Няколко графити от западната фасада на църквата „Св. Димитър“ в Бобошево

Author(s): Ivan Biliarsky / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The article proposes a publication of some graffiti, dated in various times from 16th to 18th centuries, from the Western façade of the former monastery church of St Demetrius above Boboshevo. It was a prosperous village under Ottoman power due to its special régime and the protection of the Sultan’s daughter. The church of St Demetrius is a former monastery temple, built on the hills above the village and with a ctitor’s inscription from the second part of 15th century. The article is centred on the graffiti from the Western façade of the church. Inscriptions group A are from the composition of the Hospitality of Abraham; inscriptions group B are from the composition of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; Inscription group C are from the decorations above the entrance door of the church.

A Sailboat Sketch: Dating a Constructive Phase of the Old Cemetery Chapel of Pantokrator Monastery, Mount Athos

Author(s): Phaidon Hadjiantoniou / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Raised on an older building, the mid-14th century Pantokrator monastery, founded by two brothers Byzantine aristocrats, was extended in 15th – 16th century in expenses of Romanian donors. Dedicated to St Athanasius the Athonite, the old cemetery chapel is a modestly sized two-room building located out of the monastery. Several 11th – 12th century marble constructive and decorative members are embedded in the masonry, while on the interior wall, over the entrance, a 16th century sailboat pencil sketch is dating in the same period the last important constructive phase of the narthex’ pavement.

Visual “Intertextuality”: The Use of German Prints in Transylvanian Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries

Author(s): Ciprian Firea / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

This paper explores the visual culture of late Medieval Transylvania, and mainly the production2 of sacred images in painters’ workshops. The analysis of extant art-works demonstrates a large-scale use of pre-existing models and patterns (prints) issued by German masters, from Master E.S. to Hans Sebald Beham. Transylvania represents an artistic province where the prints of Albrecht Dürer have been widely used in painted composition in the first half of the 16th century. Such an example is the case of a small Renaissance altarpiece (dated ca. 1520) in the creation of which (it was recently noticed) the painter used at least ten different prints of Dürer and Schäufelin.

The Cult of St Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia and His Representations at Sofia Churches in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

Author(s): Vesselina Yontcheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The article follows the development of the cult of St Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia from his martyrdom in 1555 to the mid-20th century. The iconography of the saint in the monuments of the 16th through the 17th century is similar to that of four saints of the same name: he is represented as a martyr, wearing a chiton and a himation and holding a cross. Images of the saint in military garment appeared in the 18th century. In the first half of the 19th century he was depicted both as a martyr and a warrior riding a horse and began to be signified as St Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia. It was only after the Liberation that the saint obtained the iconography establishing itself throughout the 20th century – a middle-aged man wearing military attire because of the publishing of a print featuring the saint’s image and his vita.

От първото българско неделно училище в Албания до университетското образование – история, съвременно състояние и перспективи

Author(s): Raki Belo,Miranda Belo / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 41/2020

Назиф Докле – всеотдайният краевед от Гора, Албания

Author(s): Raki Belo / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 41/2020

Russland und die Orientalische Frage (1688–1878) Zwischen “Formal” und “Informal Power” auf dem Balkan

Author(s): Ivan Parvev / Language(s): German Issue: 3-4/2020

The chapter examines the foreign policy of Russia towards the Balkans, as seen through the prism of the “Eastern Question” between its beginning in 1688 and the Congress of Berlin (1878). The author proposes a new definition and a new periodization of the “Eastern Questions”, which should be regarded as an attempt to shad a new light on that particular scholarly field. Contrary to the common belief that Imperial Russia had some problems in using “Soft Power” as a tool of foreign policy, the author states that in the “Eastern Question” Russian rulers were quite effective in establishing “Informal Power” in the Balkans in contrast to the Austrians, who preferred to stick to traditional policy of expansion based on the principle of “uti possidetis”. The special combination between moderate territorial gains in South-East Europe and a sweeping extension of “Informal Power” is the key for explanation of Russian domination between 1774 and 1856 not only in the Balkans, but in the “Eastern Question” as well. Besides all that the Russians made use of a special kind of war against the Ottomans, named by the author as a “Consensual War”, which could also promote Russia’s “Informal Power”. The Eastern Crisis of 1875–1878, which marks the end of the chapter, is analysed as the attempt of Russia to re-gain some lost influence in the Balkans after the Treaty of Paris (1856) by the establishment of an “Informal Power” in Bulgaria. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) allowed St. Petersburg to secure its influence in the “Two Bulgarias” and to regain lands, lost after the Crimean War. However, Tsar Alexander II and his advisers were very unhappy with the final outcome of the Eastern Crisis, which was partly due to the very emotional stand in Russia towards the War of 1877–1878, where contrary to the other Russian-Ottoman wars the conflict was perceived as a war with a “Liberation Mission” to free the Bulgarians from the “yoke of the Turks”.

