Serbs Research Articles

The idea of a Greater Croatia and genocide as an instrument for its realization

The paper consists of two selected chapters from the author's monograph published under the title Through Genocide to a Greater Croatia. The text points to the development of the great state idea among the Croats, aimed at creating the ethnically pure and Catholic state of Croatia, which is followed from the middle of the 19th century to modern times. The genocide over the Serbian people perpetrated in the so-called "Independent State of Croatia" from 1941 to 1945 was also guided by that idea. The idea was continued during Tuđman's coming to power in 1990, and one of the first moves of the new government was to change Croatia's Constitution by turning the Serbs in Croatia as a constitutional nation into a national minority.

Orijentalno slikarstvo Paje Jovanovića u okvirima postkolonijalnog diskursa

This text will interpret the key concepts of postcolonialism and postcolonial studies with a reflection on the orientalist paintings of Paja Jovanović. The basics of the research concern the influence of the occident and colonizing countries on the artistic creation of Jovanović, with a critical analysis and comparison of the mentioned terms aiming to determine the characteristics of this painter's orientalist expression through a case study of several of his works: The Wounded Montenegrin (1882), Fencing (1883), and Adorning of the Bride (1886). The theoretical basis for this research are mainly the postcolonial studies of Edward Said, Marija Todorova, and Bojana Matejić, aiming to determine the degree of implementation of orientalist discourse in the cultural heritage of the Serbian people.

Bi selectively doped SrTiO3-x nanosheets enhance photocatalytic CO2 reduction under visible light

Converting CO2 into chemical energy by using solar energy is an environmental strategy to achieve carbon neutrality. In this paper, two dimensionality (2D) SrTiO3-x nanosheets with oxygen vacancies were synthesized successfully. Oxygen vacancies will generate defect levels in the band structure of SrTiO3-x. So, SrTiO3-x nanosheets have good photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance under visible light. In order to further improve its photocatalytic efficiency, Bi was used to dope Sr site and Ti site in SrTiO3-x nanosheets respectively. It is found that Sr site is the adsorption site of CO2 molecules. When Bi replaced Sr, CO2 adsorption on the surface of SrTiO3-x nanosheets was weakened. When Bi replaced Ti, there has no effect on CO2 adsorption. Due to the synergistic effect of Bi doping, oxygen vacancies, and Sr active site, the 1.0% Bi-doped Ti site in SrTiO3-x (1.0% Bi-Ti-STO) had the best photocatalytic performance under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm). CO and CH4 yields were 5.58 umol/g/h and 0.36 umol/g/h. Photocatalytic CO2 reduction path has always been the focus of exploration. The in-situ FTIR spectrum proved the step of photocatalytic CO2 reduction and COO– and COOH are important intermediates in the photocatalytic CO2 reaction.

GLIGORIJE JEFTANOVIĆ AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CHURCH AND SCHOOL AUTONOMY

The first part of this paper presents a brief history of the beginning and course of the Serbian people’s struggle in the provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina for Church and school autonomy and the role Gligorij Jeftanović played as one of the two most important figures leading the movement. The second part of the paper deals with correspondence between Gligorije Jeftanović and Lazar Pupić in 1901 during the time a Serbian envoy was being selected to travel from Sarajevo to Constantinople and attempt to win over the Ecumenical Patriarch to the Serbian cause by gaining support for the Third Imperial Memorandum. It also looks at correspondence after the election with the chosen envoy, Kosta Kujundžić, who tried but failed to win the Ecumenical Patriarch over to the Serbian side. The third part deals the adoption of the Statute on Church and School Autonomy and the decline in Gligorije Jeftanović’s popularity after the emergence of a young, university-educated Serbian intelligentsia, which had new ideas and demands concerning new goals for the continuation of the struggle.

