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The article presents a sincere and personal view of Bachelard’s philosophy and his place in the philosophical community.
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In 1990, The Day of Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman Yoke was proclaimed a national holiday, which is honoured on 3 March. On this date (19 February after the old Julian calendar), in 1878, the Peace Treaty of San Stefano was signed, which put an end to the Russian-Turkish War. A quarter of a century already, instead of playing the function of a symbol of national unity, this national holiday turns into an arena of acute confrontation between the political powers in the country, polarized between euroatlantism and russophilia. The retrospective overview of the commemoration of this holiday of the Bulgarian national calendar since 1878, provided by the paper, reveals that it has always been so. During each relatively detached period of Bulgarian historical development, the holiday on 19 February/3 March has always been used as an instrument to split Bulgarian society and State between East and West.
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Hrisant Samokovsky (1800–1871) is one of the few well known Bulgarian Renaissance churchmans. He studies at the Theofilos Kayris School on Andros island and serves in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. From 1847 to 1858, Hrisant is the Archimandrite of the Greek Ekaterininski Monastery in Kiev. In this period he is the most influential Bulgarian in Kiev and supports a lot of Bulgarian students at the Kiev Spiritual Academy. Archimandrite Hrisant is mentioned in letters and memories of the renowned Renaissance brothers Miladinovi, brothers Mustakovi, Ivan Seliminski, Vassil Cholakov and Stanislav Dospevski. Unfortunately there is no specific study about him. Therefore, based on indirect information from published sources, and mainly unpublished documents from his personal fund (Stored in the Bulgarian Historical Archive of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” in Sofia), we are trying to recover his biography.
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The years after the Ilinden Uprising put to the test the overall work of the Exarchate in Macedonia. One of the levers by which the Ottoman authority tried to sabotage the process of consolidation of the Bulgarian element in the provinces was the principle of preserving the ecclesiastical status quo. After the uprising many villages started leaving the Patriarchate and passing under the jurisdiction of the Exarchate. That was an increasing trend which pushed to the fore the question of the ownership of churches and schools. For many years the problem remained unsolved by the government, whose policy was to maintain the idea on confrontation between patriarchists and exarchists. And after the Young Turk revolution of July 1908 the issue remained on the agenda and the government continued to apply the familiar tactic of delay and transfer of responsibility in this case to the parliament. The decision was taken as late as the summer of 1910 with the adoption of the Law of contentious churches and schools. Although its provisions did not fully meet the legitimate expectations of Bulgarians, they regulated a solution to a problem which albeit artificially created and maintained by the government was quite pressing for the population in the provinces.
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Through the prism of Bulgarian church history and its links with the Roman Catholic world, the author outlines the wide range of issues that were addressed at the Second Vatican Council (XXI Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church), which largely shaped the development of theological thought in the second half of 20th century. The article also focuses on the Vatican’s active diplomacy during the period under review and on the internal discussions between the local Orthodox churches, which led to a more open dialogue and increased interest in the work of the Council.
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The article is of an overviewing and analytical nature and traces the Chinese classical works published in Bulgaria since 1878 – works written down to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1911), in the sphere of culture, literature, philosophy – as well as publications of Bulgarian authors in the field of classical Chinese culture. The introductory part summarizes the specificity of the Chinese classic published in Bulgaria, taking into account the different forms and genres of Chinese works as well as the translated literature, including translations from third languages. Factors influencing the intensity of its spread are also analyzed. The study attempts to periodicise and classify Chinese classics published in Bulgaria. The materials discussed are arranged in chronological order in several distinct periods: from the beginning of the 20th century until the Second World War; The time of the Second World War; 1950s; From the mid-1960s to the late 1970s; The 1980s and 1990s, after the 2000s until today. Special attention is given to the creation of the Chinese specialty in Bulgaria as well as to Bulgarian authors and researchers related to the Chinese classics – Bora Belivanova, Lencho Dimitrov, Krum Atsev, Sofia Katarova, Evgeniy Karaulanov, Aleksandar Aleksiev, Mariana Malinova, Teodora Koutzarova, etc. In the final part of the study, the number and frequency of the publication of works related to the distribution of Chinese classics in Bulgaria are outlined and the enormous difficulties in finding them are revealed.
