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"SERIES OF 200 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ON
PYTHON BASIC-ADVANCE"
Basic Python Concepts:
1. What is Python?
2. How is Python different from other programming languages?
3. Explain Python's dynamic typing.
4. What is the difference between Python 2 and Python 3?
5. What is PEP 8, and why is it important?
6. What are the different ways to comment in Python?
7. How is memory managed in Python?
8. Explain the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in Python.

Variables and Data Types:

9. What are variables in Python?
10. What are the different data types in Python?
11. Explain the difference between mutable and immutable data
types.
12. How do you declare and initialize a variable in Python?
13. What are the rules for naming variables in Python?
14. Explain type casting in Python.
15. What is the None type in Python?
16. What are the built-in data structures in Python?

Control Structures:
17. Explain if-elif-else statements in Python.
18. How do you use the for loop in Python?
19. What is the purpose of the range() function in Python?
20. Explain the while loop in Python.
 21. How do you exit a loop prematurely in Python?
22. What is the purpose of the break and continue statements?

Functions:
23. How do you define a function in Python?
24. Explain the difference between parameters and arguments in
a function.
25. What is a lambda function, and how is it used?
26. What is a docstring in Python?
27. How do you return multiple values from a function?
28. Explain function scope and global variables in Python.
29. What is recursion, and how does it work in Python?
30. How are functions first-class citizens in Python?

Object-Oriented Programming
(OOP):
31. What is OOP, and why is it important?
32. Explain classes and objects in Python.
33. How do you create a class in Python?
34. What are attributes and methods in a class?
35. What is inheritance in Python?
36. Explain method overriding in OOP.
37. What is encapsulation, and how is it achieved in Python?
38. What is polymorphism in Python?

Exception Handling:
39. What is an exception in Python?
40. How do you handle exceptions using try-except blocks?
41. Explain the finally block in exception handling.
 42. What is the purpose of the raise statement?
43. What is the difference between except and else in
exception handling?

File Handling:
44. How do you open a file in Python?
45. Explain the modes for opening files in Python.
46. How do you read data from a file?
47. How do you write data to a file?
48. What is the purpose of the with statement in file handling?

Modules and Packages:

49. What is a module in Python?
50. How do you import a module in Python?
51. Explain the __init__.py file in a package.
52. How do you create and use your own Python package?
53. What is the purpose of the __name__ variable in Python?

Built-in Functions and Libraries:

54. What is the map() function, and how is it used?
55. Explain the filter() function in Python.
56. How do you use list comprehensions in Python?
57. What is the purpose of the zip() function?
58. Explain the purpose of the collections module.
59. What is the random module, and how is it used?
60. How do you work with dates and times in Python using the
datetime module?

Python Data Structures:

 61. What is a list in Python?
62. How do you add and remove elements from a list?
63. Explain the difference between a list and a tuple.
64. What is a dictionary, and how is it used?
65. How do you iterate over the keys and values of a dictionary?
66. What is a set in Python?
67. Explain the difference between a set and a frozenset.

Python Advanced Concepts:

68. What is a generator in Python?
69. How do you create a generator function?
70. Explain the purpose of decorators in Python.
71. What is a closure in Python?
72. How does garbage collection work in Python?
73. Explain the concept of multithreading in Python.

Web Development with Python:

74. What is Django, and how is it used in web development?
75. What is Flask, and how is it different from Django?
76. What is a RESTful API, and how can it be implemented in
Python?
77. How do you work with databases in Python?
78. Explain the purpose of WSGI in Python web applications.

Testing and Debugging:

79. What is unit testing, and how is it done in Python?
80. Explain the purpose of the unittest module.
81. What is the purpose of the assert statement in testing?
82. How do you use the pdb debugger in Python?
 83. What is code profiling, and how can you profile Python code?

Advanced Python Topics:

84. What is metaprogramming in Python?
85. How do you use metaclasses in Python?
86. Explain the concept of decorators in detail.
87. What is monkey patching, and why should it be used
sparingly?
88. How can you perform asynchronous programming in Python?

Python Best Practices:

89. What are virtual environments in Python, and why are they
important?
90. Explain the concept of code style and linting.
91. How do you handle sensitive information like API keys in
Python projects?
92. What is continuous integration, and how can it be set up in
Python projects?
93. What are some common code optimization techniques in
Python?

Python Interview Challenges:

94. Write code to reverse a string in Python.
95. Implement a function to find the factorial of a number.
96. Write a program to check if a number is prime.
97. Create a Python function to find the Fibonacci sequence up to
a given number.
 98. Implement a Python program to count the occurrences of
each word in a text file.
99. Write a Python function to check if a given string is a
palindrome.
100.
Implement a function to find the largest element in
a list.
101.
Write code to merge two sorted lists into a single
sorted list in Python.

Python Data Analysis and

Visualization:
102.
What is NumPy, and how is it used for numerical
computing?
103.
Explain the purpose of the pandas library in data
analysis.
104.
How do you read and manipulate data using pandas
DataFrames?
105.
What is Matplotlib, and how is it used for data
visualization?
106.
What is Seaborn, and how does it complement
Matplotlib?
107.
How do you perform basic data analysis and
visualization tasks in Python?
Python Machine Learning and AI:
108.
What is machine learning, and how can it be
implemented in Python?
109.
Explain the purpose of scikit-learn in machine
learning.
110.
What are supervised and unsupervised learning
algorithms?
111.
How do you train and evaluate a machine learning
model in Python?
112.
What is deep learning, and how can it be
implemented using TensorFlow or PyTorch?
113.
What are some common challenges in machine
learning, and how can they be addressed?
114.
Explain the concept of natural language processing
(NLP) and its applications in Python.

Python Web Scraping:

115.
What is web scraping, and how can it be done in
Python?
116.
Explain the purpose of the BeautifulSoup library.
117.
How do you make HTTP requests in Python using
libraries like requests?
 118.
What are robots.txt files, and why should you
respect them when scraping websites?
119.
How can you handle pagination and dynamic
content when web scraping?
120.
What are some ethical considerations when web
scraping data from websites?

Python Deployment and Scaling:

121.
How do you package a Python application for
deployment?
122.
What is virtualization, and how can it be used to
deploy Python applications?
123.
Explain containerization using technologies like
Docker.
124.
How can you deploy a Python web application to a
cloud platform like AWS or Heroku?
125.
What are some strategies for scaling Python
applications to handle increased traffic?

Python Security:
126.
What are common security vulnerabilities in Python
applications?
127.
 How can you protect against SQL injection attacks in
Python?
128.
Explain cross-site scripting (XSS) and how to
prevent it in Python web applications.
129.
What is the importance of input validation and
sanitization in Python?
130.
How can you secure sensitive data storage in Python
applications?

Python Interview Tips:

131.
How should you prepare for a Python interview?
132.
What are some common mistakes to avoid during a
Python interview?
133.
How do you approach coding exercises and
whiteboard coding in interviews?
134.
What questions should you ask the interviewer
during a Python interview?
135.
How can you demonstrate your problem-solving
skills and coding style effectively?

Python Career and Trends:

136.
What are the career opportunities for Python
developers?
 137.
Explain the importance of staying updated with
Python and related technologies.
138.
What are some emerging trends in the Python
ecosystem?
139.
How can you contribute to open-source Python
projects to enhance your skills and reputation?
140.
What is the importance of networking and
community involvement in the Python community?

Python Coding Challenges and

Projects:
141.
Implement a simple calculator program in Python.
142.
Create a program that generates a random
password.
143.
Write a Python script to automate file and folder
management tasks.
144.
Build a basic web application using Flask or Django.
145.
Develop a small data analysis project using pandas
and Matplotlib.
146.
Create a Python script to scrape data from a website
and save it to a file.
147.
 Build a command-line tool that performs a specific
task.
148.
Implement a basic chatbot using natural language
processing libraries.

Python Interview Questions for

Junior Developers:
149.
Explain the concept of data types and variables in
Python.
150.
How do you check if a number is even or odd in
Python?
151.
Write code to find the sum of all numbers in a list.
152.
What is a function, and how do you define and call
it?
153.
Explain the purpose of conditional statements like if
and else .
154.
How do you work with lists in Python?
155.
What is the difference between a tuple and a list?
156.
How can you iterate over a dictionary's keys and
values?
157.
What are Python libraries, and why are they useful?
158.
 How do you handle exceptions in Python?