„Od Ognjene do Blage Marije“ u opusu Jovana Radulovića

The paper deals with the novel Od Ognjene do Blage Marije from the point of view of Radulović’s prose as a whole, and especially in the context of his novelisic work. The thematic basis of the novel is the tragic exodus of the Serbian people from the Republic of Serbian Krajina in August 1995, during the “Storm“, Croatian Army invasion on Knin. This topic, most frequently treated by the Serbian writers who have fled Croatia, has become especially important in contemporary Serbian literature. Jovan Radulović based his novel on his previous screenwriting text intended for an unrecorded TV drama. The main characters of the novel are the members of a Serbian family who leave their homeland in a long column of refugees and flee to Serbia. The voices and life stories of these char- acters and of other protagonists and witnesses of the Serbian exodus are intertwined in a polyphonic narrative sequence. Although the novel is dominated by dramatic and tragic life situations, literary characters still have hope for a new life in some other milieu. The novel is characterized by short scenes and sentences which reflect the authentic language; at the same time, the language emphasizes tragic life situation of the refugee people.

Tri zrnca – Iz mozaika Jovana Radulovića o udesu kulturnog identiteta dalmatinskih Srba

The paper deals with national-oriented works of Jovan Radulović from the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, based on his book dedicated to the life of Dalmatian Serbs. The first part of the paper refers to Radulović’s biographical-anthropo- logical essays on three Serbian writers from Dalmatia, as well as to his documentary prose; the analysis of Radulović’s critical views on the actual life of Serbian people in Croatia is based on a series of his interviews and polemics. The following section of the paper deals with the last part of Radulović’s book, enti- tled “The Grains (1984‒1989)”, consisting of about fifteen public speeches and newspaper articles related to the cultural assimilation of the Serbs in Croatia. Special attention is paid to the three grains, i.e. two public speeches and one newspaper article. In the first speech, Radulović documents national and cultural discrimination against Serbs in the communist Croatia, whose position is much worse than in Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the XX century. In the second speech, Radulović optimistically presents a short version of the history of defence of spiritual and national identity of the Serbs in Dalmatia. Finally, the third grain is the article in which Radulović expresses his fears about the fate of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Krayina, whose political status was determined far away from it and from the broken Yugoslavia, and he pleads for the absolute unity of the Serbian people and the leadership of the newly formed autonomous province in Croatia. On the basis of Radulović’s political views, it can be concluded that in spite of the defeat and the mass exodus, Serbs from Croatia should not give up the idea of returning to their homeland.

Household pharmaceutical waste (example from Serbia)

Abstract Background Proper disposal of household pharmaceutical waste can reduce the negative influence of medicines on the environment. Environmental awareness do not necessarily equate with proper behavior, as other issues, such as the availability of an organized disposal system, play an important role. The aim was to examine the current disposal methods of unused medicines from households, and the willingness of Serbian residents to participate and bear the costs of an organized collection program. Also, we wanted to define factors contributing to an individual's willingness to participate and pay for a disposal program. Methods The survey included randomly selected patients older than 18 years visiting private pharmacies in the four largest Serbian cities. The questionnaire included information on the presence of unwanted medicines in the household, general medicine disposal practices, the likelihood to participate in a medicine takeback program, willingness to pay for a disposal program, importance to the environment, and demographic variables. Results The majority of Serbian people dispose unused medicines into household garbage. 80% of respondents are likely to participate, however less than half are willing to pay for the collection of unused medicines. The factors that influenced willingness to participate are environmental awareness and income, while the factors affecting willingness to pay, are previously received advice about proper disposal, education level, number of unwanted medicines in the household and gender. Conclusions Awareness campaigns advising the general public on proper medicine disposal and well-organized and easily accessible collection programs are essential in order to enable the general public to return unused medicines for proper disposal. Key messages Household pharmaceutical waste is a major public health issue in Serbia. Residents in Serbia are willing to participate in collection programs, thus building legislative into practice is urgent.

