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In world literary history, there are artists whose historical significance becomes more and more evident with the passage of time, who push for reflection, for new quests of the mind and heart. Such a notable personality is V. G. Belinsky, 150 years since the birth of whom today the progressive public from all countries marks with gratitude, making new efforts to delve into the rich heritage of this great son of the Russian people in order to establish the impact of his revolutionary-political, theoretical-philosophical, literary-critical thought on and later generations. contemporaries Having passed an instructive path of ideological and creative development, Belinsky stands on the most progressive positions of his time, understands the needs and tasks of the era, strives for new revolutionary concepts of social, ethical and aesthetic values. Many of the principles he established still resonate today with undiminished force, have lost none of their vital relevance, and serve as the basis for further research. Belinsky's multifaceted and rich work seems to embody the comprehensive spirituality of the great Russian people, as if the socio-political, moral-philosophical, and literary-theoretical problems of the era are gathered. The insights of the great thinker cut through the gloomy atmosphere of bourgeois-landlord Russia like lightning - groaning and struggling against oppression and injustice, against the Nicholas monarchical dictatorship, and outline the radiant horizons to which human thought has been striving for centuries. What excited and worried his contemporaries, what flashed in the minds of honest people, disturbed the squeamish consciences of all sorts of oppressors of the human person, manifests itself in Belinsky with astonishing power, to charm and inspire the wronged, to frighten those in power. His articles take up the most pressing issues of the time, are met as a revelation. In them one feels the bubbling of an immense energy, the daring of a penetrating thought, the rebellion of a restless civic pathos of a loving heart.

Until recently, the question of the beginning of critical realism in Bulgarian literature was undisputed - Lyuben Karavelov was considered its founder. Recently, however, G. Tsanev came up with an article "The Beginning of Critical Realism in Bulgarian Literature", in which he believes that "a careful examination of the facts is necessary, which would lead us to new conclusions". In this article, he reviews and analyzes Slaveykov's work, emphasizing its critical-realistic character. He also focuses on his literary-critical articles and his translated literature. Based on our social reality, G. Tsanev points to critical realism as the main trend in Bulgarian literature, and its first representative is P. R. Slaveykov. On the same occasion, P. Zarev has recently written an article - "Our Literary History and the Wealth of the Literary Process". The author focuses more on the analysis of the aesthetic views and artistic practice of P. R. Slaveykov. As a result, he comes to the conclusion that Slaveykov's work "by character, by its system of exposition, is the work of pre-critical realism and is a transition to it." 1 While trying to reveal the general direction" of his poetry, he adopts a position that is, in our opinion, erroneous, that the main feature of Slaveykov's work is his "specific interest in the intimate, in the world of the awakened personality" - his love poetry. On the other hand, he believes that since Slaveykov is a realist with a very versatile attitude to reality, without focusing on the specific conflicts and trends of the time - his realism is characterized by "completeness" and "multifacetedness" in depicting life, without a single definite and consistently expressed tendency. This prevents him from growing as a critical realist. Without agreeing with the idea that Slaveykov's work lacks a specific and consistently expressed trend, or that it lacks a focus on the specific conflicts and trends of the time, nevertheless, a number of the author's thoughts and observations in this part of the article are so interesting that they make the reader think again about these problems.

The literature of every nation is connected in a unique way with reality, with its ideals. At different times, depending on the nature of social ideas and the state of art, this connection is realized in a specific way in the individual literary genres, with each individual creator. However, the bold social thought always seeks means to express itself aesthetically, to assert itself through artistic images. Bulgarian literature during the Revival is to a significant extent utilitarian. It was supposed to "react" to all current problems in a more specific form, to seek the most direct path to the reader. Its very first manifestations, regardless of its aesthetic inferiority, were ideologically purposeful - to find the positive hero of modernity and recreate him as an artistic reality, as a type. Of course, this was a long and difficult process, which was influenced by various factors - the definiteness of public ideas, the degree of artistic knowledge of the writer and reader, the literary tradition, the talent and worldview of the individual person, etc. That is why the literary process does not proceed evenly - there are periods of stagnation and flourishing, of "orientation" and innovation. All this cannot be ignored when the question of the positive hero of Renaissance literature in general and fiction in particular is raised. In lyric poetry, for example, he appears and is established significantly earlier than in the short story and the novella. But between the lyrical and the fictional positive hero there is a certain dependence, which is determined by the regularities in the development of the New Bulgarian literature. Common moments in the treatment of the positive hero are also observed in the translated and original works of art. In many of the translations made before the Crimean War, he is religious and humble, associated with the passing patriarchal life. His portrait characterization is schematic, the spiritual world - one-sided. But he also undergoes development, consistent with the worldview and artistic practice of translators and "Bulgarizers".

Bulgarian literary criticism during the Revival attracted the least researchers of our classical heritage. Indeed, there are special studies on Karavelov and Botev, on Drumev and Nesho Bonchev. On various occasions, some literary historians and theorists have touched upon the issues of Revival aesthetic thought. However, the need for a comprehensive study has long been felt, which would enrich the not-so-complete and accurate ideas about literary criticism during the Revival, point out new names and facts, and seek the principles that determine the attitude of the Revival writer to literary phenomena. Such a work, of course, requires not only persistent and continuous work - a study of the periodical press, archival funds, and individual editions. Basically, one must also know Russian and Western European aesthetic thought of this period in order to be able to trace the nature of the influences, to distinguish the original from ordinary imitation. It is necessary to study both the original and translated literature, to see whether each given assessment meets an objective criterion.

Translated fiction in Bulgaria reflects in its own way the ideological and cultural peculiarities of the time, the taste and preferences of the reader. The content is one thing in the Middle Ages, when the newly adopted Christian religion had to be sanctioned, and its appearance during the era of national revival is another. However, its character changes relatively slowly, just as the worldview of the people also changes slowly... The economic changes in the Turkish Empire at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries lead to changes in the worldview, ideology and culture. Initially, they are imperceptible, manifest themselves unevenly, often developing in their old forms. However, they always become established - sometimes decisively and quickly, in other cases gradually and painfully. The new elements in the consciousness and psychology of the Bulgarian also require new literature - with themes, ideas and imagery, different from the literature of the Middle Ages. Indeed, in Old Bulgarian literature and in the Damascenes there are individual moments with secular content, with a view to the intimate world of man. However, these are only elements that had to be further developed and enriched, to be subordinated to the new concepts of the time. In this regard, a significant role is played not only by writers, but also by translators. Bulgarian writers understand the need for translated literature - be it artistic, pedagogical or social. This applies especially to the first decades of the Revival, when we did not have a significant original contribution in the field of national culture. Therefore, Revival writers perceive translated literature as an integral part of national literature. In this sense, the ideological and artistic principles that face the original creator are no less of a concern for every cultural translator.

In the last quarter of 1966, the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences decided to award the scientific degree "Candidate of Philological Sciences" to the regular graduate students at the institute, Stefana Tarinska and Docho Lekov.

In Bulgarian literary and historical science after 1944, the question of the development of our literary theory and criticism is not new, it has not just arisen. As a research task, this question has been raised more than once and not by one or two Bulgarian literary historians. For various reasons, however, no work has been done in this direction. There are too few researchers who have occasionally paid attention to one or another moment in the history of Bulgarian literary criticism, theory and science. The only more systematic and comprehensive studies that have been published so far belong to Georgi Dimov, who works mainly in this scientific field.