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Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Cascadiawank said:
I'm relatively new to this scenario, so I want to ask: When did the Second Republic begin? From what I understand the First Confederation was under the Articles of Confederation, the Second Confederation was the CSA, and the Second Republic was the USA until the Revolution, and presumably the UASR is the Third Republic. But what was the First Republic then? I don't quite understand.
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veteranMortal said:
I believe the UASR considers the First Civil War a revolution, and as such, the second Republic began after it.
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It's nomenclature derived from progressive historian Charles Beard, which, indeed, regarded the Civil War as a sort of "Second American Revolution", and whose reforms would form the basis of the "Second Republic"

The "First Republic" refers largely to the period between the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 and the Civil War.

From this logic, TTL the "Third Republic" is the subsequent restructuring of the government following the Second Civil War or the "Third American Revolution".
 
Miss Teri said:
It's nomenclature derived from progressive historian Charles Beard, which, indeed, regarded the Civil War as a sort of "Second American Revolution", and whose reforms would form the basis of the "Second Republic"

The "First Republic" refers largely to the period between the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 and the Civil War.

From this logic, TTL the "Third Republic" is the subsequent restructuring of the government following the Second Civil War or the "Third American Revolution".
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No matter how hard you try, you can't beat the French at it, sorry :V
 
Miss Teri said:
I was thinking that, yeah.

The FBU really fucks up that histography, too
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Wait is TTL France only on 3 republics + FBU, actually?

I wonder what's the historiography on the French third republic is here, actually. OTL it lasted until the German invasion but here it was murdered from the inside before that.
 
Nyvis said:
Wait is TTL France only on 3 republics + FBU, actually?

I wonder what's the historiography on the French third republic is here, actually. OTL it lasted until the German invasion but here it was murdered from the inside before that.
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I'm guessing the coup ends the Third Republic (or indicates its end by the time France is liberated).

I'm wondering if the FBU would be considered something like a Fourth Republic (or possibly a Third French Empire, even)
 
Miss Teri said:
I'm guessing the coup ends the Third Republic (or indicates its end by the time France is liberated).

I'm wondering if the FBU would be considered something like a Fourth Republic (or possibly a Third French Empire, even)
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The empire historiography is really just associated with the Bonaparte line so probably not.

I'm not sure it qualifies as a Fourth French Republic either considering half of it isn't French and is a monarchy :V

I think it's the end of the republics increments unless the French break away later on.

A bunch of monarchies, 3 republics, 2 empires and one ugly chimera.
 
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Great bunch of updates, really illustrates how diverse and lively American politics are.

And you have green since peace anarchists with Carl Sagan and KSR, no need to look any further for me :)

If not too spoilerish, how integrated the Internationale is in 2020 compared to say, OTL EU?

And when are we going to get new WWII post?
 
Nyvis said:
I wonder what's the historiography on the French third republic is here, actually. OTL it lasted until the German invasion but here it was murdered from the inside before that.
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The main reason the Third Republic was not restored after 1944 is that it's last parlament overwhelmingly voted to make Petain dictator of France and the formation of the reactionary fascist regime that would be called Vichy France or the French State. When De Gaulle called for the Resistance he was an obscure general leading a small band of young military officers exiled in London and effectively a traitor to the lawful government of France as far as the parlament and most frenchmen in 1940 were concerned.

OTTL the french government is overthrown by a petanist coup backed by Nazi Germany and what is left of it is absorbed by Britain, but there is no formal surrender or legal transfer of power to Petain, so the french side of the FBU can clain the constituional order of 1875 is still intact and was fully restored after the war.

Of corse, how they get around the fact they traded domination from Germany to domination bt Britain is another matter.

EDIT: the Third epublic is odd compared to the others because it never had a written constitution ike the others, with the constitutional law being a mix of legislation passed between 1871 and 1875 and suspended in practice in 1940
 
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The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet
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    • I wrote an article set in what's currently the future of the TL, mentioning the sometimes-alluded to Congolese War, about the ATL cousin of "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet:"

    From Radio Revolution Online: "After Decades, a Congo War Mystery Hit Has Been Found"
    By Leanne Alvarez
    Published 25 March 2012

    Six years ago, a song popular with Red forces fighting in the Congo resurfaced online, thanks to a veteran of the war asking around for its title and origin. People remembered it, but couldn't find where it came from. Music-loving sleuths in the Red and Blue blocs hunted for years for the answers, and recently, their efforts finally bore fruit.

