Bulgaria

The article is dedicated to the prehistory and the emergence of the first history of Bulgarian literature in Russia. It was a section on Bulgarian literature in the Review of the History of Slavic Literature, published in 1865 by the future academic A. N. Pypin. The process of gradual accumulation of materials necessary for its creation was delayed due to many unfavorable historical factors and lasted a little more than half a century. Such a long period was explained by the fact that the Bulgarians were under Ottoman rule, they did not have national publishing and higher schools, the relatively late start of Slavic studies in this area, and other reasons. The article compares Pypin’s work on the Bulgarian theme with the artist’s making a mosaic panel of many “puzzles”. They belonged to foreign scholars J. Dobrovsky and P. J. Shafarik, Russian researchers Yu. Venelin, V. I. Grigorovich and I. I. Sreznevsky, as well as some representatives of the Bulgarian emigration in Russia as V. Aprilov, N. Palauzov, R. Zhinzifov, etc. The first version of Pypin’s history of Bulgarian literature reflected the level of scientific knowledge of the Slavists in that time, and was distinguished by the presence of many lacunae. The second version of Pypin’s section on Bulgarian literature, published about 15 years later in the two-volume “History of Slavic Literature” (St. Petersburg, 1879–1881), was much more successful, enriched with new historical and literary facts and scientific generalizations. This History received wide international recognition and almost immediately was translated into many Western European languages. Corresponding extracts from it were translated in Bulgaria and Serbia.