Книжка-3

1964 Book 3 Contents

A year has passed since the first secretary of our party, comrade Todor Zhivkov, delivered his programmatic speech "Communist ideology - the guiding principle of our literature and art". The main pathos of the speech was directed against bourgeois ideology and the channels of its penetration in our country. Its main meaning was to unite the ideological cadres for a more successful offensive against foreign ideological influence, for decisively overcoming deviations from Marxist-Leninist views and socialist realism in the field of culture and art.

Vaptsarov, this somewhat intrusive young man, with a casually unbuttoned collar and a lock of hair falling on his forehead, as I remember him, moved imperceptibly among the people. But this was only the external, "showy" side. Because every cell of his soul trembled with tension, excitement and businesslike drive. Because as a party functionary he was on the front line, on the firing line. But wasn't he like that as a writer too? Didn't he still modestly consider himself a "newbie" in the universally recognized literary environment, even though his success and achievements spoke otherwise? He, the still unknown, who recognized the primacy of his teachers and who did more than them, by transforming the everyday life, the pain, the suffering and the willingness to sacrifice of the working class in an original way. Here is his characteristic urban landscape:

This article was conceived and written as a continuation of another one that the author published last year (Literary Thought magazine, vol. 6), under the title "Origin and essence of the theory of "art for art's sake". Both there and here the author attempts to examine the relevant phenomena from a historical point of view, which, taking into account the specific conditions of their emergence and development, seeks to penetrate their complex and contradictory essence, to analyze the struggle of positive and negative tendencies in them and the fatal end of this struggle, in which, by virtue of a whole complex of social reasons, the destructive principle prevails. It is here, in the aesthetics and art of individualism, that the reader will see (if, of course, the author has been able to prove it) that both in the actions of individual human behavior and in broader social and cultural manifestations, subjectively honest intentions often lead to objectively harmful results, or more precisely, that the pursuit of freedom of personal expression in artistic creation is only a positive value when it is guided by the consciousness of public service, when it is restrained by the principles of social discipline.

Dimitar Blagoev belongs to those creative personalities whose work we remember not only on anniversaries and celebrations. With all the enormous achievements of modern thought in various fields of human knowledge, the traditions and testaments of these notable personalities retain all their vitality and timeless significance. Generations from different eras turn to their work to draw knowledge and wisdom, lessons and inspiration in their efforts to realize high social and cultural ideals. Therefore, such historical figures are not only our teachers, who have given us a true compass for orientation in the complex problems of life, but also our living contemporaries, suggesting to us the direction to the great truths.

There are writers who become more vital, younger with each passing day: they seem to embody the eternal youth of humanity in its endless striving for happiness, forever calling forward to new horizons. Such an eternally young poet - a warrior for human happiness, who with his ardent love for people illuminates the path to their future, is the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of whose birth is celebrated this year with special solemnity and gratitude by all working humanity. His wonderful poetic creation, which flew like a free bird from the depths of the heart of Ukraine, with unfading freshness and power today sounds in many languages ​​​​throughout the world and awakens ardent urges for justice and freedom in millions of people. Shevchenko's name stands alongside the names of the greatest sons of humanity, who gave all the riches of their hearts, all the flame of their feelings for the triumph of man, for his victory over oppressors and oppressors, for the affirmation of love and brotherhood among all workers.

As is known, already in the 18th and 19th centuries, Serbian and Bulgarian writers dedicated their works to the revival of the two peoples. Andrija Kačić-Miošić, for example, did not divide the southern Slavs. Dositej Obradović mentioned in his works not only Serbia, but also "poor Bulgaria". Vuk Karadžić was the first to publish Bulgarian folk songs, Konstantin Ognjanović worked for the spiritual awakening of the Bulgarian people, to whom he dedicated his works. Major writers such as Hristofor Žefarović and Jovan Rajić were of Bulgarian origin. They wrote their works in the Russian-Slavic language and contributed equally to the Bulgarian and Serbian spiritual and political development. During the Renaissance, an unprecedented transfer of ideas and themes from one literature to another occurred. However, when we must note the undoubted impact of South Slavic literatures in our country, especially since the beginning of the 19th century, we must also bear in mind the fact that these South Slavic literatures themselves sought models in Italian, Russian, Greek and Austrian literature, that they were in natural, natural relationships with these literatures. First of all, Dalmatian, and for a long time after that, the other Slavic literatures suffered the general influence of the European Renaissance, which manifested itself somewhere earlier, somewhere later in separate borrowings and imitations of one or another model. That is why, when we study the Serbian and Croatian literary and cultural influence in our country at the beginning of the 19th century, we cannot help but notice that this is actually a natural creative process that encompasses both countries, as well as the other Balkan peoples, that historically conditioned interconnections are taking place here, that from what we have taken in a given period, we have created qualitatively new works with which we have moved literary development forward.

The Syndicate of Literary Critics in France published a volume of the materials of the First International Colloquium of Literary Critics, held in Paris from 4 to 8 June 1962. The Syndicate of Literary Critics is an association founded in 1948 by the late prominent literary critic Robert Kemp, who was its chairman until his death in 1959. This syndicate took the initiative for the first international meeting of literary critics, with the participation of representatives from sixteen countries, including the USSR and the USA. Representatives from the socialist countries: Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, also attended the meeting. The meeting was opened on June 4 with a welcoming speech by the Director General of the Department of Literature and Art at the Ministry of Culture, Gaëtan Picon, himself a renowned literary critic and essayist, author of a number of works such as "Panorama of New French Literature", "Panorama of Contemporary Ideas", "Introduction to an Aesthetics of Literature", etc. In his welcoming speech, Gaëtan Picon also developed some thoughts on the role and mission of literary criticism, stating, among other things: "One is struck by the insight and depth of contemporary criticism. Our good teachers of the last century would be surprised if they read some of today's critics. Rimbaud would not have felt any surprise at all before René Chard, nor Baudelaire before Henri Michaux, but Jules Lemaître, of course, or the very perceptive Sainte-Beuve would have felt a certain surprise before the methods of Georges Poulet, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and even - despite the clarity of the vision - before the writings of a Curtius or a Marcel Raymond.

