THE SOUTHERN SLAVS OF THE DUAL MONARCHY.
I. A Homogeneous People—A Militant Past—The Bogumili—National
Bondage—Napoleon—Illyrism—Agreement with Hungary—Count
Khuen-Hedervary.
II. The greatest representative of the Southern
Slavs—Strossmayer’s generosity and courage—Fall of
Count Khuen-Hedervary—Death of Strossmayer.
III. False Dawn—Conference of Fiume—Ban Paul Rauch—Monster
Trial in Zagreb—The Friedjung Case—Cuvaj—Frano Supilo.
IV. Dalmatia, Istria, Carniola—The Italian
Element—Bosnia-Hercegovina—Conclusion.
I.
The whole south of the Dual Monarchy is inhabited by Slavs. The
Kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, with the Duchy of
Carniola, Istria, and Bosnia-Hercegovina—these, comprising a population
of about seven millions, belong almost exclusively to one race. Whereas
in all other countries of the Monarchy (especially in Hungary and
Bohemia) the different races are represented in varying percentages,
the non-Slav population in Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina
amounts only to about 5-1/2 per cent., in Carniola and Istria to 4 per
cent., and in Dalmatia only to 2 per cent. The considerable number of
Croats and Slovenes (750,000) living in Southern Hungary (in Torontal,
Bacs-Bodrog and Temes) must be added to the above-mentioned seven
millions.
Ethnologically speaking, the inhabitants of all these countries form
one people, and are a brother nation to the Serbs in the Kingdoms
of Serbia and Montenegro. Their language, customs, historical past
and achievements in art, science and literature, are identical. The
sole difference between them is that the Croats and Slovenes are
Catholics, while part of the inhabitants of Bosnia are Mohammedans.
Those confessing the Serbo-Orthodox faith (more than a third of the
population) also own to the national name and call themselves Serbs.
This compact and homogeneous national body would certainly have become
a most important factor in the Monarchy had they not been cut in two by
administrative policy. Here as elsewhere throughout all her dominions
Austria has applied her principle of dividing and dismembering,
and the Southern Slav provinces were shared between two spheres of
power. Croatia and Slavonia were allotted to the Hungarian; Carniola,
Dalmatia and Istria to the Austrian sphere, and a mixed Austrian and
Hungarian administration was introduced in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
This system made a unanimous political rally of the Southern Slavs
quite impossible, and provided German and Magyar propaganda with a more
manageable field of operations. In both spheres unremitting efforts
were devoted to the task of eliminating the Southern Slav element,
stifling Slav thought, and transforming the Slavs into _slaves_.
But the Southern Slav is endowed with unusual tenacity; the most
zealous efforts on the part of the Government were frustrated by his
dogged resistance, and they merely defeated their own ends. German
“kultur” and Magyar _lack_ of culture were held in equal abomination
by the Slav nations upon whom they were to be inflicted, and the
ruthless spoliation to which they were likewise subjected engendered a
deep-seated animosity. The Northern Slavs, who possess more practical
business capacity than the Southern, did not allow themselves to be
economically strangled, and even contrived to hold their own in this
respect; whereas the Southern Slavs, being mainly an agricultural
people, found themselves the helpless victims of Austrian and Hungarian
rapacity. Dalmatia, one of the loveliest spots in Europe, has for
the last century known no privilege except that of paying taxes, and
Austria’s mal-administration of that country has become proverbial.
Croatia and Slavonia fare little better. They have to pay 56 per
cent. of their revenues to Hungary. This tax figures under the head
of “contributions to mutual interests,” chiefly represented by the
railways and the postal system. The net annual income from these two
sources amounts to 250 million Kr., but of this Croatia never receives
a penny! The net profit _all_ goes to Hungary who brazenly employs
it to subvention the Magyar propaganda in Croatia. The condition of
Carniola and Istria is almost as deplorable as that of Dalmatia, and
in Bosnia and Hercegovina the Austro-Hungarian Government has for
thirty-five years built villages “after the pattern of Potemkin,”
for the edification of foreign journalists, while the people have
been left to starve, or sink into poverty and ignorance. The numerous
foreign tourists who have travelled in these beautiful countries have
seen nothing of Austria’s “work of civilization,” as they are kept to
the beaten tracks specially prepared for them, and they only see the
country like a carefully staged panorama on the films of the Royal
and Imperial State Cinematograph! But had these travellers caught a
glimpse of the abject misery of the people, their pleasure in these
beautiful countries would have been spoilt, and they would have better
understood why the inhabitants are rebelling against the “blessing” of
Austro-Hungarian rule.
It is much easier to understand why the political horizon in the
Southern Slav corner of Europe is always clouded if one is given a
clearer view of the _Chartered rights_, as opposed to the _actual
position_, held by the Southern Slavs in the Monarchy; but this view
is not usually obtained through the official channels of Vienna and
Budapest. According to these, all ancient _charters_ of liberty are
so many “scraps of paper,” and the actual law merely the right of
the strongest. The Hapsburgs did not come as victors with the rights
of a conqueror to the Southern Slav provinces. They became rulers of
these countries in virtue of voluntary treaties, and they themselves
issued manifestos and bulls, in which the integrity and independence
of the Southern Slav countries are incontestably guaranteed. Centuries
ago, while the Hapsburg dynasty was endangered by constant wars,
and especially during the Turkish invasion, these guarantees were
faithfully observed. But with the altered conditions of affairs the
Southern Slavs had to wage a bitter struggle for their rights.
Of all this group Croatia-Slavonia alone still retains the slightest
degree of autonomy, while the countries belonging to Austria have
been deprived of every vestige of self-government, and only appear
to be distinct dominions in the State by their mock Landtags, whose
decisions are almost invariably disregarded. Croatia-Slavonia, which
belongs to Hungary, has to this day at least theoretically maintained
her political independence. Croatia was once more guaranteed this
independence by the agreement between herself and Hungary in 1868.
When the Hapsburg Empire was reconstructed in 1867 the constitutional
independence of Croatia could not be set aside, especially as this
reconstruction was founded on the Pragmatic Sanction, which provided
for the separate constitutional independence of Croatia under guarantee
of the Royal Oath. Moreover, the events of the revolution of 1848 were
still too fresh in the memories of the Hungarian statesmen who had
laboured for the establishment of Hungary’s State Constitution from
1861 till 1867, and in their dealings with Croatia they did not dare
to repeat the mistakes they had made in 1847 and 1848. Francis Deak,
the chief of these statesmen, knew very well that the catastrophe
that overtook Hungary in 1848 would never have been so great, if the
Croatian national forces had fought side by side with Hungary. Thus it
was his wish to conclude a lasting peace with Croatia on a just basis.
Under Deak’s influence, and with the co-operation of Croatia’s leading
representatives, an agreement was concluded which assured Croatia the
position of a State enjoying equal rights with Hungary, with complete
self-government as regards her internal affairs, a separate legislative
parliament, and her own army; only the railways and the postal and
financial systems were to be under mutual control, and Croatia was
guaranteed a proportionate share of the revenues from these sources.
The Croatian tongue was to be the official language in the Landwehr,
and in all courts of law, whether joint or autonomous. The important
Croatian seaport Fiume was declared a “corpus separatum adnexæ _rex_,”
and thus constituted a joint open port. I shall presently show how
Hungary kept her side of the bargain.
* * * * *
A Southern Slav patriot has said that no greater misfortune has
befallen the Southern Slavs, than to pass under the dominion of
civilized Austria. Had they been obliged to share the fate of their
brothers, the Serbs and Bulgarians, they would certainly have tasted
all the misery of the Turkish yoke, but to-day they would be free,
as an independent State with a right to their own national and
intellectual development. The one thing Turkey has left untouched in
the Serbs and Bulgars—_the heart of the people_—is the very thing that
Austria has sought to destroy in her Southern Slav subjects. Turkish
captivity has steeled the hearts of the Slavs she oppressed, but
Austrian captivity has cankered them and made them effete.
