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Dans les années 1920 et 1930, l’URSS, devenue le point de référence de la révolution mondiale, attire des militants du monde entier. Leur venue suppose le truchement de médiateurs, d’abord militants étrangers vivant en URSS dans les années 1920 ou des Soviétiques polyglottes ayant vécu en exil, puis, de plus en plus, des interprètes professionnels. Ces médiateurs recouvrent des tâches diverses et complexes qui nécessitent l’apprentissage d’un double-langage car ils doivent répondre aux attentes de leurs invités et à celles du pouvoir soviétique. Leurs témoignages, leurs rapports, comme leurs silences, montrent la difficulté de bâtir l’internationalisme par la pratique des langues. Enfin, leur parcours, quand nous le connaissons, révèle les dangers auxquels ils sont de plus en plus exposés du fait de leurs contacts avec ceux qui, mêmes internationalistes, restent des étrangers.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the USSR became the point of reference of the world revolution, and attracted militants from all around the world. Their visits required the use of mediators. Initially they were foreign activists who lived in the USSR in the 1920s or multilingual Soviets in exile. Then, gradually, those were replaced by professional interpreters. These mediators had various and complex missions which required that they learn a double-language – they had to satisfy to the demands of both the visitors and the Soviet government. Their testimonies, their reports, as well as their silences, show how difficult building Internationalism was through the practice of languages. Finally, their careers – when they are known to us – reveal the dangers to which they were more and more exposed because they were in contact with people who, although they were Internationalists, were foreigners nonetheless.