Post by erava on Feb 5, 2011 3:55:50 GMT
• Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
Name --- Ivan Braginsky
Nation --- Russian Federation
Aliases --- Russia, Vanya, *insert various expletives* commie/red (he just ignores this one), Soviet Union (formerly), Rus (medieval), Moscovy (while a Duchy), Ruthenia (old Latin)
Apparent age --- 27
Actual age --- About 1200 measuring from the start of Kievan Rus, but easily around 2000 beginning with the civilizations brought by the Ancient Greeks.
Gender --- Male
|-|-The External-|-|
Eye color --- violet
Hair color --- pale blonde
Height --- 182 cm (6 ft)
Weight --- 85 kg (187 lbs)
Skin tone --- pale
Defining features --- A scarf he practically never takes off (which covers many old scars), a wide smile that varies in its level of creepiness depending on his mood.
Additional features --- Russia’s large form tends to loom over most of his compatriots. Though some braver individuals will make fun of his size, he is in no way fat; his body is just built larger. As one might expect, this fact makes him rather intimidating, even when he doesn’t try. It should be mentioned, though, that in Russia’s case, it is perfectly fine to judge him by his size. He is indeed exceptionally powerful. Some do make the mistake of believing that his large form might cause him to blunder around with brute force; while not typically an elegant fighter, he is certainly skilled, as well as agile enough to keep up with most all of his opponents. As for the rest…let’s just say that General Winter does his part as well.
Russia usually sticks to military uniforms for everyday clothing. His garments are almost always old and shabby. One may even think that they’re artifacts from a different age (and that wouldn’t be entirely incorrect either). He does wear other things, but they are usually hidden in his long coat and knee-high boots. While he may be convinced to take these very warm garments off, never even think about asking him to remove his scarf, no matter what the weather. The scarf was given to him by his older sister Ukraine when they were young, and it is easily his most prized possession.
|-|-The Internal-|-|
Personality --- Maybe, once upon a time when he was very young, Russia was a normal child. Indeed, he still has not grown out of many childlike tendencies, even after centuries and centuries.
Often his most noticeable childish trait is his incredible naivety. Note that naivety does not equate innocence; in Russia’s case, nothing could be farther from the truth. However, he can be incredibly gullible, usually believing what he is told, and he does generally like people, greeting them with a smile (and being very confused when they cower in fear at his approach). In a way, he has an open heart; he considers anyone and everyone a friend, or at least a potential friend. Sometimes, though, he tips over the edge between friendly and clingy. Whenever his “best” friends, so to speak, try to leave him or show preference for someone else, he feels hurt.
Which takes us to our next point. Like any child, Russia wants to get everything he wants, and when something upsets him or doesn’t go his way, he will, in essence, throw a tantrum. Basically, Russia’s anger falls in three ranges. The first is rather mild, comparatively speaking, and it is characterized by wide, slightly crazed smiles and blunt accusations that should be denied, if at all possible. This is generally for when he wants to know something. The second range of anger is characterized by dark glares, foreboding auras, and threatening growls (e.g. “KOL KOL KOL KOL KOL”). These is generally for when he wants someone to stop doing something, but it is usually for small infractions, things he can solve with intimidation alone. The third range is the one you need to watch out for. It’s the one that leads to someone, usually several someones, getting hurt, or even killed. This emerges only after continuous abuses, and reactions will vary widely. Sometimes, he will go deathly calm, and other times he’ll fly into a rage. Over the centuries, he’s become very paranoid, and he’ll occasionally tip over the edge because of very small things. All in all, Russia’s temper is extremely volatile, and it would be best to avoid testing it.
Despite all this, Russia does genuinely want to be friends with people. He is very open about himself, and he won’t hesitate to share his thoughts and feelings with people. He comes off as being secretive and mysterious only because people are usually too frightened to ask, and he sees no point in troubling them with what they don’t want to know. And when they do ask…well, don’t be surprised if you don’t get the answer you expect.
Likes ---
•With a few exceptions, nearly everyone, at least until they prove otherwise…
•Cute things
•Warmth
•Sunflowers
•Being with people
Dislikes ---
•Cold
•Being invaded. Again. And again.
•He doesn’t like when people he likes don’t like him. If that makes sense…?
