Clarke Bulgarian Revival

SERBIA AND THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL (1762-1872)
BY JAMES F. CLARKE
OF THE Balkan peoples who regained independent national life during

the nineteenth century, the Bulgarians were'least favorably situated.
Cut off geographically from the fertilizing ideas of the West, eco-
nomically and politically under closer subjection to Constantinople,
and religiously and intellectually exploited by the Greeks, the Bul-
garians had in addition to cope with the contradictory interests of
the great powers and the jealousy and ambition of their politically
more fortunate neighbors. But because of these obstacles, the resur-
rection of Bulgaria furni'shes examples of the workings of modern
nationalism and of the impact of foreign influences on backward
native conditions. Among such influences, the Serbian was one of the
most significant.
To be sure, Bulgarian national feeling never completely died out,
any more than Bulgaria entirely disappeared from the political map
or vocabulary of Europe. Nor did the' Bulgarians themselves escape
the observation of stray European travelers, although observers
usually had little to report because the natives tended to avoid main
routes or fled at the sight of foreigners. For example,'Boskovich,- an
eighteenth century Yugoslav scientist and traveler, described avillage
inhabited only by women and children, the men having disappeared
to avoid having to' pull the carriages over the mountains.1
As long as Turkish armies were advan6ing and the Ottoman state
held together, conditions in Bulgaria were not unbearable. But when
the Crescent began to wane by 'the end of the seventeenth century,
and' Russia as well as the Empire took the offensive, the Turks became
more exacting: there were forced conversions to Islam, heavier taxes,
and increasing lawlessness on the part of Turkish landowners, local
officials and demoralized 'retreating armies. In the eighteenth century
Fanariote Greek exploitation was added to' all the other burdens, and
by the beginning of the nineteenth, insidious Hellenization threatened
to engulf the Bulgarians completely.
The progressive decline of national consciousness following the
Turkish conquest of 1393 was offset to a degree by intermittent con-
tacts with the outside world, which served from time to time to re-
fresh fading memories of former independence. The successive holy
and unholy alliances of Western Europe against the Turks often
1 J. Boscowich, Journal d'un voyage de Constantinople en Pologne (Lausanne, 1772), 64.
Similar observations were made by Gerlach 200 years earlier: Stephen Gerlacis des aeltern
Tagebuch (Frankfort, 1674).
141
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142 James F. Clarke
counted on local diversions in Bulga'ria. Later came Russia's interest

in the Bulgarians long before they meant anything more than Ortho-
dox Christians or Slavs.
In the sixteenth century, German-sponsored Slovene and. Croat
Protestants included the Bulgarians (and even the Turks!) in their
ambitious plans for a South Slav Reformation, 'but their activity was
too remote and local to penetrate Bulgaria.2 More significant was the
Catholic Reformation which succeeded in developing a flourishing
propaganda among the Bulgarians in the seventeenth century. A
group of Catholic Saxon miners from Transylvania had established
themselves in Chiprovtsi in, Northwest Bulgaria. Chiprovtsi thus
became the center of the Catholic Reformation in Bulgaria, an out-
post of Western diplomatic intrigue. and the scene of revolt and
massacre.' The, Catholic cause was further aided by the. Ragusan
mining and merchant colonies and traveling salesmen who established
islands of Catholic influence and maintained contact with Western
Europe and with the. more enlightened portion of the South Slav
world.4 Another factor was the conversion of the presumed descend-
ants of the medieval heretic Bogomiles who called themselves Pauli-
cians (Pavlikeni) and occupied an area between Philippopolis and the
Danube. Mauro Orbini, Dominican monk of Ragusa and famous
historiographer of the Slavs, describes' the peculiar beliefs of these
people, and the conversion of forty 'Pavlichiani" villages near
Nicopolis.5
Until native Bulgarians could be trained as teachers and bishops,
in Rome and Loretto (where six places were reserved for Bulgarians),
the chief agents of the Propaganda were Bosnian and Croatian Fran-
ciscans, who established schools, monasteries, and. bishoprics, and
2 M. Murko, Die Bedeutung der Reformation und Gegenreformationfsr das geistige Leben
der Sidslaven (Prague, 1927), pp. 15-16, 124. Also J. Kostrencic, Urkundliche Beitrdge zur
Geschichte der protestantischen Literatur der Sudslaven (Vienna, 1874) and A. Pichler,
Geschichte des Protestantismus in der orientalischen Kirche im, 17. Jahlr. (Munich, 1862).
A. Mehlan, "Uber die Bedeutung der mittelalterlichen Bergbaukolonien fur die slav-
ischen Balkanvolker," Revue Internationale des Etudes Balkaniques, iII (1938), 383-404;
0. Davies, "Ancient mining in the Balkans," op. cit., 405-18, a more technical survey; J.
Zahariev, Ciprovci. Poselistno-geografski proucvanija s istoriceski beleghi (Sofia, 1938).
4 L. Vojnovic, "Dubrovnik i Builgarija v minaloto," Periodibesko Spisanie, LXX (1909),
146-55; I. Sakazov, Stopanskitle vrfiski mezdu Dubrovnik i builgarskih1 zemi prez 16 i 17
stolitija (Sofia, 1930); N. Jorga, "Une ville 'romane' devenue slave: Ragusa," Academie
Roumaine. Bulletin de la section historique, xviii (1931), 32-101; and C. Jirecek's numer-
ous studies. Ragusan ruins may be seen in Tirnovo.
II Regno 'de gli Slavi hoggi corrottamnente detti Schiavoni (Pesaro, 1601), 352-3. For
Catholicism in Bulgaria see N. Milev, Katoligkata propaganda v Bulgarija prez XVII vik
(Sofia, 1914); the various philological and ethnographic studies of L. Miletic on the Pauli-
cians, and more recently the researches of Ivan Duicev in Roman archives.
Serbia and the Bulgarian Revival (1762-1872) 143
ushered in a period of intellectual and political activity hardly equaled

