Against the Barriers. The Unusual Story of the Usual Yusein Mashev

In the context of the repressions of the Pomaks the unusual story of the miner worker Yusein Mashev from village of Ribnovo, which started in 1979 and finished in 1980, give us an idea of the time of the communist regime in Bulgaria. He succeeded to escape form the concentration camp in Belene, crossing during the night the Danube river. He was able to reach the town of Kyustendil and to cross illegally the Bulgarian – Yugoslav border. In the emigration camp in Italy he decided to depart illegally for Turkey, boarded the ship to Istanbul without documents, without any roblems he reached his acquaintances and relatives in the town of Saray, Takirdag district. After five years he turned back to Bulgaria with false identity reached Ribnovo and smuggled his wife and two children into Yugoslavia. Yusein Mishev bravely resisted the change of the names of the Pomaks, the following repressions did not discourage him, he overcame all the barriers, caring a letter send to him in order to voice the protests in village of Kornitsa during March – April 1973. Makes important events available to the Bulgarian and world public, events which were hidden very carefully by the Bulgarian authorities. On the radio in Yugoslavia he told of the repression of innocent citizens and informed about the concentration camp in Belene, announcing the names of imprisoned in the II section Pomaks. The aim of this research, based on field researches in Bulgaria and Turkey and many interviews, is to preserve for the history and science the unusual story of Yusein Mahev – a man of freedom loving spirit and rich vision.

Hasan Eren - from Vidin to the Peaks of Turkology

The study follows the life and scientific trajectories of the turkologist Hasan Eren from the town of Vidin, lecturer at the University of Ankara, editor and author of various dictionaries, including the first etymological dictionary of the Turkish language. It traces the preparation and growth of the world-famous Turkish linguist and lexicologist, who left Bulgaria to study and after his exceptional training among Hungarian orientalists such as Gyula Németh he grew up as one of the most famous Turkish scholars in the field of llinguistics. This study presents the conditions and possibilities for Turkish intelligentsia in Bulgaria in the twentieth century.

Dr. Radan Angelov Sarafov and his sacrifice for democracy

Dr. Radan Sarafov (1908-1968) lived actively but his life is still relatively unknown to the Bulgarian academic and public audience. He was a strong character with an ulti-mate and conscious commitment to democratic Bulgaria. Dr. Sarafov was chosen by IMRO (Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) to represent the idea of coop-eration with Anglo-American politics prior to the Second World War. Dr. Sarafov studied medicine in France, specialized in the Sorbonne, and was recruited by Colonel Ross for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), remaining undisclosed after the with-drawal of the British legation in 1941. After World War II, he continued to work for foreign intelligence and expanded the spectrum of cooperation with both France and the United States. After WWII, Sarafov could not conform to the reign of the communist regime in Bulgaria. He made a connection with the Anglo-American intelligence ser-vices and was cooperating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for more than a decade. Sarafov was caught in 1968 and convicted by the Committee for State Securi-ty (CSS) in Bulgaria. The detailed review of the past events and processes through personal drama and commitment reveals the disastrous core of the communist regime. The acknowledgment of the people who sacrificed their lives in the name of democrat-ic values is always beneficial for understanding the division and contradictions from the time of the Cold War.

Visionarity and Health: The Semashko Model and the Sovietization of Public Health in Bulgaria (1944–1951)

After the Second World War and until 1990, Bulgaria, as most of the former communist countries from the Eastern Europe, implemented a Semashko healthcare system developed in the USSR. Named after the First People’s Commissar of Health of the Soviet Russia, Nikolai Semashko, Soviet health care was developed as “social health care”, trying also to eliminate the social reasons for illness, thus transforming society and economy as a whole. This type of system was based on the centrally planned principles, on rigid management and on the state monopoly. Consequently, the healthcare system created by the Ministry of Health was integrated and centralized, completely controlled by the state. The system of health services in Bulgara from 1944 to 1990 was inspired by the Soviet model Semashko, a centralized state system, which seemed to guarantee “free access to health services for the entire population”. In the research the author focuses on the policies in the field of public health in Bulgaria between 1944 and 1951, when the "Sovietization" in this field took place.

Traumatic Insight on Film Memory: Forced Assimilation in the Focus of Post-totalitarian Bulgarian Documentaries

Documentaries cover the subject of the extremely tragic processes of forced assimilation of Muslim population in Bulgaria in different ways. During the Communist regime, they feature the negative political visions. Social engineering in the totalitarian state aimed at confessional unity of the nation and this process was especially intense during the 1980s. Documentaries were a part of the government manipulative tools that targeted revival of the communist nationalism and an apprehensive play on the strings of patriotism. Cultural propaganda covered up repression, assaults, forced change of names, forced deportation, internment in prison camps, harassment of intellectuals from the Muslim community, and human rights violation. After 1989, Bulgarian filmmaking started interpreting this traumatic past in a different way, making a reassessment of history. Documentaries also took an active part in the debate on totalitarianism, using the screen to throw light on the political crimes. Beyond any dispute, one of the most painful subjects is the violence against Muslim communities that escalates to genocide. The subject of assimilation was more intensely covered during the 1990s and in the beginning of the Millennium. During the last decade, it gradually faded away and young authors today even neglect it. Although many good films have been made, we still get the feeling of insufficiency and understatement. The cinematic interpretations reactivate and question the traumatic memory, and further diagnose society. Quality documentary filmmaking always provides a multifaceted image of the past, preserves memories, and manages to aestheticize history in opposition to the trivial media images of the trauma. This paper analyses the genre and typological patterns specific for post-totalitarian Bulgarian documentaries. The focus of the study falls on leading authors, such as Maria Trayanova, Tatiana Vaksberg, Ivan Rossenov, Adela Peeva, Iglika Trifonova, Antony Donchev, Stanislava Kalcheva, Irina Nedeva and Andrey Getov, Dimitar Kotzev-Shosho. Two imagery trends are mainly identified: 1) documentary investigation with reconstruction of historical chronology and handling extremely valuable archives; 2) domination of the apprehensive portraiture genre, where personal records of events shape the picture of events in the past and track the consequences in the present. So far, Bulgarian film studies lack any full comparative study of the screen interpretation of assimilation processes before and after 1989.

