8 0 D O C U M E N T 3 1 A U G U S T 1 9 2 7 Published in La Fédération Balkanique/ Die Balkan-Föderation no. 72/73 (1 August 1927): 1426. Also published in French in the same issue on pp. 1409–1410. [1] The date appears on the first page of the issue, p. 1409, on the same page as the first page of the French version. [2] The concept of a Balkan federation first emerged as a political movement in the 1860’s. Efforts to establish a Balkan collaboration were inspired by the efforts for German and Italian unity. A second concerted push to create a Balkan alliance emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was directed against the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. A formal Balkan Alliance was formed in 1912. In the 1920s, the movement took a new direction, one that stressed interdependence, emancipation, and collaboration among the various Balkan nations (see Hornyák 2007, pp. 217–221). La Fédération Balkanique was first published in Vienna in July 1924. It grew out of negotiations between a faction within the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (which had originally embodied the national aspirations of the Macedonian people) and representatives of the Third Inter- national (which advocated world communism). It was published fortnightly in all Balkan languages and in German and French. The main goal of the publication was “to propagate the idea of the liber- ation and the right of self-determination of the Balkan peoples as well as that of federalization… We wish that they may cease to be the common prey of European imperialism and Balkan chauvinism.” It also stated that these goals “will only be attained by movements for national liberation which will break… the bonds which attach them to the European and Balkan governments which will hasten to unite, under their flag, the working masses of their nation into a united national front” (Stavrianos 1942, pp. 41, 45–46). [3] The editors of La Fédération Balkanique compiled a questionnaire to publicize the federation idea. They sent the questionnnaire between 1926 and 1930 to many prominent individuals and received over 150 responses, which were published in the journal. The individuals included states- men, labor leaders, scientists, writers, and academics. Other prominent contributors were Henri Barbusse, Thomas Mann, and François-Alphonse Aulard (see Stavrianos 1942, pp. 48–49). The ques- tionnaire consisted of five questions (see La Fédération Balkanique 72/73 [1 August 1927]: 1409). The first question was: “Do you consider the present solution of the Macedonian question as con- forming to the principles of justice and liberty, as well as to the interests of peace?” [4] The second question was: Do you believe that, under the present Balkan reaction, the rights of ethnic minorities are sufficiently respected and guaranteed?” [5] The third and fourth questions, to which Einstein responds together in this paragraph, were: “What is, in your opinion, the means which will put an end to the oppression of ethnic minorities, on the one hand, and to the rivalries which set the Balkan states against each other, on the other hand?” and “Do you believe in the possibility of realizing a Balkan Federation through the present gov- ernments?” [6] The fifth question was: “What do you think, in general, of a Federation of the Balkan peoples, and what are, in your opinion, the conditions under which it could be realized?” 31. To Luise Karr-Krüsi[1] Zuoz. 1. VIII. 27. Liebe Frau Karr! Durch Else höre ich von dem Unglück, das Sie getroffen hat.[2] Wohl dem, der noch in guten Jahren dahin fährt und nicht das langsame aber sichere Sinken seiner Kräfte erleben muss. Aber für die Nächsten ist es umso härter, allein gelassen zu