Motyl Affair

The Motyl Affair, named after Valourian farmer and civil aviator Mikalaj Motyl, was a diplomatic incident between the Proletarian Union of Valourium and the Vordic Imperium of Zusea & Ossintoria which ended in violent clashes between Valourian and Zusean militias and ultimately contributed to Zusea declaring war on Valourium during the Endwar.

Background

Valourio-Zusean Relations

Valourium and Zusea were on friendly terms before the ousting of King Kalinowski II in the Proletarian Revolution, finalized on January 30th 1929. The following month, the recently empowered Radical Coalition in Zusea banned all communist organizations and materials, prompting outrage from the newly formed Proletarian Union. Although strong support already existed for empowering Communist Ossintoria, a breakaway state of the Zusean Imperium, this event ensured that Valourium would help Ossintoria developed its Socialist economy and arm its defense forces. The overthrow of a friendly monarchy and support of a hostile breakaway state solidified Zusea's animosity towards Valourium. Because of all these factors, Valourium and Zusea both fortified themselves against the other. The need to recover from crises and instability is likely the only factor which prevented open war from breaking out at this time.

Hostility grew as each new act passed by the Volzi government evoked militant responses from the Valourian public and government. When Zusea invaded Ossintoria in 1934, the Presidium of the Proletarian Union met to deliberate how to respond. In the end, the Presidium voted 124-142 for national mobilization of the militia in defense of the fledgling Communist State, with many militia officers urging the Presidium to do so. Nearly all Valourian Tatalisty voted in favor of mobilization, as did about a third of the generally more peaceful Sindykalisty. Many members of the Presidium expressed concern over entering into a war directly against Zusea, who was in a much better position to wage war. Had the balance of power been closer, many speculate that Valourium would have approved mobilization. Many Zusean statesmen warned Valourium against intervening in its affairs.

Valourian and Zusean Militias

Valourium did not have a regulated and official armed forces until the Endwar. Instead, a self-organizing militia, which later became the Crimson Guard and was essentially an ideologically-driven band of armed men and women, which the National Workers Congress and Presidium established a formal relationship to. The relationship between the militia and the NWCV and Presidium boiled down to the following: the militia agreed not to interfere in civilian politics in exchange for freedom to negotiate contracts for goods and services from the Syndicates and to remain an independent body. As a counterbalance, most cities had their own self-defense forces, in case the militia attempted to seize territory to establish its own State. The militia offered services in the countryside in exchange for land on which to establish bases for training and operations.

The Incident

Local Response to Strange Activity

By April 1938, many farmers in Southeastern Valourium started reporting unusual sightings, including "large dust plumes rolling across the border" and "unusually frequent air traffic in the near skies," to their local assemblies. Ignored for some time, the local assembly in Zatovia, a rural town, in June commissioned the resident aviation enthusiast Mikalaj Motyl to fly just within Zusea's borders and gather whatever information he can about the nature of these suspicious reports. This decision came after a brief debate over whether aerial surveillance or ground search would be best to obtain the desired information. Despite the risks associated with sending something as visible as an aircraft into sovereign space of Zusea, the farmers and townsfolk decided that fewer people would be jeopardized in an aerial surveillance mission, and that any ground crew sent into Zusea would likely be fired upon if sighted.

Motyl took off from his farm at approximately 05:00 local time. Flying in his [GENERIC CHEAP RUGGED BIPLANE], he crossed the Zusean border at approximately 06:00. Watch teams were posted every 6 miles along the border across a span of 30 miles to track his location and serve as witnesses for whatever might happen to him. Each time was also provided with a radio set to hear transmissions between the pilot and the extemporaneous Zatovian Flight Surveillance Commission (ZFSC), appointed by attendees of recent assemblies for the purpose of managing the civilian surveillance mission.

Motyl's Capture and Ensuing Diplomacy

At 06:26, the ZFSC received a an alarmed radio transmission from Motyl with loud noises overwhelming his voice and lots of interference. At 06:28, they lost all contact with him. Watch teams reported black puffs appearing all around his aircraft. Motyl's plane was shot down by Zusean anti-air crews, whose concentrated fire decimated his wings. He was then captured alive by the Scharmacht, immediately dragging the whole of the Proletarian Union into a diplomatic dispute with Zusea. A letter signed by both the Presidium and the National Workers Congress demanded the immediate release and repatriation of Motyl. They also requested a draw-down of armed forces on the border in order to avoid any "tragic calamities paid for in the cost of human life."

Motyl's Execution and its Aftermath

On the [X] of May, Zusea's Guardian Court decided to sentence Motyl to prison time instead of death in a sign of the moderation the Volzi regime was beginning to undergo in order to maintain a stable state. However, on May [X], the prison holding Motyl reported that he hanged himself. Many present at the prison at the time say they heard both intense and muffled screaming for up to two hours before the halls fell silent. Although no official sources in Zusea ever admitted it, hardline anti-communist prison guards tortured Motyl and suffocated him to death by hanging. Even without the witness reports, Valourians in the Zatovia area, who knew Motyl personally, refused to believe that he hanged himself after being given a prison sentence. Their particularly extreme outrage spilled out over the whole border region.

When this outrage, along with the sentiment that the Zuseans were lying about Motyl's fate, reached the Valourian militia, already heavily concentrated in this region and already angry over the Presidium's decision not to mobilize for war, many battalions decided to cross the border to exact some revenge. * Although Zusea had already started drawing down on border forces, with regime officials tending towards cancelling plans to invade Valourium, many radical right-wing militia groups remained at the border, ever distrustful of the Valourian Communists *. Several engagements occurred between the Valourian and Zusean militias, leaving 21 Valourians and [X] Zuseans dead along with dozens more wounded on both sides. The Valourians withdrew to the border to take up fortified positions when Scharmacht forces appeared to be deploying to the engagement zones.

What followed this militia engagement was a demand from Zusea that the Proletarian Union rein or even abolish the militia, pay restitution for the families of the dead and wounded, and arrest the officers who permitted their soldiers or even led their troops into Zusea so that they may be brought to trial. Valourium offered restitution but rejected all other demands. This caused an immediate reversal in Zusea's recent moderation. Once again, the government went all-in on plans to invade Valourium. Furthermore, the intense outrage burning in the Valourian public led many to command their Presidium representatives to vote in favor of military mobilization on threat of recalling them. The Tatalisty, having already voted almost unanimously to mobilize, gained much more popularity at large and influence in the Presidium at this time. On May 28th, the Presidium held a new vote on mobilizing to expand and equip the militia, and the assembly voted 201-63 in favor. According to most historians, open war became inevitable between the two States on account of this event.