PROSVJETA SOCIETY - CENTER FOR PRESERVING CULTURE AND IDENTITY

BIJELJINA, JULY 13 /SRNA/ – The Serbian Educational and Cultural Society "Prosvjeta" was founded on July 14, 1902, in Sarajevo with the aim of preserving Serbian culture and identity in the area of present-day BiH.

This society emerged as a spontaneous, classic democratic association of well-intentioned citizens, devotees of their national culture and education.

In terms of importance, "Prosvjeta" was long ranked immediately after the Serbian Orthodox Church, and in some activities even took the lead, responding to the specific needs of Serbian culture in the 20th century.

While teachers and merchants played the main role in establishing the first cultural societies, the founding of “Prosvjeta” was owed mostly to academically educated Serbian youth, who, after completing their studies, returned to their homeland and immediately engaged in public life.

The first organization of Serbian intellectuals embarked on creating a new type of association in the cultural and educational sphere, based on broader concepts and aligned with the real needs of the people.

At that time, the most pressing need was to provide assistance for the education of pupils and students, as the domestic intelligentsia was developing very slowly.

From its very foundation until it was banned by the communist authorities in 1949, the Society gathered around it the greatest intellectuals of the time, among them Petar Kočić, Aleksa Šantić, Jovan Dučić, Pero Slijepčević, Grigorije Petrov, and Jovan Cvijić.

The Serbian Educational and Cultural Society was banned twice during both World Wars and was finally renewed in 1990 on Vidovdan, in the hall of the National and University Library in Sarajevo’s City Hall.