Prague Slavic Congress (1848)
프라하 슬라브 회의 (1848)
The congress of Slav representatives held in Prague from 2 to 12 June 1848, the first occasion on which delegates of nearly all the Slav peoples met in one place to discuss Pan-Slavism, with František Palacký presiding. It issued a Manifesto to the Nations of Europe but was cut short by the Whitsun rising in Prague.
In depth
Initiated by Pavel Jozef Šafárik and Josip Jelačić and organised by Palacký, Havlíček Borovský, Rieger and others, the congress met in three sections, Poles and Ruthenians, South Slavs, and Czechs and Slovaks, and most delegates were Austroslavs seeking greater freedom within the empire. Inside the hall Frič's "primary goal is the preservation of Austria" clashed with Štúr's "our goal is self-preservation". Bakunin also attended as a delegate.
The manifesto issued around 10 June demanded an end to the oppression of the Slavs and the equality of all nations whatever their size or power. When the Prague garrison fired on a peaceful demonstration on 12 June and a rising broke out, the congress was cut short; Windischgrätz retook the city by bombardment and sent the delegates home. Engels, criticising the Slav peoples' leaning towards the counter-revolution, developed his theory of "nonhistoric peoples" in these months.