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Revival of the Movement

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Dangerous Language — Esperanto and the Decline of Stalinism

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Abstract

Among those who profited from ‘destalinization’ were the Esperantists. The way in which the Esperanto movement in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union, was gradually revived is one of the most interesting chapters in the history of Esperanto. It is a case study in the Esperantist goal-directed, anti-authoritarian conviction, and grass-roots wisdom and cleverness. When at the end of October 1956 the Polish Esperanto Congress took place in Warsaw, the chairman’s opening address accused Hitler, Franco, and Stalin, all three, of persecuting Esperanto, declaring: ‘Democracy and the development of Esperanto are inseparable.’

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Stalin, Marxism and Problems of Linguistics, p. 53.

  2. 2.

    Conversation with Cardinal Vlk, Prague, 20 April 1998. Vlk began learning Esperanto in 1946, using it frequently for correspondence. In May 1952 in a regional conference he rejected the accusations of cosmopolitanism and insufficient patriotism; see Esperanto-Junularo (České Budějovice), 1952, 5: 2–3. See also Alain Boudre, Laveur de vitres et archevêque. Biographie de Mgr Miloslav Vlk (Prague). Préface de Vaclav Havel, Paris: Nouvelle Cité, 1994, p. 33.

  3. 3.

    Burda was a member of SAT from its foundation. As a communist, he spent six years in the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald.

  4. 4.

    R. Burda, ‘Internacia rusa lingvo’, La Pacdefendanto, 1953, 22 (Oct.): 2. Burda quotes from Rudé právo, 5 October 1953. Gottwald (d. March 1953) was leader of the Czechoslovakian Party and President of the Republic.

  5. 5.

    ‘Eĥo el eksterlando’, La Pacdefendanto, 1952, 11: 1.

  6. 6.

    R. Burda, ‘Esperanto en la ilegaleco’, La Pacdefendanto, 1952, 8 (Aug.): 4.

  7. 7.

    R. Burda, ‘Uzu fiakriston, ĉar aŭtomobilo estas burĝa!’, La Pacdefendanto, 1952, 8 (Aug.): 1–3.

  8. 8.

    Cited in Jörg K. Hoensch, Sowjetische Osteuropa-Politik 1945–1975, Kronberg: Athenäum, 1977, p. 57.

  9. 9.

    Paco, 1954, 3 (Jan.): 4.

  10. 10.

    ‘Manifesto. Al la esperantistoj pacamantoj de la tuta mondo!’, La Esperantista Laboristo, n.s., 1953, 41 (Sept./Oct.): 1–2.

  11. 11.

    Rud. Burda, ‘Necesas disvastigi nian movadon!’, Paco, 1954, 4 (Feb.): 1.

  12. 12.

    Cited in A. Balague, ‘Malferma letero al esperantista pacamiko X en Polio’, Paco, 1954, 12 (Oct.): 7.

  13. 13.

    R. Burda, ‘Batalo ĉirkaŭ la laŭroj’, Paco, 1956, 29/30 (Apr./May): 3.

  14. 14.

    News-Facts about the USSR (Toronto), 1954, 48 (Aug.); cited in La Revuo Orienta 36 (1955): 53.

  15. 15.

    EeP, pp. 772–3.

  16. 16.

    R. Burda, ‘Al niaj popoldemokrataj gek-doj!’, La Pacdefendanto, 1955, 38 (Feb.): 1.

  17. 17.

    See vol. 1, chapter 7, pp. 253–4. For a summary of his activities see the obituary article by A.D. Duliĉenko, ‘E.A. Bokarev’, in Bokarjova (2010), pp. 134–9.

  18. 18.

    Bokarev wrote to the Hungarian Pál Balkányi, 27 December 1954; see Paŭlo Balkányi, ‘Kun malĝojo pri Bokarev’, La Pacaktivulo, 1971, 89: 13–14. See also the letter from Bokarev to Balkányi, 26 June 1955; quoted in R. Burda, ‘Batalo ĉirkaŭ la laŭroj’, Paco, 1956, 29/30 (Apr./May): 2.

  19. 19.

    ‘Leningradanoj interkonatiĝas trans [= tra] Ĉeĥoslovakio’, La Pacdefendanto, 1956, 50 (Feb.): 3, on Varvara Tsvetkova and Semyon Podkaminer.

  20. 20.

    Bokarev mentioned the names of Viktor Vinogradov, Viktoriia Iartseva, Lev Zhirkov, Klara Maitinskaia and Boris Serebrennikov. Of those, Zhirkov and Maitinskaia, and perhaps others, were Esperantists.

