Sonya Baeva

Until recently, the question of the beginning of critical realism in Bulgarian literature was undisputed - Lyuben Karavelov was considered its founder. Recently, however, G. Tsanev came up with an article "The Beginning of Critical Realism in Bulgarian Literature", in which he believes that "a careful examination of the facts is necessary, which would lead us to new conclusions". In this article, he reviews and analyzes Slaveykov's work, emphasizing its critical-realistic character. He also focuses on his literary-critical articles and his translated literature. Based on our social reality, G. Tsanev points to critical realism as the main trend in Bulgarian literature, and its first representative is P. R. Slaveykov. On the same occasion, P. Zarev has recently written an article - "Our Literary History and the Wealth of the Literary Process". The author focuses more on the analysis of the aesthetic views and artistic practice of P. R. Slaveykov. As a result, he comes to the conclusion that Slaveykov's work "by character, by its system of exposition, is the work of pre-critical realism and is a transition to it." 1 While trying to reveal the general direction" of his poetry, he adopts a position that is, in our opinion, erroneous, that the main feature of Slaveykov's work is his "specific interest in the intimate, in the world of the awakened personality" - his love poetry. On the other hand, he believes that since Slaveykov is a realist with a very versatile attitude to reality, without focusing on the specific conflicts and trends of the time - his realism is characterized by "completeness" and "multifacetedness" in depicting life, without a single definite and consistently expressed tendency. This prevents him from growing as a critical realist. Without agreeing with the idea that Slaveykov's work lacks a specific and consistently expressed trend, or that it lacks a focus on the specific conflicts and trends of the time, nevertheless, a number of the author's thoughts and observations in this part of the article are so interesting that they make the reader think again about these problems.

One of the main tasks of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is to collect and publish the works of Bulgarian classical writers. In fulfillment of this task, volume 1 of the Collected Works of Petko R. Slaveykov has been prepared for publication. This edition will collect for the first time the works of the poet, publicist and public figure Petko R. Slaveykov, who was unable to see even a single volume of his collected poems printed during his lifetime. It will also be the first academic publication of the Institute of Literature.

In his study of K. Fotinov, Iv. Shishmanov called the images of our Revivalists, whom he so lovingly knew how to extract from the darkness of the past, shadows. And this was true. What else, if not a shadow for us, is the face of Paisius, for example? What do we know about his life path? Hardly anything more than what he himself wrote about himself in his "History". This can largely be attributed to the majority of representatives of our Revival. And they were exceptional personalities. In order to properly understand the era in which they lived, as well as their works, we must certainly feel not only the writer, but also the person with his distinctive qualities, experiences and temperament. It is necessary for the researcher to see the creative individuality of the writer in its unique originality, in its connection with the laws of literary development. That is why, recently, the consistent study of the creative and life biography of the writer has acquired such great importance. And it is here, in this aspect of research work, that a number of generally accepted recipes often fail, "precisely" establishing the writer's method, his worldview, the ratio of proportions of one or another side of the literary process. Petko R. Slaveykov is one of our Revival figures, about whom we know much more than about the others. His lively and colorful autobiography, his large archive and rich correspondence have revealed to us a number of sides of his life path. But despite this, there is still something to add to what is already known. For example, we know relatively little about the years spent by Slaveykov in Constantinople, as editor of the newspaper "Macedonia" - the most mature and inspired years of his life, when his work became Bulgarian history. During this remarkable time, the image of a woman is intertwined in the poet's life path, who becomes unique and unrepeatable for him. The memory of her has long been buried under the heavy layer of years, and because of this, we have made no small effort to understand the bond that so firmly and forever connected them, hidden under the weeds of slander and misunderstanding.

