The nationalities grouped together for discussion at this session—whether they be called “non-historic” or less assertive or weak—played a less crucial role in deciding the fate of the empire than the Poles, Czechs, or Yugoslavs. That is the impression confirmed by the papers presented here on three of them: the Ukrainians, poor, politically backward, relatively unorganized, and divided between the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the monarchy; the Slovaks, very much on the defensive, struggling to maintain their existence as a nationality against assimilation; and the Rumanians, trying to assert themselves politically and socially but against heavy odds.