BULGARIAN SCHOLARS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF THE BULGARIANS IN MACEDONIA DURING THE LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES
Prof. Dimitar Gotsev
For more than a century Bulgarian scholars have lived with the problems of their people. They have studied, described and popularized the questions connected with its past, way of life, culture, language, folklore and historical development, its centuries long struggles for national survival, liberation from foreign bondage and national unity.
In this arcticle a very brief survey is made of the scientific and public activity of some of our eminent scholars assoc iated more closely with the national liberation struggles of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Besides the scientific deference of the national cause, they performed also purely revolutionary tasks of the liberation movement during the period under review.
A highlight in the Bulgarians' scholars' commitment to the ideal of national liberation was the establishment in the period between the two world wars of the Macedonian Scientific Institute, the Dobroudja Scientific Institute, the Thracian Scientific Institute and the Scientific Institute of the Western Outlying Parts. Such outstanding savants as Professors L. Miletich, I. Georgov, A. Balabanov, S. MIadenov, N. Milev, Y. Ivanov, I. Snegarov, D. Mishaykov, D. Yaranov and scores of their colleagues in all branches of learning participated in these institutes.
The pieces of scholarly research, articles, studies, reviews, etc. in “Macedonian Review”, organ of the Macedonian Scientific Institute, as well as monographs and documentary collections connected with the liberation struggles of the Bulgarian people, to this very day continue to be the basic source of scientific information about our historical, linguistic and ethnographic science, linked to the problems of the Bulgarians in Macedonia.
Today's Bulgarian scholars and our entire intelligentsia have a great
deal to learn from their predecessors. By their scientific and public activity
they should, in a worthy way, defend the Bulgarian national problems and
bring up the rising generation in a spirit of patriotism, love for and
loyalty to their people and motherland.