Everything about Bosnian Serb totally explained
Serbs are one of the three
constitutive nations of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, predominantly concentrated in the
Republic of Srpska, although many also live in the other
entity, the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are frequently referred to as
Bosnian Serbs in
English, regardless of whether they're from
Bosnia or
Herzegovina.
Population
The last 1996 UNHCR population census registered 1,484,530 Serbs or 37.9% of the total population of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The modern estimate is that they form more likely about 37.1% (2000). The vast majority live on the territory of the
Republika Srpska, and
West Bosnia and
Una-Sana cantons of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs are the most territorially widespread
nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The majority of Bosnian Serbs are adherents of the
Serbian Orthodox Church, while some are
atheists. The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina speak the
Serbian language in its
Ijekavian variant, similar to that of
Montenegro,
Croatia, and
Western Serbia.
Culture
Prominent individuals
A selection of prominent
Bosnian Serbs from
Bosnia include
Ottoman official
Mehmed-pasha Sokolović or the writers
Jovan Dučić,
Petar Kočić,
Branko Ćopić,
Meša Selimović,
Aleksa Šantić,
Ivo Andrić and
Skender Kulenović, the painter
Kosta Hakman, the historian
Vladimir Ćorović, musicians
Zdravko Čolić,
Goran Bregović,
Nenad Janković and
Duško Trifunović and the filmmaker
Emir Kusturica. The
guslar (gusle player)
Filip Višnjić was born in
Ugljevik.
Luka Vukalović raised an uprising to free
Bosnia of
Ottoman rule.
Democrat of the 1990s
Yugoslavia,
Zoran Đinđić was born in Bosnia, as was the current
President of Serbia,
Boris Tadić.
Mladen Sekulović a. k a.
Karl Malden an Oscar-winning
American actor.
Gavrilo Princip, a member of
Young Bosnia assassinated
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in protest of the
Austro-Hungarian annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby initialing
World War I.
Miraš Dedeić is the current self-proclaimed Archbishop of Cetinje and Head of the uncanonical
Montenegrin Orthodox Church.
The
Montenegrin House of Petrović-Njegoš former ruling dynasty are from
Herzegovina and
Bosnian by origin. The
Bosniak national hero
Husein Gradaščević was also considered a Serbian national hero.
Name
The Serbs are one of the rare
Slavic nations who kept their old names that they'd in the old Slavonic motherland. Beside the Serbs, only the
Croats kept their old name. The other Slavic nations got their names after the migration from the old Slavonic motherland.
History
Medieval
Slavs settled the region of
Bosnia in the first half of the
7th century. They were led by the
Unknown Archont and given Bosnia as a land to settle in by
Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. Historical records indicate two small inhabited cities,
Kotor and
Desnik, in Bosnia at the time populated by Bosnian Serbs. Bosnia was ruled by
Bans and in
753 formed a territorial union with the
Principality of
Rascia known as
Surbia (Serbia, natively called
Zagorje) ruled by
Grand Princes.
In
822,
Prince Liudevit TransSavian of
Pannonia fled to
Srb in western Bosnia to the
Serbian ruler from the
Frankish forces and their allies. Prince Liudevit was accepted well by the Lord, but Liudevit eventually tricked him, killing him and talking his demesne for himself. The western regions were incorporated into the secular
Croatian state.
Some Bosnians were baptised into
Christianity by Byzantine missionary of the actions of
Cyril and
Methodus in the 800s.
The Bosnian Chiefs abandoned the War-of-the-succession-torn
Kingdom of Croatia and joined the
Serbian Realm of
Prince Časlav of Klonimir of the
House of Vlastimir up to
931. By the end of the
948 Croatian struggles for the throne, he included all the territories to the river of
Vrbas to the west and
Sava to the north while western and northern Bosnia remained in the
Kingdom of Croatia. The
Drina area became the heart of his state. The Hungarian Kingdom had pretensions to conquer Bosnia, so Ceslav had to fend-off a Hungarian invasion in
955. Prince Ceslav saved Bosnia, but was drowned by the Hungarian forces in the river of
Sava in norther Bosnia in
960.
The Bosnian Serbian rule in eastern and central Bosnia crumbled after Ceslav's fall. It would take King
Constantine Bodin of
Doclea and war against the Byzantines in
1082-
1085 to restore it. There he implaced a related courtier of his, Stefan as
Ban, whose heirs continued to rule Bosnia.
Modern
» see also: History of Republika Srpska
In the 20th century, Bosnia and Herzegovina became a protectorate of
Austria-Hungary, which the Serbs strongly opposed. In 1914, Bosnian Serb nationalist militant
Gavrilo Princip made international headlines after assassinating Arch Duke
Francis Ferdinand in
Sarajevo. This sparked war with
Serbia followed by
Austria-Hungary's defeat and the incorporation of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Between
1945 and
1948, following
World War II, around 70,000
Serbs migrated from the
People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to
Vojvodina, prior to the expulsions of
Germans.
