Unit 13: Age of Nationalism / Revolution
Slavs and Germans
From Bakunin, Mikhail. The Confession of Mikhail Bakunin, with the marginal comments of Tsar Nicholas I. trans. Robert C. Howes, ed. introduction and notes by Lawrence D. Orton (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1977), 68-70, 96-97.
The predominant feeling among the Slavs is hatred for the Germans. The energetic albeit discourteous expression "damned German," pronounced in all Slav languages in almost the same manner, produces an incredible effect on every Slav. . . . In Prague, where there was no end to the defamation of the Germans, I felt myself closer even to the Poles. Hatred for the Germans was the inexhaustible topic of all conversation; it served instead of a greeting among strangers. When two Slavs met, the first word between them was almost always against the Germans, as though to assure one another that they were both true, good Slavs. Hatred for the Germans is the primary basis of Slav unity and mutual understanding among the Slavs. It is so strong, so deeply engraved in the heart of every Slav, that I am even now convinced, Sire, that sooner or later, in some way or another, no matter how political relationships in Europe are defined, the Slavs will throw off the German yoke, and the time will come when there will be no Prussian or Austrian or Turkish Slavs.

In my opinion, the importance of the Slav Congress lay in the fact that this was the first meeting, the first acquaintance, the first effort at union and understanding of the Slavs among themselves. As far as the congress itself is concerned, it--just like all other contemporary congresses and political gatherings--was decidedly empty and meaningless. Of the origin of the Slav Congress I know the following.

Since ancient times there had existed in Prague a learned literary circle that had as its goal the preservation, elevation, and development of Czech literature, Czech national customs, and also the distinctive essence of the Slav nations in general, which is repressed, restricted, and disdained by the Germans as well as by the Magyars. This circle was in lively and continual communication with similar circles among the Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, and even the Lusations in Saxony and Prussia, and was, so to speak, their head. Palackü . . . and several others were the leaders of Slav propaganda, at first literary but then attaining political significance. The Austrian government did not like them, but tolerated them because they counteracted the Magyars. As evidence and as an example of their activity I shall cite only one circumstance: Ten--no more than fifteen--years ago in Prague, no one, absolutely not a soul, spoke Czech, with the possible exception of the rabble and the workmen. Everyone spoke German and lived like Germans; they were ashamed of the Czech language and of their Czech origins. Now, on the contrary, not a single man, woman, or child wants to speak German, and in Prague the Germans themselves have leaned to understand and express themselves in Czech. I have given only Prague as an example, but the same thing has taken place in all the other Bohemian, Moravian, and Slovak cities, large and small; the villages, of course, never ceased living and speaking like Slavs. . . .

In describing the impression made on me by my first meeting with the Slavs in Prague, I said that there awakened within me then a Slav heart and new Slav feelings that almost caused me to forget all interests tying me to the democratic movement of Western Europe. The senseless cry raised by the Germans against the Slavs following the dissolution of the Slav Congress, coming from all sides of Germany, and most of all from the Frankfurt National Assembly, affected me even more strongly. Now this was not a democratic cry but a cry of German egotism. The Germans wanted freedom for themselves, not for others. Gathering in Frankfurt, they really thought that they had become a united and powerful nation and that now it was up to them to decide the fate of the world! [The German fatherland], which previously existed only in their songs and in conversations over tobacco and beer, was to become the fatherland of half of Europe. The Frankfurt Assembly, which itself came out of a rebellion, was based on rebellion, and existed only through rebellion, began to call the Italians and the Poles rebels and to look upon them as seditious and criminal enemies of German grandeur and German omnipotence! . . . German national fury was turned . . . strongly against the Austrian Slavs who had gathered in Prague. Since ancient times the Germans had been accustomed to view them as their serfs and did not want to permit them even to breathe in Slavic! In this hatred for the Slavs, in these Slav-devouring cries, absolutely all the German parties participated. Not only did the conservatives and the liberals shout against the Slavs, as they did against Italy and Poland, but the democrats too shouted louder than the others: in newspapers, in brochures, in legislative and national assemblies, in clubs, in beer halls, on the street . . . It was such a din, such a furious storm, that if a German shout could have killed or harmed anyone, then all the Slavs would long since have died.

Reprinted from Robert C. Howes (trans.) and Lawrence D. Orton (ed.): The "Confession" of MIkhail Bakunin. Copyright © 1977 by Cornell University. Used by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press.

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