In many respects this pessimistic view is justified. The struggle of
the Southern Slavs for national life has passed through many phases,
and has exhausted itself in many more. For centuries the Southern Slav
stood under the protection of “Heaven militant,” and his motto was
“For Faith and Freedom,” for with him faith was always first. All his
culture consisted in imaging the Christ as the “Otac i voyskovodya
illyrskyh Kralyeva” (Father and leader of the armies of the Kings of
Illyria). The Holy Cross was transformed into a standard of war, and
his enthusiasm for this false ideal led him so far astray, that the
_baptized_ arch-enemy was nearer to him than his own _unbaptized_
brother, and the Church dearer to him than his country. But these
traits do not originate in the character of the Southern Slav. He
was educated into them and impregnated with them from without, and
always by his greatest enemies, the Germans or the Turks. The Germans
made a national mission of the Crusades, and the Turks usually went
to war on religious grounds and called their armies the Hosts of the
Prophet. Following the example of the Turks, and imitating the Germans
in their appropriation of the Deity, Slav Christianity was infected
by the fanaticism of the Church of Rome, and became synonymous with
militancy and the spirit of the _condottieri_. The heart of the nation
grew vitiated, and the Illyrians callously neglected their lovely
land, which ought to have been a Garden of Eden. And those who were
so liberal with their promises of Heaven and constantly cried, “Thy
Kingdom is not of this world!” were well pleased that these things
should be so, for they coveted the lost Empire of the Southern Slavs
for an earthly paradise of their own.
Unfortunately this dark page in the history of Southern Slavdom
followed directly upon one of the most brilliant periods in the
intellectual development of Southern Slav culture. It was a period
when the national culture of the Southern Slavs put forth some of its
most vigorous, fairest and sanest blossoms—the time of the Bogumili
(“beloved of God”) whose work of enlightenment spread from Bulgaria
over the whole of the Slav South. The Bogumili were strongly opposed
to the poetic glorification of the Crusades, because they grasped
the fact that the extolling of such an ideal can never open the mind
to _heretic_ culture—the culture based on _free choice according to
conscience_—which was eventually to undermine the foundations of
the sacrosanct Roman Empire and lay the first solid foundations of
_true_ culture. The Bogumili taught that true culture is not spread
by crusades, but springs from Christian, human contemplation. They
deprecated personal worship, and replaced it by a worship of ideals,
of spirit, and of thought. Wyclif, Huss and Luther are always quoted
as the foremost apostles of the _heretical_ culture. But in the
Hungarian Crusaders the Bogumili found bitter enemies. Bogumilist
activity in Bosnia and Croatia was stifled in blood, and the people,
who were beginning to protest against the lying cult of Cæsarism
wedded to Papistry, were simply butchered in the name of the Cross.
The blood-baths on the fields of Bosnia filled the people with
consternation, but could not stifle Bogumilism. True, its progress
was checked in the Southern Slav region, but it secretly penetrated
westward, whence the Patarenes in Italy and the Catharists, Albigenses
and Waldenses in France spread it all over the world. It is interesting
to note that at the very moment when Bogumilist culture was destroyed
among the Slavs themselves, they bequeathed this very Bogumilism to the
rest of Europe—the first and only gift from the Southern Slav race _as
a whole_ to the spiritual life of Europe. It was the true “antemurale
Christianitatis”—the outworks of Christianity—purified from Byzantine
and Roman elements. _What they gave_ was perhaps not so very much their
own as the _vigour_ with which they transplanted the ideal and the
doctrine of a spiritual life, from the mountains of Asia Minor to the
West. Theirs was the work of emissaries and outposts.
To resume, during the time of Turkish power, the Southern Slavs had
ceased to be the “outworks of Christianity” and had become merely a
_soldatesca_ in the service of the foreigner, fighting indifferently
for Cross or Crescent. It was a terrible time of national abasement,
more especially because it followed so closely upon the great era of
spiritual exaltation. The gradual loss of Southern Slav independence
likewise dates from this period, and from that time until quite
recently they were unable, _as a race_, to produce a truly Southern
Slav culture. Only those among them who travelled westward, where
Bogumilism continued to thrive and flourish, found the way of true
culture. Among these exceptions were Marko Marulić (Marcus Marulus), a
Spalatine noble, whose works were translated from the Latin into all
the principal European tongues, and Flavius Illyricus, whom, after
Luther, Germany considers one of her greatest teachers. In their souls
these men were merely Bogumili and nothing more. With them we may also
class John of Ragusa, who led the whole Council of Bâle against the
Pope and proposed to negotiate calmly and justly with the Hussites and
Manichees. Just such a man was Bishop Strossmayer in our own day, a man
of whom I shall presently speak further.
Their liberation from the Crescent put an end to the period of
religious militancy among the Southern Slav people. The warlike
element is perhaps of great historic moment. It certainly fended the
Southern Slavs over the abysses of Turkish barbarism to freedom in
the Christian sense of the word, but by no means to national freedom.
When the Turkish invasion was rolled back and the everlasting wars
were over, the symbol of the sword was exchanged for that of the
plough, and God as God was no longer adorned with weapons, but imaged
in a nobler spirit as the highest conception of _peace_. And, as the
people accustomed themselves to peace, and once more came in touch
with the soil, a new spirit grew up within them, or rather it was the
re-awakening of an old spirit that for a while had been silenced by
the clamour of weapons—the spirit of love for the homestead and the
community. Nationalism still slumbered but, like a guardian angel, the
_national tongue_ watched over its slumbers. Through storm and stress,
in spite of travels and intercourse with foreign-speaking mercenaries,
this language has remained pure and unalloyed. This was the seed of the
future from which sprang the great awakening; for so long as a people
preserves its language it possesses a Nationality.
Liberty of conscience, and the transformation of the warrior into a
husbandman, were also the beginning of a change in the souls of the
people, which, while groping its way back towards its own essential
beauty, began to feel the hidden wounds within, and strove to rid
itself of the canker. The old beautiful mode of life, the patriarchal
family feeling and the bond of union in the community were restored,
and the gentle, plaintive melodies echoed once more in farm and field.
And this regeneration grew and expanded until it brought the revelation
of national union, patriotism, and finally the love for all that
belongs to the Slav race.
* * * * *
The Napoleonic era found this people already fully developed. They had
found their soul and knew what they wanted. Napoleon, who treated
most of the people he conquered without much consideration, was filled
with unusual admiration for the Southern Slavs that came under his
rule. By the peace of Schönbrunn (October 14th, 1809) he acquired
Triest, Görz, Carniola, part of Carinthia, Austrian Istria, the Croat
seaboard with Fiume, and all Croatia south of the Save. Napoleon united
all these countries with French Istria, Dalmatia and Ragusa into one
“Province of Illyria,” and thus for one short moment fulfilled the
dearest wish of all the Southern Slavs. Illyria was organized as one
military province divided into six civil provinces; Maréchal Marmont
was appointed Governor and in the name of Napoleon carried out sweeping
reforms throughout the country. Trade and industry were signally
improved and the people were granted far-reaching national liberties.
The use of German as the official language was abolished in the schools
and law courts and Serbo-Croatian introduced in its place. Special
attention was devoted to road-making and education, and the Croats
were permitted to edit their own newspapers in the Croat tongue, which
would have been considered high treason under Austria. Although the
French rule was only of short duration (till 1817) _it did more for
the Southern Slav lands in three years than Austria did during the
century that followed_. But the main thing was that this rule aroused
the national thought so effectively that henceforth it ceased to be a
dream and became a factor to be reckoned with. From that time dates the
unremitting struggle against Germanism and Magyarism, and the agitation
for a national union of all the Southern Slavs.
The first-fruits of the complete national regeneration were seen in
the great movement started in 1835 and known by the name of Illyrism.
Illyrism began with a small group of patriots and poets whose leaders
were Ljndevit Gaj and Count Janko Drašković. They founded newspapers
and periodicals, published patriotic books and poems, and roused the
national enthusiasm of the people to the highest pitch. In this mission
they successfully sought help and advice from other Slavs, especially
the Csechs and Serbs; they were also the first to come into touch with
Russia. Austria-Hungary tried sharply to repress this movement, and
for the first time found herself confronted by a united nation bent on
going its own way. The Illyrist movement cannot point to any positive
political results, but it laid a foundation for future political and
national activity and did an incalculable amount of pioneer work which
would have been most difficult to carry out under the conditions that
followed. In 1843 the name of Illyrism was prohibited by an Imperial
edict, and it was hoped by the Austrian authorities that this would
be the end of the patriotic movement. But their labour was lost. In
fact, under the spur of persecution the patriots passed from their
idealistic literary campaign to more tangible activities. By the
prohibition of the Illyrian name the motto of the poetic propaganda
was lost, and it became the duty of the patriots to lead their
politics into less sentimental paths, and enter upon a campaign of
cold reasoning in place of poetic sentiment. This was all the more
necessary as the national cause was greatly endangered by several new
regulations. Following closely upon the prohibition of the Illyrian
name came an order for the introduction of the Magyar tongue in the
Croatian law courts. When the Croatian counties protested in Vienna
that Croatia was privileged to choose her own official language, and
that no one had the right to interfere with this privilege, they met
with a brusque rebuff. Up to now the Government had hardly dared to
attempt the Magyarization of Croatia, but now they decided to enforce
it in spite of the newly-awakened national consciousness. The Croats
now realized that it was a case of war to the knife. The Hungarian
Government proclaimed that all countries and nationalities subjected
to the crown of St. Stephen must be made one people, one state, and be
taught to speak _one_ language—in short, they were to become Magyars.
