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Free University



Hello there!:The Free University publishes short, daily lessons on topics of general interest. The currently-running daily course is on Philosophy.

While the daily course in Philosophy will continue, we are pleased to announce that we are now branching out with a new course on War and Peace in eRepublik.

Questions of war, peace, revolution, nationalism and universalism are, in many ways, at the heart of eRepublik.

Our intention is not to revisit every battle or to repeat every time-worn nostrum about what eRepublik "is" with respect to such questions. Rather, the idea is to present theories and explorations that seek to challenge the status quo or to enlighten in various ways.

The expectation is that these will be longer pieces. If you are not interested in reading lengthier expositions, kindly refer to Note #2 below. We are intereted in presenting a wide range of views. Readers are invited to submit original works (or suggestions for reprints if the original author agrees to it). They should have something to do with the theory or strategy of war, peace, revolution, nationalism or universalism in eRepublik. Discussions of "game mechanics" (tactics) are welcome as long as they have something interesting to say.


Note #2: The first lecture on "War and Peace in eRepublik" is a quite lengthy rewrite of an older theoretical article dealing a perspective on overthrowing the dominant e-social paradigm by trying to discover a new way to think about war and revolution in eRepublik. It does not represent the views of any party or organization. It does, however, have a very leftish point-of-view. If your only comment is along the line of "tl;dr" or "e-commies suck!", please note that we have created a special forum for sharing such views here.






Long Live the New World Revolution!
by Phoenix Quinn, Professor of Applied Aesthetics, Free University





I. The Principle Contradiction in the New World and the Viewpoint of the Revolutionaries



Can Capitalist-Imperialism and Ultra-Nationalism Be Defeated?

Is it possible for weaker, smaller and less-developed e-countries to triumph over a stronger e-country in eRepublik?

The large capitalist and ultra-nationalist countries exploit their military and organizational superiority to occupy the territory of smaller ones, or to take over their political structures, and then terrorize or otherwise force them into joining their favorite superpower alliance. The internal relations within the alliances themselves reflect a monopolist and oligarchic class instinct, with the richer and larger countries dominating, dictating to and trolling their smaller partners, whom they treat like vassals.

When a small country is attacked in order to grab its resources, frighten its players, or for the "lulz", there seem to be few steps that can be taken other than asking the opposing alliance for protection. That's why eRepublik sometimes feels like a somewhat more refined version of "Mafia Wars".

Is there more to the politics of eRepublik that finding "your place", as a hegemon or vassal, in the hierachy of imperialist blocs?



Another story unfolded throughout the course of the Beta and V1 eras, one that showed a different kind of outcome was thinkable in the titanic struggles that sweep the e-World, possibly even a way to to liberate the game from its own pre-conditioned matrix.

There are some interesting lessons to be learned from that experience.



Tortuous Road of the Russian Revolution

There was once an e-Soviet power in Russia that overthrew the greed-based game model. It set about instituting an economic system based on player solidarity. Russian reactionaries, backed by a small clique of oligarchs, launched a coup against the player-centered government that had been established in Russia. After that, militants of the Communist Party - Soviet Union (CPSU) worked diligently and relentlessly in a true resistance movement for months. They...

* Exposed the anti-democratic, anti-player nature of the oligarchs
* Built up a massive autonomous economic alternatives to the capitalist-oligarch model
* Built up a strong independent Army as an alternative to the oligarchic forces who had linked Russia's fate to a super-alliance
* Through many twists and turns, strengthened the people's party and the people's army and boldly refused to recognize the authority of the oligarchs or participate in "their" government
* Called on internationalists to support Russia -- not as an imperial power, but as a bulwark for the revolutionary road

The road of the e-Russian revolutionaries was a tortuous one. They built up an Army independent of the state. They forged a political bloc based on participation and democracy. They developed a large and successful network of cooperatives and communes. They refused to participate in the oligarchic government. They announced a policy of disengagement from super-alliance politics. But when they were just about to re-take the reigns of power, the Russian oligarchy, in a pre-emptive coup, unleashed a swarm of ruBot vampires to take over and destroy the CPSU.

