Lyuben Karavelov in Soviet Encyclopedic Publications and General Courses in the Humanities

Abstract

The paper examines the materials concerning Lyuben Karavelov published in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, The Small Soviet Encyclopedia, various encyclopaedic dictionaries, the national encyclopedias of the Soviet republics, The Children’s Encyclopedia, and in specialized encyclopedias devoted to history, literature, and philosophy. It also analyses references to Karavelov in textbooks and readers on modern history, the history of the South and West Slavs, the history of philosophy, political studies, World History, Sketches in the History of Bulgarian Literature, and university textbooks in literature published between 1926 and 1984.

As a rule, the authors of these materials were leading Soviet scholars, specialists in Slavonic and Bulgarian studies. The scholarly level of their work corresponded both to the state of development of Bulgarian and Soviet research on the subject and to the socio-political context at the time of publication. After the Second World War, the representation of Karavelov in these publications expanded, owing to new specialised studies of his life, ideology, revolutionary activity, and literary work, as well as to the inclusion of new thematic entries in the encyclopedias. The assessment of his role in Bulgarian history and in Russian and Serbian social, intellectual, and cultural life became more objective and academically grounded.

The publications examined were issued in large print runs and enjoyed wide authority both within the USSR and abroad. In this way, Soviet scholars acted as mediators, introducing readers in the Soviet Union and beyond to one of the most remarkable figures of the Bulgarian National Revival.