FIRST DAY
Friday, December, 5
| Great Amphitheatre |
CONFERENCE OPENING |
| 9.00 |
Divine Hierarchal Liturgy |
| 11.30–12.00 |
Conference Registration |
| 12.00–12.20 |
Conference Opening and Welcome:
• His Holiness the Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, Serbian Patriarch Irinej
• Dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology Protopresbyter Staurophor Predrag Puzović, Th.D. Professor
• President of the Scientific Committee His Grace Bishop of Bačka Irinej (Bulović) Th.D. Professor
• President of the Organizing Committee Vladislav Puzović, Th.D. Assistant Professor |
| 12.20–12.55 |
Opening lecture:
Dušan T. Bataković: Serbia in the First World War – Challenges, Sufferings, Outcomes |
| 12.55–13.20 |
Performance of the Serbian Army Orchestra Stanislav Binički |
| 13.20–13.30 |
Opening of the exhibition “Serbia in the First World War”
• Anđelija Radović, (Military Museum in Belgrade) and
• Predrag Lažetić, (Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum, Belgrade) |
13.30–15.00
Lunch |
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Ljubodrag Dimić, Predrag Puzović |
| 15.00–15.20 |
Dragoljub Živojinović: The Serbian Orthodox Church on Corfu 1916–1918 |
| 15.20–15.40 |
Ljubodrag Dimić: From Serbia to Yugoslavia (1914–1918) |
| 15.40–16.00 |
Mihailo Vojvodić: The Role of Annexation Crisis in Deterioration of Relations between Serbia and Austro-Hungary |
| 16.00–16.20 |
Predrag Puzović: The Suffering of the Priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the First World War |
| 16.20–16.40 |
Victor Ivanovich Kosik: The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Reception of Russian Clergy after 1917 |
| 16.40–16.50 |
Discussion |
| 16.50–17.00 |
Coffee Break |
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Radoš Ljušić, Radoslav Raspopović |
| 17.00–17.20 |
Nikola B. Popović: The Understanding of the Serbian War Aims in Russia in 1914 |
| 17.20–17.40 |
Radoš Ljušić: The Collapse of the Serbian State-Formation Idea |
| 17.40–18.00 |
Mikhail Vitalievich Scharovsky: The Military Chaplaincy of the Russian Balkan Corps and the Russian Athonite Monks during the First World War |
| 18.00–18.20 |
Radoslav Raspopović: Montenegro in the Politics of the Great Powers in the Plans on the Reorganization of the Balkans at the Beginning of the First World War |
| 18.20–18.40 |
Boško I. Bojović: The Great Powers and the Great War. From the International Arbitration in the Balkans to the Global Cataclysm |
| 18.40–19.00 |
Duško M. Kovačević: Russia in 1914 |
| 19.00–19.15 |
Discussion |
| 19.15–19.30 |
Coffee Break |
19.30
Dinner |
| Small Amphitheatre |
THEOLOGICAL SESSION
Chairs: Svilen Tutekov, Bogdan Lubardić |
| 15.00–15.20 |
Timothy Bradshaw: Crisis Theology in WW1 with special reference to P.T Forsyth’s The Justification of God 1917 |
| 15.20–15.40 |
Bishop David Perović: Hermeneutical Observations of an Apocalyptic Sufferings and Survivals of the Serbs and Serbian Orthodox Church in the 20th and 21st Century |
| 15.40–16.00 |
Bogdan Lubardić: The Revolt against Death in the Christian Anthropology of Justin Popović: Ontological, Historical, and Culturological Assumptions |
| 16.00–16.20 |
Svilen Tutekov: The Problem of Nationalism and the “Ethos” of War (Theological Reception in the Bulgarian Theological Thought) |
| 16.20–16.40 |
Nenad Milošević: The Church and War – Liturgical-Canonic Perspective |
| 16.40–17.00 |
Zdravko Jovanović: The Cultural Context and the Most Important Theological Issues and Challenges before the Great War |
| 17.00–17.30 |
Discussion |
| 17.30–19.30 |
Coffee Break |
19.30
Dinner |
DUŠAN T. BATAKOVIC, PH.D.
Institute for Balkan Studies
of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Director), Belgrade, Serbia
Serbia in the First World War
– Challenges, Sufferings, Outcomes
War is of a general synthetic character. The following questions have been discussed and answered in this paper: how the course of the War affected subsequent history of Serbia, whether Serbia has ever recovered from the huge loss of male population in the army and civilian population as well; whether the tremendous effort and sacrifice was made worthwhile, considering the long-term outcomes from the creation to the disintegration of Yugoslavia; what the long-term effect of the First World War was on the national mentality of the Serbs; if certain lessons can be learned from the greatest war effort in the modern history of the Serbs; how to help the new generations to grasp this period of unbelievable heroism and unparalleled martyrdom.
ACADEMICIAN DRAGOLJUB ŽIVOJINOVIC
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
The Serbian Orthodox Church on Corfu 1916–1918
During the retreat of the Serbian Army from Serbia and through Albania, together with the secular authorities the ecclesiastical, led by Metropolitan Dimitrije (Pavlović), retreated as well. Serbian ecclesiastic authorities established appropriate order and system by taking various responsibilities. Spiritual care of the wounded and the sick was provided, the sending of help to Serbia was organized and where it was possible the administration for certain parts of the Serbian Church was formed. Among other Metropolitan Dimitrije had to deal with the number of applications for the approval of a mixed marriage.
PREDRAG PUZOVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology (dean), University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Suffering of the Priests of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
during the First World War
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered heavy losses during the First World War. The churches and their property were desecrated and demolished, while the priests were severely persecuted by the Austrian authorities, because of their national activity. At the beginning of the war they were taken hostage, molested, tortured and murdered. Those who survived were taken into the concentration camps of Doboj, Žegar, near Bihać and Arad. Some did not survive inhuman conditions in the camps, and the majority of those who did survive got seriously ill and died soon. A number of priests was tried for treason; some of them were sentenced to death by hanging, while some were sentenced to a long prison term. Sometimes, by intervention, death sentences by hanging were replaced by life imprisonment. During the war seven priests were murdered while over two hundred were arrested.
VICTOR IVANOVICH KOSIK, PH.D.
Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow, Russian Federation
The Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Reception of Russian Clergy
after 1917
This paper discusses the reception and life of the Russian clergy in Serbia and their relations with Church and state authorities. It presents the individual episodes of the service of Russian presbyters and monks in Serbian provincial churches, and gives the detailed description of the relationship of Serbian clergy with their Russian brothers. The topic of teaching work of Russian theologians in the schools of the Kingdom is mentioned. The paper sketches the portraits of the representatives of both Russian and Serbian clergy, including the hierarchs of Russian and Serbian Church. It takes into consideration the aspects of the relations of Serbian Orthodox Church with both Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Patriarch of Moscow. Russian cultural work achievements in the field of art, in particular, religious painting, sculpture and architecture are presented in this study.
NIKOLA B. POPOVIC, PH.D.
Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka,
Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Understanding of the Serbian
War Aims in Russia in 1914
The liberation and the unification of the Serbs, as well as the creation of their own national state was a true national ideal which appeared in the period of the collapse of Serbian Medieval state and lasted throughout the Modern Period. It is known for sure that, thanks to the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Russian Imperial Court and the Russian Orthodox Church were informed about the Serbian national ideal in the 17th century. The creation of the Serbian state and independence gaining (1878) were achieved through political and material help of Russia, starting from the time of Karađorđe. The First Serbian Uprising opened the question of the final liberation of the Serbs and of other South Slavs as well. As early as the end of September 1914 the Serbian government announced to the Russian government that its primary goal was the defence, and, depending on the outcome of the war, the creation of the Yugoslav state – the unification of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During 1914 Russia, together with the great Allies (France and England), began to consider the Serbian war aim and to link it to the current diplomatic fight for the new allies (Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece). Due to the fact that the war was going on and it was impossible to predict its end, the great powers and Russia were not determined about the whole problem in 1914, and they postponed it for 1915.
MIKHAIL VITALIEVICH SCHAROVSKY, PH.D.
St. Petersburg Orthodox Spiritual Academy,
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
The Military Chaplaincy of the Russian
Balkan Corps and the Russian Athonite
Monks during the First World War
In the summer of 1916 the infantry brigades of St. Michael and St. George of the Russian expeditionary corps arrived at the Salonikan (Macedonian) Front where they, together with the Serbian units, took part in military operations until 1918. The brigade had its military chaplains. In 1917 Proto-presbyter Pavel Krahmalov was appointed the head priest of the Russian Army and Orthodox military portable churches of the Allies on the Salonikan front. The most of the military chaplains in the Russian units were Athonite hieromonks. Throughout the war Russian Athonite monks helped their motherland: in the autumn of 1914 they formed voluntary sanitary squad which hurried to help the Serbian Army; they printed numerous appeals and brochures intended for the Russian Army; they provided funds to help wounded soldiers, and above all, they tirelessly prayed for their motherland, army and its soldiers. Apart from that, soon after the start of the war four military hospitals were opened for sick and wounded soldiers in the metochions of Russian Athonite monastic brotherhoods in Odessa and Moscow. When the Russian Army arrived in the area near Salonika Russian Athonite monks welcomed them with open arms and blessed them with icons. All the monks who were military conscripts (about 500 of them) joined the corps. The brotherhood of the Russian Athonite monasteries chose their representative for a member of the Committee of Russian Salonika Hospital where wounded soldiers were treated. Because the connection with Russia was broken and because of financial difficulties the war period was the time of great tribulations for the Russian inhabitants of Mount Athos. However, they did everything they could to help their country and their brotherly Serbia.
RADOSLAV RASPOPOVIC, PH.D.
Historical Institute of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro
Montenegro in the Politics of the
Great Powers in the Plans on the
Reorganization of the Balkans at the
Beginning of the First World War
In the politics of the both blocs of the great powers there existed the plans on the reorganization of relations in the Balkans, which were, in a geopolitical sense, to be different from those established after the Balkan Wars. From their chief political decision makers’ point of view, the plans of the great powers were more elaborate and had clearer political perspective. The plans of the Entente Powers were reduced to the standpoints of Russia which were more or less supported by France and Great Britain. One of the major questions of the Russian Balkan politics, in a geopolitical sense, was the question of the future relations of Serbia and Montenegro, i.e. the question of their unification which attracted their fullest political attention.
BOŠKO I. BOJOVIC, PH.D.
University of Social Sciences, Paris, France
The Great Powers and the Great War.
From the International Arbitration in
the Balkans to the Global Cataclysm
Whether it started as an extension of the Balkan Wars, as the Third Balkan War or by a tragic incident; as a detonator of accumulated irreconcilabilities among the great powers – it depends on a point of view or maybe a projection of one-sided arbitrariness. The extensive correspondence of Turkish diplomacy shows the Balkans as a battle-field of conflicting interests of the great powers, a perfect scene for the breaking out of the greatest war cataclysm in the history of Europe and the world. The effectiveness of mobilization, the mobility of troops and the characteristics of warfare, the consequences for the civilian population and the humanitarian internationalization are some of the main factors which characterize the manifestations of the modernity which will remain characteristic of war atrocities and shameless cynicism of the most powerful and the most responsible for human and humanitarian cataclysms throughout the most tragic of all the centuries in history. The arrogance of great hegemons, the anachronism of Eurasian empires, their trifling with the destinies of small and medium-sized nations and countries, their arbitrations and international commissions protecting the interests of potentates and violating human rights of the small nations by encouraging their conflicts, internationalizing their war crimes, while at the same time keeping silent about their own by far greater violation of all rules of humanity are the characteristics of the autocracy of the great powers throughout 20th century, created then in their specific and original form. The Balkan Wars reports of the international commission of Carnegie Foundation (published on the eve of the Great War 1914), and even more the report published in 1998 (on the eve of NATO mass and unlawful war against Serbia in order to create an international criminal protectorate), are the most explicit testimony to the cynical shifting of responsibility for the most atrocious crimes against peace and civilian population, from hegemons to minor local geostrategic factors. Pointing out to the facts which testify to the darkest visions of George Orwell is still the only way to reveal, stigmatize and weaken their conceptual and media mechanisms of dominance and instrumentalization, in the interest of preservation of civilization and democratic institutions which are being increasingly threatened by the totalitarian spirit of post-Christian and post-democratic hegemony, so as to make the 21st century more just and transparent, even more and to prevent it to be even more tragic and dehumanized then the20th century was.
DUŠKO M. KOVACEVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Russia in 1914
The paper consists of three parts: On the eve of the War; In the July crisis; in the War. It represents an analysis of the politics of the Russian Empire in the international relations during the whole of 1914, with specific reflections on the war goals concerning the Turkish Straits and Constantinople.
TIMOTHY BRADSHAW, TH.D.
Regents Park College, University of Oxford, Great Britain
Crisis Theology in WW1
with special reference P.T Forsyth’s
The Justification of God 1917
The scale of death, injury and suffering during the 1914–18 War in Europe raised profound questions about the existence and goodness of God in the public mind. The Church and theologians needed to respond to such deep concern and doubt. This crisis evoked a response in Britain from the Scottish theologian Peter Taylor Forsyth in his summons to consider the passion of Christ as the Christian truth through which to seek some orientation for the unspeakable terrors of modern warfare. Forsyth uses the term ‘justification’ in a double sense: that of the divine self vindication, and of judgement undertaken for our sins. Christ’s suffering and death were a proleptic ‘final judgement’, and an event passing judgement on human wickedness, sin and violence, while also being a salvific act. Forsyth’s theology of crisis, judgement, foreshadowed that of Karl Barth. While in the trenches the Anglican chaplain W Studdert Kennedy was writing poetry about the anguish of the suffering soldiers in relation to the suffering of Christ. These Church theologians and pastors found in the crisis of Calvary the only way of ‘understanding’ the crisis of the Somme and the human predicament causing such violence and death.
BISHOP DAVID (PEROVIC), TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Hermeneutical Observations of an
Apocalyptic Sufferings and Survivals
of the Serbs and Serbian Orthodox Church
in the 20th and 21st Century
All that various potentates, in the past epochs as well as in our time, have done to Serbian people, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and to other peace-loving nations as well, has been done in the manner of a force that cares not for God's justice. Great and Holy Bishop Nikolai wrote about this force (see: Омилије, book. 2, Глас Цркве – Ваљeво, 1996, 17); that it has been brought down not only as a Tower of Babel in history, but also as many such towers that were built by some of the world's conquerors with the desire that all nations should be gathered together under one roof – their roof, and under their rule. Countless towers of wealth, fame and might, built by some with the desire to rule the things of God, or the people of God, and to be little gods themselves, have also been turned into ashes. But what was built by the apostles, saints and other God pleasing people was not ruined. Numerous human empires, created by human vanity collapsed and disappeared as shadows, whereas the Apostolic Church still stands and will stand upright on the graves of many of today's empires.
