Two Unpublished Ottoman Firmans from the Serbian Monastery of Visoki Dečani

Author(s): Slobodan Ilić / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2022

The paper presents two previously unpublished firmans of Mehmed III and Mustafa II from the archive of the Serbian monastery of Visoki Dečani. The two documents offer an insight into the social and economic position of the Serbian Orthodox church under the Ottoman rule, and the life of the Christian subjects in the Ottoman Balkans.

Yordan Baev. American intelligence and Bulgaria (1941–1991). Sofia, EastWest Publishing House, 2021. 366 p.

Author(s): Evgenia Kalinova / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2022

Book Review

Българският ХХ век в полската историография след 1989 г.

Author(s): Viktor Rogozenski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

This study presents some of the leading Polish researchers with their most im¬portant works on Bulgarian history in the 20th century, written after 1989, when both the priorities and approaches in historical studies changed. It identifies three thematic blocks, in which most of the research of Polish historians is concentrated: the examination of issues of Bulgarian political history in the context of Balkan history; the study of Bulgarian historical development with an emphasis on the social and political changes in the country; and the presentation of Bulgarian-Polish relations, which understandably receive the most attention.

Głos ze świata. „Wersy o koniecznym oporze” Szczepana Kopyta

Author(s): Patryk Szaj / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2 (20)/2022

Patryk Szaj attempts to inscribe Szczepan Kopyt’s Wersy o koniecznym oporze [Verses about the Necessary Resistance] into the theoretical framework of the Capitalocene. The starting point is the reconstruction of the conditio of criticism in the Anthropocene. He opposes the beliefs expressed by some representatives of the Anthropocene discourse that criticism is ineffective in the face of the planetary challenges of this epoch. He argues that we criticism is till needed, as is also emphasized by the concept of the Capitalocene as an alternative to the Anthropocene. Next, Szaj moves on to a dialogue with Kopyt’s work. Using both the findings of critical theory and (new)materialistic concepts, Szaj points to Kopyt’s debt to both these traditions. He shows that Kopyt has managed to avoid the “speaking out of nowhere” that is associated with criticism. Kopyt speaks “from the world,” and his voice is that of a participant. This perspective, reconstructed in the article on the basis of Kopyt’s Wersy o koniecznym oporze, allows the poet to diagnose the anachronism of some Marxist heterodox practices (autonomism), as well as to note and creatively develop the positive and negative entanglements of human and inhuman actors in the era of Capitalocene.

Икономическите привилегии на елита в древен Рим (VIII в. пр.н.е. – III в. н.е.)

Author(s): Georgi Lyubenov Manolov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The historical causes, genetic roots and status of elite privileges in Ancient Rome are examined. A significant part of the various economic privileges during the three main periods at that time – the Imperial period, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire – have been distinguished and substantiated. A detailed classification of the types of royal, republican, imperial and class privileges of the elite during the indicated historical era is made. The most relevant conclusions about the role of privileges in ancient Roman society and their impact on its development are also drawn.

За самоковския зограф Костадин Вальов

Author(s): Nadya Manolova-Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The article published a letter from the Metropolitan of the Diocese of Nisava Antim I, dated August 26, 1854, which refers to the Samokov painter Kostadin Petrovich Valoiv. The content of the letter allows to formulate the hypothesis that the artist worked in the interior decoration of the church “St. Petka” in the town of Trun, probably in 1853 or in the first half of 1854. The document provides information that K. Valiov resided in the town of Pirot in 1854, supplementing his biography, in which there was no information about the period from 1845 to 1856.

Пенчо Радов, или още няколко щрихи в образа на българския възрожденски пътуващ книжар

Author(s): Vasil Zagorov,Gabriela Angelova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The article aims to create a profile of the traveling bookseller in Bulgaria in the 19th century based on existing scientific publications, archival documents, memoirs, and the notes in their books. The portrait is built on a comparative analysis of the traveling booksellers Hadji Nayden Jovanovich and Pencho Radov, popular during the Bulgarian Revival. Their activity and biography have been studied individually up until now. In this article, we compare their trading methods to those Revival booksellers who started as traveling booksellers butexpanded their activity into actual business as publishers and editors – Hristodul Sichan-Nikolov, Hristo G. Danov, Dragan Manchov, and Petko Slaveikov. The purpose is to outline the patterns in the Revival book trading, which build two distinct Revival types – the unfortunate, dusty and wretched retailer (Jovanovic,Penchov) and the sagacious, organized, and modern publisher.

