Nationalized Cosmopolitanism with Communist Characteristics: The Esperanto Movement’s Survival Strategy in Post-WWII Bulgaria

Ana Velitchkova, University of Mississippi

Social movements can survive under authoritarianism by establishing legitimate activist cultures acceptable to authoritarian regimes while pursuing their intrinsic goals. This argument builds on the case of the Esperanto movement, the most institutionalized transnational social movement under Eastern European state socialism. I focus on the survival strategy of Bulgarian Esperantists, as Bulgaria was a difficult case of movement survival. In the early years following World War II, their national periodical Bulgara Esperantisto was a key organizing tool for the movement reporting on its activities, reaching out to potential recruits, and legitimizing the movement. Examining the periodical’s discourse over a two-year period, I find that the movement managed to carve a space for itself in the new political context by advancing a form of nationalized cosmopolitanism in its practices and in its rhetoric. In its practices, the movement prioritized its own concerns coordinating Esperanto activities locally, nationally, and internationally. Rhetorically, the movement successfully leveraged available national and global discursive resources to legitimate itself in front of different audiences, especially the state and the local population. Prioritizing partnerships while avoiding conflict, Bulgarian Esperantists were able to thrive under the new communist regime, recruit new members, and reconnect with the global Esperanto movement. I conclude that a legitimate activist culture may involve goals, tactics, and/or identity adapted to a regime’s ideology and institutional environment without necessarily being coopted. In the context of the nation-state system, invoking the nation can be an especially effective legitimation strategy, even for movements with cosmopolitan orientations.

See paper

 Presented in Session 18. Cultural Entrepreneurs