•Fighting. He won’t hesitate if he has to, and he can very quickly make the switch between reluctance and MUSTKILLMUSTKILL, but he definitely prefers peace. (Whether that peace is voluntary or enforced by stamping out dissenters, well…that’s another story.)
•When things don’t go his way.
Fears ---
•Being alone
•Belarus (silly, but true)
•Freezing
Lesser known facts ---
•He has a big sweet tooth. Some of the things he puts into the sweets he eats can be quite bizarre.
•His heart falls out every once in a while. No biggie, he just sticks it back in there.
•He’s quite invested in his culture, and he greatly enjoys his authors, artists, composers, musicians, etc. He’s not bad at the arts himself, actually.
Goals ---
•To one day live somewhere warm, surrounded by sunflowers.
•To make friends with everyone! You’ll be his friend too, right? Right?
•Secretly, though he never admits openly to any wrongdoing, he knows that he’s hurt a lot of people during his Soviet years, and he would like to make amends. He doesn’t know how to go about it though, so it may be a while until he actually acts.
|-|-The Past-|-|
History --- Traditional Russian history begins when a Varangian (better known as Vikings. Yeah. Those ones.) named Rurik was elected ruler of Novgorod in 860. His successors expanded their way south to Kiev, and thus was born the state Kievan Rus', i.e. Russia and his sisters. (Ukraine, obviously, inherited Kiev, and thus is the older one, but ANYWAY.)
By the end of the 900s, the Scandinavians have pretty much integrated themselves in with the Slavic people, who, in turn, have been absorbing a lot of influences from the Byzantines, seeing as how they were looting Constantinople pretty frequently. Thus, Russia's heavy Eastern influence is begun, and in 988, the region officially became Eastern Orthodox with the baptism of Prince Vladimir I. Church and state were kept close, since the princes followed Byzantium's example and kept the church dependent on them for, you know, money. A few years later, the Russkaya Pravda, the first code of laws, is introduced. Because laws are good. Yeah.
During the 1000s, times are pretty good! Russia pwns the heck out of Western Europe, economically and architecturally speaking. But then, these nomads to the south start attacking, which quickly becomes a drain on Kiev, so lots of people start moving north, where it's safer. In the end, Kievan Rus' is broken apart by infighting, and the Golden Horde/Mongol/Tartar/whatever-you-call-'em invasion in 1223 struck the final blow. Rus' was split up into three parts: Poland-Lithuania snatched up the part to the southwest, and the Tartar-dominated northeast, plus independent Novgorod to the north, made up what would become actual Russia.
The Yoke of the Tartars was not super-oppressive all the time. The Mongols never settled and rarely ever dealt with the people themselves. But when they invaded, they invaded. Old city centers like Kiev never really recovered from the first invasion. (Funnily enough, this let the new cities, like Moscow, to flourish and rise.) And then there was tribute, which was not fun at all. Still, life went on.
More of a threat than the Mongols during the 13th century were the Northern Crusaders, a jolly old bunch of fellows from Denmark, Sweden, and a ragtag group of knights under the Livonian Order. (You may have heard of their close cousins, the Teutonic Knights. Yeah. Those ones.) Prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky, with some help from the Mongols, managed to beat down the evil Catholics though, so all was well.
Now, Nevsky's youngest son, Daniil Aleksandrovich (or just Daniel, if you wish) founded the principality of Moscow (or Muscovy, at this point). It quickly rose in the ranks, as far as principalities did, mostly because they knew to suck up to the Tartar overlords when they had to. Even better was when it became center of the Orthodox Church. Even more power! By the 14th century, the people felt ready for some rumbling, and in 1380, Tartar butt was kicked at Kulikovo. Though this did not completely evict the Mongols, it did count towards a definite boost in Moscow's power.
In the 15th century, expansion was all the rage with Moscow's grand princes, and no one did quite as well as this fellow named Ivan III (they don't call him the Great for nothing!). He battled Lithuania (who was boss as hell) for control of the Upper Principalities, and he managed to triple the size of Muscovy by annexing Novgorod and Tver. What with the fall of Constantinople, the idea was that Moscow would be its successor state, or the "New Rome". Then, Mr. the Great refuses the declining Mongols their tribute, and through several attacks, kicks the Tartars out entirely. Yay! Ivan then declares that the rulers of Moscow are the bosses of everyone else, and finally Muscovy becomes something of an actual nation with an all-powerful central ruler, or tsar. And the first of these autocrats to officially crown himself is yet another Ivan! This one is IV. And the Terrible. Fun times are ahead, can you tell?
