RUSSIA AND BALKANS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1939, Page 11

RUSSIA AND BALKANS

P.\ N-S LAVIS M R EBO RN. After a lapse of 25 years the Balkans have again become the apple of discord between the Great Powers (writes E. M. Offner in the Sydney “Herald”). Reports that a neutral bloc is to be created in the Balkans under the leadership of Italy, and that spheres of influence have already been arranged there between Hitler and Stalin are only conjectures, but they indicate that Russia, and the Axis Bowers —if it is still possible to speak of an Axis —have made no agreement, about the Balkans.

This problem to-day is at least as, complicated as it was 25 years ago. All Balkan States and their neighbours have unsettled claims one against the othor. Out of the annexation of Bos-, nia bv Austria-Hungary in 1908, the two Balkan wars of 1912-13, the murder! of the Archduke Frauds Ferdinand at Serajevo in 1914, and the solutions which were tried after the Great War,; new and grave problems continued to arise. Europe has already been set | afire by the brutal aggression of the Nazis against Poland and her violent partition, and if this fire is nourished on the combustible materials spread about the Balkans it may leave Ihe whole of south-eastern Europe in ruins. . I Only the Turkish problem is definitely settled. The once “sick man of, Europe” is now a very healthy State, whose favours are much desired. This former arch-enemy of the Slav nations which lived for so long in Turkish slavery is now their best friend. Turkey stands for the .‘‘Monroe Doctrine in the Balkans.” or. as it was expressed in 1934, when the Balkan Entente was formed: “The Balkans for the Balkan Nations.” | This formula has now become meaningless. Following the destruction of ( Austria, Czechoslovakia, Albania and Poland, the Balkans are the next objective of the imperialistic ambitions' of the Fascist States. The aims of the dictators, however, are different.! Italy desires a strong Yugoslavia in order to head off Germany from the t Adriatic Sea, and she therefore favours an alliance between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria; Germany leans towardsj Hungary and Bulgaria, both of whom' were her partners in the Great War., On the other hand she is exerting strong pressure on Yugoslavia for the delivery of the products she needs.] Now the third, but perhaps the most influential, force has appeared on the! scene. Russia’s aims are not precisely known, but she is likely to play the same part as the Russian Czar once played—that of protector of the South Slavs. There are many signs! that the old Pan-Slavic idea is beingreborn.

The Pan-Slavic idea, the idea of the political unity of all Slav peoples, was conceived in the sixteenth century, but the incessant wars between Slav nations, especially between the Russians and the Poles, and the invasion’ of the Tartars in Russia and of the Turks in the Balkans prevented its realisation.

CZARIST LEADERSHIP. ■ The then editor of the “Moscow -Journal,” Katkow, resumed tire agitation for the Pan-slavism in the beginning of the 19th century. , Supported by the notablb writer, Danilevsky, he spread a propaganda for the union of all Slav nations under the spectre of the “White Czar,” the Emperor of Russia. Katkow’s efforts were unsuccessful, mainly because of the cruel suppression of the Poles by the Russian .autocracy. Only in 1878 did Russia play an influential part in securing autonomy for Bulgaria under Turkish sovereignty, whilst Bulgar independence was not obtained until 1908. After the creation of the Russian Duma in 1905, a Czech delegate fn the Parliament of Austria-Hungary proposed cooperation between the Slav members of all European States in order to assure unity of their policy. This was the first realisation of a Pan-Slavic idea, and from that moment all the Slav nations which were not independent —such as the Czechs, the Ruthenians, the Slovaks, and the Croats — looked upon the Emperor of Russia as the deliverer from oppression. Only the Poles, natural enemies of Russia, turned to France in expectation of the creation of an independent Polish State.

The Pan-Slavic movement assumed great, importance before the outbreak of the Great War, wjien Serbia was backed by Isvolsky, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in her resistance to Austria’s demands after the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Russia, declared war on Austria-Hungary in order to support Serbia.

fl’he formation during the war of legions from among the Austrian Czechs and the dissolution of the previously pro-Austrian Polish legions resulted from an increasing Pan-Slavic propaganda, and tendency of the Slav combatants towards unity under the leadership of Russia.

Following the Russian Revolution and the formation of a Soviet Communist State, and the ruthless war which Russia waged on Poland, the PanSlavic idea again lost all importance. The new Slav States created by the Allies, such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia. and Poland, were mostly hostile to the Soviets, though the Czechs developed a-more friendly attitude towards Moscow. Yugoslavia in whicn Russian refugees occupied many influential positions, never acknowledged the Soviets, and the Communist Party was considered an enemy of the State. The growing influence of Germany in the Balkans and the unsettled claims between the different countries were a source of continuous trouble after the Great War. and up to the outbreak of the present struggle. Now with the seizure of half of the Polish territory by Russia, the freeing of the Ruthenians, and the creating of a common frontier between Russia, Roumania, and Hungary, the problem of the Russian influence in the Balkans became very real, fl’lie Balkan nations note with profound satisfaction that Germany’s preponderance appears to be checked, and her expansion to the East, the “Drang nacli dem Osten,” definitely barred.

'rhe Soviet Government, however, if it puslies its influence in the Balkans. will have to solve very difficult problems. Hungar yarn! Bulgaria, the two weakest States, arc both under Germany's protection, and both have claims —Hungary seeks from Rotimania the return of Transylvania and from Yugoslavia the Banat and Bascka —the northern part of Yugoslavia up to the Save River. Bulgaria wants bad.' the imuthern Dobrudja. from Ronmania. an outlet to the Aegean Sea from Greece., and Macedonia (Southern Yugoslavia) from that country.

The well-known Russian writer. Mcrcshkovsky, has defined Russia’s missions as the salvation of Europe and lite substitution of Russian culture for the “rotteu" Western civilisati'.n. But Mercshkovsky was th?

great < nmny of Bolshevism, and it is piobably that any enthusiasm among the Balkan Slates for the Soviet will quickly cool when they realise that Pan-Slavism in the modern Russian conception means pure Bolshevism.