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The Beginnings of National Self-Determination in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Roman Jakobson
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Extract

The Origins and the development of the national idea in Europe have been in recent years, particularly since the first World War, a favorite topic of culturo-historical studies. These studies have traced the gradual movement of European peoples toward national self-determination, and have described as normal the development from a vague feeling of warring tribal solidarity to a more conscious patriotism which customarily crystallizes around the prince, the king, in brief, the sovereign. According to these studies, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries national culture was more and more emphasized; the claims of national language increased and finally reached a culmination in the Reformation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , January 1945 , pp. 29 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1945

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References

1 As to mediaeval Scandinavia, its cultural position and its attitude in relation to both the Roman and the Byzantine world is so peculiar that the question would demand quite a special study.

2 “It is not easy to comprehend the psychology of this Don Quixote of Czech philosophy,” the eminent Belgian mediaevalist, Gregoire, H., truthfully observes: “Would it be a Protestant mysticism which does not dare to take something away from the glory of Luther as an original innovator?” (Renaissance I, (New York, 1943, p. 666.)Google Scholar.

3 This cardinal and chronic tension has been judiciously elucidated in historical literature from the appearance of the pioneer monograph of A. Lapôtre, S.J., L'Europe et le Sainte-Siège a Vepoque carolingienne, (Paris, 1895)Google Scholar, to the basic book of Abbe Dvornik, Fr., Les Légendea de Conslantin el de Méthode vues de Byzancc, (Prague, 1933)Google Scholar, and the recent instructive study of Alexander, P. J., “The Papacy, The Bavarian Clergy, and The Slavonic Apostles,” The Slavonic Year-Book (American Series, I. 1941)Google Scholar.

4 This fidelity to the sacred national idea, often in direct opposition to the opportunism and the prevarications of the sovereign s policy, is especially emphasized in the various legends about Prokop. the great Czech saint of the eleventh centurv. and this feature sharply contrasts with the court allegiance of the mediaeval national trends in western Europe.

5 On the far-reaching significance of the Byzantine ferment for the vitality and power of the Russian state and culture, see the excellent study of Cross, S. H., “The Results of the Conversion of the Slavs from Byzantium,” “Annuaire dc I'lnstitut de Philologle et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves, VII. (New York, 1944)Google Scholar.