Page:The Slavs among the nations by T G Masaryk.djvu/8

 nations which will be studied here—Russians, Poles, Bulgarians, Serbians, and Czecho-Slovacs—can perfectly well represent the Slav world. For instance, the Serbians can represent the Croatians and the Slovenes not only in politics but also in literature and language. Besides, the Slavs themselves are not altogether agreed as to the number of nations into which they must be divided. The number varies, according to the writer, from seven to ten. It has even been contended that it is possible to fix the number of living Slav nations at fourteen, omitting those which have become extinct. The question of the exact number of Slav nations has always excited numerous discussions and roused bitter disputes between philologists, historians of literature, and ethnographers. In my opinion, in order to complete the list of Slav nations of the 20th century, the Slovenes and the Serbians of Lusatia must be added.

Do the Slavs, as a whole, constitute a true unity? I believe that can be answered by a categoric affirmative. We are obviously confronted by a group of distinct nations, each with its own tongue, its national literature, its inde-