О СТАЊУ СРПСКОГ ЈЕЗИКА И ПИСМА У ОКУПИРАНОЈ СРБИЈИ ЗА ВРЕМЕ ВЕЛИКОГ РАТА (1915–1918) И О ПОТОЊИМ РЕЦИДИВИМА ТОГА СТАЊА

Abstract

During the Great War (World War I), the Austro‑Hungarian occupier divided Serbia into two occupation zones: the western, Austro‑Hungarian, and the eastern, Bulgarian. The occupation government sought to destroy the political and national self‑awareness of Serbians by launching its propaganda Belgrade newspaper („Beogradske novine”) after banning all domestic newspapers. Newspapers were published in the so‑called „Serbo‑Croatian” („srpsko‑hrvatski”) language, in Ijekavic and Latin, under the editorship of foreigners, i.e. German and Austro‑Hungarian subjects. Forms of the Zagreb (Croatian) variant of the Serb language were imposed through language editing. In the areas that belonged to the Bulgarian occupation zone, a similar program was implemented as in Austro‑Hungarian zone, only not in the direction of Croatization, but Bulgarianization of the Serbian population (banning the use of the Serb language and script, Serb books, Serb personal names, Serb fame, etc.). However, certain occupation methods from the First World War and earlier times, contained in the fight against the Serbs through the denial of the Serb language and culture, will continue to last in later periods in the Serb ethnic areas, including Serbia. This will continue, in the new political circumstances, to coincide in many ways with the Austro‑Hungarian occupation plans from the First World War. Thus, in the fight against Serb identity and national features, the pro‑Croatian government of the CPY (Comunnist Party of Yugoslavia) and the communist leader J. Broz Tito accepted solutions from the time of the Austro‑Hungarian occupation of the Western Balkans, which were directly harmful to the Serbs. However, the collapse of the communist/socialist Yugoslavia (The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) did not bring significant changes to the Serbs regarding the preservation of the national script (the Cyrillic alphabet), as well as the name Serb language („српски језик”).