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Bishop Strossmayer and Mme. Olga Novikov: Two Unpublished Letters, 1879
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
Extract
During the Eastern Crisis of 1876-78, and the years preceding the victory of W. E. Gladstone and the British Liberal party in the Midlothian general election in April 1880, the renowned Slavophile and Croatian patriot Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Roman Catholic bishop of Diakovo, attempted with some success directly and indirectly to enlist Gladstone's support for South Slav nationalist aspirations. Bishop Strossmayer was an ardent advocate of the liberation of the South Slavs from Austrian, Magyar, and Turkish rule, a vocal partisan of South Slav unity, and, at times, a thorn in the side of the Vatican. As the long-time bishop of a large diocese which embraced Slavonia and parts of Bosnia and Serbia, he labored for over fifty years to advance the national traditions and culture of the South Slavs and to promote an awareness among the South Slavs of their common ethnic and cultural origins. Strossmayer achieved notoriety and won the close friendship of Lord Acton and Dr. Johann von Dollinger by his opposition to the Dogma of Papal Infallibility in the Vatican Council of 1869-70 and attracted the attention of Gladstone and many Anglican clerics by his efforts to effect the reconciliation and reunion of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He was also interested in promoting the union of the Western and Eastern churches as a device to remove the religious rivalry which hindered the unification of the South Slavs and persevered in his endeavors to facilitate spiritual unity among the Balkan Slavs, even though these efforts alienated many of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic clergy.
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- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1967
References
1 On thelife and work of Strossmayer (1815-1905), see Cepelid, Monsignor and Pavic, , Josip Juraj Strossmayer, 18'50-1880 (Zagreb, 1904)Google Scholar; Sišić, V. F., Ideje Strosmajera (Belgrade, 1928)Google Scholar; Seton-Watson, R. W., The South Slav Question (London, 1911)Google Scholar, Chap. 6; Hermann, Wendel, Aus dem sudslawischen Risorgimento (Gotha, 1921), pp. 105–34 Google Scholar; Adrian, Fortescue, “A Slav Bishop : Joseph George Strossmayer,” Dublin Review, CLXIII (Oct. 1918), 234–57Google Scholar; Charles, Loiseau” Un Precurseur de 1'unite Yougoslave,” La Vie des Peuples, IX (April 1923), 841–57Google Scholar; Loiseau,” La Politique de Strossmayer,” Le Monde Slave, N.S. IV (March 1927)” 379““4°5; Loiseau, “Strossmayer, son epoque et son ceuvre,” ibid., XIV (March 1937), 423-50; Marquis d'Aragon, “Monseigneur Strossmayer, precurseur de 1'unite Yougoslave,” Revue des Questions Historiques, CXXIII (May 1935), 74-86Google Scholar; Vladimir Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo (New York, 1966), p. 76.
2 Seton-Watson, pp. 125, 416; see also d'Aragon, pp. 74 ff.; Fortescue, pp. 249-52.
3 Seton-Watson, p. 125; Fortescue, pp. 253-54.
4 Seton-Watson, pp. 125, 417; Strossmayer to Rev. Franjo Raeu, Nov. 29, 1876, in Ferdo Sišić, ed., Korespondencija Racki-Strossmayer, Vol. II : Od 6. Jan. 1876 do )i. Dec. 1881 (Zagreb, 1929), p. 74.
5 Strossmayer to Gladstone, Oct. i, 1876, in Seton-Watson, p. 417. See also MacColl to Gladstone, Sept. 25, 1876, in Russell, George W. E., ed., Malcolm MacColl : Memoirs and Correspondence (London, 1911), p. 52 Google Scholar; and Liddon to Gladstone, Sept. 26, 1876, in Johnston, John Octavius, Life and Letters of Henry Parry Liddon (London, 1904), p. 212 Google Scholar; Strossmayer to Raiki, Sept. 6, 14, and 22, 1876, in Ferdo Sišić ed., Korespondencija Radki-Strossmayer, p. 45; Seton-Watson, R. W., Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question : A Study in Diplomacy and Party Politics (London, 1962), p. 85 Google Scholar; Shannon, R. T., Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation, 1876 (London, 1963), p. 192.Google Scholar
6 Seton-Watson published most of the correspondence of Strossmayer and Gladstone in the appendixes of The South Slav Question, pp. 416-44. For Strossmayer's comments on his correspondence with Gladstone, see Strossmayer to Raclti, Sept. 6, 14, and 22 and Nov. 29, 1876; Feb. 11, 1878; March 26 and April 27, 1880, in Ferdo Sišić, ed., Korespondencija Raiki-Strossmayer, pp. 45, 47, 64, 74, 145, 266-67, a“d 276. There are several unpublishedletters from Gladstone to Strossmayer and copies of communications from Strossmayer to Gladstone in the Strossmayer Collection in the Yugoslav Academy (Zagreb) (Professor Miroslav Karsulin, General Secretary of the Yugoslav Academy, to J. O. Baylen, Zagreb, Feb. 27, 1967).
