Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/286

 New nations, so to speak, were being born to the world; new democracies, the peoples of Comenius, of Kosciusko, of Tolstoy, were coming into existence, peoples whose lives, intellectually and industrially, will add permanently to the wealth of the human race.

Though this Pan-Slavic movement is of a recent origin, there has been, nevertheless, always a feeling of unity and close relationship among the Slavic nations. It is interesting to note how this feeling manifested itself in the past and what results it has brought about in the present. In 860 the great ruler of the Moravian realm (that was the name of Czechoslovakia in those days) Rostislav, seeing the necessity of modernizing his people by accepting Christianity and wishing also to counteract the Germanizing influence of the Teutonic missionaries, turned to Constantinople for Slavic-speaking missionaries. Two ardent brothers, Cyril and Method, were sent in response to this request, and although using the Jugo-Slav dialects, they were well understood by the northern Slavs. These first Pan-Slav missionaries brought as a gift seeds of all future culture: a new alphabet based upon the Greek, which in a modified form is still used by the Russians and some Jugo-Slavs. The Bible and the whole Church liturgy was translated into Slavic and written in new chacracterscharacters [sic].

This union between the Moravians and Jugoslavs was ended, however, by the permanent settlement of the Magyars along the Danube. They drove a wedge between both peoples and what were the results? The southern Slavs and the Greeks were left to be defeated by the Turks. The north-western Slavs became dependent upon Rome spiritually and culturally, and the Czechs were constantly menaced by the German “kultur” until finally they were almost swallowed up by it. Russia cut off by the Tartar hordes from the western world and from Constantinople as well, became Oriental in life and was not to return to European ways until the advent of Peter the Great.

The Middle Ages find the Poles and the Czechs isolated by the Magyars from the Jugoslavs. The intercourse between these two northern peoples was always intimate, but unfortunately the circumstances and the lack of leadership did not bring a real community of interest. Friendship among the people implies democracy, but Poland was quickly changing into an aristocracy run by selfish nobles, while the masses of the people were reduced to serfdom; and the king became a mere figurehead. The terrible result of this policy is well known. Torn into three pieces the weakened Poland became the prey of its foes and languished under a foreign yoke until the great liberating war also rehabilitated this unhappy land. In Bohemia the religious strifes and wars brought a weakening of ancient democratic institutions and finally the great maelstrom of the Thirty Years’ War delivered this country definitely and helplessly into the hands of inimical Hapsburgs. There is no doubt that a strong national ideal was needed to cure the excesses of Polish nobility on the one side and the religious strifes in Bohemia on the other. Great men felt the need of such an ideal and sought to bring it to life by uniting both nations and by creating a union which by its force would give self-confidence to the people. Jan Žižka, the great Hussite general,, [sic]advised his people in 1422 to elect a Polish prince, Sigmund Koribut, for king and thus end religious wars. Hussite wars stirred passions, however, that would not listen to reason. A second similar attempt was made by the wise and democratic king, George Poděbrad, who on his deathbed in 1471, advised the estates of his realm to discard his own sons in succesion in favor of Vladislav Jagielo, son of the Polish king. Vladislav, a lad of 15 years, was unfortunately a weakling under whom the religious differences grew worse, while the masses of the people were slowly deprived of their liberties by the unscrupulous nobles. So the dream of creating a strong Slavic state with access to the sea for Bohemia was again nullified, and while Poland was approaching internal anarchy with its liberum veto, Bohemia, due to internal dissension, fell into the clutches of the Hapsburgs.

The reawakening of democracy and of the nationalistic consciousness of individual rights was a harbinger of political democracy destined to live and grow. People would no longer remain passive subjects; they wanted to live as nations, each nation representing a large family governed on a democratic basis. Kollar’s appeal for unity of Slavs which would be the source of strength of the kindred peoples, a strength which would obtain for them respect and freedom, was actually the voice of the en-