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This article examines the discussion, which took place in Bulgaria shortly after the beginning of the First World War, between the Austrian deputy of Ukrainian origin Longin Tsechelski and Nikola Bobchev and Yaroslav Romanchuk. At the end of 1914, Tsechelsky arrived in Sofia to campaign for the support of the Ukrainian people in the struggle for independence publishing a pamphlet "How Russia "liberates" Ukraine?". It accuses Russia of having provoked the war by deceiving Serbia; of using pan-Slavic propaganda promulgating the idea of a single Slavic race; of denying Ukrainian nation the right to self-determination because it is conceived as being part and parcel of the Russian people; of not accepting Ukrainian language and Ukrainian literature as different from the Russian language and Russian literature but were instead considered to be their adjuncts, and some other similar arguments.Russophile circles in the country were immediately prompted to take action, which resulted in a response to Tsechelski with an article by Nikola Bobchev and a brochure by Romanchuk, a Ukrainian living and working in Bulgaria. Naturally, they try to refute the claims by using well-known arguments, talking about the liberating role that Russia played in fighting against Ottoman „slavery“, the Slav solidarity and the commercial interests of the West and more specifically of Austria during that historical moment. In the following year, a new answer followed in a book of more than a hundred pages by Tsechelski and another one by Romanchuk.
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The biography of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria has been repeatedly examined. Often, the focus is placed on his years as Prince and Tsar of Bulgaria. At the same time, the period after 1918, during which he spent a significant portion of his time in Coburg, the ancestral home of his family from Saxony-Coburg and Gotha, has received little attention in research. The present essay delves into these years of exile and explores the development of Ferdinand from the autumn of 1918 until he died in 1948. It presents the former Tsar of Bulgaria as a “private individual”, describing his everyday life away from grand politics and portraying him as a patron, supporter, and scholar. Finally, the essay discusses Ferdinand’s role during National Socialism, contextualizing it against the backdrop of the development of his Coburg homeland and his relationships with Jewish individuals.
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WWI created a global economic crisis, stimulating mass popular protests in all belligerent countries that undermined the state’s legitimacy and triggered the emergence of violence, reminiscing the coercive character of interwar European politics. A central component in this protest on the rear was women’s protests against the misery that ultimately culminated in a series of violent hunger riots denunciating the war effort and political elites. The present article follows this trend in the Bulgarian wartime experience by analyzing the transformation of economic hardships into women-led popular protest. The study focuses on the protesters’ political language and symbolical tactics to politicize everyday social suffering by framing it within the broader context of national solidarity and the war effort. The article argues that the wartime crisis exacerbated the pre-war class conflicts and stimulated mass popular dissent that empowered the women “in the rear” to challenge the state’s authority, insisting on economic redistribution and peace.
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Review of: Music, Language and Identity in Greece. Defining a National Art Music in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Polina Tambakaki, Panos Vlagopoulos, Katerina Levidou and Roderick Beaton. London and New York: Routledge 2020. ISBN 978-1-138-28002-1 xiv+318pp.
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The centuries–old model of the Church as a community of lay people and clerics who inspire and guide them was entering a functional crisis. In the era of revolutions and liberalism, the laity found itself in a new, contradictory position: at the same time, they are believers loyal to the Church and citizens loyal to secular society. Looking for a way out of the crisis, the Church relied on the democratic capacity of the laity, who promoted Christian values with their social presence, but also fought for the Church’s political rights. The organized Catholic laity had a specific role: to form, culturally and morally, the lay classes. The prehistory of the creation of the Catholic lay movement (Catholic Action) gives insights into the complexity of societies in the second half of the 19th, and the beginning of the 20th century, but also the high level of inventiveness of both the laity and the hierarchy in activating the laity, which will turn out to be an epoch–making success of the Church of the 20th century.
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In the municipality of Rudo, eleven mausoleums of various dimensions and shapes have been erected thus far. In Staro Rudo there are two mausoleums, and one each in Sokolovići, Donja Strmica, Bresnica, Obrvena, Barakovci (Strgačina), Prebidoli, Sjeverin, Ustibar, and Mioče. Nine of them were erected for males, and two of them were made for maidens. Four have been preserved to this day, two have been restored, and one newly erected. After the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the reconstruction of mosques began, also followed by the reconstruction of mausoleums. Among the reconstructed mausoleums, we should mention those in Staro Rudo and Mioče, as well as the construction of a new one erected in honour of civilian victims of war. Hopefully, this activity will be continued and other destroyed mausoleums in Rudo will be reconstructed. Furthermore, the service of a turbedar (mausoleum keeper) is documented in three mausoleums.
