United Asian Republic - friend or foe?

[Marion]

I know that, in the accepted version of the Anderverse, Bereznik is ‘a small predatory state to the east of Europe’ (Chris Drake, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'). There are also references to the ‘United Asian Republic’ – see ‘Winged Assassin’ .
I know Bereznik is opposed to the World Government, but does anyone know if the UAR is supposed to be pro or anti?
I thought I did see, somewhere, that they are not members of the World Government, but aren’t exactly hostile to them, at least not in the way Bereznik is. Now I want to confirm that, I can’t remember where I got the impression from!
I can't help thinking that the 'World Government' is rather less inclusive than it sounds...

[Clya Brown]

Yes, the whole thing is rather reminiscent of the United States' "World Series" major league baseball tournament, or the "Miss Universe" competition, isn't it? Perhaps in the latter instance it's the view of the organising committee that should any extraterrestrials wish to enter the pageant then their credentials would be given due consideration - but since there haven't actually been any such applications to date, there's no particular reason to change the name of the competiton.

I'd guess that the World Government would probably use the title in much the same way as the two examples above, on the principle that it consitutes the single largest politico-economic power structure of its kind on the planet; anyone else can join if they wish, in which case they can enjoy all the benefits of so doing, but if they don't, then that's entirely up to them. The EU is probably a pretty good contemporary example of that philosophy, in that the larger it becomes, the more attractive the economic benefits to potential applicants become, and the greater the disadvantages of remaining outside it.

(Incidentally, I wonder if the organising committee of the "Miss Universe" competition might have something to say about receiving an entry form from the Mysterons, given that (i) they are invisible and that therefore their beauty - or even their gender for that matter - is somewhat difficult to assess by a humanoid panel of judges, and (ii) bearing in mind their easily anticipated tactic of killing one or more of the current contenders for the crown and reconstructing their bodies for their own ends. I suspect that this might just conceivably be construed as "cheating".)

[Mary]

I know that, in the accepted version of the Anderverse, Bereznik is ‘a small predatory state to the east of Europe’ (Chris Drake, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons').

From a purely linguistic standpoint, most of the nations to the "east of Europe" would not have a country name that ended in -nik. If anything this suffix usually refers to the inhabitants of said countries, whereas the name of the country usually ends in -a (and is considered *feminine*, as in "mother country"... ) or of course -stan (which literally means "land"...)

I'm just sayin'...

[Clya Brown]

A good point - which suggests an astonishing level of ignorance of said predatory state among the member states of the World Government. Or perhaps they're merely being rude or deliberately dismissive of the place. There is however a real place that has the word "Bereznik" in its name:

http://www.maplandia.com/russia/arkhangelskaya-oblast/vinogradovskiy-rayon/pristan-dvinskoy-bereznik/

Maybe the rogue state of Bereznik was - or rather will be - forged out of this tiny community, and will in due course adopt the latter part of its name. Or, since the location (Archangel) doesn't correspond to the one described in Anderson mythology, maybe one of the founders of the state originated from there, and the state was named in his honour, rather like Stalingrad, or Karl-Marx-Stadt. What's particularly interesting though is that Google Earth doesn't have a map at a high enough level of resolution for the place to allow a close-up inspection! Perhaps the satellite transmissions are being jammed on the direct orders of General Topolski - who knows?

[Mary]

A good point - which suggests an astonishing level of ignorance of said predatory state among the member states of the World Government. Or perhaps they're merely being rude or deliberately dismissive of the place. There is however a real place that has the word "Bereznik" in its name:

http://www.maplandia.com/russia/arkhangelskaya-oblast/vinogradovskiy-rayon/pristan-dvinskoy-bereznik/

Maybe the rogue state of Bereznik was - or rather will be - forged out of this tiny community, and will in due course adopt the latter part of its name. Or, since the location (Archangel) doesn't correspond to the one described in Anderson mythology, maybe one of the founders of the state originated from there, and the state was named in his honour, rather like Stalingrad, or Karl-Marx-Stadt. What's particularly interesting though is that Google Earth doesn't have a map at a high enough level of resolution for the place to allow a close-up inspection! Perhaps the satellite transmissions are being jammed on the direct orders of General Topolski - who knows?