BOGDAN LUBARDIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Revolt against Death in the
Christian Anthropology of Justin Popović:
Ontological, Historical,
and Culturological Assumptions.
In this paper the author starts from the problem of death, actually from “the revolt against death” as an omnipresent motive which, in the field of Christian anthropology of Justin Popović, generates systematic answers to the ultimate challenge to the meaningful existence of a human being. The author shows that the answer to the challenge of death, in the spiritual thought of Justin Popović, can be found, in a theoretical sense, in the ascetically intoned idea of “Theo-anthropology” which is also thematized from a number of mutually linked and theologically viewed perspectives: ontological-existential, historical and social-culturological. As one of unavoidable frames of death experience, including the reactions to its consequences, the author stresses the trauma of the First World War. Moreover, the atrocities of the Great War marked both crisis and collapse of enlightenment humanism of the 19th century, and an attempt of a number of European intellectuals of the generation of those who survived to find theoretical and practical answers to the aforementioned crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. As for Justin Popović the author presents his funding of Theo-humanism as a model which gives valid and effective answer to the evilness of death, i.e. mortalness as a constant of human existential, historical and social-culturological being.
SVILEN TUTEKOV, TH.D.
St. Cyril and Methodius – University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
The Problem of Nationalism and
the “Ethos” of War (Theological Reception
in the Bulgarian Theological Thought)
The question of theological reception of the organic connection between the ideologies of nationalism and the ethos of war is relevant insofar as the very idea of a national Church has become not only a constituent of ecclesiological consciousness, but also a key element of the very social identity of Balkan countries at the beginning of XX century. The testimonies of such reception exist in some papers of a Bulgarian theologian Stefan Tanka Th.D. He raised the question of ecclesiological criteria for the designing of both national autocephalous and the ethos of war. His example is a challenge for the contemporary theological reception from the perspective of the authentic church ethos. There are two levels of the analysis of the problem: 1) in what degree the idea of nationalism and the church autocephalous becomes the key factor in the shaping of the war ethos in the time of the First World War; 2) in what way the ethos of nationalism and church autocephalous have been the obstacles to the theological reception as existential problem par excellence.The dominance of national ideology created a specific church consciousness which is based on a belief that the Church must be national and that its autocephalous identity originates from the diversity, even from the opposition to other national Churches. In a degree in which this kind of consciousness was present in the very foundation of the social life it had far-reaching psychological, social-anthropological, even political implications. In this sense Church national autocephalous became a life factor in the creation of political hostility climate, even war ethos in the relation of almost all Orthodox peoples in the Balkans. The very same nationalism and autocephalous became the main obstacles to the sober theological reception and the estimation of the ethos of war in existential categories of Orthodox experience. The existential task of the Orthodox theology is the overcoming of egoistical church nationalism and becoming open to the other – both in personal and in national sense – in the spirit of the authentic ecclesiological ethos of faith and love. This is the ecclesiological way of overcoming of social-anthropological complexes and ecclesiological illness of romantic nationalism which destroy our Orthodox identity in our, already postmodern time.
ZDRAVKO JOVANOVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Cultural Context and the
Most Important Theological Issues
and Challenges before the Great War
The aim of this paper is to represent the historical and intellectual context of prewar Europe and the most important theological issues and ideas which were current in a period before the Great War. Therefore, it will consider the influence of phenomena such as industrial and political revolutions, colonialism, Belle Époque, birth of the national Balkan states, constitution of autocephalous Churches as well as the significance of the theory of evolution, idea of progress, archaeological discoveries, Biblical textual criticism, liberal theology, "Social Gospel" movement, ecumenical enthusiasm, ethnophiletism, Slavophilia, Starchestvo, and the importance of persons such as Kant, Schleiermacher, Ritschl, Harnack, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Nietzsche, James, Philaret of Moscow, Khomiakov and others for theology, with special reference to the contemporary reflection on the relation between speculative and practical theology in the times before the War.
SECOND DAY
Saturday, December, 6
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Mira Radojević, Miloš Ković |
| 9.00–9.20 |
Mark Chapman: The Church of England, Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1914 |
| 9.20–9.40 |
Miloš Ković: The British Public Opinion on Nikolai Velimirovich (1915–1919) |
| 9.40–10.00 |
Thomas Bremer: The First World War and Inter-Church Relations |
| 10.00–10.20 |
Mira Radojević: The Foreign Memoiristic Prose on the Great War in Serbia 1914–1918 |
| 10.20–10.40 |
Aleksandar Rastović, Stefan Stamenkovic: English Hospitals in Serbia 1914–1918 |
| 10.40–10.50 |
Discussion |
| 10.50–11.00 |
Coffee Break |
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Tatjana Subotin-Golubović, Alexey Timofeev |
| 11.00–11.20 |
Vladimir Viktorovich Burega: The Orthodox Movement in Carpathian Ukraine on the Eve of the First World War |
| 11.20–11.40 |
Tatjana Subotin-Golubović: The Destiny of the National Library Manuscripts in the First World War and their Place in the Serbian Cultural Heritage |
| 11.40–12.00 |
Vladislav Puzović: The Consequences of the First World War on the Serbian-Russian Church Relations |
| 12.00–12.20 |
Bogdan Kosanović: The Orthodox Motifs in Russian Literature of the First World War on Serbian and Montenegrean Themes |
| 12.20–12.40 |
Alexey Timofeev: Serbian Volunteers in Russia during the First World War |
| 12.40–12.50 |
Discussion |
| 12.50–13.00 |
Coffee Break |
13.00–15.00
Lunch |
| Small Amphitheatre |
THEOLOGICAL SESSION
Chairs: Bogoljub Šijaković, Aleksandar Đakovac |
| 9.00–9.20 |
Bogoljub Šijaković: Teleology, Memory, Identity: On Vidovdan 1914 |
| 9.20–9.40 |
Metropolitan Porfirije (Perić), Dragan Karan: The Pastoral Presence and the Activity of the Church among the Serbian People during the First World War |
| 9.40–10.00 |
Aleksandar Đakovac: Anthropological and Theological Foundations of the Christian Attitude towards War and Violence |
| 10.00–10.20 |
Predrag Petrović: War and Eschatology (The World Wars in XX Century and Reconsideration of God-World Relation in the Western Thought) |
| 10.20–10.40 |
Dražen Perić: The Testimony and Responsibility of a Christian in a War |
| 10.40–11.00 |
Srboljub Ubiparipović: The Attitude of the Orthodox Church towards the Reposed in the Lord: Contemporary Liturgical Challenges and Perspectives |
| 11.00–11.30 |
Discussion |
| 11.30–13.00 |
Coffee Break |
13.00–15.00
Lunch |
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Igor Borozan, Zoran Ranković |
| 15.00–15.20 |
Tatyana Alexandrovna Bogdanova: War and Peace: Through the Pages of Spiritual-Academic Press in Russia 1914–1917 |
| 15.20–15.40 |
Zoran Ranković: The Ministry of Sava Petković in the Years of the First World War |
| 15.40–16.00 |
Borislav Grozdić: The Kosovo Covenant and the Serbian Army in the First World War |
| 16.00–16.20 |
Igor Borozan: The Cult of the Fallen Soldiers and the Art of Remembering: The Church of Glory in the Military Cemetery in Skopje |
| 16.20–16.40 |
Slobodan Đukić: The Influence of Russian Military Theory on the Development of the Serbian Army 1878–1917 |
| 16.40–16.50 |
Discussion |
| 16.50–17.00 |
Coffee Break |