Mr. the Terrible strengthened the power of the tsar like woah, you can give him that much. Of course, he did this by completely subjugating the rest of the nobles and executing people with barely any provocation, but hey, business as usual in Russia, right? Still, he wasn't all bad. He developed a new code of laws, made up a sort of parliamentary-type body, and lessened the influence of the church in government. And he did annex a heck of a lot.
Later on though, Ivan did get pretty Terrible. He split Russia in two, and went and killed off a bunch of people. Mass repressions and public executions everywhere, all coming to a head in the Massacre of Novgorod, which is exactly as bad as it sounds. Of course, Russia was so weakened by all this that the Crimean Tartars came, invaded, and burned down Moscow in 1571. Yeah, not cool. So Ivan ditches his craziness after that.
And then there is a succession crisis. Yeah. Those never lead to anything good. In this case, it led to a lovely time called the Time of Troubles. Which, again, were exactly as bad as they sound. Ridiculously cold summers lead to famines lead to everyone blaming the ruler at the time, one Boris Godunov. Then Poland-Lithuania decides to stick itself in and install a couple of impostor kings. There is war with Poland, there is war with Sweden, Moscow burns down again during the mess, and then Russia pretty much decides that evil invaders must go. A volunteer army kicks the baddies out of the capital on November 4, 1612. In the following February, a national assembly from pretty much everywhere elects Mikhail Romanov to the tsardom.
First on the List of Things to Do Now That There's a New Dynasty in Place is to make peace! Luckily, Poland-Lithuania and Sweden are duking it out, so Russia can step out and make peace with both its major enemies. Then, there's a revolt in Polish-controlled Ukraine, which ends in Russia granting protection to Left-bank Ukraine. They have to fight Poland to get it, but eventually, Russia gains Ukraine, Kiev, and Smolensk.
And then there is government-sanctioned serfdom. Which was not fun for anyone and led to a bunch of revolts against the Romanovs throughout the 17th century, all of which were subdued with military force.
By this point, Russia is the largest state anywhere, stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific. Still, huge though it was, the population was pretty titchy, and food production kinda sucked (the ridiculous winters might've had something to do with it), which meant everyone had to farm. And then there was a guy named Peter. Another one you might have heard of. Goes by the Great.
First people Peter attacks are the Ottomans. After that, he goes north, hoping to gain a seaport. Sweden's blocked off access to the Baltic, so in 1699, Peter makes a little deal with Poland-Lithuania and Denmark, and they fight Sweden together in the Great Northern War. War ends in 1721, Peter gets his seaport and then some, plus a sweet new capital, St. Petersburg. Even more: Peter decides that in addition to tsar, he is also emperor of Russia, and thus is the beginning of the Russian Empire (
And then he died, leaving his second wife in charge for three years. After her comes Peter's grandson, another Peter, for only two years, and after him comes his niece, Anna. After her comes this nice lady Elizabeth, who seizes power for twenty years. Things were cool, a university is established, and capital punishment is abolished. So yeah, not bad.
Skip about 40 years, and we come to another nice lady you may have heard of. Her name's Catherine II, and she is yet another the Great. She may or may not have had her husband killed to get the job (
Catherine was big on culture! Arts, science, learning, all that lovely stuff. She was big on helping out the nobles too. Which may not have been so great after all, seeing as her actions sorta kinda led to a big peasant uprising in 1773. This guy named Pugachev inspired a bunch of rebels to try and take Moscow, but they were all suppressed, and Pugachev was drawn and quartered in Red Square. Fun times.
Catherine expanded too, waging war on the dying Ottoman Empire and pushing the boundaries south to the Black Sea. She then teamed up with Austria and Prussia in the Partitions of Poland. After her, expansion continued as Alexander I stole Finland from Sweden (who must have been crushed, I'm sure) and Bessarabia from the Ottomans.
