MEDIEVAL STUDIES IN THE ÉTUDES BALKANIQUES JOURNAL (2014 – 2023)

Author(s): Vladislav Ivanov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Articles and studies on medieval subjects featured prominently in the pages of Études balkaniques between 2014 and 2023. Conventionally they are divided into two larger groups, according to their focus on issues related to Byzantine and Bulgarian history. This overview begins with an outline of the studies relevant to the development of medieval Bulgaria. This category comprises the works of medievalists such as Vassilka Tăpkova-Zaїmova, Penka Danova, Sashka Georgieva, etc. Elena Kostova’s article on the possessions of the Athonite monasteries in the present-day Bulgarian town of Melnik also belongs to this set of themes as it throws a natural bridge to the extensive thematic range of Byzantine studies. Among the examined studies in this field are papers dedicated to the graffiti in the Constantinople Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Byzantium’s ties to Southern Italy and Egypt, silk production, the empire’s political relations with its neighbours such as the community of the Cumans and other themes from the history of what came to be known as the “Byzantine cultural circle”, whose geographical reach extended up to the Caucasus and Russia. The overview ends with a discussion of two articles by Theodor Dimitrov, which examine the plague epidemics in Byzantium.

Политиката на Белград към турското и албанското малцинство в Югославската федерация с акцент на демографията от края на Втората световна война до смъртта на Тито

Author(s): Mariyana STAMOVA / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

In the article, the subject of research and analysis is the situation and status of the Turkish and Albanian minorities in the Yugoslav Federation after the Second World War, with an emphasis on Kosovo and Macedonia and the Yugoslav policy towards them. Because of the conflict with Kominform in June 1948 and the deterioration of the Yugoslav-Albanian relationship, the Belgrade leadership was worried about the reaction of the Albanian population in Yugoslavia. At the same time, to limit the demographic and ethnic invasion of the Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia, Yugoslav authorities started a political campaign for their exportation. After the signing of the Yugoslav-Turkish agreement in 1953, which confirmed the convention from 1938 for the exportation of Turks from Yugoslavia in Turkey, the emigration into Turkey not only of Turks, but also Albanians, was legalized. Albanians in the Yugoslav federation got the possibility to define themselves as “Turks”, and thus to immigrate to Turkey (not Albania). In that way, many Albanians in Yugoslavia, mainly from Kosovo and Macedonia, declared themselves as “Turks”. In those years, Belgrade decided to intensify and renew the idea of emigrating the Muslim population, such as the Turks and Albanians, after World War II.

Международна научна конференция „Обмен и приспособяване: езици и култури в диалог (Балканите от Късната античност до ранната модерност)“

Author(s): Violina Hristova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 48/2024

Николай Аретов на 70 години

Author(s): Nikoleta Patova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 48/2024

Земята ще потъне и небесата ще се раздерат: апокалиптични пророчества, свързани с отпадането на Рим от православната вяра (според „Сказание как Рим отпадна от православната гръцка вяра“)

Author(s): Kristiyan Kovachev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2024

The article examines the polemical anti-Latin writings “The Tale of how Rome fell away from the Orthodox Greek faith” (according to manuscript TSIAI 1161) and “Word of how Rome fell” (according to manuscript SANU 147) in the context of the theme of apocalyptic prophecies and the expectation of severe, but God’s just punishment for sins committed. A study of these short but message-laden late medieval texts reveals not only the perception of the conflict between East and West among ordinary people, but also the fear of catastrophic consequences for the world as a result of the violation of church tradition. The change of custom also implies an intervention in the plan of the Creator and changes in the physically visible and spiritual world.

Academic Conference between Trauma and Triumph: 150 Years since the Birth of Winston Churchill

Author(s): Lubomir Krastev / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

ДРЕВНОТО ЕВРАЗИЙСКО ЕТНИЧЕСКО ПРОСТРАНСТВО И ДОЛЕН ДЕСЕН ДУНАВ КАТО ЕТНОГЕНЕТИЧНА ЗОНА

Author(s): Petar Petrov,Boris Kazakov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 11/2015

The article represents an attempt to outline thе areas in Eurasia, where the landscape and environment conditions supposedly were the most optimal for the development of ancient human communities of different ranks, including ancient human civilizations. By analyzing the contemporary natural and climatic conditions, as well as through paleo-landscapei reconstructions of the region of the Danube Valley (Lower Right Danube), a hypothesis of the existence of optimal living conditions for growth of the human population in this part of the Balkans and Europe is proposed, which area therefore is referred to as "ethnogenetic zone”.

