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After the Liberation the Bulgarian state had a leading role in the development and modernization of the country. The article traces the changes in its institutions and functions in relation to changes in the political system. In the three decades until the First World War it was a parliamentary democracy with moments of deformation of authoritarian type, which was associated with liberal economy and significant socio-economic progress. In the interwar period bourgeois society passed through: an attempt to a left, “rural dictatorship” under the rule of the BZNS (Bulgarian Agrarian National Union); right-authoritarian dictatorship of the People’s Alliance during the government of Alexander Tsankov; restoration of parliamentary democracy under the rule of Andrey Lyapchev and the People’s Bloc; classic authoritarian regime established after the coup of May 19, 1934 and modified in the recovery of important elements of parliamentarianism and the rule of law in the years of the tsarist regime until 1944. Under all regimes, a trend was preserved to strengthen the state’s role as regulator of the economy and social relations, and to increase its contribution to the modernization of the country. After September 9, 1944 Bulgaria was ruled by a dictatorship of the Communist Party within quasi-parliamentary regime. By the end of 1948 totalitarian state was established and by the mid-1950s the totalitarian system of Soviet type was formed. The Party-state implemented expropriation of the means of production, forced collectivization and rapid industrialization, which turned Bulgaria into relatively developed industrial country with a predominantly urban population. The totalitarian system created uncompetitive economy of deficit and lack of motivation for economic activity among citizens deprived of their property and rights. After the collapse of communism in 1989, liberal democratic state began to be built and transition to a market economy on the model of Western democracy has been carried out. This new cycle of modernization of Bulgaria has been quite difficult - an incoherent and incomplete reform process, which has achieved very unsatisfactory results due mainly to the low managerial capacity of the new political elite. Its preference for the use of state power for enriching and privileges creates unproductive business, oligarchic structures and inefficient state without public capacity to provide modern development.
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Defended PhD theses in Bulgaria in the field of linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography and art studies
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Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2012
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Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2011
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The aim of this paper is to study a specific aspect of the Communist foreign propaganda policy in Latin America: its cultural influence through the export of films. Renewed after Stalin´s death, Soviet cultural propaganda concentrated on gaining the favour of foreign public. Particularly in Argentina, several propaganda techniques were implemented. Although the export of films was just one of them, it soon became very successful thanks to the collaboration of a local cultural mediator, the film distribution company Artkino Pictures, as well as its owner and founder, Argentino Vainikoff. His expertise in the field actually gained him a new business deal with Czechoslovak filmography, which somewhat contested USSR imagery. In all, here –with the aid of oral history as well as contemporary press analysis– we argue that Artkino´s role in the import of an idealised imaginary of Communism was crucial and had a particularly strong impact on middle-class citizens of the cultural and artistic regional centre that Buenos Aires was in the 1950s and 1960s, and from where all Latin America, as the Soviets soon acknowledged, could be reached.
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The article explores the aspects of development and operation of the industrial museums in Middle Ural, i.e. in the towns of Solikamsk, Nizhny Tagil, and Polevskoy. It contains the description of their present conditions, their popularity, plans and projects for further development. Analysis of an image of an industrial museum as it exists in the minds both of local residents and visitors is followed by the attempt to clarify the symbolic function of an industrial museum as a tool for shaping the image of Ural for contemporary age. Also, the article delves into the contradictions between the actual situation of industrial museums and the declarations of their importance and usage made by the local official media (based on the case of Demidov Park project). The main problem here is the failure, both by authorities and by local residents, to comprehend the role and the place of such museums in the future development of local and regional culture; as a result, we can witness underfunding and dismal material conditions of the industrial museums in Solikamsk and Nizhny Tagil, lack of adequate advertising, no interesting projects implemented at these plants and so on.
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The industrialization developed in the late XX century in Angara-Yenisei region promoted not only the territory development and the cities growth but also considerable sociocultural changes. In the cities of the region transition from traditional consciousness to the industrial one goes at an accelerated pace. The important role in this process was played by the large industrial enterprises of the Union value which had defined urban environment development parameters of that period of time. As a result of industrialization and urbanization of the region one can observe the transition from paternalism and collectivism to individualization, understanding of personality worthiness, material needs priority growth. These tendencies are of fragmentary and changeable character. Features of traditional, industrial and post-industrial society in the framework of the Soviet system are interwoven with polychromatic picture of sociocultural identity of a transition period. They gained the greatest expressiveness in the regional centers, the smallest level — in the peripheral not industrial cities.
