Book Review: Nadège Ragaru, “Et les Juifs bulgares furent sauvés”: Une histoire des saviors sur la Shoah en Bulgarie

Book Review: Nadège Ragaru, “Et les Juifs bulgares furent sauvés”: Une histoire des saviors sur la Shoah en BulgarieThis presentation reviews a recent book by the French historian and political scientist Nadège Ragaru, analyzing how Bulgarian society has been dealing with the fate of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II. Pressurized by its Nazi German ally to send 20,000 Bulgarian Jews to extermination camps then located in the General Government, a part of the former Republic of Poland, the Bulgarian wartime government participated in the deportation of 11,343 Jews from the territories under Bulgarian administration in Greek Thrace and Yugoslav Macedonia, while withholding, after protests by some politicians and intellectuals, the Church and a part of the Bulgarian population, from completing the number of 20,000 by sending another 8,000 Jews from Bulgaria proper. In three consecutive chapters, Ragaru discusses how the People’s Courts dealt with the persecutors of the Jews, analyzes the ideological sensibilities raised by a film (a Bulgarian-DDR coproduction) about the deportation, and examines the use of three original short documentary shootings of the events. In the two final chapters, Ragaru deals with the relative pluralism of opinions that has been the case since the fall of the communist regime and the internationalization of the topic, especially as the tense relations with North Macedonia are concerned. Ragaru’s general conclusion is that in spite of the increased preparedness to admit Bulgaria’s involvement, the salvation continues to be overstated, while the complicity is smuggled away.Boek recensie: Nadège Ragaru, “Et les Juifs bulgares furent sauvés”: Une histoire des saviors sur la Shoah en BulgarieDit recente boek van de Franse historica en politieke wetenschapster Nadège Ragaru analiseert de manier waarop de Bulgaarse samenleving is omgegaan met het lot van de Bulgaarse Joden gedurende de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Onder druk van haar Nazi-Duitse bondgenoot om 20.000 Bulgaarse Joden naar uitroeiingskampen toen gesitueerd in het Generaal-Gouvernement, een deel van de voormalige Republiek Polen te sturen nam de Bulgaarse regering deel aan de deportatie van 11.343 Joden uit de territoria in Grieks Thracië en Joegoslavisch Macedonië onder Bulgaars bestuur, maar zag, na protesten van enkele politici en intellectuelen, de kerk en een deel van de Bulgaarse bevolking, af van de uitlevering van het resterende aantal van 8.000 Joden uit Bulgarije zelf. In drie opeenvolgende hoofdstukken, Ragaru beschrijft hoe de Volksrechtbanken omgingen met de vervolgers van de Joden, welke ideologische gevoeligheden werden opgeroepen door een film (een Bulgaars-Oost-Duitse coproductie) over de deportatie, en het gebruik dat gemaakt werd van drie originele korte documentaire filmfragmenten over de gebeurtenissen. In de laatste twee hoofdstukken behandelt Ragaru de relatieve verscheidenheid aan opinie na de val van het communistische regime en de internationalizering van het onderwerp, in het bijzonder in verband met de relaties met de Republiek van Noord-Macedonië. Haar algemene conclusie luidt dat, ondanks te toenemende bereidheid om de betrokkenheid van Bulgarije te erkennen, de redding toch overbelicht blijft, terwijl de medeplichtigheid wordt weggemoffeld.Recenzja książki: Nadège Ragaru, “Et les Juifs bulgares furent sauvés”: Une histoire des saviors sur la Shoah en BulgarieNadège Ragaru, francuska historyczka i politolożka, w swej najnowszej książce analizuje, w jaki sposób społeczeństwo bułgarskie traktowało bułgarskich Żydów w czasie II wojny światowej. Rząd Bułgarii, ulegając naciskom swego sojusznika, nazistowskich Niemiec, w sprawie wysłania dwudziestu tysięcy bułgarskich Żydów do obozów Zagłady w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie, wcześniej Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, deportował 11 343 Żydów z terytoriów greckiej Tracji i jugosłowiańskiej Macedonii, znajdujących się wówczas pod rządami władz Bułgarii. Jednak po protestach nielicznych polityków, intelektualistów i Cerkwi oraz części bułgarskiej ludności władze Bułgarii ostatecznie odstąpiły od procederu wydalenia z kraju pozostałych 8 000 Żydów. W trzech kolejnych rozdziałach Ragaru opisuje, jak Trybunały Ludowe traktowały prześladowców Żydów, jaką podatność na ideologię wśród społeczeństwa bułgarskiego ukazała filmowa koprodukcja bułgarsko- -enerdowska o deportacjach, a także wyjaśnia, do czego posłużyły trzy krótkie oryginalne fragmenty filmów dokumentalnych ukazujące tamte wydarzenia. W ostatnich dwóch rozdziałach Ragaru przedstawia różnorodność opinii po upadku reżimu komunistycznego oraz internacjonalizację tematu, w szczególności kwestię stosunków z Republiką Północnej Macedonii. Autorka wysnuwa ogólny wniosek, że mimo przejawiającej się skłonności Bułgarii do uznania swego zaangażowania [w Zagładę], kwestia ocalenia Żydów [przez społeczeństwo bułgarskie] jest nadal bardziej eksponowana, a współsprawstwo jest wciąż zamiatane pod dywan.

CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN BULGARIAN PATIENTS WITH REPRODUCTIVE PROBLEMS – ONE GENETIC CENTRE EXPERIENCE

Chromosomal polymorphism is described as normal variants at chromosomal regions with no impact on the phenotype but a possible correlation to infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the chromosomal polymorphisms involved in families with reproductive failures in the Bulgarian population. Material and methods: A total of 1733 patients with unexplained reproductive failures who visited the Laboratory of Medical Genetics – Varna, Bulgaria, (2004 - 2019) were investigated by conventional cytogenetic analysis GTG and CBG differential banding techniques and analyzed at the resolution 400-550 GTG bands. Results: Chromosomal polymorphisms were found in 173 infertile patients (9,98%). The sex distribution was 6,52% males and 3,46% females. The most frequent finding was inv(9)(qh) (23,7%). The other chromosomal variants, which were found, consisted: 9qh+/- variants (15,1%); polymorphisms on the short arms of the acrocentric chromosomes (21,4%); 16qh+ (12,7%) and 1qh+ (6,9%). Y chromosome polymorphism was found in 27,4% of the males with polymorphisms. Two rare cases of polymorphism involving the centromere regions - 19qcenh+ and 20pcenh+ were also found. Conclusion: There is growing evidence that polymorphisms may have a clinical impact on fertility and could take part in the etiology of RF. In this study, we found a significantly high percentage of polymorphisms (9,98%) among the tested patients, and they were more common among males. The statistical significance of increased incidence of chromosome variations found in our study emphasizes the need for routine evaluation of their role in families with RF in our country.

D. T. BEREZOVETS AND NETAILIVKA BURIAL GROUND OF SALTIV CULTURE: DISCOVERY, MODERN RESEARCHES, RESULTS

Peculiarity of the Netailivka burial ground, noted by its discoverer D. T. Berezovets, is the total predominance of burials where the bones of the buried people are completely absent. At the same time the burials often contain grave goods located in the places when the bodies of the deceased should have been lied. This fact allowed D. T. Berezovets to suppose that initially the burial was performed on the surface of the earth where the body was exposed to natural factors and only after that it was re-buried into a pit. However, the researches of recent years show that burials were made in full accordance with the funeral rite of the Proto-Bulgarian population of the Saltiv culture. The absence of human remains in most of the burial pits should be associated with the specific hydrological conditions prevailing at the site of the necropolis in the post-Saltiv period. In a number of burials of the burial ground the later activity in the burial pits, associated with ritual actions performed in ancient times, were recorded. These actions testify the existence of the so-called «final ceremony» among the Netailivka people, the holding of which meant the end of mourning for the deceased person and made the death of a relative complete and final for the living. The study of the chronological markers of the site made it possible to attribute the time of the burial ground to the stage of the formation of the Saltiv culture in the region and to date the earliest burials of the necropolis to the 740—790 AD. The set of decorations and brooches from early burials shows that the original area of the migration of this population was the North-Eastern Caucasus (the territory of modern Chechnya and Dagestan). The location of the horse remains in the burials of the horsemen indicates the mixed Turkic-Ugric character of the population, which was part of the tribal union of the «Bulgars». The date of the burial ground and the probable area of residence of the population which made it, allows us to identify the «Netailivka» people with the representatives of the nomadic Bulgar union known from literary sources as «Sabirs / Savirs»

Gagauz and Bulgarian peoples of the North Caucasus: History with Ethnology and Demography

Materials from population censuses in Russia, data from state archives of KabardinoBalkaria and Northern Ossetia (Alania), materials from stanitsa Ekaterinogradskaya rural household registers of 1940s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s as well as data from the author’s ethnosociological studies have been used to describe the ethnodemographic dynamics of Gagauz and Bulgarian population in Malgobek and Sukhotskoe villages in Northern Ossetia (Alania) and stanitsa Ekaterinogradskaya in Kabardino-Balkaria.

SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD SECURITY - SPECIFICS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR THE FOOD SECURITY OF BULGARIA

The sustainability of food security is examined in the study as current state and opportunities for dealing with problems, that arise in the processes of production and nutrition of the Bulgarian population. There have been reflected the specifics related to the production of basic food products by the agriculture and food industry and the consumption of important product groups and separate products. There have been evaluated also the consequences of the sustainability of food security changes for the national food security of Bulgaria.

Models of Self-Identification of Russian Bulgarians in Siberia: The Example of the Bulgarians of the Tyumen Region

В статье рассматриваются представления болгарского населения Тюменской области о своей этнической идентичности на современном этапе, а также предложены и охарактеризованы модели самоидентификации российских болгар. Источниковой базой выступили интервью с болгарами Тюмени и Нижневартовска. Качественный анализ интервью позволил выявить проблему этнической самоидентификации потомков межнациональных браков, особенности опыта респондентов в выборе этничности, направления процессов межэтнического взаимодействия в быту, языкового и культурного взаимовлияния. В статье рассмотрены и проанализированы общественные организации болгар, социальные платформы и виртуальные этнические группы. Авторы приходят к выводу, что болгары, проживающие в Тюменской области, несмотря на немногочисленность и дисперсность проживания, сохраняют свою этническую идентичность, успешно интегрировавшись в социально-экономическое, политическое и культурное пространство этого Западно-Сибирского региона. This article examines the ideas of the Bulgarian population of the Tyumen Region about its ethnic identity and proposes models of self-identification among Russian Bulgarians. Interviews with Bulgarians from Tyumen and Nizhnevartovsk were the source base. A qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed the problem of ethnic self-identification of the offspring of interethnic marriages; specifics of respondents’ experience in choosing ethnicity; and the nature of interethnic interaction in everyday life, including linguistic and cultural interaction. The article also considers public organizations of Bulgarians, social platforms and virtual ethnic groups. The authors conclude that the Bulgarians living in the Tyumen Region, despite their small number and geographic dispersion, retain their ethnic identity, successfully integrating into the socio-economic, political and cultural space of this West Siberian region.

ЕДНА ОСОБЕНОСТ В ОПИСАНИЕТО НА МЕСТНИТЕ ТРАДИЦИОННИ КОСТЮМИ, НАПРАВЕНО ОТ АДМИНИСТРАЦИЯТА В ШУМЕНСКАТА ОКОЛИЯ ПРЕЗ 1888 Г. / A PECULIARITY OF THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL CLOTHES MADE BY THE ADMINISTRATION OF SHUMEN REGION IN 1888

An object of investigation in the presented paper is lexis and style in an unknown and uninvestigated till now corpus of documents from the end of XIX cent., which presents in several relatively identical ways the clothes of different social and ethnic groups in post-liberation Bulgaria from this period. It is noteworthy that in the description of the clothing of the Bulgarian population Turkisms are used as much as in the description of the clothing of the Turkish population. This is probably due to the fact that the named realities themselves have entered the life of the population of this area together with the names for them through the Orient and through Turkish mediation.

PREVALENCE OF MTHFR GENE 677C>T POLYMORPHISM IN THE PATIENTS WITH PSORIASIS VULGARIS

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between carriage of 677C>T polymorphism in the gene of methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and plaque psoriasis in patients in Bulgaria. We examined the prevalence of MTHFR C677T genotype in patients with psoriasis, as well as the relationship of the polymorphism with disease severity. Our study covered63 patients with psoriasis and 98psoriasis-free control subjects from northern Bulgaria. MTHFR677C>T genotype was verified by the PCR-RFLP method. There was no significant difference between carriage of TT genotype among the patients and controls: 12.7% versus 10.8 %in controls, OR 1.203, (CI 95% 0465-3.175), p>0.05 respectively. There was a higher PASI score in patients, carriers of TT genotype of MTHFR polymorphism 677C>T than in non-carriers, 28.18versus 24.87 respectively, but not significant. Conclusion: Carriage of TT genotype of MTHFR polymorphism 677C>T was not associated with Psoriasis Vulgaris in the northern Bulgarian population when compared to healthy controls.