Serbs in BIH

Serbs in BiH

Serbs are one of the three constitutive nations of Bosnia-Herzegovina, predominantly concentrated in the Republika Srpska, although many also live in the other entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are frequently referred to as Bosnian Serbs in English, regardless of whether they are from Bosnia or Herzegovina.

Population

The last 1996 UNHCR population census registered 1,484,530 Serbs or 37.9% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The modern estimate is that they form more likely about 37.1% (2000). The vast majority live on the territory of the Republika Srpska, and West Bosnia and Una-Sana cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs are the most territorially widespread nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The majority of Bosnian Serbs are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church, while some are atheists. The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina speak the Serbian language in its Ijekavian variant, similar to that of Montenegro, Croatia, and Western Serbia.

Culture

Serbian culture refers to the culture of Serbia as well as the culture of Serbs in other parts of the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere in the world. It has a strong influence from the peasantry especially in its arts, crafts and music. The nearby Byzantine Empire had a strong influence in the Middle Ages while the Serb Orthodox Church has had an enduring influence. Serbian culture fell into decline during five centuries of rule under the Ottoman Empire, but has flourished during the rule of Habsburg Empire and Republic of Venice in the Adriatic sea. Following autonomy and eventual independence in the Nineteenth Century, there was a resurgence of Serbian culture in the nineteenth century. Socialist Realism was predominant in official art during the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia but recent decades have seen a growing influence from the West as well as traditional culture.

Serbian literature

Miroslav's Gospel is one of the earliest works of Serbian literature dating from between 1180 and 1191 and one of the most important works of the medieval period. This work was entered into UNESCO's Memory of the World program in 2005. Serbian epic poetry was a central part of medieval Serbian literature based on historic events such as the Battle of Kosovo.

Literature was one of the arts that declined following the complete occupation by the Ottoman Empire in 1459. Dositej Obradović was a notable writer during the late 18th and early nineteenth century. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić played a central role in the Serbian literary resurgence of the nineteenth century by collecting folk songs and poems and publishing them in a book. Petar II Petrović Njegoš was the most notable of poets continuing the epic tradition notably in his poem Mountain Wreath published in 1847.

Serbian literature flourished further in the twentieth century. Ivo Andrić received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 for his 1945 novel The Bridge on the Drina. Danilo Kiš established his reputation with his work A Tomb for Boris Davidovich published in 1976 and commenting on Yugoslav politics. Other notable authors include Meša Selimović, Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić, Dobrica Ćosić, Zoran Živković and David Albahari.

Serbian music

Serbian music dates from the medieval period with strong church and folk traditions. Church music in Serbia of the time was based on the Osmoglasnik a cycle of religious songs based on the resurrection and lasting for eight weeks. During the Nemanjic dynasty and under other rulers such as Stefan Dušan, musicians enjoyed royal patronage. There was also a strong folk tradition in Serbia dating from this time.

During Ottoman rule, Serbs were forbidden to own property, to learn to read and write and, most importantly to this discussion, denied the use of musical instruments. Church music had to be performed in private. Gusle, a one-stringed instrument, was invented by Serbian peasants during this time in an effort to find a loophole through the stringent Ottoman laws. Filip Višnjić was a particularly notable guslar (gusle player). In the 18th century, Russian and Greek chant schools were established and the Serbian Orthodox Church accepted Church Slavonic into their liturgy.

Folk music enjoyed a resurgence in the nineteenth century. Jozip Slezenger founded the Prince's Band playing music based on traditional tunes. Stevan Mokranjac, a composer and musicologist collected folk songs as well as performing his own work. Kornilije Stankovic wrote the first Serbian language works for choirs.

Traditional Serbian folk music remains popular today especially in rural areas. Western rock and pop music has become increasingly popular especially in cities with rock acts such as Riblja Čorba and Đorđe Balašević incorporating political statements in their music. Turbo-folk combined Western rock and pop styles with traditional folk music vocals. Serbian immigrants have taken their musical traditions to nations such as the US and Canada.

