The Slav congress of 1848 – from the archive
2 June 1948: Historian AJP Taylor looks back at the Prague Slavic congress of 1848, the first occasion on which voices from almost all Slav populations of Europe were heard in one place The Slav congress of 1848, a grand congress of deputies of all Sclavonic races, met in Prague on 2 June 1848 and was the least expected event in the year of revolutions. The Czechs, Polish, Croatian, Dalmatian, and Illyrian national costumes were worn in various costumes. The congress was intended as a gesture against the German National Assembly at Frankfurt, but was met with opposition from the Habsburg dynasty. The Poles of Galicia were indisputably Slavs and indisputable Habsberg subjects; yet Russia was their only enemy. The Polish and Slovaks were indifferent to the German menace; the Czechs wished to avoid a conflict with Hungary, yet would not repudiate the Slovaks. Bakunin imposed himself upon the congress, imposing himself upon it. The Slavs had a non-Austrian presence, becoming one of the non-master nations.
Publicerad : 2 år sedan förbi Guardian staff reporter i Politics World
A grand congress of deputies of all Sclavonic [sic] races, now assembled at Prague, commenced its sittings on 30th ult. The town is stated to look as if a masked ball on a large scale was being performed in the streets, so varied and extravagant are the Czechish, Polish, Croatian, Dalmatian, and Illyrian national costumes, in which the deputies may be seen strutting about.
The Slav congress of 1848: central Europe and the Habsburgs
The Slav congress which met in Prague on 2 June 1848, was the least expected event in the year of revolutions. The Slav peoples of central Europe had not been allowed for in radical calculations. Engels wrote of the Czechs and Croats (he was unaware even of the existence of the Slovaks): “The natural and inevitable fate of these dying nations was to allow the process of dissolution and absorption by their stronger neighbours [Germany and Hungary] to complete itself.” Exception was made only for the Poles, as an historic nation, not as Slavs; the German radicals proposed to push Poland against Russia and then to jettison her later (the reverse of Russia’s Polish policy a century later). Since Bohemia had been included in the Holy Roman Empire, it was assumed that it would become part of the new national Germany, and distinguished Bohemians were invited to join the preliminary meetings at Frankfurt.
Palacky, the first historian of Bohemia and the recreator of Czech national consciousness, refused the invitation; he repudiated allegiance to Germany – “I am a Bohemian of Slav race” – and looked instead to the Habsburg dynasty as the protector of the Slav peoples from German tyranny. “If the Austrian Empire did not exist, it would have to be created in the interest of Europe and of humanity.” This famous sentence launched the programme of Austroslavism, the idea of maintaining a modest national existence under the wing of the most clerical and traditional dynasty in Europe.
Opposition to Frankfurt
In 1848 the dynasty seemed too shaken to act as the sole bond of union between different peoples, and those who feared incorporation in Greater Germany sought some more popular alternative. They thought to have found it in their Slav race. This was more than crude racialism – it assumed that all peoples with a Slav language had a common cultural background. In reality most Slav peoples outside Russia had been submerged by the culture of their conquerors, German, Hungarian, or even Turkish; hence the importance of ethnography in the Slav movement – the evidence for a common Slav “folk” had to be found in the designs on peasant costume or pottery.
The Slav congress was intended as a gesture against the German National Assembly at Frankfurt. This threatened directly only the Czechs and the Slovenes – another reason for draping Slav “folkdom” round the practical political issue. The Slavs of Hungary (Croats, Serbs, and Slovaks) were indifferent to the German menace; the Czechs wished to avoid a conflict with Hungary, yet would not repudiate the Slovaks, who alone could swell their numbers.
The real stumbling block for a common Slav policy came from the Poles. The Poles of Galicia were indisputably Slavs and indisputably Habsburg subjects; yet Russia was their only enemy, and they welcomed both Greater Germany and Great Hungary. The Poles, who were threatened by the Germans, were under Prussian rule in Posnania. To exclude them would weaken the struggle against Frankfurt decisively: to include them would trespass beyond the frontiers of the Habsburg monarchy and so make nonsense of Austroslavism. In fact, the Slav congress had stumbled on the Polish problem. The Poles of the Austrian Empire would not work with the Czechs nor against the Germans; the Poles of Posnania would work against the Germans, but equally emphatically would not work with Russia. The Czechs insisted that Poles from outside the Austrian Empire should attend the congress only as guests; the Poles would not recognise the frontiers of the Polish partitions, and when the Polish section of the congress met it made the Poles from Posnania full members, one of them, indeed, becoming its chairman.
This intrusion of non-Austrian Slavs had a further embarrassing consequence. No one minded the presence of Serbs from Turkey: the solidarity of the “master nations” did not yet extend to the Turks. But if the Slav congress was to include all Slavs it was impossible to exclude the greatest branch of the Slav race, and the revolutionary Bakunin imposed himself upon the congress as the solitary, self-appointed representative of the Russian people. Bakunin had no patience with the cautious Austroslavism of Palacky and he demanded both the destruction of the Habsburg Empire and revolution in Russia. His goal was a federation of free peoples, based on the natural democracy of the Slav peasants. Like later versions of Pan-Slavism, Bakunin’s vision rested on the dogma of virtues innate in Slav peoples which would save them from the failings of others.
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism evoked no response from the Slav congress; indeed, Pan-Slavism had sense only as a translation into racial mysticism of the Byzantine and Orthodox heritage shared by some Slav peoples, and almost all those present at Prague were western and Roman Catholics. The Slav congress produced two contradictory programmes. The Poles drafted a manifesto, the Peoples of Europe, which recognised the existence only of the “historic nations” – Poland, Germany, Hungary, and Turkey – and politely invited these to treat their minorities better. The Czechs drafted an address to the Austrian Emperor which asked for the remodelling of the Austrian Empire into a federation based on national units. Perhaps the most concrete effect of the congress was its division into three sections Polish-Ukrainian, Czechoslovak, and south Slav – for these anticipated the “national amalgamations” which served as the basis for pseudo-national states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia) in 1918.
All these programmes received only preliminary statement. The congress met for the last time on 12 June. Then fighting broke out between the Prague radicals, both Czech and German, and the Imperial forces; and on the suppression of the rebellion the congress was dissolved. In its 10 days of activity it had stated all the solutions for the problem of central Europe which have been attempted from then until now.
Continue reading.
Ämnen: Congress