They were determined to break the national resistance of the Serbs
and Croats by force, or preferably, by corruption. In this enterprise
Hungary found an able assistant in Ban Haller. A “Magyar party” was
organized in Croatia with a view to reconciling the people to Magyar
demands, but, unfortunately, it consisted chiefly of adventurers and
social riff-raff; the work of Magyarization made no progress, but only
further incensed the Southern Slavs. One of the consequences of this
hatred was that in 1848 the Croats and Serbs enthusiastically followed
Ban Jellacić in the campaign against Hungary.
* * * * *
After the conclusion of peace between Hungary and the Crown the Croats
were rewarded in a truly Austrian fashion for their assistance in
putting down the rebellion: once more they were handed over to the
tender mercies of Hungary. This ingratitude roused a perfect tempest
of indignation, but at the same time the Southern Slavs finally
learnt their lesson. Henceforth they would look for help to no one
but themselves, and they resolved that the coming struggle must be
fought to a finish. The Southern Slav leaders knew very well that
nothing could be done by revolutionary propaganda, but that their first
task must be to establish a footing from which they could conduct a
constitutional campaign. They formed a strong Nationalist party in
Croatia, which co-operated with the Dalmatine and Slovene parties,
laid down their programme on a broad national basis, and organized
a campaign of passive resistance among the people. Of course the
success of these labours was largely due to the fact that Hungary was
weakened by the revolution and inclined to be somewhat less aggressive.
Croatia, on the other hand, was fresh, strong, and self-reliant. Of
course the results were not apparent at once, but the agreement of
1867 was a consequence of Croatia’s united stand. This agreement by
no means satisfied all the aspirations of the Southern Slavs, but it
gave them the required footing against Magyar oligarchy. Upon the
conclusion of the agreement, Croatia received her first constitutional
Ban, who was henceforth to be responsible to the _Croatian Parliament_.
Unfortunately the King made this appointment upon the recommendation
of Hungary, who saw to it that the first Ban, Baron Levin Rauch,
should be a mere exponent of the Hungarian Government. Contempt
of the constitution, and corruption, were the first-fruits of the
agreement under Hungarian influence in Croatia, with the result that
all Croatian patriots—including those who had helped to conclude the
agreement—passed over to the Opposition. This Opposition worked on
rigidly constitutional lines, and, as more radical parties arose,
they formed the constitutionally correct, though barren, Croatian
Constitutional party. Space forbids me to enumerate all the means by
which the first “constitutional Ban” strove to carry out his orders
from Budapest. By suddenly imposing a new election law he secured
a large and obsequious majority in Parliament, which effectively
barred the co-operation of the Opposition in national affairs. But the
Opposition attacked the Government _outside_ Parliament, through the
press. When this systematic corruption and disregard of the agreement
had gone too far, M. Mrazović, the leader of the Opposition, published
a sensational indictment against Baron Rauch, accusing him of underhand
dealings. Baron Rauch took proceedings against Mrazović for libel
in the military courts, but Mrazović substantiated his accusations
and was acquitted. Baron Rauch resigned, and the Nationalist Party
scored its first victory. He was succeeded by Ban Bedeković, another
Hungarian nominee, who was, however, unable to prevent a triumphant
Nationalist victory in the election of 1871. The Hungarians asserted
that this victory had been subsidized by funds from Russia and Serbia,
and this accusation contains the substance of all subsequent charges of
high treason. The Opposition replied with a manifesto, in which they
clearly set forth the gravity of the numerous infringements of the
constitution. Because of this manifesto, the Government wished to take
proceedings against the leaders of the Opposition for high treason, but
they refrained through fear of offending European public opinion. At
this time the Constitutionalist Kvaternik, a good patriot but wholly
unpractical, started an armed rebellion among the peasantry in the
Rakovica district. It was put down by a strong military force, and
Kvaternik lost his life. The October manifesto, in conjunction with
the rebellion in Rakovica, afforded Andrassy (then Minister of Foreign
Affairs) a pretext for opposing every form of Slavophile policy and
ascribing both the manifesto and the rebellion to Russian influence.
The policy then inaugurated remains in force to this day. Brutal
Imperialism is rampant in Croatia, and the Agreement has become a
mere “scrap of paper.” But oppression begets opposition, and during
these critical times the Southern Slavs found not only their greatest
tyrant but their greatest patriot. From 1883 to 1903 Count Carl
Khuen-Hedervary was Ban of Croatia, and the twenty years of his
administration have been the blackest period as regards political,
economic and personal thraldom. Countless Magyar schools were scattered
throughout the country to promote the denationalization of the people;
espionage and Secret Police flourished as in Darkest Russia. The
archives of the State, with the Constitutional Charters of Croatia,
Slavonia and Dalmatia, were incorporated with the State archives in
Budapest, and, _last but not least, the Agreement itself was falsified
by the pasting of a slip of paper over the specification of Fiume as a
“Corpus separatum adnexæ rex”_ converting it into a “corpus separatum
adnexæ _Hungariam_,” whereby this important Croatian seaport became
exclusively Hungarian property. But this same period also witnessed
the labours of the greatest of all Southern Slavs, the benefactor and
father of his people, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer.
II.
Bishop Strossmayer (1815-1905) was the most generous benefactor of
his people, their greatest patron of science and art, and the very
incarnation of their political programme. He was the first to break
down the local artificial barriers between Serb and Croat—the first
to preach the gospel of united Yougoslavia. Labouring in a period
when all national effort was suppressed in every possible way, when
Slav sympathies were accounted high treason, he rose to a position
of unassailable eminence, which enabled him to set the mark of his
powerful personality like a leitmotive on the whole nineteenth-century
history of the Southern Slavs. Born of peasant stock and, like all
gifted Slav boys, destined for the church, Strossmayer began his
patriotic activity, while he was still a student and youthful priest,
by joining the Illyrist movement. His exceptional abilities were soon
noticed in connection with the national movement, and Vienna and
Budapest awoke to the dangerous possibilities of his personality.
Determined to put an end to his patriotic labours they appointed him
court chaplain, and trusted that the society of the court with all its
splendour and gaiety would dazzle the handsome young priest, and wile
him away from the service of his country. But Strossmayer made a most
unexpected and highly diplomatic use of his position. He brilliantly
succeeded in deceiving his surroundings as to his sympathies, and when
barely over thirty he secured his appointment to the Episcopal See
of Djakovo. Hereby he also became Vladika of Bosnia and Syrmia, and
shortly afterwards was created governor of the Virovitica district.
At this point Strossmayer’s life-work for his people began in earnest.
