Prologue

SERBIA ON WATER, UNDERWATER, ALONG THE WATER
In the Mirror of the Disaster

Neither history nor people remember anything like this. The rain poured down like in Rublev, but for almost seventeen hours with the same intensity. The sky is an armor, heavy like lead. Meteorologists explained this was a cyclone, this one or that one, but they only shrugged confusedly at the question: ”Why isn’t it moving away for days?”
The water swelled, tide ran amok, embankments broke. Cities were falling one after the other. In Šumadija, Pomoravlje, Jadar, Rađevina, near the Drina and Sava. Like awaken from hibernation, we realized that the Tamnava is really dark, Crnica black, Zmajevac dragon-like, that Morava still remembers the sea.
The big water has become a framework for national drama and unmistakable mirror. In it, all rational people were able to see two crucial truths.
Firs, Serbia has the people with a big heart. Despite all the troubles it has been experiencing for too long, these people have preserved spirit and kindness, solidarity and heroism. When it is difficult and when others would run away, they excel themselves with their virtue.
Second, what is supposed to be the state in Serbia is in a very bad condition. We should rather talk about provisional government and a game of illusions, where everybody is more or less playing themselves. And it is high time to ask about their health. Let them put the cards on the table and judge them all fairly.
Many people, nations and countries have helped, from afar and from the neighborhood. Nobody’s good deed should be forgotten. Still, everybody agrees that Russians helped in a special way, with heart-stirring self-sacrifice and heroism, not wasting a moment. The case or coincident of some higher order where the reason why National Review exactly from this edition is now also being published in Russian language. In this way, the Russian rescuers will be able to read numerous testimonies and statements in their own language.