Twilight 2000 Nordic Sourcebook: Organizations

[John Farson]

The following are descriptions of the most important organizations in the Nordic countries (military, political and fringe). Many smaller groups are formed and dissolved all the time, so the gamemaster should not feel himself confined to this list alone.

Kingdom of Denmark

Pre-war: Denmark was a constitutional monarchy whose queen served as the nation’s figurehead and chief PR person. Legislative power was held by a 340-member parliament, which normally decided things. However, a direct referendum could be held if 2/3 of the parliament was for it. Executive power was held by the prime minister and an 18-member cabinet, which was accountable to parliament. At the beginning of the war the Social Democrats were in power.

The war: The entire royal family was killed in the bombing of Copenhagen, which is why Denmark is now effectively a republic led by a few ministers. The war and subsequent bombing of Copenhagen changed everything as the government was killed almost to the last minister. In the resulting panic the country lacked any real leadership, but order was restored thanks to prompt action by the authorities as well as the withdrawal of the Danish Schleswig Regiment from Germany back to Denmark in December 1997, when they were re-assigned internal security duties. Former education minister Aase Haarder became an important figure during this time. His systematic and determined efforts in gathering together the remnants of the old parliament and government finally bore fruit, and the provisional military government was replaced with a civilian government elected by parliament, consisting of a few ministers and former members of parliament. The new government unanimously voted to continue martial law until the raider groups and general chaos could be defeated.

Structure: Denmark’s current system of government is a remnant of its previous version. Parliament is effectively non-existent as a five-member cabinet holds all legislative and executive power. The government consists of a prime minister, minister of defense, minister of the interior, minister of agriculture and fishing, and minister of trade and industry. Assisting the government are a large number of various civil servants who turn what would otherwise be a simple administrative machine into a slow and bureaucratic one. Sometimes bribery seems to be the only way to get anywhere. Civil servants are just as honorable (or dishonorable) as anywhere else during these restless times. Usually Danish bureaucrats accept bribes in gold, for they have enough food.

Leaders: Denmark’s current leader is Prime Minister Aase Haarder, who was education minister before the war. The other ministries are distributed in the following fashion: Ole Kock-Olesen (Minister of Defense), Palle Olesen (Minister of Agriculture and Fishing), Gustav Sandman (Minister of Trade and Industry), Annette Nielsen (Minister of the Interior).

[John Farson]

Kingdom of Norway

Pre-war: Norway was a constitutional monarchy, with the order of succession following absolute primogeniture since 1990. The King had executive power via the Council of State, which almost always exercised executive powers in his name. In addition to the prime minister, the Council of State (stadsråd) had 18 ministers. The Norwegian parliament (storting), which could not be dissolved, was a 150-member body elected every four years. Before the war the governing coalition consisted of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party (Höyre) and the Centre Party.

The war: The entire government and many members of parliament were killed in the nuclear attack on Oslo in 10 November 1997. The royal family was also killed except for Prince Jungi, who had been on a skiing vacation. For over a month the army, empowered by martial law, was the only government available until Prince Jungi finally made contact with the remnants of the government as the chaos abated. Supported by the army, Prince Jungi was crowned King Haakon VIII on 27 December 1997. The rapid actions of the new government, as well as the fact that the people loved and trusted their new king, accelerated the reorganization of the state.

Structure: Haakon VIII is king of Norway. His kingdom is at war with the Warsaw Pact and half of it is occupied by Soviet troops. He also serves as prime minister and effectively rules as an absolute monarch without parliament. The other members of the Council of State are mostly soldiers who swear allegiance directly to the King. The Council convenes daily to discuss various issues, with the King having final say.

Below the Council are municipal mayors and military commanders. These persons can present their case either to the Council or directly to the King. Lately, under the popular King industry has been restarted and more resources have been pooled to fishing and agriculture. So far King Haakon’s Norway has a functioning food distribution network, the improvement of which is continually deliberated by the Council. The Council has no permanent structure. Instead, it is a mostly advisory body under the command of an absolute monarch. The Council members compete mercilessly against each other over the King’s favor. Naturally this involves all sorts of foul play.

