Scientists and linguists in Tsaribrod recalled stories of remarkable Bulgarians in Serbia

published on 7/2/24 2:11 PM

Photo: The Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad

The International Scientific Forum "Cultural Bridges: the Stories of Remarkable Bulgarians in Serbia" took place at the end of June in the town of Tsaribrod in Serbia. It was organised with the financial support of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science under the national programme "The Untold Stories of the Bulgarians", Radio Bulgaria learned from the organisers in Karlovo, the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, the Cyril and Methodius Scientific Centre at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Sts. Cyril and Methodius High School in Tsaribrod, which hosted the event.

The forum was preceded by the opening of two exhibitions in the foyer of the school, the first dedicated to the "120th anniversary of the birth of Zlatan Dudov" - an emblematic European film director of the early and mid-20th century. "He was a Bulgarian, born in Tsaribrod, who received his high school education in Sofia and then went to Berlin (Germany), where he completed his higher education and dedicated himself to cinema," says philologist prof. Tsenka Ivanova of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Veliko Tarnovo.

"The concept of this conference was to bring to light the life stories of notable Bulgarians - whether they were unknown or forgotten - because with the change of generations the so-called collective memory was subjected to "corrections" under the influence of later events, including current trends in international relations and processes in the country concerned. The project "The Untold Stories of the Bulgarians" spans many countries where the Bulgarian language is spoken and where Bulgarian culture is present in its contemporary forms. As generations change, the continuity of knowledge is lost, and some stories become "closed between the pages" of the truth."

An exhibition of Bulgarian students' drawings of Vasil Levski was also held in Tsaribrod. Most of the young artists were graduates of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius High School. Only a month ago, the pupils, together with their teachers and director Bratislav Stamenov, visited the Vasil Levski National Museum in Karlovo.

"In the museum they also saw the painting 'Epic of the Forgotten', which depicts all the characters from the cycle of poems by the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature, Ivan Vazov. Then they had the opportunity to visit the poet's birthplace in Sopot," Dora Chausheva, director of the Vasil Levski National Museum in Karlovo, told Radio Bulgaria.

"The Untold Stories of the Bulgarians programme was presented last year when the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad met in Karlovo. Over the course of the year, I understood that it had attracted a lot of interest from different countries where there are Bulgarian schools. So we accepted the challenge and the idea of Dr Radostina Stoyanova, a lecturer at the University of Belgrade, to work together on a project that we symbolically called "The Great and Forgotten Bulgarians in Serbia".

We wanted to both research and popularise those renaissance Bulgarians who were either born in Serbia or, like Vasil Levski, travelled there to carry out part of their national liberation activities. I hope that this was interesting for the Serbian students, and I am very pleased that shortly before the event, these young Bulgarians, organised by their high school, also visited Karlovo. They had the opportunity to see the whole museum complex and other important places in Vasil Levski's hometown. In this way, the project ran in both directions - from Bulgaria to Serbia and from Serbia to Bulgaria - in different formats," explained Dora Chausheva.

She is also looking forward to the interesting texts written by students at the University of Belgrade on the topic, which will be published in an upcoming book edition. The book will include stories about the historical ties and shared cultural heritage between the two countries, as well as the individuals who contributed to Bulgaria's national liberation movement during the Renaissance.

"For example, this is the story of Angel Kanchev, who was in Belgrade with Vassil Levski at the time of the Second Bulgarian Legion, continues the director of the National Museum of the Apostle of Freedom Vassil Levski in Karlovo. - He enrolled in the local Artillery School or Military Academy, as this military educational institution is called, and began to study there.

Recently, a colleague of ours discovered interesting documents in the archives in Istanbul relating to the tragic death of Angel Kanchev on 5 March 1872. They show that Kanchev left Belgrade to go to Romania for medical treatment and did not return to complete his military training. Many other unknown Bulgarians who answered the call for the creation of the Bulgarian Volunteer Units during the war in 1877 are part of the "untold history of Bulgaria".

The event in Tsaribrod only opens the door to an updated interpretation of the history related to the remarkable Bulgarians on the territory of today's Serbia:

"This conference has neither managed to summarise the stories of the remarkable Bulgarians in Serbia, nor has it had the task of exhausting everything related to them - points out Prof. Tsenka Ivanova. - Such a project has yet to unfold, and in the following periods the focus should also be on people who in the very recent past have contributed to this different view of the told or untold stories of both Bulgarians and the Serbian-Bulgarian dialogue".

Photos: Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, far.rs, Goethe-Institut Bulgarien

Posted in English by Elizabeth Radkova

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