Slavs Research Articles

«Неокатолик» М. Э. Здзеховский и Л. Н. Толстой: история знакомства и эволюция отношения М. Э. Здзеховского к «христианскому анархизму» Л. Н. Толстого

Slavist and Polish Slavophil M.E. Zdzekhovsky came to the attention of Russian scientists relatively recently and has not yet taken its due place in domestic research. 2023 marks the 85th anniversary of his death. A Pole by origin, baptized in the Catholic faith, he remained a representative of a single space of the Slavic world and was close to that part of the Polish and Russian intelligentsia, which at the beginning of the 20th century began to be called "religious", since it put the question at the center of its worldview. about the necessity for the social development of states - religious consciousness. At the end of the XIX century. Zdzekhovsky became an admirer of L.N. Tolstoy, and then imbued with his teaching on the moral essence of Christianity. Having taken the post of professor at the University of Krakow and having moved to Austria-Hungary, Zdziechovsky continued his epistolary communication with the Russian intelligentsia and with L.N. Tolstoy, whom he called his teacher. He carried a respectful attitude towards the writer through the years of his passion for modernism (1890-1914) in the Roman Catholic Church, contact with which he found in Tolstoy's moralism. The article, based on letters and books (1890–1914) by Zdziechowski, analyzes the evolution of the attitude of the Polish “neo-Catholic” towards Tolstoy as a thinker. Not accepting Tolstoy's "Christian anarchism", Zdziechowski did not condemn his apostasy from the Church, putting the moral aspect of his search, based on epistemological pessimism, at the center of his understanding of Tolstoy's phenomenon. The author concludes that M.E. Zdziechowski's work of the writer and the moral apology of Christianity in modernism, played a leading role in Zdziechowski's attitude towards Tolstoy.

“Kuyavian fantasy” by V. Malyszewski in Review of Spiritual and Ethical Instructions of Polish National Revival of the First Half of the XX Century

The purpose of the research is to reveal the poetic and intonation uniqueness of V. Malyszewski's “Kuyavian Fantasy” in the stream of ideas of Polish national revival, actualised in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. The methodology of the work is based on the intonation concept of music from the perspective of intonation-stylistic, etymological analysis. Analytical-musicological, genre-stylistic, and interdisciplinary approaches were essential for the work, which made it possible to reveal and investigate the genre-intonational nature of V. Malyszewski's “Kuyavian Fantasy” and its correlation with the ideas of Polish national revival at the beginning of the 20th century. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by its analytical perspective, which takes into account both the genre-stylistic specificity of V. Malyszewski's work and its correlation with the historical realities of Polish national state-building and the representation of his ideas in the culture and music of the first half of the 20th century. Conclusions. V. Malyshweski is an outstanding composer, teacher, whose multifaceted activity became a brilliant embodiment of personal Renaissance encyclopedism and creative universalism against the background of an organic synthesis of Slavic cultures, the genesis of which went back to the spiritual-national and religious-ethical guidelines of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The latter became relevant during the period of restoration of Polish statehood (1918) against the background of the ideas of Prometheus. “Kuyavian fantasy” by V. Malyshewsky, which combined genre features of fantasy, suite and concert, became an artistic embodiment of the leading ideas of its time, symbolically directed to the ancient instructions of the Slavic world and Polish statehood, which is also evident in the programmatic appeal to the image of Kuyavia as an ancient Polish region; and to the etymological affinity of the name of these lands with ancient Kuyavia, related to ancient Ukrainian territories and Kyiv. “Kuyavian fantasy”, on the one hand, carefully reproduces the genre palette of Kuyaviak both as a regional dance-suite and as an example of Polish dance culture in general. On the other hand, the composer's overcoming of the purely applied role of this dance, which demonstrates the code section of the work, which acquires the characteristics of a majestic hymn to the revived Motherland, is indicative.
 Keywords: the work of V. Malyshewski, “Kuyavian fantasy” by V. Malyshewski, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, prometheism, polonaise, kuyaviak, mazurka, Polish dance music.

Pan-Slavism and Slavophilia in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe: Origins, Manifestations and Functions

The volume is a comprehensive study of Slavophilia, used as an expansion of the concept of pan-Slavism in a broad geopolitical sense. A palette of different constellations of Slavic peoples and attempts to find different Slavophile connections between different groups are presented and scrutinized. The volume is a valuable contribution to both the study of pan-Slavism past and present, and geopolitics in general.

