Page:The Slavs among the nations by T G Masaryk.djvu/20

 In any case, purely political Panslavism, regarded as political centralisation, cannot satisfy the aspirations of the Slav nations.

But such a centralisation meets with the same impossibility, when regarded in the light of historical evolution. Each Slav nation has a history of over a thousand years, and that, as well as its geographical position, gives it duties and needs peculiar to its own civilisation.

For those reasons political Panrussianism, Panslavic centralisation, as the Germans and the Magyars describe it for us, has never formed part of our programme. We desire something far more, much more than that!

What do we desire?

We have always demanded, and still demand, to form a moral ideal federation, each member of which would develop freely its own genius for the benefit of civilisation as a whole. And for that purpose we claim liberty and political independence. That is why we seek the aid of Russia, as the greatest and most powerful Slav nation. But to-day we also hope to find support from the Allies. The small Slav nations are now passing through a very grave crisis, a crisis