National Romanticism

Miroslav Hroch: National Romanticism

Download PDF (184.9 KB)
pp. 4-18

The end of the eighteenth century and first decades of the nineteenth were in many respects a watershed period in European history. The dramatic convulsions of the French Revolution revealed, and opened, viable as well as unviable roads for the future development of European society. In connection with the ideas of the Enlightenment it shattered the old bonds and cast doubt...

Dániel Berzsenyi: To the Hungarians

Download PDF (204.2 KB)
pp. 21-26

Dániel Berzsenyi [1776, Egyházashetye (Southwest Hungary) – 1836, Nikla (Southwest Hungary)]: poet. He was the offspring of a noble family of Lutheran denomination. He entered Sopron Lutheran Lyceum around 1790, where he acquired the basis of his education, especially in Latin and German poetry. He married in 1799 and led the lifestyle of the lesser nobility in Southwest Hungary. As a poet he...

Joseph von Hormayr: Austria and Germany

Download PDF (159.7 KB)
pp. 27-32

Joseph von Hormayr, Baron of Hortenburg [1781, Innsbruck – 1848, Munich]: historian and publicist. He came from an old aristocratic family from Tyrol. Hormayr studied law in Innsbruck and began a career in administration. From 1799 to 1802, during the wars against revolutionary France, he served as a volunteer. Afterwards he moved to Vienna and worked in the Chancellery of State. After 1808, he was the...

Joachim Lelewel: Legitimacy of the Polish nation

Download PDF (236.3 KB)
pp. 33-41

Joachim Lelewel [1786, Warsaw – 1861, Paris]: historian. Lelewel came from a family of Polonized gentry from East Prussia. He studied in Wilno (Vilnius, presentday Lithuania), where he returned after several years of an academic career in Warsaw and Krzemieniec (Kremenets, present-day Ukraine). The liberal atmosphere of the 1820s influenced the administration of Wilno district, with its Polish educational...

Mihail Kogălniceanu: Speech for the opening of the course on national history

Download PDF (181.4 KB)
pp. 42-49

Mihail Kogălniceanu [1817, Iaşi – 1891, Paris]: historian, politician, and publicist. He was the scion of an old răzeş (free-peasantry) family, and his father held several important administrative positions at the Court of Moldavia. In 1828, under the patronage of Prince Mihail Sturdza (r. 1834–1849), and together with Vasile Alecsandri (1818–1890), one of the most popular Romanian poets of the nineteenth...

František Palacký: A History of the Czech nation in Bohemia and Moravia

Download PDF (215.4 KB)
pp. 50-56

František Palacký [1798, Hodslavice (Ger. Hotzendorf, Northern Moravia) – 1876, Prague]: politician and historian. He came from a traditional Protestant (Czech Brethren) family from Moravia. He studied at the Lutheran Latin school in Trencsén (Slo. Trenčín, present-day Slovakia) and the Lutheran lyceum in Pressburg (Hun. Pozsony; Slo. Prešporok; today Bratislava). Here, he became acquainted with the...

Mihály Horváth: History of the Hungarian war of independence of 1848-1849

Download PDF (170.3 KB)
pp. 57-64

Mihály Horváth [1809, Szentes (Southeast Hungary) – 1879, Karlsbad (Cz. Karlovy Vary, present-day Czech Republic)]: historian and Catholic clergyman. He was born into an impoverished family and studied theology at a Church seminary. After publishing a number of historical studies, he was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy in 1842. Horváth became a fervent participant in the reform movement as

Jakub Malý: Our national rebirth

Download PDF (179.0 KB)
pp. 65-71

Jakub Josef Dominik Malý [1811, Prague – 1885, Prague]: writer, translator and journalist. Born into a bourgeois family, he read philosophy and law at Prague. During his life Malý worked as an editor on various newspapers and journals and in publishing houses. He devoted himself to the popularization of Czech history and literature and to translations from European languages. He promoted the study of English (to balance...

