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The article presents for the first time theoretical argumentation for the periodization of Bulgarian medieval history. The attempts for such periodization, which are reflected in the content and structure of the summarized scientific publications on the history of medieval Bulgaria from the end of the 19th century to the present day, are reviewed. It has to be concluded that state-political history is a dominant marker. The lower boundary of the Bulgarian medieval history goes back to the time from the earliest history of the Bulgarians and Slavs before the Great Migration of the Peoples, and the upper boundary is the end of the XVII century. In conclusion, the Bulgarian medieval history can be divided in three main periods: Early, High and Late Middle ages.
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An attempt to throw light on the early history of Adzhar village,today’s Svezhen, based mainly on four unpublished Ottoman tax registers, is made in the article. The author claims that the earliest documents discovered so far about the existence of Adzhar as a settlement date from the first decades of the XVII century. The village was first mentioned on the pages of an abridged avarız-register from the years 1621 – 1622. Data about the presence of large summer pastures and sheepfolds in the region of Sarnena Sredna Gora Mountain as early as the 16th century show that the foundation of the village can be related to the good conditions for livestock breeding of a peaceful place in the depths of the mountain. It is very likely that part of the inhabitants of Adzhar had been dzheleps, who bred sheep and other cattle for the food needs of the big cities, the army and the Sultan’s Palace. Asa result, raw materials including sheep wool and sheepskins led to the development of a number of crafts.The Orthodox Bulgarian population of Adzhar grew rapidly. Due to the demographic and economic development, a significant literary centre was created there for transcribing and illustrating liturgical books. A church with two priests was built in the village. There is information that in the second half of the 17th century sheep-breeding, crafts such as goat hair processing (mutafcılık) and tailoring, as well as trade and transportation of goods (in exchange of payment – kiracılık)developed in Adzhar.
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Book review: Maria Bucur. Gendering Modernism. A Historical Reappraising of the Canon.
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The article dwells into the ideological development and evolution of the Balkan policies of Adam Czartoryski’s Hôtel Lambert – one of the Polish political camps in exile, represented by the conservative-liberal and monarchic ideas. The geopolitical changes in Europe at the end of 1830’s forced Czartoryski and his émigré camp in Paris to shift their political concepts. As a culmination of that new course, Hôtel Lambert established a permanent Eastern Agency in the Ottoman capital, which was headed by the Polish agent Michał Czajkowski. And it is no coincidence, since after the second Ottoman Egyptian Crisis the East was no doubtfully established as a focal geopolitical point.
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The article describes the community of victims of the Katyn massacre, executed pursuant to the decision of the BP KC WKP (b) of 5 March 1940 The camp list was dominated by military and police officers and the prisons list was mostly civilian prisoners. The most important elaborations of the collective lists of victims were presented and also selected parts of the community were described, among others, in terms of profession or origin from a specific area of Poland. The author presented the state of research regarding the national composition of the community, and after having compared the information with Soviet documents, presented his view of the problem. The article emphasized that most of the victims of the 1940 murders were officers of the Polish Army and officers of the State Police and members of smaller uniformed formations. The fact that they belonged to these groups was determined as sufficient criterion qualifying them for extermination. The author provided statistics on the number of victims from individual uniformed formations and put forward the demand for further research regarding the various groups of those killed. Finally, he outlined a group portrait of the victims of the 1940 crimes, in terms of the most important criteria from the point of view of the Soviet authorities and historical sociology. In conclusion, it was found that the collective profile of the victims of the Katyn massacre were strongly defined by two distinctive features:service to the Polish state and attachment to Polish character.
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Understanding the socio-cultural significance of the experience of the past in solving the problems of the present causes a growing interest in historical education and focuses on finding effective methodological approaches to translating knowledge about the past through education. One such approach is an intersubjective approach. The paper deals with the humanistic potential of an intersubjective approach to understanding the Other and fostering the ability to compromise through historical education. A well-considered attitude towards the Other, an inner interest and understanding of the significance of the other presence implies that in the social deprivation of hostility, the inadmissibility of domination and oppression in my Self of the world of the Other Being will be deprived. Both are understood as correlates of intersubjective constitution of reality. In dialogue interaction Otherness is not subordinated, it is assigned to my Self, it remains an “insoluble” individuality. Content analysis of history books of Ukraine has shown that they are conceptually sustained, lacking stereotyped and impartial assessments of the racial, ethnic, cultural nature of the Other. However, ambiguous historical events involving different peoples and states are not alternatively presented. The narrative in the textbook undoubtedly should be the Ukrainian ethnic group as the core of national history. At the same time, using the anthropological and territorial principles as the core of the story, the textbook should strive for Ukraine to be perceived as space where other ethnic communities whose existence is an integral part of Ukrainian history reside alongside Ukrainians. Relevant in overcoming the false image of historical education is the development of the ability to think critically about historical facts, to give them their own judgment. Understanding of the historical process from the point of view of an intersubjective approach will contribute to the formation of a person’s tendency to cultural tolerance, tolerance and dialogue with the Other, the realization that the Other is also entitled to a mistake or his own ratio, the ability to see the world in all its diversity and uniqueness.
