NotDavidSoslan's Test Thread

[NotDavidSoslan]

I will post my OCs in this thread from now on, to avoid clogging the forum, which people have complained about me for three years.

The reason I create so many of them is that I am usually not passionate about popular althist ideas/tropes, unless it's something about Brazilian history or they happen as a result of my characters' actions.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I am going to stop working on all my timelines until my mental health improves since I was banned from writing threads on another forum because "not every thought" I have needs a thread.

 

[prezZF]

Ofc mental health comes before everything else, but don't let one bad comment ruin everything your passions.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

My OCs' favorite foods

Gustavo Henrique: Feijoada

Marian Andreescu: Meat soup

Maria the Conqueror: Yogurt

Abdillahi bin Masoud: Hummus

Carlos García: Spaghetti

My OCs' favorite books and historical figures

Favorite books

Gustavo Henrique: Quincas Borba

Maria the Conqueror: Iliad

Marian Andreescu: Progress and Poverty

Carlos Garcia: Don Quixote

Abdillahi Masoud: Robinson Crusoe

Ed Donnell: Bible

Todd Edwards: Profiles in Courage

Favorite real historical figures

Gustavo Henrique: Getúlio Vargas

Maria the Conqueror: Julius Caesar

Marian Andreescu: Micea the Elder

Carlos García: Charles V of the HRE

Abdillahi Masoud: Sheikh Bashir

Ed Donnell and Todd Edwards: George Washington

Masoud is supposed to be the socialist dictator of a surviving State of Somaliland. He took part in the 1945 revolt against British rule.

 

[prezZF]

My OCs' favorite foods

Gustavo Henrique: Feijoada

Marian Andreescu: Meat soup

Maria the Conqueror: Yogurt

Abdillahi bin Masoud: Hummus

Carlos García: Spaghetti

What abt Todd Edwards and Ed Donnell?

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

What abt Todd Edwards and Ed Donnell?

I did not include US politicians, but I'll answer

Todd Edwards (Senator for Iowa who is running as an independent presidential candidate): barbecue

Ed Donnell: pop tarts

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I'm going to make a timeline where the 26 February incident succeeded.

Hirohito was less enthusiastic about purging the bureaucrats and civilian politicians than Araki, and this goal progressed slowly during the Kodōha's nine-year dictatorship, before being abandoned altogether in 1941, when Japan invaded the USSR.

The Emperor also rejected all attempts to deindustrialize Japan and return to shogunate times, blocking the new government's more radical domestic proposals.

However, the Kodōha did implement greater state control over industry and greater social welfare, to reduce the popularity of socialism and communism in Japan.

Supporters of Araki's faction were named to the ministries of War, Foreign Relations, Justice and Interior, giving the Kodoha a free hand to achieve its agenda. From March 1936 onwards, the IJA and Kempetai carried out purges of the opposition, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being tortured, executed, imprisoned or sentenced to forced labour. Other targets were corruption and Western culture, the latter of which became punishable by imprisonment or a long sentence to forced labour.

Military training and indoctrination were doubled down, in order to prepare soldiers spiritually for war, but this did not replace the modernisation of weapons and equipment due to Hirohito's objections.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

After a hiatus due to drama, I will start writing my next OC tonight or tomorrow. A SSNP. dictator of Syria who would seize power in 1949 and invade Lebanon in 1958, killing over 100,000 people in both countries and implementing a social market economy with a weak financial sector.
Basically a Syrian Saddam Hussein.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Early life of Khalid al-Rahman (1900–1920)


Khalid Al-Rahman, also spelled Khaled, in 1907, three years after the murder of his father.

Khalid Al-Rahman, the President of Syria between 1949 and 1967, was born in the Sunni quarter of Aleppo, then in the Syrian Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire, on 4 March 1900. His father was Salim Al-Rahman (died 1932), a teacher at a school of notables in Damascus, and his mother was named Fatima and a housewife of Circassian and Arab descent. Their family was Sunni, and Khalid followed Sunni Islam throughout his life, while supporting secularism and the separation of church and state, on similar molds as that of the Kemalists.

