Среща

In the midst of the First World War, when I was twelve years old, I first tasted the terrible and insatiable magic of fiction. Everything that was left of my uncle, who had just graduated from high school and was mobilized to the reserve officer school, I found, read and reread. It wasn't much, but it was selected. And perhaps that is what saved me from getting carried away by various crime and vulgar books, such as those my classmates were reading. One day I needed something, I assumed that it was pushed somewhere on the high shelf of the room we lived in. I put a chair down, climbed up and peeked in. I didn't find what I was looking for on the shelf, but I did find two books, probably left by my uncle. For me, this "find" was more interesting and more precious than anything else. I took down the two books and carefully dusted them off. First I grabbed the thicker book - it had dark covers and the title was barely legible. It was some kind of dramatization of "Anna Karenina", translated into Bulgarian. For the first time in my life I came across a dramatic work. I had never seen a theater, I had never seen a theatrical performance. It was a bit strange to me that this book did not talk about people, as it did in the novels and stories that I had already read, and the characters themselves talked to each other. I read this dramatization of "Anna Karenina" with great tension, but I could neither understand it properly, nor was this form of expression captivating and satisfying.

From November 11 to 16 of this year, a meeting of the International Committee of Slavists was held in Sofia. For six days, some of the most prominent representatives of Slavic thought in the world held creative conversations, talked, and debated in order to identify and formulate the most current problems of Slavic studies. The direct goal of the meeting was to discuss the issues and topics for the upcoming Fifth International Congress, which will be held in Sofia in 1963. As hosts of the meeting and the upcoming congress, the Bulgarian Slavists were tasked with developing a draft of the problems and topics that would serve as a basis for the discussion. The draft was compiled and promptly sent to the national committees of Slavists in the individual countries, so that it could be discussed by all scholars dealing with the problems of Slavic studies. The meeting showed that the interest in the thematic program of the future congress is extremely high and that scholars from Slavic and non-Slavic countries who deal with one or another issue of Slavic studies are preparing to take an active part in the future congress in order to shed new light on the most important problems of Slavic studies.

At the end of October of this year, a meeting of the well-known Soviet literary scholar and Bulgarian scholar, Professor Dmitry Feodorovich Markov, with the team of researchers at the institute took place at the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The guest showed interest in the work of all sections and in particular in the creative plans of the collaborators from the sections for contemporary literature, aesthetics and theory of literature, Russian and Soviet literature, etc. The scientific secretary of the institute, Efrem Karanfilov, introduced the Soviet scientist to the plan and the immediate tasks of the "youngest" section for contemporary literature, and Iskra Panova - to the tasks and achievements of the section for aesthetics and theory of literature. The director of the institute - Professor Georgi Tsanev, academician Lyudmil Stoyanov, Minko Nikolov, Ivan Tsvetkov, Atanas Natev, Boyan Nichev and others took part in the informal conversation.