Fiction:Universe 192: Moscow

"Siberia may have fallen, but Moscow will be the capital once again!. The President is dead. We can bring back the tsars!"

- tsar Pyotre X

The Tsardom of russia (Russian: also known as Moscow and often referred to as Russia) is a constituent state of the, occupying. It is a continuation of the  Central Tsardom (Russian:  a sovereign state formed following the Third World War, itself the largest successor state of the now-defunct Russian Federation. The Siberian Republic joined the UGA shortly after the, ushering in its current incarnation.

In defiance of its centuries-long history of Russian Authoritarianism, Siberia is a developed, relatively peaceful democratic Tsardom, whose scientists stand at the forefront of human discovery. However, it still maintains its long-lasting military tradition, its armed forces tracing their lineage to the Red Army and the Muscovite Cossacks, as well as its hardy, severe culture. Although not, it has been quite imperialist in the past, engaging in brutal interstellar colonial warfare.

Origins
Following the nuclear bombing of Asian Russia during World War 3, when Yakutsk was reduced to ashes and Vladstovostok sank beneath the waves, it was the Western regions of the country - the Ural Mountains, Moscow, and the Karelian Peninsula, which remained relatively unscathed - that had to rebuild from what was left. However, the fall of the central government and the influx of radiation from the East, complicated the situation severely. Simply enough, it was anarchy. Those parts of Russia that were at least somewhat habitable were thus torn apart by warlords, ethnic liberation movements, and foreign agents, with the common people rapidly deteriorating from radioactive poisoning.

The key player in the reconstruction of Russia from this sorry state was the government of Central Muscovia, centered in Moscow, which housed the largest remaining scientific and industrial centers in the country. The Muscovite Government, led by the visionary Pyotre Romanov X, half-environmental scientist, half-Duke, focused on what all others overlooked. Where others squabbled for the still pure land and water, he sought to purify what was contaminated. Climate change might have ravaged the planet, but for Northern Karelia, it was a miracle: the melting permafrost provided it with near-limitless supplies of water, and large swathes of land now usable for farming. Had radiation been expunged from it, it could have become a heaven on Earth.

Needless to say, once methods to extract radiation were developed and put into practice, it did not take long for Moscow to overtake the rest of European Russia, and eventually lay claim on its still habitable Asian parts. After a number of wars with Poland for the Caucasus and the Kuban, culminating in Russians invading Crimea for the fourth time, the new government came to possess all of the territory held by the late Russian Federation, while Poland claimed what remained of the devastated Ukraine and Belarus. However, Pyotre refused to rename the new state "Russia", nor move their capital Eastward. The old Russian ways, which led to imperialism and authoritarianism, brought only ruin to its land and people. Instead, he proclaimed the Muscovite Constitunional Duchy, a free state ruled by liberal and technocratic principles.

Early History
Due to the long period of reconstruction, when Moscow peacefully transitioned from dictatorial emergency rule into a more democratic state and rebuilt its infrastructure, it arrived fairly late on the interstellar arena; by the time they first started their colonial efforts, states like the and the  were already colonising the. With the most habitable worlds already taken, Muscovy decided to do what they have always done best: settling in places that weren't habitable. With the most advanced terraforming technology at the time, and a hardy population that had survived the horrors of nuclear war, they succeeded swimmingly at this task, and soon came to claim an entire empire of deadly, but resource-rich planets - avoiding the bloodshed of Human Colonial Wars. The new planets' wealth quickly propelled Moscow to prominence, and it soon returned to the position of superpower - and for the first time in Russian history, without a single shot fired.

War soon returned to Russians, however, as humanity began to encroach on the rich, but stagnant Church worlds in the Galactic core, inhabited by their close relatives, the Antines. Siberia, eager to expand its relatively small population with colonial subjects, jumped at this opportunity. From 2300 to 2360, Muscovite fleets took over 150 habitable Church worlds under their direct or indirect control. Where Siberians came, they instituted their laws, forced secularism, assimilated the Nebi-Mi and outright deported. Naturally, this could not help but foster resistance.

Moscow was forced to remilitarise once again. Small insurrections were easy to suppress at first - the Republic's people were still Russians, after all, and their military was still peerless - but then something unexpected happened. The Cantopian Crusades, led by the mad, struck first at and then at human colonies, plunging the entire Calton Arm into chaos. Muscovites fought alongside the rest of mankind during that bloody war, and it is said (mostly Muscovites themselves) that it was their masked soldiers, fighting with equal fury in the icy wastelands of the glaciated and in the burning hot industrial zones of, that turned the tides back then. After the war was won, Moscow retained and expanded their colonial domains further, with Antine worlds forming a vast sector known as the Antinsky. This in turn led to its military growing and becoming an important player in Muscovite politics.

Recent History
Moscow followed 's example in the 28th century in intergalactic colonisation, albeit they never truly succeeded in it, only claiming a handful of worlds in the. Its government thus became somewhat dissatisfied with the current state of affairs, seeking to return to prominence in human politics, which were now dominated by the French Republic and the growing. Talks began in the People's Duma to join the latter, but the military refused, citing security concerns. Instead, when the began, Siberian leaders threw their lot with  and, eventually, the. Seeing potential in the hardy Muscovites, the Calusians came to use their soldiers as a police force to keep the humans in line, placing a collaborationist general, Artur Kalovsky, Moscow's ruler.

At first, the Muscovite people were content with the new status quo, where they were once again amongst humanity's Great Powers. However, when the tides turned against the Siberian military's status wavered in the eyes of the people; they came to be seen as traitors who sold out the Motherland to alien "allies", and were propelling it towards destruction. As such, when Operation Geronimo began and the came to Siberia, the people welcomed them with open arms. The aftermath of the Schism saw Volosenko's government deposed and the military downsized significantly; the new People's Duma was assembled, and the new Chairman, Svetlana Chen-Khlebova, declared her intention to make Siberia join the. After about a year of talks on Terrae and Pugachev, her admission request was accepted, and the Muscovite Constitutional Duchy was dismantled in favour of the Tsardom of Moscow. Soon, Radiation cleaning machines were build and siberia was free. Then Corpantaza took it.