Sprouts of Romanticism in Paisiev's "Slavonic-Bulgarian History"

"For us, the Bulgarians, the Hieromonk and Pro-Igumen Paisius of Hilendar is a national pride." This high and in a sense new assessment of the first Bulgarian Revivalist, sounded by the illegal radio station "Hristo Botev" during the armed anti-fascist struggle, was an assessment not only of the revolutionary working class and the Communist Party, but also of our entire progressive society, of the working people heroically fighting against fascism and capitalism. That is why, after the victory of the socialist revolution in our country, Paisius of Hilendar attracted the strong attention of many literary critics, historians, philosophers - T. Pavlov, Zh. Natan, D. Kosev, P. Dinekov, P. Zarev, Em. Georgiev, V. Velchev, Hr. Hristov, Vl. Topencharov, B. St. Angelov, etc. Some foreign (mainly Soviet and Italian) scholars also showed special interest in his personality and work - A. N. Robinson, G. D. Gachev, R. Picchio, etc. In response to accumulated misconceptions on the part of biased bourgeois scholars in the past, the problem of Paisius' ideology naturally turned out to be the most relevant now. In connection with this problem and to a large extent as subordinate to it, the questions of the era, of the socio-economic, political, and cultural state of the Bulgarian people in the 18th century, as well as the questions of the domestic literary sources of "Slavic-Bulgarian History" were thrown into a new, broader, Marxist-Leninist study.