Vitaly Portnikov. Other Serbs

Other Serbs
Vitaly Portnikov

Date of publication: October 25, 2000

Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs (Sorbs) are the smallest of the Slavic peoples living in Germany, a surviving branch of the Polabian Slavs who came to the banks of the Laba River one and a half thousand years ago, most likely from the northern Carpathians. Despite intensive Germanization, they still retain their own culture. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Lusatian cultural and public organizations appeared, banned in 1937 by the National Socialists. In 1945, these organizations were again allowed in East Germany and, for the most part, exist to this day.

Lusatians are divided into upper (Saxony, the outskirts of the German Bautzen - Budyszyn) and lower (Brandenburg, the outskirts of Cottbus - Chocebusz), differing in languages, folk costumes, religion (Protestantism dominates in Lower Lusatia, Catholicism dominates in Upper Lusatia). There are today about 60 thousand Lusatians - 40 thousand in Saxony and 20 thousand in Brandenburg. According to rough estimates, there are no more than 40 thousand speakers of Sorbian. On the territory of the Lusatian Serbs there are three state-supported museums, a theater, a song and dance ensemble, and dozens of folklore ensembles. The national publishing house "Domovina" publishes every year about 60-70 books in the Lusatian languages ​​with a circulation of 500-800 copies, the Upper Lusatian daily newspaper "Serbskie Nowiny" (circulation 1600 copies) and the Lower Lusatian weekly "Nowy casnik" (circulation 1000 copies), two monthlies for children, a quarterly publication for teachers and two religious magazines.

During the years of the existence of the GDR, the Lusatian Serbs in the Soviet Union were remembered at every opportunity: the fraternal Slavic people living in a fraternal socialist country, an example of the attitude of the state of workers and peasants towards a national minority... I remember how surprised I was to see at the Moscow International Book Fair exhibition-fair, in the pavilion of the GDR, an entire encyclopedia of Lusatian Serbs, published in the Upper Lusatian language by the Domovina publishing house. Brought to the exhibition, the book was not for sale, but a few weeks later they sent it to me at the Druzhba store: everything was in order with the literature of the socialist countries - especially if the literature was in Upper Sorbian... After the reunification of Germany, about the Lusatian Serbs in Russia was simply forgotten. What happened to them over the years, how do they live in the new country, do they have a chance to survive as a nation?

I found a partial answer to this question on the pages of the Polish weekly Polityka , whose correspondents traveled to Lusatia, a region of Germany directly bordering Poland.

According to the constitutions of Saxony and Brandenburg, Lusatians have rights that most national minorities can only dream of: preservation of cultural identity, development of national culture, names of localities in two languages, education in their own language, the opportunity to communicate with authorities in their native language... Guaranteed high subsidies, consisting of contributions from the federal government and land authorities.

Of course, the situation is different from the situation in the GDR. In the GDR, the residents of Lusatia were happy provided they behaved obediently. They could remain Lusatian Serbs, but they had to be, first of all, exemplary communists. As a result, despite the huge costs of the bureaucracy of the Domovina Union of Serbian Sugians, assimilation proceeded by leaps and bounds. Moreover, beyond ideological principles, the German population did not at all sympathize with the Lusatian idea. For many deported from Lower Silesia, which became part of Poland, the Lusatians were accomplices in their tragedy. They did not forget how their representatives in 1945 asked Stalin to annex Lusatia to Czechoslovakia or Poland. The demonstrative faith of the Lusatian Catholics was also irritating. When Lusatian Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II) visited Lusatia, the authorities forbade him from visiting the church, where the parishioners were mainly Lusatian Serbs. And when the Lusatians wanted to visit Poland to participate in the meeting of the Polish Pope with his flock, the GDR authorities gave them permission... on the day of the pontiff’s departure.

Faster than ideology, Lusatia was destroyed by the industrialization of the 50s and 60s, when industrial facilities arose in place of villages. More than 80 localities inhabited by Lusatian Serbs disappeared from the map. A stream of German workers poured into the remaining ones, turning them into socialist industrial cities. But despite this, many Lusatian residents remember the GDR with nostalgia, reminiscent of nostalgia for the Soviet Union. There is no talk here about the “collapse of communism” and the “fall of the wall,” or the “unification of Germany.” They use the phrase “political change”. In the new Germany, instead of ideology, there is economics, but this did not benefit Lusatia. Officially, the unemployed in Lusatia are about 20%, but in workers' towns this number is higher... The Serbs, following the Germans, are leaving for the West... Bautzen, which had a population of 60 thousand before reunification, now has only 45 thousand...

