 Being
a land of rich and ancient history Bulgaria is a country
with enormous cultural heritage and long lasting cultural
traditions.
Excavations from ancient hills throughout Bulgaria have
brought excellent examples of highly developed fine arts
- jewelry, silver and gold pottery, terracotta, paintings
etc.. Even the ancient Orpheus, who, according to the
legend, has charmed the people and the animals with his
magnificent songs was born on this land.
Due to the fact, that Bulgaria was on the busy crossroad
for centuries, where it has suffered number of foreign
invasions, few material samples of the early culture remain
and could be found mostly in foreign museums. All they
prove the high level of development of culture. Some of
the artifacts are still kept in medieval churches and
monasteries in Bulgaria, other could be traced in the
folklore - myths and legends, songs and dances, traditions
and customs.
This marvellous heritage has been carefully protected
and developed through the centuries as a solid base for
the modern Bulgarian culture.
The real uplift of the national culture started in mid
19th century, when mass movement for education and enlightening
started under the influence of national liberation idea
as well as the progressive ideas from Western Europe and
Russia.
After the restoration of the national statehood at the
end of 19th century, all ways of public life in Bulgaria,
including the culture, have marked rapid growth and progress.
The drive for renovation of the Bulgarian spiritual and
intellectual life continue. Keeping the best traditions
of the national revival period, the state pursued a carefully
planned policy for guiding society towards broad horizons
of European spiritual life and modernization. Regardless
of the various influences the Bulgarian culture retained
its indigenous national essence. In the beginning of the
20th century the cultural life entered a decades-long
time-span of creative and professional maturity when the
glance turned to the past was originally bound up with
the modern reconsideration and a future creative interpretation
of the rich historical heritage.
Bulgarian education adopted the modern European concepts:
compulsory and free primary education, broad public access
to it, introduction of the vocational education system
etc..
In 1888 the first Bulgarian university was inaugurated.
New cultural institutions like libraries, museums and
theatres emerged. The national libraries in Sofia and
Plovdiv became pools of literary wealth. The Archaeological
and Ethnographic Museums undertook the storage and study
of thousands of exhibits of the ancient past of Bulgaria
as well as some invaluable assets of the popular culture.
The first professional theatrical group laid the foundation
of the National Theatre, which beautiful building is still
one of the Sofia's landmarks. On its stage many European
and Russian plays, as well as plays of young Bulgarian
authors made their first show for the Bulgarian public.
 Fine
arts and architecture developed successfully. The State
Fine Arts School came into existence - later on it developed
into Academy of Fine Arts. Bulgarian and foreign architects
left a notable artistic trial in new Bulgarian capital
and the main cities.
The general cultural upsurge influenced the Bulgarian
music, literature and periodical press as well. Original
prose works like "Pod Igoto" (Under the Yoke)
by Ivan Vazov and "Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings"
by Zakhari Stoyanov have been created. Realistic tradition
and symbolism were intertwined in the works of the wonderful
poets Pencho Slaveikov (nominated for a Nobel Prize for
literature in 1912), Peyu Yavorov, Dimcho Debelyanov,
etc.
The creative impulse gripped the Bulgarian scientific
thought as well. The logistic was facilitated by the Bulgarian
Literary Society, renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
in 1911. Along with the State University of Sofia they
became the leading centers of Bulgarian scientific knowledge.
The political changes after 1944 led to the initiation
of so-called cultural revolution. Education, science and
arts were subjected to strong ideologization, whose tendencies
were continuously fostered by party decisions. The socialist
cultural revolution divided the Bulgarian intellectuals.
They included both adherents and adversaries of the new
cultural policy. A third group of intellectuals simply
adjusted themselves to the political conjucture.
The "socialist education" although over-ideologized
and made as a blue-print of the Soviet education system,
eliminated the illiteracy through compulsory secondary
education. In line with the Soviet pattern several splinter
colleges originated from the Sofia State University. But
the care of the state for the expansion of high education
was indisputable: in 1944 Bulgaria had 5 higher educational
establishments with some 10 000 students and 453 lecturers,
while in 1989 the number of higher schools reached 30
with 138 000 students and 19 200 lecturers.
