Bitter Spring

Bitter Spring
Part of the Alexandrium Wars
Image of protestors in Surenshahr, 3.II.1730 AN
Date II.1730 AN Location Raspur Khanate  · Suren Confederacy Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Workers & Students Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Eura	Raspur Pact  Constancia  Suren Confederacy	Azad Eura

The Bitter Spring was a revolt of workers and students in the Raspur Khanate of Constancia and the Suren Confederacy pushing for democratisation and improved living standards.

Background

A number of factors brought the workers and students within the provinces of the Raspur Khanate and the Suren Confederacy to the edge of revolt.

The closing of the frontiers following the conquest of central Eura (Operation Paramount and Operation Landslide) effectively ended the continuous supply of captives which maintained the kul system of contractually obligated servitude. The decline in unfree labour, as the surviving kuls aged out of the labour-market, had resulted in nearly full employment levels in the majority cities of Constancia during the rebound after the end of the recession of 1726 AN, meaning that the workforce in Aqaba, Nivardom, Petropolis, and Raspur now had the leverage to start exercising its influence.

On top of this was the frenzy of investor excitement occasioned by the discovery of Alexandrium, which saw intense interest shown in those cities which had endured the worst effects of the Babkhan Holocaust. Nivardom, Raspur, and Zinjibar were placed in the epicentre of this sudden spike in inward investment – with dramatic spike in the wages of employees in key sectors, real estate prices, and commodity goods. The inflationary pressures ensuing from these changes were a further driving factor for discontent.

Finally, the abrupt electoral defeat of the Federal Humanist Party in Nouvelle Alexandrie in the 1729 general election allowed the student body of Constancia and Suren to draw an unfavourable comparison, between the constitutional monarchy which allowed for such managed changes in government and the corrupt Humanist dominated oligarchies which prevailed in their own countries. Still more worryingly for the State Protection Authority, the number of students detected and brought in for attitude adjustment as a consequence of espousing the ideology of the Nouveau Wave had begun to increase precipitously.

Timeline

• 1730.II:
  • 1: Wildcat strikes halt production at the Balísta Ergostásio Synarmológisis in Nivardom.
  • 2:
    • Students stage an occupation of faculty buildings in the Nivardom campus of the Euran University.
    • Babkhan Restoration Movement supporters riot in Raspur.
  • 3: Protests in Surenshahr, against the issuance of life service bonds to debtors. Protesters were dispersed by the arrival of armoured cars, agents of SAVAS, and the 2nd Directorate's provost regiment.
  • 4: Demonstrations outside the offices of the Zinjibar Alexandrium Company saw placards displayed carrying demands that companies involved in the exploitation of Alexandrium should have a quota system for guaranteeing the representation of Eurani Surenid subjects at every level of the enterprises, including management positions.
  • 12: In response to the spread of protests from Raspur into the Suren Confederacy, the Majles-e Suren enacted threw pieces of draconian legislation, these being the Riot Act, the Police Act, and the Corveé and Impressment Act. Far from demonstrating strength however, these rushed acts suggested that the ruling N&H national sector party was unnerved by the sudden and public demonstrations of dissent. The timing of the protests had been unfortunate for the Confederacy, as its most reliable military formation – the 7th Cavalry Division – had been deployed to Parestan in support of Operation Verdant Reach at the end of the previous year.
  • 14: Orders issued for the 7th Cavalry Division to be recalled from southern deployment. Directed towards Surenshahr.
  • 20: Raspur Railway Corporation was obliged to report that a train derailment had been narrowly averted on the Trans-Euran Railway between Raspur and Surenshahr. Only the vigilance of the driver had averted a calamity. Tracks were reported to have been severely warped, although no explanation or indication as to the cause of this was given.
  • 21: Protesters carrying red banners and chanting slogans of the Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Eura clashed with detachments of Home Guard deployed on public order duties on the streets of Raspur.
  • 22:
  • An Autokratorial Decree is unusually published in Constancian print media, notifying all and sundry that migrations to Oportia of Constancian nationals, particularly in areas governed by the Southeastern Eura Provisional Administration would not be opposed by organs of the Imperial State, nor by the State Protection Authority. This triggers a rush of migrants. A Consulate-General of the Imperial State is likewise announced to be established in Port Félix.
  • Horrified by the Constancian announcement – the Surenid government issued a firman temporarily suspending freedom of movement between the Confederacy and other members of the Raspur Pact.
  • 23: The day sees thousands of Surenids attempting to surge through the border crossing between Surenshahr and Raspur in order to circumvent the newly imposed restrictions on movement between the Suren Confederacy and Oportia.
  • 24: The Grand Vizier of Raspur, Ardashir Bābakān-e Osman, and the Minister for Raspur, Vahid al-Osman, issued a joint declaration to the effect that the Autokratorial decree issued on the 22nd was contrary to the interests of the Khanate of Raspur. Accordingly it would not be enforced within the satrapies of Mitra, Raspur, and Varaz. Travellers suspected of fleeing their lawful abodes and mandated occupations would be detained by agents of the Khan at a series of improvised checkpoints along the Pan-Euran Highway.
• 1730.III:
  • 1: An appeal was lodged by the government of the Suren Confederacy with the Committee of Euran Salvation and the Euran Economic Union for Iñigo's destabilising proclamation of 22.II.1730 to be rescinded.