PANSLAVISM. — The term « p. », in its common meaning, has always signified a plurality of currents and tendencies which, more precisely, should appear under other headings. The foreign policy of tsarist Russia, in its frictions between Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey on the other, often emphasized its interest in the Slavic peoples living within the borders of those Empires. In short, tsarist Russia never followed a definite pan-Slavist doctrine, but it welcomed those movements of intellectuals and politicians that appealed to concepts of Slavic solidarity: Russian foreign policy thus had an important weapon in hand in its discussions with Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople. In reality, Russia had an extremely vast multiplicity of interests (in Europe as well as in Asia), and the Slavic question was only one of them. The intellectuals of the minor Slavic peoples often deluded themselves about the constant support of Russian foreign policy, without fully realizing the prudence with which the government of Petersburg proceeded in the Slavic sphere.
In general, tsarist Russia was not inclined to favor revolutionary movements, not even in the name of Slavic nationalism. The interest of Russian politicians was directed above all toward the Balkan Slavs, geographically situated on the road to Constantinople and, moreover, of « Orthodox » faith. Russian interest in the Catholic Slavs was always more limited.
The tendencies toward Slavic solidarity had a more literary, peaceful, and liberal character in Bohemia and Slovakia. Kollár evoked in a famous poem the ancient Slavic peoples who had become Germanized over the course of the centuries. Scholars of various tendencies devoted themselves to Slavic archaeology and dreamed of a closer brotherhood among the Slavic peoples. At the beginning of the 20th century, Kramář developed the so-called Austroslavism, which aimed to give Austria a predominantly Slavic character, in an anti-German function, in close collaboration with Russia. Russian Pan-Slavists and Czech and Slovak romantics (supporters of Slavic solidarity) at certain moments found a considerable response among Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Numerous Slavic congresses (the famous ones of 1848 and 1867, as well as several at the beginning of the 20th century) produced scant practical results. The disagreement between the principal Slavic peoples—Russians and Poles—was in fact profound. Some representatives of the minor Slavic peoples repeatedly attempted in vain to mitigate II. The Ukrainians, moreover, increasingly tended to emancipate themselves from the Russians and were also in conflict with the Poles (in Galicia). No less profound were the conflicts between Serbs and Bulgarians and between Serbs and Croats. There were also conflicts between Poles and Czechs, especially over the region of Teschen.
The Bolsheviks traditionally regarded all forms of p. and of Slavic solidarity as an imperialist program or a romantic and bourgeois ideal. Following the evolution of the U.S.S.R. toward a greater valorization of Russian national traditions, numerous elements of «Slavism» were also incorporated into the new Soviet policy. Russia resolved, according to its own vision, the conflicts existing among the minor Slavic peoples: Königsberg became Kaliningrad; Poland reached the Oder (in exchange for Polish territories that passed to Russia); millions of Germans were expelled from the Sudetenland and, at the time of the Peace Treaty between the Allies and Italy, converging Russian and Western interests partly favored the Yugoslav advance toward Friuli.