Manatova

**Jurere Cathal-Dunlèibhe Manatova**, also known as Chairman Tova, was a Kesh communist revolutionary who was the founder of the Democratic Republic of Keshong (DRK), which he led as chairman of the Communist Party of Keshong from the DRK's establishment in 1955 to his death in 1990. Ideologically a Cahunist, his theories and political policies are collectively known as Manatovism.

## Manatova

### Primary position

Chairman of the Communist Party of Keshong (1936-1990)

### Quaternary positions

Chairman of the National Liberation Army (1941-1955)

### Quinary position

Supreme Commander of the Airforce of the National Liberation Army (1955-1990)

## Personal details

### Died

1990 January 29Lkusha, Democratic Republic of Keshong

### Resting place

Revolutionary Memorial Hall of the People

### Children

Tengira Manatova, Ngyasu Manatova, Iribeng Manatova, Kaluba Manatova, Shamabakusa Manatova

### Parents

Uburung Manatova (father), mother unknown

### Education

Lugasian University
Tei Basin Technical University

Stanimir State University

### Language

* Simbasi
* Linyatang
* Aeduain
* Ancient Mbang
* Alaraic
* Skufyan (not fluent)
* Iramashang (not fluent)

## Military service

### Allegiance

Aeduain Empire
National Revolutionary State of Keshong

Democratic Republic of Keshong

### Branch/service

Aeduai Armed Forces (1924-1928)
National Liberation Army (1935-1990)

### Years of service

1924-1928
1935-1955

1955-1990

## Early life

### 1906-1923: Upbringing

Jurere was born in the small village of Ngebikang during the Great War. His father was a soldier for the Kesh National People's Defense Force (KNPDF), while not much is known of his mother who died during childbirth. The village was only a few miles west of the Kesh River and was wholly populated by people of the Oronbu Tribe. At the time, the village was under Karig occupation, and the entirety of the village was entirely displaced by Hishu militants by 1909. Jurere was sold into slavery that year, being forced to work as a child soldier in Kananga until 1914 when he led a mutiny that numbered in the dozens. Immediately after his escape, he and two others formed the Ourantangika, which was a gang of child soldiers that arranged small-scale robberies. He was arrested by a local police force after admitting himself to an infirmary for a bullet wound in 1918, being charged for his gang activity. He served a five-year sentence and was released from prison in 1923 at the age of seventeen, immediately getting hired as a bookkeeper. He lived in a community hut in eastern Kananga.

### 1923-1936: Young adulthood

On his eighteenth birthday, he joined the Stranger's Legion of the Aeduai Armed Forces. He remained in the legion, serving in the Vestrines War until his contract ended in 1928, after which he studied at two universities in Senuloî for four years. While attending university, he was well-known and active in the Senuloî Coffeehouse Groups, which were a series of intellectual discussion groups mostly composed of leftists and advocates of third-way political thought. While attending these forums, he met and frequently interacted with the likes of Arturas Bridigomarus, who went on to found the modern Aeduai state. After completing his four years at university in Aeduai, Jurere transferred to Stanimir State University in Skufya for a total of two years starting in 1932. While staying in Stanimir, he and several other Kesh revolutionaries formed the Commission for Forming the Kesh Communist Party later that year. In 1934, the CFKCP relocated to Keshong and massively expanded its membership. They formally integrated their armed wing with the National Liberation Army in 1935, making way for the Communists to recruit members within the armed group. The CFKCP dissolved itself and reformed as the Communist Party in 1936.

## Rise to power

### 1936-1943: Military junta period

After Ngabem's overthrow by the PMAC in 1937, Jurere was sent by the NLA to negotiate the prospect of integration with the armed forces as a battalion with the new military junta. He went on to be sworn in as leader after the death of Karonbo in 1941. While integration with the military never took place (due to the NLA's leadership being skeptical of the junta's increasingly moderate tendencies) the NLA only actively struggled against warlords at the time while the military junta refrained from publicly criticizing the movement. This lasted until 1943, when the PMAC dissolved itself and established the National Republic of Keshong, after which Manatova's rhetoric suddenly shifted. He called Adamo Murushingo's administration "tyrants" and ramped up the guerilla campaign across the countryside.

### 1943-1955: Rise and fall of the Second Republic

Following Murushingo's consolidation of power, Jurere and several other high-ranking NLA officials initiated their plan to capture Chibonga which was a successful turning point in the struggle against government forces. By this point, the NLA was receiving arms from the Skufyans, as rare as Skufyan involvement in foreign affairs had been. In 1947, Jurere published "*Keshong's Communist Lineage*" which became mandatory for all Party Cadres. The armed struggle continued until the Kesh Revolution in 1953, which resulted in Murushingo being deposed. Over the next two years, Jurere's Communist Party and other parties within the NLA vied for influence over the Kesh Revolution. Having appealed to the peasantry and working population from the very start, Jurere's Communist Party came out of the power struggle as the vanguard of the Kesh Revolution.

