Sakhalin Federal Socialist Republic (6.0)

Flag of Sakhalin

Korean

Ainu

Other

The **Sakhalin Federal Socialist Republic**, more commonly known as the **Sakhalin Republic** or simply **Sakhalin**, is an island country in East Asia between the Sea of Japan to the west and the Sea of Okhost to the east. Sakhalin spans the Sakhalinese Archipelago as well as the Rishiri and Rebun islands. The country was founded in 1957 after over a decade of isolation and military rule following the collapse of the Japanese Empire and the Soviet Union.

## History

### Soviet Occupation and Autonomous Period

The roots of Sakhalin as an independent nation can be traced back to the Soviet invasion and subsequent occupation of the south during the Second World War. The garrison quickly turned into a humanitarian mission as it became apparent that major population centers would be flooded, and as Soviet authority in the east collapsed, the lines between occupiers and occupied began to blur. By this time, Japan had collapsed into chaos, and many Japanese POWs were pardoned in exchange for labor aiding in saving the population from the flooding. Herculean efforts by all parties allowed enough shelter to be constructed by April 1947, and Toyohara finished evacuation as water began to flow in the streets. The city was then stripped for valuables and resources. Contact with the USSR ended in October of 1947, and General Leonty Cheremisov declared an "indefinite period of diplomatic, political, and military autonomy for the island of Sakhalin, until the national political situation has stabilized and order has been restored." The garrison was increasingly seen to be a stabilizing force and government rather than a military occupation.

Famine was a major concern for the Sakhalinese, as much of the islands' fertile land had been flooded. In response, the Sakhalinese garrison enacted a strict system of rationing, and traded most of the loot from Toyohara for food from Manchuria and the Japanese remnants in Hokkaido. While the system caused widespread unrest, it is widely agreed that it ended up saving thousands of lives and prevented major famine. Once the winter of 1947-48 receded, the garrison immediately dedicated what remained of their resources to establishing agriculture. By 1954, the threat of famine had receded, and rationing was loosened.

On November 27th, the tenth anniversary of the declaration, a referendum was held on whether Sakhalin should declare its independence as a nation and transition to civilian governance, which passed. The next four months were spent drafting a constitution that would placate the widely socialist Russians as well as the more centrist Japanese. The constitution was finished in the 28th of March, 1958, and elections were announced for May 1st.

### Early Republic

The first elections had only the military endorsed Socialist Party running. Leonty Cheremisov, the general who led the invasion and commanded the occupation, was confirmed as the first President of Sakhalin. The nascent republic's first actions were to seek recognition from surrounding states and enter trade deals in order to rebuild Sakhalin. While little success was found with the Ainu Federation or Imperial Japan, Manchuria and Red Japan recognized them. In order to rebuild the economy, it was decided to exploit Sakhalin's abundant reserves of oil and natural gas and become a natural resource economy. The Sakhalin Oil and Gas Trust was created to harvest these resources.

### "Far Eastern Miracle"

As the world began to rebuild, oil and gas were in high demand, and Sakhalin was in a perfect geographical position to exploit it. Conflict in China demanded fuel for vehicles, as well as the building of the nascent states in Manchuria and Korea. Along with Vladovistok, Sakhalin was the prime exporter of oil and gas in the north.

In 1964, a series of welfare programs were proposed by the Socialists. Citing the rapidly growing economy, they argued that it was their duty as a socialist state to make sure the workers benefited as well. In addition, this would further aid the economy by allowing workers to easily pursue special skills. The opposition argued that the economy was in a fragile state, and such measures would halt the growth. The measures were passed in spite of these objections, and included wide-reaching provisions including free health care, free schooling, generous pensions, 12-week maternity leave, and extensive scholarship programs. Quality of life began to improve dramatically over the next several years, and it appeared that the oppositions' fears had been baseless.

