Serbophilia Explained

Serbophilia (sr|Србофилија|Srbofilija) is the admiration, appreciation and/or emulation of a non-Serbian person who expresses a strong interest, positive predisposition or appreciation for the Serbs, Serbia, Republika Srpska, Serbian language, culture or history. Its opposite is Serbophobia.

History

20th century

World War I

During World War I, Serbophilia was present in western countries.^[1]

Breakup of Yugoslavia

Political scientist Sabrina P. Ramet writes that Serbophilia in France during the 1990s was "traditional", partly as a response to the closeness between Germany and Croatia. Business ties continued during the war and fostered a desire for economic normalization.^[2]

Serbophiles

• Jacob Grimm — German philologist, jurist and mythologist. Learnt Serbian in order to read Serbian epic poetry.^{[3] [4]}
• Archibald Reiss — German-Swiss publicist, chemist, forensic scientist, a professor at the University of Lausanne.^[5]
• Victor Hugo — French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo wrote the speech Pour la Serbie.
• Alphonse de Lamartine — French author, poet, and statesman.^{[6] [7]}
• Helen of Anjou — French noblewoman who became queen consort of the Serbian Kingdom.
• Mircea I and Vlad III Dracula^[8]
• Several notable composers used motifs from Serbian folk music and composed works inspired by Serbian history or culture, such as:
  • Johannes Brahms— German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period.
  • Franz Liszt — Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era.
  • Arthur Rubinstein — Polish-American classical pianist.
  • Antonín Dvořák — Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Russian composer of the Romantic period (See Serbo-Russian March).
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov — Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five (See Fantasy on Serbian Themes).
  • Franz Schubert — Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
  • Hans Huber — Swiss composer. Between 1894 and 1918, he composed five operas.
• Rebecca West (1892–1983) — British travel writer. Was described by American media as having a pro-Serbian stance.^{[9] [10]}
• Flora Sandes — British Irish volunteer in World War I.
• Ruth Mitchell — American volunteer in the Chetniks, World War II. Sister of Billy Mitchell.^{[11] [12] [13]}
• Richard Grenell — American diplomat, public official, and Trump administration official.^[14]
• Robert De Niro — American actor^[15]
• Johnny Depp — American actor and musician^{[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]}
• John Challis — English actor best known for portraying Terrance Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce in the BBC Television sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003) and its sequel/spin-off The Green Green Grass (2005–2009) ^[21]
• Peter Handke — Austrian novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize winner. Supported Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars.^[22]
• Eduard Limonov — Russian writer and poet.^{[23] [24]}
• Ángel Pulido — Spanish physician, publicist and politician, who stood out as prominent philosephardite during the Restoration ^[25]
• Essad Pasha Toptani — Ottoman Albanian politician.^[26]
• Anna Dandolo— Venetian noblewoman who became Queen of Serbia.^[27]
• Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic — Polish poet and historian of the Baroque era.^[28]
• Adam Jerzy Czartoryski — Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author.
• Pavel Jozef Šafárik — Slovakian philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was one of the first scientific Slavistics.
• Ján Kollár — Slovakian writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.
• Ľudovít Štúr — Slovakian revolutionary politician and writer.
• Henry Bax-Ironside — British diplomat.^[29]
• Eleftherios Venizelos — Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement.
• Dimitrios Karatasos — Greek armatolos who participated in the Greek War of Independence, and several other rebellions, seeking to liberate his native Greek Macedonia.^[30]
• Herbert Vivian — British journalist and author of Servia: The Poor Man's Paradise and The Servian Tragedy: With Some Impressions of Macedonia.^[31]
• Alexander Kolchak — Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer.^[32]
• Yu Hua — Chinese author.^[33]
• František Zach — Czech soldier and military theorist.^[34]
• Viktor Orbán - Prime Minister of Hungary.^{[35] [36]}

See also

• Serbian nationalism
• Slavophilia
• Greece–Serbia relations

Sources

• Sells, David (1997). Serb 'Demons' Strike Back (Royal Institute of International Affairs) Vol. 53, No. 2
• Book: Tomić . Dejan . Srbi i evropski kompozitori: srpska muzika i Srbi u delima evropskih kompozitora, od XIX do početka XXI veka . Serbs and European composers: Serbian music and Serbs in the works of European composers, from the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century . 2019 . JMU Radio-televizija Srbije . 978-8-66195-173-2 .

