A crisis after three years
6 min readMicronational war. Some will imagine airsoft battles between micronational militaries, most will however imagine unnecessary arguments which don’t add to the development of micronationalism. It is thefore interesting, that the Gymnasium State, now one of the best known micronations of the Czech sector, owes this position to a micronational war.
Firstly we need to look at the state of Czech micronational community at the end of 2017, in times when the Socialist State of Gymnasium tried to combat inactivity and it’s representants didn’t know about the existence of a Czech micronational community. In the last months of 2017, three micronations stayed the most prominent, namely Noble Republic of Lurk, Mekniyan Mekkism and Moravian Republic. The last micronation claimed the entirety of Moravia and Czech Silesia under the state layers theory (a Czech variant of the parallel plane theory), and Moravian president František Otta Šindelář was also formerly involved in many fictional projects, among these the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It were territorial claims of Moravia and Mekniy and Šindelář’s fictional projects, that led to Fyrinia’s entry into micronationalism, despite being completely fictional.
At this point the Gymnasium State also appeared in the Czech sector, however was not expected by majority of micronationalists to last very long. This also resulted in a change in the structure of the Union of Micronations of Central Europe, which introduced the observer membership as the first step of becoming a memer after the Gymnasium State applied.
On 28 January, František Koblanský joined the community as a representative of the Republic of New Town. He immidiately began criticizing Moravian claims, stating that it is not a micronation. Lukáš Čuřík, representative of Fyrinia, however informed Mr. Koblanský that fictional states can also be considered micronations (an opinion not widely popular in the modern Czech sector). On 31 January, Koblanský therefore declared himself the President of Republic of Bohemia, which led to Secretary of UMCE, Naemal Namul-den, to advise member states to avoid diplomacy with Bohemia.
The next day, on 1 February, Koblanský annouced existence of the Army of National Unification, a fictional paramilitary allegedly operating in Carpathian Ruthenia with the aim of seccession from already defunct Šindelář’s USSR. Even though the fictional paramilitary obviously did not pose any threat to the Gymnasium State, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Falešník advised the President Adam Pivetz to declare mobilization, which took place at 12:54 CET. It is still debated whether the President had the right to declare mobilization, as in 2018 there were no documents specifying powers of the President, Premier and individual Ministries. At 23:10, Mekniyan Chief of Army Dastan Shibil-den also declared mobilization. Union of Micronations of Central Europe tried to calm down the situation by offering a non-aggresion pact to Bohemia (viewable here, Nissiian and Czech only), however without success. On 4 February, Shibil-den declared that a war between UMCE and Bohemia is possible.
On 6 February, Karl Friedrich prepared (despite Lurk’s neutrality) an ultimatum (viewable here, Czech only) to be presented to Bohemia. The ultimatum was signed by Naemal Namul-den for Mekniy, Albert Flinkmann for Radoslavia, Lukáš Čuřík for Fyrinia and František Šindelář for Moravia. Despite the ultimatum affected the Gymnasium State too, no representatives were invited to sign it on it’s behalf. The ultimatum demanded for Bohemia to recognize territorial claims of UMCE member states and Moravia, to not get involved in it’s internal processes, and to disband Army of National Unification until 8 February. It was expected that Bohemia will reject the ultimatum, so it was a surprise that on 7 January at 12:33 CET Bohemia accepted the ultimatum. Mekniy cancelled state of mobilisation, Tomáš Falešník however stated he believes Mr. Koblanský will break the ultimatum in a week and the Home Defense stayed mobilized.
By 14 February 2018 the crisis was regarded as resolved. On 10 February, UMCE rejected Bohemia’s application, and only the still mobilized Home Defense of Gymnasium State reminded of the event. This was however about to change. At 13:02 CET, Bohemian government announced it entered negotiations with the Moravian Republic regarding establishment of the Union State of Bohemia and Moravia. Both Tomáš Falešník and Adam Pivetz considered this a breach of the ultimatum’s provisions, and at 13:17 CET the President declared war on both Bohemia and Moravia without prior consultations. This act is also heavily discussed until today, due to lack of legislation regarding war declarations, majority of the government however supported the declaration after it took place. Naemal Namul-den declared UMCE’s neutrality, but stated Mekniy would enter the conflict if official maps of the Union State would claim territories claimed by UMCE members. František Koblanský first approached František Šindelář regarding the next procedure, Šindelář however refused to engage Moravia in the conflict in any way.
As there was no possibility for actual combat between Gymnasium State and Bohemia, the conflict took place only in form of conversation between Foreign Ministry of the Gymnasium State and the government of Bohemia. Even though all Gymnasian citizens were obliged to defend the nation since the state of mobilization, life continued normally even after war declaration, the only difference happened on 15 February at around 11 o’clock CET when a small plane flew not too high above the Gymnasium State (pictured flying away). As a small stripe in Bohemian bicolour was easily visible on the sides of the plane, the plane was as a joke considered to be from the Republic of Bohemia, despite the chance being almost zero. Bohemia countered with desinformation of two dead bodies near Sušice, claimed to be done by the Home Defense. This only complicated further negotiations, however on 16 February and agreement was arranged, according to which Bohemia and Moravia will form the Union State and recognize Gymnasian sovereingty, while Gymnasium State will recognize Bohemia and Moravia as independent entities (instead of recognizing the Union State as one entity. The war officially ended on 17 February at 9:11 CET.
Despite the conflict was mostly considered insignificant at the time, it directed the Gymnasium State to the state it is in now, and is often retrospectively considered to be possibly the most infuential conflict in Czech micronational history. The Union State of Bohemia and Moravia did not last long and dissolved on 4 March, when Koblanský declared independence of a fictional Republic of Czechoslovakia after he and Šindelář disagreed in the question of Moravian-Radoslavian territorial dispute, dating back several years. Declaration of independence was immediately followed by declaration of war, which was ended in May. Naemal Namul-den proposed a creation of an Organisation of United Micronations that would prevent similar conflicts in the future, and Tomáš Falešník drafted proposed structure. Czechoslovakia however, along with Oliland, another fictional state, established OUM without any debate with the other micronations, turning it into an alternative for UMCE, which Mr. Koblanský considered to be inactive and useless.
With May, the activity in nations like Mekniy and Moravia also started to decline, leaving Gymnasium State and Czechoslovakia as the most influential nations in the community. The tensions arose again in September when Gymnasium State cancelled recognition of Czechoslovakia with the signature of Wrythe Convention, however apart from Czechoslovakian abrupt reply no further escalation took place. At the same time, a de facto “cold war ” was taking place between the two nation as Gymnasium State advertised UMCE among new micronations, while Czechoslovakia propagated OUM, which eventually became center for ficitonal states. This lasted until 11 July 2019, when majority of fictional states announced dissolution. Krleseian Federal Republic then, as a successor to Czechoslovakia, began diplomatic talks with the Gymnasium State on the second anniversary of the crisis as a symbolic resolution of Gymnasian-Czechoslovak relations.