Антон

In the 19th century, the novel assumed a leading role in the hierarchy of literary genres. The prose of commodity relations, the businesslikeness of bourgeois daily life, demanded a comprehensive study of social mores, an analytical penetration into the social nature of the new order. The noble dreamers of romanticism, the proud and unyielding rebels, the Prometheans at odds with heaven, fell to the ground, bruised themselves, and opened their eyes. They were surrounded by a prosaic reality in which vulgarity had banished the ideal, and brazen material interest had replaced high impulses. It was the art of the epic, of critical analytical canvases, that had to give a complete picture of the new relations that had been established. The writer increasingly became a doctor of social sciences, a historian of social and public types. And since literature is called upon to explore essences, to analyze morals, to write their history - then naturally the novel will enter into its full rights. It is the most stable fortress of the "objective" in literature. Through it, the art of critical realism mastered a wide public terrain, tested the principle of the concrete-historical approach to human character, and showed limitless possibilities for a comprehensive portrayal of the individual as a product of the typical social environment. The development of the novel in different national literatures underwent a series of reversals depending on the infinite diversity of historical-national conditions and according to the peculiarities of national psychology and traditions. The literary process also proceeds with its own significant differences with the formation of the main directions, genres and styles in Bulgarian literature. The centuries-long foreign yoke, the slow and painful establishment of capitalist relations in our country, left a mark of belatedness in the cultural self-affirmation of the Bulgarian nation. When the great European literatures were already tasting the bitter fruits of disappointment, of lost illusions regarding the nature of the new society, Bulgaria was experiencing the most romantic period of its national revival, the infantile enthusiasm of the Chetnik struggle and later of the April Uprising.

The archive of Naicho Tsanov (1857-1923) contains 11 letters, and in the manuscript department of the National Library "V. Kolarov", Sofia - 3 letters of A. Strashimirov, sent from 1900 to 1903 from Sofia to N. Tsanov in Vidin. The letters cover a period of intensive economic development and political struggles in our country. Strashimirov was not left out of them, as he contacted the democrats from N. Tsanov's group at that time. In 1902, together with N. Tsanov, T. G. Vlaykov and others, he was elected for the first time as a people's representative in the 11th ordinary National Assembly. The publication of the letters will contribute to clarifying some moments in the life and work of Strashimirov, his ideological zigzags and his desire to take an active, correct and honest attitude towards contemporary social and cultural problems. At the same time, the information contained in the letters complements and clarifies the picture of public life, of the relationships between political parties and groups of the era, touches on interesting issues of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, of the revolutionary struggles of the Russian proletariat and progressive intelligentsia, and paints unknown aspects of the activities of G. Delchev, P. K. Yavorov, K. Hristov, T. Tserkovski and others.

A citizen writer, a talented realist artist, despite separate periods of tortuousness and inconsistency, Anton Strashimirov actively participated in the struggle of the progressive forces of the people. All this determines the great interest of our literary and cultural community in his life and creative path. However, his first steps in the public sphere are still covered by the obscurity of the past decades. The only source for these years remains the autobiographical notes of the writer, printed in 1931. But in them he shed light primarily on his creativity, and devoted only a few lines to his public and political activities. There is fragmentary data about this period of the writer's life in some articles and monographs. But they cannot restore his participation and role in public life from the late eighties and early nineties of the last century. And as Professor Assen Zlatarov notes, it was from this time that Anton Strashimirov was baptized for the feat of the citizen.

It is known that Strashimirov traveled constantly throughout Bulgaria and got to know all corners of the country. Since his childhood and adolescence, he wandered around Northeastern Bulgaria. Later, as a tireless storyteller and political orator or as a simple observer and researcher of folk life and nature, he did not leave a single corner of his homeland where his foot had not set foot. During these trips, the writer was always among the people, studying their lives, delving deeply into their fate, and drawing material for his artistic works. And in most cases, he documents his diverse impressions in the most direct travel notes. Strashimirov describes with extraordinary vividness and fiction that which his eye has noticed in nature or in public life. He shares his thoughts on the most current political and literary problems in the most direct and sincere way, and often quite boldly. With the civic-patriotic pathos and fervor of his travel notes, Strashimirov appears to be the closest continuation of the work of such major representatives of travel writing in our country as Ivan Vazov and Aleko Konstantinov. Strashimirov's travel notes are very interesting and valuable pages in his very figurative literary work, which, however, due to the fact that they have not been republished, remain almost unknown to the wide circle of readers to this day.

The twenty letters of Anton Strashimirov published here were written to Kiril Hristov (1—13) and Stefan G. Gidikov (14-20). They cover the period 1897-1923. A number of moments from the life and work of Anton Strashimirov still remain unclear. The documentary heritage of the writer has not yet been fully collected and studied. His correspondence with a number of our prominent writers, poets and public figures is still scattered among various institutes and private individuals. Only a minimal part of it has been published.1 In 1897, the writer returned from abroad with accumulated material and had a great desire to publish a literary magazine. He was forced to turn to various magazines and ask to edit their literary departments. Despite his reluctance, he became a teacher in Vidin (p. 14-15). This is where his connections with Kiril Hristov began. After a break of several years, in 1906 Strashimirov again began publishing the magazine "Nash Zhivot". In his letters from that time to Kiril Hristov, who was in Germany, he reveals a number of moments about the editing of the magazine, about his struggle with Dr. Krastev's magazine "Misl" and the literary circle around it (p. 4-13).

The bombings have long been a thing of the past. They are only a memory that awakens with a distant but disturbing echo, at some new shot fired from an ambush from afar with a sniper's scope. But the time was different at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It is shaken by dynamite explosions. Individual terror penetrates not only the circles of nihilists and anarchists, but also among revolutionary organizations for national liberation. The terrible chorus of explosions tears the atmosphere of Europe, disturbs the digestion of the calm bourgeois, disrupts his enjoyment of Straussian melodies. The epicenter of these small volcanic eruptions is hidden somewhere in Petrograd and Moscow, where emperors, grand dukes and ministers from time to time fly through the air, and fear gnaws the hearts of their deputies. And although the shadow of the eternal Azev dances like a firecracker on the embers of the explosions, although their temperature never manages to ignite a revolutionary fire, they create a specific Decor of the era.

Anton Strashimirov met Vera Balabanova, née Bozhkova, in 1932. During the last five years of his life, Strashimirov maintained regular creative contact with Balabanova, who showed a keen interest in literature and writing. When she was in Sofia, she regularly met the writer in person, and when she was on leave for a longer period in Kardzhali or Haskovo, they maintained written contact. Previously, Vera Balabanova had lived in Germany for many years and after her return she devoted herself to literary life. She collaborated in "Literary Hour", "Literary Voice with Stories and Articles. She published the novel "Nick", 1937 and the story "Ancheto Pishe...", 1959, awarded by the Ministry of Public Education and the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Balabanova's home was often visited in the past by prominent Bulgarian writers Stefan L. Kostov, Anton Strashimirov, G. P. Stamatov, Teodor Trayanov, Ivan Radoslavov and others... Balabanova owns the interesting correspondence between Ivan Radoslavov and Teodor Trayanov and preserves her personal correspondence with Georgi Stamatov, Teodor Trayanov, Ivan Radoslavov and others.