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In historical ethnology, women’s servants is a social phenomenon related to the so-called “West European” family model characterized by late matrimony. In Bulgaria, under the influence of socio-economic factors in the country and the modernization of the Bulgarian society in the first half of 20th century, the servantship developed and became very popular in the decades after World War I. In the next decades, it underwent numerous changes which led to slow but steady turn in the understanding of it. The study of its development and the outlining of the different stages with their age and gender characteristics allow us to trace the changes in the Bulgarian society in the previous century. It is also important to outline the regional characteristics which show important specifics of the existence and development of women’s servantship. Because of its strong influence over the life of different social groups in the society and its transformation into a vehicle of cultural exchange between them, the servantship could be defined also as a social mediator. It creates a peculiar bridge between the village and the city and facilitates the penetration of the new West European culture and urban patterns in the small local village community. The changes in the attitudes towards servantship as well as its popularity give us important information about the society as a whole and allow tracing the changes in the matrimonial models. The article is dedicated to the labour mobility of the young girls from the Tuzlukregion (Municipality of Antonovo, District of Targovishte) which expands in the course of time and to their hiring as housemaids mainly in the capital of Sofia. The study is based on the narratives of local people gathered during two short fieldworkresearches in the Municipality of Antonovo.
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The greatly examined story of A Lost Lady usually depicts Mrs. Forrester’s success in meeting and adapting to the challenges of a changing world, a world characterized by materialism and self-fulfilment. However, the overlooked story, one far more disturbing than the privileged story in the text, is the narrative of oppressed groups of people of other races and the lower class. Drawing on some aspects of postcolonial theory, this paper explores Willa Cather’s own reactions to real changes in her society, to the waning power of imperialism, and of her nostalgic longing for the western prairies of her youth, without showing any sympathy for the dispossessed Native Americans and other oppressed races. It will also disclose the unmistakable colonial overtones, which remarkably resonate with the common discourse of “Manifest Destiny” during the time period of American expansion to the Wild West.
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The article analyses the educational, cultural, national and political challenges in front of the Bulgarian diaspora in the Romanian town Alexandria from the second half of the 19th century to the Liberation of Bulgaria – keeping the native language, upbringing the young generation in patriotic spirit, relations with the countrymen who remained on the other side of the Danube, inclusion in the national liberation movement. The names of teachers, doctors and other representatives of the Bulgarian emigrant intellectuals who combined their professional activities with intense socially useful activity are mentioned. Part of them turned into notable names in Principality of Bulgaria after the Liberation.
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The article presents research on the Military Order of Courage and Soldiers' Cross for bravery of His Majesty's Navy during the Balkan Wars and World War I. The interest is focused on the conditions in which the ship's crews and shore units were assigned in solving combat tasks, the scale of force of the forces in counteraction to a repeatedly superior opponent, the contribution of the most prominent of them to success, and the assessment that was given to them. The award-winning Naval Officers are presented as an association of professionals and like-minded people who have built an organic society of the Knights of Courage. Later periods of activation of the Military Order are shown in fragmentary form.
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The article presents an analysis of honesty as an important aspect of the Bulgarian economic culture. The focus is on the transition from the Bulgarian Revival to the nation state and the subsequent period 1879 – 1944. The main conclusions are synthesized in two hypotheses. The first is that the transition from Ottoman rule to an independent nation-state is associated with a decline of honesty and integrity in economic life. The second hypothesis points to the low level of honesty and mutual trust in relations between economic agents on the one hand and between economic agents and the state on the other as one of the important reasons for the lack of visible and long-lasting economic success in Bulgaria during the period 1879 – 1944.
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Education is the system that allows countries to look forward to the future in a strong, confident, and hopeful way. Teachers are the practitioners of education and teaching is a skill, a competence, moreover, it is a kind of art. Giving good education at schools, the success of the society in a country can be promoted with qualified teachers. Teacher training institutions play an important role in the education of well-equipped teachers. For this reason, by 2000s, many countries have focused on educational research, and the key of this research has become “more qualified teachers for better education”. Teaching requires great dedication, skill, patience and love. Teaching has their own rules, methods and practices. The most important source by 2000s is human resources. It is human intelligence that allows unlimited as it is processed. Teachers are the pioneers of education implementations. This study will focus on the historical development of teacher training in Turkey since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. Economic losses in the following years in particular, led to a decline in the teaching profession and social status within society. Raising this declining prestige of the teaching profession is absolutely necessary for training good teachers and for recover its economic and social status first. The paper examines some of the inadequacies in education at the beginning of 2000s in Republic of Turkey, such as having less qualified educational operations except specific cities and schools; preventing the development of critical approach abilities because of the memorizing based education system; paying less sufficient attention in student abilities in the arranged education and training programs; training consumer people instead of productive people that is needed by society in the educational institutions; professional improvement problem because of education management. However, it can be said that many of these deficiencies are resolved today.
