Stasnovan Revolution

The Stasnovan Revolution (Stasnovan: Стасновская Pеволюция, tr. Stasnovskaya Revolyutsiya) also known as the Great November Revolution, the Stasnovan Civil War (Stasnovan: Гражданская война в Стасновии, tr. Grazhdanskaya voyna v Stavvii) and sometimes as the Revolutionary War, was an armed conflict that began with the November 5 strike in Stepanovgrad (now Moskvingrad). The two main combatants of the conflict were the Revolutionary Army of the Stasnovan Federative Socialist Republics under Vladimir Moskvin and the Communist Party of Stasnov, and the White Movement, a loose alliance of former government forces and other anti-communist groups. The conflict is mainly split by historians in two phases, the Revolutionary phase (1910-1911) and the Armed Conflict phase (1911-1914). The Revolution ended with a Red victory in 1914 and the establishment of the Union of Socialist Republics of Stasnov as we know it today.

Background
Worker's strikes had been commonplace across the Empire, especially after the rapid industrialisation experienced in the 19th century. The urbanization of the country as the result of said industrialisation created a massive urban proletariat which was crowded in the cities. In a 1910 survey it was revealed that an average of 20 people shared apartments in Stepanovgrad, the nation's industrial and commercial capital. Living conditions were extremely low, there was barely any running water and sanitation was virtually non-existent. Similar conditions existed in Vastava, Tormavkovo and Cherngorod, Stasnov's other industrial and population centres.

In the countryside, conditions were equally bad. While serfdom had been abolished, peasants resented paying redemption payments to the state. The abolition of serfdom had promised peasants land, however each peasant household generally got less land (and less desirable land) in the emancipation settlement than it had tilled before emancipation, and the redemption payments were often in excess of the rental cost of the allotment. This increased the alienation of the countryside's populace. Revolts by the peasantry were not uncommon, and sometimes were put down by the local authorities using violent means.

While urban industrial life was full of benefits, though these could be just as dangerous, from the point of view of social and political stability, as the hardships. There were many encouragements to expect more from life. Acquiring new skills gave many workers a sense of self-respect and confidence, heightening expectations and desires. Living in cities, workers encountered material goods such as they had never seen in villages. Most important, living in cities, they were exposed to new ideas about the social and political order.

These conditions led to the rise of radical movements throughout the nation. The most popular among the working and the peasant classes was the Stasnovan Revolutionary Worker's Party, a Kraussist political Party founded in 1898 in Tormavkovo, Belovya. The SSWP was founded by Nikolai Moskvin, a charismatic and fervent Kraussist. Moskvin was a middle-class law student in 1889 when he was arrested for sedition, and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. An active member of anti-government movements even before his arrest, Moskvin became further radicalised during his time in prison, where he came to contact numerous others intellectuals of similar ideas. After serving his three years and released, Moskvin returned to activism, now having fully embraced Kraussist ideas. Rallying may fellow socialists and communists around him, Moskvin went on to create the Stasnovan Revolutionary Worker's Party, uniting several smaller movements and parties.

The beginning of the First Great War did initially improve the situation for the government, as the initial victories in the Western Front in 1911 and the Northern Front in 1912 cause an increased sense of patriotism and unity among the Stasnovan populace. However, as the war turned into a stalemate in the West by 1913, public support for the war effort begun to decline. Small anti-war rallies became large demonstrations, which often turned violent as police forces were sent in to crack them down. Disgruntled soldiers on rotation from the front - and those who hadn't yet deployed but refused to do so - often mutinied in their barracks, and others joined the protesters.

1914: Anti-war demonstrations, the Slavgorod strike and the Stepanovgrad Soviet
The Stepanovgrad Industrial Area was the largest industrial complex throughout the Stasnovan Empire, and expanded especially after the 1821 revolt and the establishment of the constitutional monarchy and the State Duma as part of the limitation of the Emperor's powers. One of the largest corporations was the Sikorsky Company, which was one the primary heavy machinery producers in the country. Headed by Leonid Sikorsky, a member of the State Duma and the ruling Constitutional Party, the Company employed a large part of the city's working class.

Early in the morning of November 5th, the workers of Factory Plant No.4 that belonged to the Sikorsky Company went on strike, protesting, among others, for better workplace conditions. The particular strike differed from others in that usually such protests took place outside the main industrial area. That day, the workers arrived to the factory not with their tool kits, but with banners and flags, refusing to work. The strike allegedly came as a result of a the death of two workers while working in the factory. Worker's from nearby factories joined the strikers in solidarity. The Company's private police force was called in by the Plant's director to quell the strike using force. While violence by corporate security against workers was not uncommon, some historians claim that this rapid and brutal response was due to complaints by owners and managers of nearby factories, who claimed that Sikorsky's workers were agitating their own employees to join them.

The Company Police arrived about half an hour after the strike began.