Aleksandar Bošković Serbia and the Surplus of History: Being Small, Large, and Small Again
On Monday, 28 May 2012, the manager of the Serbian national football team, Sinisa Mihajlovic, decided to expel one of the players from the team because the player, Adem Ljajic, did not sing the national anthem as it was played before the friendly match against Spain a couple of days earlier in Switzerland. According to the officials from the Serbian Football Association, the player was in breach of the special contract that he, like all players, signed with the new manager: one of the provisions was that all the players must sing the national anthem. Actually few people in Serbia know the lyrics of the national anthem, “Boze pravde” [God bring us justice]. It is a relic from the time before 1941, and, with its multiple references to God, Orthodox Christianity, and ethnic Serbs, to the exclusion of other peoples, is not very popular with nonreligious people and non-Serbs. For many, it serves as a stark reminder of the 1990s wars, especially with references to “Serbian lands.” Thus many people living in Serbia have problems identifying with it, and the football team incident was widely interpreted as one in which the manager (an ethnic Serb) expelled a young player (an ethnic Muslim) for not being “Serbian” enough.
This is one example of the confusion that arises in Serbia when national symbols are concerned. As far as I know, Serbia might be the only country in the world that is not a monarchy but has a royal symbol (the crown) as part of its national flag, another transplant from the time before World War II. This is a country where the “surplus of history” seems to be almost a permanent condition.
What makes a country big or small? Are there objective parameters, or does it boil down to self-perception? Obviously, smallness can be related to both. In the case of Serbia, all play a part, with an important caveat: the Serbian elite never considered their country as small. Since the country’s formal independence in 1878, they frequently believed that it should be bigger, and it almost doubled in size following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. This self-perception is primarily the result of its relative size compared to neighboring countries, as well as of specific historical and cultural circumstances. In this chapter, I will outline these circumstances and point to the factors that characterize Serbia as a small country. As its perceptions of smallness and how to transcend it primarily have had to do with issues related to modernity, my focus will be on Serbia’s struggles to transcend its smallness (sometimes self-perceived as backwardness), by modernizing itself and adopting values and norms characteristic of more developed, mostly Western European countries.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Serbia has shifted in size, with the appropriate changes in self-perception about its own importance. As it coped with gaining territories and being part of different political systems (as it was part of the larger South Slav state, between 1918 and 1941, and then again between 1945 and 1991), it also struggled with its own identity and state formation. Thus, Serbia presents a good case of a small country that struggles with its own image, as well as with self-representation. As it was, for most of its recent past (1918-1941, then 1945-1991, and in some forms 1992-2005), part of a larger whole, it did not really consider itself as a small country. On the other hand, according to the census of October 2011, it has 7.3 million inhabitants, which, by UN standards, does put it in the category of “small countries.” Of course, the smallness is also a matter of perspective; thus, Serbia is larger than all its former Yugoslav neighbors (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia), which still makes it relatively large, at least in the regional perspective. Overall, the standard of living in Serbia is still higher than one of its two neighbors that are members of the European Union, which also puts things in an interesting perspective.
Source: Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich (eds.), Small Countries: Structures and Sensibilities, pp. 195-209. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Image source: www.alphahistory.com/worldwar1/serbia/
On Monday, 28 May 2012, the manager of the Serbian national football team, Sinisa Mihajlovic, decided to expel one of the players from the team because the player, Adem Ljajic, did not sing the national anthem as it was played before the friendly match against Spain a couple of days earlier in Switzerland. According to the officials from the Serbian Football Association, the player was in breach of the special contract that he, like all players, signed with the new manager: one of the provisions was that all the players must sing the national anthem. Actually few people in Serbia know the lyrics of the national anthem, “Boze pravde” [God bring us justice]. It is a relic from the time before 1941, and, with its multiple references to God, Orthodox Christianity, and ethnic Serbs, to the exclusion of other peoples, is not very popular with nonreligious people and non-Serbs. For many, it serves as a stark reminder of the 1990s wars, especially with references to “Serbian lands.” Thus many people living in Serbia have problems identifying with it, and the football team incident was widely interpreted as one in which the manager (an ethnic Serb) expelled a young player (an ethnic Muslim) for not being “Serbian” enough.