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Based on unpublished Ottoman tax registers (tapu tahrir defteri) kept at the Ottoman archives in Istanbul, the article examines the process of transformation of the Byzantine town of Adrianople into the Ottoman Edirne; the change in the architectural and ethnical and confessional layout of the city; the location of a part of the Muslim and Christian population and of the urban quarters inhabited by them; the Jewish communities and the dynamics in the quantitative indicators of the registered households; the condition, designation and functions of the ancient and medieval fortress of Adrianople and the way in which it fitted into the new Ottoman urban setting. Having surrendered voluntarily the fortress of Adrianople to the Ottoman, the Christian population was granted the right to continue to reside in its quarters in its interior. In the 16th century massive communities of Christian citizens inhabited the space among the fortress walls of the Byzantine fortress and the majority of their neighborhoods were situated around churches and bore the name of the respective church, while others were named after their current or former priests. Upon the conquest of the city by the Ottoman troops some of the churches in the fortress were turned into mosques for the purpose of demonstrating the dominant position of Islam and meeting the spiritual needs of the Muslim population. After the takeover of Edirne the Muslim population settled outside the walls of the ancient and medieval fortress, where it set up its neighborhoods. Besides Muslims and Christians many Jews continued to live in the city as well. They included romaniotes as well as Jews from the sepharadim and ashkenazim groups.
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Ziller as a Herbartianer representative is one among the few pedagogues who “has not been treated fairly by historiography”. He has been strongly criticized for historical stage or culture epoch theory in child development, the theory of concentration in studies and the five formal steps of introduction. At the same time his wide innovative work contributes a lot to ascertain the autonomy of pedagogical science in order to occupy its deserved place as a university study which in combination with the pedagogical practice to stand as a fundamental base of teacher’s professional preparation.
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This article is devoted to the structures and frameworks of the professional associations in West Central Bulgaria during the XIX century. The guild-embedded professional life of Bulgarians in the region reveals itself rich in various influences, resulting from migrations, wars, politics, religious life. Each guild owned a complex of traditions, rules, beliefs and cult of a patron saint, particularities, sets of connections and secret slangs, often jealously guarded by its members. The guilds` mutual funds, just like those of the church communities played a key role in the supply of credit to production and trade. The difference is found in the relative amount of supply, which is lesser within the guilds.
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Considering that making a comprehensive overview of the role of comics in all former socialist regimes would imply a research adventure per se, i.e. an adventure that largely goes beyond what was written in this text, this piece of work will try in a lapidary fashion to present relationship between the socialist establishment and comics in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia throughout different periods of its existence. In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the comics threaded its way through being characterized as disputed mass culture capitalistic media, over to proselyte educational literature, and finally to the media that completely legitimately, in creative and emphatic way, stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest cultural achievements.
