Points of Divergence

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In discussion of alternative history, a Point of Divergence (POD) is a historical event, with two or more possible postulated outcomes. Typically these represent the actual course of historical events, like "Germany lost WW2" and another, such as "Germany won WW2".

Important in a POD is that it essentially causes history to take a different course; differences preceding it are possible under the condition that they had no significant influence on the course of history, although they may contain elements that will play an important role later (aka the Butterfly rule). In alternative history fiction, the POD is used as the starting point for the extrapolation.

Because of the nature of Keine Zeit, this universe has a large number of POD's, in part because we model each nation and/or culture as a separate entity that is influenced by other nations.

Below follows a short and general list of the points of divergence used in Keine Zeit.

Cossacks

 * Due to imperial discrimination, more Cossacks of Old Belief migrate to the Principality of Moldavia. There they start playing more roles in internal politics.
 * Existence of a separate independent Catholic order of Hospitaliers leads to a prolonged conflict between them and the Cossacks. Cossacks feel that the Russian emperor doesn't represent their interests.
 * Existence of an independent Hetmanate leads to a rise of Cossack nationalism among Don and other Russian Cossacks.
 * Additionally, due to Hetmanate's independence, the lands of Kuban are being settled predominantly by pro-Russian cossacks in exile. Because of this, there's no Don or Kuban Cossacks of our world, instead, there's a unified Cossack culture of Southern Russia.

Kryvia

 * Great Northern War wasn't been fought on lands of modern Ukraine. It almost entirely happened on lands of modern Belarus, withh all the consequenses (i.e. Russia burned it all, pretty much). Peter the Great also wins over Swedes in Belarus, instead of Ukraine.
 * In the ideological battle between pro-Polish "Litovshina" and "zapadnorusism" wins the third variant - “Krajowcy”, which oriented themselves on the "populist" intepretarions of Belarusian question. They have concluded that the Kryvich people are the oldest nation of Eastern Europe and the true successor to Principality of Polotsk and the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania

Russia (Russian Empire)
History of Russia


 * "Era of Slavic Expansion": independent groups of Panslavists organized their attempts to build or settle existing colonial settlements in the hope of reaching a majority there and becoming part of the Slavic states. Thus, predominantly Russians or Slavic Port Alexander (New Guinea), Tiyo/Pobedonosovo (Ethiopia/Eritrea), etc. appear on the map.
 * In Asia, Russia and Britain are intensifying the Great Game. Russia (officially or with the help of independent individuals) is destabilizing the situation in British colonies in every possible way.
 * Russia creates an independent Order of Hospitaliers, which later receives rights similar to that of the Cossacks. The existence of this order gives them the right to claim the territory of Rhodes and Malta and leads to the Cold War between Britain, the Vatican, and Russia, which will continue to this day. Over time, the Order of Hospitaliers ceased to be purely Catholic and became a military organization of the Mariavite Church.
 * Russian America remains with the Russian Empire and is being developed with the help of Canada. Gold was discovered in Russian America in 1886. The Canadian government is becoming pro-Russian.
 * Russians manage to capture Constantinople. They remain the rights to it and surrounding territories with the help of the 1915's Constantinople Agreement.
 * The Emirate of Bukhara is a bit more independent.
 * The Grand Duchy of Finland is gradually losing its independence and being annexed by the Russian Empire.
 * The Russian Empire has more control over the domestic policy of the Ottoman Empire, weakening it. Since the Crimean War, the Ottomans lack a functional navy.
 * With the banning and restriction of the Catholic Church in the Empire, the Russian Empire began to support and expand the Old Catholic Mariavite Church as a "permitted" alternative. Over time, it merged with already existing Catholic networks and becomes the official counterpart to Catholicism in the Russian Empire.

Russia (Soviet Russia)

 * Compared to our world, Soviet Russia is much more economically isolated.
 * Grigoriy Zinovieff wins in the internal party struggle. Leo Trotsky and Joseph Stalin are exiled from the USSR.
 * Soviet Russia retains their original name: Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

Russia (writing system)
Petrin script


 * Komi people retained their writing system (anbur) and use it up until the XX century.
 * Polish Cyrillic Script is being officially used in Russia instead of Latin.
 * Russian in Soviet Russia is gradually changing its writing system to Latin script.
 * Russian in White Russia effectively stops evolving after the first orthography reform of 1910 aka they retain Russian orthography pre-revolution.

Ukraine

 * Témis Chmelynéckéj survives the Siege of Suchava and becomes the next hetman after his father.
 * The Hetmanate survives the Ruin and becomes an internationally accepted state. "Hetmanyci" becomes a common ethnonym for the people of Left-bank Ukraine.
 * Ivan Mazepa became an honorary prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
 * After annexation, the Hetmanate will be officially renamed as “Land of Zaporozhian Host” with the Russian Emperor as its head and the official name for the people there will be “kazaki” (Cossacks), though the term “Little Russians” (Malorosy) will be occasionally used in documents and among commoners.
 * Our Ukraine doesn't exist. There is the Ukrainian State - a federal entity made of 5 states, each of which has its standard of the Ukrainian language.

Ukraine (writing system)
Ruthenian script
 * There is no Standard Ukrainian. It's being slowly formed via popular use and looks more like surzsék