Георгий Плеханов versus Фридрих Алберт Ланге

Author(s): Iva Manova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 5/2016

Georgij Plekhanov (1856–1918), the “father” of the Russian social-democratic movement, was one of the earliest writers who attempted to interpret the history of philosophy from the dialectical materialist standpoint. In the present article, Plekhanov’s approach to the history of philosophy is compared with the approach of the neo-Kantian philosopher Friedrich Albert Lange (1828–1875), whose book Geschichte des Materialismus greatly influenced the social-democratic thinkers of the revisionist current. Plekhanov disagreed with Lange on crucial issues, going as far as to accuse him of having contributed to the spread of a completely false notion of the essence and history of materialism. The aim of this article is to bring into focus the main differences between the two authors as regards their views on the history of materialism, and to outline the importance of “Plekhanov’s heritage” for the development of Soviet philosophical historiography.

Средновековната крепост и манастир Урвич край София в светлината на български и западноевропейски извори

Author(s): Nikolay Ovcharov,Dimitar Stoimenov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2020

The two authors dwell on the much commented in recent years interesting medieval Fortress of Urvich near the village of Kokalyane in the vicinity of Sofia. According to the findings of the archaeological excavations, a fortification was built on the steep slope as early as the 4th–6th centuries to safeguard the important road. Abandoned in the time of the Barbarian invasions, it was reconstructed during the First Bulgarian Empire in the 10th–11th centuries. The fortification developed rapidly and flourished particularly during the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 12th–14th centuries. There are documents evidencing that Urvich was involved actively in the defence of Sofia against the Ottoman invasion and suffered the same unfortunate fate as the big city. The excavations show that in the 15th–17th centuries an important Christian monastery was founded on the ruins of the fortress; the monastery was burnt to ashes by the Ottomans during the Bulgarian uprisings inspired by the Austro-Turkish Wars in the late 17th – the first half of the 18th centuries. Information from various historical sources on the fate of the Urvich Fortress is gathered and analysed in this article. The earliest is a seal from the 11th century, belonging to the Byzantine aristocrat Nikolay Οὐρβίτζιον – the Greek spelling for the Bulgarian “Urvich”. Worthy of note is the rich Bulgarian folklore tradition, describing the resistance of the Bulgarians against the Ottoman invasion, where the Urvich Fortress is repeatedly mentioned. In this regard, it is mentioned also in the Slavo- Bulgarian History completed in 1762 by Paisius of Hilendar. A definite contribution of the two authors is the discovery that Urvich was mentioned as Oruitro in several Western European travelogues and road maps from the 17th and18th centuries. Their descriptions and designations make it clear that at that time the walls of the ancient fortress were preserved in good height, and that there was a “beautiful monastery” within the walls. This description corresponds and corroborates fully the data from the archaeological excavations.

Професор Луиза Ревякина на 80 години

Author(s): Inna Manasieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2020

In Honorem

Българите в анархисткото движение в Южна Украйна

Author(s): Oleh Bazhan / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2020

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS WITH SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS IN THE BALKAN TOWN. URBAN VOYNUKS AND FALCONERS IN THE 16th CENTURY

Author(s): Krastyo Yordanov / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

The fate of the representatives of these two categories of population in three towns of today’s Bulgaria (Plovdiv, Sofia and Vratsa) is followed in the article on the basis of several unpublished Ottoman registers of voynuks and falconers from the Central Balkans from the 16th century. Their social and economic status, as well as their service lands, and their ethnoreligious and organizational structure are examined. As far as the source basis allows it, an attempt was made to show the reflection of the urban life on the livelihood and the way of living of these Christians. Although voynuks and falconers were predominantly rural population, permanently bound to agriculture through their service lands (bashtinas), in the 16th century we also find their presence in the towns of the Central Balkans and, in particular, in the Bulgarian lands. Some of the voynuks and falconers had actually been residents of the towns for a long time. But data from the registers shows that most of these people were in fact migrants from villages in the region around large towns which were directly linked to town markets. Very often the service lands of voynuks and falconers were still in one of the nearby villages, although their owners had permanently settled in towns. It is possible that those voynuks and falconers, who had long lived in towns, also had rural descent. As the voynuks and falconers who settled in towns were predominantly Orthodox Bulgarians, their settlement was around the roads on which towns were gradually becoming Bulgarian or the numbers of the Bulgarian Orthodox community was kept constant. Voynuks and falconers who permanently settled in towns adapted to the town’s trade and artisanal lifestyle. This is proved by the fact that sometimes their service bashtinas included their trade and craft shops and only a few vineyards, orchard and vegetable gardens in the complete absence of arable lands ( fields). This shows that they relied entirely on craftsmanship, trade and the markets of large towns to provide for their families.

PROTESTANTS IN A BALKAN TOWN: THE ACTIVITIES OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AMONG THE BULGARIANS IN BITOLA (19th – EARLY 20th CENTURY)

Author(s): Elmira Vassileva / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

The most influential Protestant society which operated in the Ottoman Empire was the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Its mission station in Monastir (Bitola) was active from 1873 to 1920. There were several aspects of the Protestant activities in the town: evangelistic, educational, literary, medical and relief work. The mission was oriented predominantly towards the Bulgarian population. In addition, the Americans attempted to widen their missionary field, the Albanians being the most responsive. The greatest achievements of the Protestant Mission in Bitola were the establishment of the American Girls’ Boarding School and the Bulgarian Evangelical Church.