АРХЕОАСТРОНОМИЯ И АРХЕОУРБАНИСТИКА – ОБЩ ПОГЛЕД И НЯКОИ ПРОБЛЕМИ

Author(s): Lyubomir Tsonev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 14/2017

This study aims to clarify numerous interdisciplinary problems that arise at the interface between arhаeo-astronomy and ancient Roman Urbanism. The general scheme of a Roman city as well as its concrete implementation in the new cities built during the territorial expansion of Ancient Rome is described. The author discusses in detail various situations where it is possible to make mistakes in interpreting the street system orientation of the Roman cities. Referred to are those weaknesses in the description and publication of archaeological sites that do not allow adequate and reliable archaeoastronomical analysis. All the published data about the street orientation in Roman cities in Bulgaria are collected and presented here for the first time. Several classical Roman cities in Bulgaria are commented that have inherited earlier Thracian or Roman settlements (Ulpia Escus, Serdica, Philipopol, Seuthopolis).

АНТИЧНИЯТ АНСАМБЪЛ СТЪЛПИЩЕ, РУСЕНСКО – ЕЛЕМЕНТ ОТ ТРАКО-ФРИГИЙСКАТА КОНТАКТНА ЗОНА

Author(s): Lyubomir Tsonev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 14/2017

The locality Stalpishte / Dikili-tash (Russe) presents a combination of natural and historical objects which have a noticeable cultural and touristic potential. The present study collects all the data concerning the historical monuments from the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages including photographs and original descriptions. An interpretative analysis is proposed of two monuments in the locality Stalpishte / Dikili-tash: (1) a rock reflief of a horseman and (2) a cave sanctuary crowned with a rock-graved pediment. The figure of the horseman has a Thracian origin, but its rock-cut representations have been spread over the whole Thracian-Phrygian region in Roman times. The Thracian horseman is depicted on the reliefs in various compositions (the hunter-god Heros, the war-god Ares, the local king possessing a god-dignity etc.) but always in the frames of the thracian mythology infiltrated into Phrygia. The cave sanctuary with a rock-cut pediment is a more complicated object. Rock temples and graves are created in Thracia as well as in Phrygia. Pediments are also widely used in both regions. Pediments graved over rock (or cave) temples or over rock facades are a typically Phrygian phenomenon. In this sense the rock sanctuary in Stalpishte / Dikili-tash is unique on the Balkan peninsula, i.e. for the Thracian area, and it has been built possibly in Roman times under the influence of the Phrygian architecture. However, the pediment over the cave sanctuary in Stalpishte / Dikili-tash contains a typical Thracian element – four graved trapezoidal niches which are known in the East Rhodope Mountain (i.e. in Thrace) only. We can conclude that the monuments in Stalpishte / Dikili-tash (Russe) demonstrate in an very impressing and convincing way the cultural interactions between Thracia and Phrygia in Roman times.

БЪЛГАРСКИТЕ ОБЩНОСТНИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ В ЧУЖБИНА В УСЛОВИЯТА НА ПАНДЕМИЯ

Author(s): Vladimir Penchev,Anelia Avdzhieva,Tanya Matanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 19/2021

Results from an online research and observations of Bulgarian migrant communities’ organizations within and outside Europe due to Covid-19 pandemic. Main pillars are the 123 connections with the homeland, the hosting country, and with the local community, mechanisms for support, as well as forms of activities, festivity, and communal consolidation.

review at William Dalrymple, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, 522 p., ISBN: 978-1-4088-6439-5.

Author(s): Florina Dobre-Brat / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The rise of the East India Company (EIC) as the main, unrelented and not once reckless player on the economic market along with their increasing political power that largely contributed to the collapsing of the Indian Mughal Empire is what the Scottish historian William Dalrymple writes about with accomplished art in The Anarchy.

review at Aanchal Malhotra, The Book of Everlasting Things, Gurugram: Harper Collins, 2017, 480 p., ISBN: 9789356999152.