    With catchy, somber, yet hopeful lyrics, memorable solo, and trend-setting synth work, it's no wonder why soldiers down in the trenches of Central Africa in 1985 quickly grew fond of this song, which until recently was known as "the most mysterious song on the internet." First played on International Forces Radio Libreville on October 17th, it was heard by tens of thousands of troops gearing up to repel a Nigerian push toward Congolese-occupied Yaoundé, an advance which would ultimately see PYOCOM forces driven from the city. Perhaps they heard their own hopes for the future in the tune, which proclaims that "there's no place, there's no sorrow, in the young and restless dreaming."

    Many also would've liked to know what it was called, so they could pick up a copy of the album back home. Alas, they would never know at the time; due to a forgetful DJ, the song's name and the band who recorded it were never stated on the air. Even more unfortunately, the mystery song's maiden broadcast on IFR would prove to be its last, as the copy of the record that the Libreville station used was destroyed by Nigerian bombers just a week later. Thus, the song would only persist among the ranks by word of mouth and a scant few tape recordings, and obtained various nicknames based on the lyrics--"Like the Wind," "Blind the Wind," and "Check It In, Check It Out" being the most popular.

    When the Congo War drew to its bloody conclusion a few years later, the mystery tune was brought back home with the soldiers, to the United Republics, the Soviet Union, China, Mexico, and even further afield. Yet still, no one knew the song's name, and no one came forward to claim that they were the artists behind it. Years turned to decades, and the song was all but forgotten, existing in foggy memories and on cassette tapes across the world.

    There it would stay, until early 2006. On 10 February of that month, Juliette Ngweji, going by the username "rooouge" would post on the Cybersyn music forum InTuneNationale about a certain song she'd heard years ago, as a sergeant in the Congolese Army. In the initial post of her thread, which has since grown to nearly 4,000 pages, she uploaded the song in question, having digitized it from its original medium of a cassette tape, and stated that she remembered recording it sometime in 1985 off of IFR Libreville.

    Within a few hours, the thread attracted attention from other users, including fellow Congo War vets. User "fantasma_de_la_costa," also recalled that they had heard it, and often hummed it to themself while bunkered down outside Yaoundé. Ex-fighter pilot "KrasnayaArmiyaKrasnyyBaron" fondly described singing along with his wingmates when it was first broadcast, and promised to round them up to help in the search. And former tanker "schwarzmax" impressed her fellow posters by recounting how she'd played this in her crew's T-72 as they routed a Nigerian mechanized unit.

    These and dozens more musical detectives quickly got on the case, sending the song to friends and comrades from the war, trying to bring any old memories back to the surface, and gain even a sliver of information about the nameless hit. They got plenty more anecdotes, and other musical websites began taking notice of the search, but no real headway. The hunt would go dormant in mid-2008, as no new leads came up. Yet Juliette continued her search.

    "I almost became obsessed with the song back then. It's such an amazing work of art, and it helped sustain so many people through one of the darkest parts of the war. It doesn't deserve to be forgotten because of some fluke mistake," she told us in an online interview.

    A few years later, Juliette hit upon a new idea: posting the song to AFS-based sites and seeing if perhaps it was made outside the Comintern. She did just that, beginning with the Franco-British forum Esprit d'Euterpe in May of 2010. While she didn't attract as much attention there, a few posters did offer interesting information. According to them, they'd heard something like the mystery song in the 1980s, though in their homeland of England rather than on the front lines. These helpful Brits noted that the lead singer of the unknown band sounded quite a lot like that of the New Wave band "The Culture," a short-lived act based in Cardiff, Wales from 1982 to 1983. Unfortunately, the singer, Bobby Allison, died in a car accident in 1997, but they knew that guitarist Ken Eastland and synth player Simon Nelson still lived in Cardiff.

    Galvanized, Juliette resolved to contact the remaining band members. She looked up phone numbers, possible Internet handles, and mailing addresses, and finally found contact information for Simon Nelson, enough to send him a letter telling him about the song and asking for more contact information. Amazingly enough, Simon replied, sending her his email address and asking to hear the song himself. Juliette complied, and soon enough, Simon had gotten back to her.

