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Serbianisation or Serbianization, also known as Serbification, and Serbisation or Serbization (србизација or посрбљавање; ; or ; ; ) is the spread of Serbian culture, Serbs, and Serbian language, either by social integration or by cultural or forced assimilation.
Some Serbian sources from the mid 19th century, correctly, continued to claim, the areas southeast of Niš, including Southern Pomoravlje and Macedonia, were mainly Bulgarian populated.The Serbian newspaper Srbske Narodne Novine (Year IV, pp. 138 and 141-43, May 4 and 7, 1841), described the towns of Niš, Leskovac, Pirot, and Vranja as lying in Bulgaria, and styles their inhabitants Bulgarians. In a map made by Dimitrije Davidović called „Territories inhabited by Serbians” from 1828 Macedonia, but also the towns Niš, Leskovac, Vranja, Pirot, etc. were situated outside the boundaries of the Serbian nation. The map of Constantine Desjardins (1853), French professor in Serbia represents the realm of the Serbian language. The map was based on Davidović‘s work placing Serbians into the limited area north of Šar Planina. Per Serbian newspaper, Vidovdan (No. 38, March 29, 1862), the future Bulgarian-Serbian frontier would extend from the Danube in North, along the Timok and South Morava, and then on the ridge of Shar Mountain towards the Black Drin River to the Lake of Ohrid in the South.Ethnic Mapping on the Balkans (1840–1925): a Brief Comparative Summary of Concepts and Methods of Visualization, Demeter, Gábor and al. (2015) In: (Re)Discovering the Sources of Bulgarian and Hungarian History. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia; Budapest, p. 85.
The region of today's Eastern Serbia faced a number of changes in regard to the dominant population group in the area, due to constant wars, conquests, plague Great Migrations of the Serbs, and Migrations of Bulgarians Banat BulgariansЛюбомир Георгиев. „Българите католици в Трансилвания и Банат (XVIII – първата половина на XIX в.)“, София 2010 г. стр. 21–23. and the 18th-19th century.Дойнов, Стефан. Българите в Украйна и Молдова през Възраждането (1751–1878). София, Академично издателство „Марин Дринов“, 2005. . с. 57–58. It was only after the Serbian revolution and later independence that the Serbian national idea gained monumentum within the area east of Niš.Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Serbia: the history behind the name, 2002 — p. 68. -{Antic.org}-: Изгорео симбол Ниша According to many authors ca. 1850 the delineation between Serbs and Bulgarians ran north of Niš, although Cyprien Robert claimed that Serbs formed half of the town of Niš population. In the sub-district of Prokuplje, the most numerous ethnic group were the Albanians, while in Vranje, Bulgarians and Albanians were equally distributed alongside minority Serbian population. In Pirot and Leskovac sub-districts, the Bulgarians were the main ethnic group. The Turks lived mainly in the bigger towns, According to Boué, who traveled through the region in 1837, Nish was a Bulgarian district and both in the town and in the country Bulgarians formed the great part of the population. Nevertheless, Robert claimed that Serbians formed half of the town population. In the Pirot and Leskovac districts, Bulgarians were the main ethnic group, especially in the villages disseminated on the valleys. In the district of Prekoplie, the main ethnic group was Muslim Albanians. According to Boué, Albanians were placed in the Nish sub-province by the Porte to counterbalance the Christian majority and to prevent periodic Bulgarian rebellions. In Vranje, Bulgarians and Muslim Albanians were equally distributed. Turks lived mainly in the chief towns and formed a small minority in the whole of this sub-province. Bulgarians, Serbians and Muslim Albanians were the main ethnic groups. According to Aubaret the total population in the Nish sub-province was about 355,000. For more see: Engin Deniz Tanır, The Mid-nineteenth Century Ottoman Bulgaria from the Viewpoints of French Travellers (Ph.D. diss, METU, 2005), p. 71. and were later expelled with other Muslim minorities in 1862. In Ottoman usage then the Sanjak of Niš was included in an area designated as "Bulgaristan", i.e. Bulgaria.Mark Pinson, Ottoman Bulgaria in the First Tanzimat Period — The Revolts in Nish (1841) and Vidin (1850), p. 103; Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 11, No 2 (May, 1975), pp. 103–146.
