„Otroků osvoboditeli!“ Sémiotické obrazy Ruska v jihoslovanském obrození
“O Freer of Slaves!” Semiotic images of Russia in the South Slavic National Revival

Summary/Abstract: This article provides a basic typology of the images, ideas, and symbolic roles connected with Russian politics, education and culture during the Bulgarian-Macedonian national revival. Russia served as a prototype of freedom during the Revival, and during this process, it was represented by a number of ideas and images. The “Russia phenomenon” was however more than just a prototype; it also had a real influence on fundamental areas of sociocultural life within the Revival. The Russian university towns became centers of Bulgarian culture, enabling the rise of an intelligentsia for the Revival. A large portion of the intelligentsia’s representatives from Balkan Bulgaria and Macedonia studied at Russian schools. One part of this aspect of Russian-South Slavic relations was the rise of efforts to acquire universal scientific knowledge of the Balkan countries. These efforts were partly a natural result of the geopolitical interests of Tsarist Russia both before and after the Crimean war. As a result of all of the above, Russia, as a phenomenon, became a distinctive interpretative model for the South Slavic revival.

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