And then along came another guy, not from Russia but from France. You may have heard of him too. Just a not-actually-short fellow named Napoleon Bonaparte. Yeah. That one. The one who decides that it is a good idea to capture Moscow just as winter begins. You can imagine how that worked out. And if you can't, I'll tell you: Russia chased him across Europe back to the gates of Paris, and Tsar Alexander becomes the "savior of Europe", presiding over the Congress of Vienna. He also gets to snatch Poland for himself.
Don't get any big illusions about life in Russia being totally awesome though. Serfdom still dominated, which means that being a peasant still sucked, and Russia lagged behind while the rest of Europe started industrializing.
Russia's power is somewhat dampened after the Crimean War, which sucked on every count. Then there was a cholera plague, which was even suckier. Alexander II emancipated the serfs finally though, and Russia finally started modernizing though!
And then came the last. Nicholas II. I think you know what's coming.
January 22, 1905 is a lovely day in Russian history called Bloody Sunday. Here's where Russia finally goes a little insane. There's a revolution, which is ultimately put down, but not without the government conceding some big rights, like speech and assembly and stuff.
And then we've got a World War! Russia pretty much destroys Austria-Hungary, but all the stuff that goes with wars--high costs, death tolls, etc.--does not sit well with the people. Everything is brought to a head in 1917. The year where the real shit started going down.
First comes the February Revolution! Nicholas II is forced to abdicate, he and the rest of the Romanovs are imprisoned and later executed. A shaky Provisional Government replaces them, which sucks. Then, the October Revolution rolls around, led by a certain Bolshevik leader you may also have heard of, one Vladimir Lenin. And would you look at that, we've got the world's first socialist state! (-fanfare!-)
After the October Revolution, there's a mess between the anti-commie White movement and the new Red Army. Russia gives up a big chunk of its western territories to pull out of WWI, and things are made even worse with the Reds and Whites executing each other left and right. By the end of everything, Russia is in a pretty crappy state, what with the torn-apart infrastructure and the famine.
A little clarifying here: technically, Soviet Union =/= Russia. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR) + 15 other SFSR's = Soviet Union. Russia was by far the biggest and was the dominating power though, so we can use the terms interchangeably. I'm still going to say Russia because it takes up less space, and this is already TL;DR as it is.
Lenin dies in 1924, and he's replaced by his even more charming buddy, a lovely man named Josef Stalin. Hear that sound? That's the sound of mass repressions everywhere, people being deported to Siberia, and political convicts in labor camps. Oh, and industrialization through Five Year Plans. Yes.
And then there is a buzzing around the West of another wonderful guy that you may know of by the name of Adolf Hitler.
Germany was up to shenanigans that Russia did not like, seeing as war was quickly becoming a possibility. Plus, Hitler had gone and allied with Japan, Russia's major rival and enemy in the Far East. In August 1939, after England and France once again said that no, they do not want to be friends, Russia agrees to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of nonaggression, and also their deal to split Europe between them. So while Hitler continues his business in Poland, France, and other places, Russia starts building up its own military and starts to steal back some territory in its own invasion of Poland and the Winter War with Finland.
Then Hitler breaks his pact and invades Russia on June 22, 1941. Though things are pretty good for Germany early on (maybe because it was summer), the Battle of Moscow brings them to a stop. Afterwards, Russia manages to force Germany back through several major victories. The Soviets capture Berlin in May 1945 and kick the Japanese out of China in August, helping in the Allied victory, but all at the cost of horrendous casualties. Yeah, nothing funny about it, I'm afraid. Afterwards though, Russia emerges as a world superpower. You know what that means? It's time for a Cold War.
After WWII, the Red Army occupies big chunks of Eastern Europe and installs socialist governments wherever it can reach. They get nukes, establish the Warsaw Pact, and spread communism everywhere, including China, North Korea, and Cuba, to name a few.
Stalin dies and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev, who launched a de-Stalinization program, releasing prisoners from labor camps and easing up on the repression. There was also a huge spike in tension with the US with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russia kicks off the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. There's a big race with America after that. Yeah, all in all, kinda pointless.
After Khrushchev gets kicked out in 1964, Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader. He...doesn't do a lot. There's a war in Afghanistan in 1979, but they pull out in 1989 because of lack of support and general unsuccessfulness.
