War would visit from time to time on special occasions.
== History ==
=== 19th and 20th century ===
The beginnings of Ausrenai and its history is unknown before the events of the Crimsonian-Bistonian War, due to its location and status as an isolated community prior to the 1980s. It was claimed that the village was constructed somewhere before 1850, as one of the settlements constructed by Crimsonian settlers in West Bistonia, and Ausrenai was one of the last Crimsonian Orthodox settlements in West Bistonia. Not much would be known about the village until the 1850s, when a railway leading to the rest of West Bistonia was constructed beside Ausrenai, which allowed goods to be transported to the village, and allowing for easy access to the village. Somewhere between the 1900s, roads were finally connected to Ausrenai, and Ausrenai would become a proper community. Prior to the events of the First Great War, a brand new local church in Ausrenai was constructed, which replaced the old and derelict ones. 
Not much about the village would happen after that, but Ausrenai would undergo slight developments under the Crimsonian administration. Several concrete buildings were constructed to replace old houses and to improve living conditions in the town, and life in Ausrenai was slightly improved. When Bistonia gained independence from Crimsonia in 1960 after the Bistonian Conflict, Ausrenai, with almost every village in West Bistonia, would become neglected and life conditions in some of these villages deteriorated. Some of Ausrenai's buildings were not maintained, and the roof of the church was showing signs of rotting. And with every village in West Bistonia, the Crimsonian population became disillusioned with the Bistonian government, as a result of decades of neglect. The population of Ausrenai also declined, being a village of only over 58 people to only around 38 people before 1987. A majority of the villages inhabitants were the elderly, and only a handful of younger people remained in the village. The railway was closed in 1971, after years of no use, resulting in Ausrenai being cut from the rest of the other communities and no goods were transported.
=== Before 1987 ===
In 1987, due to the lack of proper sanitation, lack of clean sewage, and lack of clean and safe drinking water, Ausrenai became one of the affected communities during the polio epidemic in West Bistonia in 1986, and because of this, the entire West Bistonia was quarantined and closed off from the rest of Bistonia. Measures were made to contain the polio in Ausrenai, with drinking wells being closed and the village was thoroughly cleaned to prevent the spread. Some of the villages inhabitants were also sick with polio, and with most of the village being the elderly, it would become a hard task for those to contain the epidemic which was spreading throughout the region. By the end of 1987, the quarantine measures were lifted and Ausrenai was safe from the virus.
=== Crimsonian-Bistonian War (1987 - 1990) ===
See also: Crimsonian-Bistonian WarOn the 15th of July 1987, the declaration of war was announced by the Crimsonian government amid rising tensions between Bistonia and Crimsonia over the Bistonian Sea, and it would not take long for Crimsonia's troops to land on Bistonian soil almost unopposed and roamed freely. This led to Bistonia's mobilization for war, but Bistonian forces immediately lost one of their major port cities, Kagengrad, to the Crimsonian forces. The capture of the city, combined with their losses, forced Bistonian forces to withdraw from the frontlines, leaving towns such as Ausrenai almost undefended. Crimsonian troops advanced rapidly towards the rest of West Bistonia without any fighting involved and by the months most of West Bistonia had fallen under occupation. Ausrenai was one of the communities, and when Crimsonian units moved into the town, they were greeted by most of the towns elderly population, whilst the rest of the inhabitants fled Ausrenai. 
==== Occupation ====
After Crimsonian units arrived in Ausrenai, and captured the town without any resistance towards it, the village of Ausrenai was now under the Crimsonian occupation forces. Not much would occur during the initial occupation, but some of Ausrenai's residents, which were mostly Crimsonian, were initially supportive of the war. Posters in the town also indicate that Ausrenai was also one of the communities which was allowed to vote for Crimsonia's sham referendum for West Bistonia. Ausrenai was eventually included into the West Bistonian Socialist Republic, including many surrounding towns. Georgi Tobuzov and his collaborationist administration had stated earlier that they would push to ramp up development in some towns, providing better infrastructure and better living conditions for most of the people living there. This plan however did not come up to plan, as with the eventual decline of the West Bistonian Socialist Republic, and Operation Silo which began in 1988, most infrastructure developments in the towns were left behind, and several communities just like Ausrenai started to become disillusioned with Georgi Tobuzov's government.
