Contra spem spero. Spotkania Herlinga z Szałamowem

Author(s): Grzegorz Przebinda / Language(s): Russian,Polish Issue: 2/2019

The article is an attempt at a comprehensive, synthetic description of the attitude of Gustav Herling-Grudzinski (1919–2000) – a great Polish writer in exile, a prisoner of Stalinist labour camps (1940–1942), and then the author of A World Apart (1951) – to the work of Varlam Shalamov (1907–1982) – an eminent Russian writer who wrote in the USSR and had been a former long-term prisoner of the Soviet labour camps (1929–1931; 1937–1951). Shalamov is primarily known as the author of the brilliant, but extremely dark Kolyma Tales (written in 1954–1962, and published 1966–1967), autobiographical, but above all describing the state of the human being of the first half of the 20th century in extremely inhuman conditions. Eagerly reading Shalamov from the beginning of the 70s until the end of his life, Herling sought from this Russian brotherly soul of his (whom he had obviously known from his publications only) the answers to both historical and metaphysical questions. On the one hand, the attitude and creative works of people like Shalamov proved to him that “another Russia” did exist – as a sort of “underground source” in the process of liberating of Eastern and Central Europe from the yoke of Communism – inevitable in Herling’s view. On the other hand, the Polish writer did not accept Shalamov’s extremely pessimistic picture of the world and the human being, strongly believing that there is a “hard core” in man, in Franz Kafka’s language, that cannot be eradicated by even the most inhuman system, neither Nazism nor Communism, referred to by Herling as “twin brothers”. The Polish writer finally recognized Shalamov – a convinced atheist it should be added – as a saintly person, alongside with the noteworthy figures who were so important for Europe – Father Maksymilan Kolbe, Janusz Korczak, Albert Camus or Franz Kafka.

LES ÉCHELLES SPATIO-TEMPORELLES DES PRATIQUES DE LA FRONTIÈRE. MOBILITÉS, MÉMOIRES, ET DÉVELOPPEMENT URBAIN DANS LE BANAT ROUMAIN (JIMBOLIA)

Author(s): Bianca Botea / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

I propose here to look at the transformations of a border landscape of a small town (Jimbolia, Romania), in a context of border opening after 1989 and industrial crisis. I focus my attention on the role of the border in the social configurations of the city, both at the level of the daily practices of its inhabitants (and tourists), and at the level of the urban renewal. I also examine the extensible social spaces that are created around the use and crossing of this border and I show the time-space scales of these territories of circulation. I show that they mobilize networks of kinship, language and more broadly ethnic, as well as the memory processes. The text opens up to methodological and epistemological aspects concerning the “multi-site ethnography” of borders.

ENTRE BONS USAGES ET NOUVEAUX VOISINAGES. PATRIMOINE(S) ET FRONTIÈRE(S) DANS LA RÉGION DE STRANDZHA (BULGARIE)

Author(s): Olivier Givre / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

Focusing on the Bulgarian side, the article addresses the post-socialist heritage dynamics which value the border dimension of the Strandzha area, shared between Bulgaria and Turkey since 1913. Strandzha’s location at the south-eastern edges of Bulgaria, and on the delineation of the former iron curtain, has shaped the idea of an isolate, but also a natural and cultural “conservatory”, to be protected from external harms. The image of Strandzha oscillates between the two poles of a shelter-territory and a movement place, a space of autochthony and anchorage. The border symbolizes thus a spatial and cultural rip, calling for the reassertion of the “qualities” of a marginalized space. The article scrutinizes the building of a “sense of heritage” in this border area, laying on the ambivalent feelings of the loss of its geographical and cultural unity, and of its preserved authenticity against all odds. This heritage dimension resonates with the assessment of an uninterrupted decline, delayed by the state interventionism during the socialist period, but worsened by the post-socialist upheavals and posing sharp interrogations about its future.