After 1985, leader Mikhail Gorbachev begins policies of glastnost and perestroika to make Russia more democratic, but though it sounds nice, things got rather icky for Russia. In August 1991, there's a military coup against Gorbachev. Funny thing was, it was intended to preserve the USSR, but ended up leading to its collapse. In December 1991, the Soviet Union is dissolved into its 15 separate states.
Boris Yeltsin is the first elected President of the new Russian Federation. The 90s are really rather...crappy, to say the least. Raging privatization and liberalization lead to a huge economic crisis. Birth rate sinks like a rock while death rate skyrockets. Poverty is everywhere. Things are not fun. Russia also takes up full responsibility of the USSR's debts, even though it only made up half of the USSR's population (remember the Russia =/= USSR thing?), so high budget deficits lead to more economic suckage in 1998. Yeltsin resigns in December 1999 and Vladimir Putin becomes President. He turns things around, and while some of the reforms are not very democratic, so to speak, things do not suck so much anymore, so that's nice! Right?
?Putin is now Prime Minister of Russia. The current president is Dmitry Medvedev.
|-|-The Style-|-|
Roleplay example ---
July 17, 1918
Not long after midnight
“The family will be here soon.”
“The Romanovs?”
Yurovsky gave a curt nod.
That made sense, Russia thought. The Czechoslovaks were approaching the city, so they were probably to hide the prisoners in the basement to protect them! That was why he had his bayonet, of course! And they would want him there to…to comfort the children, yes! He could play with the children again! The thought made him genuinely happy, and he made to open his arms in welcome as the door opened and the family made their way inside, but Yurovsky put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, replying to his inquiring look with only a cursory glare.
Nicholas was the first to break the hush. “I don’t suppose I could go get a chair or two for Alexandra and myself?” he huffed.
The door opened again, and eleven men entered, each carrying a bayonet and wearing a blank expression. Russia frowned in confusion. Surely so many people were not needed to defend such a small room? But then, Yurovsky stepped forward and began to speak.
“Nikolai Aleksandrovich,” he began, “your brethren have tried to save you, but they have not. And now…” He gestured towards the soldiers, and they formed a line before him, facing towards the family. “We are forced to shoot you ourselves.”
Russia froze. Blood pounded in his ears, and he saw Yurovsky pull out a sheet of paper and read it (the decision for their execution, he now knew), but he couldn’t register the words. Why? Vladimir was a good man, he would not tell him to do the wrong thing, but the Romanovs were his friends! They were good as well!
But…
Were they really so good? They had not stopped this from happening; they had not stopped his mind from being split by civil war. Vladimir had helped him. Vladimir had stopped the pain, had stopped the battling forces in his mind of unionempire, bolsheviktsar, redwhite, had shown him the right side. The Romanovs were prisoners, enemies. If they were alive, with the Czechoslovaks so close, they could be freed, and the Whites would have new leaders, and that fighting in his head would start again. He didn’t want that, he couldn’t endure that again!
“What?!”
Nicholas’ shout brought Russia out of his reverie. The former tsar stared at him in horror. “Ivan, you can’t agree with this!” he pleaded.
Russia smiled blankly at him. This was right, of course. They had to die.
The firing squad’s weapons lifted. Alexandra cried out in horror and moved to cross herself, but her effort was quickly abandoned as shots rang out in the emptiness of the room. The former Empress was the first to fall. Nicholas roared in fury, but he was dropped nearly instantly by Yurovsky. Olga shrieked and tried to run for the door but was felled by a shot to the head. Then came Tatiana and Alexei, killed in the hail of bullets.
In the chaos, Maria and Anastasia had snuck into a safe corner, huddled together in terror. The firing squad, occupied with its work on the rest of the family, didn’t notice them. Slowly, as if in a trance, Russia moved toward them, weapon at the ready, face frozen in an icy smile.
One shot. That was all it took, and Maria was gone. Anastasia screamed horribly and backed further into the corner, but there was nowhere else to go. She stared up at him, desperate, pleading. “Vanya,” she sobbed, “Vanya, please!”
Russia smiled kindly. Little Anastasia, so charming, so sweet, always his favorite child…
We don’t want children who can’t play nice, right?
|-|-The Player-|-|
Username --- Erava
Age --- 17
Time zone --- GMT–6