  21. 21.

    Letter from Bokarev to a conference of Czechoslovakian Esperantists in Otrokovice, 3 July 1955, in Paco, 1955, 21/22: 5–6 (quotation p. 5). Bokarev reported that the decision on the founding of the association was taken during a meeting of the department of literature and languages at the Academy (18 June 1955).

  22. 22.

    Information from Simon Mkrtchian, Yerevan, in La Pacdefendanto, 1955, 48 (Dec.): 5.

  23. 23.

    Ivo Lapenna, ‘Sur la sojlo de nova epoko’, Esperanto 48 (1955): 273–4.

  24. 24.

    Michel Duc Goninaz, ‘Mi estis en Varsovio’, La Juna Vivo, 1955, 3/4 (Nov./Dec.): 14–15, 18.

  25. 25.

    J. Tilindris, ‘Trairita vojo’, Horizonto de Soveta Litovio, 1979, 4: 36. This article states that on 3 May 1956 an ‘initiating group’ was formed in Lithuania consisting of Esperantists from various locations.

  26. 26.

    A copy of Kiriushin’s letter was kindly provided by Lev Vulfovich. Kiriushin (on whom see vol. 1, chapter 5, pp. 187–8) indicated that the Esperantists in Belarus were for the most part Jews and that all were murdered by the Nazis.

  27. 27.

    Borbála Szerémi-Tóth, who argued for the disbanding of HES, later admitted that the revival of the movement in Hungary was due to the ‘bourgeois Esperantists’: B. Szerémi, ‘1918–1958’, Bulteno. Cirkulero de la Hungarlanda Esperanto-Konsilantaro, 1958, p. 78.

  28. 28.

    The Bulgarian association joined UEA in 1956, the Hungarian in 1962. That of the Czechoslovaks was delayed until 1970.

  29. 29.

    Paradoxically, in that same congress the conflict of several years between UEA and its US national association, the Esperanto Association of North America (EANA) came to a head. In the atmosphere of McCarthyism then prevailing, particularly between 1954 and 1956, EANA launched a campaign against ‘communist infiltration of the Esperanto movement’, interpreting the revival of Esperanto in Eastern Europe as a clever maneuver by Moscow, and attacking UEA for its favorable reaction to that revival. Ivo Lapenna, the UEA general secretary, was even denounced to foreign security services. In Copenhagen, the UEA Committee confirmed an earlier decision to expel EANA’s general secretary, George A. Connor, and began the procedure to expel EANA. EANA left voluntarily before the expulsion could occur. See Lins (2008), pp. 88–93.

  30. 30.

    Atanasov, Kelkaj rememoroj, p. 7; personal communication from Dr Ivo Borovečki, 26 October 1975.

  31. 31.

    Bulteno de Asocio de Esperantistoj en Pollando, 1956, 10/11: 5.

  32. 32.

    Cf. Solzbacher (1957), p. 5.

  33. 33.

    ‘O nekotorykh aktual’nykh zadachakh sovremennogo sovetskogo iazykoznaniia’, Voprosy iazykoznaniia, 1956, 4: 3–13.

  34. 34.

    V.P. Grigor’ev, ‘V Institute iazykoznaniia AN SSSR’, Voprosy iazykoznaniia, 1956, 4: 158–9. English translation: American Esperanto Magazine 71 (1957): 6–8 (quotation p. 7).

  35. 35.

    The text of the paper, ‘Sovremennoe sostoianie voprosa o mezhdunarodnom vspomogatel’nom iazyke. Fakty ob ėsperanto’ (Present state of the question of an international auxiliary language. Facts on Esperanto), appeared in Isaev (1976), pp. 12–20; Esperanto translation in Bokarjova (2010), pp. 63–72.

  36. 36.

    The report also mentions the point of view expressed in the discussion that ‘the question of the absolute utility of Esperanto in our era needs to be separated from the general question of an international auxiliary language in the future, when Esperanto—as a product of the Indo-European language group—will have to yield its place to another auxiliary language that considers roots from the Asian languages as well’.

  37. 37.

    O.S. Akhmanova & E.A. Bokarev, ‘Mezhdunarodnyi vspomogatel’nyi iazyk kak lingvisticheskaia problema’, Voprosy iazykoznaniia, 1956, 6: 65–78. Esperanto translation in Bokarjova (2010), pp. 72–94.

  38. 38.