LE RETOUR DES PÉLASGES. INÉGALITÉS ET IMAGINAIRE NATIONAL SUR LA FRONTIÈRE ENTRE LA GRÈCE ET L’ALBANIE

Author(s): Gilles de Rapper / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

The revival and popular success of theories on the Pelasgian origin of Albanians since the late 1990s is a significant phenomenon of post-socialist identity processes, yet relatively neglected by the scientific literature. The now well-established neo-Pelasgian discourse sees Albanians as direct descendants of the Pelasgians, a prehistoric population conceived as the origin of all civilizations in the ancient Mediterranean. The aim of this article is to provide a first picture of this quest for origins and to propose an explanation. The argument is that neo-Pelasgianism can be seen as the result of a combination of the history of ideas about the origins of Albanians since the nineteenth century, on the one hand, and of the dynamics of identity linked to the opening of Albania’s borders at the beginning of the 1990s and the massive migration of Albanians to Greece, on the other. The demonstration is based both on a review of the neo-Pelasgian literature and on fieldwork conducted in southern Albania. It aims to show that far from being limited to the reveries of amateurs, discourses on imagined origins, of which neo-Pelasgianism is an example, have real effects on societies and territories.

FRONTIÈRES GÉOGRAPHIQUES, SOCIALES ET MÉMORIELLES : CIRCULER ENTRE LA TURQUIE, LA GRÈCE ET LA BELGIQUE

Author(s): Katerina Seraïdari / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

The article examines the life story of a Greek Pontic, who migrated from central Macedonia (Greece) to Belgium in 1965. The account of his life starts with his father being born and living in the Samsun province (Ottoman Empire), that is before the exchange of populations in the 1920s and his arrival to Greece as refugee. This dense and precise life history narrative not only allows us to revisit major events of Greek history, but also to follow the social and geographical transitions and trajectories that a family made during a century. Socialization processes, appropriation and loss of economic resources, political choices, transmission of stereotypes are some of the issues discussed here. The analysis of this material is inspired by cognitive anthropology: one of the aims has been to examine how « analogic thinking », through the connections and the correspondences it establishes, leads to exegetical reflections that facilitate the process of understanding and coping with novel situations. In this framework, analogies not only play a heuristic role, but also give the impression of intimately knowing not lived situations and experiences of the past. By listing similarities and differences, analogical arguments become an adaptation tool in migratory contexts as the one analyzed here.

Les efforts de la Bulgarie pour surmonter les restrictions à ses échanges avec le Marché commun dans le cadre des relations CAEM – CEE (années 1960 – années 1980)

Author(s): Irina Grigorova / Language(s): French Issue: 1-2/2023

The study presents Bulgaria’s business relations with the European Economic Community during the Cold War. The reasons for establishing informal contacts and negotiating more favourable commercial terms are explained. The presentation reveals that the Bulgarian foreign economic policy aimed to protect the national interests, at the same time by maintaining the image of the most loyal Soviet ally as well as by borrowing from other Eastern European countries advantageous practices in the trade with the Community. Their implementation was adjusted and altered according to the varying attitudes of the Soviet leadership – through open or confidential actions.

Subcultures as Active Participant in the Transition: the Bulgarian Case in the 1980s – 2000s

Author(s): Alexandаr Karakachanov,Nina Debruyne / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

The object of research presented in the article is the transition from a totalitarian to a democratic society in Bulgaria from the 1990s and the 2000s, and its subject is the contribution of the subcultural communities formed in this period, to the implementation of various social changes. The main research hypothesis is that at the end of the totalitarian regime and in the beginning of the transition in the political, economic and cultural life in Bulgaria, there were formed several main subcultures with various degrees of critical influence over the development of social processes in the country. A main mechanism of influence which transforms the subcultures in active agents of the historical change are the so-called ‘culturemes’. So far, the study identified several significant subcultures of which two political playing the leading role in the transition. They are based on ideological structures consisting of limited number of simple ideologemes (the culturemes of the political conscience). The research is based on a sociocultural analysis of documents, surveys and interviews. It combines the perspectives of social history with those of political science and social anthropology.

Исторический взгляд на актуальную политическую проблему. Фирмилиановый вопрос

Author(s): Biser Georgiev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1-2/2023

Book Review

New Readings of the History of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance from the Mid-1950s to the Mid-1970s

Author(s): Iliyana Marcheva / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

Review of collective monograph "‘The World System of Socialism’ and the Global Economy in the Mid-1950s – Mid-1970s"

Красимира Мутафова. Религия и идентичност (християнство и ислям) по българските земи в османската документация от ХV–ХVІІІ век.

