AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO AMERICAN ESPERANTO MAGAZINE Esperanto in America Esperanto & Iron Curtain . "Hiavato" de Longfellow JAN-FEB 1956 AMERICAN ESPERANTO MAGAZINE (Amerika Esperantisto) Official bi-monthly publication of the ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION OP NORTH AMERICA, Inc. 114 West 16 St., New York 11, N. Y. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: G. Alan Connor. Co-Editors: Dr. William Solzbacher, Doris.T. Connor, Myron R. Mychajliw. SUSTAINING BOARD OF EANA Dr. Luella K. Beecher, Dr. F. W. Breth, John M. Brewer, Allen L. Brown, A. M. Brya, Carl W. Childress, C. C. Curnmingsmith, S. M., Dr.Lee- Min Han, Horace C. Jenkins, Mrs. S. S. Marks, Katherine Muttart, Merrill E. Muttart, Bertha E. Mullin, Tony Nabby, Paul E. Nace, George Hirsch, Andrew I. Rogus, Bertha F. Sloan, Harold S. Sloan, Dr. W. Solzbacher, Mazah E. Schulz, Virgil Whanger. CONTENTS - ENHAVO Esperanto in America.......... 3 Esperanto and the Iron Curtain........ 4 Esperanto in Action Around the World....... 11 Esperanto and Religion . ......... 13 Morto de Fidela Kunlaboranto......... 14 Diversaj Anoncoj........... 14 EANA Honor Roll 1955.......... 15 "Antaŭen kun Teo Jung en Harmonio kaj kun Fido!" G. Alan Connor 16 Rezulto de la Konkurso pri Varbado de Novaj Membroj ... 19 Esperanta Kroniko........... 20 La Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto — Recenzo . D-ro IV. Solzbacher 22 La Amindumo de Hiavato — Traduko . . Henry W. Longfellow 27 Deziras Korespondi........... 31 B1LDO SUR KOVR1LO - Vintro en la montoj de okcidenta Usono. Subscriptions in the United States and Canada: $3.00 per year. Jarabono eksterlande por kalendara jaro: $1.50 aŭ egalvaloro. Gratis to Members of the EANA. Regular Membership in EANA - $5.00 per year. Patron — $10.00. H. S. or College Student & Armed Forces — $3-00 per year. Sustaining Board — $3.00 or more per month. AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO Vol. 70 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1956 Nos. 1-2 ESPERANTO IN AMERICA This Magazine Celebrates Its Fiftieth Anniversary UN 1955 the Esperanto Association of North America celebrated its m-S Golden Jubilee, recalling that it was founded in Boston, Massachu- setts, on March 23, 1905, with a pioneer linguist, Henry R. Geoghegan, Clerk of the U. S. District Court of Fairbanks, Alaska, and author of a book on the Aleut language, as its first President. In 1956 we celebrate an almost equally important anniversary: In Oc- tober 1906, the first issue of the American Esperanto Magazine, then named L'Amerika Esperantisto, came off the press at Oklahoma City,in what was then the Territory of Oklahoma. Its editor and publisher,Arthur Brooks Baker, was an itinerant Lyceum and Chautauqua lecturer, born in Kansas, by temperament and vocation a pioneer in the best Western tradition. His magazine was at first fiercely independent, while in the East the leaders of the American Esperanto Association were still study- ing the possibility of starting an official publication. 1906 was the year in which large scale promotion work for Esperanto was really started in the United States. In Oklahoma City, Arthur Baker published his booklet, Elements of Esperanto, of which more than 100,000 copies were sold over a number of years, while, in New York City, Dr. Max Talmey published his much more detailed and scholarly 103-page textbook Practical and Theoretical Esperanto. The 6 Esperanto clubs which existed in the United States at the end of 1905 became 18 by the end of 1906. These included the Harvard Uni- versity Esperanto Society and the Esperanto Society at Ohio State Uni- versity in Columbus. The year 1906 was marked by other important events: The first Amer- ican college offered an Esperanto class. It was the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology. The influential North American Review began to pub- lish articles on Esperanto and serialized Esperanto lessons. Its Editor, George Brinton McClellan Harvey, later became President of the Esper- anto Association of North America. Even later, from 1921 to 1923, he served brilliantly as United States Ambassador to Great Britain. The latter part of 1905 and the year 1906 also brought the first wave of major interest in scientific circles. The famous German scientist, Wilhelm Ostwald, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a few years later, delivered a series of lectures at Harvard University and also spoke before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In his talks he urged the large scale use of Esperanto for scientific purposes. The American Esperanto Magazine celebrates its fiftieth anniversary by enlarging its size and improving its contents. Members and friends of the Esperanto Movement can best honor the memory of our pioneers by supporting and working with the organization which they established, i.e. the Esperanto Association of North America. 