IEF Civil War: Apr - Nov 2003
A Desert Called Peace
The IEF Civil War
April – November 2003
The IEF Civil War
April – November 2003
Conservative bombardment of St. Petersburg
The Ukraine
As spring melted the winter snows, fighting intensified as the Conservatives attempted to isolate and destroy stubborn pockets of Reformer resistance. An attempt in late April to finish the siege of Kiev caused heavy Conservative casualties but managed only to reduce the Reformers’ perimeter. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled the slaughter into neighboring Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia further straining the already taxed system of refugee camps. During the fighting, the Conservatives attempted to plant crops in order to alieve the ongoing food shortages in the IEF but results fell far short of expectations. By late summer, nearly all major Ukrainian cities had fallen to Marshal Volkov’s forces. Kiev finally capitulated on September 13 when the Conservatives captured the former Orthodox Council headquarters complex that the Reformers had turned into their last redoubt. Despite the loss of Kiev, scattered Reformer partisans continued the struggle in rural districts while sabotage was not uncommon in urban areas.
Central Asia
As fighting continued in the Ukraine, Kuznetsov’s Conservative government diverted forces to advance on their former Central Asian territories, a front that had been largely quiet since the Conservatives withdrawal in the spring of 2001. With two years to prepare, the Democratic Union of Turkic Republics, with the support of Turkey and Persia, was able to mount a serious defense of its territory. Although the Conservatives had a large numerical advantage in cataphracts and aircraft, it proved to be painfully slow going. After months of brutal fighting, the Conservatives had captured a swath of territory in norther Kazahkiya where there were still a sizable number of ethnic Russians and the Pavlodar coalfields. Near the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, the Conservatives secured the Tengiz and Karachaganak gas and oil fields. They also managed to retake their main spaceport, the Empress Elizabeth II Cosmodrome, near Makat that had surprisingly suffered only minor damage. Attempts to push further into Central Asia however failed due to stiffening Turkic resistance and the need of Conservative forces on the Western Front.
Battle of St. Petersburg
With winter approaching, Kuznetsov and the Conservative leadership convened another war council in Moscow. It was clear to most that the war needed to be brought to a swift conclusion. Near famine conditions persisted throughout much of the IEF and the government was bankrupt. Understanding that Pasternak’s government in St. Petersburg would have to be destroyed before a satisfactory settlement could be reached, the Conservatives agreed for a final push to retake the imperial capital. Gathering all available forces that were not tied down in the Ukraine, Central Asia, or Caucasus fronts, Operation Konechnyy began on October 28. The fighting proved to be especially fierce, but the end result was never in doubt. With the Conservatives approaching the edge of the city, Pastenak and several other government ministers boarded a small jet and fled, first to Norway ,then the United Kingdom, and finally to Brazil where they were granted asylum. On November 22, the last Reformer defenders in the city surrendered. Two days later, Emperor Alexander IV delivered a televised address from the battered Winter Palace declaring that the “unlawful, unpatriotic, and unchristian insurrection” had been put down.
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