Serbian elites after the mid of the 19th century, claimed that the Bulgarians located south-east of Niš were Old Serbians, which was an implementation of Garašanin's irredentist plan called Načertanije.: "...a Balkan alliance, which alarmed both Bulgarians and Turks with its implications of Serbian expansionism as expounded two decades previously, in Garasanin's Nacertanie, the Serbian equivalent of Greek Megali Idea." In 1870, the Southern Pomoravlje was included in the Bulgarian Exarchate. (2026). 9781438110257, Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438110257 Milan Savić still claimed that at this time (1878) Niš and environs were Bulgarian populated. After the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (1877–1878), the lands in the regions of Niš, Pirot and Vranje became a part of Serbia. Serbia had successfully homogenized and modernized these new territories and in this way it assimilated the local Bulgarians of the Timok Valley and Morava Valley river valleys toward the end of the nineteenth century. Afterwards Serbia turned its attention to the region of Macedonia.
Those who declared as ethnic Bulgarians were, harassed or deported to Bulgaria.Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (p. 52) The high clergymen of the Bulgarian Exarchate were also deported.Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (p. 165) Bulgarian schools were closed and teachers expelled. The population of Macedonia was forced to declare as Serbs. Those who refused were beaten and tortured.Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (p. 53) Prominent people and teachers from Skopje who refused to declare as Serbs were deported to Bulgaria. International Commission concluded that the Serbian state started in Macedonia wide sociological experiment of "assimilation through terror." All Bulgarian books gave way to Serbian. The government Serbianized personal names and surnames for all official uses. Between 1913 and 1915 all people who spoke a Slavic language in Vardar Macedonia were presented by Serbia as Serbs.
During the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the government of the Kingdom pursued a Serbisation policy towards population of the Macedonia, then called "Southern Serbia" (unofficially) or "Vardar Banovina" (officially). The spoken in this region were referred to as dialects of Serbo-Croatian. Southern dialects were suppressed with regards to education, military and other national activities, and their usage was punishable. Following the First World War Serbian rule was reinstated over Vardar Macedonia, the local Bulgarian or Macedonian population was not recognised and an attempted Serbianisation occurred. "Macedonian Slavs are ethnically closest to Bulgarians, and were subjected to Serbianization during the interwar period." Yugoslavia aimed to incorporate Macedonia through "assimilation" and "nationalisation" through two main goals. Firstly, to legitimate its control, the state based its claims to Macedonia as an inheritance of the medieval monarch Stefan Dušan or as a promised land given by God to the Serb people. Secondly, the state used the modernist idea of the nation and spread it through schools. Both processes merged as myths, people, symbols and dates originating from Serbian history were also used in the endeavour. During 1920 the Orthodox community of Vardar Macedonia was placed under the Serbian Orthodox Church after payment was made to the Constantinople Patriarchate who sold its control for 800,000 francs in 1919. In Vardar Macedonia, Bulgarian signage and literature was removed and societies were shut down along with the expulsion of Bulgarian teachers and clergy who had returned during the war. Names of people were forcefully Serbianised such as Atanasov becoming Atanasović and Stankov as Stanković along with a spate of repression that followed through arrests, internment and detention.
The Kingdom was also interested to change the ethnic composition of the population in Vardar Macedonia. Yugoslavia commenced a policy of forced Serbianisation through such measures as the Agrarian Reform which was a settlement plan. In 1919 there were announced the orders for preparing for colonization of Southern Serbia. The Serbian colonization was maintained through "agricultural" and "administrative" actions. In the Interbellum, the Kingdom has settled 3,670 families (18,384 persons). The colonists were given properties. Also, in the same time, almost all clerks in the area were Serbs. This means that in the period between the two World wars the Kingdom succeeded through the agricultural and the administrative colonizations to create significant Serbian ethnic minority in Vardar Macedonia.Стојан Киселиновски, Етничките промени во Македонија: 1913-1995, Институт, 2000, . Total numbers were 4,200 Serb families with 50,000 Serb gendarmes and troops relocated from Serbia to Vardar Macedonia to advance the Serbianisation of the region and population.