before the nineteenth century. Once before, during the brief Hun-
garian occupation of Northwest- Bulgaria preceding the Turkish
conquest, Bosnian Franciscans had successfully labored in the Bul-
garian vineyard.
Among the notable Bulgarian products of this seventeenth century
Catholic revival was Peter Parchevich of Chiprovtsi, a doctor of
theology from Rome and bishop of Preslav (Marcianopolis), who
preached revolution along with Catholicism and was indirectly re-
sponsible for the disastrous Chiprovtsi revolt of 1688.7 The learned
Peter Bogdan (Deodat) Bakshich, also of Chiprovtsi, was archbishop
of Sofia (later of Skopie and Antivari) and author of translations of
Latin works of edification and of numerous reports on the Catholic
Church in the Balkans, who acquired a reputation for converting
Paulicians. The insubordinate Bishop Filip Stanislavov of Nicopolis,
of Paulician origin, compiled a prayer book, the A bagar, published in
Rome in 1651, which has been called the first Bulgarian book, but
is- as much Croatian as Bulgarian except that it was written by a
Bulgarian for Bulgarians.8 Jesuits also participated in the labor of
conversion, but the Bosnian Franciscans were more successful because
they were closer to the Bulgarian people. One of the Jesuit products
was Christopher Peichich, S.J., another native of Chiprovtsi, who
became abbot of Csanad in Hungary but retained his pride and in-
terest in his Bulgarian origin. He wrote several controverisal books
proving to "Illyrians" the superiority of the Western over the Eastern
Church.9
The Catholic Reformation in Bulgaria promoted education even
though it was in a hybrid Bulgaro-Croatian dialect. It set a precedent
6 L. A. Gebhardi, Geschichie des Reicks Hungarn und der damit verbundeten Staaten, Iv
(Leipzig, 1782), 217.
7 J. Pejacsevich, "Peter Freiherr von Parchevich, Erzbischoff von Martinopel (1612-
1674)," Archivf r 6sterreichische Geschichte, LIX (1880), 337-636.
8 A. Teodorov-Balanr began his first bibliography with the Abagar: "Builgarski knigopis
(1641-1877)," Sbornik za Narodni Uinotvorenija, Ix (1893). The date has since been estab-
lished as 1651. Cf. B. Penev, Istorija na novata billgarska literatura (5v., Sofia, 1930-36),
I, 283-306. Contemporary Catholic sources are in A. Theiner, Vetera monumenta Slavorum
MeridionaiVum n Historiam illustrantia, II, 1524-1800. (Zagreb, 1875); F. Fermendzin,
Acta Bulgariae ecclesiastica ab a. 1565 usque ad a. 1799 (Monumenta spect. hist. Slav.
Meridionalium, xviii, Zagreb, 1887). Also J. Coleti [Dr. Farlati], Illyrici Sacri., VIII:
Ecclesia Scopiensis, Sardicensis, -Marcianopolitana, Achridensis, et Ternobensis cum earum
suffraganeis (Venice, 1819), 68 Lf.
9 Speculun Veritatis inter Orientalein et Occidentalemn ecclesias refulgens [etc.] (Venice,
1725; 2d ed., Vienna, 1732), first published in "Illyrian" in 1716; also Concordia Orthodox-
oruin$ paotr in orientalium et occidentalium (Tyrnaviae, 1730). The author signed himself
"Christophorus Peichich Bulgarus."
144 James F. Clarke
for the Illyrianism that was to crop out again in the nineteenth cen-
tury and for the Bulgarophi1e activities of the Croatian Bishop
Strossmayer. It .drew the Paulicians permanently into the Catholic
fold. It helped to sustain Bulgari'an nationalism and to establish con-
tacts with the Catholic states of the West, which at the same time
were also Turkey's enemies. The suppression of the revolts fostered
by Catholic political intrigue and the failure of Western diplomatic
and military -schemes resulted in the serious crippling of Catholic
propaganda in Bulgaria and in the forced emigration of thousands of
Bulgarians across the Danube to Wallachia, the Banat, Transylvania
and Hungary.
Bulgarian emigration, beginning in the fourteenth century before
the fall of Tirnovo, continued intermittently to the twentieth century,
reflecting the advance and retreat of Imperial armies and the unsuc-
cessful risings instigated by local leaders in conjunction with repeated-
ly promised help from the Principalitieg, Transylvania, the West, and
finally Russia. At the end of the sixteenth century, after the Tirnovo
revolt engineered by the Ragusan merchant, Pavel Djordjich, and
again at the end of the seventeenth, after the Chiprovtsi rising, large
scale emigrations took place, with others following at intervals. By
the end of the eighteenth century little remained of the once flourish-
ing Catholic mission in Bulgaria. Orthodox Bulgarians joined
Catholics and Paulicians in the exodus. Many became SerbRuman-
ian, or Hungarian, but thousands preserved their original language,
customs, and family connections.'0 Some eventually returned to their
homeland.
As Russo-Turkish wars became more frequent, progressively larger
numbers fled from eastern Bulgaria, sometimes whole villages or
towns, until the left bank of the Danube became virtually an exten-
sion of Bulgaria." Some joined the older Bulgarian settlements in
Wallachia and Transylvania, but as Russian power gained ground
Bulgarians increasingly turned to Moldavia, Bessarabia and Southern
Russia. The Bulgarian emigre colonies north of the Danube played
somewhat the same role in the Bulgarian renaissance as the north-of-
the-border Serbs of Hungary did in the Serbian, and eventually served
as stepping stones for Russian interest and influence in the nine-
teenth century.
10 G. Czirbus, "Die SUdungarischen Bulgaren," in T. S. Vikovsky, Die Serben (Die
Vdlker Oestreich-Ungarns, X I, Vienna, 1884), pp. 343-403; L. Mileti6, "Zaselenieto na
kdtoligkit6 btilgari v Sedmigradsko i Banat," Sbornik za Narodni Umotvorenija, xiv (1897),
284-543.
"Memoirs of I. Seliminski, organizer of the Sliven emigration of 1830, Biblioteka D-r
Iv. Seliminski (Sofia, 1904-31).
The national revival. of Bulgaria-had its immediate origin in a

monastery in 1762, heralded by the monk, Paisi, five years before'the
autocephalous Patriarchate of Ochrida - by.then Bulgarian in name
only - was. abolished. It gathered momentum around 18.30, stimu-
lated by the example of. Greece and Serbia and by the scholarly pub-
licity of the Ukrainian, Juri Venelin. Not until 1860, however, could
a Bulgarian.bishop.summon enough courage to omit the name of the
Greek patriarch from a church service. Ten years later came the
Porte's ferman for the organization of an autonomous Bulgarian
church -the Exarchate. The election in 1872 of the first exarch
virtually completed the movement started by Paisi in 1762. The win-
ning of ecclesiastical emancipation was followed by a more pro-
nounced revolutionary tempo. Now all that remained was for the
proper combination of circumstances to climax national revival with
political independence.'2
The significance of Paisi in the national revival lies in his intense
belief in the existence of a Bulgarian nationality apart from 'Greek
and Serbian and in the eloquence of hi? plea to his fellow countrymen
to return to their national senses, even though for a long time it
seemed that his was a voice crying in a'wilderness of ignorance and
neglect. His "Slaveno-Bulgarian, History," completed in the monas-
tery of Zograph on Mount Athos -in 1762, drculated anonymously in
manuscript for over eighty years before it received the light of pript
-still without hifs name. Over forty extant manuscript copies (the
latest made in 1870). attest to- the effectiveness of his work.'3
As a preserver and reviver of Bulgarian nationality, religion stands
first, at least in point of time. Through the "silent centuries" of Turk-
ish domination, it was primarily Christianity which kept the majority
of Bulgarians from forgetting their identity.' It was the Church and
especially the monastery.which saved the people from becoming
entirely illiterate and which maintained a contact, however feeble,
with the classical epochs of Bulgarian literature and art.'4 The inter-
12 H. Gandev, Faktori na bilgarskoto viuzraidane 1600-1830 (Sofia, 1943) stresses the
early, native roots of national revival; P. Nikov, Vizrafdane na bilgarskija narod. Ciir-
kovno-nacionalni borbi i postifenija '(Sofia, 1929), the struggle for religious autonomy. A
Hajek, Bulgarien unter der T rkenherrschaft (Stuttgart, 1925), emphasizes revolutionary
and political aspects.
13 J. Ivanov, ed., Istorija slavenobolgarskaja; sobrana i nare~dana Paisiem ieromonahom
v'leto 1762 (Sofia, 1914); S. Romanski, Nov Sofroniev prepis na'Paisievata istorija ot 1781 g.
supostaven's prepisa ot 1765 g. (Btilgarski Starini, Ix, Sofia, 1938). First printed in altered
form and under its popular name, Carsivenik, or "book of kings," by H. Pavlovi6, Carst-
venik ili istorija bolgarskaja (Budapest, 1844).
14 G. A. Ilynskil, "Znadenie Athona v istorii- slavjanskoe pismennosti," gurnal Min-
istersva Narodnago Prosve?6enija, Nov., 1908, pp. 1-41; A. Proti,' "'Sveta Gora i bulgar-
skoto izkustvo," Buigarski Pregled, i (1929), 249-76.
146 James F. Clarke
national character of the Greek Orthodox Church linked Bulgaria

with her more advantageously placed Q,'rthodox neighbors and es-
pecially with Holy Russia. It was the custom for Bulgarian monks
and sometimes laymen to make the "grand tour" of Mount Athos,
Jerusalem, Kiev, Moscow and other holy places in Serbia and the
Principalities before settling down.
Yet in many ways the religious factor' was essentially political.
Thanks to the Turkish milet system, which confused religion and'
nationality and hence erroneously classified the Bulgarians as Greeks
(a misconception shared by Greeks and Europeans), Bulgarians bene-
fited by the privileged position of the Greeks' in the Ottoman Empire.
But what had once been an advantage became the first great obstacle
on the road to political independence and a subject of bitter conflict
between Greek and Bulgarian nationalists. The church struggle suc-
cessfully rid the Bulgarians of the Fanariote burden, but the creation
of a separate Bulgarian milet involved, in addition to Bulgarian and
Greek interests, the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and the power
politics of the Great Powers. It also brought a number of minor for-
eign influences to bear on the Bulgarian situation.
The nineteenth was a great missionary century for both Protestants
and Catholics, who looked on Bulgaria as a promising vineyard. Old
and new Catholic missionary orders - Italian, French and Polish-
tried to regain the territory lost since the seventeenth century. In this
they were supported by the Catholic anti-Russian policy of France
and Austria and' aided by Polish and Hungarian refugees who found
in Turkey fertile ground for carrying on their struggle against Russia
after the failure of their respective revolutions."5 English and Ameri-
can Protestant missionaries, originally attracted to the Levant and
the Holy Land by Philhellenism and the challenge of converting
Moslems and Jews, discovered in the Bulgarian struggle against
Fanariote control a hopeful opportunity for evangelization and educa-
tion. The declaration of Bulgarian ecclesiastical independence in 1860
resulted in a three-cornered Catholic-Protestant-Greek rivalry, which
only intensified the determination of the majority of Bulgarians to
hold out for a national Church.'6
Equally fundamental was the economic element, especially in the
15 K. Suhodolska, "Btilgarit6 v neizdadenit6 memoari na Caika Caikovski (Sadtik

