Serbia

All you want to know about Serbia

The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Serbianisation (serbianization^[1], serbization) (Serbian: србизација, srbizacija, Bulgarian: сърбизация, посръбчване) is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something ethnically non-Serbian is made to become Serbian.

It is commonly used in connection with minority ethnic groups living in Serbia and sharing the same Orthodox religion with Serbs. Such ethnic groups are Macedonians, Bulgarians^[2], Romanians (including Vlachs and Aromanians) etc

Such cultural change is much less common for other minorities that do not share the same religion with Serbs. This includes ethnic groups such as the Croats and Bosniaks.

During the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the government of the Kingdom pursued a linguistic Serbization policy towards the Macedonians in Macedonia^[3] , then called "Southern Serbia" (unofficially) or "Vardar Banovina" (officially). The dialects spoken in this region were referred to as dialects of Serbo-Croatian.^[4] Either way, those southern dialects were suppressed with regards education, military and other national activities, and their usage was punishable^[5]. The Serbianization of the Bulgarian language and population in Republic of Macedonia increased after WWII. Persons declaring their Bulgarian identity were imprisoned or went into exile, and in this way Vardar Macedonia was effectively de-Bulgarized.^[6]

1 Notable individuals who voluntarily became Serbs
2 De-serbization
3 Re-serbization
4 See also
5 Notes

Notable individuals who voluntarily became Serbs

General Pavle Jurišić Šturm (born Paulus Sturm), World War I hero, of Sorbian origins
Branislav Nušić, (born Alchiviadi al Nusha) writer, of Aromanian origins ž
Josif Pančić, botanist and first president of SANU, of Bunjevac origins
Frenki Simatović, infamous war criminal, Croat
Nikola Pašić, politician from Bulgarian or Aromanian origin.

De-serbization

Islamisation and Turkification occurred under Ottoman rule, starting from the 15th century to the 19th century, meaning that some Christian Serbs were persecuted and forcefully converted to Islam, thus also becoming Turks in the process of changing names and culture. Turks often chose Christian wives, either buying them from their parents or took them by force. ^[7]^[8].

De-serbization occurred in Montenegro when Josip Broz Tito came to power in Yugoslavia. Prior to 1948, the ethnic group of "Montenegrins" did not exist because, since the arrival of Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century, the slavic citizens of Montenegro were predominantly Serbs, and the term Montenegrin was in the 18th century used as a regional affiliation. Serbs composed 80.88 % in 1931, then declined to 1.78 % in 1948 when the new Montenegrin nationality was formed, numbering 90.67%.

Tito, the Yugoslav leader ^[9]) encouraged Montenegrins to severe their ties to Serbdom and Serbs in general, for a non-nationalistic and Socialist Yugoslavia (no more under control of the Serbs, as happened before WWII).

Since then the Montenegrin Orthodox Church has gained little popularity, and actually has the aims to seize property of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In Croatia, following the ethnic cleansing of Serbs during the Yugoslav wars, many younger Serbs have changed their obvious ethnic Serb names to more Croat ones, also converting to Catholicism to avoid discrimination and demonization. The Croat arguments for these actions are that the Serbs and Croats differentiate in terms of civilization, the Serbs are more "Eastern", thus a backward nation in opposite to the Croats, who are "Western"^[10].

Re-serbization

In 1921, Serbs composed 92.96%, numbering 231,686 in Montenegro. From 1948 to 1991, the percentage of Serbs never exceeded 10% (ranging from 3-10% every 10 years) as a result of the Montenegrin national awakening. In 2003, Serbs composed 31.99%, numbering 198,414, as to the percentage in 1948 was 1.78%, a third of previously declared Montenegrins now re-declared as Serbs.

Notes

^ "The Real Face of Serbian Education in Macedonia" (in English). newspaper "Makedonsko Delo", No. 9 (Jan. 10, 1926), Vienna, original in Bulgarian. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
^ "[http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/ban/pww2.html#59 A Petition from the Bulgarian Population in Vardar Macedonia to the League of Nations Concerning the Unbearable National and Political Oppression]" (in English). Veritas, Macedonia under oppression 1919-1929, Sofia, 1931, pp. CXCI-CXCV, original in Bulgarian. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
^ "An article by Dimiter Vlahov about the persecution of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia" (in English). newspaper "Balkanska federatsia", No. 140, Aug.20, 1930, Vienna, original in Bulgarian. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
^ Friedman, V. (1985) "The sociolinguistics of literary Macedonian" in International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Vol. 52, pp. 31-57
^ "By the Shar Mountain there is also terror and violence" (in English). newspaper "Makedonsko Delo", No. 58, Jan. 25, 1928, Vienna, original in Bulgarian. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
^ Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia by Bernard Anthony Cook ISBN 0815340583 [1]
^ I took up lodgings near the church at the home of a Turk called Hasan, who had bought a Christian woman as his wife. - Marino Bizzi, 1610.
^ A Christian woman approached me here, the wife of a Turk. With tears in her eyes, she explained that she was the most unfortunate and desperate woman in the country because she was being kept in the power of a Turk (although she was his wife) and could not get away from him - Marino Bizzi
^ R. Elsie. Gathering Clouds: the Roots of Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo and Macedonia, Dukagjini Balkan Books (Peja 2002)
^ [2] Yugoslavia Unraveled by Raju G.C. Thomas