Болгария и болгары в восприятии русского общества в годы Первой мировой войны: от непонимания к замалчиванию

Author(s): Nikita Gusev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3-4/2020

The article examines the attitude of Russian society to Bulgaria during the First World War. Several stages of this are highlighted. The first is from the beginning of the war to Bulgaria’s entry into it. Russian society firmly believed that the Bulgarians wanted to stand on the side of Russia, only Tsar Ferdinand and the government of V. Radoslavov prevented this. Indications of the consequences of the Balkan wars were ignored. This perception of the situation was typical for the Russian government. After Bulgaria entered the war, the Bulgarians were accused of treachery, and the Russian society reacted excessively negatively to this step. However, such assessments soon disappeared from the pages of the press, including due to censorship. The author hypothesizes that this is due to the need to assign full responsibility to the Tsar and the government. In the event of a coup d’état, this could justify taking Bulgaria on the side of the Entente and its territorial compensation in the eyes of public opinion in Russia and its allies.

The Kalebends of Varna Fortress Confinement in the Second half of the 18th Century: Prisoners and Dungeons

Author(s): İsmail Altınöz / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

In this article, we will look at the Kalebend’s of Varna and provide some information on the city itself and its fortress. The etymological meaning of Kalebend will be given, and some information on its history, registers of Kalebend and documents will be also provided. Later, we will talk on the crimes that resulted in the punishment of Kalebend and its legal background. We will also deal with those who got sentenced with punishment of Kalebend, how they were transferred to the fortress where they were transferred for their sentence and how the legal procedures took place. The main sources for this research are mainly from the Presidential Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. The Registrar’s of Kalebends in this Archive are classified according to their subjects. We will examine these registrars and documents due to the fact that these are legal documents related to the topic and also crucial for the Ottoman diplomacy. The punishment of Kalebend which derives its legality from the Islamic law has its place in the Ottoman legal system. For this reason we aim to shed light on this topic with the help of archival documents and bring this topic to the attention of the academic world. The first document that I would like to talk about is on the Bulgarians exiled from Bulgaria to Diyarbekir.1 In this document which deals with Varna Kalebends, their punishments, kalebend registrars, the reason why such a punishment was given, crimes committed, the prisoners and their social status, the process of release of the prisoners helps us shed light to the legal and punishment system of the Ottoman Empire.

The Bulgarian Church Representation in Istanbul after Lifting the Schism in 1945

Author(s): Boryana Buzhashka / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

In 1913, the seat of the Bulgarian Exarchate was re-located to Sofia while the Exarchal Vicegerency remained in Istanbul, unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Turkish authorities, but supported by the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC). The conditions for lifting the schism in 1945 and the unsettled status of both the Exarchal Vicegerency and the Bulgarian Church Community in Turkey deprived the Bulgarians of Bulgarian church representation and predetermined their remaining in the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1950, the Bulgarians of Turkish citizenship elected a Church Board of Trustees and Managing Board of the Foundation of the Orthodox Church of the Bulgarian Exarchate, already registered in 1936, to manage the church affairs. Since 1953, the Church Board has been recognized as a legal entity with the right to manage the property of the Bulgarian church community. Since 1953 in Istanbul, the Patriarchal Vicegerency with very limited functions has remained in place of the Exarchal Vicegerency. Over the years, the role of the Church Board has been established. It has the right before all authorities in the country to seek and protect the property rights of the Bulgarian churches.

