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Inhabiting Culture on the Frontiers of Socialism (Gorna Džumaja, 1944-1948)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Antonela Capelle-Pogăcean
Affiliation:
CERI-Sciences Po
Nadège Ragaru
Affiliation:
CERI-Sciences Po
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Abstract

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This article examines the cultural shaping (through film and theater) of urban identities in Gorna Džhumaja, a border city located in Pirin Macedonia, at the dawn of Socialism. In a region that was at the center of Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Greek national conflict, thus rendering its future unpredictable, the establishment of Socialism between 1944-1948 coincided with intense social and national engineering. Developments in the domains of cinema and theater offer a heuristic lens through which to view these processes, notably because of the educational and political role they were attributed. Exploring changes in the cultural environment, designated toponyms, and everyday life of cultural institutions offers new insight into the complex interplay between the pre-Socialist and Socialist periods. It also provides an oblique view of how the Socialist city was fashioned through theatrical tours and ambulant cinema. Socialism thus emerges, beyond sovietization, as a product of transnational circulation.

Type
Cultural Transformations
Copyright
Copyright © Les Éditions de l’EHESS 2013

Footnotes

*

The authors would like to thank Liljana Dejanova and Tchavdar Marinov for their valuable comments on a previous version of this text. Accompanying documentary material is available under the heading “Complementary Reading” on the Annales website: http://annales.ehess.fr.

References

In keeping with the original French text, Bulgarian words and proper nouns are given according to the simplified version of the international transliteration standard 1809.

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18. At the end of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, “geographical” Macedonia—which had, up until then, been part of the Ottoman Empire—was divided between Vardar Macedonia (Serbia), Aegean Macedonia (Greece), and Pirin Macedonia (Bulgaria).

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20. In March 1941, the state created Bălgarsko delo, a private foundation, to serve the war effort. It was closely linked to the Direction of Propaganda. It was active after September 9, 1944, with a new director and board, but often the same employees. See Piskova, Marjana, “Iz dokumentalno nasledstvo na fondacija ‘Bălgarsko delo,’” in Izvestija na dăržavnija arhiv (Sofia: GUA pri MS, 2000), 90205 Google Scholar.

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24. Arlette Farge, Le goût de l’archive (Paris: Le Seuil, 1989), 71.

25. The warmth and professionalism of the director of the State Archives in Blagoevgrad and his team is all the more remarkable for this, as is that of the librarians of the regional library, who made this research possible. Many thanks to them, along with A. Koleva, L. Bengjuzova, E. Ilieva, A. Janakiev, P. Kărdžilov, and J. Spasova.

26. “Kak zagina šefăt na bălgarskija ‘Times’?,” Standart, October 11, 2009.

27. These poorly documented first days were recounted in ideologically impeccable autobiographical accounts by former partisans, which were gathered between 1960 and 1980: see Spomeni 144, 146, and 207, DA, Blagoevgrad. In 2009-2010, a team of Bulgarian researchers requested and transcribed the memories of inhabitants of Pirin who were subject to Communist violence: see Gruev, Mihajl et al., Nasilie,politika i pamet: komunističeskijat režim v Pirinska Makedonija - refleksij na săvremennika i izsledovatelja (Sofia: U. I. “Sv. Kliment Ohridski,” 2011 Google Scholar).

28. The contributions of Red Army partisans constitute an object of historiographical controversy. See: Dimitrov, Vesselin, Stalin’s Cold War: Soviet Foreign Policy, Democracy and Communism in Bulgaria, 1941-1948 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 Google Scholar); Kalinova, Evgenija and Baeva, Iskra, Bălgarskiteprehodi (Sofia: Tilia, 2000), 1351 Google Scholar.

29. Officially responsible for seizing German assets and de-Nazifying the army, the Commission played a decisive role in establishing the new order up until the Paris Treaty (February 1947).

30. Interview conducted by Lalka Bengjuzova in Blagoevgrad, July 14, 2012.

31. Marinov, Tchavdar, La question macédonienne de 1944 à nos jours. Communisme et nationalisme dans les Balkans (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010), 26364 Google Scholar.

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33. The “instructions pertaining to the means of the abduction of Jews to temporary camps, their embarkation on trains and their transport to the former territories of the Kingdom” are preserved in the Bulgarian National Archives: see f. 656 K, op. 1, ae. 3, ll. 1-4 (Police Commander of Drama, Greece), Central State Archives (Central Dăržaven Arhiv, hereafter “CDA”), Sofia.