Reliability and validity of the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39) for a Serbian population

Purpose: Aphasia has a negative impact on a person’s quality of life (QOL). The Stroke Aphasia Quality of Life-39 scale (SAQOL-39) is a widely-used measure of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) developed for people with aphasia that has been translated into several languages. Its psychometric properties have been examined not only in English, but also in other languages. This study examined the reliability and validity of a translation and adaptation of the SAQOL-39 into Serbian in Serbian-speaking people with aphasia. Method: Using forward and backward translation, the SAQOL-39 was translated and adapted from English into Serbian and its psychometric properties were examined in 90 Serbian-speaking people with a broad range of times post-onset of aphasia. Internal consistency, test–retest reliability and other analyses were conducted. Result: Internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the Serbian version was high (Cronbach’s α > 0.9; ICC ≥0.87), which is similar to versions of the scale in other languages. Conclusion: The Serbian translation and adaptation of the SAQOL-39 was shown to be a valid and reliable measure of QOL in people with aphasia with reliable psychometric properties and is suitable for the assessment of Serbian people with aphasia.

Демографические процессы в Балканском регионе (Республика Сербия)

The article is devoted to the demographic situation in the Republic of Serbia, which is linked with the tragic consequences of the wars and conflicts of the Second World War and the collapse of Yugoslavia. These events (genocide, extermination, expulsion, forced immigration) are still awaiting international legal assessments, but have already been reflected in the pages of research. The demographic consequences for the Serbian people, which over the course of their history have repeatedly stood on the brink of complete extinction, cannot be measured only in numerical terms; such tragedies are permanently imprinted in the memory of generations, determine the future gene pool and the demographic potential of the nation.  The demographic consequences of these tragedies, along with the socio–economic ones, have become the most difficult for the Serbian people.

From the Small Serbian Monastery to the London Cathedral: Father Nicholai Velimirovich on a Mission to Great Britain in the First World War

The life and work of father Nicholai Velimirovich (1880–1956) is a limitless historical source, which has been encouraging, for the past 100 years, various researches in the Serbian, English, and other languages around the world. Velimirovich, as a person, and his numerous writings can be viewed from different aspects. This article, that is dedicated to father Nicholai Velimirovich, is an attempt to highlight his mission and role in the Great Britain during the First World War. In order to better understand the importance of his mission, we have described the establishment and operation of the Serbian Relief Fund, the Committee of the Serbian Red Cross Society, and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in their medical and humanitarian missions for the Serbian people in the Great War. Apart from the significant role of father Nicholai Velimirovich, we remember many other great humanists and humanitarians working with and within these various medical and humanitarian missions. With their unforgettable achievements they helped treat people. and to mitigate the terrible suffering of the Serbian people during the great epidemic of typhus in Serbia, and during the great Exodus through the rugged Albanian mountains, during the exile on Corfu, at the Salonica Front, North Africa, Corsica, and France, as well as on the Russian Front, and in Dobruja and even after the Great War. As a representative of the small Serbian nation, father Nicholai Velimirovich held arousing speeches, religious sermons, and wrote numerous literary religious writings, and thereby he confirmed that in the midst of wartime conflagration it is possible for great humane achievements to appear. That is why that impressive spiritual dimension of the mission, which included father Velimirovich and his contemporaries, did not cease to continue to inspire historians, writers and other authors — in the past, present, and the future.

How Jesus Taught His Disciples to Walk With Head Held High

In spring 2010, a student of the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Belgrade invited me to visit the well-known monasteries of his region of Valjevo: Celije, Pustinja and Lelich. I had heard of Nicholai Velimirovich before. I knew about his outstanding role in the Serbian Orthodox Church and the 20th century history of the Serbian people. But when I saw his birth place and breathed the air and the spiritual atmosphere of this amazing scenery, he became for me a much more living person. The following text is not a research paper on his homilies, but an exegetical essay. However, I am grateful to the Nicholai Studies for publishing it, since it shares the endeavour which was Nicholai’s: to read and patiently reread the Gospel and to communicate the teaching of Jesus Christ as faithfully as possible so that it may illuminate both our personal lives and the destinies of our nations. The Serbian Chrysostom insisted that we need Christ to open our eyes in order to understand who He is. This is precisely what the central section of Saint Mark’s Gospel, analysed in the present study, is about. It also contains this aspect of Jesus’ teaching which was central for Bishop Nicholai: we will see God’s Kingdom and walk with head held high when we follow in the steps of Jesus, when we, instead of sacrificing the others to our interests, become their servants.

