| |||||
| Capital | Nitra | ||||
| Largest city | Nitra | ||||
| Language official |
Slovak | ||||
| others | Czech, Hungarian | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholism | ||||
| Government | Principality | ||||
| Regent | Viliam Judák | ||||
| Prime Minister | Jozef Dvonč | ||||
| Independence | c 1993 | ||||
| Currency | Koruna | ||||
The Principality of Nitra is a survivor state based in the city of Nitra in the western part of the historical region of Slovakia.
History
Pre-Doomsday
Inhabited for 6,000 years, Nitra has been a city of extraordinary historic importance. The first Slavs arrived in the 5th century. Nitra became the capital of the Principality of Nitra, the oldest known independent state in the present-day Slovakia. In 833, the Nitran princes were ousted from Nitra by the Moravian prince Mojmír I and both principalities were united into the early medieval empire of Great Moravia. The city reached its height during the reign of Svätopluk I, as an appanage of the Moravian crown, the prince of Nitra from the 850s to 871 and then the king of Great Moravia until 894.
After the break-up of Great Moravia in 902 and its final collapse in 907, Nitra was ruled by the Magyars. As with much of the present-day Slovakia, Nitra was conquered by the Polish king Boleslaus I in 1003 or 1015 and stayed as part of Poland until 1018. The town survived the invasion of Mongols in 1241, and Hussite attacks in the 1400s. After the Hungarian defeat at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and subsequent Ottoman advances into the Hungarian territory, Nitra was under threat of Ottoman attacks. They failed to capture the castle three times, before they conquered it in 1663. The town was reconquered by the Hapsburgs in 1685, becoming part of the Hungarian half of the kingdom after the formation of the dual monarchy.
After World War I and disintegration of Austria-Hungary, the Czechoslovak Legions occupied the town on 10 December 1918 to secure the rule of newly established Czechoslovakia. Nitra continued to be the seat of the Nitra county, until it was dissolved in 1928. After break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Nitra became a part of the First Slovak Republic and once again a seat of Nitra county until 1945. The city was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.
Doomsday and After
On the morning of September 26, 1983, the following targets in the Slovak Socalist Republic were hit:
- Bratislava - Capital and largest city
- Malacky - Air base
- Komárno - Industrial center, shipyard
- Trenčín - Air Base
- Košice - Industrial center, Air Base
- Banská Bystrica - Air Base
In the aftermath of the destruction brought about by Doomsday, the small, still intact city was blessed by its relatively unscathed condition. The principality's government worked tirelessly with the goal of bringing renewed prosperity. The history of centralized economic structure helped in this new world, as Nitra became associated with the resourcefulness of people in a tight situation, as Herculean feats of ingenuity and creativity helped bring about a success story in an otherwise bleak region. It would also become the inspiration of stories about what people will tolerate in times of need.
Shortly after the blasts, a small band of elites seized power and formed the Central Bureau, a governing body which tasked itself with overseeing the reconstruction. They imposed strict martial law and assigned tasks based on what had to be accomplished, forming an authoritarian technocratic system of governance that the populous tolerated out of necessity. The brutal Machiavellian rule of the Bureau was justified through the "promise of a better life for the next generation."
The first task of the Bureau was to scavenge whatever goods could be salvaged from destroyed areas. Salvage teams returned with precious supplies from Slovak industrial centers. The river with which Nitra shared its name served as a lifeline for these efforts, as makeshift barges carried supplies to the principality. Among the supplies were machine parts and whatever fuel could be salvaged from aircraft and other otherwise useless vehicles. These valuable supplies were held in heavily guarded caches throughout the state, only to be accessed under the direct orders of the Central Bureau.
After the salvaging efforts had returned with enough supplies, an effort began for the re-purposing of old historic portions of the city into makeshift housing and rooftop gardens. The salvaged machinery and fuel made these efforts tedious but within capability.
Once the re-purposing was completed, the populations in the outskirts of the principality, in what has become known as the Nitran Migration of 1989, moved into the former museums and churches throughout the city. They brought whatever supplies they could carry with them, but unfortunately many did not make the journey safely, perishing from exhaustion.
The pre-doomsday communist regime had wiped out the intellectual class of the nation. The next step taken by the Central Bureau sought to ameliorate this. Agents were told to find the best and the brightest students in Nitra's two universities, the Slovak University of Agriculture and the University of Constantinus the Philosopher, and give them a chance to pursue their interests in the intellectual free zone that they intended to transform Nitra into.