Paga)" Sb. N. U., x (1894), 429-68; M. Handelsman, Czartoryski, Nicolas Ier et la question
du Proche Orient (Paris, 1934), 40-67. Also A. Lewak, Dzieje emigracji polskiej w Turcji
(1831-1878) (Warsaw, 1935), based on the Rapperswil archives of Polish emigration, sub-
sequently destroyed in the bombing of Warsaw.
16 J. F. Clarke, "Protestantism and the Bulgarian Church Question in 1861," Essays-in
the History of Modern Europe, D. C. McKay, ed. (New York, 1936), 79-97; W. W. Hall,
Jr., Puritans in the Balkans (Sofia, 1938), 9 if.
preparatory stages. Without the strengthening of the Bulgarian urban

class through trade and' manufacturing, and economic contacts
abroad, there would have been no Bulgarian schools and books, no
teachers and no protagonists of ecclesiastical and political au-
tonomy.'7 The peculiar Ottoman system provided the framework for
economic uplift. For example, particular villages and gilds enjoyed a
privileged position as purveyors to His Majesty the Sultan.18 Most
important were the dzhelepi, furnishers of mutton to the imperial
palace and army, some of whom added to their wealth and prestige
by farming the beglik, or sheep tax. Milosh, first prince of Serbia, was
one of them. Some of the most influential Bulgarian notables (chor-
badzhi) and sponsors of the national revival were drawn from these
same ranks."9
The military reforms of Mahmud II, which indirectly brought inde-
pendence to the Serbs and Greeks, brought prosperity to Bulgarian
army contractors, which lasted until after the Crimean War and laid
the basis for the strong Bulgarian community in the capital. Con-
stantinople became the largest and most important Bulgarian center
of economic, cultural and "national" life.20 Although the small moun-
tain towns were the nurseries of nationalism, it was in Constantinople
that the movement was focused, at any rate until the Porte recog-
nized the Bulgarians as a distinct milet. Through trade and commerce
Bulgarians became less provincial, doing business with Vienna,
Moscow and even Manchester, establishing contacts, acquiring
wealth and foreign ideas.
The intellectual or cultural sphere was the heart of the main phase
of national awakening. Foreign influences naturally became more ap-
parent here, where we find typical manifestations of nineteenth
,century nationalism, especially of the western and southern Slav
brand.2' As was the case with Serbo-Croatian, the urgent task of
creating a common Bulgarian literary language was rendered more
17 N. Milev, "Faktorite na builgarskoto vudzrazdane," Sbornik v cest na Professor Iv. D.
Sismanov (Sofia, 1920), 129-57. See also 2. Natan, Biilgarskoto viizragdane. Istoriko-socio-
logiceski ocerk (Sofia, 1939), and Gandev, op. cit.
18 Twenty-two such classes are enumerated in D. A. Ih~iev, "Materijali za istorijata
ni pod turskoto robstvo," Izvestija na Istoriceskoto Drugestvo, ii (1906), 129-208; for further
references see I. Sakazov, Bulgarische Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Berlin, Leipzig, 1929).
'9 A. Neicev, "Dzelepi i beglik ii," Jubileen sbornik po minaloto isa Koprivitica (Sofia,
1926), 523-34; A. Sopov, "D-r Stojan Comakov," Sbornik na Bilgarskata Akademija, xiI
(1919), 5-12; N. G. Eniderev, Vfzpominanija i bele~ki (Sofia, 1906), 1 ff.
20 Much memoir material is available, for example, P. P. Karapetrov, Sbirka ot statii
(Sofia, 1898); M. D. Balabanov, Stranici ot politiceskoto ni vilzragdane (Sofia, 1904); N.
Nadov, "Carigrad kato kulturen centuir na builgarite do 1877 godina," Sb. B. A., XIX (1925),
1-208; etc.
21 Cf. A. Mazon, "La patrimoine commune des 6tudes slaves," Revue des Etudes Slaves,
iv (1924), 113-32.
148 James F. Clarke
difficult by the existence of eastern and

in the spoken language,'and the persistence of Church Slavic ten-
dencies. But Bulgarian language lacked a legislator, of the caliber of
a Vuk Karadzhich, so,'that progress.was slow. Before nascent Bul-
garian literature could be of much use it had to be. freed of its medieval
monastic fetters. The first and'greatest need was for elementary text-
books of all kinds. to replace the Church. Slavic liturgical books used
-in the monastic cell schools and to equip the-new Bulgarian schools
for their campaign against Hellenization. Then came the demand for
popular and later for revolutionary literature.
All this led to strenuous efforts to establish printing presses., and
magazines and newspapers to serve as channels for nationalist propa-
ganda. In 1806 the first book in Bulgarian appeared, in 1824 the first
modern textbook. Following the educational. reform of 1835 there was
rapid acceleration in the publication of books. The Church Question,
like Luther's Reformation, evoked a stream of pamphlets. About
1837 the first short-lived Bulgaiian press began functioning, and in
1844 the first periodical appeared,, followed two years later by the
first newspaper. In 1856 the public.reading-room movement started,
and about the same time -bookselling and publishing -in the modern
sense.22 Even public plays and concerts were attempted. Finally a
literary society, forerunner of the present Academy of Sciences, and
modelled on the popular Serbian -and Czech matica, was founded in
Braila in 1869.23
European romanticism was reflected in Bulgaria, as evidenced by
the collecting of folksongs at Venelin's instigation and after Vuk
Karadzhich's example; by the invention. of patriotic legends under
the guise of history, first tried by-Paisi and -carried to perfection by
Rakovski; and even by the production of literary-forgeries in imita-
tion perhaps of the famous Czech fabricators. There was in addition
some genuine.poetry and-prose of sentiment, heroism, and revolu-
tion.24
The revolutionary factor in Bulgaria's renaissance was of decisive
importance towards the end, climaxing a century of patriotic spade
work. Sporadic outbreaks had occurred throughout the whole period
of Turkish occupation: notably the revolts of 1i598 and 1686 in Tir-
22 S. Cilingirov, Biilgarski &italista predi osvobogdenieto (Sofia, 1930). Cf. the popularity
of the French "salles de conference," R. C. Binkley, Realism and Nationalism 1852-1871
(New York, 1935), 2.
23 Cf. J. Proke', "The centenary of the Matica Ceska (National self help under foreign
rule)," Slavonic Review, ix (1931), 420-27.
24 Cf. J. Pita, "Zur Frage der Eigenart der bulgarischen Romantik," Slaviscae Rund-
schau, xi (1939), 161-64.
novo, where memories -of former independence persisted longest; and

the ill-fated Chiprovtsi rising of 1688, aftermath of the Turkish defeat
at Vienna five years earlier.25 The eighteenth century was relatively
quiet; followed by a series of haphazard revolts and plots, foretastes
of the final 1876 revolution. Among these were the anonymous Bul-
garian participation in-the Serbian, Rumanian and Greek revolutions;
Velcho's Plot' of 1835, belated repercussion of the recent Russo-
Turkish war; the Nish disturbances of 1841 which brought Blanqui to
Bulgaria;26 the several operatic exploits of Mamarchev and Rakovski;
the Vidin' uprising of the midcentury; and Captain Nikola's still-born
effort in' 1856, aftermath of the Crimean War. All these belong to the
"carbonaro"' period of the Bulgarian risorgimento, which accom-
plished little except to produce national martyrs and to teach the
survivors the Mazzinian lesson that education and organization had
to come before shooting.
Another lesson that had to be learned by hard experience was that
Bulgaria could not "fara da se," any -better than Piedmont could.
Aside from the not very likely possibility of an Ausgleich with the
Turks, the solution to the Bulgarian problem was either an alliance
with her Balkan neighbors, especially Serbia,'or, as it turned out,
help from Russia. Thus the decade preceding the Liberation saw a
recurrence of revolutionary attempts emanating from the emigre com-
mittees in Belgrade and Bucharest.27 These were scarcely more suc-
cessful than the earlier ones until the final outbreak in the spring of
1876 succeeded by its- very failure in inducing the Russians to make
their -final contributions to the resurrection of Bulgaria.
Directly or indirectly almost every country in Europe contributed

in some measure to Bulgaria's cultural and political education.28 In
chronological order, Greek, Serbian and Russian influences were most
important. Rumania, the Czechs and Western Europe also con-
tributed.-
Rumania, one of Bulgaria's Orthodox neighbors, Balkan for all her
25 V. N. Zlatarski, "Tutrnovskite vizstanija i opiti za vtizstanija predi Velkovata