The setback in Russia was a disappointment to revolutionaries throughout the New World who had dreamed of creating a large-scale country within eRepublik based on principles of revolutionary social solidarity. (This is something that goes by many names in eRepublik. Some call it "e-Communism" or "e-Socialism". I prefer to use words that are less over-loaded with RL baggage.)

As a result, many revolutionary players left the game altogether, tired of having their hard work overturned by cheaters.

Those who remained re-grouped in various ways to carry on the struggle.



Strategic View of e-Oligarchs

Looked at from a strategic viewpoint, the victory of the Russian oligarchs over the CPSU was a temporary advance for capitalist-imperialists and uber-nationalists around the New World. In a paradox that reveals their class's inability to even defend the nation, once the revolutionaries were driven away, Russia collapsed under a military onslaught from EDEN and the USA that it is still recovering from.

Despite the hostility between the ruling classes of the more powerful countries...

Despite the ongoing hostility between and among the ever-shifting array of super-alliances manufactured by the major players...

The fact is that the ruling elites of all the large, powerful countries at present have the exact same goal: to pursue the horror of eRepublik's ultra-nationalistic model, which is to say pursuing imperialist war for resources and nationalist chest-thumping without end. This goal is what drives them to destroy, occupy and colonize small nations and to pay for it by impoverishing the majority of players, even in their own countries.

The establishment of a truly revolutionary government in a large (population-wise) or strategically significant country like Russia, the USA, Poland, Serbia or Brazil would be a game-changer. Not only would the revolutionary forces gain a signficant military force, but the ability to coordinate player-centered economics on a world scale would take a qualitative leap. The effectiveness of democratic, communal and cooperatavist economics is undeniable. It provides the greatest good for the greatest number and, in a meaningful way, "turns the game upside-down".

At present, this model of economics is used mainly to support government-backed militaries and militias, leaving the "ordinary players" to scramble for crumbs from the capitalist markets. It is likewise argued that only war -- including war against so-called "natural enemies" -- can provide a solution to the uneven distribution of resources. This nostrum clearly and shame-facedly ignores the alliance members' own peaceful deals with each other to rent regions in order to redistribute resources.

The underlying implication is that only certain countries should be privy to such sharing of resources.

In short, the capitalist-imperialist war model based on the "need" to conquer in order to gain more raw materials is a sham.

A massive collection of players collaborating globally with each other to collectively profit and to determine their own destiny is entirely doable under the game mechanics. But this is the last thing that any capitalist or ultra-nationalist oligarchic government wants to see, because even if governments and parties changed, it would be very difficult to un-do such an internationalist and anarcho-syndicalist swarm of communal endeavors.

Behind the oligarchs in each nation stand the Admins, the capitalist "Gods" of eRepublik. It is they, ultimately, who benefited from Russian bots and multies driving revolutionaries out of the game, thus preventing the creation of a large, powerful liberated zone. They provide the "spirit" that animates each group of oligarchs. It is their intention to keep the gangs of oligarchs at each others' throats and sucking the lifeblood out of the players. And of course it is the wealthiest big capitalist players who provide the real life cash that keeps the Admins in caviar.



Strategic View of the Revolutionaries

The e-revolutionaries see through the Admin's game and seek a way to play a New Game in the New World.

Although The road may be long and tortuous, it is likely that the revolutionaries will overcome in the end. Why? Because when all is said and done, eRepublik is reflection of the real world.

Playing a game where only a few can profit reeks of the same oppression that people suffer in real life.

Whether in the course of being exploited at work, punished by participating in unjust wars, or crushed into the ground by real life oligarchics and mobsters, many do eventually learn -- some to their regret -- that it was their spiritual teachers, as well as the leftwing libertarian-anarchists, the (real) communists, the radical socialists and so on who were right all along.

