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In September 1920, Yordan Yovkov was appointed by order of Prime Minister Alexander Stamboliyski as a clerk at the Bulgarian legation in Bucharest, where he spent about six years holding various positions: "press assistant", "secretary", and finally, as a "reward" for his conscientious work, due to the "lack" of the necessary qualifications, he had to fulfill the duties of... Dragoman". Despite his official employment and his difficult financial situation, in the Romanian capital he worked with true inspiration and for the joy of Bulgarian culture - he completed "The Song of the Wheels", wrote "Stara Planina Legends" and began "Evenings at the Antimov Inn". Yovkov's life in Bucharest, as his letters and the memories of his friends testify, was difficult and joyless. The plenipotentiary ministers at that time were Todor Nedkov, General Iv. Fichev, Georgi Kyoseivanov and Svetoslav Pomenov, who treated the writer with disdain and looked at him almost as an ordinary official, something more - as an imbecile. On various occasions, the writer wrote letters to his friends in his homeland, shared with them his difficult fate and rewarded them for small favors. Some of these letters were published in books and magazines and are known to the Bulgarian reader. (See Grigor Vassilev, "Yordan Yovkov", 1940 and "Unpublished Letters of Yordan Yovkov" magazine "Literary Thought", vol. 5, 1957).

The archive of Naicho Tsanov (1857-1923) contains 11 letters, and in the manuscript department of the National Library "V. Kolarov", Sofia - 3 letters of A. Strashimirov, sent from 1900 to 1903 from Sofia to N. Tsanov in Vidin. The letters cover a period of intensive economic development and political struggles in our country. Strashimirov was not left out of them, as he contacted the democrats from N. Tsanov's group at that time. In 1902, together with N. Tsanov, T. G. Vlaykov and others, he was elected for the first time as a people's representative in the 11th ordinary National Assembly. The publication of the letters will contribute to clarifying some moments in the life and work of Strashimirov, his ideological zigzags and his desire to take an active, correct and honest attitude towards contemporary social and cultural problems. At the same time, the information contained in the letters complements and clarifies the picture of public life, of the relationships between political parties and groups of the era, touches on interesting issues of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, of the revolutionary struggles of the Russian proletariat and progressive intelligentsia, and paints unknown aspects of the activities of G. Delchev, P. K. Yavorov, K. Hristov, T. Tserkovski and others.

We have received your letter, together with the material. We are glad that our youth, although in foreign countries they are busy with the difficult science of courses, do not forget the great and sacred duty to the dear and dear fatherland, and this phenomenon shows that our people want to live a long and lasting life - God willing! Work, brother, work, while your strength is fresh, your energy strong and your imagination ardent: do not let this fiery and winged time fly away uselessly into the irretrievable eternity of eternity. We are glad of this phenomenon and we will place your works in Trud with great pleasure. Polish literature is rich in stories, and you are there among it: from it, from German and etc. choose the color and that which is in accordance with our reviving our young literature - things that will bring tangible benefit to our people. From the letter itself and from the material it is clear that you work conscientiously and accurately. May your example serve as an example to other young people! Even though we do not know each other personally, we see that you have spirit and talent: do not let your talent go to waste - reveal it to the world and, God forbid, may it take refuge and fly over Bulgarian life, inspiring it and leading it to the beautiful and morally useful.

The letters of Geo Milev to Nikolay Liliev, which are printed here, were written in the period between 1915 and 1919. They were taken from Liliev's personal archive. Of the 7 preserved letters, one was published as a preface to Geo Milev's translated poems by H. Heine - "Selected Songs and Romances". This letter is dated June 20, 1919 and is entirely dedicated to Heine. It is also included in volume II of Selected Works of Geo Milev edited by Mila Geo Mileva, S., 1940. Nikolay Liliev and Geo Milev were very close, cordial friends. Although Liliev is ten years older, the two feel like they are from the same generation, completely understand each other in life and literary problems, and live with the same joys and sorrows. They are related by their common cultural interests, love of art, and affection for their hometown of Stara Zagora. Geo Milev was born in the village of Radnevo in Stara Zagora, but he considers Stara Zagora his hometown, because he grew up there both physically and spiritually. During their youth, Stara Zagora held one of the first places in the country as a vibrant cultural center, as the birthplace of other contemporary writers and poets: Georgi Bakalov, Dimitar Podvarzachov, Ivan Kh. Hristov, Ivan Mirchev, Kiril Hristov. ..

