Question by JMLL: Why are Serbians pro-Russian?
I looked up many sites about whats happening in South Eastern Europe and many Serbs seem to look up on Russia.
Personally I am an American and I have nothing against Serbians (or anyone for that matter) but I once talked to a Russian Friend (from Russia) and She considers Serbians as (I quote) “Russian wannabes who can’t think for themselves or make their own decisions”. She’s also against Serbia because of their crimes against Albanians and Bosnians. She also said “Serbs are 100% dependent on Russia”.
I am not negative torwards Serbs or Albanians and I hope they can sort this out and find a peaceful way out of their hatred to each other.
I also have nothing against Russia and I actually have a good point of view torwards Russia.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Françoise ░
They’d rather be pro-Russian than pro-Western
Answer by F-4 Commandos right wing Cuban
Its pretty clear why they are pro Russian —US NATO forces messed them up bad in Kosovo
20/20 hindsight i think we should have let the EU deal with that problem
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Ljuti Krajisnik says
That’s because they share the same origin and faith. Due to that fact the 2 nations have maintained their relationship ever since. Russia has also backed them in every single conflict they participated in and have waged through out history regardless if it was right or wrong. So there is no surprise that most Serbs would most likely be pro-Russian.
I see that a couple Serbs here can’t hack seeing a fellow countryman of theirs (aca) speaking the truth. They’d want every Serbian citizen to be cold-blooded freaks like themselves.
A criminal or murderer always likes to view himself as the victim and tries to excuse the horrible actions he commits. Slusaj momci quit with the ‘all sides committed the same level of war crimes’ bullsh-t. If anybody wants to know the truth of the matter the statistics are right there. You’re word really counts for nothing.
That’s another characteristic many Serbs have in common with their Russian relatives. The extent of their barbarity and greed. The Serbian government had the nerve to wage a war on a number of states which shouldn’t of ever happened. All it did was bring pain and suffering. Just because us Bosnians wanted independence from a Serbian controlled country. Don’t talk about the constitution because it was the Serbs that actually broke it. Not anybody else as you like to claim. You Serbs know well what I’m getting at.
(As for the Albanians Aeou you know very well that the oppression was existent well before the Resistance groups started forming. That’s the whole reason to their formation you idiot)
Chechens suffered from the exact same problem in their homeland trying to achieve freedom against the Russians. It’s sad that these guys here like to take pride in matters like that. Causing suffering on others.
Fortunately you can still find hope through honest Serbs like (Aca). These are the only type of people that peaceful relations and mutual respect can be achieved. Much respect to you mate. I only hope more Serbs follow your lead in the near future.
dragan says
mean you muslims in Bosnia wanted an independent country as almost half of the population,the Serbs there in Bosnia didnt? And then you cry how Serbs are murderers and what sick muslim lies you wrote,couldnt read all the BS. You thought you muslims can run the country as you like,shot the Serb dead on the wedding of his son in Sarajevo,first victim Serb,telling all of them in Bosnia there is no place for them there,you have done everything to start the war,and at the end you muslim ended up with some 30% of Bosnia territory so I understand why you cry now.Maybe you should have thought about the peace and peaceful relations before your Alija started his holy muslim war
LionA says
The ‘orthodox axis’?
jo jo says
Your russian friend (probably not even a true russian) is a moron. They have a similar problem with chechens in their country like serbs do with albanians. Russians like serbs, vice versa. Your friend does not represent the majority of russians by any means.
MP says
Serbs like Russia for two major reasons:
1.) Culture, heritage, religion. Serbs and Russians both have Slavic roots, speak Slavic languages, use the Cyrillic alphabet, are Orthodox Christians, and are cultural descendants of Byzantine civilization. Serbs look upon Russians as “big brothers” and as a model civilization, and they see much of themselves in the characters described in Dostoevsky’s novels, or they hear tunes similar to their own folk songs in the music of Tchaikovsky, etc.