When Khalid was 4, his father was stabbed to death during an argument in a market, making him and his two brothers raised by their neglectful mother. These experiences had a deep effect on Khalid's character, causing him to display malignant narcissism and lack of empathy for his opponents as an adult. His uncles and cousins played a large role on his upbringing, due to the Al-Rahman children having a poor mother.

Khalid Al-Rahman studied in Sunni Arab schools, where he proved to be a competitive and ambitious student who loved to show off and boast. Several of his classmates later obtained important roles in his SSNP government, and according to biographers, the study of history gave him a purpose in life, with Khalid spending hours reading and thinking about Zenobia, Khalid ibn Walid and other Middle Eastern figures, whom he claimed to be his role models throughout his entire life.

In 1914, Al-Rahman enlisted as a cadet in the Ottoman Army, being recruited two years later and definitely embarking on a military career. He fought for the Ottomans during the Great War, taking part in several battles fought in the Levant, which made subsequent claims of involvement in the wartime genocides unsubstantiated. After the war ended, Khalid passed to the army of the Kingdom of Syria, and fought in the brief war between Syria and France. His bravery and strength in combat led to the first public exposure to Khalid within Syria, and became a major part of his image during his political career. After the revolt was put down, Khalid joined the French colonial forces, as he had not shown signs of anti-colonial nationalism during this time, around which Khalid's mother Fatima also died.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Khalid Al-Mansour's early military career (1920–1931)


Al-Mansour in 1925, after helping the French authorities suppress a Syrian revolt, an experience that deeply anguished him.

Al-Mansour enlisted in the colonial French Army in October 1920, as a tiralleur in the 4th Infantry Regiment. He quickly became unpopular among the regional high command due to his ambition, charisma and aggressiveness, and his relations with the mandatory authorities were strained almost from the beginning. He rose to lieutenant in 1922 and captain in 1925, the latter after helping crush a nationalist revolt and putting his lack of human empathy to good use.

After the rebellion was defeated, however, Al-Mansour, who had no coincise political beliefs before then, deeply regretted siding with the French, at one point even contemplating suicide according to a biographer, and this experience turned him towards nationalism, oriented towards Syria instead of the Arab world as a whole. Distracting him from this angst was his meeting of Alawite nurse Dina Al-Arwa, whom he married in 1928 and remained his best friend throughout his life, although she played no role in politics. They had three daughters.

Like many other of my OCs during their early lives, Al-Mansour concealed his nationalist beliefs at the beginning, allowing him to become a lieutenant in 1928 and second-lieutenant (his highest French military rank) in 1930. That same year, when visiting distant relatives in Lebanon, he met Greek Orthodox intellectual Antoun Saadeh, and the two exchanged many letters over the next following years; in 1931, both of them took part in the founding of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), which would rule Syria under a totalitarian one-party state from 1949 onwards.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

My writing style is not as weird as it seems, since Harry Turtledove made up Featherston as a Hitler analogue, although there were real far-right politicians he could use, such as Talmadge and Murray.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

The POD for my new timeline is that England wins the war of 1812, getting New England independence four years later; the indigenous Confederacy is still defeated though.

The Federalists went extinct in United States politics afterwards, although they got control of New England politics, forming a political machine that used protectionism and internal improvements to develop the fledging nation's economy, giving New England one of the highest living standards in the West by 1900. Literacy rates were also high, but the Federalists did not introduce significant workers' rights, which was left for Aldrich to do.

Franklin Pierce was the only liberal President before Aldrich, having defeated Theodore Frelinghuysen in 1840 (not 1850, I was just confused about whether or not Tecumseh would win, thus blocking Manifest Destiny), but he failed to overcome federalist dominance, and lost reelection to Hannibal Hamlin, who built the first railways and naval shipyards in New England.

