Константин

The cooperation of our writers and men of letters from the Revival with cultural and socio-political figures in other Slavic countries is an important distinctive feature of their literary and public education activities. Lyuben Karavelov, Nesho Bonchev, Marin Drinov, Hristo Botev, Rayko Zhinzifov, Konstantin Miladinov and many more of their contemporaries studied in Russia and elsewhere, where they met prominent public figures, writers and publicists who provided them with valuable assistance. In their letters to them, our Revivalists made requests for services of various kinds, interceded for their compatriots who had gone to study in Russia or the Czech Republic, and expressed warm gratitude on their own behalf and on behalf of the Bulgarian people. The ties established between them in the period of our national revival are a completely natural and necessary phenomenon with undoubted positive consequences. In its turbulent socio-political and cultural development, the Bulgarian people attract the attention of other, more advanced peoples, receive the material and moral support of prominent Slavic scholars, scientists and statesmen, create works that are met with great interest in a number of countries. The aspiration of Bulgarian writers to establish close and lasting ties with more and more authoritative representatives of Slavism is actually an aspiration to connect our new literature and culture with the national culture of other peoples. With their most significant manifestations, the personal connections and acquaintances of our writers favor the development of native literature and culture, the affirmation of national traditions. This is their cultural and historical significance today.

A writer with a high aesthetic culture, with serious care for style and language, Konstantinov stands apart from writers with openly expressed militant anti-fascist sentiments. Deeply embedded in his convictions is the thought that moral laws surpass political passions. But behind the calm contemplation of his books one feels a man with a civic, social conscience, tormented by questions about man and human existence, in love with life and suffering for its imperfection. A subtle poetic feeling makes him responsive to any suffering, to human life and to nature.

Sixty years ago, on November 16, 1907, the very next day after his arrival, Konstantin Velichkov died in Grenoble. Not only the last days, but the entire life and writing destiny of this public figure and writer of ours is connected with French culture and literature, with France in general. Let us recall the more important facts, adding some less known data about his death, extracted from the French press. Velichkov's first and at the same time the deepest and most lasting impressions of French literature, and indirectly also of the freedom-loving French spirit, were from the time of his studies at the French Lyceum in Constantinople. When the authorities asked for a young man from Pazardzhik to study at state expense, the city government unanimously proposed and sent Velichkov - who had already shown himself to be a capable and diligent student. And in September 1868, he entered the Lyceum Imperial Ottoman. At the same time and later, the following people studied here: Stoyan Mihaylovski, Georgi N. Zlatarski (the later famous professor-geologist), Hr. Genadiev, An. Frangia (political figures) and others. Organized according to the French model and with French teachers and educators, the lyceum gave its graduates the opportunity not only to learn French excellently, but also to become acquainted with French literature, with the rich and instructive history of the struggles of the French people for freedom.

In the history of our old literature there are still details to be clarified, some previous assumptions to be re-evaluated, there is a great need to search for and publish new materials on individual writers or periods. But when one proceeds to re-evaluate previous conceptions, it is necessary that the argumentation be more comprehensive and more convincing, so as not to introduce unnecessary or premature disturbances into the course of our literary history, which has to solve such important tasks, to clarify more fully the content, the problematics and the significance of old Bulgarian literature.