Half a year before leaving with his detachment for his homeland, Hristo Botev, together with Stefan Stambolov, published a small book with a title as unpretentious and modest as his entire appearance: "Songs and Poems by Boteva and Stambolova". This was the only attempt by the revolutionary writer to take a look at his creative path, and only in the field of poetry. The search for and publication of his entire literary work remains a task for generations, a great and responsible task that has not been finally solved to this day. What has been done in the past and what is the status of the issue of Botev's literary heritage today?

"PROLETARIAN REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY IS NOT AN EMPTY WORD!" The September Uprising in Bulgaria of 1923 was the first anti-fascist uprising, the first assault of the working masses to block the barbaric march of fascism that was coming after the First World War. With the blood of the Bulgarian workers and peasants, who colored the waters of the Ogosta and Maritsa rivers more than forty years ago, the opening pages of the magnificent anti-fascist struggle of the European peoples, which lasted more than two decades, were written. The heroic and bloody battle of our working people with the fascist gangs of Tsankov was a signal, a warning and a lesson for the workers and peasants in other countries. After the uprising, the working masses strengthened their revolutionary readiness and determination to resist and attack the fascist plague, which was stretching its sinister hand over Europe. As is known, the heroic uprising of the popular masses, however, failed. For a number of reasons, it suffered defeat and was suppressed in the most cruel and barbaric way. But this was a defeat that prepared the people's victory on September 9, 1944, when the prophetic words of the heroic singer of the uprising, Geo Milev, came true - September became May!

Issue 153 of "RLF" opens with a cartoon by Alexander Zhendov "The Path of Above-Class Art". The cartoon depicts an armchair on which Al. Tsankov is sitting with a bloody axe in his relaxed hand. An artist is crouching next to him, licking the bloodsucker's shoes with the tip of his tongue. This is the entire content of the cartoon. I don't know why, but this cartoon seems to me very characteristic of "RLF" - both with its definite attitude towards bourgeois writers, and with its hatred and sarcasm towards those who hide their cowardly desertion behind noisy and lush abstract-noble phraseology. This caricature also speaks of an artistic consciousness that judges the depicted fact as something foreign, from the other, "other" world, is proud of its assessment, of its ability to deny the servility, the pitiful conformism, the servility of the bourgeois priests of art.

Recently, Soviet Slavic studies have shown a great deal of interest in the history of our literature. And it must be said right away that the problems of old Bulgarian and Renaissance literature are still being avoided from their perspective. And in this direction there is much to be found, concerning the history of Russian and Bulgarian literature. A good illustration of this thought is the extensive and valuable work by A. N. Robinson "History of the Slavic Revival and Paisii Hilendarski" (Moscow, 1963, 139 p.), written in connection with the Fifth Slavic Congress, which took place in Sofia in September 1963. The personality and work of Paisii Hilendarski have long aroused interest among Russian Slavic scholars, manifested mainly in an archaeographic direction (V. I. Grigorovich, Yu. Iv. Venelin, O. Bodyanski, Vl. Lamanski, P. A. Lavrov, etc.). What's more, Paisius was introduced into scientific literature by the Russian scholar V. I. Grigorovich in 1852. After that, interest in Paisius gradually grew. Now a new and particularly important moment is the introduction of Paisius into the history of pan-Slavic literatures, which first appeared in the famous "History of Slavic Literatures" by Pipin and Spasovich (1879). The prominent Slavist P. A. Lavrov made a thorough historical and literary analysis of "One of the revisions of the "History of Slavonic Bulgaria" by the monk Paisius..." (1895). After a long break in similar scientific publications, in 1941 the extensive study "Paisius of Hilendar and his "History of Slavonic Bulgaria" 1762" appeared by Academician N. S. Derzhavin, included in his famous "Collection of Articles and Research in the Field of Slavic Philology" (pp. 63-124). And again a new break, broken in 1963 with the appearance of the above-mentioned work by A. N. Robinson.

In the lively discussions about Karavelov's worldview and work in recent years, the Soviet philosopher Lev Valentinovich Vorobyov also intervened. His articles appeared in Bulgarian scientific publications, magazines and newspapers, which suggested resourceful and original thought, an open-minded attitude towards facts, controversial concepts and their authors. In 1962, his book "Philosophical and Sociological Views of Lyubena Karavelova" was published. The following year, the monograph "Lyuben Karavelov. Worldview and Work" appeared. The two studies, with certain compositional changes, represent the doctoral dissertation of L. V. Vorobyov, which he defended in June 1962 in Kiev. While in the first book the researcher is exclusively interested in the ideology of the Bulgarian revolutionary, the second study gives a comprehensive idea of ​​Karavelov - the public figure, the writer, the encyclopedist. Without belittling the value of "Philosophical and Sociological Views of Lyubena Karavelova", we will express our opinion on the second book of the Soviet scientist. In it, the author thoroughly presents all his observations and conclusions, which are also the subject of his first study.