Memory and national identity: Memory of World War one in Serbia

In Serbia commemoration of the First World War is flanked by the commemoration of two important political events: the Balkan wars and the creation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Hence a dilemma whether commemoration of the First World War should be a part of the continuing Serbian experience or whether the war was a unique event that created a new Yugoslav identity. It must be stated that the two kinds of approach have existed side by side and lived parallel lives. The veterans' associations have preserved the Serbian memory. The Yugoslav memory, created by King Alexander, was transformed in the seventies into the concept of Serbia as the Yugoslav Piedmont.