Finvenkismo (English:Finvenkism) is anideological current within theEsperanto movement. The name is derived from the concept of afina venko (English: final victory), denoting the moment when Esperanto will be used as the predominantsecond language throughout the world. A finvenkist is thus someone who hopes for or works towards this "final victory" of Esperanto. According to some finvenkists, this "final victory" of Esperanto may help eradicatewar,chauvinism, and culturaloppression. The exact nature of this adoption (e.g., individual vs state adoption), and what would constitute a "final victory" is often left unspecified.
Recently, some Esperantists have campaigned for the expressionfina venko to be replaced withfina sukceso ("final success") because the former reminds some people of war due to its similarity to the German wordEndsieg.
L. L. Zamenhof created Esperanto with the goal of widespread use as a second language for international communication. In the early days of theEsperanto movement, essentially all Esperantists maintained an idealized hope of widespread future adoption; however, as theEsperanto community grew, so did the diversity of ideologies among Esperantists, some of whom began to challenge the merits of preserving such an aspirational goal.
During the 1910World Esperanto Congress, Zamenhof highlighted two ways that widespread adoption could be achieved: through individual action (change from below, e.g.,self-directed study of Esperanto) around the world, or bygovernment action (change from above) permitting or requiring Esperanto literacy to be taught in schools:[1]
The goal we're working for can be reached in two ways: either by the work of private individuals, i.e., of the popular masses, or by government decrees. Most likely it will be reached the former way because, in matters like ours, the governments ordinarily come with their endorsements and help only when all is ready.
La celo, por kiu ni laboras, povas esti atingita per du vojoj: aŭ per laborado de homoj privataj, t.e. de la popolaj amasoj, aŭ per dekreto de la registaroj. Plej kredeble nia afero estos atingita per la vojo unua, ĉar al tia afero, kiel nia, la registaroj venas kun sia sankcio kaj helpo ordinare nur tiam, kiam ĉio estas jam tute preta.
Among Esperantists, as Esperanto matured, the two ways began to be calleddesubismo [eo] ("from below -ism") anddesuprismo [eo] ("from above -ism"), respectively.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Since 1980, finvenkismo encountered criticism by so-calledraŭmistoj. This ideological current interprets the Esperanto community as a languagediaspora, whose members should not concentrate on the propagation of the language, but rather on its cultivation. The termRaŭmismo comes from theManifesto of Rauma signed by many participants of theInternational Youth Congress in the Finnish townRauma in 1980.
Soon the wordRaŭmismo acquired two different meanings: According to some, aRaŭmist is just someone who uses Esperanto without propagating it. Others followRaŭmismo, an ideology that considers the Esperanto community a self-selectedlinguistic minority and supports attempts to get a state-like representation for this minority.Raŭmismo is now often calledCivitanismo, because it is the official ideology of theEsperanta Civito (Esperanto Citizens' Community), an organisation which attempts to be such a state-like representation of the Esperanto diaspora. TheRaŭmismo (Civitanismo) ideology, representing a small proportion of Esperantists, is perceived as spending more energy on criticising the finvenkist movement than on cultivating Esperanto, and thus has become somewhat isolated within the Esperanto community.
In response to the criticisms from Raŭmists, the Esperanto movement produced the Prague Manifesto (Esperanto:Praga Manifesto), which establishes a set of seven widely shared principles of the Esperanto movement. It was drafted at the 1996World Esperanto Congress inPrague byMark Fettes and others attending the congress. The document emphasizes democratic communication,language rights, preservation oflanguage diversity, and effectivelanguage education.