Politicians based in Belgrade thought that ideology alongside repression could generate the "correct national" sentiments among local inhabitants. Serb officials, gendarmes and teachers, often poorly trained and little interested in their job according to reports of the time were given the task to "nationalise and assimilate" the region. The initiation of an educational campaign made children to learn that "I am a true Serb like my father and my mother" while their parents were not receptive of the Yugoslav state. A small number of inhabitants did declare themselves as South Serbs and Serbs, often done for reasons of opportunism. Government authorities due to maladministration had difficulties in Serbianising the local population as they were strongly attached to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Exarchate) and Bulgarian nationalism. The same authorities held conflicting views toward the population, whom they told were Serbian, whereas local inhabitants noticed they were treated unequally in relation to their Serb counterparts. Some state officials let locals know that they viewed them as Bulgarians and used the term Bulgarophiles for people that supported Bulgarians or were not recognised as Serbs.. The state considered individuals that supported local autonomy, culture or language as a Bulgaroman and sought their suppression. In Vardar Macedonia Bulgarian newspapers were banned in many areas and mail from Bulgaria remained undelivered within the region due to "a technicality".
As a counteraction to Serb efforts the paramilitary IMRO began sending armed bands into Yugoslav Macedonia to assassinate officials and stir up the spirit of the locals. After 1923 the IMRO had de facto full control of Bulgarian Macedonia and acted as a "state within a state". It used Bulgaria as a base for terrorist attacks against Yugoslavia with the unofficial agreement of the right-wing governments. Because of this, contemporary observers described the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border as the most fortified in Europe. Meanwhile, several hundred political assassinations were organized by the Yugoslav security police led by Dobrica Matković. Following regular attacks by pro-Bulgarian IMRO
In the 1930s a more homogeneous generation was growing up in Vardar Macedonia, which resisted Serbianisation and increasingly identified itself as Macedonian, but which also made it clear that the Bulgarian idea was no more the only option for them. A sizable part of the local population nonetheless had undergone a transformation as Serbianised Slavs. The government and its widespread massive Serbianisation campaign was unsuccessful in trying to eliminate the traces of an emerging Macedonian national consciousness among the local population.. The failed assimilation of the region was due to Serb policies that were exploitative and colonial and not directed toward integration. Funds were controlled from Belgrade and the economy was geared toward resource extraction whose raw materials were bought by the government at low prices it determined for itself.. The state controlled the local tobacco monopoly and acquired a steady and sizable amount of revenue without investing much in return to raise the living standards of the inhabitants. The government in Belgrade or the wider administration showed little concern toward conditions within the region.. A high rate of turnover existed among ministers and officials who mainly showed up prior to elections or to advance their own career and often staff in the local administration from other parts of the country were incompetent and corrupt..
Locals were excluded from involvement in the sociopolitical system, suppression of elites occurred and state security forces instilled an environment of fear among inhabitants. New arrivals to the region were favoured over the local population regarding state employment, loans and agricultural reform and both groups continued to be separate from each other. During the interwar period the Croatian question dominated politics, Macedonia was sidelined and the view of the time was that discontent within the region could be contained through use of repressive measures. Local inhabitants were mistrusted by the political elite of Belgrade whom designated them as being pure Serbs or through terms such as the "classical south".. During the interwar period Bulgaria resented the Serbianisation policy in Vardar Macedonia. In World War II, the Bulgarian Army occupied southern Yugoslavia and their troops were welcomed as liberators from Serbianisation by the local Macedonian Slavs.Dimitris Livanios, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Oxford Historical Monographs, 2008, , p. 179.
Albanian land was illegally confiscated and often through expropriations, whereas Serb settlers gained possession of prime land. The Albanian population was encouraged to leave the region, as they were perceived to be immigrants in need of repatriation to either Turkey, Albania or expected to assimilate within Yugoslavia. The state closed Albanian schools in 1918 as part of its efforts toward Serbianising the local Albanian population. Between 1918 and 1923, as a result of state policies 30,000 and 40,000 mainly Muslim Albanians migrated to the Turkish regions of İzmir and Anatolia. Albanian historians state that during the whole interwar period 300,000 Albanians left Yugoslavia due to duress. By 1931 the Serbianisation efforts had failed as Albanians still composed 63% of the Kosovan population. Other parts of the Serbianisation policy in Kosovo included establishing an effective government administration and refusing autonomous Albanian cultural development in the region.