Python Interview Questions for

Intermediate Developers:
159.
Explain object-oriented programming and its key
principles.
160.
How do you create and use classes and objects in
Python?
161.
What is inheritance, and how does it work in
Python?
162.
How do you handle exceptions using try-except
blocks?
163.
What is the purpose of modules and packages in
Python?
164.
How can you work with files in Python?
165.
Explain the purpose of list comprehensions.
166.
How do you write and use functions with
parameters and return values?
167.
What is the importance of code comments and
docstrings?
168.
How can you organize and structure a Python
project?
Python Interview Questions for
Senior Developers:
169.
Explain metaprogramming and metaclasses in
Python.
170.
How do you use decorators to modify the behavior
of functions or classes?
171.
What is a closure, and how can you create one in
Python?
172.
How does garbage collection work in Python?
173.
What are the benefits and challenges of
multithreading in Python?
174.
How can you implement asynchronous programming
in Python?
175.
Explain the concept of design patterns in Python.
176.
How do you optimize Python code for performance?
177.
What are some advanced features of Python web
frameworks like Django or Flask?
178.
How can you secure a Python web application
against common vulnerabilities?

Python Interview Questions for

Data Science and Machine Learning:
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
they would have better understood why the inhabitants are rebelling
against the “blessing” of Austro-Hungarian rule.
It is much easier to understand why the political horizon in the
Southern Slav corner of Europe is always clouded if one is given a
clearer view of the Chartered rights, as opposed to the actual
position, held by the Southern Slavs in the Monarchy; but this view
is not usually obtained through the official channels of Vienna and
Budapest. According to these, all ancient charters of liberty are so
many “scraps of paper,” and the actual law merely the right of the
strongest. The Hapsburgs did not come as victors with the rights of
a conqueror to the Southern Slav provinces. They became rulers of
these countries in virtue of voluntary treaties, and they themselves
issued manifestos and bulls, in which the integrity and independence
of the Southern Slav countries are incontestably guaranteed.
Centuries ago, while the Hapsburg dynasty was endangered by
constant wars, and especially during the Turkish invasion, these
guarantees were faithfully observed. But with the altered conditions
of affairs the Southern Slavs had to wage a bitter struggle for their
rights.
Of all this group Croatia-Slavonia alone still retains the slightest
degree of autonomy, while the countries belonging to Austria have
been deprived of every vestige of self-government, and only appear
to be distinct dominions in the State by their mock Landtags, whose
decisions are almost invariably disregarded. Croatia-Slavonia, which
belongs to Hungary, has to this day at least theoretically maintained
her political independence. Croatia was once more guaranteed this
independence by the agreement between herself and Hungary in
1868. When the Hapsburg Empire was reconstructed in 1867 the
constitutional independence of Croatia could not be set aside,
especially as this reconstruction was founded on the Pragmatic
Sanction, which provided for the separate constitutional
independence of Croatia under guarantee of the Royal Oath.
Moreover, the events of the revolution of 1848 were still too fresh in
the memories of the Hungarian statesmen who had laboured for the
establishment of Hungary’s State Constitution from 1861 till 1867,
and in their dealings with Croatia they did not dare to repeat the
mistakes they had made in 1847 and 1848. Francis Deak, the chief
of these statesmen, knew very well that the catastrophe that
overtook Hungary in 1848 would never have been so great, if the
Croatian national forces had fought side by side with Hungary. Thus
it was his wish to conclude a lasting peace with Croatia on a just
basis. Under Deak’s influence, and with the co-operation of Croatia’s
leading representatives, an agreement was concluded which assured
Croatia the position of a State enjoying equal rights with Hungary,
with complete self-government as regards her internal affairs, a
separate legislative parliament, and her own army; only the railways
and the postal and financial systems were to be under mutual
control, and Croatia was guaranteed a proportionate share of the
revenues from these sources. The Croatian tongue was to be the
official language in the Landwehr, and in all courts of law, whether
joint or autonomous. The important Croatian seaport Fiume was
declared a “corpus separatum adnexæ rex,” and thus constituted a
joint open port. I shall presently show how Hungary kept her side of
the bargain.
* * * * * *
A Southern Slav patriot has said that no greater misfortune has
befallen the Southern Slavs, than to pass under the dominion of
civilized Austria. Had they been obliged to share the fate of their
brothers, the Serbs and Bulgarians, they would certainly have tasted
all the misery of the Turkish yoke, but to-day they would be free, as
an independent State with a right to their own national and
intellectual development. The one thing Turkey has left untouched in
the Serbs and Bulgars—the heart of the people—is the very thing
that Austria has sought to destroy in her Southern Slav subjects.
Turkish captivity has steeled the hearts of the Slavs she oppressed,
but Austrian captivity has cankered them and made them effete.
In many respects this pessimistic view is justified. The struggle of
the Southern Slavs for national life has passed through many
phases, and has exhausted itself in many more. For centuries the
Southern Slav stood under the protection of “Heaven militant,” and
his motto was “For Faith and Freedom,” for with him faith was
always first. All his culture consisted in imaging the Christ as the
“Otac i voyskovodya illyrskyh Kralyeva” (Father and leader of the
armies of the Kings of Illyria). The Holy Cross was transformed into
a standard of war, and his enthusiasm for this false ideal led him so
far astray, that the baptized arch-enemy was nearer to him than his
own unbaptized brother, and the Church dearer to him than his
country. But these traits do not originate in the character of the
Southern Slav. He was educated into them and impregnated with
them from without, and always by his greatest enemies, the
Germans or the Turks. The Germans made a national mission of the
Crusades, and the Turks usually went to war on religious grounds
and called their armies the Hosts of the Prophet. Following the
example of the Turks, and imitating the Germans in their
appropriation of the Deity, Slav Christianity was infected by the
fanaticism of the Church of Rome, and became synonymous with
militancy and the spirit of the condottieri. The heart of the nation
grew vitiated, and the Illyrians callously neglected their lovely land,
which ought to have been a Garden of Eden. And those who were so
liberal with their promises of Heaven and constantly cried, “Thy
Kingdom is not of this world!” were well pleased that these things
should be so, for they coveted the lost Empire of the Southern Slavs
for an earthly paradise of their own.
Unfortunately this dark page in the history of Southern Slavdom
followed directly upon one of the most brilliant periods in the
intellectual development of Southern Slav culture. It was a period
when the national culture of the Southern Slavs put forth some of its
most vigorous, fairest and sanest blossoms—the time of the
Bogumili (“beloved of God”) whose work of enlightenment spread
from Bulgaria over the whole of the Slav South. The Bogumili were
strongly opposed to the poetic glorification of the Crusades, because
they grasped the fact that the extolling of such an ideal can never
open the mind to heretic culture—the culture based on free choice
according to conscience—which was eventually to undermine the
foundations of the sacrosanct Roman Empire and lay the first solid
foundations of true culture. The Bogumili taught that true culture is
not spread by crusades, but springs from Christian, human
contemplation. They deprecated personal worship, and replaced it
by a worship of ideals, of spirit, and of thought. Wyclif, Huss and
Luther are always quoted as the foremost apostles of the heretical
culture. But in the Hungarian Crusaders the Bogumili found bitter
enemies. Bogumilist activity in Bosnia and Croatia was stifled in
blood, and the people, who were beginning to protest against the
lying cult of Cæsarism wedded to Papistry, were simply butchered in
the name of the Cross. The blood-baths on the fields of Bosnia filled
the people with consternation, but could not stifle Bogumilism. True,
its progress was checked in the Southern Slav region, but it secretly
penetrated westward, whence the Patarenes in Italy and the
Catharists, Albigenses and Waldenses in France spread it all over the
world. It is interesting to note that at the very moment when
Bogumilist culture was destroyed among the Slavs themselves, they
bequeathed this very Bogumilism to the rest of Europe—the first and
only gift from the Southern Slav race as a whole to the spiritual life
of Europe. It was the true “antemurale Christianitatis”—the outworks
of Christianity—purified from Byzantine and Roman elements. What
they gave was perhaps not so very much their own as the vigour
with which they transplanted the ideal and the doctrine of a spiritual
life, from the mountains of Asia Minor to the West. Theirs was the
work of emissaries and outposts.
To resume, during the time of Turkish power, the Southern Slavs
had ceased to be the “outworks of Christianity” and had become
merely a soldatesca in the service of the foreigner, fighting
indifferently for Cross or Crescent. It was a terrible time of national
abasement, more especially because it followed so closely upon the
great era of spiritual exaltation. The gradual loss of Southern Slav
independence likewise dates from this period, and from that time
until quite recently they were unable, as a race, to produce a truly
Southern Slav culture. Only those among them who travelled
westward, where Bogumilism continued to thrive and flourish, found
the way of true culture. Among these exceptions were Marko Marulić
(Marcus Marulus), a Spalatine noble, whose works were translated
from the Latin into all the principal European tongues, and Flavius
Illyricus, whom, after Luther, Germany considers one of her greatest
teachers. In their souls these men were merely Bogumili and nothing
more. With them we may also class John of Ragusa, who led the
whole Council of Bâle against the Pope and proposed to negotiate
calmly and justly with the Hussites and Manichees. Just such a man
was Bishop Strossmayer in our own day, a man of whom I shall
presently speak further.
Their liberation from the Crescent put an end to the period of
religious militancy among the Southern Slav people. The warlike
element is perhaps of great historic moment. It certainly fended the
Southern Slavs over the abysses of Turkish barbarism to freedom in
the Christian sense of the word, but by no means to national
freedom. When the Turkish invasion was rolled back and the
everlasting wars were over, the symbol of the sword was exchanged
for that of the plough, and God as God was no longer adorned with
weapons, but imaged in a nobler spirit as the highest conception of
peace. And, as the people accustomed themselves to peace, and