**United States presidents between 1860 and 1905**

14. James Buchanan (1853–1857)
15. Stephen Douglas (1857–1861)
16. John Bell (1861–1865, elected by a contingent election after a deadlock)
17. Salmon P. Chase (1865–1873)
18. Benjamin Wade (1873–1877)
19. Samuel J. Tilden (1877–1885)
20. James A. Garfield (1885–1889)
21. Benjamin Harrison (1889–1897)
22. Robert Pattison (1897–1901)
23. Adlai Stevenson (1901–1905)

The 1860 election was deadlocked due to Chase's progressive stance on slavery, and the United States subsequently ratified the Corwin Amendment, averting secession but leading to large-scale violence and Chase winning 1865, subsequently repealing the amendment and setting the abolition of slavery as a goal (it was only abolished in 1875, and the Southern planters received reparations).

New England abolished slavery in 1819, and soon developed an economy based around small ownership and industrialisation; by 1880, 57% of the country's population lived in urban areas, which were ran by Federalist political machines focused on public works, patronage and getting out the vote for party candidates. As New England developed and Irish and Italian immigrants arrived, Calvinist churches lost much of their influence while xenophobia and religious conflicts developed. In 1877, President James G. Blaine restricted Catholic immigration into New England, redirecting it towards the Mid-Atlantic.

New England's constitution allowed presidents to run for reelection as they pleased, and the two-term tradition was soon abandoned. Blaine served as President between 1876 and 1891, being one of the most important in New England history.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

By 1935, New England was a heavily urban industrial society with a vibrant culture and little religious influence.

Presidents of New England between 1905 and 1935:

• Nelson Aldrich (1906–1911) from the Liberal Party
• Eugene Foss (1911–1913) from the Liberal Party
• A. Heaton Robertson* (1913–1915) from the Liberal Party
• William T. Haines (1915–1919) from the Federalist Party
• Arberic A. Archamblaut* (1919–1927) from the Liberal Party
• Calvin Coolidge (1927–1931) from the Federalist Party
• Joseph B. Ely (1931–1935) from the Liberal Party

* Real historical figure who is extremely obscure and does not have a Wikipedia page.

Aldrich's progressive and efficient administration implemented an eight hour-workday, paid leave for injured workers, and tariff comission, as well as antitrust reform, expanding policies introduced by the Federalists. The living standards for the working class of New England improved as a result, and the Liberals won over the majority, but not all, of working-class voters.

His successor Eugene Foss was perceived as eccentric and inefficient, as such being impeached in 1913 and succeeded by Vice President A. Heaton Robertson, who followed a more normal and heterodox policy and was succeeded by William T. Haines of Maine. Maines, an isolationist, lost reelection to Arberic A. Archamblaut of Rhode Island, who favored the Entente and made New England a founding member of the League of Nations before winning reelection in 1922. In 1926, Massachusetts Senator Calvin Coolidge was elected President, shifting towards a more laissez-faire policy and losing reelection in a three-way race in 1930 after economic tailwinds diminished.

Joseph B. Ely adressed the Great Depression by lowering tariffs, engaging in a public works program of building highways and airports, introducing an income tax, and seeking to economically integrate New England with the United States, but these measures were perceived to not be enough, and Ely, a classical liberal, lost reeelection to the social democrat Thomas C. O'Brien, who created a modern welfare state in New England and sided with the Allies during WWII.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

During his first term, O'Brien implemented unemployment benefits, a comprehensive and progressive old-age pension plan, legal recognition of unions, and minimum wage.

This plan, which maintained capitalism, was distributed evenly across New England and helped make the Labor Party a major party, but there were reports of corruption and waste in the government, and many resented O'Brien's populist attacks on big business.