At the end of May 1992, over 90% of the JNA was composed of Serbs. The Serbianisation of the Yugoslav army created the conditions for their support of Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia and Bosnia. Following the independence of Bosnia and formation of a new Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro, the old Yugoslav army was divided into two new armed forces due to UN sanctions imposed on the federation. Several months prior to May 1992 a division of armies and its assets was planned as authorities in Belgrade assessed its involvement in Bosnia would receive a hostile international reaction along with being accused of aggression. JNA General Veljko Kadijević was appointed to carry out the task by redeploying all Serbs from Bosnia to local Bosnian army units and removing any Serbs not from the area. As such Belgrade later claimed to be uninvolved in the Bosnian War while Bosnian Serb military forces remained under its control. Seen as reliable by Belgrade, Ratko Mladić was promoted to general and given command over the Serbian armed forces in Bosnia while maintaining the fiction of a separate armed force as the old Yugoslav chain of command remained. Mladić and Serb Bosnian forces under his command followed Belgrade's Serbian nationalist aims and objectives. Serb military forces in Croatia were also under the control of Belgrade.
On 25–26 August 1993 at a gathering the Supreme Defense Council of retired generals, Milošević's full control over the Yugoslav army was complete as the few remaining traces of the JNA were done away with. It was succeeded by the Army of Yugoslavia (Vojska Jugoslavije -VJ). Serbianisation continued during the first few years of the new military force through purges of personnel arising out of a need to ensure the loyalty of the armed forces to Milošević. During the Yugoslav Wars, the Serbianised Yugoslav National Army was involved in the destruction of urban centres such as Sarajevo, Mostar and Vukovar. Territories within Bosnia conquered during the war by Bosnian Serbs were subjected to homogenisation and assimilation through Serbianisation. "Quoiqu'ils n'aient perdu aucune opportunité de les critiquer, ce ne sont donc pas ses dispositions juridiques qui ont empêché les Serbes bosniaques de ratifier le document de Genève. A ce degré d'imprécision, forts de la licence d'interprétation et d'action que leur ont toujours concédée les responsables internationaux, ils étaient déjà assurés de poursuivre leur œuvre d'homogénéisation et d'assi milation. Ainsi que, dans une moindre mesure, la « croatisation » au sud et au centre du pays, la « serbisation » continue dans les territoires conquis, grâce à des méthodes plus discrètes - mais pas toujours moins brutales - que celles appliquées le long des lignes de front et que les Musulmans à leur tour sont condamnés à em prunter pour élargir leurs réduits." The processes of Serbianisation of the Yugoslav army resulted in the creation of three Serbian armies under the control of Milošević. Following the conclusion of the Yugoslav Wars of the early 1990s, the Serbianisation process of the Yugoslav army (JNA) was confirmed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by witnesses.
Other reforms of the Kosovo education system segregated Albanian and Serb students within schools while funding, teaching staff and educational facilities were allocated for Serbian students and Albanian students received little. An entrance exam in Serbian literature and Serbian language became compulsory for students to pass in secondary schools. The Kosovo police force underwent Serbianisation after accusations of maltreatment toward non-Albanian civilians (mainly Serbs and Montenegrins) were made against ethnic Albanian police that resulted in their dismissal. The Kosovo Albanian police force was replaced with Serb special police units of the Serbian Interior Ministry. Albanians were against the measures and as such riot police and troops prevented them through force from going to school with some educational facilities being surrounded by tanks to stop attendance by students. The Kosovo police force that was newly Serbianised maltreated the Albanian population. "In 1989 Milosevic revoked the autonomous status of Kosovo and seriously marginalized the ethnic Albanian majority by banning the use of their language in schools and government, and allowing the newly Serbianized police force to abuse the Kosovar Albanian citizenry."
