Vidin (1983: Doomsday)

The Soviet Republic of Vidin is the self-declared communist-dictatorship successor state to the People's Republic of Bulgaria, based around the city of Vidin in Northwestern Bulgaria, near the Romanian survivor state of Transylvania.

Pre-Doomsday
Vidin emerged at the place of an old Celtic settlement known as Dunonia. The name itself meant "fortified hill" with the typically Celtic dun found frequently in Celtic place names. The settlement evolved into an Roman fortified town called Bononia. The town grew into one of the important centres of the province of Upper Moesia, encompassing the territory of modern northwestern Bulgaria and eastern Serbia. Roman rule lasted until 46 AD. At the decline of the empire, the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars invaded. The Bulgars, who crossed the Danube from the north in 679, took control of the region. Although the country bears the name of the Bulgars, the Bulgar language and culture died out, replaced by a Slavic language, writing, and religion. When Slavs settled in the area, they called the town Badin or Bdin, where the modern name comes from. In 865, they and their king adopted Orthodox Christianity. The Bulgars twice conquered most of the Balkan peninsula between 893 and 1280.

Vidin's main landmark, the Baba Vida fortress, was built in the period from the 10th to the 14th century. In the Middle Ages Vidin used to be an important Bulgarian city, a bishop seat and capital of a large province. Between 971 and 976 the town was the center of Samuil's possessions while his brothers ruled to the south. In 1003 Vidin was seized by Basil II after an eight month siege because of the betrayal of the local bishop. Its importance once again rose during the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) and its despots were influential figures in the Empire and were on several occasions chosen for Emperors. From the mid 13th century it was ruled by the Shishman family. In 1356, Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander isolated Vidin from the Bulgarian monarchy and appointed his son Ivan Stratsimir (1356–1396) as absolute ruler of Vidin's new city-state - the Tsardom of Vidin.

In 1365, the Tsardom of Vidin was occupied by Magyar crusaders. Under Hungarian rule, the city became known as Bodony, but the occupation was short-lived. In 1369, a united Slavic Bulgarian empire drove out the Hungarian military, but in 1393 the whole of Bulgaria, along with the rest of the surrounding region, fell to the Ottoman Empire. This brought an end to Bulgaria's medieval state empire.

The Ottomans went on to conquer the despotates of Dobrudzha, Prilep and Velbazhd as well. Vidin's independence did not last long. In 1396, Stratsimir contributed soldiers to assist the Slavic nations' bid to overturn the Ottoman Empire. Following defeat at the hands of the Ottomans outside the city of Nicopolis, Vidin finally fell under the sphere of the Ottomans, led by Bayezid I, as a punishment for their role in the hostilities. Ottoman rule was harsh and inescapable, given Bulgaria's proximity to its oppressor, and it would remain part of the Ottoman Empire until 1878, when Russia forced the Turks to give Bulgaria its independence after their victory in the Russo-Turkish War. But the European powers, fearing Russia's and Bulgaria's dominance in the Balkans, intervened at the Congress of Berlin, limiting Bulgaria's territory and fashioning it into a small principality ruled by Alexander of Battenburg, the nephew of the Russian czar. In the late years of Ottoman rule, Vidin was also the centre of Turkish rebel Osman Pazvantoğlu's breakaway state.

During the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885, the town was besieged by a Serbian army. Although vastly outnumbered, the Bulgarians defeated the enemy who suffered a humiliating defeat. Alexander was succeeded in 1887 by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who declared a kingdom independent of the Ottoman Empire on Oct. 5, 1908. In the First Balkan War (1912–1913), Bulgaria and the other members of the Balkan League fought against Turkey to regain Balkan territory. Angered by the small portion of Macedonia it received after the battle—it considered Macedonia an integral part of Bulgaria—the country instigated the Second Balkan War (June–Aug. 1913) against Turkey as well as its former allies. Bulgaria lost the war and all the territory it had gained in the First Balkan War. Bulgaria joined Germany in World War I in the hope of again gaining Macedonia. After this second failure, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son in 1918. Boris III squandered Bulgaria's resources and assumed dictatorial powers in 1934–1935. Bulgaria fought on the side of the Nazis in World War II, but after Russia declared war on Bulgaria on Sept. 5, 1944, Bulgaria switched sides. Three days later, on Sept. 9, 1944, a Communist-dominated coalition, the Fatherland Front, took control of the country and set up a government under Kimon Georgiev.

The Communist party increased its membership from 15,000 to 250,000 during the following six months. However, Bulgaria did not become a people's republic until 1946. It came under the Soviet sphere of influence, with Georgi Dimitrov (Prime Minister 1946 to 1949) as the foremost Bulgarian political leader. The country installed a Soviet-type planned economy, although some market-oriented policies emerged on an experimental level under Todor Zhivkov, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1954 until Doomsday.

By the mid 1950s standards of living rose significantly, and in 1957 collective farm workers benefited from the first agricultural pension and welfare system in Eastern Europe. Todor Zhivkov dominated the politics of the country from 1956 to Doomsday, thus becoming one of the most established Warsaw Pact leaders. Zhivkov asserted Bulgaria's position as the most reliable Soviet ally, and increased its overall importance in the Comecon.

Doomsday
The nation of Bulgaria was crippled by nuclear strikes on the following cities:

Sofia, the capital.

Rousse, the location of the only Danube bridge along the Romania-Bulgaria border and the largest port along the river in this region.

Plovdiv,the second largest city in Bulgaria and a center of heavy industry.

Varna, the headquarters of the Bulgarian Navy, a major port and city, and a minor soviet naval base.

Burgas, a major city and the largest port in Bulgaria, along with a minor naval base.

It was also effected by the strikes on Edirne in Turkey, Thessaloniki in Greece, and the cities of Bucharest and Constanta in Romania. In the aftermath of the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1985, the area around Vidin received refugees as well.