34. Angelov, Veselin, Tretata nacionalna katastrofa. Săvetska okupacija v Bălgarija (1944-1947) (Sofia: Aniko, 2005)Google Scholar.

35. Marinov, , La question macédonienne, 4753 Google Scholar; Petranović, Branko, Balkanska federacija 1943-1948 (Belgrade/Šabac: IKP Zaslon, 1991 Google Scholar).

36. Topalov, Christian, “Langage, société et divisions urbaines,” in Les divisions de la ville, ed. Christian Topalov (Paris: Éd. de l’UNESCO/Éd. de la MSH, 2002), 345449 Google Scholar, here 396.

37. Serafimov, Dimităr, 140 godini narodno čitaližte v Blagoevgrad (Blagoevgrad: ONC N.I.Vapcarov, 2006), 23 Google Scholar.

38. Grănčarova, Kamelija, Grad Gorna Džumaja (Blagoevgrad) v starite snimki, 1912-1943 (Blagoevgrad: Istoričeski muzej, 2009), 11 Google Scholar.

39. In 1900, its (non-military) population was composed of approximately 6,000 inhabitants, of which 4,500 were Ottomans (turci), 1,300 Bulgarians, and 200 Vlachs in addition to a few Greek, Jewish, and Roma families: see Vasil Kănčov, Izbrani proizvedenija (Sofia: Nauka i Izkustvo, 1970), 160. Less than twenty years after the emancipation from Ottoman rule, there were only 420 Turks in a town of 9,820 inhabitants: see Sarkov, Vasil, Grad Gorna Džumaja. Minalo i dnes (Blagoevgrad: Yuzo, 1930; repr. 2005), 177 Google Scholar.

40. In 1923, refugees represented 16.7 percent of the population of the Pirin region: see Tjulekov, Dimităr, Obrečeno rodoljubie. VMRO v Pirinsko, 1919-1934 (Blagoevgrad: MNI, 2011), 8. Google Scholar

41. This imbrication between urban and village life manifested itself administratively: a network of villages (13 for a total population of 18,098 in 1934) was dependent on the municipality of Gorna Džumaja. By 1945, the number of inhabitants had fallen to 17,826, in a country with an overall population of 7.2 million people (according to the 1946 census). The spatialization of ethno-cultural divisions, over the medium term, relegated the Roma to the town fringes and Bulgarian-speaking Muslims to the neighboring village of Cerovo: see f. 1, op. 1, ae. 85, l. 32, DA, Blagoevgrad.

42. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (first VMORO, then VMRO, the acronym of Vătrežna revoljucionna makedonska organizacija), founded in 1894 in order to liberate Ottoman Macedonia by military means, turned into an organization engaged in protection rackets in the interwar period. Supporters of unification with Bulgaria and proponents of an independent united Macedonia resolved their disputes through gunfire.

43. This atmosphere is portrayed in epic form in the autobiographical novel by Băcˇvarova, Svoboda, Po osobeno măčitelen način. Dokumentalen roman (Sofia: Zhanet, 2008), vol. 1. Google Scholar

44. The repression (1923-1926) allegedly caused some 16,000 deaths: see D. Bell, John, Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1899-1923 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), 245 Google Scholar.

45. F. 1576, op. 1, ae. 18, ll. 1-13, DA, Blagoevgrad.

46. In 1929, 128 films were projected in 342 screenings: the figures were 125 and 358 in 1930, 105 and 306 in 1931 (for 26,680 spectators), and 126 and 460 in 1939 (with 104,427 spectators). See: f. 18, op. 4, ae. 15, l. 36, DA, Blagoevgrad; f. 18 K, op. 1, ae. 8, l. 7, DA, Blagoevgrad; f. 18 K, op. 1, ae. 9,l. 15, DA, Blagoevgrad; and Stojanova, Mihaela, “Kinematografăt i mjastoto mu v života na Gorna Džumaja,” in Izvestija. Izsledvanija za minaloto na Blagoevgrad (Blagoevgrad: Istoričeski muzej, 2001), 22836 Google Scholar.

47. F. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 110, DA, Blagoevgrad.

48. Charle, Théâtres en capitales, 37.

49. F. 18 K, op. 1, ae. 17, ll. 61-63 and 143, DA, Blagoevgrad.

50. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 77, l. 66, DA, Blagoevgrad.

