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The Fifth International Congress of Slavists recently concluded its fruitful work in our capital city. By general recognition, this is the largest scientific congress that has ever taken place in our country. The most prominent Slavologists from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Canada, Norway, Poland, Romania, the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Hungary, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Yugoslavia, the Union of South Africa took part in its diverse scientific work. .. For a whole week, in the halls of Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski" one could hear a variety of reports on the Slavic languages ​​and their general patterns; on the place, great role and importance of Slavic literatures in the development of world literature; on new searches in the field of poetics and stylistics; about the rich past and present state of Slavic folk poetry or about the turbulent history of the Slavic peoples. . More than five hundred scientific reports were read, accompanied by over two thousand speeches. Considering that only over one thousand two hundred foreign delegates were present at the congress, in addition to the guests and the numerous Bulgarian delegation, one can judge the great activity and liveliness of the discussions. The following sections met continuously: five sections of poetry studies - Slavic literary languages, comparative-historical and typological Slavic linguistics, Slavic dialectology, interaction of Slavic and non-Slavic languages, language unions and onomastics, descriptive and applied Slavic linguistics: four sections of literary studies - general problems, Slavic literatures until the end of the 17th century, Slavic literatures in the 18th-19th centuries and modern Slavic literatures, one section of literary-linguistic problems; one section on the problems of folk art and two sections on historical and philological problems - ethnogenesis of the Slavs, the formation of Slavic states and the development of the social thought of the Slavic peoples in the Middle Ages. The national revival of the Slavic peoples. National liberation and revolutionary movement. Development of social thought in modern times. The October Socialist Revolution and the Slavic peoples. The social and cultural development of the Slavic peoples after the Second World War and problems of Slavic ethnography.

Although it has long traditions, comparative literary studies has attracted in recent years an increasingly wide circle of representatives of historical-literary, critical and theoretical-aesthetic thought. In the efforts to study the general and specific laws of literary development, to illuminate artistic phenomena from more sides, both as a result of national, concrete-historical conditions, and as phenomena in the fabric of which we find much similarity, resulting from the constant relationships with what was conquered by other peoples, comparative interpretation is proving to be increasingly effective. An indisputable contribution to this direction is made by Marxist literary studies, which, overcoming the limitations of bourgeois comparative studies in the past, in dispute with contemporary idealistic concepts and methods, places the comparative consideration of artistic processes and works on a broad socio-historical, cultural-sociological, philosophical-aesthetic basis. In this way, not only are the prerequisites and driving forces for the development of national literatures revealed, but on the basis of their study, a more complete illumination of the general processes characterizing the literary life of many countries and peoples is achieved.

Recently, in the Smetana Hall of the National House in Prague, a closed VI International Congress of Slavic Scholars was opened. Nearly two thousand of the most famous Slavic scholars in the world and as many guests had the opportunity, over the course of a whole week, to communicate in debates from the stands or in intimate conversations on the ancient streets and parks of Prague; to exchange scientific considerations and thoughts, searching for the great truth about the past and present life of the Slavic peoples, about their spiritual closeness with other non-Slavic peoples, about their common civic quests and spiritual aspirations, about their closeness in everyday life, in language, in verbal folk and personal creativity... And this great conversation about the peculiar fate of Slavism, which began again in the same hall approximately four decades ago at the First Slavic Congress (1929), is constantly expanding and deepening. More and more participants are making their modest contribution; More and more Slavic scholars are presenting their insights and discoveries, their themes and aspirations, solutions, hypotheses and concepts into scientific circulation... Sometimes - successfully defended and scientifically argued, and sometimes without analysis and based on random signs, without a deep knowledge of the facts and based on data devoid of any scientific systematics.