“The Mirror of the Future” is a continuation of the “The Sea Wolf” cycle—stories where an atomic submarine “Voronezh” ends up in 1942.
The USSR got a head start—Victory came a whole year earlier, our losses were smaller, and the socialist camp was stronger. But capitalism has no intention of stepping aside; it threatens to unleash an atomic war.
Yet winning the war is only a step toward building communism—without the mistakes made in Soviet history. And it becomes clear that in order to win communism, a “working project” is necessary—an exactly formulated Idea.
And we live and build socialism, caught in a terrible and wonderful time—when you must fight for your own happiness. We don’t know what kind of bright future will await my country here. But we do know what it must not be. And if history goes against us, deciding that “Russia has no future”—then the worse for history.