The twenty letters of Anton Strashimirov published here were written to Kiril Hristov (1—13) and Stefan G. Gidikov (14-20). They cover the period 1897-1923. A number of moments from the life and work of Anton Strashimirov still remain unclear. The documentary heritage of the writer has not yet been fully collected and studied. His correspondence with a number of our prominent writers, poets and public figures is still scattered among various institutes and private individuals. Only a minimal part of it has been published.1 In 1897, the writer returned from abroad with accumulated material and had a great desire to publish a literary magazine. He was forced to turn to various magazines and ask to edit their literary departments. Despite his reluctance, he became a teacher in Vidin (p. 14-15). This is where his connections with Kiril Hristov began. After a break of several years, in 1906 Strashimirov again began publishing the magazine "Nash Zhivot". In his letters from that time to Kiril Hristov, who was in Germany, he reveals a number of moments about the editing of the magazine, about his struggle with Dr. Krastev's magazine "Misl" and the literary circle around it (p. 4-13).

After the end of the First World War (1914-1918), from which Bulgaria emerged defeated, crippled and with shattered national ideals, a desire for renewal through education and moral improvement arose in the bosom of the intelligentsia. Then the ideological currents manifested themselves and flourished: communism, anarchism, Tolstoyism, temperance and tourism. One of its apostles expressed this newness very well: "an awakening to spiritual life, a longing for something higher than that in which cares, everyday vanities and struggles oppress the soul." Invited by the board of trustees of the "Nadezhda" community center in Tarnovo to give several talks on my specialty, I accepted the invitation with some embarrassment; It seemed to me that the times were not at all suitable for lectures on biology and chemistry, and that the words of a laboratory worker would not resonate in hearts dried up by the current events of political disputes and worries about livelihood.

A warm friendship has connected Georgi Raichev and Nikolay Liliev since 1908. Then the twenty-six-year-old Raichev left the dusty provincial offices forever and arrived in Sofia with the foolish thought of becoming a "great writer". But the capital did not welcome him with open arms, but with complete indifference and unemployment. With seventy-four leva in his pocket, a large suitcase full of manuscripts and a head clouded by the vague ideas of modernism, he wandered helplessly through the cold city, quickly running out of money and starving for several months. The only people he knew and cared about him were the two poets from Stara Zagora, Nikolay Liliev and Dimitar Podvarzachov. They diligently looked for work for him and finally managed to appoint him as a clerk at 111 Sofia Boys' High School "Gladstone", where Liliev was a teacher in the commercial department and Podvarzachov was a secretary. Raichev deeply valued their friendship until the end of his life. From the remote province, he suddenly found himself in the very whirlpool of cultural life in our country, among the elite of our then spiritual intelligentsia.

Dimcho Debelyanov and Nikolay Liliev met in the summer of 1907 in the village of Dolna Banya, Ihtiman region. There, Liliev worked at the Srebarnikovi sawmill - he kept the commercial books. Dimcho Debelyanov - a young man, almost a teenager, who had just graduated from high school, arrived during the holidays to visit his sister Maria Grigorova. He had already read several of Nikolay Mihaylov's printed poems and immediately became friends with him.

Anton Strashimirov met Vera Balabanova, née Bozhkova, in 1932. During the last five years of his life, Strashimirov maintained regular creative contact with Balabanova, who showed a keen interest in literature and writing. When she was in Sofia, she regularly met the writer in person, and when she was on leave for a longer period in Kardzhali or Haskovo, they maintained written contact. Previously, Vera Balabanova had lived in Germany for many years and after her return she devoted herself to literary life. She collaborated in "Literary Hour", "Literary Voice with Stories and Articles. She published the novel "Nick", 1937 and the story "Ancheto Pishe...", 1959, awarded by the Ministry of Public Education and the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Balabanova's home was often visited in the past by prominent Bulgarian writers Stefan L. Kostov, Anton Strashimirov, G. P. Stamatov, Teodor Trayanov, Ivan Radoslavov and others... Balabanova owns the interesting correspondence between Ivan Radoslavov and Teodor Trayanov and preserves her personal correspondence with Georgi Stamatov, Teodor Trayanov, Ivan Radoslavov and others.

For the first time, Kiril Hristov came into contact with the Czech cultural community in 1912. On a five-star street, a few steps from the famous old local "U flek" - one of the nests of Prague intellectuals, - in a nice house with a Gothic facade, in a neat apartment on the third floor I settled in two rooms... From the very first days, through the professor of literature Jelinek, son-in-law of the old Czech novelist Irasek, and through the secretary of the Slavic Society in Prague, Forman, I became acquainted with a number of Czech celebrities and was accepted into their circle and into their clubs as an equal. The newspapers gave information about my stay in Prague, several magazines presented my portrait, translations of my poems and biographical notes. ... While getting to know the beauty of ancient and modern Prague and establishing connections with a number of cultural figures and representatives of the Czech spirit, I also began to quickly learn the language. I had planned an anthology of Czech poetry from Vráhlický onwards, from which poet I had already made some translations.