Mid-European Affairs" (1954

Baltenland.

(OOC: Sorry, but is probably the only Lithuania+Latvia+Estonia with a nice map for this use).

"Mitteleuropäische Angelegenheiten" or better known as "Mid-European Affairs" is an alternative history book from 1954.

In the history of the book we have a very different Central-Eastern Europe, where the fall of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire (which survived a little longer) and the Russian Empire in 1905 after an extended Fashoda war led to to a complicated situation.

On September 16, 1905, the Declaration of Common Aims was issued, with the formation of the Mid-European Union, a political association of the 'emerging nations' of Central Europe with the fall of many of the European empires.

Supposedly intended to seek a federal and economic association, but obviously it does not end very well with the beginnings of problems between the members.

Czechoslovaks, Poles, South Slavs (Yugoslavs), Ukrainians, Rusyns, inhabitants of the Baltic, Romanians and Hungarians from Transylvania, Germans of all kinds, and irredentists from various parts of Europe, among others, come into conflict.

Giving rise to a post-war even more chaotic than the history that is known.

In the midst of this the Baltic Germans, in a Russian Empire still very feudal, managed to establish the United Kingdom of the Baltic or Baltenland (Baltic Land) which was led by Joachim Franz Humbert of Prussia, son of Kaiser Wilhelm II of the old German Empire, who was elected as monarch of Baltenland.

Of course not everything is so simple, soon the economic problems in the country increase with the loss of industry and the military launched a coup in the 30s (with a dictatorship that lasted until the early 50s).

Added to all this are geo-political problems with the rise of a new Kingdom of Prussia, the Neo-Byzantine Empire and the Romanian Union that follow an irredentist ideology (Furatismus), the ambitions of the Free Republic of Poland (a socialist republic) , various crises in the lands to the east (Russia) and the rise of the Yugoslav Empire (Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Bulgaria) in the south.

This story follows several of the ordinary people of Central-Eastern Europe and their difficult situation in these moments where the world is approaching its Second Great War, only this time with nuclear weapons involved.

And all this leads to Baltenland, where the assassination of the President of Czechoslovakia is planned on a diplomatic visit, which would lead to the clash between the Furatist Axis with Yugoslavia and Poland, also involving France and the United Kingdom in a total European war.

Among the characters are, for example, a jewelry maker in Baltenland, a bureaucrat from the neo-Byzantine protectorate of Albania, an industrial worker from socialist Poland, and a low-ranking politician in the Kingdom of Prussia.