The Making of a Nation in the Balkans

The nineteenth century was the epoch of nation building for the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule. In this book, comparisons and analogies are made between the Bulgarian Revival and other regions, epochs, ideological trends, and events. These latter are taken from two major areas—Western Europe ("Renaissance," "Enlightenment," "Romanticism," the French Revolution, and national liberation movements), and Russia (the "agrarian question," "populism" and "utopian socialism," "revolutionary democrats," and the Russian Revolution of 1905). Historical facts about the Revival were instrumentalized for political purposes, such as the fostering of national and state loyalties through the reproduction of identities, or, directly, as the legitimating/contesting of a current political regime under the guise of disputes over historical legacy. Ideological mobilization took place in the form of nationalism, right-wing authoritarianism (shading into fascism), and communism. The author sets in relief some of the mechanisms and logic of the two grand narratives under the sign of nationalism, and of Marxism.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE INTRODUCTION: FROM METAPHOR TOWARD HISTORICAL EPOCH CHAPTER ONE: MEANINGS OF THE REVIVAL (I) NATIONAL AND CULTURAL * THE NATIONAL INTERPRETATION * CONCEPTS OF THE (BULGARIAN) NATION * NATIONALISM AND ROMANTICISM * THE NATIONAL AND THE SPIRITUAL (CULTURAL) MEANINGS * THE ANALOGY WITH THE RENAISSANCE * THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT * ANALOGIES WITH THE REFORMATION * THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL AND EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT * MODERNITY AND MODERNIZATION CHAPTER TWO: MEANINGS OF THE REVIVAL (II) ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL * THE TRANSITION FROM FEUDALISM TO CAPITALISM * CAPITALISM DURING THE REVIVAL * OTTOMAN FEUDALISM * THE SOCIAL (BOURGEOIS) REVOLUTION AND THE AGRARIAN THESIS * THE ECONOMIC AND THE NATIONAL-SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION EXCURSUS ON PERIODIZATION CHAPTER THREE: CLASSES AND CLASS STRUGGLES * THE URBAN "ESTATE" AND SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN OLDER HISTORIOGRAPHY * BOURGEOISIE AND NOTABLES IN EARLIER MARXIST CONTROVERSIES * TOWARD REHABILITATION * THE PEASANTS * THE INTELLIGENTSIA * THE CLASS STRUGGLES BETWEEN THE SOCIAL AND NATIONAL * VULGAR MARXIST SOCIOLOGISM AND ITS ABANDONING CHAPTER FOUR: PATHS OF THE REVIVAL AND NATIONAL HEROES * PAISII AS A PROBLEM * EVOLUTIONISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES * THE HIERARCHY OF NATIONAL HEROES: RAKOVSKI, KARAVELOV, LEVSKI, BOTEV. REAPPRAISALS AND RESHUFFLING CHAPTER FIVE: THE APRIL UPRISING, THE RUSSO-TURKISH LIBERATION WAR, AND THE REVOLUTION * THE APRIL UPRISING AND THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR * THE REVOLUTION * REVISIONS AND REAPPRAISAL CHAPTER SIX: THE CONTINUING REVIVAL: SYMBOLIC STRUGGLES AND IMAGES * RIGHTIST VISIONS OF THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL * THE DEMOCRATIC IMAGE * THE BATTLE OF THE COMMUNISTS FOR THE LEGACY OF THE REVIVAL EPILOGUE: THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL AS A NATIONAL MYTH

About the Author :
Roumen Daskalov is Professor at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia and Recurrent Visiting Professor at Central European University, Budapest.

Review :
"Roumen Daskalov's book breaks new ground. It is unusual in the East European field in that it offers a thorough historiographical review, peppered with theoretical analysis, on one discrete period in a nation's history. Perhaps the most interesting moments in the text are Daskalov's own profound insights on the revival period and Bulgarian historical wirting in general." "Combines painstaking scholarship with thorough and incisive analysis to create a book that will become the definitive work on the subject. This book is the result of years of meticulous and thorough reading of the Bulgarian standards in history as well as literary criticism... The book is especially helpful when the author points out the ideological twists communist era historians put into the Bulgarian revival narrative. Those parts of the book would be useful to anyone who wishes to understand how Marxism is used to rewrite the past." "Rumen Daskalov bietet aus des Innenperspektive einen souveränen Überblick über die Wege und Irrwege der Bulgarischen Historiographie. Immer wieder wird hervorgehoben, dass der Glorifizierung von 'Helden" des angeblich sozialrevolutinären Lagers die Stigmatisierung der Gemeindevorsteher oder 'Notablen' (tsorbadzi) zu vermeintlichen 'Verrätern' gegenüberstand. Was im Rahmen aller bisherigen Ansätze zu kurz zu kam, sind sowohl die Bedingungen des Alltags als auch die Rolle des historischen Erinnerung für die kleinstädtische Elite einerseits und für die Dorfgemeinschaft andererseits. In diesem Zusemmanhang stellt sich für die Wiedergeburtszeit nicht nur die Frage, warum die osmanische Periode der bulgarischen Geschichte aus dem öffentlichen Bewusstsein ausgeblendet wurde, sondern auch danach, welches Potenital die beiden mittelalterlichen bulgarischen Reiche für die Zeitgenössische Orientierung tatsächlich zu bieten hatten"