Anti-Slavic sentiment

Anti-Slavic sentiment, also calledSlavophobia, refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the variousSlavic peoples. Accompanyingracismandxenophobia, the most common manifestation of anti-Slavic sentiment throughout history has been the assertion that some Slavs areinferior to other peoples. This sentiment peaked duringWorld War II, whenNazi Germanyclassified most of the Slavs— especially thePoles,Russians,Belarusians,Serbs,Ukrainians, andCentral Asians—as "subhumans" (Untermenschen) and planned to exterminate a large number of them through theGeneralplan OstandHunger Plan.Slavophobia also emerged twice in theUnited States: the first time was during theProgressive Era, when immigrants fromEastern Europewere met with opposition from the dominant class ofWestern European–origin American citizens; and again during theCold War, when the United States became locked in an intensive global rivalry with theSoviet Union.
At the beginning of the 20th century, anti-Slavism inAlbaniawas developed by the work of theFranciscan friarswho had studied in monasteries inAustria-Hungary,after the recentmassacresandexpulsionsof Albanians by their Slavic neighbours.The Albanian intelligentsia proudly asserted, "We Albanians are the original and autochthonous race of the Balkans. The Slavs are conquerors and immigrants who came but yesterday from Asia."InSoviet historiography, anti-Slavism in Albania was inspired by the Catholic clergy,which opposed the Slavic people because of the role theCatholic clergyand Slavs opposed "rapacious plans of Austro-Hungarian imperialism in Albania".
In the 1920s,Italian fascistshated theYugoslavs, especially theCroatiansandSerbs. They accused the Serbs & Croats of having "atavisticimpulses" and they also claimed that the Yugoslavs were conspiring on behalf of "Grand Orient Masonry and its funds". Oneanti-Semiticclaim stated that the Serbs were involved in a "social-democratic, masonic Jewish internationalist plot".
Benito Mussoliniconsidered the Slavic race inferior and barbaric.He believed that theCroatswere a threat to Italy because they wanted to seizeDalmatia, a region which was claimed by Italy, and he also claimed that the threat rallied Italians at the end ofWorld War I: "The danger of seeing the Jugo-Slavians settle along the whole Adriatic shore had caused a bringing together in Rome of the cream of our unhappy regions. Students, professors, workmen, citizens—representative men—were entreating the ministers and the professional politicians."These claims often tended to emphasize the "foreignness" of the Yugoslavs by stating that they were newcomers to the area, unlike the ancient Italians, whose territories were occupied by the Slavs.
CountGaleazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son in law, and the Foreign Minister ofFascist Italywho was later executed by Mussolini, wrote the following entry in his diary:
In Canada, many xenophobicwhite supremacistswere deeply tied to their nation's "Anglo-Saxon" culture, specifically from the early 1900s to the end of World War II. TheKu Klux Klan in Canadawas prominent in the provinces ofSaskatchewanandAlberta, both of which have a relatively highEastern Europeanethnic population. Immigrants fromUkraine, Russia, andPolandwere frequently denounced and targeted.
During World War I, thousands ofUkrainian Canadianswere seen as "enemy aliens" as Canadiannativistssaw them as a "threat" to Canada'sWestern Europeanheritage. Due to this, many of them wereinterned in concentration camps. There was constant discrimination towardsUkrainianswho recently immigrated from theAustro-Hungarian Empire.
Though anti-Slavic sentiments reached their peak during Nazi Germany, Germany has had a long history of Slavophobia. In particular, the Germanic people of Prussia often depicted Polish people in a negative light, which paralleled future Slavophobia in the Nazi regime.
Nikolay Ulyanov[ru]in his 1968 article " Замолчанный Маркс" (Hushed-up Marx) provides ample evidence of anti-Slavism the founders ofMarxism,Karl MarxandFriedrich Engels.For example, in his 1849 article "The Magyar Struggle," Engels wrote that the Slavs living in theAustrian Empirewere "barbarians" who "needed to be saved" by the Germanic Austrians.
Gustav Freytag's 1855 novelSoll und Haben("Debt and Credit") was one of the most-read German novels of the 19th century, and contained antisemitic sentiments as well as depictions of Poles as incompetent.
Anti-Slavic racism played a significant role within the ideology ofNazism.Adolf Hitlerand theNazi Partyheld the belief that Slavic countries - particularlyPoland, theSoviet Union, andYugoslavia, as well as their respectivepeoples- were"Untermenschen" (subhumans).According to their viewpoint, these Slavic nations were deemed to beforeign entitiesand were not considered part of theAryanmaster race. Nazi Germany depicted the Soviet Union as an "Asiaticenemy" of Europeans, in addition to portraying its population as inferior subhumans controlled byJewsandcommunists.
Hitler’s autobiographyMein Kampfwas openly anti-Slavic. He wrote: “One ought to cast the utmost doubt on the state-building power of the Slavs,” and from the beginning, he rejected the idea of incorporating the Slavs intoGreater Germany.
Hitler considered the Slavs to be racially inferior, because, in his view, theBolshevik Revolutionhad put the Jews in power over the mass of Slavs, who were, by his own definition, incapable of ruling themselves but were instead being ruled by Jewish masters.He considered the development of modern Russia to have been the work of Germanic, not Slavic, elements in the nation, but believed those achievements had been undone and destroyed by theOctober Revolution,inMein Kampf, he wrote, “The organization of a Russian state formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in Russia, but only a wonderful example of the state-forming efficacity of the German element in an inferior race.”