once more came in touch with the soil, a new spirit grew up within
them, or rather it was the re-awakening of an old spirit that for a
while had been silenced by the clamour of weapons—the spirit of
love for the homestead and the community. Nationalism still
slumbered but, like a guardian angel, the national tongue watched
over its slumbers. Through storm and stress, in spite of travels and
intercourse with foreign-speaking mercenaries, this language has
remained pure and unalloyed. This was the seed of the future from
which sprang the great awakening; for so long as a people preserves
its language it possesses a Nationality.
Liberty of conscience, and the transformation of the warrior into
a husbandman, were also the beginning of a change in the souls of
the people, which, while groping its way back towards its own
essential beauty, began to feel the hidden wounds within, and strove
to rid itself of the canker. The old beautiful mode of life, the
patriarchal family feeling and the bond of union in the community
were restored, and the gentle, plaintive melodies echoed once more
in farm and field. And this regeneration grew and expanded until it
brought the revelation of national union, patriotism, and finally the
love for all that belongs to the Slav race.
* * * * * *
The Napoleonic era found this people already fully developed.
They had found their soul and knew what they wanted. Napoleon,
who treated most of the people he conquered without much
consideration, was filled with unusual admiration for the Southern
Slavs that came under his rule. By the peace of Schönbrunn
(October 14th, 1809) he acquired Triest, Görz, Carniola, part of
Carinthia, Austrian Istria, the Croat seaboard with Fiume, and all
Croatia south of the Save. Napoleon united all these countries with
French Istria, Dalmatia and Ragusa into one “Province of Illyria,” and
thus for one short moment fulfilled the dearest wish of all the
Southern Slavs. Illyria was organized as one military province divided
into six civil provinces; Maréchal Marmont was appointed Governor
and in the name of Napoleon carried out sweeping reforms
throughout the country. Trade and industry were signally improved
and the people were granted far-reaching national liberties. The use
of German as the official language was abolished in the schools and
law courts and Serbo-Croatian introduced in its place. Special
attention was devoted to road-making and education, and the Croats
were permitted to edit their own newspapers in the Croat tongue,
which would have been considered high treason under Austria.
Although the French rule was only of short duration (till 1817) it did
more for the Southern Slav lands in three years than Austria did
during the century that followed. But the main thing was that this
rule aroused the national thought so effectively that henceforth it
ceased to be a dream and became a factor to be reckoned with.
From that time dates the unremitting struggle against Germanism
and Magyarism, and the agitation for a national union of all the
Southern Slavs.
 The first-fruits of the complete national regeneration were seen
in the great movement started in 1835 and known by the name of
Illyrism. Illyrism began with a small group of patriots and poets
whose leaders were Ljndevit Gaj and Count Janko Drašković. They
founded newspapers and periodicals, published patriotic books and
poems, and roused the national enthusiasm of the people to the
highest pitch. In this mission they successfully sought help and
advice from other Slavs, especially the Csechs and Serbs; they were
also the first to come into touch with Russia. Austria-Hungary tried
sharply to repress this movement, and for the first time found
herself confronted by a united nation bent on going its own way. The
Illyrist movement cannot point to any positive political results, but it
laid a foundation for future political and national activity and did an
incalculable amount of pioneer work which would have been most
difficult to carry out under the conditions that followed. In 1843 the
name of Illyrism was prohibited by an Imperial edict, and it was
hoped by the Austrian authorities that this would be the end of the
patriotic movement. But their labour was lost. In fact, under the spur
of persecution the patriots passed from their idealistic literary
campaign to more tangible activities. By the prohibition of the
Illyrian name the motto of the poetic propaganda was lost, and it
became the duty of the patriots to lead their politics into less
sentimental paths, and enter upon a campaign of cold reasoning in
place of poetic sentiment. This was all the more necessary as the
national cause was greatly endangered by several new regulations.
Following closely upon the prohibition of the Illyrian name came an
order for the introduction of the Magyar tongue in the Croatian law
courts. When the Croatian counties protested in Vienna that Croatia
was privileged to choose her own official language, and that no one
had the right to interfere with this privilege, they met with a brusque
rebuff. Up to now the Government had hardly dared to attempt the
Magyarization of Croatia, but now they decided to enforce it in spite
of the newly-awakened national consciousness. The Croats now
realized that it was a case of war to the knife. The Hungarian
Government proclaimed that all countries and nationalities subjected
to the crown of St. Stephen must be made one people, one state,
and be taught to speak one language—in short, they were to
become Magyars. They were determined to break the national
resistance of the Serbs and Croats by force, or preferably, by
corruption. In this enterprise Hungary found an able assistant in Ban
Haller. A “Magyar party” was organized in Croatia with a view to
reconciling the people to Magyar demands, but, unfortunately, it
consisted chiefly of adventurers and social riff-raff; the work of
Magyarization made no progress, but only further incensed the
Southern Slavs. One of the consequences of this hatred was that in
1848 the Croats and Serbs enthusiastically followed Ban Jellacić in
the campaign against Hungary.
* * * * * *
After the conclusion of peace between Hungary and the Crown
the Croats were rewarded in a truly Austrian fashion for their
assistance in putting down the rebellion: once more they were
handed over to the tender mercies of Hungary. This ingratitude
roused a perfect tempest of indignation, but at the same time the
Southern Slavs finally learnt their lesson. Henceforth they would look
for help to no one but themselves, and they resolved that the
coming struggle must be fought to a finish. The Southern Slav
leaders knew very well that nothing could be done by revolutionary
propaganda, but that their first task must be to establish a footing
from which they could conduct a constitutional campaign. They
formed a strong Nationalist party in Croatia, which co-operated with
the Dalmatine and Slovene parties, laid down their programme on a
broad national basis, and organized a campaign of passive resistance
among the people. Of course the success of these labours was
largely due to the fact that Hungary was weakened by the revolution
and inclined to be somewhat less aggressive. Croatia, on the other
hand, was fresh, strong, and self-reliant. Of course the results were
not apparent at once, but the agreement of 1867 was a
consequence of Croatia’s united stand. This agreement by no means
satisfied all the aspirations of the Southern Slavs, but it gave them
the required footing against Magyar oligarchy. Upon the conclusion
of the agreement, Croatia received her first constitutional Ban, who
was henceforth to be responsible to the Croatian Parliament.
Unfortunately the King made this appointment upon the
recommendation of Hungary, who saw to it that the first Ban, Baron
Levin Rauch, should be a mere exponent of the Hungarian
Government. Contempt of the constitution, and corruption, were the
first-fruits of the agreement under Hungarian influence in Croatia,
with the result that all Croatian patriots—including those who had
helped to conclude the agreement—passed over to the Opposition.
This Opposition worked on rigidly constitutional lines, and, as more
radical parties arose, they formed the constitutionally correct,
though barren, Croatian Constitutional party. Space forbids me to
enumerate all the means by which the first “constitutional Ban”
strove to carry out his orders from Budapest. By suddenly imposing
a new election law he secured a large and obsequious majority in
Parliament, which effectively barred the co-operation of the
Opposition in national affairs. But the Opposition attacked the
Government outside Parliament, through the press. When this
systematic corruption and disregard of the agreement had gone too
far, M. Mrazović, the leader of the Opposition, published a
sensational indictment against Baron Rauch, accusing him of
underhand dealings. Baron Rauch took proceedings against Mrazović
for libel in the military courts, but Mrazović substantiated his
accusations and was acquitted. Baron Rauch resigned, and the
Nationalist Party scored its first victory. He was succeeded by Ban
Bedeković, another Hungarian nominee, who was, however, unable
to prevent a triumphant Nationalist victory in the election of 1871.
The Hungarians asserted that this victory had been subsidized by
funds from Russia and Serbia, and this accusation contains the
substance of all subsequent charges of high treason. The Opposition
replied with a manifesto, in which they clearly set forth the gravity of
the numerous infringements of the constitution. Because of this
manifesto, the Government wished to take proceedings against the
leaders of the Opposition for high treason, but they refrained
through fear of offending European public opinion. At this time the
Constitutionalist Kvaternik, a good patriot but wholly unpractical,
started an armed rebellion among the peasantry in the Rakovica
district. It was put down by a strong military force, and Kvaternik
lost his life. The October manifesto, in conjunction with the rebellion
in Rakovica, afforded Andrassy (then Minister of Foreign Affairs) a
pretext for opposing every form of Slavophile policy and ascribing
both the manifesto and the rebellion to Russian influence.
The policy then inaugurated remains in force to this day. Brutal
Imperialism is rampant in Croatia, and the Agreement has become a
mere “scrap of paper.” But oppression begets opposition, and during
these critical times the Southern Slavs found not only their greatest
tyrant but their greatest patriot. From 1883 to 1903 Count Carl
Khuen-Hedervary was Ban of Croatia, and the twenty years of his
administration have been the blackest period as regards political,
economic and personal thraldom. Countless Magyar schools were
scattered throughout the country to promote the denationalization of
the people; espionage and Secret Police flourished as in Darkest
Russia. The archives of the State, with the Constitutional Charters of
Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, were incorporated with the State
archives in Budapest, and, last but not least, the Agreement itself
was falsified by the pasting of a slip of paper over the specification
of Fiume as a “Corpus separatum adnexæ rex” converting it into a
“corpus separatum adnexæ Hungariam,” whereby this important
Croatian seaport became exclusively Hungarian property. But this
same period also witnessed the labours of the greatest of all
Southern Slavs, the benefactor and father of his people, Bishop Josip
Juraj Strossmayer.

