The Russian Revolution; the Jugo-Slav Movement by Golder, Frank Alfred, 1877-1929, Harper, Samuel N. (Samuel Northrup), 1882-1943, Kerner, Robert Joseph, 1887-1956, Petrunkevitch, Alexander Ivanovitch, 1875-1964

II

The history of the evolution of the Jugo-Slavs from the sixteenth to the twentieth century has been an effort to find the means of melting down these differences until finally one--nationalism--accomplished the purpose. Unity came first in the imagination and the mind, next in literature and speech, and finally in political action. The four hundred years beginning with the fifteenth and ending with the eighteenth century will be remembered by the Jugo-Slavs as the age of humiliation. Only Slavicized Ragusa and indomitable Montenegro kept alive the imagination of the nation which was brought back to life by the half-religious, half-national Slovene poets of the sixteenth century, by the Ragusan epic poet [Gundulic], by the incessant demands of successive diets of the ever-weakening Croatia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and by the progressive and zealous Serbs of Hungary, who ever since the fifteenth century in increasing numbers made their home there, refugees from the oppression of the Turk, but who ever longed to push out from the frontier and rebuild Serbia anew. [Krizanic], a Croat Catholic Dalmatian priest, a firm believer in Jugo-Slav and Slavic unity in general, appealed to the rising Russian empire to help save dying Slavdom.

While the Turkish and the Venetian empires decayed, the Austrian and the Russian gained courage. By the end of the seventeenth century the house of Habsburg had won back all except the Banat and in the eighteenth century aspired to divide the Balkan peninsula in halves with the Russians. Along with this future foreign interference in the affairs of the Balkans came the Germanizing and centralizing "reforms" of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, whose result was to cripple still further the few constitutional and historical rights which remained to the Jugo-Slavs. But these "reforms" had nevertheless salutary effects upon the nation of peasants. The enlightened despots, spurred on by the loss of Silesia--which was at the same time a great loss in revenue as well as prestige--sought to make good the loss by the economic betterment and education of the peasantry. How else could an agrarian state increase its revenue and supply able-bodied men for the numerous armies which the overarmaments of Frederick II had brought upon central Europe? [Footnote: Emphasis on this fundamental fact of Habsburg history in the eighteenth century cannot be too strong. The writer of this paper hopes soon to present archival proof of the far-reaching results of the seizure of Silesia. The documents are to be found in the archives of the _Hofkammer_ and _Ministerium des Innern_ in Vienna.] Centralization and Germanization really helped to awaken the Slavs. Enlightened despotism gave them the weapons of political struggle--education and economic resources.