[June 1, 1928]
I was with you when you were in trouble. I shared your sufferings, and to be able to do so, I sacrificed a brilliant life and a very beautiful career that promised much. I grew to love you, for I saw your common folk in battles and decisive moments, when the true character of a Nation is recognized. I loved you also for the sacrifices I made for you, because we become so much more attached to people and things the more those attachments cost us sacrifices.
However, I also saw your flaws, flaws that were terribly manifested after the war. Some of your flaws, if not addressed, will be fatal for your Nation. I would not be your friend if I did not cry out “beware” and if I did not point out to you, alongside your virtues, which are genuine and beautiful, your bad sides, as in a mirror.
your nation had a very beautiful past, after which followed long unhappy centuries. After you had established a great empire, which, judging by what remained of it, promised much and in its time was as advanced as the western empires and kingdoms, you fell under the dominion of the Turks, and then into their slavery.
Yet, despite all those hardships, very few of your loved ones attempted to escape that dreadful situation by adopting the Muslim faith. The vast majority of your ancestors, despite enduring long sufferings, remained loyal to the old faith and refused to bow their heads before the cruel foreigner.
your people are brave, and their courage often reaches the heights of heroism. I can say this with certainty, for I have seen your soldiers, and they were nothing less than the people themselves, in almost all the battles of the Great Liberation War.
your people are patriotic. I do not know of any other nation where legendary national heroes live so vividly in the people’s soul as with you.
you have turned your religion into a national church, or rather, a national tradition. However, you are not religious. you could not accept God as He is in the Bible; you transformed Him into the eternal and almighty leader of your people. If I could use a trivial expression in this context, I would gladly say that your “god” wears the armor and beard of Prince Marko, the cap of your warrior from Cer, Jadar, Kajmakčalan, and Dobro Polje.
Your people are hospitable.
your nation is democratic, truly democratic, not in the way politicians are. Among your people, a person is valued for being a person, not for what their suit and titles make of them. your people know compassion, and sometimes they show it at moments when one does not expect to find that beautiful human trait in them. your people are proud, but not arrogant. Finally, you are a bright nation, one of the most brightest I have seen in my lifetime.
Let’s now look at the flaws of your people.
you are not great workers. you often postpone until tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow, what you could do today. The consequence is that often, it never gets done. How many personal losses, and, what’s worse, how many losses for your country have you suffered because of this easy idleness! However, it should be said that this lack of work energy is explained in two ways among you. First, under Turkish rule, even the hardest work was of little benefit to you. Only your oppressor grew rich from it. Over the centuries, you have become accustomed to working only as much as is necessary. Then, your land is so fertile. With very little work, you have what you need for life.
One of the virtues that has disappeared among many of you is gratitude.
You have become terribly ungrateful. Many among you are very wealthy and spend lavishly to stand out and for entertainment, but when it comes to showing gratitude towards those who have sacrificed, they give nothing, absolutely nothing. Your leaders have not, in the ten years since the end of the war, formally commemorated any of those great events to which you owe your freedom and the greatness of your country. Clearly, such ceremonies would be inconvenient for most of your current leaders because they did nothing for your country when it was in mortal danger and when sacrifices were needed, instead they only cared about how to safely hide their precious selves, some even took advantage of the country’s misfortune to enrich themselves.
What have you done for your wartime invalids? Among all the countries that participated in the war, yours treats them the worst. While a few hundred of your former ministers, self-centered political professionals, who, in most cases, did nothing for the homeland but amply filled their pockets, arrange for themselves the payment of “pensions” that cost you countless millions, your veterans can die of hunger.
your man of the people, a peasant, uncorrupted by the influence of professional politicians, is not bribable. “The intelligentsia” is exactly that, ranging from the most minor official with or without a degree, to the minister. The “intelligentsia” of Serbia has done almost nothing for their country, and their only concern was to keep their precious members safe.
Returning to the homeland after victory, in which they did not participate, your intellectuals aspired to manage all affairs. Peasants meant nothing to them, even though they constituted a vast majority in Serbia, and soldiers, the creators of victory, were considered “simpletons” by them, good only for beating the enemy and dying, and nothing else
Like all immoral beings, the intelligentsia admires power, even when it is most abused. This led them to reconcile almost immediately after the war with the worst enemies of their country, with the Germans.
Instead of acting positively, your intelligentsia acted negatively. Instead of building, it destroyed. It is a hotbed of decay and corruption, from which you suffer so much. If you allow it to continue, your country is lost.
Your people are great lovers of political, or rather, party leaders.
With the increasingly powerful rise to power of the intelligentsia, there emerge individuals who understand the personal gain that can be derived from your inclination towards party politics. They create a profession out of exploiting your inclination for party politics, so now you have professional politicians who earn a living from it. What am I saying – they amass fortunes.
This is how politicians have corrupted your country.
The customs of professional politicians first eradicate the virtues of Serbian soil. And, unfortunately, politicians are all-powerful. Politics interferes with everything and governs everywhere. Should a position in the government become available, whether it is important or mediocre, it doesn’t matter, the selection is not based on the candidate’s merits, but on political connections. He can be the most ignorant, the most dishonest person, but if he is the “protégé” of a politician-party member of the ruling party, he will defeat the most qualified person both in professional and moral terms.
Officials are, as a rule, of the worst quality. Often, they are not even capable of performing the job required by the position they hold.
I am particularly familiar with your police because, unfortunately, I have collaborated with them for some time. Politicians have placed people punished for theft and other crimes into your police force. your policemen, especially in Southern Serbia, have been stealing from the people and extorting money. I reported this to your authorities, but those criminal policemen, who were also party members, were not punished, and I was insulted to such an extent that I was forced to resign.
When they reach a ministerial position, your politicians become so arrogant that it is almost laughable.
A dangerous wind is sweeping through your youth, extinguishing that purifying patriotic flame. For most of your current youth, patriotism consists of some kind of envious hatred. They envy countries that are richer or more powerful than theirs and give that demeaning feeling the beautiful name of patriotism.
The contemporary young man believes that it is not his duty to provide for the state, but rather that the state is obliged to provide everything for him so that he can lead as comfortable a life as possible. Hence the young people’s rush for positions. Everyone wants to be an official, both young men and women. you see, young people of both genders are very well aware that in your country now, no knowledge or ability is needed to become an official; one only needs to be pushed by a member of parliament, a minister, or an influential politician-party member.
Today’s youth will decisively tell you that they have no desire to die because it brings them nothing. They know from experience, they have seen it with their own eyes, how those who have sacrificed themselves, in your modern Serbia, only get kicked from behind.
Do not allow your beautiful soul to decay in the trash that has accumulated on it, especially after the war. A nation that, like yours, has withstood centuries of slavery, which retreated across Albania and which, expelled from its own land but not defeated, managed to return to its hearths as a victor – does not allow itself to be subjugated by a handful of selfish and corrupt politicians, vile profiteers, contemptible idlers, and criminal profiteers and usurers.
(1928)
Tran. note: this is a redacted version of the manuscript, which was published in the newspapers after the death of Dr. Reiss. For the French-language original, see here.
