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TOL’s regional news roundup: effective protests in Kyrgyzstan; intolerance in Poland; innovation in Estonia; WWII ceremonies pose RSVP conundrum; and Borissov’s castle in Spain.
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Abstract: The purpose of this text is to present several exemples of the Bulgarian history that reveal the role of the Greek language in the transfer of knowledge concerning economic life and its importance for the modernization processes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I comment on the use of Greek as a vehicle for knowledge in the field of commerce and I retrace the penetration of double-entry bookkeeping and the knowledge in commercial epistolography and geography, closely linked to commercial activities. The analysis of the correspondence of Bulgarian merchants of the 19th century reveals the current use of this language in trade, even after the cooling of relations between Bulgarians and Greeks during the second half of the 19th century due to the incompatibility of their national programs.
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The paper is dedicated to the history of translation of Sophocles’ seminal tragedy Oedipus the King in Bulgaria. It studies the different strategies of translation that have been adopted by Bulgarian authors, when rendering the Greek word τύχη in contemporary Bulgarian language. In comparing the various translational versions of a short passage from the 3rd epeisodion, and having in mind the translators’ background and decisions, the paper argues that the instance of Oedipus the King is indicative of the productive power of translation. The comparison shows how displacements and shifting of meaning in the process of translation could bring about new, unexpected effects of meaning. This situation is also brought about by the specific way of reception of Ancient literature in Bulgaria, since not all of the translators have used the original in their work.
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In this article I undertake a close reading of Ernst Jünger’s War Diary (1914-1918) as a founding text both of his following literary work and his rightwing political radicalization during the Weimar Republic. The representation of the war experience in the War Diary follows a pattern of detachment which relies on an implicit aesthetical perception. This pattern evolves to a literary form in Jünger’s Strom of Steel (1920) and his war books. The war experience of the young apolitical volunteer is subjected latter on to an ideological reshaping and rewriting in Jünger’s evolution to an emblematic figure of the so-called “conservative revolution”. This ideological reshaping configures an (rightwing) political subject who leans on the shining and blindness of the aesthetical perception. The article is a part of a larger comparative study confronting the key role played by the experience of World War I in the work of Ernst Jünger and the leftwing Bulgarian literary critic Ivan Meshekov.
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This article examines two Balkan novels in which memories, as fragments woven into the textual fabricof the autobiographical, define the museum-like narrative structure. The focus of the comparative analysis is onthe female voice, which dynamises the museum as a “place of memory” in the novel through the war theme. Byreplacing the lost home with a kind of a mobile ‘museum-novel’ (as a specific type of novel, the genre of exile),writers such as Gabriela Adameșteanu (Romania) and Dubravka Ugrešić (Croatia) problematize the image ofthe waiting woman Penelope, transforming their novels into a female Odyssey between personal and public,authentic and imaginary, past and present, continuity and discontinuity, myth and history.
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The word “monastirya” is not just a dialect variant, meaning a place (an old place), relative to the knowledge of a monastery that existed or still exists. It has a generalizing emotionally-assessing aspect, regarding the place and the function of the religious Christian monastery in the local memory. The stress in it is the statement that these are monasteries from the age of the Bulgarian kingdom.The topos “monastirya” dynamically produces the process of the ethnic and religious identification and self-identification on the grounds of a particular cult. In this same sense, there is also a variant of designation not only of Christianity. Even places, related to the Islam and most often – tekkes – are also referred to as monasteries. The cult has specific dynamics in time and grows with numerous legends and traditions. They motivate its vitality in the past by the particular character of its realization in sites that have really existed and which, in many cases, have been obliterated in the real space. Nevertheless, even today they still have their place and vitality namely as knowledge.The information that has been preserved and the local knowledge about the Little Sliven Holy Mountain confirm the place and function of the topos “monastirya” in the cultural space. Today, it is the vitality of this knowledge that lies at the root of re-creation of sites which have once existed.
