Христов

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.

The City People's Council in Stara Zagora has set itself the noble task of building a house-museum for the writers of Stara Zagora, to be called "Literary Stara Zagora" from now on. The initial stage of the creation of this first-of-its-kind institute in our country will be the collection and systematization of materials related to the life and creative activity of literary creators. The first results in this direction are encouraging. Some time ago, materials were made available to the council that reveal some moments of the life, public activity and artistic creativity of Kiril Hristov. Of particular interest among them is a literary study written by Iliya Ivanov (pseudonym - I. I. Radin). The author was a classmate and close friend of the poet, a former high school teacher in Shumen, a man with literary interests, erudition and culture, who died ten years ago. Radin himself evaluates his study very modestly, although the work arouses considerable interest not only from a factual point of view. In the introduction, Radin notes that he had absolutely no intention of making a serious study and assessment of the poetic work of Kiril Hristov and only for the sake of consistency and systematicity of the exposition has included here and there creative questions. The author's goal, as he himself defines it, is to examine some of the poet's works from their factual side; to indicate their origin and significance for the creation of one or another relationship of K. Hristov with people of literature and society; as well as to highlight some moments of his life and temperament, which "had created for him a heavy and suffocating atmosphere, in which it was difficult to breathe, let alone create, and which atmosphere forced him into voluntary exile". B And so far this interesting portrait of the man and poet Kiril Hristov has not been brought to public attention. It was sent by Radin to the poet's wife. In one of her letters to the curator of the "Geo Milev" museum in Stara Zagora, she shares: "For a long time, while he was healthy, I. Ivanov was occupied with the idea of ​​writing something more extensive about the works of his friend Kiril. He knew that I would preserve such a thing most carefully until it could be printed. When he finished the two articles (the second article is entitled "The Slavic Feeling in Kiril Hristov"), he gave them to me with a request that I keep them as my property and one day hand them over to wherever I find it useful." Here we publish excerpts from Radin's essay.

From the years when the first "songs", "sighs" and "trembles" appeared, which speak of the youthful intoxication of the twenty-year-old poet (1894-97), to the "last fires" of the creative fire of his restless lyre (1944), five whole decades passed. In this half-century rich and complex period of the development of our literature, Kiril Hristov was a very active creator.

I first met Kiril Hristov (1875-1944) in the autumn of 1896, when I was a student at the University, and he had published his Songs and Sighs in the magazine Misl and in a separate booklet. He had just returned from Italy, where he had spent about a year as a student at a naval academy, and had renewed his friendship with Dr. Krastev, Pencho Slaveykov, Petko Karavelov and Aleko Konstantinov, in whom he had valuable patrons and friends. Having left the seventh grade of high school prematurely, he was now coming to pass his failed matriculation exam, in order to then enroll in the University as a law student. The subject of great attention in literary circles, he had become a favorite of a part of the youth with his lyrics, which revealed his passionate personal temperament and reflected the individualistic or social sentiments of a new generation that had begun to shake off the aesthetic prejudices of the older one. After his trip to Italy and other Western countries, Hristov stayed for a longer time in his homeland, changing various official positions, each more burdensome for him, in accordance with his will for an independent life and free creativity.

Kiril Hristov lived a difficult life, a life filled with constant torment, eternal dissatisfaction. He had unattainable ambitions. He considered himself the called spiritual leader of the nation. But after the first great recognition he received in the 1990s, his civic and personal behavior became increasingly unpleasant to the literary community. He began to be evaluated biasedly, slander and ridicule began to pour down on him from all sides, his poetry was denied most sharply and without appeal, he himself became the object of newspaper headlines. No distinction was made between the person, his behavior and his poetry, and everything was irresponsibly denied in a heap. He lived with the consciousness of a slandered prophet. Comical gestures began to appear in his public behavior. The more hatred and dislike he encountered, the more angrily he attacked his contemporaries, participated in the wildest and most outrageous newspaper polemics and arguments, flailed left and right, and in his rage he spared no means to prove how pitiful and deranged the Bulgarian intelligentsia was, which could not appreciate and understand him, the genius and the prophet. Nothing could calm his wounded ambition, nothing could satisfy his cold pride. His soul seemed to be covered with thorns and nettles, words of icy contempt and malice towards his contemporaries did not come from his lips.

In book 2 of Literary Thought, volume IX (1965), pp. 73-99, I presented part of a biographical-psychological survey of Kiril Hristov, which concerns some important moments in the internal and external history of his poetic work. Now I offer another part of this survey, with mainly biographical data and notes on my meetings and conversations with the poet. An important addition to this material would be my correspondence with the poet, in which questions of a biographical and psychological nature related to the origin of his literary works are often touched upon. My survey from 1914-1915, continued in 1921, mainly concerns the childhood, student life and the early period of Hristov's work. As brief as it is, it comes to supplement the poet's testimonies and confessions to other people, as well as what he published on this part in various memoirs and articles. My diary with notes on meetings and conversations with the poet is not is kept consistently, but it may have some value as a direct reflection of what the poet thought and did. However cursory and accidental these notes may be, they would contribute something to an insight into the character and work of a person who occupies a significant place in our literature of the period between 1894 and 1944.

