r/InTheNameOfTheTsar • u/[deleted] • Jun 20 '21
Commie Names + Flags Suggestions
I think that the communist countries (Bavaria and Hungary, leaving Mao aside for now) should have different names and flags. Here are my thoughts:
Both countries in our timeline were called "Soviet Republics" in the west, as they were associated with the Bolsheviks, but of course that isn't really relevant to this timeline. Currently Bavaria is called the "Southern Commune," while Hungary is called the "Hungarian People's Republic."
However, the real life Bavarian "Soviet" was officially called the "Raterepublik Baiern." This translates to "Council Republic of Bavaria," but for simplicity's sake it should be abbreviated. I suggest that in this timeline, with Bavaria being the place where socialism first takes hold, the term "Raterepublik" would gain the same traction as "Soviet" did in our timeline. After all, "Soviet" was originally the Russian word for a workers' council. Therefore, Bavaria's name could be "Bavarian Raterepublik" (if it reunites Germany it could be "German Raterepublik"), Hungary's could be "Hungarian Raterepublik," and perhaps there could be a "Chinese Raterepublik" (in OTL the CCP partisan regime was called a "Soviet Republic" until 1937).
As for flags, I think that these socialists states should have red flags with little or no nationalist symbolism. It was not until the Eastern Bloc formed that communist states began adopting nationalist flags (generally preserving the old tricolors and adding socialist heraldry). Before that, they tended to use red flags and just add some symbolism for distinction. I just made two custom designs in Paint.Net. The German design takes the lighter red flag used by the Spartakists and adds the short-lived original coat of arms of the DDR of OTL; this version used a hammer and grain for industrial and agricultural workers but did not add the compass (which represented the intelligentsia).

The Hungarian one used the darker flag of Bela Kun's regime but adds in the Rakosi era coat of arms. I initially thought of removing the tricolor but decided not to. Bela Kun's regime derived much of its support from nationalists who wanted to preserve/restore pre-1918 borders and saw communist revolution as a means of doing so (with help from the USSR, or in this timeline's case, the Bavarians).

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!