At the University of Pristina similar reforms occurred and lecturers that were not dismissed were required to use Serbian as the medium of instruction, with the level of Albanians at the university declining toward the conclusion of 1991. Pristina University along with its students became an important centre of Albanian resistance to Serbianisation. The parliament of Kosovo repudiated Serbianisation and made a declaration of the province's independence, established an alternative government and ministry of education. Demonstrations by Albanians were followed by more dismissals and reprisals in the education sector which led to the establishment of an Albanian parallel education system consisting of previously dismissed teachers giving lessons in private homes. Kosovan Albanian school textbooks of the interwar period of the 1990s referred to the Serbianisation of Kosovo through attempted colonisation and mass expulsion of Albanians by Serbs for a prolonged period of Kosovo's history in the twentieth century. Hospitals had their Albanian nurses and physicians dismissed.
Another aspect of Serbianisation in Kosovo was the implementation of a discriminatory language policy. In 1991 public discourse was Serbianised through a campaign by the government such as targeting signs and government organs that became unfamiliar to many monolingual Albanians. Kosovo media was Serbianised as 1,300 employees of Radio & TV Pristina were dismissed with television coming under Belgrade control and a propaganda tool for the government. "Dans le domaine culturel par exemple, la pro cédure est allée d'une suppression pure et simple des organismes (du quotidien Rilindja, en juillet 1990, de l'Académie des sciences, en octobre 1991, des musées et théâtres), à une serbisation du personnel, décrétée sur la base de l'artifice légal que représente le décret de « mesures temporaires » : tous les employés albanais ont été chassés de la radio, de la télévision (dont aussi bien les rédactions albanaises ont été supprimées en juin 1990), de la bibliothèque, des maisons d'édition." Albanian language newspapers were shut down and the most popular newspapers placed under the control of the government while other independent papers allowed to exist were under constant pressure from the state. Cultural institutions of Kosovo only showed Serbian productions. Albanian municipal officials and industrial workers were also dismissed from their employment. State sanctioned Serbianisation overall resulted in more than 100,000 Kosovo Albanians losing employment with many made to leave their apartments while their jobs were given to Serbs that migrated into the region. "Serbia's leaders strengthened the state's repressive apparatus and, over the course of the decade, revoked Kosovo's autonomy, fired over 100,000 ethnic Albanians from their posts, and limited political and property rights of Albanians in a process of forced "Serbianization"."
At the time, for Serb nationalists the process of Serbianisation entailed the resettlement of Serbs to Kosovo and limiting the favorable demographic position Albanians held. Originating from the 1930s, the works of Vaso Čubrilović, a Serb nationalist writer became popular in Serbia during the 1990s and their content called for the dislocation of Albanians through mass resettlement. In 1995, a Serb Radical politician Vojislav Šešelj wrote in the publication Velika Srbija (Greater Serbia) a memorandum that outlined the Serbianisation of Kosovo. Šešelj called for violence and expulsion against Albanians and their leadership with aims toward discrediting them within Western public opinion. Following similar themes the parliament of Serbia on 11 January 1995 passed the Decree for Colonisation of Kosovo of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It outlined government benefits for Serbs who desired to live in Kosovo with loans to build homes or purchase other dwellings and offered free plots of land. "The Serbian parliament proceeded to pass a series of laws designed to reshape the demographic, economic and political balance of power in Kosovo. In an attempted 'Serbization' programme, tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanian doctors, municipal officials, teachers and industrial workers were sacked from their jobs, while ethnic Serbs were given economic incentives to live in Kosovo. The Serbian government replaced local Albanian police officers with special police units from the Serbian Ministry of the Interior." Few Serbs took up the offer due to the worsening situation in Kosovo at the time.
The government in 1995 resorted to forcefully resettling in Kosovo Serb refugees from Croatia, with most leaving thereafter and few remaining that increased tensions in the area. Serbs selling property to Albanians was made illegal by the government. Fines existed for ethnic Albanians that did not undertake military service in Bosnia and Croatia. The government also made if difficult for Albanians living overseas to return, and penalties existed for ethnic Albanian families that had more than one child while Kosovo Serbs were rewarded for having multiple children. Serbianisation of the Kosovo economy also occurred with areas inhabited by Serbs receiving investment, new infrastructure and employment opportunities, while Albanians overall were either excluded or had limited economic participation. The Kosovo war began in 1998. In January 1999, the government authorities initiated a planned offensive against Kosovo Albanians that involved the violent liquidation of assets aimed at their displacement and Serbianisation of the region.
