Debating the Past: Modern Bulgarian Historiography—From Stambolov to Zhivkov

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Central European University Press Budapest – New York Sales and information: ceupress@ceu.hu Website: http://www.ceupress.com ISBN 978-615-5 053-00-9        About the Author Roumen Daskalov is Professor at New Bulgarian University, Sofia and Recurrent Visiting Professor at Central European University, Budapest. Cover design by Péter Tóth M o d e r n B u l g a r i a n H i s t o r y F r o m S t a m b o l o v t o Z h i v k o v D e b a t i n g t h e P a s t he book is comprised of the four major debates on modern Bulgarian history from Independence in 1878 to the fall of communism in 1989. The debates are on the Bulgarian–Russian/Soviet relations, on the relations between Agrarians and Communists, on Bulgarian Fascism, and on Communism. They are associated with the rule (regimes) of key political personalities in Bulgarian history: Stambolov (1887–1894), Stamboliiski (1919–1923), Tsar Boris III (1918–1943), and the communist leaders Georgi Dimitrov and Todor Zhivkov (1956–1989). The debates are traced through their various articulations and dramatic turns from their beginnings to the present day. his intelligent, erudite and methodologically rigorous analysis of Bulgarian historiography from the 19th century to the present is one of the few genuinely modern historiographical syntheses in the East European field. It thus contributes significantly to the gradual deprovincialization of the discipline.” – Maria Todorova, Gutgsell Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign T T Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: STAMBOLOV, THE RUSSOPHILES, AND THE RUSSOPHOBES IN BULGARIA Initial Interpretations of the Stambolov Era The Marxist Historians on Stambolov’s Regime Towards Stambolov’s Rehabilitation After the Fall of the Communist Regime Chapter 2: THE RULE OF THE BULGARIAN AGRARIAN NATIONAL UNION AND THE “WORKER-PEASANT ALLIANCE” The Road to Power Agrarian Rule: Ideology and Reforms Interpretation and Assessments Aleksandŭr Stamboliiski The Agrarian Union and the “Unity of Action” with the Bulgarian Communist Party Chapter 3: THE DEBATE ON FASCISM AND THE ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLES The Long Fascism and the Breaches in It “Monarcho-Fascism” Bulgaria and Hitler’s Germany Anti-Fascism and the Struggle against Fascism After Communism Chapter 4: SEPTEMBER NINTH, “PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY” AND SOCIALISM September Ninth “People’s Democracy” (1944–1948) Socialism in Progress After Socialism, about Socialism: September Ninth Revisited The People’s-Democratic Transition Georgi Dimitrov The Macedonian Question The Repressions Bulgarian Totalitarianism The Zhivkov Era and Descriptions of the System Socialist Modernization Aspects of the System Conclusion THE TRUTH AND OBJECTIVITY QUESTION IN BULGARIAN HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP Transliteration Roumen Daskalov D e b a t i n g t h e P a s t M o d e r n B u l g a r i a n H i s t o r y Roumen Daskalov Debating_the_Past_bor.indd 1 11/4/27 1:45 PM ...