Leaders: King Haakon VIII serves as head of the Council of State, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and prime minister. General Magnus Haardraade, the Chief of Defense of Norway, is other important figure in the regime and a steadfast supporter of the King.

[John Farson]

Republic of Finland

Pre-war: Finland was a constitutional republic with legislative power in the hands of the 200-member parliament. Executive power was shared between the Cabinet, which answered to parliament, and the relatively powerful president, who could veto parliament’s bills and also dissolve it. In addition to the prime minister the government had 18 ministers. Before the war the coalition government consisted of the National Coalition Party, the Social Democrats, the Green League and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland.

The war: The Finnish administrative apparatus survived largely intact despite the nuclear attack on Helsinki. This was mainly due to a good civil defense program and the fact that the nuclear warheads had hit the outskirts of the capital instead of the city center. The collapse happened soon afterwards, however, as the plane carrying the President and the Cabinet crashed with no survivors. Through cooperation between parliament and the military a special Emergency Committee was created, consisting of military personnel and members of parliament. Parliament was dissolved and those former MPs who weren’t admitted to the Emergency Committee were appointed to provincial administrative duties instead. Many MPs originally opposed this arrangement, but they have since largely submitted to Marshal Koivuniemi’s will.

The Republic of Finland is officially still neutral and effectively at war with both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. At the moment it is ready to make peace with both sides on the basis of pre-war borders and relations. The Republic of Finland is officially recognized by both sides.

During the last few years the Emergency Council has done as much as possible to rebuild Finland and restart industrial production. Most Finns are satisfied with the Council’s achievements but political opponents still exist among the former MPs.

Structure: The Emergency Council consists of 15 people, which includes the Chairman. Most of the work is done by individual members together with their aides, while major decisions are decided at Council meetings. Soldiers and various state organizations control a majority of Council seats. Directly under the Emergency Council are the governors, who have direct control over their respective military forces and remaining bureaucracy. Although Koivuniemi runs the country well – considering the circumstances – corruption and black marketeering exists at the gubernatorial level and below.

Leaders: Field Marshal Tuomo Koivuniemi is the Chairman of the Emergency Committee. He is also the Chief of Defence of the Finnish Defence Forces. Other important figures are Juha Louhisuo (head of Supo, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service) and Reijo Kontkanen (head of Alko, responsible for alcohol production as well as traffic).

[John Farson]

Kingdom of Sweden

Pre-war: Sweden was a constitutional monarchy whose king was a male member of the House of Bernadotte. The government (statsråd) consisted of the prime minister and 14 ministers. Actual government function was carried out in cabinet meetings. Parliament consisted of a 350-member Riksdag that held legislative power and to which the government was held accountable. Before the war the government consisted of the Social Democrats, Centre Party, Moderate Party and Communist Party.

The war: The King, the entire Royal Family and most of the government and Riksdag were killed in the mass panic that engulfed Stockholm following the beginning of the nuclear war. This was soon followed by anarchy and civil war. Only the army maintained some sort of cohesion in the chaos, which made it clear that any governing structure would have to be formed by the military.

Structure: Currently Sweden is led by the Riksdag, which has been reconstituted from the surviving pre-war MPs. They deliberate matters through negotiating, and after a vote the tasks are delegated through the chain of command. This is supported by a network of surviving bureaucrats throughout the Kingdom’s territory. The military puts their communication networks at the civilian authorities’ disposal and in theory they play no other role. In practice, however, numerous military advisors alongside soldiers appointed to replace deceased bureaucrats means that the military holds significant political influence.

Leaders: General Gustav Johansson is Chairman of the Riksdag and Prime Minister. Below him are some civilian politicians, but the most influential posts have been given to the military. Corruption and behind-the-scenes power struggles flourish in the Riksdag. Numerous high-ranking cabinet posts and positions have a rapid turnover as a result. At the moment the government’s most important opponent is a conspiracy consisting of army officers whose names no one yet knows.

[John Farson]

Republic of Sweden

Pre-war: The Republic of Sweden, also known as Vita Sverige (White Sweden), largely existed only in the dreams of Leo Grönblom, a young demagogue. The new republic would be a national socialist system ruled by the party he created in 1991, the Swedish People’s Home Party. In this new state, all “toxic” elements such as private price competition and various immigrant groups of the “wrong” color would be rooted out.

