PART SEVENTY-SEVEN: Equal Before God (July 24, 1936 – May 2, 1937) Excerpts from the diary of Iouliana Erdemir, sixth Tribune of the Byzantine Commune Threaded the Sicilian needle as well as could be expected. Believe that, emphatically. Not insensible to the consequences, though. Enough of the Commune’s industrial capacity was tied up in maintaining…

PART SEVENTY-SIX: Begin Again! (January 1, 1936 – July 24, 1936) Excerpts from A Soldier’s Life: The Memoirs of Field Marshal Theodora Papadopoulou. By the mid-1930s, described in the selected passages below, Theodora Papadopoulou had long been one of the most storied and well-known soldiers in the Byzantine Commune’s history. After joining a socialist militia…

(Guest-written by Mr.Morgenstern and approved by Nora as an official ByzLP post, proofread by goons Kangxi, Flesnolk, and Mirdini) Prague, Bohemia December 31st, 1935 It’s New Years’ Eve and you’re finally done with your semester at the University of Praha. It’s late at night and you’re speaking with your sister Viktorie over the phone after…

PRELUDE: The State of the World in 1936 Excerpts from the diary of Iouliana Erdemir, sixth Tribune of the Byzantine Commune December 30th, AD 1935 Landed at Makrohori Airfield without incident, but not before our flight offered us a splendid prospect of the city at night. Amidst the dark waters of the Bosphorus, Byzantion was…

Iouliana Erdebir, Sixth Tribune of the Grand Secretariat of the Byzantine Commune Yiannis Drymonakos, Fifth Tribune of the Grand Secretariat of the Byzantine Commune Antonia Cavinato, Fourth Tribune of the Grand Secretariat of the Byzantine Commune Bogomil Milenov, Third Tribune of the Grand Secretariat of the Byzantine Commune Ginerva Paladini, Second Tribune of the Grand…

SEDE VACANTE You are a member of the College of Cardinals. You are probably British (the Church has long been a dumping ground for surplus Habsburgs), perhaps Italian, Irish, German, or Nova Scotian— but perhaps you come from one of the Catholic nations destroyed by its neighbors or overthrown by revolution or religious strife— Thailand,…

STATE OF THE WORLD, 1934 Jesus Christ, has there been a lot of baseball history. 63 years of baseball! We’ve outlasted like half the major governments in the world at this point. That’s it, I’m retiring after this season. I’m out! Maybe I’ll have one fucking year of peace and quiet before I finally croak….

PART SEVENTY-FIVE: The Owl, the Dragon, and the Wolf (July 9, 1927 – January 1, 1934) Philomon Anatolikos (FILE PHOTO), Commissioner of the European Baseball League and Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (Ret.) Evgenia Exteberria, first Tribune of the Byzantine Commune, Minister of the Intelligence Secretariat Philomon, It’s been quite some time since I’ve…

PART SEVENTY-FOUR: You Are The Water (May 3, 1923 – July 9th, 1927) Admiral Anne de Mowbray of the Royal Navy, Deputy Supreme Commander of Socialist International forces in the Second Great War Dame Anne de Mowbray was the second-in-command of the military forces of the so-called ‘Socialist International’ (a name chosen to undermine the…

PART SEVENTY-THREE: Ardent for Some Desperate Glory (July 17, 1911 – May 3, 1923) The Autobiography of Iouliana Erdemir She called herself Valeria. She always knew just what to say to get people on her side, to strike just the right note of rapport. Among common soldiers of the Great War, she told tales of…