Manchurian Cossack Horde (6.0)

The **Manchurian Cossack Horde**, officially the United Horde of Manchuria, also known as the Manchurian Horde, Manchurian Cossacks, or Cossack Horde, is a state in North-East Asia. It is a direct successor of the Manchurian National Republic and claims to be the sole legitimate successor to the Manchurian Soviet Socialist Republic. It is currently involved in a protracted military campaign to reunite all of Manchuria, which has been disunited since the Manchurian War of 1969-70.

## History

### Manchuria within China

Until the establishment of the Qing Dynasty in 1636, the history of Manchuria was separate from that of China. Manchuria was a region of Northeast Asia isolated from China and home to the Jurchen or Manchu people, who were regarded as barbarians by the Han Chinese. However, with the conquest of China by the Qing, Manchuria became a part of China. Colonization of the region by Han people made the Manchu-speaking indigenous population into a minority, and led to the near-extinction of the Manchu language.

While still a part of China, Manchuria became the Eastern gateway to the trans-Siberian railway connecting East Asia to Europe. The Russian railway brought industrialization to the region, which soon became the most industrialized part of China. However, with the railway also came Russian railway workers, soldiers, and industrialists. As the Russian Empire fell, and the Soviet Union replaced it, Manchuria saw the arrival of a second wave of Russians, fleeing East along the railway from the Soviet advance. Business owners, White Army soldiers, Tsarists, and all others considered enemies of the Soviet Union settled in Manchuria, which soon became home to one of the largest communities of Russian exiles in the world.

During the first third of the 20th century, Manchuria became an important prize in the struggles between Chinese warlords and the Japanese Empire. It was home to the Fengtian Clique led first by Zhang Zuolin and then his son Zhang Xueliang. However, in the year 1928, Japan assassinated Zhang Zuolin, passing Manchuria to the control of the Kwantung Army, controlled by Japan. It was Japanese control which would pave the way for Manchuria's renewed independence.

### Manchukuo and World War II

In 1932, Imperial Japan would create the State of Manchukuo. On paper, it was a renewal of Manchuria's independence from China, but in reality Manchukuo was simply a Japanese puppet. Manchukuo would form the base for the Japanese invasion of China, and would be a key part of the project of Japanese Imperialism in Asia.

The Russian exile community in Manchuria would be key to the Japanese war effort, as the Soviet Union, while officially neutral towards Japan, was fighting Japan's allies in Europe. Genrikh Lyushkov, a defector from the NKVD, would become a key asset to Japanese intelligence in the region. Grigory Semyonov, a leader of the White Army during Russian Civil War would be put in charge of leading an army of Russia exiles to oppose a Soviet invasion. Konstantin Rodzaevsky, leader of the Russian Fascist Party, would organize a Blackshirt militia amongst the Russia exiles. While Rodzaevsky would eventually have a falling-out with the Japanese, the Russian exile community as a whole would see the Japanese as allies.

It was only in August 1945, with the global climate catastrophe well underway, that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan and invade Manchuria. With the German surrender in Europe, Japan was well aware it could no longer maintain its empire against both the might of the USSR and the USA, and the Kwangtung Army was withdrawn to the Home Islands. While some Russian exiles would escape South to China, and those most useful to Japan would evacuate with the Kwangtung Army, most would be left with no choice but to surrender to the advancing Red Army.

### Soviet Manchuria

Main Article: Manchurian Soviet Socialist Republic (6.0)

The Soviet occupation of Manchuria would be commanded by Kiril Meretskov. As the ongoing climate catastrophe would lead to the flooding of much of the Trans-Siberia Railway and the loss of offiicial communication between Moscow and the Soviet Far East, Meretskov would find himself acting independently of Moscow and in charge of the largest contingent of the Red Army in the East. He would declare the Manchurian Soviet Socialist Republic in the occupied territories and would oversee the resettlement of millions of Soviet citizens from flooded areas of the Russian Far East in Manchuria. Meretskov would establish a regime of minority rule in Manchuria, with only those literate in Russian permitted to join the Manchurian Communist Party.

The Manchurian SSR, while suffering little from the floods, would suffer constant unrest due to its regime of minority rule. A coalition of Japanese collaborators, Chinese nationalists, and anti-Communist Russians would form the Manchurian Resistance to oppose Soviet rule. The Resistance would succeed in ousting the Red Army from Harbin during the 3-day Harbin Riots of 1946. These Riots would go on to inspire a new Manchurian nationalism which would see Chinese Nationalists and Russian Fascists united against Communism.

In the 1960s, a new threat would emerge as Zhang Xueliang and his One China Party would begin raising an army to invade Manchuria and restore it to Chinese rule. It would be Meretskov's death in 1969 that would spark Zhang's decision to begin the Manchurian War. While the Soviet Manchurian mechs would outclass any of Zhang's equipment, Zhang's manpower advantage and a population sympathetic to his cause would see New Shenyang and Changchun fall quickly to his forces. The Red Army would only be able to hold off Zhang's army by conscripting many of the Chinese-speaking majority into its army and allowing the majority a voice in government. The war would end in 1971 with a cease fire as the One China Party would dissolve into separate Nationalist and Communist factions following Zhang's death.

