Bozhidar Dimitrov
Encyclopedia
Bozhidar Dimitrov Stoyanov is a well-known Bulgaria
n historian working in the sphere of Medieval Bulgarian history
, the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question. He is the director of the National Historical Museum
, formerly a Bulgarian Socialist Party
member, and currently a politician affiliated with the GERB
political party.
He was Minister without portfolio
responsible for Bulgarians abroad
in the GERB government (July 2009 – February 2011).
Born in Sozopol
to a family of Bulgarian refugees from Eastern Thrace
(now part of Turkey
), he was given access to the Vatican Secret Archives
in the 1980s, regarded as a great achievement considered the political situation of the time. As the director of the National Historical Museum, he had an indirect conflict in 1997–1998 with the President Petar Stoyanov
regarding whether to return the Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya
rough copy to the Zograf Monastery
or leave it in Bulgaria.
Being a member of the Supreme Party Council of BSP, he declared himself openly against the party in 2005 by not supporting BSP Mayor of Sofia candidate Tatyana Doncheva and instead favouring the independent Boyko Borisov
. Because of this he was taken down from the post of BSP municipal councillors leader in Sofia
. Before the 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, Dimitrov formally left BSP and joined Borisov's GERB. He was the party's proportional vote candidate for Burgas Province
and won the election with 35.92% ahead of Volen Siderov
.
Dimitrov is the author of 30 treatises and over 250 articles and papers in the sphere of his research, as well as several books (including The Ten Lies of Macedonism and Twelve Myths in Bulgarian History). He has specialized in paleography in Paris
and also hosts the patriotic history-related Pamet Balgarska (Bulgarian Memory) show on Kanal 1
.
Dimitrov believes that the Bulgars
played a more important role in the formation of the contemporary Bulgarians
as a people than previously believed.
that asserts an allegedly "deep-rooted ethnic and cultural distinction" between Macedonians and Bulgarians. The book has caused considerable controversy and criticism from Macedonian sources. Dimitrov claims that it has reached best-seller status in The Republic of Macedonia.
Among the "10 lies" described by Dimitrov are the notion that contemporary ethnic Macedonians are descendants of ancient Macedonians
; that ethnic Macedonians are "pure Slavs
" distinct from Bulgarians, who are "Tatars
"; that medieval figures like Saints Cyril and Methodius
were ethnic Macedonians; and that early 20th-century revolutionary movements such as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) worked for a "Macedonian" national goal. The Macedonian language
version is also freely available online.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n historian working in the sphere of Medieval Bulgarian history
Bulgarian Empire
Bulgarian Empire is a term used to describe two periods in the medieval history of Bulgaria, during which it acted as a key regional power in Europe in general and in Southeastern Europe in particular, rivalling Byzantium...
, the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question. He is the director of the National Historical Museum
National Historical Museum (Bulgaria)
The National Historical Museum in Sofia is Bulgaria's largest museum. It was founded on 5 May 1973 and its first representative exposition was opened in 1984 to commemorate 1300 years of Bulgarian history...
, formerly a Bulgarian Socialist Party
Bulgarian Socialist Party
The Bulgarian Socialist Party is social-democratic political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. The BSP is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International, and is currently led by Sergei Stanishev....
member, and currently a politician affiliated with the GERB
Gerb
A gerb is a type of firework which produces a jet of sparks, usually lasting between 15 and 60 seconds. It is a thick-walled tube filled with pyrotechnic composition and possessing a choke, which is a narrowing in the tube...
political party.
He was Minister without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
responsible for Bulgarians abroad
Bulgarian diaspora
Bulgarian diaspora consists of Bulgarian emigrants and their descendants.The number of Bulgarians outside Bulgaria has sharply increased since 1991, following the collapse of the communism in Eastern Europe. Over one million Bulgarians have left the country, either permanently or as temporary...
in the GERB government (July 2009 – February 2011).
Born in Sozopol
Sozopol
Sozopol is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival that is named after one of the town's ancient names.The busiest times of the year...
to a family of Bulgarian refugees from Eastern Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
(now part of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
), he was given access to the Vatican Secret Archives
Vatican Secret Archives
The Vatican Secret Archives , located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, having primal incumbency until death, owns the archives until the next appointed Papal successor...
in the 1980s, regarded as a great achievement considered the political situation of the time. As the director of the National Historical Museum, he had an indirect conflict in 1997–1998 with the President Petar Stoyanov
Petar Stoyanov
Petar Stefanov Stoyanov is a former President of Bulgaria from 1997 until 2002. He was elected as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces...
regarding whether to return the Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya
Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya
Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya is a book by Bulgarian scholar and clergyman Saint Paisius of Hilendar...
rough copy to the Zograf Monastery
Zograf Monastery
The Saint George the Zograf Monastery or Zograf Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos in Greece...
or leave it in Bulgaria.
