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.

Nasz Dom jako konstrukt społeczny

Author(s): Aleksandra Zalewska-Królak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The review article refers to the monograph Nasz Dom 1919–2019. Pedagogiki społeczne, miasto i dzieciństwo w praktyce Naszego Domu [Our Home 1919–2019: Social Pedagogies, the City, and Childhood in the Practice of Our Home], edited by Marcin Gołąb and Zuzanna Sękowska (2019). It touches upon the problem of the social construct of what a ‘home’ can be. Its purpose is to show how the book captures the process of creating Nasz Dom [Our Home] depending on the context, and to discuss what a description of such characteristics can offer to the contempo­rary society. The author begins the article by presenting the assumptions of social constructivists. Then, she refers to the main elements influencing the shape of the structure of Our Home: the place, social pedagogy, and children. The article refers to the relationship between the practiced model of upbringing and the paradigm of childhood studies that emerged later. Particular emphasis is placed on the subjec­tivity of the child and the process of creating its rights.

Report from the philosophical workshop organized by The Lvov–Warsaw School Research Center and Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv

Author(s): Ewelina Grądzka / Language(s): English Issue: 71/2021

Between 11–14 February 2021 the first international Philosophical Workshop organized by The Lvov–Warsaw School Research Center (LWSRC) and Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv (KTPSL) took place in the on–line version due to the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic. The working languages of the event were Polish, Ukrainian and English. The coordinators’ goal was to refer to the tradition of seminar of Kazimierz Twardowski, who was not only a distinguished philosopher but also a great educator, to stimulate interest and support for the young generation of researchers into the heritage of the Lvov–Warsaw School (LWS). It is claimed that due to Twardowski’s unprecedented didactical engagement he managed to upbring dozens of Professors like Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Stefan Baley, Leopold Blaustein, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Izydora Dąmbska, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Stanisław Leśniewski, Jan Łukasiewicz, Władysław Witwicki.

Философията на модернизма в архитектурата на БАУХАУС

Author(s): Iskra Dandolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

After 1989, the construction of industrially built residential blocks in residential complexes in Sofia was stopped. Until then, for two or three decades, they were the most important production for the construction of residential buildings in the capital according to the principles of modernism. Thousands of homeless people eagerly awaited them to be sheltered. Confusion ensued after the political changes in 1989, when attempts were made to implement the laws on the restitution of agricultural land within the complexes, despite the fact that these were “projects with implementation” and according to the Restitution Law no changes could be made there. The complexes, as well as the other constructions in progress, only had to be completed according to their designs. But it did not happen. In many places, “illegal restitution” of private agricultural land has begun, as well as spontaneous “privatization” of municipal and state lands and new construction in violation of the projects for the development of residential complexes. Their physical and social environment has changed radically and as a result the quality of life in them has deteriorated sharply. Thirty years after 1989, the residential complexes of Sofia have dramatically moved away from the principles of modernism and are almost everywhere in spatial and social degradation. An intensive process of anti-modernism is under way. Only recently the Sofia Municipality decided to introduce a policy to improve the living conditions of citizens in these territories – will it be able to realize and develop it and is it not too late?

Joachim Zdrenka, Złotów 1370–2020. 650-lecie miasta, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2020, ss. 574

Author(s): Błażej Śliwiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01/2021

Katarzyna Rembacka, Komunista na peryferiach władzy. Historia Leonarda Borkowicza 1912–1989, Warszawa–Szczecin 2020

Author(s): Michał Przeperski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01/2021

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.

ИДЕНТИТЕТИ НЕМАЦА И СРБА У ДРАМИ УГЉЕШЕ ШАЈТИНЦА „БАНАТ“

Author(s): Nikolina N. Zobenica / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 75/2021

