Attributing to Esperanto tasks directed at the future did not conform with political reality, and the effort to present it as a necessary auxil- iary language beside the 'flowering' national languages was equally vain because the function of language for communication among the peoples of the Soviet Union was, to an ever greater degree, fulfilled by Russian.[900]In fact, by reminding people of the final goal of communism and thereby emphasizing the equality of all languages, the Esperantists were touching on dangerous taboos; in so doing, they unintentionally revealed how far apart theory and reality on the question of nations and nationalities and their relation to socialist internationalism had become. Was this, then, the direct cause of the demise of the Esperanto movement in the Soviet Union? Probably not, because the Party, as already noted, had not provided a theo- retical redefinition reconciling Stalins statement and contemporary reality, nor, as far as we know, had the Esperantists been officially accused of mis- interpreting Stalin and consequently of deviation. More precisely, the situ- ation at the end of 1932 was completely paradoxical. Drezens turn against Marr had proved unfruitful; his efforts to find a compromise between the theory of world language and the practical priorities of the transitional period were premature. The disciples of Marr won (if incompletely) against Iazykfront; unlike the proletarian workers and the leftist teachers, they did not fall victim to the stabilizing process following the Cultural Revolution. Shortly before his death in 1934, Marr was confirmed as the uncontested pontiff of Soviet linguistics—despite the fact that he was certainly not an apologist for the policy of repression that Stalin adopted. In fact, Marr strongly opposed all imperialisms, including the Russian variety, and on occasion tended to put too much stress on the role of national minorities in world history.[901] Furthermore, we should not forget his strong emphasis on the idea that the universal language of the future could not be any national language, and even less so could it be one of the widely disseminated world languages.[902] A further two decades elapsed before Stalin publicly confessed that the theories of Marr were unsuited to present Soviet realities. Up to that point, they were useful to him precisely because they also remained 'completely nebulous on how to achieve the future worldwide commonal- ity of language'.[903]
As for the Esperantists, we can note that the immediate result of the debate on the development of a Marxist linguistics was their realization that it was no longer useful to participate, indeed that it could be risky to insist on a 'linguistic revolution'. The Esperantists understood what scorching ground they were standing on in discussing the form and con- tent of a future universal language, particularly in making demands that, in the present environment of practical politics, would put Esperanto in a position of opposition to Russian. The discussion did not result in theoretical justification for the suppression of Esperanto: still in place was the theory that, when presented in 1930, seemed to provide Esperantists with a more favorable basis for activity than ever. But political realities narrowed the possibilities open to the Esperantists to interpret that the- ory independently and apply it to their goals, so that in the end they preferred to avoid further discussion and the threat of collision between utopia and reality.
Long and difficult was the road followed by the Soviet Esperantists— under the weight of a Marxist tradition leaving no room for a neutral international language—in their efforts to establish for Esperanto a theo- retical right to exist. After the 'shaky situation' in the 1920s they thought that at the beginning of the 1930s they had achieved a breakthrough: Esperanto seemed to have a chance of a place in the newly defined com- munist utopia. But they were disappointed. The Party did not favor spontaneous approaches to utopia, even declaring 'war on the dream- ers'.[904] Thus, the Esperantists were pushed back to their starting point. However, even maintaining activity conformable to Soviet circumstances after 1930 became more and more problematic.
Bibliography
Adamson, Einar (1928) Sub la ruga standardo. Impresoj kaj travivajoj en Sovetio, Goteborg: Sveda Esperanto-Oficejo.
Aleksiev, Nikola (1998) Per Esperanto — por autentika informado, ed. Detlev Blanke, Berlin: Blanke.
Alos i Font, Hector (2012) 'Esperanto i redrefament lingufstic i nacional abans de la II Guerra Mundial', Kataluna Esperantisto, no. 360: 3—19.
Amouroux, Jean, and others, comp. (2008) Por ke la tagoj de la homaro estu pli lumaj. La originala verkaro de Lidia Zamenhof, Antwerp: Flandra Esperanto-Ligo.
Baberowski, Jorg (2015) Scorched Earth: Stalins Reign of Terror, trans. Steph Morris, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bahr, Wolfgang (1978) Geschichte der osterreichischen Esperantobewegung von den Anfangen bis 1918, doctoral dissertation, University of Vienna.
Banet-Fornalowa, Zofia (2003) Lapereintoj in memoriam, Czeladz: Hejme.
Bialas, Wolfgang (2014) Moralische Ordnungen des Nationalsozialismus, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Blanke, Detlev, & Ulrich Lins, ed. (2010) La arto labori kune. Festlibro por Humphrey Tonkin, Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio.
Bludau, Kuno (1973) Gestapo — geheim! Widerstand und Verfolgung in Duisburg 1933-1945, Bonn: Neue Gesellschaft.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 279
U. Lins, Dangerous Language — Esperanto under Hitler and Stalin, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-54917-4
Bokarjova, Antonina (2010) Sciencisto, esperantisto, patro: Eŭgeno Bokarjov, Moscow: Impeto.
Borsboom, E. (1976) Vivo de Lanti, Paris: SAT.
Borsboom, E. (2003) Vivo de Andreo Cseh, The Hague: Internacia Esperanto-Instituto.
Boulton, Marjorie (1960) Zamenhof: Creator ofEsperanto, London: Routledge & Keagan Paul.
Bourguignon, Lucien (2001) Honore Bourguignon Iarevano. Un instituteur esperantiste dans la tourmente. 1930—1944, Aix-en-Provence: author.
Bruin, G.P. de (1936) Laborista Esperanta movado antau la mondmilito, Paris: Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (reprinted in La progresema Esperanto-movado enperspektivo, Paris: Eldona Kooperativo de SAT, 2015).
Chickering, Roger (1975) Imperial Germany anda World Without War: ThePeace Movement and German Society, 1892—1914, Princeton & London: Princeton University Press.
Colic, Senad, ed. (1988) Socipolitikaj aspektoj de la Esperanto-movado. Kolekto de referajoj, Sarajevo: elbih.
Dobrzynski, Roman (2005) La Zamenhof-strato, verkita lau interparoloj kun d-ro L.C. Zaleski-Zamenhof, 2nd edn., Kaunas: Varpas, 2005.
Drezen, Ernest (1929) La vojoj deformigo kaj disvastigo de la lingvo internacia, Leipzig: Eldona Fako Kooperativa.