PANSLAVISM, pfin-sliiv/iz'm (from Gk. ray, pa-s, all + Ger. S la cc, Slav, from ()(hurch Slay. Slori, nine, Russ. Slaryaninu Slav). The term applied to a movement in which Russia as the great Slavic nation has assumed the leadership, for the political and cultural union of all races of Slavic descent. It had its origin about 1830 and was fostered by the general awakening of the national spirit which characterized the Europe of that time. The movement throughout Central Europe was paralleled by the Slavophile move ment in Russia which had for its object the re generation of the country through a return to the old ideas of Russian civilization as they had stood before the Western innovations of Peter the Great. Russia, owing to its predominant position in European affairs under Nicholas I., came to be regarded as the protector of the scat tered Slavic peoples living under Austrian, Prus sian, or Turkish rule. In 1848 the leading pro moters of Panslavism summoned a congress at Prague, which was attended by Slays trout Bo hemia, .loravia, Servia. Croatia. Dal
matia, and Poland. Since 1860 Panslavism has exerted direct influence on Austro-Hungarian pol itics, loth northern and southern Slays tending toward united action in opposition to the Ger mans and Magyars. In 1367 a great Slavic con gress was held at .Moscow, but with little ma terial result. It was largely as the natural champion of the oppressed Slays of the Balkan peninsula that Russia declared war on Turkey in 1577, and the politics of the peninsula since then have been influenced to a eonsiderable de gree by the ambitions of the Pauslovists. Up to the present time, however, the Panslavie spirit has asserted itself most effectually in the field of literature and more especially in philology, where the researches of many scholars have re sulted in laying down the principles for a COM parative science of Slavic languages.