/ref> Regions with pro-Bulgarian sentiments such as Tikveš and Bregalnica were violently Serbianised by Serb četniks that resulted in the population being gathered up for forced labour and local leaders killed.
Kosovo
The attempt at the Serbianisation of Kosovo and Albanian reaction toward resisting those efforts has been a factor contributing to conflict among Albanians and the Serbs. The region was strategically important for the state and its security with the local Albanian population deemed as "unreliable". Kosovo from the early twentieth century was exposed to the politics of Serbianisation through violence and administrative measures such as replacing Albanians with another population. "Kosovars have not forgotten the continuous politics of Serbisation of their homeland by administrative measures or violence, dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century." "Les Serbes menèrent une politique d'émigration forcée et de serbisation du Kosovo. Ils voulaient ainsi remplacer une population peu fiable par une autre, plus loyale, sur un territoire dont la position stratégique rendait la possession indispensable pour la sécurité du Royaume." In the aftermath of the First World War Serbian control over Kosovo was restored and the Kingdom attempting to counteract Albanian separatism pursued a policy to alter the national and religious demographics of Kosovo and to Serbianise the area. The government implemented policies such as the Agrarian Reform. It was a settlement plan to encourage Serb and Montenegrin settlers from other parts of Yugoslavia to resettle in Kosovo through preferential treatment of financial and land incentives to strengthen the Slavic element. The process involved the construction of new settlements in Kosovo and due to serbianisation efforts some were named Lazarevo, Obilić, Miloševo after heroes from Serbian epic poetry. Other places such as Ferizović (Alb: Ferizaj) had their name changed to Uroševac.
Communist Yugoslavia
SR Macedonia
After WWII Marshal Tito formed out SR Macedonia of a part of 1929–1941 Vardar Banovina, and encouraged the development of Macedonian identity and Macedonian as a separate South Slavic language. Some researchers have described the process of codifying the Macedonian language during 1945–1950 as 'Serbianization'.Voss C., The Macedonian Standard Language: Tito—Yugoslav Experiment or Symbol of ‘Great Macedonian’ Ethnic Inclusion? in C. Mar-Molinero, P. Stevenson as ed. Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices: Language and the Future of Europe, Springer, 2016, , p. 126.Lerner W. Goetingen, Formation of the standard language - Macedonian in the Slavic languages, Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, 2014, , chapter 109. Within the period of Macedonian language codification, two tendencies emerged: one language majority, that was pro-Macedonian, with some pro-Bulgarian biases, and one language minority openly pro-Serbian. The language minority, with the help of the Yugoslav political establishment defeated the language majority.Stojan Kiselinovski, Historical Roots of the Macedonian Language Codification, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2016, Studia Srodkowoeuropejskie i Bałkanistyczne, pp. 133–146. DOI: 10.4467/2543733XSSB.16.009.6251 Macedonian became a “first” official language in the newly proclaimed SR Macedonia, where Serbian was declared as “second” language, while Bulgarian was prohibited. The Macedonian partisans established a commission to create an “official” Macedonian literary language (1945), which became the Macedonian Slavs' legal “first” language (with Serbo-Croatian a recognized “second” and Bulgarian officially proscribed). D. Hupchick, The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism, Springer, 2002, , p. 430. The irreversible turning point of Serbianisation of the Macedonian standard took place in the late 1950s. On the other hand, during the time of federation in Socialist Yugoslavia, Yugoslav citizens learned Serbo-Croatian at school. This bilingualism was stimulated by the subordinated pro-Serbian elites in Yugoslav Macedonia.Language ideologies, policies and practices by Clare Mar-Molinero, Patrick Stevenson (Editor) - The Macedonian standard language: Tito-Yugoslav experiment or symbol for “Great Macedonian” ethnic inclusion? Christian Voss, , Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 120-122. The languages and linguistics of Europe: A comprehensive guide, Hans Henrich, Bernd Kortmann, Johan van der Auwera, Walter de Gruyter, 2011, , p. 420. In this way the influence of Serbo-Croatian arose to such a level, that the colloquial speech of the capital Skopje has been described as a "creole language of Serbian". (2026). 9789027273918, John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027273918 For Bulgarians, Macedonian nationalism represents the result of the Serbification process in the region. Bulgarian scholars and politicians maintain that the Macedonian language was Serbified as it adopted words from the Serbian language in the postwar codification process under Yugoslavia that the Bulgarian government has denounced. At that time the Yugoslav Communists recognized also the existence of a separate Macedonian nation to quiet the fears of the Slavic population that a new Yugoslavia would continue to follow the pre-war policies of serbianization.Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971, , Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture.