Uglješa Šajtinac zeigt im Drama Das Banat (2007) das proble- matische Zusammenleben von Donauschwaben (Joseph, Erwin und Magdalena Wolf) und Serben (Dobrivoje, Đuđa, Svetislav) im Banat während des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Im Kontext von historischen Umwälzungen und politischen Konflikten versuchen die Figuren im Drama entweder die alte kollektive Identität zu bewahren oder eine neue zu bilden, und ihre Kohäsion mithilfe verschiedener Kategorien festzulegen: Geschlechts (Geschlechtsidentität), Territoriums (territoriale Identität), Klasse (ge- sellschaftsökonomische Identität), Religion (religiöse Identität), Nation (nationale Identität), sowie Politik (politische Identität) und Kultur (kulturelle Identität). Aus- gehend von der Theorie des britischen Historikers der Soziologie Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016), eines der Begründer der Nationalismusforschung, werden in diesem Aufsatz im Kontext des Chronotopos des besetzten Banats (1941–1945) unter- schiedliche Manifestationen der kollektiven Identität untersucht, mit dem Ziel, die Kohäsionskraft dieser Kategorien aufzuklären. Ergebnisse der Analyse zeigen dass Geschlecht, Territorium, Klasse und Nation nicht einen genügend starken Grad der Kohäsion aufzeigen und die Figuren, die auf diesen Kategorien ihre Identität auf- gebaut haben, könnten sich in den neuen Zeiten nicht erhalten, im Unterschied zu denen, die sich für Politik und Kultur entschieden haben, die die Grenzen der Zeit und des Raums überschreiten und eine stärkere Verbindung unter den Figuren her- stellen. So können Dobrivoje und seine Schwester als Kommunisten im neuen Staat fortleben, während andere Figuren sterben oder das Banat verlassen müssen, um eine neue Heimat in der Weite auszusuchen, in der die kulturellen Elemente wie Kunst (Film und Musik) und Fremdsprachen die Verbindung unter den Menschen sichern, trotz den ethnischen und anderen Unterschieden.

ТРОП ВОЗА КАО СИМБОЛ ТРАУМЕ У КЊИЖЕВНОСТИ ХОЛОКАУСТА

Author(s): Milica M. Karić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 76/2021

Traumatic experience such as the Holocaust requires traumatic ways of representation. Those who dare to write about it encounter various dilemmas and difficulties in finding the right ways to write about something that cannot be written about. Train trope is a usual symbol of the biggest XX century trauma because rail- way system and different types of cars enabled transportation of millions of people from the whole Europe, whose lives were terminated in the death camps, as well as their wealth, gold and other valuables. Trains found their way in literature with both survivor writers and those who didn’t experience the Holocaust. The symbol of train had been interpreted within psychoanalysis of dreams as passage of time and life before it started to operate as a symbol of the very death in reality. In this paper we tried to investigate how train trope functions in this trauma based literary genre with those writers who were inside and those who felt them as cultural heritage. Those who were inside death trains, such as Elie Wiesel, insisted that the only way of representation has to be in documentary and realistic style. On the other hand, writers who were lucky not to experience the hell on Earth couldn’t write from the ‘inside’ and had to find other ways of representation. Their styles vary from allegory in Kosinsi’s autofictional novel to magic realism in David and Thomas’s novels. Thomas also adds Freudian psychoanalysis while Pinter experiments with stage representation.

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”.

Les anciennes détenues politiques et les mémoires du communisme en Roumanie: le court récit d’une recherche socio-historique

Author(s): Claudia-Florentina Dobre / Language(s): French Issue: 20/2021

This article describes the methodology and the findings of a research about women, former political detainees, memory discourse about the communist period and political persecutions. It points out the difficulties and the unexpected results of such sensitive work. It argues that the narratives of former political detainees about their life experiences are influenced by both frameworks of memory as well as by their habitus of modern women belonging to the Romanian interwar middle class.

SOFIA AS A SACRED SPACE FOR ESOTERIC SOCIETIES (END OF THE 19th – FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY)

Author(s): Georgeta Nazarska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The article studies the connection between structuring of the Sofia urban space from the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century and esoteric communities in the capital (spiritualist, theosophical, anthroposophical, Rosicrucian, freemasonic, co-freemasonic, including some of the NRM). A “case study” of present districts of Krasno Selo, Pavlovo and Ovcha Kupel is made with historical and cultural studies approach. Both the processes of their emergence, settlement, planning, and the socio-cultural profile of their inhabitants, some of whom were associated with occult societies, are explored.

STAGE INCARNATIONS OF TOTALITARIAN MYTHOLOGEMS IN THE BULGARIAN THEATRE

Author(s): Joanna Spassova-Dikova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The presentation addresses issues related to the construction of the socialist canon in the Bulgarian theatre on the basis of certain postulates and ideologemes that provoked the creation of new totalitarian mythologems (Jung, Kerényi). By its very nature, European totalitarianism of the 20th century did not tolerate gods other than those whom it had named itself. Rejecting the centuries-old faith in the Christian god, the system had to elevate its idols. Here the magic that art and artistic image possess was put into reconsideration. Totalitarian culture and art incorporated the powerful tradition of esoteric notions of image in order to create a new religion with new rituals that affect consciousness through the archetypal in a grand spectacle (Debord). In this theatre, the stage incarnations of totalitarian mythologems about the party leader, the positive hero, the youth, the masses, etc. became the main means of forming the type of socio-political thinking necessary for the power.