The Polish Uprising of 1863 in the Social and Political Discourse of the Czech Kingdom

The article analyzes the views of leading Czech public and political fi gures and publicists on the prerequisites, course, features and potential consequences of the Polish uprising of 1863, which broke out on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and the Belarusian-Lithuanian provinces of the Russian Empire. Most Czech newspapers, initially striving for objective coverage of the uprising, soon completely switched to pro-Polish positions. This was explained both by the infl uence of Polish propaganda and by the position of the Western European press, which supported the Polish insurgents. At the same time, a number of leading Czech politicians, including the famous historian F. Palacky and F. Rieger, criticized the Polish uprising, noting that the plans of Polish politicians to include vast Ukrainian and Belarusian lands in the future Poland are unfair. In addition, Palacky sharply criticized the Polish rebels for their radicalism and the use of terror methods. According to Palacky, the Polish uprising was initially doomed to failure and was a colossal misfortune for all Slavic peoples, since objectively only opponents of the Slavs and Russia benefi ted from it. Similar criticism of the Polish uprising was made by a number of Czech scholars and publicists, including F. Jezbera and J. Rank. The ideological struggle and controversy surrounding the Polish uprising politicized Czech public opinion and contributed to the split of the previously unifi ed Czech national party into Old Czechs and Young Czechs.

The Polish Uprising of 1863 in Slovak Public Opinion and Slovak Press

In the article the author analyzes the views of leading Slovak public and political fi gures and the Slovak press on various aspects of the Polish national movement. Particular attention is paid to the attitude of the Slovak press and public fi gures to the prerequisites, course and features of the Polish uprising of 1863 in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and in the Belarusian-Lithuanian provinces of the Russian Empire. In contrast to the Czech press, which generally took the pro-Polish stand, Slovak fi gures and Slovak press, including the infl uential Slovak “Peshtbudinske Vedomosti” journal, demonstrated a critical attitude towards the Polish uprising, which they interpreted as an attempt by the Polish gentry to defend their class and social interests. In addition, Slovak leaders criticized the Polish movement for its detachment towards common Slavic interests, emphasizing at the same time that Russia had always sought to protect the interests of the Slavic peoples. They also criticized the slogan of the Polish rebels about the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth within the borders of 1772, which the Slovak press interpreted as the desire to impose Polish domination on the population of the Ukraine and Belarus. The critical attitude towards the Polish national movement, which manifested itself in 1863, also infl uenced the subsequent attitude of Slovak public towards the Russian-Polish historical dispute.

How the Croatian Elites Switched over from the Habsburg Empire to the South Slav Kingdom in a Drunken Night in November 1918

AbstractIn his slightly fictionalized autobiographical essay A Drunken November Night 1918 (written in 1942, first published in 1952), Miroslav Krleža attempts to reconstruct a scandal to whose creation he himself contributed to a large extent. In November 1918, in the interregnum from the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy to the foundation of the South Slav kingdom, the then young author felt compelled at a reception held in Zagreb in honor of the Serbian officers to protest loudly against the speech of the former high Habsburg officer Slavko Kvaternik. The scandal retrospectively reinforced Krleža's conviction of the misery of the contemporary Croatian elite, a circumstance whose reasons, in his opinion, lay not only in political opportunism and moral corruption, but also in unreflected utopianism and the underlying political naivety. His hope that after the dissolution of the compromised Habsburg rule the South Slav peoples could advance towards national and social emancipation was soon replaced by the sober insight that imperial Austro-Hungary was followed by a small-sized, Serb dominated post-imperial structure. By describing the period when the text was written, the Second World War and the Ustashe reign of terror in contemporary Croatia, and in doing so particularly referring to the conversion of many former Habsburg officers to the side of fascist movements, Krleža also emphatically reveals his own conception of history, according to which historical events appear to be an eternal recurrence in which human stupidity is coupled with an excessive use of power and violence.