zavera," Sbornik po sluciaj na stogodisninata na zaverata ot 1835 g. (Sofia, 1935), pp. 3-16.
26 J. A. Blanqui, Voyage en Bulgarie pendant l'annge 1841 (Paris, 1843).
27 P. Kisimov, Istoriceski raboti. Moite spomeni (4 v., Plovdiv, Sofia, 1897-1903), I,
115 if., who advocated Turko-Bulgarian understanding; Karapetrov, op. cit.; D. T.
Strasimirov, "Komitetskoto desetiletie (epoha na komitite)," BAlgarija 1000 godini (Sofia,
1930), 843-77.
28 Ivan gigmanov, "Uvod v istorijata na btilgarskoto vti1raidane," Bidgarija 1000
godini, 279-319; Penev, Istorija na novata bilgarska literatura; also the series of biographies
by M. Arnaudov.
150 James F. Clarke
nostalgia for Paris and Rome, played a relatively passive but none
the less important role. She served as a refuge, usually hospitable, for
Bulgarians fleeing the hardships and dangers of Turkish rule, as a
sort of second homeland where uplift and revolution were prepared
for those who remained in Bulgaria. Rumania was also a source of
financial opportunity and a means of transit to the important Bul-
g4rian colonies in Transylvania and Bessarabia, as well as a point of
contact with Russia. Finally, Bucharest was the seat of the Central
Revolutionary Committee and of the last stages of the underground
resistance movement. Thus Rumania shares honors with Serbia in the
making of Bulgaria.29
The Czech renaissance., so important in the development of the
other South Slavs and in Russia, affected the Bulgarians largely
through indirect channels. In time a few Bulgarians established direct
contact with Czechs in Prague, and an occasional Bulgarian attended
Czech schools. Eventually Czech periodicals began following the
progress of Bulgarian letters with interest.30 However, Joseph
DobrovskV, the "Father of Slavistics," had no conception of modern
Bulgarian, and P. J. Safafik hardly more when he published his
history of the Slavic languages and literature in 1826.31 With the best
intentions in the world, Safarik never succeeded in getting beyond
Novi Sad in furthering his cherished plan of investigating the Bul-
garians for himself.32 Yet Safarvik's continual prodding of Russian
scholars was a real contribution, because the Russians had more op-
portunities for, contact with Bulgarian emigres and students, and
were more fortunate in their field expeditions to the Balkans, whether
in connection with the Russo-Turkish wars or on pilgrimages to
Mount Athos.33 Besides, such researches were frequently subsidized
in connection with Russia's official Near Eastern policy, whereas the
Slovene Kopitar, for example, had great difficulty in persuading the
29 See P. Constantinescu, Rolul Romainiei in epoca de regenerare a Bulgariei (Jass i

1919); and "Liberali Romini si vechii revolutionari Bulgari," Archiva, xxxi (1921). More
recently D. N. Mincev has written on Rumania and the Bulgarian renaissance (1936).
30 V. A. Francev, "Bolgaro-degskija literaturnyja svjazi v polovin6 XIX st.," Spisanie
na Bidlgarskata Akademija, xxxvIII (1929), 33-80; and "Dva momenta iz istorii degsko-
bolgarskih literaturnyh svjazei v xix st.," Sbornik Bilgaro-Oehoslova~ka Vzaimnnost (Sofia,
1930), 90-106.
31 Geschickte der slavisehen Sprache und Literaturen nach allen Mundarten (Ofen, 1826).
32 Sigmanov, "LiUnit6 snogenija na P. J. gafarika s btilgarit6," Billgarski Pregled, II
(1895), 74-85.
33 Francev, "Pervye russkie trudi po izudeniju Slavjanstva, preimukestvenno juinago,"
Proslava na osvoboditelnata voina 1877-1878.g. (Sofia, 1929), 36-53; .igmanov, "Studii iz
oblast'ta na btilgarskoto viizraldane. V. I. Grigorovic," Sb. B. A., vi (1916); M. G. Pop-
rudenko, "Pamjati M. P. Pogodinu," Sbornik v cest na V. N. Zlatarski (Sofia, 1925), 277-
89; P. Oreskov, "Aprilov i Sreznevski 1831-1847," Bilgarski Pregled, i (1929), 203-29.
Vienna authorities to pursue a more active "Austro-Slav" policy

such as had been followed at times during the previous century.34
The impact of the French Revolution and its aftermath, and of
German Romanticism, reached the Bulgarians primarily via the
Greeks, Serbs and Russians, either by means of translations or
through schools and universities attended by Bulgarians. It was just
when German philosophy was taking hold of Russia that Bulgarian
students began going to Odessa, Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.
Although in the beginning the majority attended theological semi-
naries and academies, a frequent complaint of their elders was that
they neglected their studies in favor of "light" reading, politics and
even night life!" In this connection also the thoroughly romantic
Slavophile influence of Venelin made itself felt through his own re-
searches in Bulgarian history, and his sponsorship of nascent Bul-
garian literature.36 His patriotic preachments converted men like
Vasil Aprilov - retired vodka merchant, amateur scholar and
philanthropist of Odessa - from Grecophilism to Grecophobism.37
His zeal fired a great many others to work for the national cause,
though to Venelin himself it seemed as if his words fell unheeded.
Actually, until Marin Drinov "discovered" Paisi in 1871 it was
generally assumed that Venelin was the prime mover in the Bulgarian
renaissance.38
Inevitably, a discussion of almost any phase of Bulgarian national
revival, and especially of its foreign aspects, brings up the question of
Russia's role. But without more space than i's available here it would
be impossible to do justice to the subject. In one way or another the
Russian factor underlies the whole process of cultural emancipation.
However, it was most decisive toward the end and led directly to
political emancipation. Hence Russia stands in first place in the affec-
tions of Bulgarians and as a formative influence on Bulgaria.
34 "Patriotische Fantasien eines Slaven," Kleinere Schriften, F. Miklosic, ed. (Vienna,

1857); N. M. Petrovski, "O zanajatah Kopitarja bolgarskim jazikom," Sb. B. A., viii
(1914), 1-74; L. Miletic, "Dr. Franc Miklosic i slavjanskata filologija," Sb. N. U., v (1891),
355499.
35 V. P. Odlakov, "Vlijanieto na Rusija vdrhu obrazovanieto na bdIgarit6 do osvoboz-
denieto," Materijali iz istorijata na u"ebnoto delo v Biilgarija (Sofia, 1905), ii, 19-56.
3 Drevnije i nynanije Bolgare, i (Moscow, 1829); two other volumes were published
posthumously; and 0 zarodysetnovoj bolgarskoj literatury (Moscow, 1838).
37 V. Aprilov, Dennica novo-bolgarskago obrazovanija (Odessa, 1841), 91 ff.; M. Arn-
audov, Aprilov: zivot, deinost, suvremenici (1789-1848) (Sofia, 1935), 94 ff.
38 "Otec Paisi, negovoto vreme, negovata istorija i ucenicite mu," Periodiciesko Spisanie
(Braila), iv (1871), 3-25. One Bulgarian (Kipilovski) read Venelin's first book six times and
another wrote him an ode, to which Venelin replied that he would have preferred a folk
song: letter to Aprilov, Sept. 27, 1837, Sb. N. U., i (1889), 183.
152 fames F. Clarke
Hardly less significant was the Greek factor, partly- because it was
most potent during -the early stages of national awakening and partly
because of Bulgarian reaction to Greek ultra-nationalism. By trans-
lating Greek arguments and theories into Bulgarian terms,' the latter
were able to put an effective halt to the insidious ravages of Helleniza-
tion, at the very m.oment when the threat of denationalization was
most acute. Greek influence came not only through the Church, which
during the eighteenth century fell almost entirely into Fanariote
hands, but also-as a result of Greek commercial and social ascendancy
which made that language a prerequisite to success for Bulgarians.
The'powerfuil Greek renaissance of the second half of the eighteenth
century and first part of the nineteenth, made manifest in a rapid
increase of books and schools and in the formation of cultural and
revolutionary societies, spread to Bulgarians al-so. Inevitably the
latter became involved in the Greek revolution and suffered the con-
sequences of Ypsilanti's rashness.39 Only after the acquisition of
Greek independence and the extension of Greek ambi'tions to the
Danube and the Black Sea did the Bulgarians really become Greco-
phobe. Yet the fact remains that most of the early leaders in the Bul-
garian awakening were products of Greek schools and some remained
Grecophile even after the tide had changed. Comparable to the Czech
nationalists who used German, many Bulgarian "humanists" cor-
responded with each other ion Greek. Significant also is the fact that
Greek books were the originals or models for most of the early Bul-
garian books.40
The Serbian factor, on the other hand, holds an intermediate posi-
tion midway between the extreme Hellenophile'-tendencies of the
early part of the nineteenth century, roughly to the Treaty of Adria-
nople, and the extravagant Russophilism of the period between the
Crimean War and the Treaty of San Stefano. It was' a Balkan, South
Slav interlude of the 'forties, partly the result of Serbia's success in
wresting at least partial autonomy from the Turks, and partly a
Bulgarian reflection of the Illyrian movement. The vogue of Serbia
was in large' measure the natural consequence of a propinquity his-
torikc, religious, racial, linguistic and social, and a realization of com-
mon aims and problems. There was also the fact that Bulgarians had
shared both actively and passively in the earlier Serbian renaissance
of the eighteenth century.41
39 For example, Istori~eski pametnici po vryrneto na zav'rata (Sofia, 1884), written c.

