Context (Source):
On August 18, 1991, conspirators within the Soviet government attempted to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev, but their coup failed, and ultimately triggered the total collapse of the USSR at the end of that year. As these dramatic events unfolded, one man watched with horror from over 200 miles above the Earth’s surface. Sergei Krikalev, a Soviet cosmonaut, had been sent as a flight engineer to the Mir space station for a routine five-month mission. He departed Earth on May 18, 1991, exactly three months before his home country began to shatter. The collapse of the Soviet Union left Krikalev a man without a country, and more importantly, without anybody to bring him home.
Over months of radio exchanges, authorities repeatedly told Krikalev there was simply no money to fund his return. An economic crisis had broken out, and the worth of the ruble had plummeted. To make matters worse, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, from where Krikalev’s mission was launched, was now located in a brand new country called Kazakhstan. For the time being, he would have to wait.
Krikalev ultimately spent 311 days in space, double the amount of time his mission was originally supposed to last. During that time, his home country fell into disarray, dissolved, and formed new nations, all of which Krikalev could only learn of from news and radio contact. By overstaying his planned mission length twofold, Krikalev risked severe health complications associated with space travel, but managed to make a full recovery and fly further missions in the future. When Krikalev arrived back on Earth, he had become 0.02 seconds younger than everyone else born at the time as him.
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Over months of radio exchanges, authorities repeatedly told Krikalev there was simply no money to fund his return.
Jesus Christ. How Kafkaesque.
Krikalev ultimately spent 311 days in space, double the amount of time his mission was originally supposed to last. During that time, his home country fell into disarray, dissolved, and formed new nations, all of which Krikalev could only learn of from news and radio contact. By overstaying his planned mission length twofold, Krikalev risked severe health complications associated with space travel, but managed to make a full recovery and fly further missions in the future.
I do love a happy ending, though!
“…Blyat…”
-Sergei Krikalev
So I never really thought of this, but when a country splits up, is your new nationality based on where you live? (I assume yes). But do they give a grace period to let people move?
I’m thinking if the US ends up splitting into MAGAstan and the United States of Common Sense, how that would work out as you know you’d had a lot of people wanting to go from one side to the other.
I can only talk from my wife’s experience, so take it with a pinch of salt (a sample size of 1 isn’t the most reliable.)
My wife was born in Yugoslavia in the 80’s. She lived in her village until she went to university.
You may have heard about the little disagreement in the Balkans that occurred during the 90’s which resulted in the split of Yugoslavia.
After that my wife was living in Bosnia, specifically the Republika Srpska part. She is now classified as both Bosnian and Serbian (holds both passports and nationalities).
She has Bosnian nationality because of the country she was now born in, and Serbian nationality due to being an ethnic Serb living in Republika Srpska.