As is known, already in the 18th and 19th centuries, Serbian and Bulgarian writers dedicated their works to the revival of the two peoples. Andrija Kačić-Miošić, for example, did not divide the southern Slavs. Dositej Obradović mentioned in his works not only Serbia, but also "poor Bulgaria". Vuk Karadžić was the first to publish Bulgarian folk songs, Konstantin Ognjanović worked for the spiritual awakening of the Bulgarian people, to whom he dedicated his works. Major writers such as Hristofor Žefarović and Jovan Rajić were of Bulgarian origin. They wrote their works in the Russian-Slavic language and contributed equally to the Bulgarian and Serbian spiritual and political development. During the Renaissance, an unprecedented transfer of ideas and themes from one literature to another occurred. However, when we must note the undoubted impact of South Slavic literatures in our country, especially since the beginning of the 19th century, we must also bear in mind the fact that these South Slavic literatures themselves sought models in Italian, Russian, Greek and Austrian literature, that they were in natural, natural relationships with these literatures. First of all, Dalmatian, and for a long time after that, the other Slavic literatures suffered the general influence of the European Renaissance, which manifested itself somewhere earlier, somewhere later in separate borrowings and imitations of one or another model. That is why, when we study the Serbian and Croatian literary and cultural influence in our country at the beginning of the 19th century, we cannot help but notice that this is actually a natural creative process that encompasses both countries, as well as the other Balkan peoples, that historically conditioned interconnections are taking place here, that from what we have taken in a given period, we have created qualitatively new works with which we have moved literary development forward.

Even during her lifetime, Svetoslava Slaveykova managed to find and collect memories from numerous relatives, friends, writers, artists and public figures with whom Pencho Slaveykov was in contact. Most of these people are now deceased and their memories, which seemed insufficiently interesting to us ten years ago, today far from correspond to our then-present view. On the contrary. Although not written quite "literarily", the spirit of the times lives in them, they speak the language of the era. Particularly interesting are those of them that concern the native environment and atmosphere in which the poet lived, the interesting image of his mother - Irina Slaveykova, the last years of his father's life, the house and their everyday life in Tryavna, Tarnovo and Sofia. What was left by Ekaterina Karavelova, who characterizes the poet's mother with only one word - a good Bulgarian woman, is irreplaceable. And this really seems to be her most typical quality. She is Bulgarian in everything - in her proud patience, in her persistent work capacity, and in her unyielding character. Unfortunately, however, the memories that we are publishing here from Karavelova are only a draft excerpt from one of her articles, intended for the collection that was to be published on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the death of Pencho Slaveykov. The collection never saw the light of day. The memories were lost. After some time, when Svetoslava Slaveykova visited Karavelova with a request to tell her something about her grandmother's life, she, who was already nearing the end of her life, replied: "I can't remember anything anymore, I wrote everything back then." We report this, in the hope that it is still possible that Ekaterina Karavelova's memories may be found accidentally forgotten in some archive or editorial office.

It was deep autumn, in 1842. With souls filled with love for their homeland and a burning desire to continue their education, Petko Slaveykov and Hristo Draganov set off for Svishtov. They traveled on foot through the villages, with bags on their shoulders, in which, along with bread, lay the manuscript of Paisiy's History. "This journey through the villages was extremely curious for me. At that time, I already knew Bulgarian history, but my geographical knowledge was still very limited," the poet wrote. When they saw the Danube, they realized that they had reached the city. The great river flowed majestically and silently. To the north of it spread out the endless plain, and to the south rose white hills with gray houses perched on them, squeezed into narrow streets. The city was a center for the export of grain from the Danube Plain and an important economic center with distant trade connections - through Serbia, Austria, France, Dalmatia, to the entire commercial Western and Eastern world. Work began early and ended late in the evening. The Svishtov merchants, who had traveled "from Europe", dressed in a "European" way - shirts with stiff white collars, ties. Their wives wore malakofs sewn in Bucharest, the daughters - outfits from Galati, Pest and Vienna.

In the era of the Revival, so widely and inspiredly revealed by our writers, literary historians and theorists, there is an area almost unexplored, an area in which the aspirations, feelings and tastes of the people are directly reflected. We are talking about the numerous manuscript collections and songbooks distributed in our country at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, a part of which, although small, has been preserved to this day. They preserve those works of the Bulgarian creative spirit with which the middle and lowest class in our country - the people themselves - lived.