OC Notes - Under Construction
Information on:
- Siberia, Karelia
I'm not fully done researching Siberia or Karelia, so it's kind of going to be holey and spotty the way Sapmi's coming together as an OC was. Also, most histories of Siberia are from a Russian point of view, which is kind of like most histories of America are from a European-Anglo point of view, since Siberia can be considered a colonized subject in a lot of ways, so I'm only going to be getting one half of the picture.
Base stuff: I haven't figured out which of the various tribes/clans/ethnic groups Siberia and Far East came from originally. You've already seen my basic head cannon, and these two happen to be part of the 'many exceptions that enrich the rule.'
1. Instead of one land golem thing two were created. Call it a freak of nature. Call it the world testing out a new kind of personification idea. Who knows? There were two, basically identical minus genders. They are the kinds of people who did like to mix people up as to who was who, so from very young they've traded feminine and masculine clothing back and forth.
2. As they grew and matured, Siberia became more attached to the land, while Far East was always more of a people personification. Hence she has more of the flexibility I associate with people personifications, she's a good healer (rarely shows scaring), tends towards being energetic, and immature/semi-youthful outlook on life. Her brother tended toward land because he didn't like being deeply affected by the deaths of his people. His broody personality leads him to be a pretty horrible healer, and his outlook on life is about as old as the rock beneath his feet (Darn Cossack kids, get off my lawn!). But for advantages, he is the one capable of containing/being connected to the sheer amount of land that Siberia occupies. Eventually he would beat out all of the other landed personifications of the indigenous Russian tribes to control the totality of land that Muscovite Russia would allow him. Both brother and sister can sense the other 'half' of their basic equation, but they are much more tied to what happens to land or people.
3. As for generic how I think of them: Siberia is an heir to the throne type (sort of like Austria's 'young master' type, but Siberia is waiting for recognition). Dignified, arrogant, aware of his own power, but also aware of his lack of true power. Far East is more of a "go and do it!" type. Lots of exclamation marks, and willingness to do hard work, but she can be stubborn and unproductive when forced to work in a group, rather than on her individual merits.
History: (note, a lot of the events talked about overlap)
1555 - Cossack troops begin to expand into Siberia. Their leader asks Tsar Ivan the Terrible to be named head of the conquered land. Tsar Ivan says "sure, remember to extort tribute. Sable pelts should do the trick." Not enough tribute is collected in reality, and soon the Cossack leader is like: Pfft, don't need him, he's fighting with Sweden and Poland now. I'll just lord it over the angry vicious tribesmen out here.
Hetalia - The Ukraine, having enough difficulties in the south of Poland, decides to help her brother out by expanding his power into the hinterland. She fights and pwns most of the personified tribes in the area, expands Ivan's land, and goes back to worrying how she can pin her border raids in Turkey on Poland and Lithuania, and vice versa. In the meantime, the personifications that have been beaten back by the Cossacks head toward the east and and tell their tale of woe, before heading back home. Basically pass the warning along. When word gets to Siberia and Far East, the brother shrugs rather fatalistically, while Far East decides to do something about the strange invaders. Far East travels west and manages to convince the Cossacks remaining in far western Siberia that they really are their own people, and manages to break Ivan's tenuous land tie to the region.
1582 - A Muscovite merchant family, already given powers of administration over lands without needing to pay crown tribute, as long as the lands were profitable, asks the Cossacks in Siberia to help expand their region of control so that they can get at the mineral wealth through mining and the booming fur trade. So the Cossacks take over the Khanate of Sibir and accidentally capture the Tartar capital. Really, the guy in charge of the Cossacks was kind of shocked that they had taken over most of the land controlled by the Tartars. But, ever the pragmaist, he said "Whelp, better administer these in the name of Tsar Ivan (this is a little before the "Pfft" episode)."
Hetalia: Ivan, although busy with the Time of Troubles, and the northern wars of the time period, knows that he wants all of that land and its riches, and that his big sister will help get it for him. Although he is facing West during most of this time, his dreams of expansion are thoroughly in an eastward direction.
Meanwhile, in a more detailed overview of the Ukraine's activities in Siberia, she captures the Khanate of Sibir. While working on the Khanate of Sibir, Katyusha saw that Tartar jerk who made her little brother's life a misery. She gets into a fight with him, and surprisingly enough beats him so badly that he has to give up his land to her, and by extension to Russia. By 1598 she has captured the Khanate, and has to leave the region to focus on her own troubles.
1630 - Muscovite borne smallpox epidemic
Note: Nasty stuff happened to the people who lived where the Cossacks invaded. The common saying as to what people were allowed to do was "God is high up, and the Tsar is far away." However, the rulers in Moscow did not sanction any of this. They basically said that the people found in Siberia were technically Russians because Siberia was Russian, and so they should be treated humanely. The message didn't exactly filter down very well.
After these expansions of power: Siberia was seen by the Muscovite Russians as a vast untapped resource (never mind the people living on the land tapping that resource already). The hard on conquest of the land was truely pronounced in the 1700s. I imagine that by the early 1700s - 1710s Siberia and the Far East's tribe had been over taken by the Muscovite and Cossack movements east. Ivan had control of the land, and by the 1700s, he really had begun to use that land as he saw fit. Forced labor in Siberia was instituted in exchange for the death penalty. Mining and fur trapping were the main modes of business. The natives fought back every so often, and then were sent off into forced labor. It was a bad time.