"Western Outlands"
Modern-day Serbian municipalities, Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad, which are called Western Outlands by Bulgarians, were ceded by Bulgaria to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Neuilly, after Bulgaria had been one of the Central Powers defeated in World War I. All Bulgarian schools and churches there were closed. Serbian primary schools were opened, teaching and learning in Serbian, while Bulgarian was prohibited. In 1920 a Law on the Protection of the State was adopted, which forced the Bulgarians there to accept Serbian names and surnames. A large part of the population emigrated to Bulgaria. An armed conflict started in 1922 when pro-Bulgarian separatist IWORO carried out numerous assaults on the Tzaribrod–Belgrade railway. Bulgarians have received the status of a national minority after WWII. They live in the Dimitrovgrad (previously named Caribrod) and Bosilegrad municipalities and in several villages in Pirot, Babušnica and Surdulica municipalities. However, in 1948 there was a sharp deterioration for several decades of the Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations, due to the Tito–Stalin split. The Bulgarian teachers there were expelled again. The population was subjected to humiliation and systematic psychological terror. Bulgarians made the highest percentage among the minorities detained on Goli Otok labour camp after the WWII. The decades of geographic isolation of other Bulgarians, and the repressions additionally led this community to inability to build its own minority space for many years.Alternative Report submitted pursuant to Article 25 Paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, September 2007. CHRIS - Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, p. 4.
Yugoslav wars
During the 1980s, some Serb intellectuals criticised the League of Communists and held them responsible for Yugoslavia's political and economic troubles while offering solutions to the "Serbian question" through discussions and explanations of the Serb predicament. One of the narratives that emerged claimed that under communism Serbs had abandoned their old traditions resulting in a loss of Serbian identity and unawareness of Serb interests with looming historical defeat in a process called "de-Serbisation". "The second narrative stated that because the Serbs had renounced their central cultural traditions during the years of communist rule, they started losing their cultural identity, and thus became unaware of their real national interests. As a result, they were facing historical defeat. The process was referred to by using terms like "de-racination", de-nationalisation", or "de-Serbisation".
Yugoslav army
The Yugoslav army (JNA) prior to the 1990s was a multi-ethnic force consisting of conscripts, regulars, commissioned and non-commissioned officers that for the highest ranks was determined through an ethnic principle of representative proportionality reflected in Yugoslavia's multi-ethnic composition. Serbs overall held most senior, middle and junior ranks. Following 1990-1991 during the later stages of the breakup of Yugoslav federation that descended into war the JNA underwent a process of Serbianisation. It transformed from being multi-ethnic into a mainly Serb organisation under the Serbian republic's President Slobodan Milošević who held control and command over the force. During the period non-Serb personnel defected to the new armies of the new post-Yugoslav republics and others who felt disillusioned yet were unable to defect resigned. Slovene, Croat, Macedonian and Muslim (Bosniak) officers left the ranks of the Yugoslav army. "with their drive to establish independent states near the end of June 1991 were the beginning of the complete dissolution of the Yugoslav federation. The eruption of war in Croatia prompted a Serbianization of the YNA as Slovene and Croat officers, and later other non-Serb officers (especially Muslims and Macedonians), left its ranks." As the army became dominated more by Serbs a program has instituted to retire non-Serb personnel that resulted in 24 generals remaining out of 150 on the eve of when the JNA was formally disbanded on 19 May 1992. In that time 42 of those generals had been removed by General Božidar Stevanović during his campaign of Serbianisation. He belonged to a clandestine network called Vojna Linija (Military Line) that backed the Serbianisation of the JNA and Milošević placed Stevanović as head of the air force to accelerate the removal of military personnel deemed unreliable and non-Serb. Following these processes the JNA was impacted due to the realisation that Yugoslavia no longer existed and its priority shifted toward creating the frontiers of a new Serbian state. A campaign to shift the political orientation of the JNA to a Serbian character also occurred.