Constantinos Paparrigopoulos: History of the Hellenic nation

Download PDF (240.4 KB)
pp. 72-80

Constantinos Paparrigopoulos [1815, Constantinople (Istanbul) – 1891, Athens]: historian. During the persecutions following the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, he lost his father and a number of his relatives, an experience which deeply traumatized him. Eventually, his family fled to Odessa. There, he studied at the Richelieu Lyceum. When he arrived in Greece, young Paparrigopoulos entered...

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj: Bright graves, Grandfather and grandson

Download PDF (164.3 KB)
pp. 81-86

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj [1833, Újvidék (Srb. Novi Sad), – 1904, Kamanc (present- day Sremska Kamenica)]: physician, writer, journalist and editor. He was born into the family of a lawyer in Novi Sad. After finising primary school in his home town, he attended the Gymnasium in Halas and Pozsony (Ger. Pressburg; today Bratislava, Slovakia) and studied law in Pest, Prague and Vienna. However, he did not...

Ivan Vazov: Under the yoke

Download PDF (213.2 KB)
pp. 87-93

Ivan Vazov [1850, Sopot (Balkan valley) –1921, Sofia]: poet, novelist, and playwright. He came from a wealthy merchant family from Sopot. He studied in Sopot and in Kalofer with Botio Petkov, the father of Hristo Botev, and worked for some time as his assistant. It was there that his literary interests were formed (under the influence mainly of French literature – Béranger, Hugo and Lamartine). He spent the...

Namık Kemal: Ottoman history

Download PDF (185.7 KB)
pp. 94-100

Namık Kemal [1840, Tekirdağ (Rumelia) – 1888, Chios (Tur. Sakız)]: journalist, writer and bureaucrat. The son of the court astrologist, Namık Kemal received a thorough education in traditional Islamic studies and was exposed to Islamic mysticism as well as popular poetry. He also travelled extensively in the early years of his life. In 1858, he joined the Translation Bureau of the foreign ministry, a seedbed of...

Josef Jungmann: Second conversation concerning the Czech language

Download PDF (216.6 KB)
pp. 103-111

Josef Jungmann [1773, Hudlice (central Bohemia) – 1847, Prague]: linguist, translator, literary scholar, and lexicographer. He studied philosophy at Prague, where he was particularly interested in mathematics, physics, history and literature. In the humanities he was at first influenced by German professors, the historian Ignatz Cornova and the aesthetician A. G. Meissner. Later he attended the lectures of...

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić: Little Slavo-Serbian song book of the common people

Download PDF (170.5 KB)
pp. 112-116

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić [1787, Tršić (Western Serbia) – 1864, Vienna]: linguist and language reformer. He was born into a peasant family. Karadžić learnt the first elements of reading and writing from his cousin, Jefta Savić, a merchant from Tršić and the only literate person in his village. He spent some time in the neighboring Tronoša monastery, but his family discontinued his monastic education and he was...

Ferenc Kölcsey: National traditions, Hymn

Download PDF (214.5 KB)
pp. 117-125

Ferenc Kölcsey [1790, Sződemeter (Rom. Săuca; in Transylvania, present-day Romania) – 1838, Cseke (north-east Hungary)]: poet, literary critic, and editor. He was the offspring of a Calvinist gentry family. In 1796 he entered the Reformed College of Debrecen. He had broad cultural horizons and was well-versed in Greek,...

Maurycy Mochnacki: Thoughts on how the translation of foreign belles-lettres influences Polish literature

Download PDF (180.9 KB)
pp. 126-131

Maurycy Mochnacki [1803, Bojaniec near Żółkiew (present-day Boyanets and Zhovkva, in Ukraine) – 1834, Auxerre (France)]: literary critic and radical political leader. Son of a lawyer, he studied at Warsaw University and was expelled in 1822 after having offended a police inspector. He became involved in intellectual circles influenced by German literature (Goethe, Schiller) and philosophy (Kant, Fichte,...

Charles Sealsfield: Austria as it is

Download PDF (158.1 KB)
pp. 132-137

Charles Sealsfield (real name Karl Magnus Postl, other pseudonym used C. Sidons) [1793, Poppitz, (Cz. Popice, today Czech Republic) – 1864, Solothurn (Switzerland)]: writer and journalist. He was the first son of a well-to-do Moravian- German farmer and wine-grower. Following his mother’s wishes, he entered the service of the church. After finishing the gymnasium at Znaim...