You Can’t Say Something New in the Science if You don’t Disturb the Old: it is not Possible Only to Build over. A Conversation with Prof. Rusi Rusev (1948 - 2010)

As one of the first lecturers at the South-West Univeristy ‘Neofit Rilski’ – Blagoevgrad, Russi Russev relates his memories about the experience as assistant professor when he started his career in the late 1970-es leading student’s agricultural brigades which were compulsory part of the academic education. He describes also his struggle for more research independency against the prescribed Pavlov’s paradigm in the socialist sport science at that time as well as the opposition he had to overcome as young scientist for scientific recognition of his innovative research of coordination skills.

Socio-Religious Visionaries in Bulgaria (1920–1950s): the Christo Oustabachieff Case

The article is a case study of the life, work and ideas of the Bulgarian political and religious figure Christo Oustabachieff (1871–1953). Beginning his career as a financial official, political activist and founder of one of the first xenophobic organizations, after the First World War he devoted himself entirely to religious activities: he founded the “Good Samaritan” Religious Society (1921), became leader and ideologist of the Orthodox Holy Society for Spiritual Renewal of the Bulgarian people (1924), of the "Greater (Peaceful) Bulgaria" Union (Political Party) (1926–1944), of the "St. John of Rila” National Defense Organization (1933) and of the Slavic-Bulgarian People's Christian Union (1945–1953). His ideas have a religious and political character and represent a prototype of the Christian Democratic tradition in Bulgaria. In the context of the post-WW1 crisis and the widespread of the New Religious Movements, he declared himself a spiritual leader and initially guided his numerous followers with oral prophecies, revelations and dreams. Developed in the 1930s in written messages, they acquired an eclectic character, uniting religious fundamentalism, messianism and prophetism. Oustabachieff 's political visions in the 1930s–1940s were strongly influenced by authoritarianism, nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. Their core was an idea of a Slavic monarchy – based on Christian Democratic values, a future center of a Balkan federation, and a realized Medieval and Bulgaria Revival period ideal of "Great Bulgaria”. The study uses historical approach and is based on unknown archival sources, combined with data from periodicals and published works of Oustabachieff.

Family and community memory as a vision for the future. Ivan P. Milev – chronicler and visionary of the Bulgarian village

What society do we come from, who are its founders and what have they done to make Bulgaria exist today? An invaluable source of this information can be found in the preserved archives of Ivan P. Milev, who describes the history and customs of a Bulgarian village – Dobri Dyal. The article presents his ethnological and historical notes, which provide important information about the traditions, folk customs and rituals, as well as about the institutions established in the village – a community center, a church, a cooperative. The text also introduces the personality of Ivan Р. Milev as a visionary of the Bulgarian village in all its diversity – folklore, history and institutions. With the vision that what has been preserved as a written word serves as a gift, a treasure for the next generations, but also as a guiding light for the future and for the preservation of the Bulgarian spirit. "Dobri Dyal (cultural and historical notes)" is presented as a microcosm of the Bulgarian. Through his personal history, the author presents the struggle, the tradition, the memory, the vision for the future of an entire nation. Community memory is defined as giving strength and determining the dream future.

Bulgarian Protestants and the Czech Village of Voyvodovo. A Review

Review of the book Budilová, Lenka J., Jakoubek, Marek: Bulgarian Protestants and the Czech Village of Voyvodovo. Sofia: New Bulgarian University, 2017.

Eurasianism Today and What Lev Gumilev Was Right About

Lev Gumilev, the son of the famous Russian poets Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, according to all the canons of history, had to remain in the shadow of his great parents. However, Lev Gumilev went down in history as a very outstanding personality, the author of the original idea of the birth and development of ethnicities, which was called the “passion” theory of ethnogenesis. This theory causes great controversy about its scientific nature to this day. Lev Gumilev developed his theory within the framework of the concept of Eurasianism. Among the wide variety of Eurasian peoples, Gumilev saw a common ethnic origin, common stereotypes of behavior that could lead to the geopolitical unity of the territory inhabited by them. At the end of the last century, primordialism in ethnology was rejected by the majority of the scientific community, and Gumilev’s ideas were criticized. However, last years the Eurasianist ideas of Lev Gumilev are experiencing a new wave of importance in connection with the strategic path of development that the Russian Federation has chosen for itself, which is progressively building the United Eurasian Community.