The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-05-06
The slavonic Race in Politics and
Religion.


We may expect to hear from those who
favor the Russian side in the present CON
test. tho old fables about the sympathies
and interests which are alleged to knit to-
gcthcr SlaNonic peoples. The exploded
iictons of Pauslayism. the panslavic ten
denotes of Russia. and the will of PETER the
Great. will doubtless bc rcvamped 10y writers
who know little about Russia or the Slavs.
and who certainly have never seen the
apochryphal testament 1t may Ice well.
therefore. to mark the precise relation in
which the several ol-hoots Of the Slavonic
stock stand toward Russia and toward each
other.
without reciting facts which may be- found
IN amy cyrlopRdia, We may state rounIly
that within ii 'uricI times up To- the CLOSE
of th, lat century. fh, various hrauch,- ol
tn, SlaNuric -t.u newer had or claimed to
have any iNll ~ union in religion or
language. III political or geographical iden-
tity. In those respects We find them far
more SHARPLY and dciinitivcly severed than
the nations Of Gcrmanic descent, or
those whose Romantic tongues attest a
common Latin origin. For the most part,
Geruaulc peoples are Protestant in faith,
have alphahets substantially the same,
whlo iu structure Of speech and vocabu-
larry they approximate very closely, cspo-
cial 8 mo the ease Of the English Hollander.
and PLATE Deui-ch idiom-. 50. too, the
LatiN nations, from Walaohia to Portugal
oxhill, one religion one alphabet for the
ROM haractrf- are lat slightly modified
in W.l.achianl. uI languages which differ
only .- th' daughters If one mother On
D %
the beginning of THE nineteenth century
oD.l'aall .ie -.gr-o , wreck and di-ntc-,ra-
t.uH Hu--t ALONE WIS standing. hut sur
rendered /. tl' shaping Of Occ.lNntal ideas
she discovered for tn" moment uo vo-tige of
: he Nlavunic patontng" lcyonlhD language
and her communal system Poland had lost
her political Independence. while the Last
trace Of the Indigenous element had long
fldod from her literature and religion
under Latin pressure. The SiaNs of he Llbr
had vanished from the map Of Europe
with the exception Of a moagrc remnant
wcdged between Brandcnturg and SaNony
which. numbering hardly more than hun
dred thousand souls, had yet managed to
acquire two religions and two alphabcts.
| Bohemia seemed 10 have finally succulnhcd
| tlJe-uit ami German influences, and even
the czech language was supposed to be dy-
ing. The Slovenians had relapscd into
aIathy with the compulsory restoration Of
catholicism, and the Croat- had sold Them
-clNc- body and soul to Au-tria The Bu-
i,ariuus. crushed by the Turks and plume
dcrcd 10y tn" Greek clergy were apparently
no. longer conscious of their national
/ Identity, while the Serbs and Munt,nnari.
81. H.. 81
! power We're prompted by no larger purpose
than the hope Of scli-prc-crNaton. In a
word, at the outset of this century the
unity of the great Slav family, If il had az
! amy time existed, wa, seen to be completely
| rupturcd and even the separate threads Of
| historical traditions were broken. The
| SlnVs were however AZ that time on the eve
Of curious revival, which, i'm one aspect,
must ho rcckoncd among the notable event ,
| If our age, but whose circumsclihod scope
and meaning are not Away recognized.
The intellectual movement which We have
witnessed in very recent times among Sla-
vonic peoples, began not in Russia, as is
commonly supposed, but among the Czechs
Alone Of Slav countries Bohemia had once
possessed the germs Of literature in the
! IIussitc propaganda, which, although stillcd,
were not forgotten. A main object Of the
school Of poetry and history which arose in
Prague was 10 collect and bla2on all the
memories which might further the work Of
Bohemian reconstruction. Such researches
however, into the past, naturally led to a
study of the language and customs of such
Savonic nations as presented some points
Of contact. These gradually assimi-
lated through translation the mate
rails amasscd by the Czechs, and some
Of them, especially the Russians and
the Austrian Serbs, soon unfol,led an origl-
nal literature, Presently the idea of a com
mon origin and Of ethnc interests sown
among the dispersed members of one family
gained certain consistency. The Czech
poet KoLAR, followed by VoDNIK and
others Of Moscow, began to talk about Sla-
vonic unity, about a league against the
common enemy. But 1t was remarked that