Dimitrios Vyzantios: Babel, or the local distortion of the Greek language

Download PDF (176.9 KB)
pp. 138-142

Dimitrios Vyzantios (pseudonym of Dimitrios K. Hatziaslanis) [1790, Constantinople (Istanbul) – 1853, Patras (Peloponnese)]: playwright, icon-painter and state official. He was taught icon painting at an early age by a monk. His career as a bureaucrat started in 1812 when he was appointed as a translator for the Bey of Tunis....

Henryk Rzewuski: Moral varieties

Download PDF (178.1 KB)
pp. 143-147

Henryk Rzewuski [1791, Sławuta (Ukr. Slavuta, present-day Ukraine) – 1866, Cudnów (Ukr. Chudniv, present-day Ukraine)]: writer and politician. Rzewuski was born into an aristocratic family known for its extreme traditionalism (his father belonged to the most radical critics of the Great Diet). Educated by a French royalist refugee, he was under the direct intellectual influence of European conservativism...

Ľudovít Štúr: The Slovak dialect, or the necessity of writing in this dialect

Download PDF (213.1 KB)
pp. 148-153

Ľudovít Štúr [1815, Uhrovec (Hun. Zayugróc, present-day Slovakia) – 1856, Modra (Hun. Modor, Ger. Modern, present-day Slovakia)]: poet, politician, linguist and journalist. He was born into the family of a Lutheran teacher. He attended grammar school in Győr, and later enrolled at the Lutheran lyceum in Pressburg (Hun. Pozsony, Slo. Prešporok, today Bratislava). Later, as deputy professor at the...

Jevrem Grujić and Milovan Janković: South Slavs, or the Serbian nation with the Croats and the Bulgarians

Download PDF (166.9 KB)
pp. 154-159

Jevrem Grujić [1826, Darosava (near Kragujevac) – 1895, Belgrade]: politician. His background is indicative of the social profile of the incipient political class in Serbia in the first half of the nineteenth century: his grandfather took part in the First and the Second Serbian Uprisings, his father was a merchant and highranking state official, while Jevrem himself belonged to the first generation of native...

Simion Bărnuţiu: The public law of the Romanians

Download PDF (182.1 KB)
pp. 160-167

Simion Bărnuţiu [1808, Bocşa Română (Hun. Boksánbánya, Ger. Rumänisch Bokschan, Transylvania) – 1864, Trăznea (Hun. Ördögkút, Ger. Teufelsbrunnen, Transylvania)]: professor of law and philosopher. His family was of modest origins. Bărnuţiu began his primary education in his home village and between 1818 and 1820 he completed his secondary education in Şimleu (Hun. Szilágysomlyó) and...

Dora D’Istria: The Albanian nationality on the basis of popular songs

Download PDF (163.5 KB)
pp. 168-173

Dora D’Istria (literary pseudonym of Elena Ghica) [1829, Bucharest – 1888, Florence]: writer, ethnographer, historian. Dora D’Istria was the niece of Prince Grigore IV Ghica (Gr. Ghika, Alb. Gjika), the first native ruler of Wallachia (1822– 1828) following a century of Phanariot rule. She was also the niece of Prince Alexandru Ghica, ruler of Wallachia (1834–1842), and a great niece of Prince Grigore III...

Osman Hamdi Bey and Victor Marie de Launay: The popular costumes of Turkey in 1873

Download PDF (183.7 KB)
pp. 174-180

Osman Hamdi Bey [1842, Istanbul – 1910, Istanbul): Ottoman official and painter. In his youth, Osman Hamdi was sent to Paris by his father (İbrahim Edhem Paşa, a prominent member of the Tanzimat elite) to study law, where, instead, he attended classes on art and archaeology in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts until his return home in 1871. Although Hamdi Bey was not a registered student of the Ecole, it is generally...

Stefan Verkovich: Veda Slovena

Download PDF (178.6 KB)
pp. 181-187

Stefan Verkovich [1821, Ugljara (Bosnia) – 1893, Sofia]: ethnologist and folklorist. He was born in Bosnia, where he was educated in a Catholic school, in Tolisa (1830–1833). He then entered the Franciscan monastery in Sutjeska, where in 1835 he was ordained as a monk. From 1837 he studied theology in Zagreb, where he was influenced by the Illyrian movement and became acquainted with its ideologist, the...

