Изследванията на Борис Билунов (1946–1992) за Българското възраждане
The Studies of Boris Bilunov (1946–1992) on the Bulgarian National Revival

Summary/Abstract: The article introduces the studies of the Russian scholar Boris Nikolaevich Bilunov, one of the most gifted and active historians and Bulgarian scholars who entered science in the early 70s of our century. Attracted by the problems of the Bulgarian National Revival as a student, B.N. Bilunov wrote his graduation paper on L.Karavelov’s Russian political journalism. This became also the theme of his doctoral dissertation which appeared during the lively discussion about Karavelov’s ideology and his publications in the Russian press in the 60s and 70s of the 19th century on connection with the publication “L.Karavelov’s Publicism” (in two volumes), selected and edited by M. Dimitrov, and a number of works by the same author on the ideology of the great Bulgarian revolutionary, publicist and writer. He was guided by his preconceived view that Karavelov had not been a revolutionary until his meeting with V. Levski in 1869, that in Russia he was under the influence of liberal and Slavophil views and on the basis of this selected materials from the Russian press which he attributed to Karavelov. This is disputed by most Bulgarian, Russian and other specialists. B.N. Bilunov’s merit rested in his through survey of the Russian press and objective establishment of Karavelov’s actual authorship whereby proving his revolutionary and democratic ideology, refuting the incorrect approach of M. Dimitrov. B.N. Bilunov’s work is the most important and well-reasoned study of this theme and was published in full for the first time together with some other pieces of research in the posthumously issued volume of his studies entitled “Rossia i Bulgaria” (Moscow, 1996) for which we are indebted to his wife R.I. Bilunova and the lecturers at Moscow University L. Zhila and A. V. Karassyov. Other important questions in B.N.Bilunov’s creative work concern Bulgarian-Russian political and cultural links and relations in the 19th century which he considered not only in one way, not only as Russian influence on the Bulgarians but in their bilateral aspects, as well as the history of Russian and Soviet Bulgarian studies as a component part of Slavonic studies. With his works written in a short period of time, the Russian historian after his untimely death left a lasting in Bulgarian studies abroad. His writings retain their scientific value and hold out bright prospects to new research into the themes of the Bulgarian National Revival and Bulgarian-Russian relations. B.N.Bilunov was assistant and later associate professor at the Chair of the History of Southern and Western Slavs in Moscow University whereby he contributed to the development of Balkan studies in Russia and the USSR on a high scientific level. Besides this he consistently presented in the scientific journals newly published Bulgarian and Soviet works on the National Revival and on Bulgaria’s modern and contemporary history.

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