In 1936, opponents of the Labor Party administration founded the Conservative Party in preparation for that year's midterm elections. During the election, the Conservatives became the third-largest party in New England, behind Labour and the Liberals, showing there was public demand for their agenda that opposed the creation of new government programs, which O'Brien was planning in case of him being reelected.

The Conservative National Convention named youthful Governor Styles Bridges of New Hampshire for President, and, on a joint ticket with the old federalist party, Federalist Senator John A. Danaher of Connecticut for Vice President. Bridges attacked the demagoguery and corruption of the O'Brien Administration, and offered a moderate and pragmatic alternative.

After their 1934 defeats, the Liberal Party remained organized, and confident even after failing to make significant gains in 1936. Two years later, Representative for Massachusetts Joseph P. Kennedy was nominated by the party. Kennedy embraced most of O'Brien's programs, but criticized them for waste and inefficiency and promised to expand some. He was initially expected to finish second, if not win, but as the election approached, his alleged ties to organized crime, arrogance and lack of charisma bled most of his support, leading to him finishing third and the beginning of the end of the Liberal Party.

O'Brien, by contrast, campaigned on the strong economy recovery New England had experienced since 1936, and laid out an agenda for his second term consisting of greater access to healthcare and childcare, paid sick leave, a progressive income tax, and election reform, with runoffs and proportional representation. While he was reelected, the corruption allegations and Joe Kennedy's presence in the race led to his margins being less overwhelming than in 1934.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

O'Brien declared war on the Axis Powers immediately after Pearl Harbor, significantly boosting relations between New England and the United States.

The New England Navy immediately launched attacks on German U-boats in the Atlantic, and the Labor Party government began a policy of military mobilisation and emphasis on weapons production. Since most of New England's population was descended from English and French settlers, they overwhelmingly supported the Allies, with isolationism being very weak among the public.

New England contributed with troops to the Normandy landings, having the third-largest number of troops on D-Day, behind the United States and UK, and its navy played a role in the North Atlantic comparable to that of Brazil in the South Atlantic. Post-war strikes and a high cost of living led to the Conservative Party, led by Senator Sumner Sewall, winning the 1946 presidential election.

Styles Bridges's running mate was Connecticut Governor Raymond E. Baldwin, and running mates were not included in the infobox due to a formatting mistake. The choice of Smith as Ely's vice-presidential candidate heavily damaged the Liberal ticket, as women were perceived to be a poor fit for politics; however, Smith got a positive reception in some quarters, and her vice-presidential run helped her political career (she ran for President in 1962, but lost due to her gender and JFK being popular).

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Valentin Andreyich (1955–) is a Russian engineer and politician who is currently a Duma MP and leader of the A Just Russia party, originally created from a merger of Russian Reconstruction and other smaller parties.

Andreyich was born in Volgograd, to a Great Patriotic War veteran who died of alcoholism in 1975. He was a brilliant student and graduated from the Moscow Polytechnic University in 1978, joining the CPRF that same year; he claims to have privately opposed some of Brezhnev's policies at the time.

In 1983, Andreyich was elected to the Volgograd Soviet, where he made a name for himself by attacking corruption and expressing concern about the decaying quality of public services. Three years later, he successfully proposed a resolution to oust the city's mayor for corruption, and became the chairman of the local Soviet, a position he kept until resigning in 1990, and that made him well-known for the first time.

That same year, Andreyich informally proposed a series of 15 measures to "save" the Soviet Union, consisting of its transformation into a social market economy with a multi-party system, centralization and strong executive, to maintain Russian political tradition. His petition got over 350,000 signatures by May 1991, but Gorbachev, Yeltsin and the hardliners opposed the proposal, and the USSR collapsed on Christmas 1991.

