Samara TNO RPG

Arcezo's path entails establishing extensive contacts with the Reichskommissariat of Muscovy to strengthen his smuggling network and establish a kleptocratic dictatorship in Russia. Furthermore, Arcezo is developing industry, effectively merging the civilian industrial sector with the military, and is pursuing the path of strengthening the ideology of comprador fascism. In the regional focus tree, Arcezo will continue to strengthen his corrupt power, either eliminating his competitors or attempting to negotiate with them. His primary interest is accumulating profits at any cost, in keeping with the best practices of savage capitalism. In the diplomatic tree, Arcezo seeks to expand his smuggling network into the lands of other Russian warlords, creating organizations to launder money that flows to Arcezo and his people. In the super-regional stage, Arcezo's corrupt regime continues to strengthen, with the creation of a Security Service under his control. However, the feudal, corrupt system is becoming quite precarious.

The Artsezo regime, unlike the governments of Miletiy Zykov and Sergei Bunyachenko, will be rigidly dependent on the redistribution of influence between the "estates" of the new Russian society. Minimal social benefits, coupled with rudimentary institutions of legal social mobility, will make the country the best refuge for corporatists willing to extract maximum profit from local lands in exchange for loyalty and unofficial racketeering for the Artsezo clique. Money will flow freely as long as the fragile balance of the new system is able to provide the regime's elite with everything they need.

The path of Miletiy Zykov, an influential propagandist for the Committee, marks the beginning of gradual reforms. By choosing Zykov's path, the player increases the popularity of his faction, which espouses a paternalistic ideology. Zykov proposes collecting all equipment abandoned during the Western Russian War to replenish the dwindling reserves of the Samara army. Zykov also proposes the introduction of military-civilian courts, where guilty ROA soldiers and KONR members will be tried for arbitrary actions against the population. Zykov's economic, political, and military branches are then unlocked. Zykov proposes developing civilian infrastructure and industry, which will also help subsidize the development of the military industry. Zykov's political branch proposes an agreement with Sergei Bunyachenko, the head of an influential Committee faction, as well as finding allies within the bureaucracy. Furthermore, Zykov consolidates his power through the use of radio and the image of General Vlasov as propaganda tools. A deal with Vladimir Artsezo is also possible, offering the odious kleptocrat assistance in unifying the country—a move that, according to Zykov, would earn him much more. Completing the political branch also unlocks the branch for unifying the entire region. First, the KONR will need to deal with Tatarstan, where, after annexing the republic by military means, equal rights for Russians and other peoples will be declared. Next, Samara will need to annex Gorky, occupied by the remnants of the West Russian Revolutionary Front. Another priority target will be the monarchist Vyatka, led by Vladimir Kirillovich, who will be executed after Vyatka's annexation. Furthermore, there are various paths to annexing Vologda, ruled by an apolitical military regime—it can either be negotiated with or seized by force. Next comes the war with the remaining warlords, such as the Komi Republic, the Aryan Brotherhood, and the West Russian Revolutionary Front.

Sergei Bunyachenko's path involves raising funds for the country's development by raising taxes, as well as addressing the dissident movement by distributing food from reserves to appease the population. Furthermore, Bunyachenko's path entails intensive development of the country according to the Committee's plan, which actively promotes the development of heavy industry by modernizing production at existing factories, as well as the development of air defenses against German aircraft. Through the political focus tree and the country unification tree, Bunyachenko consolidates his power and unifies the region. Bunyachenko also forms an alliance with Miletiy Zykov, who is appointed head of the propaganda department, weakens Vladimir Artsezo, and severing all ties with the Germans. After the annexation of Tatarstan, Bunyachenko grants autonomy to the Tatars, and after the annexation of Gorky, industrial capacity is brought under his control. Bunyachenko can only annex Vologda by military means. Then comes the struggle with the remaining warlords. And at the final stage, there is a war with the West Russian Revolutionary Front, and in the event of victory, a solution to the problem with the Anti-Communist Volunteer Guard.

Having become the sole leader of Western Russia, the general will begin his quest to "save the Motherland," relying on large corporations—"factories"—to build a powerful industrialized economy around them. Politically, Bunyachenko will maintain a strict dictatorship, only slightly loosening his grip on economic control. The new "iron president" will create a solid infrastructure for a modern economy, creating favorable tax conditions and supplying new factories with fresh and well-educated personnel, including exchange programs with Japan. Life under corporate dominance will be stable, but no less difficult—only long hours of hard work and career intrigue will provide the foundation for a good life.

