Serbophilia

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

Flag of Serbia

Artistic depiction of a July 1918 event in which a Serbian flag was flown over the White House alongside the U.S. one in a show of wartime solidarity; the only non-U.S. flags to have ever been flown over the White House are those of Serbia and France.

French poster from WWI

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.^{[citation needed]}
• Alphonse de Lamartine — French author, poet, and statesman.^[6][7]
• Helen of Anjou — French noblewoman who became queen consort of the Serbian Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.^{[9][page needed]}
  • Franz Liszt — Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era.^{[9][page needed]}
  • Arthur Rubinstein — Polish-American classical pianist.^{[9][page needed]}
  • Antonín Dvořák — Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition.^{[9][page needed]}
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Russian composer of the Romantic period (See Serbo-Russian March).^{[9][page needed]}
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov — Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five (See Fantasy on Serbian Themes).^{[9][page needed]}
  • Franz Schubert — Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.^{[9][page needed]}
  • Hans Huber — Swiss composer. Between 1894 and 1918, he composed five operas.^{[9][page needed]}
• Rebecca West (1892–1983) — British travel writer. Was described by American media as having a pro-Serbian stance.^[10][11]
• Flora Sandes — British Irish volunteer in World War I.^[11]
• Ruth Mitchell — American volunteer in the Chetniks, World War II. Sister of Billy Mitchell.^[12][13][14]
• Richard Grenell— American diplomat, public official, and Trump administration official.^[15]
• Robert De Niro— American actor^[16]
• 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) ^[17]
• Peter Handke — Austrian novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize winner. Supported Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars.^[18]
• Eduard Limonov — Russian writer and poet.^[19][20]
• Ángel Pulido — Spanish physician, publicist and politician, who stood out as prominent philosephardite during the Restoration ^{[21][failed verification]}
• Essad Pasha Toptani — Ottoman Albanian politician.^[22]
• Anna Dandolo— Venetian noblewoman who became Queen of Serbia.^[23]
• Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic — Polish poet and historian of the Baroque era.^{[24][failed verification]}
• Adam Jerzy Czartoryski — Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author.^{[citation needed]}
• Pavel Jozef Šafárik — Slovakian philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was one of the first scientific Slavistics.^{[citation needed]}
• Ján Kollár — Slovakian writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.^{[citation needed]}
• Ľudovít Štúr — Slovakian revolutionary politician and writer.^{[citation needed]}
• Henry Bax-Ironside — British diplomat.^[25]
• Eleftherios Venizelos — Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement.^{[citation needed]}
• Dimitrios Karatasos — Greek armatolos who participated in the Greek War of Independence, and several other rebellions, seeking to liberate his native Greek Macedonia.^[26]
• Herbert Vivian — British journalist and author of Servia: The Poor Man's Paradise and The Servian Tragedy: With Some Impressions of Macedonia.^[27]
• Alexander Kolchak — Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer.^[28]
• Yu Hua — Chinese author.^[29]
• František Zach — Czech soldier and military theorist.^[30]

Gallery

• 
  "A Threatening Situation", a comic published in the American newspaper the Brooklyn Eagle in July 1914
• 
  Departure for Serbia
• 
  WWI poster - Kosovo Day, June 28, 1916, published in solidarity with the Serb allies
• 
  WWI poster - Save Serbia (1915)
• 
  American poster of the Serbian Relief Fund, organised by Mabel Grouitch, asking for donations to help Serbia on the brink of famine.

See also

• Serbian nationalism
• Slavophilia
• Greece–Serbia relations