Kosovo
In the late 1980s Milošević promoted a Serbian nationalist platform that entailed the re-Serbianisation of two autonomous Yugoslav provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina. "Belgrade envisagea dès 1986, puis décida en 1989-1990, date où l'autonomie a été annulée par amendement de la Constitution, une serbisation à marche forcé." On 23 March 1989, the autonomy of Kosovo within the Yugoslav federation was revoked by the government of the Serb Republic and Serbianisation of the province followed. During the 1990s under the government of Milošević the Serbianisation of Kosovo occurred. Laws were passed by the parliament of Serbia that sought to change the power balance in Kosovo relating to the economy, demography and politics. Various measures included prohibiting the official use of Albanian, prevention of Albanian involvement in education, severely limiting the usage of Albanian symbols and efforts to deal with the imbalances of demography between Albanians and Serbs. In the education sector Serbian authorities pressed Albanian schools to follow the Serbian language curriculum and to achieve those aims Albanian teachers in the thousands were replaced with Serbs. The government imputed the mass dismissal of Albanian teachers to incompetence in the Serbian language, and that Kosovo educational institutions were centres for resistance and counterrevolution that indoctrinated Albanian students.
Serbian language
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the official language Serbo-Croatian broke up into separate official languages and the process in relation to Serbian involved the Serbianisation of its lexicon.
Other ethnic groups
Voluntary Serbianisation has sometimes been attributed to Romanians in Serbia since the 19th century.M. V. Fifor. Assimilation or Acculturalisation: Creating Identities in the New Europe. The case of Vlachs in Serbia. Published in Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in Central Europe, Jagellonian University, Cracow
The Hungarians minority in north Serbia (Vojvodina) has also been affected by Serbianisation since the aftermath of World War II. "At the same time, the interwar government made no serious attempt to win over the Vojvodinian Hungarians. Instead, they were subjected to a policy of Serbianization"Frederick Bernard Singleton, , New York, Columbia University Press, 1976, p. 222
21st century
Accusations of Serbianisation in North Macedonia
The historical event that created the Yugoslav Macedonian republic on 2 August 1944 was viewed differently through political party rivalries. The Social Democrats (SDSM) celebrate it while during 1990s the VMRO-DPMNE had condemned it as part of a Serbification project. In 2015, Ljubčo Georgievski, who is former prime minister of the country, accused VMRO-DPMNE of serbianising the country and said that there was a process of Serbianisation of the Macedonian people.Kuçi, Gurakuç. (2024). Hybrid warfare and the importance of elections in geopolitics: North Macedonia towards the West or returning to the sphere of Russia and Serbia. Octopus Journal: Hybrid Warfare & Strategic Conflicts. 2. 25. 10.69921/89mxkh20. According to the university professor Dimitar Mirchev in the relations between Belgrade and Skopje, there is an imbalance in the presence of Serbian culture in North Macedonia, but it would be an exaggeration to describe it as a Serbianisation.Jelisavac Trošić, Sanja & Arnaudov, Mitko. (2024). Determinants of Bilateral Cooperation of Small States in Contemporary International Relations: From the Neorealist Perspective of Politics and Security - A Case Study: Serbia and North Macedonia. Studia Europejskie-Studies in European Affairs. 28. 263-280. 10.33067/SE.3.2024.15. p. 268. In July 2025 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the report on North Macedonia's progress towards EU accession where concern was expressed about the role of the "Serbian world" project in the country. It is claimed there that some representatives of the Hristijan Mickoski's government have promoted this concept, that seeks to establish a Serbian sphere of influence in the Balkan region.EP report on North Macedonia expresses concern about so-called ‘Serbian world’ project. 10. jul. 2025, N1. Per Ali Ahmeti, the leader of the Democratic Union for Integration, the ruling VMRO-DPMNE government fostered a growing influence of the "Serbian World" at the expense of the country’s sovereignty and its aspirations for European integration, while employing strong anti-Albanian and anti-Bulgarian rhetoric.Is North Macedonia pushed toward ‘Serbian world’ instead of pursuing EU integration? September 13, 2025, EUalive.
See also
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