Vladimir Szmurlo

Who was Vladimir Szmurlo?

Vladimír von Szmurlo was a Russian Esperantist and railway engineer.

He studied in Saint Petersburg. Before learning Esperanto, he spoke the earlier auxiliary language of Volapük, but was nonetheless very quick to adopt Esperanto. He launched the first Esperanto literature competition in Saint Petersburg in 1896. In 1905, following the Russian Revolution he moved to Stuttgart until 1908, when he moved to Riga, where he lived until his death. In 1910 he founded the Esperanto association La Riga Stelo and became its first president. From 1910 to 1915 he was a UEA delegate in Riga.

He published:

⁕Bibioteko de Lingvo Internacia Esperanto,

⁕Jarlibro Esperantista

⁕Esperanta Universalbiblioteko

⁕a collection of original works in Esperanto Verda Radio

He worked with others on publications such as La Esperantisto, Internacia Scienca Revuo, Lingvo Internacia and Scienca Gazeto. He edited and published the magazine Riga Stelo, from 1910 to 1911. He wrote ANA, also known as Ariadna fadeno, a first attempt at an Esperanto encyclopedia, in 1916/1917. However, because of World War I, publication was forced to cease after the initial letter 'E', and the content of the whole was somewhat lacking.