The great points of weakness in Austria are usually supposed to 
be her bankrupt treasury and the revolutionary elements of Italy 
and Hungary. It is true that in a war with France and England 
those elements might be employed with great effect against her; 
but in a war with Russia her vulnerable point lies in another 
quarter. Though this point was always plain to be seen, and, 
indeed, has been indicated by Austrian statesmen themselves, we 
had, during the life of the Emperor Nicholas, no menace to show 
that he had firmly resolved, in any contingency, to take advantage 
of it. His successor,* however, appears to be less scrupulous, or at 
any rate less reserved. He has clearly announced to Austria that in 
the event of her finally joining the Allies he shall put himself 
officially at the head of the great Slavonic brotherhood, and call to 
his aid all the slumbering sympathies of. race or religion which 
naturally impel the Slavonians of Austria and Turkey to Russia, as 
well as all the deep-seated animosities they cherish against the 
nations and governments that now hold them in more or less 
complete subjugation. 

Panslavism as a political theory has had its most lucid and 
philosophic expression in the writings of Count Gurowski. But that 
learned and distinguished publicist, while regarding Russia as the 
natural pivot around which the destinies of this numerous and 
vigorous branch of the human family can alone find a large 
historical development, did not conceive of Panslavism as a 
league against Europe and European civilization. In his view the 
legitimate outlet for the expansive force of Slavonic energies was 
Asia. As compared with the stagnant desolation of that old con- 
tinent, Russia is a civilizing power, and her contact could not be 


* Alexander II.— Ed. 


690 Appendices 


other than beneficial. This manly and imposing generalization 
has, however, not been accepted by all the inferior minds which 
have adopted its fundamental idea. Panslavism has assumed a 
variety of aspects; and now, at last, we find it employed in a new 
form, and with great apparent effect, as a warlike threat. As such, 
its use certainly does credit to the boldness and decision of the 
new Czar. And how just the fear with which the threat has inspired 
Austria, we now propose to show. 

Of the seventy millions of Slavonians living east of the 
Bohemian forest and the Karnic Alps, about fifteen millions are 
subject to the Austrian Emperor, comprising representatives of 
almost every variety of Slavonic speech. The Bohemian, or Tshekh 
branch (six millions), falls exclusively in the Austrian dominions; 
the Polish branch is represented by about three millions of 
Galicians; the Russian by three millions of Malo-Russians (Red 
Russians, Ruthenes **’) in Galicia and the north-east of Hungary— 
the only Russian tribe out of the pale of the Russian Empire; the 
South Slavonic branch by about three millions of Slovenes 
(Carinthians and Croats) **? and Serbians, including some stray 
Bulgarians. These Austrian Slavonians are of two different kinds. 
One part of them consists of the remnants of tribes whose history 
belongs to the past, and whose present historical development is 
attached to that of nations of different race and speech; and to 
complete their unfortunate position, these hapless relics of former 
greatness have not even a national organization within Austria, but 
are divided among different provinces. Thus the Slovenes, 
although scarcely 1,500,000 in number, are spread over the 
different provinces of Krain, Carinthia, Styria, Croatia, and 
South-western Hungary. The Bohemians (Tshekhs), though the 
most numerous tribe of Austrian Slavonians, reside partly in 
Bohemia, partly in Moravia, and partly (the Slovak branch) in 
North-western Hungary. These tribes, therefore, though living 
exclusively on Austrian soil, are far from being recognized as 
constituting separate nations. They are considered as appendages, 
either to the German or the Hungarian nation, and in reality they 
are nothing else. 

The second portion of Austrian Slavonians is composed of 
fragments of different tribes, which, in the course of history, have 
become separated from the great body of their nation, and which, 
therefore, have their center of gravity out of Austria. Thus the 
Poles have their natural center of gravity in Russian-Poland; the 
Ruthenes in the other Malo-Russian provinces united with Russia; 
the Serbians in the Serbian principality. That these fragments, 


Appendices 69] 


torn from their respective nationalities, will continue to gravitate, 
each toward its natural center, is a matter of course, and becomes 
more and more evident as civilization, and with it the want of 
historical, national activity, is spread among them. In either case, 
the Austrian Slavonians are disjecta membra,’ seeking their reunion 
either among each other, or with the main body of their separate 
nationalities. 

This is the cause which formerly rendered Panslavism so active 
in Austria. In order to secure the restoration of each Slavonian 
nationality, the different tribes of Slavonians in Austria long since 
began to work for a union of all the Slavonic tribes. The first 
appearance of Austrian Panslavism was merely literary. Dobrows- 
ky, a Bohemian, the founder of the scientific philology of the 
Slavonic dialects, and Kollar, a Slovak poet from the Hungarian 
Carpathians, were its originators. With Dobrowsky it was the 
enthusiasm of a scientific discoverer; with Kollar, political ideas 
soon became predominant; but still he ventured to complain only; 
the greatness of the past, the disgrace, the misfortune and foreign 
oppression of the present, were the themes of his poetry. The 
dream of the Panslavic Empire dictating laws to Europe was at 
that time hardly hinted at. 