They learn.. or at least begin to suspect.. that untrammelled capitalism and no-holds-barred nationalism is both a sin and a crime. Not a "bad idea". Not an "untried ideal". Certainly not "the best alternative". It is real people driven into real poverty. It is unemployment, hunger, waste of human potential, massive bureaucracy and the crushing of dreams. It is institutionalized racism. It is real countries really being devastated by war and underdevelopment. It is ecological disaster.

And they also learn that bureaucratic, nationalistic "socialism" is just another word for the same thing.

Nor do the snazzy suits and champagne cocktail parties of "social-democracy" and "neo-liberalism" offer a lasting solution either. They are just lipstick on a pig.

In the real world, all of this becomes increasingly evident with every day that passes. People want a world where stability, freedom, responsibility and the satisfaction of human needs are not just slogans.

It is not clear what form the next real life revolution will take. But there is no reason to believe the revolutionary ferment is going to stop until mankind either "figures it out" or perishes. Even with massive propaganda campaigns, even with crushing of dissent, even with outlawing, re-writing or denigrating revolutionary history and transformative modes of thinking, even with wire-tapping and secret trials and murdering of journalists... there will never be a totally "successful" attempt at making the world into a fantasy-land of "happy consumers" eating at the trough of nationalist propaganda, recycled fashions and gross social inequalities.

Human beings are just too darned ornery.

Likewise, there is no reason to believe that the revolutionary project in the New World will disappear despite the machinations of oligarchs and Admins. Even if all of the current crop of revolutionaries were to quit the game or be banned, another would spring up.

This is real human nature: People always rebel against exploitation and oppression. It is e-human nature too.



The Strategic Contradiction of eRepublik

The contradiction between the vast majority of players and the small nations of eRepublik on the one hand, and the oligarchical capitalist-imperialists and ultra-nationalists backed by Admin on the other, is the key strategic contradiction of eRepublik.

The method for resolving this contradiction is Protracted Global Peoples' War. The outcome is New World-wide People's Revolution.






II. The Line and Policy of the United Front

In order to win a people’s war, it is imperative to build the broadest possible united front and formulate a series of policies which will ensure the fullest mobilization of the basic masses of players of every nation, as well as the unity of all the forces that can be united.

Efforts at national self-defence tend to unite nearly all the players within a given e-nation. Whatever their political views, most share a common interest in fighting invaders, an interest which forms the basis of their unity. But they differ in the degree of their firmness in resisting, and there are class contradictions and conflicts of interest among them.

This becomes particularly evident when super-alliance politics come into play. The majority of players naturally resist the idea of giving up one of their regions "for the greater good" or in order to provide resources to another country, even if it is an ally. This is because such sharing tends to primarily benefit government and capitalist enterprises, not the regular workers. Tensions arise between the leaders and the citizenry and between the allies themselves because, in the end, each group of nationalist oligarchs is out for itself.

In formulating policies in these national-democratic situations, the revolutionary parties have generally encouraged the new players, the workers, the middle strata and the revolutionary parties to fully support Wars of Resistance against invaders of the national territory. When it comes to interfering in other country's affairs, the line has been murkier: sometimes clear opposition, sometimes silence, sometimes outright support for various reasons.

Such cases test the resolve of the revolutionaries. Unity sought through yielding perishes. Unity sought through struggle will live. There is always a temptation to take a "social-democratic" or "left-opportunist" path of "all alliance, no struggle" with respect to the national oligarchs, which effectively means abandoning the revolutionary road. But it can sometimes also be a mistake to take an "ultra-leftist" path of "all struggle, no alliance", particularly when the integrity of the nation is at stake.

It's a delicate balance, but important to get it right.

The correct policy to take on matters of national independence is one of both unity and independence. The players' revolutionary forces should emphasize first and foremost an alliance between everyday workers and soldiers and the revolutionary leadership. They should form and maintain independent people's militias that contribute to the national-democratic defence, even if such organizations need to be lodged covertly for a time within the "official" military channels.

They should emphasize secondarily an alliance between the people's independent and autonomous forces and the honest, non-oligarchic nationalists, which is to say ordinary business people and intellectuals as well as independent-minded and patriotic members of the government.