1822-24 by two Bulgarian monks.
40 An extreme case is Izgubenoe dete (Budapest, 1844), translated from the German
original into French, then into Greek, and finally into Bulgarian by Hristaki Pavlovi6.
41 See for example the frequent references to Bulgarians in H. Wendel, Der Kanpf der
Sigdslawen urn Freikeit und Einheit (Frankfort, 1925).
The earliest contacts of Bulgarians were primarily with the West.

Such direct relations as existed with Russia before the treaty of
Kuchuk Kainardji, when commerce began to develop, were almost
exclusively of a religious nature. Relations with the South Slavs,
begun in the seventeenth century, were continued in the next in con-
nection with the revival of the Orthodox' Serbs in Turkey and south-
ern Hungary. Hence, the origins of the Bulgarian renaissance are to
be found in western Bulgaria and Macedonia, although it spread
rapidly to other parts of the country. Because the neighboring Ortho-
dox Serbs led a freer life under the Turks, and were in closer contact
with the Europeanized Yugoslavs along the Adriatic and their refugee
brothers in Hungary, their renaissance preceded that of the Bul-
garians by at least half, and in some respects, a whole century. It was
a by-product of the temporary Austrian occupation of Belgrade be-
tween 1717 and 1739. The Serbs benefited much sooner from Euro-
pean ideas, from Russian teachers who arrived with Russian books
in the early part of the eighteenth century, and even from Hapsburg
policy, alternately trying to Germanize them and to wean them from
Orthodox Russia by granting favors.42 Later they were more accessible
to French revolutionary ideas and even participated in the Napo-
leonic wars.
Bulgarians were involved in the rebirth of Serbia in many ways.
They frequented the same monasteries on Mount Athos, in Mace-
donia and Frushka Gora, and several Bulgarian dioceses were under
the jurisdiction of the Serbian patriarchate of Ipek until its dissolu-
tion in 1766. Bulgarian families participated in the Serb emigrations
from Turkish territories to Hungary in 1690 and later, and were
neighbors of the Serb colonists in New Serbia in Southern Russia.
Bulgarians contributed to Serb literature, read Serbian books and
periodi~cals, and taught in Serbian schools and used Serbian text-books
in their own.43 The conventional "Slaveno-Serbian" literary language,
current before the reforms of Obradovich and Karadzhich, was almost
as comprehensible to Bulgarians as it was to Serbs.44 Thus it is not
strange to find that the Macedonian, Hristofor Zhefarovich, some-
times called the "father of modern Serbian literature," is claimed by
42P. A.. Zabolotski, Russkaja struja v literature' serbskago vozrogdenija (Warsaw, 1908).
43 For example, a grammar by A. Mrazovic: Rukovodstvo k slavensteii gracmmatice'.
Ispravlennei vo upotreblenie slaveno-serbskih narodnyh u6iliME (Vienna, 1794; 2d ed., Buda-
pest, 1800; 3rd, 1821; 4th, 1834), was used by Bulgarians until the middle of the nine-
teenth century, according to A. Ivanov, Curti iz givotiit i zapiski (Sliven, 1885), 26. This
was based on an edition of Smotricki published for Serbs in Rimnik, 1755: gafaiik, Ge-
schichte des serbischen Schrifthums (Prague, 1865).
44B. Unbegaun, Les debuts del langiue litteraire chez les Serbes (Paris, 1935). J.Dobrov-
sky considered Bulgarian a Serbo-Croatian dialect (Slovanka, i [Prague, 1814], 194) as did
most of his contemporaries until Vuk Karadzic and Kopitar set them right.
154 James F. Clarke
both Serbs and Bulgars. His book of imaginary heraldry and dog-
gerel verse, dedicated to Arsenij IV of Ipek, patriarch of "all the
Serbs, Bulgarians, [etc.]," was a favorite in Bulgaria for over a cen-
tury and was the source for the lion rampant on the present Bulgarian
coat of arms.45 Another example is the famous scholar-ecclesiastic,
Jovan Raich, a native of Vidin, of mixed Bulgarian and Serb paren-
tage. The Bulgarian portion of his history of the South Slavs was
translated into "Slaveno-Serbian" by Atanas Neskovich, at the ur-
gent request of Bulgarian merchants in Budapest, and was the first
published history available to Bulgarians.46 At the end of the eigh-
teenth and beginning of the nineteenth century Bulgarians in
Rumania were officially known as "Sarbi."47 Such samples of Serbo-
Bulgarian interaction point to a common South Slav revival in the
eighteenth century which inevitably influenced the less advanced
portions of western Bulgaria and Macedonia, and furnished the
background for the nineteenth century Illyrianism of Ludevit Gaj
and subsequent suggestions for Yugoslav federation.
The growth of trade between the western Balkans and Central
Europe antidated and paralleled that between eastern Bulgaria and
Russia. Serbian merchants congregated in Vienna and helped to
make it the seat of their literary revival. After the disappearance of
Venice, Vienna also became a center of Greek commercial and literary
activity. Here also came Bulgarian merchants, whose chief business
was the overland export of cotton from Seres in Western Thrace.48
For the most part these traders hailed from the town of Bansko
and neighboring Macedonian regions. They brought back ideas and
books as well as good?s and wealth. As a result Bansko became one of
the earliest and most important centers of Bulgarian enlightenment.49
Only recently was it discovered that Paisi himself was a native of
Bansko and that some of his wealthy relatives were engaged in the
Seres-Vienna cotton trade.50 Aside from contacts with Serbs on Mount
Stematografia (Vienna, 1741). A copy of the 2d ed. (1748?), now in Zograph monastery,
Mount Athos, once belonged to Vasil Drumev, Bulgarian revolutionary and historical
dramatist, who became Metropolitan Kliment of Tirnovo, and one of the regents after
Alexander Battenberg's abdication.
46 Clarke, "Zlatarski and Bulgarian historiography," Slavonic Review, xv (1937), 435-
39; see also N. Radoj6i6, "Raiceva bugarska istorija," Sbornik Zlatarski, 353-65; I. Duj~ev,
"Pregled na btilgarskata istoriografija," Jugoslovenski Istorijski Casopis, Iv (1938), 40-74.
4 S. Romanski, Builgarit6 v Vlasko i Moldova. Dokumenti (Sofia, 1930), vi.
48 F. Beaujour. A view of the commerce of Greece, formed after an annual average, from
1787-1797, trans. by T. H. Horne (London, 1800).
49 I. Batakliev, "Grad Bansko," Godisnik na SoJiiski Univeisitet (Ist. Fil. Fak.), xxv
(1929), 18 ff.
0 JI. Jvanov, "Rodnoto mesto na otsa Paisija se ustanovjava," Otec Paisii, xi (1938),
95-101.
Athos (one of whom may have been Raich) Paisi had occasion, in
1761, to visit Karlovtsi, seat of the Serbian church in Hungary. In the
metropolitan library he found additional material for his History,
notably the Russian version of Mauro Orbini's work on the Slavs.5"
A number of Bulgarians, from Bansko and neighboring commercial
centers, were among the first diplomatic agents of autonomous Serbia
and confidential advisers of Prince Milosh.52 From two of them, in
Vienna, Vuk Karadzhich obtained much of the material for his re-
flections on the modern Bulgarian language (the first Bulgarian
-"grammar") and for his collection of Bulgarian folksongs.53
Between Paisi's patriotic sermon on Mount Athos and the begin-
nings of Serb independence there occurred a "time of troubles," when
the Ottoman Empire appeared to be breaking up into decentralized
parts in spite of or because of the reforms of Selim III. Rebellious
pashas, janissaries and spahis ignored the authority of the Porte and
armed bands of pillaging and slaughtering Albanians and other land-
pirates had free reign in the Balkans. Sofroni's autobiographical "Life
and Sufferings of Sinful Sofroni" describes the havoc wrought by
these kurdzhali and daali, especially serious after 1792, which had the
effect, however, of strengthening the Bulgarian element in the safer
mountain towns, future strongholds of nationalism. The Bulgarians,
suffering the greatest depredations but not yet strong enough to act
on their own, participated in the revolutions which ultimately broke
out in Serbia, as they did later in the Greek revolution. The resulting
piecemeal independence of Serbia had a considerable effect on Bul-
garians. Frequently, but often in vain, they looked to Milosh for as-
sistance, counting on the good offices of his coterie of Bulgarian ad-
visers. When the Russian forces evacuated eastern Bulgaria after the
Treaty of Adrianople, the inhabitants of those towns which had been
too ardent in welcoming the Russians contemplated a mass exodus to
Serbia. One of Milosh's Bulgarian advisers was asked to persuade him
to facilitate the emigration of 100,000 refugees from Sliven, Yambol
and Kotel to Serbia, where they would find "the same race, language,
faith and customs." But eventually they changed their destination to
the Principalities.55
6' Trans. by Sava Vladisavi6 Raguzinski and published with additions by Teofan
Prokopovic (Moscow, 1722); I. Pervolf, Slavjanskaja ideja v literature'do XVIII vika (War-
saw, 1888), 229.
52 Sismanov, "Novi studii iz oblast'ta na btilgarskoto vtizrazdanie," Sb. B. A., XXI
(1926), 404.
B3 "Dodatak k Sankt-peterburgskim sravnitelnim rjecnicima sviji jezika i narjedija s
osobitima ogledima bugarskog jezika," Skupleni gramaticki i polemic'ki spisi Vuka S.
Karadzi6a (Belgrade, 1894-96), ii, 178-240, first published in Vienna in 1821-22.
B4 P. N. Oreskov, ed., Avtobiografija na Sofroni Vracanski (Sofia, 1914).
156 James F. Clarke
For those, who stayed at home the recent history of Serbia served
as example and incentive. On both sides of the Morava, Serbia was
looked on as a potential Balkan Piedmont and as late as 1872 some
Bulgarians. still, believed in the possibility of a federative Serbo-
Bulgarian Yugoslavia.56 After the Crimean War Belgrade was a hot-
bed of Bulgarian revolutionary agitation, under the inspired if some-
what melodramatic leadership of Rakovski, Vasil Levski, and Ljuben
Karavelov, until the assassination of Prince Michael scattered the-
"Bulgarian Legion" and made Bucharest the headquarters of the
Bulgarian "government in exile."57
Autonomous Serbia, although relatively primitive, contributed to
the intellectual development of Bulgaria in many ways. As might be
expected, the two outstanding intellectual makers of.modern Serbia,
the eighteenth.century utilitarian rationalist Dositei Obradovich and
the nineteenth century literary reformer Vuk Karadzhich, were
known and appreciated in Bulgaria. The former was especially useful
as a source of arguments in the Church Question,. used by both
Bulgarian nationalists and American missionaries; and the latter
served as a guide in the sharp controversies over the literary language
and evoked imitation because of his success in advertising his own
country throughout Europe with his collections of-Serbian folksongs.58
Other lesser Serbs contributed directly as teachers. and writers, some
becoming virtually Bulgarians by adopti"n. One such was Sima
Milutinovich, teacher in-Vidin (1813-1817), who had ambitious plans
for Bulgarian researches that he never carried out.59 Another was
Konstantin Ognyanovich, teacher in Vratsa, who was partly responsi-
ble for the first Bulgarian press in Constantinople (1841) and was the
author of half a dozen books in Bulgarian, including a poetic version
of the legend of St. Alexis, a favorite. with Bulgarians as with all
Slavs.6" Milan Rashich, author of two Bulgarian books, introduced
6 G. Balastev, ed., "Dokumenti po srAbsko-bulgarskite otnogenija prez 1830-36,"

