Valerie Stepanoff

Valerie Stepanoff
Culture	Cirréonese
Religion	{{{religion}}}
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Ethnicity	{{{ethnicity}}}
Nationality	Cirréone
Title(s)	{{{titles}}}
Age	66 (at time of death)
Birth	{{{birth}}}
Death	{{{death}}}
Player	{{{player}}}

⚠️The following information is considered external lore, containing events that did not influence the characters or the world of Cinder.⚠️
Valerie Stepanoff was a Cirréonese philosopher, political theorist, economist, historian, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Her best known works are her pamphlet Black Capital, and her book Capital, And Its Crushing Weight, both written during the height of the Cirréonese Industrial Revolution; the latter being a critical analysis of capitalismemploying philosophical and economic concepts to call for the collectivisation of the means of production in the workers by means of a revolution. Stepanoff's ideas and their subsequent development, collectively known as Stepanism, have had enormous influence on modern intellectual, economic and political history, especially in Cirréone, whereby Orthodox Stepanism is the state ideology.

Born in Léttona to a middle class family in the Republic of Cirréone, Stepanoff studied at the University of Milacieur and received a doctorate in philosophy at age 24. Influenced by the new philosophies emerging from the Republican Government, she would write many texts on polycracy, both criticising and developing the theory surrounding them. At age 29, Stepanoff would begin reading into proto-socialist economics and politics, and would begin developing her theory of communism. After over a decade of writing, this would culminate in her book Capital, And Its Crushing Weight, regarded as the first major text of socialist and communist theory. Following this, she would famously write the pamphlet Black Capital, in aims of recruiting more in her home nation, Cirréone, as to her political ideology. Black Capital would rise to be the single most reprinted political text in Cirréone, often printed secretly as to evade government interference. This would land her expelled from Cirréone. Subsequently, she would move to Wolfberg, where she would continue to write in secrecy, while living under a false name. Aged 66, she would pass away peacefully at her home in Wolfberg.

Stepanoff's critiques of history, society and political economy would outline her beliefs as to the harsh negative impacts of capital, and the inherent social divide it brings in form of class divide. Her works would illustrate her theory of the international War on Capital, a theoretical term dictating the need for several revolutions across Cinder, across time, to reach an eventual goal of all nations having socialist governments, and the complimentary theory of the national and international communes, by which national communes should first be formed prior to international union within a socialist system. Her political works would be undoubtedly influential, inspiring numerous socialist thinkers, theorists and revolutionists for the over a century to come. Her works would also inspire the state ideologies of many nations, notably the two Communes of Cirréone, but also the Worker's Republic of Paxia and more broadly speaking the former Socialist State of Crannoghold.

Biography

University and early politics

Being of the middle-class, Stepanoff's family could afford to send her to the University of Milacieur to pursue her great interest in the politics of the Republic of Cirréone. To which, she would originally attend to study law, aged 16. Her classes, however, would not initially satisfy her. In her free-time, however, as she read more into Republican politics and the theories of polycracy, she began to read more into the philosophy surrounding it. This would pique her interest, so much so that she would switch her field of study to philosophy, to her fathers discontent, as he saw it as a much less practical field. Nevertheless, she would pursue it. Over the course of her university education, she would become extremely well versed in philosophical theory, especially those surrounding polycracy.

Following university, she would go into a career of journalism, writing for the radical polycratic newspaper 'Nation Narodnie,' which would grow increasingly following her joining, with her style of writing being described, famously, as "addictive, with depth unseen before." It would be during this period that she would also start expressing doubts in the capitalist system, commenting on the class divide ever-present in the free-market, and its need to be quelled by economic reforms, charity, and wealth redistribution. Thus, she would start advocating for higher wages, and would inspire the formation of trade unions as a means of communicating the issues felt by the working class to their employers. She would continue to do this, growing more and more radical in her politics, inspiring strikes and calling for a complete restructuring of the capitalist system of economics, growing a following in intellectuals of the time and the working class, who would collectively begin calling themselves 'socialists,' based on one report she published titled 'Social Ideology: Our Demands.' Her political radicalisation would culminate, however, in her reading into various proto-socialist philosophers and their works, when she was 29 years old, which would inspire her theory of communism, and her writing of 'Capital, And Its Crushing Weight'.

"In the early morning, prior even to dawn, following my reading of Boyd's report 'On Social Class,' I awoke in great sweat and haste, with the clear image of the international commune, and the greater socio-economics of communism. I would write all my most fundamental notes unto paper before returning to my bed, excited to begin writing in the dawn."

Writing of Capital, And Its Crushing Weight

Immediately following her revelation, she would begin writing. She would completely immerse herself in economic theory, history, and philosophy, often spending long nights in libraries and engaging in heated debates at local worker’s meetings. Her initial drafts were scattered and fragmented, but the core ideas began to take shape. Roughly 3 years into her writing, she would begin to travel extensively alongside her writing, speaking to workers, farmers, and small business owners. In this time she would try to devote almost all time to her research and writing, but after 5 years of writing she needed a break. She would spend this break writing more on the current news of the time, sinking more effort into her journalism, now writing independently of her previous publication, instead finding publishers in members of the newly founded 'Socialist League.' This however would prove to be a great setback, as her publishers would hence face censorship or prison, as a result of her works. Ultimately, this would land her financially insecure to a grave degree.