## Early leadership (1955-1976)

### 1955-1960: Rise of the Third Republic

Jurere proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Keshong from Lkusha Square and later that month declared "The Kesh people have stood up and refuse to back down." The 1956 referendum established the Communist Party as the leading political force within the National Liberation Front, which was a newly formed political wing of the National Liberation Army that, to this day, functions as a de facto state organ. This made the CPK the ruling party of the entire country. A coalition of three parties within the NLF contested the referendum and began plotting to overthrow the Manatova government. These parties were banned entirely, while the remaining 11 parties became permanent members of the Consultative Democratic Political Conference.

In 1957, Jurere spent a week in Stanimir with Soviet leader Malinov. The two signed the Kesh-Skufyan Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, & Mutual Assistance, which gave Keshong important security guarantees and key trade deals to bolster its post-war recovery. He briefly met with several Amiloran leaders in Senuloî, among them being his old college associate Bridigomarus, who by then acted as Aeduai's head of state. Neither of these meetings were photographed due to Jurere's request to be "away from press".

From 1958 to 1960, he personally inspected hundreds of factories, military strongholds, construction sites, villages, and farms throughout the country in order to "gain a real understanding of Keshong on the ground". While he was not absent from political matters during this period, he often relegated certain decisions to his lifelong ally, Kaluba Loronga.

### 1960-1968: Collectivization programs and the First Five-Year Plan

After personally surveying much of the country, Jurere was confident in his "scope of understanding" regarding Keshong's situation on the ground, according to what he had written in 1960 and later published in 1967 under *"The Keshong Investigation"*. A nation-wide collectivization initiative was started in 1960, which saw the holdings of tribal chiefs forcefully seized by peasants alongside the National Liberation Army. According to some sources, there were as many 70,000 deaths as a result of this campaign. There were an upward of 13,000 sentenced to forced labor from 1-4 years.

Peasant farmers, directed by party localities, began forming communes in order to institutionalize the collectivization process. Communes to this day are tasked with standardizing sustainable agricultural practices on the countryside and building infrastructure under the direction of local plans unless a national plan is under way, in which case the building of infrastructure is directed by the aforementioned national plan. Many communes experimented with the collectivization of living practices, which was encouraged by Jurere.

The First Five-Year Plan started in 1963. Large-scale industrial projects had begun as Jurere saw social conditions as "suitable for industrial growth". In 1966, he stressed the country's focus on collectivization programs after receiving intel from the Committee for State Security of several communes submitting false reports about their yield. Party localities were pressured by Manatova to harbor agents from the CSS while "scouts" were regularly sent to communes deemed most prone to corruption. By the end of the Five-Year Plan in 1968, the collectivization programs were widely considered a success among the Kesh people. The industrial projects had seen the country's working class nearly triple in just five years, combined with the expansion of steel production and rare earth mineral refinery which dramatically expanded Keshong's budget.

### 1968-1976: Economic reform

After the First Five-Year Plan, Keshong lacked sufficient information technology and skilled labor for the National Economic Planning Bureau to keep up with the rapid growth of the country's economy. With no national plan, local planning was employed country-wide. Skufyan engineers assisted with overlooking the construction of two computer factories, while the government constructed another five factories alongside those larger ones. In 1970, Keshong began doing business with select firms from Western countries across Amilor. This was unprecedented for Manatova's administration, and a few Amiloran politicians were even convinced that Keshong was preparing to open up its economy for good. After a failed coup attempt by General Tshilubo, these policies began reversing in 1975 and by the next year, they had been completely reversed.

## Later rule (1976-1990)

### 1976-1985: Second Five-Year Plan and environmental concerns

The Second Five-Year Plan further consolidated the land reform initiative from the First Five-Year Plan. According to Manatova, some suburban communal administrations were appointing "de facto landlords". There were major crackdowns from 1976 to 1978, resulting in thousands of 'opportunists' being thrown in labor camps. Supply networking was improved, and the country again underwent rapid economic growth alongside the further expansion of heavy industry and the industrialization of agriculture, especially in impoverished areas, which were the main focus of the Second Five-Year Plan. The first dam, the Itbung I, was constructed during the plan.

The Third Five-Year Plan was scheduled for 1982, however, it was postponed by Manatova in order to address concerns about the environment. He imposed an improved recycling system and founded the Center for the Preservation of National Ecosystems which is tasked with maintaining the aquatic and above-ground ecosystem by use of biological engineering. The Center for Scientific Innovation gained the approval of the newly-formed CPNE for its plan to launch the construction of the Grand Kesh Hydropower Station, using Itbung I as a starting point. Manatova approved of the plan and decided that the decade should be dedicated to its completion.

### 1985-1990: Third Five-Year Plan

The Third Five-Year Plan saw the construction of two nuclear power plants, the expansion of the country's military complex, and improved civilian infrastructure. Public transit was introduced to cities across the country, especially to impoverished ones. Manatova personally directed political purges against what he called a "brewing rightism" in the Communist Party.

## Death

On the 29th of January at 10:30 AM, 1990, Manatova passed away at 84 after battling leukemia for eight months. He was given a traditional Retmongic funeral away from public eye. Details surrounding his death are sparse, although his remains lie in the Revolutionary Memorial Hall of the People.