Open AccessFrom Bulgarians to Bulgaria: Evolution of the Image of Bulgarians in the Works of Ivan Petrovich Liprandi (1830–1870s)
Author(s) -
Konstantin Kasatkin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
slavânskij mir v tretʹem tysâčeletii
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2782-442X
pISSN - 2412-6446
DOI - 10.31168/2412-6446.2018.3-4.1.02
Subject(s) - bulgarian , slavic languages , history , ancient history , superstition , ethnic group , empire , ottoman empire , classics , political science , law , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , politics
The article, based on archival and published sources traces the evolution of the image of Bulgarians in the works of Ivan Petrovich Liprandi in the 1830–1870s. The author shows that the methods of description used by Liprandi in the 1830s were dramatically different from those he used in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the works of the 1830s, Bulgarians were presented as one of the peoples of the Ottoman Empire and considered primarily as subjects of the Sultan, that is as Asiatic people. Liprandi endowed them with such features as savagery, unrestrainedness, superstition, addiction to drinking and so forth. He considered the term «Bulgaria» solely as a toponym. However, by the beginning of the Crimean War, Liprandi’s methods of describing the Bulgarians began to change significantly. By the 1850s, he not only recognised them as the Slavic people most kindred for Russians, but also called Bulgaria «a classic country for us». Since then, Liprandi started to idealise Bulgarians and singled them out among other Slavic peoples. In the latest works of the 1870s, Liprandi confessed that Russia had a claim to Bulgaria on the strength of cultural, ethnic and religious affinity.