| Great Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Goran Latinović, Dragan Ašković |
| 17.00–17.20 |
Slobodan Bjelica: Serbian – Romanian Dispute over Banat in the First World War |
| 17.20–17.40 |
Goran Latinović: The Historiography on the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the First World War (1914–1918) |
| 17.40–18.00 |
Radmila Radić, Momčilo Isić: Clergy and Monastics in the Great War 1914–1918 |
| 18.00–18.20 |
Dragan Ašković: The Movement of God-Prayers and its Role in the Time of the Creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
| 18.20–18.40 |
Draga Mastilović: The Suffering of Serbian People in Herzegovina 1914–1918 |
| 18.40–19.00 |
Danilo Šarenac: The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Pacifism Movement in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
| 19.00–19.20 |
Ignatije (Marković): The Mission of the Serbian Church Abroad, from the Balkan Wars to the Great War |
| 19.20–19.30 |
Discussion |
| 19.30–19.45 |
Coffee Break |
| 19.45–20.00 |
Closing of the Conference |
20.00
Dinner |
| Small Amphitheatre |
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SESSION
Chairs: Aleksandar Raković, Radovan Pilipović |
| 15.00–15.20 |
Đorđe Đurić: Russian Diplomats in Serbia on the Eve and during the First World War |
| 15.20–15.40 |
Vasily Irinarkhovich Ulyanovsky: “The War Jubilee” of Kiev Theological Academy and the Scientific Projects of Fyodor Titov |
| 15.40–16.00 |
Aleksandar Raković: The Desecration of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Šabac and the Suffering of the Serbian People Captured in It (1914) |
| 16.00–16.20 |
Goran Vasin: The Metropolis of Karlovci in the First World War |
| 16.20–16.40 |
Dalibor Petrović: Orthodoxy in the Triangle of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Turkey in the Light of the Turmoil of the First World War |
| 16.40–17.00 |
Radovan Pilipović: On the Archival Heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the Time of the First World War (1914–1918) – the Funds and Collections of the Serbian Orthodox Church Archive in Belgrade |
| 17.00–17.20 |
Dragomir Bondžić: Russian Refugees – the Professors of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade after the First World War |
| 17.20–17.40 |
Discussion |
| 17.40–19.45 |
Coffee Break |
| 19.45–20.00 |
Closing of the Conference (Great Amphitheatre) |
20.00
Dinner |
MARK CHAPMAN, TH.D.
Ripon College, Oxford University, Great Britain
The Church of England, Serbia and
the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1914
This paper charts the perception of Serbia and its Orthodox Church by church leaders and theologians of the Church of England in the lead-up to the outbreak of war and in the first few months of fighting. It places these observations in the broader context of the increasing knowledge and openness to Orthodoxy in the early years of the twentieth century. More specifically it discusses the background of Church of England-Serbian relations against the background of broader diplomatic and proto-ecumenical relations. It draws particularly on media articles and statements by churchmen and theologians. It concludes with a brief analysis of the perceptions of the Eastern war from the British perspective later in the war and how Serbia and its Orthodox Church continued to be reported in the British press, and supported by the Church of England later in the War.
MILOŠ KOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The British Public Opinion
on Nikolai Velimirovich (1915–1919)
During the First World War the government of the Kingdom of Serbia sent the leading Serbian intellectuals to the allied countries in order to win over the public opinion for the Serbian war goals. In the April of 1915 a young Serbian theologian – Nikolai Velimirovich was sent to Great Britain and later to the United States. A polyglot, educated at several European universities, famous and celebrated throughout Serbian lands, Nikolai Velimirovich, together with the other intellectuals who found themselves in Anglo-Saxon world during the war, tirelessly spoke, preached, wrote and cherished social contacts. The mission of Nikolai Velimirovich in Anglo-Saxon world is important not only for the history of the First World War and British-Serbian relations, but also for the general history of the Church in Europe, thanks to his devoted work on the rapprochement of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church. The fact that, according to the testimony of George Bell, he was the first priest who preached in St. Paul`s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, speaks about the reception he enjoyed. The clippings from the British newspapers, diligently collected in the Serbian Embassy in London, bear the best testimony to the way the British reacted to the appearance of a young Serbian theologian in their country. Those clippings can be found today in the fund of Jovan Jovanović Pižon, Serbian deputy of the time, which is kept in the Archive of Yugoslavia. This report is based on the so far unused original material and on other various sources and literature as well.
THOMAS BREMER, PH.D.
Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Münster, Germany
The First World War and Inter-Church Relations
On the eve of the First World War, in the summer of 1914, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation was founded in Konstanz (Germany). The new organization, which later became a part of Ecumenical Movement, could not prevent the war, but it still influenced the concsiousness in the Christendom in such a way that it led to the realization of the fact that the issues of war and peace are direct concerns of the Church. This paper will discuss the attitude the Churches have had toward the issue of peace in the past hundred years, very often depending on the concrete political and military circumstances. The Orthodox Churches have played very important role in this.
ALEKSANDAR RASTOVIC, PH.D.
STEFAN STAMENKOVIC
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia
English Hospitals in Serbia 1914–1918
The First World War caused catastrophic human casualties, as well as material destruction the world had never seen before. The war and the ravages of war did not spare Serbia – it became one of the most important war polygons during the first and the second years of warfare. All this brought about tremendous loss of human lives, wounding, countless refugees and homeless people, numerous inhabitants fell ill with various diseases, the country was famine and poverty stricken. In this situation many renowned Englishmen and Englishwomen of political and public life got engaged, spontaneously or on an organized basis, in providing Serbia and its inhabitants with help in money, food, propaganda. Many of them set up numerous humanitarian missions which flooded Serbia during those war and post-war years. It is estimated that about six hundred British female physicians, nurses and other medical staff stayed in Serbia during the First World War in order to help the sick and the wounded. Particularly outstanding in providing humanitarian assistance to Serbia was Scottish Women’s Hospital led by Dr. Elsie Inglis. Fourteen hospitals were founded, ten of which were intended for the Serbs in Serbia, on the Salonika and Russian Front.
MA VLADIMIR VIKTOROVICH BUREGA
Kiev Theological Academy, Kiev, Ukraine
The Orthodox Movement in Carpathian
Ukraine on the Eve of the First World War
At the beginning of XX century the area of Carpathian Ukraine was a part of Austro-Hungary (its Hungarian part). The Greek Catholic Church held the dominant position on this territory. There were no administrative structures of Orthodox Church in this area. At the very beginning of XX century a people’s movement for the seceding from the Greek Catholic Church and conversion to Orthodoxy appeared. The activists of the movement sought the support of Karlovac Metropolitante presbyters, but Serbian presbyters, from fear of the possible conflict with Hungarian authorities, could not support this movement. In this situation Carpathian peasants made contact with Russia. However, Hungarian authorities interpreted the connection of Carpathians with Russia as political separatism and held a trial against the supporters of the Orthodox movement in Sighetu Marmatiei in 1913/14. Thus the issue of the religious choice of the local population got entangled in the complex international relations in pre-war Europe.