The war: With central government collapsing in the general chaos, Leo Grönblom and his supporters seized a radio station in Haparanda and declared that the revolution for a new Sweden had begun. A group of military units fed up with the feckless Johansson immediately joined with the revolution. Grönblom promoted himself to general and announced the birth of a new republic. So far no state has recognized the Republic.

Grönblom managed to seize the northern three quarters of Sweden virtually without a shot due to the feckless Johansson. At first the battles fought in the civil war were small-scale, but by the middle of 1998 battles were already fought at the brigade-level.

Structure: So far, the Republic’s administrative system is based on the autonomy of villages, towns and cities, above which is the National Central Committee. This Committee contains all the important people, and it has no permanent organization. The Central Committee deliberates the important matters among themselves, and the final decision is made by the Chairman himself. This practice is very similar to that of Norway. Lately the most pressing matters have been the famine and the war against the Kingdom of Sweden, but some form of rebuilding program is being planned.

Leaders: Leo Grönblom is the Chairman of the Central Committee. His friends and the commanders of the Republican military units fill out the rest of the Committee’s seats. Grönblom’s administration has so far been good, and the successful trade with Finland is much emphasized. His subjects fare well (compared to other Swedes).

[John Farson]

KGB

The KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti or Committee for State Security) employed over 500,000 border guards. It had very modern equipment and its personnel consisted of the most politically reliable men. During the war they were used in protecting the rear and guarding POW camps. The border guards were effectively a private political army, separate from the army. The KGB’s network of agents covered the whole of Northern Europe, and agents usually used Soviet embassies as their bases of operation.

This infamous organization has suffered very much in the Leningrad Military District. Its facilities were destroyed in the war and its last commander, A.V. Govorov, was killed when NATO dropped a 1 megaton nuclear bomb on Leningrad. Currently its leaders and network of agents are dispersed.

The KGB’s true strength in the Nordic countries at the moment is its three border guard brigades which have been placed on the Finnish border. With these it supervises traffic to the Kola Peninsula and observes Finland. The numbers and equipment of these border guards is in constant decline, however, and the effectiveness of these units cannot be regarded as particularly great.

Structure: Because of the war the KGB’s organization has been simplified a bit in the Nordic countries. The border guards are (reluctantly) under the command of the Red Army and the foreign network of agents now operates under the command of the KGB station in Turku. About a dozen agents roam the Nordic countries gathering information, posing usually as military personnel (medics, military policemen etc.). Baltic traders are often used as couriers, with some of them being members of the KGB and others doing it for money. The reports are submitted to Colonel Malenkov in Turku, who has steady communications with the KGB station near the ruins of Leningrad.

Leaders: Colonel Yuri Malenkov is the head of the station in Turku. He has no other officers and poses as Jussi Mäkinen, a shop owner in Turku.
The KGB’s Moscow station intends to officially appoint a new leader to the Nordic countries. His task is to rebuild the KGB’s network of operatives and also return all Soviet units under the supervision of the KGB. He/she should be appointed during 2001.

[John Farson]

GRU
GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye or Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff) is the military intelligence main directorate of the Red Army, which handles military espionage while the KGB reports to the government. Actual GRU activity in the Nordic countries is meager: a few agents go around gathering intelligence, disguised in a similar manner as KGB operatives. A company-sized sabotage unit, SSD-200, is based in Narvik. Its task is to interfere with the rebuilding of Norway. An equivalent unit, known as SSD-352, operates in Denmark, often in collaboration with raiders.

Structure: Field agents report to General Valnikov, who relays the information to the USSR. SSD-200 receives its orders directly from Valnikov, but SSD-352 is largely independent and has refused an evacuation order. Valnikov has more immediate concerns than an insane commander of unit 352, nor does he much care if the Danish Army grinds him and a handful of Spetsnaz into mincemeat.

