Pan-Slavism

Pan-Slavism (from the Greek prefix pan- which means all) is a notion of the political and cultural unity of all Slavic people. It was based on an idea of unity of dispersed Slavic peoples and groups that lived divided under the Austro-Hungarian, Turkish Ottoman, or Venetian rule. Like similar Romantic nationalist movements across Europe, pan-Slavism developed from the sense of national unity after the French Revolution (1789–1799) and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and subsequently gave rise to the Illyrian movement (1830s) and the pan-Slavic movements and national revivals across Russia, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other Slavic countries of Europe. The aim of the movement was to unite all Slavs in one country, confederation, or cultural union. The First Pan-Slavic Congress took place in Prague in 1848. The symbols of the pan-Slavic movement were the pan-Slavic colors (blue, white, and red) and the pan-Slavic anthem "Hey, Slavs."

Brief History

The early Slavic ties were based on the common ethnic origins in the Great Moravia and Pannonia, and the close cultural developments over the centuries. Cyril and Methodius, the ninth-century Byzantine Greek missionaries, introduced Orthodox Christianity and the Glagolitic alphabet in the region, creating the root of a common written language. The Croatian philosopher of the mid-sixteenth century, Vinko Pribojević, was considered the founder of the pan-Slavism. He was one of the most prominent Latinists and the originator of the Croatian Illyrian movement in the nineteenth century. Pribojević was the first to incorporate the Illyrian myth of common origin into Slavic history. His most famous work was the speech "De origine successibusque Slavorum" ("On the Origin and History of Slavs," 1532), in which he glorified the Illyrians and Slavs as the ancestors of the Dalmatian Croats.

Although Pribojević’s work is seen as largely fictional by contemporary historiography, it succeeded in rousing the spirit of the Slavs and inspired an idea of an independent homogenous state, further developed by the grammarian Bartol Kašić (1575–1650), the linguist Juraj Križanić (c. 1617–1683), and others. They noted the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural connectedness of the Slavic groups originating from the Danubian basin and the Balkans, which lived dispersed in a multitude of countries.

In Bohemia, pan-Slavism developed through the efforts of humanist Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670). Comenius wished to continue the attempt of the English scholar Francis Bacon to organize all human knowledge. Considered the father of modern education and the forerunner of the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Comenius strove to unite all nations and religious confessions and worked toward the creation of an international university and on the establishment of the principle of universal arbitration. When Bohemia lost its independence in 1620, Comenius continued his work in exile, resulting in the book Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gate of Languages Unlocked, 1631). During the Czech National Revival of the nineteenth century, Comenius was revered as the national symbol. His teaching was the basis for the nineteenth- and twentieth-century idea of political unification, strongly influencing the humanist and politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, an advocate of Czechoslovakian independence during World War I, who became the founder and the first president of Czechoslovakia.

Impact

The key moments of the pan-Slavic movement were the emergence of Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918, both at the end of World War I.

The First Pan-Slavic Congress took place in Prague in 1848 as an organized show of resistance to the German culture and Habsburg rule in the Bohemian capital. Two strong fractions were formed—those that wished to promote the union of Slavs within the existing borders of Austro-Hungary (represented by the Czech historian and politician František Palacký and the Slovak philologist and historian Pavel Jozef Šafárik), and those that strived for independence from the monarchy (represented by Karel Sabina, Josef Václav Frič, Karol Libelt, and others). The most important result of the Congress was the creation of The Manifesto to the Nations of Europe in June 1848, a proclamation that demanded an end to the oppression of the Slav people. During World War I, Slav soldiers from both sides of enemy lines would sing the anthem "Hey Slavs." The anthem was a show of solidarity, signaling a refusal to fight fellow Slavs.

Southern Slavs are the major ethnic groups living in the Pannonia basin on the Balkan peninsula, that is, the contemporary states of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. They were among the first to revolt against the decaying Ottoman Empire, securing autonomy in the First Serbian Uprising (1804) and the Second Serbian Uprising (1815). After obtaining autonomy, the Serbs started to seek unity with other Slavs in the region. The influence of statesman Ilija Garašanin (1812–1874) and linguist and linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787–1864) was crucial in securing strong support for pan-Slavism among the intelligentsia.

In the 1830s, Croatian writers and intellectuals formed the Illyrian movement based on South Slavic ethnic and linguistic ties. The Illyrian movement demanded a restructuring of Croatian politics, cooperation between Southern Slavs, and eventual political unification. The key figure of the movement was Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872), who was also the creator of the first common Croatian orthography book (1830) and the first Croatian daily newspaper published in Croatian (as opposed to German) language. With the exception of Bulgaria, all Southern Slav countries formed a union as Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1990.

Pan-Slavism, like other pan-national movements, started from the emphasized idea of fellowship of people with common ethnic and linguistic roots, channeled into a national awakening. This movement was specific for the Slavic people as, unlike the Germans or the French, they were not allowed independence within the Austro-Hungarian, Turkish Ottoman, or Venetian rule. Their common religion was mobilized to sanctify national sentiment, and folklore was used to tie the nation to its ancient roots. The pan-Slavic idea was shared through the work of Slavic intellectuals, scholars, and linguists who encouraged interest in the shared ancestry and identity of Slavic peoples. Pan-Slavism co-existed with the southern Slavic quest for independence, resulting in the creation of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (1918–1990s), and was largely abandoned as an idea after their disunion in the late twentieth century.

Bibliography

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