Event on the Occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Georgi Stoykov Rakovski in Cooperation with the State Institute for Culture
In the year, dedicated to the life and work of the great Bulgarian, on the Day of Rakovski – 14th April, when Bulgaria celebrates 200 years since his birth, the Central Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the State Institute for Culture at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs present a poster exhibition representing the various manifestations of the great revolutionary, diplomat, publicist, poet and scholar through books and periodicals by and about Georgi Stoikov Rakovski, which are stored in the rich library collections. There are used old printed publications from the Bulgarian National Revival Collection (original first editions of his books), books from the personal libraries of Felix Kanitz (with autograph by Rakovski himself), Nikola Nachov, etc.
The story about Rakovski through his work will present a really “impossible character”, that runs throughout all his life as a rebellious and eternally searching spirit, longing for freedom, devoted to his people. Through his poetry he takes us to the Balkans to inspire us with the haidouk romanticism of his poems. In Belgrade we see him as a revolutionary and leader of the first Bulgarian legion. And finally he compiled “Statute of the Provisional Bulgarian Administration in Belgrade”, i. e. he set up the foundations on which to build the future free Bulgarian government. A rarely educated Bulgarian at that time, erudite, polyglot, he acted also as a brilliant diplomat of European significance in the negotiations, which he led on the highest political and diplomatic level in Greece, Serbia, Romania, Montenegro, etc., and kept in touch with the Polish revolutionary emigrants. As an ardent editor and publisher of newspapers in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Bucharest and the founder of the Bulgarian revolutionary journalism, Rakovski turned his periodicals into powerful tribunes of the Bulgarian revolutionary ideology. Through his publicist pamphlets he vigorously supported the efforts to establish an independent Bulgarian Church, strongly opposing the disastrous policy of relocating large masses of people outside the Bulgarian territory. In “Appeal to the Bulgarians for Uprising” of 1862 he insisted that “Our freedom depends on us!”
Last but not least, Rakovski is also a scholar – linguist, ethnographer, historian, who as an “insane dreamer” romantically tells us about the Bulgarian history and as a new Paisius wants to awaken the dormant feeling of national pride and self-confidence of the Bulgarians. His big contribution to the development of the Bulgarian history is indisputable. He is the precursor of the Bulgarian bibliography (he owned the rare edition of “List of the Bulgarian books, published until 1852” by Ivan Shopov). He first drew attention to the need for training of orientalists and also preserved many ethnographical and historical documents for the Bulgarian science, including a significant part of the archive of Neophit Bozveli. In the newspaper “Dunavski lebed” (“Danubian Swan”) he published for the first time “Life and Passions of the Sinful Sophronius” and “Ode to Sophronius” by Dimitar Popski.
He initiated the founding the Bulgarian Learned Society (which later grew into the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), the future University (“Bulgarian High School”) and assisted in the organization of the first Bulgarian chitalishte in Svishtov. Rakovski is also the author of the idea of lion as a symbol of our centuries-long state organization, the colours of the Bulgarian national flag, as well as the captivating motto of our liberation movement “Freedom or Death”.
The exhibition can be viewed at the Central Office of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences until May 10, in compliance with the anti-epidemic measures.
Expect a special virtual walk and a story about Rakovski's personality, realized by the team of the State Institute for Culture.