This is one example of the confusion that arises in Serbia when national symbols are concerned. As far as I know, Serbia might be the only country in the world that is not a monarchy but has a royal symbol (the crown) as part of its national flag, another transplant from the time before World War II. This is a country where the “surplus of history” seems to be almost a permanent condition.
What makes a country big or small? Are there objective parameters, or does it boil down to self-perception? Obviously, smallness can be related to both. In the case of Serbia, all play a part, with an important caveat: the Serbian elite never considered their country as small. Since the country’s formal independence in 1878, they frequently believed that it should be bigger, and it almost doubled in size following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. This self-perception is primarily the result of its relative size compared to neighboring countries, as well as of specific historical and cultural circumstances. In this chapter, I will outline these circumstances and point to the factors that characterize Serbia as a small country. As its perceptions of smallness and how to transcend it primarily have had to do with issues related to modernity, my focus will be on Serbia’s struggles to transcend its smallness (sometimes self-perceived as backwardness), by modernizing itself and adopting values and norms characteristic of more developed, mostly Western European countries.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Serbia has shifted in size, with the appropriate changes in self-perception about its own importance. As it coped with gaining territories and being part of different political systems (as it was part of the larger South Slav state, between 1918 and 1941, and then again between 1945 and 1991), it also struggled with its own identity and state formation. Thus, Serbia presents a good case of a small country that struggles with its own image, as well as with self-representation. As it was, for most of its recent past (1918-1941, then 1945-1991, and in some forms 1992-2005), part of a larger whole, it did not really consider itself as a small country. On the other hand, according to the census of October 2011, it has 7.3 million inhabitants, which, by UN standards, does put it in the category of “small countries.” Of course, the smallness is also a matter of perspective; thus, Serbia is larger than all its former Yugoslav neighbors (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia), which still makes it relatively large, at least in the regional perspective. Overall, the standard of living in Serbia is still higher than one of its two neighbors that are members of the European Union, which also puts things in an interesting perspective.
Source: Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich (eds.), Small Countries: Structures and Sensibilities, pp. 195-209. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Image source: www.alphahistory.com/worldwar1/serbia/
On Monday, 28 May 2012, the manager of the Serbian national football team, Sinisa Mihajlovic, decided to expel one of the players from the team because the player, Adem Ljajic, did not sing the national anthem as it was played before the friendly match against Spain a couple of days earlier in Switzerland. According to the officials from the Serbian Football Association, the player was in breach of the special contract that he, like all players, signed with the new manager: one of the provisions was that all the players must sing the national anthem. Actually few people in Serbia know the lyrics of the national anthem, “Boze pravde” [God bring us justice]. It is a relic from the time before 1941, and, with its multiple references to God, Orthodox Christianity, and ethnic Serbs, to the exclusion of other peoples, is not very popular with nonreligious people and non-Serbs. For many, it serves as a stark reminder of the 1990s wars, especially with references to “Serbian lands.” Thus many people living in Serbia have problems identifying with it, and the football team incident was widely interpreted as one in which the manager (an ethnic Serb) expelled a young player (an ethnic Muslim) for not being “Serbian” enough.
This is one example of the confusion that arises in Serbia when national symbols are concerned. As far as I know, Serbia might be the only country in the world that is not a monarchy but has a royal symbol (the crown) as part of its national flag, another transplant from the time before World War II. This is a country where the “surplus of history” seems to be almost a permanent condition.
