Chapter 1: Success

January 9, 2020,

Dearest comrade, 

I apologize for what will seem like a great delay in the sending of this message. As you may have heard, the bourgeoisie government has shut down internet across the nation to prevent the revolutionaries from broadcasting their message. Instead, if one wants to communicate, they must hand their messages to the volunteer post man who takes great danger upon himself in leaving the city barricades and taking the ferry across the channel to Paris where all post is circulated into their mail system by our sympathizers.

I write these words with great joy, we have done it! Today the bourgeoisie government that has occupied our glorious city has left. The government has fled the capital  All law enforcement and military has either joined us in revolution or fled in terror of the might of the revolutionary masses! I could not be happier.

But of course you want details! The Greater People's Commune consists of communes across the entire capital and protests in other cities threaten to shut down trade and traffic across the nation! It would appear as though the bourgeoisie are in collapse! But, we have more pressing issues, namely counting and noting all of the communes, syndicates and soviets that have taken hold. There has been a call for a general meeting in the old parliament buildings tomorrow to determine what resources we have available and how to best work towards establishing our community. All are welcome to attend. For the first time since the days of antiquity, the people will finally decide how their society shall be run. 

The problem is that over the course of the protests, many different groups rose semi-independently, each taking a different part of the town. By now it seems as though every room in every building has its own people's government. All work by direct democracy, but with a population of almost ten million people, I do not see how we shall be able to hold a central meeting of all the citizens. I only hope that the men working in the capital building have a plan to broadcast their message to everybody; if they cannot, our revolution will fall to the tyranny of the elite.

You disagree with me. I know even as I write this, you believe representatives can run an Anarchist Commune. Well tell me, if representatives are chosen to represent the masses, does that not concentrate power in the hands of the few? If some have power and exclusive rights to making communal decisions, how then can we declare our society egalitarian? Will the few not then have all rule over the many for the duration of their elected term?

The talk on the town is work. We must work to build our society, we must work to prevent tyrants from destroying our revolution as they did the Russian Revolution in 1918, we must work to ensure we are fed, we must work to ensure the revolution is not crushed! It is all anybody talks about. Yet, for all their talk, we have not done an ounce of work except for erecting barricades on the entrances to the Commune in preparation for the military's backlash against our revolution. Even these barricades are sad states of affairs, little more than piles of stones and rubbish! One work group managed to scavenge wood to set up a fence. Why they would construct that rickety, delicate thing is beyond me!

Aside from the postman and the new volunteers for the militia, few now even have time for work. A day of celebration has been declared before we finally buckle down. The streets are filled with a rally of drunkenness and partying. Even as I write this, looting is common throughout as the masses pillage what the exploiters of capital have stolen from us over the centuries. Soon the riches of the few will be in the hands of the many! A gentleman has placed speakers in the window of the apartment across the street from me and has begun to play much of that modern dance music I detest so. I would ask him to stop, but the drunken masses dancing in the street are so thick that any attempts to cross would get me lost in a sea of youthful festivities.

It is good that we party as all other forms of entertainment have been shut down. Most of the theaters and public venues were destroyed during the struggle for liberation. All available space for performing arts has been invaded by every playwright, comedian, singer and speechwriter in the city, all arguing over who most deserves the space.

The main radio stations in the city are the one area where order is being maintained. The technical directors have taken it upon themselves to get armed volunteers to prevent their invaluable equipment from being destroyed. However, they have allowed the radio waves to be occupied by a swarm of communists, socialists, feminists, environmentalists, atheists and of course anarchists who each wish to broadcast their message. It is amazing that they can keep a queue outside so orderly when the speakers are so passionate about the future of The Greater People's Commune.

As for the international stage, we are receiving news that cities around the world are joining us in revolution! We are excited to hear this and await the time when we have overthrown the world!

I am sorry, but I must stop writing. Gentlemen will soon be arriving to discuss what the role of this humble academic has in helping the printing press of the revolution. I do not know if you will get these letters, but I shall write you often and I hope the mail will get through despite the upheaval.

Forever your loyal comrade,

Peter Kropotsky

Reviews

[Robert]

A good opening and a nice setting of the scene. I like it and am intrigued to see where it will go. The format of writing a letter is a good approach and allows more reflection, which is what you want in this kind of novel.