3 ESPERANTO AND THE IRON CURTAIN Since Stalin's death, numer- ous changes and zigzag courses have been noted in Soviet poli- cies and Communist tactics, some of them apparently contra- dicting each other. The violent purge of Beria and his friends and the not so violent fall from power of Malenkov and his co- horts; the "new course" in a »//anyone believes our smiles involve aban- number of satellite countries donrnent of the teachings o/Marx, Engels and and the return to older policies Lenin, he deceives himself poorly. Those who shortly after the "new course" wait for that must wail until a shrimp learns had been proclaimed; the Soviet to- whistle. " -Geneva Spirit a la Khrushchev smiles at the "summit" conference in Geneva and Molotov's stubborn "no" at the Foreign Ministers'meeting a few months later; the numerous Soviet delegations touring the "capitalist" world, even the United States, and the somewhat greater accessibility of the Soviet Union to visitors from abroad, including U.S. Senators and Congressmen — all this presents a bewildering puzzle. While opinions and interpretation may differ regarding some of these developments, it is obvious — Soviet Party Chief Nikita Khrushchev has said that much without ambiguity — that international communism has not changed its ultimate goal, which is world revolution and Communist world domination, but that it is willing to experiment with new methods and to give up some of the rigidity which characterized its policies in the latter part of the Stalin era. Against this background of events, there has been news about new Esperanto activities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and even the Soviet Union. There are indications that the re- establishment of an Esperanto Association in the Soviet Union —where all organized Esperanto activities had been forbidden since 1936 —may be a matter of months, or even weeks. This has led, in some circles of the Esperanto movement, to the optimistic belief that the iron curtain is gradually disappearing as far as the Esperanto movement is concerned, and that in Eastern Europe and other Communist-dominated countries a bright future is ahead for Esperanto. There is only one way to clarify this question. We have to establish the facts as clearly and objectively as possible, and then to analyze them in the light of past experience. The American Esperanto Magazine has published in past years several lengthy articles and many news items on the subject (September-October 1951, May-June 1952, November-Decem- ber 1952, etc). In the Soviet Union all organized Esperanto activities were stopped by the government in 1936, in Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and East Ger- many in 1949. In Bulgaria, severe restrictions were imposed in 1949, and the movement petered out over a number of years. In Czechoslovakia, the movement remained strong until the government discontinued its three 4 periodicals in January 1952 and liquidated the Czechoslovak Esperanto Association on September 7, 1952. In Red China, the journal Popola Mon- do, designed for promotion of Esperanto in China, was closed down by the authorities in the spring of 1SJ52, while a Communist propaganda ma- gazine in Esperanto, El Popola Cinio, issued exclusively for foreign con- sumption, was discontinued at the end of the same year. This seemed to close the books on organized Esperanto activities in the Soviet orbit. The Soviets in Montevideo Now let us turn our attention to recent developments. In December 1954, a worldwide Esperanto petition was before the General Conference of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or- ganization) in Montevideo. It so happened that the Soviet Union, which had boycotted UNESCO up to 1954, was represented at the Montevideo Conference for the first time, and it was generally assumed that the USSR and its satellites would strongly oppose any action in favor of Esperanto. But when, on December 10, the Esperanto resolution, proposed by Mexico and seconded by Switzerland, was passed by a vote of 30 to 5, with 17 abstentions, the Soviet Union and its satellites were among the absten- tionists. This was something rather unusual. When the Kremlin sends a delegation to an international conference, it does not usually "throw its vote away" by abstaining. As a matter of principle, Soviet delegates are almost always very much for, or very much against, whatsoever is pro- posed. It may be assumed that the Soviet bloc's abstention on the Esperanto resolution at Montevideo was carefully and deliberately planned. If the Communist delegates had voted "no", it would have been in line with Stalinist policy and with the oppressive and repressive measures taken against Esperanto by all iron curtain countries. If they had voted "yes", it would have created a sensation and would have practically committed the Communist regimes to a change of their attitude towards Esperanto. Abstention from voting, however, was bound to create the impression that the iron curtain governments want to keep the door open for a revision of their policy, without committing themselves to anything. It was also like- ly to raise, in the Esperanto movement outside the Soviet orbit, hopes and expectations which might be exploited for Communist purposes. Developments in Czechoslovakia Let us now examine the facts, country by country, beginning with the one in which the Esperanto movement once was strongest: Czechoslova- kia. It seems that when the Communist regime ordered three Esperanto magazines published in Czechoslovakia to be discontinued at the end of 1951, a fourth was overlooked, and that it has actually continued to ap- pear ever since. It is Aŭroro, an Esperanto journal for the blind, printed in Braille script and published in Prague by the League of Czechoslovak Invalids. It is true, of course, that Braille publications are outside the mainstream of