ORGANIZACIJA JUGOSLOVENSKIH NACIONALISTA U JUŽNOJ SRBIJI (1921-1929)

The subject of this article is the activities of the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA) in the territory of Southern Serbia in the period 1922-1929. The paper reconstructs the process of building the organizational structure of ORJUNА in South Serbia, as well as the ideological motivation and daily political activity of its membership in this area. The central theme of the work is the relationship of ORJUNА towards terrorist organizations - the Kosovo Committee and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) and the claims of neighboring countries, primarily Italy, Bulgaria and Albania, on the territory of Southern Serbia. Special attention is paid to the actions of the ORJUNA militia (the so-called Action Squads) and the conflicts of this paramilitary formation with the Albanian separatists - Kačacs and supporters of Jamiyet. We have analyzed in detail the ideological background of the propaganda work of the South Serbian ORJUNA aimed at winning VMRO activists and the Bulgarian ruling circles for the concept of uniting all South Slavs. In the final part of the article we have presented ORJUNА’s propaganda work among the Slavic-speaking population of Aegean Macedonia, as well as expansionist plans at the expense of Greece and Albania.

Functions of colours and coloured objects in Slavic culture: Magic, folklore and language

Colours have always played an important role in Slavic culture. In the Slavic world of magic, each basic colour was meaningful and symbolized certain behaviours and their results. In order to understand the perception of colours in the modern times as well as the fixed expressions in which colour terms occur, we should take a look at this phenomenon from the cultural perspective. Adopting the cultural perspective allows researchers to trace the continuity of the Slavic perception of colours and their reflection in language. The aim of this paper is to present the functions of colours and coloured objects in Slavic culture, with relation to their alleged healing, protective and wizardry properties. Besides, the paper presents the Polish and Russian names of plants which were believed to have healing properties as well as the names of illnesses containing colour terms.

Resetting the Ideological Clock: How the Russian-Ukrainian Issue Was Part of Bulgarian Discourse a Century Ago

This article examines the discussion, which took place in Bulgaria shortly after the beginning of the First World War, between the Austrian deputy of Ukrainian origin Longin Tsechelski and Nikola Bobchev and Yaroslav Romanchuk. At the end of 1914, Tsechelsky arrived in Sofia to campaign for the support of the Ukrainian people in the struggle for independence publishing a pamphlet "How Russia "liberates" Ukraine?". It accuses Russia of having provoked the war by deceiving Serbia; of using pan-Slavic propaganda promulgating the idea of a single Slavic race; of denying Ukrainian nation the right to self-determination because it is conceived as being part and parcel of the Russian people; of not accepting Ukrainian language and Ukrainian literature as different from the Russian language and Russian literature but were instead considered to be their adjuncts, and some other similar arguments.Russophile circles in the country were immediately prompted to take action, which resulted in a response to Tsechelski with an article by Nikola Bobchev and a brochure by Romanchuk, a Ukrainian living and working in Bulgaria. Naturally, they try to refute the claims by using well-known arguments, talking about the liberating role that Russia played in fighting against Ottoman „slavery“, the Slav solidarity and the commercial interests of the West and more specifically of Austria during that historical moment. In the following year, a new answer followed in a book of more than a hundred pages by Tsechelski and another one by Romanchuk.

МАТИЦА В ТРАДИЦИОННЫХ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЯХ И ОБРЯДНОСТИ УДМУРТОВ

One of the most significant structural elements in the dwelling of the Udmurts, as well as of other Finno-Ugric, Turkic and Slavic peoples of the Russian forest belt, was the cross beam log (matitsa) - a supporting beam supporting the ceiling. Semantics and symbolism of the traditional East Slavic dwelling, including matitsa, are considered in detail by A.K. Bayburin. His theoretical conceptions were successfully approved by G.K. Shklyaev and P.A. Orlov in the Finno-Ugric (Udmurtian) material and by A.K. Salmin and V.V. Medvedev in the Turkic (Chuvash) material. The importance of the functions of matitsa is due to the presence of a number of symbolic meanings attributed to it, the set of beliefs and rituals associated with it, its role is brightly reflected in folklore, especially in the riddles. A large number of building rituals called to ensure well-being, prosperity and warmth in the home are associated with matitsa. The integrity of the home and the success of life in it depended on the correctness of its installation. Laying the mat was interpreted as the birth of a house. There were many symbolic meanings attached to it. Matitsa is the very first, internal boundary separating the mastered space from the outside world. Its boundary functions determined its susceptibility to the influence of other forces. Therefore rituals were performed under it when there was a need to contact with the beyond. There were also special protective techniques to limit its permeability. The ceiling beam is the topographic center of the house and guardian of its inhabitants. It is also a vivid symbol of the world tree, which is seen in building ceremonies. The matitsa is the symbolic equivalent of the whole house, the point of unfolding and winding up the ritual space. All these symbolic meanings, representations and rituals are based on the deep roots of the ancient house-building traditions that developed in the area during the construction of wooden dwellings. In connection with the beginning of construction of houses from new materials, the matitza is falling out of use. But part of the rituals associated with it is preserved. In the article the available data are generalized and new empirical material on this topic for the Udmurts is introduced.