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The article comments the semantics and the functions of Thracian metal engravings in the collection of the Regional History Museum – Sliven, acquired predominantly throughout the study of some rich graves in the region of Sliven. Marriage is a form of transition from a particular social status to a different one. Through the marriage the hero joins the goddess and turns into a god-man – the highest position in society which is available only for the king. From ideological point of view wedding is a form of choosing of the ruler by the god. The ritual burial of female objects might be interpreted as a sacred symbolic signifier of a marriage between the diseased ruler and the Great Goddess. Its meaning implies the new birth of the ruler after his death. The elements of the opposition birth-death in the mythological consciousness are equal as elements of the general structure of the rites of birth, marriage, death. This is necessary in providing the main eschatological reason for the existence of the tomb as a cult building – to secure a new birth of the deceased ruler in the outer world.
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The current text examines the museum representations of Hadzhi Dimitar, Stefan Karadzha, Zahari Stoyanov and Panayot Hitov, whose life connects the areas of Ruse and Sliven. The research is based on observations over four house museums – “Hadzhi Dimitar” in Sliven, “Zahari Stoyanov” in Medven and in Ruse, and “Baba Tonka” in Ruse. These examples display ambiguous presentations of the heroes’ biographies, based on the availability or the absence of a memorial house to the character. The type of presentation is contextualized with the settlement’s history, which in this case appears as an environment for the “spiritual growth” of the hero. The absence of a memorial house leads to a fragmented presentation of the image, turning it into an addition to the main topic.
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Sharing heritage is an important process in society, where a narrative makes transmission and turns in a vehicle for the understanding of both past and present. The text presents the contemporary practices of object oriented museology. Using the exhibits with history in Russe Museum, an exposition and museum educational module are produced. On the basis of the principles of the co-participatory museum, a dialogical environment is built in which the artefacts are not only witnesses of time, but also an inspiration for creativity. Russe Museum explores the relationship between cultural heritage and local development with the participation of the Museum as an environment for communication between different social actors, local communities and shared knowledge. In this process object oriented museology gives the possibility to re-conceptualize the ways of change of the approaches connected to communication through heritage. In its core stays the active public, which is part of the local community.
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Book review: Francis Claudon. A l’école de Fauriel. Mélanges de littérature comparée. Editions universitaires européennes, 2018.
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The article examines the Bulgarian political and ethnic presence in Thessaly during the Middle Ages. Thessaly is part of the early medieval Bulgarian Tsardom for short periods yet this helps to establish Bulgarian ethnic consciousness among part of Slavic population in the area. There are data in various sources for Bulgarians in Thessaly in the 11th – 15th centuries, who participate in local riots and internecine struggles.
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Ethnic entrepreneurship is a peculiar mechanism for manifestation of ethnocultural identity and a specific resource for the preservation of cultural heritage. The topic is relatively unexplored in Bulgaria but the authors have experience in its study in general. The article attempts to clarify the terminology related to the problem and systematizes and typologies the manifestations of Russian ethnic entrepreneurship in the country. Thus, on this basis as well as with the help of the fieldwork interviews and the research of Internet publications devoted to owners of various Russian entrepreneurial structures and their staff (Beryozka and similar retail stores as well as representatives of various types of individual businesses) the study searches for and finds (or does not find) manifestations orientated towards preservation of the Russian cultural heritage in the Bulgarian social environment.
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The Roma people joined the general migratory flows a bit later than the other ethnic groups; however, the mobility patterns and routes do not differ significantly compared to those of the rest of the population. For the Roma communities, this is one of the few opportunities for employment. For the present, the financial transfers help break the vicious circle of unemployment – poverty – lack of education in the sending communities, which circle many families have entered. Along with better financial security, migrants bring back new ideas and knowledge which stimulate social development in the encapsulated neighbourhoods. The crossing of the physical borders symbolically destroys the mental boundaries of the communities. The stress is put on the opening to the world which creates opportunities but leads to two main risks: complete dependency on labour mobility and loss of human capital(brain drain) in the Roma communities; this could hinder the processes of social development at a later stage.
