Zakarija I of Vyrodia
| Zakarija I | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Tsar of Vyrodia and her spheres | |||||
 | |||||
| Reign | 18th November 1917 - 30th January 1944 | ||||
| Coronation | 11th September 1922 | ||||
| Predecessor | Nikolai II | ||||
| Successor | Monarchy abolished (Ksawery Romanovich as regent) | ||||
| Burial |
7th September 1958 | ||||
| Spouse | Queen Marie Valerie of Meskheti | ||||
| Issue |
Prince Nikolai of the Budzak Princess Anastasia of Mykolaiv Prince Alexander of Pervomaisk | ||||
| |||||
| House | House of Klubanvych | ||||
| Father | Nikolai II of Vyrodia | ||||
| Mother | Queen Nynavych of Meskheti | ||||
| Religion | Vyrodian Orthodox | ||||
| Monarchical styles of Zakarija I | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Imperial Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Imperial Majesty |
| Alternative style | His Holy Majesty |
Zakarija I (Vyrodian: Зaкaрiя I; Zakarija Klubanvych, Зaкaрiя Клубaнвицг; 13th March 1875 - 23rd August 1958, 83) was the third and last Tsar of the Holy Imperium of Vyrodia as well as the leader of the Tsazjei. His full title was Zakarija I, Holy Emperor of Vyrodia and her spheres, Defender of the Faith, and Guardian of the people of Vyrodia. He reigned from 18th November 1917 to 30th January 1944 until he was deposed in a military coup by General Ksawery Romanovich before being exiled to Spain by the Socialist Workers Party of Vyrodia in 1945. His reign as Tsar was controversial with over 2 million people dying under his rule.
Born into the House of Klubanvych in 1875 Zakarija was destined to become Tsar after the creation of the Holy Imperium of Vyrodia, being the son of Crown Prince Nikolai, the heir apparent to the imperial throne. In 1889 to cement an alliance with Austria-Hungary he was married to the daughter of Franz Joseph I, Archduchess Marie Valerie In 1901 Nikolai was crowned as Tsar of Meskheti, prompting Zakarija to become Crown Prince. During World War One Zakarija's father died causing him to become Tsar of Vyrodia. Zakarija successfully negotiated a peace treaty between Vyrodia and Russia shortly after coming to power and eventually one with the Romania. Shortly after WWI Vyrodia was threatened with being thrown into civil war when communists revolted against the Imperium, causing Zakarija to crack down harshly on leftists ushering the ultra-nationalist Tsazjei into power.
Shortly after the Tsazjei were put into power Zakarija amassed more power becoming an absolute monarch. With strong support from the Vyrodian Orthodox Church and the military Zakarija transformed Vyrodia into a totalitarian, theocratic single party state where he ruled as a despot. Under Zakarija persecution against Romanians, Muslims, communists, socialists, Jews, gypsies, secularists, liberals, and so-called "natural criminals" was widespread with Zakarija striving to create economic autarky whilst regaining land lost to Russia. In the lead up to World War Two Zakarija aligned himself with the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Italy. Following Operation Barbarossa Zakarija declared war on the Soviet Union. Meskhetian failure against Soviet forces caused General Ksawery Romanovich to launch a coup against Zakarija and rule as regent, putting Zakarija under palace arrest. However Soviet forces overran Vyrodia in 1944 were they imprisoned Zakarija, who abdicated shortly afterwards. In 1945 following the creation of the Vyrodian Democratic Republic Zakarija was exiled to Madrid in Spain where he died in 1958.
Early life
Zakarija was born in 1875 on the 13th March. He was the first son of Nikolai Klubanvych, the son of Baron Nikolai I of Odessa, who ruled the Baronet of Odessa, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. He had several siblings - Vylaschev, Pytor, Konstantin, and Ana.