Notes and References

1. News: Dobbs . Michael . Blood Bath . Washington Post . 11 June 2000.
2. Book: Ramet . Sabrina P. . Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To The Fall Of Milosevic . 2018 . Routledge . 978-0-42997-503-5 . 356 . Fourth .
3. Book: Donald Haase. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: G-P. 2008. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-33443-6. 531–.
4. Selvelli. Giustina. The Cultural Collaboration between Jacob Grimm and Vuk Karadžić. A fruitful Friendship Connecting Western Europe to the Balkans. en.
5. Book: Boskovska . Nada . Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration . 2017 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-78673-073-2 . 10 .
6. Web site: Mićunović . Milica . How Serbia stunned Alphonse de Lamartine . Serbia.com . 28 November 2012.
7. Web site: Maric . Natasa . Pourquoi la Serbie aime tant la France et la langue française . lefigaro.fr . 19 March 2021.
8. Book: Ion Pătroiu. Marele Mircea Voievod. 1987. Editura Academiei Repubvlicii Socialiste România. 460.
9. Book: Victoria Glendinning. Rebecca West: A Life. 1988. Fawcett Columbine. 978-0-449-90320-9. 176.
10. Hammond . Andrew . Memoirs of conflict: British women travellers in the Balkans . Studies in Travel Writing . 2010 . 14 . 1 . 70 . 10.1080/13645140903465043 . 162162690 . free .
11. The Atlantic . War . 1946 . 184 . Atlantic Monthly Company . There are also certain American Serbophiles who will hear no evil of Mihailovich, and who repudiate as Communist-inspired any suggestion that he ever collaborated with the enemy. Ruth Mitchell, author of The Serbs Choose War, is one of them..
12. Kurapovna, Marcia.Shadows on the Mountain: The Allies, the Resistance, and the Rivalries that Doomed WWII Yugoslavia. John Wiley & Sons, 2009, pp. 71–72.
13. Mirkovic, Alexander. "Angels and Demons: Yugoslav Resistance in the American Press 1941–1945". World History Connected, University of Illinois website, 2012.
14. Web site: Richard Grenell, a favoured figure of Serbian authorities. 11 May 2024.
15. Web site: How did Robert De Niro fall in love with Serbia. 3 February 2016 .
16. Web site: TheSrpskaTimes . 2020-02-25 . Johnny Depp for RTS: Ćevapčići and Serbian Colleagues Are Fantastic - The Srpska Times . 2025-12-14 . en-US.
17. News: Nisu svi kao Anđa . https://web.archive.org/web/20210216160759/https://www.novosti.rs/vesti/spektakl.147.html:366860-Nisu-svi-kao-Andja . 16 February 2021 . 2025-12-14 . NOVOSTI . sr . live .
18. Web site: Barlovac . Bojana . 2010-01-13 . Johnny Depp Arrives in Serbia Amid Fanfare . 2025-12-14 . Balkan Insight . en-US.
19. Web site: Ranković . Dragica . 2020-09-30 . Johnny Depp speaks Serbian in Monte Carlo! Prounces "I love you" perfectly, praises Serbia and Serbs . 2025-12-14 . Telegraf.rs . sr.
20. Johnny Depp's Weird Obsession With Serbia . 2024-11-30 . Bored_Nele . 2025-12-14 . YouTube.
21. Web site: Boycie in Belgrade. YouTube. 28 July 2020 .
22. Book: K. Stuart Parkes. Writers and Politics in Germany, 1945–2008. January 2009. Camden House. 978-1-57113-401-1. 174–.
23. Web site: Reljic . Dusan . Markovic . Predrag . Sebor . Janko . Mijovic . Vlastimir . Limonov & Co. . scc.rutgers.edu . Vreme News Digest . 16 November 1992.
24. Web site: LIMONOV Junak našeg doba. Печат - Лист слободне Србије. 22 September 2011. sr-RS. 2019-04-08.
25. "in Serbia at Belgrade told him "I am not Spanish from there [Spain], but Spanish from the East." Andreu, Miguel Rodríguez (31 January 2017). "Serbia fuera del radar estratégico de España". esglobal. https://www.esglobal.org/serbia-del-radar-estrategico-espana Retrieved 8 June 2018.
26. Book: The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801 -1927. 1966. CUP Archive. 529–. GGKEY:5L37WGKCT4N.
27. Даница 2009, Вукова задужбина, О породичним приликама краља Владислава, Душан Спасић, 253–263, Београд, 2009
28. [Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic]
29. Book: Theodoulou . Christos A. . Greece and the Entente, August 1, 1914-September 25, 1916 . 1971 . 151 . Sir Henry Bax - Ironside, who was considered Serbophil...
30. Lambros Koutsonikas (1863). Genikē historia tēs Hellēnikēs Epanastaseōs. p. 121. OCLC 679320348.
31. Book: Jean-Paul . Bled . Slavenko . Terzić . Europe and the Eastern Question (1878–1923): Political and Organizational Changes . 2001 . Istorijski institut SANU . 324–325 . 978-86-7743-023-8.
32. Book: Acović, Dragomir. Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. 2012. Belgrade. Službeni Glasnik. 632.
33. Web site: Ју Хуа за РТС: Волим Србију, долазим чим прође пандемија. Serbia. RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. www.rts.rs. 2020-04-28.
34. Book: Kořan . Michal . Czech Foreign Policy in 2007-2009: Analysis . 2010 . Ústav mezinárodních vztahů . 978-8-08650-690-6 . 243 .
35. Web site: PM Orbán: the Serbian people can count on Hungary’s support in these complicated times. About Hungary. 27 November 2025. 21 December 2025.
36. Web site: Why does Hungary's Viktor Orban support Serbian nationalism?. DW. 28 March 2025. 21 December 2025.