TATJANA SUBOTIN-GOLUBOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Destiny of the National Library Manuscripts
in the First World War and their Place
in the Serbian Cultural Heritage
The events that preceded the Austrian taking of Belgrade (1915) made the management of the National Library start evacuating its funds. The most valuable part of the fund consisted of the collected manuscripts and they were relocated with careful attention. However, during the evacuation a part of the fund disappeared – a box containing about 50 units of the most precious fund. After the war those manuscripts gradually began to appear in certain antique shops as well as in some libraries throughout Western Europe. After the Second World War one of them was found in the library of Harvard University (USA). Up to now, a part of these manuscripts has been returned to the National Library, whereabouts of others has been found out, while there are still some that have disappeared without a trace. Among the manuscripts belonging to the first two categories there are some without which our knowledge of the Serbian written heritage would be incomplete. Those manuscripts are invaluable not only for the knowledge of Serbian literacy, but also for the overall Slavic Orthodox written heritage in which they occupy an important position. Among the so far missing manuscripts is Nemanja’s Chilandar Chart. A special place among the manuscripts found and returned to the National Library occupy Belgrade Prophetologion, Bratko’s Menaion and Prizren copy of Transcript of Dušan’s Law Code. The first two are very important for the understanding of the development of the early literacy among Orthodox Slavs because of their linguistic and, in particular, liturgical characteristics and the characteristics of their content. They show the attributes of a great antiquity on the basis of which it can be inferred that, although we are dealing with the copies from XIII and XIV century, some of their segments belong to XI and XII century. These manuscripts testify to the periods for which there are no preserved Serbian manuscripts, which makes their scientific importance even greater.
VLADISLAV PUZOVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Consequences of the First World War
on the Serbian-Russian Church Relations
The First World War changed the geopolitical space the Serbian and Russian Orthodox Church operated in. In the newly-created state of the South Slavs – the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Serbian provincial Churches were united into one Serbian Patriarchate, while the systematic persecution of the Russian Church began in Soviet Russia, as well as the exodus of millions of Orthodox Russians. In this paper we have analyzed three segments of the Serbian-Russian Church relations originating from the consequences of the First World War. First of all, the supportive attitude of the Serbian Orthodox Church toward the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, then the deterioration of the relations between the Serbian and Moscow Church authorities, and finally – the theological and spiritual permeating seen through the work of the renowned Russian theologians and spiritual elders in Serbia. To some extent all three aspects represented a novelty in the history of the Serbian-Russian Church relations at the time.
BOGDAN KOSANOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
The Orthodox Motifs in Russian Literature
of the First World War on Serbian
and Montenegrean Themes
It is best to consider the topic of this paper in the light of three hundred years old link between Russia and Balkan Slavs. From the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum of July 23rd 1914 until the end of the Great War Russian public, most of all intelligentsia, wholeheartedly supported “Serbian just cause”. The public sympathies were always on the side of Serbia, country sharing the same – Orthodox faith. Divine offices were celebrated though-out Russia, Serbian days were organized, donations for Serbia and Montenegro were collected. This kind of solidarity was reflected in journalism as well as in literature – in poetry, short fiction, plays and Serbia was always seen as the Slavic Piedmont. The references to the Ss. Cyril and Methodius and the Kosovo Covenants were very frequent. The war Calvary of Serbian people was seen and represented cathartically.
ALEXEY TIMOFEEV, PH.D.
Institute for the Newer History of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Serbian Volunteers in Russia
during the First World War
The creating and the role of the Serbian volunteer units in Imperial Russia during the First World War is relatively well-known topic in the domestic historiography. However, numerous facts were not adequately interpreted but were minimized instead, in order to preserve a range of ideological constructs of a different nature. It is important that we examine the aforementioned phenomenon on the basis of archive material and answer a number of questions: reality and significance of a Yugoslav characteristic of the movement, the ratio of the number of volunteers and the Serbian Army in Salonika in the autumn and winter of 1916, the ratio of various factors in Russia toward the Yugoslav/Serbian issue.
BOGOLJUB ŠIJAKOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Teleology, Memory, Identity:
On Vidovdan 1914
The paper deals with the problem of how to explain historical events, how to memorize them and how to make them an active and functioning element of an identity. These principal questions will be discussed in the example of the ideas of Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna), especially in the example of “Vidovdan Ethics” and in the problem of the “cause” of the First World War.
METROPOLITAN PORFIRIY (PERIC)
DRAGAN KARAN, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Pastoral Presence and the Activity of
the Church among the Serbian People
during the First World War
The goal of this paper is to point out to the pastoral presence and the activity of the Church among the Serbian people during the First World War. The paper can be divided into three units: the first unit deals with the presence and the activity of the Church in Serbia; the second deals with the pastoral work with the Serbian people in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the third with the presence of the Church on Corfu and at the Salonika Front and its care of the Serbian Army in exile. All three positions are specific because of the fact that, at the time, the entire territory of Serbia was under occupation with military operations going on. The territory of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was not exposed to the military operations, but it was in a state of constant mobilization. The presence and activity of our Church on Corfu is very specific because of the fact that the Church had to take care of its congregation (army) within the jurisdiction of another local Church. The goal of the paper is to point out to the fact that the continuity of the presence and pastoral care of the Church among the Serbian people was independent of the presence of the state, occupation and exile. The Church is where its people are, for the people themselves constitute the Church, and through the liturgical presence of the congregated people the presence of the Church itself is manifested.
ALEKSANDAR ĐAKOVAC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Anthropological and Theological
Foundations of the Christian Attitude
towards War and Violence
The paper deals with the issue of the anthropological and theological foundations on which the Christian attitude towards war and violence is based. The analysis of historical sources shows that this attitude has more than one meaning. On one hand, in certain cases a war was considered not only permissible and just, but the participation in war was considered an obligation of a Christian. On the other hand, many canonical practices unambiguously show that the act of murder is considered an obstacle for priestly ministry and the participation in the liturgical life of the Church, even when it is committed in the context of "legal" participation in the war activities. The example for this is the denial of the Holy Communion to the soldiers-liberators after the First World War. The aim of this analysis of the theological and anthropological foundations of the Christian attitude towards war and violence is to provide an explanation for this duality of theoretical approach and practical conduct of Christians in specific historical situations.
PREDRAG PETROVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
War and Eschatology (The World
Wars in XX Century and
Reconsideration of God-World
Relation in the Western Thought)
Taking into consideration the phenomenon of the world wars fought during XX century, as well as theological differences between west confessional attitudes to war and the appropriate Orthodox-Christian attitude, the prevalent endeavor of the West to justify, by violent means, a certain religious-historical attitude can be clearly recognized. Although the phenomenon of the world wars is inseparable from political and geostrategic endeavor to necessarily seek the motive and the guilt for starting a war on the opposite, by definition enemy side, in this paper we are most of all interested in some of the basic and, in our opinion, structural theological motives, unavoidable for our topic. It is an undisputed fact that there is an active share of religious motives even in the case when an all-out war seems to be only an execution site which resulted from a disagreement of political elites of the opposing sides. That is why we have tried to present some clearly recognizable theological indications which can eventually be seen as a support, or even as religious motives for war. The Roman-Catholic Church, whose teachings have gravitated towards the connection with the political dimensions of life of the nations of all continents, as well as religious viewpoints of Protestant confessions only appear to have mutually irreconcilable positions regarding the faith in God. However, when the faith in (it is understood) the same God should be confirmed in a real historical context, but in a different geographical space, then both the Roman-Catholics and the Protestants reach for the identical solutions which have always been in the spirit of the geostrategic aspirations of their (Western) elites to penetrate to the East. Finally, the responsibility for a war must be taken by the western elite i.e. western intellectuals whose ultimate historical starting point lies in the understanding of the Biblical tradition of the 'dominion over the creation' (Gn. 1, 26).
