Neda Orlak (c. 1915–1988) was the second and final leader of the Bosken separatist militant group BRC-21. She presided over the organization during its most violent and active period but was ultimately sidelined and removed from the leadership by her deputy Nadja Vrasch, resulting in the signing of the 1961 peace treaty.
Origins and Rise to Leadership
Born in Moraviskameja shortly before the collapse of the Vosti Empire, Neda Orlak came of age during the turmoil of the Kresimirian Unification War and the subsequent founding of BRC-21. As a young woman, she was a fervent believer in the cause of Bosken independence and became an early and devoted member of the movement under its founder, Lev Ruka.
By the early 1940s, she was considered Ruka’s most trusted deputy. Following Lev Ruka’s death in a Kresimirian state security operation in 1942, the BRC-21’s inner council selected Orlak to succeed him.
Leadership of BRC-21 (1942–1961)
Orlak’s nineteen-year leadership marked the most intense phase of the Kresimir-Bosken conflict. Adopting a strategy of a “long war,” she oversaw a sustained campaign of guerrilla warfare and high-profile terrorist attacks designed to destabilize the Kresimirian state and force political concessions. Key events during her tenure include:
- The 1953 Ravna Skrad Market Bombing.
- The audacious but failed 1953 attempt on the life of Chancellor Kresimirovic II.
- The successful 1954 assassination of Divine Founder Kresimir Basic.
This campaign of violence was met with equally harsh crackdowns from the Kresimirian government, entrenching the conflict. The turning point of her leadership came with the 1960 bombing of Karlovac University. While demonstrating BRC-21’s reach, the immense civilian death toll backfired, alienating potential sympathizers and convincing many that the path of armed struggle had reached a bloody and unsustainable impasse.
Forced Resignation and the Treaty of Brod Moravice
Following the 1960 bombing of Karlovac University, a faction within BRC-21’s leadership concluded that the armed struggle had reached a strategic dead end. Led by Orlak’s deputy, Nadja Vrasch, and supported by Bosken intellectuals such as Lutz Diekwisch, along with several prominent commanders including Petar Volkmann, Mirko Tessler, and Jana Kreuz, this group advocated for immediate negotiations with the Kresimirian government.
Orlak herself remained opposed to a ceasefire, believing that further pressure could extract greater concessions. However, by late 1960, the internal opposition had grown too powerful to resist. In a tense series of meetings within BRC-21’s leadership council, Vrasch and her allies effectively forced Orlak from active leadership, arguing that her intransigence threatened the survival of the Bosken cause. Vrasch was appointed as the head of the BRC-21 delegation and became the ultimate authority on the Bosken side of the talks, entering secret negotiations with Leon Rukavin and the Blue Dawn establishment.
During the difficult negotiations, Vrasch championed the core concessions that would form the basis of the treaty: the legal right to form a political party and, most importantly, the constitutional amendment to waive the Faith Restriction Clause in District X. In return, Vrasch made the momentous decision to agree to the complete disarmament of BRC-21, effectively ending its four-decade armed struggle. The decision was highly controversial, leading to a schism with hardliners like the senior Bosken militant Jochen Schoff, who broke away to form AFIM.
Later Life and Legacy
After the treaty was signed in 1961, Orlak was sidelined from BRC-21’s formal dissolution. Having been effectively ousted from power by Vrasch’s faction, she played no role in the formation of the newly formed legal party, the Bosken Liberation Front. Vrasch became the public face of the new political era, while Orlak was left to watch from the margins.
Neda Orlak lived in bitter semi-exile, privately resentful of what she viewed as a betrayal by her former protégée, until her death in 1988. Her legacy is complex and contested: she is remembered by Kresimirians as the leader who commanded BRC-21 during its most brutal years, while within the Bosken community, opinion remains divided between those who see her as a martyr to the cause of uncompromising resistance and those who view her removal as a necessary step toward political pragmatism and peace.