Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Europe and the Birth of Modern Nationalism in the Slavic World

This book explores the influence of Young Europe – an international alliance founded by Giuseppe Mazzini in 1834 – on the Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Ukrainian intelligentsia in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Anna Procyk is Professor Emerita in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Political Science at Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York.

"Based on documentary materials – which, along with correspondence and memoirs, also includes interrogations and court records – Anna Procyk sheds light on the leading figures of conspiratorial networks active on Galician soil, on both the Austrian and Russian side. She highlights the importance of women in the spread of revolutionary literature; these women came often from the ranks of the nobility and were particularly active in Polish conspiratorial networks."

Josette Baer, University of Zurich UZH:

"If one compares historical research to a jigsaw puzzle, Procyk’s study is a corner piece. In our field, many excellent studies are being published that enlighten us about the region’s past, its popular politicians, ignored intellectuals, and admired activists. Yet few studies deserve the predicate of ‘outstanding’ for their wide scope and scholarly depth. Procyk’s Mazzini is outstanding because the author convincingly explains how Young Europe activists contributed to the revolutionary activities after 1815, thereby preparing the Spring of Nations of 1848."

David G. Rowley, University of Wisconsin-Platteville:

"This is an absorbing history of the emergence of national consciousness and the desire for independence in the Slavic lands of the Russian and Austrian empires in the 1830s and 1840s. Anna Procyk provides a richly detailed account that involves fascinating characters of all sorts—émigré Polish militants, Greek Catholic priests, poets, conspiratorial organizations, and […] martyrs to the cause of national liberation."

Jared Warren:

"Procyk valuably draws our attention to a broad cast of characters little known beyond specialists of this subject. By placing them in a broad international context that extends beyond eastern Europe, Procyk helps to break down the intellectual boundaries that have long compartmentalized the study of individual east European nations, as well as the sharper divisions between west and east European history. In so doing, Procyk offers a model of transnational east European history well worth developing further."

Andrew Sorokowski:

"Anna Procyk’s monograph represents decades of thorough research, much of it archival. It demonstrates that Ukrainian intellectuals, while divided between the Russian and Austrian empires, cultivated strong ties with their Italian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Balkan counterparts. Its value, however, goes beyond its important contributions to our knowledge of modern Slavic nationalism. At a time when nationalism has degenerated into chauvinism and consequently fallen into disrepute, it reminds us that it in its original form, nationalism not only united those who shared an ethnic and linguistic heritage, but embraced all peoples seeking independence in fraternal equality."

Roland Sarti, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Massachusetts-Amherst:

"This well-documented study traces the spread of ideas of national independence, republicanism, and democracy from Western to Eastern Europe among Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak émigrés and through them to their respective homelands. The key figure is that of Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, who found broad support among political exiles of many nationalities in the aftermath of the revolutions of 1830 and the founding of his Young Europe association in 1834. Procyk’s book stands out as an obligatory reference point for anyone interested in the genesis and diffusion of ideas associated with modern radical politics."

Serhiy Bilenky, Research Fellow, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto:

"With exceptional style and impressive scholarship, this book is accessible and should be recommended to those interested in the issue of Romantic nationalism in central and Eastern Europe."

Alexander Motyl, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark:

"Anna Procyk’s well-researched, concisely argued, and theoretically relevant volume is an excellent example of transnational history at its best. Thoroughly familiar with a variety of primary sources, she demonstrates how intellectuals and revolutionaries in Western and Eastern Europe interacted, drew on each other’s ideas, developed nationalist agendas, and engaged in national-liberation struggles in the nineteenth century. In effect, Procyk shows that both parts of Europe formed, and still form, an overarching whole extending from France to Ukraine and, perhaps, beyond."