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This overview provides insights into the articles featured in the thematic issue, accompanied by additional elaboration on the theme of rethinking intellectual history in the East-Central Europe region. The period covered stretches from the first half of the nineteenth century to the history of post-communist transformation and within that time span, an extended conversation with global history, philosophy, sociology and other fields runs through the phenomena scrutinized here. The articles presented in this issue aim to both enrich and contribute to the intellectual history tradition of the region. Simultaneously, they actively participate in ongoing debates on de-canonizing political thought, traditionally more inclined towards the examination of great philosophical and scholarly traditions. While such endeavours are not unprecedented, the current issue seeks to communicate new perspectives, introduce lesser-known actors and concepts, and position them within the current and developing activities that have recently emerged in the field of intellectual history in East-Central Europe.
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This article explores liturgical textiles in the Estonian Orthodox Church, examining their historical development, theological significance and contemporary manifestations. Focusing on altar covers, eileton, chalice veils (aer and kalymmata), Epitaphios, and antimension. In this article, I will present liturgical textiles preserved in Estonian Orthodox churches and divide them into four periods. The Tsarist period (since 1840s), the period between the two world wars, the Soviet period and the period of the restored Estonian Republic. The research problem is the lack of knowledge regarding the preservation and age of textiles in Estonian Orthodox churches. To find the answer, I conducted fieldwork studying church textiles in Estonia and compared them to those in neighbouring countries such as Finland and Russia. I analysed order catalogues of church inventory from Tsarist Russian factories and the Project of the Scientific Department of Church Arts at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University of Humanities in Moscow. Information about textiles from the period between the two world wars was collected from Estonian Orthodox Church newspapers of that time. Data on Soviet-era textiles was gathered through interviews with old priests and parish clerks. Information on textiles from the period of the restored Estonian Republic was obtained through interviews with priests and clergymen. Contemporary textiles were compared with modern church inventory ordering catalogues.
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Blagovest Njagulov, a prominent historian, dedicated his career to studying modern, contemporary, and comparative history, with a particular interest in ethnic policies and minorities. His doctoral thesis on Dobrudja marked the beginning of a brilliant career at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His research shed light on underexplored aspects of the history of Bulgarians abroad, especially in Romanian Banat. He adeptly navigated diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, contributing to a rich and nuanced historiography. His work also illuminated the complex Bulgarian-Romanian relations, the issue of minorities, and the challenges of historical memory, particularly in the context of European integration. In addition to his academic endeavors, Njagulov was an engaged actor in civil society, supporting Bulgarian organizations abroad and actively participating in initiatives aimed at strengthening ties with Bulgarian communities worldwide. In this regard, this article also aligns with the recent renewal of reflection on the biographical method in Bulgarian historiography.
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This text is directly related to Jan Adamec’s essay "Dcera, historička, „špionka” Sheila Fitzpatricková: Nad vzpomínkami „jiné” revizionistky" [Daughter, Historian, “Spy” Sheila Fitzpatrick: On the Memoirs of an “Other” Revisionist] published in this journal in 2023 (Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 137–166). In this sequel, the author shifts away from recounting the life of Australian historian Sheila Fitzpatrick (born 1941), to focus on her scholarly work from the early 1970s, when she gradually became firmly established in the American academic milieu as a respected expert on the interwar history of the Soviet Union and Stalinism. Adamec guides the reader through a chronology of her numerous works, with an emphasis on the seminal monographs, from her published dissertation, "The Commissariat of Enlightenment" (1970), and her most famous work, "Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times" (1999), to her to date most recent book, "The Shortest History of the Soviet Union" (2022), and presents the central themes and most important findings of her research. At the same time, he traces Fitzpatrick’s position in the dynamic context of Soviet studies and scholarship on Stalinism, demonstrates her growing influence on younger generations of historians, and notes the scholarly reviews of her work. He pays particular attention to her pioneering role in constituting and promoting revisionist perspectives in the Western historiography of the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, when, despite initial scepticism or rejection, they became part of the academic mainstream. He seeks to capture her unorthodox position as an “other”, “moderate” revisionist who, while primarily focusing on the everyday and social history of Soviet society, did not underestimate the essential importance of power hierarchies and authoritarian politics emanating from the centre. Thus, in the disputes between revisionism and totalitarianism, Fitzpatrick often takes less clear-cut positions than most adherents of the former. In the last part of the text, the author traces the reception of Fitzpatrick’s work in Czech historiography since the early 1990s, a breakthrough brought about by the Czech translations of the edited volumes "Beyond the Totalitarianism" (published in 2012) and "Everyday Stalinism" (in 2018) and shows that in recent years the Australian historian has become a relatively widely quoted authority in the Czech scholarly milieu, mostly accepted by revisionist critics and also used as a shield in local polemics about the nature of Czechoslovak normalization.