Following the independence of Vyrodia Zakarija was started to be groomed to join the nobility of Europe as the future Baron of Odessa. However, the instability of the new Vyrodian government eventually spurred Zakarija's grandfather to lead a revolt against the republican government of Jošef Oschenko. A short civil war erupted with Oschenko exiled to Russia and the Holy Imperium of Vyrodia created. The House of Klubanvych led by Zakarija's grandfather was named as the new imperial family with Nikolai I crowned as Tsar of Vyrodia, with Zakarija being named as second in line to the throne after his father.
From a young Zakarija was educated by private tutors within the imperial palace, but following the creation of the Holy Imperium Zakarija's father had him instead taught by military officers in order to instil more discipline into him. Experiences with these military officers had a lasting affect on Zakarija who soon like his father advocated for Vyrodia to become more militaristic.
In an efforts to make an alliance with one of the great powers Nikolai I had Zakarija marry Archduchess Marie Valerie in 1899. The Archduchess was the daughter of Franz Joseph I, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite the Empress of Austria-Hungary, Elisabeth desiring for Marie Valerie to marry whomever she wanted both Franz Joseph and Nikolai saw the marriage as necessary to cement a lasting alliance. A lavish ceremony was held in Odessa on the 17th August 1889, although neither Zakarija nor Marie Valerie were enthusiastic at the ceremony with Zakarija speaking little German.
The death of Nikolai I in 1901 saw Zakarija's father crowned as Tsar of Vyrodia with Zakarija becoming the Imperial Prince and thus heir apparent to the throne. Zakarija was trained further for the eventual succession of the throne, travelling around the Europe to Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium, Italy and the Ottoman Empire to acquaint himself with the ruling nobility of Europe which Meskheti was apart of. Nikolai was careful to mould Zakarija as a worthy successor to him with Zakarija being told to learn about the various governments of Europe on his trip. Despite this in France and Russia especially Zakarija neglected these orders instead preferring to gamble and drink with the local nobility much to the indignation of his father, who ordered him to be escorted on his final trips to Austria-Hungary, Germany and Britain. Upon his return to Vyrodia Zakarija condemned his father's policies made towards the acceptance of Muslims and Turks into Vyrodian society in order to strengthen ties with the Ottoman Empire, calling both groups barbaric.
World War One
Zakarija initially supported efforts to bring Meskheti into World War One seeing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the "a gross act of terrorism and arrogance sponsored by the Serbian crown". Zakarija attacked his father publicly in the royal court over the issue of going to war, supporting those such as Chancellor Mikhail Sukhishvili who advocated for Meskheti to march against Russia. Nikolai II however refused, fearing that if Vyrodia joined the war it could lose territory to Russia if the Central Powers faced defeat. Eventually the legislature of Vyrodia, known as the Holy Assemblies, decided to compromise agreeing to only to declare war if Russia showed clear signs of losing the war.
In 1915 the Russian State Duma was dissolved, leading to Orlov to sign the Istanbul Pact that saw Vyrodia join the Central Powers. A decree was subsequently issued by Tsar Nikolai II that ordered the Imperial army to mobilise at the Russian boarder. Zakarija was supportive of this measure, and was soon placed in the ceremonial position of Major of the 31st Imperial cavalry division whose official duty it was to guard the Tsar. Zakarija however made an effort to periodically visit troops on the frontline to show his moral support and cement his reputation as a future warrior king. However in 1916 Romania launched a surprise attack on Vyrodia, which saw the worst fears of Nikolai II realised - that Vyrodia may lose the war. Zakarija to soon began to see the war as a tactical disaster, blaming Orlov for the failure of Vyrodian war policy.
In April 1917 Nikolai died partly due to the great amount of stress placed upon him with Zakarija immediately succeeding him as Tsar. Zakarija saw the overthrow of the Tsar as an opportunity to create a peace agreement with the Russian Provisional Government and possibly Romania, thus pulling out of the war. Vyrodia's economy was beginning to fail partly due to the Vyrodian Orthodox Church's opposition to letting women work in the war effort, with the monarchy's main support coming from the church. This in turn was leading to unrest within Vyrodia with anarchists and communists influenced by similar movements in Russia starting to fight in open war against the government, giving Zakarija support from within the government to make a peace treaty.
