History Main / Ruritania

* Calbia, from the Franchise/DocSavage novel ''The Kingmaker''.

With the coming of UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag revolutions, Ruritania has pretty much reverted to what it started with: ludicrous hair, ethnic strife, poverty, and backwardness. The most noticeable changes are that the monarchy is (usually) gone, replaced by a [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny mock democracy]] run by some [[TheGeneralissimo unsavoury generals]], [[FormerRegimePersonnel ex-communist strongmen]], or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt bajillionaires]], while the Great Powers are now acting through NATO or the UN. Everyone still seems to hate his neighbours, the anarchists may still be around, or they may have mutated into [[TerroristsWithoutACause terrorists]] or plain old gangsters. In recent years, they would have to deal with refugees from Syria or a {{Qurac}} substitute, and the citizens will either welcome them with open arms or close their borders. Nonetheless, nationalists will spring up causing ruckus all over the country. With any luck, contemporary Ruritania might be a part of the EU, causing more trouble for its finances than Greece, Spain, and Ireland taken together -- and in any case, the only international attention Ruritania seems to get occurs during the Series/EurovisionSongContest, which it wins frequently and handily thanks to votes from the Ruritanian guest workers omnipresent in rich Western European countries.

[[TropeNamers The name comes from]] Anthony Hope's 1894 novel ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda''. The concept originated about the same time; the idea itself was at least in part inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was popularly (and inaccurately, for the most part) regarded by Western Europeans as incompetent and backwater. It spurred an entire genre, known as the Ruritanian Romance (which is derived from ChivalricRomance, not the love story meaning of {{Romance}}). At that time and in most early 20th century depictions, Ruritania had a royal house. The King [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething actually did something]], the Prince [[TheWhitePrince was dashing]], the Princess [[PrincessClassic was dazzling]], and the [[NiceHat headgear]] was quite frankly ridiculous. The kingdom was forever being schemed against by a lot of [[EvilChancellor dastardly usurpers]] or [[BombThrowingAnarchists anarchists]] and was a source of tension amongst the Great Powers. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne That last bit was actually true, unfortunately]]. A classic example is, of course, the original. Although it is worth noting that where most examples of this trope are set in the Balkans or Eastern Europe, the original was wedged between Germany and Bohemia and had a Germanic-style culture.

* In ''Webcomic/JoeVsElanSchool'', Joe signs up with a study abroad program late in college in a big city called Vrátskajeki, in a country he'd never heard of. Since the webcomic is autobiographical but presented RomanAClef to protect the author's identity, and because there's no city called "Vrátskajeki" on the map, it's a clear stand-in for a real city.[[note]]Readers on the comic's subreddit speculated about its real world equivalent and settled on either Bratislava, Slovakia or Zagreb, Croatia.[[/note]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanBlackAndGold'': "Espionage" is set in the fictional Eastern European of Modora.

* ''Videogame/Psychonauts2'' has Grulovia, a third-world Eastern-European country that Raz's family hail from that was ruled by a despotic "Gzar" until a Hydrokineticist known as Maligula arose and killed countless innocent people until she was defeated by the original Psychonauts. Afterwards, the Gzar and his family were forced into exile, [[spoiler:with the main villain being the son of the Gzar seeking to reclaim Grulovia for himself]].

** ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' reveals Sokovia had nobility, of which [[spoiler:Helmut Zemo was a part of]].

* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' says outright, in the song "Transylvania Mania," "Whether you're in Ruritania or a dance hall in Albania."

** In ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}} II'', you get the Republic of Chernarus, a Czech-speaking country bordering on Russia that gets entangled in bloody civil war with Russophone Communist extremists (and later with Nationalist militias), sparking first a NATO, then a Russian intervention. It takes its name from Belarus, its geography from the Czech Republic, the conflict from the UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and its general aesthetics from Ukraine. Incidentally, since the outbreak of the War in Donbas in 2014, it has become [[LifeImitatesArt surprisingly prophetic]] [[FunnyAneurysmMoment in its subject matter]].

* Of all places, a Filipino epic poem depicts one, as in the Tagalog-language ''Literature/FloranteAtLaura'', set mostly in a dramatised medieval Albania and surrounding places like Greece (essentially the Balkans in general) during TheCrusades.

** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has Sokovia, a tiny fictional Balkan nation with HYDRA operations, and home to Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. It's a fairly obvious expy of Serbia, perhaps a break-off territory equivalent to Kosovo but populated by ethnic Serbians; its name is a cross between Kosovo and Serbia, all the signs are in Serbian Cyrillic, the buildings are possessing of an architectural mix of toned-down European-style facades with concrete buildings, and per Scarlet Witch's backstory it experienced civil war [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars sometime in the mid to late '90s.]] Its [[http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Sokovia?file=Flag_of_Sokovia.png flag]] is also very similar to Serbia's, being a red-white-blue tricolor (only vertical, like the French or Romania flag) with an eagle at the center. Generally the country is also notably more backward, with a restive population hostile towards the Avengers and the USA in general. It appears to be a mashup between the twins' comic book home country of Transia and the nation of Slorenia which Ultron massacred.

** Its capital is [[AllThereInTheManual called]] Novi Grad, which in real life is the name of a suburb of Serbia's capital, Belgrade.

* In ''Film/{{The Hunt|2020}}'', Croatia is presented as a hellhole where it's relatively easy for a group of high-powered liberals to kidnap American citizens and hunt them for sport, with the army and police indifferent and apathetic to what little of the plot they hear about, and even [[spoiler:the ambassador is in on the Hunt. Probably.]]

