Историческая память о Первом болгарском царстве в правление первых Асеней
Historical Memory on the First Bulgarian Tzardom during the Reign of First Asenides

Author(s): Dmitry I. Polyvyannyy
Subject(s): History, Political history, Middle Ages, 6th to 12th Centuries, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий”
Keywords: medieval Bulgaria; Preslav; Tarnovo; St John of Rila; historical memory
Summary/Abstract: The restoration of the Bulgarian Tzardom in the end of the 12th – the beginning of the 13th c. in the current historiography is often described in the terms of wide political and ideological program, which was continuously realized by three brothers – founders of the new Asenides dynasty – Peter, John and Kaloyan from 1186 to 1207. Another trend of research considers the activities of the first Asenides as situational but in this case the mobilization of the historical memory provided substantial ideological resources, too. The article contains five cases – of the brothers’ meeting with Isaac II Angel in Kipsela in 1185; using the term Zagora to designate their restored Tzardom; role of Preslav in the époque of the first Asens; the rite of Theodor-Peter’s coronation and transfer of St. John’s of Rila relics from Sredets to Turnovo by John Asen. Their consideration leads to the conclusion, that the strategic course of the first Asens to restore the Bulgarian Tzardom was combined with situational decisions, while the arguments to support them were taken from common historical memory of Bulgarians and received the appropriate connotations in their actions. Later these arguments received verbal interpretations in agiographical, hymnographical, canonical and historiographical works created in Turnovo and Athos.

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