The alliance between the revolutionaries and the masses of ordinary workers and soldiers is the solid foundation and bulwark of a revolutionary United Front. Principled cooperation between the revolutionaries and the patriotic, non-oligarchic bourgeois-nationalists is the scaffolding.






III. Establish an Economic Solidarity Network

The everyday players constitute the overwhelming majority in all nations. Revolutionaries at the outset sometimes miss this point, focussing too much attention on the national governments, national militaries and other state institutions hijacked by the capitalist-imperialist and ultra-nationalist oligarchs and not enough on the organization of the workers themselves.

Revolutionary organizations need to rely first and foremost on supply lines based in communes, cooperatives and other types of worker-centered enterprises. If the Left or a people-centered group is elected into government, then the opportunity often arises to enhance and build up the people's economic network of solidarity with state support. Such opportunities should be sought for and taken. But it is the economic network itself -- not the governments or ministries -- that provide the bedrock for on-going support of revolutionary efforts.

It should be a constant task and top priority for revolutionaries to recruit and build up a global, people-centered economic infrastructure, including helping to found new communes, cooperatives and worker-friendly firms of all kinds, moving veteran workers with various skills around to enhance the global economy of solidarity, sharing economic strategies and plans internationally to make them as effective as possible, and not being afraid to experiment with new ideas that promote economic solidarity.

There is a constant threat of take over with respect to Parties and Governments. It is much harder to disrupt a grassroots network, especially when players are cooperating globally to support it.






IV. Build a Peoples' Army of a New Type

Revolutionaries should not fight for personal military power. They should fight for military and political power for revolutionary and player-centered parties and groups that will empower the masses of players.

This will become decisive if the the Admins ever implement a civil war module. But even in the current epoch where wars are restricted to inter-national conflicts, a Peoples' Army can carry out its three key tasks:

1) Fighting
2) Educational work, and
3) Production

A Peoples' Army should be an international fighting force. It "belongs" to no nation and is made up of three tiers: International Battallions, People's Militias and Volunteers.

The International Battallions are a permanently-engaged fighting force organized by a global revolutionary command.

People's Militias are organized by revolutionary parties through the line and policy of the united front in their country. They are organized military units, independent and autonomous patriotic militias operating within a nation, that are not governed by the oligarchs. Depending on the circumstances of each country, they may or may not be directly affiliated with a particular party. Their primary purpose is national defense and training.

Volunteers are all other players or units that choose to fight alongside the People's Army and the People's Militias.


A Peoples' Army is a new type of educational force. It engages in fighting only when certain key principles are involved. Every battle is a lesson. It fights to...

a) Liberate occupied regions and prevent the occupation of regions -- particularly when the oppressed nation is not one of the "power house" countries. They always stand up for "the little guy".

b) Defend regions and countries that are -- at least temporarily -- led by revolutionary forces or where the revolutionary forces have a strong influence. They align themselves with "e-socialist" countries and with countries that have broken away from the "super-alliance" paradigm.

c) Having attained sufficient forces, they attack deeply reactionary, oligarchic, racist and fascist regimes in order to drive them out of the game.



An international Peoples' Army is a new type of production force. It trains its members to constantly enhance the worker-centric global solidarity network.

The essence of the theory of a Peoples' Army is that in building a people’s army prominence is given to politics, i.e., the army must first and foremost be built on a political basis. Politics is the commander, politics is the soul of everything. Political work is the lifeline of a People's Army. True, a people’s army must pay attention to the constant improvement of its weapons and equipment and its military technique, but in its fighting it does not rely purely on weapons and technique, it relies mainly on politics, on the revolutionary consciousness and courage of the commanders and fighters, and on the support and backing of the masses of players.


Members of the International Battallions should follow Three Main Rules of Discipline and follow Eight Points for Attention. People's Militias and Volunteers are encouraged to do the same.

The Three Main Rules of Discipline:

(1) Obey orders in all your actions.
(2) Do not cheat.
(3) Turn in everything won or acquired to the Batallion.

