Public Education

The desire for education amidst the Bulgarian peasantry amounts almost to a passion. That this should be so seems strange in a country where the great mass of the population are extremely ignorant, very much set on their own ways, and averse to innovations of any kind. The Boers, who in many respects so closely resemble the Bulgarians, are completely free from this craze for book learning. What was good enough for their fathers is, in their opinion, good enough for themselves, and will be good enough for their children after them. But in this respect the Bulgarians are completely different I cannot make out that any educational census has ever been taken in the country. The common opinion, however, is that in the rural districts, at all events, the proportion of the adult population who have even an elementary knowledge of writing or reading is extremely small. In the Turkish days the village priests never took any trouble to impart to their parishioners the scanty stock of education they themselves possessed; and in as far as they had any opinion at all on the matter, that opinion was unfavorable rather than otherwise to the diffusion of book-learning amidst the laity.

The children of the house are set to work early

Yet ever since the liberation of Bulgaria, the peasants have been almost morbidly eager to have their children taught at school; and the system of Free Education, which has been introduced throughout the State, is warmly supported by popular sentiment This is the more curious as the peasant farmers till their own lands themselves, not by paid laborers; and the services of every member of the family are required to supply the requisite amount of field labor. The children of the house are set to work early, and the loss of their assistance during school hours must be a serious matter to their parents. The only explanation I can offer for this general thirst for education amongst a people, who have apparently very little taste for book learning in itself, is the following. The Bulgarians, as I have already remarked, have an intense belief in the past glories of their country, and have also an equally intense faith in the future which lies before it Whether rightly or wrongly, they have got it into their heads that popular education is an essential condition of Bulgaria’s taking, what they deem, her proper place in the world; and when once an idea of any kind has got into Bulgarian heads, its dislodgment is a matter of excessive difficulty. Then, too, there prevails throughout the community an equally general but more practical belief that education opens the door to the public service, the only form of employment, other than that of agriculture, to be found in a country with few and small industries, little trade and less capital. There is hardly a man in the service of the State who was not born a peasant of peasant parents; and the spectacle of the success achieved by the ministers and public officials, who owe their position almost entirely to the fact that they had received an education somewhat above their fellows, renders every Bulgarian parent desirous to obtain like advantages for his own children.

 

Picture of the Virgin Mary

In the cottages, into whose interior I could catch a glimpse, I could see no sign of the picture of the Virgin Mary, to be found so invariably in the huts of the Russian moujiks. Neither here nor elsewhere in my travels through Bulgaria did I come across any of the roadside shrines and crosses, so frequent in Russia, before which you may any day see crowds of peasants kneeling and praying, even when the snow lies deep upon the ground. Yet, in an odd way of their own, the Bulgarians are devout believers; they are also scrupulous as to observing fasts and going to confession. During Lent squads of the regiments stationed at Sofia were marched down three or four times a day to the church, and after confession received absolution en bloc. In as far as I could calculate from the frequency with which I met these squads going and coming to the church, every soldier in the garrison must have had to confess at least once a week during Lent At this season the peasants absolutely refuse not only to eat meat, poultry, or butter, but in most instances decline to supply them for sale in the towns. The result is, that even for strangers who are not members of the Greek Church, Lent time in Bulgaria becomes more or less of a penitential season. The peasants avowedly attach extreme value to the due celebration of the Church services, and pay the fees demanded by parish popes for baptisms, weddings, and funerals, without any great amount of grumbling. The pope, in the great majority of parishes, is a peasant of the same class as his parishioners, too much occupied with the cares of his family, with looking after his cattle, and above all with the tilling of his plot of land, to be able to trouble himself greatly about spiritual matters. As long as he can get his flock to pay their dues and to attend service on the great festivals of the Church, he considers that he has done his duty. In the same way, when once the peasants have got a church where the ritual of their creed is properly performed by a duly appointed pope, their religious requirements, such as they are, are amply satisfied. Their lives are too hard to allow them to pay much attention to spiritual matters, and I suspect their whole tone of mind would, under any conditions, prove eminently unfavourable to the development of religious fervour.

Christianity consists in hating Turks and Jews

So far as Christianity consists in hating Turks and Jews, the Bulgarian peasants are sincere Christians; but their religion has hardly progressed, as yet, beyond that somewhat rudimentary stage. This view of mine is derived mainly from what has been told me by every resident in the country to whom I have spoken on the subject But all I have seen myself, here and in other Sclav countries, confirms me in my belief that the Greek Faith is the least spiritual of all the various creeds of Christendom, and that the Bulgarians are the least religious-minded, in a doctrinal sense, of all the races which constitute Christendom after the Eastern rite. It does not follow that because the Bulgarians are for the most part ignorant of, and indifferent to, religious dogma of every kind, they are not attached to their own faith, or still less are not prepared to regard all persons who differ from them as heretics and infidels deserving of extermination. All experience shows that men will fight as hard and die as bravely for the most ceremonial of creeds, as they will for the highest forms of religious belief. All I wish to point out is, that spiritual fervor and doctrinal zeal are not, and cannot be, the same important factors in the daily life of a peasant country, as they are in that of more highly cultivated and more wealthy communities, where large classes have at once the means and the leisure to indulge in religious contemplation. The church—by which I mean the material fabric, not the spiritual body—is a conspicuous object in every Bulgarian village, ranking next in size and importance to^ the village school-house. Both church and school-house are invariably plain white-washed buildings. The best house in Panscherevow is that of the mayor, or rather the kmet, or deputy-mayor, as the place is not deemed important enough to have a full-blown mayor of its own. A sort of barn is attached to the mayor’s dwelling, which serves as the town house of the village, where the Communal Council holds its sittings and where local justice is administered.

