Bloomsbury Academic
Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia
Key Metrics
- Brigid O'Keeffe
- Bloomsbury Academic
- Hardcover
- 9781350160651
- -
- -
- History > Modern - 20th Century
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Hoping to unite all of humankind and revolutionize the world, Ludwik Zamenhof launched a new international language called Esperanto from late imperial Russia in 1887. Ordinary men and women in Russia and all over the world soon transformed Esperanto into a global movement. Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia traces the history and legacy of this effort: from Esperanto's roots in the social turmoil of the pre-revolutionary Pale of Settlement; to its links to socialist internationalism and Comintern bids for world revolution; and, finally, to the demise of the Soviet Esperanto movement in the increasingly xenophobic Stalinist 1930s. In doing so, this book reveals how Esperanto - and global language politics more broadly - shaped revolutionary and early Soviet Russia.
Based on extensive archival materials, Brigid O'Keeffe's book provides the first in-depth exploration of Esperanto at grassroots level and sheds new light on a hitherto overlooked area of Russian history. As such, Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia will be of immense value to both historians of modern Russia and scholars of internationalism, transnational networks, and sociolinguistics.
Author Bio
Brigid O'Keeffe is a historian of imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Her research has demonstrated commitment to showing how those whom historians tend to dismiss as "marginal" allow us to understand the past in new ways.
O'Keeffe is the author of Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia (2021) - a study of the Esperantists in late imperial and early Soviet Russia who deployed an international auxiliary language in their varied efforts to revolutionize themselves, Russia, and the world. O'Keeffe is also the author of New Soviet Gypsies: Nationality, Performance, and Selfhood in the Early Soviet Union (2013) - a book that examines how early Soviet nationality policy enabled Roma to fashion themselves as integrated Soviet citizens.
She is currently writing "The Multiethnic Soviet Union and its Demise" for Bloomsbury's Russian Shorts Book Series. O'Keeffe has also published her research on the life of Ivy Litvinov and on race in Soviet history.
Source: Brooklyn College CUNY
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