Съюзът на артистите в България в първите месеци след преврата от 9 септември 1944 година

Author(s): Hristiyan Danchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The aim of this article is to examine the relations between the government and the theater in the first months after the coup of 9 September 1944.The main focus is on the conduct of the “purge” in the Union of the Artists in Bulgaria, which is part of the transformations in the cultural organizations after the Fatherland Front came to power. For this purpose, the method of historical analysis is applied. The study reveals that the leadership of the Union of the Artists take the initiative to “eradicate fascism in culture” by carrying out a “purge” in its rows, thus fulfilling the task set by the new government of the Fatherland Front. Data is presented on the number of members “purged”, along with information on the charges against them and the fate of some of them in the following years.

Промените в ръководството на Българския земеделски народен съюз в края на 1989 година

Author(s): Nikola Shindarov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

This current article examines the changes that occurred in the leadership of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union in the period from November 10 to the end of 1989. The research presents the reflection of what is happening in the Bulgarian Communist Party and the country in relation to the Union, the differences in the reactions of the agrarian leaders, the main themes, which become the subject of debates by the union members, the contradictions between the BZNS leadership and the forming critical group of members, as well as the opposite positions between the structures in the country about intra-party and public issues. The topic is also presented in the light of a process coming into view not only of the political entities in the country, but also of the diplomatic corps. The purpose of the article is to shed light on the main interrelationships, causes and consequences that led to the changes at the top of the union.

Научна конференция (23 – 24.09.2022 г.) и том VII на „Известия на Центъра за стопанско-исторически изследвания“, посветени на темата „Дилеми на развитието“

Author(s): Emilia Vacheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Нова монография за историята на изборите в България

Author(s): Veselin Yanchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

В НОВИТЕ БРОЕВЕ НА СПИСАНИЯТА НА ,,АЗ-БУКИ“ ЧЕТЕТЕ

Author(s): Albena Simova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Repressed Utopias vs. Utopian Repressions: Czech Countercultural Communal Living Arrangements in the ‘Normalization’ Era (1970–1989)

Author(s): Martin Tharp / Language(s): English Issue: 46/2023

The present contribution aims to examine this specific historic ‘Second World’ phenomenon — the communal living arrangements attempted by counterculturally minded, predominantly working-class youth in post-1968 Czechoslo-vakia, often (though not exclusively) in the former German Sudetenland — as an instance of the potentials and limita-tions associated with an attempt at a ‘mobile commons’ in 20th-century state socialism. Not only is the legacy of the Czech communes (baráky) an insufficiently researched historical topic, but even further, the placement of this phenomenon between its reflection of the American commu-nal-utopian tradition in its 1960s forms, the emerging critique of industrial modernity, the growth of 20th-century ‘civil-society’ concepts, and the ‘Cold War’ mobilities across the Iron Curtain (intellectual-cultural autarky versus forced political emigration) forms a highly fruitful starting point for wider considerations. Examination of the Czech countercul-tural communal-living attempts within the social framework of the ‘normalization’ order of the 1970s and 1980s — state repression, socialist modernity, anti-public familialism — finds that their character as communities of refuge, rather than as deliberate planned experiments, places them at a particularly unique angle to the utopian vs. antiutopian debates, indeed even calling into question the very premises of this opposition.

Derive comportamentale în România anilor ’70-’80. Parazitism social, speculă, alcoolism şi prostituţie

