Slav unity and Siberian society during the Civil War. 1918-1919

The idea of Slav unity started to develop towards the end of the First World War, when international relations were changing. The Slavs in Austro-Hungary, Russia, Ottoman Empire received freedom and founded their own states - Yugoslavia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Following that, representatives of the new states, public and political leaders became active in Siberia under the government of A.V. Kolchak. Some of them saw the future of the Slavs in their unity, renewed power, and geopolitical importance, expeceting that Russia would help unite and protect the Slavs. This mission of Russia was reiterated in speeches and interviews of the Slavs, White movement leaders, and Siberian public figures. Before the end of World War I in the autumn of 1918, the Slav representiatives and anti-Soviet powers united on the basis of the fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary, and later against the Bolsheviks, who “betrayed Slavic peoples and Russia” by concluding the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Slavic states woke up to a new reality. In the post-war world, Siberia public and Siberian Slav organisations, such as The Slav Union and Slavic Brotherhood, thought the Slavs to be the creators of a new society based not on obedience but on equality and free choice. They spread the ideas of neo-Slavism, cooperation through trust, and development of relationships in culture (spreading knowledge about the Slav history, education, and life as such) and economy (including aspects of finance, trade, and production). Ideological foundation and political realisation of the strategy to achieve Slav unity were equally important for the resolution of current problems at the time and for the future.

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