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Zemlya, formally Novaya Zemlya, is a cold, barren dwarf planet in the Gilgamesh system. It has been extensively colonised and is a major industrial hub within the GCC. Lacking an atmosphere, the planet’s inhabitants are housed either underground, within one of the many industrial structures protruding from the barren landscape, or in the domed capital city of Donorovka.
History
Pre-Confederation
Colonised by Terra prior to Gilgamesh’s reintegration into the Terran Commonwealth, Zemlya was colonised due to its large quantities of easily-accessible metals. Rather than exporting raw ore to be refined on Terra, early colonists established industrial facilities on the dwarf planet itself. These nascent corporations quickly expanded into manufacturing and shipbuilding, with it being cheaper for finished products to be assembled on Zemlya before being shuttled off planet – in the early days, more often than not, on vessels also newly-manufactured on Zemlya.
Ares Conflict & Founding Confederation Member
By the time the Ares Conflict began, Zemlya had been transformed from a barren rock to the industrial lynchpin that allowed Gilgamesh to remain on the sidelines of the conflict. It was in the shipyards of Zemlya that the first vessels of the Gilgamesh Self-Defence Flotilla were manufactured. The founding of the Gilgamesh Colonial Confederation played a pivotal role in Zemlya’s history, transforming the planet from one of many industrial outposts in human-controlled space to the industrial backbone of the new Confederation– triggering with it a flood of money, material, and people.
Today
Zemlya today is somewhat of a shadow of its former self. While the Conflict increased demand on Zemlya for all types of goods, the waves of conscription that rocked the Confederation forced many factories to consolidate, closing larger facilities to operate smaller ones at peak capacity. While the planet has recovered from the rut of the late 90s, it has been observed by many both on Zemlya and elsewhere in the Confederation that the planet relies heavily on immigrants and temporary workers from elsewhere in the Confederation.
Culture
Zemlya’s demographics are often referred to as the ‘control’ by Confederation Census workers. Due to the planet’s high draw of industrial workers, the planet’s demographics are almost identical to the Confederation’s as a whole, with two in three naming Pan-Slavic as their primary daily language and the other one third declaring Zurich Common as their primary daily language, compared to declared primary personal languages, with all major human languages holding roughly similar percentages.
Zemlya has also slowly developed strong union membership, with about seventy percent of respondents declaring their membership in a union in the 2310 Census.
Zemlya, specifically it’s capital city Donorovka is home to several of the Confederations largest corporations, with Novaya Zemlya Shipyards, Donorovka Metallurgy, and Novaya Zemlya Arms having their headquarters within the city’s dome.
Geography
Zemlya lacks any atmosphere, with the planet looking like nothing more than a barren rock should you not know where to look.
Zemlya’s surface is nothing special, appearing just like the countless other barren grey planets in space, though the many sprawling industrial complexes across the planet’s surface give away the locations of many of the planet’s settlements in underground complexes. The notable exception is the Capital of Donorovka, housed underneath a massive airtight dome, forming the only ‘open air’ settlement on the planet.
Economy
Zemlya’s workforce is overwhelmingly engaged in industrial activities, with only ten percent of workers employed in service industries - This has the effect that Zemlya and Terra are in a symbiotic relationship, with Terra reliant on Zemlya’s industrial goods, and Zemlya reliant on Terran agriculture to feed its population.
Zemlya is undeniably the most important industrial area in the Confederation, with Zemlyan shipyards integral to the Confederate Navy, and Zemlyan factories producing much of the Confederations industrial goods.
Unions
Zemlya’s labour industry has developed and changed drastically as the years have passed. Unions were unheard of on the planet until 2271 when the Planet’s first Official (legal) Union, the Zemlya Shipbreaker’s Union was formed following a string of high-profile workplace incidents. The Union’s founding did not go without its share of ‘controversy’, with several of the planet’s megacorporations putting up extremely heavy resistance to Unions forming in their sectors, this included the hiring of strikebreakers, intimidation, and importing entire workforces to replace unionized workers. This extremely public game of cat and mouse between the fledgeling Unions and the corporations received little public attention until 2293 when it suddenly blew up in the government’s face.
The Donorovka Incident
The Donorovka Incident, or as it is commonly called on Zemlya, ‘The Final Straw’, was the incident and following coverup of a casualty incident at Donorovka Metallurgy on the night of September 21st, 2293.
The Incident began when a sleep deprived replacement worker fell from a railingless catwalk, dying when they landed in a pile of molten slag. The subsequent coverup of the incident by the company was shattered when an armed group of metallurgists who were present during the incident forced their way into the Zemlyan Senate with security footage from the mill. Although the metallurgists were arrested for their acts, the security tapes were kept in the public eye by the trials.
The Confederation Directory acted quickly, with the Conflict now in full swing they pushed through sweeping workplace safety regulations that silenced much, but not all, of the anger coming from Zemlya, kicking the proverbial can down the road far enough to see the conflict through.
Following the Conflict, many drafted industrial workers returned to Zemlya to find that they were quickly replaced and forgotten, this anger along with the sense of camaraderie that all found in the Navy fused with the lingering anger from the Donorovka Incident to push Union membership on Zemlya past 50% for the first time in 2299.
This milestone was met with an announcement that Novaya Zemlya Shipyards and Novaya Zemlya Arms would allow their entire workforce to vote on if they wished to unionize; the resulting vote for Unionization pushed the total Union membership on Zemlya to 67%, where it has remained close to to this day.
Politics
Zemlyan politics were dominated for much of its history by industrialists and corporate interests, with Corporate backed candidates holding the majority of seats in the Zemlyan Senate for that time. Zemlyan politics began to change at about the same time that the Planet’s unions began to form, with vast public interest in Workers safety and rights at the time, non-Corporate candidates began winning elections against their corporation backed foes.
This trend was similarly affected by the Donorovka Incident, with the wave of anger diluting the Corporate hold on the Senate enough that a non-corporate majority was achieved for the first time following elections in 2295. The ‘95 government quickly passed legislation outlawing the hiring of strikebreakers and intimidating workers to prevent Unionization. The ‘95 government was brought down by a vote of no-confidence in February 2296, however no government since has reached the needed vote threshold to repeal the ‘95 government’s legislation.