The text brings an overview of the abuses against Serbs in the districts of Oto & ccaron;ac and Brinje, focusing on religious conversion in this area. It draws on archival sources, secondary literature, and verbal witness accounts. After a general introduction about the attitude of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) toward the Serbs, the author offers information on the mistreatment of Serbs in the Oto & ccaron;ac area. He then discusses the position of the Roman Catholic Church on religious conversion, especially conversion from Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in the territory of the Diocese of Senj-Modru & scaron; and 70 persons who requested religious conversion between May and July 1941. Finally, he recounts the fate of Orthodox churches in the Oto & ccaron;ac area and the attitude toward the religion of the Serbs in Lika under the socialist regime as a result of Serbian suffering during World War II.
Dr. Vladan & Dstrok;. & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute; was born in Belgrade in 1844 and died in Baden, Austria in 1930. He was a surgeon, scientist, writer, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia (President of the Council of Ministers), and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1897 to 1900. Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;'s real name was, in fact, Hippocrates, and his family name was Jimo or & Ccaron;uleka. Not all Tsintsars and Greeks changed their names. Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;'s mother's family has kept its original surname, Leko, to this day. His mother, Maria & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;, n & eacute;e Leko, was born in Bela Crkva in Banat, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;'s father, & Dstrok;or & dstrok;e & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute; alias Georgije D. Georgijevi & cacute;, was in the medical service of the army of the Principality of Serbia (later becoming a medical lieutenant). Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;'s father and mother actually came from the same region of the Balkans, and their families left their ancestral homes and went north for the same reasons. & Dstrok;or & dstrok;e & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute; was born in the predominantly Aromanian village of Fourka in present-day Greece. Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute;'s maternal grandfather, Marko Leko, was born in Vlachokleisoura, today Kleisoura in the Greek municipality of Kastoria. Migration to the northern areas of Southeast Europe was gradual. Merchants from the Ottoman Empire used to travel to and live in the Habsburg Empire for business purposes. Final departures from the old country were caused by the violence of the local semi-independent pashas. The most notorious was Ali Pasha of Ioannina. As is well known, the Tsintsars, like the Greeks, considered the Orthodox Church based in Constantinople and Byzantine culture to be their heritage. Apart from the businesses they ran, they had their own churches and schools (the Greek quarter in Vienna). They could start schooling in Greek in Belgrade, continue in Zemun, move on to Buda, and finish it in Vienna or Trieste. Business and cultural networks spread from Western European cities to Vienna, Buda, Pest, Constantinople, Odessa, and the country of the Khazars. Vladan & Dstrok;or & dstrok;evi & cacute; was not the only high-ranking official of the Kingdom of Serbia who was not of Serbian ethnic parentage. As in other European countries of that time, citizens of the Kingdom of Serbia of German or Jewish ethnic origin could also reach the highest positions. They were, of course, completely integrated into the framework of Serbian state politics and society.
The article1 proposes a new research program on the Balkan linguistic and cultural union (Balkan Sprachbund and Kulturbund), based on a novel definition of linguistic and cultural union as a group of non-related languages and cultures connected by regular functional correspondences, akin to the presence of regular sound correspondences between languages as a diagnostic feature in the theory of language kinship. It suggests considering diagnostic and union-forming features, correspondences in inventories and rules of distribution of functions of units and categories across different languages and cultures, to test the hypothesis of their inclusion in a linguistic and cultural union. After a brief overview of the current state of affairs in the scholarly literature on the subject, the article proposes a structured list of 160+ selected polyfunctional categorical features, pertaining to different structural levels of language and culture and presumably demonstrating regular interlinguistic and intercultural Balkan correspondences. The detection of regularity in correspondences and, consequently, the formulation of a hypothesis regarding the existence of a linguistic union with prognostic power is suggested as a possible avenue for resolving the theoretical issue of providing rigorous evidence, through methods of the humanities, of the existence in the history of humanity of a particular type of convergent development of idioethnic languages and cultures, and the observed result of such development - linguistic and cultural unions as distinct language groups (distinct from language families) and distinct cultural associations.
During rescue archaeological excavations undertaken in 2011 due to the construction of a north bypass connecting the town of Novi Sad and the E75 highway, several Neolithic-period skeletal burials were detected on a multilayered site named Sajlovo 5, located near the northwestern perimeter of Novi Sad. Close to 7000 m2 were excavated in 2010 and 2011, revealing the remains of Early and Late Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, Roman, Medieval and Modern Age settlements. The remains from the Late Neolithic period can be attributed to the early traditions of the Vin & ccaron;a material culture. Of the five skeletons discovered on the site, one is radiocarbon dated to the Early Neolithic Star & ccaron;evo-K & ouml;r & ouml;s period, whilst the remaining four were radiocarbon dated to the Late Neolithic Vin & ccaron;a period. This paper discusses their position relative to other period-related finds in the area, attempting to elucidate the funerary practices and rituals at the start of the Late Neolithic Vin & ccaron;a culture.
The paper explores the endangerment of the Ruthenian language in Serbia through a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses of data obtained from a sociolinguistic questionnaire (VLingS Questionnaire 1.0; Miri & cacute; et al. 2025) completed by 78 members of the Ruthenian community. The field research was conducted in 2023 as part of the project "Vulnerable Languages and Linguistic Varieties in Serbia" (VLingS), funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia within the program IDEAS (2022-2024). The study presents findings from the quantitative analysis of responses related to the educational background of speakers (V_2, V_5), their emotional and attitudinal relationship to the Ruthenian language (XII_4, XII_5), and perspectives on language maintenance and revitalization (XIV_4, XIV_6, XIV_7). It further examines patterns of language use across different social domains (III_1_1-III_1_6) and the intergenerational transmission of the language (II_5, II_6, II_7). Notable discrepancies emerged between the respondents' declared attitudes and reported language practices, as well as between their stated values and actual engagement in preservation efforts. To address these inconsistencies, the paper includes a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses concerning language maintenance (XIV_5 and XIV_9), offering interpretative insights into the underlying sociolinguistic dynamics. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex factors affecting the sustainability of minority languages in multilingual settings.