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As the leader of the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Weizmann laid foundations for a future Jewish state in a calm manner. Believing that the future of the whole Zionist enterprise lies in the hand of Great Britain, Weizmann became friend and common guest to many highlevel politicians in London. Using these connections during WWI and 1920’s, he gradually gained quite a few concessions for the Jewish community in Palestine. With the WWII approaching however, his policy crumbled. New ways were needed in order for the Zionist dream to become a reality. This is what David Ben-Gurion offered, first as head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and then imposing his views on the whole WZO. This paper deals with the different characters and beliefs of Gurion and Weizmann.
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Juana Doña describes her book Desde la noche y la niebla as a novel-testimony, but not an autobiographical one. This story about her life as a militant in the communist ranks, the Spanish Civil War, and her imprisonment mark the narrative evolution that transgresses any taboo imposed by Francisco Franco’s censorship. Doña relies on her memory and her present self-awareness to remember and decide, respectively, which events are related, and which are silenced; how actions are reaffirmed, and which information is omitted; and how the narrative pronoun changes according to her own life or the collective struggle. The book functions as an individual catharsis, both for the author and the readers. I propose to analyze the writing process of this book as a promotion of justice weapon, following Kimberly Nance’s theory about the ethical decisions made by the author of the testimony and inferring a new role for the reader as a timeless agent in social struggle.
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This text explores the life and work of Dr. Haralambi Sarmadzhiev, a Bulgarian diplomat from the late 19th century. His career began as a legal adviser and confidant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Denominations, and later he served as a diplomatic agent in Belgrade and Vienna. The article highlights his role in the 1898 International Anti-Anarchist Conference. It also delves into his personal life, including his marriage to Elena Pulieva, an heir of Evlogy Georgiev, and examines the fate of his family after his untimely death and the political changes in Bulgaria post-1944.
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: The scientific communication presents the results of a study of the collection of pistols and revolvers from the National Museum of History of Moldova, numbering about forty specimens of firearms of historical, technical and artistic significance. We propose to pay attention to the historical value of these weapons, presenting their description and evolution from pistols with the wheel lock mechanism to the flint lock and cap lock mechanism or percussion lock system. The article is a continuation of a series of publications on firearms from the previous issues of Tiragetia journal. The Western and Eastern samples of weapons examined here entered the museum collection as a result of donations and purchases, or were transferred from other institutions. The chronological framework of the collection covers the period from the Middle Ages (16th century) to the outbreak of World War II. Designers-gunsmiths are indicated separately or by country, some terminological aspects are specified regarding the etymology of the words “pistol” and “revolver”. The scientifically systematized material presented in the article can be useful for specialists, historians and museologists, and at the same time will be interesting and informative for a wide range of readers.
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Throughout its existence, the church in the capital’s Knyazhevo district has been a focal point for the people living there. Witness to events, it remains a guardian of history through military memorials built during the Third Bulgarian Kingdom, although not all artifacts have survived. Thus, the memorial of those fallen in the Balkan Wars compels us to search for what’s lost before it’s irrevocably forgotten.
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The main aim of the present paper is to clarify the nature and specifics of the formation of refugee settlements in Bulgaria in the period 1913-1925, both in the form of independent settlements and as smaller settlement configurations. The study traces the development of state, normatively grounded, theoretical formulations related to the structure and organization of refugee settlements. The analysis of the available source material makes it possible to draw conclusions about the development of the government's ideas on this issue and the increase in detail in the pre-planning, over time, in relation to its resolution.
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Review of: Aleksej Kalc, Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik, Janja Zitnik Serafin, Daring Dreams of the Future: Slovenian Mass Migrations 1870–1945. Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2024.
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