The Eight Points For Attention:

(1) Speak politely at all times.
(2) Pay fairly for what you buy on the market.
(3) Pay back all loans.
(4) Work to fix or compensate for damaged infrastructure after attacking.
(5) Do not swear at people.
(6) Do not steal.
(7) Do not disrespect women.
(😎 Do not disrespect persons on the basis of nationality or language.






V. Strategy and Tactics of Protracted Global Peoples' War

Emancipation of the New World will have a specific expression in military affairs and create its own specific, new military methods.

There are two main strategies to consider when waging revolutionary war: guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare of annihilation.


Treat guerrilla warfare in a strategic way. To defeat a formidable enemy, revolutionary armed forces should not fight with a reckless disregard for the consequences when there is a great disparity between their own strength and their enemy’s. If they do, they will suffer serious losses and heavy setbacks.

Guerrilla warfare is a great way to mobilize and apply the strength of the people against the enemy. The main goals of guerrilla warfare are to...

* Expand the revolutionary forces in the course of a war
* Deplete and weaken the enemy
* Gradually change the balance of forces between the enemy and the revolutionary forces
* Switch from guerrilla to mobile warfare, and thus finally defeat the enemy

In eRepublik, guerrilla warfare refers to a number of things, including:

1) Fighting in battles where the enemy has more strength.
2) Sapping the enemy's strength from behind their lines. This may include economic warfare.
3) Hit-and-run battles where the is aim to make the enemy spread out or deplete their resources, not to win the battle.

Always aim for and prepare for transition to large-scale mobile warfare. Always keep annihilation of enemy forces as the key goal. A permanent strategy of guerilla warfare that does not seek to go over to war of annihilation is a recipe for defeat.


Warfare of annihilation is the fundamental strategy and guiding principle of revolutionary military operations. This guiding principle should be kept in mind at all times, regardless of whether mobile or guerrilla warfare is the primary form of fighting at a particular point.

While it is true that in guerrilla warfare much should be done to disrupt and harass the enemy, it is always necessary to actively advocate for and fight in battles of annihilation whenever conditions are favourable.

In mobile warfare, superior forces must be concentrated in every battle so that the enemy forces can be completely defeated.


The main principles in war of annihilation are the following:

* At first, attack dispersed or isolated enemy forces and only attack concentrated and strong enemy forces later
* Strive to wipe out the enemy
* Fight no battle unprepared
* Fight no battle you are not sure of winning
* In any battle, develop the Army’s strong points and improve its style of fighting

It is best to let the enemy become elated and to spread out his forces before bringing down the hammer. Although sometimes useful and necessary, defending territory is not the main aim of revolutionary warfare.

The aim is the complete destruction of the enemy's forces and morale.

Fight when you can win. Move away when you cannot. When the enemy wants to fight, don’t let him. Make it so he can’t even find you. But when the revolutionaries want to fight, they should make sure that the enemy can’t get away, hits them squarely on the chin and wipes them out. When you are able to wipe them out, do so with a vengeance. When you can’t, see to it that they don’t wipe you out.






VI. Adhere to the Policy of Self-Reliance

Players' Liberation is accomplished by the players themselves — this is a basic revolutionary principle. People’s war in any country is the business of the players in that country and should be carried out primarily by their own efforts.

There is no other way.

The political work of the Peoples' Army is paramount. Just as the united front of revolutionaries and people's autonomous organizations is the foundation in national-democratic warfare, the alliance between the Peoples' Army and the citizens of a nation in trouble is the bedrock of the New World-wide Revolution.

The Rules of Discipline and Points for Attention are there for this reason. The Peoples' Army must never become simply an invader waving a "revolutionary" flag. The players are not stupid. They will be won over to the revolutionary road by actions that have real consequences in their gaming experience, not by slogans or "leftist" egoism.

The Peoples' Army should be self-reliant. While donations and aid from sympathetic nations, organizations and individuals is great, it cannot be depended on over the long haul. Revolutionaries should use their own hands and deeply grasp the connection between production and fighting.

Fundamental global-revolutionary policy should rest on the foundation of the revolutionaries' own strength. Only by relying on their own efforts can revolutionaries remain unbreakable.

