Serbia is one of the six federal republics which constituted the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (created after WW II) until its disintegration in the early 1900s. The population of Serbia totals about 10 million, but there are many Serbs living abroad. One of the largest Serbian-American communities in the U.S. is in Chicago. Thirty years ago, the Serbian community in the greater Chicago area contributed $30,000 to the University of Illinois to establish a Serbian Studies Program at UIC.

Serbia is located on the Balkan Peninsula, bordering Romania and Bulgaria in the East, Macedonia and Albania in the South, Adriatic Sea along the Montenegro Coast, Hungary in the North, and Bosnia and Croatia in the West. The entire population speaks the Serbian/Croatian language with some dialectal variations.

The first Serbian state was established in the 10th century in the Rashka region, and it was during that time that Christianization of the Serbs took place. Serbia reached its Golden Age in the Middle Ages under the rule of the powerful Nemanya Dynasty (ca. 1160’s-1371), when its borders encompassed many regions taken away from the Byzantium (parts of Bulgaria, Bosnia, Epirus, and so on). Proclaimed a kingdom in 1217, with an autonomous Serbian Orthodox Church (acquired in 1219), Serbia became an empire during the rule of Tsar Dushan the Powerful (1345). In the two centuries of the Nemanyas’ rule, a series of Serbian medieval biographies were written, many beautiful churches and monasteries were founded by the members of the ruling dynasty and powerful feudal lords. The walls of the churches were covered with great frescoes which survived centuries of abuse and destruction, thanks to careful restoration after the Second World War. In 1459 Serbian territories fell under the Turkish rule and would remain under that rule until the 19th century. With the first Serbian uprising against the Turks in 1804 the struggle for independence began and it lasted until 1878 when at the congress in Vienna, Serbia was officially proclaimed an independent state. In 1882, under the rule of Milan Obrenovic, Serbia was proclaimed kingdom once again after the middle ages. In 1903 in a coup d’etat, the Obrenovic dynasty was ousted and King Peter I Karageorgevich was brought to the throne. After WWI, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia were united into a kingdom eventually named Yugoslavia (The Land of Southern Slavs) under the Karageorgevich Dynasty. This dynasty ruled until 1941, when the Germans bombed Belgrade and occupied the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

During the war, Serbian General Draza Mihailovic organized guerilla fighters called chetniks, who fought with German occupiers and were supported by the Western allies until 1943, when, in an effort to make it good with the Soviet Union, they turned their backs to Draza Mihailovic’s forces and upon Stalin’s urging lent their support to Tito and his communist guerillas, called partisans. At the end of the war, in 1945, so called “free” elections were held for the Yugloslav people to choose between the monarchy under King Peter II in exile in London, U,K. and a federal republic of Yugoslav peoples which would be ruled by Marshal Tito, whose partisans were guarding the polling places. Tito was elected by “the free will of people” over the Royalist Prime Minister Subasic. The communist rule began and would last until 1989, when Yugoslavia began to disintegrate. Today, five small independent states (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia) are all that is left of the former federal republic of Yugoslavia.

In spite of all the trials and tribulations suffered by the Serbs in the course of their 1000 year long history, they continuously remained creative in the fields of literature, both written and oral, arts, religious architecture, music, and other aspects of cultural and intellectual life.

Among the famous Serbian American scientists and discoverers, we count Nikola Tesla and Mihailo (or Michael) Pupin. Many Serbian-American University professors, especially those who emigrated to the U.S. after WW II, have contributed to American higher education by their teaching, scientific and scholarly research and publications. They founded The North-American Society for Serbian Studies (NASSS) in 1978, which was headquartered for over 10 year at our University with Prof. Biljana Sljivic-Simsic as its Secretary-Treasurer from 1978-1984, and its President from 1984-86. The NASSS journal, Serbian Studies, was edited by Professor Emeritus Nicholas Moravcevich of our department from 1979-1993. The Society has now grown to several hundred members and it continues to spread knowledge about Serbia and its culture in the U.S. and Canada.

The Serbian Program at UIC offers both undergraduate and graduate courses in Serbian language and literature. Graduate studies lead toward either an M.A.or a Ph.D. degree in Serbian Studies. Undergraduates can fulfill foreign language, general education, and foreign culture requirements in our courses.