PROTO-SLAVONIC COMPOUND WORDS WITH *SLAV- ʻFAMEʼ, ʻGLORYʼ, ʻRUMOURʼ: SYSTEM RECONSTRUCTION OF «GLORIOUS NAMES» PARADIGM

The paper focuses on the study of historical linguistic research of Proto-Slavonic anthroponyms composites with the stem *slav-. The topicality of this paper is determined by a declining interest in research of Old Slavonic lexical heritage in Slavonic historical and modern anthroponymy. The purpose of study is the description of the structure and semantics of anthroponymic composites with Proto Slavonic component *slav-. The object of the research is Nomina Personalia, taken from Slavonic written sources (namely, collections of Slavonic personal names, to a lesser extent — monuments of different times), which are formed by the way of compounding. Etymological, morphological and lexical-semantic peculiarities of Slavonic proper names as well as reconstructed Proto-Slavonic prototypes constitute the subject of the investigation. As the result of our research, the fragments of the paradigm of Proto-Slavonic compound words with exponent *slav-/*-slavъ are reconstructed; etymological ambiguity of some compound proper names is commented; morphological and semantical (ideological) peculiarities of archaic Slavonic dithematic anthroponyms are highlighted. Conclusions. Proto Slavonic binominal Nomina Propria with the exponent *slav-/*-slavъ are attested as prepositive determinatives as well as a postpositive defined word. Preliminary results of the group recondtruction of the units, which belonged to the viewed lingistical object, indicate the high degree of the stem *slav- productivity. In particular Proto Slavonic vocabulary may be supplemented with 230 prototypes; it is possible to expand geography for a number of previously proposed Proto-Slavonic words. High productivity of the paradigm with the exponent *slav- impels us to make the conclusion about significant culture role of *slav-anthroponyms in the life of Old Slavonic peoples. Lake some other exponents of Proto-Slavonic anthroponymic vocabulary, *slav- was a lexical unit of archaic poetic language used in ritualized actions. Examples of poetic speech demonstrate syntactic counterparts of dithematic personal mames on the basis of which the analyzed anthroponyms perhaps arose. The perspectives for further research are to uncover the system of structurally and etymologically identical dithematical anthroponyms in onomastic vocabulary of Baltic and Iranian languages and comparative analyzis of their cultural semantics.

Panslavismul sovietic - un oximoron ideologic în slujba politicii externe a Uniunii Sovietice (1941 - 1947)

The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 meant, among other things, the elimination of all the ideas that existed during the tsarist period. Among them was Russian Pan-Slavism, a doctrine inspired by the similar movement of the West Slavs that sought to incorporate all Slavic peoples into a single empire, ruled by the Russian Tsar. During the Great Stalinist Terror, the last remnants of all that Slavism meant were eradicated through the so-called "Process of the Slavists", as a result of which dozens of intellectuals who had or were suspected of having a connection with Slavic studies were subjected to repression. However, during the Second World War, the Soviet Union revived the idea of Pan-Slavism, partially shifting the ideological emphasis. In this regard, the All-Slavic Committee was created in Moscow. In the period 1941–1946, the organization played the role of a Soviet propaganda organ in the Slavic countries, especially among intellectuals. Towards the end of the war, the importance of the Committee decreased and it was abolished in 1947.