Because, according to the Nazis,the German people needed more territoryto sustain its surplus population, an ideology of conquest and depopulation was formulated forCentral and Eastern Europeaccording to the principle ofLebensraum, itself based on an older theme in German nationalism which maintained that Germany had a "natural yearning" to expand its borders eastward (Drang Nach Osten).The Nazis' policy towards Slavs was to exterminate or enslave the vast majority of the Slavic population and repopulate their lands with millions of ethnic Germans and other Germanic peoples.According to the resulting genocidalGeneralplan Ost, millions of German and other "Germanic" settlers would be moved into the conquered territories, and the original Slavic inhabitants were to be annihilated, removed or enslaved.The policy was focused especially on the Soviet Union, as it alone was deemed capable of providing enough territory to accomplish this goal.
As part of theGeneralplan Ost, Nazi Germany developed theHunger Plan, a forced starvation programme which involved the seizure of all of the food which was produced on Eastern European lands and the delivery of it to Germany, primarily to the German army. The full implementation of this plan would have ultimately resulted in the starvation and death of 20 to 30 million people (mainly Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians). It is estimated that in accordance with this plan, over four million Soviet citizens were starved to death from 1941 to 1944.The resettlement policy reached a much more advanced stage inoccupied Polandbecause of its immediate proximity to Germany.
For strategic reasons, the Nazis deviated from some of their ideological theories by forging alliances withUkrainian collaborators, theIndependent State of Croatia(established after theinvasion of Yugoslavia), theSlovak State(established after theoccupation of Czechoslovakia) andBulgaria. Yugoslav generalMilan Nedićwould also lead Nazi Germany'sSerbian puppet government.The Nazis officially justified these alliances by stating that the Croats were "more Germanic than Slav", a notion which was propagated by Croatia's leaderAnte Pavelić, who espoused the view that the "Croats were the descendants of the ancientGoths" who "had thepan-Slavic ideaforced upon them as something artificial".Hitler also believed that the Bulgarians were "Turkoman", while the Czechs and Slovaks wereMongoliansin their origins.After conquering Yugoslavia, attention was instead focused on targeting mainly the nation's Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) population.
Though Slavophobia became less prevalent after WWII, it still persisted to some degree and still persists today. Slavic immigrants in Germany experience discrimination due to their accents, their surnames, and their cuisine.Sincethe invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, Russian speakers in Germany have faced increased discrimination, including collective blame for Russia's actions in the war, despite most having lived in Germany for decades and many not being Russian at all. Since the Russian language was thelingua francaof the Soviet Union, an immigrant living in Germany who speaks Russian could be from anywhere that was influenced by the Soviet Union.
Traditionally,inGreece, Slavic people were considered "invaders who separated the glory ofGreek Antiquity, by bringing an era of decline and ruin to Greece – the Dark Ages".In 1913, when Greece took control of Slavic-inhabited areas in Northern Greece, theSlavic toponymswere changed to Greek, and according to the Greek government, this was "the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the beautiful appearance of our fatherland."
Anti-Slavic sentiment escalated during theGreek Civil War, whenMacedonian partisans, who aligned themselves with theDemocratic Army of Greece, were not treated as equals and suffered discrimination everywhere, they were accused of committing a "sin" because they chose to identify themselves as Slavs rather than Greeks.The Macedonian partisans were subjected to threats of extermination, physical attacks, murder, attacks on their settlements, forcible expulsions, restrictions on freedom of movement, and bureaucratic problems, among other discriminatory acts.Although they were allied with the Greek Left, due to their Slavic identity, theMacedonianswere viewed with suspicion and animosity by the Greek Left.
In 1948, theDemocratic Army of Greeceevacuated tens of thousands ofchild refugees, both Greek and Slavic in origin.In 1985, the refugees were allowed to re-enter Greece, claim Greek citizenship, and reclaim property, but only if they were "Greek by genus", thus prohibiting those with a Slavic identity from obtaining Greek citizenship, entering Greece, and claiming property.
Today, the Greek state does not recognize itsethnic Macedonianand otherSlavic minorities, claiming that they do not exist, with Greece therefore having the right not to grant them any of the rights that are guaranteed to them by human-rights treaties.
TheUnited States of Americahas a long history of Slavophobia. Slavophobia began in earnest during the "second wave" of European immigration in the early 1900s, when many people from Southern and Eastern Europe were immigrating to the US.They faced opposition from the "old" immigrants, who were mostly from Northern and Western Europe. These attitudes culminated in theImmigration Act of 1924, which established quotas for and limited the numbers of people from Southern and Eastern European countries who were allowed to enter the US.Slavic peoples were considered to be people of an "inferior race" who were unable to assimilate into American society.They were originally not considered to be "fully white" (and thus fully American), and Slavic peoples' "whiteness" continues to be a debate to this day.
Slavophobia in the US ramped up again during theCold War, when Slavic peoples of all nationalities were considered enemies due to the United States' distrust of the Soviet Union.War in the Balkans (which America often had a part in) was considered inevitable due to the Balkan peoples' "propensity for extreme war violence."The United States government, while claiming to advocate for national determination for small countries, has denied national determination to many of the countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.As a result, many Slavic people in the US and Western countries felt pressure (and continue to feel pressure) to Anglicize their surnames and downplay their Slavic culture.
In American pop culture, Slavic people (specifically Russians) are usually portrayed as either nefarious, violent criminalsor as unintelligent, oblivious comic relief."Dumb Pole" jokes or "Polish jokes"(derogatory jokes towards Polish people) are just one manifestation ofanti-Polish sentimentin America, and can be found in all sorts of media from many time periods.
Slavophobia has had a resurgence in America followingRussia's invasion of Ukraine, where Russian-Americans and people of Russian descent have been collectively blamed for the Russian government's actions.
Notes
Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 5 Oct. 2021.http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781628928273.ch-004