Serbia recently won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.

Serbian theatre and cinema

Serbia has a well-established theatrical tradition with many theatres. The Serbian National Theatre was established in 1861 with its building dating from 1868. The company started performing opera from the end of the 19th century and the permanent opera was established in 1947. It established a ballet company.

Bitef, Belgrade International Theatre Festival, is one of the oldest theatre festivals in the world. New Theatre Tendencies is the constant subtitle of the Festival. Founded in 1967, Bitef has continually followed and supported the latest theater trends. It has become one of five most important and biggest European festivals. It has become one of the most significant culture institutions of Serbia.

The cinema was established reasonably early in Serbia with 12 films being produced before the start of World War II. The most notable of the prewar films was Mihail Popovic's The Battle of Kosovo in 1939.

Cinema prospered after World War II. The most notable postwar director was Dušan Makavejev who was internationally recognised for Love Affair: Or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator in 1969 focussing on Yugoslav politics. Makavejev's Montenegro was made in Sweden in 1981. Zoran Radmilović was one of the most notable actors of the postwar period.

Serbian cinema continued to make progress in the 1990s and today despite the turmoil of the 1990s. Emir Kusturica won a Golden Palm for Best Feature Film at the Cannes Film Festival for Underground in 1995. In 1998, Kusturica won a Silver Lion for directing Black Cat, White Cat.

As at 2001, there were 167 cinemas in Serbia (excluding Kosovo and Metohija) and over 4 million Serbs went to the cinema in that year. In 2005, San zimske noći (A Midwinter Night's Dream ) directed by Goran Paskaljević caused controversy over its criticism of Serbia's role in the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.

Serbian cuisine

Traditional Serbian cuisine has been greatly influenced by Turkish and Greek traditions. Ćevapčići consisting of grilled heavily seasoned mixed ground meat patties is considered to be the national dish. Other notable dishes include Koljivo used in religious rituals, Serbian salad, Sarma (stuffed cabbage), podvarak (roast meat with Sauerkraut) and Moussaka. Česnica is a traditional bread for Christmas Day.

Slivovitz, a distilled fermented plum juice is the national drink of Serbia with 70% of domestic plum production being used to make it. Domestic wines are also popular. Turkish coffee is widely drunk as well.

Vrzole wine is made by private winery Vinik from famous wine region - Vrsac. Winery Vinik blends traditional family recipes and newest technology in making limited quantities of this famous red and white wine.

The Skadarlija district in Belgrade is known for its restaurants with many cuisines available.

Serbian handcrafts

Serbia has a long tradition of handicrafts. Djakovica in Kosovo was known for its black pottery. Pirot in eastern Serbia became known for its ceramics under the Ottomans with the potters following Byzantine designs. It also became a centre for the production of Kilims or rugs.

The Slavs introduced jewellery making to Serbia in the sixth century AD. Metalworking started to develop on a significant scale following the development of a Serbian state. Workshops were set up in towns, large estates and in monasteries. The Studenica Monastery was known for the quality of its goldsmithing. Coins were minted not only by the kings but some of the wealthier nobility. The nobility also was influenced by the wealth of the Byzantine court. Metalworking like many other arts and crafts went into decline following the Ottoman conquest. However, there was a partial revival in later centuries with a strong Baroque influence notably the 17th century silverwear at "Our Lady on the Rocks" on Boka Kotorska.

Serbian media

As of 2001, there were 27 daily newspapers and 580 other newspapers published in Serbia. Some of these newspapers also have Internet editions. Politika founded in 1904 is the oldest daily newspaper in the Balkans. There were also 491 periodical magazines published in Serbia with the Nedeljne informativne novine (NIN) and Vreme amongst the most notable.

As of 2001, there were 184 radio stations in Serbia with 84 of these privately owned. The state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) owns the rest with the station starting official broadcasts in 1929. Private radio broadcasting started in the 1990s.