Bulgarian Anarchists in Odessa (1917–1937) Review on: Віктор Савченко. Анархісти Одеси. 1917–1937. Одеса, Астропринт, 2020. 216 с. (Viktor Savchenko. Anarchists of Odessa. 1917–1937. Odessa, Astroprint, 2020. 216 p.)

Author(s): Liudmyla Vovchuk,Tetiana Bohdanova / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

Book Review

Traian Sandu. Un fascisme roumain. Histoire de la Garde de fer. Paris, Perrin, 2014. 496 p. (Traian Sandu. Romanian Fascism. History of the Iron Guard. Paris, Perrin, 2014. 496 p.)

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2020

Book Review

Една фотография от първата половина на XX век и църквата в село Яна

Author(s): Maya Zaharieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

The article looks at the medieval church in the village of Yana, first published in the 1950s by Nikola Mavrodinov in the book Old Bulgarian Art. The lack of information about this well known in the historiography and interesting monument intrigued me. Does such a church exist and where is it today? These questions led me to deepen my research. The text is an attempt to collect and present in full all the historical data and to clarify the location of the medieval temple. The archival materials and publications from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century contributed to determining the location of this monument, namely the village of Yana, located in Eastern Thrace, Bunarhisar region. It was renamed in the first half of the 20th century in Kaynardzha and today is located on the territory of the Republic of Turkey. Today only the base of the temple is preserved and the only evidence of the appearance of the church is the archival photograph.

МЕСТА И ОБЩНОСТИ В ОРЯХОВО И ОРЯХОВСКО

Author(s): Nikolai Nenov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 18/2020

