Like the central group, this southern group of Slavs was divided under
four crowns, Hungary, Austria, Montenegro, and Serbia; but, in spite of
the fact that half belong to the Western and half to the Eastern Church,
they are all essentially the same people, though with considerable
infusion of non-Slavonic blood, there being a good deal of Turkish blood
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The languages, however, are practically
identical, formed largely of pure Slavonic materials, and, curiously,
much more closely connected with the eastern Slav group--Russia and
Little Russia--than with the central group, Polish and Bohemian. A
Russian of Moscow will find it much easier to understand a Slovene from
Goritzia than a Pole from Warsaw. The Ruthenians in southern Galicia and
Bukowina, are identical in race and speech with the Little Russians of
Ukrainia.
Of the central group, the Poles have generally inclined to Austria,
which has always supported the Polish landlords of Galicia against the
Ruthenian peasantry; while the Czechs have been not so much
anti-Austrian as anti-German. Indeed, the Hapsburg rulers have again and
again played these Slavs off against their German subjects. It was the
Southern Slav question as affecting Serbia and Austria, that gave the
pretext for the present war. The central Slav question affecting the
destiny of the Poles--was a bone of contention between Austria and
Germany.
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