However Orlov rejected these plans, saying that a peace treaty would show only to Europe that Meskheti was weak. This caused a political crisis to erupt in Meskheti as neither Orlov nor Zakarija were prepared to come to a compromise. Meanwhile the war continued to wage in the north with Russian troops beginning to occupy large swathes of Vyrodian territory as the Vyrodian war machine slowly begun to collapse.
The October Revolution saw the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin promise to pull Russia out of the war. Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Zakarija formulated his own treaty that would ensure peace between the newly formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Vyrodia, which asked for all Russian forces to leave the occupied Vyrodian territory. Due to the then ongoing Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks reluctantly agreed to abide by the territorial claims made by Vyrodia, in return for Vyrodia to agree to never attack or even threaten to attack Russia who would in turn cease all ongoing hostilities with Vyrodia. Zakarija I agreed to these terms which allowed him to end the war with Russia and instead direct his fighting forces against Romania.
Zakarija made an effort to negotiate with Romania, but by late 1917 it became apparent that neither officials in the army nor the Romanian government were in any position to surrender. As well as this Vyrodia was still required to uphold the Istanbul Pact, meaning that they were required to fight in the war whilst the other Central Powers were still at war. The war however was going continually poorly for Vyrodia whose army was quickly falling apart as poorly trained officers took command of undisciplined conscripts who now filled up the ranks of the armed forces. As well as this despite making peace with Russian communists still continued to fight in the northern regions.
As the war continued Zakarija started to come to more frequent blows with Chancellor Orlov over military strategy. Orlov who also served as Head of the Admiralty and had the support of many generals stated due to Zakarija's lack of military experience he should take full command of the armed forces to drive Romanian forces out of Vyrodia. Zakarija heavily opposed such actions until the 21st February 1918 when Romanian forces occupied the city of Dasaq when on the advice of the church and other generals Zakarija gave Orlov the role of Supreme Marshal.
Zakarija's more hands off role however did little to halt the Romanian advance which continued to slowly push back Vyrodian forces. In late August the capital of Odessa was surrounded by Romanian forces, and on the 12th September 1918 Orlov issued an armistice between Vyrodia and Romania which began an occupation by Romanian troops of Vyrodia. Zakarija remained the legal head of state with diminished powers. At the Versailles conference a peace treaty was formulated between Vyrodia and the Allied forces with Vyrodia being required to pay back reparations as well as cede some of its territory to Russia.
Coronation
In December 1919 Romanian troops pulled out of Vyrodia with Zakarija retaining the position of Tsar. The country was heavily in debt, and much of its infrastructure had been destroyed in the war with rebuilding processes starting to be enacted almost immediately. Zakarija had democratic elections scheduled to be held in late 1920 aiming to rule by decree until then. However the Russian Revolution and relative weakness of the central state saw communists in the north of the country declare the independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Mykolaiv. This insurgency led into the Second Vyrodian Civil War.
The conflict was marked by bloody ethnic and political violence within the northern regions, with Vyrodian nationalist militias fighting alongside the army against communists. This further deepened economic depression in Vyrodia, which led to a rise in support for extremist political organisations, mostly concentrated on the political right. Chief among these were the far right Tsazjei party (officially known as the Vyrodian Imperial League) led by nationalist Lev Sviatopolski who was against communism. Zakarija voiced his support to the Tsazjei as business owners and the clergy also put their backing behind the party. Support for Zakarija however began to waver as the war became bloodier, causing Zakarija to sanction even more violent methods to be used by his forces.
Ultimately however the the disorganised government of the Soviet and constant infighting within the Slavic Communist Party quickly led to a Slavic defeat in July when the military quelled the rebellion. This saw Zakarija I support the Tsazjei who soon became a driving political force. Eventually Zakarija ended his rule by decree, holding elections in November 1920. Widespread electoral fraud ensured that the Tsazjei won a majority of seats in the Holy Assembly with their leader Sviatopolski becoming Chancellor.