Vocabulary, grammar and text exercises

1. Analyze the structure of the following words, define parts of speech and translate the words.

feature sufficient uninhabited

approximately visible interpenetration

justify homogeneity strengthen

2. Give Russian equivalents to the following word combinations.

To achieve some degree of political fusion, Slav civilization, different civilizations, European civilization, the Mongol conquest, to constitute a race, to constitute a barrier, to constitute a wall between the Turks and the Bulgars, conversion to Islam, to experience brief phases of solidarity, to extend civilization to the Pacific, marked extension, extensive interpenetration of cultures, the religious factor, influence on Russian society, to isolate the Eastern Slavs from Europe, to justify smb in attempting a comprehensive study, to justify smb in describing the Eastern Slavs as Asiatics, to occupy most of eastern and south-eastern Europe, the occupation of Siberia, Ottoman occupation, to remain uninhabited, Slav peoples, Slav territories, Slav solidarity, Slav history, Slav colonization, Slav world, the Slav language, to be largely subjected to Mongol overlordship.

3. Make up pairs of synonyms:

1. peculiarities, portion, territory, famous, appearance, situation, conquest, brief, divergent, view.

2. position, different, characteristic features, area, short, opinion, invasion, well-known, part, emergency

4. Make up pairs of antonyms.

1. conquest, homogeneity, appearance, distinct, to constitute, to strengthen

2. difference, vague, to weaken, liberation, destroy, disappearance

5. Read the following sentences translating the Russian parts into English.

1. The great family of (славянских народов) is composed of (восточных славян, западных славян и южных славян).

2. The mass of Slavs is particularly (плотная и однородная) from the Oder to the Ural River.

3. (Характерные особенности) of their civilization (оправдывают) us in attempting a proper study.

4. (В ходе истории) they achieve some degree of (политического слияния).

5. All experienced (краткие периоды солидарности) in the form of ephemeral kingdoms.

6. (Славянские народы) were subsequently molded by (обстоятельствами) in different and sometimes (диаметрально противоположными) ways.

7. There was (Монгольское завоевание) but its influence on Russian (общество) was (очень ограничено).

8. The South Slavs (пережили) five centuries of Ottoman (оккупации).

6. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the usage of “ing-forms”

1. Do their history and characteristic features of their civilization justify us in attempting a comprehensive study devoted to the Slavs exclusively?

2. Truth compels us to quote the following statement by the famous specialist in the Polish language, commenting in the appearance of a new Polish periodical entitled “Slav Civilization”.

3. We must start by rejecting the view which isolated the Eastern Slavs from Europe and invests them with Asiatic character.

4. None of these factors justifies us in describing the Eastern Slavs as Asiatic.

7. Correct the following statements according to the content of the text.

1. The great family of Slav peoples is composed of East Slavs and West Slavs.

2. The mass of Slavs is not homogeneous from the Oder to the Ural River.

3. There is the specifically Slav civilization.

4. The earliest stirrings of Slav history are visible as early as the first century A.D.

5. It is just to isolate the Eastern Slavs from Europe.

6. Conversion to Islam was widespread among Slavs.

8. Find in the text the passage where it is told about Asiatic influence on Slavs. Read it and translate.

IX. Answer the following questions.

1. What peoples are included into Slavs?

2. What territory do they occupy?

3. When and where did Slavs achieve some degree of political fusion?

4. When are the first stirrings of Slav history visible? What had they acquired by that time?

5. Why can’t we isolate the Eastern Slavs from Europe?

6. In what way did Ottoman occupation influence the South Slavs?

9. Render the text.

Text 15

THE SLAVS

LINGUISTIC AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY

The languages spoken by the Slavs are all Indo-European, forming a single related group distinguished from the Roman and Teutonic languages by characteristic differences in morphology, and more especially in phonetics and syntax. But this linguistic kinship would not by itself make the Slavs and their world a proper subject for exclusive study, for it has done little to create any effective Slav solidarity. It is true that a majority of them (namely the Eastern Slavs and the Serbs and Bulgars) use a script (the so-called “Cyrillic”) which has had some effect as an isolating factor. But the other Slav peoples never adopted it.

The religious factor has been more important, but here again there is no unity. The most that can be said is that a preponderance of the Slavs (the East Slavs, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgars) have belonged to the Orthodox Church, and that until the 18^th century this common ground provided them with a potential unity and profoundly influenced their respective civilizations.

The conversion of the Slavs to Christianity was undertaken by the Byzantine Church. Bishops Cyril and Methodius spread the Greek rite as far north as Bohemia, but the Western Church soon recaptured these outlying positions, and Roman Catholicism prevailed in consequence among the Czechs and Slovaks and also the Poles, who were converted in 966, in the time of Mieszko, the Duke of Bohemia’s brother-in-law. The Slovens and Croats were also won over to the Roman Church.