Television broadcasting started in 1958 with every country in the former Yugoslavia having its own station. In Serbia, the state television station was known as RTB and became known as RTS after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Under the Communists and Milošević regime, state broadcasting was controlled by the ruling party. The RTS station was bombed during the NATO action against the Milošević regime due to its propaganda role under that regime.

There was some private broadcasting with the B92 radio and television station starting in 1989 although it was shut down in 1999 during the hostilities. After the fall of Milošević, RTS became known as Nova RTS as an assertion of independence while B92 commenced broadcasting. During 2001, there were 70 television centres in Serbia of which 24 were privately owned. In 2003, there was a return to censorship as the Government of Zoran Zivkovic temporarily imposed a state of emergency following the assassination of Zoran Djindjic and the European Federation of Journalists continues to hold concerns over media freedom in the country.

Serbian cultural institutions

At the beginning of the 21st century, there were 32 art galleries and 142 museums in Serbia. Belgrade has many of the most significant with the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, the Gallery of Frescoes featuring Orthodox Church art, the Ethnographic Museum and the Palace of Princess Ljubica. Novi Sad contains the Vojvodina Museum as well as the Petrovaradin fortress.

Matica Srpska is the oldest and most notable cultural and scientific organisation in today's Serbia. Its name is translated in Serbian as the Serbian matrix or parent body of the Serbs. It was founded in 1826 in Budapest and moved to Novi Sad in 1864. Amongst other achievements, it compiled a six-volume study of the Serbian language between 1967 and 1976. Its journal Letopis Matice Srpske is one of the oldest periodical examining scientific and cultural issues anywhere in the world. Vojvodina province of Austro-Hungary became attractive for Serbs ever since the fall of Serbia in 15th century, and was the site of the Great Serbian Migrations, when Serbs collonized this area escaping Turkish vengeance. Sremski Karlovci became the spiritual, political and cultural centre of the Serbs in the Habsburg Empire, with Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church residing in the town. To this day, the Patriarch of Serbia retains the title of Metropolitan of (Sremski) Karlovci. The town featured the earliest Serb and Slavic grammar school (Serbian: gimnazija/гимназија, French: Lycée) founded on August 3rd, 1791. In 1794 an Orthodox seminary was also founded in the town, ranking second oldest in the World (After the Spiritual Academy in Kiev). Novi Sad is home to Serbia's oldest professional theatre, founded in 1861 as Srpsko Narodno Pozoriste, followed by Belgrade in 1868; however two other cities claim this title: Kragujevac since 1835 and Subotica since 1851 (*there were theatres throughout Serbia long before that time but cannot be classified as "professional".

There is a strong network of libraries with three national libraries, 689 public libraries, 143 higher education libraries and 11 non-specialised libraries as at 1998. The National Library of Serbia is the most significant of these. Project Rastko founded in 1997 is an Internet Library of Serb culture.

Prominent individuals

Aleksa Šantić

A selection of prominent Bosnian Serbs from Bosnia include Ottoman official Mehmed-pasha Sokolović or the writers Jovan Dučić, Petar Kočić, Branko Ćopić, Meša Selimović, Aleksa Šantić, Ivo Andrić and Skender Kulenović, the painter Kosta Hakman, the historian Vladimir Ćorović, musicians Zdravko Čolić, Goran Bregović, Nenad Janković and Duško Trifunović and the filmmaker Emir Kusturica. The guslar (gusle player) Filip Višnjić was born in Ugljevik. Luka Vukalović raised an uprising to free Bosnia of Ottoman rule. Democrat of the 1990s Yugoslavia, Zoran Đinđić was born in Bosnia, as was the current President of Serbia, Boris Tadić. Mladen Sekulović a. k a. Karl Malden an Oscar-winning American actor. Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in protest of the Austro-Hungarian annexasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby initialing World War I. Miraš Dedeić is the current self-proclaimed Archbishop of Cetinje and Head of the uncanonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

The Montenegrin House of Petrović-Njegoš former ruling dynasty are from Herzegovina and Bosnian by origin. The Bosniak national hero Husein Gradaščević was also considered a Serbian national hero

Name

The Serbs are one of the rare Slavic nations who kept their old names that they had in the old Slavonic motherland. Beside the Serbs, only the Croats kept their old name. The other Slavic nations got their names after the migration from the old Slavonic motherland.