    His reply was crushing. Simon, as an experienced synth player, recognized the highly distinct sound of the type of synth used for the song; the synth was not only Nipponese, making it unavailable for AFS musicians in the Long 80s, but it also was not released until December of 1984, long after The Culture had broken up. Simon also stated that, while the singer's voice did sound eerily similar to his friend Bobby, it was slightly deeper than Bobby's singing voice.

    "He was very apologetic about the whole thing, and was very helpful in turning the investigation away from this red herring," Juliette informed us. "And on the plus side, he sent me some excellent songs that The Culture recorded in their brief time together, as well as some of his own solo work from the 90s and 2000s; he also liked the mystery song, so I'm happy to have introduced someone else to it!"

    Informing the community of song-hunters of her findings, Juliette and her comrades embarked on the search once more; to paraphrase the song, there was only one way, and it was somewhere in their minds. After a year and a half, they made another breakthrough: the name of the DJ that played the song on air in Libreville--Nariman Timurov, who by that point DJed for a civilian radio station in his native Kazakhstan. And this time, they were able to find his email straightaway, allowing them to contact him immediately.

    Juliette, on behalf of the search community, did just that, and the following week, she had received Nariman's reply. He said that he remembered DJing on the day that the song was broadcast, but he did not remember forgetting to name one of the songs that day, and did not have the list of songs, but he did know someone who might: his friend, Pyotr Grishin, who worked as an archivist for International Forces Radio at their HQ in Moskva. He said that he'd contact Pyotr, and through him, IFR, and see if he could help look for the song.

    This would prove to be what finally broke the case wide open. Pyotr enthusiastically replied to Nariman and Juliette, saying that he would tell his colleagues about the song (a recording of which he had been sent) and look in the archives for October 1985; it would hopefully be there, as the song list in Libreville (which was destroyed in the bombing with the record) was only a copy of a central document, sent out from IFR Moskva HQ.

    The community searching for the song, which by this point had expanded far beyond InTuneNationale to nearly a dozen other sites, and numbered in the thousands, waited with bated breath. On Friday, 15 December 2011, twenty-six years after the International Forces and Congolese military first heard it on the eve of battle, Pyotr Grishin sent out a picture of the song list for 17 October 1985. At 16:15 hours, the Libreville station played "The Song Won't Ever Die," by an East German band called Die Fahnenträger; the title matched the second line of the mystery song's chorus exactly, and it set off a frenzy of searching. Who were Die Fahnenträger? Were they still around? Could they be contacted?

    Within days, they'd found the names of Die Fahnenträger's members--Franz Bielert on vocals, Helene Waldmeyer on guitar, Angela Maartens on drums, Marcus Weyl on bass, and Mina Bauer on synth. After that, it made for short work finding their online presences; all were still alive, and Franz and Helene at least were still making music. One last time, Juliette sent out emails with the song's recording, hoping beyond hope that this was it.

    It was.

    "Franz Bielert replied first," said Juliette. "He was astonished that anyone nowadays knew about Die Fahnenträger, since they were only together for two years and had only made one album that was never widely distributed. He said that, yes, he was the one who sang 'The Song Won't Ever Die' in 1985. They'd just gotten a new synth, and Mina [Bauer] wanted to see how it sounded in a song, so they wrote it in just a few hours, and played it, liked it, and recorded it for their album, even though it wasn't originally going to be on there."

    As proof, Franz sent Juliette a picture of the letter, now framed on his wall, that was sent to the band by IFR, asking them for permission to play "The Song Won't Ever Die" for the troops in the Congo, an offer which he said they had happily accepted. They didn't get to hear it played on air, however, as only the Libreville station received a copy, the one that was later destroyed. As further proof, Franz also recorded a video of himself playing the original copy of Die Fahnenträger's sole album, Im Glanz der Sonne, on his record player; the sixth and final song was indeed "The Song Won't Ever Die," the only one sung in English.

    The searchers rejoiced; their quest was complete. Juliette told us about the surge of emotion she felt watching the video of the original record.

    "I couldn't believe it at first. Over half a decade of looking, and here it was! I actually cried from how incredibly happy I was at finishing this journey, how happy I was that so many people had come to love this song like I did, and were just as passionate as I was about finding it. It was the most incredible feeling."

