Prečani (Serbs)

Prečani (Serbian Cyrillic: Пречани)[a] was a Serbian blanket term used at the end of the 19th- and early 20th century for ethnic Serb communities located preko ("across") the Drina, Sava and Danube rivers, beyond the western and northern borders of the Principality of Serbia and later Kingdom of Serbia, that is, in Austria-Hungary-held Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It was thus used to distinguish Serbs of Serbia, Srbijanci ("Serbians") from those in the Austria-Hungary; it was not applied to the Serbs of Montenegro or those in the Ottoman Empire.

In the Habsburg lands – in Kingdom of Dalmatia, the Serbs established the Serb People's Party, while in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia they established the Serb Independent Party. In 1918 the Prečani Serbs formed a notable political constituency that participated in the founding of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs as well as the joining of Banat, Bačka and Baranja with the Kingdom of Serbia. In the first Yugoslavia, their political party, the Independent Democratic Party was important in national politics. After the invasion of Yugoslavia, they were the main target of the World War II persecution of Serbs.

The term was primarily used in the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia and was not used by the Austro-Hungarian Serbs themselves.

Legacy

There are occasionally still references to the term Prečani with regard to the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbs of Croatia and Serbs of Vojvodina.

In a 2015 interview with the Croatian Serb magazine Novosti, Darko Suvin mentioned it in modern-day context.[1] A 2023 article in the Serbian political magazine NIN mentions it in the context of the Vojvodina Autonomist Movement.[2] In a 2025 speech, Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik rejected the label together with all other regional labels for the Serbs.[3]

Annotations

  1. ^
    In Serbian, the terms Srbi Prečani (Срби пречани) and prečanski Srbi (пречански Срби) were used. Another term used was "Austrian Serbs" (austrijski Srbi/аустријски Срби).

See also

References

  1. ^ Hrnjez, Saša (3 October 2015). "Darko Suvin - Tko se ne bori zajedno izgubi pojedinačno (I/II)". Novosti (in Serbian).
  2. ^ Ignja, Petar (20 September 2023). "Uspaljena Vojvodina". NIN (in Serbian).
  3. ^ R. Milenković, Mirjana (27 February 2025). "Može li Milorad Dodik, nakon presude, političku karijeru da nastavi u Srbiji?". Danas (in Serbian).

Further reading

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