While the Manchuria War would not succeed at destroying the Manchurian SSR outright, it would indirectly cause its collapse. Chinese-speaking veterans of the Manchurian War would form militias which would be violently opposed by the Russian-dominated Red Army, Attempting to make peace between the majority and minority, Alfanasy Belborodov (Mereteskov's successor) would permit the formation of the Manchurian People's Party (MPP) and would eventually form an elected Legislative Assembly. These reforms would be too much for the Red Army and not enough for the Chinese-speaking majority, and would lead to the collapse of Beloborodov's government in 1976.

It was in 1976 that the Free Cossack Cavalry Corps completed its migration and arrived in Manchuria. The faction of the Red Army still loyal to Beloborodov was small and demoralized, and were unable to defeat the invading Cossacks. The ambush and defeat of Red Army mechs by a *Cavalry* corps embarrassed Beloborodov such that he resigned the Presidency and left a power vacuum in Manchuria. This power vacuum would soon be filled by Red Army warlords, local governments proclaiming their independence and people's militias building new states from the ground up. The capital city of Harbin would be contested between the Soviet remnants and the MPP until the Cossacks would force the Communists to flee the city. The MPP members of the recently-elected Legislative Assembly would proclaim themselves the Manchurian National Republic as a direct successor to the Manchurian SSR.

### The Manchurian National Republic

The legislature, now calling itself the Manchurian National Assembly, would soon elect Wang Zhongyu as their Provisional President. Wang believed that a democratic mandate was needed for the Manchurian National Republic (MNR) to become the legitimate government of all of Manchuria. A temporary constitution was approved in 1977 as a framework under which elections could be held an a more prominent constitution drafted. However, with no direct control beyond the Harbin city limits, the MNR couldn't dictate the precise terms under which an election would be held. They thus granted the perogative to determine which candidates appeared on the ballot to whichever faction held *de facto* control of the polling place. While the MNR was able to guarantee that all literate citizens had the right to vote, they were not able to guarantee that there would be more than one candidate appearing on a given ballot. The 1978 election even sparked some small-scale wars as warlords wor ked to control as many polling places as possible.

Wang would reinterpret the provisions of the constitution that he had helped draft, and would use his executive power to bar those representatives elected by 'undemocratic means' from taking their seats in the National Assembly. This would not only reduce the MNR's credibility in their claim to represent all Manchuria, but would also alienate many of the statelets whose representatives were sent home. While Wang would abandon the tactic of a general election as means to acquire a democratic mandate, he would continue to work to obtain recognition for the MNR. Wang would open up diplomatic communication with the various statelets and would offer them representation in exchange for various concessions in favour of democracy. While this attempt to reunite Manchuria diplomatically showed little more success than Wang's earlier attempts at electoral reunification, Wang continued to refuse to use military means to establish the MNR as the sole legitimate government in the region.

During this time, the Cossacks remained closely allied to the MNR, becoming mercenaries in service to the National Assembly. While Wang refused to attempt to conquer Manchuria by military might, his government had very little direct control beyond the city of Harbin itself, and could not be sustained on the tax revenues of Harbin alone. The Cossacks were needed at first as tax collectors, collecting 'taxes' at gunpoint, and turning over most of the funds raised to the National Assembly. However, soon the Cossacks became warlords in their own right, directly controlling much of the rural area surrounding Harbin, while still claiming to be ruling on behalf of the MNR. As the Cossacks conquered more and more of Manchuria, their ranks would be flooded with new recruits. Many saw a life as a Cossack as a way out of becoming a desperate victim of conflicts between warlords, and the Steppe Fascist ideology provided a cause for the new recruits to believe in.

One of the most prominent of these new recruits was Makhmut Gareev, a former Red Army general who defected to the Cossacks in 1979. Gareev, as an ethnic Tatar, had always been skeptical of Soviet Manchuria's policies of minority rule, and he had spoken out in favour of the MPP during Beloborodov's time in office. His Tatar roots also attracted him to the ideology of Steppe Fascism, leading to his defection. Once he joined the Cossacks, Gareev would soon become critical of the MNR's attempts at democracy and diplomacy. He argued publicly that the MNR was weak, and that *Otaman* Ali Sabri was wrong to continue to allow Wang control over civilian affairs. Gareev would soon gain a following amongst the Cossack officers, and would form a conspiracy that would launch a coup d'etat in 1985. A force of Cossacks would storm the National Assembly and would arrest Wang Zhongyu under exaggerated charges of violating his own constitution. The National Assembly would be forced to replace Wang with the half-Russian air force general Lin Hu, and appoint Gareev himself as Minister of War. Furious at Gareev's disloyalty, but recognizing that the Cossack rank and file supporet the coup, Ali Sabri would resign as *Otaman* and would be quickly replaced by Gareev.

