Greater Serbia

The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia (Serbian: Велика Србија, romanized: Velika Srbija) describes the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology of the creation of a Serb state which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group, including regions outside modern-day Serbia that are partly populated by Serbs.^[1] The initial movement's main ideology (Pan-Serbism) was to unite all Serbs (or all territory historically ruled, seen to be populated by, or perceived to be belonging to Serbs) into one state, claiming, depending on the version, different areas of many surrounding countries, regardless of non-Serb populations present.

For other uses, see Serbia (disambiguation).

The Greater Serbian ideology includes claims to various territories aside from modern-day Serbia, including the whole of the former Yugoslavia except Slovenia and part of Croatia. According to Jozo Tomasevich, in some historical forms, Greater Serbian aspirations also included parts of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.^[2] Its inspiration comes from the medieval Serbian Empire which existed briefly in 14th-century Southeast Europe from 1346 to 1371, prior to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Some territories intended to be incorporated in the Greater Serbia exceeded the boundaries of the Serbian Empire, however.

History[edit]

Obradović's Pan-Serbism[edit]

The first person to formulate the modern idea of Pan-Serbism was Dositej Obradović (1739–1811), a writer and thinker who dedicated his writings to the "Slavoserbian people", which he described as "the inhabitants of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Croatia, Syrmium, Banat, and Bačka", and who he regarded as all his "Serbian brethren, regardless of their church and religion". Other proponents of Pan-Serbism included historian Jovan Rajić and politician and lawyer Sava Tekelija, both of whom published works incorporating many of the aforementioned areas under a single umbrella name of "Serbian lands".^[10] The concept of Pan-Serbism espoused by these three was not an imperialist one, based upon the notion of Serbian conquest, but a rationalist one. They all believed that rationalism would overcome the barriers of religion that separated the Slavs into Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims, uniting the peoples as one nation.

The idea of a unification and homogenization by force was propounded by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1813–1851).^[10]

Anti-Croat sentiment

Anti-Serb sentiment

Far-right politics in Serbia

Greater Albania

Greater Bosnia

Greater Croatia

Proposed secession of Republika Srpska

Serbian nationalism

Homogenous Serbia

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"Kratko slavlje u Draču"

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Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide

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Banac, Ivo

(2015) [1988]. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-0193-1.

Banac, Ivo

(1988). Nacionalno pitanje u Jugoslaviji: porijeklo, povijest, politika. Globus. ISBN 9788634302370.

Banac, Ivo

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Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History

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Velika Srbija: stvarnost i mit

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"The role of Vuk. S. Karadžić in the history of Serbian nationalism"

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The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia

Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 978-0-253-34656-8.

ISBN

Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). . Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.

War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks

Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). . Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804779241.

War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941–1945

Trencsenyi, Balazs; Kopecek, Michal (2007). . Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-9-637-32660-8.

National Romanticism: The Formation of National Movements: Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe 1770–1945, volume II

Sinisa Malesevic (11 January 2013). . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-34176-2.

Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State: Yugoslavia, Serbia and Croatia

Charles Jelavich (1983). .

Serbian textbooks: toward greater Serbia or Yugoslavia

Svetozar Marković (1872), Serbija na istoku (Serbia in the East), Novi Sad

including full translation of the document to English language

Ilija Garasanin's "Nacertanije": A Reasessment

Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine (in Serbian)

Full Memorandum SANU (73 pages)

Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Answers to Criticism

From Project Rastko website:

From Croatian Information Centre website:

International sources