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In the article are researched peculiarities of mass celebrations setting in 60-80's of the XX century in Kyiv. There is established that mass celebrations in Kyiv had mainly state and official character of the period. In this regard the setting of celebrations (posters, banners, portraits, stands, musical accompaniment and theatrical performance) subordinated to the ideological content and had propagandistic trend.The article outlines that the Soviet past of Ukraine further largely continues to define our mentality, mode of life, pattern of behavior in society. One of those Soviet "remnants" in Ukrainian society is some mass celebrations. It is states that in general the phenomenon of mass celebrations is an important part of social and cultural realities of our time and used as a communication technology, as a method of consolidation of various communities and way of broadcasting a variety of social ideas.The aim of the article is the study of specific setting of mass celebrations in Kyiv during Soviet period in 60-80 years of the XX century.The most developed in domestic scientific researches is ethno-cultural aspect of holiday phenomenon (V. Borysenko, M. Havryluk, M. Zakovych, S. Zubkov, O. Kurochkin, P. Sokolov, I. Sukhanov). Holiday as a social phenomenon studied Y. Belousov, D. Genkin, K. Zhyhulskyy, A. Mazaev, E. Kaverina, A. Nekrylova, O. Nemyro, A. Piotrowski, V. Propp, S. Turin, D. Uhrynovych, N. Hrenov, O. Shcherbynin, and L. Shumikhina. Specificity of holiday as a symbolic form of culture reveals O. Popravko. In scientific studies of T. Gayevska and J. Slutskaya holidays analyzed as a part of Soviet culture. Some aspects of mass celebrations setting in Eastern Ukraine in the 60's and 80's of the XX century studied O. Penkova.At the beginning the article proved that mass celebrations played an important role in Soviet culture. Besides the entertainment function they had ideological significance. Soviet ideologists V. Lenin, N. Krupska, A. Lunacharsky and others emphasized the importance of consolidation official and national celebrations as a part of cultural state development and ideological activities. Since the early 60's of the XX century began a new stage in the development of mass celebrations, which were caused by profound political changes in the Soviet Union after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. According to the O. Penkova’s research in this period, "the state returns to human beings at the first time". However, mass celebrations in the USSR kept its state and political character. The state established official holidays and was trying to turn them into public tradition. According to the Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet "About the holidays and memorable dates" from the 1st of October 1980 to the category of nationwide celebrations were included the anniversary of the October Revolution – on 7–8 November, V. Lenin's Birthday – on 22 April, International Day of Worker's Solidarity (Labour Day) – on 1–2 May, Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 – on 9 May, USSR Constitution Day – on 7 October, National Day of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – on 30 December, Day of the Soviet Army and Navy – on 23 February, International Women's Day – on 8 March.Then the article passes to the statement that the state established official holidays and was trying to turn them into public tradition. The special feature of these key holidays was a clear organization that carried out by apparatus structures of the Communist Party. Commissions were engaged in preparation for the holiday, which were created in all steps of the party vertical. The trade unions, The Young Communist League (komsomol), the administrations of enterprises and institutions also carried out decisions of the party apparatus. The basic forms of the mass celebrations were meetings and demonstrations during the 60-80's of the XX century in Kyiv. Together with parades of various kinds (military, sports, etc.) they were the main forms of expression festive aesthetics of the Soviet era. Involvement to the celebration of state holidays began with early childhood. The main form of mass state holidays in Kyiv were demonstrations of workers that took place on the 7th of November and the 1st of May. The celebration of the 1500th anniversary of Kyiv in 1982 became a significant mass celebration in Kyiv in the Soviet period as well.In the conclusions is revealed that setting of mass celebrations is closely associated with ideological content of the Soviet period (the 60-70's of the XX century). In Kyiv such mass celebrations as Victory Day, May Day, Day of the October Revolution and others necessarily were held in the form of meetings and demonstrations. At the time of the events constantly were used state symbols, portraits of leaders and senior communist party leaders, Heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the Socialist Labor. In order to ensure solemnity and emotionality in the setting of mass celebrations were applied large stands depicting the Kyiv emblem or symbols of Kyiv enterprises. Banners with slogans, posters, music of patriotic character, elements of theatrical performances involving athletics and choreographic groups were also widely used.
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This article describes the cultural phenomenon of disco polo music from the perspective of poststructural cultural studies. Disco polo isn’t only a genre of popular music, but also a cultural practice which has had a strong impact on sociocultural life in Poland of 1990s. The article explores the influence of popular culture on society: referring to the history of disco polo and characteristics of the political transformation in Poland, the author analyses relations between culture and political system, the economy and social structure.
