Luzhitsky Ethnosaving Movement in the Revolution of 1848-1849

The national and cultural activities of the Lusatian Serbs in the period of the revolution of 1848-1849 are one of the brightest and most controversial pages of the past of this small Slavic people ofGermany. During the revolution, the Lusatian Serbs, through their ideologues, with their locallyprovincial patriotism, were oriented towards supporting paternalistic relations with the royal authorities. To the main factors of the participation of the least numerous Slavic people in the revolutionary events of the middle of the XIX century national-cultural and ethnopolitical should be considered. During the revolution of 1848-1849, Serbs from the broad democratic program chose the path of humanization and moderate social liberalization. The first met the national and cultural needs of the people, and the second did not set the ethnic group in opposition to the monarchical power and democratic forces of Germany. In our opinion, the assumption of a possible ethnic minority of wider national rights or autonomy, subject to decisive action during the revolution, is unfounded. Already at the beginning of the XIX century the Lusatian Serbs ethnic group was a statistical minority in its ethnic region, which was divided between the two European states (Prussia and Saxony), therefore calls for more determined national requirements in ethnically mixed areas were not widespread, and the radicalization of thenational movement could lead to ethno-lateral consequences.