Image from PBS
That proverb — “He who does not know how to take revenge will never be admitted into paradise” — whether authentically proverbial or part of nationalist rhetorical tradition, encapsulates a mentality in which revenge is moralized and sacralized. When revenge is elevated from a human impulse into a sacred duty, it ceases to be merely personal and becomes political theology.
Revenge as Political Doctrine
In the Serbian irredentist tradition of the 19th and early 20th centuries, revenge became deeply embedded in national mythology. The memory of the Battle of Kosovo was transformed into a civilizational wound, and the idea of osveta Kosova (“revenge for Kosovo”) became a mobilizing principle.
This was not simply remembrance. It was weaponized memory.
The medieval defeat was recast as an eternal grievance, passed through generations, creating a political culture where historical humiliation justified future violence.
Narcissism of Historical Victimhood
Collective narcissism often operates through the belief that one’s nation is uniquely righteous yet perpetually betrayed. In this framework:
- one’s suffering is absolute
- others’ suffering is minimized
- violence becomes restorative rather than criminal
This was particularly visible among sections of the Serbian nationalist elite, where the nation was imagined as a perpetual martyr. The paradox of narcissistic victimhood is that it allows aggression while preserving self-perception as morally pure.
Revenge, then, is not seen as hatred—but as justice.
The Role of Clergy
Elements of the Serbian Orthodox Church historically reinforced this mentality by sanctifying national suffering and framing political conflicts in eschatological terms: sacred land, sacred blood, sacred betrayal.
When religion merges with ethnonationalism:
sin becomes treason,
forgiveness becomes weakness,
revenge becomes virtue.
This fusion creates a moral system where violence can be spiritually legitimized.
Irredentism and Myth
The Serbian expansionist projects of the 19th century (especially articulated in Načertanije) depended heavily on mythic historical continuity—the idea that medieval Serbian imperial space had to be “restored.”
Such restorationist politics often rely on revenge narratives:
they took what was ours,
history wronged us,
we must correct history.
This is classic irredentist psychology.
From Myth to Violence
The danger of revenge-centered nationalism is that it transforms neighbors into historical obstacles. In the Balkans, this repeatedly manifested in campaigns of ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation, and demographic engineering, justified as historical correction.
The logic is simple and terrifying:
if history wounded us,
violence heals us.
Conclusion
A civilization built on revenge remains psychologically captive to its past. Revenge nationalism is fundamentally narcissistic because it centers the self—national self, ethnic self, sacred self—as the sole bearer of truth and justice.
Healthy historical memory seeks understanding.
Pathological historical memory seeks repayment.
And once revenge is sanctified, cruelty becomes easy to rationalize.
Sources
Chicago Style (Notes and Bibliography):
Judah, Tim. The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
Ramet, Sabrina P. Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević. 4th ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2002.
Di Lellio, Anna, ed. The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009.
Duijzings, Ger. Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Todorova, Maria. Imagining the Balkans. Updated ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Banac, Ivo. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Bieber, Florian. Serbian Nationalism from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević. London: Routledge, 2002.