Author(s): Cătălina-Ioana Pavel / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The Book of Everlasting Things written by Aanchal Malhotra is a chronicle of fragrance, loss, longing, and the ability of memory to endure and preserve the past through an invisible realm: smell. It is a treasury of intangible, everlasting things that are stronger than material, physical borders, more powerful than a place, a country, or even physical death.

Бариери пред стопанското развитие на Източното Средиземноморие според докладите на френския консул Луи-Феликс Огюст Божур

Author(s): Simeon Simeonov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The article examines the reconstruction of French trade in the Ottoman Empire following the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, focusing on the consular mission of Louis Félix-Auguste Beaujour. Tasked with reviving French interests in the Levant, Beaujour faced challenges and barriers to French commercial expansion such as competition from British and Austrian textiles, inconsistent French trade policies, and Greek merchants allegedly exploiting Ottoman import duties. The article highlights Beaujour’s dirigiste approach, advocating state regulation and tariffs to protect French goods, particularly textiles. His reports highlighted the need for quality control and aligning French commerce with state interests. Despite difficulties, he believed in the potential for restoring France’s commercial presence in the Eastern Mediterranean. The article also explores Beaujour’s tour of the Eastern Mediterranean and embeds his views within a broader French consular system amidst the sweeping transformations of the Bourbon Restoration. Ultimately, Beaujour prioritized French interests over the Ottoman Empire’s development, in a representative critique of the self-imposed as well as foreign barriers to French commercial expansion in the Levant.

Пречки пред развитието на текстилната протоиндустрия в българските земи през ХVІІІ и ХІХ век

Author(s): Gergana Georgieva,Nikolay Todorov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

Textile production in the Bulgarian lands was one of the main branches of the Ottoman economy at the time of its inclusion in world trade. According to some researchers, after the 18th century, the Ottoman territories played the role of a periphery that provided the raw materials for the rapid industrial development of European countries. In addition, some parts of the Ottoman Empire were incorporated into the world economic system. Although the historiography focuses mainly on woolen production, silk production has its significant place in the development of the economy and market. The thesis of this research is that the textile production in the Bulgarian lands in the 18th and 19th centuries can be considered as a proto-industry that meets a number of criteria in Mendels’ definition. According to F. Mendels, proto-industrialization is the first, preparatory phase of industrialization. It represents a rapid growth of traditionally organized, but market-oriented industries. This economic development was accompanied by population growth and lead to the most important changes, necessary for the emergence of industry: regional specialization and commercialization of agriculture, accumulation of capitals, development of entrepreneurship, capture of distant markets, creation of manpower for industry.

Добри възможности и бариери пред зърнената търговия в пристанищата на Западното Черноморие през 40-те години на XIX век, отразени в докладите на европейските консули

Author(s): Ivan Roussev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The article presents the good opportunities and the barriers (problems) for the grain trade in the ports of the Western Black Sea coast in the 1840s. The main historical sources of the study are the reports of the European consuls in the biggest of these cities at that time – Varna. Today, these documents are kept in the Diplomatic Archives of France in Paris and in Nantes (Archives diplomatiques du Ministère des Affaires étrangères de la République française à Courneuve, Centre des Archives diplomatiques à Nantes), and only a small part has been used by scholars. The 1840s was an interesting time, as this decade saw the beginning of the great increase in grain exports from the Balkans (then part of the Ottoman Empire) to the markets of Western Europe. Consular reports describe this process in detail. They also present the problems that accompanied it: the poor treatment and non-acceptance of European consuls and merchants in the Ottoman Empire; the return to monopolies prohibiting grain exports, even though these monopolies were officially abolished in the Empire as early as the 1830s.; competition and mistreatment by merchants from the Greek islands, who had settled on the Western Black Sea coast at an earlier date; the different units of measurement and their incorrect use, which disadvantaged both peasant producers and European merchants; the high taxes levied on peasants in the Ottoman Empire; the non-fulfilment of sales contracts by peasants; drought and poor harvests in some years. The article enriches the theme of trade between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe in the 19th century with new data and analysis.

