Page:The Slavs among the nations by T G Masaryk.djvu/11

 ment among the Slav nations is often translated into a political idea. Some prefer to see in it what is called “Panslavism,” that is, the design to form a colossal Slav monarchy under the domination of Russia, and they readily repeat the words of Napoleon on the danger of a “Cossackised” Europe.

If the numbers of the Slav peoples are examined, it is seen that they greatly surpass those of other nations. According to the figures of Professor Niederle, which are somewhat unfavourable to the Slavs, there were in 1900 136,500,000 Slavs. In 1916 their number may be estimated at 156,700,000. In 1900 the Russians were put at 94,000,000 and the other Slavs at 42,000,000. The Russians, therefore, were more than twice as numerous as all the other Slavs put together. As the Germans, who are the most numerous apart from the Russians, are now only 70,000,000, the English 45,000,000, the French 40,000,000, and the Italians 36,000,000, it is not astonishing that a certain fear of the Panslavist peril—also called the Panrussian peril—should have arisen among the Western peoples.