New Russia

**New Russia** is a planet located about 9.7 light years from Earth. It is a ringed planet with four moons, three of which are more large asteroids captured by the planet than what people traditionally think of as moons. The day lasts 23 hours 59 minutes and 2 seconds, and the year is 366 days in length (365 days, 17 hours, 32 minutes). It was colonized by people from Russia beginning in 2071, and today has over 1 billion people living on it.

## History

A group of several hundred fundamentalist Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Polish, and Belorussians met in Kiev after news of the discovery of warp drive, alien life, and new exoplanets, and decided to leave Earth and return to a purer, pan-slavic way of life. They came up with enough money to fund a warp ship to carry them with their livestock for the seven month journey to a planet they had identified as habitable.

They created a settlement called Cyrilgrad, after Saint Cyril, near a wide and clear river, providing a fresh water supply for their settlement, and unloaded their ship and livestock. The first harvest was plentiful, their having arrived in spring, giving plenty of time to plant crops for fall. The first thanksgiving was held when the harvest came in, and their livestock had plenty of offspring so they would have plenty of meat, milk, cheese, and butter during winter.

These settlers decide to come together to speak and use the language called 'Old Church Slavonic,' calling their language 'Slavonic' to emphasize its pan-Slavic nature. Several linguists and speech therapists in the group translated modern inventions into OCS, much like Icelandic on Earth did for the last few centuries, and began creating their first town. For the first few years, many of the settlers on New Russia, tired of war on Earth and eager for a simpler, more peaceful life, went to Cyrilgrad, and its sister city, Saint Petersburg just down the river. Children were educated in Slavonic, and books were printed soon in the Glagolitic script in Slavonic to help people accustom themselves to the language.

Men and women began to dress in traditional Slavic garments, and the center of life became the church once again, along with the family, leading to a boom in children, as the colony valued the number of children and how well they were raised. While the Slavonic settlements were less technological than those of the Russians on the other continents, they did not completely rule out the use of technology. Vehicles, telephones, radios, televisions, and computers were used, but to a much lower extent than on Earth, with the family and conversation being the center point of life on New Russia. The founder, Vladimir Davinsky, urged the many single Russian, Ukrainian, and other Slavic women to come to New Russia, leading to an exodus of a large number of attractive women to the planet, which also led to young men coming to the planet.

Russians settling on the northern continents found fertile soils and made their settlements in very fertile valleys, with New Moscow being the capital of the northern settlements, with Kiev, Vladivostok, and Volgagrad being built by 2080. Settlers were encouraged to have families, with those having more than 4 children not having to pay their passage to the planet if all their children were educated and gainfully employed by 21 years of age.

Russia allowed any person of at least 1/8 Slavic heritage to the planet, which included a large number of Polish Americans, Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders, to settle on the planet, but they did require them to learn and be able to speak Russian, which was determined to be the official language of the colony, or they could learn Slavonic on the southern continent.

The colony attempted to make some laws to prevent a number of problems that had cropped up on Russia on Earth, namely laws to prevent alcoholism, abuse, abandonment, as well as political corruption when the planet came up with its constitution on January 22, 2085. It guaranteed language rights and religious rights for the Russian and Slavonic languages, and the Orthodox church, while guaranteeing any Christian church the right to worship freely and proselytize, provided that they do not advocate any belief in politics against the Bible.

## Language

There are two main languages on New Russia - Russian and Slavonic. Russian is due to the main colonization effort being funded and equipped by Russia beginning in 2071, and Slavonic due to the first group of settlers on the large southern continent actively seeking to restore themselves to the old pan-Slavic language.

Slavonic is written in the Glagolitic alphabet, with the first texts printed on New Russia being the Bible. Its grammar is very similar to the daughter languages, such as Polish, Ukrainian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Belorussian, Russian, and others on Earth, making it relatively easy for speakers of those languages to pick up the language.

## Culture

The culture of New Russia is very conservative overall, with much of peoples' lives surrounding the church and church activities. Political activities do not take up much of peoples' time, as most people view politics with suspicion due to centuries of repression on Earth by czars and dictators like Stalin and Lenin. Social conservatism and valuing slavic traditional dress, food, songs, and stories are commonplace, but women do often find themselves wearing low-cut and form-fitting versions of traditional dress when they want to attract attention for a date.

The women on the planet are said to be amongst the most beautiful in the Earth colonies, possibly due to the early settlers making a point of advertising to single and attractive women, and the value placed on feminine beauty on New Russia. On the other side of the coin, the colony world values real masculinity, that of a real alpha male, not the caricature of a false-bravado often seen in pop culture. The American, Australian, and South African cultures of rugged individualism, self-improvement, saying 'hello' to people and opening doors for others has imprinted itself on the New Russian culture, giving it the blend of the best of America's attitude, freedom, and outlook, while retaining Russian culture, religion, and outlook.

## Demographics

* 2071: 386
* 2080: 3,711
* 2090: 11,325
* 2100: 79,451
* 2110: 131,844
* 2370: 1,488,356,976, of which 391,000,443 speak Slavonic and live on the southern continent and its surrounding islands