Недостатъчно бедни: развитие на българското село и индустрия, 1878–1939 година

Author(s): Dimitar Sabev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The prevailing perspective on the Bulgarian economy from 1878 to 1939 characterizes it as extremely backward. However, growing evidence suggests that this pessimistic assessment must be reconsidered. In 1910, Bulgaria boasted a slightly higher per capita gross domestic product than most geographically and historically similar nations. This advantage continued to expand until 1939, indicating a potential shift toward a more modern economic structure. Importantly, national income was distributed relatively equitably. The majority of Bulgarians owned sufficient arable land to sustain themselves, and this prevented them from being forced to sell cheaply their labour. This hindered industrial growth but also prevented extreme exploitation. The widespread ownership of land in Bulgaria had its roots in the Tansimat, intensified along with the emigration of Turks after 1878, and solidified by the 1920/21 land laws. As a result, three-fourths of the Bulgarian population became landowners, with about 82% of peasants owning less than 10 hectares of land. While this scale of land ownership did not guarantee high incomes, it helped prevent extreme poverty during a challenging period for the national and global economy. However, both Marxists and proponents of capitalist growth heavily criticized Bulgaria’s small-scale land ownership. Marxists viewed non-starving villages as an obstacle to the emergence of the proletariat that would spark a revolution. Advocates of capitalist growth lamented the higher labour costs and lower labour market recruitment. This paper contends that the Bulgarian village economy was a democratic economic order that emerged spontaneously, relied on the personal agency of the landowners, and effectively reduced extreme poverty, although not preventing scarcity. Until the beginning of World War II, the Bulgarian village economy followed a middle path of development that achieved a three-fold increase in literacy among village women in just one generation – without spectacularly contributing to the overall GDP figures or sparking a proletarian revolution.

A TRANSNATIONAL APPROACH TO ANTI-CORRUPTION IN SOCIALIST ROMANIA (1971 – 1989)

Author(s): Alexandra Oprea / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

This paper offers a nuanced analysis of the clash between Western criticisms of corruption in Ceaușescu’s Romania and the counter-narratives promoted by the communist state. It explores how the Romanian state justified the presence of corruption in a society that claimed to be egalitarian and the specific legal and propagandistic language used to address these issues. The study begins by examining how international media portrayed “corrupt practices” as evidence of the socialist model’s failure, arguing that it institutionalized rather than eliminated privilege. It then contrasts this Western perspective with the response crafted by communist propaganda. The paper argues that the Romanian authorities created a counternarrative to demonstrate their commitment to addressing corruption, thereby reinforcing the legitimacy of socialist property and justifying the economic and social crises. By adopting a transnational approach, the study transcends national paradigms, demonstrating that communist regimes were significantly influenced by East-West relations rather than operating in isolation.

Под знака на българо-хърватските диалози

Author(s): Antoaneta Balcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2024

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE FIRST AND SECOND NAGORNO- KARABAKH WARS

Author(s): Mihai Melintei / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The Nagorno-Karabakh wars is one of the most protracted and complex disputes in the post-Soviet space, involving Armenia and Azerbaijan over the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The first war broke out in the late 1980s and early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian-majority area, had been under Azerbaijani control during Soviet regime. As tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis grew, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war from 1991 to 1994. The result was a devastating loss of life, mass displacement, and a de facto Armenian control over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani territories, although these gains were never internationally recognized.A fragile ceasefire was agreed upon in 1994, but the situation remained volatile with periodic skirmishes. The second war erupted in September 2020, with Azerbaijan launching a large- scale offensive to reclaim Nagorno-Karabakh. The 2020 conflict was marked by heavy military engagement, with Azerbaijan receiving support from Turkey, while Russia played a mediating role. The war ended with a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia, shifting the region’s geopolitical dynamics and strengthening Azerbaijan’s position. Despite the ceasefire, tensions remain high, and the conflict continues to shaperelations in the South Caucasus.

„Най-източната SIHDA някога!“, или за 77-ата сесия на Международното дружество „Фернан де Вишер“ за история на правото през Античността (Société Internationale Fernand de Visscher pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité – SIHDA)

Author(s): Boryana Miteva,Ghenka Mozzhuhina / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2024