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The article is devoted to the role of life stories in the study of the family of theBessarabian Bulgarians. The eyewitnesses’ stories (or the stories of their loved ones)contain various appreciations, experiences, feelings, values, and meanings whichallow the reconstruction of their world. The study is based on the life stories collectedduring field ethnographic expeditions conducted in 2009-2010 in villages witha predominant or significant Bulgarian population in the Republic of Moldova andUkraine.The life stories are an invaluable source for the study of the Bessarabian familyin traditional and contemporary perspective. Sharing them requires a climate of trustbetween the respondents and the researcher. The life stories represent a collection ofselected facts and episodes, in which many hidden, suppressed and forgotten thingsremain beyond the narrative. Because of their subjective character, the family is representedin an estimative and emotional way enabling the identification of the trendsin its development and the judgement of its values and morals.
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One of the typical and relatively stable features of the everyday life of the Bulgarianimmigrants in the historical and cultural region of Bessarabia are the patronal festivalsand customs held within the frameworks of the village, neighbourhood or familyand referred to as zbor/sabor (збор/събор), hram (храм), kurban (курбан), tsarkva(църква), panagir (панагирь), cherkuvane (черкуване), moleben (молебен) etc. Asfor the designation збор (a fair), it is clear that it precedes the Russian designationхрам (a patron saint’s day) which penetrates the region under study later on andwhich is widely used at present. What stirs up bigger interest is the fact that exceptfor village church festivals this term (as well as some of the other above-mentioned) was also used for intervillage festivals held at the landmark of the territories of two,three or more villages – the so-called fairs at the landmark also known as moleben orcherkuvane for rain and good health.As far as the patron saint’s day is a universal Christian phenomenon and stilla general practice in the villages of the region studied here, it could be assumedthat the gathering itself, the making of zbor (or moleben) at the landmark (at theborder between a group of villages), which is neglected today almost everywhere,is a form typical only of the immigrants (Bulgarians and Gagauzians) in Bessarabia.This practice attracts the attention with respect to its nature and development as partof the all-Bulgarian system of patronal village festivals as well as with relation tothe influences, changes and specifics through which it inevitably goes under theconditions of the many-tounged and polycultural environment of Bessarabia and theRussian Orthodox Christianity.The fieldwork materials collected so far do not allow a coprehensive and thickdescription of the phenomena intriguing us as well as a more elaborate analysis.That’s why the article only poses the problem or rather interpretes it in connectionwith some concepts of the kin and family-territorial patronal festivals and customswhich were formulated a long time ago in the Bulgarian science but which are stillrelevant.
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On the basis of written sources and field materials, the article examines the phenomenonof the “Odessa cuisine” as a regional complex of food. In the context of thehistorical dynamics, it shows the role of the Balkan traditions in the formation anddevelopment of the everyday culture of the inhabitants of Odessa. Special attentionis paid to the current state of the trade subculture and, respectively, to the systemof the food traditions in Odessa. In particular, the article shows that there are manyproducts introduced by natives from the Balkans (first of all, Greeks and Bulgarians):eggplants, tomatoes, cheese, corn, mutton, grapes, etc. The regional dishes perceivedas “Odessaian” but having roots in the ethno-cultures of the above-mentioned communities,are developed on this basis. The text shows also the “blue” (eggplants) invarious variations of preparation and the “pshonka” (corn). Beside the national, theprofessional mass cuisine is also analyzed (restaurant); in it the Balkan substratumhas found its place a long time ago along with the Jewish, Ukrainian and Moldavian.In the menu of these institutions, there are surely a number of dishes with Balkanorigins. On the other hand, it is worth characterizing the special national restaurantsof Odessa (Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Greek).
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The article makes a brief historical review of the development of Roma publicationsin the countries in Eastern Europe by emphasizing the processes in each country andthe interrelations between their policies regarding the Roma culture and the Roma literary production. The aim of the article is to show that the development of Roma literature is related to the political, social and cultural context in the country or region of its creation. The comparative historical approach is the most appropriate for the purpose since the tendencies in the development of the Roma literature are related to the policies of identity (in general or directed to the Roma population) in different historical periods and regions.
