WESTERN CONTEMPORARIES OF THE SERBIAN RULER STEFAN NEMANJA

Since the Stefan Nemanja monument in Belgrade stirred up part of the Serbian public, both in the motherland and in the diaspora, we will seek answers to a number of important questions, primarily the following: What did the Western countries look like at that time. The countries we admire unconditionally today, and where our people are scattered.

We should go back to the time before Columbus and remember America where the Indians lived; or Canada, which, in addition to Indians, also had Inuits in the north of the country; Aborigines and Maoris inhabited Australia and New Zealand. Europe was covered by the Holy Roman Empire, which basically consisted of German ethnic countries, and it was not until 1871 that a national state united into the German Empire was created.

Were Stefan Nemanja's western contemporaries, like the Roman-German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, more educated than Nemanja or not?

After everything that Stefan Nemanja (reigned from 1166 to 1196) did for Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church, should we be happy that we erected a monument to him eight centuries later?

We sought answers to these and many other questions from historian Ognjen Karanović, director of the Center for Social Stability and lecturer at the Cultural Center of Novi Sad, who stated at the beginning of the conversation:

"Erecting the monument to Stefan Nemanja is a great act that will finally put an end to all spiritual wanderings and Yugoslav delusions and confusions." Stefan Nemanja, as well as the monument dedicated to him, are proof that the motherland was returned to its people, but also that the people returned to the motherland. Stefan Nemanja raised Serbia, and now Serbia is erecting this monument from the ashes of Serbian delusions and misfortunes of the 20^th century. Because of this, we should be both happy and proud that we have someone to erect a monument to - because Stefan Nemanja is the reason for our existence as an ancient European nation and a member of European civilization.

During his reign, which includes the period of the Third Crusade, the period of the rise of medieval Serbia begins, and with the Nemanjić family, Nemanja's successors, the 'Serbian medieval golden period' began, when Serbia, especially under the reign of King Milutin and Emperor Dušan, became a regional power in the Balkans. Surely, the independent Serbian Orthodox Church from 1219, the elevation of Serbia to the rank of kingdom in 1217, the elevation of the Serbian archbishop to the patriarchal throne, and the kingdom to Dušan's empire in 1346, are the result and consequences of Stefan Nemanja's wise, parliamentary policy."

What can you tell us about Stefan Nemanja's diplomatic skills?

"During his time, Serbia maintains diplomatic relations not only with the Roman Empire, with which it is fighting for full independence from Constantinople, but also with the Republic of Venice (Venice). His son, Stefan Prvovenčani, will be married to Anna, daughter of the Grand Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo. The relations with Hungary are also strong. Nemanja's distant cousin Ban Beloš, a Serb, was the biological brother of Queen Jelena, the wife of the Hungarian King Béla II the Blind. Ban Beloš was the son of the great prefect of Raška and a very influential Hungarian statesman, and his daughter was married in Russia, so through Ban Beloš and his daughter, Nemanja made her first connections with Russia. There were also developed relations with the Pope of Rome. The Roman-German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and Nemanja met in Niš in 1189, when an international treaty was concluded on the alliance of Nemanja with the Holy Roman Emperor in the West. In Niš, the emperor was welcomed by Stefan Nemanja with his brothers Stracimir and Miroslav. A rich feast was prepared, and Frederick I Barbarossa was presented with a large number of gifts (wine, barley, oxen, sheep, domesticated boar and deer). Interestingly, the text of this international agreement was confirmed by Nemanja with his signature, while Barbarossa, the Roman-German emperor, placed a cross on the same document, which tells us that Barbarossa was illiterate."

Was it the period of the "old glory and golden age of Serbia" or just a myth?

"Serbia then experiences a rise." It becomes an independent state in accordance with the norms of feudal state law, and the Serbian people get an independent church organization. All this was made possible by the activity of Nemanja and his dynasty, but we must emphasize that the space for these historical processes was also created due to the terrible decline of Roman (Byzantine) power, especially after the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the collapse of the Roman Empire. It was a time when the Western feudal civilization was trying to suppress the Roman commonwealth from the southeast of Europe. Nemanja and his descendants used that opportunity to raise the power and reputation of Serbia."

Was Stefan Nemanja a more brutal and infamous ruler compared to his Western contemporaries or to those who came to power in those countries a little bit later? We often hear different opinions on this topic…

"Such things can be said by absolute ignoramuses, who place Nemanja in the contemporary context of modern politics, but at the same time forget the character of European countries and their rulers in the Middle Ages." Stefan Nemanja was in no way more brutal than the French, English, German, Russian or later Ottoman rulers. Furthermore! This refers to Nemanja's policy allegedly against the Bogomil heresy, and their expulsion from Serbia. While in the same, even later period, the French spiritual and secular authorities waged a true crusade against the Cathars (Christian heretical communities), the Roman Catholic prelates there, during the massacre in a city in the south of France, where the Cathars lived in the dominant majority, on the question of the crusaders raiders, what to do with the Catholic population, how to separate them from the heretics in the "cleansing" of the city, a Catholic prelate says: 'Kill them all! For the Lord knows those that are His own and will call them to Himself'. Does that medieval episode now make France and its rulers a criminal state and criminals? No, historical processes and conditions, especially those of 800 or a thousand years ago, cannot be placed on the same level as modern society and the world. In fact, all learned people understand that, except for the other-Serbian false civil elite. Stefan Nemanja is foreign to the biological and spiritual descendants of Titoism and Yugoslavia, and the monument dedicated to him is automatically unacceptable. They cannot come to terms with the fact that Belgrade remains a European, cosmopolitan city, but at the same time it is returning to itself and its identity Serbian heritage."

Is it important which government in Serbia erected the monument or is it important that the monument finally exists in the center of Belgrade?

"Of course, the most important thing is that the monument exists, but if this government (and it is) led by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, erected the monument, then the question should not be asked to this government - why it was done; the question should be asked - why no government, in the last few decades, has done that. The answer is obvious. Because they weren't even interested in identity politics."

SERBIA ABOLISHED SLAVERY BEFORE AMERICA AND BRITAIN

The Serbia of Miloš the Great officially banned slavery with the The Constitution of the Principality of Serbia, stating that every slave who sets foot on the soil of Serbia automatically becomes free. Serbia adopted this provision some thirty years before America and Russia, and several years before Great Britain.

THE SCULPTOR'S INSPIRATION CAME FROM OLD SERBIAN MONASTERIES

Stefan Nemanja was very pious. He built and restored a large number of monasteries and churches, the most important of which are Studenica, Hilandar, Đurđevi Stupovi... as well as many others. The author of the monument to Stefan Nemanja, the Russian sculptor Aleksandar Rukavishnikov, often states that he wanted the monument on the Sava Square in Belgrade to be based on the beauty of frescoes from Serbian monasteries.