Continuity of legal traditions of Ukrainian legislation (Constitutional projects by George Andruzsky)

The legislative process of the first half and middle of the 19th century is considered. in Ukraine, in particular, the constitutional projects of Cyril and Methodius. A historical and legal analysis of the constitutional drafts of the youngest member of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, George Andrusky, entitled «Outlines of the Constitution of the Republic» was made. The influence on the preparation and content of the documents of the ideas of the «Book of the Being of the Ukrainian People» and the revolutionary ideas of Taras Shevchenko is emphasized. Against the historical background of the era, the reaction of the tsarist guard to the creation of St. Volodymyr’s Kyiv University and its role in modern Ukrainian nation-building, the formation of ideas of political resistance and free-thinking are highlighted. The work of Ukrainian lawyers, historians, philosophers who studied this problem was analyzed. The historical and legal features of Ukrainian constitutionalism, the influence of the Cyril-Methodist heritage on the germs of civil society ideas in Ukrainian political and legal thought are highlighted. The evolution of the constitutional concept of H. Andruzhsky from the ideas of the constitutional monarchy to the republican form of government is revealed. The ideas of equality before the law of the rights of citizens, the need to abolish serfdom and estate privileges, land reform in the context of giving peasants land, the introduction of political freedoms, a fair tax system for the population, the creation of an accessible general education system, the establishment of central and local press, military reform, defense of Ukrainians’ right to their language, literature, and culture in general. Considerable attention is paid to the structure of state power of the future state, especially local self-government, the community, which in the project is almost the main, basic link of the state. A solution to the problems of health care and social security is proposed. Worthy of attention in the project are the provisions that set out the requirements for candidates for management positions, in which the age, educational and residency qualifications, the absence of a criminal record and other punishments during the last three years, and the voting procedure were established. The order of coexistence with neighboring countries, first of all with Slavic countries, was envisaged. The statement that the basis of the state’s well-being is the agricultural sector is considered relevant. The essence of a citizen’s freedom, religious education at school, maintenance of the church at the expense of the community has been determined. It is emphasized that the thoughts and considerations expressed by H. Andruzky in the draft constitution were developed in the future in the process of development of Ukrainian constitutionalism and law-making. Key words: Ukraine, Cyril and Methodius brotherhood, George Andrusky, Taras Shevchenko, «Outlines of the Constitution of the Republic», Mykola I, Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr, M. Kostomarov, Hetmanship, constitutional jurisdiction, state formation, Ukrainophiles, Slavophiles, autocracy, gendarmes.

Analysis on the Origin of Torbeshes: Case of Gorno Vranovci

Torbeshes are a Muslim community in Macedonia who speak Macedonian as their native language. The village of Gorno Vranovci is a Torbeshes village in the city of Köprülü. The entire village migrated to various parts of Izmir after 1950. The subject of this study is to try to clarify the origins of the Torbeshes living in Macedonia by analyzing their history, culture, and language. Are the Torbeshes Macedonian/Slavic Muslims, are they Cuman-Pecheneg remnants who settled in the Balkans before the Ottoman period, or are they from the yörüks who settled in Macedonia during the Ottoman period? In our study, these questions are being sought to be clarified, and our research covers the Northern Macedonia region. An oral history study was conducted with the Torbeshes from Gorno Vranovci, who migrated from Macedonia to Türkiye, and the results were obtained by comparing them with the sources. Torbeshes live around the city of Köprülü, Debre/Reka region, around the Delçevo and Makedonski Brod cities in Macedonia. Torbeshes living in these regions have started to migrate to İzmir since 1950. There is no written source concerning the Torbesh ethnonym until the early 20th century. We begin to come across the names of Torbeshes during of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Before this, we find their information within the Muslim and Turkish cultural circles in Ottoman archival sources. Today, the majority of Torbeshes in Macedonia and Türkiye identify themselves as Turkish. As a result of our oral history studies, Torbeshes from the village of Gorno Vranovci reported that; they forgot their language but did not give up on their religion due to the assimilation policy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. They report that they migrated from the Reka region to the Gorno Vranovci village and that they heard this from their ancestors. In addition, many historians in Macedonia and Serbia state that the Torbeshes originated from an Islamized part of a Slavic people called Mijak. Being Melami Muslims who do not speak any language other than Macedonian, the people of Vranovci identify themselves as Turkish. Seemingly, Albanians lived in the village named Vranofça-i Bala reference to the ‘registry of the Muslim population’ of the first Ottoman census dated 1831. Oral history sources confirm that Torbeshes from Vranovci did not migrate from the Reka region to Vranovci during this period. The sources of those who offer opinions on the Cuman-Kipchak origins of the Torbeshes have been insufficient. The resources of those who present the explanation of the Torbesh ethnonym as Türkbaş are insufficient. According to the oral sources, since they abandoned their religion in return for a pouch (torba in Turkish) of dry cottage cheese, they have been given the name ‘Torbeş’, which was derived from the word torba. There are also some views put forward that there is a correlation between Acemi Ocagi –as known as Torba Oglanlari, Torba Acemileri. Torbeshes is a community of those who work for living abroad. As regards the fact that they only bring a pouch with them, it is most likely that the Torbesh ethnonym is taken ground. In fact, most parts of the Torbeshes, those who migrated from Vranovci to İzmir, moved to Germany to work. Vranovcian Torbeshes are also separated from Macedonian Yörüks, considering the holidays/feasts. Vranovcian holidays such as Letnik, Blogovets, and Bogordisa are relevant to Orthodoxy. These cultural elements support the argument that Torbeshes were Turkified by Islamisation in the Ottoman era. Nevertheless, the majority of Torbeshes, by placing themselves inside the Turkish cultural circle, identify as Turks today.

