User:GeorgeBoreas

Cross versus slogan

The cross with the fire-steels and the interpretation of the fire-steels as letters have a well documented medieval Byzantine origin. However, the popular belief that the phrase "Only Unity Saves the Serbs", more literally translated as "Only Unity Saves a Serb", is of ancient (medieval) origin is highly suspect. In particular, it is highly unlikely that an internationally respected Christian reformer such as St. Sava would have coined the phrase, seeing that it is blasphemous against the fundamental Christian teaching that only God saves.

There are no historical records of the phrase prior to mid-to-late 19th century. Judging by the authoritarian spirit of the slogan it is likely that it originated during this time, when ideologies like nationalism and later fascism and communism were growing all over Europe. The person who coined the term is most likely Svetozar Miletic, a 19th political leader of Vojvodina Serbs. Miletic used it as a simple rallying cry and did not promote or foresee its use in national symbolism.

The slogan has been widely utilized during the post-communist authoritarian regime associated with Slobodan Milosevic as a propaganda tool for political coercion, with the implication that those who do not toe the government's party line are undermining the nation. Superimposing the slogan over the Christian symbol of the cross makes it all the more powerful because it suggest that those who transgress it are not only traitors within the atheistic totalitarian framework, but also sinners against God. The great irony here is that the slogan is in clear conflict with 1st and 2nd of the Ten Commandments: it ascribes salvific power to the concept of unity, while according to monotheistic doctrine that power belongs to God alone.