Only Unity Saves the Serbs
Only Unity Saves the Serbs (Serbian: Само слога Србина спасава, Samo sloga Srbina spasava) is a popular motto and slogan in Serbia and among Serbs, often used as a rallying call during times of national crisis and against foreign domination. The phrase is an interpretation of what is taken to be four Cyrillic letters for "S" (written С) on the Serbian cross. Popular mythology attributes the motto to Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church, however, the true author is Jovan Dragašević.[1]
The motto represents the "idea of betrayal", one of the main themes in the Kosovo Myth – the antithesis of Miloš Obilić's heroism embodied in the figure of Vuk Branković, which legend holds fled the battlefield, the moral of the story being that discord and betrayal among the Serbs had doomed the nation to fall.[2]
History
According to legend,[
The popular interpretation of the four "С" as 'Само Слога Србина Спасава' on the Serbian coat of arms dates to the 19th century, created due to nationalistic and political reasons. Jovan Sterija Popović in his the 1847 dramatic historical allegory "Dream of Prince Marko" (San Kraljevića Marka) was the first to state that the firesteels were four "С" letters to be read that way, which "pious patriotic souls have already took for sure" as said by Đorđe Petrović in the 1881 edition of Srbadija magazine.[5] Author Biljana Vankovska argues that the first interpretation of the acronym СССС was "Serbia Alone Saved Herself" (Sama Srbija sebe spasila), which then changed to "Only Unity Saves the Serbs" (Samo sloga Srbe spasava), reflecting the growing Serb fear of internal enemies.[when?][6][7] In the 1860 poem "Echoes of gusles" (Jeka od gusala), general and writer Jovan Dragašević wrote "Only concord saves the Serb, so it is written for the Serb on the coat of arms" (Samo sloga Srbina spasacva, tako Srbu piše i na grbu).[8] Serbian poet and Orthodox priest Jovan Sundečić in the 1868 Osvetnici, ili nevina žrtva used "Only Unity saves Slavdom" (Samo sloga Slavenstvo spašava).[9] In the 1869 "Poems and traditions" (Pesme i običai), a collection of poetry and traditions collected by M. S. Milojević, several interpretations are made.[10] In Vladan Đorđević's 1919 "Emperor Stefan Dušan: Young ruler" (Car Dušan: Mladi kralj), in the introduction, it is said "Because only unity saves, not only the Serb, but the Croat and Slovene, Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims".[11]
The phrase is found in written on towels and engraved on gusle dating to the 1880s and 1890s.[12][13] Allegedly, the motto Samo sloga Srbina spasava was acronymed on the Montenegrin cap.[14]
The phrase was used in songs of the
During World War II, the Main Staff of
Contemporary use
The CCCC acronym began appearing in Serbian nationalist
Serbian singer-songwriter Bora Đorđević adapted the motto as the title to his song Samo sloga Srbina spasava, written during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[23]
In 2010, on the anniversary of the Battle of Loznica, Patriarch Irinej said that "only unity could save the Serb people, and nonunity could ruin it".[24]
In 2013, Slovene politician and
An international conference of Serbian Orthodox youth with the name "Only unity saves Serbs" has been held in 2015[26] and 2016[27] in Republika Srpska.
It is used, acronymed, in Serbian Christmas round loaf of bread, česnica, as well as in Easter egg decorating.[28]
See also
Notes
- ^ Радојчић 2011, p. 447.
- ^ Šuber, Daniel (2006). "Myth, collective trauma and war in Serbia: a cultural-hermeneutical appraisal". Anthropology Matters. 8 (1).
- ^ Falina 2013, p. 243.
- ^ Merrill 2001, p. 161.
- ^ SANU (1957). Posebna izdanja. Vol. 295. SANU. p. 136.
- ^ Vankovska 2000, pp. 6–7.
- ^ MacDonald 2002, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Radojčić, Stevan (2016). Dimitrijević, M. S. (ed.). ""Кронографија" Јована Драгашевића" (PDF). Публ. Астр. друш. "Руђер Бошковић" - Зборник радова конференције "Развој астрономије код Срба VIII". Београд, 22–26. април 2014 (16): 239–250.
