Ruthenia

Ruthenia, Ruthenian Coalition or Ruthenian State, a unitary coalition quasi-state that was organized in Uzhhorod after the Great War. It is a hybrid regime, functioning as an autonomous military junta and a capitalist autocracy, which pursues strongly populist, isolationist, and anti-Hungarian policies in the country. The organization is composed of influential leaders of the former Ukraine, such as Ukrainian elitists, politicians, influential businessmen, corporations, chiefs of staff, government and military officials. It was a short-lived but all the more influential military, political and economic alliance after the war, shaken by the Great Kiev Crisis of 2060 and the famine called Second Holodomor, further enhanced by the appearance of mysterious creatures and wild mutants in the mountain settlements, which led to the famous Ruthenia Crisis and the Great Wave of refugees, and then to the total collapse, which resulted in the dissolution of the faction.
== Background ==
At the height of the outbreak of war in 2032, the Eurasian Forces attacked Ukraine and launched a full-scale invasion. This resulted in heavy fighting between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian Invasion Forces which lasted for 3 years. By 2035 the Ukrainian Army had been severely defeated and by the time western Ukraine was occupied the occupying forces had finally surrendered. 
The Great War of 2050 sealed the fate of mankind when the great powers launched their nuclear weapons against each other, destroying the world and wiping out 97% of humanity. The remaining influential people, government and military officials fled to underground shelters in time before the bombs fell and survived. Later, in Uzhhorod, these elitists, like the rich, presidents, influential politicians, corporations, businessmen, chiefs of staff, and military commanders and others, formed their own state called Ruthenia. A coalition of many of Ukraine's influential individuals and military leaders form the state, which is both a military junta and a semblance of a democratic system. 
In the new coalition state, a bureaucratic, corrupt, hybrid regime has been built, an authoritarian electoral system headed by powerful businessmen, politicians and military commanders who are behind or responsible for covering up corruption, embezzlement and oil money. Various former political parties and ideologies are represented in the Ruthenian regime, such as liberals, conservatives, socialists and ultranationalists. 
They quickly clashed with other hostile factions and groups who sought to plunder and exploit the surviving colonies, but the most dangerous of all were the Cannibals, whose minds were tainted by radiation, who became bestial and attacked anyone who attacked a human for food.
They sought to consolidate their power and expand their influence, which they tried to enforce with the remaining members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their commanders, and succeeded in defending city-states from enemy raiders, bandits and other factions and driving them out of their territories. Later, they tracked down and eliminated the hiding cannibals in their territories, but instead of diminishing, their numbers increased.
Soon Ruthenia became the strongest faction in the region, with military outposts and sectors being established. They began to occupy neighbouring major cities and towns to acquire food, resources, radiation equipment, supplies and weapons. Almost the whole of Transcarpathia came under the control of the Ruthenian Junta.  Although they had considerable power over the larger towns and military districts, small independent factions and criminal gangs ruled the smaller settlements and the wilderness. 
They have a large and powerful army, made up of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Security Forces, which is responsible for the protection of the population. They are equipped with state-of-the-art assault rifles such as AK-102s. The military also acts as a police force, maintaining order and fighting crime. In some cases, they also commit political or anti-Hungarian acts, in order to deport political dissidents and Hungarian residents. In addition to the corrupt government, the military is also guilty of much corruption, including looting and brutal violence without the knowledge of the government.
Although in the beginning they bartered and made deals with more peaceful factions, including the Kiev regime, later, with the emergence of marauding criminal gangs, hostile factions and cannibals, they began to pursue a policy of strong isolationism. As nuclear weapons were not a threat to Transcarpathia, they started their own production and livestock breeding thanks to their agricultural land, and also steel production for armament purposes. They have developed oil and gas infrastructure for energy production. 
They pursued an extremely populist, chauvinistic and anti-Hungarian policy, considering Hungarians as inferior and invaders, who were expelled from their country and often violently attacked. They put only the interests of the Ukrainian people first, believing that they are the majority and have the right to oppress minorities who harm their society and their country. Many Hungarians fled across the Hungarian border to escape the Ruthenian regime, but those who did not cross were shot or captured and later killed. They pursued a strong anti-immigration and anti-emigration policy, building up a strong border guard, letting no one in or out of their borders and often getting into confrontations with the Hungarian border guards. Anyone crossing the borders of Ruthenia was considered an enemy and shot. And anyone who tries to escape across the Hungarian border is considered a traitorous fugitive and is also shot. Later, however, a crisis began when the Great Kiev Crisis occurred, and the appearance of unknown distorted beings, which shook the country with a massive famine and Ruthenia's hitherto prosperous economy and production began to fail.
By 2060, strange phenomena and anomalies had begun to disturb the population, with mountain villages reporting strange lights appearing on mountain peaks and eerie sounds from the wilderness. Unknown shadows and strange creatures began to venture closer and closer to the villages, prowling around the villages and houses at night. It was then that people and babies suddenly began to disappear, as if they had simply vanished and never appeared. Then the panic-stricken police authorities and members of the field police also disappeared one by one. Panic broke out, and the whole of Transcarpathia was threatened, along with all the surviving factions. Within days, whole villages had disappeared, along with their inhabitants, and the unknown shadows from the mountains were moving further and further down into the lowlands. Later, dangerous wildlife appeared, deadly deformed bears, wolves and wildcats roamed the wilderness, attacking people every day in the previously peaceful countryside. Some were torn apart and eaten, but the bodies of some were never found. The Second Holodomor had begun, as the Rutenians lost most of their fertile land to the phenomena and the abnormal beings, and their supplies and reserves began to dwindle severely.
The Rutin government launched an immediate intervention and the Ukrainian Security Forces were sent to protect the population against the so-called "demons". However, they were largely unsuccessful, and one by one Ukrainian soldiers were killed or disappeared, which completely weakened the Ruthenian government and left them only one step away from total collapse. Then began the popular "Ruthenian Crisis" which sealed the fate of the Ruthenian State. It soon became apparent that the source of these phenomena was the creation of the so-called Carpathian Zone, which began to grow and expand. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have begun to flee from Transcarpathia towards the Ukrainian-Hungarian border in the hope of a safer life.
This later led to a conflict between the Ukrainian Border Guard and Hungarian border guards, when Ukrainian civilians fleeing across the Hungarian border were refused by the Berek Border Guard to hand over Ukrainian fugitives, despite a request from the Ungvar government. This was further compounded when Hungarian border guards also started shooting at Ukrainian refugees because they refused to take in more refugees due to their scarce food resources. As a result, the Ungvar Ruthenia regime launched a full-scale attack on the Border Guard in Beregsurany, which failed, killing many Ukrainian soldiers and most of whom surrendered to the Hungarian border guards. After suffering a heavy defeat, the weakened Ruthenian coalition regime, on the verge of collapse, finally disintegrated. In its place, smaller factions were formed, including the United Ruthenian Front and the Svoboda Movement, who launched an attack on the Hungarian border with Beregszék at Tarpa's vineyard in 2063.
== Trivia ==
* Ruthenia was one of the medieval Latin names for Kievan Rus, along with Russia, Ruscia or Roxolania.
Category:The Dark Future
Category:Lore
Category:Factions
Category:Nuclear Holocaust