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

Serbian cross

The four С acronym on the Montenegrin cap.

According to legend, the origin of the С-shaped Serbian cross lies with Saint Sava, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church and the patron saint of Serbs, who based his design on the Byzantine original.^[3] The association of the motto with Saint Sava originates with the 1882 poem "Death of St. Sava" (Smrt svetog Save) by Milorad Šimić. Saint Sava is said to have uttered it to urge the Serbian people to declare national autonomy and resist domination by the Roman Catholic Church.^[4]

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.^[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 Serbian Sokol movement.^[15]

During World War II, the Main Staff of Chetnik Detachments in Bosnia and Herzegovina used it as an appeal in their struggle.^[16]

Contemporary use

The CCCC acronym began appearing in Serbian nationalist graffiti during the 1980s.^[17] In 1989, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević delivered his infamous Gazimestan speech before a large, stone Serbian cross bearing the CCCC acronym.^[18] In the early 1990s, as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, Milošević's propaganda apparatus adopted the phrase "Only Unity Saves the Serbs".^[17] The CCCC acronym form of the phrase was featured with the Serbian cross on the insignia of the Serbian Army of Krajina during the Croatian War and on the insignia of the Army of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War.^[19] The Serbian cross with the СССС acronym was also used as a wing and fuselage marking on aircraft used by the Republika Srpska Air Force.^[20] The phrase was often scrawled on the walls of abandoned houses in towns captured by Serb forces, usually followed alongside the acronym JNA (for Yugoslav People's Army) and the names of individual soldiers.^[21] In the immediate aftermath of the Yugoslav Wars, license plates throughout the Republika Srpska featured the acronym. These were replaced several years later, following the introduction of nationwide license plates.^[22]

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 EP member Jelko Kacin congratulated that Kosovo Serb representatives had united despite political differences, in a delegation to the EP, with the words "Bravo, Serbs, only unity saves the Serbs".^[25]

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

• List of Serbian mottos
• National symbols of Serbia

Notes

References