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Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragmentsby T. J. Winnifrith

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Page 1: Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragmentsby T. J. Winnifrith

Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragments by T. J. WinnifrithReview by: Gerasimos AugustinosThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Jul., 1996), pp. 539-540Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4212188 .

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Page 2: Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragmentsby T. J. Winnifrith

REVIEWS 539

Georgia. This edition has a new chapter describing developments after i 988 but the bulk of the book is simply a reprint of the first edition and the failure to edit earlier chapters which refer to the Soviet Union as though it still exists is an irritation.

School of European Studies JONATHAN AVES

University of Sussex

Winnifrith, T. J. Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragments. Duckworth, London, 1995. I 7 I pp. Notes. Maps. Bibliography. Index. ?20.00.

BY using the term 'Balkan fragments' the author means to convey two things. First of all it is his way of defining the diverse ethnic groups scattered throughout South-Eastern Europe: the human legacy of defunct imperial states - the 'shattered eagles'. As the author notes, however, the term also describes the contents of the book. Some of the chapters are based on papers presented at conferences, others describe travels and field work that he has done. This gives an episodic tone to the book, stirring our interest but not providing an in-depth analysis of the subject.

T.J. Winnifrith is not just reporting on conditions among the various ethnic groups in the Balkans; he is concerned with their fate as peoples with distinct cultures. With an almost crusading zeal he seeks to make us aware of their situation and, in some cases, plight. He is indefatigable in seeking out the smaller groups among and between the nations in the Balkans, travelling to out-of-the way villages in the region, as well as visiting communities in distant countries like Canada and Australia where ethnic ways are retained. In doing so he points out how peoples' identity and survival are affected by the larger social and political context of which they are part.

How contemporary events influence writers is evident in the author's choice of the term 'fragment' for the peoples he discusses. He is chary of the word 'ethnic' because he believes events in the former Yugoslavia have tainted it. Moreover, as Winnifrith points out, in South-Eastern Europe it is impossible to distinguish peoples on the basis of race. Thus his choice of 'fragment', which he terms 'more tragic' and 'poetic' but which conveys the fears he has for the cultural, not to mention physical, fate of non-dominant peoples in national states.

Yet to think of peoples as 'fragments' minimizes them as much as it does to call them minorities. It also raises several questions: should such peoples be protected like some endangered species; in a constantly changing world does maintaining distinctive cultures help or hinder the social and economic development of individuals; if, as the author asserts, religion and language are the main reasons for the struggles in Eastern Europe, then does encouraging and protecting cultural distinctiveness promote or hinder social stability; is the issue of identity, belonging, and survival in the modern world one of ascriptive or prescriptive definition? Such questions are present but are not fully taken up. For the author it is enough to see human diversity preserved through language and faith, the foundation of cultures.

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Page 3: Shattered Eagles: Balkan Fragmentsby T. J. Winnifrith

540 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

Four of the book's ten chapters are devoted to the Vlachs, the author's 'favourite fragment'. Besides a brief discussion of their origins, he sketches their current situation within the Balkan states and outside Europe. There is also a chapter on the Pomaks, the minorities in Greece, and ethnic problems involving Macedonia and Kosovo. The treatment, consisting of the author's personal observations of various visits to the area and brief historical overviews, is enough only to whet the appetite. He does offer a balanced account, however, and one pays him a compliment to say that in discussing the ethnic and historical claims of the various peoples he probably satisfies no one neither dominant nations nor subordinate nationalities.

The book ends at the beginning, that is, with a cursory look back at the empires that had encompassed cultural and human diversity for centuries in the region before the advent of the territorial-national state. Winnifrith is tempted to attribute current problems to civilizational cleavage from Roman times (p. I45) and lets slip a remark about 'Ottoman incompetence' leading to 'the spiritual and moral inertia of southern Yugoslavia' (p. I47), though he sees both the positive and negative sides to imperial rule.

Winnifrith makes clear that there is no one way for minority cultures to survive, much less flourish. This is apparent from his discussion of the historical experience of the Vlachs in Albania as opposed to those in Greece and Romania. The book also shows that, contrary to the simplistic view of some, the ethnic violence that has appeared recently is not the past being repeated. Of course, historical fragments from the past such as the events in Yugoslavia during the Second World War and the Greek-Turkish struggle in Asia Minor right after the Great War can become part of current issues between states and peoples. Despite his readiness to offer minority peoples ideas about how to sustain their distinctive cultural ways, the author recognizes that ethnicity is also about politics. It is politics at the local community, region, state, and international levels. Winnifrith's modest hope is to contribute to this issue by offering some comprehension. It is a worthwhile effort.

Department of Histogy GERASIMos AUGUSTINOS University of South Carolina

Fennell, John. A Histogy of the Russian Church to I448. Longman, London and New York, I995, Xii + 266 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Map. Index. /JI 2.99 (paperback).

WHEN John Fennell died in August I992 the first part of his study of the Russian Church, which takes the story up to the break with Constantinople in I448, was 'virtually ready for the press' (p. xi), lacking only bibliography, index and editorial amendments. Anyone who has experienced the final stages of preparing a manuscript for press will appreciate the import of that 'only' and the efforts of the friends and colleagues who made possible the publication of Professor Fennell's last book. Students of Early Russian history have special reason to be grateful, for they could not wish for a more clear-sighted and level-headed guide through the morass of legends into which medieval Russia often threatens to sink. Fennell offers, in his own words, a path 'through the

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