DRAŽEN PERIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Testimony and Responsibility
of a Christian in a War
This paper deals with the complex issues of responsibility and the Christian ethics, as well as the testimony of the Christian faith (Christian anthropology) in wartime plight. The Christian ethics is based on the Church ethos and as such it is diametrically different and opposite to any other conventional ethics. In this sense the Christian ethos rejects autonomous individual virtue, private achievement and any individual evaluation; it is the ethos free from any limitation, relativity, and measure which belong to this time. In the same context arise the questions and problems regarding the testimony and responsibility of a Christian in a war. There are such complex and complicated situations and circumstances in life which can inevitably lead to the tragedy of a Christian existence, when it is impossible, in any way, to do what is right. A war is certainly one such situation and trial. The author of this paper endeavours to answer the following questions: whether there exists a true Christian attitude to war and what its character is; whether a Christian can commit murder, and under what circumstances; whether the Commandment – thou shall not kill is obligating in all circumstances. The sense of Christian life and the primary criterion of the Christian ethics and ethos should be the Evangelic love. That Commandment of Love is “the fulfillment and fullness of the law”. The testimony of that kind of love, the faith and the responsibility for it is the fundamental Evangelic vocation of a man.
SRBOLJUB UBIPARIPOVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Attitude of the Orthodox Church
towards the Reposed in the Lord:
Contemporary Liturgical Challenges
and Perspectives
Passing away from this world has always been considered as the event of the sacred character. Perceiving the human death in the light of Christ`s Victory over death the Orthodox Church has gradually shaped and developed the liturgical attitude towards the deceased. The fruits of such holy endeavor are indispensable liturgical commemoration of the reposed in the Lord and the appropriate rites for the dead. The XX century period, marked with the extremely large number of those who perished “with the hope of the life eternal” during the First and the Second World War, but also in other circumstances, initiated certain liturgical challenges in the field of the Christian celebration of the commemoration of the deceased. Accordingly, this research will focus on the presentation and the review of those challenges and on the emphasis of the relevant perspectives for the sake of the better and more detailed understanding of the stated problems.
TATYANA ALEXANDROVNA BOGDANOVA, PHD
National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
War and Peace: Through the Pages of
Spiritual-Academic Press in Russia
1914–1917
A brief overview of the main issues reflected upon on the pages of the following journals during the war years: “Christian Reader” („Христианское Чтение“, Saint Petersburg Theological Academy),“Theologian Journal” („Богословский Вестник“, Moscow Spiritual Academy), “The Works of Kiev Spiritual Academy” („Труды Киевской духовной академии“, Kiev Spiritual Academy), Orthodox Collocutor” („Православный Собеседник“, Kazan Spiritual Academy) “The Church and Society” („Церковь и общество“, editor N. V. Malakhov, Professor of Saint Petersburg Theological Academy), and a weekly journal “Church Journal” („Церковный Вестник“, Saint Petersburg Theological Academy).
ZORAN RANKOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Ministry of Sava Petković in
the Years of the First World War
Sava Petković (January 23rd 1878 – February 4th 1957) who later became an archimandrite of Monastery Krušedol, served as a minister from December 1904, as a parish priest in Dobanovci, until November 1920. After they had declared a war to Serbia in 1914, the Austro-Hungarian authorities imprisoned and molested Sava Petković. He remained in prison until the Serbian Army entered Srem. During the retreat of the Serbian army from Srem he fled to Serbia and worked for the Serbian Red Cross in Niš. He retreated with the army through Montenegro and Albania to the town of San Giovanni di Medua. From there he went to Rome where he spent three years. There he served as the head of the Serbian Church in Italy and as a parish priest for Serbian refugees in Rome. At the beginning of 1919 he returned to his parish in Dobanovci.In this paper, based on archive material, we have tried to reveal the way sacerdotal duty was fulfilled in the war years.
BORISLAV D. GROZDIC, PH.D.
University of Defence, Military Academy in Belgrade, Serbia
The Kosovo Covenant and the
Serbian Army in the First World War
This paper deals with the Kosovo Covenant as a myth, an axis of spiritual identity and the basic narration of Serbian people, as well as with its relationship with St. Sava Covenant. The differences between the essence and the meaning of the Kosovo Covenant will be pointed to, as well as its understanding through history and its political ab/uses. The understanding of the Kosovo Covenant in the Serbian Army and its influence on the officer corps and on the other members of the Army on the eve and during the First World War will be discussed in particular. The Kosovo Covenant as the spine of Serbian strategic culture and the ethics specific to the Serbian Army warfare in the First World War will be analyzed.
IGOR BOROZAN, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Cult of the Fallen Soldiers
and the Art of Remembering:
The Church of Glory in the
Military Cemetery in Skopje
The cult of the fallen soldiers was established during XIX century. The horrific ravages of the First World War dramatically highlighted the cult of fallen heroes. In remembrance of their sacrifice the memory is made artificial and placed in the domain of a collective memory. The culture of remembering actively produced memory of a large number of Serbian soldiers who fell on the territory of South Serbia in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War. By building the Church of Glory on Gazibaba close to Skopje, the memory of the heroic sacrifice of these soldiers, who perished near Skopje, was permanently shaped. The five-year process of the conceptual shaping of the church was completed by the consecration of the military-warrior church (chapel) in 1934. The church is dedicated to St. Archangel Michael the Protector of warriors and the victorious Soldier of Christ and also to the memory of King Petar, distinctly pointing out to the dynastic character of the memorial. The interior of the church is defined in accordance with the Orthodox artistic canon. The creative reinterpretation of the medieval iconographic and stylistic solutions brought about the artistic shaping of the iconostasis and frescos. The formation of the space was completed by the construction of the crypt into which the bones of 3200 anonymous and identified soldiers were buried. The bones of the fallen patriots have defined the space as the abode of the glorious ancestors and a memorial worthy of collective memory.
SLOBODAN ĐUKIC PH.D.
University of Defence, Military Academy in Belgrade, Serbia
The Influence of Russian
Military Theory on the Development
of the Serbian Army 1878–1917
The influence of the Russian military theory had been present in the Serbian Army since its establishing and it lasted until 1917. The sources of the Russian military theory in Serbia were Serbian officers trained in Russia, as well as Russian rich military literature. Russia was the only foreign state which, without reserve, opened the doors of its military institutes and institutions to Serbian officers. The influence of the Russian military literature, which arrived in Serbia even when the diplomatic relations between Serbia and Russia were not good, was also very powerful. Russian rich military literature had a long tradition, a great number of scientists and considerable material resources available. Through Russian military literature, which was also rich in translations, the ideas of French and German military theoreticians were coming to Serbia. Serbia was looking for its role model in the Orthodox Russian Army with whom it had much in common. A great part of both Serbian and Russian army consisted of a sensitive Slavic element with high percentage of illiterate recruits. In the training of both Serbian and Russian army great attention was paid to the developing of the literacy with the recruits, to the strengthening of national consciousness and Orthodox faith. Serbian Army had built its organization, formation and doctrine by looking up to Russian military theory and experience.