Holding a most distinguished position, and with the vast revenues
of his bishopric at his disposal, he opened the flood-gates of his
activities, and Vienna and Budapest saw with horror and amazement
the mistake they had made. Strossmayer assumed the leadership of the
Nationalist party; and in Parliament, where he took his seat in the
double capacity of bishop and elected deputy, he showed himself a
brilliant orator, a subtle politician, and an astute diplomat. He was
the incarnation of a keen, but determined and wise Opposition. He also
became an intellectual leader of his people and accomplished more
than anyone else before him. He founded the Southern Slav Academy of
Science and Art, which in the very terms of its foundation embodies the
intellectual unity of the Southern Slavs. He also founded the Croatian
University; and, being a great art connoisseur, he spent years in
accumulating an exceedingly fine private collection, which he presented
to the nation. He built the Cathedral at Djakovo, and at his own
expense sent hundreds of young Serbs and Croats to foreign art schools
and universities. Every intellectual enterprise, whether literary,
artistic or scientific, found in him a munificent patron. His entire
income was devoted to the welfare of the nation, and the sums that
Strossmayer spent in adding to the greatness and fame of his country
amounted to many millions during the long years of his office. But his
dearest wish was the realization of the Yougoslav ideal, the breaking
down of all local barriers between Serbs and Croats, and the creation
of a united people. With this end in view, and in spite of his position
in the Roman Catholic Church, Strossmayer went so far as to advocate
that the Serbian Græco-Orthodox, and the Croatian Catholic, Churches
should unite and become one National Church. He knew that the future of
his people could never be realized within the confines of the Monarchy,
but that it must be identified with that of all the other Southern
Slav nations, and founded upon a purely Slav basis. Strossmayer did
not confine his efforts to winning converts among his own people for
this idea. He knew too well, that at the decisive moment the nation
would require strong support from without, and, at the risk of being
accused of high treason, he entered into friendly relations with
Russia, which should bring the big and powerful brother of the North
nearer to his down-trodden little brother in the South. He succeeded in
finding influential friends in Russia as in other countries, and his
nation is still proud of his friendship with the Tsar Alexander III.,
Leo XIII., Gladstone, Crispi and Gambetta. Before Strossmayer entered
the lists no one in Europe had taken the slightest interest in the
Southern Slav problem. The slippery diplomacy of Vienna—which is only
equalled in duplicity by that of Turkey—had for centuries successfully
diverted the attention of Europe from the Southern Slav peoples in the
Monarchy, and the general assumption about them was that they were a
horde of uncivilized semi-barbarians, fed by Austria at great sacrifice
and treated by her with the utmost forbearance. The spectacles through
which Europe viewed these nations were made in Vienna and Budapest, and
no one took the trouble to bring an independent, unbiassed mind to bear
upon the problem. Many Southern Slav patriots made desperate though
vain efforts to bring even a grain of truth before the European public;
a Jesuit Vienna and a Judaized Budapest were too strong for them. The
world thought more of the colourless anational Austrian culture, and
the borrowed pseudo-culture of the Magyars than of the culture of the
Slavs, which for a thousand years has been the spontaneous expression
of their national individuality, with a literature worthy of the lyre
of Homer. Not only Austro-Hungarian politics, but the age itself was
unpropitious to the Southern Slavs. They possessed no importance for
the European balance of power; and it is one of the bitterest ironies
of history, that for a very long time the Southern Slavs fought less
for their own advantage than for the interests of Europe. For, even as
the Southern Slavs were for centuries the bulwark against the tide of
Ottoman invasion _from_ the East, they subsequently became an equally
strong bulwark against the rising tide of Germanism _towards_ the East.
With every fibre of their being they kept the gate of the East fast
closed against either foe—not only for themselves, but in the interests
of European civilization.
Strossmayer was the first who succeeded in re-awakening the interest of
Europe in this struggle, and, even if his efforts were not crowned with
immediate practical success, he at least contrived to cast a doubt on
the complacent assurances of Vienna and Budapest. Strossmayer was a man
with a tremendous personality, and his word was invariably accepted. He
was also past-master in the art of _not saying too much_—thus avoiding
the appearance of exaggeration. Even in his world-famous speech in
the Council of the Vatican (1871, under Pius IX.), when he spoke in
Latin for sixteen consecutive hours against the doctrine of Papal
infallibility, he left some things unsaid, for he was interrupted in
“the midst of his speech” by the Archbishop of Paris, who embraced and
kissed him, and assured him that what he had already said was amply
convincing.
Strossmayer’s activity was pursued with ruthless enmity in Vienna
and Budapest, and, even as he was the best-loved man among his own
people, he was the best-hated enemy of the Germans and the Magyars.
They tried by every possible means to minimize his power, and agitated
in the Vatican for his recall to Rome. But Leo XIII. was not only the
personal friend of Strossmayer, but also the friend of the Slavs, and
Viennese diplomacy failed in its object. Then followed disgraceful
intrigues, and endeavours to represent Strossmayer as a traitor. Among
other accusations, it was alleged that he had exchanged incriminating
telegrams with the Tsar, in which he was said to have advocated the
detachment of the Southern Slav provinces from Austria. Strossmayer’s
reply to these insinuations was truly characteristic. Several years
after this alleged exchange of telegrams the Emperor Francis Joseph
came to Croatia for the grand manœuvres, and Bishop Strossmayer was
one of the guests at the great reception in Belovar, where the Emperor
had his headquarters. The Emperor took the opportunity to sharply
reprimand the Bishop for his conduct. Strossmayer retorted with equal
sharpness “My conscience is clear, your Majesty,” then brusquely turned
his back and ostentatiously walked out of the hall. Circumstances
made it impossible to celebrate Strossmayer’s courage, but the people
rejoiced in this new proof that their champion feared no risk when it
was a case of defending the freedom and interests of his people.
Strossmayer was no dreamer, but above all things a practical statesman.
He knew that whoever hopes to win a final success must first carefully
prepare the ground. Any attempt to detach the Southern Slav Kingdoms
from the Monarchy by force would have been unadvisable, and moreover,
a dangerous and futile enterprise. Therefore, the political party of
which Strossmayer was the leader made it their business to see that the
stipulations of the Agreement were scrupulously observed, knowing well
that a strict observance of the Agreement—if only for a time—would give
the nation the much-needed chance of economic improvement, and thus
pave the way to future independence. In this policy they were supported
by the entire nation, who by their very unanimity proved their
political fitness. Twenty years’ martyrdom under Count Khuen-Hedervary
had not enervated the nation; on the contrary, they grew strong through
adversity; and, with their eyes fixed upon their spiritual guide
and protector, they steadfastly went forward towards their goal.
Khuen-Hedervary’s bribery, intimidation, everlasting trials for high
treason, prison and the gallows, all these had only incited them to
further resistance. When, bowed with age, Strossmayer finally had to
resign his active part in politics, we saw the people whom his spirit
had inspired suddenly turn upon their oppressors. In 1903, the whole
country rose in rebellion as one man, and Khuen-Hedervary’s power was
broken. Even he had to admit that his twenty years’ rule of ruthless
oppression had merely defeated its own object, that it had united the
people whom he had sought to weaken, and strengthened that which he had
hoped to destroy.
Strossmayer lived to see Khuen’s resignation, and his last days were
cheered by a gleam of light—which alas! proved only illusory—shed
upon the path of his country; yet as he closed his eyes for ever, he
realized that he had not given his all to Croatia in vain, and that the
hour was not far off when his ideals should become realities.
He died in 1905, but his spirit lives on in his people and his memory
shines among them like a guiding star to point the way.
III.
The popular rising in 1903 opened new channels for the national
struggle; it was also the prelude to the hardest and bitterest time
that the Southern Slav people have yet been called upon to face.
Khuen’s successor was Count Theodore Pejacsević, a Croatian noble, who
was no great statesman, but at least a good administrative official.
He gave the distracted country a brief time of quiet, equitable
government, and deserves great credit for abolishing Khuen’s system
of corruption. Meantime the strongly Nationalist parties in Croatia
had formed a block,—the _Serbo-Croat Coalition_,—and Count Pejacsević
found it impossible to raise a pro-Hungarian majority in Parliament.
Shortly afterwards the Hungarian Opposition also rose into conflict
with the Crown, and the situation became involved both in Hungary
and Croatia. The Hungarian Opposition applied to the Serbo-Croat
Coalition for support in their struggle and promised that, if their
party were returned, they would grant all Croatia’s demands as embodied
in the Agreement of 1867. Negotiations were carried on by Francis
Kossuth and Geza Polonyi on behalf of Hungary, and by Frano Supilo as
delegate of the Serbo-Croat Coalition. These negotiations resulted in
the _Resolution of Fiume_ (October, 1905), which stipulated for the
political co-operation between the Hungarian and Serbo-Croat parties,
and secured considerable advantages to Croatia in the event of success.
The Resolution of Fiume was in every way a masterpiece of policy and
diplomacy, and was in all its details the achievement of Frano Supilo,
who was the popular leader in Croatia at the time. In the election
of 1905 the Coalition won a brilliant victory. Not one Government
candidate was returned, and the small Opposition consisted of partizans
of Ante Starćević’s one-time idealist, patriotic constitutionalist
party, which however, since his death, had passed under the control
of Jewish solicitors, and was so committed to a purely Austrian
_Christian-Socialist policy_. As the Hungarian Opposition had likewise
scored a victory, the Croatian Cabinet was composed of representatives
of the Serbo-Croat Coalition, with Count Pejacsević retained in office
as “ut conditio sine qua non.” Croatia enjoyed a short respite and
began to look forward to better times. But her hopes were once more
doomed to disappointment. The perfidious Magyars once more failed to
keep their word. So long as they _needed_ the Serbs and Croats they
were full of love and brotherliness, but when they had gained their
point, they discarded the mask of false friendship. Francis Kossuth,
having become Handelsminister (Minister of Trade) in the Hungarian
Cabinet in 1907, introduced a bill on the control of the Railways which
was the most _flagrant_ and _outrageous_ infringement of the Agreement
as yet attempted. It provided that thenceforth the language used on
the railway-system, even in Croatian territory, was to be _Hungarian_,
although it had been specially stipulated in the Agreement—which
stands in the place of a fundamental constitutional law—that _Croatian_
was to be official tongue in all joint offices within Croatian
territory. The Serbo-Croat Coalition, which is represented by forty
members in the Hungarian Parliament, rose in wrath against the
Bill, and declared war to the knife upon the Hungarian Government.
