Шишманов

In the first decades after the Liberation, the socio-historical needs of the Bulgarian people required scientific and cultural figures to work on a broad front, to undertake and implement numerous initiatives, to demonstrate civic responsiveness and foresight in order to lay solid foundations for the developing national science and culture. If one part of the post-liberation intelligentsia was carried away by the political demagogy and careerism of the ruling bourgeoisie and their actions deservedly provoked the criticism and indignation of the best realist writers, then another significant part gave their talents and knowledge to the flourishing of education, science, and literature. The great socio-patriotic, ideological, and moral-ethical traditions of the Revival era continued to be a source of inspiration for them to serve devotedly for the all-round progress of our newly liberated people. Among these enthusiastic builders of our national culture, the personality of Prof. Iv. D. Shishmanov. His diverse and fruitful work as a scientist and cultural figure, as a citizen-humanist and a patriot writer is a valuable contribution to the spiritual and intellectual development of our people from the end of the last and the first decades of the current century. Here it is not our task to consider the contribution of Iv. Shishmanov in the numerous areas in which he worked. We will only point out the role of the prominent scientist-humanist in the development of our literature through the comprehensive support he gives to writers and poets, through the rare responsiveness to their needs and aspirations. Shishmanov is one of the few at that time who with such great love and concern follows the development of our national artistic and scientific thought, seeks all possible means and forms in order to create the necessary conditions for the manifestation of creative talents, for the emergence of literature with great ideological-cognitive and patriotic-emotional significance. A trained literary historian and critic who has studied the development of many other national literatures, he accurately sees where the necessary prerequisites are hidden for talents to grow and manifest, what needs to be done so that they are properly nurtured and not wasted. The history of world literature has taught him that artistic thought develops on the basis of a higher culture of the entire people, that its bearers can only be people who live with higher socio-ethical and cultural-aesthetic ideals, but who can also find objective conditions for creative expression with such ideals. That is why he works with dedication to expand and democratize education, to raise the general cultural level of the people. "If you want a richer Bulgarian literature to develop - first of all, provide education and through education, give the opportunity to manifest the hidden talents that exist in all classes, but are silenced because they cannot find the necessary conditions for development." With proverbial persistence, for decades Shishmanov worked to organize a variety of cultural and educational institutes and institutions and deservedly occupies one of the first places among the builders of a new cultural Bulgaria.