Ausrenai, being located near the frontlines, became one of the villages which was vulnerable to attacks by Bistonian resistance, as part of a sabotage to further exhaust Crimsonian war efforts in Bistonia. Some houses in Ausrenai sustained minor damages as a result and because of these attacks around 5 people had died. And as a result of the sanctions and now being completely cut off from essential necessities which came from the rest of Bistonia, most of Ausrenai's residents would starve, and would stand in lines for food, for around days to weeks, for daily necessities which were getting harder to obtain. No measures were made to provide a solution to the remaining residents of Ausrenai and the food shortage that had ravaged all of Ausrenai and its surrounding communities continued to worsen in West Bistonia. It was also around this time when Ausrenai's residents would begin to leave the town on the search for food. 
==== Before the Battle of Ausrenai ====
As the war dragged onto 1989, it was now clear that Crimsonia was going to lose the war. With the South-Western Offensive by the Free Bistonian Army, most of West Bistonia had been overrun and liberated by Bistonian forces, and leaving Georgi Tobuzov's government only having a presence in the north. Although the Vilnius Offensive had made a blow to the Bistonian army, the Bistonian army had enough time to regroup and reorganize itself, whilst on the Crimsonian side, with the Crimsonian military being depleted of most of its manpower, and with tens of thousands of Crimsonian troops dying annually on the frontlines, the Crimsonians had now made it a top priority to defend each inch of land they still controlled, that being Crimsonia's puppet state in West Bistonia. As Crimsonia was now pushed back to their original positions, they would attempt numerous counterattacks to push back the advancing Bistonian forces, but most of them had failed to achieve a breakthrough, and thus, Crimsonia would be stuck to its top priority, to defend an inch of their territory, and not let it fall under the advancing Bistonian forces.
Ausrenai, being located near the frontlines, was one of the villages which became a top priority for Crimsonian troops to defend, and by the time Crimsonian troops had begun to focus on Ausrenai, most of the town was abandoned. Almost all of its inhabitants except around 4 people fled the town due to a lack of food and necessities, and due to the towns location being situated several kilometers near the frontlines. All of the houses were abandoned, being completely left behind and with Crimsonian soldiers roaming around places like Ausrenai, looting most houses of their personal belongings, burning down the local church, Ausrenai became a barren town. Some of the remaining inhabitants were elderly aswell, who, according to some remaining locals, had not eaten properly for several years, as food became more and more scarce. As Crimsonian troops arrived to secure the town, all 4 of Ausrenai's remaining inhabitants were evacuated and sent to a hospital in Kagengrad, where around 2 of them only survived, as 2 had died after arriving at the Kagengrad hospital.
Crimsonian troops would begin fortifying the town of Ausrenai. As Bistonian forces were making slow advancements in the remaining territories, Crimsonian troops did not have the time to properly set fortifications, but had the time to construct prefabricated bunkers across Ausrenai, and digging trenches to try and stop the advancements, then placing hedgehog obstacles on the roads to slow the advancement on the town. As most of Ausrenai had been abandoned, they would utilize the abandoned buildings as defense points, setting up sniper points on some of these buildings, and clearing out the remains of the burned local church, and converting it into a field hospital for Crimsonian wounded soldiers. A former flea market located in the center of Ausrenai, was converted to a a temporary fort.
==== During the Battle of Ausrenai ====
Days before Ilya Zhivkov, the chairman and the leader of Crimsonia declared the withdrawal of all remaining troops and equipment from mainland Bistonia, declaring a "temporary ceasefire" and a "temporary regrouping" of all Crimsonian forces, the final engagement and battle between the actual Crimsonian military and the Bistonian Armed Forces would begin in the town of Ausrenai. As soon as Bistonian forces had reached to the city, they were forced to temporarily stop their advancements and dig in. Clashes would ensue between Crimsonian and Bistonian soldiers in close range combat, and the town immediately fell into chaos. As Bistonian troops were setting up camp next to an abandoned building, they were located too close to the frontlines, as Crimsonia and Bistonian forces would begin to exchange artillery fire, and as a result of the exchanges, almost all of the houses in Ausrenai had been either set on fire, or destroyed completely by artillery rounds. Bistonian troops would also make breakthroughs in the defenses set up by the Crimsonian forces in Ausrenai, and captured a part of the town.
With Crimsonia's morale now in the lowest, and supplies were low, and now around hundreds of soldiers killed in action defending an abandoned town, Crimsonian troops would attempt to make their last stand, facing numerous waves of attacks which led to around tens of deaths every few hours. It would not take long for Bistonian reinforcements to arrive, along with some armoured divisions which could overrun Crimsonia's defenses around the town. With the help of the armoured divisions, Bistonian troops eventually broke through the defense in no time, and in the process overran the trench which was stopping them from entering the town. Crimsonian armoured divisions also attempted to stop the breakthrough, but as Crimsonians were running out of fuel, the efforts to stop the breakthrough was futile.