Izvestija na Istoriceskoto Druzestao, I (1905), 18-21.
5B C. Stojanov, Federativnata ideja v bilgaro-sirbskiteiotnokenija prez XIX vek (1804-70)
(Sofia, 1919). Also N. Batowski, "Le mouvement panbalkanique et les differents aspects
des relations inter-balkaniques dans le pass6," Revue Internationale des Etudes Balkaniques,
In (1938), 320-343.
57 G. Kasabov, Moitj spomeni ot vilzragdaneto na B igarija s revoljucionni idei (Sofia,
1905); A. Burmov, B4ilgarski revoljucionen centralen komitet (1868-1876) (Sofia, 1943).
58 Penev, "Dositei Obradovid u nas,"Spisanie na Bilgarskata Akademija, iI (1912), 73-
132; D. Marinov, VAk Karadgict v novobigarskata knignina (Sofia, 1897). In his memoirs
Obradovich mentions his Bulgarian pupils: 2ivot i prikljic'enija (Leipzig, 1783).
59 D. S. Djordjevic, Sina Milutinovic&Sarajlija (1791-1847) (Belgrade, 1893), 212; J.
Skerli, Istorija nove srpske knigevnosti (2d ed., Belgrade, 1921), 156-163.
6 2itie S'tago Aleksia i'tvek BFgija (Budapest, 1833; 2d ed., Cple., 1853; 3rd, Bolgrad,
1866). Ognyanovich was also responsible for the only two Bulgarian books printed in
Serbian influence when he came to Shumen as a teacher about 1850.

Shumen (Shumla) furnishes a sample of how Serbian and other
foreign influences reached Bulgaria. After the Russo-Turkish War of
1828-1829, ten thousand of its inhabitants emigrated to safer lands
north of the 'Danube. As it was one of the principal Turkish strong-
holds in Bulgaria, Shumen was often visited by' foreigners; other
foreigners in the Turkish service were stationed there. When Sava
Dobroplodni returned from three years of teaching in the Serbian
theological seminary at Karlovtsi, with his head full of foreign litera-
ture and romantic ideas, he modernized the school and encouraged his
pupils to go west or to Russia for further study.6" In 1849 the Polish
and Hungarian refugees who were quartered in Shumen brought all
kinds of revolutionary ideas and intellectual ferment, including
theatrical performances and European musical instruments.62 The
Crimean War brought more foreigners, as did the construction of rail-
road and -telegraph lines.63 Finally, Shumen was chosen in 1859 as one
of the two stations of the newly constituted' American Methodist
Episcopal mission in northern Bulgaria. This was just when the
Church Question was coming to a head and Catholic Uniate propa-
ganda was getting under way.
In the years before the CrimeanWar Bulgarians in greater numbers
began going to school in Belgrade and Serbian institutions in Austria,
especially the theological seminary in Karlovtsi. Often they were
given scholarships. Most of them returned to aid the Bulgarian cause
as teachers, some bringing back histories of the' Serbilan revolution
for Bulgarians to read and emulate. H. G. Danov, the Plovdiv teacher
and publisher, had to spend several years abroad as a result of
peddling The Liberation of the Serbs.64 One curious result was that
under their influence Bulgarians adopted the practice of ending their
last names in ich, Serbian style, instead of the Turkish oglu or some
Hellenized form.65 However, some of the Bulgarian ich's were sur-
vivals of earlier Bosnian Catholic influence. Later, students returning
from Russia made ov and ev fashionable along with Russian vocabu-
Paris by Firmin-Didot (1845, 1846) and translated a German Life of Jelacic for Dobrovski's
Bulgarian periodical Mirozrenia (Vienna, 1850-51).
61 S. Dobroplodni, Kratka avtobiografija (Sofia, 1893). Cf. Arnaudov, ed., Kliment
Tirnovski (Vasil Drumev) (Sofia, 1927), intro., 32 ff.
62J, Hutter, Von Orsova bis Kiutahia (Braunschweig, 1851); S. Bielinski, Polacy w
Turcyi po upadku revolucyi wegierskiej w roku 1849 (Poznan, 1852).
63 Report of Racinski, Russian vice-consul in Varna, May 18, 1863 (Varna Museum
Archives, no. 81).
64 I. Ivanov, Biigarski periodiceski pecat ot vitizrazdanieto mu do dnes (Sofia, 1891-93), 96.
65 P. Kisimov, Istorideski raboti. Moite spomeni (Plovdiv, Sofia, 1897-1903), i, 46. For
example, Denkoglu, Piccolos, Kruistevic were all Bulgarians.
158 James F. Clarke
lary. When in time Bulgarians savoring of Serbia or Russia were