History of Present-Day Bulgarian Military Intelligence in the Study of Dr. Yordan Baev (Second Half of 20th Century – Early 21st Century)

Author(s): Serhii A. Falko / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Краеведът Христо Фъргов – един живот, отдаден на Карлово

Author(s): Aleksandar Zlatanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The following contribution examines the life and activities of one of the greatest researchers of Karlovo’s history – Hristo G. Fargov (1895–1978). As a descendant of old families of Karlovo, he devoted his entire life to his hometown. The most prominent Bulgarian scientists who worked on various topics related to the town and the region of Karlovo, as well as a number of state institutions and institutes have fully benefited from his large-scale research, cultural, and public work. In the 20th century, there was almost no researcher working on Karlovo, to whom Hristo Fargov did not help in every possible way with his vast knowledge, contacts and rich archive. However, until today he is almost unknown to the general public and to the professional historians. This article aims to revive the memory of this great citizen of Karlovo, public figure and researcher.

Религиозно обучение и възпитание в българските и циганските евангелски общности до 1944 г.

Author(s): Magdalena Slavkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The article makes an overview of the development of missionary activities of the Protestant denominations of different backgrounds in Bulgaria from the second half of the 19th century to 1944. It studies the religious education and upbringing of young people of Bulgarian and Gypsy origins. Using historical and archival sources, and ethnographic fieldwork as methods of work, this text aims to show that the most important part of the development of the church communities is the training of their members. Education in evangelical morality is also a key element in the socialization of every Evangelical Christian.

Роля и функции на Института за чуждестранни студенти в София през 60-те и първата половина на 70-те години на ХХ в.

Author(s): Gabriela Boneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The article traces the initial period of the development of the Institute of Foreign Students in Sofia, Bulgaria (1963–1976). The institute was established in 1963 in order to meet the needs of a specialized institution which had to take care of the education of the citizens coming from the so called Third World countries. Students went through a preparatory department within one academic year. At the Institute they studied mainly Bulgarian language, but also general education and ideological subjects, and then continued their studies in secondary and higher Bulgarian educational institutions. The institution was important because it was the first place in which foreign citizens had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Bulgarian state and the regime, culture and customs of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria.

Die bulgarische Armee und das Offizierskorps im Wandel (1887–1912) und der Beitrag von Fürst/König Ferdinand I

Author(s): Peter Stoyanovich / Language(s): German Issue: 1-2/2022

The period under study is conditioned by the author’s interest in the period of modernization and Europeanization of Bulgaria, coinciding with the peaceful years of the reign of Prince/King Ferdinand (1887–1912). These were two and a half decades of upsurge in practically all spheres of state development, which yielded brilliant results due to the united efforts of the Crown and the political class. Logically, this effective development not only did not pass by, but also manifested itself in the sphere of the armed forces, which had gone the long way of their modernization from a small and inexperienced army after the Liberation to the strongest militarily Christian state on the Balkan Peninsula on the eve of the Balkan Wars. Without pretending to be exhaustive, the study offers an overview of the development of the Bulgarian armed forces in the period 1887–1912 in the context of the reign of Prince Ferdinand. It deals with issues such as: the state of the army from the Liberation to the end of the Interregnum (1879–1887); the gradual positive change in the field of modernization of the material and training base of the soldiers and officers; the modern legislative activity of the time; the rearmament of all branches of the army using the most modern Western systems; the establishment of the Institute of Reserve Officers and of the Army Reserve Cadre; the training of officers and sergeants in Bulgaria and abroad (with emphasis on the posting of officers to Russian and Western European training establishments and academies). Important problems are not overlooked, such as the development and maintenance of the cavalry stock and base, the creation of military intelligence, the emergence and development of the problem of Bulgarian soldier and officer uniforms and their direct dependence on the foreign policy context of the time, etc. Among the main contributions of the study is the juxtaposition of the two first Bulgarian rulers, Prince Alexander I and Ferdinand I in their attitude to the military theme and its protagonists, both in practical and political terms. No less interesting is the consideration of the question of the attitude of the two heads of state towards the senior officers and their ability to lead and turn them into instruments of their aims and intentions.

Elena Alexandrova. Discipline and Everyday Life in the Policy of the IMARO (1893–1912). IVRAY Publishing House, 2020. 376 p.

Author(s): Vera Boneva / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2022

Book Review