Pan-Slavism Dbq

Michael Rizzo

Pan-Slavism

In the early nineteenth century, Slavic peoples from multiple empires in eastern and southern Europe began to pursue a movement to protect and organize Slavic culture. In 1848, this movement became more political. It gained a reputation and an attempt was made to unify all Slavic peoples. This movement became known as Pan-Slavism. As time went on the idea of Pan-Slavism became more and more of an issue. The Slavs became extremely focused on nationalism. This helped them realize that they should unite. This raised a lot of questions around Europe as to whether or not this would be a good thing. This is because there were so many Slavs in so many different places. Using the nationalism idea, the Slavs tried to find a way to unite as one group of Slavs. The idea of Pan-Slavism got Europe thinking about many things as to whether or not it was fair politically and culturally.

Growing nationalism persisted throughout the nineteenth century in Europe. This led to the Slavs to stop thinking about their country and more about themselves as a people. This led many people to protest the ideas. In document 7, Karel Havlicek, a Czech Journalist, explains how just because the Slavs speak the same language and have the same title, doesn't mean that they deserve to have their own nation. This comes from a journalist so you know that there is some biased especially if she is not specifically Slavic. The other side of the story is all of the Slavs that are fighting for this unification. In document 8, Bronislaw Trentowski explains how if he had the power he would create a Pan-Slav empire and let everyone live happy, This is extremely nationalistic because by saying everyone would be happy he is only talking about the Slavic people. In document 3, Jan Kollar states that nationalism comes before humanity for the Slavs and that the scattered Slavs should unite as a whole. It is clear what side Jan is supporting especially since he was an early advocate of Pan-Slavism. As previously stated, nationalism played a huge role in deciding between the Slavs uniting or not. If you were a Slav you obviously wanted to achieve unity. However, if you were not, you wanted things to stay as they were.

The debate of whether or not the attempt at unification was a good thing can go on for hours. It all depends on your point of view on the subject. In Document 5, a writer in Austria was greatly opposed to the idea of Pan-Slavism and wanted to nip it in the bud. In document 6, a Russian Anarchist tries to explain the reality of things to the Slavs. He says, "You ask for life, there is only the silence of death; you demand independence, and in Russia there is only mechanical obedience." He is explaining how their ideas are unachievable and the unification is impossible. In document 11, Frantisek