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The reforms implemented by Nicolae Ceauşescu in 1967, despite being advertised as decentralization, aimed at streamlining the bureaucratic apparatus within the economy. Their objective was to increase the efficacy of central planning. The decentralisation of exports, the reform of the banking system and the creation of industrial trusts continued to devise economic mechanisms established in previous years. The consolidation of the central political leadership was another key goal. Furthermore, the reforms opened opportunities for social mobility among the party’s “intelligentsia” and the technical experts who emerged in the latter years of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s rule. Yet, these policies effectively kept in place the core of the communist system: the planned economy remained tightly linked to the directives issued by the upper echelons of the party. However, the interposition of an additional administrative authority between the ministry and enterprises, through the formation of industrial trusts, generated the significant fragmentation of the areas of competence that were the purview of the central bureaucracy. The phenomenon brought the partial deprivation of its political base. Subsequently, the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party became the supreme authority on economic matters. The direct connection between Ceauşescu and industrial trusts constrained the capacity of the ministerial bureaucracy to effectively intervene in economic policy.
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The article deals with the introduction and usage of the concept of „property” in Romanian rural areas, focusing on the redefinition of the legal status of farmlands. The topic is relevant for the public policies deployed by the state to establish the modern, capitalist concept of property in the most traditional and, for a long period of time, most numerous section of the Romanian society – the peasantry. The contribution analyzes the laws published in the Official Gazette (Monitorul oficial), which I consider relevant for the intentions of the state in terms of defining the concept of “property”. The working hypothesis is that, despite the extensive usage of the term “property” in the Romanian legislation starting with 1864, the state systematically constructed a system of social and legal relations that fuelled uncertainty as individuals and different state institutions shared ownership over farmland. This approach to property in the rural areas was a continuity in Romanian policy between 1864, when the first agrarian reform was enacted, and the beginning of the 2000s. Only the negotiations for EU accession brought a radical redefinition of agricultural policies.
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This article analyzes the public policies implemented in the Jiu Valley starting with the second half of the 19th century, when coal mining began in the region, until contemporary times, when the coal economy was gradually replaced by less polluting development. The “recurrent transitions” of the Jiu Valley from agro-pastoralism to industry and from industry to consumerism, tourism and the promotion of local heritage reveal distinctive transformations. The Jiu Valley was, until the fall of the communist regime, intensively industrialized. In post-socialism, the region was heavily affected by public policies of developmental restructuring generated by the market and consumer economies. The area, labelled a former mining zone, was encouraged by the European Commission to implement economic and social projects alternative to the coal industry. This shift reflected Romania’s adherence to the 2015 Paris Summit on reducing CO2 emissions and the 2019 European Green Deal. The article describes various public policies implemented over time in the region as well as the reactions and perceptions of the locals towards these programs. I discuss social conflicts and the processes of construction, deconstruction or reconstruction of the local heritage, considered as a derivative of the dominant political economy.
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This article seeks to shed light on the opposition sparked by the expansion of grain exports in the Ottoman Balkans during the late 1840s. It addresses key issues in the historiography of institutional and social transformations in the Ottoman Empire during the reform (Tanẓîmât) era. Specifically, it examines the impact of suspending compulsory grain payments to the state and introducing free trade on the population’s food consumption. Drawing on a collection of documents from the Ottoman archives in Istanbul and the Italian diplomatic archives, the article explores how the administration managed emerging supply challenges and the growing opposition among the population to exporters’ activities.
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The purpose of this article is to examine the activities of the Peace Corps in Bulgaria as an instrument of US “soft power”. It is based on research and analysis of documents from the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, annual reports and evaluations of the effectiveness of the volunteer organization during the period of its activity in the country (1991-2013). Using a chronological and thematic approach, the objectives of the organization are outlined. They combine a complex balance between the commitment and voluntary two-year service of thousands of Americans to promote „peace” and „understanding” among nations and the organization’s strategic goals of supporting US foreign policy interests in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War. In Bulgaria, these are to promote economic reforms in the transition from a planned to a market economy (economic), to increase American influence (geostrategic), to promote democracy and to strengthen the pro-Western orientation of the younger generations (political).