Author(s): Dan Țălnaru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2022

Confronted more and more with unemployment, deviance and anarchism, daily life in Romanian communism since the early 1970s entered a new stage of re-disciplining. This process was supposed to mold society in line with the demands required by the new ideological program announced at the 10th Congress of the PCR, „The Program for the Creation of a Multilaterally Developed Socialist Society”.Refusal to work, vagrancy, hooliganism, alcoholism, prostitution, profiteering, from and other forms of were associated with the behavior of young people. These problems were targeted by a special law, the "law of social parasitism", as it remained in the collective mind until today, so as not to contradict socialist lifestyles.The restriction of rights and freedoms, the generalized shortage did not make society an ally of this law. On the contrary, a series of antisocial practices that the population resorted to in the name of survival, often placed it under its influence.The lack of goods and food in the shops of towns and villages, the time wasted waiting for them, the poor quality of the products, together with other difficulties and humiliations of everyday existence created a „black market”, a parallel supply network based on profiteering, from overpriced goods. The lack of services, including social ones, kept alive the institution of favors, a system of relationships in which access to medical services, housing, education or a job had to be additionally rewarded in order to pass the customs of corruption in the public administration. The compression of incomes, the regimentation in increasingly difficult occupations, also destroyed the civilizing myth of work. Unemployment, non-existent in official reports, became a recurrence among the youth.The „law of social parasitism” was nothing more than a way in which the state tried to re-discipline the behavior of a generation that, for a short time, had looked through the folds of the Iron Curtain. The law countered the ideological dilemmas generated by the relaxation of the 1960s and the 1970s as well as the fallout from the severe economic recession of the 1980s.

Problemele economico-financiare ale perestroikăi şi sfârşitul Războiului Rece: „deschidere admisibilă” vs „transparenţă maximală”

Author(s): Simion Gheorghiu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2022

Based on documents from former Soviet archives and specialized literature published by Russian researchers, this article traces the efforts made by Mikhail Gorbachev to restore the Soviet economy by imposing a series of reforms. In the first years after acceding to power, the reforms were not significantly different from those attempted by his predecessors. The major differences would appear later, when, towards the end of the 1980s, under the pressure of financial crisis, Gorbachev sought to reach an agreement with the US regarding the nuclear arsenal. In parallel, the economic reforms moved away from centralized planning and explored the principles of the free market.In this context, M.S. Gorbachev and his team turned their attention to the massive imbalances concerning military spending, which alleviation conditioned the success of perestroika. Therefore, the leaders in Kremlin resorted to radical measures, such as the asymmetric reduction of military contingents. What they did not understand was that the Soviet economic system could not be reformed. It had to be completely changed.

HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE BALKANS AT THE END OF THE 19th AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY ON THE CASE OF BULGARIA AND SERBIA (COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)

Author(s): Alexandre Kostov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article is devoted to the establishing and functioning of the Balkan national health systems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the example of Bulgaria and Serbia. The comparative analysis shows that in both countries during the period in study serious measures were taken to build a modern health system and the basic indicators derived from statistics show undeniable development in this respect in both countries.

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE FIGHT AGAINST THE BIGGEST “SOCIAL” DISEASE: FINANCING MEASURES AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS IN INTERWAR BULGARIA

Author(s): Ivaylo Nachev / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article explores financial aspects of the efforts to control tuberculosis in interwar Bulgaria, including the specific roles of different stakeholders involved in the process of fighting one of the main healthcare challenges during the period. Elaborating on the dependency between the overall conditions and the spread of tuberculosis, it examines it as a “social” disease which demanded complex responses in a time of different crises and a wide prevalence of the infection. The text first looks at the evolution of the Bulgarian healthcare institutions which were focused on the problem with an emphasis of the economic aspects of their functioning. It also examines in more detail the initiatives to support the fight against the disease of the biggest voluntary organization in the field, the Society for Fight against Tuberculosis in Bulgaria.

Споменът за освободителните борби на българите във фотографията след Освобождението

Author(s): Chavdar Vetov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

The liberation struggles during the Revival left a deep imprint on the collective consciousness of Bulgarian society. A process of searching for, preserving and popularizing evidence of the past of all kinds was being developed – including photographs, regarding the events and personalities related to the struggle for the liberation of the Bulgarians from the Ottoman rule. Celebrations were held, monuments were erected, historical events were re-enacted. Many of these events were photographed, thus the photographs became testimonies reflecting the desire to preserve the memory of the revolutionary struggle. The article examines photographs of buildings of historical significance, monuments, group and personal photographs of combatants, etc. They are found in various local and central archival collections. The descriptive method used shows how photographs participated in the process of preserving the historical memory of the movement for political independence and their role in the construction of national identity.

Ценни източници за българската история през XIX и първата половина на XX век

Author(s): Antoaneta Kirilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

Book Review

In memoriam Проф. д.и.н. Витка Тошкова (1939–2022)

Author(s): Petya B. Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022