Щрихи от българския оксидентализъм през XVIII и XIX век
Features of the Bulgarian Occidentalism during the 18th-19th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on an understudied trend in the ideological and political life of the Bulgarian society. An analysis of the texts of Bulgarian authors from the 18th-19th centuries underlies the conclusion that they contain a number of elements of Occidentalism, of the negative predisposition to the West. An attempt is made to reveal the cultural, historical and geopolitical factors determining these elements. The article accounts the negative effects from the confrontation between Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism on the image of the West. It is pointed out that in the early decades of the 19th century Occidentalism in the Balkans acquired an increasingly distinct geopolitical ring related to the resurgence of Russian policy in the Balkans. The author claims that the activities of the Odessa circle, led by Vasil Aprilov, toward tying Bulgarian culture to Russia resulted in the establishment of a powerful trend of Occidentalism in the Bul- garian cultural life that would play a significant role in the life of the Bulgarian society in the decades to come. Bulgarians, due to their needs and the degree of their spiritual development, were forced to communicate with the official Russian culture, which, in the reactionary period during the rue of Nicholas I, was dominated by the ideas of Orthodoxy and Pan-Slavism. This left an imprint on the mentality of the Bulgarian youth educated in Russia and had an impact on the orientation of the cultural, social and political development of the Bulgarian society.

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