Text of the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; signed by all academics of the specialized academies:

There has been much discussion in our time regarding the national question; both here and in the great academies of Europe. There are a number of theories regarding what makes a nation. One prevailing theory is a common language; the fundamental building block of communities. How can one nation exist if it does not have a common language? This definition, however, is lacking. Are the dialects of German different languages then, and therefore different nations? Of course not.

We must also take into account the theory of religion; that nations are forged by religion. This is especially true, of course, in our Eastern states, where the Serbian Church is the Church here in the Kingdom of Serbia, the Greek Church in Greece, the Romanian Church in Romania, the Russian Church in Russia, and the Bulgarian Church in Bulgaria. For all of us, our church is a key part of the nation, and in some cases the state.

There is also the idea of the common culture; that is the customs, and traditions of a people. This has ties, of course to the language and religion. There are certain traditions unique to certain nations.

We at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts find that the true answer to the national question is found throughout all of these ideas of language, religion, and culture. There is another fact that SANU agrees on: that the Serbs in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire are not part of an Austrian nation. They are part of the Serbian nation. The Serb living in so-called Illyria or Hungary shares nothing with their Austrian overlords. They are Serbs by language, which the Illyrians have sought to destroy and which the Austrians sought to replace. They are Serbs by religion, a minority in a much larger country. They are Serbs by tradition and custom. There is no doubt that in all respects save the falsified idea of the multicultural state of the AHE, the Serbs within its borders are Serbs of Serbia.