Author(s): Gergana Georgieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Участието на Османската империя на международното изложение във Филаделфия през 1876 година

Author(s): Simeon Tonchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

The article examines the presentation of the Ottoman Empire at the Philadelphia International Exposition in 1876, putting two main tasks in the study. On the one hand, it follows the coverage of the exhibition in the press of the Bulgarian Revival period, mostly by the American Protestant newspaper Zornitsa, which introduced to its readers the five main sections of the exposition, some inventions shown for the first time, and specific exhibiting countries. On the other, the Turkey’s preparations, participation in the fair and its results are studied in detail. For this purpose, a comparative and an idiographic approachеs are applied. In the end, new information on the subject regarding the preparation in places in the empire, as well as examples of Bulgarian participation, is presented. Turkey impresses visitors with high-quality carpets and an authentic Turkish café. Foods, goldsmith’s works, coming from the Bulgarian lands, and rose oil of two Kazanlak companies are exhibited.

Балканските войни в полезрението на военните историци

Author(s): Boyan Zhekov,Kalin Ranchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

Sadyści zamiast owładniętych ideologią? Odpowiedź na polemikę Oscara Szerkusa „Ruch oporu? Terroryści!”

Author(s): Bartłomiej P. Szyprowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Bartłomiej Szyprowski took part in the polemic around the monograph: Oscar Szerkus, Die Sondergerichtsbarkeit des Polnischen Untergrundstaates (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2019.)

Гръцката консулска мрежа в българските земи преди Освобождението

Author(s): Yura Konstantinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2023

The aim of the proposed study is to trace the creation and the development of the Greek consular network in Bulgaria in the second half of the19th century. The topic has not been the subject of scientific research so far, but is important for understanding the unequal positions with which the Balkan states enter the period of their independent existence. The study of the Greek consular network on the Balkans also makes it possible to outline the priorities in Athens' foreign policy, as well as to trace the importance it assigns to its compatriots left outside the borders of the free Greek state. Last but not least, it is of interest to Greece to fight to preserve the privileged status it enjoys under the regime of capitulations. However, this effort creates serious problems in Greece's bilateral relations with the Ottoman Empire and with Bulgaria in post-liberation period.

L’IMPORTANCE DES RÉCITS DE VOYAGES DE FRANÇOIS POUQUEVILLE SUR LA LIBÉRATION DE LA GRÈCE

Author(s): Alexandra Milanova / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

The article aims at analysing the travelogues of François Pouqueville (1770 – 1838), a major representative of the European intellectual elite with undoubted merits for the rediscovery of the Balkans in modern times. By describing the everyday life of Balkan peoples his works became a means of influencing the European public about the future of the Ottoman Empire and the fate of the Greeks. The article also demonstrates the gradual evolution of the Frenchman from a relatively pro-Ottoman enlightened man to a firm opponent of the Sultan and an uncompromising supporter of the Greek liberation movement.

VOYAGE ET MISSION. STANISLAS BELLANGER ET SON DEUXIÈME VOYAGE DANS LES PROVINCES DE L’EMPIRE OTTOMAN EN 1846 – 1847

Author(s): Nicu Diaconiuc / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

Mostly known for his travelogue entitled singularly Le Kéroutza, French author Stanislas Bellanger has left us a huge body of work of over a thousand pages dedicated to his travels and sojourns, mainly to and throughout the Romanian Principalities, but also collaterally throughout Bulgaria and to Constantinople. During his second journey to the Orient (1846 – 1847), sponsored by the French Ministry of Education, Bellanger wrote five reports to his patron, the count Salvandy, which are consistent with his ambition of becoming a historian of the East and producing a History of the Ottoman Empire. But while he ultimately failed to achieve all of that, Bellanger succeeded in outlining an image of the Oriental Other and sketching interesting landscapes from the provinces of the great empire, which he ends up appropriating and mapping in his own unique way.