    Akhmanova and Bokarev cite, among other opinions, that of Meyer, that it is ‘a regrettable pursuit of national chauvinism in our times’ that ‘the smallest little nations’ want to publish scientific works only in their mother tongues. Meyer’s essay, ‘Weltsprache und Weltsprachen‘, is reprinted in Reinhard Haupenthal (ed.), Plansprachen. Beiträge zur Interlinguistik, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1976, pp. 27–45 (esp. pp. 40, 43); cf. Bokarjova (2010), p. 74.

  39. 39.

    Information from Sergei Sarychev, secretary of the Initiating Group, in Paco, 1956, (Apr./May): 7.

  40. 40.

    Nikolaj Danovskij,’Lasta ekflamo de SEU’, Spektro, 1993, 2: 14–16.

  41. 41.

    It appeared until 1970 (in 1964–65 under the name Bulgario).

  42. 42.

    Rudolf Burda, ‘“La Pacdefendanto” ĉesas aperi’, La Pacdefendanto, 1956, 58/59 (Nov./Dec.): 3–4.

  43. 43.

    The authorities explained that they did not aim to enlarge the number of Esperantists, but register and ‘educate and instruct on proper conceptualization’ the existing Esperantists: Ivo Lapenna, Hamburgo en retrospektivo, 2nd edn., Copenhagen: Horizonto, 1977, p. 17. In 1958 Jaroslav Šustr, president of the Prague club and head representative (ĉefdelegito) of UEA, was suspected of organizing a protest against the appointment of Malík; he was freed after three months in prison (personal communication from Jaroslav Mařík, 3 August 1991).

  44. 44.

    ‘Esperanto-novaĵoj el Ĉeĥoslovakio’, Sennaciulo 30 (1959), 11: 4.

  45. 45.

    Paco 6 (1959), 64/65 (Mar./Apr.): 7. In March 1959 Zprávy Československého esperantského výbotu / Informoj de Ĉeĥoslovaka Esperanto-Komitato began publication.

  46. 46.

    On Burda, who in 1959 also lost the presidency of MEM, the Austrian peace activist Adolf Halbedl mentions ‘the ungrateful conduct of those who harvested the seeds he sowed’: Paco 8 (1961), 86 (Jan.): 3.

  47. 47.

    In May 1969 the ‘Association of Esperantists in the Slovakian Socialist Republic’ was founded. Both organizations joined UEA.

  48. 48.

    Letter from W. Ranft, Radebeul, in La Pacdefendanto, 1953, 22 (Oct.): 2.

  49. 49.

    ‘La Esperanto-movado en Meza Germanio’ (report by Walter Ranft), Germana Esperanto-Revuo 9 (1956): 2.

  50. 50.

    Curt Kessler, ‘Pri la situacio en la Germana Demokrata Respubliko’, La Pacdefendanto, 1956, 55 (July): 4. See also the newsletters of Kessler, 1956, reprinted in Rolf Beau, Esperanto in Leipzig und Umgebung 1945–1991, Althen, 1999, part 1, pp. 139–47.

  51. 51.

    Two letters from the Central Committee, 15 November 1955 and 18 January 1956, published in Esperanto translation in Paco 3 (1956), 29/30 (Apr./May): 15.

  52. 52.

    Communication from Helmut Moesner, Leipzig, 7 May 1957, in Bulteno de Esperantista Klubo ĉe Osvětová beseda en Praha 2, 1957, 47 (May/June): 16.

  53. 53.

    Papers of the Education Ministry, Bundesarchiv, SAPMO, DR 2/4145 and DR 2/4904.

  54. 54.

    Curt Kessler, ‘La evoluo kaj nuna stato de l’ Esperanto-movado en la Germana Demokrata Respubliko’, Paco 5 (1958), 51/52 (Feb./Mar.): 8.

  55. 55.

    Letter from GDR, Sennaciulo 29 (1958), 2: 4.

  56. 56.

    Sennaciulo 29 (1958), 6: 7.

  57. 57.

    Ludwig Schödl, ‘Esperanto kaj pacpolitiko de Germana Demokrata Respubliko’, Paco 9 (1962), 108 (Nov.): 5.

  58. 58.

    Gesetzblatt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, part 1, no. 64 (15 Sept. 1961), p. 425. The decision was taken on 17 August 1961. On the confusing situation in 1956 and later, see Bendias (2011), pp. 76–80.

  59. 59.

    As of 1976, the GDR Esperantists were represented in UEA when the ‘Central Working Circle’ joined the association. In 1981 it changed its name to ‘Esperanto Association in the GDR Cultural League’ (GDREA).

References

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    Ulrich Lins

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Lins, U. (2017). Revival of the Movement. In: Dangerous Language — Esperanto and the Decline of Stalinism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_9

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