ЗАДУЖБИНЕ И ЗАДУЖБИНАРИ У СРПСКОЈ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЈ ЕПАРХИЈИ ТЕМИШВАРСКОЈ

Endowment as a possessed form of charity was very much present in the life of Serbian communities. Endowments are one of the best examples of an individual’s love and respect for their nationality and for the spiritual and intellectual support of Serbian youth and intellectuals. The times that followed the Second World War diminished the public’s interest in this type of charity, ie the fate of these funds became uncertain until they were extinguished. Today, when they are no more, the learned good deeds and the significance they had in life testify to them the most. Archival material, as well as other rich bibliography, provide a real opportunity to present the life of these endowments and their creators, as a phenomenon of exceptional importance in the Serbian people. Leaving their endowments to those who will come into the world after them, the endowments are permanently ugly. Conscious of their presumed role in a given time and space must not replace the work of those who, through self-preservation, love for the people and their neighbors and noble feelings, considered it our duty to publish their immortal deeds.

Vojnový Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Belehrad 1915–1916. Ratni Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Beograd 1915–1916

Vojnový Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Belehrad 1915–1916. Ratni Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Beograd 1915–1916

Ethnic trust, minority status, and public goods in post-conflict societies

This study considers how ethnic trust and minority status can impact the ability of ethnic groups to pursue cooperative public goods, focusing on groups with a history of conflict and lingering hostility. A public good experiment between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in postwar Kosovo reveals that subjects contribute far more to a mutually beneficial public good when they are part of an experimentally induced coethnic majority. However, when in the minority, subjects not only underinvest, but many actively divest entirely, privatizing the public good. Majority/minority status also has wide-ranging implications for how individuals relate to real-world public goods and the institutions of government that provide them. Compared to majority Albanians, survey data indicate how minority Serbs in Kosovo express greater safety and security concerns, feel more politically, socially, and economically excluded, are more dissatisfied with civil liberties and human rights protections, and are less likely to participate politically or pay taxes to support public goods. Conflict-related victimization and distrust of out-groups are strong predictors of these minority group attitudes and behaviors. This suggests a mechanism for how conflict amplifies out-group distrust, increasing parochial bias in public good commitments, especially among minorities who are wary of exploitation at the hands of an out-group majority. To restore trust, this study finds that institutional trust and intergroup contact are important to bridging ethnic divides that inhibit public good cooperation.

Genocide by Plebiscite: The Bosnian Serb Assembly and Social Construction of “Turks” in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the role the Bosnian Serb Assembly played in the process of socially constructing Bosniaks as “Turks” during the period between October 1991 and December 1995. This process can be placed within the wider context of the genocidal policies pursued by agencies, institutions and organs under the sway of the assembly. The article argues that the assembly—both its individual members, and as an institution—played a central role not only in determining policies that ultimately led to genocide, but also in the process of reconceptualization of Bosniaks as cultural aliens whose very existence presented a mortal threat to the existence of the Serb people.

Presence of minority representatives at the table is not sufficient: the struggle of Serb legislators to influence decision-making in the Kosovo Assembly

ABSTRACT This article examines the degree to which ethnic minority Serb legislators in the Kosovo Assembly were able to translate ‘presence’ in the form of guaranteed seats into ‘influence’ on decision-making processes. It seeks to analyse the importance of guaranteeing representation of minority groups in the parliament and to assess the factors that determine the degree to which minority legislators can effectively carry out their duties. The article intends to shed light on political, institutional and practical barriers hindering the ability of Serb legislators to influence agenda setting, scrutinise policies and legislation from the perspective of impact on their community, and oversee the work of the executive in legal implementation. Aside from challenges in enhancing the role of the Assembly in the aftermath of conflict, the article looks at institutional norms and procedures, factors incentivising legislators to engage in parliamentary proceedings, and resources required to support effective participation.