looked upon by the Turks-as subversive, names began ending in the
Polish ski because Poles were in great favor with the Turks.66 With
equal justification the Turks came to consider any Bulgarian coming
from Bucharest as ipso facto a "komita" or member of the Bucharest
revolutionary committee.67 The Serbian-trained Bulgarians were an
important factor because they were the first foreign-educated leaders
between the anti-Greek reaction and the ascendancy of Russian in-
fluence.
Besides being a training ground for teachers and revolutionaries,
Serbia -made another equally essential contribution by helping to
remedy the shortage of Bulgarian books. Already in the fifteenth
century Cyrillic ecclesiastical books had reached Bulgarians from
Serb presses in Montenegro, and in the sixteenth century from
Venice- and Rumania. At least one Bulgarian was a printer in a Ser-
bian press in Venice.68 In the seventeenth century Catholic Croatian
literature flourished for a time. About the middle of that century
ecclesiastical books from Moscow began to occupy the field, both in
Serbia and Bulgaria. During the second half of the eighteenth century
little distinction was made in books for Serbs or Bulgarians and even
in the nineteenth, until Bulgarian books were available, Serbian
books were much in demand in Bulgaria. In the 1830's Benjamin
Barker, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, found no dif-
ficulty in disposing of all his available copies of Stojkovich's Serbian
New Testament in Nish, Sofia, Plovdiv, etc.69
The first book that deserves to be called Bulgarian, a collection of
sermons by Sofroni, Bishop of Vratsa, was printed in 1806 at the
episcopal press in Rimnik, where a number of Serbian books had
previously been published.70 Few Bulgarian books were published
between 1806 and 1833. because of the various revolutions and Russo-
66 Sismanov, Ivan Dobrovski (po licni spomeni i suobstenija) (Sofia, 1896), 44; L. Beau-
lieu, "Des noms de famille en bulgare," Revue des Etudes Slaves, xix (1939), 17-39.
67 Ivan Vazov, "Edna Carigradska sresta," Sbornik v cest na Stefan S. Bobveu (Sofia,
1921), 31.
68 M. Drinov, "Jakov Traikov ot Sofija i Kara-Trifun ot Skopie," Jubileen Sbornik na
Slaojanskata Beseda 1880-95 (Sofia, 1895), 29-35; B. Conev, Opis na riikopisit64i staropecat-
nite' knigi v narodnata biblioteka v Sofija (Sofia, 1910).
69 1st ed., St. Petersburg, 1825 (?) (suppressed); 2d, Leipzig, 1830; 3rd, 1834. Barker's
"Journal," Agent's Book 18, Archives of the B.F.B.S.; Annual Report of the B.F.B.S., xxi
(1835), 111.
70 Kiriakodromion sirec: nedelnik (Rimnik, 1806). Clarke, "The first Bulgarian book,"
Harvard Library Notes, iII (1940), 295-302, where the title-page is reproduced. I. Bianu
and H. Hodos, Bibliografia romaneasca veclve (4. v., Bucharest, 1903 ff.), list Slavic books
printed in Rumania since 1508. A "Middle Bulgarian" Gospel (Targovigte, 1512) is some-
times called the first Bulgarian book.
Turkish wars. With the exception of Peter Beron's Speller (1824) and
Peter Sapunov's-Gospels (1828), all books between Sofroni's and the
first Bulgarian one printed in Belgrade came from the Budapest
University Press, which had a monopoly in Austria for Cyrillic
publications.7" In 1818 Kopitar petitioned the Imperial government
to permit him and Vuk Karadzhich to print Cyrillic books in Vienna,
arguing that the-Serbian clergy in Austria were still using books
printed in Russia.72 The Budapest Cyrillic press had been established
in Vienna in 1770 by Kurtzbek, then sold by his widow in 1792 to
Stefan Novakovich, who sold it to Budapest four years later.73 Even
after the establishment of the more convenient and cheaper press in
Belgrade, many Bulgarian books were printed in. Budapest.
The Hatti-Sherif of 1830 granted Milosh autonomy in printing
also, freeing Belgrade from dependence on the Budapest press. The
next year a second-hand press from the defunct Russian Bible Society
and a German printer, Adolf Behrman, were acquired in St. Peters-
burg. Austrian officials, every ready to smell a Russian plot, claimed
that the press was a gift from the Tsar, but all Nicholas had sent
Milosh was his portrait and some books which got soaked in transit.74
The press arrived in Belgrade in 1831. Its first products included a
pamphlet on cholera, a description of the visit of an archduke, an
announcement of the arrival of an elephant, and an arithmetic in
Bulgarian.75 To 1860 the Belgrade government press (temporarily in
Kraguevats) was the only one in Serbia. where Bulgarian books were
printed. As a source of Bulgarian-publications it is outranked by only
two presses, one in Constantinople and the other in Vienna. Most
of the Belgrade items were elementary texts and religious works,
which were often financially assisted by Milosh. But Belgrade and'
Novi Sad, across the river in Hungary, also supplied revolutionary
literature such as Rakovski's incendiary Mountain Traveler and his
71 P. Berovic, Bukvar s razlic'ny pouc'enija ([Brasov], 1824); P. Sapunov, ed., Novyi

Zavet: sirec cetyrite evaggelii (Bucharest, 1828). V. Pogorelov, Opis na staritj pecatani bil-
garski kniji (1802-1877) (Sofia, 1923), includes a number of non-Bulgarian and fictitious
items.
72 A. Ivic, Arhivska gradja o srpskim [etc.] knrizevnim i kulturnim radnitsirna (3 v., Bel-
grade, 1926-32),I, 179-194.
73 J. Skerlic, Srpska Kn jizevost u XVIII veku (Belgrade, 1909), 134.
74 A. Arnautovic, Stamparija u Srbiji u XIX veku (Belgrade, 1912), 24 ff.; Skerlic,
Istorijski pregled srpske stamrpe 1791-1911 (Belgrade, 1911), 23 if.; Ivic, Arhivska gradja,
III, 12. Mihail German, one of Milosh's Bulgarian agents from Bansko, and Vuk Karad-
zhich had failed in similar efforts: L. Stojanovic, Zivot i rad V. S. Karadzica (Belgrade,
1924), 361 ff.
75 H. Pavlovic, Arizrnetika ili nauka Cislitelna (Belgrade, 1833). This was the first Bul-
garian book since 1828.
160 James F. Clarke
polemical newspaper, the Danube Swan. These were smuggled into

Bulgaria in spite of the vigilance of Turkish and Austrian authori-
ties.76 In any case books from Serbia were subject to less suspicion
than anything coming from Russia:
Milosh's press also contributed to the spread of modern Bulgarian
education. By a coincidence the educational innovator, Neofit Rilski,
and the religious reformer, Neofit Bozveli, both printed their first
series of elementary text-books in Belgrade in 1835. In the same year
Neofit Rilski opened in Gabrovo a school sponsored by Bulgarian
philanthropists in Odessa and Bucharest, which was the beginning of
far-reaching educational reforms.77 That the Belgrade press served a
need is shown by the sudden increase and subsequent steady growth
in the output of Bulgarian books after 1833. In the following seven
years forty-two books were published, the majority in Belgrade, more
than twice as many as in the-previous twenty-seven years.78
Similarly the origins of printing, bookselling and publishing in
Bulgaria are linked to Serbia. In the 1820's Nicola Karastoyanov, one
of the first Bulgarian printers and publishers, had smuggled a wooden
hand-press from Serbia to Samokov. He obtained type from the Buda-
pest University press, but was too scared of consequences to make
much use of either type or press for many years. Consequently his
first publications were printed in Belgrade.79 What was probably the
first Bulgarian press originated clandestinely in Vatosha, Macedonia,
about 1837. In 1838 it was transferred to Salonica and operated by
Hadzhi Teodosi, a Bulgarian from Doiran, only to be burned by the
Greeks a year later.80 It was revived with the help of Abbot Kiril
76 Gorskii Pdtnik (Novi Sad, 1857); Dunavskii Lebed began publication in Belgrade at
the government press Sept. 1, 1860, and was transferred later to Novi Sad.
77 V. Aprilov, Dennica novo-bolgarskago obrazovanija (Odessa, 1841) and Dopolnenie (St.
Petersburg, 1842), written in reply to M. A. Solovjev's hostile review in the Moskovitjanin,
No. 5 (1842), 132-164. The Gabrovo school, often inaccurately called the first Bulgarian
school, was the first Lancastrian school in which Bulgarian wag the language of instruction.
78 The approximate output of pre-liberation books according to decades was:
1806-10 3 1821-30 9 1841-50 143 1861-70 709
1811-20 7 1831-40 42 1851-60 291 1871-78 538
S. Kutincev, Pecatarstvoto v Biigarija do osvobogdenieto (Sofia, 1920), 208; cf. N. Nacov,
"Novobiilgarskata kniga i pecatarskoto delo u nas ot 1806 do 1877," Sbornik na Bilgar-
skata Akademija xv (1921); and Pogorelov, op. cit. B. M. Andreev, Bilgarskijat pecat prez
vitzragdaneto (Sofia, 1932), deals with periodicals only.
79 V. N. Zlatarski, "Daskal Nikolai Karastojanovi6 i negovata pecatnica," Periodicesko
Spisanie, LXVI (1905), 623-661; A. Hajek, "Die bulgarischen 'opuscula rarissima' der Jire-
cek-Bibliotek," Berichte des Forschungs-Instituts fi&r Osten und Orient, iII (1923), 141-44.
Karastoyanov was falsely implicated in scandals connected with Behrman, director of the
Belgrade press.
80 According to a ms. note in a copy of one of its first products, Slugenie evreisko (Salon-
ica, 1839).
Peichinovich of Tetovo, Macedonia, author of one of the first Bul-