Teodosij Gologanov: Letter on the renewal of the Archbishopric of Ohrid

Download PDF (171.0 KB)
pp. 188-193

Teodosij (secular name Vasil) Gologanov [1846, Trlis, near Nevrokop (presentday Bulgaria) – 1926, Sofia]: Orthodox clergyman. He attended monastic schools, finally that of the monastery of St. John near Serres (present-day Greece), and he became a monk in 1862. He was very active in the ecclesiastic-educational municipality of Serres in the 1870s. In 1885, he was appointed the Exarchate Metropolitan...

Mihai Eminescu: Political articles

Download PDF (189.1 KB)
pp. 194-202

Mihai Eminescu (originally Eminovici) [1850, Botoşani (Bukovina) – 1889, Bucharest]: Poet and journalist. In 1860, he began his schooling in Czernowitz (Rom. Cernăuţi, Ukr. Chernovci). He failed the second grade and went to Sibiu (Hun. Nagyszeben, Ger. Hermannstadt) in Transylvania. In 1864, he returned to Czernowitz and enrolled at a private lycée. Shortly thereafter, however, he joined a theater...

Ján Kollár: The Daughter of Sláva

Download PDF (208.5 KB)
pp. 205-210

Ján (or, in Czech, Jan) Kollár [1793, Mosóc (Slo. Mošovce, present-day Slovakia) – 1852, Vienna]: poet, writer, linguist and Lutheran priest. Kollár was a Slovak by origin, but wrote in Czech. He studied at Latin schools in Upper Hungary and at the Lutheran lyceum in Prešporok (Hun. Pozsony, Ger. Pressburg, today’s Bratislava)....

Adam Mickiewicz: Pan Tadeusz

Download PDF (231.8 KB)
pp. 211-223

Adam Mickiewicz [1798, Zaosie near Nowogródek (Bel. Novaharodak presentday Belarus) – 1855, Istanbul]: poet. Acknowledged as the greatest Polish poet, Adam Mickiewicz was born into a family of petty gentry in the Lithuanian part of the former Commonwealth. During his studies in Wilno (Lit. Vilnius), he coorganized a Polish patriotic...

István Széchenyi: Hunnia

Download PDF (156.8 KB)
pp. 224-229

István Széchenyi [1791, Vienna – 1860, Döbling (Austria)]: politician and political writer. He was the scion of one of the most prestigious Catholic aristocratic families of the country. His father, Ferenc Széchényi, was famous for his cultural interests and founded the national library. As a young soldier István Széchenyi fought against Napoleon and led a bohemian life in the high society of Vienna. Later, he underwent...

Ljudevit Gaj: Proclamations

Download PDF (169.1 KB)
pp. 230-237

Ljudevit Gaj [1809, Krapina (Northern Croatia) – 1872, Zagreb]: language reformer, journalist and printer. Descendant of a middle-class German-Slovak family which settled in Croatia in the eighteenth century, he finished secondary school in Croatia and undertook university studies (in philosophy and law) in Vienna, Graz, Pest and Leipzig. In his first publication, ‘A short foundation of the Slavic-Croatian...

Ilija Garašanin: The draft

Download PDF (166.3 KB)
pp. 238-243

Ilija Garašanin [1812, Garaši (Central Serbia) – 1874, Belgrade]: politician. He was born into a merchant family. His original family name was Savić, but he took the name Garašanin after his native village. He opted for a military career during the reign of Miloš Obrenović (r. 1817–1839, 1858–1860). His father and brother were politically engaged on the side of the so-called...

Ioannis Kolettis: Of this great idea

Download PDF (176.4 KB)
pp. 244-248

Ioannis Kolettis [1773, Sirako (Epirus) – 1847, Athens]: medical doctor, politician and writer. He was educated in his hometown of Sirako and in nearby Kalarites, both prosperous towns in eastern Epirus. He then moved to Jannina, the commercial and educational center of the region, where he became involved in trade. From there, in 1800, he traveled to Pisa, where he studied medicine and came into contact with...