51. Kalifa, Dominique, La culture de masse en France, 1860-1930 (Paris: La Découverte, 2001), 95108 Google Scholar, especially 98; Carou, Alain, “Cinéma narratif et culture littéraire de masse. Une médiation fondatrice (1908-1928),” Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 51, no. 4 (2004): 2138 Google Scholar; and Vezyroglou, Dimitri, Le cinéma en France à la veille du parlant. Un essai d’histoire culturelle (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2011), 4954 Google Scholar.

52. The 1939 repertoire was dominated by Anglophone (forty-eight) and French (forty-one) works, followed by German (twenty-one) and Russian (ten) fictional works: see f. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 110, DA, Blagoevgrad.

53. In 1939, the price of a movie ticket was approximately three times less than the price of a theater ticket: see f. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 58, DA, Blagoevgrad.

54. The auditorium contained fifty to sixty standing-room places: see f. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 47, DA, Blagoevgrad.

55. This movement is evocative of that described for Italy at the turn of the century by Turnatori, Gabriella, “Les métamorphoses du divertissement citadin dans l’Italie unifiée (1870-1915),” in L’avènement des loisirs, 1850-1960, ed. Alain Corbin (Paris: Flammarion, 1995), 22349 Google Scholar, especially 225.

56. F. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 109, DA, Blagoevgrad.

57. The expression was coined by Charle, Christophe, “Paris, capitale théâtrale de l’Europe (1820-1929),” in Charle, , Le temps des capitales culturelles, 241276 Google Scholar, here 255.

58. This objective traversed Europe in the 1930s: see Thiesse, Anne-Marie “Organisation des loisirs de travailleurs et temps dérobé (1880-1930),” in Corbin, , L’avènement des loisirs, 418 Google Scholar.

59. The first projection of a Soviet film dates back to 1929. In 1937, the program included six out of a total of fifty-eight: see f. 63 K, op. 3, ae. 9, l. 10, DA, Blagoevgrad.

60. Ibid., l. 113.

61. Thus, the choir of the čitaližte organized a tour of Macedonia in June 1941, with the police force’s consent: see ibid., l. 26.

62. Ibid., l. 50.

63. Elenkov, Ivan, “Trud i otdih, Văvedenie v istorijata na ideologičeskoto modelirane na vsekidnevieto prez epohata na komunizma v Bălgarija,” (Sofia: unpublished, 2010 Google Scholar).

64. F. 304 K, op. 1, ae. 1, ll. 1-2, 5, and 11, DA, Blagoevgrad.

65. F. 304 K, op. 1, ae. 2, ll. 4-6, DA, Blagoevgrad; f. 304 K, op. 1, ae. 1, l. 44, DA, Blagoevgrad.

66. F. 304 K, op. 1, ae. 2, ll. 50-52, DA, Blagoevgrad.

67. F. 304 K, op. 1, ae. 1, ll. 51-52, DA, Blagoevgrad.

68. The left-wing lawyer P. Goleminov, who had presided over the čitaližte since 1936, occupied this position until March 1947, when illness obliged him to cede it to the Communist Mirčo Jurukov. Elected honorary president, he died a few months later: see Pirinsko delo, March 27, 1947, p. 4.

69. The number of members of the čitaližte increased from 244 in 1944 to 1,738 in 1947. There were 967 new memberships, 159 departures (“people who have left town”), sixty-seven unpaid, and three deaths in 1947 alone.

70. F. 115, op. 1, ae. 9, l. 11, DA, Blagoevgrad.

71. In October 1945, each čitaližte was invited to “create in its library a ‘September’ archive, where the memories, accounts, and other materials of participants and witnesses of the events of September 1923 and September 9, 1944, would be preserved”: see f. 18, op. 1, ae. 2, l. 28, DA, Blagoevgrad.

72. Ibid., l. 22.

73. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 54, l. 5, DA, Blagoevgrad; Petăr Vodeničarov and Anastasija Pašova, “Preimenuvaneto na ulici v grad Goce Delčev i novata publična pamet,” (Blagoevgrad: unpublished, 2012).

74. F. 115, op. 3, ae. 161, ll. 1-18, DA, Blagoevgrad.

75. Pirinsko delo 27, July 5, 1948, p. 4.

76. The camp of Zelen Dol, a village of the municipality, was used by the SKK. State Security responded nine days later: see f. 1, op. 1, ae. 51, ll. 1 and 2, DA, Blagoevgrad.