II.

Bishop Strossmayer (1815-1905) was the most generous

benefactor of his people, their greatest patron of science and art,
and the very incarnation of their political programme. He was the
first to break down the local artificial barriers between Serb and
Croat—the first to preach the gospel of united Yougoslavia.
Labouring in a period when all national effort was suppressed in
every possible way, when Slav sympathies were accounted high
treason, he rose to a position of unassailable eminence, which
enabled him to set the mark of his powerful personality like a
leitmotive on the whole nineteenth-century history of the Southern
Slavs. Born of peasant stock and, like all gifted Slav boys, destined
for the church, Strossmayer began his patriotic activity, while he was
still a student and youthful priest, by joining the Illyrist movement.
His exceptional abilities were soon noticed in connection with the
national movement, and Vienna and Budapest awoke to the
dangerous possibilities of his personality. Determined to put an end
to his patriotic labours they appointed him court chaplain, and
trusted that the society of the court with all its splendour and gaiety
would dazzle the handsome young priest, and wile him away from
the service of his country. But Strossmayer made a most unexpected
and highly diplomatic use of his position. He brilliantly succeeded in
deceiving his surroundings as to his sympathies, and when barely
over thirty he secured his appointment to the Episcopal See of
Djakovo. Hereby he also became Vladika of Bosnia and Syrmia, and
shortly afterwards was created governor of the Virovitica district.
At this point Strossmayer’s life-work for his people began in
earnest. Holding a most distinguished position, and with the vast
revenues of his bishopric at his disposal, he opened the flood-gates
of his activities, and Vienna and Budapest saw with horror and
amazement the mistake they had made. Strossmayer assumed the
leadership of the Nationalist party; and in Parliament, where he took
his seat in the double capacity of bishop and elected deputy, he
showed himself a brilliant orator, a subtle politician, and an astute
diplomat. He was the incarnation of a keen, but determined and
wise Opposition. He also became an intellectual leader of his people
and accomplished more than anyone else before him. He founded
the Southern Slav Academy of Science and Art, which in the very
terms of its foundation embodies the intellectual unity of the
Southern Slavs. He also founded the Croatian University; and, being
a great art connoisseur, he spent years in accumulating an
exceedingly fine private collection, which he presented to the nation.
He built the Cathedral at Djakovo, and at his own expense sent
hundreds of young Serbs and Croats to foreign art schools and
universities. Every intellectual enterprise, whether literary, artistic or
scientific, found in him a munificent patron. His entire income was
devoted to the welfare of the nation, and the sums that Strossmayer
spent in adding to the greatness and fame of his country amounted
to many millions during the long years of his office. But his dearest
wish was the realization of the Yougoslav ideal, the breaking down
of all local barriers between Serbs and Croats, and the creation of a
united people. With this end in view, and in spite of his position in
the Roman Catholic Church, Strossmayer went so far as to advocate
that the Serbian Græco-Orthodox, and the Croatian Catholic,
Churches should unite and become one National Church. He knew
that the future of his people could never be realized within the
confines of the Monarchy, but that it must be identified with that of
all the other Southern Slav nations, and founded upon a purely Slav
basis. Strossmayer did not confine his efforts to winning converts
among his own people for this idea. He knew too well, that at the
decisive moment the nation would require strong support from
without, and, at the risk of being accused of high treason, he
entered into friendly relations with Russia, which should bring the
big and powerful brother of the North nearer to his down-trodden
little brother in the South. He succeeded in finding influential friends
in Russia as in other countries, and his nation is still proud of his
friendship with the Tsar Alexander III., Leo XIII., Gladstone, Crispi
and Gambetta. Before Strossmayer entered the lists no one in
Europe had taken the slightest interest in the Southern Slav
problem. The slippery diplomacy of Vienna—which is only equalled in
duplicity by that of Turkey—had for centuries successfully diverted
the attention of Europe from the Southern Slav peoples in the
Monarchy, and the general assumption about them was that they
were a horde of uncivilized semi-barbarians, fed by Austria at great
sacrifice and treated by her with the utmost forbearance. The
spectacles through which Europe viewed these nations were made in
Vienna and Budapest, and no one took the trouble to bring an
independent, unbiassed mind to bear upon the problem. Many
Southern Slav patriots made desperate though vain efforts to bring
even a grain of truth before the European public; a Jesuit Vienna
and a Judaized Budapest were too strong for them. The world
thought more of the colourless anational Austrian culture, and the
borrowed pseudo-culture of the Magyars than of the culture of the
Slavs, which for a thousand years has been the spontaneous
expression of their national individuality, with a literature worthy of
the lyre of Homer. Not only Austro-Hungarian politics, but the age
itself was unpropitious to the Southern Slavs. They possessed no
importance for the European balance of power; and it is one of the
bitterest ironies of history, that for a very long time the Southern
Slavs fought less for their own advantage than for the interests of
Europe. For, even as the Southern Slavs were for centuries the
bulwark against the tide of Ottoman invasion from the East, they
subsequently became an equally strong bulwark against the rising
tide of Germanism towards the East. With every fibre of their being
they kept the gate of the East fast closed against either foe—not
only for themselves, but in the interests of European civilization.
 Strossmayer was the first who succeeded in re-awakening the
interest of Europe in this struggle, and, even if his efforts were not
crowned with immediate practical success, he at least contrived to
cast a doubt on the complacent assurances of Vienna and Budapest.
Strossmayer was a man with a tremendous personality, and his word
was invariably accepted. He was also past-master in the art of not
saying too much—thus avoiding the appearance of exaggeration.
Even in his world-famous speech in the Council of the Vatican (1871,
under Pius IX.), when he spoke in Latin for sixteen consecutive
hours against the doctrine of Papal infallibility, he left some things
unsaid, for he was interrupted in “the midst of his speech” by the
Archbishop of Paris, who embraced and kissed him, and assured him
that what he had already said was amply convincing.
Strossmayer’s activity was pursued with ruthless enmity in Vienna
and Budapest, and, even as he was the best-loved man among his
own people, he was the best-hated enemy of the Germans and the
Magyars. They tried by every possible means to minimize his power,
and agitated in the Vatican for his recall to Rome. But Leo XIII. was
not only the personal friend of Strossmayer, but also the friend of
the Slavs, and Viennese diplomacy failed in its object. Then followed
disgraceful intrigues, and endeavours to represent Strossmayer as a
traitor. Among other accusations, it was alleged that he had
exchanged incriminating telegrams with the Tsar, in which he was
said to have advocated the detachment of the Southern Slav
provinces from Austria. Strossmayer’s reply to these insinuations was
truly characteristic. Several years after this alleged exchange of
telegrams the Emperor Francis Joseph came to Croatia for the grand
manœuvres, and Bishop Strossmayer was one of the guests at the
great reception in Belovar, where the Emperor had his headquarters.
The Emperor took the opportunity to sharply reprimand the Bishop
for his conduct. Strossmayer retorted with equal sharpness “My
conscience is clear, your Majesty,” then brusquely turned his back
and ostentatiously walked out of the hall. Circumstances made it
impossible to celebrate Strossmayer’s courage, but the people
rejoiced in this new proof that their champion feared no risk when it
was a case of defending the freedom and interests of his people.
Strossmayer was no dreamer, but above all things a practical
statesman. He knew that whoever hopes to win a final success must
first carefully prepare the ground. Any attempt to detach the
Southern Slav Kingdoms from the Monarchy by force would have
been unadvisable, and moreover, a dangerous and futile enterprise.
Therefore, the political party of which Strossmayer was the leader
made it their business to see that the stipulations of the Agreement
were scrupulously observed, knowing well that a strict observance of
the Agreement—if only for a time—would give the nation the much-
needed chance of economic improvement, and thus pave the way to
future independence. In this policy they were supported by the
entire nation, who by their very unanimity proved their political
fitness. Twenty years’ martyrdom under Count Khuen-Hedervary had
not enervated the nation; on the contrary, they grew strong through
adversity; and, with their eyes fixed upon their spiritual guide and
protector, they steadfastly went forward towards their goal. Khuen-
Hedervary’s bribery, intimidation, everlasting trials for high treason,
prison and the gallows, all these had only incited them to further
resistance. When, bowed with age, Strossmayer finally had to resign
his active part in politics, we saw the people whom his spirit had
inspired suddenly turn upon their oppressors. In 1903, the whole
country rose in rebellion as one man, and Khuen-Hedervary’s power
was broken. Even he had to admit that his twenty years’ rule of
ruthless oppression had merely defeated its own object, that it had
united the people whom he had sought to weaken, and
strengthened that which he had hoped to destroy.
Strossmayer lived to see Khuen’s resignation, and his last days
were cheered by a gleam of light—which alas! proved only illusory—
shed upon the path of his country; yet as he closed his eyes for ever,
he realized that he had not given his all to Croatia in vain, and that
the hour was not far off when his ideals should become realities.
 He died in 1905, but his spirit lives on in his people and his
memory shines among them like a guiding star to point the way.

