Първият

The Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has already begun publishing the four-volume "History of Bulgarian Literature". The management of the institute had been preparing for this important and responsible work for many years. It carried out a great deal of preparatory work. After discussion and broad debate, a general periodization of our literature was adopted based on important and essential features, the characteristics of the socio-economic formations known in historical development, their determining impact on ideology, and through the ideological atmosphere on artistic creativity, as well as the internal laws of literary development" (10). The history of Bulgarian literature is divided into three main periods: 1. Old Bulgarian literature - from the 9th century to the middle of the 18th century (the writing of "Slavonic-Bulgarian History" by hieromonk Paisii of Hilendar); 2. New Bulgarian literature - from the middle of the 18th century to 9. IX. 1944, divided into two subperiods: a. Literature of the Revival - from the middle of the 18th century to 1878; b. Literature from the Liberation to 9. IX. 1944; 3. Literature during the era of the construction of socialism - from 9. IX. 1944 to the present day (10). "History of Bulgarian Literature" will be published in four volumes: one volume for the first and third periods, and two volumes for the second period - one for each subsection.

Having shown her poetic talent in several poetry collections, Blaga Dimitrova entered fiction with the novel "Journey to Yourself". Her creative powers received a boost from the turning point - September 9, 1944, which coincided with her youth. She enthusiastically joined the general construction - she participated in the foreman movement, and in 1952-53, she spent almost two years on construction sites in the Rhodope Mountains. Her creativity is a living echo of what she saw and experienced. Her novel should not be considered in isolation from her poetry - it is organically connected to it. Construction and its characters are the subject of depiction in both poetry and the novel. This is especially true for the collection "Songs for the Rhodopes", which in a certain sense is a preparation for the novel. The same basic mood emanates from it - love for the fatherland and for man, faith in the future, admiration for the new people who create this future. It often contrasts the heavy and sad past, the historical fate of our people with the present, and even more so with the expected good future. In this collection, the prototypes of some of the characters in the novel can already be seen.

Slowly and with difficulty, the Bulgarian people emerge from the medieval darkness of the Ottoman Empire to live in the light of the New Age, which has long since flooded most of the European continent. Of course, the processes unfolding in its own bowels lead it onto the path of new development. In the conditions of its new historical existence, one after another, figures appear who create its new national life, its new national culture, its new national literature. Of essential importance for its further development is its inclusion in the contemporary socio-political and cultural life of the European peoples. Prominent representatives of the cultural life of the related Slavic peoples have special merits for its inclusion in this life. The names of Vuk Karadzic, Konstantin Kalajdovic, Yuri Venelin, Pavel Yosif Safarik are names of discoverers of the people forgotten in the depths of the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian images and pictures of Bulgarian life and the Bulgarian fatherland that have come to life in the works of a number of Slavic writers bring him closer to the consciousness and emotional peace of the Slavic peoples, who will live with his fate, will seek ways to help him, to protect him, to lead him out of his servile misery.