Serbs were the larger of the two
constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (later of three, since
Muslims by nationality gained constitutive status in
1968). In the first population census conducted in the People's Republic of Bosnia in
1948, there were 1,136,116 Serbs or a total of
44.3% of BiH's population. In
1953, there were 1,264,372 Serbs in BiH,
44.4% of the total population. According to the
1961 population census, there were 1,406,057 Serbs, accounting for
42.9% of total population of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Serbs lost their plurality as the largest single ethnic group of the
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1960s and 1970s, being overtaken by the
Bosnian Muslims. According to the
1971 population census, there were 1,393,148 Serbs in BiH or
37.2% of the population. In
1981, there were 1,320,644 Serbs in BiH or
32% of the total population. In that year, Serbs formed a majority on 27,255.2 square kilometres or
53.3% of the total territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina . They lived in
34.4% of the total housing of BiH. There was a Serb majority in 2,439 settlements or
41.4% of the total settlements of BiH and Serbs owned a total of
51.4% of the land of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In
1991, there were 1,369,258 Serbs in BiH or
31.4% of the total populace. It is unknown how many of those who declared themselves as
Yugoslavs were
ethnic Serbs, but it's believed that altogether they made up 38% of BiH's population.
The
Serb and
Croat political leaderships accused certain elements within the government of BiH of being pro-
Islamic and of attempting to create a
Unitary Islamic Bosnia in the 1990s. The Serbs boycotted the
1992 referendum for independence from the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Although it was eventually recognized by the international community, in the opinion of the Serb political leadership the result was unconstitutional since the will of one of the constitutive nations, the Serbs, was ignored. The Government of BiH declared independence anyway - which wasn't accepted by the federal government of
Yugoslavia, and what followed was the forming of the
Serbian Autonomous Area of the Bosnian Frontier in the western
Bosnian Frontier region of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its capital in
Banja Luka, which wasn't recognised by the central government. SAO Bosnian Frontier made attempts to unite with the
Autonomous Region of the Serbian Frontier in
Croatia. The Serb political leadership martialled its own force assisted by the
Yugoslav People's Army of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and declared independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina in late
1992. BiH's Muslim and Croat dominated government didn't recognize the new
Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose president was
Radovan Karadžić seated in
Banja Luka. The Serb side accepted the proposed ethnic cantonization of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the
Carrington-Cutileiro peace plan), as did the Muslim and Croat sides in
Lisbon in
1992, in the hope that war wouldn't break out. The Muslim political leadership under President
Alija Izetbegović of
Bosnia and Herzegovina subsequently broke the agreement refusing to decentralize the newly created country. The
Bosnian War began.
Throughout most of the war the
Serb side fought against both the
Muslim side and the
Croatian side. During Muslim-Croat hostilities the Serbs co-operated with largely with the Croat. There were exceptions to this as well, as Serb forces were also allied with the pro-
Yugoslav Muslims of the
Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia under
Fikret Abdić. During most of the war, the
Serb Republic comprised around
70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's soil. During the entire length of war the
Army of the Serb Republic maintained the
Siege of Sarajevo, allegedly in order to tie down the Bosnian Muslim forces and resources in what was the capital of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian state.
Serb Republic maintained close ties with the
Republic of the Serb Frontier and received volunteers and supplies from the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the war. The Serb Republic received a large number of Serb refugees from other
Yugoslav hotzones, particularly non-Serb held areas in
Sarajevo,
Herzeg-Bosnia and
Croatia. In
1993, the
Owen-Stoltenberg peace treaty was suggested that would give
52% of BiH to the Serb side. It was refused by the Bosnian Muslim side as too large of a concession. In
1994, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia imposed sanctions after the
National Assembly of the Serb Republic refused the
Vance-Owen peace plan. In
1995,
Operation Storm, eliminated the Republic of the Serb Frontier. The
Croatian Army continued the offensive into the Serb Republic under General
Ante Gotovina (currently on trial for war crimes at the
ICTY). Some 250,000 Serbs fled to the
Serb Republic and Serbia from Croatia, as the Serb side continued a full retreat of Serbs from the
Una river to the
Sana river. The Croatian Army, supported by the forces of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina came within 20km of the de facto Bosnian Serb capital,
Banja Luka. The war was halted with the Dayton Agreement which recognized
Republika Srpska, comprising 49% of the soil of BiH, as one of the two territorial entities of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serb side suffered a total 30,700 victims - 16,700 civilians and 14,000 military personnel, according to the Demographic Unit at the
ICTY. Although exact number are somewhat disputed, mostly by
Bosniaks, it's generally agreed that the Bosnian War claimed the lives of about 100,000 people - Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks.
See: Casulties of the Bosnian War
The demographics of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Republika Srpska were tremendously affected by the war. Current estimates indicate that some 400,000 Serbs no longer live in the Federation of BiH, the other entity in Bosnia which makes up 51% of its territory. By the same token, it's estimated that some 450,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats that used to live in Republika Srpska no longer live there. Many Bosnian Serbs emigrated abroad to Canada, the United States, Australia and western Europe, while others also settled in Serbia and Montenegro. Some Croatian Serbs, fleeing the Croatian offensive
Operation Storm, settled in Republika Srpska following the war, although most ended up in Serbia.
Subgroups
The subgroups of Serbs in
Bosnia and Herzegovina are commonly based on regional affiliation. Some of the major subgroups of them include:
Frontiersmen (
Krajišniks),
Semberians,
Bosnians,
Herzegovinians
Herzegovinan clans
Some of
Bosnia and Herzegovina's
Serbs, mostly living in
Herzegovina are organised in
clans. The
Herzegovinian clans are:
- Grahovo
- Rudine
- Bijele Nikšićke Rudine
- Oputne Rudine
- Bilećke Rudine
- Banjani
- Lukovo
- Nikšićka Župa
- Gornje Polje
- Drobnjak
- Šaranci
- Piva
- Golija
- Gacko
- Zupci
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bosnian Serb'.
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