Karel Havlíček Borovský: The Slav and the Czech

Download PDF (213.8 KB)
pp. 249-254

Karel Havlíček Borovský [1821, Borová near Přibyslav (Ger. Primislau, eastern Bohemia) – 1856, Prague]: journalist, writer and politician. Havlíček was born to a Roman Catholic merchant family. He studied philosophy at Prague where he became acquainted with Czech nationalism and Pan-Slav ideas. He entered the seminary but was expelled in 1841. He left Prague, moving first to Upper Hungary and Galicia...

Petition to the Emperor against the unification of Bohemia and Moravia

Download PDF (166.3 KB)
pp. 255-261

Moravia has been one of the historical lands of the Bohemian Crown since the eleventh century. Ever since the early Middle Ages, however, when it was raised to a margraviate, it had its own administrative system and Diet. Since the mid-fifteenth century Bohemia and Moravia had been formally united, but administration remained divided and Moravia and Bohemia occasionally...

Johann Majláth: An examination of the question: whether to annex the Carpathian Slavs and Ruthenians to the Magyars

Download PDF (160.6 KB)
pp. 262-267

Count Johann (János) Majláth [1786, Pest – 1855, Starnberg (Bavaria)]: landowner, historian, publicist and politician. Majláth came from an aristocratic family originating from Transylvania but settled in Upper Hungary since the seventeenth century. After finishing university studies in philosophy and law, he was employed in the Hungarian governmental offices in Buda and Vienna. Later he turned to historical...

Lajos Kossuth: Proposal. Concerning the future political establishment of Hungary

Download PDF (184.9 KB)
pp. 268-276

Lajos Kossuth [1802, Monok (Upper Hungary) – 1894, Turin]: lawyer, journalist, politician. His family was from the Upper-Hungarian petty-nobility, ethnically Slavic and Lutheran by denomination. Trained as a lawyer, he entered politics first in 1832 as a representative of an absentee aristocrat in the Upper House. Between 1832 and 1836 he edited the...

Alecu Russo: The song of Romania

Download PDF (172.5 KB)
pp. 277-283

Alecu Russo [1819, Străşeni (present-day Republic of Moldova) – 1859, Iaşi]: writer. His father was a merchant. Between 1829 and 1835, he studied in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In 1836 he was expelled from school for having contacts with radical circles and for writing revolutionary poetry. For a short period he worked as a merchant in Vienna. Returning home in 1836, he travelled widely in...

Petar Beron: Slavic philosophy

Download PDF (212.6 KB)
pp. 284-290

Petar Beron (Pierre Béron) [1800, Kotel (Central Bulgaria) – 1871, near Craiova]: philosopher and pedagogue. He came from a rich merchant’s family, and received his primary education in Kotel (in the eastern part of the Balkan mountains) and in Bucharest. In 1824 he published a primer, the so-called ‘Textbook with the Fish’ (because of the picture on its cover), which had a considerable impact on the Bulgarian educational...

Ahmed Midhat Efendi: The basis of reform

Download PDF (184.8 KB)
pp. 291-296

Ahmed Midhat Efendi [1844, Istanbul – 1912, Istanbul]: publisher, journalist, novelist, playwright. Born into a family of very modest substance, Ahmed Midhat worked his way up the social ladder to become the most illustrious example of the self-made Tanzimat polymath. He started his primary education in Vidin (today in Bulgaria), where his brother served as a government officer, and then moved to Niš...

Sami Frashëri: Albania, what it was, what it is and what it will be?

Download PDF (228.2 KB)
pp. 297-304

Sami Bey Frashëri (Şemseddin Sami) [1850, Frashër (Southeast Albania) – 1904, Istanbul]: linguist, lexicographer, novelist and playwright. The multifarous Ottoman/Albanian intellectual was born in the village of Frashër, then in the province of Yanya (Gr. Jannina, Alb. Janina). He is the brother of Abdyl (Abdül) Bey (politician) and Naim Bey (poet), two important names in the formation of the Albanian...

Markos Renieris: What is Greece? West or East?

