---
title: '"Is it really his to gamble?" Serbian-language leaflet 04-B-02-L002, Operation Allied Force'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kosovo-allied-force-milosevic-gamble-leaflet-1999/
description: Two-sided Serbian-language leaflet, shown front above back. The front pairs a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic with a paragraph listing places 'lost' under…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Wartime leaflet with a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic, the word 'pogrom' and a photograph of a burning building. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["Is it really his to gamble?" Serbian-language leaflet 04-B-02-L002, Operation Allied Force](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kosovo-allied-force-milosevic-gamble-leaflet-1999.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kosovo-allied-force-milosevic-gamble-leaflet-1999.jpg)

# "Is it really his to gamble?" Serbian-language leaflet 04-B-02-L002, Operation Allied Force

Two-sided Serbian-language leaflet, shown front above back. The front pairs a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic with a paragraph listing places 'lost' under his policies (Krajina, eastern Slavonia, Baranja, Sarajevo) before saying he now gambles 'with his pogrom in Kosovo'; the back shows a burning building beside the question 'With what does he find it fit to gamble?' The tell is the selected list of losses attributed to one man, which lets the Serb reader blame him alone while the Serb people stay unnamed as culprits.

## Text on the object

Original (Serbian (Cyrillic)) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[Front:]
Слободан Милошевић се већ годинама коцка са будућношћу српског народа. Његовом политиком изгубљена је Крајина, источна Славонија, Барања и Сарајево. Он се сада поново коцка својим погромом на Косову. Он се клади са српском колевком, са српским местом у свету и са животима својих људи. Зар је то све његово, лично и сме да се прокоцка?
[code at lower left:] 04-B-02-L002

[Back:]
Са чиме то
он нађе да
се коцка?
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[Front:] Slobodan Milosevic has for years been gambling with the future of the Serb people. Through his policy Krajina, eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Sarajevo were lost. Now he is again gambling with his pogrom in Kosovo. He is staking the Serb cradle, the Serb place in the world and the lives of his own people. Is all of that his, personally, and may he gamble it away? [Back:] With what does he find it fit to gamble?
```

Read from a 500 px scan; a few letters are small and soft (the code at lower left is read as 04-B-02-L002 from the Commons file name and Friedman's page). On the back, the word read as 'нађе' is the best reading of a soft letter. Translation by machine (Claude), not checked by a fluent reader; Friedman's English wording is 'Is it really his to gamble?'. The portrait photograph is unlabelled.

[← Выбери свободу! (Choose freedom!) T-shirt, Yeltsin campaign, 1996](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vote-or-lose-choose-freedom-tshirt-1996/) [Acting President Putin presents awards to federal troops, Gudermes, 1 January 2000 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/putin-gudermes-awards-chechnya-2000/)

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