III.

The popular rising in 1903 opened new channels for the national
struggle; it was also the prelude to the hardest and bitterest time
that the Southern Slav people have yet been called upon to face.
Khuen’s successor was Count Theodore Pejacsević, a Croatian noble,
who was no great statesman, but at least a good administrative
official. He gave the distracted country a brief time of quiet,
equitable government, and deserves great credit for abolishing
Khuen’s system of corruption. Meantime the strongly Nationalist
parties in Croatia had formed a block,—the Serbo-Croat Coalition,—
and Count Pejacsević found it impossible to raise a pro-Hungarian
majority in Parliament. Shortly afterwards the Hungarian Opposition
also rose into conflict with the Crown, and the situation became
involved both in Hungary and Croatia. The Hungarian Opposition
applied to the Serbo-Croat Coalition for support in their struggle and
promised that, if their party were returned, they would grant all
Croatia’s demands as embodied in the Agreement of 1867.
Negotiations were carried on by Francis Kossuth and Geza Polonyi on
behalf of Hungary, and by Frano Supilo as delegate of the Serbo-
Croat Coalition. These negotiations resulted in the Resolution of
Fiume (October, 1905), which stipulated for the political co-operation
between the Hungarian and Serbo-Croat parties, and secured
considerable advantages to Croatia in the event of success. The
Resolution of Fiume was in every way a masterpiece of policy and
diplomacy, and was in all its details the achievement of Frano Supilo,
who was the popular leader in Croatia at the time. In the election of
1905 the Coalition won a brilliant victory. Not one Government
candidate was returned, and the small Opposition consisted of
partizans of Ante Starćević’s one-time idealist, patriotic
constitutionalist party, which however, since his death, had passed
under the control of Jewish solicitors, and was so committed to a
purely Austrian Christian-Socialist policy. As the Hungarian
Opposition had likewise scored a victory, the Croatian Cabinet was
composed of representatives of the Serbo-Croat Coalition, with
Count Pejacsević retained in office as “ut conditio sine qua non.”
Croatia enjoyed a short respite and began to look forward to better
times. But her hopes were once more doomed to disappointment.
The perfidious Magyars once more failed to keep their word. So long
as they needed the Serbs and Croats they were full of love and
brotherliness, but when they had gained their point, they discarded
the mask of false friendship. Francis Kossuth, having become
Handelsminister (Minister of Trade) in the Hungarian Cabinet in
1907, introduced a bill on the control of the Railways which was the
most flagrant and outrageous infringement of the Agreement as yet
attempted. It provided that thenceforth the language used on the
railway-system, even in Croatian territory, was to be Hungarian,
although it had been specially stipulated in the Agreement—which
stands in the place of a fundamental constitutional law—that
Croatian was to be official tongue in all joint offices within Croatian
territory. The Serbo-Croat Coalition, which is represented by forty
members in the Hungarian Parliament, rose in wrath against the Bill,
and declared war to the knife upon the Hungarian Government. The
conflict in the Hungarian Parliament is known all over Europe. The
Croats and Serbs pursued a policy of obstruction, which fairly
paralyzed the House and made parliamentary discussion of the
Railway Bill quite impossible. To get it passed Kossuth so worded his
Bill that it was contained in one paragraph, empowering the
Government to deal with the Pragmatic (administrative business of
the country) at their discretion as part of the Order of the Day.
The rupture with Hungary was now complete. The Serbo-Croat
Coalition transferred the conflict to Croatia, and the nation began to
agitate for detachment from Hungary. The Parliament was dissolved,
but the Coalition was again victorious in the election. On the
resignation of the Croatian Government, Alexander v. Rakodczay was
appointed Ban, but failing to raise a party friendly to the
Government he was forced to resign his office in two months. The
next Ban to be appointed was Baron Paul Rauch, who boldly entered
his capital town of Zagreb, but was received with hostile
demonstrations and showers of stones. It speaks well for his
courage that he was not affected by this reception, and even
introduced himself to the Parliament with great pomp. His reception
in Parliament was one great demonstration of hostility, so that he
could not even read the Royal message. He had to fly the building
with his Ministerial staff, and Parliament was officially dissolved the
same day. Baron Rauch formed a Government party of venal
upstarts and discredited characters, secured the support of the now
thoroughly demoralized “constitutionalist party,” and ordered a new
election. Everything was done to intimidate the electorate, with the
result that not one of Rauch’s candidates was returned. This
Parliament was dissolved without even having been summoned, and
Rauch embarked on a reign of terror which can only be compared to
that of Germany in the Cameroons. He organized the Jewish-
constitutionalist party into bands which went by the name of the
“Black Hand.” Their motto was “For the Emperor, and for Croatia,”
and their weapons were murder and assault, which they were
allowed to use with impunity against their opponents. At the same
time an organized judicial persecution of the Serbs was set on foot.
But even this tyranny could not break the national resistance.
At this juncture a new contingency arose. The Monarchy was
preparing to annex Bosnia and Hercegovina, and a suitable pretext
had to be found. The Government accordingly invented the “Greater
Serbian agitation.” The heroic struggle of the Serbo-Croat Coalition
was represented as being the outcome of a Greater Serbian
agitation, and Baron Rauch was commissioned to unmask this
“widespread criminal conspiracy.” In the summer of 1908, to the
amazement and consternation of the people, large numbers of
Serbs, chiefly priests, school-masters and business men, were
arrested, and the official Press triumphantly announced that a
horrible, widespread and highly treasonable propaganda had been
discovered! The preliminary investigations lasted a long time, and
March 3rd, 1909, saw the opening of the proceedings against the
“traitors” who had conspired with Serbia for the detachment of all
the Slavonic South from the Monarchy. The trial lasted till October
5th, when all the accused parties received very heavy sentences.
Immediately afterwards the Austrian historian Dr. Heinrich Friedjung
stated in the Viennese Neue Freie Presse, that the leaders of the
Serbo-Croat Coalition were also implicated in this conspiracy,
especially Frano Supilo, Grga Tuškan and Božidar Vinković, and that
his accusation was founded on documentary evidence. Hereupon the
whole Serbo-Croat Coalition took proceedings against Dr. Friedjung
for libel. The result of this case, which was fought in Vienna, caused
a European sensation. It was conclusively proved that all the
documentary evidence against the Coalition, both in the Zagreb and
the Viennese trials, had been forged by order of Baron Aehrenthal,
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Count Forgach, the Austrian
Ambassador in Belgrade. Friedjung himself confessed as much in
court. The consequence of this unparalleled exposé was, that the
King-Emperor had to rescind the sentences already passed in the
Zagreb trial.17 Meantime, however, the desired object had been
gained, and Bosnia-Hercegovina was annexed contrary to the will of
all the Slavs.
But, with scandalous details incidental to the annexation, Baron
Rauch’s mission had been brilliantly fulfilled. Soon afterwards
Kossuth’s perfidious Government was turned out and Croatia’s old
oppressor, Count Khuen Hedervary, became Premier. Khuen,
however, was a personal enemy of Rauch, and occasioned his recall.
In his place Nikolaus von Tomašić was appointed Ban of Croatia—a
most eminent and highly-respected Croatian scholar, but politically a
satellite of Khuen. He did his best to restore order, and to this end
negotiated with the Serbo-Croat Coalition. Frano Supilo protested
most emphatically against this. He had already had exhaustive
experience of Magyar perfidy, and had no desire to see his people
once again walk into the trap. But the Coalition was perhaps weary
of the struggle—perhaps they still hoped for fair dealing, and
accordingly entered into a compact with Tomašić which made
peaceful government possible so long as the rights of the nation
were respected. On the strength of this compact several Government
candidates were returned at the next election; after which Tomašić
promptly ignored the Coalition and governed only with his own
party. Supilo’s prophecy was fulfilled, and the Coalition had once
more to join the Opposition. Tomašić was overthrown but the
Austro-Hungarian Government replied by sending Herr von Cuvaj,
the Terrorist Commissioner, and suspending the Constitution. These
were the days of bitterest misery and unscrupulous tyranny in
Croatia. Cuvaj ruled with the knout, and the knout only. Police
espionage flourished, and all personal, political and civil liberty was
set at naught. All this time the Balkan War was raging, and woe to
the Serb or Croat who dared to rejoice at his brother’s victories. But,
when the Balkan Alliance was victorious, the Southern Slavs knew
that from henceforth they could rely on a measure of support from
their kinsmen. Vienna and Budapest were equally perspicacious and
realized the advisability of changing their tactics. Cuvaj was recalled
and Count Stephen Tisza, one of the most inveterate enemies of the
Slavs, sent Baron Skerlecz to Croatia with instructions to conciliate
the Croats. The effete Serbo-Croat Coalition was once more cajoled,
and, for the third time, it entered into a disastrous compact with
Hungary. This time one of the consequences was the expropriation
of the Croatian sea-board in favour of Hungary. Moreover, the
present crisis found the Coalition helplessly committed to the
Government.
But the people had stood firm. The dire sufferings of recent years
have begotten a new and healthy movement, which includes the
entire youth of Croatia. The younger generation has lost faith in
political parties, and begun to go its own way along the path which
leads away from Hungary and away from Austria, back to union with
their scattered kindred. Their aim is the establishment of a great,
free and independent Southern Slav State. At the head of this
younger generation stands a man of magnetic personality—Frano
Supilo.
 IV.

