Editing Grigori Avellar

{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = Grigori Avellar.jpg
| caption             = 
| name                = Grigori Avellar
| birthdate           = 12 December [[2532]]
| died                = 2 August [[2587]]
| affiliation         = [[House Avellar]]
| rank                = 
| title               =
| position            = [[President of the Executive Parliment|President]]
| profession          = Noble
| parents             = [[Catherine Avellar]] (mother)
| siblings            = 
| spouse              = [[Alexandra Riota]]
| children            = [[Barton Avellar]]<br/>[[Katherine Avellar]]<br/>[[Angelo Avellar]]<br/>[[Nikolaus Avellar]]
}}
'''Grigori Avellar''' was president of the [[Outworlds Alliance]] during the [[Reunification War]].<ref name="H:RWp59">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 59: "Grigori Avellar"</ref>
==History==
===Early Years===
Grigori Avellar was the eldest child of [[Catherine Avellar]], and having been born into privilege had every possible opportunity to succeed; like many, Grigori rebelled against the expectations on him from his family and others, engaging in dubious activities and acquiring vices that would continue to plague him throughout his life. Grigori's teens and twenties honed his ability to manipulate others and saw him eagerly satisfying his own whims, saddling his mother with a number of messes to clean up, and earning a bodyguard detail that he would try and subvert into aiding him in his excessive lifestyle. This bodyguard included the former [[DCMS]] soldier turned bodyguard, [[Welkens Nordd]], who would eventually become both Senior Defense Chairman of the [[Outworlds Alliance Militia]] and one of Avellar's closest and most trusted friends.<ref name="H:RWp59"/><ref name="H:RWp60">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 60: "Welkens Nordd"</ref>

When Grigori's youngest sister was diagnosed with a terminal disease that gave her an estimated eleven months to live; Grigori spent almost all of his time at her side until she died, and was with her at the end. Grigori buried his sister, turned his life around and dedicated himself to serving the best interests of the Outworlds Alliance. It was this change in his behavior that would change Nordd's contempt for him to respect and friendship, and began Grigori's political career. Within a year, Grigori had married [[Alexandra Riota]] in a ceremony that was both extravagant and widely broadcast throughout the Alliance. Alexandra was the daughter of [[Herrold Riota]], a member of the Outworlds Alliance Executive Parliament, and Grigori and Alexandra had four children together, [[Barton Avellar|Barton]], [[Katherine Avellar|Katherine]], [[Angelo Avellar|Angelo]] and [[Nikolaus Avellar|Nikolaus]], which aided the transformation of Grigori's image from wild child to devoted husband and father and dedicated public servant.<ref name="H:RWp59"/><ref name="H:RWp60"/><ref name="H:RWp107">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 107: "Something from Nothing"</ref>

===Pre–Reunification War===
Whilst Grigori never completely gave up his vices, those vices were kept behind the scenes and Grigori would serve in a number of government ministries; he was the Minister for Trade when the Star League formed, and was vocal in his opinions regarding the darker nature of interstellar politics and the threat the [[Star League]] posed to the Alliance. Grigori pushed for the creation of the Outworlds Alliance armed forces, negotiated with numerous foreign companies to obtain military supplies, including the Alliance's first true [[BattleMechs]]. Whilst he was unsuccessful in his attempts to lobby his mother to bar the [[Star League Defense Force]] from stationing troops on Alliance worlds, after the [[Santiago Massacre]] Grigori led the public outcry which resulted in Catherine resigning as President.<ref name="H:RWp59"/>

One of the most important decisions made by Grigori Avellar during his term in office as President after his appointment on the 18th of January [[2573]] was to order the formation of the [[Outworlds Alliance Militia]], the first organized national military in the history of the Outworlds Alliance. Whilst the military buildup Grigori had aided in it provoked First Lord Ian Cameron into issuing [[Directive 21]] and occupying three Alliance worlds, it also produced a military capable of resisting the inevitable Star League invasion. The decision was not popular with the average Alliance citizen, as it conflicted with the pacifistic philosophy that had led many to settle on Alliance worlds, and Grigori would be forced to actively recruit foreign nationals to form the bulk of the armed forces, and much of their arms and equipment would be sourced by covert procurement through defense industries in other nations.<ref name="H:RWp42">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 42: "Outworlds Alliance Militia"</ref>

As President, Avellar stepped up the efforts to build the Outworlds Alliance Militia, realigning the limited industrial base of the Outworlds Alliance to produce armored vehicles. He knew that the Alliance's own resources wouldn't be enough to stand up to the [[SLDF]], and he actively sought the means to protect the Alliance from outside the Alliance borders. This led first to clandestine agreements with defense companies in the Inner Sphere facing bankruptcy and desperate enough to defy the ban placed on exports of military equipment to the [[Periphery]] states by the Star League.<ref name="H:RWp108">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 108: "Something from Nothing"</ref><ref name="H:RWp108+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 108: "Guns and Diplomats"</ref>