 By
1989 Bulgaria has developed a scientific potential with
31600 research fellows, which was too big for the size
of the country. A considerable part of them attained high-level
international recognition: Georgi Nadjakov (physicist),
Dimitar Orahovats (physiologist), Methodi Popov (biologist),
Alexander Todorov-Balan (linguist), Gavril Katsarov (historian),
the mathematicians Nikola Obreshkov, Kiril Popov, Lyubomir
Chakalov, etc. The state policy in the sphere of artistic
culture and mass media was also subjected to strict ideological
criteria. The totalitarian nature of the state naturally
entailed censorship and management of cultural activities
through administrative methods and decrees. Bulgarian
culture proved to be isolated from a number of processes
and tendencies in the world cultural development. In the
1970s Bulgarian culture has started slow process of opening
for the new developments in the world. The same time many
representative exhibitions such as "Thracian Treasures
in the Bulgarian Lands", "Bulgarian Icons",
"Thirteen-Centenary Bulgaria", "Medieval
Bulgarian Art", etc. popularized Bulgaria far beyond
its borders as a country of modern culture and active
spiritual modern life.
The Bulgarian writers, poets and literary critics had
to "bind up" their artistic work with the communist
ideology. Despite that authors such as Elin Pelin, Dimitar
Talev, Dimitar Dimov, Elisaveta Bagryana, Dora Gabe, Nikolai
Liliev, etc. and in more recent times - Valery Petrov,
Yordan Radichkov, Emiliyan Stanev, Blaga Dimitrova, Alexander
Gerov, Pavel Matev, Radoy Ralin, Georgi Tsanev, Petar
Dinekov, Georgi Markov etc. created works of high artistic
value.
Notwithstanding the ideological barriers and political
restrictions, the Bulgarian theatre could boast of indisputable
achievements. These were demonstrated not only by qualitative
indicators - the number of drama theaters from 13 in 1944
to 41 with 19155 seats in 1989. The stages became the
ground, where talented producers and actors showed their
worth in a brilliant way. Many of them developed their
talents in the Bulgarian cinema as well. By the end of
1980s country produced each year more than 500 feature,
documentary, cartoon and instruction films.
The specificity of the musical culture prevented the harmful
effect of the ideological censorship on the brilliant
global career of the opera singers Nikolay Gyaurov, Nikola
Gyuzelev, Katya Popova, Rayna Kabaivanska, Gena Dimitrova
etc. The instrumentalists Yurii Boukov, Alexis Vaisenberg,
Milcho Leviev, Mincho Minchev, Stoyka Milanova and others
enjoyed high level recognition on the stages throughout
the world.
 Hundreds
of painters, graphic artists and sculptors combined the
indigenous Bulgarian elements with the modern trends in
fine arts. The eminent personalities from the older generation
(Ilia Petrov, Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master, Iliya Beshkov,
Boris Angeloushev, Dechko Uzunov, etc.) were still the
masters of the day when the much younger - Dimitar Kazakov,
Genko Genov, Georgi Bozhilov, Georgi Chapkanov, Vezhdi
Rashidov, Rumen Skorchev, Valentin Starchev etc. won international
competitions and exhibited their works in famous galleries
throughout the world.
The changes after 1989 have had great effect on the Bulgarian
culture, too. Economic crisis the country plunged in resulted
in a shortage of funds for different cultural projects.
Nowadays many cultural institutions are struggling to
survive without state support while the others see the
challenge to find more flexible and modern ways of management.
But for the main part of the Bulgarian intellectuals the
Democratic changes have other meaning - end of censorship
and ideologization. They have the full right and freedom
to work independently, according to their aesthetical
views.
The economic stabilization Bulgaria entered since 1997
has given the chance to the government to turn to the
problems of the Bulgarian culture too.
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