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The present paper aims to analyze the relations between Romania and Sudan between 1972-1973. These years are important because, we can say, that is when the relations between them truly began. At the beginning, a brief history of Sudan until independence and the first echoes of them in the Romanian press in the 19th century will be made. Then, the way in which relations between the two countries developed from the moment Sudan gained independence from 1956 to 1972 will be presented. Next, Ceaușescu's visit to Sudan in 1972 and Nimeiry's visit to Romania in 1973 will be analyzed. We will also present the main objectives of cooperation between the two countries established during the two visits, the most important being the participation of the Romanian state in the construction of the Parliament building in Sudan, which began in 1973 and ended in 1978.
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In February 2025, 72 scholars from diverse disciplines gathered in Prague for the first meeting of the COST Action on Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe, 1500–1800. This initiative, led by Mona Garloff from the University of Innsbruck, aims to explore the historical dimensions of public discourse and political authority, emphasizing the impact of print culture. The event highlighted the importance of understanding early modern public spheres to address contemporary transformations. Key objectives include publishing a handbook on regional book histories and creating a bibliographic database. The meeting featured keynote lectures on children's instructional print, the intermediality of public spheres, and the dynamic geography of book culture. These contributions underscore the network's commitment to a multilingual and transnational perspective, promising significant insights into the cultural historiography of Central Europe.
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McDERMOTT, Kevin – STIBBE, Matthew (eds.): Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe in the Era of Normalisation, 1969–1989. Cham (Switzerland), Palgrave Macmillan 2022, xix + 345 pages, ISBN 978-3-030-98270-6; BRENNER, Christiane – PULLMANN, Michal – TIPPNER, Anja (eds.): After Utopia: Czechoslovak Normalisation between Experiment and Experience, 1968–1989. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Collegium Carolinum, Pelham, 8–11 November 2018. (Bad Wiesseer Tagungen des Collegium Carolinum, Vol. 41.) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022, vi + 403 pages, ISBN 978-3-525-33614-4.
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The paper introduces the silver coins of the Ottoman Empire of small denominations of the late 16th – early 18th centuries, stored in the old numismatic collection of the Odesa Archaeological Museum of the NAS of Ukraine (formed before the Second World War), including: Mehmed III (1595–1603): akçe minted in Sidrekapsi (1 pc.) and Kostantiniye (1 pc.) Ahmed I (1603–1617): akçe minted in Amid (2 pcs.) and medini minted in Misr (1 pc.) Osman II (1618–1622): akçe minted in Misr (1 pc.). Mustafa I, 2nd reign (1622–1623): akçe minted in Kostantiniye (1 pc.). Murad IV (1623–1640): akçe minted in Kostantiniye (1 pc.) and Belgrade (2 pcs.), medini minted in Misr (2 pcs.), Ibrahim (1640–1648): akçe minted in Kostantiniye (5 pcs.) and Misr (1 pc.), ikilik minted in Kostantiniye (2 pcs.), medini minted in Misr (1 pc.). Ahmed III (1703–1730): hand struck medini minted in Misr in the beginning of the reign (1 pc.). The circumstances and time of the finds of these coins are unknown. However, most likely, they were found in the North-Western Black Sea region. The loss of information about the context of the find negatively affects the value of these coins as sources of the history of currency circulation. Nevertheless, the data on the type, weight and typology of these coins can be considered in further studies on the history of minting and cataloging of coin types of the Ottoman Empire. Particularly noteworthy are the relatively rare types of akçe of Ahmed I minted in Amid, second reign of Mustafa I minted in Kostantiniye, Osman II and Ibrahim minted in Misr. The examined coins belong to three denominations: akçe, which was the main silver currency of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th – 17th centuries, medini (also known as medin/maydin, later para), which was minted in Misr (Egypt) even before the Ottoman conquest of this region and was incorporated into the Ottoman monetary system as a local currency, and ikilik or double akçe, which was minted only during the reign of Ibrahim (1640–1648) in Constantinople.
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