AERO-MARCH

By: Mykola Bazhan
December 15, 2025

A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.

  

    Like strings
into the kobza of clouds
come the Commune squadrons.
Proletarians—to the aeroplanes!
We’re not playing games here
the final hour of capitalism has come
and from the sputtering Federations
gallop horse races into the sky.
    Not mere words—our slogan’s
    carved in like a rankling crater
            —brother,
    this danger, it comes from the sky
the sky is full
of flocks of enemy birds
and we must, we all must, we must now
merge in our common desire.
    We overcame obstacles on earth—
    Only a single barrier remains.
    Won’t we forge with our hammer
    billions of Soviet squadrons?
        Europe
    will lie in flames,
when red eagles swoop in on
        an Eastern wind.
    No.
Revolution is rising in the East,
We will blow capital to bits,
will open a gate to the future.
    The air will
breathe the proletarian dictatorship
    this air—is for us.
        Hear
    the iron-edged roar
of the blazing bridge of red squadrons
    and crimson Fokkers will spread
the steely news of the revolution.
And now from the sky
the enemy airships
won’t bring us manna and heavenly prayers.
A steely downpour of bombs
will set the earth shuddering.
Moving towards fiery thunder
    Proletarians—to the aero-planes.
    We will hold firm the revolution’s flag
until the zurma of uprising blows
    and our answer to your ultimatum
    will be a flock of ultimatums.
    For millions of miles:
the victorious singing of propellers—
    these are
the red squadrons of
peasants and workers.
    All—are one.
    Words are like a pickaxe.
    Where’s
the column of aero-squadrons?
    The poor masses’ heart
    fit to burst from our slogan—
    did you contribute
to the cause of the Red Fleet?

— From the collection Short Poems (1923–1927). Translated by Ostap Kin, Ainsley Morse, and Mykyta Tyshchenko. Found in “Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul”: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry.

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RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.