Раковски

The great work of the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius plays an extremely important role in the life of our people. This role was especially prominent during the years of our national liberation movement from the middle of the 19th century. In the struggle for the cultural affirmation of the Bulgarian people, for broad national education, it is in the first place. The names and images of Cyril and Methodius are the center of this struggle, they inspire people-friendly activity. Evidence of this is the numerous publications about them that appeared during the Bulgarian Renaissance. All social strata show interest in them, and, of course, each perceives and interprets their immortal work from its own positions. The highest and most truthful assessment, closely related to the current political tasks of the historical moment, was received by Lyuben Karavelov and Hristo Botev - prominent representatives of our national liberation struggles, significantly influenced by the ideas of the Russian revolutionary-democrats. All Bulgarian cultural and political figures of the Renaissance who wrote about Cyril and Methodius had an enthusiastic and positive attitude towards their work. They perceived and affirmed it as the basis of the new Bulgarian culture that was being built. They wrote separate books about them, many articles in newspapers and magazines, translated and published scientific studies by prominent foreigners on Cyril and Methodius issues, delivered hundreds of passionate speeches at the annual celebrations organized on the occasion of the holiday of Slavic enlightenment, published many reports on the celebrations held, etc.

"History will have to think about which immortal figure to attribute you to!" - this is how Vazov exclaims in amazement in his remarkable "Epic of the Forgotten", when he recreates the image of Rakovski. The folk poet is as if stunned by the personality and versatility of the work of this "mad dreamer, an impossible image", seething with "giant love" and "satanic enmity", who boldly peered into the dark past to reveal the tragic present and embrace the dreamed future with his eagle gaze. For all its romantic hyperbolicity, this poetic glorification seems to most accurately capture Rakovski's extraordinary scale in ideological insights and revolutionary scope, in national impulses and efforts to serve devotedly a great idea with thought and deed, with pen and weapon. One is truly amazed by this all-encompassing, revolutionary, uniquely original, spiritually rich personality. The scope of the revolutionary, the searches of the historian, the insights of the scientist, and the visions of the poet - everything is nourished by a deeply realized and suffered national ideal, which found a kind of synthesis and expression in his entire activity. The scale and significance of this activity seem to go beyond national dimensions and remind us of the great conquests of the human spirit in general.