    Now, three months later, Im Glanz der Sonne has been fully digitized and is available for anyone to listen to on PeerTube. But the story of Die Fahnenträger hasn't ended just yet; after Juliette contacted him about "The Song Won't Ever Die," Franz emailed his old bandmates and told them the story of their lost song. After some discussion, in February of this year, the five members made a joint announcement on InTuneNationale and other websites involved in the search: Die Fahnenträger would get back together for one last recording session, a remake of Im Glanz der Sonne, including "The Song Won't Ever Die" and an entirely new seventh track dedicated to all those who searched for it.

    "This was probably the best possible outcome," Juliette said in her interview. "The fact that something I was involved in helped spark new creativity along with finding the old is truly amazing. I and the thousands of other people who helped look for 'The Song Won't Ever Die' are immensely honored to have helped a band find inspiration again."

    From a forgotten wartime hit, to one of the Internet's most beloved tracks, the world's most mysterious song certainly lives up to its true name; the actions of Juliette Ngweji, Nariman Timurov, the members of Die Fahnenträger, and the countless others who participated in the search have ensured that this song truly won't ever die.

    Lyrics to "The Song Won't Ever Die," formerly the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

    Like the wind,
    You came running,
    Take the consequence of leaving.

    There's no space,
    There's no tomorrow,
    There's no sense for new division.

    Check it in,
    Check it out,
    'Cause the song won't ever die!

    There is only one way
    And it's time for you to fight!

    Like the wind,
    You're going somewhere,
    Let a smile be your companion!

    There's no place,
    And there's no sorrow,
    In the young and restless dreaming!

    Check it in,
    Check it out,
    'Cause the song won't ever die!

    There is only one way
    And it's somewhere in your mind!


    [SOLO]


    Check it in,
    Check it out,
    'Cause the song won't ever die!

    There is only one way
    And it's somewhere in your mind!

    Check it in, check it out,
    It's a song of two!
    Check it in, check it out,
    It's from me to you!

    Check it in, check it out,
    It's a song of two!
    Check it in, check it out,
    It's from me to you!

    Check it in, check it out,
    It's a song of two!
    Check it in, check it out,
    It's from me to you!

    Check it in, check it out,
    It's a song of two!
    Check it in, check it out,
    It's from me to you!

    Check it in, check it out… [FADEOUT]

    --

    Here's the original song that inspired this piece:

     
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  • Media
    • Artigas said:
    The main reason the Third Republic was not restored after 1944 is that it's last parlament overwhelmingly voted to make Petain dictator of France and the formation of the reactionary fascist regime that would be called Vichy France or the French State. When De Gaulle called for the Resistance he was an obscure general leading a small band of young military officers exiled in London and effectively a traitor to the lawful government of France as far as the parlament and most frenchmen in 1940 were concerned.

    OTTL the french government is overthrown by a petanist coup backed by Nazi Germany and what is left of it is aborbed by Britain, but there is no formal surrender or legal transfer of power to Petain, so the french side of the FBU can clain the constituional order of 1875 is still intact and was fully restored after the war.

    Of corse, how they get around the fact they traded domination from Germany to domination bt Britain is another matter.

    EDIT: the Third epublic is odd compared to the others because it never had a written constitution ike the others, with the constitutional law being a mix of legislation passed between 1871 and 1875 and suspended in practice in 1940
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    I'm imaging something similar to the Hungarian situation in the Dual Monarchy - wherein the French Republic is merely the constituent part of a larger union (and is of course a great power in its own right I'll have you know!) rather than actually ceasing to exist and becoming part of the FBU. (I know this sounds like semantic hair splitting but that is because it probably is.) Given there is still a French president and presumably not a great deal of harmonization between British and French halves of the union, that will probably a viable argument at least amongst conservatives.

    In contrast, the left (especially the communists) will adopt the "many monarchies, three republics, two empires, and one foreign occupation" model.
     
    TGUT said:
    I'm imaging something similar to the Hungarian situation in the Dual Monarchy - wherein the French Republic is merely the constituent part of a larger union (and is of course a great power in its own right I'll have you know!) rather than actually ceasing to exist and becoming part of the FBU. (I know this sounds like semantic hair splitting but that is because it probably is.) Given there is still a French president and presumably not a great deal of harmonization between British and French halves of the union, that will probably a viable argument at least amongst conservatives.

    In contrast, the left (especially the communists) will adopt the "many monarchies, three republics, two empires, and one foreign occupation" model.
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    Eh, the communists literally run a single European party in the FBU. They're not going to appeal to French particularist sentiment.
     
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