2.) Political and historical. Russia helped Serbia liberate itself from the Turks. Many times in the 1800s Russian volunteers came to Serbia to help them, particularly in the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war. After that, Russia supported Serbs throughout the crisis with Austria, particularly when Austria annexed Bosnia. Russia supported Serbia during WWI as well. Had Russia stayed out of the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria would have destroyed Serbia and who knows how many people would have been killed. As it was, around 1/4 of the Serb population died in WWI and if Germany had not been defeated it may have been even more. Then in WWII, the Russians liberated Eastern Europe and stopped the Nazi machine. If the Nazis had remained in power for a few more years, its very likely that many more hundreds of thousands of Serbs would have been murdered by the Ustase Croats/Muslims in the Independent State of Croatia. So, Russians saved Serbs from more suffering at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators by accelerating the conclusion of WWII. Then in the 1990s, Russians, Greeks, and a few other peoples were among those who did not point the finger of condemnation at Serbs and demonized them as the West and the Muslim world did. Russians lent support when they could to the Serbs in the 1990s (not as much as historically, but Russia was in very bad shape anyway).
As for your Russian friend, she is probably not aware of the many atrocities perpetrated over Serbs in the 1990s. I make no excuse for atrocities by Serbs, but if more people were informed of the *whole* truth, they would not portray Serbs as monsters, rapists, Nazis, etc. Serbs were both victims and victimizers, just like Croats, Muslims, and Albanians in these wars. The fact that 2/3 of Croatian and Kosovo Serbs have been ethnically cleansed out of Croatia and Kosovo, and that half of Bosnia has had it’s 400,000 Serbs ethnically cleansed (I’m talking about the Muslim-Croat Federation), is testament to the fact that Serbs were victims of atrocities, too.
$oCC3R MaNiaC says
Exactly, you have nothing against them ,and only want a peaceful resolution….yet, they’ll blame the West for their problem’s.
To answer your question Russia is considered the big dog in Eastern Europe, and spares no expense on extending its influence on other countries.
MP- that is such a BullS*it # 400,000 there weren’t even that many who died in the war overall, but don’t get me wrong everyone is a victim in war, its just a matter of who is doing the attacking, and who is defending themselves.
Mikey says
whoever you talked to was not a real russian, most likely a chechen
only a muslim could possibly have sympathy for albos and the bosnian turks
by the way you cannot be a muslim and a russian, just like you can’t be a muslim and a serb
if you convert you’re a traitor and all of us will treat you like one
russians love serbia, just like we serbs love russia
we always have
its pan-slavism
it’s pan-orthodoxy
we’ve been military allies in every war since overthrowing the turks
you will never hear a real russian ( if you aren’t of rus blood and orthodox faith you’re not russian) say bad things about serbs, just like you’ll never hear a serb bad mouth russians or greeks
you will never hear a real russian or serb have sympathy for albanians
just like you’ll never hear a real serb or russian have sympathy for chechens
americans are completely ignorant of the entire world except things that happen in america
I know I was born and raised in los angeles
Zoran says
I wished more people thought like you because Westerners have been brainwashed about what really happened and there are some good Albanians, Croatians, Bosniaks, and Slovenes who were about peace and pro Serb as well because of their Serbian roots that they aren’t ashamed of as well as Serbian Americans like myself. Many muslims and Croats helped us out during the war. Russia is Serbias biggest supporter. Obviously your Russian friend needs a brain transplant and Aca needs to figure out what side he’s on. Or shall I say she since it might be a Serbophobe!
Edit@Aeiou-i I agree with you my friend. We might have a Iranian imposter in the ranks posing as a Serbian/Kosovar supporter. Something definately stinks in Denver.
