Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/287

 tire people and was therefore eagerly listened to. So when the memorable year 1848 brought from France a new call to break the shackles of oppression and to establish the rule of freedom, the Slavs, stirred by Kollar’s call, summoned the first Pan-Slavic Congress to Prague. Over 340 delegates representing all Slav nations assembled in this metropolis May 29, 1848, to give to Pan-Slavism a definite form and to agree upon ways and means to realize the needed unity. June the 7th, a solemn declaration was addressed to the peoples of Europe; this declaration is one of the most remarkable historical documents of the middle of the nineteenth century. The declaration proclaimed that the noble watchwords of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, hold good not only for individuals, but also for the natural groups of peoples, the nations. It denounced absolutism and presented a plan to change Austria into a constitutional federal state existing for the protection of smaller nationalities composing it. It was to be something like our United States. This was the plan of the great Bohemian historian and statesman Palacký. The Poles demanded reunion of their torn fatherland, while the Jugoslavs demanded full freedom from the Turkish yoke. The memorable manifesto ends in a fiery appeal to Europe for a congress of all European nations.

A congress of peoples and not of governments, which proclaimed such modern and progressive ideas, could not find hearing in the era of Metternich, of Prussia’s growth and the height of Russian autocracy. Furthermore revolutionary winds were blowing through Europe and the people were everywhere too busy with their local problems; so the appeal of the Slavs was left unheeded. The Germans stigmatized the congress of Prague as high treason. Did they feel already that united Slavs would block the German expansion plans? The Magyars also opposed the congress furiously, denouncing it through Prince Esterhazy to the emperor, and only the French welcomed the proposal.

The revolution of 1848 blew over Europe very quickly with only meager results; the grasp of absolutism was too strong and the people not yet sufficiently united in purpose. In Germany Bismarck built with blood and iron and created the German Empire. Austria, under the rule of Francis Joseph, became a dual monarchy where Teutons and Magyars divided power and with the help of governmental machinery, oppressed the Slav majority. This majority entered then upon a slow constitutionally managed struggle against oppression. While the Poles were bitterly opposed to everything Russian, many Bohemians and most Jugoslavs looked at this time to Russia as to the future savior of Slavs, but many dissented. Among Bohemian politicians it was especially the brilliant Havlíček who knew Russia thoroughly, having spent several years there as teacher. He opposed Rusophilism vigorously, for according to his views nothing could be expected for the Slavs from the autocratic Russian government. To work with the Poles seemed hopeless and Havlíček advocated a union of Bohemians with the Jugoslavs. The eyes of the Bohemians were thus turned south. Austria opposed this friendship with alarm. When the Balkan war came in 1912 in which Serbia and Bulgaria threw off the last remnants of the Turkish rule, Bohemian newspapers, volunteers and Red Cross workers showed unmistakably and vigorously their sympathies for the Jugoslavs.

The “league of free nations,” the plan of the Prague Slavic Congress of 1848, is being realized now by Allied statesmen in Paris. It is interesting to ask, whether this league means an end of Pan-Slavism? This is hardly probable. Just as in ordinary life there are persons whom we cherish with more affection than others, so in the society of nations there are bound to be certain groupings of interest and sentiment among peoples closely related. There is no danger to the peace of the world in such ententes, especially when they are effected between Slav peoples. A close understanding between the Czechoslovaks and Jugoslavs that already exists will, let us hope, be followed by the cordial friendship of Poland; through the mediation of the Czechoslovaks and Jugoslavs the old bitterness existing between the Poles and the Russians shall be overcome, and western Slavic influence will be substituted in Russia for German influence.

Pan-Slavism in this sense—a spirit of cooperation among all the Slav nations—will prevent most effectually the one great danger to the success of the League of Nations, the possibility of German control of Russia’s resources in men and materials.