Political compass of (relatively) authoritarian-right ideologies
u/KAZUR_KO — 21 days ago
▲ 32 r/Caesarreich
«The Lion of the East»
«Recently scottish writer John Buchan published his provocative alternative historical novel «The Lion of the East», the main idea of which is that in Persia in 1921, the military, dissatisfied with the extremely weak rule of the shah of the Qajar dynasty, corruption and oligarchy, as well as the strong influence of european states on Persia, led by a young persian nationalist officer Reza Pahlavi, they carry out a military coup, and Pahlavi establishes his authoritarian reactionary-modernist nationalist dictatorship in Persia, whose ideology is based on the idea of the revival of the Persian Empire and hatred of Great Britain and France. In the world of the novel, this ideology is officially referred to as "shirdalism" in honor of the shirdal – a winged lion from persian mythology, which is perceived as a symbol of strength, greatness, and domination.
In addition, in the world of the novel, the Russian Empire is preserved, but it receives a crippled victory: it does not gain any territories as a result of its victory, but instead is only forced to recognize the independence of Poland. As a result of national uprisings and extreme instability, the Mountainous Republic in the North Caucasus, the countries of Transcaucasia, and the countries of Central Asia, Khiva, and Bukhara become independent. Due to the extreme social instability in the Russian Empire, Russian veterans of the First World War create armed volunteer units to suppress left-wing uprisings in the country. All of this leads to General Lavr Kornilov organizing a successful march on Moscow, which forces the already reigning Tsar Mikhail II Romanov to appoint him as Prime Minister. As a result, Russia is ruled by an authoritarian military national-revanchist junta led by Lavr Kornilov, while the Romanov dynasty maintains its formal monarchy. Additionally, in the novel's world, France and Great Britain have preserved the Kaiser's monarchy in Germany to ensure Germany's stability and have taken away some of its territories, while Italy experienced a communist revolution during the war.
In the novel's plot the main character is a British adventurous explorer who arrives in Persia in 1920 to study ancient Persian structures, frescoes, and artifacts, and the entire narrative is told from his perspective. After the military coup of 1921, the main character begins to notice how Persia, from a backward, underdeveloped, and humiliated country, is gradually transforming into a powerful nation that has risen from the ashes of ancient history. Gradually, the main character himself begins to embrace Shirdalism and its aesthetic, becoming disillusioned with the modern-bourgeois decline of Western civilization. The main character is faced with a dilemma of identity: either he remains a british citizen, hated and despised by the persians, and returns to his homeland, or he becomes a part of Persia. Ultimately at the end of the novel the main character remains in Persia, integrating into the persian nation, learning parsi, distancing himself from his British European past, and wholeheartedly embracing shirdalism.
In national socialist Britain the novel has already sparked a storm of outrage. The official press has labeled John Bucken a "scottish upstart" and a "traitor to the nation," and the novel itself has been described as a "completely implausible and surreal fantasy." The novel's ending, in which the british researcher voluntarily renounces his British heritage and embraces shirdalism, has been particularly harshly criticized. Many reviewers have described this plot as an "insult to the British people" and a "symptom of the cultural decline of contemporary literature".»
My idea for a fictional alt-hist novel set in the world of Caesarreich. Excuse me for the errors in the text, if there are any – I am not a native english speaker and translated the entire text through a translator, slightly editing it.
u/KAZUR_KO — 2 months ago