дейността

On 5. IV. 1919, a fatal accident took the life of the prominent Bulgarian literary critic and long-time editor of the magazine "Thought" - Dr. K. Krastev. Returning home unwell, he swallowed a poison pill instead of medicine. Thus ended the life of the last of the famous "four" - not long after his three comrades: P. P. Slaveykov (1912), P. K. Yavorov (1914) and P. Yu. Todorov (1916). Since then and until now (and even during his lifetime) his work has repeatedly been the subject of high praise and unwavering denials. This is not about the principled struggle of the Marxist critics (D. Blagoev, G. Bakalov, T. Pavlov, G. Tsanev, P. Zarev, P. Danchev, St. Karolev) against the views of Dr. Krastev. He was also sharply attacked by representatives of bourgeois criticism itself, and these attacks expressed the internal differences within it, its striving to affirm and deny one or another name, the irreconcilable enmity between the individual groups and schools. Moreover, some bourgeois critics have sought most fiercely to destroy and liquidate Krastev's entire work without appeal. Read the book "Critics" by Y. Marinopolski (1910) or the surgical article by S. Radev (magazine "Khudozhnik", 1905), or the essay "The Work of Dr. K. Krastev" by A. Balabanov (magazine "Filosofski pregled", 1939) and you will see how much passion was invested in the attempts to liquidate the critic without a trace, so that there would be no need to rummage through the countless furious attacks against him in the yellow pages of the bourgeois press. But what to do - such is the fate of a critic: he is forced to endure the attacks of those he has denied, their friends, those wounded egos, about whom he has never written and who are considered neglected, and finally all the enemies of those whom he has affirmed with his articles. Dr. Krastev is also honored with greater attention. He is the main character of Vazov's story "Doctor Jan-jan", of "Japanese Silhouettes", and his close friend Kiril Hristov later dedicates bitter verses to him in the epigram "Doctor Stavri":

Svetoslav Milarov is among those Bulgarian figures from the Bulgarian Renaissance era who, although not consistent supporters of the revolutionary program of the Bulgarian Communist Party in Bucharest, always had in mind the national interests and the sacred ideal of national freedom in their lives and activities. His Renaissance ideal of a free and democratic Bulgaria unswervingly imposed a progressive orientation on all his journalistic and public activities before and after the Liberation, directed against Ottoman slavery and the despotic regime of Battenberg-Stambolov. It is no coincidence that some of his contemporaries, who knew him more closely and even communicated with him, confess in their memoirs their admiration for both his high literary culture and for the views and those traits of his character that show the patriotism of the publicist, writer and man Milarov, the purity of his thoughts and ideals. "In vain would we search among the heroes of the latest Bulgarian literature for another face so enchanting, another face that would inspire the deep sympathy that the martyr Svetoslav Milarov inspires. Botev alone stands at an untouchable height in our hearts...Poor, poor Svetoslav Milarov, Dr. Krastev exclaimed pathetically shortly after his tragic death in 1892. What unspeakable feelings filled his great and noble soul when the executioner stepped forward to lead him on the last, longest journey of his wandering life. What a bitter irony of fate! The great idealist of the new Bulgaria is a robber for the Bulgarian state and it has no other crown for him, except - the crown of the gallows!" The death sentence and its execution also shocked Milarov's Croatian friend Jovan Hranilović, who long before and also after 1892 expressed his admiration for his personality and patriotic activities. "Eternal sufferer, eternal martyr, fearless fighter," he wrote to him on August 3, 1876, "I see you in my thoughts, I marvel at you, I congratulate you." And the national writer Ivan Vazov, who had a precise criterion for personalities and deeds of national significance, felt sympathy and respect for Milarov, which characterized his attitude towards the first figures of the Renaissance and post-liberation era.