IRome says
It’s a tug-of-war of geopolitics, resources,
and racism between Russia and NATO.
aeiou_i says
I notice you ask many questions about ex Yugoslavia 🙂
We Serbs have always rather been pro western than looking toward Russia. The reasons we like Russians are historical, not cultural. I remember when I was a kid, I used to like America and had no idea about anything of Russia. The Soviet Union was a very closed country. After the involvement of USA in the destruction of Serbs in Yugoslavia, many people started hating USA and turning toward the Russians. I personally hate the USA consumistic culture, the USA government and its aggressive foreign policy, though not its people. Likewise, I am aware of hos savage the Russians have been and I don’t really like them more than I like anyone else. At least, with the Russians I can share the same feeling I have toward USA and Germany.
Your Russian friend is very ignorant and immature. Russia has strategic political interests in keeping Serbia along. Not by chance has Serbia been the last country in Europe looking possitive toward Russia (at least half of our population here). We do have slavic ties, although genetically not really since Southern Slaves have mixed with the local tribes when settling around, but politics works on higher level.. The Poles also have slavic ties and look how their relationship with the Russians has been. Tell your Russian friend that Albanians and Bosnians not just also committed crimes upon Serbs, but they started the war in both cases and got what they wanted, having Germany and USA behind them. Lets not forget the religious element either. Religion is not the predominant reason, but is a factor which has risen on political level and has its share of cake.
Albanians and Serbs can never sort things with each other. Albanians are a very closed social group focused on their business. They can be good people and even a better friend than any Serb could ever be, but watch out when they start gathering… I don’t think I could ever look possitive toward Albanians after they had brought death and destruction to my country invocing a force which is located far beyond neighborhood, along with 15 tons of depleted uranium which is even spread over my local hill. People are getting cancer because of it. We can make new friends and new enemies in the future, but that cancer will stay the next 4.5 billion years.
As you can see from the answer of Aca, Serbs are divided over Kosovo. That is the sad reality of us Serbs here. We have always been divided over anything. For a Serb to support the independence of Kosovo is idiot logic, unless one is promised a scholarship in USA or something like that.. USA spends tons of money to create the picture toward Kosovo Aca has – that “since we are already being raped, we could at least enjoy it”. If Serbia gives away Kosovo, you think the surrounding countries will be grateful and hugging? No, they will realized that Serbia is weak and come for more land, like vultures do. That is how elementary school politics works, the one Aca lacks. You don’t ever just give something away when someone takes it from you. Perhaps Aca thinks that by giving away Kosovo he will have a better life, with a car and house on credit, lol. Aca forgets to tell us that the Serb government oppression in Kosovo was due to the Albanian rise of terrorist activity which found coordination with NATO awaiting the chance to jump in and build the military base Camp Bondsteel. Every single battle in this world has been fought for land and resources, and well, sometimes over women 🙂
Edit:
I bet Aca is also one of those who favored the Serb resolution over Srebrenica saying that it was a genocide.
Aca, our Palestian loving fellow who opened his/her account a short while ago, might in fact be our well known Iranian friend Katica.
Aca says
The reason why Russia is a popular nation here in Serbia is the fact Russia supports Serbia in the UN on the issue of Kosovo. Basically, Kosovo used to be a Serbian autonomous province with Albanian ethnic majority, but during the nineties, as a result of the government oppression, Kosovar Albanians started an armed rebellion. War broke out, NATO intervened and pushed Serbian forces out. Ten years later, Kosovo declared independence because 0% of Albanians wanted to be an autonomous province of the country that oppressed them – fair enough.
Russia, of course doesn’t like it when NATO has any influence anywhere, so it opposed the NATO intervention (1999) and now it opposes the independence of Kosovo – for example it says it will veto any UN Security Council resolution that states that Kosovo is no longer part of Serbia. Since huge majority of Serbs still consider Kosovo part of Serbian territory, the Russian actions usually face approval here in Serbia.
