Abstract
Almost from the organization’s beginning, the Soviet Esperantist Union devoted a great deal of energy to international correspondence. For Esperantists generally, letter writing has always been a favorite means for the practical application of the language. In the Soviet Union, it became particularly important because of its double function, both as a traditional Esperantist activity and also as a means of advancing the cause of international education as defined and proclaimed by the Soviet leadership. Unlike Esperantists in many other countries, who could also use Esperanto for travel and international meetings, for Soviet Esperantists international correspondence was virtually the only means of putting the language to practical use. We can accordingly say that correspondence in fact constituted the very reason for the existence of the Soviet Esperanto movement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Correspondence is ‘the basis of our entire work’, remarked a delegate during the 5th SEU Congress: Bulteno de CK SEU 10 (1931): 134.
- 2.
N.I., ‘Antaŭ grava etapo’, Bulteno de CK SEU 9 (1929/30): 171.
- 3.
A. Marti, ‘Dnepropetrovsk ne povas resti trankvila’, Bulteno de CK SEU 9 (1929/30): 10. See also Bulteno de CK SEU 9 (1929/30): 170 (on Moscow).
- 4.
L. Revo, ‘Kelkaj rimarkoj pri malproporcio en nia movado’, Sennaciulo 3 (1926/27), 133/134: 9.
- 5.
Perhaps linked with this is Batta’s observation (in a letter to Lanti, 25 May 1927), that social democrats ‘are not too eager to correspond’ with Soviet Esperantists.
- 6.
Jakov Vlasov, ‘Pli da klasbatalo en nian laboron’, Kunligilo 1 (1929/30): 4.
- 7.
A. Jurgensen, ‘Internacia korespondado estas parto de la socialisma konstruado’, Bulteno de CK SEU 12 (1933): 10.
- 8.
‘Fragmento el protokolo de kunsido de la sekretariaro de CK de SEU, la 18-an de aprilo 1931’, Sennaciulo 7 (1930/31): 303.
- 9.
‘Al ĉiuj SEU-organizaĵoj’, Biulleten’ TsK SĖSR 6 (1927/28): 1–2; R. Nikol’skii, ‘“Sinjoro Levenzon—upolnomochennyi dlia SSSR”’ (‘… representative for USSR’), Biulleten’ TsK SĖSR 5 (1926/27): 118–19 (quotation p. 119).
- 10.
[Aleksandr Kharkovsky], ‘1931–1937: SEU survoje al infero’, http://miresperanto.com.
- 11.
‘Sovetio sukcese plenumas kvinjarplanon’, Bulteno de CK SEU 10 (1931): 18.
- 12.
N. Incertov, ‘Por ke SEU estu forta necesas forigi el niaj vicoj la fremdulojn’, Bulteno de CK SEU 10 (1931): 13. According to Sur Posteno Klasbatala (1935: 10), Diatlov was condemned because he apparently ‘stole a typewriter and books from the office of the SEU Central Committee’ and ‘wrote letters asking for money from foreign Esperantists’. See also note 38, below.
- 13.
Letter of Nikolai Shchegolev, journalist from Barnaul, to Lanti, March 29, 1931.
- 14.
E. Lanti, Absolutismo, Paris & Amsterdam: SAT & FLE, 1934, p. 16.
- 15.
Subtitled ‘Sendependa revuo por batalado kontraŭ ĉiajn dogmojn’, Herezulo appeared quarterly for two years.
- 16.
E.L., ‘Ĉu “Herezulo” estas necesa?’, Herezulo, 1935: 17.
- 17.
Herezulo, 1935: 63–4.
- 18.
Letter to the French Esperantist S. Brun, 6 April 1936, Herezulo, 1936: 48.
- 19.
Letter to Lanti, 15 November 1935, Herezulo, 1935: 60.
- 20.
The decree, aimed at fighting criminal activities by minors, was published on 7 April 1935.
- 21.
Letter to Lanti, 20 May 1935, Herezulo, 1935: 20–1.
- 22.
Letter to Lanti, 15 November 1935, Herezulo, 1935: 59, 62.
- 23.
Letter, signed by ‘Ruĝa Ribelulo’ (Red Rebel), to Lanti, Herezulo, 1935: 11, 13.
- 24.
Letter to Jan Willem Minke, Amsterdam, 30 June 1933, in Lanti (1940), p. 64. This change of perspective was influenced not only by letters but also by testimony of people who had lived for years in the Soviet Union. For example, the French SAT member Robert Guiheneuf returned to France in early 1934 after over ten years in the Soviet Union; see letter to Hermann Wagner, Stuttgart, 19 February 1934, in Lanti (1940), p. 111.
- 25.
