The pitfalls of slavonic studies: ethnic, linguistic, territorial or another affiliation?

Slavonic studies are developing in several streams which do not encounter the same difficulties and are not open to the same possibilities of research. While Slavonic linguistics can work with material that is relatively homogenous and clearly defined, the historical approach is more problematic because the Slav peoples differ from another, they have lived and often still live in close association with one or more other nations and their past and present are often more strongly bound with theirs non-Slavonic neighbours than with fellow Slavs living in a different social setting and with a different style of live. Literary research in the Slavonic field is still more complicated, because there is no generally accepted definition of a national literature and what the concept includes changes with the time. In certain periods and literary genres, the Slavonic literatures come closer to one another, in others, they grow further apart. It is necessary to go on exploring the domains in which they are growing alike and to explain theirs differences.