THE ROLE OF BULGARIANS FOR THE SPREAD OF NATIONAL, ANARCHIST AND SOCIALIST IDEAS IN OTTOMAN SALONICA

Author(s): Yura Konstantinova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2018

Salonica was the centre of the national idea in the Ottoman Empire, which distinguished it essentially from the cosmopolitan Ottoman cities along the Asia Minor coast. The Bulgarians had a significant role to play in the political and ideological ebullience that had gripped the city in the first decade of the 20th century. Its representatives were among the most prominent proponents of the national, socialist and anarchist idea that inevitably influenced the Jewish community in the city. Even though its Jewish population did not identify itself with the national-liberation aspirations of the Christian population, the proximity of the Balkan nation states and particularly of Bulgaria had a tangible effect on the city and predetermined its fate.

Nici victimă, nici eroină. Rolul „poveştilor de viaţă” în construcţia identitară a fostelor deţinute politic din România

Author(s): Claudia-Florentina Dobre / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 19/2020

This study, based on the idea assessed by Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition according to which the storytelling is a strategy „for transforming private into public meanings”, and further discussed by Michael Jackson in his book, The Politics of Storytelling, who underlined that the storytelling is also a strategy „for sustaining a sense of agency in the face of dis-empowering circumstances”[ Michael Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling..., p. 34. ], aims at developing even further those two ideas arguing that storytelling is also fashioned by the social, cultural and political context as well as by the „social realms of memory”. Using the findings of a research among women, former political detainees during communism in Romania, this article emphasizes the role of storytelling in helping those women to overcome the trauma of the repression as well as in enhancing their agency while building an identity of anti-communist fighter.

Подходи към темата за коронавирус в български и чуждоезични медии (17.02.2020-17.04.2020 Г.)

Author(s): Dorotea Tsvetanova,Iliyana Marinkova,Denitsa Dyankova,Tereza Kantcheva,Emiliya Kircheva,Kristina Yordanova,Viktor Nikolov,Lyuba Garkova,Borislav Valov,Maria Stancheva,Elmira Dzhoma / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 9/2021

The text presents the results of a student study on the ways in whichmedia and journalists act in the first months of the emerging healh andhumanitarian crisis in 2020, conducted in the beginning of February 2020. Thecontext of this choice is important, as in February Bulgarian media still speak of a"virus like any other", the primary messages of the experts were: "no place forpanic", "no serious danger", "a virus, which is less dangerous than the seasonalflu". The study presents the results of approaches to subjects and speaking figuresin different media and shows, through which they informed society in the firstmonths of the crisis. The authors of the study are the fourth year students from the‘Radio’ profile, FJMK, SU. Authors: Dorotea Tsvetanova, Iliyana Marinkova,Denitsa Dyankova, Tereza Kancheva, Emiliya Kircheva, Kristina Yordanova,Viktor Nikolov, Lyuba Garkova, Borislav Valov, Maria Stancheva, ElmiraDzhoma.

The Classical Message in a Bottle - Should "Classical Wisdom" Determine Our Identity and Future?

Author(s): Ljuben Tevdovski / Language(s): English Issue: 14(43)/2021

“No one finds it easy to live uncomplainingly and fearlessly with the thesis that human reality is constantly being made and unmade, and that anything like a stable essence is constantly under threat.” These were the words used by Edward Said in the late 1970’s in the context of introduction of the new paradigms for the identity of the people, communities and societies in the East and the West, as well as the world as a whole. He was ahead of a wider decades long process of re-evaluating and reimagining of our identities and values, leading to exposure of serious and numerous misconceptions and illusions in the perceptions and analyses of the self and the other. The growing tendencies of scientific relativism and constant re-evaluation of the key paradigms, especially in social sciences and humanities, of the last decades, were further emphasized by the massive waves of globalisation, that have shaken societal traditions, norms, and principals all over the world. One of the key aspects of this transformative process in the West was the confrontation with the societal and scientific biases created by the Eurocentric views of the world and human history, connected to the dominant classicistic traditions in both society and academia. This paper provides a novel multidisciplinary approach in thinking about our classical traditions and examines if the classical principals, ideals, and “wisdom” are still relevant in confronting contemporary challenges of the world and reimagining our own identity and our vision for the future.

