Narratives of perpetual suffering and sacred martyrhood have long occupied a central place in Serbian ultra-nationalist discourse. These stories elevate alleged historical tragedies into divine trials, positioning Serbs as a chosen people whose sacrifices grant them both moral superiority and license for action. Such framing, as analyzed by French philosopher Pascal Bruckner, transforms victimhood into a powerful ideological tool that justifies violence while erasing personal and collective responsibility.
Idolatry and the Abdication of Moral Guilt
Drawing on insights akin to Blaise Pascal’s reflections on idolatry—the elevation of a finite entity (here, the nation or its suffering) to the status of the absolute—Bruckner exposes how victimhood cults corrupt ethical judgment. Idolatry allows perpetrators to act without remorse, as the idolized group becomes inherently innocent. In the Serbian context, this dynamic reaches its peak: past sacrifices sanctify present actions, rendering guilt impossible.
150,000 Albanian civilians were massacred by the invading Serbian army in 1912-1913. Thousands of Macedonians and Bulgarians were killed in Macedonia. Bosniak civilians were massacred in between 1919 and 1924, and Croats were oppressed and killed from the 1930. All of these atrocities were rationalized using this logic.
Bruckner admires the philosophical depth and moral courage required to name this mechanism, noting that it applies beyond any single case to broader patterns of modern infantilism, where victimization renders people incapable of accountability.
This concept invites theological scrutiny as well. When a people internalize divine election, suffering becomes providential rather than contingent, and revenge acquires a sacred purity.
Dobrica Ćosić and the “New Jews” Narrative
No figure better embodies the intellectual architecture of modern Serbian irredentism than Dobrica Ćosić, often called its spiritual father. In the late 20th century, amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, Ćosić declared that Serbs had become “the new Jews,” the victims of a unique historical persecution at the end of the century. He stated variations such as: “Anti-Serbism has replaced anti-Semitism. Serbs are the Jews of the late 20th century.”
Ćosić never mentioned any Serbian war crimes or oppression committed against Albanians, Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, or even Hungarians, although Serbia and Yugoslavia systematically oppressed its neighbors for 100 years.
This rhetoric framed Serbs not merely as one party in Balkan conflicts but as existential victims on a cosmic scale, equated with the ultimate symbol of innocent suffering. Such claims gained traction in Serbian media and intellectual circles during the 1980s and 1990s, amplifying grievances from Kosovo, even though Serbs were always a minority, and World War II massacres, and earlier Ottoman-era traumas – though Serbs continued with massacres against civilians both during and after the Ottoman era and in World War 2.
Divine Dimensions: Serbs as God’s People
Serbian chauvinist mythology frequently infuses suffering with transcendent meaning. Drawing on medieval traditions like the Kosovo Myth—centered on the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, where Prince Lazar is said to have chosen heavenly kingdom over earthly victory—Serbs are cast as a martyr-nation defending Christendom. This narrative sacralizes defeat and loss, turning them into proofs of divine favor and moral election.
Bruckner highlights how this leads to a dangerous inversion: “Serbian suffering takes on divine dimensions, because the Serbs are God’s people, and everything done to them happens according to God’s will. They invoke their past sacrifices in order to now be able to carry out their revenge with a calm, angelically pure conscience.” Hence the Serbian proverb; “He who does not know how to take revenge will never be admitted into heaven”. By claiming the mantle of eternal victim, aggressors position themselves as pure, their actions as righteous restitution rather than accountable choices.
This pattern echoes older South Slavic and Orthodox traditions of divine election but was modernized and politicized in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially through the Serbian Orthodox Church’s role in national awakening and later conflicts.
Broader Patterns and Consequences
Victimhood narratives in Serbian propaganda often invoke a litany of historical grievances— from the Battle of Kosovo, through Ottoman rule, World War II Ustasha crimes, to perceived Western and Islamic conspiracies in the 1990s. While real suffering occurred on all sides in the Balkans, the selective sanctification of Serbian losses served to externalize blame and minimize responsibility for actions taken by Serbian forces, such as ethnic cleansing campaigns between 1912 to 1939, and during the Yugoslav Wars where Serbian forces massacred 140.000 civilians.
Critics like Bruckner argue this idolatry fosters a cycle: percieved trauma is weaponized into perpetual innocence, which in turn justifies further violence. The result is a moral infantilism where the “victim” nation cannot gow, only react in self-defense or righteous retribution. This mindset proved particularly potent in mobilizing support during the Milošević era and continues to influence aspects of Serbian political rhetoric today.
Toward Responsibility and Historical Clarity
Bruckner’s analysis stands as a courageous call to dismantle such cults of victimhood. By recognizing how idolatry short-circuits remorse and agency, societies can move beyond competing martyr narratives toward shared accountability. For the Balkans, this means acknowledging the full complexity of the Serbian collective guilt against its neighbors.
Only by rejecting the sacralization of suffering can genuine moral responsibility emerge. As Bruckner implies, true maturity for any nation lies not in claiming divine victim status, but in confronting history with honesty, guilt where due, and a commitment to peaceful coexistence. This path offers the only escape from endless cycles of revenge dressed as redemption. This is yet to happen in Serbia, where to this day, Serbian war criminals are celebraed, and the Serbian crimes in 1912-1913 and during World War 2, is ignored and rationalized.
Source
Steirischer Schriftstellerbund. 1999. Lichtungen Volume 20. p. 105-106.