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The purpose of the present article is to trace the history and to show the activities performedby the gypsies/Romani organizations in Shumen, Bulgaria during the period between 1944 and 1990. The history of these organizations is going through several periods which match the political periods regarding the gypsy population in Bulgaria.It was founded in 1946, when Bulgaria was leading a policy of ethnical recognition of the gypsies and a wide consideration of their cultural and historical identity. Inthe beginning of the 1950s, due to the fear of the so-called “turcheene” (i.e. public demonstration of the Turkish ethnic identity) among a large part of the gypsies, there was a turning-point in the public policy – the Cultural and Educational organization of the gypsies was forbidden and they got into the hands of the “Fatherland Front” (“Otechestven front”). In spite of the restrictions and interdictions, in 1967 the leaders of the Gypsy movement in Shumen restored their organization by the name of “Roma”, but they didn’t get the recognition and validation from the government. In spite of this, they continued to work for the protection of the Gypsy community in Shumen and in all of their activities in several basic directions (socioeconomic, political, educational and cultural) were performed by the organization’s name. This continued until the beginning of the 1990s, when the organization was recovered, andalong side this a number of new organizations arose.
More...Ян Рихлик, Ивaн Павлов, Владимир Пенчев, Емилия Ангелова, Светлана Байчинска. История на България (Dějiny Bulharska), изд. Lidove Noviny, Praha, 2016, 536 с.
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More...Sonda do pomerov v karpatskom priestore v rokoch 1944-1945 so zreteľom na územie Slovenska
The study focuses on the military and diplomatic events at the end of the war with the emphasis on promoting the interests of the Soviet Union in Central Europe. It also pursues an internal political race in the renewed Czechoslovak Republic and the first post-war political or economic measures. The main aim of this study is the characterization of the most important selected factors and context of the deportations of the population from Slovak area to the Soviet Union at the turn of 1944/1945.
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The issue of Slovak prisoners of war in the prison camps in the Soviet Union during the Second World War was only on the margin of public interest. There are some new findings brought by research in the Russian State Military Historical Archive. The result of this research is the study about the fates of the Slovak people in the prison camps in the Soviet Union during the first post-war years.
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After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989 there were published several publications, studies and articles about the deportation of Czechoslovak citizens from the present territory of the Czech Republic to the USSR after 1945. In 2002 the Czech Parliament even adopted a law compensating these victims. Despite this, it is still an issue which Czech historiography has not yet deal with sufficiently. In recent years the professional and non-professional public pays only marginal attention to this. The article provides a basic overview of the current state of knowledge. It focuses on basic issues such as the state of the sources, the specialized literature, the numbers of deported people and the circumstances of their returns.
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“The Gypsies are our own, domestic problem” is a phrase attributed to the long-term former head of the old communist Bulgarian government, Todor Zhivkov. The government policy towards the Gypsy minority in communist Bulgaria is one of inclusion to the Bulgarian way of life, and its implementation is carefully tailored to the specificities of Bulgaria as a country.It is a little known fact that towards the end of the 1940’s, the Bulgarian Gypsies suddenly turn from a “domestic problem” to something much larger and thus become part of the great confrontation between the two world political camps divided by the Iron Curtain. This takes place during the emigration of the ethnic Bulgarian Turks which starts in 1948, and during which, applications for emigration are filed by both Bulgarian Turks and Muslim Bulgarian Gypsies. It is this latter ethnic minority that becomes the cause for a serious conflict between ‘communist Bulgaria’ and ‘capitalist Turkey’.This paper aims at following the events from the end of the 40’s until end of the 80‘s of the previous century as well as analyzing the consequences of the confrontation between the two neighbouring Balkan countries.
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The article focuses on the question how the normalization of U.S. –Soviet relations in the beginning of the 1970s influenced the communication between the superpowers. Four main aspects of the dealings between the United States and the Soviet Union are discussed. They are: the negotiations about the status of Berlin and SALT I; the India-Pakistan and Vietnam wars in the context of relations between the two principal powers of the Cold War period. The main conclusion presented is that triangular diplomacy played an effective role in Europe, but a destructive one in Asia.
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The goal of this paper is to investigate the memory of the Holocaust, i.e. the reception and representation of the suffering of the Jewish population during the rule of the Third Reich (under Nazi rule and occupation) in the capitals of the states constituted after the Second World War - in East Berlin, GDR, and Belgrade, SFRY, during the period from 1945 to 1989/1991. Relying on the achievements of memory studies and analyzing the political moods of that time and the ways of constructing official narratives about Jewish suffering in selected post-war Communist countries, the similarities and differences in the policy of representing Jewish suffering in these two countries and the memory of Jewish victims in places of remembrance and in the practices of remembrance in their capitals will be pointed out.
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