Abstract
Not merely the inborn instinct of self-defence, not merely national sympathies and antipathies, but historical and political insight constrain the Czecho-Slovaks to accept the programme of the Allies and to reject the programme of the Central Powers.
The New Europe is another of Masaryk’s books with a complicated history. Written with interruptions in 1917-18 in Petrograd, Moscow and Kiev (in the weeks of bitter street fighting), on the Siberian Railway, on a ship between Yokohama and Vancouver, and finally in America in the period of Masaryk’s most intensive diplomatic activity, the book was Masaryk’s summary of the main causes of the war and his outline of the post-war reconstruction of Europe. A hastily sketched, rather pragmatic book with visionary elements, it was written in Czech, but first published in English and French translations as a background study for the delegates of the Peace Conference. Masaryk’s original Czech version appeared in Prague in 1920. The English translation of 1918 was reissued in 1972. The selected text, a discussion of the conditions for peace and democracy in Europe, is part five of the book.
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Notes
The German professor Schaefer in his ethnographical map (1916) gives the following statistics of non-German nations in Germany — Prussia: Poles, 3,746,000; French, 216,000; Danes, 147,000; Lithuanians, 106,000. These figures are estimated to be too low; Schaefer’s map conceals the fact that there are Lusatians and Czechs in Prussia. Some ethnographers, even Slavs, declare the Kashubs are a nation distinct from the Poles, and the Lusatians also are divided into two branches. A more detailed ethnographic exposition is here unnecessary. (There are in Prussia, just as in the Austrian Bukovina, Russian and other colonies, but these questions are without political significance.)
The terminology in the case of the Ukrainians is embarrassing. Ukraine, Ukrainians has been used of the part of the nation living in the south of Russia; in Austria the name Ruthenians or Rusins has been used. The whole nation is often called Little Russians, in distinction of the Great (and White) Russians. Not all Ukrainians claim to be a separate nation distinct from the Russians; in Austria and Hungary there has been a political party professing national unity with the Russians and calling themselves Russians (vide the mentioned Carpatho-Russians).
The entire independence of the Baltic nations has been proclaimed after the German occupation and the Russian revolution; but representatives of the Lithuanians, for instance, until lately proposed federation with Russia. A close union of the Lithuanians with the Letts has been proposed to facilitate the independence of both peoples. The Armenians proclaimed their republic and joined the Allies in fighting the Turks and Germans; similar attempts have been tried by some of the small nations in Russia.
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© 1990 Masaryk Publications Trust
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Kovtun, G.J. (1990). New Europe. In: Kovtun, G.J. (eds) The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk (1850–1937). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10933-3_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10933-3_19
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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