„Гордо знаме ни е Ботев, пръв учител – Димитров”: социалистически визии за възрожденските герои
“Flag of pride for us is Botev, our first tutor – Dimitrov”: socialist conceptions for National Revival heroes

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims at analyzing the images of the Bulgarian National Revival heroes in the Grand narrative, manufactured during the socialism. The heroes of the National Revival epoch were re-thought as predecessors of the socialist activists, using various propaganda procedures: neutralization of the attempts, made by the previous regime for establishing intellectual genealogy between it and the heroes from XIX c.; forging of particular slogans; re-shaping of school and university curricula; introducing anniversaries and commemoration practices; even founding research institutions. In the period of so called mature socialism, the national heroes were successfully integrated and re-used for the purposes of the new, nationally-oriented phase of the regime. Post-socialist attempts to re-think the national pantheon were not able to re-fashion the National Revival part of the narrative, whose kernel kept on being marked with unparalleled dignity, high moral and selflessness.

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