Representation of Russian Politics in Bulgarian History Textbooks (1844–1989)

Представяне на руската политика в учебниците по българска история (1844–1989)

Исторически преглед, 81 (2025) No. 3, pp. 96-118 (ISSN 0323-9748)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71069/IPR3.25.UK05

Yura Konstantinova / Юра Константинова

Institute of Balkan Studies & Center of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: The article examines how the image of Russia and the USSR has been constructed in Bulgarian history textbooks over a broad chronological span — from the emergence of the first textbooks in the 1840s to the fall of the communist regime in 1989. It focuses on moments when the textbooks explicitly address Russia’s role in the fate of the Bulgarian people and state, including Prince Sviatoslav’s campaigns (968–969) against the medieval Bulgarian state, the Russian Empire’s policy on the Eastern Question and its impact on Bulgarian history, St. Petersburg’s direct interference in the internal affairs of the Principality of Bulgaria in the 1880s, the events surrounding the anti-fascist coalition’s victory in World War II, and Bulgaria’s entry into the Soviet sphere of influence. The aim is to analyze whether and how the perception of Russia shifts depending on periods of favorable or strained Bulgarian-Russian relations, to what extent wars and political upheavals serve as turning points in these perceptions, and whether the portrayal of Russia in Bulgarian history textbooks is shaped more by state policy or by the personal views of the authors.

Keywords: education, 19th–20th century, Bulgarian-Russian/Soviet relations, Slavophiles, Sovietization.

The fulltext of this article can be purchased on CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=242.