"They're breakin' up that old gang of mine..."

The above was a popular tune around the end of World War II, a tribute to the friendships forged by the men in uniform.

It could also describe the scene in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the past decade, now that formerly submerged republics and ethnic peoples are on the road to self-determination. Among the lesser-noticed is contained within the region of Saxony, in the south-eastern part of Germany, a nation which until the late 19th century was an amalgam of kingdoms and fiefdoms, once part of the Holy Roman Empire:

The Government of the Land of Saxony reached the decision last month not to allow the creation of 5th classes, the youngest class in several secondary schools age 10 - 16, in Upper Lusatia as of the coming school year... In reaction to what is seen as an alarming development for Sorbian schools and bilingual education in Saxony, the federal board of the Domowina, the Union of Lusatian Sorbs, argued for the preservation of the Sorbian and bilingual schools at a meeting in Bautzen last week. "Schools as public speech areas are the pillars of maintenance and revitalization of the Sorbian language," it said in the resolution...

The area known as Lusatia is described as "a country of Sorbs, the smallest Slavonic nation."