EDITORIAL
VIEW OVER THE BALKAN PENINSULA
Unknown City Plan of Tarnovo from 1857
Abstract. The article presents a newly found city plan of Tarnovo, which was composed in 1857 by the Brittany-born geographer and cartographer Guillaume Lejean. The city plan was found at a Paris bouquiniste in 2018. As it is unsigned, the article offers some arguments supporting its attribution to Lejean. When he visited the old Bulgarian capital in the spring of 1857, he collected data, which he published and used as a basis for drawing the plan. This is the best among the city plans (maps) of Tarnovo to be composed until the late 1870s, both as a work of cartography and in terms of its historical information and artistic value.
Keywords: Guillaume Lejean; Tarnovo; geography; cartography; city plan
Bernard Lory
à l’Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales INALCO
Ivan Rusev
University of Economics – Varna
Postapocaliptic Realities. Еconomic recovery of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Bulgaria after WWI
Abstract. The main emphasis of this text above is economic reconstruction of the Balkan countries that followed hardships and horrors of World War One. Being part of the European continent, the Balkan countries face serious difficulties in overcoming the effects of the global conflict and cannot be separated from political and social crises devastating the continent by the mid-1920s. Those aspects are quite well, though not enough, covered. Far less attention is paid to the economic efforts to overcome post-war difficulties. It is precisely this aspect that is the focus of this research, with the main purpose of empirically testing the working hypothesis of the identical behavior of the Balkan states in a situation of global political and economic crisis, such as Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the years after the First World War. The choice of the two countries is justified by a methodological point of view, since it makes it possible to find similarities and to distinguish differences in the economic recovery policies of the two countries that fall into the camp of the defeated and the victorious ones, respectively, which at first sight is a condition of a different type of problems, policies and results. Setting them against the backdrop of pan-European and global trends, in turn, guarantees a better look at the “uniqueness” of specific post-world-war-one Balkan conditions.
Keywords: Balkan economy; World War One; economic consequences; Bulgaria; Yugoslavia
Hristo Berov
Sofia University
CIVILIZATION BOUNDARIES
The Peace Corps’ "Expansion" into Central and Eastern Europe after the Еnd of The Cold War
Abstract. The article examines the Peace Corps programs in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War, based on archive documents.
After developing volunteer programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America for 30 years, in the ear1y 1990s, the Peace Corps received a historic chance to expand its activities in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc and help strengthen American influence in the region. The historical reconstruction of the organization’s activities in the different countries makes it possible to outline the main goals of the Peace Corps and to determine its effectiveness as a “tool” of American “soft power”.
Keywords: soft power; USA; Eastern Europe; Central Europe
Simona Samuilova
Institute for Historical Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, Bulgaria)
Land Ownership in Palestine during the British Mandate
(1920 – 1948)
Abstract. The period of the British Mandate for Palestine (assigned by the League of Nations) is fundamental not only to the establishment of the State of Israel, but to a better understanding of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict as well. The present article explores the land question in Palestine since the Ottoman Empire, where the local specifics pave the way for the subsequent change in land ownership of some Palestinian territories. Then there are the multiple legislative documents issued under the British rule, which affect land transfers. At the same time the Zionist movement works diligently towards establishing а “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine by buying land from private owners. Yet, the article aims to remain neutral while exploring the land question in Palestine during the British Mandate and while summarizing its findings.
Keywords: Palestine; British Mandate; Israeli-Palestinian conflict; land ownership; Zionism
Petar Stoilov
Sofia University
APPROACHES IN TEACHING
The Methodical Use of Crossense as a Means of Activating Students in the History Lesson
Abstract. “Crossense” is an innovative gaming technique that can successfully find its place in history and civilization classes in Bulgarian schools. It is best suited to keep students’ previous knowledge up-to-date as well as to motivate the new topic, but it is also applicable in other components of the lesson. This way a students’ creative and critical thinking has been formed through “Crossense”.
Keywords: didactic game; cross and sense; creative and critical thinking
Krasimir S. Krăstev
Sofia University
REVIEWS AND ANNOTATIONS
Looking аt the World and Bulgaria
Evgenia Kalinova
Sofia University
EVENTS
SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE AND ISSUE "CRISES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE AGES"(University of Veliko Turnovo "St. Cyril and St. Methodius" – September 19 – 20, 2019)
Emilia Vacheva
D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics, Svishtov
First European Conference оn Uniformology аt Brussels November 19–20, 2019
Aleksandar Vachkov
National Academy of Arts Sofia, Bulgaria
