Kamchatka Territory

Kamchatka Free City (Cạm-chạt-cạ Bạ̌́ch Gêng), occasionally referred to as East Kamchatka, is a vast expanse currently administered by the Grand Yarphese Republic. Formerly of Russia, it lies on the large Kamchatka Peninsula. It is administered in three counties. This Free City is unique in that it is administered mostly by the Republic of China, which fled there after it was asserted out of its land by South China and the East Asian Federation.

History
When the Russians reached the Sea of Okhotsk (Ivan Moskvitin, 1638) they were blocked because they lacked the skills and equipment to build sea-going ships. The country to the northeast was difficult and the Koryaks warlike. Therefore, Kamchatka was entered from the north. After helping found Anadyrsk, in 1651 Mikhail Stadukhin went south and followed the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk from Penzhina Bay to Okhotsk. From about 1667 there were reports of a Kamchatka River to the south. Some time before 1700 a group of Russians were stranded and died on Kamchatka.

In 1695 Vladimir Atlasov was made prikashchik of Anadyrsk. In 1696 he sent Luka Morozko south. Morozko got as far as the Tigil River and returned with reports and some mysterious writings, probably Japanese. In 1697-1699 Atlasov explored nearly the whole of the peninsula. He built an ostrog at Verkhny-Kamchatsk and rescued or captured a Japanese castaway and went to Moscow to report. In 1699 the Russians at Verkhny-Kamchatsk were killed by the Koryaks on their way back to Anadyrsk. The 1700 punitive expedition destroyed a Koryak village and founded Nizhne-Kamchatsk on the lower river. Bolskeretsk was founded in 1703. From about 1705 there was a breakdown of order. There were numerous mutinies and native wars all over the peninsula and north to the Koryak country of the Penzhina River and Olyutorsky Gulf. Several people were sent out to restore order, including Atlasov who was murdered in 1711. Some degree of order was restored by Vasily Merlin in 1733-39. There was no significant resistance after 1756. A major smallpox epidemic hit in 1768-69. By 1773 there were about 2,500 Itelmen and in 1820 1,900, down from an original population of 12 to 25 thousand. Russian customs were adopted and there was a great deal of intermarriage so that Kamchadal, the original Russian name for the Itelmen, came to mean any Russian or part-Russian born on the peninsula.

In 1713 Peter the Great sent shipbuilders to Okhotsk. A fifty-four-foot boat was built and sailed to the Tegil River (June,1716). This one week journey, later shifted to Okhotsk-Bolseretsk, became the standard route to Kamchatka. Vitus Bering's first voyage left Nezhe-Kamchatsk in 1728. As part of his second voyage he founded Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1740.

The Second Kamchatka Expedition by the Danish explorer Vitus Bering, in the employ of the Russian Navy, began the "opening" of Kamchatka in earnest, helped by the fact that the government began to use the area as a place of exile. In 1755, Stepan Krasheninnikov published the first detailed description of the peninsula, An Account of the Land of Kamchatka. The Russian government encouraged the commercial activities of the Russian-American Company by granting land to newcomers on the peninsula. By 1812, the indigenous population had fallen to fewer than 3,200, while the Russian population had risen to 2,500.

In 1854, the French and British, who were battling Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula, attacked Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. During the Siege of Petropavlovsk, 988 men with a mere 68 guns managed to defend the outpost against 6 ships with 206 guns and 2,540 French and British soldiers. Despite the heroic defence, Petropavlovsk was abandoned as a strategic liability after the Anglo-French forces withdrew. The next year when a second enemy force came to attack the port, they found it deserted. Frustrated, the ships bombarded the city and withdrew.

The next fifty years were lean ones for Kamchatka. The naval port was moved to Ust-Amur and in 1867 Alaska was sold to the United States, making Petropavlovsk obsolete as a transit point for traders and explorers on their way to the American territories. In 1860, Primorsky (Maritime) Region was established and Kamchatka was placed under its jurisdiction. In 1875, the Kuril Islands were ceded to Japan in return for Russian sovereignty over Sakhalin. The Russian population of Kamchatka stayed around 2,500 until the turn of the century, while the native population increased to 5,000.



World War II hardly affected Kamchatka except for its service as a launch site for the invasion of the Kurils in late 1945. After the war, Kamchatka was declared a military zone. Kamchatka remained closed to Russians until 1989 and to foreigners until 1990.

In May 2010, South China began to assert its power on what was left of Taiwan after the EAF claimed the northern half. It sent its army, threatening war if the Republic of China did not retreat. Seeing it had no other option, the Republic of China allied with Yarphei to carve out a free city over which the Republic of China could rule. The target in this case was Russia, filled with vast expanses of land which had little or nothing to do with the Kremlin except in politics. Through weeks of debate between Russia, the ROC, and Yarphei, Russia agreed to hand over part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, recieving benefits from Yarphei. Yarphei and the ROC agreed to peacefully occupy the land as long as certain democratic principles, those of San Min Zhu Yi, were put in place for Kamchatka. In addition, the Guomindang agreed to assimilate into the Vietnamese Liberation Army in return for loosenings on religion witihin Yarphei, mainly the retraction of mandatory "temple registry" on all private Buddhist temples and shrines.

As soon as the free city was established, it was clear that thousands of supporters of the Guomindang all over the world were to begin flooding the vast, beautiful land, whose population is expected to reach two million by the end of three years. To aid with the weather differences, Yarphei has provided a constant heat wave to keep temperatures above fifteen degrees centigrade. Finally, the free city has attracted many investors due to its status as a tax haven with only ten percent income tax.

Politics and Government
East Kamchatka is administered jointly by three entities, the Kremlin, the Vietnamese Liberation Army, and the Guomindang (the Vietnamese Liberation Army and the Guomindang retain dinstinction as a part of the government). At the head of the free city are the two mayors, who exercise executive power. There is a legislative body, which includes fifty-nine Guomindang members, twenty members of the Vietnamese Liberation Army, and twenty members directly from Moscow. A third branch is created by a few members who choose and examine civil servants. The control branch, based on that of the Republic of China, monitors these three branches. Judicial power is exercised in a normal administrative division court, which reports directly to the Grand Court at Tranh Chup-yar City.

Culture
Currently the culture is based off that of Russia and of the Koryaks, the tribe of the area. However, experts suggest the culture may meld with the Chinese culture within the next few years, forming a unique new culture.

The most common religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but this is steadily being replaced by Protestant Christianity and Buddhism. It is unknown what the future may hold for religion.