The Southern Slavs in Dalmatia, Carniola and Istria fared little

better than their brothers in Croatia and Slavonia. I have already
alluded to the economic neglect of Dalmatia. In politics,
Germanization was practised in much the same way as
Magyarization in Croatia. Dalmatia unfortunately does not enjoy
independence, even on paper, and thus her oppression could wear a
perfectly constitutional guise. The Dalmatian “Sabor,” like that of
Istria and Carniola, is an assembly quite at the mercy of the viceroy
for the time being, who would never dream of convoking it, unless
he had made quite sure that no inconvenient resolutions would be
passed. As a rule these “Sabors” enjoy prolonged periods of rest,
and the people are only represented by their delegates in the
Viennese Reichstrat. There these delegates certainly make a brave
fight, but they are too few, and their voice is drowned by the huge
German majority. Because of this and also through the fault of the
Slovene Roman Catholic party, Carniola has become strongly
Germanized, especially as regards the administration of the schools.
But the Dalmatians and Istrians are a sturdy, progressive people,
Slav to the backbone, and all attempts at Germanizing them have
proved as futile as the beating of waves upon the shore. Beside the
German danger, this people also has the Italian danger to contend
with. For opportunist reasons the Austrian Government has always
favoured the Italian element (4 per cent. in Istria and 2 per cent. in
Dalmatia) and granted them concessions, which have given rise to
the most absurd anomalies. For instance, the election law in Istria is
so framed, that 96 per cent. Slovenes and Croats send fewer
delegates to Vienna than 4 per cent. Italians. The same injustice
prevails in the Parish Council election law, but in spite of this the
Italians would never secure their majority, if special Government
regulations did not compel all officials and State employees to vote
Italian. If to-day Italy is apparently able to claim a sphere of interest
in Istria, this is the outcome of a chance state of affairs, arbitrarily
created by the Austrian Government. As an instance of this policy, I
will state that shortly before the outbreak of the war the
Government seriously contemplated the foundation of an Italian
University for a population of 700,000 souls, while strenuously
opposing the foundation of a Slovene University for 1,400,000
Slovenes and Croats in Carniola and Istria. Of course this policy
made the Italians aggressive, and they continued to extend their
sphere of interest until it actually included the Quarnero Islands,
although these islands do not possess one single Italian inhabitant,
and these very islands are the most sacred possession of the
Southern Slavs. They are the only spot in Slav territory where the old
Slav tongue is still spoken by the people. This fact is amply borne out by
publications of the Southern Slav Academy, and also of the Russian
Academy, which sends its scholars year by year to these islands to
study the language. In the province of Dalmatia the populace have
themselves dismissed the Italian question from the order of the day,
and the local government of Zadar (Zara) is the only possession—
and a very problematical one at that—which the Italians might claim,
and that only because of the truly mediæval election laws. For, as
soon as vote by ballot for the Parliamentary elections was introduced
in the Austrian Crown lands, the Croatian candidate was returned by
a majority of 7,000 votes over his Italian colleague.
The pro-Italian attitude of Austria was and is as insincere as the
rest of her policy. It is simply dictated by the “divide-et-impera”
principle, because an alliance between Slavs and Italians would have
been fatal to the Government. One nationality was played off against
the other, and the Italians proved willing tools in the hands of
Austria. The influence of Italian culture, which has for centuries been
received with love and admiration by the Southern Slavs, has
created an Italian-speaking zone of culture in the coast-lands of the
Adriatic; and the Italians, assisted by the Austrian Government, have
made the most of this zone until they have actually had the audacity
to include it in their sphere of national aspirations. Thus Austria
created an enemy both for herself and the Slav peoples, an enemy
with whom the Southern Slavs have never before had any real
quarrel. Antagonism led to bitter conflicts, and if the Slav population
in Dalmatia and Istria have begun to detest the Italian zone of
culture it has been purely in self-defence and for fear of having to
pay with their national existence for the amity and admiration of
centuries. Nowadays, the Italians themselves admit that Dalmatia
and Istria are indigenously pure Slav countries. Probably the present
struggle has also revealed to them the true value of Austria’s
favours.
In Bosnia and Hercegovina, Austria pursued the same heartless
policy. Out of the three religions of one people she made three
nationalities, and then fostered dissensions between them. Her
policy was especially bitter against the Serbs, who are in the
majority and also the more highly-educated element of the
population and therefore more able to give effective support to the
just claims of Serbia. Austria was not in the least interested in the
prosperity of the country, and merely created an intolerable chaos by
her political intrigue in a land that had already suffered beyond
endurance. Her evidences of civilization exhibited before Europe
were pure humbug, and the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina one
of the most flagrant acts of injustice ever perpetrated on a nation.
If the present war is decided in favour of the Allies—and this is
the prayer of all the Slavs—it will become necessary to settle the
Southern Slav problem once and for all. This can only be done
satisfactorily by respecting the principle of nationality, and by a just
delimitation of the various national zones. In disputed territories,
such as Istria or the Quarnero Islands, a referendum ought to
decide.
The Slavs have been tortured long enough. For centuries they
have guarded European civilization against the inroads of Ottoman
Islam, which has always been synonymous with bigotry, barbarism
and sloth, and should never be confounded with Arab Islam, or
Hindu Islam, to whom the whole world of science, art and
philosophy is eternally indebted. Austria and Prussia are the natural
heirs of Ottoman Islam, and the Southern Slavs have made a heroic
stand against this latter-day Prussian Islam.
 Civilization owes them a debt of honour, and it is only their due
that Europe should give them justice.
 EPILOGUE.

