An International language for a world revolution?

Socialist History - ISSN 0969-4331
Volume 2022 Number 61

An International language for a world revolution?
Jean-François Fayet pages 56-75

Abstract

The international language Esperanto was invented by Ludwik L. Zamenhof in 1887. Although it originated in the Russian Empire, it soon aroused the hostility of the Tsar’s regime. After the revolutions of 1917, workers’ Esperantist associations began to press various Soviet institutions, and especially the Communist International, to create the conditions for effective proletarian internationalism. But behind the apparently secondary question of an international language loomed the question of the control of international communism and the predominance of polyglot intellectuals in its governing bodies. The whole strategy of the Communist International’s Executive towards the Esperantists was to hinder their work in many ways, to prevent the introduction of an international language, without ever officially condemning Esperanto or the Esperantists.

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To cite this article
Jean-François Fayet (2022) An International language for a world revolution?, Socialist History, 2022(61), 56-75

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