Росица Лельова. Българските градски общини в Македония 1878–1903. София, ИК „Гутенберг“, 2016. 370 с. + 1 цв. Карта. ISBN 978-619-1760-89-3

Author(s): Dimitar Hristov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

Book Review

Никола Стоянов. Живот и дейност: Мемоари (1875–1939). Дневник (1940–1944). Състав.: Калинка Анчова, Алека Стрезова София, издателство на Нов български университет, 2020. 771 с. + ил. ISBN 978-619-233-102-3

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

Book Review

A BOOK REVIEW OF POTRIANONSKÉ KOŠICE

Author(s): Dana Kušnírová / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Review of: FICERI, Ondrej. Potrianonské Košice. Premeny etnických identít obyvateľov Košíc v medzivojnovom Československu [Košice Post-Trianon. Ethnic Identity Changes of Inhabitants of Košice in Interwar Czechoslovakia]. Bratislava: VEDA, Vydavateľstvo SAV, 2019, 336 pp. ISBN 978-80-224-1737-2

Bulgarian-Russian (Soviet) Relations between Demythologization and Remythologization at the End of the 20th and the Beginning of the 21st Century

Author(s): Iliyana Marcheva / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

The study examines the demythologization and remythologization of the Bulgarian-Russian and Bulgarian-Soviet relations in 1989–2019 in the context of the politics of history pursued in Bulgaria. It reveals the role of myths in politics of history for creating identities by maintaining certain interpretations in view of the new geopolitical orientation of the country after the end of the Cold War. The author analyzes the accumulated Bulgarian historical literature, which includes not only academic but also journalistic and parahistorical works. She points out the public reactions, fuelled by certain interpretations of some key moments of the Bulgarian-Russian and Bulgarian-Soviet relations. These are the character of the Russo- Turkish War of 1877/78, the role of Count Ignatiev and the character of the national holiday March 3, the Bulgarian-Soviet political and economic relations, and in particular – the Stalinist repressions, the occupation regime 1944–1947, the Soviet decisions of the debt crises of the 1960s and 1970s. It is concluded that after 1989 the demythologization of the Bulgarian-Soviet and Bulgarian-Russian relations took place as a moment in the development of the Bulgarian historical science. And to a large extent, the one-sidedness that turns this demythologization into a new remythologization is due to the use of new historical interpretations as an element of memory policy to overcome the communist past and “Sovietophilia”, as well as the politics of history to overcome “Russophilia”.

The Emergence of Turkish Ḥurūfism in the 15th Century Anatolia and its Reflection in the Early Ottoman Literature

Author(s): Slobodan Ilić / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

After the notorious persecution of its Khurasani protagonists, profiting from the political and ideological vacuum of the interregnum and the upsurge of the Shiite propaganda of the late 15th century, the Hurufi teaching penetrated Eastern and Central Anatolia, partly disguised under the tenets of different Batini indoctrinated groups, making these regions by the end of the century, its new stronghold. The main stage of the events became the Ottoman lands. Particularly in the years after the Ankara disaster of 1402, Asia Minor and the Balkans became a fertile soil for all unorthodox doctrines, especially those, like Hurufi one, nurturing apocalyptic or messianic expectations. Simultaneously, Persian and the Gurgani vernacular retreated before the Anatolian Turkish as its written medium. The paper concentrates on the exegetical attempts of the second generation of Fażl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 1394)’s disciples, in particular the first Turkish translations and commentaries on his seminal works.

The Emergence of the Pomaks in the Ottoman Sources and Etymology of the Term Pomak

Author(s): Aşkın Koyuncu / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

Pomaks, a Bulgarian speaking community based on a religious identity emerged as a result of Islamization process which occurred among the local Slavic people in the regions of Loveč, the Rhodope Mountains, Western Thrace and Macedonia during the Ottoman period in the 15th–18th centuries. It is stated in the literature that the term Pomak was first used in Bulgarian sources in 1812, in British sources in 1833 and in French sources in 1840 to identify Bulgarian speaking Muslims living in the Loveč region. In this study, after examining the process of Islamization, the terms used to define Pomaks, and appearing of the term in the international literature, based on some new and unused Ottoman sources I will show that the term Pomak used by the Ottomans earlier than previously assumed. According to my findings, the Pomak term was first used in Ottoman sources in the 17th century regarding statesmen that were of Pomak origin. But as a separate community Pomaks emerged for the first time in Ottoman sources during the 1806–1812 Russo-Ottoman War. State Chronicler Şanizade Mehmed Ataullah Efendi recorded that around 10–14.000 soldiers were recruited from among the Loveč Pomaks and also described them as a military element, in 1809. Besides, Ottoman documents reveal that during this war, the Pomaks ambushed and defeated the Russian troops entering the Balkan Mountains and played an active role in defending the Loveč region in general. However, Ottoman documents also indicate that some apostate Pomaks together with volunteer Bulgarians joined the Russian army and attacked to Loveč in 1811 January. The earliest record defining the Bulgarian speaking Muslims in the Rhodope Mountains as Pomaks in Ottoman sources, was dated 1833. In addition, after looking at the views about the origin and identity of the Pomaks among the Bulgarian intellectuals and western circles in the 1860s–1870s, I will also be examining the etymology of the term Pomak in view of the Ottoman sources which support the thesis that term Pomak come from the Bulgarian word pomagači (helpers).