Македонският научен институт с неговите основатели – интелектуален продължител на солунските български гимназии (просопографски аспекти)

Author(s): Naoum Kaychev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

The article analyses biographic evidence on the educational formation and professional activity of all the fifty two founders of the Macedonian Scientific Institute in 1923 in view of their interconnectedness with Salonica (Thessaloniki). According to the available data over half of them, 27 out of 52, were directly associated with Bulgarian educational and academic institutions that functioned in the city until1913. Prosopographical analysis of that specific key group is one of the proofs that Macedonian Scientific Institute could be considered as an intellectual inheritor that directly continued the traditions and spirit of the Bulgarian secondary schools (gymnasiums) in Salonica.

Молещият се исихаст в образа на пламък

Author(s): Evelina Mineva / Language(s): Greek, Ancient (to 1453),Bulgarian,Old Slavonic,Old Bulgarian Issue: 63-64/2021

This article examines several unique examples in the Byzantine and Old Bulgarian hagiographical literature of the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries, which reflect the spiritual state of the Hesychast offering the so-called Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart, a new form of the “inner prayer” (νοερὰ προσευχή), originating from the early Christian hermitic practices, which found theological justification in the writings of Evagrius of Pontus (ca. 345–399/400). The reason for searching for its literary reflection is the famous passage from the Encomium in praise of Patriarch Euthymius of Turnovo by Gregory Tsamblak. It describes how Euthymius as a disciple of Theodosius of Turnovo saw his mentor in an unusual and even frightening condition: standing in his full stature, with his hands raised up and his eyes radiating such a strong light, as if it were a flame. This image in Tsamblak is unique in the Old Bulgarian literature of the period and has its parallel only in the Vitaе of the Athonite Hesychast, Maximos of Kapsokalyvia (ca. 1270/1280–ca. 1365/75), three of which were written by his followers and disciples, St Niphon of Kapsokalyvia (1315–1411), Theophanes, Metropolitan of Peritheorio, and Hieromonk Ioannikios Kochylas, and the most recent one by the Byzantine scholar Macarius Macres (1382/1383–7 Jan. 1431). Due to the differences in the specific details and circumstances in their descriptions, it was established that they were not the original source of Tsamblak. Influenced by the second of the three Triads (In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts) by Gregory Palamas, he chose as a model a very similar story about the hermit Arsenius from the alphabetical collection Apophthegmata Patrum (PG 65: 94 C). The fear and astonishment of those who see the flames of the praying recluses, and the fact that the ascetics themselves somehow deny what is seen, can be explained not only by the extremely metaphysical nature of what is happening and ascetic modesty, but also by the notion of an evil spirit sent from the devil, or by the influence of heretical ideas and practices. Especially in the Vitae of the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries the hermit's apparent indifference and even the ban on sharing what was seen was probably dictated by the writers' desire to prevent a reaction of disbelief, as well as the accusation of non-Orthodoxy, as Hesychasts were known to be accused by their opponents as Bogomils and Massalians because of similarities in their ascetic practices with these heretical movements.

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski’s personalist-communitarian concept of the state and the socio-political transformations of Poland in the post-war decades

Author(s): Ryszard Ficek / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2021

The article debates the issues of the personalist-communitarian concept of social life presented by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński in the context of the political and social transformations taking place in Poland in the post-war decades. In his praxeological approach, Wyszyński perceives the breakdown of the Christian community and morality as the primary social problem caused by the destructive influence of a human being inscribed in the ideology of collectivism and individualism. Therefore, the above article analyzes the specifics of “incomplete” concepts of man, as well as criticizes the doctrines responsible for the adverse effects of the socio-political changes taking place in the post-war decades of Polish history. This paper also proposes ways in which contemporary models of social life can shape the socio-political reality based on a genuinely humanistic vision of man and citizen.

