Czechs—Havlíček, for instance—recognized the racial individuality of the Slovaks and Moravians. I know Slovakia and the Slovak people pretty well, being in touch with the older and the younger generations and having worked with both for the rebirth of the country. I know, too, that even the Russophil Slovak, Hurban-Vajanský, favoured union with the Czechs when the question became serious, as his father had done, and Kollár before him. But I am quite aware that many Slovaks, in their racial and political humiliation, sought consolation in visions and dreams rather than in action or work. And when some Russians—Lamansky for example—took delight in Slovak racial originality, such Slovaks thought this originality sufficient and did little to resist Magyar pressure.
This state of mind persisted among some of the Slovaks in the United States; and, when America entered the war, the “Slovak League” published a memorandum—prepared in advance—in which the autonomy of Slovakia within the Hungarian State was demanded as it had been in the old memorandum of St. Martin. In reality, this “Slovak League” was not recognized by the authorities until May 17, 1919, and until then existed only in name. Yet, for a time, individuals and small local groups repeated the cry for an independent Slovakia linked, somehow or other, to Russia; and Koníček, to whom I have referred in earlier chapters, carried on an agitation to this end both in Russia and in America. The war brought about a Romantic revival among the Slovaks in Russia, whom the first Russian official proclamations filled with enthusiasm. They dwelt upon the interest which the Tsar had shown in the Slovaks during the audience he had granted to a Czech deputation, and upon the fact that the Grand Duke Nicholas had mentioned them by name in his manifesto to the Austrian peoples. The idea of Lamansky and others affected them, and many a Slovak workman dreamed of Slovakia either independent or associated with Russia, just as other Slovaks maintained that Slovakia should join Poland, while yet others believed in joining Hungary. In 1915 the “Russo-Slovak Štúr Commemoration Society” was formed at Moscow where, under the influence of politically ingenuous Russians, all sorts of anti-Czech illusions were cherished in a vague and jejune pan-Slav and pan-Russian spirit which many a Czech shared. The Memorandum presented to the Tsar of September 1914 referred to a “Dual Kingdom”; and the “National Council” formed by Koníček
