стихотворения

Recently, in the archive of Naicho Tsanov, part of which is kept in the State Archives in Vratsa, I found three poems in manuscript by Kiril Hristov. In terms of artistic merit, these poems are not of particular interest, but they shed light on some aspects of the poet's civic biography and indicate that he was no stranger to the political and social struggles of the people. According to a letter from K. Hristov to Naicho Tsanov, which is kept in the same archive, and the content and focus of the poems, it is clear that they were written in 1900, a period of sharp social struggles - the peasant revolts against the tithe in Trstenik, Shabla, Durankulak, etc. Two of them - "Hey, prince, do you hear?" and "A means for your peace of mind even in these days" are by Vazov, from whom the author borrows entire verses. However, something else is striking: the obvious sympathy for the people's suffering, the strong and courageous criticism of the arbitrariness of the authorities, the undisguised great hatred for Prince Ferdinand, which goes as far as openly threatening revolution.

Recently, a handwritten collection from the 1830s was discovered in Veliko Tarnovo and handed over to the library of the Higher Pedagogical Institute "Brothers Cyril and Methodius" in the city. Its content - over 20 different in nature and size compositions, placed on 406 pages, will be announced separately. Among the other works in the collection, two poems are also recorded, which, due to their New Bulgarian language and their ideological and artistic qualities, deserve special attention. For the most part, the collection is the work of Mihail Popovich, a writer from Sevlievo, who is probably also the author of the poems. The first of them, "Oh, my son," was recorded in 1835. This is confirmed by the author's note, left on one of the following sheets. The second poem, "Unfortunate Bulgaria," was probably written later. It is located at the end of the collection and due to the lack of close inscriptions around it, it is difficult to establish the year of its creation. The name of the writer Mihail Popovich is unknown to our literary history, because so far none of his literary works have become public knowledge. The collection is kept as a valuable family relic by the descendants of the writer and only at the beginning of 1964 did professors from the Higher Pedagogical Institute in Veliko Tarnovo follow its trail and discover it. Before the common binding, it consisted of several books written at different times. The works included in the books that make up the collection and a number of other issues related to the manuscript will be discussed in detail elsewhere. However, here we cannot fail to highlight the fact that we are faced with a well-established writer from the first half of the 19th century, who was systematically engaged in literary work. The entire collection has a distinctly New Bulgarian appearance. Along with works of a church-religious nature, it also includes works with clearly expressed patriotic-enlightenment tendencies.

In the era of the Revival, so widely and inspiredly revealed by our writers, literary historians and theorists, there is an area almost unexplored, an area in which the aspirations, feelings and tastes of the people are directly reflected. We are talking about the numerous manuscript collections and songbooks distributed in our country at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, a part of which, although small, has been preserved to this day. They preserve those works of the Bulgarian creative spirit with which the middle and lowest class in our country - the people themselves - lived.