Abstract
The authorities’ decision to end what was in effect a ban on the Esperanto movement in Eastern Europe meant not only that the language was tolerated but also that it was accompanied by concrete advantages, namely direct recognition and official status. The World Congresses in Sofia (1963), Budapest (1966 and 1983) and Varna (1978) were not only important manifestations of the revived self-confidence of Esperantists in the socialist countries but also a source of inspiration for guests from all over the world. Although many Esperantists in the socialist countries were prevented from fully profiting from the universality of Esperanto, the movement in Eastern Europe could function ‘as a specific micro-society, providing an opportunity for a certain kind of spiritual emigration’. On the other hand, the governments, facing a crisis of legitimacy, needed support, and ‘the clear messianic quality of the Esperanto movement was a characteristic with which the communist mentality had a certain sympathy.’
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- 1.
Cf. Detlev Blanke, ‘Pri specifaĵoj de la Esperanto-movado en kelkaj eŭropaj socialismaj landoj’, Der Esperantist 22 (1986): 121–5.
- 2.
Cf. M. Arco (Marek Wajsblum), ‘Sur la marĝeno de libero’, The Worker Esperantist, 1959, 118 (Jul.): 44, 47–8.
- 3.
Blanke, according to Bendias (2011), p. 69.
- 4.
In conversation with the author (23 October 1977), Prof. István Szerdahelyi indicated that there was a secret order of the Party to this effect.
- 5.
An imposing achievement was the 400-page work of Detlev Blanke, Internationale Plansprachen. Eine Einführung (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1985), which appeared in a prestigious linguistics series. See also Blanke’s reminiscences (Blanke 2007a).
- 6.
La taskoj de la bulgara esperantista movado en la tutpopola batalo por konstruo de evoluinta socialisma socio. Raporto de CK de Bulgara Esperantista Asocio antaŭ la 38-a Nacia Esperantista Kongreso (urbo Smoljan, 3-an—4-an de julio 1972), duplicated typescript, pp. 10, 18.
- 7.
Nikola Aleksiev, ‘Georgi Dimitrov pri la patriotismo kaj la internaciismo’, Bulgara Esperantisto 41 (1972), 1: 1.
- 8.
‘Rezolucio de la 38-a Kongreso de la Bulgara Esperantista Asocio […]’, Bulgara Esperantisto 41 (1972), 9: 3–6 (quotations pp. 4–5).
- 9.
‘Al obstina laboro!’, Bulgara Esperantisto 43 (1974), 5: 2. Similarly, ĈEA criticized non-member Esperantists for ‘anachronistically’ defending ‘their hobbyist, sectarian standpoint’ and making of Esperanto ‘a mere object of personal amusement’: ‘Ĉu “nur” politiko?’, Starto, 1974, 3/4 (41/42): 1.
- 10.
Programo de Ĉeĥa Esperanto-Asocio por la jaroj 1976–1980, duplicated typescript (8 February 1976), p. 5.
- 11.
Detlev Blanke, ‘Pri la”interna ideo” de Esperanto’, in Blanke (1986), pp. 182–208.
- 12.
Except perhaps for a few careerist opportunists. An interesting effort to explore the question of whether party membership and Esperantism were compatible was carried out by the former IPE activist Georges Salan: see his UEA kaj la neŭtraleco (Nîmes, 1978). The topic is dealt with in greater detail in my article ‘Ruĝ-verda malakordo. Observoj pri komunistaj esperantistoj’, in Blanke & Lins (2010), pp. 443–61.
- 13.
- 14.
Vilmos Benczik, Pri la natureco kaj artefariteco de lingvoj, Budapest: Trezor, 2016, p. 144.
- 15.
Benczik (1990), p. 92.
- 16.
Velitchkova (2014), p. 66.
- 17.
Bendias (2011), pp. 265–7.
- 18.
Rátkai (1985), pp. 89–90. HEA changed its constitution to facilitate its affiliation with UEA (1962).
- 19.
Esperanto translation: Fina Akto de la Konferenco pri Sekureco kaj Kunlaboro en Eŭropo (Bratislava: Ĉeĥoslovaka Packomitato, 1976).
- 20.
Bendias (2011), p. 169.
- 21.
Rátkai (1990), pp. 86–90 (esp. p. 87).
- 22.
Detlev Blanke, ‘Informado kaj argumentado’, Der Esperantist 16 (1980): 105.
- 23.
S. Podkaminer, ‘Kaj ankoraŭfoje pri “neŭtralismo”’, Paco 15 (1968), 178/179: 39. According to Podkaminer, the article is ‘a direct defense of authentic imperialism and aggression’.
- 24.
Ulrich Lins, ‘Ni sentabuigu la historion de la Movado’, Esperanto 68 (1975): 186–7 (quotation p. 186).
- 25.
Kharkovsky (http://miresperanto.com).
- 26.
Hou Zhiping, ‘La Esperanto-movado en Ĉinio’, El Popola Ĉinio, 1982, 4: 19–20. Recruitment for Esperanto and personal contacts abroad grew dangerous in China as of 1966. Several Esperantists were imprisoned. The poet Armand Su (1936–1990), for example, who often published texts in foreign Esperanto periodicals, was arrested in April 1968 and condemned to 20 years imprisonment; he was freed only in 1979. See his remembrances: ‘23 jaroj per kaj por Esperanto’, El Popola Ĉinio, 1979, 10: 27–9; 11: 40–3. Similar experiences: Hu Guozhu, ‘Punlaboro pro Esperanto’, La Gazeto 25 (2010), 150: 26–7. On the unremitting underground activity of Chinese Esperantists during the Cultural Revolution, see Ikso (Xu Daorong), ‘Post la “kvarpersona bando”’, Esperanto 72 (1979): 23–4; Shi Chengtai, ‘Legenda hieraŭo’, La Gazeto 14 (1999), 85: 13–15.
- 27.
Reprinting an article on the founding of the Association of Soviet Esperantists in the UEA journal, Esperantisto Slovaka (1979: 33) omitted a sentence about the ‘Stalinist pogrom’ against SEU (thereby rendering the following sentence meaningless). In 1976 the British IPE veteran William Keable called for breaking the silence, insisting that Stalin’s Esperantist victims ‘should not be shamefully forgotten as if they were nameless dogs killed in a street accident’: Bill Keable, ‘Marxism-Leninism requires all the facts’, Communist Party Esperanto Group, Bulletin, 1976, 8 (Apr.): 1–5 (quotation p. 5). Keable seems to have been the first communist Esperantist to make any mention of the persecution of Esperantists in the Soviet Union. He published a short article on the subject in Comment, an internal periodical of the British Communist Party, 18 November 1972.
- 28.
Ervin Fenyvesi, ‘Revuo de revuoj’, Hungara Vivo 23 (1983), 1: 23. At the founding of the association in GDR, according to Bendias (2011), p. 66, silence on the persecutions was a sine qua non.
- 29.
N. Aleksiev, ‘Pri unu aspekto de la interŝtataj rilatoj en la socialisma komuneco de nacioj’, Paco, 1974, Soviet edition, pp. 24–5.
- 30.
William Gilbert, ‘Esperanto kontraŭ naciaj lingvoj?’, Paco, 1979, GDR edition, p. 27. Earlier, Gilbert had a different opinion, seeing no difference between the dominance of English and French in Western Europe and that of Russian in the Soviet Union: La Pacdefendanto, 1952, 11: 2.
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Lins, U. (2017). Eastern Europe: Progress and Problems. In: Dangerous Language — Esperanto and the Decline of Stalinism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_10
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