This is the reason why most Serbs are pro-Russian today. You should not make generalized conclusions by saying that Serbs are pro-Russian because both peoples are Slavic. Twenty years ago, there was a war between Serbia and Croatia – another Slavic nation and some people still don’t really like Croats. It’s not about being an Orthodox Christian either (Orthodox is here just the name of the religious affiliation, it doesn’t mean hardcore Christian), because you don’t see some sort of universal sympathy towards each and every Orthodox Christian country in the world.
OK, by now you might have figured out that I myself might just not be pro-Russian. Personally, I support the independence of Kosovo (unlike 95% of Serbs) and I don’t think Russia is doing a good job by opposing it. Also, several war criminals from Serbia sought refugee status in Russia and they got it, thus avoiding prosecution in Serbia. Also, Russia is not really a model country when it comes to democracy and human rights, so I don’t think looking up to them is doing us a favor.
As for what your friend said about Serbs being “Russian wannabes” and “completely dependent on Russia”, that’s ridiculous and racist. Serbia is trying to become a member of the European Union (it could happen in ten years), so this is the goal of Serbian foreign policy, no one in Serbia has ever considered Russia some sort of an alternative to the European integration. Foreign trade with Russia is growing but the EU and the neighboring countries are still Serbian main trade partners, and this situation will not change. There is no dependency on Russia, unless you think that the fact that Russia supports Serbia on the issue of Kosovo is a matter of life and death and that people in Serbia should be eternally grateful to Russia for this.
I’ll just tell you two more things: None of my friends are pro-Russian, they consider themselves pro-American or pro-EU. And the other thing, although I am not pro-Russian, I don’t hate Russian people. In fact, I speak their language, I like some of their bands and my favorite writer is a Russian – Viktor Pelevin!
Joel W says
Russians are considered Slavic. Serbians are considered Slavic. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Russia had taken the role of the leader and protector of the Slavic people and that includes most of the area you call South Eastern Europe. To understand the movement of the tribes during the period just before the fall of the Roman Empire, you would have to do a huge amount of history, but if you can read about the fall of the Roman Empire and the Nomadic Tribes that were entering the Italian Peninsula, you will understand how the ethnic distribution happened.
1900 now, and the key to European success was colonization. (It was not actually, but the Europeans thought that it was and in effect, they wanted land mass that equaled China and the United States as well as the growing South American states. Keep in mind a great deal of the Russian Land Mass is north of the Arctic Circle. But also look at a map and you will see that the Nation of Serbia could have provided warm water ports to Russia that would have enabled her to move to the business of colonizing unclaimed African Land areas. Russia would have been in the colonizing game full bore with that warm water port. Why that never worked out is a very big chunk of history and I won’t go there.
1914 now. Russia was playing the Serbs for the port for their Navy, and the Serbs were very angry with the Austria which dominated Serbia which the Russian played on. (Look up the Austro-Hungarian Empire) An Austrian Prince went to visit Serbia and was assassinated. (Archduke Fernand and I didn’t spell his name correctly.) Austria demanded staggering reparations for the Murder of their Prince and the Serbs said poo. Austria began mobilizing for war. Russia stepped in as the protector of the Serbs, and said stop your threats or we will join Serbia in a war against you. They did not, and Russia mobilized. German was watching all of this and was trying hard to get it stopped. When Russia began mobilizing, the Germans gave them a few days to stop.. they did not, and Germany began mobilizing. France had a treaty with Russia to contain Germany, and France began mobilizing in support of Russia. Britain had a treaty with France, and began mobilizing in support of France.
The First World War began. The Serbs had abused the Albanian for a long time before the First World War. After the war, the Albanians were given their freedom I believe, and the fight between the Albanians and Serbians took new dimensions.
Serbia was a significant power for a very long time. You may want to read a Britannica article on the matter of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800rds.
Good luck!
Rev-'em-up-Ray-Gun says
Well, this type of question comes up often.
Like many in the West expect the Iraqis to hate Iran.
Of course, we in the West won’t ever have to live next door to Iran, nor will we have to live next door to Russia.
Enzyte Bob's Impotent Clone says
someone has to be