Ján Kollár (1793-1852), a Lutheran pastor and poet, was one of the most important poets of the Romantic Period in Central Europe. Born in Slovakia, a tireless defender of the rights of Slovaks, Croats, and other peoples in the Hungarian Kingdom subject to increasing Magyarisation, Kollár was nonetheless a Pan-Slav. In his view, all Slavs – Poles, Czechs, Russians, etc. – are not separate nations, but ‘tribes’ of one great Slavic nation. His greatest work of poetry is Slávy dcera (1821-1852), which proclaims his ideal of the cultural and political integration of the Slavic peoples of Europe.