Local communities function as dynamic living organisms. Their existence is in balanced forms; therefore, the local names, along with the ancient language forms and nominations reveal also the modern dimensions of space. Toponyms contain the historical memory of Oryahovo and its area and of the people living there. They contain real and imagined events and remain therefore important for the people here regardless of the time that has passed and the changes that have happened. The toponyms that were collected have a distinct presence of Turkish and Wallachian names that were mostly inherited. The names given in modern times are on the basis of the Bulgarian language. The local names describe a situation that should be recorded because it reflects an earlier way of life the names in which represent its spatial delineation. Today, part of what has been preserved and recorded can be recognized only in the present publication; that is the reason why the registered onyms tell the history of the area. Part of that history is the locality named Stalbat (The Pole), a 30 m iron pole transferring electricity from the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Station to Romania. There are no electrical wires across the river any longer, and the poles are part of the memory of a period in the past. “The Romanians take care of their pole. They repainted it last year, while ours is all rust, forgotten” (St. M.). That peculiar token of the era manifests its capacity to use familiar shapes and places to construct the inhabited place. Similar functions can be seen in Esperanto Island on the Danube. It is not that much because of its exotic name but rather because of the practiced models of everyday life and entertainment well known to everybody in the area. In the socialist era, there was a restaurant on the island where they organized parties and Neptune celebration events. That made it a local emblem, related at the same time with modernization practices and active life on the Danube. The young Chateau Bugrozone winery is a significant element of the modern economy. The establishment has even marked its territory with signs showing the beginning and the end of the place where it is. Making unquestionable quality wine, it is nearly invisible in the life of the town. The vineyards are referred to as “the old fame of Oryahovo” (MM); nevertheless, the winery is not mentioned in any of the interviews with the local people. Most probably, that indicates non-matching audiences and a failure in assigning meaning to the local products. Fish and fishermen are an essential component of the culture of this area, and there are a relatively large number of people and places related to the river and the fishing in it. Their stories describe surroundings and a lifestyle showing intangible cultural heritage elements. The present research dwells on the fishing community, with a comprehensive examination of the multitude of components that build the community, and its links with the town and the area. The examination includes the shape of the gravestones in the area as well as the images of the heritage specific to Oryahovo. Field ethnographic studies of particular areas normally evolve in efforts to identify the special ethno-cultural traits of the local population. The former administrative structures, known as counties, are often used to mark the scope of a research. In the Post-Liberation period, counties were formed largely on the basis of the logic of the natural pre-modern life of the local communities forming their own market centers, or towns that turned into their centers. Oryahovo was also a county centre that encompassed territories of the contemporary municipalities of Oryahovo and Kozloduy. The strategic development of the town was promoted by the inauguration of the Cherven Bryag-Oryahovo railway. Although narrow-gauge, that line was sufficient to link the area to the central section of Northern Bulgaria, hence to the capital city and other cities. Oryahovo does not have a direct communication with a large urban centre because there is none at a small distance, not even on the northern side of the river. Its existence therefore has been related to the traditional communication with the neighboring settlements with which it built a joint nomination system, as seen in the toponym research made by Ivalina Vasileva. The Danube River, along with land farming, has been and still is the main business potential of the area where the port and the fishing are the livelihood of many of the local people. We will add here a number of ship mills built by Hungarian migrants; knowing the technology of setting up such facilities on the Middle Danube, they transferred them to the Bulgarian section of the river. Their presence was impressive for the local population. Therefore, the ship mills have remained in the toponym picture of the area despite the fact that nobody remembers them any longer. Territory-based research today is just one of the approaches to research work today. Today, we have a variety of approaches to choose from. We will also include the story of the cultural landscape and the ideas of what heritage is for the local communities in order to outline past and modern cultural tradition forms, and the system of transferring knowledge and values revealing the unity between man and nature. In this particular case there is a specific cultural space; reading it through the “Locus and Universum” (Zhivkova, Zhivkov 2001) will enable us to see what unites people rather than what separates people. The progress of our exploration – along with the recorded names of localities and sites, and those mentioned in the numerous interviews – will reveal the local names that everybody knows, shared spaces and topoi that have become visual memory markers, parts of the town and segments of the river related to the local knowledge, cultural practices, fishing skills or local cuisine. That way, the simultaneous existence of elements will be outlined, and the territory markers – characters, heroes, places of memory, market places and roads – will stand out. We will see, in its full variety of colors, the ethnological picture of the area. The research of the area toponyms and the fishing communities on the Danube does not present images of the daily life and the culture of the constellation of town-dominated settlements that make the area of Oryahovo. The research aims at focusing on the cultural heritage of this area, on the valorized forms of the past systematic realization of pre-modern culture linked to folklore beliefs and Christian ideas that are equally known in by village and town people. They are the factors that help today's residents in Oryahovo area to recognize their own local nature and individuality in the places they live in, the food they eat, the celebrations with which they want to show they are different from everybody else, or in their skills and knowledge about the river and the wild life in it. These places of memory and forms of inherited knowledge, emblematic in their manifestation, have become today local heritage that can be found in the daily life and the celebrations of the people in the Oryahovo area; that is what they need in order to distinguish their identity in the dynamic changes in our modern world. SOURCES: Zhivkova, Zhivkov 2001: Zhivkova, V., T. Iv. Zhivkov. Lokus i universum. Dobrodan, planinata – mitologia i .... Pub. “Alya”, Sofia.

ТОПОНИМИЯТА НА БИВШАТА ОРЯХОВСКА ОКОЛИЯ

Author(s): Ivalina Vassileva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 18/2020

This study is the end result of the author’s extended exploration of the onomastic diversity of her home region. The text consists of a theoretical part, register of the villages, list of abbreviations and a dictionary of the local names. The research was initiated in 2007, concluded in 2019 and spread over 31 villages on the territory of the former Oryahovo municipality. Currently those villages are part of Vratsa district. The main information sources of the text are two: 1. The Master’s thesis of Roumiana Ivanova (1972), under the supervision of Prof. Nikolai Kovachev, “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo. 2. The gathered by the author toponymical material — individually and as part of a project funded by the Centre of Bulgarian Onomastics at “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo. The study confirms the initial working hypothesis that a sizeable part of the toponymical material collected during 1972, is well preserved and could be amassed even today. The loss of parts of the onomastic data from the region is due to the inevitable cultural, historical, and socio-economic changes on local and national level. Finally, the active bilingualism remains present in the everyday speech and name formation process in the area of the so called “Vlachs villages”.