7 See Strossmayer to Gladstone, Oct. 24, 1876, in Seton-Watson, The South Slav Question, p. 421.
8 MacColl to Gladstone, Sept. 25, 1876, in Russell, ed., p. 53.
9 Liddon to Gladstone, Sept. 26, 1876, in Johnston, p. 212.
10 On Gladstone's friendship with Mme. Novikov, see her extensive correspondence with him in the Gladstone Papers, British Museum Add. MSS. 44303-4, Vols. CLXXXIII and CLXXXIV; also Stead, W. T., ed., The M.P. for Russia : Reminiscences and Correspondence of Madame Olga Novikoff (2 vols.; London, 1910)Google Scholar, passim; Richard, Deacon, The Private Life of Mr. Gladstone (London, 1965), pp. 115–20, 125.Google Scholar
11 See Gabriel de Wesselitsky-Bojidarovitch, Dix mois de ma vie, i8y5-1876 (Paris, 1929), P. 133.
12 On thelife and career of Mme. Olga Alekseevna Novikov (1840-1925), see Stead, ed., The M.P. for Russia; Novikoff, Madame Olga, Russian Memories (New York, 1917)Google Scholar; Novikoff, Olga de, “En Angleterre : Souvenirs,” La Nouvelle Revue, XCIX (March 1, 1896), 258–70Google Scholar; Joseph O., Baylen,” Madame Olga Novikov, Propagandist,” American Slavic and East European Review, X (Dec. 1951), 255–71Google Scholar; Baylen, ,” Madame Olga Novikoff : Defender of Imperial Russia, 1880-1900,” Historia, I (Oct. 1951), 133–57Google Scholar; Baylen, ,” W. T. Stead, Apologist for Imperial Russia, 1870-1880 Gazette (Amsterdam), VI (1960), 286–87Google Scholar; Wesselitsky-Bojidarovitch, p. 133.
13 See Gladstone to Mme. Novikov, Dec. 13, 1876, and Jan. 6, 1880, in Stead, ed., I, 3»i; 11, 65.
14 I am indebted to the heirs of Mme. Novikov for permission to copy and edit theseletters, which were written in French.
15 Mme. Novikov'sletters during the Eastern Crisis and the Congress of Berlin in the Darlington Northern Echo, March 2 and 28, April 18 and 25, June 15, July 29, and Aug. 13, 1878. Theseletters were reprinted by Mme. Novikov in her pamphlet Friends or Foes (London, 1878). On this subject see also Northern Echo, Jan. 2, 1879, and Stead, ed., II, 24-25.
16 A reference to the Second Afghan War waged by the British in 1878-79. Nine days before Strossmayer wrote thisletter Sir Louis Cavagnari and his military mission in Kabul were murdered by mutinous Afghan troops, causing the Indian Government tolaunch a second punitive expedition against Kabul on September 6, 1879. Although the British expedition was quite successful, it was used by the Liberals to make the government's foreign and imperial policy their main object of attack during 1879-80 (see Robert Blake, Disraeli [London, 1966], pp. 675, 700). In their criticism of the Tory government's Afghan policy, Gladstone and the Liberals were strongly supported by Mme. Novikov.
17 Strossmayer hoped to meet Gladstone when thelatter was traveling in Bavaria and Italy from September 14 to October 21. See Strossmayer to Gladstone [summer 1879] and Sept. 3, 1879, in Seton-Watson, The South Slav Question, pp. 431, 444; and John, Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (London, 1906), II, 864.Google Scholar
18 As a major exponent of Slav unity and nationalism and as an opponent of the Dual Monarchy's policy in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Strossmayer was under close surveillance by Austrian and Magyar authorities (see Fortescue, pp. 242 ff.; Dedijer, p. 76; Russell, ed., P. 52).