The well-tried format of the ever-expanding series of Historical Dictionaries of the nations will be familiar to most readers of Reference Reviews. The present volume, one of the largest so far, provides more than 700 entries ranging in length from 50 to 3,000 words, on personalities, organizations and movements, ethnic groups and neighboring countries, places and events important in the history of Bulgaria from its origins in the seventh century CE to the present, without an index but with numerous cross-references. These are, as usual, supplemented by a list of abbreviations and acronyms, and a chronology from pre-historic times to November 2014. The appendices comprise lists of heads of state of all periods, of cabinet members from1989 to the present and of the numerous political parties mentioned in the text. The bibliography is particularly notable, including 1,800 books and articles in English, nearly all published since 1980, on all aspects of Bulgarian history and culture, in a classified arrangement. The four maps, on the other hand, as so often in this series, are rather unsophisticated; one of them, indeed, is barely legible. The book, like others in the series, is intended for students, researchers and general readers.
Readers of the Dictionary may well conclude that history has not been kind to the Bulgarians since their ancestors arrived in Europe in the Dark Ages. Their country was for centuries submerged in the Ottoman Empire; having gained its independence, it was subject to a series of coups, dictatorships and assassinations, took the losing side in both World Wars, and then fell under Communist rule. Nor has its story since 1989 been entirely happy. It has nevertheless a significant place in history; in particular, it is pointed out that the Cyrillic alphabet was devised, not by St Cyril, but by Bulgarians, so that their language was the first of the Slavonic tongues to take written form.
In his Introduction, the author plaintively remarks that he had felt obliged, for the proper information of his readers, to include in the first and second editions a great deal of information on the fast-changing state of the country’s politics. He had hoped it would settle down by the time of the third edition, but had found this not to be the case, with the result that in Bulgaria “the present seems to turn into the past very quickly”. He does not remark that if the editorial policy of his publishers had been to distinguish history from current affairs, say by allowing a cut-off date of 1990 or even 2000, then this problem would have been avoided. But the problems for historians are nothing compared to the problems for successive Bulgarian governments, who, he explains, have had to cope with an especially protracted transition from Communism to capitalism, a weak and faltering economy, a declining population, political instability, endemic corruption and the difficulties of the Turkish and Roma minorities, not to speak of the perennial and intractable Macedonian Question.
Those who take more than a fleeting glance at the Dictionary must be impressed by how thoroughly the author knows the country whose history he is describing. He covers not only its political, economic and social history, but also its culture, devoting, for instance, three pages to Bulgarian cinema, a subject of which few Western writers have knowledge. He is aware of the small, but telling details of Bulgarian life (such as the fact that one of the most publicized national dishes was invented only in the 1960s), of matters which the authorities would probably wish to keep under wraps (there are articles on two recent politicians of especially dubious reputation) and of aspects of Bulgaria which would have passed by a less conscientious scholar (superstition, he declares, has “developed into a social disease” on the grounds of the popular view that every belief denounced by the Communists must be true).
This Dictionary will certainly enlighten its readers about the past and present of a country which does not often figure in the Western media, though if the publishers maintain their policy of bringing coverage up to the present day and if Bulgarian politics continue to be tumultuous, then it may not be long before they decide that another edition is called for.