The conflict in the Hungarian Parliament is known all over Europe.
The Croats and Serbs pursued a policy of obstruction, which fairly
paralyzed the House and made parliamentary discussion of the Railway
Bill quite impossible. To get it passed Kossuth so worded his Bill that
it was contained in one paragraph, empowering the Government to deal
with the Pragmatic (administrative business of the country) at their
discretion as part of the Order of the Day.
The rupture with Hungary was now complete. The Serbo-Croat Coalition
transferred the conflict to Croatia, and the nation began to agitate
for detachment from Hungary. The Parliament was dissolved, but the
Coalition was again victorious in the election. On the resignation of
the Croatian Government, Alexander v. Rakodczay was appointed Ban,
but failing to raise a party friendly to the Government he was forced
to resign his office in two months. The next Ban to be appointed was
Baron Paul Rauch, who boldly entered his capital town of Zagreb, but
was received with hostile demonstrations and showers of stones. It
speaks well for his courage that he was not affected by this reception,
and even introduced himself to the Parliament with great pomp. His
reception in Parliament was one great demonstration of hostility,
so that he could not even read the Royal message. He had to fly the
building with his Ministerial staff, and Parliament was officially
dissolved the same day. Baron Rauch formed a Government party of venal
upstarts and discredited characters, secured the support of the now
thoroughly demoralized “constitutionalist party,” and ordered a new
election. _Everything_ was done to intimidate the electorate, with the
result that not one of Rauch’s candidates was returned. This Parliament
was dissolved without even having been summoned, and Rauch embarked on
a reign of terror which can only be compared to that of Germany in the
Cameroons. He organized the Jewish-constitutionalist party into bands
which went by the name of the “Black Hand.” Their motto was “For the
Emperor, and for Croatia,” and their weapons were murder and assault,
which they were allowed to use with impunity against their opponents.
At the same time an organized judicial persecution of the Serbs was set
on foot. But even this tyranny could not break the national resistance.
At this juncture a new contingency arose. The Monarchy was preparing to
annex Bosnia and Hercegovina, and a suitable pretext had to be found.
The Government accordingly invented the “_Greater Serbian agitation_.”
The heroic struggle of the Serbo-Croat Coalition was represented as
being the outcome of a Greater Serbian agitation, and Baron Rauch was
commissioned to unmask this “widespread criminal conspiracy.” In the
summer of 1908, to the amazement and consternation of the people,
large numbers of Serbs, chiefly priests, school-masters and business
men, were arrested, and the official Press triumphantly announced
that a horrible, widespread and highly treasonable propaganda had
been discovered! The preliminary investigations lasted a long time,
and March 3rd, 1909, saw the opening of the proceedings against the
“traitors” who had conspired with Serbia for the detachment of all the
Slavonic South from the Monarchy. The trial lasted till October 5th,
when all the accused parties received very heavy sentences. Immediately
afterwards the Austrian historian Dr. Heinrich Friedjung stated in
the Viennese _Neue Freie Presse_, that the leaders of the Serbo-Croat
Coalition were also implicated in this conspiracy, especially Frano
Supilo, Grga Tuškan and Božidar Vinković, and that his accusation
was founded on documentary evidence. Hereupon the whole Serbo-Croat
Coalition took proceedings against Dr. Friedjung for libel. The result
of this case, which was fought in Vienna, caused a European sensation.
_It was conclusively proved that all the documentary evidence against
the Coalition, both in the Zagreb and the Viennese trials, had
been forged by order of Baron Aehrenthal, the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and Count Forgach, the Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade._
Friedjung himself confessed as much in court. The consequence of this
unparalleled _exposé_ was, that the King-Emperor had to rescind the
sentences already passed in the Zagreb trial.[17] Meantime, however,
the desired object had been gained, and Bosnia-Hercegovina was annexed
contrary to the will of all the Slavs.
But, with scandalous details incidental to the annexation, Baron
Rauch’s mission had been brilliantly fulfilled. Soon afterwards
Kossuth’s perfidious Government was turned out and Croatia’s old
oppressor, Count Khuen Hedervary, became Premier. Khuen, however,
was a personal enemy of Rauch, and occasioned his recall. In his
place Nikolaus von Tomašić was appointed Ban of Croatia—a most
eminent and highly-respected Croatian scholar, but politically a
satellite of Khuen. He did his best to restore order, and to this end
negotiated with the Serbo-Croat Coalition. Frano Supilo protested most
emphatically against this. He had already had exhaustive experience
of Magyar perfidy, and had no desire to see his people once again
walk into the trap. But the Coalition was perhaps weary of the
struggle—perhaps they still hoped for fair dealing, and accordingly
entered into a compact with Tomašić which made peaceful government
possible so long as the rights of the nation were respected. On the
strength of this compact several Government candidates were returned at
the next election; after which Tomašić promptly ignored the Coalition
and governed only with his own party. Supilo’s prophecy was fulfilled,
and the Coalition had once more to join the Opposition. Tomašić was
overthrown but the Austro-Hungarian Government replied by sending Herr
von Cuvaj, the Terrorist Commissioner, and suspending the Constitution.
These were the days of bitterest misery and unscrupulous tyranny
in Croatia. Cuvaj ruled with the knout, and the knout only. Police
espionage flourished, and all personal, political and civil liberty
was set at naught. All this time the Balkan War was raging, and woe
to the Serb or Croat who dared to rejoice at his brother’s victories.
But, when the Balkan Alliance was victorious, the Southern Slavs knew
that from henceforth they could rely on a measure of support from their
kinsmen. Vienna and Budapest were equally perspicacious and realized
the advisability of changing their tactics. Cuvaj was recalled and
Count Stephen Tisza, one of the most inveterate enemies of the Slavs,
sent Baron Skerlecz to Croatia with instructions to conciliate the
Croats. The effete Serbo-Croat Coalition was once more cajoled, and,
for the third time, it entered into a disastrous compact with Hungary.
This time one of the consequences was the expropriation of the Croatian
sea-board in favour of Hungary. Moreover, the present crisis found the
Coalition helplessly committed to the Government.
But the people had stood firm. The dire sufferings of recent years
have begotten a new and healthy movement, which includes the entire
youth of Croatia. The younger generation has lost faith in political
parties, and begun to go its own way along the path which leads
away from Hungary and away from Austria, back to union with their
scattered kindred. Their aim is the establishment of a great, free and
independent Southern Slav State. At the head of this younger generation
stands a man of magnetic personality—Frano Supilo.
IV.
The Southern Slavs in Dalmatia, Carniola and Istria fared little better
than their brothers in Croatia and Slavonia. I have already alluded
to the economic neglect of Dalmatia. In politics, Germanization was
practised in much the same way as Magyarization in Croatia. Dalmatia
unfortunately does not enjoy independence, even on paper, and thus her
oppression could wear a perfectly constitutional guise. The Dalmatian
“Sabor,” like that of Istria and Carniola, is an assembly quite at
the mercy of the viceroy for the time being, who would never dream
of convoking it, unless he had made quite sure that no inconvenient
resolutions would be passed. As a rule these “Sabors” enjoy prolonged
periods of rest, and the people are only represented by their delegates
in the Viennese Reichstrat. There these delegates certainly make a
brave fight, but they are too few, and their voice is drowned by the
huge German majority. Because of this and also through the fault
of the Slovene Roman Catholic party, Carniola has become strongly
Germanized, especially as regards the administration of the schools.