political life and that they have no significant influence outside the ranks of the blind. But it is interesting to know that there was at least one Esperanto periodical left behind the iron curtain. A num- ber of local Esperanto organizations in Czechoslovakia also managed to survive. As time went by, they reestablished contact with one another. Every summer, a so-called "Esperanto College" functioned at Doksy, 5 bringing old-timers together for a few days of study and Esperanto prac- tice. In the summer of 1955, there was also an Esperanto Youth Camp at Vranov, with more than 150 participants. Efforts were then made to ar- range for the use of Esperanto in the activities of the Communist-spon- sored "Peace Partisans". A mimeographed Esperanto bulletin was start- ed under the title La Pacdefendanto (The Peace Defender), approved by the Communist authorities. In July 1955, an Esperanto Conference for "Partisans of Peace" was held at Otrokovice with the participation of about 300 persons including "nine Esperanto-speaking guests from Swe- den, Denmark, France, Austria, and the United States." Another remark- able feature of the conference was a message of greeting from E. Boka- rev in Moscow, of the Linguistic Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sci- ences, who wrote that the Academy had decided to send him as an official delegate to the Esperanto Conference, but that he had not been able to make arrangements to get there in time. He hoped to come later, however, he explained. The conference elected a National Consultative Esperanto Committee, with Josef Vitek as Chairman. Active Again in Poland In Poland, remnants of the Esperanto movement became active again on the occasion of last summer's International Youth Festival.They re- ceived a moderate amount of support from the Organizing Committee, which apparently had no objections to making an experiment with Esper- anto for the purpose of attracting additional delegates from "capitalist" countries to the Festival. They even hired a special Esperanto interpret- er for the occasion. A number of Western visitors were attracted in this • way, some of them dupes of Communist propaganda, others anxious to use this opportunity for visiting friends or relatives from whom they had been isolated by the iron curtain. Esperanto meetings held in connection with the Warsaw Youth Festival were attended by these as well as by a siz- able number of young people from iron curtain countries. The next step came in connection with the Centennial of the death of the Polish national poet, Adam Mickiewicz. His principal masterpiece, Pan Tadeusz, had been published as long ago as 1918 in an excellent Esperanto translation by Antoni Grabowski. It has been out of print for many years. Recently, members of the Esperanto movement persuaded the Warsaw Committee for the Mickiewicz Centennial to reprint the book under the title SinjoroTadeo and to publish also an Esperanto translation of a book about Mickiewicz by the contemporary Polish poet Mieczyslaw Jas- trun. The contents of Sinjoro Tadeo cannot possibly bring aid and com- fort to Communist propaganda, but the sale and distribution of the book in the "capitalist" world may well have by-products which the Warsaw regime can turn to its own advantage. This becomes obvious, for in- stance, in the November-December issue of La Nueva Polonia (The New Poland), a magazine published by the Communist Polish Legation in Mexico City for distribution in Latin America.lt includes a center spread showing the title pages of editions otPanTadeusz in different languages, including Esperanto, and a one-page article on Esperanto and Dr. L. L. Zamenhof, its author, by Francisco Azorin in Mexico City. The well- written and informative article is illustrated by an etching of Dr. Zamen- hof and might as well have been published in any other magazine, except 6 for the last paragraph in which the author thanks the Communist "Polish People's Republic" for having published a new Esperanto edition of Pan Tadeusz and then states: "The Mexican Esperantists have received this book with honor and pleasure, and we have supplied the addresses of the principal Esperanto Societies in Spanish America, so that it may be sent to them, too." We know they will enjoy reading Sinjoro Tadeo, but we wonder just a little what else they will be sent. The Polish Esperanto Association, which suspended operations in 1949, but apparently never formally ceased to exist, is now active again. It has chapters in Warsaw, Cracow, and Wroclaw (the former German city of Breslau) and seeks the Communist government's permission for open- ing others. It has applied for affiliation with the Universal Esperanto Association. At the Bologna Congress, the UEA Committee decided to admit the Polish Esperanto Association "under the condition that a way be found to transferthe dues." It was also announced that the Communist government had granted passports and allotted foreign currency to two representatives of the Polish Esperanto Association .for attendance at the Bologna Congress, but that the Italian visas could not be secured in time for them to make the trip. Hungary, Bulgaria, and East Germany In Hungary, Esperanto activities have been gradually revived in con- nection with the Communist-sponsored "peace movement." Two Esper- anto "peace" conferences have been held so far, and a Temporary Na- tional Consultative Committee of the Esperanto