Although subsidies for the development of the culture of the Lusatian Serbs are decreasing every year, they are still large - 30 million marks! No other national minority in Germany can boast of such money. “Yes, this is a lot of money ,” the head of the Domovin union, Bernat Syzh, told Polish journalists. “ But we only have this money. There is neither the state nor the people capable of helping us. Nowhere else in the world do they speak or write Lusatian. .."

The reduction in subsidies led to the closure of the House of National Culture. There are now 200 fewer people working in cultural institutions than 10 years ago. There are fewer and fewer Serbs in the Serbian song and dance ensemble. There are half of them in the choir, only 3 out of 30 in the orchestra, not a single one in the ballet... The Serbian theater is staging performances in the Lusatian style less and less often. The head of the Serbian Institute is a German, although he is an enthusiast of Lusatian culture... A vicious circle: the fewer people who consider themselves Serbs, the less subsidies. The less subsidies there are, the fewer people who consider themselves Serbs. “It’s true that for the first time in 50 years we have gained freedom ,” says Beno Budar, editor-in-chief of the children’s magazine Plomjo . “ But we can’t always use this freedom...”

The Lusatians are systematically losing their positions. They don't have their own party. There are 2 Serbs in the Saxony parliament - one in the CDU, the other in the PDS. In Bautzen, out of 40 community deputies, there are 5 Serbs, since each party wants to have a Serb on its list... It’s a little better in rural communities: there are even Lusatian mayors... However, in Bautzen-Budyszyn, with its bilingual street names, the Lusatian press is sold next to foreign newspapers. The Serbian language exists in living form only in Upper Lusatia, in villages where the influence of the Catholic Church is still felt. In Lower Lusatia, assimilation occurs much faster, the connection between generations is broken, only older people speak Lusatian. “After decades of linguistic humiliation, people began to be ashamed of their own language ,” says Dietrich Stolze, director of the Serbian Institute. “ But the most dangerous thing for it is mixed marriages. For every five marriages, only one family tries to speak Sorbian with their children.” .

They try because most of them don’t know the language themselves. Young people were brought up in the 70s, during the first wave of rejection of their native speech. Later, the Lusatian languages ​​began to disappear from everyday life even faster, under the pressure of the language of television. Research by the Serbian Institute records a sad fact: young people are increasingly refusing to study their native language. Lusatian is a difficult language, but you can do without it... And as a result: in Gornaya Lusatia, only 1,200 students enrolled in classes with the Serbian language of instruction, 3,500 students are studying the Serbian language. In Lower Lusatia there are no such classes at all, but 1,600 students are studying additional Lusatian... There is television in Lusatian, but... it’s as if it doesn’t exist. The TV magazine Luzhitsa is published in Lower Sorbian once a month for 30 minutes... On the radio they speak Serbian every day - 3 hours in Bautzen and an hour in Cottbus...

The response to increasing assimilation should be the WITAJ action, addressed to Lusatians who have forgotten their native language and culture. If it succeeds, Lusatia could truly become a bilingual region. The action began with preschool institutions: children who speak German in their families must speak only Serbian here. “In addition to historical, cultural, and intellectual arguments, we also use practical ones ,” says the initiator of the action, Jan Barth. “ 400 million people in the world speak Slavic languages. And Germany is now interested in the eastern market... At companies interested in the east, knowledge of Serbian Sorbian becomes an important argument when applying for a job. This is an argument that works even on those who are completely assimilated..."

Already 200 children have taken part in the action. And many of them are now waiting in line for Serbian classes: there are simply not enough teachers. The Serbian Pedagogical Institute in Bautsen was closed because there were no jobs for its graduates. But here’s what’s interesting: among the participants in the action there are more children from German families than from Lusatia... “This shouldn’t be surprising ,” says teacher Maria Winklerova-Elikovskaya. “ If for years they pointed the finger at you for your language, offended and ridiculed you, then you shouldn’t expect that you will immediately begin to teach it again..."