Pan-Slavism
By JAROSLAV VICTOR NIGRIN.
It is important at the outset to differentiate in this article between the tendencies and aims of Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism, for the similarity of the terms might, perhaps, confuse the casual reader. Pan-Germanism attempted to organize “Deutschthum”, Germans in Germany, Austria, and those found anywhere else, for the purpose of advancing the influence and power of the German empire all over the globe. Pan-Germanism had distinct domineering and expansive tendencies which led to the present war, and it is due only to the united effort of the rest of the world that the dangerous enemy of the liberties of mankind was defeated. Pan-Slavism, on the contrary, manifested itself in two currents: the first, a child of the aspiration and hope of the Russian governmental circles, which died along with Pan-Germanism and which aimed to unite the various Slavic peoples under the scepter of the Romanovs and wished to herd them into the Russian orthodox church. A very good account of these plans and tendencies may be found in an excellent book on pre-war Russia, “Russian Affairs”, by Geoffrey Drage. The other current, the real Pan-Slavism, had nothing to do with the policy of the Russian government, it was and is a democratic movement among various Slavic peoples which never dreamed of conquest, but merely aspired to liberation; never aimed at domination, but only desired a common understanding among the kin races for mutual security, for the interchange of intellectual achievements and to promote the advancement, prosperity and security of the people.
Pan-Slavism, then, is a purely intellectual and a thoroughly democratic movement. It was not brought into life by any warrior, politician, or ruler, but it is a product of poetical inspiration, having been first clearly announced by the dean of modern Bohemian poets, Jan Kollar (1793–1852). In 1830 in his essay “On Names, Origins and Antiquity of Slavs,” he thus defined the aims of Pan-Slavism: This movement is to consist in an effort to make the spiritual wealth of the various Slavic nations the common possession of the entire race through an interchange of ideas secured by reading the literature of the individual nations. (Since there exists a strong resemblance between the various Slavic tongues, it is very easy for any Slav to learn any other Slavic language, and such literary interchange is quite feasible.) This literary intercourse actually took place and created the idea of common unity among the Slavic people. It created the idea of strength which would result from a closer welding of the broken national forces and so gave life and vigor to the Slavs who were struggling for freedom. For let us not forget that the Slavs at the beginning of the nineteenth century were no where free: In Russia the czar and his court were foreign to the people; Poland was torn into three parts, with all its liberties trampled under foot of the conquerors; Bohemia was under the yoke of Austria; and the Jugo-Slavs were under the tyranny of Austria and Turkey. Under such conditions nobody dreamed of dominating others. To free themselves, to live their own untrammeled national life was the only desire of the oppressed peoples. The Slavic nations, inspired by their poets, were awakening and with the dawn of the XlXth century they began their long and wearisome struggle for freedom. The Turkish domination was cast off first, and the last shackles were broken in the present war. It was this feeling of brotherhood which helped the mutual liberation and which also helped so splendidly to win the great war. The Slavic soldiers of Austria were sent to battlefields, but they resolved not to fight against their Russian and Serbian brothers. Their refusal to fight for the benefit of their Teutonic masters upset the whole campaign. Austria was helpless against Russia and Serbia, and Germany, by sending help to her partner, had to weaken her own western front. The Slavic soldiers, notably the Czechoslovaks, were not satisfied with a passive resistance; they surrendered in whole brigades and went over to the Allies and re-entered as volunteers against their former masters. In the heroic deeds of the Czechoslovak volunteers we see the dream of the poet crystallized into acts.