History

14th century Bosnian king Tvrtko Kotromanic with the Bosnian lily on his Crown as one of the most prominent Serb of Bosnia

Medieval

Slavs settled the region of Bosnia in the first half of the 7th century. They were led by the Unknown Archont and given Bosnia as a land to settle in by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. Historical records indicate two small inhabited cities, Kotor and Desnik, in Bosnia at the time populated by Bosnian Serbs. Bosnia was ruled by Bans and in 753 formed a territorial union with the Principality of Rascia known as Surbia (Serbia, natively called Zagorje) ruled by Grand Princes. In 822, Prince Liudevit TransSavian of Pannonia fled to Srb in western Bosnia to the Serbian ruler from the Frankish forces and their allies. Prince Liudevit was accepted well by the Lord, but Liudevit eventually tricked him, killing him and talking his demesne for himself. The western regions were incorporated into the secular Croatian state.

Some Bosnians were baptised into Christianity by Byzantine missionary of the actions of Cyril and Methodus in the 800s.

The Bosnian Chiefs abandoned the War-of-the-succession-torn Kingdom of Croatia and joined the Serbian Realm of Prince Časlav of Klonimir of the House of Vlastimir up to 931. By the end of the 948 Croatian struggles for the throne, he included all the territories to the river of Vrbas to the west and Sava to the north while western and northern Bosnia remained in the Kingdom of Croatia. The Drina area became the heart of his state. The Hungarian Kingdom had pretensions to conquer Bosnia, so Ceslav had to fend-off a Hungarian invasion in 955. Prince Ceslav saved Bosnia, but was drowned by the Hungarian forces in the river of Sava in norther Bosnia in 960.

The Bosnian Serbian rule in eastern and central Bosnia crumbled after Ceslav's fall. It would take King Constantine Bodin of Doclea and war against the Byzantines in 1082-1085 to restore it. There he implaced a related courtier of his, Stefan as Ban, whose heirs continued to rule Bosnia.

History of Republika Srpska

Between 1945 and 1948, following World War II, around 70,000 Serbs migrated from the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Vojvodina, prior to the expulsions of Germans. Serbs were the larger of the two constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (later of three, since Muslims by nationality gained constitutive status in 1968). In the first population census conducted in the People's Republic of Bosnia in 1948, there were 1,136,116 Serbs or a total of 44.3% of BiH's population. In 1953, there were 1,264,372 Serbs in BiH, 44.4% of the total population. According to the 1961 population census, there where 1,406,057 Serbs, accounting for 42.9% of total population of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbs lost their plurality as the largest single ethnic group of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1960s and 1970s, being overtaken by the Bosnian Muslims. According to the 1971 population census, there were 1,393,148 Serbs in BiH or 37.2% of the population. In 1981, there were 1,320,644 Serbs in BiH or 32% of the total population. In that year, Serbs formed a majority on 27,255.2 square kilometres or 53.3% of the total territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They lived in 34.4% of the total housing of BiH. There was a Serb majority in 2,439 settlements or 41.4% of the total settlements of BiH and Serbs owned a total of 51.4% of the land of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1991, there were 1,369,258 Serbs in BiH or 31.4% of the total populace. It is unknown how many of those who declared themselves as Yugoslavs were ethnic Serbs, but it is believed that altogether they made up 38% of BiH's population.