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The article presents the results of an inquiry conducted among historians and non-historians in the framework of an international research project. The purpose of the survey is to examine the attitude of modern Bulgarian society to Russia/Soviet Union/Russian Federation and its role in Bulgarian history. Respondents answered questions related to the more general problem of the role of myths in history in general and those related to Russia in particular; how myths are born; which factors contribute to their public dissemination; which moments in history are most distorted or falsified in textbooks and in the media; who is interested in this; Is it possible to demythologize the Bulgarian-Russian relations. The inquiry showed the deep differences in Bulgarian society towards Russia. The majority of Bulgarians have a strong emotional attitude towards it, regardless of whether they express negative or positive feelings. And this division is manifested in all professions, ages, social groups. The survey gives grounds to conclude that despite the profound changes from the years of transition and the reorientation of Bulgaria to Western institutions, Bulgarian-Russian relations continue to be important for the Bulgarian society.
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The text aims to present a translation of a document from September 1451, defining the boundaries of the land of Krichim as mulk of the Grand Vizier Chanderli Khalil Pasha, contextualizing the information in it with the published and commented so far about the region as the economic base of the mulk. Waqf, as well as a horizontal structure in which interactions between the settlement and the network of religious infrastructure are visible.
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The article presents arguments in support of the claim that there was a process of integration on the Bulgarian national market even before the Liberation of1878 and that this process was more and more noticeable in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. The research methodology is based on data from the business history of the Bulgarian Revival, including my own explorations on the emergence of commercial companies as a manifestation of commercial modernity in the Bulgarian economic area during the era as well as on the trade networks established by them. The two largest companies, “Evlogiy and Hristo Georgievi” and “Hristo P. Tapchileshtov”, stand out as de facto legitimizers of the Bulgarian national market in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. They represent two important Bulgarian national economic institutions, a state before the state in the economic sphere. Other larger or not so large commercial companies and the trade networks established by them also contributed to the process of integration of the Bulgarian national market: “ Robevi Brothers”, “Geshovi Brothers”, “Komsievi Brothers”, “Karaminkovi Brothers”, “Papazoglu Brothers”, “N. Minchoolu & E. Selveli and friends ”,“Stancho Arnaudov and son”,“Georgi Hadjidraganov”, “The Commercial Company in Kotel” and others. The article provides summary information about these companies, about their trade networks in the Bulgarian lands and abroad, about the movements of their capital, etc. The article compares the similar national processes in the economic and political development of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. According to a study published in 2012 (Schulze & Wolf, 2012), in late nineteenth-century Austria-Hungary there was an asymmetric intra-imperial integration, which led to the emergence of national markets within the various ethnolinguistic communities of the country. The same process took place in the Ottoman Empire earlier, already in the first half and the middle of the same century, under specific conditions facilitating the integration of separate national markets, including the formation of the Bulgarian market. In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the Bulgarian Revival elite – economic, cultural, and political – gradually developed the idea of a Bulgarian national market and initiated some original projects with in this market. Another approach in studying the topic is also possible – tracking and comparing the movement of prices of major types of goods in smaller or larger areas of the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, including the Bulgarian ethnic territory during this period. There is no doubt that serious future efforts on the part of a wider circle of researchers are needed, but this cannot happen if the discussion is not opened, if the topic of the emergence of the Bulgarian national market has not been drawn to attention. This article aims to provoke the interest of researchers on the topic.
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The article results from fieldwork research and presents three forms of charitable activity in the town of Smolyan, which take place in three institutions: 1. A secondary school in Smolyan, 2. An emblematic Christian temple in the city, and 3. An organization with a non-governmental profile – all three with the involvement and participation of children/ pupils/ youth. The choice to study these charitable activities within the Cultural Heritage, National Memory and Social Development National Research Programme was inspired by the need to document these events. They have already existed for several years and deserve promotion and validation because of their high educational and civic purpose. Additionally, valuable messages could be found in these activities from the period of the Bulgarian Renaissance – a complicated transitional time similar to the present, when young people became citizens through the suggestions of public charitable and donor formats.
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Known to man since time immemorial, nacre is one of the most popular and most highly valued material that are still in use nowadays in the creating of different pieces of jewelry and decorations. Subject of the study are some of the most attractive and beautiful belt buckles (pafti) which are property of the Regional Museum of History in the town of Kardzhali. Additionally, nacre is described as a raw material in regards with its composition and structure, its natural sources and the ways in which it is used. The article is an attempt to view the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective and give a complex picture, using the resources of different disciplines. Its goal is to interpret the messages encrypted in the images on the belt buckles, and also to answer a series of questions about the type, nature, biogeographic origins and the way of processing the raw nacre.
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