Peace Movement was formed. One of the leading Esperanto promoters, Pal Balkanyi, was in- terviewed about it on one of the Budapest radio station's Finnish broad- casts. He was awarded a diploma by the Society for Soviet-Hungarian Friendship because, as "a representative of the World Peace Esperanto Movement", he "successfully helps to make Soviet culture known through- out the world." It also seems that the two famous Esperanto writers and poets, Kalman Kalocsay and Gyula Baghy, have resumed their writing, and that a new book by Kalocsay, Ezopa Saĝo (The Wisdom of Aesop: 77 fables, rewritten in verse) is scheduled for publication in the near future in Copenhagen. Dr. Kalocsay is a man of many talents and a first rate writer, but he is not known for the soundness or consistency of his po- litical views. His writings include an Esperanto translation of Benito Mussolini's Vita di Arnaldo (Vivode Arnaldo) as well as poems in praise of Stalin. In Bulgaria, the Esperanto Cooperative in Sofia has been revived in connection with the World Peace Esperanto Movement. Speakers at recent meetings included a Professor of Dialectical Materialism at the Superior Karl Marx Institute of Economics. A mimeographed bulletin of the Bul- garian Esperanto Association, with a very restricted circulation, has ap- peared. It carried the news that a representative of the Bulgarian Esper- anto Association (which seems to exist in name only) was sent to the recent "World Peace Congress" in Helsinki, Finland, at the expense of the Bulgarian Communist Government. In East Germany, Esperanto activities have survived mostly in a semi-underground manner through contacts with groups in West Germany. Esperanto congresses in West Germany and other free world countries 7 have been attended by members of the Esperanto movement from East Germany who sneaked across the border in the darkness of the night. The German Esperanto Youth League has been successful in maintain- ing contact with young people (all of these non-Communist, of course) in East Germany. It seems, however, that lately also some efforts have been made to use Esperanto in the service of pro-Communist "peace" activities. There are indications that the attitude of the Communist au- thorities towards this have so far been not unfriendly. In the Soviet Union In Moscow, E. Bokarev, Editorial Secretary of the magazine, "Prob- lems of Linguistics", which is published by the Institute of Linguistics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, appears to be in the center of what- ever officially authorized Esperanto activities may be planned. He is reported to have a great many documents about the history of Esperanto, including handwritten letters of Dr. Zamenhof, in his custody. In a letter published in the Czechoslovak bulletin La Pacdefendanto he wrote: "At a meeting held June 18, 1955, the Literary and Linguistic Section of the M6scow Academy of Sciences decided to establish a Soviet Esperanto Association, which will operate in the framework of the Soviet Academy of Sciences... The Organizing Committee will draft a constitution for the association and will establish a work plan providing for publication of a magazine, literature, peace propaganda, establishment of local chap- ters, etc. Everywhere we find approval and help. The allegation that Es- peranto in generally disapproved in the Soviet Union is not correct." Further developments are not yet clear. But it seems obvious that real news may be coming from Moscow soon. Esperanto activities in Soviet prison and slave- labor camps (see American Esperanto Magazine, July- October 1955, p. 52) are, of course, outside the scope of this article. There has also been a rather sudden resurgence of letters in Esper- anto from iron curtain countries, and even from the Soviet Union, reach- ing the free world. Some of them are completely non-political, others contain blatant or devious advertising for the Communist-sponsored brand of "peace", others subtly reveal a critical attitude towards the Kremlin and its satellite stooges. Wfior Does It Mean? In trying to assess these facts in a wider context, we remember that Esperanto organizations were suppressed in the Soviet orbit under the pretext that they had been used for "espionage" and "reactionary plots" on behalf of "Wall Street capitalists". Shortly before the suppression of the movement in his country, Adolf Malik, whom the Communist regime had made President of the Czechoslovak Esperanto Association, wrote in 1950: "It is well known that the Soviet Union favored Esperanto un- til reactionary influences appeared in the ranks of the Russian Esper- antists. Esperantists helped to carry on espionage against their country. Who then is responsible for the weakening and the death of the Esperanto movement in the Soviet Union? Those who plotted against the regime are guilty. Shortsighted people in the Esperanto movement itself have done great harm to the cause of Esperanto in the Soviet Union." Comrade Malik was even more outspoken in drawing conclusions for the Esperanto movement in Czechoslovakia: "It is obvious that the Wall 8 Street capitalists have not the slightest chance to 'save' us by a new war... The Soviet Union will create a better, happier life in the world. From Moscow the light of progress shines into every angle of the uni- verse... Shall we Esperan'tists in the people's democracies (i. e. the Com- munist satellite