### Black Scare

In 1967, President Cheremisov died. Congress appointed Kiichiro Higuchi as the next president. While Kiichiro had been the expected successor for quite some time, given his influence among the Japanese generals, many feared that he would promote policies to benefit the Japanese at the expense of the Russians and minorities. Some even went so far as to suggest he would allow Imperial Japan to annex Sakhalin given his service history.

Kiichiro's inauguration speech was cut short when a bullet hit his podium. The president was rapidly escorted away and the area was attempted to be evacuated, however, before it could be finished, seven spectators had been shot by the sniper, and three died from their injuries. The sniper was hunted down and killed in a shootout. He was later connected to the Sakhalin Advancement of the Ainu People, a domestic pro-Ainu Federation party which had not been granted electoral permission. The party was quickly banned and designated as a terrorist organization, and a raid was conducted on their headquarters, which quickly turned into a shootout. When the headquarters were secured, many documents were found to have been burned, but enough remained to suggest that they had received direct support from the Ainu Federation.

In the wake of these revelations, fear began to spread among the populace, and the already stigmatized Ainu were cast under even greater suspicion. The legal Ainu People's Party was investigated, and while the majority of the leadership were found innocent, many local party organizations were found to be promoting "Hokkaidan Hitlerism". Meanwhile, anti-Ainu sentiment had detrimental effects on the Ainu of Sakhalin. Discrimination against them became highly prevalent, and many Ainu in the Socialist and Democratic parties found themselves ejected. While some prominent voices opposed this blatant discrimination, many more stayed silent. This culminated in the 1969 mass shooting in a predominantly Ainu neighborhood in Sakhalinsk. The attack, later found to be carried out by a Japanese nationalist, left 17 dead and 31 wounded.

In the wake of this attack, the Sakhalin Korean Association and the Ainu People's Party jointly proposed the Anti-Discrimination Law, which forbade discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or nationality. The act had widespread popular support due to the shooting, and was eventually passed into law after heated debate. This was the first time that legislation had been passed that had not come from the military-backed elites of the Socialist Party.

### Sakhalin-Ainu War and Economic Crash

In July 1979, the Ainu Federation launched a surprise attack on Sakhalin, occupying Rebun and Rishi and making a beachhead near Sakhalinsk. After weeks of bloody fighting, the Sakhalin Armed Forces dealt a naval defeat to the Ainu Federation, cutting off their invasion force. The conflict was dragged out for three years as the Ainu Federation attempted to break through and managed to get limited supplies in while Sakhalin slowly whittled down the invasion force. In February 1982, the last Ainu holdouts surrendered, and Rebun and Rishi were retaken in May. An attempted Sakhalinese invasion of Hokkaido proved unsuccessful, and a ceasefire was agreed to in August. Sakhalinese widely saw the war as a victory, as the Ainu had failed to make any gains.

The invasion was absolutely devastating for the economy. Sakhalin went from having one of the highest GDPPCs in the known world to one of the lowest in a matter of weeks. It would not truly begin to heal until after the ceasefire with controversial austerity programs, and even then, Sakhalin would not recover its former prosperity.

### Years of Lead and Second Black Scare

In the wake of the defeat of the Ainu Federation, local Ainu separatists changed tactics. They could no longer simply wait and support the Federation for obvious reasons. Instead, they turned their attention to weakening Sakhalin for the next conflict through terror attacks in what would later be named the Years of Lead, most significantly in the 1986 attempted assassination of President Georgy Mendeleyev.

The terror attacks sparked a second Black Scare. While discrimination did not rise to the heights it did during the first Black Scare, many still lost their jobs over baseless accusations of pro-Federation sympathies. The Ainu People's Party was once again inspected, and once again many members were arrested, although most were later released due to lack of evidence.

### 1990 Electoral Boycott

Leading up to the 1990 election, the three opposition parties each announced that they would be boycotting the elections - the SDP over chronic economic mismanagement and electoral fraud, and the SKA and APP over continued mistreatment of minorities and lack of enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Many SSP members removed their names from the electoral list in solidarity. When the election came, it had the lowest ever voter turnout of 37%, with the SSP winning every seat. Rather than an absolute victory, this greatly damaged the legitimacy of the government, and protests by all sides became more and more commonplace. In addition, the Socialist Party itself threatened to split as members variously advocated for a stronger commitment to socialism or increased democratization.