See also Lanti & Ivon (1935).
- 26.
‘La ruĝa faŝismo’, Herezulo, 1936: 8–10.
- 27.
Quoted by David Caute, The Fellow-Travellers: A Postscript to the Enlightenment, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, pp. 66–7.
- 28.
Letter to ‘Ruĝa Ribelulo’, Herezulo, 1935: 13.
- 29.
Letter from Jean Wutte, Strasbourg, to Lanti, 28 September 1930 (quoting from a letter by a Soviet Esperantist).
- 30.
‘Diary of Beatrice Webb’, typewritten transcript, p. 5313; http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:nut827hel/read/single#page/84/mode/2up.
- 31.
Namely, Langue internationale Esperanto. Manuel complet avec double dictionnaire, traduit sur l’ouvrage russe du Dr. L. Zamenhof par L. de Beaufront, troisième édition, Paris: H. Le Soudier, 1897.
- 32.
Kurisu provided me with copies of this grammar. As best he could remember, he received the book from a Latvian, living perhaps in Moscow, sometime around the end of 1933 or the beginning of 1934. A fuller version of the notes appeared in his essay collection: Kurisu (2010), pp. 101–3.
- 33.
‘Plenkunsido de CK SEU’, Sur Posteno Klasbatala, 1934: 129–30 (quotation p. 130, contribution to the discussion by Fyodor Kosushkin).
- 34.
V. Dereguzov, ‘Predatel’ iz Chity’ (A traitor from Chita), Mezhdunarodnyi iazyk 10 (1932): 188; ‘Historio de unu perfido’, Bulteno de CK SEU 12 (1933): 6–7.
- 35.
Letter to Horace Barks, 23 May 1932, in Lanti (1940), pp. 97–8.
- 36.
Lanti, Absolutismo, p. 16.
- 37.
- 38.
‘Dvurushnikov—k otvetu!’ (Two faced—explain yourselves!), Mezhdunarodnyi iazyk 8 (1930): 271–5 (facsimiles p. 274). The two people thus unmasked were Aleksandr Lapovenko and Viktor Diatlov. The issue in question appeared in April 1931, but Lanti had already learned in February that Diatlov was in danger because SEU had acquired photocopies of some of his writings.
- 39.
‘Kiu rompis sian honorvorton?’, Sennaciulo 7 (1930/31): 336; see also Lanti’s clarifications: Protokolaro pri la XIa Kongreso en Amsterdamo, 2–7 aŭgusto 1931, Paris: SAT, 1931, p. 25.
- 40.
Internaciisto 1 (1930/31): 73. Jeanneret was directly identified as responsible in a letter from Lanti to the Paris comrades in October 1936: see Lanti (1940), p. 129. Four months later, the secretary of the Control Commission, Léon Bergiers, also from Belgium, resigned. In the course of a quarrel whose details need not concern us here, he threatened to publish the names of all Soviet informers (Protokolaro Amsterdamo, p. 14). We do not know whether he in fact did so. In June 1932, he was expelled from SAT.
- 41.
Protokolaro Amsterdamo, p. 25.
- 42.
Protokolaro Amsterdamo, p. 20; see also pp. 29, 58.
- 43.
‘El k pri la ruĝa faŝistejo’, Herezulo, 1936: 22. Others acknowledged the possibility that the reports were true, but expressed the fear that ‘reactionaries might use them to oppose communism’, Herezulo, 1936: 57.
- 44.
G.D., ‘Pri iu “amiko de Sovetio” kaj liaj amikoj el Sovetio’, Bulteno de CK SEU 12 (1933): 38–9 (quotation p. 38).
- 45.
Quoted by Fayet (2008), p. 22.
- 46.
Chavenon, a former gendarme who became an anarchist, worked as a nightwatchman after his retirement (communication from Raymond Laval, 25 November 1981).
- 47.
Chavenon, ‘Fruktoj de korespondado’, Sennaciulo 13 (1936/37): 22.
References
Fayet, J.-F. (2008). Eine internationale Sprache für die Weltrevolution? Die Komintern und die Esperanto-Frage. Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, 9–23.
Kurisu, K. (2010). Kajto de Esperanto. Huhehot: Esp-Asocio de Interna Mongolio.
Lanti, E. (1940). Leteroj de E. Lanti. Paris: Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (new edition Laroque Timbaut, France, 1987).
Lanti, E., & Ivon, M. (1935). Ĉu socialismo konstruiĝas en Sovetio? Paris: Esperanto (reprint Laroque Timbaut, France, 1982).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lins, U. (2017). International Correspondence. In: Dangerous Language — Esperanto and the Decline of Stalinism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-352-00019-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-352-00020-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)