Stefanos Svolos

Svolos in 1953

Stefanos Svolos (11 October, 1882 - 15 June, 1958) was the second and longest serving leader of the Socialist Republic of Kokinos, having served as Premier of the SRK from its founding in 1927, and General Secretary of the ruling KSWP from July 15, 1928 to early 1955. He was the leader of the reformist faction of the KSWP, and his rule oversaw the country's rebuilding and entrance into the world stage following the devastating Novo Gavian Bush War and Interventions. His economic reforms say Kokinos transform from a wartorn backwater to an economic and industrial powerhouse in 20 years, at the cost of deviating the country towards State Capitalism

Stefanos Svolos was the last surviving Old Guard member of the KSWP, and was one of the founders of the Socialist Republic of Kokinos

## Life

### Early life

Born to an intellectual family in 1882, Svolos grew up in a relatively well-off environment. However, when Svolos was 15, the police raided his family's home for his father's anti-government activities. Svolos narrowly survived the raid and fled to the city's outskirts, where he joined a local militia led by Paschalis Palakos, where he met two revolutionaries, Markos and Iakovos Siantos. The despotic Ionian regime was overthrown in 1900, and Palakos became the *de facto* regional governor of Sentopolis. However, the new Ionia did not last long. Sensing the chaos in post-Revolution Ionia, Monarcho-Westists invaded Ionia. Overwhelmed by the invaders, Palakos surrendered to the Polmarians, and so did most of his rebel group. However, some of the Sentopolitan rebels, including Svolos, retreated to the countryside and continued waging guerilla warfare against the occupiers. The Cataclysm in 1906 forced the occupiers to retreat, but the damage had already been done. Thanks to the Ionian Genocide, the vast majority of Sentopolis' population had died or fled. Nonetheless, the Sentopolitan rebels began the process of rebuilding their city. Svolos' talent at coordinating the rebuilding process earned him the respect of the populace, though his willingness to forgive those who had surrendered or collaborated with the invaders out of survival made many in his group to distrust him.

### War of National Liberation

The arrival of the Lespians in 1915 saw a complete upheaval of the status quo in post-Cataclysm Ionia. The newly founded Principality of Novo Gavia sought to build its capital on the ruins of New Granfel, and their expansion led them to conflict with Sentopolis. The Sentopolis Militias, led by Markos Siantos, resisted the Lespians but were eventually forced out of the city they had worked to rebuild. The Militias initially went north to Hadrian, but the Westist bandits in the region forced them to go on a Long March to the western savannas. In Johanopolis, Svolos helped coordinate the integration of local militias into the Sentopolis Militias.

By the 1920s, most of the Sentopolis Militia's members were not from Sentopolis, and as the Siantos brothers adopted socialism, the Kokinan Socialist Worker's Party was formed. While the Siantos brothers went on expeditions to Retgard to suppress rival factions in the West such as the True Socialists, Svolos stayed in Johanopolis, organizing the Party's leadership and carrying out civil policies. He placed loyalists such as Prokopios Michelakis, Lavrentios Kokkinos and Ioannis Georgiou into civilian positions to coordinate logistics and gain the support of the people, as well as integrating former enemies like Manolis Tzimas and foreigners like Quirin Bach and Paul Honecker into the KSWP. By the outbreak of the War of National Liberation, Svolos was the third most powerful figure in the KSWP, just after the Siantos brothers.

Markos Siantos, who was then the General Secretary of the Kokinan Socialist Worker's Party, was worried that Svolos' influence in the Party could threaten his power. However, Svolos never interfered in his military policies and campaigns, and was too important to remove, and therefore Siantos never tried to get rid of him. He did, however, name his brother Iakovos as his successor and leader of the Party's military branch, the People's Liberation Army of Kokinos (PLAR)

At the outbreak of the Novo Gavian Bush War, Iakovos Siantos had led another raid against Novo Gavian convoys, this time outside Enotilopolis. However, something went wrong, and Iakovos was killed in action. Many in the Party suspected that Svolos had somehow caused his death, but the Route 11 Conspiracy was never proven. With Iakovos dead, Markos Siantos was forced to appoint Svolos as Deputy General Secretary of the KSWP, and the leadership of the PLAR was given to Andreas Vafiadis. Throughout the Bush War, Svolos had cemented himself as a "voice of reason" among the increasingly xenophobic KSWP, making decisions such as preserving the Retgard Steel Refinery instead of destroying it as Markos Siantos had called for, and allowing former True Socialist Manolis Tzimas to be the leader of the KSWP's public affairs committee.

After the formation of the Socialist Republic of Kokinos in 1927, Svolos was appointed Premier, the Head of Government of the SRK, further cementing his power and position as the KSWP's leader of internal affairs, while Siantos handled the external affairs (war). The first "true" Cabinet of the SRK, organized in 1928, saw most of the Cabinet Ministers being Svolos loyalists. With Kokinos near unification in 1928 and the Lespians overthrown, Markos Siantos resigned from his position as General Secretary, stating that his job of "liberating Kokinos" was "done". In reality, he was pressured by Svolos' influence in the Party, and chose to peacefully retire before he could be formally ousted.

### Interventions

By the time Svolos had taken control over the SRK, the Second Intervention had already broken out. Svolos had proposed the "Five Points", such as humane treatment of POWs and striving for international recognition and cooperation, which were unpopular among much of the Party. This was the basis for what would become the factional divide in the KSWP among Conservatives and Reformists.

I'll do the rest when I feel like it