The Union of Bulgarian Writers is celebrating 110 years since its foundation. The creative association was established on September 8, 1913. Ivan Andreychin (literary and theater critic, poet, fiction writer, playwright and translator) was elected its first chairman, and the patriarch of Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov was elected its honorary chairman. 

In its publications, Radio Bulgaria will introduce you to the important moments of the activities of the Bulgarian Writers' Union.

"Looking at the history of the Union of Bulgarian Writers, we are also looking at the development of Bulgarian literature, in general," says the current chairman of the organization, Boyan Angelov - writer, philologist, philosopher, journalist and public figure - in an interview with Radio Bulgaria:

"Our union is the first literary and writer's organization in Europe. It was created after the first national catastrophe caused by the War between the Allies (1913), at the end of which the Romanian troops were only ten kilometers from Sofia, and Bulgaria's former allies were ready to divide it into parts and destroy it. The peace treaty signed in July of that year in Bucharest saved Bulgaria, and the young officers who returned from the battlefield - writers and journalists - decided to create an alliance to protect the Bulgarian spirit and protect the spiritual borders of Bulgaria. They addressed a letter to the greatest Bulgarian writers of that time - Ivan Vazov, Prof. Ivan Shishmanov, Anton Strashimirov, etc., inviting them to become honorary members of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union. Thus, on September 8, 1913, the founding meeting was held. Among the founders are Elin Pelin, Yordan Yovkov, Peyo Yavorov... Ivan Andreychin - a person who graduated in France, a talented poet, who emigrated from Bulgaria to Switzerland during the First World War due to his pacifist beliefs - was elected as chairman”, explains Boyan Angelov. 

But one of the greatest merits of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union then was that it requested from the War Ministry that its members become correspondents in military journals or work in the military districts. This saved many Bulgarian writers who were on the bring of survival. We all know that Yordan Yovkov was a military correspondent and wrote wonderful short stories that have gone down in the history of Bulgarian and European literature, Boyan Angelov adds.

Photos: archive, Krasimir Martinov, BGNES