The unstable government attempted to forge ahead on its own anyway, but found itself increasingly paralyzed. Whispers of an outright military coup were increasingly heard, suggesting that if the government could not pull itself together, they would take action. In spite of its internal divisions, the SSP managed to pull together a facade of unity and silence public bickering both through compromise and by blackmailing more unruly members.

### Red July

On June 21 of 1991, the workers of the Sakhalin Oil and Gas Trust's Far Northern Plant suddenly went on strike over wages and working conditions - they worked the most productive plant in Sakhalin, yet had abysmal conditions and minimal wages. News of the strike quickly spread throughout the rural northern and predominantly Russian Sakhalin, many of whom had long felt that the state focused on the urban south to their detriment. Solidarity strikes spread through the agricultural and natural gas sectors, threatening to again cripple the economy.

The SSP's facade of unity rapidly shattered as the party was visibly divided over how to handle the strikes - the more ideological favored meeting with the strikers, but many more aligned with the military favored simply breaking them. Seeing this division, on June 28th, the young General Netsmov, fearing the consequences of inaction, opted to bypass the chain of command and led forces loyal to him to break the strikes. The Far Northern Plant, as well as several surrounding regions, had had their strikes broken before Netsmov was ordered to stand down and arrested for insubordination.

While the strikes had been broken in the north, the backlash in the south was enormous. Many had already been sympathetic to the strikes, but the news of their breaking caused outrage and riots. For two weeks, in what was named Red July, mass marches could be seen in every city in Sakhalin, culminating in a call for emergency elections by President Mendeleyev. The 1991 elections ended in the Socialists winning a slim majority. albiet with a greatly strengthened radical faction, which pushed through many concessions to trade unions. While calls of foul play and fraud were shouted by the SDP, they had had a difficult time capitalizing on the largely leftist discontent, and society slowly returned to normal.

On December 27, 1994, President Mendeleyev died of cancer. Three days later, Dmitry Zarubin was appointed President, the first in Sakhalin's history to not come from the officer corps.

## Foreign Relations

Sakhalin has very bad relations with the Ainu Federation and Imperial Japan, and they do not recognize each other.

Sakhalin has very good relations with the People's Republic of Japan, and the two collaborate extensively.

## Government and Politics

Sakhalin is constitutionally defined as a socialist state, but there is little legal definition of what this actually means or what form it takes. The country is more generally considered to be structured as a representative republic, however, in practice, the military has wielded enormous political influence, with all but one president being a current or former officer, and the Sakhalin Socialist Party consistently winning elections.

### Congress of Sakhalin

The Congress of Sakhalin is elected by proportional representative vote from a list of legal parties.

### President and Executive

The President is elected by the Congress. Cabinet positions are appointed by the President and approved by the Congress. Congress may issue a vote of no confidence to recall the president, which if successful will also call a new election.

### Political Parties

*Main Article: Sakhalinese Political Parties*

Sakhalin requires political parties to legally register and be approved before they may run in elections. There are currently four legal parties - the Sakhalin Socialist Party, the Sakhalin Democratic Party, the Ainu People's Party, and the Korean People's Group.

## Economy

Sakhalin is natural resource based economy, being one of the largest suppliers of fuel in the world. The economy is dominated by state owned monopolies.

## Culture

Sakhalin's culture is largely a blend of Japanese and Russian, the two largest populations. It also possesses sizable Korean and Ainu minorities, who often face discrimination.

Most inhabitants of Sakhalin are bilingual, usually possessing at least a rudimentary grasp on Japanese or Russian in addition to their native language. Rural northern Sakhalin, inhabited mostly by Russians, is an exception, as few native speakers of other languages live there. Korean and Ainu are not as frequently spoken by non native speakers, although speaking Korean is on the rise.