Debating the Past

The book is comprised of the four major debates on modern Bulgarian history from independence in 1878 to the fall of communism in 1989. The debates are on the Bulgarian-Russian/Soviet relations, on the relations between Agrarians and Communists, on Bulgarian Fascism, and on Communism. They are associated with the rule (regimes) of key political personalities in Bulgarian history: Stambolov (1887-1894), Stamboliiski (1919-1923), Tsar Boris III (1918-1943), and the communist leaders Georgi Dimitrov and Todor Zhivkov (1956-1989). The debates are traced through their various articulations and dramatic turns from their beginnings to the present day. The whole modern history of Bulgaria is reviewed in the light of the discourses, placed in socio-political contexts. A genuinely modern historiographical syntheses in the East European field that contributes significantly to the gradual de-provincialization of the discipline.