Великите сили и България 1944–1947 г. Т. I (2014). 444 с.; Т. II (2018). 932 с. София, Акад. изд. „Проф. Марин Дринов“. (Die Großmächte und Bulgarien 1944–1947. Bd. 1 (2014).444 S.; Bd. 2 (2018). 932 S. Sofia, Akademischer Verlag „Prof. Marin Drinov“

Author(s): Tamara Stoilova / Language(s): German Issue: 3-4/2020

Book Review

Поглед към българите през призмата на едно учебно пособие от началото на ХХ век – „Картини от общата география“ на Иван Хоич

Author(s): Mira Markova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

In our modern reality, one of the constantly relevant topics that excites the researchers, the teachers and the general public, is the content of the textbooks especially those on social and humanitarian subjects. The present study focuses on the analysis of a textbook from the beginning of 20th century – “Pictures from the general geography” of the Croatian Ivan Hoic. This work is characterized by a humanistic approach to the issue of otherness and the other. Hoic’ s work presents areal presentation of a foreign culture as a mandatory element of educational process. The view of Bulgarians presented by Hoic creates conditions for our self-knowledge even in the reality of the 21st century.

LA FORMATION DE LA POPULATION DU PIRÉE AU XIXe SIÈCLE

Author(s): Sebastien Marre / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2021

This article will present you with the foundation of the modern Piraeus city between 1833 and 1838 in the light of unpublished archives from the fund of the Greek Ministry of the Interior in King Otto I’s time kept at the General State Archives in Athens. This document shows how immigration to Piraeus was largely channeled by the administration through the establishment of settlements (synoikismoi). It also highlights an original founding of a port city in the Eastern Mediterranean literally out of nowhere. It shows the creation of a community of inhabitants with the essential role of the natives from Chios first, then from Hydra, who form the two main groups, both separated but reunited in the new town, since each group has its own neighborhood, parish and church.

UNKNOWN 19th CENTURY ATHONITE POEM ABOUT A QUARREL FOR LAND AND CHOLERA

Author(s): Cyril Pavlikyanov / Language(s): English,Greek, Modern (1453-) Issue: 1/2021

The article analyses an Athonite poetical text which describes a conflict between the monasteries of Zographou and Chilandar over landed property situated inside the Holy Mountain. It refers to no place names, but pays special attention to the visit of a nameless Ottoman governor of Thessalonica, accompanied by the consuls of France, Russia and Austria, to Mount Athos. His intention was to solve the difference and to reconcile the two monasteries, but his efforts failed. He then granted a special document (ilam) to Zographou, and met an unnamed ex-patriarch of Constantinople in the monastery of Espigmenou. The authorized representatives of Zographou and Chilandar, Dositheos and Onouphrios, travelled to Constantinople in order to present the case to the sultan’s court, but during their stay in Istanbul cholera struck the city and the final decision was postponed until the end of the epidemy. Three Greek and two Turkish documents make it clear that Zographou and Chilandar were claiming the terrain of Giovantza on the northwest coast of Mount Athos as well as that the conflict was rather important for the two monasteries.

Българо-американски контакти в сферата на образованието и науката след края на Студената война

Author(s): Simona Samuilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article aims to analyze the history of Bulgarian-American relationship after the end of the Cold War with an emphasis on the changes that occur in the scientific and educational contacts between the two countries. The study is based on unpublished documents from the Scientific Archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS),Diplomatic Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the „Commission for Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens with the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Armed Forces“, official documents and published data of American educational and research institutions, as well as the research of leading authors and participants in the events. The analysis of the changes in the bilateral cooperation after the end of the Cold War found the educational exchange programs of the U.S. Nongovernmental Organizations to be incapable of rapid transformation in line with the new political realities. Their place was taken by the American universities, which proved to be far more “flexible” and able to respond to the changing needs of time.

Bulgarische Familien zur Zeit der Wiedergeburt (In Memoriam Panajot D. Maždrakov)

Author(s): Antoaneta Zapryanova / Language(s): German Issue: 1-2/2000

Георги Димитров. Дневник (9 март 1933 - 6 февруари 1949). (Дневник (9 марта - 6 февраля 1949). София, Университетско издателство „Св. Кл. Охридски“, 1997. 791 с.

Author(s): Milen Kumanov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1-2/2000

Book review

Milena Stefanova. Un livre sur les “tchorbadjis” (les notables) bulgares. Sofia, Editions de l’Université “St Clément d ’Ohrid”, 1998, 166 p.

Author(s): Yana Koleva / Language(s): French Issue: 1-2/2000

Book review / abstract