SLOBODAN BJELICA, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Serbian – Romanian Dispute
over Banat in the First World War
In the moment of the outbreak of the war, in July 1914, the whole territory of Banat belonged to the Hungarian part of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The victory on Cer, and even more brilliant operation on the Kolubara, in the autumn of the first year of the war, boosted Serbian self-confidence and motivated Serbian government to declare their war aim publicly in the Declaration of Nix: the liberation of all Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians and their union in the joint state, with Serbia as their Piedmont. The state would also include Banat, as can be seen from numerous official documents which Serbian diplomats and scientists presented to the representatives of the Entente Powers. Such intensive activity of the Serbian politics and science regarding Banat question was stimulated by the fact that Romania laid claim to that territory as well. As the war progressed the importance of Romania increased for the both parties. As an award for taking their side in the war the Central Powers offered Bessarabia and the Timor region of Serbia. However, because of the consistent denial of Hungary, the main Romanian claim – Transylvania could not be included in the offer. On the other hand, nothing stopped the Allies to promise all the Austro-Hungarian territories inhabited by the Romanians. The expansion to the west was more in accordance with the national program of the state of Romania, so in August 1916 Romania signed with the Entente the secret Treaty of Bucharest by which it was promised the borders on the Danube and the Tisa. In the course of the war Serbian and Romanian government talked about the future destiny of Banat, but reached no compromise.
GORAN LATINOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Banjaluka,
Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Historiography on the Serbian Orthodox
Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina
during the First World War (1914–1918)
The work of a historian, in any period and on any subject, is limited by objective circumstances, regardless of his/her will. The political circumstances inevitably affect the work of a historian, and the researches in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church, particularly in its suffering, in the periods of both war and peace throughout the 20th century, was limited during the greater part of that period. The influence of Yugoslav idea in the period between the two World Wars, the suffering during the Second World War, and subsequently the unfavourable attitude of the communist regime after 1945 resulted in the fact that the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1914–1918) was not thoroughly researched. Significant political changes at the turn of the century enabled a new approach to this issue.
RADMILA RADIC PH.D.
MOMCILO ISIC PH.D.
Institute for the Newer History of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Clergy and Monastics in
the Great War 1914–1918
The exact number of the priests and monks who perished in the First World War was never specified. The most detailed analysis so far has been the one in the study of Mihailo I. Popović published in 1933. On the basis of available published and unpublished archival materials, existing schematisms, literature and periodicals we have compiled a list of priests and monks (from all the dioceses which became a part of the Serbian Orthodox Church after the war), with the basic information on what happened to them during the war. Based on the analysis of that list, the paper will present the number of the priests and monks who perished in different ways (killed, interned, army chaplains, exile, hostages, those who died of various causes during the war).
DRAGAN ASKOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Movement of God-Prayers and
its Role in the Time of the Creation of
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The time in which God-Prayers Movement appeared and developed was a period of the degradation and collapse of the ideas of civil society. Although Serbia hurriedly experienced all the stages of the beginning of liberalism and democracy, the appearance of the ideas of socialism and communism is not insignificant. Nationalism, the greatest barrier to these ideas, was overcome by the Yugoslav notion and cosmopolitism. God-Prayers’ songs, inseparable from the movement, supported these ideas. Although they contained the elements of Christian cosmopolitism they did not lack national elements. The forces constituting the first Yugoslavia strived to take over the dominant role in the newly-created state and to give it their identity. The national elements in God-Prayers’ songs were aimed at those forces trying to impose left-oriented nation-building principle. Other, universally Christian cosmopolitan elements in the songs indirectly supported the creation of the unified state. In that struggle, as many times in history, the Church and its possibilities were used in governmental-political purposes. On the ethnically, religiously, and confessionally mixed territories tolerance was badly needed. It could be carried out only as a commandment of state reason. In that situation state logic ceased to consider confessional barriers and prejudices. It was possible to make up a bridge for the unified diversities only of common elements that existed in different nations, their religions or confessions. In the Balkans these elements were few, therefore they were created. The role of a unifying principle of tolerance was given, among others, to the Movement of God-Prayers, its activity and the songs its members sang.
DRAGA MASTILOVIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of East Sarajevo,
Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Suffering of Serbian People
in Herzegovina 1914–1918
Ever since the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 Herzegovina remained a problematic region for Austria-Hungary for many reasons. First of all the configuration of the ground made military takeover very difficult, the proximity to the border of Montenegro and traditional rebelliousness of its inhabitants, particularly those of Serbian origin, posed for Austria-Hungary no petty problem, which became obvious soon after the occupation. Furthermore, the oppositional fight for ecclesiastical-educational autonomy broke out exactly in Herzegovina, and the most prominent and radical opponents to the Austro-Hungarian occupational authorities throughout its rule came from Herzegovina. For all these reasons immediately after Vidovdan Assassination in 1914, Serbian people in Herzegovina were subjected to torture of the Austro-Hungarian government administration, but also of Muslim and Roman-Catholic elements loyal to the Austro-Hungarian authorities. With the outbreak of the First World War this campaign of terror, aimed most of all against clergy and intelligentsia as well as the rest of the people, reached its culmination. Murders, looting, arson, taking of hostages, persecution, trials and concentration camps became the tragic everyday life of Serbian people in Herzegovina during the First World War, especially in its first year.
DANILO ŠARENAC, PH.D.
Institute for the Newer History, Belgrade, Serbia
The Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Pacifism Movement in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The losses that the states involved in the First World War suffered brought about the appearance of a number of new phenomena in the post-war society. Many of them were often quite contradictory, like the simultaneous emergence of fascism and the rise of pacifism in Europe. In the winner countries, among which was the newly-founded Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the absence of winner’s euphoria was evident. Instead of that the feeling of sorrow was a constant of the society between the two World Wars. The rise of spiritualistic movement, as well as the revival of pacifism can be listed as the examples of the post-war trauma. The both phenomena were recorded on the territory of the former Kingdom of Serbia. The Serbian Orthodox Church was the natural allay of the Pacifists led by the Belgrade professor Živojin Perić in the Kingdom of SCS. During the first part of the twenties among the topics which appeared in the church lectures, newspapers articles, but also in occasional commemorative speeches, the prominent place belonged to the advocating of the idea of peace and the condemnation of war. After 1918 the situation once again showed the great possibilities of religion in a fight for the propagation of peace. However, the Pacifist movement lost its strength by the middle of the second decade of the century.
IGNATIJE (MARKOVIC)
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
The Mission of the Serbian Church Abroad,
from the Balkan Wars to the Great War
From the Balkan Wars to the Great War the Serbian Church sent abroad all its missions in order to explain the reasons of the liberation fight Serbian people got involved in, as well as to ask Serbian allies to support that fight and to organize Serbian people in the diaspora. Starting from Metropolitan Dimitrije`s mission in Russia in 1913, hieromonk Nikolai Velimirovich was sent to the mission in America and England from 1915 to 1919. Hieromonk Josif Cvijović was sent to Bizerte and Russia. He also organized the work of St. Sava Seminary in England and managed it as a representative of the rector. Bishop Varnava of Veles and Debar was sent to Russia, Finland, Sweden, England, France, Italy.