countries) repeat the mistakes (of the Russian Esperant- ists in allowing 'reactionary elements' to participate), or shall we learn from their painful experience? There are shortsighted people in our own people's democratic Czechoslovakia who hope that some great miracle will happen (to change the regime)... Official circles in our country would no longer support us if they knew that there are non-progressive people among us who by their shortsightedness may cause great harm to them- selves, to the working class, and to our republic... Therefore it is nec- essary to exercise self-criticism in all Esperanto clubs and to isolate those who openly or secretly oppose our work..." The Communists have always been in a dilemma regarding Esperanto. They are inclined to welcome anything, including Esperanto, to the ex- tent that it can be used to spread propaganda and subversion On the other hand, they are deeply suspicious of anything, including Esperanto, that may enable people whom they wish to keep in isolation, to obtain access to information and ideas from the free world. Communists have tried to make Esperanto a one-way street carrying Communist propaganda into the outside world, while preventing the interlanguage from carrying non-Communist and anti-Communist ideas to the victims of Red enslave- ment. The coercive measures taken against the Esperanto movement were indirectly an admission of their failure in this effort. Communists Aim to Control Recent Esperanto activities behind the iron curtain must be seen against the background of the general pressure against isolation which has been growing among the peoples behind the iron curtain since Sta- lin's death. Press correspondents and other Westerners who have had a chance of talking with people in Russia, Hungary, Rumania, and other countries, report unanimously that people are starved from information and for contacts with people abroad. The pressure has been so strong that the Soviet rulers found it necessary to yield, at least to the extent of opening a safety valve. After this, they proceeded to do the next best thing, from their point of view, by endeavoring to get as much Communist propaganda advantage as possible out of such contacts as they are com- pelled to permit. It seems plausible that among those who studied Esperanto before it was frowned upon, and among those who studied it privately since then, there has been a strong and growing desire to use the interlanguage for breaking through the isolation of the iron curtain. There are Communists, opportunists and non-Communists among them. The two latter groups are probably more numerous than the Communists for two reasons: (1) In eve- ry Communist-dominated country, Communists are a minority; (2) Com- munists are less likely than others to be dissatisfied with the isolation imposed by the Red leaders. This is fact Number One. Fact Number Two is this: Any foreign con- tacts which the Communist leaders permit voluntarily or involuntarily, they will try to use for their own Communist propaganda purposes. In 9 other words: There are two impulses behind what is now coming from the iron curtain via Esperanto: There are suffering people, hungry for infor- mation and for ideas which grow in a climate of freedom, hungry for friend- ship with people not controlled by totalitarian tyranny, but there are also coldly scheming propagandists of the Kremlin. People in the first group may have to camouflage themselves and may try desperately to use peo- ple in the second group for their own purposes. People in the second group will be even more intent on camouflaging themselves and using people in the first group for their ends. Esperantists in these countries must follow the Communist line in all endeavors. There is no easy way of knowing who is who and what is what. Of the high-ranking Communists who once played a role in the Esperanto movement behind the iron curtain, none has been heard of so far, and whatever new Esperanto activities have been observed in recent months are strictly limited. Perhaps the whole development is just an experiment that may be stopped by an order from Moscow before it gets any further. Perhaps, on the other hand, it is something more significant. But there is no reason to assume that the leaders of the Communist world are wil- ling to take risks in the exchange of information and ideas via Esperanto without first securing firm control of the leading instrumentalities of the Esperanto movement. ORDER YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS & MEMBERSHIPS FROM EANA Note that we accept subscriptions and memberships for all legiti- mate Esperanto magazines and organizations. A few are listed below. Always add 10i( in each instance for airmail transfer. Did Regno, official organ of the International Christian Esperanto League (KELl), is a monthly Esperanto magazine for Protestant Esper- antists. Subscription to Dia Regno, $1.40 for calendar year. Membership with magazine, $1.60. Order from the Central Office of EANA, Add 10<£ for airmail transfer. Detailed information about KELl from the national representative, Donald R. Broadribb, 406 West Vermont St., Urbana, 111. Espero Katolika, official organ of the International Catholic Esper- anto Union (IKUE), is a monthly Esperanto magazine for Catholic Esper- antists. Subscription to Espero Katolika, $1.30. Membership with maga- zine, $1.50. Order from the Central Office of EANA. Add 10