WWII MONUMENTS IN YUGOSLAVIA IN THE PRINTED MEDIA: BOOKS, TOURIST GUIDES AND A STICKER ALBUM – POPULARIZATION AND PROPAGANDA

Author(s): Nenad Lajbenšperger / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2020

Publications about monuments to fighters and victims of the Second World War in Yugoslavia began to appear in the late 1950s. They were dedicated to one or more monuments or memorial complexes. Over time, in tourist guides, among other sites, monuments and memorials began to be presented as a significant place worth a visit. During the second half of the 1970s, printing of special tourist guides dedicated only to monuments and memorial complexes started. Because of the popularity of monuments, a sticker album was also printed. The intention behind printing such publications was to inform citizens about monuments, but there was also an ideological side to it. Through books about monuments, the state and the Communist party wanted to emphasize again Yugoslav war efforts and the sacrifice that was made during the war. They used it as a propaganda tool in youth education, foreign diplomacy and overall state propaganda about the role of Yugoslav partisans, under the leadership of the Communist party, in the victory against fascism.

Comandorul Mircea Pătru: Viaţa şi faptele de arme ale unui agent secret din exil

Author(s): Lucian Vasile / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3-4/2020

After 1945, the Romanian Army suffered several waves of purges seeking to eliminate any officers with explicit anti-communist opinions or were „unreliable” for the new regime. One of those expelled from the military staff was Mircea Pătru, a former pilot that was constrained to work in offices due to an unfortunate accident. Knowing that he may face arrest, Pătru fled the country in 1948 and reached Paris, where, together with other former officers, formed the Intelligence Service of the Romanian Officers in Exile (SIMRE). This structure was founded with French support, but worked independently, having the goals to fight the communist regime in Romania, support internal resistance, and create spies networks. Pătru was engaged in many projects varying from contacting new agents to preparing the groups that were to be sent in the mountains to help the armed resistance. While some of them had notable success, others ended in tragedies, some claiming that Pătru was at least partially responsible for it. The article seeks to examine Mircea Pătru`s biography by putting his life events in the larger context of the secret confrontation between East and West conducted in the first decade of the Cold War.

Etatizarea Băncii Naționale a României şi reprimarea specialiştilor bancari, 1946-1952

Author(s): Brînduşa Costache / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3-4/2020

One of the objectives of communist leaders in their fight for power was the transformation of banks, particularly banks of issue, into instruments of control over the entire economy. In Romania, the restructuring of the banking system culminated in the reconfiguration of the objectives, functions, and structure of the National Bank of Romania. The reconfiguration of the issuing institution could not have been complete without eliminating those bank clerks who were seen as hostile to the changes in the organisation of the financial and banking system.

Planul Uniunii Sovietice de desfiinţare a NATO şi poziţia României, 1954-1991

Author(s): Petre Opris / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3-4/2020

On August 24, 2019 was celebrated the 70th anniversary of the entry into force of the NATO treaty signed in Washington D.C. on April 4, 1949. Nowadays the public opinion doensn’t know almost anything about the Soviet request from 1954 regarding the accession of the Soviet Union to NATO. Therefore, in the present study we aimed to present the way in which the Soviet authorities tried to provoke the abolition of NATO with an idea that, at a certain moment, was also disseminated by the communist propaganda apparatus from Romania.

Gheorghe Oprea (1927-1998)

Author(s): Cristina Diac / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3-4/2020

Gheorghe Oprea, a high ranked party functionary, was born in 1927 in a needy family from Prahova region. All his family, and he as well, worked for oil plants from the region. A very good, thirst for knowledge student, with an appropriate social and political background, in 1949 Oprea was selected and sent to University for Workers' Education in Bucharest. Short of well-prepared cadres, after graduation the Romanian Workers Party kept the young graduate in its central administration. Meanwhile, he completed his higher education at the Polytechnic of Bucharest. A mechanical engineer, Gh. Oprea had a long career within both the Romanian Communist Party and Romanian state central administration, being a member of party central leading bodies and a deputy prime-minister for many years, in charge of economic issues. Gh. Oprea was arrested in December 1989, when he was coming back from Turkey, where he had headed an official Romanian delegation. In the phoney years that followed the end of communism in Romania, Oprea was trailed, acquitted, trialled again and sentenced to 14 years in jail and finally pardoned in November 1996. He passed away in 1998, in Bucharest.