Antonin Benoit Baskoro

Baskoro in 1904

Antonin Benoit Baskoro was a South Bakian political philosopher, activist, intellectual, and artist. He is most known for his 1905 Vanguard Declaration that is considered to be the instigating document of the International Vanguard Movement. The declaration is considered by some to be the most widely distributed piece of non-religious literature in the world.

## Biography

Antonin Benoit Baskoro was born and lived most of his life in the industrial urban cities of the Bakian southern coast. His early life was largely unremarkable. He was the third of five children but most of his family died after industrial pollutants poisoned the water supply to the housing block where he lived with his parents. After this tragedy he moved with his mother to Gorrun on the Southeastern coast of Bakia.

### Military Service

When he turned 19 he enlisted in the Bakian Army and was stationed in Azul as part of the Colonial forces. His deployment was to a remote part of the Interior Jungle of Azul where the Bakian Colonial Administration was ruling through the authority of a native King. At this time the Colonial Administration was actively supporting Ravelian missionaries attempting to convert the native Azulians to the Ravelian faith. Baskoro later wrote of his time in the Bakian Army:

> "When I stepped off the ship and on to the shores of Azul in that very second I became an anti-colonialist, every moment I spent there only reinforced my anti colonial resolve. Later when I was in the village where I worked as a Military Constable, I was told to be a thug for the tribal king and the missionaries. I was told to shoot anyone that opposed the king or the church, and I was given a satchel bag with hundreds of rounds for my service revolver, they said that was just a three months supply and that I would run out in that time."
>
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After six months Baskoro was rotated out of Azul and quietly dismissed from the Army at the rank of Private. He then worked a variety of jobs in Gorrun to support his mother.

### Academy of Philosophical Sciences and Activism

When she died several years later, he used their meagre savings to attend various classes at the Academy of Philosophical Sciences. He eventually found a stable job writing the newsletter for the local chapter of the Socialist party. He spent several years attending classes and working until he had finally earned enough credits to graduate at age 35. After this he committed more time and attention to academic writing as well as serving as a spokesperson for the Socialists. By age 43 he had broken with the Socialists over their soft stance on religion which conflicted with his atheism. It was at this time that he met his close friend and editor Alazarro Anguel Saffo, with whom he remained very close for the rest of his life.

He briefly led a splinter party known as the Bakian Socialist Atheist Party, but after failing to win any seats in several local elections and one national election, the party dissolved. At this point Baskoro retired from activism and devoted his full time to writing. It was at this point when he began drafting the Vanguard Declaration.

### Later Life and Death

Baskoro published the Vanguard Declaration in 1905 and it was quickly distributed through socialist, communist, and anarchist activist networks. Baskoro's editor and roommate Alazarro Anguel Saffo used his position as the editor of the South Bakian Gazette to print thousands of copies of the Declaration. Baskoro would not live to see the growing Vanguard however as he died in 1907 from a sudden onset pneumonia. As no church authorities would allow him to be buried in their graveyards he was cremated and his ashes spread into the ocean.