abstract
| - The Katharan Liberation Army (usually abbreviated to KLA) was an Ognian nationalist paramilitary group active between 1903 and 1918 (a splinter group remained active until 1972) which considered itself to be the successor faction to the Kingdom of K'athar. Following the Kingdom's collapse in 1903, a group of loyalist K'atharans began to resist the Russian Imperial rule in the area. At first the group was only minor, and practically unnoticed by the Russian authorities, but after a few years it began to gain a wide support among the AIP population, as they were often treated harshly by the Russians, who had been waging war against them since the 1830s. The Army's leaders were often former K'atharan Fiefs or their descendants, and it maintained a feudal structure until 1914. Though it was not engaged in any wars until this point, the KLA had been executing almost constant attacks on Russian civilians and soldiers alike. At the outbreak of World War I, under the visionary leadership of Aleksander Aiy'ak (the KLA's first non-Aristocratic leader) it aligned itself with the Central Powers, who were opposed to both the Russians and the British - the two countries which were occupying the former Kingdom of K'athar. KLA guerrillas fought alongside the troops of their Central allies, Santiago and New Swabia, in all fronts of the Antarctic Campaign. After the surrender of Santiago in 1915, and the defeat of New Swabia in 1916, the KLA were left without allies on the Continent. The British, French and Australian troops were all either withdrawn from Antarctica, posted as colonial defensive units, or assigned to occupying New Swabia; as none of these nations considered the KLA to be an "official" enemy. When the Russian Civil War struck the Russian colonies in 1917, the KLA took the opportunity to advance their cause. Despite their very different political views (many of the KLA members were Royalists supporting the K'atharan monarchy), they often collaborated with the Communist partisans to attempt to bring down the colonial government. At first, they were very successful, but after the deployment of American peacekeeping troops in Russian Antarctica in 1918, the Communists were soon defeated, and the KLA were left alone once again. Eventually, the American troops (along with the Russian remnant forces) stormed the Katharan POW camps, where many Allied troops of World War I were still being held. This put a final end to World War I on the continent, and also marked the final turning point in the KLA's history. Shortly after the collapse of the Russian colonies, the KLA disbanded, and merged into the fledgling armed forces of K'athar, Medquar, and Gumar (the three AIP-dominated Russian remnant states). A splinter group continued to operate in the local British- and American-occupied areas; but this group was far smaller than the KLA had been at its height, and it disbanded after the formation of the Ognian Republic in 1972.
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