But the Dalmatians and Istrians are a sturdy, progressive people, Slav
to the backbone, and all attempts at Germanizing them have proved
as futile as the beating of waves upon the shore. Beside the German
danger, this people also has the Italian danger to contend with. For
opportunist reasons the Austrian Government has always favoured the
Italian element (4 per cent. in Istria and 2 per cent. in Dalmatia)
and granted them concessions, which have given rise to the most absurd
anomalies. For instance, the election law in Istria is so framed,
that 96 per cent. Slovenes and Croats send fewer delegates to Vienna
than 4 per cent. Italians. The same injustice prevails in the Parish
Council election law, but in spite of this the Italians would never
secure their majority, if special Government regulations did not compel
all officials and State employees to vote Italian. _If to-day Italy
is apparently able to claim a sphere of interest in Istria, this is
the outcome of a chance state of affairs, arbitrarily created by the
Austrian Government._ As an instance of this policy, I will state
that shortly before the outbreak of the war the Government seriously
contemplated the foundation of an Italian University for a population
of 700,000 souls, while strenuously opposing the foundation of a
Slovene University for 1,400,000 Slovenes and Croats in Carniola and
Istria. Of course this policy made the Italians aggressive, and they
continued to extend their sphere of interest until it actually included
the Quarnero Islands, although these islands do not possess one single
Italian inhabitant, and _these very islands are the most sacred
possession of the Southern Slavs_. THEY ARE THE ONLY SPOT IN SLAV
TERRITORY WHERE THE OLD SLAV TONGUE IS STILL SPOKEN BY THE PEOPLE. This
fact is amply borne out by publications of the Southern Slav Academy,
and also of the Russian Academy, which sends its scholars year by year
to these islands to study the language. In the province of Dalmatia
the populace have themselves dismissed the Italian question from the
order of the day, and the local government of Zadar (Zara) is the only
possession—and a very problematical one at that—which the Italians
might claim, and that only because of the truly mediæval election
laws. For, as soon as vote by ballot for the Parliamentary elections
was introduced in the Austrian Crown lands, the Croatian candidate was
returned by a majority of 7,000 votes over his Italian colleague.
The pro-Italian attitude of Austria was and is as insincere as the
rest of her policy. It is simply dictated by the “_divide-et-impera_”
principle, because an alliance between Slavs and Italians would have
been fatal to the Government. One nationality was played off against
the other, and the Italians proved willing tools in the hands of
Austria. The influence of Italian culture, which has for centuries been
received with love and admiration by the Southern Slavs, has created an
Italian-speaking zone of culture in the coast-lands of the Adriatic;
and the Italians, assisted by the Austrian Government, have made the
most of this zone until they have actually had the audacity to include
it in their sphere of _national_ aspirations. Thus Austria created an
enemy both for herself and the Slav peoples, an enemy with whom the
Southern Slavs have never before had any real quarrel. Antagonism led
to bitter conflicts, and if the Slav population in Dalmatia and Istria
have begun to detest the Italian zone of culture it has been purely
in self-defence and for fear of having to pay with their national
existence for the amity and admiration of centuries. Nowadays, the
Italians themselves admit that Dalmatia and Istria are indigenously
pure Slav countries. Probably the present struggle has also revealed to
them the true value of Austria’s favours.
In Bosnia and Hercegovina, Austria pursued the same heartless
policy. Out of the three religions of _one_ people she made _three_
nationalities, and then fostered dissensions between them. Her policy
was especially bitter against the Serbs, who are in the majority and
also the more highly-educated element of the population and therefore
more able to give effective support to the just claims of Serbia.
Austria was not in the least interested in the prosperity of the
country, and merely created an intolerable chaos by her political
intrigue in a land that had already suffered beyond endurance. Her
evidences of civilization exhibited before Europe were pure humbug, and
the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina one of the most flagrant acts of
injustice ever perpetrated on a nation.
If the present war is decided in favour of the Allies—and this is
the prayer of _all_ the Slavs—it will become necessary to settle
the Southern Slav problem once and for all. This can only be done
_satisfactorily_ by respecting the principle of nationality, and
by a just delimitation of the various national zones. In disputed
territories, such as Istria or the Quarnero Islands, a referendum ought
to decide.
The Slavs have been tortured long enough. For centuries they have
guarded European civilization against the inroads of _Ottoman Islam_,
which has always been synonymous with bigotry, barbarism and sloth,
and should never be confounded with _Arab Islam_, or _Hindu Islam_,
to whom the whole world of science, art and philosophy is eternally
indebted. Austria and Prussia are the natural heirs of Ottoman Islam,
and the Southern Slavs have made a heroic stand against this latter-day
_Prussian Islam_.
Civilization owes them a debt of honour, and it is only their due that
Europe should give them justice.
EPILOGUE.
“BURIED TREASURES.”
BY DIMITRIJ MITRINOVIĆ.
Speaking generally, the Southern Slavs are divided into Slovenes,
Serbo-Croats, and Bulgarians, but of these three branches only the
Slovenes and Serbo-Croats are racially identical. In speaking of a
political Southern Slav State, a state which would in the future
dominate the _whole_ of the Balkan Peninsula, it would be wrong not
to include the Bulgarian nation. However, the Serbo-Croats form the
principal cultural “unit” among the Southern Slavs, and after them come
the Slovenes. The nucleus, the life-giving element of the Southern Slav
family and its culture, is formed by the Southern Slavs of Serbia, Old
Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Croatia, Dalmatia and Serbian
Hungary, or, to give them their collective name, by the Serbo-Croats.
The Serbo-Croats, and more especially the Serbians proper (Serbians of
Old Serbia and Serbia), have always led the vanguard of Serbo-Croatian
political life; the two greatest cultural achievements of the Southern
Slav race, to wit, the national poetry and the individual architecture
and sculpture of Ivan Meštrović, have always been associated with the
Serbians of Serbia. The fall of the Serbian Empire forms the chief
theme of Meštrović’s art, no less than of Southern Slav national
poetry—and thus it has become usual, if not strictly correct, to speak
of all Southern Slav poetry as Serbian national poetry, and of the
great Southern Slav artist as the great Serbian artist.
We speak of the Southern Slav poetry and of Ivan Meštrović, our
Southern Slav Michelangelo, as “buried treasures.” In a sense, all
Slav civilization may be called a buried treasure. Russian and Slav
literature as a whole, is far greater than its reputation in Western
Europe. Ottokar Brezina, the celebrated Csech poet, is translated and
read in Slavophobe Germany, but not in allied France and England;
because in these days nations are more often brought into contact by
war and travel than by civilization and our common humanity.
Western Europe has been even less just to the Southern Slavs than to
any other Slav nation; and they who have paid so dearly in blood and
suffering for their freedom are less known and recognized than any
other European nation, in spite of the great historic merit of the
Serbians, and the importance of their culture;—the consideration shown
by Europe to a dynasty has been greater than her justice to a portion
of mankind. A universal conflagration and a breaking-up of the old
order of things was necessary, ere Europe learned to value millions of
human beings more highly than the principle of a bygone generation, or
the pathos of old age. In the future we may hope to see a just Europe
which will not look upon the Serbians as a nation of regicides, but
as a people revolting against secret treaties with the Hapsburgs, and
upon the Southern Slavs, not as traitors, but as a democratic people
refusing to be destroyed. When the Slovenes of Istria, Carniola,
Styria, and Carinthia, together with the Serbo-Croats, form a strong,
prosperous and free, though small State, their culture will be
developed to the full, crowning and unifying Southern Slav life.
This growing civilization of Greater Serbia, which may be called
_Yougoslavia_, will gather up the scattered threads of the history of
Serbian art in the past. We shall then no longer speak of “Slovene
painting,” “Croatian drama,” “Old Serbian tapestry,” “Serbian
folk-lore.” The literature of one and the same people will cease to
be broken up into “Literature in Ragusa,” “Dalmatian Island and Coast
Literature,” “Bosnian,” “Croatian,” and “Serbian” literature. All this,
together with the national life to the State, will form the _totality
of the Southern Slav nation_. The two zones of culture: the Western
European zone of the Croats and Slovenes, and the Eastern-Byzantine
zone of the Serbians; the three religions: Orthodox, Catholic and
Mussulman; the two forms of script: the Latin of the Croats, and the
Cyrillic of the Serbians; all these, as well as a few differences of
speech, will only add to the wealth and originality of Southern Slav
culture. When this Greater Serbia or _Yougoslavia_ shall stand for
the third great civilization of the Balkans (the first was Hellenic,
the second Byzantine), the Southern Slavs will become a new factor
in European civilization and politics, and the great art of Serbian
national poetry, and the work of the Yougoslav artist, Meštrović, will
no longer be buried treasures. Serbian music, literature and science,
although they have existed and still exist, will only then be known and
recognized.
* * * * *
It has been the fate of the Southern Slavs to fulfil a mission in
European history; Serbia and the Serbo-Croat race constituted a bulwark
for Europe and Christianity against the invasion of Turkish barbarians
and Islam. The martyrdom of the Southern Slavs lasted for centuries;
it was a most humiliating thraldom to the barbarous Mongolism of the
Ottoman Turks, and a hard, incessant fight for the dignity of humanity.
