until Russia, the chief Slav power, had beaten Napoleon. After that date its professors could hold up their heads, and maintain that Germany has reached her day, England her mid-day, France her afternoon, Italy her evening, Spain her night; but the Slavs stand on the threshold of the morning. This Slavonic idea reached a practical point when, in 1877, Russia drew her sword on behalf of the oppressed Slavonic nationalities of the Balkans.
Another example of the Slavonic faith is represented in the words of Skobeleff; "our enemy is the German. The battle is unavoidable between German and Slav." It is certainly remarkable that the organised antagonism between Russians and Germans is of a most recent date. For centuries the tendency ran in the opposite direction; the Baltic provinces were little more than a German hinterland; and the Czars, from the time of Peter the Great, exerted themselves to open "a window on the west." But, as the nineteenth century proceeded, all that was changed under the stimulus of the Slavonic consciousness. Chiefly since Alexander III. became Czar in 1881, the russification of the Baltic provinces has been enforced with ruthless brutality against the Germans, and has aroused the most intense indignation and wrath in the fatherland. It may be argued, then, that Pan-Slavism, fomented by democracy, is preparing a tremendous conflict. Yet, in truth, democracy is not culpable, and can be shown to be actually the great obstacle to the Pan-Slav.