За политическото предприемачество през ХІХ в. и значението му за стопанското развитие на българите

Author(s): Petko St. Petkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

On the basis of the theoretical model for political entrepreneurship proposed by the author, initiatives and projects of Bulgarian public and political subjects from the beginning of the 19th century until the creation of the new Bulgarian state in 1879 are analyzed. Church-national movement is the longest and most effective political entrepreneurship, ending with the creation of a Bulgarian proto-state – the Exarchate. The manifestations of the evolutionary direction in the national liberation movement are considered, especially those in the period after the Crimean War (1853–1856) to the end of 1876 after the April Uprising. Legal political actions are a kind of political entrepreneurship, as the ultimate goal of most of them is to establish political autonomy of the Bulgarians in the diocese of the already established Bulgarian Exarchate without formal separation from the “inseparable” Ottoman Empire proclaimed in Paris in 1856. Most of the revolutionary Bulgarian initiatives from the period 1856–1876 can be characterized as “startup” projects with all the conventions in the transfer of a predominantly economic phenomenon from the 21st century to the specific environment of the 19th century. The lack or insufficiency of own funding is particularly important for the success of these endeavors and therefore their organizers resort to risky assistance from external forces, which predetermines and limits to a large extent the results even of those who achieve their political goals such as the April Uprising of 1876.

Между търговското предприемачество и научно публицистично и политическо поприще: щрихи от краткия житейски път на Стоян Пранчов (1862–1889)

Author(s): Margarita Marinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The article traces the life of Stoyan Georgiev Pranchov, heir of a wealthy Revival merchant family from Koprivshtitsa as an example of the realization of the second generation of merchants after the Liberation. It is stated that his upbringing, education and personal qualities provide him with an opportunity for a commercial career. He graduated from the Vienna Academy of Commerce and the Higher School of Science and Politics in Paris, where he formed his economic and political views. During his studies in Paris (1882–1884) he worked for the interests of his father’s commercial house in Vienna “G. S. Pranchov&Cie”. His motives for becoming an independent trader in Bulgaria, and not in Vienna, are emerging. The significance of his scientific and journalistic activity is analyzed and evaluated. It is concluded that under the influence of various factors – health, brutal struggles during the political crisis of 1886–1887, and others, he fails to unleash his entrepreneurial and scientific potential. He died at the age of 27.

Христо Райков – предприемач и индустриалец (1896–1967)

Author(s): Ivan Postompirov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Hristo Raykov is an example of a rapidly getting rich industrialist. He was born in the village of Dalboki Tomchevtsi, Tryavna region, Dryanovo district, in 1896 in a poor family. From a very young age he focused on independent trade in wool and fabrics. In 1924 he settled permanently in Gabrovo. Having accumulated enough capital, the ambitious entrepreneur directs his interests to the industry to close the cycle of supply and processing of wool to the final product. In 1927 he was already a major shareholder and director of a textile factory. Hristo Raykov walked the path to wealth for twenty years – from a small trader, he managed to become the owner of factories in Gabrovo, Sliven and Sofia, for which companies work throughout the country. In 16 years he has increased its capital from BGN 5 million to BGN 200 million. Hristo Raykov is a man without special education, but with great ambition, will and energy, a man who does not trust accountants and directors. With the famous Gabrovo thrift, he personally manages his enterprises, knows the production in detail, knows what is done in every corner of his factories, always strives to be first. Maybe that’s why he earned the nickname “The Bulgarian Henry Ford” of his time. The nationalization on December 23, 1947 found him with assets of over BGN 1 billion. In the 1940s, Hristo Raykov was considered the most successful industrialist in Gabrovo and one of the richest people in Bulgaria.

Два примера за „самонаправили се“ предприемачи в България по време на прехода през 90-те години на ХХ в.

Author(s): Iliyana Marcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Based on interviews and publications in the press, the personal stories of several businessmen without proven ties to criminal groups or political authorities, who are among the successful businessmen so far, are examined. These are people from the real sector, from the middle class businessmen in the field of production of packaging and pumps for the perfume and food industry (Peyo Peev, Alfrida-Peev, Gabrovo) and for the production of high class meat products and sausages (Kiril Vatev, Tandem - V). On this basis, as a case study, some common features in their self-creation are derived. They show the difficulties and peculiarities in the self-creation of entrepreneurs in Bulgaria during the transition. The main ones can be defined as follows. The success of two is due to the accumulated preliminary experience and even capital, their personal qualities - perseverance, vision, strong spirit, their desire to follow and maintain a consistently high quality of their products. And last but not least - to the good pay of workers for quality work. Although they manage to create themselves in opposition to power and corruption, they subsequently seek politics to use it for their business interests. Charity is their way to establish themselves positively in society.