“BURIED TREASURES.”
BY DIMITRIJ MITRINOVIĆ.

Speaking generally, the Southern Slavs are divided into Slovenes,

Serbo-Croats, and Bulgarians, but of these three branches only the
Slovenes and Serbo-Croats are racially identical. In speaking of a
political Southern Slav State, a state which would in the future
dominate the whole of the Balkan Peninsula, it would be wrong not
to include the Bulgarian nation. However, the Serbo-Croats form the
principal cultural “unit” among the Southern Slavs, and after them
come the Slovenes. The nucleus, the life-giving element of the
Southern Slav family and its culture, is formed by the Southern Slavs
of Serbia, Old Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Croatia,
Dalmatia and Serbian Hungary, or, to give them their collective
name, by the Serbo-Croats. The Serbo-Croats, and more especially
the Serbians proper (Serbians of Old Serbia and Serbia), have
always led the vanguard of Serbo-Croatian political life; the two
greatest cultural achievements of the Southern Slav race, to wit,179
the national poetry and the individual architecture and sculpture of
Ivan Meštrović, have always been associated with the Serbians of
Serbia. The fall of the Serbian Empire forms the chief theme of
Meštrović’s art, no less than of Southern Slav national poetry—and
thus it has become usual, if not strictly correct, to speak of all
Southern Slav poetry as Serbian national poetry, and of the great
Southern Slav artist as the great Serbian artist.
We speak of the Southern Slav poetry and of Ivan Meštrović, our
Southern Slav Michelangelo, as “buried treasures.” In a sense, all
Slav civilization may be called a buried treasure. Russian and Slav
literature as a whole, is far greater than its reputation in Western
Europe. Ottokar Brezina, the celebrated Csech poet, is translated
and read in Slavophobe Germany, but not in allied France and
England; because in these days nations are more often brought into
contact by war and travel than by civilization and our common
humanity.
Western Europe has been even less just to the Southern Slavs
than to any other Slav nation; and they who have paid so dearly in
blood and suffering for their freedom are less known and recognized
than any other European nation, in spite of the great historic merit
of the Serbians, and the importance of their culture;—the
consideration shown by Europe to a dynasty has been greater than
her justice to a portion of mankind. A universal conflagration and a
breaking-up of the old order of things was necessary, ere Europe
learned to value millions of human beings more highly than the
principle of a bygone generation, or the pathos of old age. In the
future we may hope to see a just Europe which will not look upon
the Serbians as a nation of regicides, but as a people revolting
against secret treaties with the Hapsburgs, and upon the Southern
Slavs, not as traitors, but as a democratic people refusing to be
destroyed. When the Slovenes of Istria, Carniola, Styria, and
Carinthia, together with the Serbo-Croats, form a strong, prosperous
and free, though small State, their culture will be developed to the
full, crowning and unifying Southern Slav life.
This growing civilization of Greater Serbia, which may be called
Yougoslavia, will gather up the scattered threads of the history of
Serbian art in the past. We shall then no longer speak of “Slovene
painting,” “Croatian drama,” “Old Serbian tapestry,” “Serbian folk-
lore.” The literature of one and the same people will cease to be
broken up into “Literature in Ragusa,” “Dalmatian Island and Coast
Literature,” “Bosnian,” “Croatian,” and “Serbian” literature. All this,
together with the national life to the State, will form the totality of
the Southern Slav nation. The two zones of culture: the Western
European zone of the Croats and Slovenes, and the Eastern-
Byzantine zone of the Serbians; the three religions: Orthodox,
Catholic and Mussulman; the two forms of script: the Latin of the
Croats, and the Cyrillic of the Serbians; all these, as well as a few
differences of speech, will only add to the wealth and originality of
Southern Slav culture. When this Greater Serbia or Yougoslavia shall
stand for the third great civilization of the Balkans (the first was
Hellenic, the second Byzantine), the Southern Slavs will become a
new factor in European civilization and politics, and the great art of
Serbian national poetry, and the work of the Yougoslav artist,
Meštrović, will no longer be buried treasures. Serbian music,
literature and science, although they have existed and still exist, will
only then be known and recognized.
* * * * * *
It has been the fate of the Southern Slavs to fulfil a mission in
European history; Serbia and the Serbo-Croat race constituted a
bulwark for Europe and Christianity against the invasion of Turkish
barbarians and Islam. The martyrdom of the Southern Slavs lasted
for centuries; it was a most humiliating thraldom to the barbarous
Mongolism of the Ottoman Turks, and a hard, incessant fight for the
dignity of humanity. It was a period of indescribable suffering from
the barbarities of a lower race, one of the hardest struggles for
existence the world has known. It was impossible to continue or to
realize the plans of the great Nemanjić rulers. All attempts at union
between the peoples of Croatia and Bosnia were fruitless: never in
the history of Europe has a nation lived for so many centuries in
such terrible political impotence and disunion as the Serbo-Croat and
Slovene nation. Italy at the time of the Renaissance, and Germany
before the liberation, were, in comparison with the Southern Slavs,
in a well-organized and healthy condition.
Thus it has come about that we have no Serbian history of art,
only various provincial histories—Old Serbian, Macedonian,
Dalmatian, Bosnian, History of Serbian art in Hungary, Slovene and
New Serbian.
The bitter enmity of Austria-Hungary towards Serbia, which
deepened steadily, and finally became the direct cause of the
European War, began with the Russophile and Southern Slav trend
of Serbian policy after the series of Southern Slav Congresses, which
took place in Belgrade at the time of the coronation of King Peter in
1904. Serbia’s new policy, after the suicidal and humiliating pro-
Austrian policy of the Obrenović dynasty had been abolished, was a
racial policy, pro-Russian, pro-Bulgarian and democratic, which
restored the stability and order of the State, and led to the
foundation of the Balkan Alliance in 1912. Serbia regenerated,
sought to consolidate a scattered, provincial culture into one great
culture of a Greater Serbia, or of all the Southern Slavs. For this
reason it has only quite recently become possible to speak of the
united cultural efforts of the Serbo-Croats.
The consolidation of Southern Slav history and culture are only
now beginning, and the appearance of the artist-prophet Ivan
Meštrović, a Dalmatian Catholic, is the central event in Southern Slav
history of art. He is the prophet of the third, or Southern Slav
Balkan, State, who proclaims that it is the historical task of Serbia to
free the Southern Slavs and unite them, not only in a political, but in
a spiritual, sense; and he has symbolized this ideal in his great art,
which is the living soul of the architecture and sculpture of the
Temple of Kossovo, and of all the Southern Slavs. When the Balkans
are freed from Ottoman Islam and the Turks, when a strong and
progressive Federation of Southern Slavs, including Bulgaria,
Roumania, Greece and even Albania, is established, then we may
see the triumphant rise of a mature and typically Southern Slav
culture. When all nations shall receive their due, when they are
allowed to develop freely, then and only then, the blood-drenched
Peninsula will be at peace. A strong and prosperous Yougoslavia will
interest the world both politically and economically; the opinion that
the Southern Slavs are an uncivilized race will cease, and the great
services rendered to art and letters by the Serbo-Croats and
Slovenes will be recognized and appreciated at their true value. If
we include Meštrović’s Temple of Kossovo among these
achievements, we may fairly claim to have contributed to the
greatest possessions of human culture for all time.
The life-work of the Serbian Monarchs of the Nemanjić dynasty,
who aimed at the inclusion of Serbia within the zone of the then-
civilized nations of Europe, failed of its fulfilment, owing to the fall of
the Serbian Empire before the Turks. The Serbo-Byzantine
architecture of the convents and churches which abound in
Macedonia and Serbia, affords admirable proof of the results of this
work, the most important examples being Studenitza (1198), Dečani
(1331), and Gračanica (1341). A few years later culture made great
strides in Dalmatia, but it was not a spontaneous, national growth,
but rather the offspring of Slavicized Latin culture, and savoured
more of Venice and the Renaissance than of Dalmatia and the
Southern Slavs. Furthermore, the artists, scientists, philosophers and
writers of Dalmatia went to Italy and were lost to their nation. The
poor, down-trodden, uncivilized Southern Slav countries could not
provide their artists with a livelihood. The celebrated mathematician,
philosopher and astronomer, Roger Bošković, went to Rome, Paris,
and London; Nikolo Tomasso, a Serbian from Sevenico, founded the
Italian literary language. Julije Lovranić (Laurana), an eminent
architect of his time, was a Serbian from Dalmatia, and at one time
the teacher of Bramante; and Franjo Laurana, of Palermo, a kinsman
of Julije, earned a high place in the history of art through his
sculpture; he was especially celebrated for his beautiful female
portrait busts. In like manner many Serbians found their way to