garian books.8' But only half a dozen books were produced in as
many years. This press also is said to have come from Belgrade.82
Then there was the Bulgarian, Hadzhi Naiden Joanovich, inde-
fatigable and eccentric publisher and itinerant peddler of Serbian
and Bulgarian books, whose headquarters were in Belgrade. Some of
his thirty-odd publications were done in Bucharest but-most were
printed in Belgrade. For years he was a familiar figure at Bulgarian
fairs. Early in his career he had vowed to remain a bachelor so that
he could devote all his time to the cause of popular education.83 Such
men contributed not a little to cementing the bonds of Serbo-Bul-
garian- understanding during the first part of the nineteenth century.84
It was only when better facilities for publishing became available in
Constantinople, Bucharest and Vienna that Belgrade lost some of its
earlier significance.
Unfortunately for the future peace of the Balkans, nothing perma-
nent came of the Serbian phase of the Bulgarian national revival. In
time a feeling of disillusion developed about the altruism of the Serbs.
Although both Milosh and his successor Michael occasionally aided
the Bulgarians, too often they sacrificed them in order to curry favor
with the Porte, or used them for their own ends, as in 1862 and 1867
to help get rid of the remaining Turkish garrisons in Serbia. Serb
ambitions and vested interests - like the Greek - could not be
reconciled with new-found Bulgarian national aspirations. As early
as 1840 Bulgarians had noted a lack of cordiality in Belgrade - a
coolness toward Illyrian ideals and exaggerated claims to Balkan
hegemony. Ivan Dobrovski, fresh from organizing a "Young Bul-
garia" society in Athens, after a visit to Belgrade gave up the idea of
setting up headquarters there.85 Serb students in Vienna were also
hostile. This was well before the creation of the Exarchate led to
organized Serb propaganda in Macedonia. As long as the Bulgarians
were potentially a part of greater Serbia, relations were amicable
enough, but when the Bulgarians won a national victory in an
Exarchate which was not confined to what diplomats euphemistically
called "Bulgaria proper," the honeymoon came to an end. The revival
81 Ogledalo (Budapest, 1816).

82 Drinov, "Ptirvata btilgarska tipografija v Solun i nekoi ot napedatanit6 v neja knigi,"
Siginenija (3 v., Sofia, 1909-1911), ii, 425-50. A. Selikev, "Kiril Pei~inovi6," Sbornik
Zlatarski, pp. 389-405.
83 N. Nadov, "Hadli Naiden Joanovi6," Periodicesko Spisanie, LXV (1904), 100-123;
J. Gruev, Moitj Spomeni (Plovdiv, 1905), p. 7.
84 Penev, Istorija na novata bilgarska, literaturc, iII, 267.
85 Sigmanov, Ivan Dobrovski, p. 31.
162 James F. Clarke
originating in Western Bulgaria and Macedonia under the beneficent

influence of the Serb renaissance was a genuinely Bulgarian move-
ment, which under more favorable circumstances might have led to
federation, but which resulted in the reverse.86
In the space of a century the Bulgarians had progressed from mere-
ly Christian rayak or "Greeks" or ''Serbs" to full national stature of
their own', blessed with substantial if not complete political- inde-
pendence'. In the process they had formed Mazzinian "Young Bul-
garia" societies, had'fought on the 1848 barricades of Paris, and had
served in the legions of Garibaldi -"the voice'of. God in Italy," -as
Rakovski called him .87 One Bulgarian spent. six months in a Budapest
prison in the cause 'of Serbian freedom, another became court chaplain
to the- Romanovs and a third was court photographer to. His Highness
the Prince of' Serbia. Bulgarians 'had attended universities in-the
principal countries of Europe and had become professors in Constanti-
nople, Corfu and Harkov. Others were consuls of Serbia, hospodars
of Moldavia, princes of Samos, and confidants of sultans. At least
two had made European reputations as scholars, one as a scientist,
the other as a. classicist. One Bulgarian, had become the hero of a
Russian novel; another had a book translated -into Danish.88 An
Orthodox monk had gone to Rome to become a Uniate Catholic
bishop and pure wanderlust had taken another Bulgarian to New
York and back again in 1855. Such illustrations indicate in what
measure the Bulgarians had raised themselves from Turkish oblivion
and with what effectiveness the ferment of.foreign contacts was
working.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
86 E. Haumant was led astray by A. Belili, T. Djordjevi6, etc., into trying to prove that
Bulgarian claims to Macedonia originated after 1870: La formation de la Yougoslavie (XV-
XX sieles) (Paris, 1930), 302 ff.; and "Les origines de la lutte pour -la Machdoine,"Mo-d'
Slave, (1927). J. Mousset, La Serbie et son Eglise (Paris, 1938), 263-299, states the Serb
thesis more impartially. S. Radev, La Macddoine et la renaissance bulgare au XIXe siecle
(Sofia, 1918) and N. S. Derjavine, Les rapports Bulgaro-Serbes et la question Mac6donienne
(Lausanne, 1918; first published in St. Petersburg in 1914), state the Bulgarian case. See
also A. Teodorov-Balan, "Makedonija i Builgarija kato duh i sila," Sbornik Louis Leger
(Sofia, 1925), 211 ff.
87 Dunavski Lebed, January 17, 1861.
88 Bolgarernes skikke og overtro. Af Z. Kneazjeskij. Efter det Russiske ved E. M. Thorson
(Copenhagen, 1855).

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SERBIA AND THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL (1762-1872)

OF THE Balkan peoples who regained independent national life during

counted on local diversions in Bulga'ria. Later came Russia's interest

ushered in a period of intellectual and political activity hardly equaled

The national revival. of Bulgaria-had its immediate origin in a

national character of the Greek Orthodox Church linked Bulgaria

15 K. Suhodolska, "Btilgarit6 v neizdadenit6 memoari na Caika Caikovski (Sadtik

preparatory stages. Without the strengthening of the Bulgarian urban

difficult by the existence of eastern and

novo, where memories -of former independence persisted longest; and

Directly or indirectly almost every country in Europe contributed

25 V. N. Zlatarski, "Tutrnovskite vizstanija i opiti za vtizstanija predi Velkovata

29 See P. Constantinescu, Rolul Romainiei in epoca de regenerare a Bulgariei (Jass i

Vienna authorities to pursue a more active "Austro-Slav" policy

34 "Patriotische Fantasien eines Slaven," Kleinere Schriften, F. Miklosic, ed. (Vienna,

39 For example, Istori~eski pametnici po vryrneto na zav'rata (Sofia, 1884), written c.

The earliest contacts of Bulgarians were primarily with the West.

6 G. Balastev, ed., "Dokumenti po srAbsko-bulgarskite otnogenija prez 1830-36,"

Serbian influence when he came to Shumen as a teacher about 1850.

lary. When in time Bulgarians savoring of Serbia or Russia were

71 P. Berovic, Bukvar s razlic'ny pouc'enija ([Brasov], 1824); P. Sapunov, ed., Novyi

polemical newspaper, the Danube Swan. These were smuggled into

Peichinovich of Tetovo, Macedonia, author of one of the first Bul-

81 Ogledalo (Budapest, 1816).

originating in Western Bulgaria and Macedonia under the beneficent

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