Soon, the moment to die will come again. I do not look forward to it, but such is my duty to the revolution. For here, in the worker’s paradise, we all must fight for the future: from the nurse to the soldier to the peasant. But while they all trudge in the darkness of the present, the Futurographer scouts ahead to find the hard reefs of his death and map the future for all others.

And yet, what good is the cartography of my deaths in the Becomingness if it’s unable to spare my proletarian brothers and sisters? What good is being able to move swiftly through the dark chamber of uncertainty if we’re ultimately trapped in a jail—or even worse, the slaughterhouse?

Tonight, I’m being sent into the violent rapids of our future once more, but this time, I’m not to predict the outcome of a battle, but rather to help suppress insurrection at my home in Kronstadt. In a telegram, the Secretary of War, Citizen Leon Trotsky himself, demanded names—no fewer than a hundred—of those enemies of the revolution to be put under arrest and hanged.

The idea revolts me. I have many friends among the sailors, and I know what they stand for. Until now, Kronstadt’s sailors have been the Bolsheviks’ watchdogs and the revolution’s staunchest supporters. If they’re about to revolt, it’s not to sabotage revolution but rather to protect it. I know well that Ksana Vasilievna’s name would be on that list, and the thought makes me queasy with dread. She’s the one that started it all, but only because she was brave enough to come here to denounce the abuses in Petrograd.

Keep reading“The Thousand Revolutions of Kronstadt – Pablo Valcárcel”