Although the wave of conversion originated in the Balkans it is the Russians, not the Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgars, who constitute the main mass of Orthodox believers. Russia was Byzantine greatest spiritual conquest; when Byzantine decayed, her heritage was taken over by Kiev, and subsequently by Moscow. The cleavage between the eastern and western Churches, which showed itself first in schism of 1054, became final with the capture of Constantinopole by the Turks in 1453. Despite the projects for reunion which crop up so frequently – notably in the writings of priests who travelled in Russia, such as Krijanitch in the 17^th century – there was profound hostility between the Roman and Orthodox communities; one result of this was a heightening of the tension already created between Russia and Poland by political rivalry. Thus religion, which was a link between Russia and the Balkan Slavs – who, however, were too far away to benefit directly from Russian religious sympathy – drove a wedge between neighbours.

In addition, a relatively small proportion of the East Slavs, in the Ukraine, broke away from the Orthodox Church, and, while retaining its ritual, placed themselves under papal authority; this “United Church” (hence the name Uniates) of Greek Catholics was dominant in the region of Kiev from 1596, and in the western Ukraine (with Lviv and Przemysl as focal points) from the end of the 17^th century. But Orthodox reconquest under the tsarist regime, followed by the religious policy of the Soviet government, reduced their numbers virtually to zero in that part of the Ukraine which is included in the basin of the Dnieper. They remained numerically strong in the western Ukraine, which prolonged to Poland until the partitions began and thereafter formed part of Austrian Galicia until the outbreak of the First World War. The Uniates have been regarded with suspicion by Orthodox and Catholics alike; and the simultaneous existence, in a Galicia dominated by a Polish majority, of two forms of religion, has been a divisive influence.

Nor have Catholicism and Orthodoxy been the only religious forces promoting division among the Slavs. Islam entered the Balkans with the Ottomans, and though few religions can have been imbued less strongly with proselytizing zeal, large numbers of Slavs who had become Turkish subjects by force of conquest became Muslims of their own volition. Bosnia presents the curious case of a population partly Roman Catholic, partly Orthodox and partly Muslim. In the Balkans, where Franciscan missionary labours had somewhat extended the sway of Roman Catholicism at the expense of Orthodoxy, the Muslims constituted an inert, impervious mass which only national feeling was capable of stirring into activity, and uniting with the Orthodox, against the Austrian invasion on 1878.

Another disruptive force, stronger than that exerted by Islam, was the shock of the Reformation. Its first manifestation among the Slavs was the heretical Hussite movement in the fourteenth-century Bohemia. Despite its national and social aspects this was essentially a religious uprising; if overflowed into Poland and its influence on the mentality of the Czechs was deep and enduring. Crushed but never extirpated, it was reborn as Lutheranism in the 16^th century. Most of Bohemia went over to Protestantism, but was recaptured by Roman Catholicism as a result of the Thirty Years War. Thereafter the Reformation was represented in Bohemia by the non-Slav section of the population, the German minority. These vicissitudes are perhaps a clue to the pragmatic attitude and relative religious indifference, which are typical of the Czechs mentality and in which the Czechs would seem to differ from the other Slav peoples.

Finally, an error to avoid is that of overestimating the ties of feeling among the Orthodox. Whatever spiritual cohesion may once have existed was soon dispelled by the rise of nationalism in the 19th century; it had in any case been rendered precarious long before by historical development and linguistic differences. The Serbs and Bulgars were united in their opposition to the Greek clergy in Macedonia, but in nothing else.

PHONETIC EXERCISES

1. Read the following words paying attention to the way of pronunciation of the stressed vowels.

/ei/ related, isolating /ai/, prevailed, originate, decay, sway

/i/ distinguished, frequently, syntax, kinship, influence, hostility, sympathy, ritual, partition, volition, suspicion, vicissitude

/i:/ cleavage, regime /ei/, zeal, cohesion

/)/ morphology, preponderance, common, consequence

/e/ phonetics, respective, heritage /idζ/, wedge /dζ /, numerically /ju:/, dispel

/u:/ exclusive, clue

/æ/ solidarity, simultaneous //\/

//\/ other, subsequently

/ju:/ unity, reunion, community, imbue, curious

/ai/ provide, rite, heightening, rivalry

/ :/ conversion, virtually, clergy, impervious, exerted

/ou/ notably

/E / precarious

2. Read the following proper names correctly.

Slavs, Indo-European, Romance/’r)mnz/, Teutonic /tju:’t)nik/, Serbs, Bulgars, Cyril /’si:ril/, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Orthodox /’)θdks/ Church, Christianity, Byzantine, Methodius, Greek, Bohemia, Roman Catholicism, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenes, Croats, Balkans /’b)lknz/, Russians, Turks /t:ks/, Poland, the Ukraine, United Church, Uniated, Catholic /’kæθlik/ Church, Lviv, Przemysl, Dnieper, Austrian, Galicia, Ottomans, Bosnia, Muslim /‘m/\slim/, Hussite, Lutheranism, Protestantism, German, Islam.