Editorial Foreword

Author(s): Silviu-Marian Miloiu / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 1/2021

The 13th volume of The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies reflects some of the research presented at the 12th International conference on Baltic and Nordic studies titled “Rethinking multiculturalism, multilingualism, and cultural diplomacy in Scandinavia and The Baltic Sea Region,” which will be held on May 27-28, 2021, under the auspices of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies. RethinkMulti-Kulti2021 was called to reflect on multiculturalism, multilingualism, and cultural diplomacy in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region 10 years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel predicted the end of German multicultural society. Many politicians with Conservative leanings praised the confirmation that the half-century-cherished multi-kulti “utterly failed,” and far-right gurus interpreted it as an omen. Furthermore, Merkel’s track record as a committed democratic-minded politician, EU leader, and proponent of migrant integration has garnered near-universal support for this argument. Furthermore, in academia, Merkel’s assertion has never been adequately questioned, but rather taken for granted. Meanwhile, policies governing multiculturalism and multilingualism in the EU and EEA have been stuck in a rut, particularly in what Fareed Zakaria properly refers to as illiberal democracies.

D’Amaurote à Dumocala : variations sur les rois en utopie

Author(s): François Rosset / Language(s): French Issue: 11/2021

After recalling the figure of Pantagruel, a grandson of the king of Utopia and king of the Dipsodes - which makes it possible to evoke some of the properties of utopia, and in particular that which consists of searching within utopia itself for filial links it maintains with previous texts - the discussion is narrowed down to the figure of the king in the tradition of utopia, with Sylvain Maréchal's Last Judgement of Kings serving as an example. Next, attention is directed more specifically to the figure of the king of Poland, a figure particularly suited to stimulate the political imagination of Europeans in the 18th century, and then to the person of Stanislas Leszczyński - the only sovereign to have written a utopia. He is the author of the short novel Entretien d’un Européan avec un insulaire du Royaume de Dumocala, which is both faithful to the narrative model it helps to perpetuate and devoid of any revolutionary intentions.

L’Abbaye de Thélème : une enclave soustraite au réel ou le paroxysme d’une société élitiste

Author(s): Matthieu Founeau / Language(s): French Issue: 11/2021

This article aims to analyze the Abbey of Thélème imagined by François Rabelais to get a clear idea about the initial utopian programme, by means of observing its shapes and limits. It will situate this work at an intersection between humanitarian values, contribution from More, spiritual crisis, and above all a pressing demand for renewal and novelty, resulting from societal and political criticism. It is from this opening statement that we will try to approach the structure, the project and the laws regulating and organizing this particular utopian society, before determining its limits. Attention will be paid to its construction, concrete and theoretical, in a parallel with the architecture of the convent Sainte-Marie de la Tourette designed by Le Corbusier. Thus, we will demonstrate how Rabelais’ linguistic games overstep the ideological project for the benefit of a new type of writing, complex and multifaceted. We will have to understand a lot of paradoxes which allow us to determine the importance of the literature beyond the initial utopian project.

Azor d’Aunillon : l’équivoque du langage dans un récit utopique de 1750

Author(s): Stanisław Świtlik / Language(s): French Issue: 11/2021

While included in Garnier’s collection, Azor, a little known work of Aunillon from 1750, does not follow the literary rules of most narrative utopias. However, the complex story presents critical thinking about the development of refined societies. The change which a mute community experiences on an island while learning to speak calls into question the future of this happy society, but no narrator’s commentary elaborates on this turning point in the utopia. In Azor, language becomes an ambiguous object which allows for the critical consideration of the steps necessary to access philosophical sophistication but also implicitly highlights problems associated with too hasty a progress. Through the narrative plot, the judgment on civilization reveals a subtle and skillful examination of hopes and challenges of the Enlightenment, articulated in a narrative utopia as in a laboratory of ideas. Aunillon's work is part of the debates of the mid-century by expressing a nuanced validation of civilization.