Balkans are an intriguing place and always a holiday there means time spent great there. I am from Bulgaria and I’ve been to some of the Balkan countries but it has always been private Balkan holidays. I like travelling with my family or friends only.

 

Russian proclivities

We are very often told that the Russians display exceptional tact in their dealings with subject races. However this may be, they certainly showed a singular lack of tact in their relations with Prince Alexander and his subjects. The men who came to the front in Bulgaria after the Revolution were almost without exception credited with strong pro-Russian proclivities. As a written language, Bulgarian is almost identical with Russian; as a spoken language, it so closely resembles Russian that educated men in both countries have little or no difficulty in understanding each other. As there is practically no Bulgarian literature, Russian books, up to the period of which I write, supplied the mental culture of the Bulgers; all these books inculcated the doctrine that the welfare and progress of Bulgaria, as of other Sclav countries, were indissolubly connected with the advance and grandeur of the mighty Sclav Empire of the North. Yet, notwithstanding all these advantages, the Russians had no sooner got a firm footing in Bulgaria, than they contrived to give mortal offence to the very men who, when their country had recovered her independence, looked forward to playing a prominent part in her development. Both in the civil and in the military administration, the ideas, aspirations, and prejudices of the Bulgarians were either ignored or treated with contempt.

You like to know what the things to do in Bulgaria are? I can tell you. These are adventures, peaceful walks in the nature, noisy beaches, of course history and a lot more…

Dependency of Russia

Their national pride was outraged ; and their eyes were rudely opened to the discovery, that in the opinion of their liberators Bulgaria was henceforward to be a mere dependency of Russia, and that her interests and aspirations were to be subordinated in every respect to the policy of the Russian Empire, Thus it came to pass that Prince Alexander, who on his accession was regarded as a stranger, a foreigner, and a puppet of Russia, soon became the chosen representative of Bulgarian independence. His fine presence, his pleasant, open manner, and his power of ingratiating himself, were not long in winning personal popularity for the Prince amidst his new subjects; but, after all, the main cause of his influence lay in the accident that he embodied the dislike of a singularly independent and stiff-necked race, proud of their historic past and sanguine of future greatness, to be treated by their Russian protectors as an inferior and subject people. To speak truth, the Bulgarians were not long in finding out that they had replaced King Log by King Stork; and, on finding this, they bitterly resented the new servitude which had been imposed upon them.

The Ministers, whose nomination had been forced upon the Prince on his accession, obeyed blindly the orders they received from St. Petersburg; and after the death of the Czar, Alexander II., these orders became more peremptory and more offensive than ever. From and after this time there was open conflict between the native element, represented by Prince Alexander, and the Russian party in Bulgaria; and there can be little doubt that from this period the deposition of the Prince was determined upon at St. Petersburg.

 

The Palaeolithic Age (250,000-10,000 BC)

The Palaeolithic Age, also known as the Old Stone Age, is the oldest and longest period of humanity’s history. Humans in this period first used caves and rock shelters as their dwellings. During this period, when hunting and gathering economy prevailed, early humans strived to facilitate their lives through the simple tools they made of small stones.

This age is studied under three development stages as the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Age. The oldest settlement in Anatolia dating to this age is Yanmburgaz Gave near Küçükçekmece Lake, starting from the Lower Palaeolithic Age and continuing until the Roman and Byzantine Periods. The very primitive flint stones and mammals bones found in this cave consisting of 16 layers, are important artifacts of the Lower Palaeolithic Age. Karain Cave, situated about 30 km. to the south west of Antalya, is a significant place of settlement in Anatolia after Yanmburgaz. Eight layers from the end of the Lower Palaeolithic Age to the Roman Age have been uncovered in this cave, which provided shelter at every stage due to its location. A stove and some firewood remnants belonging to the Middle Palaeolithic Age show that these people discovered fire and cooked. Traces of animals such as bison, oxen, horses, deer, cows, pigs and bears are indicators that they mastered hunting.

The Upper Palaeolithic Period was a scene to a cold climate and despite its short duration, brought about some development. Within this period, human being with characteristics of their modern-day counterparts-namely a thinking type of human being-appeared.

They made tools such as needles and awls from bones. They engaged in some new artistic endeavors such as adorning the walls of Karain and Oküzini Caves around Antalya with the pictures of animals they saw including goats and deer. They also created illustrations on top of small stones found in Beldibi Cave with the scraping technique. In Anatolia, illustrations belonging to this period can also be seen in Adıyaman Palanlı, Kars Çamuşlu, Tirşin Plateau in Hakkari and on the Cilo Mountains. Many samples of this age are also found in places other than Anatolia, When the Ice Age ended towards the end of the Palaeolithic Age, the Mesolithic (Epipalaeolithic) Period-also known as the Middle Stone Age-paved the transition to the Neolithic Age. Important technological developments in hunting took place in this Period. New weapons like bows and arrows replaced the cumbersome weapons, and more importantly, small stone tools made of obsidian and flint stone were produced. Furthermore, mortars and grinding stones as well as obsidian-jagged and horn-handled sickles reveal that these people not only sowed grains but also reaped them. Karain, Oküzini, Beldibi and Belbaşı caves in Antalya, and Şarklı Cave in Gaziantep; Baradız in Burdur, Söğüt Tarlası and Biris cemeteries in Şanlıurfa Bozova are centers representing this period.