On 14 January 1992, Andreyich, who was already seen as a rising star in Russian politics, and 150 other engineers, doctors, teachers and scientists founded the Russian Reconstruction political party, which supported "Social democracy with Russian characteristics", namely a strong and paternalistic central government, opposition to "Western values", and support for Russian ethnic minorities in other countries and Orthodox Christianity. The party strongly appealed to blue-collar workers, GPW veterans, Orthodox devotees, and people who hated the nomenklatura, surfing on this and Andreyich's popularity to finish fourth in seats and popular vote in the 1993 (not 1992) legislative elections, and second in the popular vote in the 1995 legislative elections, which showed Yeltsin and his reforms were heavily unpopular as the three parties with the most votes opposed him. Still, he decided to run for reelection.

Andreyich, leading the coalition Russian Reconstruction, which was composed of the eponymous party, Workers' Party for Self-Government, Civic League and several others, announced his candidacy for President of Russia in January 1996, with a speech in the former headquarters of the Volgograd Supreme Soviet. Polling showed him, Gennady Zyuganov of the CPRF and Vladimir Zhrinovsky of the LDPR as the favorites among the electorate.

Andreyich, accompanied by his wife, campaigned on the values he had stood for the previous six years, but polling showed the electorate viewed him as too young and inexperienced to lead a great power, and CPRF tactical voting came to hurt him; in the end, the 40-year-old who led the polls at one point ended up winning 17% of the vote and one federal subject. Andreyich endorsed Gennady Zyuganov during the second round, and enthusiastically campaigned for him.

Andreyich is nowadays a supporter of Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I have noticed a couple of things that might be unrealistic.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

1946 New England presidential election: The Comeback of the Collages

Aiken was challenged at the LNC (the Liberal National Convention was usually not abbreviated from 1934 onwards) by a unionist social democrat from Massachusetts, but prevailed through the use of machine tactics; party bosses feared nominating a left-wing candidate at the beginning of the Cold War would hurt their election chances.

With Styles Bridges choosing to stay in the Senate of New England instead of running for President a third time, the Conservative nomination was open.
WIP

Aiken was challenged at the LNC (the Liberal National Convention was usually not abbreviated from 1934 onwards) by a unionist social democrat from Massachusetts, but prevailed through the use of machine tactics; party bosses feared nominating a left-wing candidate at the beginning of the Cold War would hurt their election chances.

With Styles Bridges choosing to stay in the Senate of New England instead of running for President a third time, the Conservative nomination was open.
WIP

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

1946 New England presidential election: The Comeback of the Collages

Aiken was challenged at the LNC (the Liberal National Convention was usually not abbreviated from 1934 onwards) by Raymond E. Baldwin, but prevailed through the use of machine tactics; party bosses feared nominating the left-wing Baldwin at the beginning of the Cold War would hurt their election chances.

With Styles Bridges choosing to stay in the Senate of New England instead of running for President a third time, the Conservative nomination was open. Sumner Sewall, the popular and charismatic Governor of Maine, defeated Horace T. Cahill and Raymond E. Baldwin at the Conservative convention, and later chose Mortimer R. Proctor, from Vermont's influential Proctor family, as his running mate, with the goal of getting support from the party estabilishment and adding experience to the ticket.

After Joseph B. Ely retired from politics, the Liberal Party had no clear leader, but youthful Congressman Charles E. Miller of Connecticut energized the Liberal National Convention with his speech, considered to be one of the greatest in New England history; he was nominated and seen as a formidable candidate with a clear chance of winning, but several poor decisions he made in his campaign resulted in him finishing third with 23% of the vote, slightly less than Joseph Kennedy Sr. in 1938.

Aiken capitalized on his support for the continuation and expansion of the New Englander welfare state, especially price supports for agriculture, to narrowly win the first round by 74,000 votes. During the first round, Charles H. Daniels of the Socialist Party of New England won 5.3% of the vote, the highest percentage ever for a candidate from the party, by attacking George Aiken as too moderate and calling for the nationalisation of industry.

Ultimately, Sumner Sewall was elected, as the strikes and a divisive nominee had damaged the Labor Party. He was later reelected in 1950, and retired in 1956.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Since the collage glitched out: