Page:The Slavs among the nations by T G Masaryk.djvu/16

 By energetically defending its national interests without threatening the rights of the Slavs, Italy is certain to have nothing to fear from the Russians or the Serbians.

The smaller Slav peoples, as may be readily understood, see a powerful protector in mighty Russia. It could not be otherwise, seeing that they are continually being menaced by the Germans, the Magyars, and the Turks; and the other great Powers display no interest in them. I will go further and be so bold as to declare that it is the Western nations them selves who are responsible for the so-called Panrussianism, either by directly threatening the Slavs of Central and Southern Europe or by abandoning them helplessly to the German and Austro-Hungarian hegemony. Neither Russia nor the other Slavs have created Panrussianism. The Slav peoples are so jealous of their individuality that, though living under the constant menace of the Germans, they always have had, and still do have, grave differences between themselves, not only in their political disputes—e.g., the Poles with the Russians, and the Serbians with the