Many of the companies that Grigori dealt with were based in the [[Federated Suns]], and while he knew that someone would discover the covert procurements, he didn't predict the result when details of his armaments program did come to light. It was [[First Prince]] [[Alexander Davion]] of the Federated Suns who first learned what was happening; the Federated Suns was in a parlous economic state after the damaging civil war that had only recently ended, and the aggressive [[Draconis Combine]] was suspected of using pirates to harass worlds on the Combine/Suns border. Politically, Davion was under intense pressure within the Star League council from both Kurita and Liao. This combination of factors led to a unique approach to the Alliance's covert arms program; Davion kept it secret. He suspended sales from Federated Suns companies, but opened negotiations through discrete channels with Grigori. Dealing at first through proxies, Grigori and Alexander made agreements that culminated in the [[Tancredi Accord]], signed on [[Tancredi IV]] by Grigori and [[Lawrence Davion]], youngest son of Alexander. With the Tancredi Accord, Grigori gained a great deal for the Alliance; the arms shipments resumed, Alexander agreed to push for a peaceful resolution within the Star League council, and the Federated Suns would supply military advisors to the Alliance... advisors that would ultimately include the [[Pitcairn Legion]]. In exchange, Grigori signed away a dozen Alliance worlds to the Federated Suns, trading some worlds for the chance to protect the remainder.<ref name="H:RWp109">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 109: "Davion Diplomacy"</ref>

===Reunification War===
Welkens Nordd was Grigori's most trusted military advisor, which had resulted in his appointment as Senior Defense Chairman of the OAM; when war broke out, Grigori trusted Nordd with the prosecution of the war, giving him greater autonomy than any future Alliance Defense Chairman would have. Grigori knew that the Alliance couldn't resist forever; his hope was that would be able to hold out long enough to reach a peaceful agreement.<ref name="H:RWp109+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 109+: "Alliance Preparations"</ref>

Although Nordd was responsible for military actions, Grigori made a number of decisions directly during the war; it was his orders that brought the [[4th Armored Division]] from [[Sevon]] after they and the Pitcairn Legion handed the Star League forces their first serious losses, and it was Grigori who allowed the Federated Suns to occupy a number of Alliance worlds as notional "Protectorates", further complicating the SLDF campaign. Grigori also sent the Pitcairn Legion to [[Lushann]] in [[2583]] to protect the remaining industrial base of the Alliance as the SLDF set the torch to factories and settlements across the Alliance.<ref name="H:RWp116">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 116: "Sevon"</ref><ref name="H:RWp121">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 121: "Davion Takes the Initiative"</ref><ref name="H:RWp122">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 122: "Continued Maneuvers Politic..."</ref><ref name="H:RWp124">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 124: "Battle for Lushann"</ref>

When Lawrence Davion contacted Grigori in [[2585]] at Alexander's request, indicating that a peace treaty may be possible, Grigori agreed to negotiations and made two initial demands; that the Alliance enjoy the same freedoms and rights as any other Star League member state, and that the commander of the SLDF task force in the first three years of the war, [[General]] [[Amos Forlough]], be extradited to [[Alpheratz]] to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity for the savage brutality with which his troops had treated the population of the Alliance at his order. While these terms were rejected, in late July 2585, Grigori and SLDF [[Major General]] [[Franklin Barnex]] signed the [[Treaty of Cerberus]], ending the war. Grigori had brought the Outworlds Alliance through the [[Reunification War]] and into the Star League under far better terms than any of the other Periphery States.<ref name="H:RWp126">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 126: "Year Five: Peace in Our Time"</ref>

===Post-Reunification War===
After peace was declared, the Star League appointed Lady [[Claudia Cameron-Davis]] to the new position of Director of Outworlds Alliance Affairs and turned [[V Corps (Star League)|V Corps]] into the [[Outworlds Alliance Army of Occupation]]. Grigori and Cameron-Davis clashed continually; Cameron-Davis' plans for the Alliance didn't include Grigori or the Avellar family, and she deliberately attempted to use both the SLDF and the manipulation of aid and reconstruction funds to try and reconstruct the Outworlds Alliance into her desired image. While the former failed, Grigori had to fight bitterly against Cameron-Davis in every and any way he could to try and block her agenda, and even the frequent reports that DCMS and SLDF troops were flagrantly flouting Alliance and League laws provoked no response from Ian Cameron until the Star League Department of the Attorney General investigated blatant profiteering by SLDF and DCMS personnel using Star League funds that Cameron-Davis was replaced. In the two years it took for this to happen, Grigori suffered several heart attacks, the last of which would prove fatal.<ref name="H:RWp157">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 157, 160: "The Terms of Outworlds Freedom"</ref>

===Death and Aftermath===
When Grigori died, two years after the conclusion of the war between the Alliance and the Star League, the public reasons given for his death were the strain of the war and having to deal with the post-war problems suffered by the Alliance, the physical cause of death was a heart attack. Just as Grigori had kept his vices behind closed doors during his life, the fact that he was found dead in a private bedchamber in the company of two mistresses and a variety of recreational substances was kept secret after his death. Grigori was succeeded as President by his eldest son, Barton.<ref name="H:RWp59"/>

==Trivia==
While Catherine Avellar officially resigned from the office of President out of guilt and regret over allowing the SLDF to station troops in Alliance space and thereby causing the resulting Santiago Massacre, evidence points to Grigori forcing his idealistic mother out of office using pressure from her own government and the Executive Parliament.<ref name="H:RWp59"/>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Historical: Reunification War]]''

[[Category: Outworlds Alliance Characters|Avellar, Grigori]]