ĐORĐE DURIC, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Russian Diplomats in Serbia on the
Eve and during the First World War
On the eve and during the First World War the influence of Russian diplomacy in Serbia was very significant. It was based on the fact that at the time Imperial Russia was the support and the protector of Serbia in its confrontation with Austria, and, after the war broke out, its most confidant allay. After the defeat in the Annexation Crisis (1908/1909) Russia formulated its new politics with “the return to the Balkans” as its motto. The contribution to this politics was given by Russian diplomats in Serbia from 1909 to 1918. The most prominent among them were Nikolay Herikovich Hartvig, deputy, Vasily Nikolaevich Strandman, First Secretary of Russian Embassy, and, after Hartvig’s sudden death, charge d’affaires as well, Victor Alexeyevich Artamonov, military attache and Prince Grigory Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, deputy. Their personalities were different by nature, and they performed different tasks but, as the representatives of allied Russia they earned special trust of the representatives of the Serbian court and government and enjoyed the public favour. Although their work was the topic of many historiographic papers and contemporary press, and despite the fact that all of them, except Hartvig, left their memoirs, up to now their work in Serbia was not thoroughly examined and analysed in a form of a monography.
VASILY IRINARKHOVICH ULYANOVSKY, PH.D.
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev, Ukraine
“The War Jubilee” of Kiev Theological
Academy and the Scientific
Projects of Fyodor Titov
The topic of this paper is the preparation and celebration of the Tercentenary of Kiev Theological Academy in 1915. The “war jubilee” stressed the fact that only peace and peace relations through intellectual-spiritual structures are productive for mankind. The purpose of these relations is to educate the believers in Christian tradition of love and to educate the future “educators” (teachers and spiritual elders) of almost all parts of Eastern Christendom. The personified aspect of this topic will be proto-presbyter, professor Fyodor (Teodor) Ivanovich Titov, the author of the scientific projects organized on the occasion of Academy jubilee, known in Serbia as the founder and longtime professor of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade. The history of this spiritual school and one of its authoritative entrepreneurs provides insight in the “war time” from spiritual-intellectual point of view. Apart from that, the paper actualizes the issues of “historical past”, “historical memory” and the very “places of remembrance” in wartime, as one of the factors of the emphasis of patriotic aspects, indestructible richness of the past and the importance of the spiritual-intellectual sphere for our time, among others in the evil times of war. The war not only literally knocked at the door of Kiev Theological Academy, it stepped into it and its academic life. All these processes left their distinctive mark in the life and work of one of the members of the academic community – the one who made probably the greatest effort to prepare and organize the “Military Jubilee” of his Academy, but who at the same time found himself on the front line with a special state mission – Fyodor Titov.
ALEKSANDAR RAKOVIC, PH.D.
Institute for the Newer History of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
The Desecration of the Cathedral Church
of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in
Šabac and the Suffering of the Serbian
People Captured in It (1914)
Based on the reports and testimonies of foreign experts and correspondents of the press of the time and on literature this paper discusses the desecrating of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Šabac and the suffering of the Serbian people captured in the church, its altar, and church yard and exposed to the torture of Austro-Hungarian soldiers from August to December 1914.
GORAN T. VASIN, PH.D.
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
The Metropolis of Karlovci
in the First World War
The position of the Serbian population in Austria-Hungary since the Assassination in Sarajevo was very poor. Arrests, persecutions, calls for lynching, and deprivation of many civil and legal rights were just a part of a pressure that characterized the legal and political position of the Serbs in the Monarchy. The Serbian Orthodox Church was under a special pressure which was manifested through internment and arrests of priests and seminarians but also through requisition of property. The Episcopate of the Metropolis of Karlovci was put in a position 'between the hammer and the anvil' with a task of defending the Church and the Serbs in the Monarchy in general, under the heavy pressure of war turmoil.
DALIBOR PETROVIC, TH.D.
Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of East Sarajevo,
Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina
Orthodoxy in the Triangle of Russia,
Austria-Hungary and Turkey in the Light
of the Turmoil of the First World War
When speaking about the Orthodox World before, during, and after the First World War one is confronted with a dilemma how to characterize this period. The specific problem of reflecting on the place and influence of Orthodoxy on the international social scene is manifested in the very fast change of social and political systems the majority of Orthodox population lived and worked in. From a historical point of view and from a temporal distance of a century these relations could be studied from many different angles depending on political, national, ideological and religious standpoints of a researcher, and the results can often be diametrically different. The reason for this complexity in approaching the subject is perhaps to be found in a crucial fact that the Orthodox world was divided between three culturally, religiously, sociologically, economically and militarily confronted empires. The rest of the Orthodox population was mainly under the constant influence of one of these three empires. Each one of them was trying to solve the issue of Orthodoxy and Orthodox nations on a global scale. Simultaneously, the Orthodox Church was lucky or perhaps unlucky enough to be accepted as an official state religion in one of these three empires. The other two empires treated Orthodoxy as a barely tolerated religion. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire wanted to convert their Orthodox vassals to the religion preferred by the state, which was the foundation for the ethical and legal relations of their social and political system. In addition to these three empires, there were also other states in Europe and America which were interested in creating the interstate relations on a global scale. The political interest of Great Britain, Germany and the USA was mainly intertwined with the interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia. In these relations the Ottoman Empire was often used for the obstruction of the strategic goals of Russia – its gaining a direct access to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as for more forceful penetration of Germany in the East.
RADOVAN PILIPOVIC, TH.M.
Serbian Orthodox Church Archive, Belgrade, Serbia
On the Archival Heritage of the
Serbian Orthodox Church from the Time
of the First World War (1914–1918)
– the Funds and Collections of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
Archive in Belgrade
This paper, through archivistic and historiographic approach, gives the description of the archival materials of the Metropolitante of Belgrade and other dioceses of the Kingdom of Serbia during the period of 1914–1918. The preserved archival materials originate from the operations of central administrative bodies and authorities of the Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Serbia. Created in the wartime, they survived damage and destruction unlike other archival funds in the country, but up to now they were neglected and unused for the scientific purposes. The contemporary Church reports speak about a negative attitude of the enemy towards, not only archival materials, but other Church property, valuables, clergy and Serbian people. Among the funds and collections of the Serbian Orthodox Church Archive the one most closely related the First World War period was the Metropolitante of Belgrade Consistory Fund i.e. the “Spiritual Court” which, together with the Metropolitan’s Office and the Hierarchal Synod, bore the weight and responsibility of the Church administration. Archival documents point out to the problems of the Church life in the wartime, and they mostly refer to the charitable activity of the Church intended for refugees and the sick. Created in a social context of the war effort and suffering, these documents represent a source of knowledge for numerous aspects of life of the Serbian Church and nation during the period of the First World War.
DRAGOMIR BONDŽIC, PH.D.
Institute for the Newer History, Belgrade, Serbia
Russian Refugees – the Professors of the
Faculty of Orthodox Theology in
Belgrade after the First World War
The significant consequences of the First World War were the October Revolution of the 1917 and the Civil War in Russia, which forced into emigration approximately two million Russian citizens, the enemies of the Bolshevik regime. At the beginning of 1920s a large number of Russian refugees came to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, especially to its eastern part. Among them there was a significant number of doctors, teachers, engineers, priests, university professors, etc. Several theology professors were involved in the process of establishing the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade in 1920, and some of them were working at the Faculty during the period between the two wars. They made a significant contribution to Faculty's life as well as to the development of its theological thought and educational program. Among those who worked for the longest period of time at the Faculty were Alexander Dobroklonsky and Theodore Titov, while Mikhail Georgievsky, Alexander Rozhdestvensky and Nikolai Globokovsky worked for a shorter period. Vikenty Fradinsky graduated at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade, where he became a Teaching Fellow and later a Professor. The professors of other Faculties were occasionally engaged in teaching at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology. This paper represents a research, based on archival material and relevant literature, of the arrival of the professors of theology from Russia in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, as well as their engagement with the establishment of the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade and their work in its educational process.