The Samara generals and officers had little in common, other than their past as German prisoners of war and a desire to work with the Germans. Some were driven by hatred of the Red Army or anger at mistreatment, real or imagined. Others simply saw it as a way out of prison camps. Regardless of the reason, and regardless of their qualifications, the generals' betrayal of the Russian people makes them universally revulsed. The rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, were conscripted at gunpoint by the Germans, forcing them to join the ROA. Back when the ROA was still a simple militia, the Germans insisted on strict discipline and advanced training for their Untermenschen assistants. The West Russian War demonstrated that some Red Army veterans were willing to join the ROA, and their experience, carried through desperate battles, was even more helpful. Taking all these facts together, it becomes clear that the ROA is one of the few professional armies in Russia. The Russian Liberation Army would not have made much progress in its quest for national liberation without its people. And yet, the morale of our current army is low.

Veterans from Muscovy are homesick and worried about their families. Their younger comrades find conscription into a traitorous army abhorrent. Supplies are scarce, pay low. Many officers avoid the barracks for fear of mutinous soldiers.

The Smolensk Declaration is proof of the legitimacy of the ROA as a government for a few, and proof of betrayal for the majority. The declaration was issued during the West Russian War, demonstrating that the ROA was fighting against the Bolsheviks and their attempt to establish communism in Russia, opposing their inhuman ideology with dreams of a Russian Republic. Although this document was published by German propaganda, it is proof of the legitimacy of the KONR. The only proof. The Committee may claim to be the Liberator of Russia from the Bolshevik yoke a hundred times, but the people's memory is such that they see it as German stooges, continuing to spread Nazi ideas to the lands of our Motherland, which is why the organization is so hated. Unfortunately, the hatred of the Russian people does not match the love of their former German masters, who wrote off the KONR as rebellious rabble. Sincerity is the path of Heaven. The current level of corruption is low.

While such controversial measures may be useful in the context of Russian anarchy, where state resources often dry up, the state has nonetheless eliminated most sources of corruption. While this may complicate relations with Muscovy, it also ensures control over the army, eliminating competing poles of power.

Meanwhile, ROA officers were growing increasingly weary of Vlasov's indecisiveness. They advocated a more decentralized leadership and the abandonment of the KONR's original democratic mission in favor of continuing the activities of the ROA's ruling junta. Using General Sergei Bunyachenko as their representative, the members of the Officers' Committee plan to take advantage of Vlasov's apathy and old age. However, not all officers adhere to a single ideology. Quite a few have united in a pro-democratic faction and argue that Miletiy Zykov, a former journalist who, through his skills, became the KONR's chief propagandist in Samara, should succeed Vlasov as chairman of the KONR. Zykov advocates continuing the struggle to liberate Russia from Bolshevism and German oppression. Meanwhile, many ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers have grown tired of the high command's bickering and have decided to follow General Arceso's goal—to use the ROA to create a strong fascist state... and for personal enrichment. The ROA is at a crossroads. Hated by all their neighbors for collaborating with the Germans, yet feared for their veteran army and iron discipline, ROA fighters await the end of the German bombing. Some seek to atone for their guilt by rebuilding Russia. Others thirst for revenge on the communists and Germans who ruined their lives. Finally, a growing minority simply wants to vent their anger at an indifferent world that caused them to lose a decade spent in the hovels of Samara.

Despite all this, the ROA continued to operate. Its soldiers fought with desperate determination and managed to turn the tide in the Kuibyshev region. However, the ROA soon found itself cut off from the German-held front lines, thus involuntarily liberating itself from its former masters. As the war drew to a close and the ZRRRF troops were driven back, the Germans began to regard their former cannon fodder as rebellious Slavic Untermenschen. The ROA's new stronghold in Samara was not spared by any of the subsequent terrorist bombings. Since then, the ROA has huddled in Samara, exchanging one prison for another. Unable to expand its zone of control due to German bombing and the ban on returning to the west, ordinary soldiers languished in their garrisons for the better part of a decade.

During the bloodiest days of the West Russian War, when it seemed that the Reich's dominance over Russia was on the brink of final collapse, the German High Command resorted to desperate measures to prevent the front from collapsing. The Russian Liberation Army, or ROA, was created from a number of auxiliary colonial militias composed of Russian conscripts intended to maintain order in German-occupied Russia. Propaganda portrayed the ROA as a heroic Russian army fighting against the Bolshevik threat from the West Russian Revolutionary Front. In desperation, the Germans even allowed the Slavs to create the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, or KONR, as the beginnings of an independent Russian republic that would govern the territories liberated by German counteroffensives.

Crusade However, reality proved far less kind to the ROA. Its leader, Andrei Vlasov, a former Red Army general, was little more than a puppet of the Wehrmacht high command. His officers were a motley crew. Many of them, like him, were captured Red Army officers who chose to join the ROA rather than die in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Others were fascist émigrés who had joined the ROA in the great crusade against Bolshevism. The ordinary soldiers were simply desperate cannon fodder, conscripted by the Germans at gunpoint and sent to fortify the most vulnerable sections of the front. The Russian population caught in the conflict zone greeted the ROA soldiers not with flowers and marches as liberators, but with stones and insults as traitors.