77. Similarly, the desire to prevent the potentially harmful effects of the new cinematographic industry led public authorities to adopt a system of visa censorship as early as 1915. The objective was to outlaw “immoral” works, or those that encouraged “base instincts,” “rebellion,” or “banditism.” Under the terms of the 1930 law on cinema, the censure was carried out by a Cinematographic Commission under the Minister of Education, whose responsibilities were transferred to the Direction of Propaganda in 1941: see Janakiev, Cinema.bg, 146-65.

78. F. 177 K, op. 5, ae. 130, ll. 111-15, CDA, Sofia.

79. Ory, Pascal, Du fascisme (Paris: Perrin, 2003), 17597 Google Scholar, especially 197.

80. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 7, DA, Blagoevgrad.

81. In Bulgaria, 11,122 people were judged before the People’s Tribunals. 2,730 of them were sentenced to death, 1,305 to life imprisonment, and 5,119 to up to twenty years imprisonment; 1,516 were acquitted: see D. Bell, John, The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1986), 85 Google Scholar.

82. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 75, l. 2, DA, Blagoevgrad.

83. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, l. 45, DA, Blagoevgrad.

84. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 75, l. 11, DA, Blagoevgrad.

85. Ibid., l. 18.

86. The professionalization that began in the summer of 1945 promised “amateur-professional” artists a generous monthly remuneration (between 3,500 and 8,000 lev) funded by the čitaližte: see ibid., ll. 11, 14, and 15.

87. The troupe was composed of thirteen actors—two-thirds of whom were active before September 9—a prompter, and a technician. Their educational and professional profiles (two with higher degrees, four with university degrees, three teachers, a librarian, three administrative agents, a student, three technicians, two laborers, and a housewife) reflected the local social structure: see ibid., l. 14.

88. The practice of reduced-price tickets for poor families, workers, and soldiers dates back to the interwar period: see Stojanova, “Kinematografăt i mjastoto,” 231.

89. F. 2B, op. 12, ae. 8, ll. 39-42, Party Regional Archives (Okrăžen Partien Arhiv, hereafter “OPA”), Blagoevgrad.

90. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 9, ll. 21-26, DA, Blagoevgrad.

91. Vučkov, Sergej, “Kinefikacija na mjusjulmanskite sela v Jugozapadna Bălgarija prez 50-te i 60-te godini na XX vek,” in Da Poznaem komunizma: izsledvaniia, ed. Ivailo Znepolski (Sofia: Siela, 2012), 371446 Google Scholar.

92. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 77, l. 58, DA, Blagoevgrad.

93. Ibid., l. 25.

94. Ibid., l. 82.

95. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, l. 58, DA, Blagoevgrad.

96. The Regional Inspection of Propaganda, established in October 1944, was renamed the Regional Inspection of Information and the Arts in 1945, and closed at the end of 1947. Its responsibilities were transferred to the departments of culture within the People’s Municipal Council and the Regional Committee of the Popular Front.

97. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 75, l. 15, DA, Blagoevgrad.

98. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 4, l. 49, DA, Blagoevgrad.

99. Ibid., l. 58.

100. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 7, l. 5, DA, Blagoevgrad.

101. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 9, DA, Blagoevgrad.

102. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 108, ll. 1, 2, and 3, DA, Blagoevgrad.

103. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, l. 108, DA, Blagoevgrad.

104. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 83, l. 9, DA, Blagoevgrad.

105. Kărdžilov, Petăr, “Filmi razdelni. Bălgarsko igralno kino v navečerieto na socrealizma (1944-1948),” Literaturen vestnik 38, November 21, 2007.Google Scholar

106. Narodna vojska 220, June 1, 1945, p. 2.

107. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, l. 51, DA, Blagoevgrad.