It was a period of indescribable suffering from the barbarities of a
lower race, one of the hardest struggles for existence the world has
known. It was impossible to continue or to realize the plans of the
great Nemanjić rulers. All attempts at union between the peoples of
Croatia and Bosnia were fruitless: _never in the history of Europe
has a nation lived for so many centuries in such terrible political
impotence and disunion as the Serbo-Croat and Slovene nation_. Italy at
the time of the Renaissance, and Germany before the liberation, were,
in comparison with the Southern Slavs, in a well-organized and healthy
condition.
Thus it has come about that we have no Serbian history of art, only
various provincial histories—Old Serbian, Macedonian, Dalmatian,
Bosnian, History of Serbian art in Hungary, Slovene and New Serbian.
The bitter enmity of Austria-Hungary towards Serbia, which deepened
steadily, and finally became the direct cause of the European War,
began with the Russophile and Southern Slav trend of Serbian policy
after the series of Southern Slav Congresses, which took place
in Belgrade at the time of the coronation of King Peter in 1904.
Serbia’s new policy, after the suicidal and humiliating pro-Austrian
policy of the Obrenović dynasty had been abolished, was a _racial
policy_, pro-Russian, pro-Bulgarian and democratic, which restored the
stability and order of the State, and led to the foundation of the
Balkan Alliance in 1912. Serbia regenerated, sought to consolidate
a scattered, provincial culture into one great culture of a Greater
Serbia, or of all the Southern Slavs. For this reason it has only quite
recently become possible to speak of the united cultural efforts of
the Serbo-Croats.
The consolidation of Southern Slav history and culture are only now
beginning, and the appearance of the artist-prophet Ivan Meštrović,
a Dalmatian Catholic, is the central event in Southern Slav history
of art. He is the prophet of the third, or Southern Slav Balkan,
State, who proclaims that it is the historical task of Serbia to free
the Southern Slavs and unite them, not only in a political, but in
a spiritual, sense; and he has symbolized this ideal in his great
art, which is the living soul of the architecture and sculpture of
the _Temple of Kossovo_, and of all the Southern Slavs. When the
Balkans are freed from Ottoman Islam and the Turks, when a strong and
progressive Federation of Southern Slavs, including Bulgaria, Roumania,
Greece and even Albania, is established, then we may see the triumphant
rise of a mature and typically Southern Slav culture. When all nations
shall receive their due, when they are allowed to develop freely, then
and only then, the blood-drenched Peninsula will be at peace. A strong
and prosperous Yougoslavia will interest the world both politically and
economically; the opinion that the Southern Slavs are an uncivilized
race will cease, and the great services rendered to art and letters by
the Serbo-Croats and Slovenes will be recognized and appreciated at
their true value. If we include Meštrović’s _Temple of Kossovo_ among
these achievements, we may fairly claim to have contributed to the
greatest possessions of human culture for all time.
The life-work of the Serbian Monarchs of the Nemanjić dynasty, who
aimed at the inclusion of Serbia within the zone of the then-civilized
nations of Europe, failed of its fulfilment, owing to the fall of the
Serbian Empire before the Turks. The Serbo-Byzantine architecture
of the convents and churches which abound in Macedonia and Serbia,
affords admirable proof of the results of this work, the most important
examples being Studenitza (1198), Dečani (1331), and Gračanica (1341).
A few years later culture made great strides in Dalmatia, but it
was not a spontaneous, national growth, but rather the offspring
of Slavicized Latin culture, and savoured more of Venice and the
Renaissance than of Dalmatia and the Southern Slavs. Furthermore, the
artists, scientists, philosophers and writers of Dalmatia went to Italy
and were lost to their nation. The poor, down-trodden, uncivilized
Southern Slav countries could not provide their artists with a
livelihood. The celebrated mathematician, philosopher and astronomer,
Roger Bošković, went to Rome, Paris, and London; Nikolo Tomasso, a
Serbian from Sevenico, founded the Italian literary language. Julije
Lovranić (Laurana), an eminent architect of his time, was a Serbian
from Dalmatia, and at one time the teacher of Bramante; and Franjo
Laurana, of Palermo, a kinsman of Julije, earned a high place in the
history of art through his sculpture; he was especially celebrated for
his beautiful female portrait busts. In like manner many Serbians found
their way to other countries. For instance, Peter Križanić, a Croatian,
was the first Pan-Slavist; he was exiled to Siberia for his schemes of
reform and European propaganda in Russia. To this day the Dalmatian
ships’ captains are not the only representatives of that country all
the world over, but great scientists and inventors like Pupin and
Nikola Tesla.
Whenever a part of Serbian territory became independent, or even for
a short time found tolerable conditions, an intense creative culture
grew up swiftly, even after the fall of the Empire and during the
time of slavery. For generations the greater part of the Serbians
have lived, and still live, in slavery. The Serbians under Turkish
rule were liberated only two years ago, and the liberation of the
Slavs of the Hapsburg Monarchy is only just beginning. In accordance
with the changes in the political fate of the Southern Slavs, and
as the material conditions of the people grew better or worse, the
centres of Slav literature moved from place to place. This unfortunate
disorganization and consequent impotence were the bane of Serbian or
Southern Slav literature. Ragusan literature; the literature of the
Dalmatian coast and its islands, with its original creations, and
many fine translations of the Greek drama—Homer, Virgil and Horace,
Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso, Ariosto—none of these counted in
the later development of literature in Croatia, Serbian Hungary,
Bosnia or Serbia. As things now stand, Slovenian literature bears no
recognized relation to Serbo-Croat literature, which has to a certain
extent become unified. The great Croatian poets, Peter Preradović, Ivan
Mažuranić, and Silvije Kranjčević are scarcely read in Serbia, owing
to bitter political disagreements and the Austrian _divide-et-impera_
policy. For this reason, too, the Croatians scarcely know the greatest
Southern Slav poets such as the Montenegrin Petar Petrović Njegoš, or
the Serbian from Hungary, Lazar Kostić. The historian and philosopher
Boža Knižević and the metaphysician Branislav Petronijević are scarcely
known in Bosnia owing to their being Serbians from Serbia, that is to
say, from anti-Austrian Serbia. Thus it is scarcely surprising that
Southern Slav culture is unknown in Europe, when it is practically
unknown even in Yougoslavia; when Meštrović, the immortal artist of
Yougoslavia, the architect and sculptor of the Serbian Acropolis, is
unknown to his own countrymen beyond the frontier.
* * * * *
At present the nation is fighting for its very life. _Inter arma
silent musæ_, and when a nation has to bear first the occupation and
then the annexation of the heart of its territory; when it has to
wage an incessant war, even in times of so-called peace, against an
implacable neighbour like Austria-Hungary; when the strength of the
nation is absorbed in the mere struggle for _existence_; then it is
impossible to realize the possession of a great artist. The Serbian
nation has waged three wars of life and death, and always against
an enemy stronger than herself; first against Turkey, then against
Bulgaria, and now against Austria—all within three years. At such a
time it is impossible to create a great civilization, and still less
possible not to appear to the world as a nation created solely for war.
Diplomatic Europe is interested in Serbian politics—_not_ from motives
of humanity and justice. And to the Europe of civilization, philosophy,
science, art and ethics the spirit of Yougoslavia is not even a name.
Who knows that even apart from Meštrović—who, as the peer of Phidias
and Michelangelo, cannot be compared with mere mortals—the finest
architect of the present day is a Southern Slav—a Slovene—the son of a
small nation of three million people? This great architect of modern
Europe is Josip Plečnik; he was director of the Arts Academy in Prague,
and a few months ago was promoted to the Vienna Academy. Downtrodden
Dalmatia boasts such powerful writers, thinkers and scientists as
Count Ivo Vojnović, Antun Tresić-Pavićić, the philosopher Petrić, and
the historian Nodilo. At the time of Carducci and Swinburne Bosnia
possessed a typical poet, Silvije Kranjčević, and at the present
time Serbia has in Borislav Stankovi a novelist worthy to rank with
Leonid Andreeff. In Yougoslavia there are to-day splendidly edited
reviews, particularly good theatres and opera (as for instance the
Opera at Zagreb), and good universities with distinguished professors
and scientific men. Assuredly the Southern Slavs are not to blame if
the whole world has seen this gifted and important nation through
the spectacles of the Viennese Press, a nation which is worth more
to the human race than the whole of the Hapsburg dynasty—or _was_,
until the outbreak of the present war.... In all their poverty and
slavery, and without the help even of Serbia, they undertook a campaign
of enlightenment in the European Press, organized art exhibitions,
and by concerts, lectures, and translations made known their art and
literature to the world. English literature has greatly influenced
Serbo-Croat literature; and not only Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron and
Shelley are translated into Serbian, but Carlyle, Buckle, and Draper
have also exercised great influence upon Serbian culture; and the most
modern literature of Britain has found worthy translators and admirers.