other countries. For instance, Peter Križanić, a Croatian, was the first
Pan-Slavist; he was exiled to Siberia for his schemes of reform and
European propaganda in Russia. To this day the Dalmatian ships’
captains are not the only representatives of that country all the
world over, but great scientists and inventors like Pupin and Nikola
Tesla.
Whenever a part of Serbian territory became independent, or
even for a short time found tolerable conditions, an intense creative
culture grew up swiftly, even after the fall of the Empire and during
the time of slavery. For generations the greater part of the Serbians
have lived, and still live, in slavery. The Serbians under Turkish rule
were liberated only two years ago, and the liberation of the Slavs of
the Hapsburg Monarchy is only just beginning. In accordance with
the changes in the political fate of the Southern Slavs, and as the
material conditions of the people grew better or worse, the centres
of Slav literature moved from place to place. This unfortunate
disorganization and consequent impotence were the bane of Serbian
or Southern Slav literature. Ragusan literature; the literature of the
Dalmatian coast and its islands, with its original creations, and many
fine translations of the Greek drama—Homer, Virgil and Horace,
Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso, Ariosto—none of these counted in
the later development of literature in Croatia, Serbian Hungary,
Bosnia or Serbia. As things now stand, Slovenian literature bears no
recognized relation to Serbo-Croat literature, which has to a certain
extent become unified. The great Croatian poets, Peter Preradović,
Ivan Mažuranić, and Silvije Kranjčević are scarcely read in Serbia,
owing to bitter political disagreements and the Austrian divide-et-
impera policy. For this reason, too, the Croatians scarcely know the
greatest Southern Slav poets such as the Montenegrin Petar Petrović
Njegoš, or the Serbian from Hungary, Lazar Kostić. The historian and
philosopher Boža Knižević and the metaphysician Branislav
Petronijević are scarcely known in Bosnia owing to their being
Serbians from Serbia, that is to say, from anti-Austrian Serbia. Thus
it is scarcely surprising that Southern Slav culture is unknown in
Europe, when it is practically unknown even in Yougoslavia; when
Meštrović, the immortal artist of Yougoslavia, the architect and
sculptor of the Serbian Acropolis, is unknown to his own countrymen
beyond the frontier.
* * * * * *
At present the nation is fighting for its very life. Inter arma silent
musæ, and when a nation has to bear first the occupation and then
the annexation of the heart of its territory; when it has to wage an
incessant war, even in times of so-called peace, against an
implacable neighbour like Austria-Hungary; when the strength of the
nation is absorbed in the mere struggle for existence; then it is
impossible to realize the possession of a great artist. The Serbian
nation has waged three wars of life and death, and always against
an enemy stronger than herself; first against Turkey, then against
Bulgaria, and now against Austria—all within three years. At such a
time it is impossible to create a great civilization, and still less
possible not to appear to the world as a nation created solely for
war. Diplomatic Europe is interested in Serbian politics—not from
motives of humanity and justice. And to the Europe of civilization,
philosophy, science, art and ethics the spirit of Yougoslavia is not
even a name. Who knows that even apart from Meštrović—who, as
the peer of Phidias and Michelangelo, cannot be compared with
mere mortals—the finest architect of the present day is a Southern
Slav—a Slovene—the son of a small nation of three million people?
This great architect of modern Europe is Josip Plečnik; he was
director of the Arts Academy in Prague, and a few months ago was
promoted to the Vienna Academy. Downtrodden Dalmatia boasts
such powerful writers, thinkers and scientists as Count Ivo Vojnović,
Antun Tresić-Pavićić, the philosopher Petrić, and the historian Nodilo.
At the time of Carducci and Swinburne Bosnia possessed a typical
poet, Silvije Kranjčević, and at the present time Serbia has in
Borislav Stankovi a novelist worthy to rank with Leonid Andreeff. In
Yougoslavia there are to-day splendidly edited reviews, particularly
good theatres and opera (as for instance the Opera at Zagreb), and
good universities with distinguished professors and scientific men.
Assuredly the Southern Slavs are not to blame if the whole world
has seen this gifted and important nation through the spectacles of
the Viennese Press, a nation which is worth more to the human race
than the whole of the Hapsburg dynasty—or was, until the outbreak
of the present war.... In all their poverty and slavery, and without the
help even of Serbia, they undertook a campaign of enlightenment in
the European Press, organized art exhibitions, and by concerts,
lectures, and translations made known their art and literature to the
world. English literature has greatly influenced Serbo-Croat
literature; and not only Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron and Shelley are
translated into Serbian, but Carlyle, Buckle, and Draper have also
exercised great influence upon Serbian culture; and the most
modern literature of Britain has found worthy translators and
admirers. The poems of Rossetti, Browning, Keats, Swinburne and
Walt Whitman, the novels of Wells, and the plays of Bernard Shaw
have been translated into the beautiful tongue of the “Belgrade
regicides.”
* * * * * *
To resume, it is not surprising that Western Europeans do not
know Southern Slav civilization, when many rich fields of this culture
still remain “buried treasures” to the Southern Slavs themselves. The
Serbo-Croat and Slovene poets, such as Gundulić, Ranjina, Palmotić
and Gjorgjić from Ragusa and Dalmatia, compare favourably with
the exponents of Western literature, and among modern Serbo-Croat
poets Petar Petrović Njegoš, Lazar Kostić and Silvije Kranjčević are
great, even when compared with the greatest. Yet it is not so much
the artists and their individual works, but the nation, and the
collective artistic worth of the national spirit that is of priceless
value. The music of the Southern Slavs, more especially the music of
Old Serbia and Bosnia, possesses great melodic beauty and
emotional depth, and when it finds its modern exponent it will take
its proper place in the history of music. This great art of the Serbian
nation however, is not only absolutely unknown to Europe and the
rest of the world, but even in Serbia, although universally known, it
is cultivated little or not at all. The Serbian State, which since its re-
birth under Karagjorgje Petrović has waged continual war for the
liberty and union of the Southern Slavs, could not devote itself to
music, art and beauty; and that part of the nation which remains
under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and the Hapsburgs felt still less
inclined to do so. The priceless treasures of popular song have not
yet been artistically exploited. Thus their own creation is a buried
treasure to the Southern Slavs; in a sense, one may even say, that
there is no Serbian music. Europeans cannot value this beautiful and
noble music because they do not know it; neither can they value the
national textile art of Old Serbia, Dalmatia and Croatia, since it is
equally unknown. For three consecutive years the Serbian
Government has had to arm the State, and has had neither time nor
money to turn the Southern Slav textile art into a modern industry.
 What the Serbo-Croats and Slovenes, and even the Bulgarians,
do cultivate, and are proud of, is the Southern-Slav or Serbian
national poetry, the ballads and legends which the people have
invented and sung during centuries of slavery. Goethe, the great
“citizen of the universe,” and the first to predict the foundation of a
modern universal literature, assigned Serbian national poetry a very
high place among the literatures of the world, and many of the
poems have already been translated into different languages.18
To understand Ivan Meštrović, the creator of the Temple of
Kossovo, one must feel Serbian music and appreciate Serbian textile
art; and above all one must learn to know this noble nation of
Christians and Slavs through their national poetry. It is not arrogance
on our part to call Meštrović and the Temple of Kossovo the eternal
art of the present generation. Every divinely-inspired artist creates
not only beauty, but life,—for the mind is the life—and this great
regenerator of European art is the son of a small nation of the
blood-stained Balkans, and also the son of the great race which has
produced Dostoievski.
* * * * * *
Europe and mankind in general must accord justice to the
Southern Slav spirit, and the historic merit and achievements of the
Serbian nation. The knowledge of Serbian music and especially of
Serbian poetry can only be a gain to the Europe of the future. For
this Serbian art is a truly Slav art, wonderful and deep, equal to that
of ancient Egypt and India. It was not because Miczkiewicz, the
great Polish poet, was himself a Slav, that he sang the praises of this
beauty so enthusiastically, but because he understood the moral of
this beauty. This poetry has been for centuries a life-force of the
Southern Slav nation, because morality and life are one, and
because the spirit of Serbian beauty—barbaric and god-like—is a
religion in poetry and a moral in art. Without fear we may say that
Serbian ethics are the most wonderful in the history of humanity. If
it may be said of any nation that it is great and noble, it may be said
of the Southern Slavs. Europe does not realize the monstrous