108. The authors would like to thank Elena Ilieva for providing these figures.

109. The director Milčin was joined by the Skopje actor and assistant stage manager, Stojanov. In interviews, he also mentioned the arrival of P. Prličko and T. Nikolovski, guest actors from the Macedonian National Theater. See Meandžiski, Vančo, “Gorna Džumajskiot teatar e so makedonski koreni,” Makedonija (1996): 2931.Google Scholar

110. It is worth noting that the Hungarian-Romanian competition over Transylvania was also played out in the terms of (Soviet) autonomy: see Bottoni, Stefano, Transilvania rossa. Il comunismo romeno e la questione nazionale (1944-1965) (Rome: Carocci, 2007).Google Scholar

111. On the instructions for the organization of these “voluntary” declarations of identity, see Marinov, , La question macédonienne, 57-60 Google Scholar. At the time, the local sense of self-belonging ranged from (rare) Macedonian national identification to Bulgarian identification refuting the designation of Macedonian (because the term was associated with the right-wing faction of the VMRO) as well as the (dominant) expression of a sense of regional Macedonian belonging, which was non-exclusive and even mediated Bulgarian national identity.

112. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 75, ll. 9, 10, and 11, DA, Blagoevgrad.

113. Pirinsko Delo, November 3, 1947, p. 4.

114. Brăčkov, Ilija, Avtobiografija (Blagoevgrad: Dramatičen teartăr N. Vapcarov, 1995), 1112.Google Scholar

115. Tchavdar Marinov stresses that the chosen literary codification was perceived in Bulgaria as a “Serbianized” variant of Macedonian: see Marinov, La question macédonienne, 64.

116. Pirinsko delo 20, May 17, 1948, p. 4.

117. Bulgarian historiography insists on the actors’ and spectators’ resistance to this policy. See: Angelov, Veselin, “Za dejnostta na taka narečenija ‘Gorno Džumajski oblasten makedonski naroden teatăr’ prez 1947-1948,” Istoričeskipregled 3, no. 6 (1994-1995): 14862 Google Scholar; Ilieva, Elena, “Makedonskata dramaturgija na Blagoevgradska scena,” 2009, http://lenieldorado.blog.bg/izkustvo/2009/10/13/makedonskata-dramaturgiia-na-scenata-na-blagoevgradskiia-tea.415000 Google Scholar. Milčin proposed another reading in an interview with Meandžiski, “Gorno Džumajskiot teatar e so makedonski koreni.”

118. Brăčkov, Avtobiografija, 89.

119. Pirinsko delo, 34, August 23, 1948, pp. 1 and 4.

120. On the intersection between social and linguistic hierarchies on other margins see Gal, Susan, “Codeswitching and Consciousness in the European Periphery?”, American Ethnologist 14, no. 4 (1987): 63753.Google Scholar

121. Pirinsko delo, 22, May 31, 1948, p. 4.

122. On the trajectory of this play and the light it threw on the intersecting Bulgarian and Macedonian productions of Socialism see Nadège Ragaru, “A Transnational Production of Bulgarian Socialism? The (Time) Travels of Gorna Dzhumaya’s Theater in the 1940s,” (conference paper presented at the conference “Visions of Socialism(s) in Eastern Europe: Visual Cultures and the Writing of History”, CERI-Sciences Po, Paris, December 13-14, 2012).

123. F. 177 K, op. 2, ae. 1405, l. 1 and ae. 1853, l. 1, CDA, Sofia.

124. F. 177 K, op. 2, ae. 1401 (second microfilm), l. 20, CDA, Sofia.

125. Milčin suggested that this production in Bulgarian—performed by the Skopje Theater on tour and not by the National Theater of Sofia—provoked indignation in Macedonian intellectual circles then residing in Sofia, which apparently convinced him to stage the play in Macedonian at the cooperative theater in Sofia. He had a 1939 edition of the work, which had been awarded by the Serbian Royal Academy and which he had translated into Macedonian by Blaže Koneski, an important figure in the literary codification of Macedonian. “When I read the text,” said Milčin “Mother of God, I thought, my actors, all workers or students in Prilep, Veles, Skopje, how will they speak this language? No way! A mix of bits of dialects thrown together, that Panov had heard in Belgrade ... . Even I could not speak it, so how could I direct it? I remembered that Blaže Koneski was here. I said to him ‘... Write me [the three last acts] in a language the actors can speak.’” Andreevski, Cane, Razgovori so Milčin (Skopje: Matica Makedonska, 2001), 14142.Google Scholar

126. F. 177 K, op. 2, ae. 1401 (second microfilm), l. 43, CDA, Sofia.

127. Andreevski, Razgovori so Milčin, 178-79.

128. They stayed that way until the mid-1950s.

129. “Otečestven kinopregled no 426/1952” (newsreel), in Otečestven kinopregled 426 (1952), Virtualna Gorna Džumaja (Blagoevgrad: 2011), DVD.

