The project “The Multiethnic State and National Identities: the Serbian Experience in the 20th Century – SERBIE20” is supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, program IDEAS (Project No. 7731836).

This project is theoretically grounded in contemporary, albeit conflicting theories regarding the formation of nations and the concepts of national identity. The objective of the project is to highlight key characteristics and factors that contributed to the development of Serbian national identity within the context of the Yugoslav state during the 20th century.

On a conceptual level, the starting point of the Project proposal is an observation by Anthony Smith, who maintains that “national identity and nation are complex constructs composed of a number of interrelated components: ethnic, cultural, economic, and legal-policy.” According to Smith, “they signify bonds of solidarity among members of communities united by shared memories, myths, and traditions. Conceptually, the nation has come to blend two sets of dimensions, the one civic and territorial and the other ethnic and genealogical, in varying proportions in particular cases.” The Project’s main goal is to conduct an extensive study of these elements, components and facets of national identity formation (ethnicity, ideologies, language, religion, elites, warfare, perception of otherness, etc.).

In the 20th century the Serbian nation developed mostly within the framework of Yugoslavia, through different concepts of statehood for the South Slavic nations. This trajectory involved a full range of political breakups and discontinuities. Yugoslavia was a conglomerate of similar nations and languages with different cultural and religious backgrounds and pre-history. In its condensed territorial space, where enormous differences were accumulated, they included a legacy of four different cultural and civilizational areas: Byzantine, Central-European, Mediterranean, and Islamic. Building a Serbian nationhood represented a project of utmost importance for the intellectuals and politicians. The desire to define what is truly “Serbian” or “Yugoslav” ran from drawing up borders and population resettlement (and migrations), to influencing cultural patterns and education policy. The attitude of the state toward the national identities differed in pre-war and post-war Yugoslavia. It extended from the standpoint that the national issue of all South Slavic nations would be solved and fulfilled in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to finding its solution in creation a “new socialist man” – a category that was based on the assumption that problems of both, class and nationhood, had been resolved in Communist Yugoslavia.

Throughout its existence Yugoslavia was a “testing ground” for almost all the known political and social systems of the 20th century. Yugoslavism existed only within an authoritarian, albeit continuously unstable political framework. How stable was the notion of ethnicity within such an unstable state?

Focusing on the Serbian experience, the Project explores it through the various aspects of national identity. It rests on previous research experience of team members in the projects dealing with the development of Serbian society in the 20th century through the relationship between democracy and dictatorship, conflicts and crises in Serbia and the region during the 19th and 20th centuries, integration and modernisation of Serbia in the 20th century, tradition and historical legacy as aspects of national identity, the relationship between religion and ideology and other topics related to collective identity.

The Project’s main objectives are to improve the relevance, quality, innovativeness, and originality of historical research of the complex relations and interactions between national identity and the multi-ethnic state, regarding the Serbian experience in the 20th century. These results will be presented to the Serbian and international academia and wider audience alike in forms of scholarly publications, public lectures and workshops, online collections of authentic sources and documents, and relevant visual presentations.

Serbian society nurtures very strong notions of its experience in the Yugoslav state, ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative, as this topic leaves no one indifferent or unconcerned. Re-evaluating these stances in the light of scholarly research and open debate on the basis of reliable knowledge, critical thinking, and comparative examples is crucial. The Project will show that identity crisis is not just a problem of our times, but a continuing process. The results should help all individuals to understand and evaluate their political, national or/ ethnic self-determination in a wider historical and social and democratic context. Therefore, the Project aims to reach not only the international scientific community via scholarly publications, but also to spread its research results among the broader public by organizing public lectures, workshops, and presentations via website and selected social networks.

Although the Project is not intended to produce a policy document, public policy stands to benefit from its research findings. The Serbian experience with multi-ethnic identities is ongoing, just as is its candidacy for EU membership. Internally, Serbia is also a multinational and multicultural country, and is surrounded by countries with which it used to share statehood. Learning about those challenges of living together and their ramifications for collective identity would be the Project’s most important indirect contribution.

Such versatile project results will be adjustable to integration into teaching process about the multi-ethnic state and national identity, both in Serbia and abroad. Based on a case study of Serbian experience in the 20th century, this Project will significantly strengthen the excellence and relevance of scholarly research in the field of social sciences and humanities and introduce novel concepts and approaches, as well as mechanisms to accelerate an exchange of innovative ideas and activities in the area of contemporary history research. The Project’s findings on the dilemmas of the Serbian experience in the 20th century would also aim to inform policy making and public debate about national identity in the process of European construction in the 21st century.