Bistonian forces would begin to storm through the rest of the town as Crimsonian forces began the urban warfare in attempting to secure the town despite most of its defenses being destroyed. Bistonian forces had already managed to surround Crimsonian forces in the town after capturing the train station and railway leading to the town, and Bistonian forces would begin to inflict heavy casualties on the Crimsonian side. Seeing as Ausrenai was now on the verge of being surrounded, and hundreds of their remaining men to defend the town was killed in an effort to keep the town from falling, the command was given for Crimsonian forces to retreat quickly as soon as possible from the town center. In under 24 hours, Ausrenai, finally fell under the hands of the Bistonian Armed Forces, with Bistonian troops arriving in the city center and raising the flag of Bistonia in the center of the town. Crimsonian soldiers who remained to stay in the town were either killed off, or surrendered, and the wounded personnel were also captured. 
Around a day after the Bistonian Armed Forces gained control of the completely destroyed town, all remaining Crimsonian troops in West Bistonia were given the order to withdraw from West Bistonia, leaving the war on mainland Bistonia to its puppet state, the West Bistonian Socialist Republic, and leaving Georgi Tobuzov all by himself to defend his puppet state from falling. The Battle of Ausrenai, became one of the last battles fought between the Crimsonian and Bistonian military on mainland Bistonia, and the war would turn into a frozen conflict until the beginning of Bistonia's invasion of Wilnotarn and Arshturn in 1990. 
==== Aftermath ====
In the aftermath of the war, Ausrenai was not the same as it was years prior. Almost all of the towns infrastructure, including the roads and railways leading to it, were all damaged after the town was liberated from Crimsonian forces. As Crimsonian forces had withdrew from Ausrenai as soon as possible, all of their equipment, including tanks and artillery, were left behind and abandoned in the town. Corpses of Crimsonian forces, including Bistonian ones, also littered the streets of Ausrenai, being left to rot and leaving the dead behind with no proper burial. Locals, when told why they couldn't provide a proper burial for most of the dead around Ausrenai, had said that they would prefer leaving the corpses to rot and some had even said that the dogs and animals which were roaming around the town could eat away at the dead. The biggest issue of them all was the massive stockpile of weapons and ammunition left behind after the battle. Arms trafficking was a major issue in Bistonia after the war, leading to a massive increase in crime rates throughout the country and around 20 deaths annually to gun violence, and the way they could obtain some of these weapons was in abandoned positions all across the country.
The Bistonian government would continue to ignore the issue regarding the status of the village until an incident occurred in the year of 1994, 5 years after the Battle of Ausrenai, when a scavenger came to Ausrenai looking for items which had been left behind, when he stepped on a landmine which caught the attention of the local authorities in the area. There, the neglect of the village was shown to the public, which had exposed the true nature of the abandoned village and caught the attention of the Bistonian government. The Bistonian government would begin a cleanup of the village from explosives and landmines and other equipment which was left behind from the war including corpses left behind with the exception of clearing out the entire village and wiping it from the map, in which the Bistonian government had simply stated that the village will be left behind as usual as a memory to all those who fought in the war.
Ausrenai would gain attention from this period aswell, and seeing the benefit that could be gained from tourists which would visit the abandoned ruins, Ausrenai was turned into a tourist attraction for those to come by, and a place for those who mourned for the lives lost in the battle. Some of the villages inhabitants, where a handful number of them were still alive today, also would visit the village regularly, but not on a daily basis. Nature would also take over some of the buildings, as tall grass would sprawl all across the town unattended. The graves of Crimsonian soldiers and Bistonian soldiers also remained, but Crimsonia is still awaiting further negotiations to return the bodies home to mainland Crimsonia, where they would be given a proper burial.
=== Contemporary period ===
Today, Ausrenai is an abandoned town, with no inhabitants or those who still maintained the town. Ausrenai's sign was still in place, but was heavily vandalized and coated in graffiti over the decades, until the town's sign was destroyed in 2022, when apparently a local had used an axe to hack off the sign piece by piece and destroying it. Veterans of the Battle of Ausrenai still revisit the town even to this day on special occasions, during the 10th and 20th anniversarys in 1999, and 2009. However in 2019, on the Battle of Ausrenai's 30th anniversary, Crimsonian and Bistonian veterans of the war met together to commemorate the creation of a monument dedicated to the lives lost in Ausrenai, where the two sides reconciliate once again. 
After the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Ausrenai in 2019, most of its veterans, including Crimsonians and tourists, visited to reconciliate and reminiscence the war, and a memorial was constructed in the town despite its abandonment. Some veterans of the Crimsonian-Bistonian War would visit from time to time on special occasions.