At the end of last year, the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences discussed and accepted for publication the work of Acad. Mihail Arnaudov "Kiril Hristov. The Man and the Poet". In his review, Krastyo Genov highlighted the merit of Mihail Arnaudov in tracing every step of the life and work of Kiril Hristov: a difficult and responsible task in revealing the sharp contradictions in the poet's creative biography. The author selects what is truly important and significant in the work and in the difficult life of the poet, bypassing the erroneous, inaccurate and artistically petty. He correctly identifies the individual traits of the personality and the creator, achieving an objective and convincing assessment of a life filled with contradictions of an ideological and moral nature, with torment and dissatisfaction. The monograph is particularly valuable with the rich factual material skillfully used by the author. He managed to present a broad picture of social reality and literary mores, including personal memories, observations, and excerpts from his interesting correspondence with the writer.

I am afraid that these memories of mine will not please the uncritical admirers of Kiril Hristov. I will not try to balance the lights and shadows in his image - I will present the facts as they are, that is, as I perceived them, without deliberate seasoning. Memoirs are a specific literary genre - they are neither criticism nor a historical-literary assessment - although they may contain moments of both. In them, your attitude towards the poet is mixed with your impressions of the person - and even above all of the person. You think both about the peculiarities of talent and about the inclinations of the personality, about the traits of the author's character - as he manifests himself in his everyday meetings and relationships with his colleagues and with people in general - and above all, as you felt it. Hence the subjectivism of memoirs. The poet still remains a poet with his human weaknesses (he will lose something of his moral essence, but not his talent). The ancient Greeks knew this well, and they revered their gods, even though they saw human weaknesses in them and created stories about their weaknesses.

For the modern reader, Kiril Hristov was until recently an almost unknown author; a poet with a strange and unusual fate, preserved in the minds of his descendants mainly through his ideological and artistic transgressions. His first works, which brought the poet fame and recognition, were until a few years ago a bibliographical rarity. That is why few could imagine the spontaneous approval with which critics and writers greeted his poetic debut. Because K. Hristov really began his writing career brilliantly. Moreover, he became the exponent of a social and psychological necessity, gave the first example of frank love poetry, created magnificent lyrical miniatures, brilliant little songs about the beauty of nature and the immediacy of human feeling. And the literary community gave him what he deserved

In the notes to volume IV of the works of Kiril Hristov, published by BP, 1967, on page 714 it is noted: More significant fiction and journalistic works by Kiril Hristov, which we do not include in the present volume, are the following: (There follow 2 and a half pages, in which the works of Kiril Hristov in question are listed). After them, on page 716, there is a new note, which says: "Of the articles, literary notes and reviews by Kiril Hristov, we do not include the following: (there are ten new pages that list the articles, literary notes and reviews by Kiril Hristov that were not included in this volume, printed at various times in various newspapers, magazines and other publications.) Among the many names of more or less famous authors about whom Kiril Hristov wrote, the name of Lyubomir Bobevski is also found. I was curious to know what Kiril Hristov could write about this once noisy author of numerous patriotic poems and marches, the most popular of which was "O Dobrudzhanski krai", and I looked for the magazine in which the article about him was printed.

In the history of our literary customs, Dr. Krastev's letters to Kiril Hristov are a bright page, a magnificent act of trust and devotion and at the same time a testament to the ethical and aesthetic positions of one of the greatest Bulgarian critics. Kiril Hristov became close to the editor of the magazine "Misl" while still a student at the 1st male gymnasium, where at the same time Krastev taught philosophy. In early 1895, not immediately before his departure for Italy, Kiril Hristov entrusted him with some of his literary works. In the following months, the poems "Octava" appeared in "Misl". "To the Seaside", "Under the Window", "Zuylema", and the Sea Sonnets (Kiril Hristov included the aforementioned poems in his first collection of poems "Songs and Sighs"). Convinced of the young poet's poetic talent, the editor of "Misl" attracted him as a contributor to the magazine, promoted him in literary circles, wrote enthusiastic reviews for "Songs and Sighs" and "Tre peti". What's more, this outwardly dry and focused critic became a patron, friend and teacher of the young Kiril Hristov, striving to give some direction to his poetic talent, to soften his painful predispositions, to facilitate and clarify his personal life. "The only support in this difficult time - Kiril Hristov shares - I had in the strong character of Krasteva, whom I loved more and more and to whom I became more and more attached. His influence on me, both then and later, was irreplaceable, gracious... I felt that this man could go through water and fire for the one he valued and loved... The editorial office of the magazine "Misl", in fact the home of Dr. Krastev, became for me a blessed, quiet harbor from the very first day. I could visit my recent teacher, who had become a close friend, at any time. I felt him as my closest relative, blood and spiritual. I could share my greatest worries with him. There was no mental, painful state or external unexpected unpleasantness that he would not meet with the greatest participation and with a reasonable practical plan for sobering up" (From the memoirs of Kiril Hristov "Clogged Sofia"). Because Dr. Krastev does not seek the meaning of his critical activity solely in the evaluation work.

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.