Re: CHAT: Support/Oppression of Conlanging

 --- "Thomas R. Wier" wrote:

> > > > > Speaking of prejudice, does anyone know of any actual political
> > > > > repression of conlangers besides that of Stalin and Hitler
> > > > > against Esperantists?)
> > >
> > >In Stalin's case, at least, it had to do with the fact that Esperantists,
> > >like philatelists, had lots of contact with the outside world.  This,
> > >naturally, was a Bad Thing, and so off to Sibiria both groups went.
> > >In Hitler's case, the same probably applies, but the fact that Zamenhof
> > >was a Jew, and a Zionist at that, probably also colored the decision
> > >to send them to the death camps.
> >
> It really doesn't have to do with fascism at all so much as
> totalitarianism. As a cacologist friend of mine put it once, "This is
> a totalitarian state, right? So, sometime down the line the government
> is going to have to have a policy on Esperanto." Stalin had lots of
> problems with Undesirables like Cossacks, Ukrainians, and basically
> everyone in the Caucasus, and Stalin was no Fascist.
Wasn't he?

<snip Pioneer Story>

What we should always bear in mind when speaking about politicies in the
former USSR, is the immense discrepancy between theory and praxis.
The long-term ideal of the communist party was a communist world republic.
Despite their disputes about how to achieve it, Stalin, Trotsky, and others all
agreed on this ultimate goal.
All kinds of expressions of national consciousness were considered alien and
hostile to this plan. Therefore, the official line of the Communist Party
regarding the 140 nationalities inhabiting the USSR, was the idea of
rapprochement (sblizhenie), followed by a merger (slijanie) into one great
"Soviet People". Theoretically, a culturally neutral, international language
like Esperanto could fit in perfectly within this ideology.
In reality, however, from the moment when Stalin took over, Soviet communism
has been soaked with nationalism. Very soon, the Russian nation became the
model for all other nations. An important milestone in this respect is Stalin's
toast, after winning World War II, to the Russian people (completely neglecting
the fact that many representants of other nationalities had fought for The Case
as well and had equally suffered from the war).
The answer to the question: why this Russian nationalism, is probably the same
as the answer to the question why, despite their totalitarian ideology,
communist leaders always tried to legitimize their power by organizing
quasi-democratic elections. They strongly believed, that they were exactly what
the people wanted and needed, and did everything underline that. By linking
communist ideology to an appeal to people's patriotism, they hoped to mobilize
even more support for their actions.
Strangely, this tactic often proved effective.

In the nationalistic environment that soviet communism has been since Stalin's
days, there is clearly no place for Esperanto.
A second factor that might have played a role, is Stalin's famous paranoia
towards alleged conspiracies. Useless to say, that a bunch of (in general
rather intelligent) people speaking with each other in some secret language,
might easily be suspected.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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