National Cygnian Socialist Party (Joan of What?)

The National Cygnian Socialist Party (abbrieviated as NCSP) was a political party in Cygnia active between 1929 and 1943 that practised Marxism-Leninism and Hellerism.

The party emerged from a sect in the Imperial Cygnian Army, known colloquially within the military as the "Budget Reformers", composed of high-ranking officers, who desired greater control over the government, and who felt not enough funding was being put into the military; the National Unity governments of Benjamin Patterson and Sir Wesley Orwell placed much more importance on matters such as education and infrastructure. Gradually, the "Budget Reformers" by 1929 came under the influence of the Marshal of the Imperial Army, Franklin Jonathan Heller, himself an early member of the group, who had been a year earlier appointed to overall command of the Army. The late 1920s saw the Reformers shift to themes of anti-monarchism and Marxism, combining with militarism and totalitarianism to form what is today known as Hellerism. From 1929 onwards, records have shown Heller referring to the group as the "Socialist Party."

In May 1933, the Socialists initiated a clandestine coup, framing Chancellor Orwell for the murder of the Imperial Family, which itself was the doing of the Party. Following the arrest and execution of the Chancellor, Heller - who had "provisionally" taken leadership as "President of the Imperial Regency Council" - formally proclaimed the foundation of the Socialist Party. Federal elections in 1934, which have since been denounced as rigged and illegal, resulted in the Socialist Party dominating Congress. The legislature was subsequently dissolved along with the Empire itself, replaced by the Democratic Republic of Cygnia. The newly "elected" Chancellor Heller then made the Socialist Party the only legal political party in Cygnia. From August 1935 onwards, all Cygnian citizens aged eight and above had to be members of the Socialist Party - youth were registered through the Party's youth wing, the National Socialist Youth League.