What makes a country big or small? Are there objective parameters, or does it boil down to self-perception? Obviously, smallness can be related to both. In the case of Serbia, all play a part, with an important caveat: the Serbian elite never considered their country as small. Since the country’s formal independence in 1878, they frequently believed that it should be bigger, and it almost doubled in size following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. This self-perception is primarily the result of its relative size compared to neighboring countries, as well as of specific historical and cultural circumstances. In this chapter, I will outline these circumstances and point to the factors that characterize Serbia as a small country. As its perceptions of smallness and how to transcend it primarily have had to do with issues related to modernity, my focus will be on Serbia’s struggles to transcend its smallness (sometimes self-perceived as backwardness), by modernizing itself and adopting values and norms characteristic of more developed, mostly Western European countries.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Serbia has shifted in size, with the appropriate changes in self-perception about its own importance. As it coped with gaining territories and being part of different political systems (as it was part of the larger South Slav state, between 1918 and 1941, and then again between 1945 and 1991), it also struggled with its own identity and state formation. Thus, Serbia presents a good case of a small country that struggles with its own image, as well as with self-representation. As it was, for most of its recent past (1918-1941, then 1945-1991, and in some forms 1992-2005), part of a larger whole, it did not really consider itself as a small country. On the other hand, according to the census of October 2011, it has 7.3 million inhabitants, which, by UN standards, does put it in the category of “small countries.” Of course, the smallness is also a matter of perspective; thus, Serbia is larger than all its former Yugoslav neighbors (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia), which still makes it relatively large, at least in the regional perspective. Overall, the standard of living in Serbia is still higher than one of its two neighbors that are members of the European Union, which also puts things in an interesting perspective.
Source: Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich (eds.), Small Countries: Structures and Sensibilities, pp. 195-209. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Image source: www.alphahistory.com/worldwar1/serbia/
On Monday, 28 May 2012, the manager of the Serbian national football team, Sinisa Mihajlovic, decided to expel one of the players from the team because the player, Adem Ljajic, did not sing the national anthem as it was played before the friendly match against Spain a couple of days earlier in Switzerland. According to the officials from the Serbian Football Association, the player was in breach of the special contract that he, like all players, signed with the new manager: one of the provisions was that all the players must sing the national anthem. Actually few people in Serbia know the lyrics of the national anthem, “Boze pravde” [God bring us justice]. It is a relic from the time before 1941, and, with its multiple references to God, Orthodox Christianity, and ethnic Serbs, to the exclusion of other peoples, is not very popular with nonreligious people and non-Serbs. For many, it serves as a stark reminder of the 1990s wars, especially with references to “Serbian lands.” Thus many people living in Serbia have problems identifying with it, and the football team incident was widely interpreted as one in which the manager (an ethnic Serb) expelled a young player (an ethnic Muslim) for not being “Serbian” enough.
This is one example of the confusion that arises in Serbia when national symbols are concerned. As far as I know, Serbia might be the only country in the world that is not a monarchy but has a royal symbol (the crown) as part of its national flag, another transplant from the time before World War II. This is a country where the “surplus of history” seems to be almost a permanent condition.
What makes a country big or small? Are there objective parameters, or does it boil down to self-perception? Obviously, smallness can be related to both. In the case of Serbia, all play a part, with an important caveat: the Serbian elite never considered their country as small. Since the country’s formal independence in 1878, they frequently believed that it should be bigger, and it almost doubled in size following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. This self-perception is primarily the result of its relative size compared to neighboring countries, as well as of specific historical and cultural circumstances. In this chapter, I will outline these circumstances and point to the factors that characterize Serbia as a small country. As its perceptions of smallness and how to transcend it primarily have had to do with issues related to modernity, my focus will be on Serbia’s struggles to transcend its smallness (sometimes self-perceived as backwardness), by modernizing itself and adopting values and norms characteristic of more developed, mostly Western European countries.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Serbia has shifted in size, with the appropriate changes in self-perception about its own importance. As it coped with gaining territories and being part of different political systems (as it was part of the larger South Slav state, between 1918 and 1941, and then again between 1945 and 1991), it also struggled with its own identity and state formation. Thus, Serbia presents a good case of a small country that struggles with its own image, as well as with self-representation. As it was, for most of its recent past (1918-1941, then 1945-1991, and in some forms 1992-2005), part of a larger whole, it did not really consider itself as a small country. On the other hand, according to the census of October 2011, it has 7.3 million inhabitants, which, by UN standards, does put it in the category of “small countries.” Of course, the smallness is also a matter of perspective; thus, Serbia is larger than all its former Yugoslav neighbors (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia), which still makes it relatively large, at least in the regional perspective. Overall, the standard of living in Serbia is still higher than one of its two neighbors that are members of the European Union, which also puts things in an interesting perspective.
Source: Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich (eds.), Small Countries: Structures and Sensibilities, pp. 195-209. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Image source: www.alphahistory.com/worldwar1/serbia/