From the Archival Heritage of Rayna Katsarova: Traces of the Presence of the Tavrian Bulgarians in Bulgaria Cover Image

Из архивното наследство на Райна Кацарова: следи от присъствието на таврийски българи в България.
From the Archival Heritage of Rayna Katsarova: Traces of the Presence of the Tavrian Bulgarians in Bulgaria

Part I: The Fieldwork Research and its Data

Author(s): Galin Georgiev
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Customs / Folklore, Ethnohistory, Local History / Microhistory, Oral history, Political history, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure , Nationalism Studies, Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН
Keywords: Rayna Katsarova; fieldwork notes; Bulgarians in Tavria; emigration; deportation

Summary/Abstract: In my previous announcements and publications, I have already paid attention to the expedition of the famous Bulgarian folklorist Rayna Katsarova in Dobrudza in the summer of 1944. The expedition is more deeply analysed in this article, the particular occasion being that after the finding of the file with the report by Rayna Katsarova about this travelling, I was happy to find her fieldwork records done in several living settings in Northeast Bulgaria: Balchik, Lyulyakovo, Dobrevo, etc. Their data is preserved in the Musical Folklore Archive of the Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A specific focus of Rayna Katsarova’s expedition in Dobrudza is the Bulgarian newcomers from Tavria (region which at that time was situated in the Ukrainian SSR), who bear specific vernacular, traditions and folklore. Our big folklorist did not know at the time being that just in several months they would leave their metropolis. In about 2000 Tavrian Bulgarians were deported back to the USSR. In their turn, the Tavrian Bulgarians in Dobrudza did not know that the meetings with a scholar like Rayna Katsarova were a unique chance to leave to the next generation a record of a small part of their cultural memory, rites and musical folklore as a document for the development of their culture and ethnic identity in the conditions of the Second World War.

  • Issue Year: 2023
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 428-447
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Bulgarian
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