The Serb and Croat political leaderships accused certain elements within the government of BiH of being pro-Islamic and of attempting to create a Unitary Islamic Bosnia in the 1990s. The Serbs boycotted the 1992 referendum for independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Although it was eventually recognized by the international community, in the opinion of the Serb political leadership the result was unconstitutional since the will of one of the constitutive nations, the Serbs, was ignored. The Government of BiH declared independence anyway - which was not accepted by the federal government of Yugoslavia, and what followed was the forming of the Serbian Autonomous Area of the Bosnian Frontier in the western Bosnian Frontier region of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its capital in Banja Luka, which was not recognised by the central government. SAO Bosnian Frontier made attempts to unite with the Autonomous Region of the Serbian Frontier in Croatia. The Serb political leadership martialled its own force assisted by the Yugoslav People's Army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and declared independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina in late 1992. BiH's Muslim and Croat dominated government did not recognize the new Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose president was Radovan Karadžić seated in Banja Luka . The Serb side accepted the proposed ethnic cantonization of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Carrington-Cutileiro peace plan), as did the Muslim and Croat sides in Lisbon in 1992, in the hope that war would not break out. The Muslim political leadership under President Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina subsequently broke the agreement refusing to decentralize the newly created country. The Bosnian War began{fact}.

Throughout most of the war the Serb side fought against both the Muslim side and the Croatian side. During Muslim-Croat hostilities the Serbs co-operated with largely with the Croat. There were exceptions to this as well, as Serb forces were also allied with the pro-Yugoslav Muslims of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia under Fikret Abdić. During most of the war, the Serb Republic comprised around 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's soil. During the entire length of war the Army of the Serb Republic maintained the Siege of Sarajevo, allegedly in order to tie down the Bosnian Muslim forces and resources in what was the capital of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian state. Serb Republic maintained close ties with the Republic of the Serb Frontier and received volunteers and supplies from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the war. The Serb Republic received a large number of Serb refugees from other Yugoslav hotzones, particularly non-Serb held areas in Sarajevo, Herzeg-Bosnia and Croatia. In 1993, the Owen-Stoltenberg peace treaty was suggested that would give 52% of BiH to the Serb side. It was refused by the Bosnian Muslim side as too large of a concession. In 1994, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia imposed sanctions after the National Assembly of the Serb Republic refused the Vance-Owen peace plan. In 1995, Operation Storm, eliminated the Republic of the Serb Frontier. The Croatian Army continued the offensive into the Serb Republic under General Ante Gotovina (currently on trial for war crimes at the ICTY). Some 250,000 Serbs fled to the Serb Republic and Serbia from Croatia, as the Serb side continued a full retreat of Serbs from the Una river to the Sana river. The Croatian Army, supported by the forces of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina came within 20km of the de facto Bosnian Serb capital, Banja Luka. The war was halted with the Dayton Agreement which recognized Republika Srpska, comprising 49% of the soil of BiH, as one of the two territorial entities of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serb side suffered a total 30,700 victims - 16,700 civilians and 14,000 military personnel, according to the Demographic Unit at the ICTY. Although exact number are somewhat disputed, mostly by Bosniaks, it is generally agreed that the Bosnian War claimed the lives of about 100,000 people - Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks.

The demographics of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Republika Srpska were tremendously affected by the war. Current estimates indicate that some 400,000 Serbs no longer live in the Federation of BiH, the other entity in Bosnia which makes up 51% of its territory. By the same token, it is estimated that some 450,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats that used to live in Republika Srpska no longer live there. Many Bosnian Serbs emigrated abroad to Canada, the United States, Australia and western Europe, while others also settled in Serbia and Montenegro. Some Croatian Serbs, fleeing the Croatian offensive Operation Storm, settled in Republika Srpska following the war, although most ended up in Serbia.

Subgroups

The subgroups of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are commonly based on regional affiliation. Some of the major subgroups of them include: Frontiersmen (Krajišniks), Semberians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians

Herzegovinan clans

Some of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Serbs, mostly living in Herzegovina are organised in clans. The Herzegovinian clans are:

• Grahovo
• Rudine
• Bijele Nikšićke Rudine
• Oputne Rudine
• Bilećke Rudine
• Banjani
• Lukovo
• Nikšićka Župa
• Gornje Polje
• Drobnjak
• Uskoci
• Jezera
• Korito
• Šaranci
• Piva
• Planina
• Župa
• Golija
• Gacko
• Zupci