- doi:10.15291/csi.721.
- ^ Pesme i običai ukupnog naroda srbskog: Skupio i izdao, M. S. Milojević. [Dr.:] Držav. Štampar. 1869. pp. 105–106.
- ^ Car Dušan: Mladi kralj. Naklada Hrvatskog štamparskog zavoda. 1919. p. xx.
- ^ Медић Вјера. Писмо и традиција: натписи на етнографским предметима. Etnografski muzej u Beogradu. pp. 28–. GGKEY:S5LX19GAHTW.
- ^ Narodni muzički instrumenti. Etnografski muzej. 1987. pp. 88–.
- ^ Barjaktarović, Mirko. Zečević, S. (ed.). "Порекло и време настајања "црногорске" ношње". Гласник Етнографског музеја у Београду. 43. Etnografski muzej u Beogradu: 133–. GGKEY:3EJL1KKYG38.
- ^ Vojislav V. Rašić (1930). Sokolijada: zbirka sokolskih pesama za deklamovanje radi podizanja sokolskog viteškog duha. Štampa "Gundulić". pp. 93, 136.
- ISBN 9788635504681.
- ^ a b Sell 2002, p. 73.
- ^ Sells 1998, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Meyer 2006, p. 204.
- ^ Elliott & Cochrane 1998, p. 20.
- ^ Rieff 1996, p. 97.
- ^ Oliver 2005, p. 154.
- ^ Vidić–Rasmussen 2007, p. 65.
- ^ "Irinej: Samo sloga Srbina spasava". Vesti online.
- ^ "Кацин: Само слога Србе спашава". RTV.
- ^ "Međunarodna konferencija srpske pravoslavne omladine u I.Sarajevu". RTRS.
- ^ "Konferencija "Samo sloga Srbina spašava"". Pale info.
- ^ Bulletin du Musée ethnographique de Beograd. Muzej. 1956. p. 62.
References
- Atlagić, Marko (8 August 1997). "Kрст са oцилима қаo хералдисқи симбoл" [Cross With Firesteels as a Heraldic Symbol] (PDF). Pristina: Baština.
- Elliott, Stuart; Cochrane, John (1998). Military Aircraft Insignia of the World. ISBN 978-1-85310-873-0.
- Falina, Maria (2013). "Religion Visible and Invisible". In Berezhnaya, Liliya; Schmitt, Christian (eds.). Iconic Turns: Nation and Religion in Eastern European Cinema Since 1989. ISBN 978-90-04-25081-9.
- Jovanovich, William (2003). The Temper of the West: A Memoir. ISBN 978-1-57003-530-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-6467-8.
- ISBN 0-7425-1686-5.
- Meyer, Therese-Marie (2006). Where Fiction Ends: Four Scandals of Literary Identity Construction. ISBN 978-3-8260-3164-9.
- Oliver, Ian (2005). War and Peace in the Balkans: The Diplomacy of Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia. ISBN 978-1-85043-889-2.
- Rieff, David (1996). Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West. ISBN 978-1-4767-3788-1.
- ISBN 978-0-520-92209-9.
- Sell, Louis (2002). Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. ISBN 978-0-8223-8525-7.
- Vankovska, Biljana (2000). "Civil–Military Relations in the Third Yugoslavia". Working Paper- Copenhagen Peace Research Institute. ISSN 1397-0895.
- Vidić–Rasmussen, Ljerka (2007). "Bosnian and Serbian Popular Music in the 1990s: Divergent Paths, Conflicting Meanings and Shared Sentiments". In Buchanan, Donna A. (ed.). Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse. ISBN 978-0-8108-6021-6.
- Радојчић, Стеван (2011). "Космометрија Јована Драгашевића" (PDF). Зборник радова конференције “Развој астрономије код Срба VI”, Београд, 22—26. април 2010 (ур. М. С. Димитријевић) (10). Београд: Публикација Астрономског друштва „Руђер Бошковић“: 439–450.