130. Pirinsko delo 16, May 14, 1945, pp. 1 and 2.

131. Ibid., p. 3.

132. Keremidčiev, Boris, Njakoga v Gorna Džumaja (Blagoevgrad: Strimon Press, 1994), 69.Google Scholar

133. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 9, ll. 25-26, DA, Blagoevgrad.

134. Corbin, Alain, Les cloches de la terre. Paysage sonore et culture sensible dans les campagnes au XIXe siècle (Paris: Albin Michel, 1994).Google Scholar

135. Pirinsko delo 13, April 23, 1945, p. 1.

136. Farge, Arlette, Essai pour une histoire des voix au XVIIIe siècle (Montrouge: Bayard, 2009), 281.Google Scholar

137. Foucault, Michel, “Technologies of the Self,” in Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, ed. Hutton, P.H., Gutman, H., and Martin, L.H. (Anherst: The University of Massachussets Press, 1988), 1649.Google Scholar

138. Brăčkov, Avtobiografija, 65-6.

139. From January to June 1946, approximately twenty evenings a month were allotted to the cinema, two or three to the theater and two or three to music: f. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, ll. 35-7, DA, Blagoevgrad.

140. F. 326, op. 1, ae. 30, l. 7, DA, Blagoevgrad.

141. Despite inflation, tickets remained accessible (an average of 25 levs in 1945, 40 in 1946, when a book was more than 250): see f. 1, op. 1, ae. 77, l. 23, DA, Blagoevgrad.

142. F. 18, op. 2, ae. 9, l. 8, DA, Blagoevgrad.

143. An article in the Jugozapad dated March 22, 1937, had already suggested the “deleterious” role of the presence of women and children in the cinema prior to the war. See Stojanova, “Kinematografăt i mjastoto,” 234.

144. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 77, l. 30, DA, Blagoevgrad.

145. Ibid., l. 31.

146. Corbin, Alain, Le miasme et la jonquille. L’odorat et l’imaginaire social, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles (Paris: Flammarion, 1982), ii.Google Scholar

147. Pirinsko delo 18, May 28, 1945, p. 3.

148. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 7, l. 4, DA, Blagoevgrad. 318

149. Ibid., l. 5.

150. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 7, l. 15, DA, Blagoevgrad.

151. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 2, l. 55, DA, Blagoevgrad.

152. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 7, l. 29, DA, Blagoevgrad.

153. Pirinsko delo 26, June 2, 1948, p. 2.

154. Pirinsko delo 21, May 24, 1948, p. 2.

155. Pirinsko delo 25, June 21, 1948, p. 2.

156. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 2, l. 31, DA, Blagoevgrad.

157. F. 18, op. 1, ae. 3, l. 27, DA, Blagoevgrad.

158. Ibid., l. 32.

159. See: Corbin, , L’avènement des loisirs, 17 Google Scholar; Farcy, Jean-Claude, “Le temps libre au village (1830-1930),” in Corbin, L’avènement des loisirs, 30261.Google Scholar

160. Verdery, Katherine, “The ‘Etatization’ of Time in Ceaus¸escu’s Romania,” in What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 3957.Google Scholar

161. On the Soviet case, see the excellent article by Pozner, Valérie, “Le bonimenteur ‘rouge.’ Retour sur la question de l’oralité à propos du cas soviétique,” Cinémas. Revue d’études cinématographiques 14, nos. 2-3 (2004): 14378.Google Scholar

162. F. 1, op. 1, ae. 77, l. 35, DA, Blagoevgrad.

163. Brăčkov, Avtobiografija, 21.

164. Ibid., p. 14.

165. Pirinsko delo 6, January 13, 1947, p. 4.

166. Charle, Christophe, “Peut-on écrire une histoire de la culture européenne à l’époque contemporaine?Annales HSS 65, no. 5 (2010): 120720.Google Scholar

167. Vowinckel, Annette, Payk, Marcus M., and Lindenberger, Thomas, eds., Cold War Cultures: Perspectives on Eastern and Western European Societies (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2012 Google Scholar); Johnson, Gordon, “Revisiting the Cultural Cold War,” Social History 35, no. 3 (2010): 290307 Google Scholar; and Castillo, Greg, Cold War on the Home Front: The Soft Power of Mid-century Design (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010).Google Scholar