slavic union?
- Thread starter mr noob
- Start date
If the slavs had settled in a more compact region, maybe. Otherwise, almost completely not. Geographical and cultural differences were too strong.
Really? I thought pretty much every non-greek baltic state was Slavic, the more you know.
It was, but it's not enough.
A "Greater Yugoslavia" that includes Bulgaria is certainly possible. A Russian Empire that rules over Poland happened. The trick, then, is to get this Russian Empire to annex Czechoslovakia and then somehow unify with Greater Yugoslavia, but the fact of Austro-Hungarian military strength means that this was impossible until at least after WWI.
So this "Slavic Union" would really be a Greater Soviet Union that includes Poland, Czechoslovakia, and most of the Balkans.
Nope, Romania is, as the name suggests, a Latin-derived nation. Given genetic mixture, it's hard to call a group definitively of one group, but in terms of language, Romania is closest to Italy, Hungarian is closest to non-European languages like Finnish, and Albania is a very distant Indo-European offshoot about as closely related to its neighboring languages as Hittite.
Have Peter III of Russia marry Maria Theresa of Austria, both have the most of the Slavic territories.
Panslavism was quite popular in Russia in the 19-th century.
But you cannot tell the same about other Slavs. The Polish were definitely against it. By the way they were probably the most despised nation by the Russians.
MSZ
Banned
The main problems of founding such a state would be:
1) The presence of non-slavic populations, such as the balts, hungarians, romanians, etc.
2) Lack of unifying factors within the slavic nations - different religions, languages, customs, politics, etc.
3) Great opposition to such a state by foreign powers (Germany, Turkey, maybe Britain)
4) Internal nationalism, particulary the Russian one.
Number one could possibly be solved by granting those nations the same rights as the Slavic nations would have (I don't suppose such an Empire would be a unitarian one), or by a Middle ages PoD preventing their settlement in Eastern Europe.
Number two would require an early foundation of such an empire before the rise of nationalism and the creation of a sort-of federal state from the various nations, allowing their populations to develop same political rights and customs.
Number 3 would have to be overcome by force.
Number 4 would require again require not only an early creation of a Slavic Empire, but also the termination of Russian chauvinism and their love for absolute rule. OTL pan-slavism became a synonim for Russian Imperialism and russification which the slavs themselves opposed. Thus russian power would either have to be reduced, or Russia would have to be excluded.
The best chances of creating such an empire would be either a more successful Great Moravia or other West-Slavic union (unifying the western Slavs, expanding southwards before the arrival of the Turks, and later east before russian unification) or PLC (forming a Polish-Lithuanian-Muscovian Commonwealth and expanding southwards by ousting the Turks).
There were a couple instances when the western slavs came close to be ruled by the same power. Boleslaus I briefly held both Bohemia and Slovakia during his rule. Vaclav II and Vaclav III managed to claim the title of King of Poland and parts of Lesser Poland. The Jagiellonians also held the thrones of Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and Lithuania in the same time under Vladislaus II, John I and Alexander I. Having any of them be more successful would be a good start.
As for a PLMC - there is the obvious Time of Troubles PoD with Vladislaus IV becoming Tzar of Russia. Alternatly, a Polish-Novogorod alliance under Casimir IV could extend into a personal union, and later a real union - this would limit Muscovian-Russian power as the Rus would not be single united entity within a future Slavic Empire.
1) The presence of non-slavic populations, such as the balts, hungarians, romanians, etc.
2) Lack of unifying factors within the slavic nations - different religions, languages, customs, politics, etc.
3) Great opposition to such a state by foreign powers (Germany, Turkey, maybe Britain)
4) Internal nationalism, particulary the Russian one.
Number one could possibly be solved by granting those nations the same rights as the Slavic nations would have (I don't suppose such an Empire would be a unitarian one), or by a Middle ages PoD preventing their settlement in Eastern Europe.
Number two would require an early foundation of such an empire before the rise of nationalism and the creation of a sort-of federal state from the various nations, allowing their populations to develop same political rights and customs.
Number 3 would have to be overcome by force.
Number 4 would require again require not only an early creation of a Slavic Empire, but also the termination of Russian chauvinism and their love for absolute rule. OTL pan-slavism became a synonim for Russian Imperialism and russification which the slavs themselves opposed. Thus russian power would either have to be reduced, or Russia would have to be excluded.
The best chances of creating such an empire would be either a more successful Great Moravia or other West-Slavic union (unifying the western Slavs, expanding southwards before the arrival of the Turks, and later east before russian unification) or PLC (forming a Polish-Lithuanian-Muscovian Commonwealth and expanding southwards by ousting the Turks).
There were a couple instances when the western slavs came close to be ruled by the same power. Boleslaus I briefly held both Bohemia and Slovakia during his rule. Vaclav II and Vaclav III managed to claim the title of King of Poland and parts of Lesser Poland. The Jagiellonians also held the thrones of Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and Lithuania in the same time under Vladislaus II, John I and Alexander I. Having any of them be more successful would be a good start.
As for a PLMC - there is the obvious Time of Troubles PoD with Vladislaus IV becoming Tzar of Russia. Alternatly, a Polish-Novogorod alliance under Casimir IV could extend into a personal union, and later a real union - this would limit Muscovian-Russian power as the Rus would not be single united entity within a future Slavic Empire.
Does the Empire of Attila the Hun qualify?
Iirc all the Slavs were 'united' under one ruler. Because they had settled in a more compact region.
Actually they were proto-Slavs but that doesn't matter imho.
And then the Avars. But I am not sure that this state dominated all the Slavs. Probably they didn't.