The poems of Rossetti, Browning, Keats, Swinburne and Walt Whitman, the
novels of Wells, and the plays of Bernard Shaw have been translated
into the beautiful tongue of the “Belgrade regicides.”
* * * * *
To resume, it is not surprising that Western Europeans do not know
Southern Slav civilization, when many rich fields of this culture
still remain “buried treasures” to the Southern Slavs themselves. The
Serbo-Croat and Slovene poets, such as Gundulić, Ranjina, Palmotić
and Gjorgjić from Ragusa and Dalmatia, compare favourably with the
exponents of Western literature, and among modern Serbo-Croat poets
Petar Petrović Njegoš, Lazar Kostić and Silvije Kranjčević are great,
even when compared with the greatest. Yet it is not so much the artists
and their individual works, but the _nation_, and the _collective
artistic worth_ of the national spirit that is of priceless value. The
music of the Southern Slavs, more especially the music of Old Serbia
and Bosnia, possesses great melodic beauty and emotional depth, and
when it finds its modern exponent it will take its proper place in the
history of music. This great art of the Serbian nation however, is
not only absolutely unknown to Europe and the rest of the world, but
even in Serbia, although universally known, it is cultivated little
or not at all. The Serbian State, which since its re-birth under
Karagjorgje Petrović has waged continual war for the liberty and union
of the Southern Slavs, could not devote itself to music, art and
beauty; and that part of the nation which remains under the yoke of
the Ottoman Turks and the Hapsburgs felt still less inclined to do so.
The priceless treasures of popular song have not yet been artistically
exploited. Thus their own creation is a buried treasure to the Southern
Slavs; in a sense, one may even say, that there is no Serbian music.
Europeans cannot value this beautiful and noble music because they do
not know it; neither can they value the national textile art of Old
Serbia, Dalmatia and Croatia, since it is equally unknown. For three
consecutive years the Serbian Government has had to arm the State, and
has had neither time nor money to turn the Southern Slav textile art
into a modern industry.
What the Serbo-Croats and Slovenes, and even the Bulgarians, do
cultivate, and are proud of, is the Southern-Slav or Serbian national
poetry, the ballads and legends which the people have invented and
sung during centuries of slavery. Goethe, the great “citizen of
the universe,” and the first to predict the foundation of a modern
universal literature, assigned Serbian national poetry a very high
place among the literatures of the world, and many of the poems have
already been translated into different languages.[18]
To understand Ivan Meštrović, the creator of the _Temple of Kossovo_,
one must feel Serbian music and appreciate Serbian textile art; and
above all one must learn to know this noble nation of Christians and
Slavs through their national poetry. It is not arrogance on our part
to call Meštrović and the _Temple of Kossovo_ the eternal art of the
present generation. Every divinely-inspired artist creates not only
beauty, but life,—for the mind is the life—and this great regenerator
of European art is the son of a small nation of the blood-stained
Balkans, and also the son of the great race which has produced
Dostoievski.
* * * * *
Europe and mankind in general must accord justice to the Southern
Slav spirit, and the historic merit and achievements of the Serbian
nation. The knowledge of Serbian music and especially of Serbian poetry
can only be a gain to the Europe of the future. For this Serbian art
is a _truly Slav art_, wonderful and deep, equal to that of ancient
Egypt and India. It was not because Miczkiewicz, the great Polish
poet, was himself a Slav, that he sang the praises of this beauty so
enthusiastically, but because he understood the moral of this beauty.
This poetry has been for centuries a life-force of the Southern Slav
nation, because morality and life are one, and because the spirit of
Serbian beauty—barbaric and god-like—is a religion in poetry and a
moral in art. Without fear we may say that Serbian ethics are the
most wonderful in the history of humanity. If it may be said of any
nation that it is great and noble, it may be said of the Southern
Slavs. Europe does not realize the monstrous injustice she has done
these “barbarous” peoples. They are rather a heroic and mythical than
a barbaric people. It is only Austria-Hungary who regards them as a
nation of anarchists and regicides.
What is the Serbian spirit? It has been twice manifested. Once
through a man, Ivan Meštrović, the prophet of the Slav Balkans,
and again through the whole nation, in the thousands of legends,
fairy-tales, ballads and songs which have been collected by Vuk
Stefanović-Karadžić.[19] The occupation of Bosnia, then the national
catastrophe of the annexation of Bosnia, and finally the Balkan War
have already become the subjects of poetry, and our own time will see
the latest and greatest war of the Southern Slavs sung in all its
heroic reality.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The reason for this “cultural” ostracism of Russia is both
racial and geographical. There has never been any desire in England
to belittle the Slavs, least of all Russia. On the contrary, a long
succession of traditions, as far back as the Viking Age, binds the
extreme West to the extreme East of Europe, and has now reached a great
ethical and practical expression in the Triple Entente. But between
Western Europe and the Slavs lies Imperial Germany, who has acted not
only as a barrier, but also as a distorting glass, through which the
western and eastern races of Europe were compelled to look at each
other. [Footnote by the translator F.S.C.]
[2] History has recently cast a doubt on Rurik’s Norse origin, but
tradition is quite positive on the subject. Certainly the name
Rurik—recalling the Norse-Scottish Roderick-Rory—is in its favour,
and it is interesting that the Scandinavian origin of Rurik, and
even the Russian origin of Scandinavians has been championed by some
Scottish writers—perhaps to explain the undoubted Scottish sympathy
with the Russian people.[3] (_See_ Piazzi Smyth’s “Three Cities in
Russia.”)—F.S.C.
[3] In connection with this, it is interesting to know that several
Slav historiologists assert that the Scotch are of Slav descent.—S.T.
[4] Dostoievski, who really only knew Russia and his own people, was
of course justified in crediting the Russian nation alone with these
qualities. If he could have studied the British in their own country,
he could not have failed to discover many points of resemblance between
the two nations.—S. T.
[5] The Tatar scriptures.
[6] It cannot be too strongly impressed on the British reader who has
not made a study of mediæval politics on the Continent, that this
acknowledgment of the rule of certain royal Houses _was voluntary_, and
not at all brought about by conquest. If these elected rulers chose
to abuse their privileges, the nations who had chosen them reserved
to themselves the right to protest and even repudiate their authority
(_cf._ the Swiss Rebellion against Austria [William Tell] and the Rise
of the Dutch Republic).—Translator’s Note, F.S.C.
[7] The Expropriation Law provides facilities for German colonists
in Polish territory whereby Polish land and private property may be
summarily _expropriated_ for the benefit of German colonists.—S. T.
[8] This statement has been endorsed by many foreign Slav scholars.
Both Serbia and Croatia have adopted the colloquial tongue of
Hercegovina as their literary language.—S. T.
[9] A derisive term for “German.”
[10] Taken from Niko Županić. (Delo, 1903).
[11] This fact is the first proof in history that the Southern Slavs
have from the very beginning been the bulwark of Christianity, and
thereby also the bulwark of European civilization.
[12] It is due to his diplomacy that Serbia was freed from the Turkish
garrisons in her territory.
[13] King Milan was a fascinating orator, and often the populace, who
had assembled with the intention of demonstrating against him, were so
carried away by his oratory that their abuse was converted into cheers.
[14] See the articles in No. 16 of “the Round Table.” (Meantime the
sentences in the Serajevo murder trial have been passed, and it
is significant that five Serbs who had no part in the murder have
been condemned to death, whereas the actual murderer, Princip, and
the bomb-thrower, Cabrinović, were merely sentenced to terms of
imprisonment.)—S. T.
[15] The Bishop as spiritual and temporal head of the State.
[16] His collection of poems, “Gorski Vienac,” is a lasting monument of
the Southern Slav literature of the last century.—S. T.
[17] This trial has been described at length in Seton Watson’s
admirable book, “_The Southern Slav Question_.”
[18] Goethe’s studies referred to appear in Goethe’s Works Vol. vi.,
Stuttgart, 1874.
[19] Among English translations of Serbian poetry should be mentioned
one by Bowring (1826) and that by Madame Elodie Lawton Mijatović,
“Kossovo, Serbian National Song about the Fall of the Empire” (London,
Isbister, 1881). The most recent English edition of Serbian poetry
is entitled “Hero Tales and Legends of Serbia,” by Voislav Petrović
(London, 1914).
_Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London and Reading._