On Sun, Apr 19, 2020 at 05:13:42AM -0700, Lawrence Crowell wrote: > On Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 12:09:57 PM UTC-5, Alan Grayson wrote: > > > > > > > > On Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 7:28:18 AM UTC-6, Lawrence Crowell wrote: > >> > >> The Russians had a pan-Slavic ideology, where all the Slavic > >> regions of the world would be under the tutelage of Russia, This > >> included much of the Austro-Hungarian empire, where this was a > >> sore point. Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, Slovakia and areas > >> formerly within Yugoslavia and prior to that within the > >> Austro-Hungarian empire were intended to be a part of a greater > >> pan-Slavic domain. This required by geography influence over > >> Romania and Hungary. This was finally achieved by the USSR in the > >> end of WWII. > >> > >> There was also something called the "Great Game," where > >> Afghanistan the Hindu Kush and that general region was contested > >> by Russia and the British Empire. The current problems with > >> Kashmir is a carry over from this, where a Muslim majority region > >> is a part of Hindustan India. This is an elevated region that in > >> a sense looks over India, and was the staging area for the Mogul > >> invasion of India. The UK was loathe to having Russia perched in > >> that position over the "Jewel in the Crown" that was the British > >> Raj in India. > >> > >> Then finally there is the middle east or the Ottoman Empire and > >> Persia. Tsarist Russia hovered over these archaic and declining > >> regions. Russia coveted the straits and a return of the "Truth > >> Faith" of Orthodox Christianity to Constantinople, and this would > >> give Russia more naval access. The Ottoman Empire was called the > >> sick man of Europe, and the Crimean war was fought to keep Russia > >> out of the straits of Dardanelles and Anatolia, and Russia worked > >> to foster the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Russia also > >> sought increased influence in Persia. > >> > >> LC > >> > > > > I really appreciate having access to your command of history. One > > other thing while we're on the subject of European history. What > > exactly is a "Slav"? I once looked it up on Wiki and the > > definition or concept seemed unintelligible; vague at best. AG > > > > A part of my heritage is Slavic. It really is more a language > distinction. Anyone who has Slavic heritage just means someone in > their family tree spoke Russian, Ukranian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, > Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian or Slovenian etc. It is not really a > race, It is much the same distinction as Germanic, which can include > Anglo-Saxons as much as what might be called the German-Saxons.
A nice and short explanation about word root "slav-" is being given here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs_(ethnonym)#Etymology It boils down to come from "slovo" which in English means "a word". By my understanding, another explanation may be by connecting to "slava", which means "fame", more or less. There is a number of names in Polish containing "-slav" ending: Mscislav = famous avenger Stanislav = stand up and say about him Vodzislav = famous leader Miroslav = famous around the world Sviatoslav = as Miroslav etc etc. If you are not famous, go away :-). > Slavs have been considered less civilized than the rest of Europe, Wrt barbarism, depends on point of view... Vikings were widely known barbarians, but it takes a lot of guts and curiosity to sit into a boat, sail for days in open ocean and come to North America via the less traveled route. I mean, without even knowing there was some America out there. Someone has got to be first. Perhaps they did not like "worldly" people's court intrigues so much. > and define the more tattered eastern European region. It is the case > that war and violence have been more severe in this region. Poland, > part of my heritage, was treated largely the way a baby treats a > diaper by Russia and Germany. Well, Poland has a strange location. Anybody invading westward will have to ride through Poland. And anybody invading eastward will have to ride through... you guessed it, Poland. Maybe we should start selling tickets or something. > The first Slavic nation to reach some > par with the rest of Europe was Bohemia, now Czechia. Then maybe > next was Poland. Remember that Copernicus was Polish and Kepler > Czechian. Even prior to that the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Also, Johannes Hevelius spent his life in Gdansk (sometimes called Danzig, I guess the dual name was not a big deal until XIX century), at that time belonging to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. [...] > BTW, Hungary is not Slavic, it is Uralic. That language, a language > "invented by the Devil," is more related to Finnish, Turkish and > even Mongolian. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists) ] -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] ** -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/20200419182008.GA3834%40tau1.ceti.pl.