Well spotted, Doc! But the name of the city is actually Berezniki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezniki

And it's not a "tiny" community; it's a city of over 170,000 as of the 2002 census. Apparently it's an industrial city with a declining population after the fall of the Soviet Union. Maybe we're witnessing the very beginning of the political unrest that will come to a head later in the century? Are we seeing the first in a series of events that will eventually lead to the creation of our own beloved Spectrum?! Only time will tell...

[Marion]

if Bereznik is near Archangel and Berezniki is near Perm - maybe they're not the same place?
Perm is in the Ural mountains and Archangel (or Arkhangelsk) is near the White Sea coast (Arctic)
Perhaps they wanted a name that couldn't be confused with anywhere real? I did hear (or read) Gerry commenting that they tried not to make the 'baddies' too obviously Russian, which is encouraging given that we were still experiencing the tail end of the Cold War...
Either way - it is the usual Anderverse confusion.

No ideas on the UAR, then?

[Clya Brown]

This little debate has prompted me to do something I've been meaning to get around to for ages, namely download Google Earth - and I see that these communities are two different places. Berezniki, Perm is 59°24'28"N, 56°44'37"E, whereas Bereznik, Arkhangel is rather a long way away at 61°13'50"N, 43°36'06"E. But then I see that actually there are no less than nine places that are called Berezniki: seven of them are in Russia, one in the Ukraine, and one in Poland, very close to the Russian border - and that's the one that has to be the most likely candidate for the future thorn in the side of the World Government, I suspect.

It's difficult to conceive of such a state being anything more than an irritant to a future World Government, I feel, as opposed to the full-blown menace to global security that it was portrayed as in TV21. It's not hard to imagine that one day the EU will be faced with a challenge to its authority by a member state that elects an administration that's unacceptable to the other member states, causing it to become something of a pariah for a generation or so, but probably little more than that. The economics of the situation would be against it at the outset, though having said that, I note that we've still got Castro's Cuba pootling along just off the Florida coast almost 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, so maybe I'm wrong. It rather depends on how aggressive such a state tried to make itself, doesn't it.

Sorry, Marion - we're a bit off-track here! Maybe I'll have something to contribute on the United Asian Republic question shortly, when I've had the opportunity to remind myself what happened. It's a good excuse to fish out the DVDs again....

[Marion]

I should have thought of this before. I went and had a look on the website - I might've known Colonel Chris would have something about it. [All hail Colonel Chris! We are not worthy! ]
The website says:

2010 - State of Bereznik begins to come together due to the continuing political struggles in central Europe, started in the 1990s with the break-up of Yugoslavia.

2028 - The state of Bereznik was carved out of civil-war torn central Europe (covering the areas of eastern Germany (which was split by war in 1991, with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia at odds with each other), Czechoslovakia (which was split by break up of USSR in the early 1990s into the Czech Republic and Slovenia), the Ukraine and Poland, though Russia was not involved).

2045 - World Government is formed as a result of the atomic war of Europe, the war lasts 6 years; 2028-2034, but Bereznik, Porto Guava, Tong Viet ken, the United Asiatic Republic and Britain decide not to join. The World Security Patrol is also formed with the World Space Patrol, World Navy, World Army, World Air-Force, and Universal Secret Service. First World President Nikita Bandranaik takes offices, 2045-2066, in which he serves 3 terms of 7 years each.

So, that says that the UAR doesn't join the World Government in the initial stages, at least, and is probably where I got the impression from in the first place. It doesn't elaborate on whether the UAR joined the organisation later on. Does anyone know about that? If it isn't stated somewhere that they do - then I'm okay.

[mb2000]

(Incidentally, I wonder if the organising committee of the "Miss Universe" competition might have something to say about receiving an entry form from the Mysterons, given that (i) they are invisible and that therefore their beauty - or even their gender for that matter - is somewhat difficult to assess by a humanoid panel of judges, and (ii) bearing in mind their easily anticipated tactic of killing one or more of the current contenders for the crown and reconstructing their bodies for their own ends. I suspect that this might just conceivably be construed as "cheating".)

No doubt when they lost, they'd have all their models explode during the prize giving...

Actualy maybe that's what Helga went on to do. She was a model and never was caught after all.

[DartBrat701]

Actualy maybe that's what Helga went on to do. She was a model and never was caught after all.

Ohhhh no-no-no-no-no! Helga eventually earned a degree in nursing and was stationed at Slaton Base Hospital. (See "Treble Cross")