The Free Aviators is a state in Siberia. It borders Tomsk to the east, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen to the south, and Yugra to the west.
History
The Free Aviators state was formed by the Night Witches regiment, which used to be a part of the West Russian Revolutionary Front. The Night Witches regiment were an all-female fighter pilot regiment which have been fighting the Germans since the Great Patriotic War. They gained infamy among German troops for their night time raids using outdated WW1 era planes but with the engines shut off to remain silent.
Since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, they aligned themselves with the West Russian Revolutionary Front and continued the fight against the Germans throughout the 1950s. Following the West Russian War, and the collapse of the WRRF, the Free Aviators took control of the far northern Ural town of Surgut to continue their efforts. Now cut off from the rest of the WRRF, supplying their squadrons has become increasing difficult. Despite their loyalty to the Red Army, they are a universally popular group among the Russian warlords, with support for their fight against the Germans even winning the support of ultranationalist Omsk.
The Free Aviators achieved their fame among the Russian population for disrupting the German bombing campaigns and destroying the German Luftwaffe pilots who dare to fly beyond the Urals. Legends are spreading among Germans that the Aviators are avenging their dead husbands and sons.
In-game
As the Free Aviators are not a unifier for Russia, they largely serve in-universe as an explanation to why the bombings have not completely destroyed any civilization in the western half of Russia. After the bombings stop, they largely become irrelevant until Sverdlovsk, Tyumen or Omsk approaches them for unification. They will not be able to be absorbed by a unifier that approaches them until the other two have been dealt with. However, should they refuse an offer for unification and go to war with whoever approached them, they will be conquered rather quickly, due to having no ground units. They are also notable for being the only state that Omsk will give the chance to peacefully unify with, rather than just conquering outright.
National Spirits
Night Witches
We have never stopped fighting. Not in the war, not in the frenzy of evacuation, and not over the long years of disorder and collapse that followed. We have always been there, rising to combat the German invaders, even as others who claimed to do so fell into internecine conflict.But we did not, will not, ever stop. WHen the Germans come in their bombers, preparing to rain death upon the peoples of Russia, we respond. We avenge. And, far more often than they would like to admit, we win. Many tears ago the Germans, in their fear, named us the 'Night Witches'. Their pilots of today will again learn the reason for that moniker, preferably as their crippled aircraft speed, ever faster, towards the ground. With them inside.
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Aerial Society
Thee disproportionate numbers of pilots and aircraft in our lands, together with the experiences and outlooks of our leadership, have resulted in every societal problem being looked at through an aerial lens. We compensate for our poor infrastructure with airbridges. We use long-endurance reconnaissance aircraft instead of traditional border patrols. As well as much more besides. Every question posed has an answer in the skies, and we will prove it.
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Collective Improvisation
Our lands are barren, to put it mildly. Despite this, we maintain an air force capable of challenging, and occasionally defeating, the mighty Luftwaffe, and we do this through extreme improvisation. Whether it is replacing high-performance engines with those from tractors, distilling grain alcohol to replace aviation fuel, or repairing damaged metal wings with fabric and wood, we figure out a way to make do. This attitude towards collaborative improvisation permeates or society, ensuring that whatever the challenge encountered our people, instead of succumbing to despair or defeat, work together to find an innovative solution.
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Military
Generals
The Free Aviators has at least two generals.
| Field Marshal Nazhmetdin Zhumazhanov |
| General Zinovi Kolobanov |
Trivia
If one uses console commands to change the Free Aviators to the Market Liberalism ideology, they will change their name to Premium Aviators. This is likely a combination of a joke (going from "Free" to "Premium") as well as a reference to their name when the game was in early development—Besplatnyye Aviatory—which translates to "Free of Charge Aviators" in Russian.
