of unity is not the issue of questions of grammar or linguistic research[1]
The revolution (1905) brought the Little Russians certain freedoms in the matter of the public use of their tongue, the publication of Little Russian newspapers being permitted, and so on. The program formulated in 1863 by Minister Valuev on the ground that a Little Russian nationality "never has existed, does not exist, and cannot exist," has at least been modified by the government.
The religious question plays a certain part in the matter. The Little Russians of Austria are Uniats whilst those of Russia are Orthodox. Some of the Little Russians in Poland are Uniats.
Among the White Russians the idea of differentiation has originated only in very recent days.[2]
§ 67.
THE Poles lost their political independence much later than the other northern and southern Slavs, and for this reason the national sentiment of the Poles is peculiarly political and is directed towards the re-establishment of the Polish state. This is manifested by the two revolutions against Russia, the country under whose sway the majority of the Poles are now living.[3]
Polish philosophy developed under the influence of the German postkantian philosophy of history, being based in
- ↑ Beyond question the Slovaks have no language that is peculiarly their own, and nevertheless political conditions had led to the segregation of the Slovak dialect as a literary tongue. In Germany certain dialects are quite as distinct from the literary speech as Little Russian is from Great Russian. In Germany no obstacles are imposed upon the literary cultivation of the dialects, whilst the teachers in the schools and the officials in the discharge of their duties help themselves out with dialect in case of need. It is doubtless difficult to create a literary speech and a literature in rivalry with a literary tongue already extant and accessible, but it is questionable whether the linguistic development of the Russians will follow the laws of linguistic centralisation in Germany, France, England, etc. As has been said, the question is not a literary one merely, for its solution depends primarily upon political considerations. A Great Russian monthly review has recently been founded in the Little Russian interest.
- ↑ The White Russians number about six millions.
- ↑ The Austrian Poles number three and a half millions. the German Poles three and a quarter millions, and the Russian Poles eleven millions; of these last there are eight millions in the kingdom of Poland and about three millions in Lithuania, West Russia, and South Russia.