But the lamenting period soon passed away, and _ historical 
research upon the political, literary and linguistic development of 
the Slavonic race, made great progress. Safarik, Kopitar and 
Miklosich as linguists, Palacky as a historian, took the lead, 
followed by a host of lesser men like Hanka and Gaj. The glorious 
epochs of Bohemian and Serbian history were glowingly depicted 
in their contrast to the present degraded and broken state of those 
nations. While in Germany philosophy formed the pretext under 
the protection of which the most revolutionary doctrines in politics 
or theology were propounded, in Austria, and under the very 
nose of Metternich, historical and philological science was used by 
the Panslavists as a cloak to teach the doctrine of Slavonic unity, 
and to create a political party with the unmistakable aim of 
upsetting Austria, and instituting a vast Slavonian empire in its 
place. 

Austrian Panslavism was destitute of the most essential elements 
of success. It wanted both force and unity; force, because the 
Panslavic party consisted of a portion of the educated classes only, 
had no hold upon the masses, and withal no strength capable of 


* Scattered limbs, dismembered parts—paraphrase of Horace’s expression 
“‘disjecti membra poetae”.— Ed. ; 


692 Appendices 


resisting both the Austrian Government and the German and 
Hungarian nationalities against which it entered the list; unity, 
because its uniting principle was a mere ideal one, which, at the 
very first attempt at realization, was broken up by the fact of 
diversity of language. Of this diversity, a ludicrous illustration was 
afforded by the famous Slavonian Congress at Prague, in 1848.4° 
There, after various attempts to make out a Slavonic language 
that should be intelligible to all the members, they were ob- 
liged to resort to the tongue most hated by them all—the 
German. 

In fact, so long as the movement was limited to Austria it 
offered no great danger, but that very center of unity and 
strength which it wanted, was very soon found for it. The national 
uprising of the Turkish Serbians, in the beginning of this 
century,*”! had called the attention of the Russian Government to 
the fact that there were some seven millions of Slavonians in 
Turkey, whose speech, of all other Slavonic dialects, most 
resembled the Russian. Their religion too, and their ecclesiastic 
language—old Slavonic or Church-Slavonic—were exactly the 
same as in Russia. It was among these Serbians and Bulgarians 
that the Czar for the first time began an agitation supported by 
appeals to his position as the protector of the Eastern Church. It 
was therefore only natural that as soon as this Panslavist 
movement in Austria had gained consistency, Russia should 
extend thither the ramifications of her agencies. Where Roman 
Catholic Slavonians were met with the religious side of the 
question was dropped; Russia was merely held up as the proper 
head of the Slavonic race, and the strong and united people which 
was to realize the great Slavonic Empire from the Elbe to China, 
and from the Adriatic to the frozen ocean. 

Metternich, in the latter years of his power, very well 
appreciated the danger and saw through the Russian intrigues. He 
opposed the movement with all the means in his power. But the 
only proper means—general freedom of expansion—did not 
belong to his system of policy. Accordingly, on Metternich’s 
downfall in 1848, the Slavonic movement broke out stronger than 
ever, and embraced a large proportion of the population. But 
-here its reactionary character at once came to light. While the 
German, Hungarian and Italian movements were decidedly 
progressive and revolutionary, the Slavonic party turned to the 
conservative side. It was the Slavonians that saved Austria from 
destruction, and enabled Radetzky to advance on the Mincio, and 
Windischgratz to conquer Vienna. And to complete the drama, in 


Appendices 693 


1849 the Russian army had to descend into Hungary and settle 
the war for Austria there. 

While thus driven by her own want of vitality to depend on 
Slavonic aid for her very existence, Austria seized the first 
moment of security to react against the Slavonians in her own 
territory. For this purpose she had to adopt a policy at least 
partially progressive. The special privileges of the Provinces were 
broken down; a centralized empire took the place of a federal 
one; and instead of all the different nationalities a fictitious 
Austrian nationality was created. Though these changes were in 
some degree against the German, Italian and Hungarian 
nationalities, they yet fell with far greater weight on the less 
compact Slavonian tribes, and more especially gave the German 
element a considerable preponderance. 

But the sentiment of race and of attachment to Russia has been 
strengthened rather than’ weakened by this process. Austrian 
Panslavism possesses, perhaps, at this moment a greater latent 
force than ever. It represents the only element in Austria which 
was not broken down in the late revolutionary struggle. The 
Italians, the Hungarians, the Germans even, all came debilitated 
and discouraged out of that vehement convulsion. The Slavonians 
alone felt themselves unconquered and unreduced. Is it surprising 
that Francis Joseph should hesitate before setting on foot a war in 
which Russia would find millions of devoted and fanatical allies 
within his own Empire?