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Serbian war photography came to life only during the First Balkan War, with Risto Marjanović, who came to Belgrade from the New York Herald in Paris at the request of Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis and became an official photo reporter at the Supreme Command. The entire photographic opus of Dragiša Stojadinović can be divided into five stylistically and chronologically different units, which, however, cannot be best seen as separate. The first consists of war photographs, primarily those from the First World War, which show military activities and dead bodies; the second consists of individual and group portraits with a large number of soldiers created in the interwar or passive periods of the war; in the third, photographs of prominent civilians appear; the fourth and fifth units, which are stylistically the furthest from the others, are family photographs taken after the war, but also pre-war, war and post-war photographs of which Stojadinović is not the author, in which he is personally depicted in military uniform, with his family or immediately after his arrest in “Glavnjača” and in prison in Sremska Mitrovica. Although each unit can be a photodocument, only by connecting them is a valid photo documentation obtained that fully illuminates Dragiša's entire oeuvre, especially if we take into account the fact that they are thematically different units. The photographs of Ljubiša Valić illustrating the book “Experiences of Sergeant Miladin” (1917) are by no means just an addition to the text. Valić started from a report, more precisely a war photo report, but his photographs show the war Golgotha of Serbian soldiers and civilians during the retreat through Albania in 1915-16. years gained a new quality by connecting with the text. The artist, who is both a photographer and a writer, has a difficult task to achieve the unity of photography and text, and Valić had to adapt his photographs to the book he also wrote, but based on the story of Sergeant Miladin. In this case, the text and the photo did not come from each other, they were created in parallel in the same area. With him, as with Stojadinović, one can see sincere intentions and freedom from any kind of insinuation and pressure from the side. Both of these photographers, as well as the vast majority of Serbian photographers from the First World War, tried to create as realistic a picture as possible, as much as their abilities and knowledge allowed at that time.
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This article surveys the historical and present-day boundaries of Bosnia and Herzegovina by focusing on two concepts: (1) The early history of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries and (2) wars and treaties of the modern period. The Ottoman policies of administrating the Balkan lands were varied according to the necessities of the conquered lands and their ability to the pursue political and institutional policies on these regions. To divide the area into more controllable pieces, they established sancaks (military administrative units) and paşalıks (an administrative unit consist of several sancaks) to manage the control and to consolidate their power. The Ottoman stability in the region threatened with various wars with the Habsburg Empire. Accordingly, starting with the late seventeenth century the active political context of the region affected the limits of the Bosnian lands as well. The region had to experience a vast number of battles and ceasefires until the WWII to take its final shape.
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Many have speculated on the intimate life of King Ferdinand. During the communist era, it was transformed into a calling of evil and a denial of everything Bulgarian and native. The article examines some of the important nuances of both the intimate life and tastes of the king, and draws interesting parallels to the public attitudes and false morals of the elite.
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At the core of the exposition is the ‘disciplined’ rebel (chetniks), who voluntarily accepts all the requirements in order to be included in the mysteries of a revolutionary organization. Loyalty to the cause is the principle in the name of which the members of IMARO are ready to give their lives. The whole disciplinary policy is clearly formulated and ‘codified’ in a coherent system of policy documents that have the force of a law. The topic of the IMARO personnel’s morality, to which the revolutionary leaders pay special attention, also has an important place in the exposition.
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The capitalist industrialization of the economy of Sofia from the early 20th c. to the end of the First World War is described by the authoress as a differentiated period with high indices of modernization for a country which had lagged at the periphery of Europe’s development. A study has been made of the inventories and company registers preserved in the Sofia State Archives of a large number of economic bodies legalized and operating under the Commercial Law of 1897. Of them have been processed the data for 1,187 industrial representations, transport and brokers’ bureaux and agencies, bankers’ and insurance companies, and public service firms, including those in the sphere of culture. As an expression of the stable character of the modernizing process of these economic formations at least so far have been identified 365 as having remained in a leading position in the economic life of the capital city also in the following decades, during the Second World War up to the nationalization. Some, though restructured, made up even later the production force of thew capital city. In the panoramic picture of this impressive activity of the firms, the study depicts the dynamics of the modernization by the dimensions of the fundamental process of binding into one complex agricultural and industrial production and a strong development of the export orientation of the economy. The decisive financial role is outlined of the bankers’ elite, the participation by investments of European capital and other aspects of the remarkably successful start of the industrialization of the economy of the capital city.
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The interest of the German scholars in Bulgaria was stirred up together with the resurrection of the Bulgarian State after the Liberation (1878) form five centuries of Turkish slavery. The quantitative increase in the publications to a certain extent reflected the economic and political interest of the Great Powers in the “heart” of Europe in the small state in its periphery but of strategic importance as a bridge between the East and the West, the North and the South. Characteristic of the German historical Bulgarian studies in that sixty-years long period were: first, the participation in it of representatives of all branches of the humanities, as well as of politicians, public figures, the military, etc.; second, the rich range of the themes and events studied which contributed not only to a scientific acquaintance with the Bulgarian lands, the Bulgarian people and the vicissitudes in the fate of the Bulgarian State, but also to their popularization in Germany. Unlike the works of the contemporary German historians, those of their pre-war predecessors indicated the correct approach of a scholar not burdened by national bias and ad hoc interstate relations on the Macedonian question. It was the fruit of thorough researches into Bulgarian history and personal contacts with the population of the Macedonian land. German historiography on Bulgaria has made a doubtless contribution to the strengthening of the scientific ties between historians of the two countries, to the professional communications from which they benefited and, therefore, to the enrichment of bilateral cultural relations.