LA FRANCE DANS LES PAGES DE LA REVUE OTTOMANE MECMUA-I FÜNUN (REVUE SCIENTIFIQUE) DE JUIN 1862 À JUIN 1867

Author(s): Margarita Dobreva / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

A sign of the Ottoman scientific and cultural progress in the Tanzimat years, the journal Mecmua-i Fünun (Journal of Sciences/ Revue scientifique) was published in June 1862 – June 1867 by Cemiyet-i İlmiye-i Osmaniye (Ottoman Society of Science/ Société scientifique ottomane) and offered articles of manifold topics. Some of them were based on the masterpieces of French theologians, philosophers and doctors. Others presented the speeches delivered by French politicians and monarchs. The journal paid attention to the French revolution, Napoléon Bonaparte, the International Universal Exposition and to the construction of the Suez Canal. Many of the notes on France were short news about its development. In fact, all presented French masterpieces discussed universal values and virtues, promoted centuries long by Islam and Christianity. They inspired the audience with religious devotion and love to the country, with obedience to the monarch and laws, expansion of welfare, brotherhood of man and thankfulness, with continuous efforts towards technical headway and ethic maturity. However, even presented in Mecmua-i Fünun, France and its ideas did not set the journal’s tone, that was mainly consistent with the official state policy. The article is based on all 47 journal issues, available on the digital library of the Türk Tarih Kurumu (Turkish Historical Society/ Société d’histoire turque) in Ankara.

LES COMMUNAUTÉS BULGARES DE MACÉDOINE ET LEURS RAPPORTS AVEC L’ÉGLISE CATHOLIQUE PENDANT LES ANNÉES 1873 – 1878

Author(s): Eleonora Naxidou / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

This article aims to contribute to the issue of the relations between the Orthodox populations of the Balkans and the Catholic Church during the Ottoman period focusing on the Bulgarians and their contacts with the Pope in the second half of the 19th century. More specifically two intertwined topics are discussed: on the one hand the attempts of the Bulgarians in Macedonia to establish a Uniate Church in the 1870’s; on the other how this incident was perceived and commented by the Greek Orthodox press of Constantinople. In this way significant conclusions are drawn with regard to the motives and aspirations of this Macedonian Bulgarian ecclesiastic separatist movement as well as the differing interpretations that the Greek newspapers of the Ottoman capital provided to this development.

L’AVENTURE DE LA LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE EN BULGARIE À TRAVERS L’OEUVRE DE LATCHEZAR STANTCHEV

Author(s): Roumiana L. Stantcheva / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

After completing his higher education in Romance/French Philology at the University of Sofia, and after having published his first award-winning books of poems, Latchezar Stantchev (1908 – 1992) won a scholarship from the Alliance française and continued his training in Paris between 1937 and 1939. With the acquired experience, the Bulgarian poet devoted himself to the translation of poetry in verse, both classic and modernist, from French and Francophone literature, including “La Chanson de Roland” and other masterpieces. The example of his verse translations contributed to the formation of contemporary criteria in the field of translation of poetry and literary texts into verse in Bulgarian. Latchezar Stantchev also contributed substantially to the rediscovering of Symbolism in Bulgaria, by translating works by Verhaeren in the midst of the dogmatic context of the 1960 – 80s behind the Iron Curtain.

SOUS LE SIGNE DE PERESTROÏKA : HISTOIRE, TÉMOIGNAGE ET RÉSILIENCE DANS LE ROMAN NOUS DÎNERONS EN FRANÇAIS (2015) D’ALBENA DIMITROVA

Author(s): Vassiliki Lalagianni / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

Albena Dimitrova (1969 – ), Bulgarian-born writer, poet and playwright, belongs to the corpus of « contemporary extreme » women writers who have chosen to express themselves in French, in the context of a migratory or exile situation, or out of an attraction to this language that represents the host country, France. In her novel Nous dînerons en français (2015) Dimitrova blends individual stories and major national events with extraordinary mastery. This work of autofiction bears witness to an era marked by austere politics in Bulgaria throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a tumultuous period when perestroïka and glasnost challenged the regime in power. Through the prism of a passionate and forbidden love, Dimitrova sketches the background of existences, showing how the destinies of individuals are buffeted by the winds of History.