Trends in the texts of national anthems: A comparative study

In a recent previous investigation of national anthems, preferred topics and their bias (e.g., towards identity, fighting, or well-being) were identified subjectively (Silaghi-Dumitrescu, 2020). The present report aims to verify whether a more objective, automated, comparison of the texts of national anthems across the world can also reveal systematic trends – and to what extent. To this end, the Tropes and Semantria software packages are employed, revealing preferred topics (e.g., state, feeling, body, time, land, religion, family, fight), how their relative weights differ across continents and cultures, and how the conveyed sentiments vary. For instance, “liberty” is more common in Latin-country anthems while almost absent in Asia, “feelings” are less mentioned in Germanic-language anthems, and the first-person singular “I” is essentially absent African anthems. The sentiment scores of the anthems vary from neutral in Latin and Mediterranean anthems to much more positive in Central and Western Asian, Germanic and Slavic countries.

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF SLAVIC UNITY IN THE WORKS OF P.A. KULAKOVSKY

This article examines the part of the scientific heritage of the Russian scientist-Slavist Platon Andreevich Kulakovsky (1848-1913), which addressed the issues of pan-Slavism. This concept, formed in the XVIII-XIX centuries, was based on the idea of uniting Slavic peoples on the basis of ethnic, linguistic and cultural community. Quite a few Slavic figures from different countries tried to answer the question of how this unification was to be realized. Some representatives of the Slavs agreed on the role of the Russian Empire as the leading power of the Slavic world.
 In his research on the national revival of the South Slavic peoples, P. A. Kulakovsky not only defended the point of view of Russia as a pillar of the Slavs, which will be able to unite other Slavic peoples under its auspices, but also tried to answer the question whether it was possible to achieve this goal in the foreseeable future.

Synodic of the Studenitsa Monastery as a historical source

The article analyzes the content of the handwritten Synodic, which has belonged to one of the most important Serbian monasteries — Studenica — since the middle of the XVII century. Such manuscripts are known in single copies in the repositories of the Balkan Peninsula and Greece, all of them reflect the history of Russia’s relations with the South Slavic and other Orthodox peoples of southern Europe during the reign, mainly, of the Romanov dynasty.The value of this manuscript is that it marks the beginning of the establishment of the regular practice of the clergy of the Studenitsa for alms in Russia, which lasted a century. Synodic contains a wealth of material on the genealogy of many Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and other families that played a historical role in the events of Southern and Eastern Europe in the second half of the XVII-XVIII centuries.