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In this article are published for the first time newly discovered marginal notes in ten liturgical books form Kotel, kept at present in the churches of the town, in the Sliven State Art Gallery and in private family archives. These texts contain information about various events: the Kotel revolt of 1809, the population in 1830, the Crimean War (1853–1856), the April Uprising (1876), the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1877–1878), the Reunification (1885), about names and events connected with local history, and local Kotel families. Particularly impressive are the scholia in the menologion dated form the end of the 18th and the very beginning of the 19th century and the interesting chronicle of Randyu Stanchev Randev (1833–1919). The newly found marginal notes should be regarded as part of the rich literary heritage of the Kotel area owing to which the interest of the researchers in them would be fully justified.
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The Bulgarian State lived through an all rounded upsurge during the period 1878–1912. Particularly impressive were the achievements in the economic field. From an Ottoman province with established but archaic market relations, Bulgaria was transformed into an agricultural-industrial country, modern from the Balkan conditions. The contribution of economic thought to that was indisputable. Its exponents were not only professors and holders of university diplomas. There were also persons who successfully combined in themselves the scholars with the economic, financial and state figure, as was, for instance, Ivan Evstatiev Geshov. Economic thought in Bulgaria, for reason easy to explain, was chiefly one of applied science. The works covered the all-round state of the Bulgarian economy and all its branches. The Bulgarian Society of Economics with its journal played an important role. The crown of Bulgarian economic thought was Prof. Kiril Popov’s book “Economic Bulgaria” published during the years of the First World War. This was a statistical epic of an economic fear, of Bulgaria’s development and in point of fact of almost everything in life at that time which could be expressed in figures.
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After the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation in 1877–1878 and the Congress of Berlin, the Razlog areas remained within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish authorities with the assistance of the Patriarchate of Constantinople tried to destroy the established school structure and to stop the development of education in the region. It was only after 1885 when at the Bulgarian Exarchate was set up a “School Department”, that it took over the management and control of the entire network of schools and introduced uniform plans and programmes for the primary schools in Macedonia and Thrace. The rapid development of the primary school in the Razlog are, the inclusion of ever more children in school age and the appointment of teachers were an achievement for the development of education in the area which had remained outside the boundaries of free Bulgaria. Notwithstanding the difficulties, the primary schools in Razlog and the Razlog area performed their function of mass popular schools that provided literacy and good preparation for entering the higher level of education.
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The question is discussed of the facts, passed over in silence or missed, connected with the activity of Dr Vassil Radoslavov as Minister of Justice in P. Karavelov’s Cabinet (1884–1886), his attitude to the Union of the Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern Roumelia, to the Serbo-Bulgarian War, to the abdication of Prince Alexander Battenberg, etc. Indicated are the biased and one-sided selection and interpretation of the facts connected with the sentence of 1903, the wrong statements that he was supported by the German Government during the years of his emigration in Germany (1918–1929), etc. The conclusion is drawn that Dr Radoslavov’s complex and contradictory life needs reassessment on the basis of an all-rounded and impartial study of the available archival and documentary material, analysed and summed up in accordance with the complex of political, economical, international, psychological and other historical conditions and without the limitations of the partisan canons and cliches. The objective assessment and the writing of a solid biographical study on Dr Vassil Radoslavov, that has been absent so far, are necessitated by his active presence on the political scene (for more than 20 years) and the principal role he played in the most difficult moments in the history of the Bulgarian State, in preserving and defending its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The problem raised indicates the need for changes of principle in the approach and starting positions of the researchers in writing biographies of the Bulgarian politicians.
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Dimitrana Ivanova died in 1960 at the age of 79. For a long time – from 1926 to 1944 she was Chairwoman of the Women’s Union in Bulgaria. For the public her name, admired by some and ridiculed by others, became a synonym for a stubborn and rebellious person. Her whole life was dedicated to the feminist cause and she passed through the various stages of the struggle for women’s emancipation in Bulgaria. Her life spanned two epochs – the “bourgeois” epoch in Bulgaria prior to World War II and the communist regime. She had to overcome enormous obstacles in both. Paradoxically, while she was considered to be on the left in the pre-communist era, she barely escaped execution for being a prominent “bourgeois” public figure (and having numerous contacts abroad) after the communists seized power. The story of Dirmtrana’s life is intimately intertwined with several decades of history of the women's movement in Bulgaria and narrating it gives an idea about the women's movement itself, besides being indicative of the wider socio-political and ideological context in which the struggle for emancipation of the Bulgarian women had to take place.
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After the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1877–1878) the Romanian government took an interest in the small ethnic group of the Aromanians who lived in Macedonia and Epirus. The Bucharest government pursued its Balkan policy by good relations with the Ottoman and Belgrade governments and strove to reach agreement with Greece on the disputed issues in Macedonia. The ruling circles in the Romanian capital were of the opinion that Romania should preserve its dominant position in the Balkans and feared, therefore lest Bulgaria should expand and become a stronger state. With respect to the Aromanians, the Romanian side worked for their cultural upsurge with a view to drawing them to Romania. When in 1905–1908 Greek armed units subjected the Aromanians to extermination, the government in Bucharest did practically nothing in their defence. Together with the Bulgarians, the Aromainians tried to protect themselves from the Greeks. In their midst emerged such leaders as Pito Goulev, Mitre Vlacha, Alexander Koshka, Georgi Mouchitano-Kassapcheto, Apostol Loulenitsa and others. After the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) the Aromanians from Macedonia fell under the rule of Serbia which closed the Aromanian schools and churches. The descendants of the Aromanians kept their memory, expressed in folksongs, of the heroes who had fought for freedom shoulder to shoulder with their Bulgarian brothers.
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