Leaders: Colonel Uri Pavlovich Valnikov is the GRU commander in the Nordic lands and directly responsible to Soviet HQ. His closest subordinate is Major Konstantin Mikoyan, whereas SSD-200 is commanded by Colonel Mikhail Govorov. SSD-352 is commanded by the unseemly Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Rokov.

KGB/GRU relations
Relations between the KGB and GRU in the Nordic countries are extremely bad. The GRU, overshadowed by the KGB before the war, is now practically the only intelligence service in the region, and it has some fine feathers on its cap, such as the seizure of northern Norway in 2000. Both organizations hate each other and their rivalry has sometimes even escalated into assassinations. At the moment the GRU is ever more boldly pushing off the KGB and its men from an influential position.

KGB/military relations
Relations between the KGB border guards and the Red Army can be regarded as cold at best. The Army regards the border guards as a band of rear echelon bandits who do nothing but steal supplies and sell them on the black market. The average Russian has always considered the militsiya as their enemy, and border guards are even worse than that as far as the soldiers are concerned.

For their part, the border guards consider the Army to be a bunch of cry-babies who don’t do anything but complain about everything. As most border guards are chosen from amongst the most politically reliable, they tend to regard themselves as better than Red Army troops.

These attitudes have sometimes led to extreme violence…

[John Farson]

Sword of God

In 1998 and 1999 a group of Swedish army bases were occupied by unknown persons. They quickly seized control of the Kiruna Municipality and have apparently contented themselves with that, for they have not attacked in any direction. They declared school teacher and preacher Harri Virtanen as their leader.

Apparently, the Sword of God is a religious organization formed during the war. According to their propaganda, they wish for a return to an age of righteousness that existed before modern corruption set in. They also say that they are certain of God’s imminent arrival on Earth and that all true believers will be saved. To back their words they have several military bases and heavily armed believers. So far no warring party has dared contradict them, let alone laugh at them.

Gamemaster’s notes: In reality, the Sword of God is not just a group of militant religious fanatics. The organization consists of nationalistic inhabitants of Lapland, and their ultimate goal is the creation of a Lappish state encompassing the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The only original inhabitants of Fennoscandia, the Sami people, were already supplanted by the expansionistic Scandinavians and Finns at the beginning of the first millennium, but the concept of the Sami uniting into one state in their rightful lands has existed to this day. Even in the 20th century the matter was brought up a few times, but none of this was taken seriously. To Norwegians, Swedes and Finns this would have been more absurd than the idea of driving the Americans back to Europe from the lands of the Indians.

Sword of God does not only consist of genuine Sami; a large portion of their members are Scandinavians who have lived in the north. For an unknown reason, the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland have traditionally been the home of exceptionally conservative and fanatical Christians. Harri Virtanen has been very adept in combining the Sami nationalist ideology, traditions and the ideology of Christian true believers into a bizarre quasi-Christian cult that combines Sami beliefs and worship with a dualistic worldview. For most members the religious aspect is just a minor thing, however, and the average soldier of the Sword of God thinks he is only fighting for his rightful homeland. The community formed from the former Finnish army 6. Reserve Jaeger Brigade has good relations with the organization, and a few Swedish military units have joined them.

Harri Virtanen has purposefully cultivated an image of a bunch of nutty holy rollers, for he believes that a secessionist military organization would find itself under far more attention from the various warring armies than would be desired – which is correct, as a matter of fact.

Structure: Probably village communities, above which is a general leadership under Harri Virtanen?

Leaders: Ex-school teacher Harri Virtanen?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by John Farson

The entire royal family was killed in the bombing of Copenhagen, which is why Denmark is now effectively a republic led by a few ministers.

Would that make the descendants of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the most legitimate claiments to the Danish throne? I know that Prince Philip gave up his Danish titles when he married Princess Elizabeth but hey, blood is blood right?

[John Farson]

Originally Posted by Targan

Would that make the descendants of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the most legitimate claiments to the Danish throne? I know that Prince Philip gave up his Danish titles when he married Princess Elizabeth but hey, blood is blood right?

I suppose, the book doesn't go into that. The guys who wrote it probably didn't even know about that detail.

And I'm sure everyone knows this but the names of the various politicians were just made up by the writers. They can be easily substituted with real life politicians from the early and mid 90s.