### Becoming a Horde

Together, Makhmut Gareev and Lin Hu would begin the process of remaking the Manchurian National Republic into the United Horde of Manchuria. The Cossacks would be formally integrated into the structure of the Republic as a branch of the armed forces, and the military would begin to take a much larger role in civilian government. The National Assembly would be dismissed, and replaced with a smaller, more compliant body via elections tightly supervised by the Cossacks. In 1987, the official name of the state would be changed to the 'United Horde of Manchuria', and the emblem of the Cossack would be added to the flag.

### Expansion of the Horde

Makhmut Gareev knew that his hold on power was unlikely to last long unless he could show greater progress towards the reunification of Manchuria than had been made under the MNR. With the military might of the Cossacks together with the legitimacy of the National Assembly, Gareev began to demand the submission of the statelets surrounding Harbin, offering the local rulers the chance to represent their region in the National Assembly if they submitted peacefully.

## Government and Politics

The Manchurian Cossack Horde is a military dictatorship. While the 1977 constitution of the Manchurian National Republic has not been official suspended, much of the power within the Horde lies not with the bodies mandated by the constitution but with the military. This is facilitated by the fact that the 1977 constitution was only intended to be an interim arrangement designed to allow the election of a body that would draft the next constitution.

### Structure of Government

The *Otaman* of the Cossacks is the *de facto* Head of State. The *Otaman* is the Commander-in-Chief of the military, and has direct authority over the Horde's foreign policy. The *Otaman* has also taken on the responsibility for nominating a candidate for the Presidency, although this nomination is also confirmed by the National Assembly.

The President is the head of the civilian government, and has overall authority over all domestic civilian affairs. The President has the authority to recommend cabinet ministers, although those ministers must have their nominations confirmed by the National Assembly. Since the Cossack takeover, the President has always been a high-ranking military officer, although none of the Presidents so far have themselves been Cossacks.

The Horde's legislative body is the unicameral Manchurian National Assembly. While theoretically the National Assembly is an elected body, elections are rarely competitive and are only held when a seat is made vacant by death or resignation of the existing representative. The National Assembly also has very little power as its decisions can be vetoed by the President (who is as often as not acting on advice from the *Otaman*), and the National Assembly has no recourse with which to override a veto.

With elections being rare and noncompetitive, and with the National Assembly having little real power, government committees have taken on a larger-than-usual role. Each cabinet ministry is equipped with an advisory committee with members selected from the military, from the National Assembly, and from farmer/labour organizations (which are simply the renamed 'Soviets' set up by the Manchurian SSR). It is largely through these advisory committees that the military exerts their influence on otherwise civilian-staffed ministries, and it is only through the farmer/labour representatives that the illiterate majority (who are ineligible to vote) have a voice in government.

### Politics

Political parties have been outlawed by the Cossack-led government as being unnecessarily divisive. Candidates to the National Assembly are elected as individuals, in what is supposedly a purely meritocratic contest. However, patronage networks are common among the upper classes, with favours granted as endorsements during an election being called in later.

While political parties are outlawed, the state is involved in political propaganda, and the ideology of Steppe Fascism is the state ideology. This ideology focuses on a the supremacy of Steppe culture, a corporatist economic structure, and authoritarian military rule together with a dream of a multi-ethnic empire covering much of Asia. Unlike other Fascist ideologies, Steppe Fascism stresses a very specifically multi-ethnic nationalism. While Cossacks are see as superior warriors to other nation's soldiers, being a Cossack is seen very explicitly as a lifestyle rather than an ethnicity.

As part of the Horde's corporatist economic structure, state-sponsored unions are prominent in the lives of the lower classes. These unions are direct successors of the 'soviets' set up by the Manchurian SSR. However, Communists, and all others advocating for class struggle, are forbidden from holding union posts, meaning that union representatives tend to be non-ideological spokespeople for the narrow interests of their particular factory or collective farm. However, these unions are sufficient to prevent widespread exploitation of workers by business owners. Moreover, as the individual workplace-level unions are represented in a national-level farmer/labour federation, the working class as a whole has advocates in the halls of power.

## Economy

While it was once the centre of heavy industry in Northeast Asia, Manchuria today has a largely agrarian economy. The choas caused by the Manchurian War and the following collapse of the Manchurian SSR disrupted industrial supply chains and caused a famine resulting in the flight of millions from the cities to the countryside. While heavy industry still exists in the largest cities, including Harbin, this industry is focused on producing products necessary for the military. Most civilian consumer goods and many raw materials have to be imported.

Manchuria's once-plentiful forests have largely been cleared as the population of the region grew. The early Soviet period saw much investment in the intensification of agriculture to support millions of refugees from the Soviet Far East. While tractors and chemical fertilizers are not as common as they once were, Manchuria's fields are still quite productive, and the collapse of Manchuria's population in the 1970s has left the region with a substantial food surplus, much of which is exported.

As a legacy of collectivization policies of Soviet Manchuria, much of the economy remains government-owned, although the management of individual factories and collective farms is often contracted out to reduce government's financial liabilities. While there is a small upper class of agricultural and industrial contractors, the old aristocracy of the pre-Soviet Era is long gone.

The Horde is a State Capitalist planned economy, although