Novosevensk

Novosevensk is a small hamlet on Philosopher's Island, Seven. A large number of the inhabitants are of Russian descent.

The name Novosevensk means literally New Seven Town - a similar name is Novosibirsk, meaning New Siberia Town.

Geography
The hamlet is located on the Bay of Estonia, after an Estonian immigrant who patriotically named it after his homeland. . As can be seen from the picture, the island is in a tropical location.

Behind the hamlet are steep slopes rising to the Hill of Confucius.

Climate
Novosevensk enjoys a subtropical/Mediterranean climate, which is however modified by the seas which surround the island.

History
The hamlet was founded in 1880 by Russian Lovian Nikolai P. Sharapov. He did not fit well into Lovian society and refused to swear allegience to Arthur I. After becoming senile in 1901 at the age of 74, he declared himself the first Tsar of Seven. He died shortly afterwards.

His son succeedsed to the 'title' but renounced it immediately and swore allegience to the King. In return he was grated the less pretentious title of Count Sevensky (Count of Seven). This recognition was later withdrawn however. Neither father nor son succeeded in attracting a large number of Russians to the settlement. The population remained at about 20.

In 1918, however, a large number of Russian emigres arrived following the Revolution and settled in the settlement, increasing its size by bout 60 people. Most of them, however, were not actually ethnically Russian and so did not get on well with the existing Russian population. They spoke very poor Russian.

Phase 1: Native Russian
This was the stage between 1880 and 1918 when everyone in the settlement spoke Russian natively.

Phase 2: Other languages and Russian pidgin
Phase 2 began after 1918, when a large number of inhabitants could not speak Russian. They spoke their own languages to other members of their ethnicity and broken, pidgin Russian to other ethnicities.

Phase 3: Russian creole
Due to ethnic intermarriage, some children began to speak the pidgin as a native language. By this time a small British settlement had been founded not far from Novosevensk, and these children were sent to school there. The pidgin was forced to develop as for the first time it became a native language and new words were needed. As the children learnt English in school, these new words were supplied from English.

Phase 4: Native English (with Russian borrowings)
The Phase 4 language was created by the creole speakers, who taught it to their children. The use of the new language quickly became seen as backward by the inhabitants of Novosevensk, and the Russian words began to fade away from the language. It is posited that that all Russian words would have disappeared completely, had the English speakers of the British settlement and Kinley not borrowed words from the creole.

It should be noted that throughout this time the original pre-revolutionary Russian speakers continued to speak Russian. They had by now attained the status of aristocracy and Russian had become a higher class language.

History (continued)
By the beginning of Phase 4, around 1955, Novosevensk had grown to a size of about 400, and the inhabitants lived peacefully with the Americans of Kinley, with whom they had largely assimilated. Around 1960, however, a large number of people (mainly Americans or American Lovians) began to migrate to Seven (especially Kinley), which had previously been rather a backwater. This aroused nationalistic tendencies in the people of Novosevensk as their differences with the other Lovians were highlighted. They took to pronouncing their dialect in an exaggerated way, and to use Russian words excessively. Strong tensions between the two communities arose. In 1966 two Americans were killed by a drunken mob in Novosevensk. Worldwide attention was drawn to this event, and the Novosevenskians were portrayed as spies for the Communist Russians due to their heritage (even though most were not Russian, and had left because of the Revolution). In response, the Lovian government attempted to quell any nationalistic tendencies by inviting large numbers of Americans to live in the state. This policy succeeded, with the unfortunate result that the original Seven dialect is rarely heard in Kinley, and only 40% of Novosevenskians identify as 'recent settlers' who often do not understand or want to understand the original culture.

Although Novosevensk was previously a fairly large settlement, the population has shrunk in recent years as it has become seen as an undesirable place to live, and due to the attraction of cities such as Noble City and Newhaven. The decrease was such that Novosevensk was recently downgraded to the status of hamlet. In 2010, however, Semyon Breyev became chairman and began a project to repopulate the town.

Demography

 * 40% of ethnicities from Russian empire (speak Novosevensk dialect)
 * 35% American Lovian
 * 5% Russians (original settlers, the 'aristocracy'.
 * 20% other; the largest groups are Chinese and Belgians.

Places of interest

 * Museum of Russian Culture.
 * Novosevensk beach.
 * School for Russian Language, History and Culture (one of the oldest schools in Lovia, founded in 1925.
 * Sharapov Memorial (defiantly raised by Russian Lovians in 1964)

to be continued