Reality in a Microcosm: Railway Modeling in Bulgaria – Narratives, Images, Discourses

Author(s): Angelina Ilieva / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

The article is a culturological and anthropological study of railway modeling in Bulgaria. The history, the social organization, and the cultural practices of the Bulgarian modelists are represented through the prism of their personal narratives and discourses shared in the public space. At the same time, railway modeling is conceptualized as a cultural microcosm with specific artistic “poetics”. The author also outlines some basic themes within the verbal and visual discourse: the aesthetics of the models, their technical precision, the image of the modelist as a creator, as well as the attitude towards Bulgarian railroads as cultural heritage.

30 de ani de la destrămarea R.S.F. Iugoslavia. Despre politică, societate şi „cultură de masă” – consideraţii

Author(s): Daniel Lazăr / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 67/2021

The Yugorock of the 70s-90s was not rejected a priori by the regime, as it occurred in the other socialist countries. The Communist Party believed that it was harmless as long as the authorities monitored it closely. The outbreak of the civil war in 1991 coincided with the “cultural” debut of turbofolk in Serbia and Serbian territories throughout Yugoslavia. It was characterized as a suburban culture movement, “tasted” by uneducated supporters of Slobodan Milošević’s style and that abounds in elements of kitsch by promoting peripheral messages such as “war glamour”, “greedy is cool”, “get rich quickly”, able to fascinate a decomposing society. In the last decade of the 20th Century, the hostile historical context turned Serbia of Slobodan Milošević into the victim of a predominant cultural “narcissism”, where certainties were eliminated and where the infallibility of the new Leader tended to become immanent.

Римският лимес в България – на фокус

Author(s): Vesselina Vachkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

L’INFLUENCE DU GAULLISME SUR LES SERBES

Author(s): Slobodan Zečević / Language(s): French Issue: 75/2021

L’œuvre historique de Charles de Gaulle a-t-elle eu de l’influence sur les événements politiques en Serbie? La réponse est oui, même plus qu’on ne le pense. Le parallélisme du comportement politique pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale du général Milan Nedić avec celui du maréchal Philippe Pétain et du colonel Dragoljub Draža Mihajlović avec celui du général de Gaulle est fascinant. Les deux militaires serbes ont été formés par l’armée française. Comme Pétain, le général Nedić a décidé de se soumettre à l’occupant en créant un État serbe fantoche. Comme de Gaulle, le général Mihajlović est convaincu de la victoire des Alliés, refusant la capitulation et décidant de continuer le combat. La constitution gaulliste de la V République de 1958 a-t-elle inspirée les rédacteurs de la constitution serbe de 2006 ? Dans une certaine mesure oui, mais peut-être pas assez. Voici une analyse du rapport des Serbes face au gaullisme.

Intelectualii şi tradiţia populismului în spaţiul românesc

Author(s): Daniel Șandru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 20/2021

The central hypothesis of the article is that the attraction of authoritarianism on a populist background has a long tradition in Romanian society, particularly from the perspective of public intellectuals’ support for the holders of political power. The contribution highlights, using the methodological tool of ideology analysis, the influence that intellectuals have had on the development of a particular dominant political culture in Romania. I argue that the central elements of the Romanian political culture, to the social design, development and consolidation of which representative public intellectuals have contributed, over time, are the following: anti-individualism, anti-democratism and providentialism. These features have been grafted on a Manichean background driven by ethno-nationalism, which remains prevalent in contemporary Romania. Elements of this dominant political culture have been socially enacted and transmitted through the discourses, attitudes and behaviours of public intellectuals of different generations, most of whom have entered into the political arena. Thus, they have legitimized the various directions in which political populism has manifested itself over the last century. In the process, public intellectuals became propagandists for parties and/or political leaders who have presented themselves as providential harbingers of „change” or „reform”.