Download PDF (185.4 KB)
pp. 307-314

Markos Renieris [1815, Trieste – 1897, Athens]: lawyer, philologist and historian. After completing secondary education in Venice, he studied law at the University of Padua. In 1835 he moved to Athens and started working as a lawyer. In 1839, as a lawyer, he defended Theofilos Kairis, a well-known clergyman who was accused of heresy. Later, he was appointed a judge, a position he retained until 1844,...

Viktor von Andrian-Werburg: Austria and her future

Download PDF (164.3 KB)
pp. 315-321

Viktor Franz von Andrian-Werburg [1813, Görz, (today Gorizia, Italy) – 1858, Vienna]: politician and writer. He belonged to an old aristocratic family from Görz. After completing his basic education, he studied law in Vienna. In 1834 he began his career in the civil service working for the Austrian ‘Gubernium’ in Venice. In the early 1840s, Andrian-Werburg published two works important for the evolution of his political...

František Palacký: Letter to Frankfurt, 11 April 1848

Download PDF (208.8 KB)
pp. 322-329

In 1848 the Czech national movement finally went beyond being a prevalently cultural endeavor and entered the political arena. The main aims of the political agenda of the Czech liberals (František Palacký, František Ladislav Rieger, Karel Havlíček, František Augustin Brauner) were to achieve the...

Miklós Wesselényi: Oration on the matter of the Hungarian and Slavonic nationalities

Download PDF (211.9 KB)
pp. 330-338

Miklós Wesselényi [Zsibó (Rom. Jibou, present-day Romania), 1796 – Pest, 1850]: politician, political writer. He was the scion of a Transylvanian oppositional aristocratic family, his father having achieved fame for his cultural patriotism and for his spectacular clashes with the central administration, which resulted in his imprisonment by Joseph II. The young Miklós was educated by private tutors, and was also...

Janko Drašković: Dissertation, or Treatise

Download PDF (174.8 KB)
pp. 339-347

Janko Drašković [1770 (Zagreb) – 1856 (Radgona, Ger. Radkersburg, today Gornja Radgona, Slovenia)]: writer and politician. A descendant of a Croatian aristocratic family with a military tradition, Drašković received a private education in his home town and in Vienna, where he was taught law and philosophy. From 1787 to 1792, he served in the Austrian army and participated in the Austro-Turkish War...

Ľudovít Šuhajda: Magyarism in Hungary

Download PDF (165.8 KB)
pp. 348-353

Ľudovít Matej Šuhajda [1806, Banská Štiavnica (Ger. Schemnitz, Hun. Selmecbánya, present-day Slovakia) – 1872, Banská Štiavnica]: Lutheran pastor, teacher and journalist. Born into a family of yeomen, Šuhajda worked for some time as a furrier. He studied at the Protestant seminary in his native town and in 1824 enrolled...

Lajos Mocsáry: Nationality

Download PDF (162.3 KB)
pp. 354-360

Lajos Mocsáry [1826, Kurtány – 1916, Andornak (northern Hungary)]: politician. His family was from the Protestant middle nobility of Upper Hungary. He studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pest. During the revolution of 1848–49 he was taking a cure in the sanatorium at Gräfenberg (Láznĕ Jeseník, present-day Czech Republic), where he became a friend of Miklós Wesselényi. After the end of...

Stefan Buszczyński: The future of Austria

Download PDF (181.1 KB)
pp. 361-365

Stefan Buszczyński [1821, Młodkowce (Ukr. Mlodkovci, present-day Ukraine) – 1892, Cracow]: journalist and literary critic. Buszczyński graduated from Kiev University. For a period he lived the calm life of a member of the country gentry. However, in 1863–1864 he participated in the January uprising, and after its defeat he was forced to emigrate to France. For some time he worked there as a publicist, but...

Svetozar Miletić: The Eastern Question

Download PDF (169.4 KB)
pp. 366-372

Svetozar Miletić [1826, Mosorin (Srb. Mošorin, Vojvodina) – 1901, Versec (Srb. Vršac, Vojvodina)]: politician and journalist. After attending the Gymnasium in Újvidék (Srb. Novi Sad), Miletić continued his education in Pest and Pozsony (today Bratislava, Slovakia), with financial and moral support from the Bishops Josif Rajačić and Jovan Hadži-Stević. There he came into contact with Pan-Slavic ideas,...