Many of the players of the New World already support each other in their struggles against capitalist-imperialism, revanchist and irridentist nationalism, and oligarchy. Those countries which break away from the oligarchic and ultra-nationalist paradigm of the game are duty bound to support and aid those who have not yet done so. Nevertheless, foreign aid can only play a supplementary role in the liberation of a country.

No one country will ever "own" the New World-wide Revolution.






VII. Significance of the Theory of Protracted Global Peoples' War

Force is the midwife of every old e-society pregnant with a new one.

In the last analysis, the theory of global eRepublikan revolution is the theory of the seizure of state power by e-revolutionary (virtual, in-game) violence. It is the theory of countering and terminating the endless war of the oligarchs against the majority of players by means of protracted people’s war.

In real life, war is the product of imperialism, neo-Clausewitzian ultra-nationalism, and the various systems of exploitation of man by man. In eRepublik, war is a software model based -- more or less consciously, it appears -- on the theories of Karl Schmitt, a neo-fascist. The essence of war in eRepublik is to promote in perpetuity the continuation of a capitalist-imperialist and ultra-nationalist ludic paradigm that fosters and profits from ideologies of racism and exploitation.

There is no reason to "feel bad" about overturning this paradigm. The Admin has no inherent right to profit from such a scheme. You are doing him a favor by forcing him to consider alternatives.


What should the oppressed nations and the oppressed players do in the face of wars of aggression, armed and political suppression, bad faith "democracy", MasterCard mechanics, and robotic cheating by the oligarchs, their flunkies and wannabes? Should they submit and remain e-slaves in perpetuity? Or should they rise in resistance and fight for their liberation?

The oligarch-capitalists and uber-nationalists, dancing to the Admin's strings, have swords in their hands and are out to "kill" in the sense of "seizing control" of the game mechanics. Many players have come to understand this and so need to act after the same fashion.

This is called doing unto them what they do unto us.


Despise the enemy strategically and take full account of him tactically.

To despise the enemy strategically is an elementary requirement for a revolutionary. Without the courage to despise the enemy and without daring to win, it will be simply impossible to make revolution and wage a people’s war, let alone to achieve victory.

It is also important for revolutionaries to take full account of the enemy tactically. It is likewise impossible to succeed in a people’s war without taking full account of the enemy tactically, and without examining the concrete conditions, without being prudent and giving great attention to the study of the art of struggle, and without adopting appropriate forms of struggle in the concrete practice of the peoples' war and revolutionary politics in each e-country and with regard to each concrete problem of struggle.

The establishment of revolutionary base areas of many kinds -- both economic networks and liberated states -- cooperating globally, and the encirclement of the oligarchic enterprises by the people's solidarity network is of outstanding and universal practical importance for the present revolutionary struggles of all the oppressed e-nations and peoples. This is particularly the case for the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and players in the less powerful countries.

It is not simply a matter planning based on where raw materials and nodes of the economic network are located, but also where revolutionary sentiment is percolating and ready to erupt.


There are two stages of revolutionary warfare and both of these stages are fluid.

The first is the national-democratic type of struggle: liberating and defending regions that have been unjustly occupied or attacked.

The second is the global revolutionary type of struggle: creating and holding States for the New World revolutionary movement. With the long-term strategic viewpoint of a protracted global peoples' war, the revolutionary forces, relying primarily on the masses of players, their own Army and Militias and their own self-reliant network, can avoid errors, minimize setbacks, take down powerful opponents and defeat e-imperialism and ultra-nationalism of all kinds.



We can be optimistic about the future of the New World. The players will bring to an end the epoch of capitalist-imperialist wars and ultra-nationalist jingoism in eRepublik.






All players suffering from aggression, oppression and plunder, unite!

Defend and practice the just e-military strategy of protracted global people’s war!

Fight for the cause of National Liberation, the establishment of truly Revolutionary Liberated Zones, and a New World-wide Revolution!

Victory and major lulz will certainly go to the players of the New World!!