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In this article I describe how “different” and “inclusion” act in texts of popular culture on example of the living dead concept. I claim that the living dead is a political category. There is a story about naked life which is designated to be a biopolitical substantiation. The paradigm for the concept of a living dead is a concentration camp.
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The issue of the freedom of movement and its relation to migrations is among the essential aspects of the theme of migrations. Migration is just a small segment of the total mobility. People move for different reasons and they can be classified in different categories: tourists, immigrants, foreign workers, refugees, students, pilgrims… It is more important that this leads to the formation of a cosmopolitan, racially/ethnically and culturally mixed society against the background of intensive civilisational exchanges. However, these processes are also reflected in acute social conflicts and confrontation.Archaic societies did not elaborate the legal foundations of the freedom of movement, which presuppose an international community of states, based on the general recognition of the principles of territorial sovereignty and equality of independent states before the law. That was to become possible with the emergence of the modern European state system. The problem of the free movement of people and its relevance to migrations as a form of mobility in antiquity has many aspects. The present paper analyses the issue of identity, which is closely related to the issues of otherness and to the big theme of the control over mobility by generating a restrictive system vis-à-vis the alien and the foreigners through a precise model of inclusion in and exclusion from the political and social community.
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Cultural exchange between Byzantium and the Arabs can be traced in literature, science and arts during periods of peaceful co-existence, constituting evidence of a shared spiritual topos for Byzantines and Arabs. Although the Arab Caliphate repeatedly attacked the Byzantine Empire, often conquering territory, there was also peaceful interaction between the two polities, mainly trade and cultural exchange. This paper sheds light through the folk epic of Digenis Akritas on a syncretic identity forged during the early years of Islam and the Caliphate, their spread across the Arabian Peninsula and around the Mediterranean and the sieges of Constantinople and Thessaloniki (904 CE), in the context of their conflict and contiguousness with Byzantium. Neighbouring the Islamic world is reflected in the tradition of Akrites (populations with special status living in the easterly border areas of Asia Minor), protecting the Byzantine Empire against raids by Muslim Arabs and later Seljuk Turks. The Byzantine epic about the hero Digenis Akritas celebrated in folk ballads (Akritic ballads) is based on historical events. The original long epic, combining Greek, Byzantine, and Asian motifs, originated in the 10th century and was further developed during the 12th century. It was recorded in several versions between the 12th and 17th centuries, the oldest blending popular and literary language.
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The history of Bulgarian-Polish relations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries is quite naturally a subject of study by the scientific community due to some similarities in the destiny of the two nations, full of dramatic struggle for the assertion of independence and identity. From this period and especially after the mid-nineteenth century, when Bulgarians and Poles went through a period of national revival, emerged also feelings of empathy and mutual liking that are still alive today. We focus our attention on the study of a problem: on the basis of sources from the scientific archive of BAS to see how is presented the history of the Bulgarian-Polish scientific relations during the past hundred years in more or less known documentary evidence. The rich source base of the academic fund offers abundant material about the contacts between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences, the election of scientists from both countries for foreign members, for their personal relationships and joint contributions. The paper outlines the key benchmarks that could orient researchers on the topic for a future study of the variegated documentary heritage.
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The following paper examines the influence of the Soros Foundation over the internal and external relations of the Hungarian art field form 1984 to 1989. More specifically, it investigates the forms and directions of fine art subsidization and their political and ideological contexts. The activities performed by the Soros Foundation in the second half of the 1980s can be seen as part of a regime change within the artistic scene. In their struggle for cultural hegemony various actors related to the Foundation were able to strengthen their counter-hegemonic artistic practices. Opposing the late socialist artistic hegemony of the Kádár regime, this also was the period when „contemporary” art appeared in Hungary for the first time. As a result, Hungarian art had been put into context with the Western art world: new dependencies were formed, within which Hungarian and Eastern European art found itself in a peripheral position. An important consequence of this was that Eastern European artists became forced to continually demonstrate their Europeanness both internally and externally.
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