Ion C. Brătianu: Nationality

Download PDF (168.5 KB)
pp. 373-379

Ion Constantin Brătianu [1821, Piteşti (Wallachia) – 1891, Florica (near Piteşti)]: politician. He was the scion of an old boyar family. After being educated at home, Brătianu became in 1835 a member of the newly created Muntenian national militia. In 1841 he joined his brother in Paris, and studied at the Collège de France, where (along with many other Romanian students) he came under the influence of Jules Michelet...

Memorandum of the Secret Central Bulgarian Committee

Download PDF (223.0 KB)
pp. 380-388

The SCBC (Secret Central Bulgarian Committee), established in Bucharest in 1866, was one of the most important Bulgarian political organizations before the creation of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (see Hristo Botev, Hadji Dimiter and The hanging of Vasil Levski). In contrast to the previous period, the most important Bulgarian political organizations after...

Dositej Obradović: Rise, O Serbia

Download PDF (162.6 KB)
pp. 391-395

Dositej Obradović [ca.1740, Čakovo (Banat), (Rom. Ciacova, present-day Romania) – 1811 Belgrade]: Orthodox monk, writer, teacher, and politician. He was born Dimitrije Obradović, but was renamed Dositej in 1757 when he became a monk. In his early childhood his parents died and he was raised by a foster family. In 1760, with the blessing of his abbot, he left the monastery to pursue his education....

Alexandros Ypsilantis: Fight for Faith and Motherland!

Download PDF (178.1 KB)
pp. 396-402

Alexandros Ypsilantis [1792, Bucharest – 1828, St. Petersburg]: military leader. He was the offspring of one of the most distinguished Phanariot families. His grandfather Alexandros and his father Constantinos had been appointed by the Ottoman authorities as princes of the Danubian Principalities. The Sultan, however, was persuaded by the accusations of Napoleon’s ambassador Sebastiani that Constantinos was pro-Russian...

Dionysios Solomos: Hymn to Liberty

Download PDF (218.3 KB)
pp. 403-407

Dionysios Solomos [1798, Zante (Gr. Zakynthos) – 1857, Corfu (Gr. Kerkyra)]: poet. He was the son of Count Nikolaos Solomos, a member of the local Greek- Orthodox nobility on Zante, though his family originally came from Crete. After his father’s death in 1807, young Dionysios, accompanied by his teacher, left for Italy where he continued his studies in Cremona and Pavia. He wrote poems, winning the...

Adam Mickiewicz: Prophecies

Download PDF (226.8 KB)
pp. 408-420

In their works on ‘native’ themes, either political and philosophical treaties or literary works, Polish émigrés often referred to the world of politics, situating the Polish case within the framework of a universal struggle for freedom. Thus, Polish romantic literature in many ways functioned as the metapolitical manifesto of a democratic ideology. The following works by...

Henryk Kamieński: Vital truths of the Polish nation

Download PDF (185.0 KB)
pp. 421-427

Henryk Kamieński (pseudonym: Filaret Prawdoski) [1813, Ruda (near Lublin) – 1866, Algiers]: politician and publicist, the intellectual leader of the Polish irredentist circles in the 1840s. As a young boy he took part in the November Uprising. After the amnesty he lived on his estate, working on philosophical and economic works. In the 1840s he was involved in the organization of radical conspiracies in the Congress...

Petar II Petrović Njegoš: The mountain wreath

Download PDF (172.3 KB)
pp. 428-435

Petar II Petrović Njegoš [1813, Njeguši (Montenegro) – 1851, Cetinje (Montenegro)]: prince-bishop and poet. He was born into the Njegoši clan, the ruling family of Montenegro, in whose hands were united the spiritual and political leadership of the principality. After the death of his uncle, Petar I Petrović, in 1830, he became princebishop and ruler of Montenegro, under the name Petar II Petrović Njegoš. He was...

