Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language
- Автор: Garvía Roberto
- Год: 2015
- Язык: русский
- Жанр: Культурология
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The mass influx of communists in SAT immediately influenced the edi- torial line of its official journal Sennaciulo, which, in order to avoid an open confrontation with the Bolshevists, avoided any criticism of the Soviet Union and concealed the wave of arrests of anarchists and other "counter- revolutionaries" that intensified in 1923. This approach, however, did not please all SAT members. A sizeable number of anarchists abandoned SAT to create their own internationaclass="underline" the Tutmonda Ligo de Esperantistaj Senŝtatanoj (World League of Stateless Esperantists), which published the bi-monthly Libera Laboristo (1925-1931).12
Conflicts between the SAT and SEU continued for some years. The SEU tried to win over the national Esperantist labor unions, with an eye to capture SAT, and in 1930 Drezen and fellow communists were able to take over the strong German labor association of Esperantists, but that was all. In 1931 Drezen gave up. He decided to part ways with SAT and, with the help of Ger- man Esperantists, create his own pro-Moscow Esperantist international, IPE (Internacio de Proleta Esperantistaro). IPE, however, had a short life. In 1933 the German government banned all communist activity, including that of the Esperantists. And at home, the Kremlin viewed Drezens lack of success vis- a-vis Lanti and SAT with growing suspicion. Eventually, the internecine bat- tles in the Kremlin reached Drezen, who, because of his "counterrevolutionary and terrorist" activities, was executed, together with some other members of SEU's Central Committee. Hundreds of rank-and-file Russian Esperantists were sent to the Gulag.13
Divisions among working-class Esperantists did not stop here. A third Esperantist labor international, of social democratic leanings, the Interna- cio de Socialistaj Esperantistoj, was established in 1933 under the leadership of Franz Jonas, who would later serve as president of Austria between 1965 and 1974. With primarily Austrian membership, the social democratic in- ternational of Esperantists disappeared five years later as a result of the Anschluss.14
As noted in previous chapters, nationalist and conservative circles opposed the idea of an international language. For the most radical among them, the Esperantist was an effeminate movement, a gathering of meek souls preach- ing pacifism and hysterical women. That important sectors of the working class adopted Esperanto and mobilized on either an anti-nationalist or a pro- Moscow basis only increased their misgivings toward Zamenhof and his language.
Interestingly, however, even in nationalist circles there was some thought that Esperanto could be useful to further their agendas. We might call them "Herderian Esperantists." As Herderians, they envisioned a world society comprising self-governing, equally worthy, and mutually respecting, albeit linguistically and ethnically homogeneous, nation-states.15 As Esperantists, they thought that Esperanto could be the bulwark against the corruptive influence of the more powerful and aggressive foreign languages and, conse- quently, improve the vitality of their languages and nations.
In their view, Esperanto would minimize the need to learn any of the lan- guages of the most powerful nations and, more important, make it easier to cleanse or purify national languages. The creator of Spelin, Georg Bauer (1848- 1900), had already noted an artificial language's potential sanitizing, prophy- lactic power. In Bauer's Volapukist years he encouraged his fellow Croatians to protect their language against the filth (Schmutz) of foreign tongues by way of Volapuk: "My people, love your language above all / Live in it, die for it / Adopt Volapuk and you will save your language."16
But it was probably the German Esperantist Arnold Behrendt who in 1913 expressed this Herderianism most radically. Since it would be unrealistic, given the complexity and irregularities of the otherwise beautiful German language, to expect it to surpass French or English in the international arena, Behrendt thought that Esperanto could be of great service, since its exten- sion would undermine the position of those two other languages. More im- portant, by helping to cleanse the German language of foreign words, Esperanto could "strengthen the German national consciousness, deepen the comprehension and knowledge of the German language, nourish and invig- orate Germandom abroad, and convey the appreciation and respect for the German essence in other countries. Esperanto can help all Germans preserve their leading role amongst the nations, which only of late and after great dif- ficulties has transpired."17
Herderian Esperantists were more common in multilingual countries, however, and we find them working hand in hand with nationalist movements. For example, rather than cooperating with the German-speaking Esperantists for the establishment of an encompassing Austrian Esperanto League, the Bohemian Esperantists preferred to work autonomously by way of their Bo- hema Unio Esperantista.18 And when the independent Republic of Czecho- slovakia was created in 1918, the tensions between German- and Czech-speaking Esperantists eventually resulted in the establishment of two separate associations: the Germana Esperanto Ligo en Ĉeĥoslovakio (Ger- man Esperanto League in Czechoslovakia) and the Ĉeĥoslovaka Asocio Es- perantista (Czechoslovak Esperantist Association). Similarly, a leading member of the Irish Esperantist Association, set up in 1909, was Joseph M.
Plunkett, one of the seven signatories of the Irish proclamation of indepen- dence that followed the 1916 Eastern Rising.19 Also in 1929, some Flemish Esperantists launched the journal Flandra Esperantisto, the motto of which was "A free Flanders in a peaceful world," and one year later they founded the Flandra Ligo Esperantista (Flemish Esperantist League), which aimed at monopolizing the represent at ion of the Flemish Esperantists vis-a-vis the Belga Ligo Esperantista.20 By that time, the Herderian Esperantists of Catalo- nia had a long history. They were also more tightly connected with their re- spective nationalist movements. The founder of the Catalan Esperanto association Espero Kataluna (Catalan Hope), Frederic Pujula i Valles, was also a member of the executive committee of Unio Catalanista, an umbrella organization of Catalan nationalists that decided to use Esperanto as the means of communication with other nationalist movements.21 As the Espe- rantist Pujula saw it: "The great task is to divide the world into its natural regions. . . . We should encourage each other; the Finnish for Finland, the Castilian people for Castile, but also the Catalan [for Catalonia], since this is the first step to feel human."22
Although there is a clear boundary between Herderianism and National Socialism—which, contrary to the former, does not place nations on an equal footing—the potential of Esperanto to diversify and extend in different di- rections crossed that line. Even when Hitler had condemned Esperanto as the weapon of the Jews, in 1931 a young SA member established the pro-Nazi NDEB (Neue Deutsche Esperanto Bewegung, or New German Esperanto Movement). The NDEB, which by the mid-1930s had roughly 500 members, most of them also members of the Nazi Party, aspired to take over the Ger- mana Esperanto Bund (German Esperanto League) and cleanse it of "Jews, pacifists and all kind of scroungers."23 As the Nazi Esperantists saw it (at least Zamenhof was already dead and would not have to see this development), Esperanto could be instrumental for international propaganda, as well as for strengthening the Deutschtum by protecting the German language from the invasion of foreign words. But as we saw in Chapter 7, the Gestapo had a more accurate view of things. It declared Esperanto to be diametrically opposed to National Socialism, banned party members from joining any Esperanto organization, and finally dismantled all Esperantist organizations.24