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Celem artykułu jest wyjaśnienie przyczyn konfliktu jaki trwa w Burkina Fasood 2014 roku. Po wybuchu konfliktu zbrojnego w Mali w 2012 r., który był konsekwencją upadku reżimu Kadafiego i pomimo zaangażowania środowiska międzynarodowego w jego zakończenie, rozlewa się on na nowe tereny w Mali i poza jej granice. Od 2015 r. w Burkina Faso dramatycznie pogorszyła się sytuacja bezpieczeństwa, która w chwili obecnej wymyka się spod kontroli. Konflikt w Mali jest tylko jednym z powodów takiej sytuacji. Innymi elementami kształtującymi sytuację wewnętrzną są: odejście ze stanowiska byłego prezydenta Blaise Compaoré, działania lokalnej grupy zbrojnej Ansar ul Islam, tarcia pomiędzy różnymi grupami religijnymi i narodowościowymi oraz od lat nierozwiązane problemy ekonomiczne. Analizy zawarte w artykule wsparte są danymi dostępnymi w bieżących publikacjach wyspecjalizowanych portali internetowych, takich jak The African Center for Strategic Studies, International Crisis Group, Terrorism Monitor, Long War Journal i West African Papers.
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This study tries to delineate the socio-religious profile of Sofia slaveholders in mid-16th – mid-18th centuries mainly on the basis of relevant documents found in the local Sharia court’s registers dating from the same period. The analysis of a sample of 211 slave-owners reveals, first of all, that slaveholding in Ottoman Sofia was relatively widespread, comprising not only the provincial askeri elites but also the representatives of the lower strata of the askeri group, as well as ordinary citizens – traders and craftsmen, including (although, on a very modest scale) non-Muslims. Secondly, the examination of the documents in the sample showed a slight preponderance of cases, in which slave owners and ex-owners proved themselves supportive and helpful in one way or another to their slaves and ex-slaves. In this context the symbolic value of the slaveholding as an emblem of status and piety has been discussed, especially in connection with the phenomenon of some relatively poor and/or newly-Islamized people joining the ranks of slaveholders.
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The article examines the stages through which the flour-milling industry passed between the late 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century. Several factors contributed to the upward trend in the milling – the increase in cereal yields, the construction of a railway network and the establishment of new banks. The article details are considered laws encouragement of the Bulgarian industry (1894, 1905) and their application in the milling. It is proved that they contributed to the introduction of new technologies, accelerated the industrialization of the country and expanded the marketability of the economy.
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The article is dedicated to an episode of the cultural relations between Bulgaria and Poland immediately after the First World War. This was the time when their political and ruling elites realized that the two Slavic states would not receive the diplomatic support of the great powers and their neighbors to realize their national ideals. That was why they united around the concept of informal - scientific, personal and collective – contacts as a way to get to know each other and draw closer. This idea was carried out through the exchange of two delegations. On September 5, 1923, a Bulgarian cultural and educational group left Sofia for Poland. Among its members was Dr. Boris Vazov – chairman of „Slavyanska Beseda“, a prestigious journalist and public figure who was committed to sending daily articles covering the trip. In them he dwells on important events in Polish history, life, culture, economy and psychology of the Polish people, shares impressions of the patriotic feelings of Poles and their respect for the heroes who played an important role in national preservation.
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The text deals with the mutual influences – the infestations – between different parts of the world in the newer stages of its development. Answers are sought to questions from different levels of analysis: from the point of view of Bulgaria, as а former socialist state, whether for 28 years could be outdated the past nearly 45 years; from a global perspective, how the self-awareness of young states, former colonies, reflects on the general development of the world; from third part – can the historical justice be restored, and if the answer is positive – to what extent. "Where" in the subtitle refers to ideological, historical, value, self-consciousness and self-determination connotations.How does the colonial history of Western European countries relate to the present? How the filling of the white spots of the past is superimposed on the claims of (Western) Europe, which advocates the myth of itself as more civilized, more liberal, more tolerant. With a number of examples is argued the power of ideological influence, which is difficult to overcome by historical science and even more difficult by the media. The thesis is also about the "restoration of the historical justice".A little more than 25 years after 1989, we are trapped in a trap set by ourselves as humanity: against the backdrop of a suppressed and unknown history that has developed mainly Eurocentric to almost the present day, decades of strong ideological influences, controversial morality, wick allows a lot of money from western companies and individual PR consultants to work to polish the images of modern dictators – we cannot find out which news about / from the world are true and which do not.
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