Franz Grillparzer: Field-marshal Radetzky

Download PDF (152.0 KB)
pp. 436-439

Franz Grillparzer [1791, Vienna – 1872, Vienna]: dramatist, writer and poet. He was the son of an influential Viennese lawyer, Wenzel Grillparzer. He attended the University of Vienna, where he studied philology and law. In 1813, he worked in the Court Library and (after holding various other offices) in 1823 he became a clerk in the treasury. From 1832 until his retirement in 1856, Grillparzer was the director of...

Sándor Petőfi: National song

Download PDF (205.9 KB)
pp. 440-444

Sándor Petőfi [1823, Kiskőrös (Central Hungary) – 1849, Segesvár (Rom. Sighişoara, Ger. Schässburg, present-day Romania)]: poet. His parents were of Slavic origins; his father was a butcher. He studied in various secondary schools all over the country. For some time an actor, he later joined the army but was discharged in February 1841 because of ill health. His first poem was published in...

Requests of the Slovak nation

Download PDF (158.5 KB)
pp. 445-450

By the mid-1840s, three complex problems crystallized in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy, namely, the need to dismantle the Metternichian bureaucratic centralism, the inevitable reform of the feudal socioeconomic structures and, finally, the necessity to deal with the nationality question. Hungarian reformers called for modernization and Hungary’s administrative...

Jevrem Grujić: A vision of the state

Download PDF (158.4 KB)
pp. 451-454

Jevrem Grujić belonged to the first generation of Serbian students who studied abroad, and returned home bringing the European ideals of democracy, constitutionalism and civic liberties. Grujić participated in founding the ‘Association of Serbian Youth,’ a group which nurtured and transmitted ideas of liberal nationalism and Slavic unity. The Association was modeled after...

Zsigmond Kemény: After the revolution

Download PDF (169.2 KB)
pp. 455-462

Zsigmond Kemény [1814, Alvinc (Rom. Vinţul de Jos; in Transylvania, presentday Romania) – 1875, Pusztakamarás (Rom. Cămăraşul, in Transylvania)]: novelist, essayist, politician. Kemény was the descendant of an ancient Transylvanian aristocratic family. He was educated at the famous Calvinist College in Nagyenyed (Rom. Aiud, present-day Romania), where he studied law and philosophy. In 1837 he...

Nicolae Bălcescu: The course of revolution in the history of the Romanians

Download PDF (181.1 KB)
pp. 463-472

Nicolae Bălcescu [1819, Bucharest – 1852, Palermo]: historian, publicist and politician. His family belonged to the petty nobility, and he studied at the prestigious St. Sava College. In 1840 he participated in a plot against the ruling prince of Wallachia, Alexandru II Ghica (r. 1834–1842), but was caught and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1843 Bălcescu, together with Ion Ghica (1817–1897) and Christian Tell...

Hristo Botev: Hadji Dimiter, The hanging of Vasil Levski

Download PDF (162.9 KB)
pp. 473-477

Hristo Botev [1848, Kalofer (Balkan valley) – 1876, near Vratsa (north-western Bulgaria)]: poet, journalist and revolutionary leader. He was born into the family of the teacher Botio Petkov, one of the figures of the ‘National Revival.’ His birthplace, Kalofer, was one of the most vital centers of the Balkan valley, which occupies a central place in the political and cultural revival movement...

Two Macedonian manifestos

Download PDF (172.5 KB)
pp. 478-485

Namık Kemal: Motherland, or Silistra

Download PDF (178.9 KB)
pp. 486-493

This play, seminal in the propagation of an Ottomanist national consciousness among the wider Ottoman populace, was written and performed at a time when the Balkan provinces of the Empire were simmering with revolt. Vatan is set at the time of the Crimean War (1853–56), and narrates the story of a group of Muslim Ottoman civilians who volunteer to join the army in...

Mehmed Akif: Hymn to Independence

Download PDF (172.9 KB)
pp. 494-498

Mehmed Akif (Ersoy) [1873, Istanbul – 1936, Istanbul]: poet and national activist. Mehmed Akif was the son of a medrese (Islamic school) teacher of Albanian origin. After receiving his primary Islamic training in a local school, he studied in secular institutions, mastering Arabic, Persian and also French. Although trained as a veterinarian surgeon, he was employed as a professor of literature at the Istanbul...