* The 1938 novel ''[[Literature/{{Biggles}} Biggles Goes To War]]'' features two Ruritanias: small, peace-loving Maltovia and bullying larger neighbour Lovitznia. Maltovia is situated at the eastern edge of Europe, north-east of the Black Sea (which would place it in present-day Russia or Georgia). It is described as a small principality with
palace intrigues, traitors in high places, and attempted coups. Despite the location, the Maltovian characters have German names, perhaps because it's a former part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Though the novel can be read as a parallel of the German takeover of Austria, it's the Maltovians who are Germanic while the Lovitznians appear more Slavic, which seems more like a warning
about the Red Menace than about Nazi expansionism.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' is set in what appears to have been at one time a former Soviet state. No word has been given on the place's true location, and judging by the accents of all the [=NPCs=] you meet there, none of them are from there (seeing that many of them were forcibly relocated.) The only true native seems to be Father Grigori.

* In the ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series, half the countries follow this pattern -- Yuktobania (USSR / Federal Russia), Estovakia (Yugoslavia/Romania), etc. NBelka is an outlier, being a Ruritania in name only as they were one of the world's superpowers and are still a major player behind the scenes.

* In the ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series, the nation of "Belka" (a real word, Russian for... ''squirrel''?..) is the bad guy country and starts the ''Belkan'' War. Half the countries in Ace Combat follow this pattern -- Yuktobania, Usea, Estovakia, etc.

* In ''The Mysteries of Paris'' by Eugene Sue (1842-1843), the hero, posing as a lower-class Parisian worker, is actually the Duke Rodolphe, of the imginary Grand Duchy of Gerolstein.

* However, the literary UrExample is found in Creator/RobertLouisStevenson 1885 novel ''Literature/PrinceOtto'', featuring the alpine country of Grunewald.
* Gerolstein in the ''Prince Rodolphe'' tales by Eugene Sue.

* The 1938 novel ''[[Literature/{{Biggles}} Biggles Goes To War]]'' features two Ruritanias: small, peace-loving Maltovia and bullying larger neighbour Lovitznia.
Maltovia is situated at the eastern edge of Europe, north-east of the Black Sea (which would place it in present-day Russia or Georgia). It is described as a small principality with

* 1938 novel ''[[Literature/{{Biggles}} Biggles Goes To War]]'' features two Ruritanias: small, peace-loving Maltovia and bullying larger neighbour Lovitznia. Although a thinly-disguised allegory for the German takeover of Austria, in the novel it is the Maltovians who appear more German and the Lovitznians who have more of the Slav about them. It is left to the reader to decide whether Capt. Johns was inverting the stereotype or subtly pushing a message about the Red Menace...

The name comes from Anthony Hope's 1894 novel ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda''. The concept originated about the same time; the idea itself was at least in part inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was popularly (and inaccurately, for the most part) regarded by Western Europeans as incompetent and backwater. It spurred an entire genre, known as the Ruritanian Romance (which is derived from ChivalricRomance, not the love story meaning of {{Romance}}). At that time and in most early 20th century depictions, Ruritania had a royal house. The King [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething actually did something]], the Prince [[TheWhitePrince was dashing]], the Princess [[PrincessClassic was dazzling]], and the [[NiceHat headgear]] was quite frankly ridiculous. The kingdom was forever being schemed against by a lot of [[EvilChancellor dastardly usurpers]] or [[BombThrowingAnarchists anarchists]] and was a source of tension amongst the Great Powers. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne That last bit was actually true, unfortunately]]. A classic example is, of course, the original. Although it is worth noting that where most examples of this trope are set in the Balkans or Eastern Europe, the original was wedged between Germany and Bohemia and had a Germanic-style culture.

* ''TV 21'', the comic which tied in to various Creator/GerryAnderson shows, had the country of Bereznik which acted as a recurring source of antagonists. This country was apparently carved out at some point in the 21st century from various real-life countries following TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

** Incidentally, the strips which introduced Elbonia described it as an Eastern European country that had recently changed from communism to capitalism ([[RippedFromTheHeadlines this was written around the time of]] TheGreatPoliticsMessUp). This backstory appears to have been {{Retcon}}ned away in subsequent strips.

* The [[Creator/TheBBC Radio 4]] SitCom ''Radio/{{Man of Soup}}'' was set in a {{Ruritania}} parody with all the associated tropes turned UpToEleven.

* Thembria from ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' was a mock version of the Soviet Union (which was [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp still around]] at the time), with its hostile sub-arctic climate, babushka-clad peasantry, an inept centralized government that still insisted it was "glorious" and a moribund economy that resulted in constant shortages of everything. The last of which happened so often that a RunningGag was the Thembrian Air Force never had any actual bullets for shooting down enemy aircraft and would ineffectively wail away with whatever they ''did'' have, including bathtubs and lunch meat. It gets worse; they even ban imagination, because imaginative people do not conform.

Between the wars, the typical Ruritania became slightly less primitive. Wolves, bears, and superstitious peasants still abounded, but automobiles had been introduced and the army now had tanks and planes, with which it prepared bloody revenge on its neighbours. The royals were still around, if a bit less powerful than before, but are now being schemed against by even more dastardly [[ThoseWackyNazis fascists]] and [[DirtyCommies communists]]. When WWII rolled around, Ruritania was likely occupied by the Germans or was possibly itself an Axis power. In either case, brave partisans equipped with [[BadassBeard formidable beards]] kept up a heroic struggle against tyranny without forgetting their true enemy -- the village on the other side of the valley. After the war, many Ruritanias became CommieLand and continued to be a lurking place for DirtyCommunists, either Soviet-backed or home-grown.