Slavica Popović Filipović, The Great Women in the Great War

This research project was an undertaking involving reviewing extensive archived materials, original documents, correspondence, hand-written texts, and photographs in various archives in different parts of the world, as well as in private family storage. The work in front of us is dedicated to some exceptional women who command exalted positions, women who sacrificed their personal lives by sharing wartime suffering with the Serbian people and armies during the traumatic war years: the typhoid epidemics, the exodus through the Albanian mountain ranges, the exile on the island of Corfu, Corsica, North Africa, on the Russian Front, and in Dobruja. Thus, this book is a remarkable evidence of the dedicated affection and strenuous work of over 2000 women doctors, medical sisters, and nurses who served in the hospitals of the Serbian Red Cross Society, the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, the hospitals of the Serbian Relief Fund (SRF) and other voluntary and humanitarian organizations, in Serbia itself, and in the exile — both during the Great War and afterwards.

Does ethnicity count when contextualizing the low proportion of women in STEM in Serbia?

PurposeThe aim of this article is to explore the perceptions of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in two ethnic groups (majority Serb and minority Hungarian) in a multiethnic region – Vojvodina, in Serbia – from an intersectional perspective.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study was implemented, capitalizing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with university faculty members from two ethnic groups working in a multiethnic region of Serbia (Vojvodina) in the STEM field of studies. Intersectionality as a theoretical approach was applied to reveal the interconnectedness between gender, ethnicity and field of studies.FindingsThe intersectional analysis indicates that minority Hungarian women are more conservative and less inclusive toward other women in STEM, thus they continue to build and enforce gender-based stereotypes. Their lack of inclusiveness is due to having had to overcome a situation of “double jeopardy” (Almquist, 1975) when building a career in STEM, being both members of an ethnic minority and women in STEM. Majority Serb women have adopted masculine patterns of behavior, try to blend in, and become “one of the boys” (Powell and Sang, 2015) in order to diminish the gender penalty and be seen as equal to men. Both minority and majority women agreed that deeply rooted gender stereotypes prevent women from choosing a career in STEM and identified the need for more inclusive education programs at all levels and for more female role models in STEM.Originality/valueThe study contributes by increasing understanding of ethnic minority and majority women's issues in STEM studies in Serbia from an intersectional perspective. It may be relevant to policy makers and contribute to the development of policy recommendations that steer more women in general and ethnic minority women specifically toward STEM, with the ultimate goal of enabling Serbia to develop not only socially but also economically. The paper contributes to the limited research on the STEM-related career experiences of ethnic minority Hungarian women and majority Serb women in Serbia and in the Western Balkans in general.

Memorisana kolektivna trauma kao činilac nacionalnog identiteta

During their existence and historical confirmation on the Balkan Peninsula, the Serbs were exposed to great suffering by those who sought to conquer these regions. This suffering was especially pronounced in the twentieth century, in which a full blown genocide was committed against the Serbian people in the Independent State of Croatia. After the Second World War, in the communist Yugoslavia, that great national trauma was suppressed and minimized. Instead of the truth, an ideological lie was created which is being repeated to this day in order to diminish the numbers of the Serbian victims. The elucidation of this historical truth is a topical issue, because after half a century, the Ustasha ideology, new crimes and pogroms against the Serbian people reappeared in order to create an ethnically cleansed Croatia. The victims were declared aggressors, and their mass killing and expulsion is celebrated today as the biggest national holiday. This sacralization of crimes whose historical depth hides a total genocide against the Serbian people has become the most important factor of Croatian national and state identity. The questionability of this monstrous project requires an adequate response. In this paper, the author proves that such a response can only be a complete remembrance of this trauma as a factor of the Serbian national identity.

Ukidanje srpske osnovne škole u Skadru 1934.

After signing the treaties of Tirana, Albania became the representative of Italy for the Balkans. The activities directed toward the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were determined by Yugoslav and Italian relations, which were rather tense at that period. General negation of Yugoslav presence in Albania was evident in the area of education, and as a result, Serbian schools were closed in territories predominantly inhabited with Serbian people, under the pretext of carrying out reforms. The example of the Serbian elementary school in Shkodra best reflects the effects of Albanian education policy regarding ethnic minorities. Archives of Yugoslavia, department of the Ministry of Education, contains the file (pages of documents) related to this school. This paper is based on the mentioned file, as well as available general literature on Yugoslav Albanian relations.