In the wake of the establishment of the Matica srpska in Pest in 1825 and its relocation to Novi Sad in 1838, literary societies in the era of National Romanticism were active among Serbs in educational establishments both within Serbia and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They obtained their full later significance in the United Serbian Youth movement (Ujedinjena Omladina Srpska), which was officially established in 1866 (lasting until 1871) and emerged from literary forerunners. Serbian and Croatian students formed a Serbian Government (Srpska Vlada) in Graz (1826-31); there was an association Young Unity (Mlado Jedinjenije, 1835-37) and a Society of Serbian Students (Društvo Učećih se Srbalja, 1843-44) in Szeged; and a youth association Freedom (Sloboda) in Bratislava (1847). In addition, a short-lived Societas Serbica was active at the Lutheran lyceum of Kežmarok (1829). The Association of Serbian Youth (Družina Mladeži Srpske) was created on the basis of an earlier youth literary society, Dušan’s Folk (Dušanov Polk, 1845) in Belgrade (1847-48), where a Female Literary Society was also briefly active. All these associations were modelled on examples like the German Tugendbund (or, alternatively, the Burschenschaft), as well as Young Italy. They adopted the new ideal of a folk-based national literature lifestyle, dress, and ethos, and communicated their political and social ideals of Serbian nationhood in printed or handwritten newspapers; their ideology was clearly marked by the national liberation struggle against the Ottoman Empire. Their pre-1848 agenda was to raise the general standard of education by cultural and literary activities, defining a national culture, and creating a spiritual climate for the unification of all Serbs (as per the slogan “Serbs all and everywhere”).

Literary ambitions and political life merged in an attitude of anti-Turkish hatred as the basis for the liberal and democratic transformation of Serbia. Influenced by Pan-Slavic ideas, school societies and their literary papers initially subordinated Serbian nationalism to Slavic solidarity, but after 1848 this was reverted: in a syncretism of politics and aesthetics, national feeling became paramount. Folklore became a constitutive element of national self-awareness; patriotism cultivated the national past in literature, politics, art, and lifestyle.