Being a member of the Supreme Party Council of BSP, he declared himself openly against the party in 2005 by not supporting BSP Mayor of Sofia candidate Tatyana Doncheva and instead favouring the independent Boyko Borisov
Boyko Borisov
Boyko Metodiev Borisov is a Bulgarian politician who has been Prime Minister of Bulgaria since July 2009. Previously he was Mayor of Sofia from 8 November 2005 until his election as Prime Minister....
. Because of this he was taken down from the post of BSP municipal councillors leader in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. Before the 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, Dimitrov formally left BSP and joined Borisov's GERB. He was the party's proportional vote candidate for Burgas Province
Burgas Province
-Municipalities:The Burgas province contains 13 municipalities . The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village , and the population of each as of 2009.-Demography:The Burgas province had a population of 423,608 -Municipalities:The Burgas...
and won the election with 35.92% ahead of Volen Siderov
Volen Siderov
Volen Nikolov Siderov is a Bulgarian politician and chairman of the nationalist party Attack. He is famous for his hard-line attitude towards minorities in Bulgaria, especially Roma and Turks.-Early life:...
.
Dimitrov is the author of 30 treatises and over 250 articles and papers in the sphere of his research, as well as several books (including The Ten Lies of Macedonism and Twelve Myths in Bulgarian History). He has specialized in paleography in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and also hosts the patriotic history-related Pamet Balgarska (Bulgarian Memory) show on Kanal 1
Kanal 1
Kanal 1 can refer to:*BNT Channel 1, a Bulgarian-language public television station*TV1/Kanal 1/SVT1, a television channel broadcast by Sveriges Television in Sweden*Kanal 1 , a Turkish-language public television station...
.
Dimitrov believes that the Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
played a more important role in the formation of the contemporary Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
as a people than previously believed.
The Ten Lies of Macedonism
Bozhidar Dimitrov's book, The Ten Lies of Macedonism (2000, 2003 and 2007), is a polemical statement, based on historical documents, and is openly against the ideology of "Macedonism", i.e. the form of ethnic Macedonian nationalismMacedonian nationalism
Macedonian nationalism is a term referring to the ethnic Macedonian version of nationalism.-Late 19th century beginning:The development of the Macedonian ethnicity can be said to have begun in the late 19th and early 20th century. This is the time of the first expressions of ethnic nationalism by...
that asserts an allegedly "deep-rooted ethnic and cultural distinction" between Macedonians and Bulgarians. The book has caused considerable controversy and criticism from Macedonian sources. Dimitrov claims that it has reached best-seller status in The Republic of Macedonia.
Among the "10 lies" described by Dimitrov are the notion that contemporary ethnic Macedonians are descendants of ancient Macedonians
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians originated from inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, in the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios...
; that ethnic Macedonians are "pure Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
" distinct from Bulgarians, who are "Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
"; that medieval figures like Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
were ethnic Macedonians; and that early 20th-century revolutionary movements such as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) worked for a "Macedonian" national goal. The Macedonian language
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
version is also freely available online.
Publications
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. The True History of Liberation 1860–1878. Sofia: Standart News Ltd., 2010. 183 pp. ISBN 9789549237795 (First edition in 2006, ISBN 9789549165258.)
- Bozhidar Dimitrov, co-author. Bulgarian Policies on the Republic of Macedonia: Recommendations on the development of good neighbourly relations following Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and in the context of NATO and EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. Sofia: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2008. 80 pp. ISBN 9789549203226 (Trilingual publication in Bulgarian, Macedonian and English)
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. The Ten Lies of Macedonism. Sofia: Kom Foundation, 2007. 107 pp. ISBN 9789549165296 (First edition in 2000 in Bulgarian, ISBN 978549070019.)
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. Macedonia – Holy Bulgarian Land: Who Are the Successors of Alexander the Great and Roxana? Sofia: Kom Foundation, 2007. 80 pp. ISBN 9789548745062
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. Seven Ancient Civilizations in Bulgaria: With Maps & Color Illustrations. Sofia: Kom Foundation, 2006. 112 pp. ISBN 9789549464078
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. 12 Myths in Bulgarian History. Sofia, Kom Foundation, 2005. 148 pp. ISBN 9789549165213
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. Bulgarians: The First Europeans. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridsky University Press, 2002. 108 pp. ISBN 9789540717586
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. Bulgaria and the Vatican. Sofia: Bulgarian Diplomatic Review, 2002. 56 pp. ISBN 9789549106244
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. The Bulgars and Alexander of Macedon. Sofia: Tangra Publishers, 2001. 138 pp. ISBN 9549942295
- Bozhidar Dimitrov. Venetian Documents on Bulgarian History During XVI-XVII Century. Sofia: Borina Ltd., 1994. ISBN 9789545000362