On the other hand, head cannon says that in order to fight back, our twins were going around and secretly claiming the land and all the peoples in the Siberian regions. Probably they argued that in order to fight something like Russia, the smaller/less powerful personifications would have to pool all their power together. The siblings had already decided that they would pretend to be one person, and they chose to pretend to be the brother instead of the sister because humans would listen to a male personification when they might dismiss a female personification. Also, as Far East points out: Guys get more bling (looking at pictures of various Siberian groups, they so did).
And then Russia got involved in a war with the Swedish Empire, in which it captured quite a hunk of the provence of Finland, and decided to build an unparalleled city right on top of a swamp. In two years. Yay for Finnish slave labor. Yay for Siberian slave labor. Basically, unimportant people (non-Russians) from all over Russia were press ganged into building St. Petersburg.
So, in 1718-ish we have a proud, half broken princling (Siberia was the twin taken fighting Russia this time) meeting an unassuming farm girl under the swampy foundations of a new city. It's not exactly love at first sight. It's more like an "Russia even tortures women in this Hell-hole," observation. But they hang out as Siberia will do anything not to get to know humans if he can help it. Most lands gravitate towards one another rather than humans, but Siberia really gets on his dignity about even talking to humans. Karelia notices when Far East sneaks into the sleeping area one night and takes her brother's place because 1) 'Siberia' has mysteriously forgotten most of their conversations, and 2) He doesn't avoid humans as though they are lepers.
Not that she really knows what happened, but she files it away in her head as a 'hmm.' Anyway, St. Petersburg is built, and Siberia returns to the Siberian frontier. In 1721, Karelia is returned on custody agreement to Finland and Sweden. She has to spend time in her Russian possession, but she is not required to act as a voice for the land to Russia. She sometimes does come to Moscow for the full meetings of the empire, but feels very out of place, even though the Ukraine is nice to her, and Uncle Vanya treats her sweetly. Siberia, grand, vast and important, always makes a point of including her, and she likes him that, but most of the other administrative states ignore her.
Meanwhile out in Siberia, the frontier land is pushed all the way to the Pacific. The personifications of Siberia get thrown in and out of labor camps on Russia's whims (Ivan not aware that while one is in a labor camp, the other is with the ethnic remanents of the people they call their own). Siberia is the one who starts accepting Russians as past of the people that the two are responsible for. He cares less for the ethnicity of the people and more for the well being of the land, which by the 1820s is being robbed of its gold. He also is the one who starts really talking with Ivan, much to the annoyance of his sister, and convinces Ivan that he can act as the voice of the huge region of Siberia to Ivan in Moscow.
And in 1809 Finland enters the life of Russia's federated lands. Siberia is not happy. Not only is Finland quickly given much higher authority, as an autonomous Dutchy, his presence at meetings replaces Karelia's, and Siberia looked forward to seeing her. By this point, Far East has become fairly marginalized, as most of the people who she accepted as her people in Siberia are dying in work camps. She really can't contain her rage at what Russia has done, so she rarely takes her brother's place when it involves going to Moscow. Which means that Siberia's highlight of meetings is now controlling himself well enough not to sock Russia in the nose. Oh yay.
Russification is not a pleasant process for the two sibling lands. Russia forces Far East to accept only people who speak Russian, and Siberia gets to feel the joy of having his land ripped to pieces for its material wealth. By the end of it, both siblings have grown seriously apart. Siberia tends to support Russia, while Far East feels herself the last bastion of non-Russian-ness. The frontier is alive in her. But just like in America, even the Wild East is conquered. Russia is growing suspicious, since the 'Siberia' he knows seems to be becoming bi-polar, but he and his Russification have their own worries in Poland and the Ukraine and Finland, so he doesn't have much attention to spare for land that is "entirely his."
Even worse, once Finland leaves, he takes Karelia with him. Siberia thinks that Russia's people skills leave much to be desired. Especially as he and his sister have been playing host to reams of prisoners from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That's too many people being sent to them just to die. It's not cool.
But with the rise of the Soviet State there actually might be some hope. Siberia will be industrialized. It will gain its own totally Russian populations again. Things are looking on the up and up. And hey, Ivan has made Karelia return. Return part time, but still, return. This is ... nice. Admittedly, nice in a mad scientist saying that the conquest of Europe would be nice, kind of way, but still. There's someone kind to spill troubles to while taking breaks during meetings in Moscow.
And in the 1990s Russia finally figures out the secret behind the Siberia who pays a little too much attention to sweet farm country one day, and the next is treating Karelia just like one of the lads. He finally manages to confront the two sibling lands (not an easy thing, since they have gotten very good at concealing their double nature over the years. Ivan's exposure plan involved three geese, his water pipe, and a well timed telephone call while holding his nose to affect a different voice). With the population (comparative) 'boom' in Siberia, Russia decides to give one twin one piece of land, and leave the other twin as Siberia. Far East becomes the Far East because there are fewer people there, and she is less likely to make trouble with fewer people.
Both twins have to admit that they feel rather relieved. It was tiring re-creating all of Siberia's scars, just as it was annoying to dye his graying hair to match the Far East's still vibrant black. Now Siberia is polluted, erudite, and industrial, easily found drinking coffee in cafes, wearing black for mourning, and furiously following the oil markets on his laptop. Far East is wild and rugged as ever, helping out farmers and tracking after rare animals with zoologists, stopping only for strange tea brews that leave a smokey after taste in her mouth.
Karelia, who had figured out that she was being semi-courted by one half a man long before Russia uncovered the scheme, smiles happily for them, but tries to remain distant.
Pictures!