Scandinavia in Research on Slavic Wooden Architecture: Inspiration, Point of Reference and Part of Imagined Pasts

ABSTRACT Based on texts from art history and ethnology, this paper examines three aspects of Scandinavia’s role in studying the wooden architecture of the Slavs up to 1945. First, it is pointed out that Dahl’s book, published in 1837, gave the decisive impetus to this research tradition. Second, the article shows how the early works on Norwegian stave churches established them as a paradigm of wooden construction and thus as the primary reference for other monuments of this type. Third, attempts to use wooden architecture in incorporating Scandinavia and Slavs into the shared, imagined pasts are presented. These were undertaken mainly by German scholars trying to demonstrate the Germanic roots of Slavic building. Scandinavia played a role in these narratives as the source of the forms taken over by the Slavs or the residuum of the East Germanic artistic traditions influencing the Slavic peoples. In this way, Scandinavian culture, incorporated into the common Germanic heritage, was instrumentalised to legitimise German domination in Central Europe. 1 1 Publication co-financed by the funds granted under the Research Excellence Initiative of the University of Silesia in Katowice.

WHAT ARE SHIBBOLETHNONYMS AND DO THEY EXIST IN THE SERBIAN LANGUAGE?

Over the last decades, especially in the Slavic countries, onomastic disciplines and their terminologies have significantly improved. Therefore, in ethnonymics – a study of the names of peoples and, in a broader sense, the names of the inhabitants of physiographic and/or administrative regions – not only necessary terms, but also terms whose purposefulness is at best debatable, have been introduced. This paper examines whether such terms include the Bulgarian term govoren etnonim and the Anglophone term shibbolethnonym, which denote ethnonyms motivated by some speech characteristic of the community in question. The analysis is performed from the standpoint of Serbian onomastics and etymology using appropriate examples from different varieties of the Serbian language: the standard, rural vernacular, and informal varieties of urban environments (i.e. colloquial style and youth jargon or slang). Examples are classified into shibbolethnonyms ʻproperʼ, with more or less clear motivation reflected in the imitation of phonological, grammatical and/or lexical features in the speech of another ethnic or regional community (Švabenzi infrm. ‘Germans’), and ʻfalseʼ shibbolethnonyms, with blurred motivation or meaning which only describe the speech characteristics of the Other (Nijemci stnd. ‘Germans’). We particularly point to the examples which, in addition to speech characteristics, (re)produce positive stereotypes about the greatest closely related nation (baćuška ‘a Russian man’) and regional communities of the same, Serbian or Croatian people (đetić ‘a man from Montenegro’; prika ‘a man from Slavonia’, rođo ‘a man from Herzegovina’). Finally, based on the number and importance of the presented examples, it is concluded that the introduction of the notion in question is necessary, even if one takes the view that yet another onomastic term, in addition to many already accepted, may appear undesirable.

«SLAVIC MUTUALITY»: INTERSECTION OF IMPERIAL IDEAS IN UKRAINIAN-SLAVIC-EUROPEAN RECEPTIONS

The purpose of the study is the reconstruction of one, although definitely not primary, factor in the ideologization of the national movement of the Western Slavs (we are talking about Ukrainian relations with the Western Slavs), which allows for a more accurate understanding of both the circumstances of the Slavic revival and the ideological syncretism of the revivalists. Accordingly, Slavic interethnic relations and spiritual receptions were "sanctified" for many years by the idea of "Slavic reciprocity," a cultural or linguistic-literary community. In the absence of their own statehood, romantic national idealism was not only a component of the ideology of ethnocultural preservation, for example, among the Lusatians, but also became an additional factor in the national movement of the Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak peoples for their national liberation. We will focus on only some aspects of Ukrainian-Slavic relations. Accordingly, it would certainly be an exaggeration to attribute to the connections of the Western Slavs with the Ukrainians, as well as with the Russian environment, the significance of the exclusive catalyst of national movements. But the information about connections and exchanges that have reached us testify to the establishment of mostly direct contacts between active representatives of the Slavic peoples, which, of course, expanded the worldview of national leaders and strengthened the feeling of the all-Slavic community. In our opinion, external Slavic factors, including Ukrainian ones, supplemented the ideology of the Slavs not so much with a national content but mainly emphasized that ethnic revival is not a local or regional phenomenon but a process that is genetically connected with the generality of similar phenomena. It is significant that at the activation stage in the 1930s and 1940s, cultural and national aspirations of Ukrainians and Western Slavic peoples, the European policy of the Russian Empire was one of the reasons for the politicization of national ideologies. However, the study of international communication is impossible without clarifying the content of typology and patterns of the appearance of inter-imperial contradictions and interests as fairly typical phenomena in the context of the formation and development of national ideologies in Central and Central-Eastern Europe in the first half of the 19th century.